The "cultural experience"...

On Wednesday I wrote a post and then accidentally deleted it all. It was late, I was tired--so I copped out and just posted a photo from my afternoon walk to Facebook. Now that it’s actively snowing out but promises to be beautiful tomorrow, I’m having a lazy morning/early afternoon of coffee, laundry, and blogging.

It’s tradition in my family to create nicknames or new terms for travel experiences: “Temples, Tidbits, and Tipples” in Japan, “Bikers and Buddhists” in the upper Midwest (long story), and the dreaded/hoped for “cultural experience.” As you can see, there are bonus points for alliteration. So in keeping with that tradition, I inaugurated “Museum Mittwoch.” How handy that the alliterative day of the week in German can be Wednesday instead of Monday, when many museums (and other businesses during winter, I’ve found) are often closed. This seasonal pattern of closing/opening might reach the level of “cultural experience” but it’s something I’ve long sinced learned to expect, so it doesn’t really capture the “oops, well…” quality of a true cultural experience. Rather than terming something an “accident,” “mistake,” “faux pas,” or in one case “near death experience,” calling it a “cultural experience” captures more of what it really is to the open minded. We learn more about each other from such misunderstandings and misalignments, provided there’s no ill intent or real harm done, than we do from many intentional experiences. 

Which brings me to the whole reason for Museum Mittwoch… “halb zehn” is half an hour before ten, not half past. Oops. Thankfully, this was not my first day at the archive, and so not a first impression. But it was still embarassing. So I apologized profusely in both languages and indicated in German that it was fine if I had to now wait until the archivist returned from her meetings, I would just go to the museum. The upshot of all of this, besides the pictures below, was that I learned some German rules and that the archivist has proven to be kind about the whole thing. She clarifys each time she mentions a time but has not switched to English on me, even though she can. She is patient and encouraging with my slow German and I’ve learned as much from her as I have from the materials so far. I will definitely be getting her a gift of some kind before I leave.

My gift to myself that day was the Museum der Modern (which sits directly above the archives on the Mönschberg) and has the most amazing restaurant, M24. Oh, and some amazing views.

The view from lunch at M24 (also, going for lunch definitely the right choice... dinner would bankrupt me).

The collection? So lala, but the space was incredible, as was the post-lunch stroll across the other side of the mountain, where I could see the Alps, which had been shrouded in clouds until that afternoon.

The "back side" of the Festung Hohensalzburg (as in on the far side of the Monschberg from the Altstadt).

 And then I found this lovely Linden tree, almost as if I were in the middle of a Schubert Lied.

And then here was the explanation... some middle school students planted this in 1931.

And I was much revived when I returned to the research. I’m pretty sure this mid-week jaunt is what gave me the energy to keep working the rest of the week. Once in Vienna, Museum Mittwoch will be a handy way to decompress after my seminar. Speaking of that, more on what I now know of Viennese students next time...