In June 2005, I took a trip to Vienna, Austria with many of my classmates from Wake Forest University and took a short side trip to Prague as well. Here's some information about the trip. Note: right now, I am editing the page so hopefully I will be able to add personal photos soon if I figure out how!
flight: Memphis to Houston to London Gatwick to London Heathrow (I took the National Express bus between them, which worked well) to Vienna
I arrived at our university's house in Vienna, Flow House in the afternoon and settled in. All of us who were there (2 professors, one professor's child, house supervisor, and 12 counseling students) enjoyed a pizza dinner. Corn and artichoke were interesting toppings and tasted surprisingly good! In the evening, some of us went out for ice cream nearby. Flow House is located in the 19th district of Vienna, fortunately also very close to a bus line which connects to trams and subways. As you might have predicted, I enjoyed the public transportation system in Vienna.
- it is the capital of Austria
- it is named for the Wein River which is west of Vienna
- current population: 1.6 million
- currency: the Euro
- has 1800 acres of vineyards and wine taverns
- has 1000 km of designated bike lanes in the city and a cheap bike exchange
- the forests surrounding Vienna are 3 times the size of Vienna
- it is divided into 23 districts – it has many city-owned apartments
- Vienna is one of the cities that the United Nations is headquartered in (also NY, Nairobi, and Geneva) and has the OPEC headquarters among others
- notable people who have lived and worked in Vienna include psychiatrists Freud, Alfred Adler, Viktor Frankl, and musicians Mozart, Strauss, and Schubert
- Red Bull drinks and Manner Wafers (like generic sugar wafers but better) are all made in Vienna
- There is a song, “Vienna, City of my Dreams”
We went to a mass in German near The Spanish Riding School where the Vienna Boys Choir (which has was founded in 1498) still performs, and talked to some of them afterwards.
Some of us ate at Centimeter, a fun Vienna restaurant along our bus line which served some things by the centimeter - the menus were designed like meter sticks. For example, you could get 2 m of spaghetti or 1 m of wurst – very gimmicky and fun!
In the afternoon, all of us began on a tram tour of the Ringstrasse = ring tour around the city to orient us. The ring follows a 190 foot wide grand boulevard which arcs about three miles around the city’s core which Emperor Franz Josef built to replace the city’s medieval wall in the 1860s.
From the tram, we saw a crowd of people peering excitedly into the Danube Canal (one small arm of the river that once made up the Danube), so Nathaniel, Van (one of the leaders – a psychologist on staff at WFU), and I decided to jump out to see what was going on. It turned out there was a waterski show and some kind of market below. We decided to continue our journey by seeking out the ferris wheel at Prater Park. We had several other random adventures which involved passing that same area in the Ring where we had gotten off the first time, following people who looked likely to be interested in going to the park (which we figured must be close and easy to spot), and asking people who only sort of spoke English how to get there. At the end of the afternoon, we finally did end up going there and had a lot of fun even though we didn’t actually go on the ferris wheel. It was an extra spontaneous adventure!
In the evening, we looked into St. Stephan’s Cathedral, a large Gothic cathedral in the middle of Stephensplatz, a popular shopping and gathering area that reminded me of a miniature Times Square. Most of the church dates back to the 14th, 15th, and 16th Centuries, with the Romanesque "Giant's Doorway" on the west façade dating back to the early 1200s. The south tower, at 450 feet, is roughly the height of a 45-story office building--yet it was built more than 600 years ago, half a millenium before the invention of the modern skyscraper. Also, there were catacombs to explore which included interesting bones of famous saints. There's also a weird indentation of the wall at the left side of the main entrance, which was used to measure the size of a loaf of bread by dissatisfied customers (I only learned this after coming back because I had seen people lining up to rub it for good luck and heard it was related to a saint - it would be interesting to research this more).
All of us enjoyed a nice dinner at Fischer Brau and I sampled a friend's wurst and was pleasantly surprised since sausage has been known to turn my stomach. As it turns out, weisswurst (white wurst) ended up being the best (I konw, I know...horrible pun!).
