Observations in Ö

Well I guess it's about that time again...

The view from the Pfaffstätten vineyards of Baden (and the shadowy peak of Schneeberg way in the distance) 

Since the weather got nice here I've been busy going on hikes, hanging out in parks, meeting up with friends, going to Heurige, you know, the usual.

The view from the Ruine Rauhenstein of Baden and the valley.

It's my last month here, and it's going to be pretty full!  Tonight Erin and I are finally going to go check out the Römertherma (thermal baths and saunas), tomorrow we're going to Bratislava, on the weekend we might go up to Schneeberg (the highest mountain in Niederösterreich), next week we have a long weekend so we're planning on going to Budapest, the weekend after (also long) I'm going to Switzerland to visit a friend... so you get the picture!  There are a ton of days off in May (I have two days of work this week, and two next week) so it's gonna be a good time.

One of the many flowering trees in the Rosarium/Dobelhoffpark 

A while back I said that I was going to write a post on my observations on some of the oddities of Austrian's and Austrian culture, so here it is:

1. There are two things that are important for Americans when it comes to Austria- it's NOT Australia (or Germany for that matter, and anyone who asks me "How was Germany?" can expect an exasperated answer), and next to no one here has heard of or seen The Sound of Music. 
2. Don't expect people in shops or grocery stores to be super friendly and chatty like they are in the states- this is especially true in larger cities, and not so much here in Baden.  
3. EVERYTHING IS CLOSED ON SUNDAYS.  Erin and I call this Sunday-pocalypse because the world could have ended and you wouldn't know since it's Sunday.  The only people who are out are all the Nordic walkers in their specialized Nording Walking outfits (they have expensive, special, matching outfits for any possible activity).
4. Everyone here dresses in more layers than seems necessary.  A friend of mine says that Austrians like to stew in their own juices, which is kind of gross, but in some cases it's noticeably true.  They have a saying that there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing, so I guess that explains that.
5. Austrians love their paperwork! You couldn't cut through the bureaucracy here with a NASA space laser, instead you have to slog endlessly through the different offices in different buildings with incomprehensible opening hours.  None of the government offices are open past 12, except one day of the week when they have afternoon hours, but each office has a different afternoon that they're open.  Plus you have to figure this all out in the first week you arrive, which is also your first week of classes or work, good times!  At least here in Baden the ladies in the offices I've had to deal with have all been pretty nice, Graz was a different story.
6. Punctuality isn't really all that important here, at least not at school/university.  When I was in Graz my exchange student friends and I would usually show up for class 5 minutes early or so, the Austrian students would trickle in slowly, usually about 5 minutes late, and then 10-15 minutes later the professor would show up.  In school here when the second bell rings it's another 5 minutes before the teachers leave the teachers room and slowly make their way to class.
7. It's not rude to stare at people here.  This happens most often on/while waiting for public transportation, but really it can happen anywhere people might be standing/sitting around or waiting for something.  It's not that I don't think that we Americans stare at people, but usually if we get caught staring at someone we look away, and here people just keep right on staring!
8. Austrian's favorite hobbies include smoking, and complaining.  One of my colleagues told me that Austria has the majority of Europe's smokers, and I believe it.  It'll be another 50 years before this country goes smoke-free if it ever does! All the bars and restaurants are supposed to have smoke free areas, but most places don't have real walls and doors that separate the two so it's everywhere you go.  I know a lot of people complain, not just Austrians, but I hear the same complaints from all my colleagues, and usually one after the other, so I notice the complaining more here than I ever have before.  For example, since it got rather warm in a short amount of time I heard some version this (in German or English) at least 10 times last week Friday, "It's nice to finally have some nice weather since winter was so long, but it just got too warm too quickly, it's practically summer now and I just don't like it."
9. There are a lot of old wives tales that people here believe in pretty strongly.  It seems that no one here gets sick from germs, instead it's because you didn't wear socks/stockings/nylons/tights, or you walked around barefoot at home, or you went outside with damp hair, or you had the window open for too long, or you didn't open the window for long enough... The list goes on...

All that being said I've really liked living here, and I'm going to enjoy my last month and take advantage of all Baden and the surrounding countryside has to offer before I fly home.  I'm sure I'll miss all of this when I'm gone.

The rest of Easter Break

So here's an update on how the rest of my wintery Easter Break went:

The egg shaped brownies were OK, they didn't end up tasting like vinegar, but since they were box brownies they also didn't really taste like brownies.

A half pealed brownie egg.

On Wednesday last week I went to Schloss Schönbrunn- a castle on the south side of the city. When it was built it wasn't in the city at all, it was a hunting lodge (If I had a hunting lodge like Schönbrunn I would actually consider hunting...).  They had an Easter Market on there, much like the typical Christmas Market, except everything was egg shaped.  Another big difference was that the Easter market was actually snow covered! I've never been at a snow covered Christmas Market because the last two winters started late (and this one just won't end!).

Snow covered Easter Market decorations outside Schönbrunn

I had never been inside Schönbrunn, I've been all over the grounds numerous times, but this was my first time going inside the castle.  It was really beautiful! There's some great architecture and artwork, plus you can see/hear a lot about the daily life of the Habsburgs.  Unfortunately you can't take pictures inside the castle, and two of the most famous/expensive rooms were being restored.  I would really recommend the Schönbrunn Imperial tour to anyone, whether visiting or living in/near Vienna.  That holds especially true for anyone who's interested in Maria Theresa, Kaiser Franz Josef I and his wife Elizabeth.

