January 30: Visited with a 50 year old computer engineer whose contract had run out and he was looking at another job. He told me age discrimination is a fact-of-life in Austria and he was not optimistic about getting picked up by a company. He spoke of the fact that in America such discrimination would not be allowed and he would have the chance of some recourse. Also in visiting with some of Third World students it has become clear that in many cases they cannot get a good job in Austria, but they really don’t want to go back to their homeland for a variety of reasons. The big hope is getting hired by the United Nations bureaucracy. Jobs in the UN are the only way some of these “stateless” people will get ahead or be able to provide for themselves and their families at a higher level of income. Like any big city you see people begging on the streets. Somehow the socialist Viennese welfare network is not working.
January 31: Went to the Inner City to see about purchasing some opera and concert tickets. Visited the Augustiner Kirche and Michaeler Kirche. Walked through the Hofburg. On the way to eat lunch walked into a super CD store on the Graben filled only with classical music selections. I think you could by almost any piece by any classical composer here. Bought Mozart’s Requiem. We wanted to try Figlmüller’s for lunch at least once in our stay here. It was recommended by Professor Yoni A. as the place with the best Wienerschnitzel in town. I am no expert on Wienerschnitzel, but if this was the best, I had to try it. When our order arrived the Wienerschnitzel was about 10 inches in circumference! We also ordered the “gemischter Salat”—a mixed salad. The salad was superb, the best and biggest I can remember ever having in Austria or Germany. It actually was a variety of salads with an assortment of chopped lettuces, sliced carrots, potato salad (Austrian style), a kind of slaw, and cucumber marinated in some kind of garlic vinegar seasoning. If you need a “schnitzel-fix,” this is the place to go. On the walk back we stopped in a number of stores selling “Geschenke”—gifts, souvenirs, etc. Also we stopped in at Gerstner’s to take some torte home for dinner. I can’t say we have tried every torte, but the Gerstnertorte is really good—it is about 2 inches high and has 11 thin, alternating layers of chocolate and cake with its distinctive flavoring. Each slice is topped with a little chocolate “coin” with Gerstner engraved in gold. If it weren’t for the fact that a slice costs about $4, we would be back everyday. The web site on the package is www.gerstner.at – I need to check to see if they ship to the US! We also sampled the house torte which was superb as well. However, we have several dozen konditorei to visit yet. I had to be back by 5:30 to give a short address at the “chapel.” Also ordered a book from amazon.com.uk—evidently using Amazon in Great Britain is the cheapest way to get a book here. Will see how long it takes.
February 1:
February 2: Walked over to Graf Starhemberggasse to find the location of a concert we will be going to – I don’t like to try to find places when it is dark out. Walking back we stopped in at an organic bakery to buy some desserts for dinner tonight. Since we couldn’t buy everything we saw, we decided to get one slice of Kardinalschnitte because it looked good and a Dinkelgugelhupf because it was on sale—of course we had never tried either. Kardinalschnitte may become my all-time favorite. If you can imagine a slice about 3 ½-4 inches tall and 4 ½-5 inches wide and 1 ½ inches thick. The middle is about 1 ½ inches of “schlag” (pure cream whipped a bit denser than our whipped cream and obviously flavored) surrounded by a thin layer of raspberry gelatin. Around this mouth-watering concoction is about a ½ inch strudel-like crust. It cannot even compare to a stuffed éclair or Bismarck. Naturally, it is made entirely of organic ingredients! For the Dinkelgugelhupf imagine a very small bunt cake made of spelt, sesame seeds, honey, almonds, and some other ingredients. The bottom is dipped in chocolate. I am told that spelt is healthy for you–better than processed flour—the roughage is good for your colon and it certainly tastes better than Metamucil. It was a bit on the dry-side but very tasty with coffee. We have decided that if you are a diabetic, do not come to Vienna. We will be hitting this bakery again to try some of the other items we saw.
