Late October

Since my last post I have watched Mozart dance the Macarena, went to the oldest zoo in the world, and saw a huge collection of Nazi memorabilia on accident.

On Austrian National Day (October 26^th) I went to the Technical History Museum. It was pretty cool, full of hand on exhibits ranging from smart wheelchairs to solar energy. They had old automobiles, airplanes, heavy machinery, and lots of random dioramas. I think the highlight for me was the sign posted next to a chair at the global warming exhibit.

I do very little abroad. I like to think I am taking this semester to lessen global warming. Where is my Nobel Peace Prize?

After the Technical Museum we went across Vienna to the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Military History Museum). Outside the brick walls they had WWII airplanes and running tanks. The architecture of the building has elements of Byzantine, Hispano-Moorish, and Neo-Gothic. It The main entrance hall (The hall of strategists) has 56 statues of famous strategists.

I think we must’ve walked backwards through the museum, because the only exhibit I saw was tons of Nazi stuff (aka the Republic and Dictatorship. Austria between 1918 and 1945). They had artist interpretations of the atrocities that featured dismembered bodies and skeletons eating brains. It was disturbing. The rest of that exhibit had lots of Nazi memorabilia: pictures of Hitler, old uniforms, armbands, etc. Before we could go on to the next exhibit, the museum announced that it was closing time. I wish I would’ve been able to see more of the museum, because that exhibit was extremely disturbing.

Everything in Vienna closes SO early. Museums and the Zoo close at 5. Grocery stores close at 7:30, and banks are open sporadically. The only thing that is consistently open is kebab stands. Kebab stands and this delicious Turkish bakery. This bakery has the best baklava I have ever eaten. I went two days in a row, that’s how good it was. The bakery is open from 5 AM to 4 AM. If I could have one thing from America in Vienna it would be customer service. The only place I have experienced customer service here is at hotels. However, I have also gone through the worst customer service in my life at hotels in Europe (harassed in Venice, double charged in Zurich, etc). I don’t think that most employees have a profit motive, so getting them to do anything extra or make exceptions is close to impossible.

This week I went to the Tiergarten Schönbrunn (zoo). It’s by far the coolest zoo I have ever been to. It started as the imperial menagerie of the Hapsburgs (located right next to their 1,000+ room summer residence the Schloss Schönbrunn). It had polar bears, panda bears, giraffes, rhinos, elephants, hippos, pretty much any animal you would want to see at the zoo. I loved it so much that I bought a season pass.

The other big event was Halloween. Halloween is mainly a North American thing, but we did our best to get the Europeans to celebrate it as well. Kids don’t even get to trick or treat here! Halloween and Christmas are the two best holidays when you are a kid, and these kids don’t even get Halloween.

I bought some Buffalo Grass Vodka (which came dressed in a costume), dressed as Wednesday Friday Addams, and tried to celebrate like I was in America. A huge group of exchange students went to the Ottakringer Brewery Halloween Party. My last surviving electronic, my camera, almost didn’t make it through Halloween. The evening was pretty uneventful: lots of nuns, a couple Waldos, and a few criminals.

One of the events of the evening that sticks out in my head is the coat check Gestapo. Austrian Law dictates that nightclubs have to have coat checks. So, everywhere you go you have to pay .80-1.20 euro to check your coat. DON’T EVER LOSE YOUR COAT CHECK TICKET. The nun who was with us lost his coat check ticket while dancing. We argued with the coat check people for at least 15 minutes about getting his coat back. We spotted the coat, described it, it was hanging next to my coat, but they refused to believe that we weren’t just trying to steal it. It was so ridiculous. We finally wore them down and got a North Face back.

This week I am trying to write two final papers while I have a break in classes. This weekend I am going to Prague. I am uber-excited for Julianne to come visit in one week!