"Hey There Hot Stuff! What's Your Tree?" :-*
With the onset of classes, teaching, and winter looming large, Carly took to the streets of Vienna on one sunny Saturday to enjoy her last weekend of freedom in the golden and blue early Austrian autumn. Leaving her apartment at 9:30, the happy-go-lucky blonde made her way southward, towards the Naschmarkt, a giant open-air market that would serve up all sorts of unkown diversions. Delighted with the day, she decided to forgo Vienna's famed public transportation and make the 30 minute walk to the market herself.How's that for the opening paragraph of a story? Not bad, not bad...maybe a bit too descriptive. Najut, es'st ejal, oder? It's good to see I can still throw in some East German dialogue when necessary ;-D Anyway, I met Jennifer at the entrance to the Naschmarkt at 10am, and we went flea-marketing. Every Saturday, a huge flea market just seems to appear behind the Naschmarkt, full of people selling their old clothes, books, and trinkets. There are also several tables selling antiques and other such rarities with prices far out of my range (350E for an old cigarette case is a bit much.) We did have some good luck, however. I found a beautiful scarf and shirt (sold by a vendor, not a flea-market seller, so they are new) for relatively cheap, and I was also able to get some early Christmas shopping done (get ready for a great gift, Dad!)
I had a really good time bartering with a vendor. The director of the
Fulbright Commission here had warned us that vendors will take advantage of Americans and that we should be careful about paying too much for things. I was curious to see how far down I could make a vendor go, and I got my opportunity to test the waters when Jen decided she wanted a fleece-lined wool sweater that cost 80E. I bartered for her, and I eventually pushed him down to 35E. I think I could have gotten him down even further, but Jen said she'd pay it, so it was all good. It's funny though, I don't know if we got a good deal or an average deal, because if they inflate the prices as much as they are said to for Americans, then we probably only got it for a few Euros less than the real price. Meh, as long as Jen was happy, I guess :-)We continued to browse the flea market, and I fell in love with a beautiful old Bible in German from the 1860s. It had the names and dates of everyone who inherited it, and the cover was hand painted, but alas, 70E is too much for an old book, I guess. I made friends, though, with another flea-market seller, who said this week he'd keep an eye out for old Bibles that I could purchase for a more affordable price if I'd promise to come back next week. He complemented my German and called me "hubsch," which is nice. At his stall I actually met another American who is in Vienna as a professor at the American University. It turns out he is from St. Louis, like most of my family, and I'm sure we know at least one person in common. Anyway, it was a fun morning and completely out of my realm of ordinary activity, which I appreciate :-)
Jen and I then met up with Danny for lunch (yummmmm noodles, chicken, and veggies with peanut sauce!!!!), and afterwards, I headed out on my own to the British Bookshop on Mariahilferstrasse. I spent way too much money on a book that looks pretty good. It's (yet another) historical-type mystery, so I'm sure it will keep me interested. I then called Kristina, who invited me to join her and Alexis for freshly baked banana bread *insert sigh of delight here,* so I headed over to the 9th district to meet up with them. We decided it was too beautiful to stay inside, so we headed north of the city to the Wienerwald and Leopoldsberg to see the "amazing" view of the city.
We ended up in Kahlenberg, where we had to change buses to get to the top, and in that little town, we ran into Nancy and Guy. Nancy is a literature professor here for a semester on a Fulbright grant to teach at the University of Vienna. We chatted with them for a few minutes before heading to the bus stop. While waiting for the bus, we met an older woman who seemed to take a shine to us. She is lifelong Viennese, and she told us a little bit about her life during WWII and the following occupation. Apparently she had had a very good experience living in the American sector and really respected and admired America (so refreshing to hear!) It is always nice to hear the stories of such interesting people!
We made it to the top of Leopoldsberg, which was absolutely incredible. The view was amazing, and my pictures certainly don't do it justice!! I took a video to try to capture the panorama of the scene, so if you want to see it, let me know.After Leopoldsbergspitze, we went down the mountain partways to Cobenzl, which had a lot of parkland and hiking trails and whatnot. We went to see the Lebensbaumkreis (the circle of life-trees.) Essentially, someone planted a large circle with 52 trees, each a different variety. With each tree went a week of the year, and whichever tree was assigned to your birthweek would give you a horoscope-type analysis of personality. My tree (for 24. September - 3. Oktober) said that I am "an active fighter for the common good, open, in possession of intuitive and natural ability, honest, and born with natural charm." That is, of course, a rough translation. A
nyway, each tree had a plaque in front giving the description, and each plaque was outfitted with a speaker playing a Mozart symphony. Essentially, there was this beautiful ring of trees and Mozart in surround sound. And all of this I witnessed on the most beautiful day of the autumn thus far!! It was gorgeous, and I didn't want to leave.But we did. After leaving Leopoldsberg, the three of us met Kim and Kelly at the Thai restaurant for some more delicious Essen, and afterwards, we were going to head to a free, open-air rock concert, but I was so beat (hadn't been home in over 12 hours) that I just hopped off the Strassenbahn at the Rathaus and headed back to the apartment.
Tomorrow, I am meeting Kristina at the Jesuitenkirche, so I WILL finally go :-) Bed now, church and school tomorrow.
Ciao :-)
posted by Carly Fowler @ 10:41 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home