February 3: Because of the computer situation I have been going in more on the weekend to use the internet when no one is around (I have a key). Being able to get into the LU library databases has been very helpful. The library is very small and I can’t always find what I need with a google search. Took the underground down to the Albertina to see a special exhibition of Egon Shiele’s works. He died young in the flu epidemic of 1918 and was one of the new avant artists—his work tends to be very depressing. Also looked in a galerie with some Dürer prints and saw some of the old palace rooms with gilded woodwork and wood inlaid floors. Stopped in the museum and thought I had seen everything in museum kitsch, but for about $10 I could have bought a car air freshener fashioned to look like van Gogh’s severed ear. I know JW would have bought one for his car, maybe two or three even. Tonight we will be going to the Bösendorfer-Saal to hear the Manhattan String Quartet perform music by Schubert, Webern, and Beethoven compliments of the Cultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy. Bösendorfer-Saal is a neo-Romanesque hall with curved arches and a ceiling about 15 high. Bösendorfer is a famous piano manufacturer—supposedly the best in the world. At the end of February the hall will host an international piano competition which we may attend. It seats about 200-250. I would say there was about 200 people to hear the music and we managed to sit in the center about 6 rows back. Again, I have never experienced this kind of proximity to a noted group. There was a reception following and I was able to congratulate one of the violinists on an excellent performance in person. We like the embassy events because we don’t have to pay for the tickets! The news for the last several days has been dominated by the muslim protests against Denmark and the publication of the cartoon of Muhammad with atomic bombs in his turban. Tonight there were muslim protesters in London yelling “bomb Denmark.” I also heard an imam on TV saying that “friends of Christians” need to be punished. I don’t see secular Western Europe as particularly sympathetic to Christianity. I was visiting with an Austrian who was saying I shouldn’t expect Austrians to be friendly, but I told her I thought most of them were very nice to me. There have been one or two clerks that were not, but I felt I would have experienced this any place I was. The Austrian told me that Americans were generally well-liked but there were some other nationalities that were treated less kindly. Obviously as soon as I speak my American accented German they pick up where I am from and most react positively. There is hidden racism here—I am sure Africans and Middle Easterners don’t feel the same friendliness.
February 4:
February 5: Met a friend of my brother and went to International Chapel. It was much larger than other churches we had been to and everything was in English. The congregation was very international. The praise leader was an Englishman who cheers for Chelsea football (soccer). A gentleman who prayed was from Lebanon, I believe, and prayed in Arabic. It meets in the building which houses the international Christian school. Met a number of interesting people. A foreign national who is a Christian from a largely Muslim country who works for the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) gave a testimony. There has been a lot of coverage in Europe about the IAEA and what has been happening with the Iranians and their desire to develop advanced nuclear technologies which may lead to atomic weapons development. Anyway this fellow was in Iran as an IAEA inspector when all this was happening and faced problems with Iranian non-cooperation. It was very tense for him between calls back to Vienna and non-cooperation in Iran who wanted him to remove the seals. He mentioned praying Jeremiah 33:3 and Matthew 11:28 when he asked God what to do. I would never have imagined there was a Christian in the middle of all of this and a non-Western Christian at that. He also testified about being asked if he was a Christian in the Teheran airport and while he said he was one, he felt that he should have been bolder in his witness and asked that he would give a stronger testimony for Jesus next time. He also described the religious split in his own family.
Had lunch at the Hundertswasserhaus, designed by a hippie artist. The front of the building looks like something out of San Francisico. Can’t say the meal was worth the cost, although a member of the Manhattan String Quartet was eating at the table next to ours (neighborhood restaurants are still the best in my opinion). The conversation was very interesting. The arrival of missionaries into Bulgaria after the collapse of communism came up. The person was saying the Nazarenes (she didn’t know much about them) had a bigger impact than the Navigators. The Navigators came to focus on “friendship” evangelism as full-time missionaries, but people were suspicious of people who didn’t seem to work. The Nazarenes worked in agricultural development alongside Bulgarians and gained a lot of respect and a hearing. Also learned a lot more about the use of “bribery” in Austria to get things done.
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