Today in class we talked about Vienna art and architecture and the Jugendstil movement. Gustav Klimt and Otto Wagner and those blokes. We are to see more of them during our walking tour of the city on Monday. We also talked a bit more about Viennese coffee houses. They were sometimes referred to as “the penny university” because intellectual discourse was so frequent that one learned a great deal about a vast array of subjects in the coffee houses. Apparently Sidney and Diane have been hitting up all the historical coffee houses in Vienna without me. I need to get in on this, as that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do.
After class we decided to go to Budapest. Martha and I decided to leave that afternoon to have more time in Budapest, so we went to the grocery store then home and made sandwiches and she booked the hostel. We caught the 15:50 from Westbahnhof to Budapest-Keleti. It was a 3-hour train ride, but we had beer and sandwiches, theological discourse, and fairly comfortable seats, so we weren’t too bored.
Once again (as in Bratislava) it was overcast when I arrived in this eastern European country, but I know not to judge the country by the sky (Bratislava proved delightful). On the way to our hostel, we exchanged some currency in a Best Western. However, sensing that we were not getting the best possible rate (there was an 8% commission) we exchanged only small amounts here so as to have some cash. I exchanged Euros but I should have followed Martha’s example and brought along U.S. currency, because as she said, you lose each time you exchange. Perhaps I’ll have a chance to follow her lead in Switzerland if I go. In any case our instinct proved useful; we found currency exchange booths all over Budapest (so near to the Eurozone). I think the best rate we saw was at a chain called Northline (highest rates and no commission). In the Northline booth we went to, the guy was playing some online game (possibly World of Warcraft?) on his laptop to pass the time. (Side note: I also saw an old man who looked like he may have been homeless reading on a sidewalk to pass the time. This encouraged me.)
Regarding Hungarian currency: the Forint is very inflated. 274 Ft. = €1, 214 Ft. = $1 USD. Wikipedia said the bills go up to 20.000, which is under $100 U.S. The smallest cash piece is 5 Ft. 1 Ft. pieces do not exist, and in commercial exchanged in Hungary they round up your bill to the nearest 5 Ft. The concept of a Forint cent is of course ridiculous, as it would be worth nothing. Even more than in Vienna and Bratislava, the storekeepers here are reluctant to make change. They frown when you pull out a bill for small purchases (the smallest banknote is 500 Ft.); the grocery store clerk asked me, “Cois, perhaps?” when I flashed a 1.000 Ft. note for water and coffee. So in that sense I get more excited about 100- and 200-Ft. coins than about 5.000 Ft. banknotes. The Hungarians are happier to see coins. In general things are pretty cheap in Budapest. The tourist shops have prices as high as Vienna, but it pays to shop around as everything can be had pretty cheaply; there are little stands everywhere. Lots of places sell bunches of paprika, an item traditionally associated with Hungary, it seems.
Martha and I were EXTREMELY fortunate to have decided to come Friday night rather than Saturday morning, like the others. After we checked in at our hostel (there were some complications with our online registration, but they were worked out), we went to the main street to see what was around. Dozens of people were walking on both sides of the street in the same direction. We joined the crowd to see where they were going. The farther we walked, the more people there were until literally hundreds of people, from the very old to little children, filled the street. Some people had set up tables and were selling giant pretzel-looking things, pastries, beer, water, and the like. Finally we followed the people to one of the several bridges stretching across the Danube to link Buda and Pest. There the people stopped. We soon discovered why; fireworks erupted over the river for a while! Clearly this was some sort of festival. After the pyrotechnical display, we followed the crowed in dispersing along the Danube, where dozens of little tables and stands offered snacks, beads, electrical light toys, etc. It was a sort of carnival; we saw ponies for children to ride and a couple fairground-type mechanical attractions. One sign outside a club answered our question: we had arrived, to our great delight, on St. Stephan’s Day. There were some very good live Hungarian bands, both electro-rock and acoustic folk. Eventually (after this awesome Hungarian cheesy street bread) we returned to the hostel. Budapest has many buskers and beggars.
Today I got up at 6:30 to take Monica to the CAT station (my wallet wasn’t willing to cough up the €18 for a round trip ticket to take her all the way to the airport). I got back around 8:00 and set my alarm for 9:15, intending to take an hour nap and just get a pastry on my way to class. I woke up at noon. Hopefully nothing super interesting happened in class?
I ended up doing nothing interesting the entire day. The only times I went out were to the grocery store. I made dinner and uploaded a lot of photos to Facebook. Read Still Alive a bit. That’s really it. I guess this was my day to recharge the batteries, so to speak.
Today in lecture we talked about Turks. Lots of names and dates, but if you’re looking for legitimate sources of old facts, you should not be reading a blog. However, of interest, we spoke of the Turks bringing coffee to Vienna. Legend has it the Viennese ventured out into the Turkish camps once they were driven from the city and found coffee beans. They knew not what to do with them, tried feeding them to their horses, and eventually hit on grinding them and pouring hot water through them, I guess. Though apparently adding milk to coffee was a Viennese invention; the Turks only drank it black. The Melange was born. Kathy said that the founder of the Viennese coffee house (the man who founded the first coffee house in Vienna {and perhaps the first in the world? I don’t know}) was named Kulczycki. His coffee house was called Hof zur Blauen Flasche – The House of the Blue Bottle. Supposedly there is a statue of the great man on Kolschitzkygasse, formerly Schlossergasse. Kathy said she couldn’t find this statue, but offered “extra credit” to whomever could. Of course the offers of extra credit are so numerous and vague that I doubt they mean anything, especially for someone taking the class P/NP (as I am) but I am determined to find this statue and pay my respects to the man, as I am enamored of the Viennese coffee house. It is wonderful and I love it. After experiencing the Vienna coffee house, I do not look forward to returning to American coffee. American coffee culture sucks. I feel I’ll never enjoy a coffee outside of Vienna for the rest of my life, after experiencing the best of the best. Maybe I’ll get an espresso machine and make my own. I’d have to find out how to make real Schlagobers though to make a legit Einspänner. And espresso machines are expensive. It might be worth it though. In any case I want to find this statue. I Googled Kolschitzkygasse and it’s near the Südtiroler U-Bahn stop, so it wouldn’t be too inconvenient to go there and look for it. I will do this some time soon, hopefully.
