A Cardboard Box City

I’ve been going to the same Imbiss stand for lunch the past few weeks after class and trying a new sausage each time. It’s cheap, and it’s letting me try out a lot of different foods. It’s also next to the Opera House, and buses of tourists will file off and eat there too, making it crowded. The benefit of me going to the same one every day despite the frequent crowds is that I am establishing myself as Not a Tourist. The workers recognize me now and remember that I don’t like mustard, only ketchup. They remember that I take the receipt. It makes my life much much easier, and the fact that I’m a recognized regular is really nice.

One bad elevator

This week, I went on a tour of the Rathaus (City Hall) with IKI. It was a beautiful building, but was also home to the scariest elevator system I’ve seen yet. There were no doors, and it never stopped; instead, you had to hop on and off as it was moving. I went ahead and tried it, but it’s definitely not something I’d want to use on any normal basis. (Here’s a short video of The Worst Elevator)

A hike to a castle

Wednesday was a national holiday, so we didn’t have classes. In the morning, the BCA group all took a trip together out to hike in the Lainzer Tiergarten. We hiked for about two hours, to the center of the park, where Hermesvilla was. Hermesvilla was a summer palace owned by Empress Elisabeth “Sisi,” who called it her “Castle of Dreams.” My family may remember the name Sisi from the three part movie we watched.

Three museums in three hours

Thursday afternoon, I went on an IKI trip to Museumsquartier, where we visited three art museums in the span of three hours (a note: our time at each museum was not evenly dispersed). Luckily enough for me, the three museums we visited had free entry for anyone 19 years old or younger. Just another (unexpected) benefit to studying abroad this year.

The first museum we went through was the Leopold Museum, where we saw works by Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, among others. My favorite exhibit here was definitely Gustav Klimt, although they didn’t have The Kiss at this museum. We spent almost two hours at the Leopold Museum, partially because of it’s size.

We then went to Kunsthalle Wien, which was probably my favorite of the three museums, because of how interactive it was. The first thing we saw was a giant board that people could contribute and write on (which we did). As we went into the next room, there were tables with markers, oil pastels, scissors and glue, and papers and magazines you could use to create the city of the future, taping or pinning it to the walls.

And then, on the back wall of the room, there were two tunnels. We crawled through the tunnels (my friends Orsi and PJ through the one that had an upwards tilt to it, myself through the one that went straight), and found ourselves in a huge cardboard box city. We ended up spending nearly 45 minutes there, exploring the different cardboard structures, with various kids’ drawings and writings along the boxes. There was one hallway with neon pastels and tape, with blacklights making everything glow.

Then we went to the third and final museum, Mumok. We spent some time in their gift shop (where I bought some super cool postcards to send back home — something for my family to look forward to), and by the time we actually headed into Mumok, we had about 10 minutes left before the museum closed. We rushed through the different floors, ignoring the exhibits that were just videos, and were able to make it through all the different floors before it closed. You can debate how well we were able to fully appreciate the art in the last museum, but we were able to see it all.

(Even more) views of Vienna

IKI had another hiking trip on Friday to another place where we could get a beautiful view of Vienna. It was interesting to see the city from yet another perspective, and I had some good conversations with people who went. At one point, I mentioned to a Swedish man that I listen to a lot of Swedish music, and it resulted in a longer conversation about how I, a random girl from the US, ended up listening to a lot of foreign music. I also got a song recommendation from him — it’s been stuck in my head for the past few days now. After the hike down, we had a late dinner at this small Austrian restaurant. It wasn’t busy, and so the owners talked to our group a lot, and mentioned an “Africa Days” event in the city. I might go there with some friends later in the month, I’m not sure yet.

Monet and Charlie Chaplin

To end the week, Saturday morning I visited the Albertina art museum. The resident director had recommended it to us, and all of the advertisements for the museum mentioned “From Monet to Picasso.” I love Monet and the Impressionist art movement, so I was definitely excited to go to this museum. I wish they had more Monet paintings in the main exhibit, but it was still a good exhibit.

In addition to the works by Monet and Picasso, there was a cool photography exhibit by Alfred Seiland, where he would take photos of celebrities hidden behind newspapers. There was also an exhibit of Florentina Pakosta’s art, which was very cool to look at.

Saturday night, I went with some friends and an IKI group to a free movie and music event. It was held an outdoor theater area, and three Charlie Chaplin films (His New Job, Work, and The Bank) were played while a music group played electronic music to accompany the films. It was a fun event, but the music was very strange to begin with and paired with an old film made it even stranger.

All in all, it was a pretty good week!