Second Day in Vienna

Monday 2.8.10


On the second day of the program, a Monday, we had the first day of class. We, as a class, took the U-bahn, but I’d already had some experience with it; we’d taken the U-bahn to and from the Innere Stadt the previous day. Our classroom is in the Austro American Institute. We met Markus, who is super cool and works there. The professor, who I’d met the previous day, is also super cool. She’s also grading this blog, so form opinions as to the honesty of my opinion of her as you will, but I really like her.

After class (which mostly consisted of our learning one another’s names and the logistics of the program) we went to lunch at some Café which I later learned had a name like Braunerhof or something. I had the best meal ever. My first excursion into Vienna coffeehouse culture was an Einspänner, which I believe was espresso topped with whipped cream. And by whipped cream I mean Schlagober, real cream which may have been made minutes before at the café, and which most Americans never have and never will experience. I also had Bernerwürstel, two delicious sausages with cheese inside, wrapped in bacon. It came with a small salad which included something that we decided was boiled potatoes. In any case I’d never had it in a salad before. The first Austrian bill-paying experience was much different than anything I’d had in the States. The waiter was very willing to go getrennt, that is, separate checks for each customer. (In the States, this is very difficult to achieve at any thing classier than a fast food joint.) He (and all the servers I’ve seen since him) had a large, black leather purse for which he provided change; since gratuity is included everywhere in Vienna, one need only round up to the nearest half Euro, which makes it very easy and convenient. Lots of things in Vienna are much more efficient than in the States; for example the public transportation is very good, and toilets have separate low-flush and high-flush options for the appropriate type of waste, which save much more water than American toilets. And the metric system, money, temperature, time, language, xenophilia, insurance . . . well never mind. I’m not going to get political here, but the U.S. could take some very good tips from Europe.

Einspänner.

Bernerwürstel, a.k.a. bacon-wrapped cheese sausages.

Okay, so after lunch and what have you (by “what have you” I mean it’s been a long couple days and I don’t remember) we made some pasta and had some cheap wine and beer. As noted earlier, cheap wine and beer in Austria would be pretty damn good wine and beer in the States. I, by complete coincidence, ended up in the party apartment, because I’m in a three-room apartment (there are only a few of them and they’re much bigger than the two-room apartments) on the first floor (fewest number of stairs to ascend/descend. So it’s a very convenient location to host a party or any kind of get-together. I know a pretty cool bunch of the Americans here. Right, so we did that and then the apartment manager, a Polish vet-med student named Kinga (I may be spelling this incorrectly) invited us to an international student party. I only stayed there for an hour (a few of us wanted to leave by midnight so we could catch the U-bahn back instead of paying for a cab, and moreover waking sleepless for the second day of class) so I only met other Americans from I think Chicago and Minnesota. However, we got there and had some rum and Cokes. I didn’t count the change in my pocket (it was pretty dark) but just gave the bartender the whole thing, and he gave me the thumbs up. No clue whether I overpaid or underpaid. We tried to go upstairs to watch the dancing from the balcony, but some guy told us to go back down. Anyway I took a few hits of a hookah that a friend had ordered (without helping to pay, but I only took a little and that friend has come to a few dinner parties in which I had to do all the dishes {need for justification in a blog? It’s the city of Freud, psychoanalyze all you want}) and we went home.