Thankfully, bits of my German are coming back to me, though I now wish that I’d paid more attention to my teacher and less attention to Sam Menter in German classes. I also wish we’d spent less time discussing how many brothers and sisters we had and what their names were. No-one has yet asked me how many brothers I have (Ich habe zwei bruder. Sie heisse Anthony und Michael), yet several people have asked me…well, I’m not sure what they were asking me, to be honest, but I wish I’d been able to answer them.
However, I actually managed to ask for directions and, even more impressive, understand the directions given. Admittedly, it was the second person I asked – the first was a very sweet old lady who grabbed my arm and launched into a stream of German, waving her arm around in every direction, and saying what sounded like “auf, auf, auf!” I said danke schon, and headed off in the direction her arm last pointed. It seems my accent is a bit off, too. At a café, I tipped the waitress, and she said “Danke…merci.” Apparently I at least sound continental.
Speaking of cafes, I am in hot chocolate heaven. Fantastic, rich, hot chocolate mit schlag (cream, but what a great word). I’ll be having one of those about twice a day, plus nightcaps and meals.
Vienna is beautiful. Today was a gorgeous day, so I skipped the museums, and walked around town till my feet fell off. Beautiful buildings in every direction, with lacy iron balconies, and parks with people playing football, walking their dogs, juggling, or watching everyone else. This is a GREAT people watching place.
The museumsquartier is stunning. You walk down the street and suddenly this big extravaganza of architecture opens up. Big domed buildings on either side, statues, gardens. There are palaces and museums everywhere, and I’m not going to get to a quarter of them. They also have horses and carriages all over the place, and instead of being exasperated at them blocking traffic and feeling sorry for the horses as I do in SL, I say to myself “oh how quaint and lovely” and take a picture, just like they intended.
* to quote Billy Joel
Tuesday 3 April 2007
Oh, Vienna*
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7 comments:
You are giving me huge wanderlust. Between this and 'Eat Pray Love' I just can't bear to stay put in Utah.
I agree with Janean--I wish I had the guts to follow in your footsteps.
And your title made me think of Ultravox's moody and melodramatic anthem of the same name. I had to look up the Billy Joel song. I like the idea of "Vienna waits for you."
Well, maybe between reading, "Eat, Pray, Love" and hearing about your trip, I can vicariously live through enough world travelers to be satisfied with where I am. I'll let you know how well that works out... :-)
Heidi, you've pretty much done it- Paris at Christmas?! And Janean, you travel a ton. Margot, I think you should consider taking a trip...but vicarious living does eliminate the jet lag.
I love that Billy Joel song. It just might be the theme for my trip.
Have a lovely book group.
I love the end where you recognized the difference between what we like in Europe and think is quaint but here we don't like. For me, it was the old buildings with so much dirt on the sides the Plague must have been under one of the layers. But there it's historical and picturesque. Here we'd petition city hall to have it cleaned or torn down.
The whole city of Venice would be condemned in the U.S.
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