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I liked this place as soon as I got here, and Vienna has continued to grow on me. Everything is very streamlined, orderly, and beautiful, in no small part due to the fact that the Austrians are very OCD about proper disposal of waste (like, next level OCD about it: you will get fussed at by elderly people if you’re seen putting an item in the wrong bin… I may or may not have experienced this personally). Anyway, this past week, I did a fair amount of sightseeing, aerial silks, work, and one very long hike through the wine country just north of the city. I started my Saturday with a kung fu class at the Shaolin temple, which was fun but exhausting. That evening, two friends here took me to one of Vienna’s famous cafes, after which we stopped for drinks and nighttime views of the city from the PWC tower’s 57th floor bar, followed by walking along the Danube while sipping local wine. The following morning, the same couple invited me out for what was supposed to be a one hour hike with some of their friends and coworkers, but it quickly grew to about five hours, including a stop for schnitzel and hot tea. It was a bright and sunny day with just a few clouds in the sky and some relatively fierce winds, but fortunately I was warm enough with my layers and doing 8 miles of walking will keep you fairly thawed. The colors here in the fall are almost as pretty as those in Asheville, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything that can quite top the Blue Ridge Mountains during this time of year. First on the docket on Monday was breakfast at the iconic Viennese cafe, Cafe Central, which is in a beautiful Italian-style palace called the Palais Ferstel, a popular event venue and boutique shopping center. Not to draw another Asheville comparison, but it reminds me strongly of the Grove Arcade (albeit ornamented more in the baroque style than in art nouveau). I ordered something called a “torn pancake,” which was like a fluffy funnel cake with berries baked in, all ripped up, completely snowed in powdered sugar, and served with a side of plum sauce. It was decadent and huge and I could only eat about a third of it. Next up was Imperial Treasury museum, which has crowns and jewels and historical items so lavish that it puts the collection at the Tower of London to shame. Most impressive in that display was the incredible crown of one of the Holy Roman emperors, dated from about 400 years ago. There were also magnificent tapestries, regal garments, an agate bowl big enough for a small child to bathe in, a narwhal horn (fondly called a unicorn horn), and a plethora of reliquaries containing invaluable Christian artifacts (supposedly). On Tuesday, I had a much-needed chill day, with the exception of an open studio session at Aerial Silk Vienna. I’m honing a few sequences I’ve learned during my time here on this side of the pond that I’d like to work into a solo piece (if there’s ever another silks showcase in Austin like in pre-pandemic times… I’m not holding my breath). After silks, I killed some time by going to the crypts underneath Saint Stephen’s cathedral, which were interesting but not nearly as macabre as I was hoping they’d be. I managed to sneak a few photos, though. Then I had dinner with another pair of mutual friends introduced to me by some family friends in Miami, the wife of whom is an Austrian native. On Wednesday, I met up with an Aerial Cruise friend at Schönbrunn palace and walked the grounds, which were beautiful. We went to a light lunch at the cafe in what looks like a grecian temple on the top of the hill there, called the Gloriette. Sisi, the renegade empress whose palace Schönbrunn had once been, had all kinds of fountains and structures put up that were reminiscent of antiquity, but they were fraught with idiosyncratic anachronisms. For example, the hieroglyphs on her own personal obelisk are entirely made up and not actually of Egyptian origin. After the palace, I went to another open studio session at ASV. On Thursday, I treated myself to lunch and went and did a little shopping around the first district, visiting the iconic Steffl’s department store and trying hard not to get a preview of the Christmas market wares since I had plans to explore those with my friends this weekend. I spent Friday morning working so I could have some of the afternoon free to go to the Leopold Museum to see some 20th century Viennese art (including a few Klimt paintings! But not The Kiss, that’s at the Belvedere) and do a little vintage shopping with a girlfriend here. I found a cute blouse with a collar detail that I liked, and she picked up a vintage Saint Laurent suit— Austria has good vintage! Around dinner time I sat back down to work for the evening and managed to get a lot done. That’s all for this week!
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