Bonus from yesterday!
Yes, it's "Who Will Win?", an Austrian board game from the World War I era, with the German Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Austrian kaiser Francis I as the players. Not as good as Risk, but seems passable enough.
last of the long weekend
August 15: Tuesday
Tomorrow we leave for a class trip to the Alps, and in preparation I am staying inside and devouring all the food I have left. The professor described the Alps in quite intimidating terms - no cell reception, no hospitals, no easy access to food - so I'm sufficiently terrified and making sure I've packed everything I need. I mean, what, are we living as cavemen? There's a reason cavemen left the caves, you know!
Anyways, I'm indoors all of today (I may or may not be playing video games in between writing this), but that doesn't mean I can't talk about the outdoors. And by outdoors, I don't mean the nature in Vienna - although the nature is nice! No, I mean, the transportation system.
I'm not from a big city, and have never really lived in a big city, and so my experience with Vienna's public transport system is partially an introduction to big-city-transport. But I'm really, really impressed. Below us, six separate subway lines crawl and intercept across the entire city; above the ground, the trolley cars cover even more space. Utilizing these two, I was able to travel three and a half miles from my apartment to the military history museum yesterday in under half an hour, without getting turned around once (Okay, the first time I got pretty turned around, but that's because I have a terrible sense of direction).
In terms of social observance, again, it's hard for me to say because my experience of American public transport is literally non-existent. But I do notice something that is characterized across the board in Austria: people don't really like making light conversation. Not on the street and certainly not in the subways or street cars. The system is so professional and well-kept that it almost seems like part of the workplace, so maybe it makes sense that people won't talk to each other. But aside from the occasional child bawling at their mother, there was very little communication between passengers.
But hey, that leaves more time for books!
Also, the professionalization of the public transport system means you don't encounter examples of the worst reputations of public transport. No shouting, no fights, and no blasting music.
I suppose this is a good enough time to mention a story. Jared and I were travelling back from the Museum Quarter and got onto a trolley car. We saw that the car was already stopped when we came around the corner, so we sprinted to get into the back doors in time. Once we got in, we smiled with relief as the doors began to close - and then we heard shouts. A woman was rushing over, trying to get in. heroically, we kept the doors open for us. We looked at each other and smiled in relief again.
Then another shout. A woman and a baby stroller and two kids were rushing towards us, trying to get in. We held the doors open. They stumbled in. We looked at each other and smiled a little in relief.
Then a guy came rushing over, barely making it in as we held the door open again. We looked at each other and grimaced a bit.
Then another guy came power-walking towards the door and we held it open, but as it turns out, he wasn't getting into the trolley car. We looked at each other, and threw up a little in our mouths.
Then, finally, the trolley car left.
See, we Americans are just too polite. We helped some people to go on time, but with the delay we gave the trolley, was everyone really on time?
I for one, expected much more. I wanted to see five extra families trying to run in. And a clown on a unicycle, a circus elephant, and Nicholas Cage with the Declaration of Independence. Maybe next time.
