Edrie

Travel Day 2 Equipment, Family and Sightseeing

Friday:

I awoke at 6 but lay in bed for a long time thinking over the two days before and not quite wanting to get out of bed and start the day. I knew today would be busy as I was warned that we would be going to the music store to buy some equipment and then going sight seeing. We got ready fairly leisurely and ate very little. By 9am it was time for Sz, S, M and I to take the tram to the pharmacy Sz�s dad owns to meet T for the ride out to the music store. I had no idea the drive would be so long. T had mentioned that he had wanted to get back to the store by noon and it was almost 10:30 by the time we got out there. Sz�s father was there to meet us and S, T and Sz�s dad reviewed the choices for some time. Sz and I talked with her mom who had also come along for the ride.
It took quite a while but they were finally set and as T bought the equipment S, Sz and I went next door to a little pancake house to eat breakfast. Sz and I had warms buns with butter, marmalade and honey. I had hot cocoa and she had tea. S had eggs and bacon with coke light. SZ went with her parents to their home to get some things she had left there. T told us we would pick up M (who we had dropped at another store earlier) and we would go into the city. Some cell phone conversation between the music store and picking up M had us suddenly going to Sz�s parents home to pick her up.
Their house is on the outskirts of Vienna in a beautiful area. It is very large and old and made of massive stone. The inside is cool and moist and smells of courthouses and libraries. There is almost no describing the contents of the house. Think perhaps of an eccentric aunt who has lived in her house since she was born and now she is the only one left of thirteen and all of her stuff plus all of the memories of her siblings fill the house to the seems. This house is much like that but the theme is even more interesting. Sz�s father collects owls so many fill his study walls and shelves. His study, which is on the first floor, consists of two rooms paneled ion mahogany and darkened by velvet curtains. There are several rooms and floors, all of which are interesting and homey. S and I were able to check our email and I was able to send a quick message to family and friends letting them know we were safe and enjoying ourselves. Like all parents Sz�s mom sent us off packing eggs and ham and an assortment of food items meant to fortify us the next morning.
T drove S and Sz and I back into the city and dropped us off near the center at a museum of medical history called the Josaphinum. This museum is quiet out of the way but it was well worth the visit. We got there at 1:30 and the museum closed at two but it was plenty of time to see the impressive wax figures highlighting all and parts of the human body. . There was a whole wing devoted to these wax sculptures and the detail was both gory and fascinating.
From there Sz took us first by tram then by U to Stephensdom, which is a huge cathedral in the center of Vienna. The platz was warm and sunny shining on the hair and heads of the thousands of people, tourists mostly, who filled the square. There were many caped Austrians offering tours but we bypassed these people and the living statues and headed straight for the doors. I made a small donation of 1.5 euros as we entered. The inside was very large and dark and equally filled with tourists. There were candles for offer off to the right and a huge alter way in the front. Sz showed us the staircase with the frogs carved into the railing. They had long since been covered with a protective plastic case, but when she was a child she remembers touching them and wondering at their smoothness. We walked around the entire cathedral on the inside and repeated that on the outside as well. Parked next to the cathedral was a double row of hors draw carriages down one its entire length. I felt sorry for the poor animals who must have had to stand there for hours on a slow tourist day.
From the cathedral we went down an uncrowned side street to a caf� Sue hung out in as a teen. The atmosphere was much the same as the neighborhood bar we ate in the night before. It was dark and paneled and locals of all levels sat and drank and smoked. S light up a cigarette and we all ordered coffee. Sz and I had ours with whipped cream and sugar. S had what turned out to be the biggest double espresso in existence. It was a nice quiet break from the crowd and renewed us enough to then go out and search for the ubiquitous Kaueserkreiner which we found from a stand not far from the cathedral.
Ubiquitous though they might be, those cheese filled hot dogs could be a staple of my existence. I have tasted nothing so cheese and gooey and filled with yummy spices as that humble dog. We walked down the pedestrian mall where I bought a few required gifts and then headed for home on the U.
We ended up missing our stop and hopped what we thought was the next train back, but turned out to be a different line. Un daunted we rode that one to another one where I got to see the funky building all decked out in tile and copper that is the towns garbage and recycling center. It is famous for being so ugly but I found it whimsical and cool and I was glad we had missed out stop. We got of the U to catch the tram but were one stop too far so we figured out where the Tram we wanted was and walked to it stopping for gelato on the way.
Exhausted we were back at the apartment at 5:30 pm hoping to rest up until M�s birthday party, which was to being at 8. S napped while I read a book for class called �I, The Divine�. The book was totally engrossing. I sat under the open window listening to the sounds of Vienna reclining in a chair. I stayed that way until 7:30pm when I woke S up. We were expecting Sz to come down any minute and announce our departure for her sister�s party. It wasn�t until 8:30 that Sz arrived and her brother T and the rest of us did a set up and sound check of the new equipment. We then loaded everything into the car and went to the party ready to serenade M with the sounds of a little RobotZen. It was to be our first show in Europe and it was at a club called The Blue Tomato. The club was on a tiny side street in the 9th district. Catering mostly to a college age crowd. The club had a few rooms but we were to play in the far back room. We set up quickly letting the DJ know what we needed as to sound etc. We had to plug in using guitar cables instead of the regular cables so the direct boxes were out. Sz�s whole family was there and the show went very well. They asked for encore after encore until we ran out of songs.
T and Sz took the equipment, and us back to the apartment where we went right to bed to be able to get up at 6am in order to go on the Slovakian leg of our Eastern Block tour.