Weekend in Vienna

*Nick in Vienna

This past weekend Jane came to visit me in Vienna. We decided that we were going to relax the whole weekend, meaning no research or writing, because of the grant applications we recently turned in. We probably have not had a weekend without research since last spring when we went on a climbing trip, so it was very nice to relax for a couple days.

On Friday we went to a modern art museum in Klosterneuberg, which is a small suburb about 20 minutes north of Vienna. There is a bus that leaves from downtown Vienna every couple hours that goes to the museum and is free if you buy a ticket for the museum. When we arrived we found out the museum was free that Friday (not sure why), so the bus ride and museum entrance was free, which was pretty great. The museum was quite nice and typical of a modern art museum. Lot's of really cool stuff and lots of stuff that is like, huh, well, that sucks. They were doing a special exhibit on Daniel Richter, a German artist, with some of his stuff as recent as a few months ago. There was also a sound installation that was terrible. It was some guy with a laptop making lots of weird sounds and messing with them electronically. It bugged us quite a bit because it was so loud it could be heard throughout the museum, plus it wasn't anything people haven't been doing for years. Why is it that when some people buy a mac they all of a sudden think they are artists?


On Saturday we did a bit of shopping in downtown Vienna - well, we mostly did looking, though I did buy one thing. The sun goes down here at about 4 and there are some amazing Christmas lights up all around downtown. It is really something to see and next time I'm down there I'll bring a camera. We then went back to my place to make something like a Thanksgiving dinner. We won't be together on Thursday (though we should each be with new friends) so we wanted to make something, which can be difficult in a foreign kitchen. We made mashed potatoes (with no masher) and Jane made egg noodles cooked in chicken broth that have been made in her family for who knows how long and have become a staple of our Thanksgivings. They were very good, but there was no rolling pin and we couldn't find one in the store so we bought a hard salami and she used that in its package. Not sure if she is the first person to use salami instead of a rolling pin, but really it seemed to work quite well. We also substituted cherries for cranberries and minute steaks for turkey because I have a tiny oven and we didn't really see any turkeys anyway.



On Sunday we went to the opera. This time we did standing room for Richard Wagner's Die Walkure. It's the one with the famous "Ride of the Valkyries" that is in Apocalypse Now. We got there 3 hours early to get in line and the opera itself is around 5 hours. So yeah, we were pretty tired afterwords. I kind of considered it earning a music badge because you can't claim to be a musicologist unless you are willing to stand through a Wagner opera. Actually, we were by far in the minority age wise. Most people were probably at least 50, with quite a few that seemed to be closer to 70. They have probably been doing standing room tickets their whole life. I wonder if there heels hurt as much as mine did? Jane got bumped out of a spot by an old woman pretending to be confused. We had heard about crafty old women at the opera always getting there way, but it is different to experience it. She also got in trouble jogging through the halls to catch up (things move very fast after tickets are bought as people jostle for standing places) The performance itself was incredible, and came out to way less than a euro and hour.

Today we went climbing and then Jane had to go back to Paris. I'll be going to Paris in about 3 weeks and then my family is coming here for Christmas. We've got more grants due in a few weeks, so it is back to work for us.