Vienna, Austria/ Wien, Österreich

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Arrival/Ankunft Heim, suss Heim Ringstrasse Monument Against War and Fascism Hundertwasser AI Conference Heurigen -- Wien's Wein answer to Beer-halls Naschmarkt Beethoven Frieze Secession Lainzer Tiergarten Danube Island park/Donauinsel People, Lack thereof, and reflections Staff positions, Lack thereof, and bad luck We don't need education (funding) The Anker Clock, or It's a Small World, after all. Wienerwald, or a Walk Through the Park One Day in the Merry Merry Month of May the Museum of Applied Arts, or the Flying Steamroller Dan's Visit Kunsthistorisches Museum Monet-Monet! Rodin to be added or expanded

WARNING: This section is much more like a diary than the others, as I am writing it more as it occurs and putting in much more personal things. It is roughly chronological:

I arrived in Vienna in the early evening having never talked to my roommate. I tried to call a couple times but he was never in. I took the streetcar across to the connection and decided to try once more. I got him. It turned out he wasn't expecting me for another two weeks but had no problem with me showing up early. The next day he showed me the view from the hills outside Vienna, where a sizable herd of tourist risked life and paralysis going over the slick ice patch in the shade to get to the vista. It was a nice view, though.

I am eating mostly pasta. I haven't had a single wiener, Wiener Schnitzel, or Sacher torte. I have had a lot of good coffee and some yummy cakes, and when I get money, I will experience the things the Viennese are famous for in full. I have a room in an apartment with an artist/waiter (the usual combo) who is into yoga, dancing, recreational pharmaceuticals, magic, digeridoo, techno, and beer. So far, I've only joined him in the first 2 and the digeridoo. He has a nice mother who brings us food sometimes. It is 25 minutes by subway from where I work.

I am biding my time at Öfai until I can find my boss, who is supposed to return from vacation any day now and tell me what I will be doing with my sack of neurons for most of my waking hours the next couple of months.
The Ringstrasse: By day, the Rngstrasse is grand, magnificent, grandiloquent, majestic. It is city planning on an emperor's budget, or rather an emperor's budget and a city trying to rival the emperor's decreed creations. Gothic and classic buildings soar up, arts and government, church and academia striving against each other to catch the eye of the passer-by as they face off over the broad throughfare.

At night, it is simply breathtakingly beautiful. The scale, the intricate detail are, while not forgotten, secondary to the pure asthetics. The Rathaus, or City Hall, for instance appears to glow from within; the light emanating from and illuminating layers of white stone rather than merely reflected. The statues of heroes literary, political, and scientific are lit against the buildings, which are lit against the sky. This is the Inner Stadt, but it is a heart of a city unblackened by urban decay.

Lurking behind the Opera House and the Palace in the Ring is a reminder of a darker past. Hitler made speeches to welcoming audiences a few blocks away from where the Monument Against War and Fascism, by Alfred Hrdlicka, is today. The monument consists of three parts. Two white stone statues are in the foreground. Half-formed figures writhe on the surface, soldiers dying, pregnant women, screaming faces, babies half born. A self-aware slice of suffering trapped in white amber. In between and behind these crouches a man scrubbing the sidewalk with a toothbrush, as the Jews were forced to do for the amusement of the Wieners after the Anschluss. In back, words of explanation are etched into a slab of stone.
Hidden in one corner of the city are two amazing buildings. Bavaria has its