Vienna Part III

Wow, I really haven't written anything about Vienna in this space have I? I hope you don't assume that means that I don't like it. Vienna is a fun town. I'm just exhausted from the last seven weeks of travelling. As a warning, there probably won't be too many more blogs from Europe. I will be pretty busy over the next couple days before I fly back home on Sunday morning. We have classes tomorrow and Friday, then have exams Saturday morning. Exams are followed by a going away soiree Saturday night. So what you're stuck with is this blog, perhaps another bonus blog on Thursday or Friday, one Saturday, and then that's it until I get enough energy to write a Europe recap blog sometime next week. Then it's back to normal intermitten blogging.

Okay, now that I've gotten that little bit of business out of the way I'll tell you about what I've been up to. Monday was pretty calm for the majority of the day. That is until we decided to check out an Australian bar in town (that's not a typo, it was Australian not Austrian). We went there because some people wanted to try to watch the Homerun Derby on TV. That didn't happen because they didn't start swinging the bats until after 8pm Eastern time, which means 2am here and that's when the bar closed. But while we were there we did enjoy some fine pub food and beers. The food was really good actually. It makes me eager to get back to the States where almost every pub serves food, whereas hardly any do here. Or at least not many that I've been to. One of my buddies and I split a club sandwich and onion rings. The club sandwich was made with chicken, bacon, and other ingredients of deliciousness. It might have been the best club sandwich I've ever had (but I haven't had all that many club sandwiches). The onion rings were quite tasty as well, although a little heavy on the batter. But they definitely hit the spot. Two of the onion rings were actually joined together like a chain and we were baffled at first as to how this could happen. Yes I know it's not difficult to figure it out, but the pictures of us studying it turned out well either way.

Now on to the obligatory (and long absent) beer reviews. I managed to try three new beers, two of which were Austrian and the other was from Tasmania, Australia. The Australian beer, James Boag's Premium Lager, was not very good. I don't think I ever want to visit Australia because I've never had a good beer from there. Fosters is garbage and this wasn't good either. The next beer in the tasting adventure was Kapsreiter Landbier Hell. I did finally learn that Hell basically means that it's a light beer. This beer was much better than that Australian crap. Much better. The last beer of the night was Urban Ottakringer, which I believe is brewed right here in Vienna. Don't quote me on that though. It came in a fancy shmancy bottle and tasted good to boot. Yum. That was it for the night in terms of beer. Well, I did have a glass of that Strasbourg beer, 1664, from the tap. That was also delicious.That brings me to yesterday when I was a busy bee. To accomplish the things I wanted to do, I decided to skip class. After some brief souvenir/gift shopping, I headed over to the Sigmund Freud museum. His original office is preserved here in Vienna and now comprises the entire museum. Needless to say, it's not a very big museum. But it was still interesting to see where the famed psychiatrist worked and studied. I learned a couple things while there. First of all, Freud thought that cocaine might be a helpful drug in conducting psychoanalysis and experimented with the drug himself. Weird. He realized this wasn't a good thing when he (or someone he knew, perhaps a patient; I can't remember) became addicted to the stuff. He did write some books and/or articles on the subject though. Another thing I learned is that he was one of the first, if not the first, psychiatrists to have his patients lay on a couch. Also, Freud was granted an honorary law degree from Clark University - I wish I could be given an honorary law degree. Not much of the original office furnishings remain. However, they have maintained the waiting room in its original form and with the actual furniture. Take a look. You'll see that Freud was also a collector of antiquities. Anyway, the Freud museum wasn't anything to write home about. It's barely worth blogging about. I just didn't know what else to do in Vienna that is cultural and doesn't involve an art museum. I've seen enough art this trip. I've taken a psychology class or two, so I know a little about Freud, but I don't really remember much. Perhaps my visit would've been more interesting had I been really into psychology. Eh, what can you do?

After Freud's spot, I decided to head over to an exhibit that's here in Vienna. It's one that's travelled around the world and I'm sure you've heard about it. The exhibit is called "Bodies." Basically they use some sort of process to display all the detail of real human anatomy. I don't really know how to describe it other than that. It was cool though, but not world-changing. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside and they were very vigilant for any such activity. But I can show you the brochure so at least you know what the hell I am talking about.After the Bodies exhibit I met up with a group of people heading to a Viennese restaurant. It was this little place not frequented by tourists. I finally got some Austrian Wienerscnitzel and it was pretty good. That was accompanied by some potatoes, salad, and of course, beer. It was the best meal I've had in Vienna so far. Unfortunately though, that's not saying much. I've been a traitor this last week and a half. I've gotten either pizza or McDonalds for almost all my meals. Today I had KFC. It's hard to find cheap Austrian fair that is also good. So I've been taking the easy out and getting cheap, unhealthy American food. I promise it won't happen again...today.