Kathy tried but failed to talk about Biedermeier. Instead we talked about the Enlightenment, Maria Theresia, Joseph II, the French Revolution, and Napoleon. Running out of time, Kathy said she would leave it to Dr. O to talk about Biedermeier, which she did. After class we went to the Naschmarkt for lunch. We got falafel, hummus, and beer. After that we headed to the Belvedere for our museum tour with Dr. O. They have quite an art collection there. We first hit up some of the famous stuff there, like the painting of Napoleon. If you Google “Napoleon painting” it’s the first image that comes up. He’s on this rearing horse, pointing his troops forward, with his cloak flowing about him. He is made to look taller than he was. Dr. O also described the Biedermeier painting and period, which seems to have come about largely because of Metternich, who repressed any kind of change, revolution, or intellectual discussion (the French Revolution was scaring the hell out of all the other European monarchs) and Austrians were encouraged to live a lifestyle of Gemütlichkeit, comfortably home living, raising children, being successful suburbanites, and all the things that I want to run far and fast away from. She said Austrian women were encouraged to abide by the “three Ks”: Kinder, Küche, und Kirche, or children, kitchen and church. I guess some girls who are raised too religiously still want that. Dr. O and I and most of the people in the group seem to agree that there’s nothing wrong with Biedermeier, but it’s not for us. Biedermeier seems like the antithesis of all the goals I’ve ever had (adventurous young student doesn’t want to settle down?) but I agree there’s nothing wrong with people who are drawn to that. I just won’t spend too much time talking to them.
Next we hit up the Jugendstil, or Vienna’s art nouveau. The leader of Jugendstil was Gustav Klimt, who made a career decorating Ringstraße buildings. As it happens Monica and I have been discussing art ever since she got here. She likes Picasso and raves about Guernica. I think Guernica is stupid and that cubism is a waste of paint. Do they even use paint or just pencils and crayons in cubism? Whatever, it’s ugly. Monica says that I like “realist” art, in other words art that looks like something. For instance I like old Renaissance stuff, when art reached its height and artists really knew how to represent scenes accurately. They’d mastered use of light and shadow, da Vinci had illegally dissected corpses in order to learn how to accurately represent the human form, Dürer showed off his ability to paint anything, and art was beautiful. After this point painters realized that art had reached its height (it couldn’t get any better) and started painting ****. They invented new styles and painted things that look very unlike what they should. Most of the new styles are so vague that interpretation of what the hell the artist was trying to show is open to the viewer. So some things can be representative, but only if you have someone explain it to you. For the most part artists of these new styles are just lazy (Monica expressed her intent to kill me when I mentioned this). They can paint something (and not well) and the worse they paint it, in other words the more it looks like a formless blob, the more it is open to interpretation, and any intellectual can come along and say that for them it represents some emotion, or sex, or progress, or politics, or something in the artist’s life, and in any case that it’s a masterpiece. Well, more power to ‘em. The artists make money and the appreciators of the art get to feel artsy and intellectual because they can enjoy something that the lay-viewer can’t. I’d rather have something that actually looks like it does in nature. In the Belvedere today Ben (Adams, Bio-man) and I noticed this painting that was amazingly good. It was some market scene in Africa, but it was so freaking good that it was almost a photograph. The artist had serious talent. However, this doesn’t mean that photography has made painting obsolete, because the painter has the same advantage over the photographer that the novelist has over the journalist: the former can express something in his or her imagination, that is, something that has not necessarily happened yet, maybe a possibility, maybe an impossibility, but in any case can give form to his or her thoughts. So I like realist art, where it looks like something, the artist has skill, and I can tell what the hell the painting is saying.
So needless to say I am not impressed by Gustav Klimt or Egon Schiele. Dr. O says we’ll see lots of Schiele at the Leopold Museum on Monday, but we saw a few in the Belvedere. There is a lot of Klimt in the Belvedere. His famous painting Der Kuss, The Kiss is in a giant glass frame box thing in one room. Dr. O talked about it for a while, and we discussed whether the woman in the painting is enjoying the kiss. I think it would be much clearer if Klimt had painted the figures to actually look like people. Then I could more clearly read their emotions. As is, the painting is open to interpretation by the viewer, which means it means everything and nothing and is lazy ****. There was also an unfinished work by Klimt, which made it clear that he painted his female characters naked (and anatomically correct) before “dressing them” as Dr. O put it by painting clothing on them. To each his own I guess, but it seems kind of pervy and unnecessary to me. And Dr. O talked for a while about how Klimt was a womanizer and had at least 18 illegitimate children on account of all his affairs. Anyway Dr. O likes Klimt and Schiele, and I guess as a lifelong art historian she knows better than me, but she can keep her Klimt. He bores and frustrates me.
