Yesterday was Arbeitertag, May Day to everyone else, and the Social Democrat Party through a celebration all over town, most of which my friends and I got up too late to see. I did manage to hear the distant parade music while still being half-asleep in bed, and saw the remains of various socialist celebrations. Everything was red. We did indeed make it to the Fest at the Prater last night though. We got there to a strange British country-rockish band playing, trying to say things to the audience in German, and messing up some grammar in their songs. The Prater at night is insane. The thrill rides that look questionable during the day look even more questionable lit up with neon lights in the night, making you wonder why human beings want to do some of these things to themselves. I took approximately a hundred pictures of the Riesenrad at night, and they all came out lame. It is beyond impressive when it just looks like a circle of floating lights. We went on the smaller, more normal-sized ferris wheel, which still managed to freak me out with my fear of heights. I don't know what it is. Sometimes I am comfortable being up high, sometimes I am not. But it was perfect timing, because the fireworks started while we were on it, so we saw them from up in the air.
We ended up staying at the Prater for awhile and sitting in a restaurant/Biergarten called Schweizerhaus, making ourselves feel gross with beer and fries. But, a fun night. We went home tiredly before the transportation stopped.
Today was a journey into the Wienerwald, or the Vienna Woods, the huge forest that begins to the east of Vienna and continues into the Alps. I think it is the most gorgeous thing I have found since I've been abroad, and I was full of all the possible sappy pastoral sentiments all day long. But I really do want to live in a field or a mountain or somewhere with lots of flowers. We started out at the end of an U-Bahn line, took a bus up to the top of Kahlenberg (a foothill), and emerged at the top with a spectacular view, of which I took way too many photos. We could see the mountains in the distance and all of Vienna laid out before us. We picked a random path to hike back down through the woods, and were surrounded by trees for a good while until we emerged into a meadow and enjoyed watching a frantic dog run around for awhile. A bit further down, we started to see the vineyards. Vienna has its own vineyards and wineries on the edge of the city, and they were beautiful and reminded me of Italy. I want to live there, maybe. We eventually made it all the way back to the Donau (Danube) and then back into the city for an Austrian dinner of Knoblauchsuppe (my favorite Austrian food) and various types of Schnitzel.
We saw Into the Wild tonight, so my day went from GREAT INSPIRING NATURE to INSPIRING THEN TERRIFYING NATURE. My Lit and the Environment class talked about the story last year even though we didn't read it, so I knew most of what happened, but I apparently forgot the crucial, disturbing ending. But I think I kind of loved the movie and am a big sucker for nature and spirituality and cliche lessons learned from being alone in the wilderness...things every nature writer of all time has written about. I really want to read the book though, because Sean Penn seems to be an awkward director at times.
So,
FORESTS AND MOUNTAINS! YAY!
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