WEIN

I arrived late last night in Vienna. It was good to get out of Germany. I know to most readers this seems like an abrupt jump, but my job with the horses did not play out as planned, (what is this Plan?) and due to visa considerations and fascist conditions, I made my leave. On Tuesday, I will go to Paris for a job interview which so far seems like it will be a little more my style and allot for some MUCH needed creative time rather than ride-eat-sleep-repeat.



But back to Wien… My dear friend Florian picked me up at the airport and then we went and had a drink. Well, I had a drink, as he does not imbibe. How good and blessed to have the sights and smells and other signs of a city! He was an elegant host, and today an equally accommodating cityguide. How good it was to be in a bar! Libations completely aside, I felt as if I was a real person again, amongst other people, living and seeing and speaking. (It also has proved true that I should under no circumstances speak any of the German I learned in a barn…) How true that we are herd animals! Community- even just proximity- is good and necessary, and I value it more than I ever have; what a silly girl I have been to damn such a gift! Times of solitude of course can be productive, and the ability to be alone is much neglected in most, I observe; but I do not think after my month in Groß Wittensee that either should be served in reactionary proportions. One must find a balance. So far, my less than 24 hours in Vienna have done wonders to repay the debt of humanity I was in. Other than being in a city, and in a room full of strangers- glorious, dirty, silly people!- I had a bath in a real bathtub, a proper dinner, and sleep that was relaxed but not out of sheer exhaustion. This morning, we walked through the fleamarket, another grace, and into the city center. I saw St. Stephen’s cathedral (finally!), the infamous Spanish Riding School (finally!), and had a bit of brunch (espresso, rolls with butter, and soft-boiled eggs) in an old artist’s café. (It filled with tourists around noon, and so we left. Germans, nonetheless!) We walked and walked. It was brilliant. It was also nice to see and hear some of the lesser-know treasures of a city filled with so many strange and wonderful things. Vienna is surely a place for the truly bizarre- it is not explicit or obvious, but the tone is calm and ancient and resourceful, inspirational for its plethora of the High arts, dark and bountiful in its mysteries.

In the end, Vienna left me charmed and feeling myself again, or if ever. Nights of long dinners with the thespians and the painters, film men and melancholy ladies, were each a special joy- rare, secluded- that included me utterly. It is brilliant to find a home such as this in the world, even from such a distance. The Viennese as a people are very cultured, dignified, friendly, not even so abrasive when they are being rude. Good will is the general glance of the street, and the city, despite its age and tragedies survived, is sentient as well. I would think of staying there, I was surprisingly comfortable.