McDonald's screens are broken? Some things are the same in all countries.
Wien Museum
August 6: Sunday
So, you know how Vienna, in German is spelled Wien? Yeah, it confused me for a second or two before the trip as well. But I have a story to confess.
At the airport in Switzerland, I was with a bunch of other folks looking for my connecting floats on the little electronic board on the wall. I saw when the flight to Vienna was, and was ready to go, when I heard some American tourists say in exasperation, "Well, where's Vienna?! Our flight is in less than an hour! And what's 'Wee-enn'?"
Involuntarily, without stopping myself, and perhaps because I had spent the last ten hours on a flight to Vienna hearing German tourists speak English in thick accents, I approached them and pointed out that "Wien" was Vienna. And I did it in very broken, accented English, like: "No. No. Wien ist Vienna, in Deutsch? See. Wien ist Vienna." They thanked me, assuming I was some helpful German dude.
But nope. Just a weird American.
We were on the same flight to Vienna. Put my headphones in my ears and hoped they would never talk to me.
Day at the Museum
Today's trip was to Karsplatz, where we visited the Wien Museum - literally the Museum of Vienna: its founding, its history, its architecture, its wars and sieges, all that juicy stuff.
In the United States, I think it's difficult to describe the history of our nation as revolving around a single city. We have our government down in DC, but our population and civilization hotspots in LA and NYC. Like, no wonder people outside America often assume that New York City is our capital. Point, is the nation's history is impossible to tell through just one city. Austria, though, doesn't have that problem. Vienna's not just the capital, it's the epicenter of the nation itself: its history, culture, and people.
Above: Here's a look at the city of Vienna, circa 1400 or so.
The Wanderer
After the tour, I really needed somewhere to eat, and so I decided to wander around Vienna. I was too close to our apartments to really get lost, per say, but I think I certainly tried my best.
After grabbing a bite to eat, I wandered over to the Soviet War Memorial (right) which was just off the Wien Museum location. It struck me as unusual that the Viennese would keep such a memorial, but there's a story behind it.
At the end of the war, of course, in the spring of 1945, the Americans and the Soviets were both advancing into Vienna just as they had both advanced on Berlin. The Soviets got there first, and it took them the deaths of 38,000 soldiers to take the city. This was the last western offensive of the war.
Well, afterwards Vienna was split into the four standard occupation zones: Soviet, American, French, and British. The Soviets unveiled this memorial, and their deal for retreating from the occupied zone in 1955 was that the Austrians keep and care for the memorial to the fallen Soviet soldiers.
Of course, after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, maintaining the memorial was no longer a requirement. The Viennese could have torn it down.
But they didn't. For whatever reason they decided to keep it up. I guess it's in memorial to the dead rather than to the government that they served. I can imagine it being a big point of discussion.
Lost A Bit More
Instead of going west, back to the familiarity of the apartments, I went further east in the city of Vienna. I was more or less agenda-less, and so was just going on foot.
Eventually I wandered to a cafe and got some schnitzel. I was eating outside, and struck up a conversation with someone sitting close to me. She was from Prague, and on a typical August European vacation. From her I've learned that there's apparently a cafe in Old Town Prague called Anonymous Coffee, where on weekends and special occasions the servers wear masks - sometimes the "Anonymous" masks of V for Vendetta, and sometimes superhero masks or something else.
I didn't have the heart to admit that I don't drink coffee.
It also occurred to me to ask her, as a European, what she thought about the American political system (and yeah, I worded it that way. Very ungainly). So, she said Europe's perspective is part horror, part relief: horror that we have a (from their own of view) immoral and incompetent president, but relief that THEY don't have to deal with him running the country.
Somehow I didn't think that the majority of Europeans would have anything close to a positive opinion on Donald Trump. And I have a theory on that.
See, I think Europeans have a lot of reasons to scorn Americans. We're kind of loud and rash and prone to directing attention to ourselves. In a lot of ways, I think these American characteristics are good - we come across as being more open, friendly, and social. But, in the wrong people, it can also be bad. And Donald Trump takes those stereotypes up to 11. He creates the noise and feeds off of it. He's loud for no reason, outrageous for no cause other than to create an uproar. And that silent scorn for Americans that all Europeans have tucked deep inside them just comes out when mention of Trump appears.
Remember when things were simpler?
I can't turn off the news now.
