14 November 2009

One Perspective

You know the old story about three blind men describing an elephant? One touches the trunk and declares an elephant is just like a snake. The second blind man bumps against the elephant's side and says this animal is most like a wall, while the third, grabbing hold of a leg, proclaims the elephant to be exactly like a tree.

After a lovely day out with The Hub, I often think if we each produced a blog post based on our impressions of the day, most people wouldn't be able to tell we were talking about the same outing.

All of which is neither here nor there, just me ruminating. Now, let us revisit last Saturday. The Hub had a rare day with no work obligations so we headed out and decided to explore Leopoldstadt, district 2 of Vienna. (Here is where Chris would insert a handy map showing Vienna's districts along with a link to some interesting facts about the neighborhood, but I am neither helpful nor informative so tough crackers.)

Instead I will tell you that I saw a man wearing a hat just like this (my stealth-photo did not come out well.) It was pretty cool. Much to my delight we had stumbled upon a Hasidim neighborhood. I find them strangely fascinating, kinda like the Amish. Exotic but stand-offish. And with funny hats.

Also we explored a cool park, whose name I forgot and refuse to look up for you. It had these lovely long tree lined allées, quiet except for the crunch of leaves as people strolled along.

Elsewhere in the park there was movement of a decidedly more active nature. The place fairly bristled with joggers. Here I am standing in their way, eating fries. That's how I roll.

You're probably noticing that giant tower in the background, there were two of them in the park. All looming, abandoned and spooky. It's a crumbling Nazi relic that shot down planes and housed troops and had tunnels and stuff. It's called a flakturm and if this were Chris's post he'd tell ya all about them and post the photos we took.

I am going to show you this toilet instead, because it was also spooky (though not looming). The photo hardly does it justice but it was the steepest, deepest toilet I've ever seen. With a hole at the bottom that looked like it led to the center of the earth. Flakturm connection? Only Chris would know a fact like that.




And the final highlight of the day: stumbling across a rally, fund-raiser, festival thingy. It seemed to be about preventing something being built (or maybe trying to get something built) and it was hot mulled wine, hippy folk and gypsy band. All in all, a good day.


I wonder what Chris's day was like?

-k.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

For some reason that toilet reminded me of the terrifying electric teapot (and the suspicious hole in the ceiling) of my room in Galway. I think all of these portals lead to the same place: dark, dank, (asthma-inducing) hell.

Another great post, Shirl.

xo NYC Shirl

~Tessa~Scoffs said...

I love that you eat fries in front of the joggers. Could you go up in the looming castle thingys? Looks like were the local teens would hang out and drink beer and spray paint their names. Do teens do that in Europe?

Kelly said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kelly said...

European teens drink a lovely smoky tempranillo, smoke clove cigarettes and their graffiti resembles the early abstract expressionist period. Just like their American counterparts.