Rainy Sunday

It's raining right now... It's neat to see the dark thunder clouds over the hills and forest. BUT I wanted to go for a walk in the woods today, so I hope it stops soon! Apparently the northwestern edge of Vienna is known for these rustic little wine gardens named Heuringer (or something). You take a street car to the end of the line, and then get on a bus that takes you into the vineyards. The Viennese are very proud of their local wine and drink more of that than beer. They mostly produce white wines. I tasted a red yesterday at dinner, and it was really tangy. There are a few of the wine garden cafes on the street I'm staying on, but I wanted to go farther out to see the real countryside.

Yesterday, I met up with some of the other interns/marines and wandered around central Vienna. It is a beautiful city! Vienna is set up like a bulls eye - the center is surrounded by the Ringstrasse and then the next ring out is called the girdle. Most of the tourist attractions are in the bulls eye. So, we just went there to look around and eat dinner.

The buildings are so tall and stately. They are mostly neoclassical with columns and statues embedded into the walls. The streets are fairly wide. It's funny because parts of the city look like Rome in the classical style, parts look like northern Italy with colored tile, parts look like Bavaria with the green dome rooftops, and parts look like Paris, with the wrought iron facades and steep roof line with dormer windows. I guess Vienna gets to be the mix in the middle.

The city is famous for producing Art Nouveau (known here as Jugendstil). That was the popular movement when Vienna was at its peak before WW1. Gustav Klimt worked in Vienna and sort of epitomized this era of beauty. Vienna then was the cultural capital of Europe. It's where the artists and musicians and writers wanted to work.

Culture is still very important to these people... I was looking at the calendar of events for June yesterday, and there is an opera every night of the week! This is a fairly small city (~2 million), and they have about 40 shows running in the theaters. Most of them are in German, so they aren't just for tourists.

While we were out, we passed 2 different festivals with live music and tents set up downtown. Soooo, my first evening out in Austria and where should we eat? Weinerschniztel und apfelstreudel? No. Not this team. We went to Ribs of Vienna (not my idea, but it was delicious!) I got amazing hunks of grilled meat on a shishkebab resting on roasted potatoes on a wooden cutting board. The others got ribs. They bring you ONE METER of ribs for only 13 euros. Bargain. On the streets, vendors sell 1 meter sausages. The only food product we have at home sold like this is Fruit by the Foot. Come on, America!