Markets, Movies, Mozarts, and More
Isn't it amazing how when you meet and connect with people, a strange place begins to feel a bit more like home? Today I met up with Cass, another TA who is here in Wien for the next few days. We found each other at the Staatsoper (she was right....she was the only one in the vicinity with red hair!), and we had cappucinos at a very cute coffee house with surprisingly good service (everyone has warned me that surly waitresses are part of the charm of Viennese coffee houses), and after that we walked around the city for about three hours.Instead of heading inwards where the tourists mainly go, we headed up to the shopping district on Mariahilferstrasse, where I discovered an English bookstore (hurrayhurrayhurray!!!!!!!). We ended up stumbling across a bagel shop with delicious chocolate chip-wheat bagels, an Irish pub/hostel, and the Naschmarkt, a daily open air market with stalls selling everything from Native American dreamcatchers to Che Guevara t-shirts to stuffed olives, dried fruit, and curry powder. The vendors are extremely aggressive salesmen (and I say men, because they are all young men who try to entice women to their stalls by shouting things like "schoene frau, oliven kosten!" and other such tender, sweet nothings...the highlight, though, really occurred when one vendor stared at us and made slurping noises....how odd.) I was given tastes of dried strawberries, pineapple, an olive stuffed with cheese, and hummus...yummmmmmmmm! After that I didn't even need lunch. I ended up buying the dried strawberries for a rather exorbitant price...bargaining is something I really suck at, but that's okay, twas much fun :-)
Cass and I got along great...we have very similar interests and experiences, so we talked about everything from Bridget Jones to yesterday's German elections. Too bad she is only in Vienna until next week...her TA position is actually across the country.
We ended up across the street from the Secession, where my favorite piece of artwork in the entire world, Gustav Klimt's Beethoven Frieze, is housed, but alas, the museum is closed on Mondays...I guess I'll have to head back tomorrow :-) I can have lunch at the market again...there was some delicious looking kebabs there...wahoo!
Tonight, I am meeting up with Cass, and hopefully a few other Fulbrighters in the city to see Cinderella Man, which is playing in English down the street from my apartment...I love all movies, but I hate it when they are dubbed...I'll listen to any language, and I'll read any subtitles, but dubbed movies really just grate on my nerves, so I will avoid them while I'm here. There is supposedly a really good international "original language" theater near the Votivkirche, which plays movies from all over the world without dubbing...I'll have to check that out.
Today, I think I received the best compliment I've gotten since arriving in Europe (besides, of course, when the vendor slurped at me...yech). I walked by a man dressed as Mozart. His job is to target tourists to come to a very kitschy "classical" concert...I've actually been to one, and they are pretty terrible. Anyway, when the Mozarts see a tourist coming, they harass him or her to buy tickets as they pass. Today, I passed Mozart, and he looked at me, and then he turned away...magnificent!! I don't know if it was my purposeful walk, or if it was because I was alone, or what, but for some reason, he thought I was a native. Like I said, it was was the best compliment I've received since arriving :-D
On another note, I must say that this skype craze is amazing....in the past few days I've talked to everyone from my parents in Atlanta to Gregory at HC to Uncle Mike in Washington state to Lizard in Portland to Tones in Japan....incredible!!! If you don't have skype, get it!! And call me on it when you do :-D
posted by Carly Fowler @ 5:56 PM
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