This was our first day of real class. Nathaniel and I did our Freud presentation. I think people liked the psychoanalysis of the book the Cat in the Hat. Another group did their presentation on Viktor Frankl, the creator of logotherapy (therapy through meaning), “The third Viennese School of Psychotherapy”
Some of us went grocery shopping, which is an interesting experience since Europeans go to corner markets much more than Americans seem to, so most people just walked to the market and carried a small amount out with them. Maybe this "carry what you eat" lifestyle also contributes to the average European being slimmer than the Average American. We could learn from this!
We visited the Freud Museum in the afternoon, which was Sigmund Freud’s old home and office. There we learned more interesting things about Freud. By the way, the website I linked to above includes some of the more fun and unique items we saw in the gift shop there such as a replica of Freud's flask and Freud lighters.
Interesting things about Sigmund Freud:
- Freud has an obsessional personality: he was superstitious about the numbers 61 and 62 and he never owned more than 3 suits, 3 pairs of shoes, and 3 pairs of underwear - Freud loved literature (especially Fyodor Dostoyevski’s The Brothers Karamazov) and wrote some papers on art & artists including Michelangelo, DaVinci, and a biography of Woodrow Wilson. - here's a funny joke about the Freudian slip, or parapraxis, an error in action, speech, or memory that is caused by the unconscious mind: “How many psychoanalysts does it take to change a light bulb?” “Two! One to turn the bulb and one to hold the penis. Err, ladder.”
We did some shopping, but mostly Nathaniel and I strolled around, chatted outside, and watched some street performers in Stephansplatz since we were not big fans of prolonged shopping sprees.
Debbie, her daughter Jennifer, Nathaniel and I ate dinner in Turkenschanz Park - a park within walking distance of Flow House which had an outdoor restaurant in it. One thing to note if you go to Austria or Germany is that it's good to know how to ask for tap water -- "Leitungswasser" (Ly-toongs-vasser) - so you don't get charged for mineral water when you don't even want it.
We heard about Viktor Frankl from his grandson, Alex Vesely, and enjoyed sharing lunch at the house.
Interesting things about Viktor Frankl:
- He had been sent to three concentration camps during his life including Auschwitz - He was a skilled mountain climber and earned his pilot’s license at age 67 - Frankl used to correspond with Freud when he was in high school and Freud replied within 48 hours - Random Frankl quote: “Every lecture I do is as good as the coffee I had before.” - One way he assessed suicidality: he asked patients, “Why not kill yourself?” and counted the seconds before a response. If it took too long for the patient to produce any answer, he refused to take them because he couldn’t even work with them.
In the afternoon, we visited Mrs. Elly Frankl, Viktor Frankl’s wife, in her apartment, who had some stories to tell about her husband and his work, and showed us a room with his honorary degrees and awards as well as his office. It was a pleasant visit and it was wonderful to get such a personal glimpse into the life of such a dedicated woman and her husband.
Today we took a bus trip which was led by a knowledgeable local guide.
We had brunch at a picturesque buffet with a patio that overlooked miles of Austrian countryside and great gift shop, which included a personalized souvenir beer stein I got (which said "Michael der Frauenheld" which we looked up after I gave it to him and ended up saying "The Ladykiller" -- hee hee!) and fun chocolate egg candies which had surprise toys inside (which I did build, with the help of Andrea, Lyndsay, and, later, Mike). If you're interested, they are a fun gift idea and, I just learned, available for ordering here. Very exciting!
Our next stop was the Mauthausen Concentration Camp near Linz. Note: please do not go to the site or read on in this section if you do not want to read graphic details.
Mauthausen had a gas chamber but mainly weakened and killed prisoners by working them to death in an adjacent quarry. Prisoners were forced to climb the 186 steps of the Wiener Graben with large blocks of granite on their backs. Often the blocks would fall, crushing limbs and bodies of those following, sometimes killing. The SS guards invented competitions betting on which prisoner would make it to the top first. Those surviving the ordeal would then be forced to jump from the edge of the quarry to their death below.
When they arrived, prisoners with interesting tattoos were skinned (they were sold as book covers, gloves, luggage and lamp shades) and gold teeth and all items of value were extracted. One physician selected two prisoners with near perfect teeth and used their heads as paperweights on his desk.