One thing that I really DID like in the Belvedere was a large collection of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s famous “character heads” busts of heads making various faces. Most of them are contorted into odd visages. Messerschmidt was the Maria Theresia’s court sculptor. He is a good sculptor and his works actually look like people! Much much better than Klimt or Schiele. Anyway he was court sculptor, but eventually kind of fell out of favor of everyone he knew, fellow artists and critics and the court and everyone like that. Being a little daft and unable to deal with this rejection by society, Messerschmidt retired to some cabin by a lake, where he reputedly tortured himself with by clamping his arms into bruised jelly and horrible things like that in order to inflict pain upon himself. He’d then study his grim visage in a mirror and sculpt the contorted face. Most of the character heads, therefore, show people with twisted faces. Some say that Messerschmidt was exploring the possibilities of sculpting, and trying to sculpt expressions that others had not attempted. Some say he was simply off his rocker. I think both are true. The Messerschmidt character heads collection was my favorite thing in the Belvedere. Messerschmidt, I guess near the end of his life, tried to destroy his character heads by throwing as many of them as he could carry into the river. I don’t know the full story, I guess he was just daft. Anyway he did like 69 total, people think. Some curator came along and sorted all the remaining ones, and he named them all. Most people disagree with the names he gave them. Since Messerschmidt never named any of them, all the official names of the character heads are things this curator thought of when he saw them. Most are them are inaccurate, and the names hardly correspond to the faces, for the most part. Anyway, I really, really enjoyed Messerschmidt and it was pretty much the only thing I liked in the Belvedere, except for this one painting called The Last Contingent which shows a rural village, and all of the old men with their makeshift weapons going off to war. The village (women and children, all the young men presumably have already gone off to war) are seeing them off. The old men are the last possible warriors left, and are going off to save their village where the young men have failed. I liked it a lot. It would never have worked in the art nouveau styles, by the way, such as impressionism.
The Belvedere has a lot of impressionist stuff by Klimt and Monet. The Monets are impressive only because he was famous for inventing impressionism. I like The Scream, but most of impressionism is useless. It was invented as a way to paint things really really fast, so that you could capture a scene in a particular light. If you took the time to paint something well, the light would have changed. However, with photography this is no longer useful. You can capture any image instantly. So impressionism may have once been useful but now it’s useless because photography is better, and unimpressive.
They also have this awesome, famous painting of Napoleon being extremely badass.
After the Belvedere we went to an adjacent beer garden. I got a pretty good dark and some Schinkenfleckerl, which was this Austrian ham pasta thing that was pretty good. It came in a big cube. I guess the non-Austrian food it most closely resembles is lasagna, except that it was pretty much just pasta, cheese and ham. It was delicious. Monica got some Apfelstrudel mit schalg which was also pretty good. Anyway, as always I enjoyed finding good beer and food. Came back and wrote this, and now hopefully some friends and I will got out to a bar, or Martha said she was going to try to find dancing along the Donaukanal.
Also, the Belvedere was the only place I’ve seen penises. Everywhere else the naked men are tactfully covered up by a cloth or leaf or something. But in the Belvedere I saw two statues with tiny classical penises. I wonder why classical and neo-classical sculptures have such tiny penises? Anyway, the Belvedere was built and owned by a homosexual guy (Prince Eugene of Savoy) and it’s the only place the penises weren’t covered. Just an observation.
Later that night a bunch of us felt like going out, so we hit up Chelsea, a bar near our apartment. It’s named after some U.K. football team. Not many people were there but we got drinks and had some pleasant conversations. Some lone guys came in by themselves and ordered beers and watched the girls. It was kind of creepy. We danced. I tried to dance. The music was pretty bad, and for the most part the other dancers were as bad as us. I thought it was funny how the Europeans dressed and danced. Kind of like a poor imitation of Americans (who are themselves not very great). They seemed to choose their apparel specifically to try to appear “cool.” It was interesting to watch. I asked a friend who’d been traveling a lot before the program and he said most Europeans were like that. Anyway I thought it was kind of hilarious.
After the bar some of us went out to get some fresh air and ended up lying on our backs watching the clouds move across the night sky and talking about various things. A couple people came out on the catwalk between apartments to smoke and we called them down and they joined us. Religion seems to be a hot topic of conversation since coming to this Catholic country. We were talking about whether we like Vienna. I really like the city, but it seems some people do not like it very much. I can understand the unfriendly people and the priceyness and the general arrogance of Austrians, but I really enjoy Vienna. I could live here. Bratislava and Budapest, for example, are charming little towns, but I couldn’t live there. I’d get bored after a week. I feel like I could live permanently in Vienna.
Went to class and discussed Calvinism (predestination) and the Ottoman Empire, but the discussion of Turks turned to a discussion of modern day European racism and immigrant policy. It seems Turkey meets all of the EU’s requirements for joining with flying colors (strong growing economy, honest efficient government, low national debt, &c.) but the EU refuses to let it join, probably for racist reasons. Turkey would be a much stronger economic partner than, say, Greece or Romania. We also talked about the Turkish immigrants all over Europe today. Immigrants are reproducing much more rapidly than Caucasians, and perhaps soon Caucasian will not be the dominant ethnicity, or culture, in Europe. Kathy saw a political poster (and later today I noticed it myself while walking around) that says, “Mehr Mut für unser ‚Wiener Blut.‘ Zuviel Fremdes tut niemand gut.” Which translates “More courage for our “Viennese Blood.” Too much foreignness does noone good.” Disgustingly conservative. It is a slogan of the FPÖ political party, Austria’s extreme right wing party, which Beller (author of A Concise History of Austria) say is the party that all of the ex-Nazis joined after World War II. It’s got a history of disgustingly intolerant policies. After reading Beller, my favorite Austrian political party is the SPÖ, the social democrats and Austria’s left-wing party. But of course I swing liberal in the United States as well. Seems Haider, the terrible and secretly homosexual leader of the FPÖ, died in a traffic accident. So that’s nice.
