Vienna 1/29/10

At breakfast this morning I was happy to find out that my room wasn’t obliged with the presence of construction workers hammering away outside the window as others were. Much more peaceful. After breakfast we headed out on a medieval and imperial walking tour of Vienna with Jim, Betty, and Elizabeth (our professors). There are multiple cathedrals and we walked inside St. Stephan (I believe) which was quite nice and ornately decorated as most European buildings seem to be. One of the more interesting sights was this clock that changed to 12 different historical figures in Vienna’s history for every hour. Jim mentioned that Vienna has the real coffee, so we stopped at a coffee shop. Most of us ordered the “Cocochino” (coffee and hot chocolate). Lunch was on our own so some of us ventured to a mall where I got a calzone for 8.80 € (expensive). I got the large, not realizing how big it would be. (Guesstimating) Out of 16” I ate 14 ½ .”

After lunch we went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History). The museum was very elaborate in its design and reminded me of the final level in the videogame “Mafia.” We toured that for a good two hours before we were left on our own. I opted to go with part of the group to the Sigmund Freud Museum. The journey took a little bit due to map confusion and the length of the walk. I also had a wardrobe malfunction with my jacket’s zipper which was frustrating to deal with along the way. By the time we got to the Freud Museum where his office had been located, we had abour 30 minutes till closing—plenty of time. I’m not a big psychology fan (In my opinion Freud was just a regular perverted guy who wrote down his thoughts and published them, so sue me.), so I really wasn’t looking at everything in depth. There wasn’t that much there and the couch where Freud had sexytime with his patients had been moved to London. Particularly happy that we get reimbursed for this museum.

The walk back was scenic. Christina got a little confused on which cathedral she had seen, but the one we were at was identifiable on the map so I got to use the experience to hone my navigational skills while heading back. I’m not complaining as the experience will definitely come in handy later and we did see more sights of Vienna that hadn’t been on the tour.

I got dinner at Mr. Lee’s (Quick Lee was their slogan) down the street with the rest of the group. I didn’t know that Chinese fast food joints could serve spaghetti bolognaise which is what I got. Not bad actually for something with an Asian twist.

Notes about the “Hotel Post.” We’re probably staying here because it is on the site of a hotel that was frequented by Mozart back in the day, and is by a couple historic sites that are hidden pieces of history. The halls really remind me of The Shining though. Any second I’m expecting to see RED RUM written on the doors and a cascade of blood roaring down the hallway. The lock’s in Europe are annoying. There are no turn locks on the insides of the rooms. Instead one has to use the key to lock the door from the inside.