The Hills are Alive...with the sound of protests...

October 24
Vienna, you are memorable already, and yet I have only been here a few hours.

- When we arrived and got to the street where our hostel is, the building looks from the outside for all intents and purposes to be abandoned during large reconstruction. Yet, there is a buzzer with the name of our hostel.... wandering inside the building, it doesn't look any more occupied, but follow the signs upstairs into yet another empty hallway with a door at the end. There, another buzzer...which instead of leading someone to come out to let us in, brings us a voice that tells us to go inside and our keys are on the beds A and A (???). Okayyy.... We open the door to find an amazing hidden hostel, very new, and that our beds are essentially up in a loft that feels like a small child's treehouse... All very, very odd, but quite cute and even though we have yet to meet someone who works here, it seems to be a good place.

-We went to the Opera House this evening for 4 euro standing room only tickets. It turned out to be a premiere of a new ballet, Juwelen der Neuen Welt. We were lucky to get tickets, as all regular seats were sold out. The sound of an orchestra tuning up always brings butterflys for me, and as the curtain went up a gasp throughout the audience at the intense beauty- the costumes were like a watercolor painting brought to life of a ballet school. We had intended to leave the ballet early, but it was so beautiful that we stayed throughout.

-Leaving the ballet we walked back to the U-bahn directly into a very large student protest about government cutbacks to student loans (or something along those lines). There was a large video screen set up which appeared to be showing the national Austrian news, which was going back and forth between a political roundtable and shots of the protest. So we were apparently on the Austrian news tonight! (at least in the background).

I never really got around to writing a real blog about Prague- hopefully you enjoyed the photos- but here are a few random thoughts about Prague, Europe, and life in general:

-We finally got to see an American movie!!! I had been really wanting to go to one, and succeeded in finding Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps in English in Prague. Some odd things about seeing a movie in Prague: 1) You have assigned seats in the theater (just like in a performing arts theater). 2) You can purchase bacon-chedder flavored popcorn (and should. It was yummy). 3) You can buy a beer at the theater for under $2.

- Shops close very early here- some grocercy stores close as early as 7 PM....I guess you are SOL if you forgot an ingredient....

-Dog poop is an international problem (we have avoided stepping in any, but it seems to be everywhere around Europe even though there are free little baggies everywhere....)

-Tourists in DC are utterly incompetent at riding the metro. Constantly bags and arms are thrown between the doors to keep them from closing...but they don't actually reopen like elevator doors and can lead to whole cars being unloaded. Tourists across Europe seem to avoid this idiodic behavior...maybe because they know that safety standards are just not that high and there is a fair chance their arm will just get cut off... (just kidding...probably....). Anyway, I am left wondering why we can figure out the subway systems internationally in languages we don't speak, but American tourists are left looking totally lost. Is this a failure of DC signage or just that we are public transit pros (or, is everyone just this stupid in the US??)?

- Much of Europe looks exactly like the American midwest. Except there are wind farms everywhere. Also, how long does a wind turbine need to be operational before it makes enough power to pay for what it took to put it up?

-Riding on trains is far superior to airplanes. I do not mind these 5 hour rides, they are comfortable, and very relaxing. You can buy a beer on board for only a couple bucks and just sit back and relax. In many ways it ends up feeling similar to an afternoon on the beach, as you just sit back, put your feet up, and watch the world go rolling by.

-They sell potato chips in an amazing array of flavors here. Have I just not been paying attention in the US?

- Communists and Nazis build really ugly buildings.

-There are WWII memorials everywhere here. The presence of history of WWII is just so much more present, and many citys are still rebuilding. In the US, WWII feels very far away- we've had Vietnam, Korea, multiple mideast wars, etc. Here, WWII feels like it was only yesterday.

-In some places, WWII (and the Communist results across the continent) really was almost yesterday. Prague is a great example- it was 1989 before the Czek Republic had their "Velvet Revolution" and took back the government (it is called the Velvet Revolution because the power changed without bloodshed...).

-Except, Prague's government didn't really change without bloodshed. The students took to the streets in protest, jangling their keys, in record numbers just before the change after a student was beaten to death during the protests a few days before. But as it turns out, it wasn't a student- it was a setup by the secret police to incite the students to action, and they apparently beat to death one of their own (secret policemen). All this according to our tour guide.... I'm sure Wikipedia can confirm?

-The reason Prague is so historic is sinister - Hitler really liked it so he protected it. He thought it was the Jewel of Europe. But he also intended to create a museum there commemorating the extinct Jewish race (which is why there are so many Jewish artifacts there- he sent everything there to be warehoused until after the war).

-Is the liberal attitude in Europe in part a backlash against Communism and government control? Could this be why beer drinking in the streets is allowed- because people don't want the government telling them what to do?

- Have continued to enjoy street food- Prague had some amazing sausages in the central square being smoked over wood fires, and here in Vienna have already enjoyed chestnuts. Only bad (or just not great) street food is so far in Berlin- Currywurst- essentially a hot dog cut up with ketchup sprinkled with curry powder. Avoid.

-So far Matt says that top 2 cities are Berlin and Prague. He thinks people should not waste their time in London. I think London was especially painful only because we were super jetlagged- will be interesting to see what its like the second time through. Assuming the Paris strikes end eventually and we get to go on our planned route....won't be a problem for another couple weeks.

-Finally, Happy Birthday Sarah!!!!