Freitag, 2. Dezember
Wien
Today was our first class meeting with Dr. Rotenberg. Instead of Dr. Souchuk's method of taking us on a tour of places, he decided to let us find them on our own. We were put into partners (one German speaker and one non-German speaker in each group) and then given a market, a shopping list, and a cafe. The shopping list was for a dinner for a family of four.
The menu for the dinner included:
Huhnersuppe [chicken soup]
Faschierten Laberl [like burger patties]
Salzkartoffeln [salted boiled potatoes]
Fisolen (or some other green vegetable) [green beans]
Blattsalat [leafy salad]
A Seasonal Fruit
And thus the shopping list was:
A whole chicken
1 Würzelwerk (1 Carrot, 1 Yellow Parsnip, 1 Slice Celerac (celery root), 1 Leek, Several Parsley Leaves) [soup aromatics basically....many market stalls sell them all in one rubber-banded package]
1/2 kg Zweibel [onions]
1/2 kg Faschiertes [ground meats, usually combined]
1 pkg Brösl [bread crumbs]
1/2 kg Kartoffeln (speckig: red or green label) [potatoes. The colors of the label pertain to what you are using the potato for. The blue ones are for grilling I think, and between red and green, one is for soup and one is for boiling, if I am not mistaken.]
1/2 kg Fisolen (or some other green vegetable) [green beans]
1 kg seasonal fruit (your choice)
Head of lettuce
My and Bria´s market was Vorgartenmarkt, which is in Stuwerviertel [viertel is a quarter or district of the city], an ethnically diverse, kind of sketchy seeming part of the city. It was definitely working class, and our internet research before leaving said it was the red light district, though that was not apparent at 10:30 in the morning. Our task was to go to each of our respective markets, shop around, and whoever came back with the cheapest price for the meal would win a Mozartkugel. Our market was small, so we pretty much only had one choice for most things. There were 2 or 3 vegetable stands, but only one baker and one butcher (plus a deli and a sausage maker, but they did not have whole chickens). Despite this, we ended up on the cheaper side of the range, though unfortunately did not win the chocolate. In a range from about €7,50 to €21,50, we fell at about €12,35 or so. So not too bad. I´m just amazed that you can feed a family of four for that cheap.
The market itself was pretty small, and had a big area with construction in the middle, which made it hard to navigate. The vendors seemed to know each other, as well as the few shoppers that were out on this chilly, slightly snowy Friday morning. Most of the shoppers we saw were older people. Many of the vendors were not Austrian; perhaps they were Turkish. The snow mostly did not stick, though there was a fine dusting on some of the vegetables. The people at the market seemed less germ-nervous; when we were asking the butcher how much the chicken weighed, he just grabbed it with his bare hands and threw it on the scale. It´s pretty interesting, and I think its awesome that they have these open-air markets all year round, every day, not just Sunday mornings in the summer like in the US.
After the market, Bria and I went to our assigned Cafe (one of about 7 we have to go to over the course of the trip), Adolf Loos´s Cafe Museum. It was a lot less drab than it appeared in the pictures, and was actually pretty comfy. It was a literary cafe; there were advertisements for two guys reading there books on separate evenings. We hung out there for a while, and I got a Weißer Schokotraum [white chocolate dream], which was white drinking chocolate on top of dark chocolate sauce, with some whipped cream on top. It was very white-chocolatey, and very sweet, but it was alright. We sat there for a while, wrote up our market assignment, and wrote up our cafe assignment.
We then went to the Rathaus Christkindlmarkt that we had passed by the previous day. This market was HUGE. Lots of shops selling lots of things; some of them were selling retail toys and things, it was interesting. Bria and I got Beerenpunsch, which had actual berries floating in the punch. It was pretty tasty, and it came in an awesome mug. The Rathaus Christmas market has a little train that drives around the market for €2, a little kids park, an ice skating rink, and a bunch of other stuff, in addition to the market. It was pretty awesome. Across the street, there was another, much smaller market: the Milka Weihnachtswelt [Christmas world]. There were about 5 purple stands in this little fenced in market, 2 of which were little log cabins. There was a lady dipping cookies into Milka fondue (for free), and a wheel you could spin to win things (I won a chocolate Krampus [Krampus travels with St. Nick and punishes the bad kids....he actually looks pretty scary, even in chocolate form], which was delicious).
On the way back to the hotel, I finally got the Döner I´ve been waiting for since my arrival in Europe. It was delicious, and sooo much cheaper than all the cafe food we´ve been eating lately.
Later that evening, we met up to try and go to the Spittelberg Christmas market again, leaving earlier this time. We got there and it was pretty cool. Lots of stuff I wasn´t really expecting though...half the time I felt like I was in an American hippie store. There was a really neat chocolate booth there though, and some cool crafty shops. A lot of it was a bit on the expensive side, but that´s to be expected from a neighborhood that was described as "the closest thing Vienna has to Wicker Park." After the market, I went back to the hotel to try and get some reading done and get some sleep.
