the Heurige

3.08.12 So that didn't happen. Instead the day plan was a city bus tour with doctor O. Getting to class that morning however, a few of us got off on Westbahnhof and hopped a different U. While looking for the correct path from there, an elderly Austrian helped show us the way. He led us up to a Strassenbahn, so instead we rode from the Parliament down to Operngasse. It is interesting that he and several other Austrians have the same reaction when I tell them I'm from California: they shout "Schwarzenegger!" while flexing their muscles, then laugh. Getting through class is a matter of what Kathy calls "chronological whiplash", as we moved from Roman times to the 1300's within 2 hours. We may have glossed over some important details. After class, before the bus tour began we hopped over to the Schatzkammer (some of us being a group of 16 or so). Again I was flabbergasted. The displays of wealth these royals had. The Einkührn Schwert struck me as a sword straight out of Lord of the Rings. Without the Einkürhn how can we beat back the forces of Mordor? I'm not sure how valid the claim is as to the loincloth of Christ, John te Baptist's tooth, or the tablecloth of the Last Supper, but if those are real they should have been the centerpiece of the entire museum. I also found a bit of iriony in a gold and jewel-encrusted Gospels book. The message of piety must not have been an important one. The bus tour was incredible, Dr. O is a great tour guide. It's too bad we didn't go into the Belvedere, but we will at a later point. Hundert-Wasser House was another fantastic place, an evidence of what one can do with simple imagination and a grant for building. It's sad that someone inevitably asks if he were on drugs, it is apparent that this was designed out of joy and it is a testament to the power the unaided human brain can obtain/contain. There were many other spots but I will skip ahead now to the heurige. My German Literature professor at UCSC, Loisa Nygaard, advised me to study in Austria because Austria "is a wine culture, and wine generally leads to more intelligent conversation than beer." Never habing been around a group drinking wine before, I believe she is right. Many more people were discussing philosophy, history, science, religion, and theory than I would have expected. I like the schism between those who feel that certain theories are perfected methods of understanding, and those who feel that each theory is merely a different lens through which to see the world, as each lens leads to different colors and illuminations. Further, the theory and goal in physics every physicist is after is the unified theory of everything, which is so far unattainable and unfathomable, but it is a theory that every branch of discovery, be it literature, history, philosophy, music, or science, clamor for without discussing it. Perhaps someday a unified theory will exist, and the next motion will be understanding the connection between science, art, religion, and humanity. The return home was hilarious, as our class entire was lost in the middle of a farm road. Along the way were different signs in German depicting history of the region, and with my budding skills of German I was unable to decipher them and did not want to hold anybody up because of such. Therefor I am very impressed and happy with how gung-ho Kathy is about everything, to stop the group and read about the plague wiping out the town, or how one year the wine was so bad from the region that the Kaiser ordered it all to be used in the mixing of mortar.