After lecture Monica and I walked around and decided to visit the Peterskirche, which proved a superb idea as a pipe organ concert was occurring therein! And I mean the big pipe organ in the loft at the back of the church! It was amazing! I love pipe organs. Really a fortuitous coincidence. It was quite special, especially considering the lovely Baroque scenery we had to look at inside the church. Peterskirche is one of the plainer churches on the outside, but the most ornate within. I found it interesting that one sat in a pew facing away from the organ and couldn’t even see the organist. More glory to God, less to the musician?
Next we went to Hotel Sacher for, reputedly, the best coffee experience in the world. Sacher Torte (chocolate cake with apricot filling) is the most famous cake in Vienna, and of course Hotel Sacher has the most legitimate claim to having invented it. And what would Sacher Torte (mit schlag, it goes without saying) be without Sacher Kaffee, a coffee drink with chocolate liqueur? So perhaps the best (certainly the most renowned) coffee experience in Vienna. And as Vienna is the coffee culture capital of the world, I may have had the best coffee experience it is possible to have on this earth today. It set me back €12 plus tip, but it’s probably worth doing once if you’re in Vienna, especially if you’re a coffee fanatic. After this experience we sat and talked for a while, as befits one in Vienna. As Dom Ambros said yesterday of the Viennese coffee houses, “they never kick you out. You can literally sit there all day.”
World famous Sacher Torte and Sacher Kaffee.
After Hotel Sacher, we went to look at the Universität Wien, built in the Renaissance style (Enlightenment). There were no students but I really enjoyed walking around the building a bit. It’s beautiful inside and out. There are lots of busts of professors all around. I also snapped a photo of a Sonnenfels (advisor to Maria Theresia) bust. After the Uni we checked out the Votivkirche (adjacent to the university). I think it’s my favorite Viennese church. I really like the Gothic style, but it’s not as big and unmanageable as Stephansdom. Stephansdom just took too long to build, and it’s got different things all over the place. There’s just no motif. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Stephansdom and it takes my breath away, but every corner of the church is a little different. The Votivkirche has pleasing symmetry, still has its stained glass windows (I wish Stephansdom had retained them) and has a Gothic simplicity that appeals to me. Amazing, we got to hear yet another organ in the Votivkirche! It was not a performance on the main organ, as in Peterskirche, but a rehearsal on a smaller organ for a wedding. The organist and a trumpeter practiced the famous wedding march (think brides walking down the aisle in Hollywood films) and the Ave Maria. Beautiful. What are the odds of entering two famous, gorgeous Viennese churches in one day and hearing pipe organs in both of them? Wonderful. I am indeed fortunate.
We then took the U2 to Stadion, walked through the mall, and sat on these steps leading into the Danube for a while and talked. Some ducks and a Swan splashed about nearby. A few ships went by, creating waves in our little docklet. There is nothing quite like sitting in the non-touristy part of a European capital city, on the banks of its great river, and talking away the hours with a good friend. And it was indeed non-touristy. Stadion is the last stop on the U2, and we were sufficiently far from the historic heart of the city that I can be reasonably sure our quiet staircase was not bothered by foreigners. We only saw exercisers, dog-walkers and one giggling couple. I think they were all Viennese. It is nice to get away from the tourists and go somewhere the Viennese actually live and carry on their daily lives. Had we proceeded up or down the Danube very far I’m sure we would have seen something famous and grand, but our quiet little strip of river, opposite fishermen’s huts with their hanging nets, was quite nice.
We stopped by the exotic food store by the U-Bahn stop outside our apartment. No Austrian food! Interesting. Smelled uhm . . . different in there though. Anyway we got some naan and went home and made sandwiches and I wrote this and now I’m going to hit the bed. Tomorrow I think we tour the Belvedere, and I plan on returning to the Naschmarkt and showing Monica the inside of Stephansdom.
Met Dom Ambros (see Friday 6.8.2010) post for lunch. He was in civilian clothing (rather than his habit) which was interesting to see. Monica, Martha, Dom Ambros and I went out for lunch to a Jewish place, got these wraps which were pretty good. After that he took us to the Kapuzinerkirche crypt for a look at the imperial bodies. Dom Ambros got us in for free by saying he was a canon at Klosterneuburg and that we were students. He described it as “the only perk of being a clergyman in Vienna.” We went down to the crypt and Ambros described to us all of the Habsburgs and their adventures and lineage and things they were famous for. He said he knew so much about the Habsburgs because he has a good friend who is a Habsburg, one Moritz. Dom Ambros is a very interesting guy. Anyway many of the coffins or sarcophagi or what have you are covered in skulls and bones and crowns (sculpted of course) and one gets the impression of being in a pirate treasure cove. Maria Theresia and her husband had by far the largest sarcophagus. After learning about all the emperors and marveling at the crypt, which is in fact quite a site, we resurfaced and went to Café Tirolerhof for coffee and cake. We talked a lot and stared out the window at the rain and tried to feel depressed, in true Viennese fashion. In any case another very interesting and enjoyable day. I consider myself very fortunate to have met Dom Ambros.