Witnesses estimate that as many as 10,000 prisoners were gassed in this room between 1942 and 1945 -- 120 at a time could be gassed in this room. It is especially horrifying to note details included on red squares you can click on relating to the website above and to note that a peep hole for the curious also looked into the gas chamber.
Fortunately, in May 1945, Mauthausen was liberated by the American army.
After that we went to Melk Abbey (Benedictinerstift Melk), a famous Baroque Monastery.
Interestingly, a monk from Umberto Eco’s book The Name of the Rose, which Mike and I are now reading (Mike has read two Eco books in the past year or so and was excited to hear a new recommendation), is from Melk Abbey. It's a really exciting mystery with lots of interesting religious and historical references.
In the evening, all of us dined at the Weingut Wolff beer garden. I especially enjoyed their strudel (which Vienna is famous for) and the wine spritzers, which are a popular drink there.
In class, groups presented on Jacob Moreno (the creator of psychodrama) and Alfred Adler (famous for individual psychology).
Interesting things about Alfred Adler:
- His theory was socio-teleo-analytic: he emphasized social interest & betterment of mankind, belief in goal-striving nature of people, and belief in the necessity of analysis of life to bring goals into conscious awareness - He placed considerable emphasis upon the family constellation (e.g. birth order) and was the second child of six in his family - He was interested in life’s three main tasks: occupation, love, and friendship - He developed interesting therapeutic interventions including acting as if (counselor suggests to client that they act as if they could accomplish something they don’t think they could do), avoiding the tar baby (avoid places where they usually get stuck to avoid self-destructive behavior), catching oneself (being conscious of their faulty goals and thoughts), pushing the button (being more aware of the control they can have over their emotions rather than believe emotions control them), and spitting in the soup (identifying underlying motivations behind clients’ self-defeating behaviors and spoiling their imagined payoff by making it unappealing).
Interesting things about Jacob Moreno:
- He developed “Stegreiftheatre” – the Theatre of Spontaneity - in Vienna in 1922 - In 1924, began “Die Lebendige Zeitung” – The Living Newspaper, in which actors spontaneously dramatized recent political and social events - He had one broken engagement, three marriages, and two kids - Over 200 techniques for psychodrama may be used - tele is the vocabulary word that describes his concept of total communication of feelings between people
That afternoon, I took off for a trip to Prague (Praha) with my professor Debbie, her daughter Jennifer, and Karen (about 4 hours from Vienna by train – it ended up being longer because of delays but it was fun).
In Prague, we stayed in Hotel Barcelo Praha, which was very nice and ended up having a lot of Spanish speaking tourists visiting from wealthy areas in South America, which I especially enjoyed.
In the evening we went to the Charles Bridge, which is the oldest bridge in Prague (built in 1342). The need for building a new bridge emerged after the old romanesque Judith Bridge (Juditin most, built around 1170 and named after king Vladislav I's wife Judith) was torn down by a flood in 1342. By a rare coincidence, we know the precise moment of laying the foundation stone of Charles Bridge, personally assisted by Charles IV: July 9, 1357, 5:31 AM. The palindromic number 135797531, carved out on the Old Town bridge tower, was chosen by the royal astrologists and numerologists as the best time for starting the bridge construction. This is something I learned from Mike about a year ago when he went to Prague on a business trip because he thought I'd appreciate it. Fun! The Charles Bridge at night is reminiscent of Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley - it's a mix of street vendors, performers, and beggars and a popular place for pedestrians of all ages.
- it is the capital of the Czech Republic - Known as "The City of 100 Spires" for its - current population: 1.2 million - notable people in Prague – writer Franz Kafka was born in Prague - The Pilsner Urquell Brewery headquarters are there (it has been these since 1942) - currency: Czech crown (Kc)
Since we had limited time, Debbie and I decided to take a walking tour of Prague which included a boat tour, a tram tour, a CD, and (excitingly) a chance for me to speak Spanish with a couple who was visiting from Madrid over lunch.
