Metros and Museums and Cigarettes, oh my!!

Day 2.

30 January 2011

            Today I decided to brave the public transportation system in Vienna.  It went very well because it is very similar to the metro in D.C.  I hopped on at the Kardinal Nagl Platz station two blocks from my apartment and rode the U3 line to the Volkstheater station to visit the Museums Quartier.  The Museums Quartier takes up several blocks with many different museums – it reminded me of the Smithsonians except they were all connected by a huge courtyard and not free.  It is a true cultural center, or so the sign said.  I ventured into The Leopold Museum to check out some paintings and sculptures.  I saw a portrait Picaso did of his girlfriend…if I was the girlfriend, I would have been pissed!  I also got to take in one of Andy Warhol’s self-portraits among many other fantastic pieces of art.  In the Leopold, I sat down at my first café in Austria and ordered coffee with Bailey’s.  Being in a high-density tourist area, she did not scoff at my non-Austrian order and knew to bring me black drip coffee with a shot of Bailey’s.  Note to self: Focus outings in the touristy areas until my German vocabulary expands beyond 10 words.

            Once I grew tired of walking around the museum, I got back on the U-bahn and headed back home to find some food.  Darren, one of my travel advisors, was right.  Nothing is open on Sundays…except very few restaurants and many pubs packed with Austrian men.  I was a bit too intimidated to step in the pubs and be the only American girl amongst many drunken Austrian men, so I turned another corner and found an oasis.  A pizza place!  I went in and accomplished ordering a pepperoni pizza to-go.  The man behind the counter spoke no English, but again, the universal language of pointing and nodding saved the day.

            Smoking is very prevalent over here.  I guess they haven’t heard the horror stories of what became of the Marlboro Man because they smoke like chimneys.  Everyone seems to love their little cancer sticks and the promotion of tobacco products here is a bit disturbing.  They have cigarette vending machines on the street that are more common than ATM machines and have even invested in special rubbish bins for cigarette butts (see pictures below).

            My second day is drawing closer and closer to bedtime.  Before I can sleep, I will finish my homework and enjoy the slice of chocolate cake I picked up in the lovely bakery next to cigarette vending machine #1,256,389.  They spoke English in the bakery; I think I might visit them again.

Yep, that's Picaso's Girlfriend up there...

First Day Forecast: Partly Sunny and Awesome!!!!

29 January 2011

I arrived in Vienna Austria at 8:30 this morning.  By the time the plane touched down, my thoughts were swirling around and thoroughly mixing the memories of my last few days in DC with the emotions of arriving in a foreign country...to live there!  It made me feel exhausted (or maybe that was the jet lag...) and a little queasy.  Thankfully, I made it off the plane without falling asleep or "losing" my breakfast. 

The Viennese get a thumbs-up from me on their passport inspection process - I zipped through and on to baggage claim.  Being that I had 4 large checked bags, I had to quickly devise a plan on how I would get my bags from the conveyor belt to the car service waiting outside for me.  As fast as I began to wonder, a man came by with a huge cart.  I walked up to him with my best "Sprechen sie englich" to which he shook his head.  Luckily, pointing and nodding are universal and we got the job done.  I walked out confidently and quickly spotted the sign with my name on it.  My driver was great!  He explained the frozen fog covering everything on our drive was not snow.  He even drove me by my new office on the way to my apartment, helped me carry all my bags in without being asked and wished me well in the new city.

Once I stepped into my apartment, I immediately shuffled to the bed and passed out for a few hours.  When I woke up, I stayed horizontal for a while and contemplated the last few days.  I thought about a moment a couple days back as I sat in Pentagon City Mall and saw a tourist very impressed by the 4 story, shiny monstrosity.  It reminded me of when I was young and going to the Traverse City Mall impressed the hell out of me…the TC mall was and is small, but I knew nothing else so like that tourist a few days ago, I was crazy impressed!  Today, nothing in America’s major cities impresses me.  That’s right, this small town, secluded, rural Northern Michigan girl laughed as she realized how great her perspective is today.  Big, fancy malls don’t impress me anymore, crowded NYC streets no longer make me feel lost, and Austria is on its way to also being conquered by my ability to absorb new experiences that are far beyond what I ever imagined existed.

After my nap, I headed out to explore my new ‘hood.  A huge, automatic security door, spray-painted graffiti on several of the buildings, lots and lots of cars…wait a minute, how the hell did I end up in Detroit??  The answer to that question came quickly as I turned the corner to see none of the buildings had boarded up windows and all the signs were in German.  Ok, the universe wasn’t playing some rude trick on me.  I walked for a bit until I saw a store called Muller which appeared to be Vienna’s version of a Target or CVS.  But it was even better; they had everything a Target would plus higher end, designer products you would usually find at Macy’s.  I quickly purchased three things from my shopping list and was pleased to find out pretty much every product has its ingredients written in English on the back.  Score one for the allergy girl! 

When I got back to my apartment and began to work on putting away some of my mess that was exploding out of my four checked bags and two carry-ons, I started gathering up the books I had to bring with me.  Finally, I realized the genius of the Kindle or Nook readers.  When those electronic readers came out, I was adamantly against getting one because I love the smell and feel of a real book.  My relocation to Austria has changed the score: electronic readers 1, paperbacks 0.