After we parted ways, Monica and I wandered around the Innere Stadt. It’s the most interesting part of the city and she still hadn’t seen it. Hofburg and the like. Later I made dinner and invited some friends, and it was fun. I talked with Martha and Stephanie a lot about Ruth Klüger’s book and concentration camps. Very interesting conversation. After dinner some of us returned to the Siebenstern Brewery (I’d been there once before and we had some problems with the waiter), a local brewery near our apartment which makes its own (very good) beer. I had a Prague Dark but the Rauchbier (smoke beer) which I had the last time I went is also very good. So lots of beer and conversation. That was the end of my night.
Monica, Marielle, Daryl and I went to Schönbrunn for a picnic lunch. I made some delicious freaking sandwiches, if I say so myself. So we had sandwiches and beers and watched the squirrels and what have you in the Schönbrunn gardens. The gardens are definitely more extensive and lovelier than those of the Belvedere. They have a labyrinth of hedges. So it was very nice. After lunch we walked around the grounds. They have a few fountains decorating the grounds. One is this obelisk supported by four golden turtles, topped by a golden eagle (Habsburg eagle, most likely, though it had but a single head). There was also this fountain with these weird sort of mer-people. We found this steep hill and Daryl and I, in our infinite wisdom, though it would be a good idea to roll down it. It was pretty steep and we reached the bottom dizzy and slightly bruised, with grass-stained clothing. I had a long scratch on my leg. We were feeling a little tired, so we decided not to go take the tour; we’re saving it for another day when we have more energy. We realized then that I hadn’t brought out all the cookies during lunch, and we were craving ice cream, so we took the U-Bahn to the Stadtpark (city park/gardens), photographed the golden statue of Johann Strauss, got ice cream, and had cookies and ice cream on a lawn by a pond. There Me’Lisa joined us; she was fortuitously in the area and noticed us. Pretty cool. After lots of talk, we were feeling tired, so we went home and napped for an hour or so, then headed off to the Rathaus for the nightly film screening, stopping at a food stand on the way. I got a pizza (quarter of a pizza! they have huge portions in Vienna) which the guy put in the oven so it was very hot, and a Wieselbier in a glass bottle. Very good. Tonight the film was a performance of Handel’s Messiah, but a sort of modern version, at least in terms of costumes. I actually liken it to the version of Die Fledermaus we saw at the Theatre an der Wien. The music and lyrics were all the original stuff drawn up by the composer, but the costumes were modern. Parts of it though made us laugh, I guess the way the actors were acting. They did some pretty bizarre stuff. The songs were in English but there were German subtitles. In any case opera singing is difficult to understand so we couldn’t really follow it, and spent most of the time either laughing at the antics of the actors or trying to guess who all the characters were. During the screening this guy that looked like a gnome was walking around. He had this white short beard and this sort of beanie gnome-cap thing, and he had a pack on his pack. We were unsure whether he was homeless. In any case he’s like my favorite Viennese guy ever. He reminded me of a gnome in appearance (he was even smoking a legit-as-hell tobacco pipe!) and he clearly had an appreciation for the arts, as he appeared to be at the film screening simply to enjoy some Handel. He wasn’t doing much else; not begging or anything. A true Viennese, Also this little old lady in a little old lady dress with a little old lady dog sat by us for a few minutes. Concerning architecture, the neo-Classical Parliament, with its giant golden statue of Athena, and the neo-Gothic Rathaus with its tall clock tower look magnificent lit up at night. After the film (we didn’t stay until the end because it was getting late and the Messiah was kind of dragging on) we met some of our American friends outside the apartment building. They were on their way to the nearby strip club. They beseeched me to join them, but for one I’m kind of uncomfortable with the idea of women who strip for money, and two I have to get up early tomorrow because there’s no freaking Internet and I need to check my email because I’m supposed to be meeting Dom Ambros (mentioned previously for dinner tomorrow). I think I’ll get up early tomorrow and go to a café for the Internet.
Schönbrunn.
Marielle, Zac, Daryl.
About to roll down the hill.
Rolling down the hill.
The famous golden statue of Johann Strauss in the Stadtpark.
Went to a Libro store to get supplies to make a sign for picking my friend Monica up at the airport. She was one of my closest friends at UCSD this year, and was in Europe for a language program in Spain. We decided it’d be a good idea if we met in Europe. Yay for bonding! I got the stuff to make the sign and also spent some time cleaning the apartment in preparation for her arrival (you’re welcome, apartmentmates!). Also went to the grocery store twice, because the first time I didn’t have a €1 coin and couldn’t unlock a cart, so I couldn’t carry much in my arms. Anyway, to get to that Libro store one much walk away from the U-Bahn station, so it was a way I’ve never been before, down around Neubaugasse. It’s really bustling! Lots of people and shops. I also saw a couple cool little cafés that I want to check out. Kinga, the apartment building manager, took some of us to see DJ Tiësto, who was spinning at the Rathaus. By the time we were on our way, it was getting close to the time my friend’s plane was too arrive so we parted ways at one of the U-Bahn stops and I went to Landstraße to take the CAT (City Airport Train) to the airport to get Monica. Everything went well. We got back to the apartment and made a dinner of bowtie pasta with oregano and sauce and sliced mini Bernerwürstel, which are bacon-wrapped cheese sausages, and the best thing I’ve ever, ever tasted. Monica is a vegetarian at UCSD, but she’s decided to eat meat while in Europe, since it’s very difficult not to. Another friend in my program, Marielle, doesn’t eat beef or pork, so I always have to help her find someone edible on the German menus. Monica said that in Spain they couldn’t even grasp the concept of veganism, and I image it’s the same in Austria; meat is a big part of their menu. Anyway the dinner was delicious. Afterward we took the U-Bahn to the Rathaus (which is magnificent lit up at night) to see if Tiësto was still playing, but he wasn’t (it was only 23:00! What’s up with that?). Some guy was trying to get us to go to a party I think, but I couldn’t quite understand him and just said “Nein, bitte” and walked away; he seemed displeased. The area around the stage was covered in empty alcohol containers and napkins and there were lots of young people about, most of them drunk or getting there. I’ve never seen a public area like the Rathaus in Vienna like this. It was the aftermath of a party. Anyway, so the young people of Vienna. Interesting to see the change in age groups on this particular night. We decided to just take the U-Bahn back to the apartment and go to bed.
