Day 13: Vienna, City of Culture and Class

First of all, sorry I did not post yesterday. If you must know, my post would have been titled: Vienna, City of Dinner. Because that's basically all we had time for when we got here, apart from a walk around Schwedenplatz (I have no idea if that's how to spell/say it) and a ride on the Ring Tram after dark to get a feel of the city's most important places. Some of these pictures are from today, some from yesterday, but I'm lumping them together because I am exhausted. (It didn't help that there was a light in my room that was apparently not connected to a light switch and therefore could not be turned off...that is, until the maintenance guy came this morning and ripped out the lightbulb. Hopefully tonight will be a better one.)

Anyway, this morning we got on a bus to go to the Hofburg when we saw the huge outdoor market. It was raining pretty heavily, but we decided to go anyway. It was wonderful - much like Seattle's Pike Street Market, selling fish and cheese and olives and dried fruit and vinegars. I bought some dried strawberries, kiwis, and mango. If you don't know this, I adore dried fruit. Dried pineapple, papaya, apples, raisins - almost (ALMOST) anything. So that was a wonderful way to spend a few Euros. :)

After we'd seen everything and wandered around a bit, we hopped back on the tram and got off when we saw the famous Mozart statue - Mozart lived in Vienna during his most productive years, and the Viennese are very proud of that fact. Hence the statue. And if you look closely on the picture below, you'll see that the flowers in front are in the shape of a treble clef (that's what it's called, right?). How cute!

Just before going to the palace, we looked at the museum square where there's a big statue of Queen Maria-Theresa, the great queen of Austria. So there are pictures of that.

Next we went to the big palace of the Hofburgs, which today is home to the Spanish Riding School, where horses dance; the Austrian Boys' Choir, which we've all heard and maybe also fear; the Royal Treasury, containing the crown jewels; and the Royal State Rooms, where we went. First was an exhibition on Sisi, or Queen Elisabeth, the beautiful and adored queen of Imperial Austria who was shot in the early 1900s. She was a carefree fifteen-year-old duchess of Bavaria when her cousin the Emperor, then twenty-three, fell in love with her and asked for her hand in marriage. They were married and she became the reluctant Queen. Throughout her life as a royal, she always longed for freedom and was frequently depressed. The only time she ever interfered with politics was in favor of the Hungarian people, whom she felt a fondness for, which led to the Austro-Hungarian agreement or whatever and she and her husband were crowned as rulers of Hungary. Skip a bit, and her only son, Crown Prince Rudolf, who had been a celebrated ornithologist until he got infected with a venereal disease that made him depressed and turn to drugs, committed suicide in the Austrian forest with his young lover. This crushed Sisi, and she wore black and longed for death until she was assassinated. After her death, the Austrian people idolized her.

This exhibit was fascinating, and, together with the family's luxurious apartments, made me realize how little we are taught about European history. I think it is reasonable to suggest that we scrap "Texas history" (Texas is not the whole world, you know) and instead teach kids European and Asian history. I mean, yeah we take World History once (or whatever that was, Maxey -_-) but there's so much more than it is possible to cover in two semesters, even with a teacher who's not a creepy deadbeat - so much more that everyone, not just history majors, need to know. It's ridiculous that we get Texas History twice, American History twice (though yeah, I realize thus is important), and the whole of everything else stuffed into one measly year. Really, it's just prolonging the narrow-mindlessness and ignorance Americans are internationally known for. And believe me, I have felt ignorant seeing all these historical places and monuments and having no idea what they're for but knowing that I SHOULD know. Then again, I pretty much always feel historically ignorant because Jackson. :-P He likes to talk about things in history I wasn't even aware existed, because I'm pretty sure he knows at least something about everything in history.

Anyway, I could rant forever about all the ways education in our state should be changed, but I digress. Back to Wien!

After the palace we ate Sachertorte cake, which is a beautifully rich chocolate Wiener specialty (in case you don't know -Vienna:English::Wien:German). Also, apple strudel. So that was awesome. Then we walked through Schwedenplatz to the Mozart house, which I wasn't allowed to take pictures of, but was basically three stories of wood floor and white walls and Mozart artifacts. It's where he wrote The Marriage of Figaro, and they had plenty of original scores and paintings and some clothes of his. I learned some facts, too - Did you know Mozart was a passionate Free Mason? Because I didn't. Also, he died trying to finish a Requiem for a guy who was just going to steal it anyway. Also, he wrote six pages of music a day at his most productive. And Vienna hated Figaro, but Prague adored it. And he loved his wife, which is always nice to hear in a history lesson, because the assumption is usually that it was eh.

Anyway, I had seen a poster for an Elliot Erwitt exhibition at the Kunst Haus, which is basically a funky art gallery (see black and white checkered building below). Elliot Erwitt is my favorite photographer ever. He's mostly famous for his black-and-white photography, a healthy mix of photojournalism, street photography, and portraits of dogs. His photos all have beautiful symmetry, clever parallelism, and wonderful humor. If you've never heard of him, look him up, and you will realize that, in fact, you have. The exhibition was amazing, full of pictures I'd never seen before but loved. He has pictures of beaches, pictures of children, pictures of dogs and nudists and strange coincidences and odd situations. It's truly brilliant.

Check it out: ellioterwitt.com

So that was my day. :)