On this tour, we began at Old Town to see the astronomical clock chime the hour and see sights such as the Jan Hus statue in Wenceslas Square, today’s center for business, commerce, and socializing. St. James Church, the Estates Theatre where Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni was introduced to the world in 1787 (although he was not good with deadlines and wrote it at the last minute) and Charles University (which is called "Carolina" - we North Carolinians thought this was funny), the oldest one in Central Europe.
We also checked out the Jewish Quarter ("Josefov") which included a synagogue converted to a museum that had the largest collection of Jewish heritage relics in the world. The earliest mention of Jewish merchants and their activities in Prague dates back to the beginning of the 10th century. Josefov was separated from the Old Town by walls and gates. The whole area was renewed in 1896-1911 – only some parts of the original ghetto including the network of roads, the town hall, six synagogues, and most of the cemetery. We also, sadly, learned of burial methods for Jews during World War II after walking past the Old Jewish Cemetery: people had to be buried 10 people deep with one atop the other because that was the only space available to them in the area. We saw Wenceslas Square where the Velvet Revolution occurred in 1989 which ended communism.
After that and a nice lunch, we went on a cruise of the Vltava River which allowed us to see Prague Castle atop a hill, St. Nicholas Church, and other riverbank views including the metronome monument which was symbolically built over a huge statue of Stalin in 1991.
Our final stop for the day was the Prague Castle. We stopped in various courtyards, the Old Royal Palace, the Basilica of St. George, the Royal Garden, the golden lane, and St. Vitus Cathedral, the coronation and burial place of the Czech kings whose construction took 1,000 years where the Czech crown jewels are still kept.
It was a 6 hour walking tour which really provided us with the best overview we could hope for in one day.
In the evening we ate at a wonderful restaurant on the other side of the Charles Bridge and enjoyed the best meal of our trip. Debbie and I split amazing salmon seasoned with dill and all four of us thoroughly enjoyed our desserts!
We had planned to wake up early to take the 8 am train back to Vienna. Somehow we missed the train by literally 10 seconds (we saw it leave the station – it's the closest call I’ve had transportation-wise), and ended up going back downtown during the 4 hours we had to wait for the other train and enjoyed a nice brunch in an outdoor café. We thought it was interesting to note yet another example of how law-abiding people in this area are and how infrequently they make exceptions for people: we sat at a table outside of the cafe because we had seen the waiters moving around. However, it was still a few minutes before 9 am when the cafe opened and they did not allow us to sit at their table to wait for 10 minutes until they opened (we sat at McDonald's next door where Karen was eating until 9 am and then went back).
Sadly, we missed seeing two things in Prague: a collection of the largest and most exciting spiders and scorpions in the world and the Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments (they do exist, but I'm just kidding...we probably didn't miss much).
After our trip back, some of us went to an authentic German restaurant. We were excited by the enthusiasm of the owner (who whipped out his map to ask us to all identify which states we were from in the U.S.) and by the magnetic salt and pepper shaker caddies which hung above us for patrons' use.
I woke up early and went with Emy and Theresa to see The Belvedere Museum of Art in Vienna.
There was saw a great exhibit about the history of Austria. It was artful (pun intended!) because the entire exhibit included elements of the red and white striped Austrian flag and it included documents, artwork of the time, and interactive displays for each time period during the history of the country.
Some highlights of the collection included many works by Gustav Klimt including his famous work "The Kiss" -- I also enjoyed some of his landscape oil paintings such as Apple Tree I.
For lunch we ate at this really nice Greek place called The Corner Art Café and the owner Nikolas was very friendly and gave us free house wine! I loved their spinach strudel.
After that, we looked around the gardens and explored the Medieval Art section of the museum and headed back.
Later in the evening after a dinner at home, we went out for ice cream. By the way, since going out for ice cream was such a popular activity in Vienna, I can say from my experience that if you can find a chain called "Zinone & Zinone" they have great ice cream. I especially enjoyed their nutella flavor!
We met up at the Alfred Adler Institut (predictably, after getting lost -- directions everywhere around Vienna seemed confusing, no matter who had written them -- I thought directions in the U.S. were tricky sometimes!) to talk with Dr. Wilfried Datler who talked about Adlerian therapy. It was really funny because when we asked for directions to several places or bus stops in Prague, people told us something like, “It’s just 200 meters that way” and then point somewhere. What is interesting is that they always said, “200 meters”, not another number. I found it humorous to note that because I’m sure “200 meters” in Prague was like our equivalent of “a short distance” in America.
