The past two weeks have been surprisingly busy with both school and
outside-of-school activities. I really feel like I'm settling in and getting to know the students and other teachers well. I see some of the school kids in town or at the train station at they're always super friendly and excited to see me and chat, which of course makes me feel great. They're quite delightful. I’ve also been spending a lot more time with friends
in Vienna, doing my best to meet lots of new people! I am loving the city itself, and even though I've done a ton of exploring, there's still so much more to see and experience, so I'm really glad I am spending the whole year here!
Yesterday was particularly full of culturally things, so I'll share with you a recap of what I did! I began the day with a visit to the Augustinkirche, the chapel
that is part of the Hofburg Palace. Rick Steves told me that the choral music
there during Sunday morning mass is fantastic, and since I had yet to take
advantage of this free cultural opportunity, I thought it was about time! This
church is where most of the Hapsburgs were married, and I had been to it before, but hadn't yet gone inside. Although it doesn’t
look very impressive, or even very “churchy” from the outside, as soon as you
walk inside, the regalness really smacks you in the face. It’s not exactly
gaudy, just very majestic, and I could vividly picture a royal wedding taking
place there. The music for this mass was written by Mozart, Vienna’s little
baby, and hearing such majestic church music in such a gorgeous hall was really
something special. I probably enjoy classical music more than the average 22
year old, but I certainly don’t listen to it often, and frankly often get sick of it after
about 10 minutes. However yesterday I did not feel that way at all! I really loved the
experience, and the fact that the music was interspersed throughout the mass
made it quite nice. The only downside was that I got there a little late
so there was absolutely nowhere to sit, and I had to stand the whole mass. When I go back (which I definitely will, especially because Advent time has some
great music), I will have to get there early so I can sit down.
After getting my church fill for the day, I took
a two minute walk down the street to the Vienna Jewish Museum (the natural next
step, right?). I had expected this museum to be mostly focused on the history
of the Jewish people in Vienna, told through cultural artifacts and
documents—your typical museum. That was not the case at all. The museum was
more specialized, with special exhibits related to Jews and not much at all
about the Viennese Jewish community as a whole. For example, there were two photo
exhibits: one featured pictures from Viennese women photographers from the
1920s and 30s, and the other featured pictures from one photographer that
capture contemporary Jewish life in the city. I liked the latter a lot. Some of
my favorite pictures were of orthodox rabbis reading Hebrew texts on the Strassenbahns
(street cars), old Jewish men chatting in a café, a few Jewish weddings in
parks, and groups of kids at a Purim party. These pictures showed me that even
though the Jewish community of Vienna is only about 8,000 strong, it is lively!
The only cultural artifacts the museum had were held in an area called “visible
storage” that had some information about the various Jewish communities in the
area throughout history, but it was terribly organized and not very nicely put
together. Oh well.
The museum is in 2 parts, one of which is an Judenplatz,
the area in the 1st district (the main historic part of Vienna) on which the
old main synagogue used to stand. Now there is a beautiful Holocaust Memorial
there. I thought it was really lovely.
The last part of my Sunday cultural adventure
was the most classically Austrian part: a visit to a Christmas Market! These
markets (called Christkindlemaerkte) happen all over the country in the time before Christmas (apparently
they open earlier and earlier every year, according to the woman I live with).
There are several in Vienna, and each has a different feel to it. Some are more
focused on crafts and handiwork, others are just food and drink, and some are a
mixture of it all. The one I went to is in ront of the Rathaus (city hall) and
is mostly for kids and tourists. It was kind of kitchy, but still
AWESOME. There were pony-rides and little huts with interactive games for kids,
as well as little huts that sell everything from toys to ornaments to hats to
specialty gifts. The kind of food sold is also really fun: lots of caramelized
almonds, roasted chestnuts, cookies, cakes, baked potatoes, wurst, other
traditional Austrian foods, and LOTS of DELICIOUS hot drinks. Punsch and Glühwein are
two classic Christmas drinks, both kind of a mix of tea, hot apple cider, and wine, which I realize sounds gross,
but that’s false. They’re delicious, and perfect for warming you up when you’re
wandering around the cold market! Just the atmosphere of the whole place was so
perfect and magical—twinkling lights, little wooden huts with pine needles on
them, happy children, all in an explosion of Christmassy goodness. All we
needed was some light snow and the picture would have been perfect. And this is
just the start of the season—I can’t wait to visit more markets as Christmas
gets closer!!! [sidenote, I do feel guilty that I’m indulging in this kind of
Christmassy goodness before Thanksgiving, but it’s just too hard to escape it.
There’ve been advent calendars for sale in stores since mid-October…]
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My friend Annie and me with our Orange Punsch |
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W&L at the Museumsquartier Christkindlmarkt |
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So many Gingerbread cookies! |
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Entrance to the Rathaus market |
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Terrible quality picture, but I'll be visiting approximately 17000 times, so I'll get better pictures next time :) |