Everything here has been so busy these past few days. I've successfully finished my second Tudor Essay and while I feel relieved to have finished, I really like what I focused on and enjoyed the research for the essay. I argued that early Tudor court poets intentionally used ambiguity and hidden meaning in their writing in the wake of the 1534 Treason Act, a law created by Henry VIII (As he grew increasingly ill and tyrannical) that promised execution to any who committed treason by words, a law defined by calling the monarch an heretic, schismatic or any other demeaning word taken to mean one is plotting to overthrow the King.
I'm working now on my American Poetry close-reading analysis essay which is going smoothly.
Before writing this final Vienna post, I want to share that the weather here in St. Andrews has been gorgeous. British Summertime (or Daylight Savings Time) began on Sunday and the extended daylight until 8pm is wonderful. I've gone on beach walks in the evening the past three days.
The East Coast of Scotland.
Alright. Back to Vienna.
We had hoped to attend Mass on Sunday morning in a large Cathedral given by a
Cardinal, but slept later that we expected and I took it gladly as I knew I
would need to wake up at five the following morning for my flight. We explored the city more
on Sunday including a large special exhibit in a museum on glassware and décor
of the Habsburgs. The exhibit had opened in the Kunstkammer Museum only on
March 1st and was very popular. I think we were in the exhibit for
three hours as there was so much to see.
The museum was beautiful!
Lydia and I from afar.
Later, we explored a large cemetery on the outskirts of Vienna which is Europe's largest cemetary with over 3 million burials. We were there at dusk and the cemetery would lock at 6 so we were pretty quick, spending only fifteen or twenty minutes as none of us wanted to stay the night. We spent much of the short visit in the Jewish section as Lydia (who speaks Hebrew among her many languages) translated the headstones.
Right before entering the cemetery, we saw we had crossed out of Vienna (or Wien in German). Austria has a sense of unincorporated towns and no-man's-land I hadn't experienced before.
Vienna at night.
That evening we ate traditional weinershnitzel which was
quite delicious. I was a bit fearful as I had never ate veal and continued to
think of it as a baby cow, but it was pretty good. Weinerschnitzel is fried
veal with a potato salad of sorts and a side of cranberry sauce. The potato
salad was a bit different, although tasty with sliced potatoes in a vinegar soup with rocket (arugula) on top.
My flight back to London Monday morning was
adventurous. I had planned to just take a taxi from the hostel to the airport as
my flight departed before 8am, and I didn’t want Lydia or Kristin to have to
wake up, and I wasn’t comfortable taking the German transport by myself as I
had yet to grip the language or airport route. Lydia kindly offered to
accompany me though, and we were off on the 5:30am bus from our hostel to the
city center. I had planned to be at the airport around 6:30 and figured we would have plenty of time and the 5:30 bus was the first of the morning.
Snowy morning before boarding the bus.
We took two subway trains once in the city center before arriving at the airport bus where
Lydia and I said goodbye. It was snowing heavily that morning, and the airport
bus was set to leave at 6:10. I was a bit nervous as it appeared it wouldn’t
arrive at the airport until 6:55 and my flight closed boarding at 7:25. I had
my ticket printed and had checked in the previous day online but knew I would need to
get through security. I didn't fear any language issues as I knew the airport would have English signs and I made sure I was calm, listened to my iPod, and although
I desperately did not want to miss my flight to London, I knew it was early enough that I would find a flight
to London that day if something went wrong. The bus ride was long. The driver
spoke only German and Lydia helped me pay and communicate with the driver as I boarded. I sat near the front and the snow was heavy all along the
highway. When we arrived at the airport a minute or two past seven, I was
prepared to jump into action. I found the departures sign once I entered the
airport, and jogged there and up a long staircase passing a large Japanese tour group. I saw my gate
ahead and in order to approach it my passport needed to receive a ‘Vienna’ stamp by a waiting attendant. Once I approached the gate and realized what great time I had made, I realized I had never gone through or seen security anywhere. ‘Would they let me on the
flight?’ ‘How did I do that?’ ‘Does central Europe not believe in security?’ 'Maybe I can just tell them I'm not dangerous at all' I
thought to myself. Once I neared my gate, I found each gate had a tiny,
individual security area where one had their boarding pass checked. My snow
boots were already half off when I noticed no one else had taken off boots or
jackets and the sole Austrian security guard responded with a slow and drawn out ‘Maybe’ when I quickly asked if my
boots should be off. I boarded my British Airways flight with no issues at all besides a snowy runway.
Later in the flight I considered
offering my complimentary salami breakfast to the two Austrian men beside me
who had both enjoyed theirs but decided against it when I found them both deeply involved in Austrian newspapers. About three hours later, the arrival in London was exciting. It was beyond
wonderful to be back in a society where I could read, speak and be understood,
but certainly progressing slowly through the UK border patrol and the strict and enormous security check before boarding my flight to Edinburgh made me think
back to Vienna. :)
I was so pleased I chose to spend a week in central
Europe and saw and explored destinations I had never seen before. It all was so
valuable and just a wonderful experience.
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