Samstag, 3. Dezember
Wien
Today was with Dr. Souchuk again, and this time we walked around looking at a bunch of modern architecture, and a bit of modern art and art history. We started out looking at Otto Wagner´s work, such as his Postsparkasse, Karlsplatz station, and apartment buildings (pictures of all of these will be up later). We then went to the Secession building, which was built by the Secessionists (Gustav Klimt was one of the founders) for a place to house their art. In the basement is Klimt´s Beethoven Frieze, which was really cool [couldn´t take pictures unfortunately]. There was also a bit about the building and the people, and a tiny model of the building in the basement. The rest of the museum had current exhibitions of modern art, which were....interesting. Some were cooler than others, but most of them were not really my cup of tea. We then went to the Cafe Museum (yet again, but as an entire group this time), and had lunch and discussed the trip and our reading so far.
After lunch, Bria, Michelle, Alyssa, and I did a bit of shopping (I got some paprika shoestring chips and Nordbeer-Hopfen [northern berries-hops] juice/flavored water; the former was delicious, the latter interesting and tasty). I tried to look for some nice boots, but they were all ridiclously expensive, and I couldn´t bring myself to spend that much money on a pair of shoes.
After a short rest at the hotel, Bria, Michelle, and I went to the Karlsplatz Christkindlmarkt. It´s probably my favorite Christmas market so far. It had really nice things to buy, most of them made by craftsmen. It also had pony rides and hay to play in for the kids in the middle of the market. Unfortunately, after we finished eating our delicious meal (Hauswürstl mit Brot und Senf, und Weißglühwein [house sausage infused with cheese with bread and mustard, and white Glühwein, which I was really excited to try, and which was delicious]), the market stalls were starting to close down, so although we got to see a few, we didn´t get to see them all. Thus, we will be returning there on Monday or Tuesday night hopefully. After the market, we went back to the hotel to pick up Alyssa, and we were going to go to Loos´s American Bar, but it was super crowded, so we went to Sparky´s instead, where we drank some Cider and chatted for a good couple of hours; it was quite enjoyable.
Sonntag, 4. Dezember
Wien
This morning began with "A Mass for Five Voices" at the Augustiner Kirche. It was an Elizabethan choir singing all the hymns of the mass, which sounded really beautiful. The cathedral was also really beautiful, and the mass was pretty cool; I was proud of myself for understanding most of what was said--the Gospel was John the Baptist telling everyone that soon there will be someone stronger than him that will baptize with the Holy Spirit instead of water.
After mass, Bria and I went to our next cafe, Cafe Schwarzenberg. On the way, we decided to get lunch cheaper than we would at the cafe by getting street food. We each got a hot dog, which is more a method of eating sausage than a type of sausage. When you order a hot dog, they ask what kind of sausage you want inside. To make the Viennese hot dog, they take a baguette, cut off a slice, and stab the baguette onto a spike, hollowing out the inside. They then squirt some ketchup and mustard at the opening and stick the sausage into the bread. Bria and I got Bratwurst hot dogs, which were quite delicious. There were quite a lot of interesting street performers out today, so we kind of ambled our way down the street to our cafe.
When we finally made it to the cafe, it was super crowded. We eventually found a table and ordered. Bria got an Eiskaffee, which is vanilla ice cream and cold black coffee, with some whipped cream on top. It looked pretty good. I got Kaminfeuer Tee, a seasonal red tea with a bunch of different fruits in it. It was tasty, though I let it brew for too long (I got a teapot with loose leaf tea in an infuser). The odd part about this cafe was that the waiter gave us the check after only about 10 minutes. He said something really quickly in German, which we guessed must´ve meant that his shift was ending soon or something, since this is something that just doesn´t happen in Vienna. We sat there for a couple hours, and I wrote a bit in this blog (the earlier entry from today) and then read some the book we have to read for Dr. Souchuk´s class, A Nervous Splendor, which is about turn-of-the-century Vienna and all of the people that lived then and there and changed the world. Around 5, they started playing live music--piano and violin. They played a lot of showtunes, like "Life is a Cabaret" and "If I was a Rich Man," but the music made it harder to concentrate on the reading, so we decided to leave.
On the way home, we stopped at a Döner stand, and I got a Döner sandwich mit Pommes (french fries). I assumed the fries would be a side dish, but apparently not. He put the fries into the sandwich. It was not what I expected, but it was delicious nonetheless. The rest of the evening was spent in the hotel writing this lovely entry, and perhaps I will read some more later tonight before going to bed. Tomorrow we are going to Melk and Krems, and we have to meet up at 8:45 am, so I probably will go to sleep on the earlier side.
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