Back from the Alps. On the way we stopped at a castle which also belongs to the Esterházys. This one, though, was much more militant than the one on Wednesday, which was more of a residential palace. This castle was like a fortress, and today is something of a military museum. Our Hungarian tour guide took us through rooms where lots of weapons and armor and hussars’ riding leather (bridles, saddles, saddlebags) are on display. Unfortunately most things were behind glass and the reflection combined with my cheap camera made for poor photographs. We also went through the kitchen and looked at what they used to cook. The culmination of the tour was a very deep well, which was used for all sorts of sound experiments. We dropped water and coins into it and marveled at the time it took the sound of the impact to reach us. Kathy had us all gather round and sing happy birthday to Amanda into the well. The tour guide had this plastic sheet thing that he used to sort of “whip” air into the well, and it bounced off the walls and echoed all the way down. There was also a magnificent view from the castle walls.
The Esterházy castle had a lot of weapons. Among the many photos I snapped was one of a pretty giant sword.
We also stopped at a very old medieval castle dating from the mid-twelfth century. It was being renovated, so we couldn’t go in, but we did get to go into this courtyard thing before a guy came and kicked us out. Surrounding the castle were these beautiful dark green woods, got some pictures, very nice and European, makes me think of Arthurian legend a little. I photographed a very big snail, for what it’s worth. Outside the castle on the lawn was a display of modern art by what I’m guessing are African artists for sale. It was far too expensive for me (cheapest piece I saw was €400) but it was interesting to note the contrast of old and new, since the art did seem very modern, and the castle, as I’ve said, was nearly 900 years old.
We decided to skip the Heurige since we have a three-day weekend and most people are getting up early to travel, and didn’t want to be up too late. I didn’t want to travel, and would have preferred to go to a Heurige, but whatever.
Back home, I walked with Daryl through the rain and looked at the lightning. It was lovely. We got soaked, but walking through the rain has always had a certain appeal for me, and lightning was magnificent. We went up on a roof above the library near our apartment and watched the show. Very cool. On the way back they were locking up, but the Viennese who worked in the café were very helpful in directing us back to the ground. Always a pleasant surprise in Vienna.
Borrowed some contact lens solution from one of my apartmentmates. Everything was good. Went on a wonderful hike all day in the Lower Austrian Alps. They had some crosses set up every so often. Not one hundred percent sure what the purpose of them was. They also had these sort of rest houses where you could stop and get some food or drink during your hike. We went to three of those. One was called Ottohaus, and the resident cat was named Otto (though I was assured it was in fact a female cat).
Otto, of Ottohaus fame, working hard for her keep.
The other two were farther from our hotel, and I think they had trouble getting potable water there, because there were signs cautioning hikers not to refill their water bottles from the sinks, and if one ordered tea, they charged one a euro to get more hot water for it. On the way back we decided to try an alternate route, and got kind of lost. We deliberated over the map at every crossroads, but eventually found our way back to our hotel with two hours to spare before dinner. All in all a good day. I got lots of gorgeous alpine pictures and a good workout. Got back and had a beer and talked with friends and ate dinner and talked with friends more and now I’m writing this and now I think I’m going to go to bed. Not much really to say about today, just went on a hike. No connections to history today, except that the farthest resthouse we went to was called Habsburghaus. I’m not sure if that’s left over from the days when the Habsburgs were actually in power or if it’s more of a tourist-y thing. The Habsburgs, I think, were not very popular in 1918 when they lost power, but now I think they’ve kind of made a come back as Austrians have used their Habsburg past in an attempt to find a national identity, especially in Vienna, where practically everything had some connection to the Habsburgs. I’ve noticed a sign here and there around Vienna. It looks like a sort of public service announcement. It reads, “Österreich’s beste Zeit: die Kaiserzeit” which translates, “Austria’s best time: the imperial time.” I mentioned it to Kathy. The next time I see it I’m going to have to photograph it for us to discuss. Also hopefully I can get a closer look at one and see if there’s any sort of finer print explaining this. That’s all for today. Tomorrow I think we’re visiting a castle (I love castles!) and a Heurige (I love Heurigen!).
Went to the Alps. On the way, stopped in Eisenstadt. Eisenstadt is famous because Joseph Hadyn lived there as the court composer to the powerful Esterházy family. All of Eisenstadt’s tourism is built around Haydn. Eventually an Esterházy that didn’t like music so much took power and sent Haydn into retirement. However, because Haydn was so popular, the Esterházys continued to pay him a full salary so that they could call him their court composer; in return he composed one mass for them a year. Haydn went on to become the first composer to truly make a lot of money by composing a piece and selling it to different editors in different cities at the same time. In this way he made money off of the same piece of music in multiple areas of the world.
