TRA[life]VELS

Man, those lyrics had been stuck in my head all week because I knew that when Sunday rolled around, I'd be in Vienna! We started our long-weekend journey around 8am that day. It's about a 4 hour drive there so we made a pit stop about an hour outside Vienna to tour Melk Abbey, a Catholic monastery. The abbey is decorated in Baroque style with a yellow exterior and rooms filled with ornate ceiling paintings and gold-plated scenes. I really enjoyed the library, which looked as if it was a scene pulled straight from 'Beauty and the Beast' with its rustic globe and rolling ladders. Many of the books are first editions around 500 years old. Melk is also well known for their influence in the Counter Reformation. While Martin Luther and the ideas of the Reformation penetrated Europe, Southern Germany and parts of Austria (Vienna) remained staunchly Catholic.

After our quick tour, we were back on the road again. I climbed into the back of the van and shut my eyes. When I opened them back up we were in Vienna. First stop... Sigmund Freud museum. The past week in our Christian Worldview class has been, in part, studying the lives and philosophies of Freud and C.S. Lewis. Freud was the antithesis of the Christian worldview. Many of his views were sexual and obscure in nature. The museum is actually his house and contained many examples of a life that did not match up to the worldview he espoused. Since, Freud claimed, God did not exist, there is no rational reason for staying faithful to one wife and loving your children...of which he did both. Freud influenced the world of psychology for one by developing the practice of psychoanalysis. His theories are still widely used today, which is why studying him is so important to the Christian worldview. His ideas also paved the way for the post-modern movement which was obvious by viewing the entire room in this museum that was dedicated to showing off postmodern works of "art" that were influenced by Freud's teachings. I have to move on from the Freud museum... there's so much more to tell!

This goes completely against the rules of tourism, but there was something we all missed from home so much that we had to go there for dinner - Mexican food! What was supposed to be a 10 minute walk turned into 30 minutes of biting cold and grumbling stomachs. We made it there eventually, and it was nice to have a little piece of home. Afterward, some of us were craving some dessert and coffee - so searching we went. Our cafe of choice was a smoke-filled mod room. I felt like I was in an Andy Worhol painting... with Tiramisu. I write these things down, but still don't really believe them myself. Mod coffee shop in Vienna on a Sunday night? I'm amazed. While we headed back, the guys headed for a local bar that was playing the Superbowl. They didn't get back until 4am. The next day started bright and early as usual. After breakfast at the hostel, the original plan was to take a tour of the United Nations building, but we ended up touring Schönbrunn Palace instead. Schönbrunn was the summer palace for the Habsburg family (ruling family in Austria for over 60 years). The movie 'Sissi' we have been watching is based off of the marriage of Franz Joseph of Austria to his cousin Elizabeth (aka Sissi), but walking through the museum we learned that their marriage was less ideal than the movie to say the least. I wish I could have taken pictures inside the castle, but that wasn't allowed. I snapped a quick few before walking in - I hope to post those soon.

The rest of Monday was fantastic. Vienna is famous for their apple strudel, so that definitely went on our Vienna bucket list. We ducked into a small cafe to escape the cold and found a nice older lady in there working all by herself with the exception of a man quietly reading his newspaper in the corner. "Apple strudel?" we asked... "Ja!" she replied, so we sat down and enjoyed it with a hot cup of coffee. Afterward we just walked around, stopping occasionally to rummage through second hand stores or tilt our heads at the quirky graffiti. To end the day, Chris and I went to this (I hate to use the word, but it fits so...) legit jazz club in a 500-year-old cellar called 'Jazzland' and for a couple hours just sat, sipped coffee, and took in the jazz. That place had been hosting live music 6 days a week since like 1972.

Tuesday was our last day in Vienna. We opted for Starbucks that morning, and didn't feel like we were cheating because it was a Viennese Starbucks and I got to enjoy my cinnamon roll and latte while gazing out at the city square. We weren't leaving until 1pm, so we figured we should take in a little more of the city...because its huge and important and all. We walked past all kinds of neat stuff: Stephansdome (St. Stephen's Gothic Cathedral), Maria Theresia Square, about 15 H&Ms, and the Hofburg Imperial Palace. I'd say Vienna is one of those places worth going back to, and I think it'd be even more beautiful in the spring. Definitely keeping that as an option :]