vignettes of vienna

It snowed today.  Dumped it all over the place.  At one point in the day the flakes were the size of thumbnails, light as feathers, and then I turned my head to feel small dip n' dots upon my hands and eyelashes.  Being from Tennessee, snow never quite gets less magical.  The majority of our group is still traveling outside of Vienna seeing as it's Saturday, but there were 8 of us today that kept running outside to stick our face toward the sky and decided to use our giddy energy on something more athletic, or in my case, more humorous:  ice skating.  

Bintu in action

Last weekend they opened the outdoor rink near Staatpark, and we thought that today's setting gave us few excuses not to participate.  I think I've ice-skated twice in my life, and neither one of those times was anytime recent.  So let's just say that the 3-year-old was definitely out-skating me.  It was like learning how to ski all over again:  100% muscle tension, crouching back/beant knee syndrome, the distant fear that that same 3-year-old punk would take me out and I'd break the other half of my body.  Ah, but I didn't fall once.  Considering the fact that I was too scared to try to be half-way decent, I don't think the balancing act was anything to be proud.  But the fact that we laughed, sang, and looked a fool altogether was more than worthy of a hint of pride.

Lately, I have realized how many things I've done in Vienna this go around that I never got around to or had inkling to pursue in the past.  It has given me great pleasure and a sense of satisfaction to love a place with more energy, effort, and surprise.  Six weeks ago, Denton, Matt and I sat together in a train compartment on our group's trip back from Italy.  We were accompanied by a Viennese couple who had been to Venice for a weekend.  It wasn't long until Martin, the husband, definitely the more gregarious of the two, stole my heart.  He told of his adventure to America in the early '70s during which he traveled cross-country by Greyhound bus: from New York to California, California to Macon, Georgia (because there was no way he was going to America and not stopping through Allman Brothers Band territory).  Turns out he's a pediatrician who ran in the Boston Marathon and has been in a cover band (mostly 70s music) for some years now.  He casually mentioned their next performance:  November 21st at The Little Stage.  We enthusiastically replied that we would love to try to make it.  Well, we made it:  that is, me, Denton, and Bintu (Matt meandered off to Amsterdam).  As we turned the corner from Pilgramsgasse U-bahn stop on the green line to see the sign for Little Stage we jumped at the realization that this was also an Irish pub.  Oh goodness--Irish pub in Vienner.  

There were most likely a hundred or so folks gathered (please take note, however, that I am the world's worst at projecting numbers in masses...it could have been 50 or 300, anyone's guess, really) together to hear cute marathon-running Martin's cover band in a rather small venue...they weren't kidding with the Little adjective.  Part of the overall exhilaration was actually listening to live music, and the other was when Martin's daughter in her early 20s climbed up onstage, grabbed the microphone, and belted out the most soulful alto.  We danced and laughed and, of course, sang along.  And when Tina Turner's "Proud Mary (Rolling on the River)" came to "Cleaned a lot plates in Memphis," you best believe I screamed my own alto Memphian voice to add to the hub-bub.  It just made the evening better when we gradually made our way to the front and Martin's sweet, quiet wife caught our attention, greeted us a hello, and turned to all her friends with our history.  During intermission Martin proved to be ecstatic over our presence and even gave his 'Nashville' and 'Memphis' friends a shout-out three more songs into their set.  We were the subjects of many a stare, and my first live show in Vienna ended up being a classic.

Along with my mother's and Kenna's visitations the past month, my middle sister, Rachel, also came over for a week.  In addition, Sarah, friend I visited in Cheb, Czech Republic, the first weekend came down for her birthday weekend to reunite with Rachel and explore the glory of Vienna.  It just so happened that Rathaus Christkindelmarkt opened that very weekend.  We drank mug-full shots of rum (rather, we sipped 1/10 of the mug-full and threw the rest out), bathed in the unusual november sun and warmth, and enjoyed time together, yet again, in a foreign city. 

 

Sarah, Rachel and me at the Christmas Market drinking that juice

Rachel and me at Schonbrun Palace

Somewhere in between these visits, I got together with Balazs and Georg, friends of friends that I sat next to at Mandy and Eric's wedding reception 2 years ago.  Being great local hosts, they invited (and I subsequently invited 3 of my students:  Allison, Matt, and Chris) for dinner out in Grinzing (the Vienna Woods) known for its Heuriger cuisine.  Heuriger is an Austrian meal centered around their local wine served.  With vineyards surrounding our small restaurant, we enjoyed one another's couple in a truly native setting.  During our conversation, it came to our attention that Georg was just about obsessed with football.  We made mention that we would have loved to have gone to a match while in Vienna, and the next day I have an e-mail saying that he was able to get 6 tickets to the following week's Austria Wien vs. Rapid Wien local match-up.  So that Tuesday night, us four were off on another adventure including:  tour of Georg's family sausage-packaging company, gulash and schnitzel from a local restaurant, and the absolute madness of a 3,000 seated stadium.  I swear it was louder in that small stadium than a packed house in FedEx Forum for WWE Monday Raw.  These fans didn't stop for 2 solid hours.  Their 'head cheerleaders' stood with megaphone, green or purple make-up pending the team, flags serving as dresses, and with upmost loyalty and pride screamed songs and chants unceasingly...I'm pretty sure I was more impressed by the cheering sections than the football players.    The fear of post-celebration/rivalry fights (non-alcoholic beer was the only thing served due to past brawls) caused the local Viennese police to stand shoulder to shoulder blocking off the entire road's walking and driving transportation with helmets, shields, and clubs....We waited in the late, cold air for 30 minutes.  Intense.  Austra Wien upset Rapid 2-0.

And there you are, a glimpse into the ever-random, always-revolving views from this life at this particular time.