Beginning of Week II

The last few days have reminded me that 'busy' can exist without 'hectic'.

On Wednesday I did more touristy things, and surpise, surprise, it was another rainy day. I walked back into the First District and stopped at the St. Peter's Church, a baroque number that is as beautiful as many as I've seen around Europe. Lots of gold and marble. Then I wandered off into the shopping area where I bought postcards. I haven't addressed them or written them or anything, but be on the lookout: part of my plan for today is to work on that.

Then it was off to the Naschmarkt, which as the name suggests, is all about food. It is a 1.5 km stretch between the Linke and Rechteweinzeilen with vendors selling food of all kinds. Fresh vegetables and fruits, some of them really exotic, share center stage with the cut flowers. There are stores with health food products and several chinese groceries. Prevalent are the Turkish stands selling cherry tomatoes and peppers stuffed with feta cheese, olives, kebabs and other meat-on-a-stick type products. To get your attention, they yell, 'MY LADY' in as many languages as you can before you pass their stall.

There were stalls with alcoholic wares and sweets that I was tempted to try out, but it was so crowded despite the rain that the idea of opening my wallet seemed like a bad one.

I finally ended up in a cafe house for lunch, where I decadently ordered a Topefenstrudel (sweet cheese strudel) and a melange. And yes, that was my lunch. I mean, why should I suck down a big salad or something, when really all I want is a strudel?

Then I walked on over to the Museums Quarter and into the Leopold Museum for more art. On permanent display is the largest collection of works by Austrian artist Egon Schiele, an expressionist and cubist, plus other Austrians of the same period; Richard Gerstil, Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka. The few Klimt items on display were not the huge Jugendstil informed paintings expected of him, with highly detailed, gilded dresses. He did some surprisingly realistic work, including portraits and landscapes.

The main exhibition hall featured work by Albin Egger-Lienz. The display takes up nearly an entire floor, and was for the most part so gruesome, I sort of ran through it. He did some very realistic work as a field painter during WWI, apparently on-site, of battles and fallen soldiers. Some of the portraits were clearly meant to show how war as anti-humanistic and and anti-heroic, but I couldn't deal with it.

Then I walked my way back home and cooked dinner for my host and his friend. Several bottles of Burgenländishe Sauvignon Blanc were ingested, life was good, if not somewhat fuzzy.

Thursday was a holiday here, and I used the time to hop a train and visit friends from grad school in Salzburg, Paul and Doris. They have two beautiful little ones and a new house in the middle of nowhere in a part of upper-Austria known as the Mühlviertel. We did some walking around in his little town, I saw where he worked, where he lived, and his local hangout. Then we toured around Linz, ventured up to the closed castle, tried to climb the Pestsäule and sampled some local beer. (Wieselburger).

The next day found us up early, courtesy of his two children. We drank some green tea and dashed off to the playground to play soccer. The boy, Niklas, is 4, and already has a pretty good idea of how the game is played. The little girl, Anna, 2, pretty much just wanted to dance around and sing, which she did. She was on my team, and an excellent morale builder.

After a wonderful lunch of ratatouille and a nice, long chat with Doris, I caught the train back to Vienna, where I was greeted by Romeo and his bicycle.

Whew! I could go on and on, and I will for sure, but not now. It is 9 am GMT+1, and it is time for me to get dressed and find a place to write out those postcards!

For those of you playing along, ordering a shit scratcher in Switzerland will get you some chicken.