On the audio guide they talked about quite a few members of the Imperial family besides the big three, but Maria Theresa is the most interesting to me.  She had 16 children with a husband whom she loved very much, and she ran the Austrian Empire like a tight ship.  Of course Franz Josef and Elizabeth (Sisi) are the most romanticized of the Habsburgs, and they were the last significant ruling couple.  Maximilian gets a few mentions- he was Franz Josef's brother, and he was Emperor of Mexico for a few years before he was executed.  Bet most of you didn't know that Mexico had an Austrian Emperor!  Kaiser Karl I and his wife Zita also get a few mentions, as he was the last Kaiser and he refused to give up his title after WWI so they had to go into exile. He was only the Kaiser for 2 years though, so he didn't leave much of a mark on the palace like M.T. and her children.  Anyway, the Habsburgs were a pretty interesting lot, and they had some great houses!

The next day after coffee with a friend I went wandering about Vienna snapping pictures in the melting snow.  Anytime I wander around Vienna I always end up at the Naschmarkt for scarves, chocolate and a good variety of food!  I couldn't decide what I wanted to eat, because I always get falafel, but I also wanted a spinach and cheese Börek.  I decided I'd get both- one to eat while I walked, and the other to bring home and have for dinner (and then some meals of leftovers).

My Falafel, humus and cheese filled sweet/spicy peppers from the Naschmarkt- I got quite a few tasty meals out of them! 

For Easter weekend I stuck around Baden.  When the snow melted I went walking through the grey vineyards and I had a nice relaxing weekend.  I did some more Easter crafts- dyed/decorated hard boiled eggs, and then I made deviled eggs (which are called Russische Eier- russian eggs in German). It snowed/rained off and on all weekend, but it never really stuck or lasted long.

Walking through the Vineyards while it was snowing

 On Tuesday I went to see the Spanish Riding School Morning Exercise, which turned out to not really be worth it...  It was two hours long, and apparently they weren't practicing the 'School Above the Ground' which are the horses that do the jumps and things.  They didn't even really do many of the on-the-ground tricks that they show you on TV screens in the lobby.  It was just two hours sitting in a cold stone room watching people ride around on horses.  Occasionally they would do one of their special walks/steps.  However, the tour was worth while! We learned about the different kinds of training they do, the horses lives, we got to go into the stables and into the Winter Riding School (the room where they do their exercising and performances pictured below).

Since the fall of the Austrian Empire the horses no longer come from Lipica, Slovenia, which is how they got the name of Lipizzaners, but from Piber in Steiermark, Austria.  They're born rather dark in color from dark grey to red/brown, and as they age they get lighter in color, although some of them actually never do turn white.  It's been said that the Spanish Riding School will fall if they don't have a horse who never changed color (and they've always had at least 1 dark grey or brown horse).  They begin training at 3 or 4 years old, and they start performing at the age of 10.  Most of them perform until they're 21 or so, and then they go into retirement either back at Piber or at the training farm north of Vienna.  Every year the horses go on vacation to the training farm so they get to spend some time riding/running/living outside.  The stables in Vienna don't have many windows/ways of getting fresh air and natural light, so they now use special lights that simulate sunlight to help keep the horses happy and healthy.  They also have a bunch of horses who are allergic to dust, so there are now special stalls built in the stable courtyard for those horses and they have all sorts of special things in their stalls to keep down the dust.

Each rider at the school has between 5 and 8 horses (each horse only has 1 rider), and if I remember rightly they train for 6-8 years before they begin performing.  They only opened the school to women in 2008, so right now there are 3 women there training, none of them perform yet.

I stole this picture from Google, since we couldn't take pictures during the morning exercise. 

Between the exercise and the tour I had 3 hours to kill, so I went to the Sisi museum in the Hofburg.  Really it's like 3 museums in 1: The Sisi Museum, the Imperial Silver Collection, and The Imperial Apartments.  It wasn't nearly as good as Schönbrunn.  The silver collection was interesting to look at as I walked through, but the audio guide was really long, and I couldn't take standing looking at the same room of dishes for as long as my ear was being talked off.  The Sisi part was a bit too dramatic, plus they had covered up most of the walls and the original architecture of the palace with this dark blue wall cover, and it was pretty dimly lit, so there was a pretty oppressive air to the place.  By the time I got to the Imperial Apartments I'd had enough of hearing about how depressed Sisi was, and how her depression effected Franz Josef and their children.  I mean the poor guy was head over heals in love with her from the moment they met until he died (20 years after her), and she could hardly stand to be in Vienna!  And he worked like crazy for the empire, so he was almost always in Vienna.  Their first daughter died at the age of 2, their only son killed his lover and then himself, they had two other daughters who outlived them, but not by much.  All in all, a rather tragic Imperial family who's story has been rather romanticized by literature, theater and film.  (That being said I do love the Romi Schneider Sissi films, they're so sweet).

On Wednesday when I woke up to go back to school there was an inch or two of slushy snow on the ground again! It snowed off and on all day, and it seemed like no one was out clearing the streets or the sidewalks at all.  I'm so over this snow/winter thing, it's time for spring!

Besides the snow, and the 3 day school week it's been a pretty normal week.  Last night I went to a very small theater in Vienna with one of my colleagues from the HAK.  We saw a two person play that was a bit of a thriller (a man kidnaps a woman and locks her in his basement out in the country- what could possibly go wrong?).  The actors were really good, the guy did an especially good job conveying his insanity/outsider/loner tendencies through the way he talked, his facial expressions and his body language.  It's called 'The Collector' apparently it's based on a book that's worth reading (according to another English teacher that was there).