Dinner ended and it was then time for the highlight of the day: a pub crawl. Close to our hotel there is a place that offers organized pub crawls around Vienna. It works like this: you go in, tell the dude your name, and pay 12 euros. He in turn gives you a nametag, which for me happened to be an American flag (because, you guessed it, I'm American; although, supposedly I told some people in Salzburg that I was Canadian). There were people from all over the world at this event, but most all were English speaking whether they were from America, Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, or Ireland.

What about the drinking? Well, from 9-10pm, it's all you can drink wine and beer at their little pub. They also came around a poured shots of vodka and red bull directly into your mouth. It was a good time. But the madness didn't stop there. We left the starting point and took the subway towards our next destination closer to the heart of the city. Greeting us at the door was a waitress giving us a free entrance shot. I'm not sure what it was, but it was delicious. There were beer and shot specials for us all night: beer for 2 euros and select shots for 1 euro. Nice. They were definitely trying to get us all drunk...and they succeeded. It was at this first bar that I took the only picture of the night. Actually I handed the camera to somebody else to take the picture. I was the only one who wanted to focus and try to take a good picture. The guy on the left looks kinda fake doesn't he? Well, at least his eyes do.After the first bar, things start to get a little hazy. We walked to a total of three other bars last night. Or at least we think we did, nobody can remember exactly. The second was nothing special, but getting a drink was nearly impossible. I waited at the bar forever while the bartenders moved at the speed of progress in Iraq: slower than molasses. So we moved on from there to another place that was packed. This bar was more like a club. For the first time since I've been in Europe, I saw Captain Morgan behind the bar. Anybody that knows me also knows that Captain and Diet Coke is one of my favorite drinks (thanks to the influence of my cousin/roommate). So some waiter-guy came up to me and took my drink order: "I'll take a Captain and Coke Light." Because you know, over here it's not Diet Coke, it's Coke Light (they're weird in Europe). Anyway, he asks me if I want a single or double and I order a double. He comes back with the drink on a tray and demands payment. It's 6.50 euros. I had in my hand 5 euros. I told him, "I don't have enough." He looked at me unapprovingly, whisked the drink away, and told me to come back when I have enough money. I'm sure somebody would've helped me out and spotted me the euro or so that I needed, but I couldn't figure that out in such a short time. Should've stuck with beer.

Luckily, we didn't stick around at that bar for much longer. The last bar of our little crawl was another club-like place with dancing in the basement. I didn't partake in any dancing here. Actually, I was getting more than a little annoyed with some of the people on the pub crawl (both from my program and not). So I decided that it would be a good idea to go for a walk. Then I thought that maybe I could walk home. Ha! I didn't even know where I was. So here I am, walking around a strange city all by myself, with nothing but an American flag nametag and 5 euros. Somehow I managed to find a taxi stand and I just started waving my Visa card in the air saying, "who takes this?" And a fine gentleman stepped forward and volunteered his services. I made it home in one piece. I remember the cab fare being about 9.50 euros, but I'm not sure if he was actually able to take credit card or not. I still have my card in my wallet if you're wondering. But I am also divested from my 5 euros that I had. Hmmm. I'll check my credit card statements to make sure nothing fishy happened, but I won't be upset as long as it cost me less than 20 euros to get home. I'm an idiot. I don't know why I thought I could just walk home.

Well, that pretty much wraps up my day yesterday. And that means it's time for me to get to bed. People are trying to convince me that I need to go out tomorrow night again. I probably won't have started studying yet, but I'm not sure that I need to go out again after last night. Bad news bears. We'll see. If I go out, I promise to take thrilling pictures this time. If I stay in and "study," then maybe I'll take some pictures of that as well. Those may not be very interesting though. If you don't hear from me in the next two days, expect to hear something post-finals on Saturday. Until then, ciao!

Bonus Material: Check out this article on a guy who is somehow bad at hanging out. It came highly recommended from the onion ring dude pictured above and I found it hilarious. Enjoy.

[Editor's Note: I was interrupted in the middle of writing this blog to chat with my cousin/roommate. So if this blog doesn't flow like awarding winning prose (like it usually does), blame him.]