This Beisl entry was written on Day 3 of Vienna, and it was more or less a summary of Day 2, which I'll relate now. I started off by leaving early in the morning in search of the Naschmarkt, or Vienna's main fruit & veggie market. It is south of Joshua's apartment, but I somehow made a wrong turn and ended up northeast of his place, in the 16th district of Vienna - a mostly foreign, working-class residential sort of district. I realized that I wasn't going to find the Naschmarkt here, and cut my walk short by cheating - I hopped on the subway in order to quickly find a café to satisfy my grumbling stomach. After arriving at the Naschmarkt, I walked through various stalls until I came to a canopied café and took a seat. I ordered a standard breakfast - 2 Semmel, or flat bread rolls, accompanied by butter and jam, a hard-boiled egg, and a drink of my choice, which, in this case, was a melange, or a coffee with foamed milk, similar to an Italian cappuccino. It hit the spot. Coffee in Vienna tastes full and strong, but not too overpowering. Drinking it is a great way to start one's day.
I wandered through the colorful market and picked up my gift for Joshua (purchased from a small Indian shop - a 'starter kit' to cook Indian food, consisting of moong daal, Basmati rice, and three spices: haldi (tumeric), laal mirchi (red cayenne pepper), and dhana (coriander powder). I decided to continue on to the Musikverein, Vienna's most famous concert hall. I had been advised to definitely listen to a concert there due to the unrivaled acoustics and sumptuous interior, and remembered that Leonidas Kavakos, one of my favorite living violinists, was to play a concerto with the Wiener Symphoniker (Vienna Symphony Orchestra) on the following night. I inquired about standing room tickets, which are only 5 € a piece. After finding out that they'd probably most certainly have them if I arrived one hour before the concert, I hopped on the subway to get to the Zentralfriedhof, or the main cemetery in Vienna.
I have had multiple experiences of randomly seeing people from my past at two different locations - Union Square in Manhattan, and Harvard Square in Cambridge. Never did I think that Wien Mitte would be another place where that would happened. Some months back, I played a completely disastrous gig in Augsburg in October with a small group of musicians in a church, where we performed Mendelssohn's oratrio Paulus (St. Paul). The conductor was a real incompetent mess, and we rehearsed hours on end miserably, with no end in sight. Flash back to Vienna, March 29th, 2011. I sat on the train towards the Zentralfriedhof, and when we got to the stop Wien Mitte, the cellist from the awful gig boarded my subway wagon and took a seat right next to me. She didn't look up at first, absorbed in her own thoughts, but then saw me, and was utterly surprised. I knew that she studied in Vienna, but I couldn't even remember her name, and would have never thought that in a city of 2 million people, she would plop down next to me on the subway! We both recognized each other, and conversed for about 30 seconds before she had to get off at the next stop. I still don't know her name, seeing as we were both stunned to see one another and had hardly any time to exchange any information except for where we were both headed. Unbelievable!
The Zentralfriedhof is quite extensive, with more than 2 million grave sites available for the whole city (more than enough). The famous composers are buried here: Brahms, Beethoven, Schubert, Glück, Schönberg, the entire Johann Strauss family, and many others (look here if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zentralfriedhof). The cemetery also holds many tombs of soldiers who died during the wars, and of the many Jews who also perished. I would have enjoyed my time there more had I entered through the correct gate, the main entrance at Gate 2 (Tor 2). I entered from Tor 11 and spent well over an hour wandering around in search of the dead composers with my heavy bag, and under the sun, which was quite strong by that point. I had no map because I hadn't entered from Tor 2, and the board maps on the actual cemetery grounds aren't terribly helpful if you have no idea how the cemetery is indeed laid out. The composers' graves are found on honorary plots (Ehrengräber) which I finally located after going in circles. I was happy to leave the cemetery. I actually really enjoy walking through cemeteries (I used to jog through one, high up in the mountains, when I spent a few summers in Aspen, Colorado), and while beautiful, this particular one is too big for my taste, if a person can have taste in cemetery layouts..
I decided to go to Schloss Schönbrunn afterwards. I mentioned the Schloss in an earlier blog entry as the summer residence of the royal Habsburg family, and it also served as the permanent residence of Empress Maria Theresia and her large family. Mozart made his royal Viennese debut for the Empress at this palace, and apparently jumped into her lap and kissed her after he played (according to letters from his father). I would have liked to see that scene! The palace is really beautiful, elegantly and meticulously decorated but not too over-the-top like Versailles. We were able to view about 40 from perhaps 1,000 rooms in the palace. The main draw, though, are the gorgeous gardens surrounding the palace, which are extensive. Unfortunately in early spring, not much is in bloom, so the trees resembled brown sticks with paper-bag-like appendages where dead brown leaves were still attached, but the weather was perfect, and so I took the opportunity to curl up on a bench and take a nap. There are various fountains (the Neptune Fountain is the most famous) and, and the garden includes a maze where members of court met for clandestine meetings, various botanic gardens, a Japanese Garden, a Palm House with palm tree exhibits, a desert house with desert vegetation exhibits, the world's oldest zoo, and the cherry on the already enormous sundae - the Gloriette, a pavilion-styled building atop a hill, overlooking the gardens, palace, and a lot of Vienna. Joggers zig-zagged through out the gardens and nearby wooded area, and families with rambunctious kids, punky looking teens, and even a group of Orthodox Jewish rabbis wandered through the lawns, enjoying the weather.
On my way back to Joshua's apartment via subway, I impulsively exited the train at Gumpendorfer Strasse and took a bus to a famous Viennese coffeehouse, Café Sperl. Located on the corner of a small square and the busy street of Gumpendorfer Strasse, it is decked out with billiard tables, old and dark wood panelling on the walls, a high ceiling, antique chandeliers, old carpeting, and furniture with upholstery that appears to have been smoked on quite a bit. It's a wonderful place to just sit and relax. I really like that the Viennese take so much time to just sit and do nothing but drink a coffee and stare into open space, or read the newspaper, or whatever one wants to do in order to lower blood pressure. Why don't we do that in the U.S.? I read later that Adolf Hitler used to frequent Sperl and get into heated political conversation with fellow coffee-drinkers. He once said that his six years in Vienna inspired the greatest transfiguration in his being because he arrived a weak person and left as a strong anti-Semite. I suppose that Sperl had something to do with his personal development in that it provided a place for him to be intellectually stimulated through intense conversation with other Viennese men about who ultimately gets to rule the world. I ordered a mocca, which I thought would be a hot chocolate of sorts, but ended up being something like an espresso doppio, and a slice of Sperl Torte, a delicious almondy-chocolatey cake.
I hurried back to Joshua's apartment and we headed out to meet up with his Polish-Canadian violinist friend, Karol. We went to Santo Spirito, an exquisite classical music-playing restaurant/bar. The menu was great (with vegetarian options!! I ordered a saffron risotto, along with a good Weizen beer, which is hard to come by in light-beer-drinking Vienna), and the classical music selections are definitely from someone who has a great ear for good recordings of masterpieces, not just the normal kitschy classical music selections that one often hears in restaurants. Basically, it's a great bar for a classical musician. We had a wonderful time, and headed back home where we immediately fell into our beds, quite exhausted but content from the full day.
1 comment:
Great view. Thank you so much Geeta !
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