Feeling Tired in Vienna

Today is Sunday and I am feeling tired. We have been very busy since arriving in Vienna, and I have a test looming on the horizon, this Thursday to be exact. Along with feeling busy and a little stressed I think all the traveling is starting to catch up with me. I have felt home sick this past week, but found a cheap way to call home so I have been able to talk to my mom and Katie a couple of times this weeks, so that has been very nice.

Enough about my feelings, I will get to what everyone really cares about, what I have seen and what I have been doing. In regard to my last post, the opera house we saw the barber of seville at was the Vienna State Opera, or the Wiener Staatsoper. A quick note, in German Vienna is Wien, so Wiener would be Viennian.

These last couple of days have been really fun, I have been seeing a lot of really interesting things. On Thursday we went to the Kunsthistoriches Museum and saw a lot of art and some artist presentations. One thing I am starting to feel about art museums is that they are very intemidating. All these art museums I go to have so many wonderful works that I get overwhelmed by it all. My friend Ryan sees the so called highlight pieces and thats about it, which is a pretty good strategy. So on Thursday we saw the highlights and then left.

On Friday we went to the Belvedere Palace. The palace is built in the baroque style, which means that everything is extremely grand and dramatic. Austria is especially known for its abudance of baroque architecture. I wasnt sure what exactly we were going to see at the Belvedere, but it turned out to be another art museum. Outside the palace there are huge stately lawns, similar to those around Versailles, but not as large and grand. Inside there was a large number of works by Gustav Klimt, who is an Austrian painter and a part of the Viennan Art Nouveau movement. The work I liked the most by Klimt was The Kiss, which I am sure many of you have seen before. It is of a man and a woman embracing, antcipating a kiss. I had seen pictures of the work before, but seeing the work itself is completely different. Klimt uses a lot of metallic paints in this painting that dont capture well in a photo. I really like the texture and patterns of the cloak in the painting and the ground the couple is standing on. The gallery in the Belvedere was smaller and more managable, so I saw most of the works there.

Saturday was a great day. We had an all day excursion into the Austrian countryside. The countryside was beautiful, filled with lush green rolling hills and forests. Our first stop was the Melk Abbey, which is a world famous monastic site. The Melk Abbey is an Austrian historic Beneditcine abbey, founded in 1089. The current abbey building was built from 1702 to 1736 in the baroque style by Jakob Prandtauer. The abbey has survived both the dissolution under Emperor Joseph II, when many Austrian abbeys were seized and dissolved by the state and also the Nazi anschluss (takeover) of Austria. Currently there are only monks in a small part of the abby, the rest is a school and open to daily tours, which we went on. The building was huge and sits on a rock outcroping above the town of Melk, overlooking the Danube River. After touring the abbey we went on a two hour river cruise of the Danube. In a sense it was like taking a step back in time. As we made our way down the river, there were several towns on the side of the river that looked very old. All of these towns were centered around a massive cathedral or church. Also there were several huge castles or estates up in the hills as well. The weather was beautiful and the river cruise was a lot of fun, aside from being crowded. We got off the boat in the little town of Dümstein and spent a couple of hours there. The town was very old, like something out of a movie, almost idealic. I sat with some friends on a stone wall on the outside of a vineyard and talked and soaked up the sun. The weather was amazing all day. After sitting and talking to a while we decided to go explore a few of the shops, which mainly sold choclate and alcohol made in the town. I had some gellato with some friends and then six of us split a bottle of local red wine. I dont really like red wine, or wine in general, but I know enough to know that this wine was not very good. It was pretty weak and bland and had very little flavor. Then we all got back on the coach and came back to Vienna.

Today I woke up and went to Catholic mass at Augustinerkirche. I have never been to a mass before, but the Anglican church services I attended helped prepare me for what the mass would be like. Unfortunately all the spoken word was in German, and all the singing was in Latin or Greek, so I was pretty confused for most of the service. I tried to make the best out of the situation and turn my thoughts towards God and pray during the service, but I found my concentration to be fleeting. So I spent most of the service listening and wondering in my own thoughts. In some ways it was nice to be in a holy place and just have time to think, but in other ways I felt disrespectful because I wasnt submitting myself fully to worship. I am going to have to figure out what to do because the rest of the churches we go to probably will not speak English. Next time I think I will bring my Bible.

After church Ryan Z and I got a hot dog. In Vienna the street vendors sell hot dogs inside a bagette with katchup, and they are delicious. After that delicious lunch, which Katie would have loved, we went to the Albertina, which is another art museum. The museum had an exhibit called From Monet to Picasso, so I was excited to see some Monets and Picassos, but mostly Monets. We were a bit disappointed upon arrival to the museum. There were some Monets and Picassos, but there were a lot more works by other artists. I think the exhibit showed Monet´s style and Picasso´s style, and everything else that fell in between and was associated with the two. There were also some good impressionist paintings, especially some pieces by Paul Signac. I really like the neo-impressionist style, where they paint with little dots of individual colors. There were several works in this museum in which the painter employed this style that I enjoyed, but there were also some pieces that looked like they were done by a nine year old with a box of crayons. Maybe I am uneducated or shallow, but I dont like art work that looks like my cousin LT could make with his markers and colored pencils.

Anyway, one thing that Ryan Z and I were discussing about this semeter that we really enjoy is how often we move from city to city. I know earlier I said I am feeling a little tired of travling all the time, but it is really nice. It is like I always have something to be excited about, and when I start to feel content with a city, like I have seen a lot of the touristy things, I get to go to another city. I think I am beginning to understand why certain people in my life love to travel so much and the excitement associated with it.

Tomorrow we leave for Prague, which is in the Czech Republic. The trip is no where near as long as last Mondays journey and we should be in sometime in the afternoon. Supposedly the hotel we are staying in is top notch, so that should be fun. I think I am over my traveling sickness, but keep me in your prayers just in case, and also the safety of our group as we travel to a new city.

One thing I am really missing about being home right now is sports. I cant believe how exciting the world of sports is right now, and I am missing it. For one thing, the Rockies have a shot at making the playoffs. By tomorrow that excitment will either be fully realized, or completely dead. But in every year I can remember since the Rockies have been around, their playoff chances have been eliminated by, oh, sometime in July. This year it is coming down to the wire and I would love to be able to watch those games. Also, yesterday CU upset Number 3 ranked Oklahoma. I almost started screaming with excitement here in the internet cafe. There were no sports fans around me, so I restrained myself, but it seems like CU may be on the upswing.

That is all I have for now, I will try to post some more photos maybe from prague. Please keep me and the group I am with in your prayers. I miss you all.
Love and blessings,
Mikey