Museum Crawl!

Last night was the 'lange Nacht der Museen'/ long night of the museums. Basically, almost every museum in the whole country (Austria, if you weren't paying attention) opens its doors from 6pm to 1am, and you can buy a ticket to as many museums as you want to visit for a measly €11... This is a BRILLIANT IDEA. There was a real festival atmosphere as parents and children wandered around from museum to museum, and combined with the natural beauty of the city and the bright full moon it was really a special feeling evening.

First museum was the clock museum of Vienna, and there isn't much I can really say other than it contained a vast number of incredible clocks, varying in size from beautiful pocket watches with tiny miniature paintings (the best I think) to huge astronomical clocks recording more things than I even knew could be measured. Other clocks were just stupidly ornate or included weird extra details like the clock that played a different tune (waltz, polka etc) for every single hour.

We then aimed for the Mozarthaus (my companion being a musician) but were distracted while lost and found the Schottenstift Museum. This appears to be a museum connected with a nearby monastery, originally founded in the 12th century. I had no idea what to expect in this place, and really, despite an overlying religious theme, there didn't really seem to be any definite rules on hat was included. Highlights were endless incredible 16th century paintings, a big set of panels of the life of christ from the middle ages, and the amazing wooden flooring of the museum itself, including one room floored with a 3 tone diamond pattern that made it look like a wall of cubes. Also cool were decrees on parchment or vellum written in 1200-odd, very odd to see something in handwriting from that time, and then to imagine it being handed over and read.

Next was the Mozarthaus. Parts of this were rather dissapointing, very little in the exhibition about Mozart and his time was actually directly related to him. The magical thing was finally reaching the floor of Mozart's flat, and looking out the window at exactly the same views he looked at while composing 6 pages of original genius music a day, or giving concerts to his contemporaries etc etc. The manuscripts of things he had composed were interesting as well, the rough, rushed appearance of each individual note really brought home how composers write in music like authors write in sentences.

A brief break for a fast food dinner led to my discovery of an originally Hungarian food called the langos (lAHNgosh according to wikipedia), a deep fried flat bread spread with a garlic sauce. Warm, terribly unhealthy and completely worth it. I am sad it has not taken the world by storm because it is probably one of the tastiest fast foods I have ever eaten.

Next we visited the Schatzkammer, the treasury of Austria through its various incarnations as kingdom, empire, seat of the Holy Roman Emperor, etc. This place was stunning, there was seemingly no end to the gold and jewellery on show. There were crowns (one from the 8th century) worn by every King imaginable, christening and coronation gowns, Knight's robes, dazzling reliquaries, preposterously large jewels (one emerald was over 2500 carats) ancient swords and spears, a cabinet for the storage of the keys to the coffins of the ruling line, chalices galore, and several purported pieces and nails of the true cross. Far from being jaded by the constant stream of unbeatable artisanship, I was just more and more impressed at the sheer power represented by the collection. You could probably spend a good half hour staring at and learning about any one of the things in that plac,and I may be forced to return.

After a brief chocolate grape break we ended the night at the Albertina, one of the many art galleries in Vienna. This one is a modern art gallery mainly I think, and we only had time to see the new Impressionist exhibition. As so often happens in the case of exhibitions, I was left with a much greater impression (haha) of these paintings than could ever be conveyed by a book. Seemingly wrong or impossible colours up close coalesce into perfect depictions of light glancing off skin or walls. Huge brush strokes somehow convey every detail of rippling water. Every important artist of the period was represented. I count myself lucky that I am able (at least nowadays) to visit an art gallery and to truly enjoy myself, exclaiming in happiness when I find a new amazing picture, always wanting to stare for hours at the current painting while running off to look at the next. It seems that these artists like Monet, Manet, Toulouse Lautrec et al are renowned because they made really, REALLY good paintings. Who would have thought it?!

Everywhere should have this as a tradition. One of the best evenings I have ever spent doing anything. Great atmosphere, great art, great history.

Today I went to a traditional Heuriger, tavern like places on the outskirts of Vienna where people gather to drink the new wine of the season. Maybe not mature, but sweet, alcoholic and delicious, and full of great people. I actually managed to speak German quite a bit tonight (with the aide of educational tool number wine), and I have the encouraging feeling that at least where it comes to german german, I may be making some progress.

I feel like I have dumped poor old London for this glamourous new girl Vienna, poor London, we had a good thing going for 2 whole years, and now I'm dallying araound with this new more beautifulcity. It can never last, right? But whatever, Vienna is much better even than I expected. I am very glad to be here.