Vienna: Die Stadt gehort Dir
Writing about Vienna is like writing about my home, or about about a past life as a Viennese. There are few places where I have felt like home, and one of them is Vienna. I had the joy to visit the city again in the past weekend, together with a friend who had never been there before. Besides the pleasure of seeing some familiar places again (like the Stephansdom, Hundertwasserhaus and the Belvedere palace), there were some new ones we discovered and enjoyed.
Saturday morning was quite chilly, as we started strolling on the Mariahilfer street, well-known for being a shopping paradise. A short U-bahn ride brought us to the Naschmarkt – an antiquarians meeting place combined with a market selection of wines, soaps, meat types, vegetables and fruit from all over Europe and the world. Chinese, Turks, Greeks, Italians and many others mingled to form the most colorful blend of food and customs in the city. Later on, we had real schnitzel for lunch in what must be the temple of the best schnitzels in Vienna, called the Schnitzelwirt (Neubaugasse 52). Besides the immense portions, the service was irreproachable and the waiter grinned merrily at seeing us two sweat with the effort of devouring the meal… In the Griensteindl Café (a literary café close to the Kohlmarktgasse and the more famous Café Demel), I had the best cappuccino in a long time, to go with a chocolate-free slice of Malakoff cake. A night walk to the Danube brought us to the Hundertwasserhaus and then, to contrast it, to Vienna’s International Centre. The place was obviously built as a home to office and governmental buildings and I assume it looks like a termit house during daylight. When we arrived there at 9pm, it looked as empty as a deserted world after a Resident Evil raid. The evening ended in Pandora’s Box, a local pub with diverse music, enjoyable beer and funny Austrian guys; we entered because we heard The Doors inside and left when they hit the reggae disks.
Sunday was the cultural day – I satisfied my art appetite after two modern painting exhibitions – one taking pride in Monet and Picasso at the Albertina gallery, the second displaying Cezanne, Matisse, Toulouse-Lautrec, the Fauves and even Brancusi at the Lower Belvedere galleries.
The funny feeling on returning was that there was a life that waited for me to come back here. Unlike other times, when returning felt like going through a tunnel of glass paper to adapt to the old habits, I felt happy and relaxed. Now I know that Arcadia is close :-)
I'm coming home to you
I'm alive I'm a mess
I can't wait to get home to you
To get warm and undressed
There've been changes beyond my dreams;
Everybody wants me to sing
There've been changes beyond my grasp;
Things I'm sinking in
Saturday morning was quite chilly, as we started strolling on the Mariahilfer street, well-known for being a shopping paradise. A short U-bahn ride brought us to the Naschmarkt – an antiquarians meeting place combined with a market selection of wines, soaps, meat types, vegetables and fruit from all over Europe and the world. Chinese, Turks, Greeks, Italians and many others mingled to form the most colorful blend of food and customs in the city. Later on, we had real schnitzel for lunch in what must be the temple of the best schnitzels in Vienna, called the Schnitzelwirt (Neubaugasse 52). Besides the immense portions, the service was irreproachable and the waiter grinned merrily at seeing us two sweat with the effort of devouring the meal… In the Griensteindl Café (a literary café close to the Kohlmarktgasse and the more famous Café Demel), I had the best cappuccino in a long time, to go with a chocolate-free slice of Malakoff cake. A night walk to the Danube brought us to the Hundertwasserhaus and then, to contrast it, to Vienna’s International Centre. The place was obviously built as a home to office and governmental buildings and I assume it looks like a termit house during daylight. When we arrived there at 9pm, it looked as empty as a deserted world after a Resident Evil raid. The evening ended in Pandora’s Box, a local pub with diverse music, enjoyable beer and funny Austrian guys; we entered because we heard The Doors inside and left when they hit the reggae disks.
Sunday was the cultural day – I satisfied my art appetite after two modern painting exhibitions – one taking pride in Monet and Picasso at the Albertina gallery, the second displaying Cezanne, Matisse, Toulouse-Lautrec, the Fauves and even Brancusi at the Lower Belvedere galleries.
The funny feeling on returning was that there was a life that waited for me to come back here. Unlike other times, when returning felt like going through a tunnel of glass paper to adapt to the old habits, I felt happy and relaxed. Now I know that Arcadia is close :-)
I'm coming home to you
I'm alive I'm a mess
I can't wait to get home to you
To get warm and undressed
There've been changes beyond my dreams;
Everybody wants me to sing
There've been changes beyond my grasp;
Things I'm sinking in
Nothing falls like London Rain
Nothing heals me like you do
(Heather Nova, London Rain)
Nothing heals me like you do
(Heather Nova, London Rain)
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