In the afternoon, some of us ate at McDonald’s (which Karen had wanted to do for a while), and then went to the accessory store in the afternoon, Kar* -- my fashion advisor -- helped me to choose some nice but inexpensive necklaces. Interestingly, food portions are noticeably smaller at most restaurants and at McDonald’s and other fast food establishments, as I had learned about in the movie Super Size Me. I like the idea of being part of a culture that takes its time to eat meals and enjoys food and drink at every meal.
When we had our fill of shopping, we went to Cafe Demel, which is world famous for making sweet treats. As we were eating an afternoon snack, we watched the chefs make a wide variety of delicacies behind a glass panel.
In the evening, I saw the opera Mamon Lescaut by Giacomo Puccini directed by Ozawa in the famous Vienna State Opera House. Standing room only seating is available before performances for 2 euro if you can get there early enough to get that. I saw a pretty decent amount although next time I do something like that I will learn 2 things: 1) get there early for standing room only – it is worth it, but it’s a good idea to find the best central seats at the top so that both sides of the stage can be viewed – take a scarf to claim your spot and no one will take it 2) in the Vienna Opera House, the standing room only seats also had translations of the opera in German and English on a little screen you could pull up to understand the opera better – we only realized we had that for us partway through and it would have saved some squinting at others’ screens.
Before the performance started, I ran into Van there and stood with him. We watched this hilarious Austrian guy get annoyed with a woman who was straining her neck to see and unintentionally blocking his view – eventually, he threw water at her to get her attention!
The Staatsoper, or opera house, is one of the world’s top opera houses with 300 performances a year. It is beautiful (and has been rebuilt since WWII bombings), but interestingly the original architect Eduard van der Null ended up committing suicide because of a critical reception of the building 130 years ago.
After Van and I went to the opera, first we went to the Sky Bar. It was at the top of the Mall of Fun where Nathaniel and I had visited in Stephensplatz. Although drinks & appetizers were surprisingly expensive, we had a great conversation. We also stoped by Hotel Sacher, a famous five-star hotel and purveyor of an equally famous cake, the Sacher Torte. Interestingly, Sacher and Demel (which we went to the cafe for the day before) had a long-running dispute about who is the true creator of the Sacher torte. Author Graham Greene was staying at the Hotel Sacher in 1948 when he came up with the plot for The Third Man.
After that, Van and I decided to have dinner at an Italian restaurant also in the Stephansplatz area. When we left, we ended up missing the last bus home so we ended up walking some of the way. It was fun!
In the morning, some psychodrama facilitators came in to do a workshop including a sociogram activity, which was intriguing.
In the afternoon several of us went shopping, ran into others in group, and I ended up getting my ears pierced (yes, seemingly random, but fun because I had never had it done before and now I have earrings!).
Then Lyndsay and I went to Wiener Riesenrad and rode in it – it is a historic ferris wheel in Vienna that looked like it had boxcars for each person (some were really nice and set for dinner, but those were for riders who paid for luxury cabins. There is a wonderful view from the ferris wheel and it is in the middle of a huge park – Prater Park – which included an amusement park). I like the idea of being able to walk around the amusement park without paying for it.
Ever since it opened, the Giant Ferris Wheel has been a symbol of Vienna’s Prater district, with its famous silhouette as the city’s trademark. It has the special distinction of having withstood all natural catastrophes and acts of war to which it has been subjected, including being attacked by bombs and fire in World War 2. It is 64.75 meters tall and turns at .75 m / second. It was nice because it was a long enough ride to give us time to appreciate it and see the city. Interestingly, after going there and reviewing my information, I now know that on every hour the ferris wheel lights up to look like a clock. - In the evening, we went to another beer garden that had a great buffet and a wonderful view. It was great that everyone could go together!
I woke up SUPER early to leave and left stopping over in Zurich and Houston before getting to my final destination of Memphis. That ends my European travel adventure...hopefully I will be fortunate enough to go on another trip someday to explore more!