Or, "Soccer Fever" (US)/"Football Fever" (UK and other places)
When I was planning my trip during the school year, I knew I wanted to spend a little bit longer in Vienna so found an apartment for two weeks. Apparently I was fortunate to find something, since the weekend I arrived was the Final for Euro2008 European Cup. Austria and Switzerland co-hosted the matches with the final game in Vienna.
(The Germany-Turkey game had been in Berne, Switzerland. Interestingly, they transmitted from there to the headquarters in Vienna and then around the world. A power failure in Vienna interrupted the broadcast, but ZDF (the German station carrying the game) quickly made arrangements to receive the broadcast directly from Switzerland. Apparently the Swiss channel was the only one that had thought to have a backup just in case.)
The whole city was full of people here for the game, with of course Germans and Spaniards predominating, but with people from most of the EU countries. I'm glad I didn't wind up in a hotel. Instead I got an apartment with kitchenette and living room/bedroom (toilet en suite). It isn't luxurious but it is pleasant. The only bad thing is that it is just above a restaurant and U-Bahn (subway) station - so I have the choice of either getting fresh air or having quiet. Most of the time I keep the windows open (no air conditioning) until I go to bed. Then I shut the windows and turn on the fan. Since they are double windows the noise is truly negligible.
So I arrived at Vienna International Airport, breezed through formalities since I was coming from a Schwengen country (the name of the agreement that allows free movement among EU countries), caught the S-Bahn (commuter train), switched to the U-Bahn, and stepped out of the elevator from the U-Bahn station directly in front of the house where the apartment is. I spoke with the owner's mother, who took me up to the apartment. (Both the restaurant downstairs and several apartments in the building are owned by a family.) By this time it was late, so I settled in and went to bed.
On Sunday I had breakfast at the restaurant and spoke with Frau Walkner about arrangements for my stay. In addition to the apartment I have access to laundry facilites on the same floor. Actually, the washer and dryer are in what used to be the Water Closet on the landing. The key rests atop the fire extinguisher. Laundry in Europe takes significantly longer than in the US. The wash takes about an hour, but that means the clothes are cleaner. Drying takes a long time, too. I had to be careful about the dryer, though. If a dryer in the US had gotten clothes that hot for that long and left them that wet, I would think it was broken. Of course this dryer doesn't have a drain, so water collects in a plastic container that you then have to empty into the former wash basin on the landing. But I didn't do laundry until a day or so later.
In the meantime I went off exploring.
On Sunday everything revolved around the game in the evening. I walked around the Ring (a broad avenue that follows the line of the old city wall. The old fortifications were torn down, and the road was built between 1857 and 1865 under Emperor Franz Joseph I. This was a period of "historicism" in building, so everything is monumental but in a range of styles: Italian Renaissance, Classical, Gothic, Neo-classsical, etc. The Ringstrasse itself is just over 4km long, but with a variety of side trips to different places just outside the Ring and an excursion into the center, I'm sure I covered a lot more ground than that on foot.
Vienna is divided into "Bezirke" or administrative units that spiral out from the city. Everything inside the Ringstrasse is I ("One"). Just to the east across the Danube canal is Leopoldstadt, Bezirk II. That's where my apartment is located, perhaps 1km from the Franz-Josefs-Kai which is part of the Ring. The other suburbs are numbered in a clockwise fashion around the Innenstadt (Inner City). Numbers II through IX touch on the Ring at some point. After that, the higher the number the further the area is from the center, up to 23. It isn't entirely regular and the Bezirke are of different sizes, but it's an effective system and gives you a good idea of where you are once you know the numbers.
So anyway, I walked from the apartment, across the Reichsbruecke to Schwedenplatz. Then I started around the ring. Along the way I saw Urania (the city's first observatory, now used as a youth center), the Postsparkasse (Postal Savings Bank) in Art Nouveau Style (called Jugendstil in Germany and Secession in Vienna - don't confuse it with Art Deco), the Museum of Applied Art and the City Park with its statue of the Waltz King Johann Strauss Jr., before arriving at Opernplatz. The square beside the opera house was one of the centers of partying. There was a bus from German that was playing lots of music, and people were singing and dancing and shouting slogans. Sometimes supporters of Spain would walk or drive by (I saw one car full of people dressed like matadors), and then there would be friendly yelling back and forth. Several groups of fans started little soccer matches in the square. Basically, it was just a big party.
From just northwest of Opernplatz the whole street was blocked off for the Fan Zone. This was just a blocked off area where fans could go to party, relax, eat and drink, and watch the game. I went in and looked around for a little bit but then continued my stroll around the Ring.
Once through the Fan Zone I made my way eventually back to the Franz-Josefs-Kai and Schwedenplatz. On the edge of Schwedenplatz is a memorial to victims of Fascism (the Nazi regime in Austria), a reminder of a time when the relationships among European nations weren't quite so friendly. Then I re-crossed the Reichsbruecke and returned to the apartment. There I settled in and watched the game on TV. For those of you who might have missed it, Spain won 1:0. Of course, for me this was a great pairing, since I have ties to both countries (I teach German and I got an MA in Spanish in Madrid). Spain simply outplayed Germany and deserved to win. It was a great game.
I'll let you know about more sightseeing in a later post. Until then, moege der Herr Euch segnen.
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