Vienna: parting thoughts

After the jump, some thoughts on Vienna - a city I still feel I haven't gotten under the surface of even after two monthlong summer visits, but a swell ol' spot in her own right.

Oh just a collection of canes and walking sticks at this gorgeous shop in the city centre that sells fabrics and arranges for meetings with bespoke tailors and no you're the one who was daydreaming about a more affluent and bespoke lifestyle it was you all along.

Oh, but first, a video: scored to the song that underscored a lot of last summer here and came back to me as I left it this summer. A song whose meaning has shifted a ton in the year and a half since a friend first sent it to me!

So. As I keep suggesting here, I still haven't gotten as deep into Vienna as I'd like to. I'm sure there are good ways to find the younger/less mainstream bits of town (tours, a greater affinity for going into bars and chatting up strangers, not working on a dissertation most of the time) but I was most glad on this trip to have gone to an art/craft festival at Ottakringer Brewery my first weekend there. It was like a breath of fresh air: street food, tons of local artists and craftspeople showing off the cool work they do. This is the kind of thing I need to remember to go to more often when I'm back home, as it makes me outrageously happy to be around that kind of creativity and energy.

As always, street art hits me right where I live and makes me glad to be alive and around

That said, Vienna to some extent has the same problem Boston has for me, which is that it's associated with a pretty tough chapter in my life, and that I'm almost always in worky, less-fun-than-I-like-to-be mode when I'm there. This is fine! I don't need life to be a party all the time. But it does mean that, for budgetary and scheduling and focus reasons, I just don't have as rich or wide an appreciation of the city as I do other spots, even places I've spent less time, or places where I've also been working full-time.

It is genuinely and seriously surprising to me how many statues the Habsburgs commissioned that convey the aesthetic idea "I don't know how to handle this horse, this horse is crazy why did we even buy this horse"

As a rule, I try to assume that when I don't feel like I "get" a city that it's my fault; any sizable city has millions of people who live there, many of whom enjoy living there, and all of whom find a way to make it work for them. But there's also that thing of knowing yourself and your own truth, and the truth is that Boston and Vienna both are just not my kind of city. They both have glorious histories that can at times make it hard to find the cutting-edge nowness of them (though surely that exists in both), they're both expensive in a way that makes innovation harder (weirdly evident in both cities' food scenes), and they are both totally gorgeous and relaxing and idyllic in their own ways that mean that when people tell me they love Vienna or they love Boston, I genuinely get it. They're not for me, but they are for many, and that's fine for everyone. Hooray for self-knowledge and embracing the things that matter most to you!

Oh, and the last week I was in Vienna I caught a cold whose cough didn't go away for over a week, so you know: external factors may have played a role too.

Up next: a city I found idyllic and wonderful! Ljubljana, in Slovenia, a country which - while allowing for my tendency to be most excited about where I've been most recently - I just told a good friend would 100% be my regular vacation destination if I lived in Europe. Food, culture, friendly small-town style sociability, and much more in the days to come!