After Haydn died his head was stolen from his grave by a doctor who wanted to study it. This doctor thought that by measuring the head, it could be determined whether one was a genius (Haydn’s skull was taken to be an example of a genius) and it was also thought that since Haydn spent his entire life thinking about music, some node in the skull would have formed at the musical center of the brain. Of course neither of these was true, but in any case Haydn’s skull was stolen. The Esterházy in power wanted to reunite the skull and body when he re-buried Haydn in a more magnificent grave, and sent out a reward notice for Haydn’s skull. The thieves sent him the skull of someone random, and this fake skull was buried with Haydn’s body for a few years. Eventually however it was discovered that Haydn’s actual skull was in the possession of the Wiener Musikverein, who had it on display in Vienna.
Eventually, however, the skull was reunited with the body and Haydn’s complete skeleton is in a magnificent chapel in the church in Eisenstein. The fake skull was given its own burial. The church in Eisenstein, in which Haydn is buried, is very interesting. The roof is rather curvy, not flat or domed, and a staircase runs along the outside of it. This is because the church displays the 24 stations of the cross. It tells the story of Jesus life by immortalizing the 24 most important parts of his life in statued scenes. One can walk around the church looking at these scenes and follow the story of Jesus. Some of the scenes are in this tunnel thing inside the church, and the path going along the 24 stations eventually leads to stairs, which go up above the church, so that one can walk along the roof and get a magnificent view of the lands surrounding Eisenstadt, including Hungary (Eisenstadt is some 10 kilometers from the Austro-Hungarian border).
After the church we had lunch in a beer garden (I had a good dark), and drove to the Alps, took a lift to the top of the mountains, where is our hotel. Sam and I took a walk through the rain to the nearest house (Ottohaus) and played chess. I think eventually we got to the point where we each had like two pieces, so we called it quits and ran back to our hotel through the rain in time for dinner. I tried something that translates to “Imperial Nonsense” and which is essentially sliced up pancakes with powdered sugar and a sweet plum sauce. It was sweet, but more of a dessert than a dinner. Tomorrow, hiking I suppose. Unfortunately I forgot my glasses and the cleaner fluid for my contact lenses, so I’m going to have to go through the Alps without full use of my sight. I might try just using water for the contacts or maybe I can find someone to borrow some fluid from. In any case it’s going to suck.
At the beer garden, we photographed our food so the locals could be sure we were tourists.
Got up and went to the classroom, but it was empty – I hadn’t got the email that Kathy wouldn’t be there. Remembering that we were touring the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM), I went there. No one from my program was there of course, as our tour with Dr. O was scheduled for 2 p.m. In any case I looked around at all the paintings and the like for about an hour, then went home. We went back to the KHM at 2 for our tour with Dr. O. She’s an art historian living in Vienna, and the KHM is the largest collection of art in the city. I assume she basically lives there. One of the first things you see is a statue of naked Greek beating the crud out of a centaur. It was commissioned by Napoleon, but before he could pay for it he fell from power. Luckily for the artist, Emperor Franz I bought it, and it’s now in the KHM.
The KHM is divided into north of the Alps and south of the Alps. First we did north, looking at lots of important German, Dutch, and Flemish paintings. Dr. O’s favorite artist is Albrecht Dürer, the “Leonardo of the North,” so-called because of his similarities to Leonardo da Vinci. Dr. O pointed out some differences between Dürer and Italian painters: Dürer had many more figures in his paintings, sometimes hundreds. Italian painters would often limit themselves to a few figures. German painters also embraces the landscape much more than their Italian counterpoints, and were skillful at blending figures into the landscape. Some Italian painters tried to incorporate landscape into their work, but it functioned like a background, the figures do not really interact with their environment. The most famous Dürer piece is the Landauer altar, commissioned by Landauer for his “Twelve Brothers’ House,” a kind of nursing home for old men, that only allowed 12 inmates at a time. Does this have anything to do with the twelve apostles? Dr. O does not know. Landauer himself is in the altar painting, as is Dürer (holding a sign proclaiming that he had painted it). here are two contrasts with Catholic art. Catholic art is commissioned by the Church; it does not have patrons, so of course the commissioner never appears in the work. Next, as mentioned previously, the artist never appears in Catholic art.
They’ve got a Breugel room – he painted lots of scenes of peasants, and is famous for his paintings of skeletons, such as The Triumph of Death.
There was also Peter Paul Rubens room. He had a workshop in Antwerp, and completed many giant paintings. His work was very sought after. It was fashionable to have a “Rubens” in your church, palace, &c. He accomplished so many paintings of such size because very few of them are actually done by Rubens himself. His workshop included some of the finest Flemish artists of the time. He would sketch out a basic plan of the painting, which was then completed by his apprentices in the workshop. Depending on the importance of the commission, Rubens was more involved. Sometimes he touched up the painting at the end, giving it his own special flair. One large triptych displays the marriage of two Habsburgs. Rubens did this Imperial commission completely with his own hands, a rarity for him. There is some debate as to whether the workshop paintings or the pure Rubens paintings are better.
If I could get Ocean’s 11 together and steal any five pieces from the Kunsthistorisches Museum: probably the five I saw walking around alone in the morning depicting people holding other people’s heads. Three of them are this girl whose name I forget holding John the Baptist’s head after he’s executed. Another is some other Biblical story where someone sleeps with this enemy general and then cuts off his head, winning a victory for her nation’s army. The fifth one I saw was also Biblical; it’s Caravaggio’s painting of David holding Goliath’s head. Rumor has it that Caravaggio used his own face as that of Goliath. Caravaggio, it seems, was a really interesting and hot-tempered guy. I guess he killed someone and got banished from his city, also a bunch of other crazy stuff that’s interesting to hear about. Being not much of an art guy, I’d say the five I’d steal would be the five ones of Biblical people holding other Biblical people’s severed heads. Why not, right? I mean I might as well get a theme going, those would be morbidly interesting to have in my apartment, and I’d like to read about the speculation and stuff in the news when the five beheading paintings are stolen.
After the KHM, I went with some friends to a café that we’d been to once before and liked. It’s called Café Florianihof and is located in Josephstadt. It’s got free wi-fi, good coffee, and, shockingly for Vienna, friendly service. Next: Alpine Adventure.
In class we talked about Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Martin Luther was the son of an entrepreneur, and grandson of a coal-miner, in Germany. He studied law until he was walking home one day and was caught in a thunderstorm. Taking this as a sign of God’s anger, he vowed to enter a monastery if he survived the storm. He did of course survive the storm and became an extremely devout monk. After being one of the most exemplary monks, he posted his 95 Theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg, mostly as a response to the sale of indulgences. Protestantism was born and Martin was excommunicated. More on the theology of Protestantism can certainly be found at a better source than this blog. Point being, anyway, that Protestantism hit European politics like a battering ram. The Habsburgs remained Catholic. Many of their princes turned Protestant. The Counter-Reformation was the Catholics’ attempt to re-convert the populace to Catholicism. It involved the building of ever-grander churches, and many art commissions.
Anyway, we got a tour of Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral) from the wonderful Dr. O. The interesting thing about the Dom is that it incorporates so many different architectural styles. This is because it took so long to build. The oldest part of the church is in the Romanesque style, later parts of it were built in the Gothic style. Later Gothic parts of the church are far more ornate than the rest. The famous south tower, the highest point in old Vienna, is Gothic. Originally, the north tower was planned as a mirror to the south, but by the time they got around to building it, no one was interested in Gothic any more (Renaissance was growing strong in Italy) and a shorter tower was built instead. The money was used to beef up the walls defending the city, which proved fortuitous as the Turks attacked a few years later. One of the reasons they kept building Stephansdom bigger and bigger was to try to lure a bishop to live there, which would make Stephansdom a cathedral and turn Vienna into some kind of important Catholic region (bishopric?). In any case this was finally accomplished in the fifteenth century, and Frederick III, who reigned when this happened, is in a giant, ornate tomb in one corner of the cathedral.
Gothic!
Speaking of those buried in Stephansdom, Prince Eugene of Savoy is buried in another corner, which his own little chapel-thing. This is because he was the hero of the Turkish wars, the man who finally pushed the Turks away from Austria. He was extremely popular in the Empire, and extremely wealthy: he had Belvedere built. It’s interesting, however, that the Catholics allowed him to be buried in an important cathedral, as he was a flaming homosexual. Was he not openly gay? (Though it seems that it was quite obvious.) Or was he simply so popular that the Catholics didn’t want to deal with the opposition that not burying him would cause in Vienna?
Dr. O said that the measurements of Stephansdom revolve around religiously important numbers. When one pays one’s €3,50 and climbs the south tower (which has a magnificent view of the city and a little tourist shop at the top) one must climb 343 steps. Dr. O thought this may have something to do with 3 representing heaven (trinity, &c.) and 4 representing earth (4 seasons, what have you). This 3 and 4 theme is also present in a famous pulpit in St. Stephen’s, which was created by the stone mason Master Pilgram. (One of the U-Bahn stops is named after him – Pilgramgasse.) He uses the theme of three and four. He’s got lots of symbolism on the pulpit, which is very late Gothic; he completed it in the year 1500. Four of the most important Catholics peer out from the pulpit, who also represent the four humors. Toads, representing evil, crawl up the banister but are held back by a dog, representing faith and loyalty and possibly Jesus. The part of the pulpit that I find most interesting is that Pilgram sculpted himself peering out of a window in the side of the pulpit. This kind of artist’s signature began to emerge with the Renaissance, when artists began to take more pride in their work. In the Middle Ages, art was usually done for the glory of God – artists often didn’t even sign their work. Pilgram sculpted himself peering out of a window at a second place in the cathedral: beneath his organ loft. As Pilgram was not Austrian, the Viennese didn’t like him and often came to taunt him while he worked, saying his organ loft was not structurally sound. In response he sculpted himself beneath the loft, with it being supported by his shoulders. He is known because of this sort of signature as “the window-peeper.”
Pilgram's Pulpit.
The window-peeper.
Next to Stephansdom is the Haas-Haus, a modern glass building. It caused a great scandal – such a modern building adjacent to ancient marvels. Personally, I hate the Haas-Haus. It completely ruins Stephansplatz. Yes, it’s a very attractive glass building, and I would enjoy seeing it in San Diego. But it’s got no place next to a cathedral dating from the twelfth century, with all the other buildings keeping a baroque style. As an American coming to Europe for the first time, I was delighted with the old, ornate buildings of Vienna. It gave me the (accurate) feeling that I was in a very old European city. The architecture is a big reason why I love Vienna. While the Haas-Haus is also a great piece of architecture, and speaks to the era in which it was built, it does not fit AT ALL with its surroundings, and I wish it wasn’t there.
