A few notes on ME!

Heading to Budapest later this afternoon (got any tips? Send 'em my way! I feel oddly certain that I'm going to love it best of this first month's cities) but a quick post before I roll out for the weekend. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm learning things About Me as well as About Vienna, and this is my first attempt to articulate a few of 'em. It's super navel-gazey and probably of interest only to myself! So I'm gonna start with a photo from earlier this week on a gray, rainy day in Vienna, and then after the jump we'll get into the Me Me Me stuff.

Just outside the Albertina on a dreary morning. Still pretty atmospheric and impressive!

Given the impetus for this trip, I obviously was going to be in a meditative, self-contemplating place. I’m kind of rebuilding myself, and between the new life circumstances and the new surroundings, well, there’s a lot to reconsider! Travel is good for that, and here are my early thoughts, sure to change as I start exploring more wide-ranging cultural environments.

1. I love the wander. I sort of knew this before – I’m not the biggest museum-hound, so while I’ll almost always check out a city’s symphony/opera/theatre/jazz scene by night, by day I am more prone to poke into bookshops, wander down alleys and seek out parks and public spaces. I’ve been accused (I’d say one-quarter affectionately) for only caring about where I eat when I’m on vacation, but really it’s much more the case that I like exploring cities to see how neighborhoods fit together, to get a feel for their tempi and dynamics, and to sort of test out what it might feel like to live in Portland, Prague, London, wherever.
2. I like to listen more than I like to talk. Even when I’m meeting up with friends on the road, or running into new acquaintances (sweet Ernst! swell Moe!) I’m almost always going to be driving the conversation by asking questions rather than telling my own stories. This goes beyond conversation, actually – I’m not philosophically opposed to selfies, but I don’t have the urge myself, nor is my instinct (usually) to insert myself into the frame when I see something weird or interesting. I don’t super need a photo of me holding up the Tower of Pisa. I want to capture what I see.
3. I’m really comfortable with quiet. I’ve thoroughly loved being mostly without the walking-around tunes and podcasts that underscored my last few years in Boston. It was a weird adjustment but I feel more connected to my surroundings and I find my brain likes the room to romp around like a dog at an off-leash park. (My brain is a Frenchie who thinks he is bigger than he is. He’s a real tough guy yes he issss.)
4. I love being active in the world. I hate gyms, although I’ve grown fond of my stationary bike as part of my morning routines back in the States. (It kept me sane through the ugly darkness of the first third of the year.) But nothing makes me happier than spending a full day on my feet, climbing the hills of Prague or riding a bike around the Ringstraße back in Vienna. The same’s true when I’m lucky enough to get to a lake – I love rowing, hiking, the whole nine yards. If there’s a sense of motion and exploration, I dig it! If it’s just me in a box trying to make myself better… what could be more booooring
5.  Elitism makes me an obnoxious crank. I love public spaces, public sculpture, architecture, history, places of worship, public buildings… and there are few things that actively disinterest me more than the interiors of e.g. Versailles or Schönbrunn. The concept of touring rooms decked out in opulent displays of wealth, that virtually nobody saw or used in the nineteenth century, rankles me for some weird reason. (I’ve also started to find that I feel this way about food – not that I’m averse to the high-art experiments of an Alinea, but on the road I would infinitely rather find a neighborhood café, würstelstand or food truck than follow the Michelin trail.)  Schönbrunn gets a half-pass, as the grounds have a long legacy of being open and free to the citizenry of Vienna (even if this was largely a “bread and circuses” maneuver). If tourist sights can teach us something about how life was lived by the many, I’m really into it. If it teaches us how a handful of wealthy or noble people lived… hard pass.
6. I am a deeply social creature. I actually learned this the hard way during comps year, finding myself in a bit of a depression as I convinced myself that I had to focus on my studies to the detriment of my friendships and relationships, but this trip has reinforced it in a more positive light. It's incredibly important to me to keep my sense of connection to people back home, whether through social media (its one and only good use, I think, is for long-distance friendshipping), email, postcards, skype calls... Particularly as my non-hostelling style of solo travel doesn't put me in contact with a TON of people, this becomes very important! (Conversely, when I do meet people like Ernst or Moe, it automatically becomes a week-highlight.)
7. I am best when off my computer and in the world. Touched on this earlier, but was reminded earlier this week: because my computer is a powerful link back to friends, it's tempting to spend too much time on it during these precious few months of exploration. When I remember to shut it down and get out into the world, I'm all the better for it! SPEAKING OF WHICH, GOODBYE FOR THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE