Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! This is the Erntedankfest (Harvest Festival) weekend here in Vienna. I’ll be taking a stroll to the big festival downtown today, but yesterday, I came across a few festivities during my travels, including this concert on Mariahilfstrasse (the big shopping street) on my way to the Opera House for my last few hours with the Hop On Hop Off tour.

 A Vienna Sightseeing guide had told me that the DDSG boating company should honour the combo ticket pricing even if I didn’t buy a ticket in advance (as I didn’t know about that possibility). I tried asking for confirmation, but this day’s guide was put on hold for too long and told me I could take the chance. When I got to the DDSG offices near a gorgeous church on the Danube a half hour into the tour, however, I found out that they wouldn’t. Oh well.  I decided not to buy the full price ticket for a half tour (1.5 hours) because for a few extra dollars, I could get the whole loop (3 hours) on a day when I had more time, so I sat on a bench watching boats go by until I came up with another plan.  By this time, my ticket for the tour bus had expired.

It was already 1pm and I was meeting some teachers and a classmate at 5pm in a part of town I hadn’t been to before.  I had considered walking there about 2-3 hours away in order to see more of the city, but my body protested. I then saw that the underground train had a station on the Danube island (Donauinsel) in front of me with a stop on the same line near my final destination, which seemed much more my speed.  As I crossed the bridge to the island, I remarked to myself that the blue Danube was really more of a milky green, but I soon found out that the Danube itself on the other side of the island is blue, but that the New Danube I had just crossed is of a different colour.  There are actually 4 Danubes in the city – the canal, the overflow canal in case of floods, the New and the Old.

After getting an island map from the ice cream vendor (along with a strawberry & white chocolate Magnum), I sat down and figured out that the island is huge (21km).  I thought of walking around to see as much as I could in the 2 hours I had, but when I spotted the little floating plastic docks every so often alongside the Danube (about 10 square feet with a ladder to get in and out of the water), I decided instead to just sit there with my feet in the water, just like a true Viennese.  I wasn’t dressed for swimming, but when one of the two older men who had joined me on my dock stood up from where he was sunning himself and dove in (he wasn’t a small man by any means), I got a bit of a splash.  I didn’t mind.  I was finally relaxing and just being – enjoying nature, water, and watching the world go by.  Some swimmers would cross the Danube to the stairs/bathing platforms across the way, or simply swim in the middle for a while and come back. I also watched cyclists, in-line skaters, skateboarders, and strollers wander past.  I’ll definitely rent a bike here one day to explore the full 21km.  Today, I just got a taste of it.

I then figured out how to buy an underground ticket and make my way to the train.  These are clean, modern, efficient, and filled with all sorts of people.  Vienna is known as a very safe city – these are not at all like the subways in NYC that I’ve seen in movies or traveled on.  I may just get a monthly pass next month to visit different parks each weekend. We’ll see.  Tomorrow, I’ll get a weekly pass to start extensively exploring public transportation.  Once I arrived at my destination, it was tough trying to figure out which exit to take, so I just got above ground and was thrilled to see a sign to the Belvedere Palace I had been to the day before and which I knew was in the right direction.  I spent some time there in the lower gardens this time, and then cut across the University Botanical Gardens (which I’ll return to for sure) before finding my way to the apartment building where 4 of my teachers and 3 students will be living.  One thing that was different about the apartments here is that the toilet was in the hallway outside the apartment and is sometimes shared by several apartments.  These too didn’t have a sink.

I’m glad I’m getting this opportunity to meet the group a few people at a time – I’m better with small numbers than big crowds.  Laurence, Florence and their son were there and this time I met Kuba, Vera, and fellow classmate Martin.  The art I saw there was amazing.  I was especially taken by a painting Vera has been working on for a year, based on a vision from 3 years ago (if I remember well).  Wow!  Since I never know what I’m going to paint before I start and the whole process is intuitive and rather quick (usually a weekend of 12+ hour/day marathons to a couple of weeks if thick layers need to dry), I have a hard time imagining this for myself.  That’s definitely part of what I’ll be exploring here – the longer and more planned process based on drawing from visions – the visions I get, putting them on canvas has been another matter.  I’m very looking forward to seeing where it all leads. I noticed that my words and thoughts about what I’ll be producing here lacked in confidence.  I’d best redirect that – I’ve got some paraliminal CDs that can help. I’m glad I caught onto it early on.  Time for some openness, gentleness, and a sense of courageous adventure and acceptance of the results.

We had a lovely evening with homemade pizza and discussion on what needs to be done before the big public opening next weekend.  I’ll be volunteering a few days at the school this week and delivering posters around town (hard to imagine as I don’t know the city yet, but that’ll be a good way to do so).

OK – now off to see if I can figure out the laundry system.  I’m taking a break today – not so much running around.  I’ll go feed myself at the Erntedankefest later on (as shops are closed and I never did stock up on groceries for anything but breakfast) and that will be all the walking I’ll do today.