David Andrew Jaffe's Blog, page 24

The “American” Experience, Part 5: We Conquered Vienna

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For those who don’t know, I spent about two years freelance writing for a travel website. I wrote probably a couple of hundred articles all about tourist sites in Vienna.

Of course, there’s nothing exceptional about this… except for the fact that I had never been to Vienna in my entire life. Anything and everything I wrote about was a combination of research and my wonderful college education, where I learned how to write about any topic… regardless of whether it interested me or I knew all that much about it.

Finally in Vienna

This has been a running joke in my life for years now. But sadly, it’s time to put the joke behind me. I can no longer say I’ve never been to Vienna. That’s right. We came, we saw… we heard lots of accordions.

It’s an odd thing to learn so much about a city without ever seeing the place. Many times I imagined what my trip there would look like.

I knew it wasn’t exactly the perfect city for me. I’m more of an activity person. Or an unusual attractions person. Vienna seemed to me to be all about castles. We come to Vienna to see how the uber-wealthy of long ago lived. Not my cup of tea, but I see how it can be appealing to some.

So I imagined myself hanging out in the Museum of Torture, being awed by the Apple Strudel Show, riding on the largest Ferris Wheel in the world, and swiftly skating on the largest ice–skating rink (more likely falling all over the place). But, alas, Vienna’s a fairly big city (and not so cheap either). We had one day to make it count… and we were weighed down by really awful jetlag-induced exhaustion.

Vienna’s Parks… and Butterflies

One of the nicest parts of Vienna is the lovely parks everywhere you go. Each one is filled with gardens and sculptures. There’s obviously great care to keep the city attractive. Sadly, there’s also a heck of a lot of graffiti. I assume the youth of Vienna don’t appreciate the beautiful city they live in (a big contrast to Brussels).

Our first stop was the butterfly conservatory. This was an adorable mini-forest with pretty little creatures fluttering all over the place. Very cute and extremely visually stimulating. And it would actually be quite relaxing… if it weren’t for the school trip that day, replete with tons of tiny germ monsters running all over the place. But still a bit relaxing.

Full disclosure: I proposed onstage after one of my wife’s performances; however, my second choice was right here with the butterflies. I’ve known about Devorah’s love of butterflies for some time now, and had this nice mental picture of a whole lot of butterflies gathering to form the words “Marry Me”. I don’t know if it would have been anywhere near possible. But I still love the idea.

I now hand it over to some loyal reader. Steal away. My guess is if you could make it happen, it would go over quite well.

The Belvedere and The Kiss

Anyhow, from there we trekked along to the Belvedere to visit an art museum that was essentially all formed around its central feature: Klimt’s The Kiss.

However, before you even step into the museum, you can experience probably its best part. The gardens that surround the museum were outstanding. It kind of felt like my dream backyard… sans the maintenance. The view around the Belvedere was as fun as it was amazing to gaze upon.

The museum was quite lovely. And it’s always a pleasure to see in person artwork that you had up to that point only seen on screens or in books. It was truly a privilege.

The Nap

Unfortunately, at that point in our travel adventure, the jetlag and extremely lackluster airplane sleep started catching up with us. While wandering the museum, we stumbled upon some cozy-looking chairs… and passed out right there in the middle of the museum hallway. I’ll forever remember the face of the girl sitting near us who giggled like a child when I woke myself up with my snoring.

The museum, lovely.

The Kiss, as extraordinary as you might imagine.

The nap?

Priceless.

And with newfound vigor, and limited time left, we set out to continue our Vienna adventure.

St. Stephen’s Cathedral

And off we were to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, located in the heart and soul of Vienna.

The cathedral itself was remarkable. The building was enormous, yet every inch was itself a work of art. The pillars, the ceiling, the seats, the windows, absolutely everything was done with care and precision. The total package was outstanding and absolutely worth a visit.

The cathedral was located in the center of the city, so we finally got to feel like real tourists, going into shops and sticking out like a sore thumb.

And even though we were short on time, we made that time count. We saw really cool stores, horses with funny hats, random sculptures at every turn, and, of course, someone playing the accordion with a horse mask on their head.

Vienna: The Review

Vienna, you are a great city. You’ve successfully combined beauty and interest, with the perfect little hint of weird to round out a special place.

So, all in all, Vienna, albeit a bit pricey and quite chilly, was a very nice experience. We barely scratched the surface and it’s definitely a spot I would revisit. Hell, I still need to make it to the Museum of Torture.

If you like horses all over the place, accordion music in the background everywhere you go, just a lovely hint of weird, and a whole lot of large, impressive buildings, Vienna is the city for you. I’d recommend coming well-rested, with a solid plan for what you want you to do, a whole lot of cash, and a really solid working knowledge of how to use the train system.

With that, you’ll enjoy good ole Vienna all that much more.

And now… we return to normal life once again.

Vacation. Done.

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The American Experience, Part 4: New York, Family, Pizza, and More!

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Wrapping up my American Adventure, I want to talk about a few odds and ends of the New York portion of our journey.

I miss America. I really do. When I moved to Israel twenty years ago, I really didn’t appreciate the place. And now as an adult, I’ve come to realize America really has a whole lot of positives to talk about.

Imperfect America

That being said, it certainly is not perfect at all. Yeah, everyone who looks at the USA from the outside has the classic complaints. Why is tax not already factored in before you make your purchase? How come you don’t find out what you need to pay until you get to the checkout counter?

Why do we need to tip for every single thing we do? Don’t people actually get paid for their jobs?

And why the heck do public bathroom stalls have a gap in the door!?

These and several other oddities of America come up frequently for visitors from afar. But I want to talk about a couple of other things.

Dehydrating America

I felt dehydrated from start to finish of my trip. I think it was due to a couple of reasons. Everything I ate must have been filled to the brim with salt. It felt like every morsel that touched my mouth required a bottle of water to go along with it. Furthermore, everywhere we went was artificially heated way past my comfort level, and it seemed to dry out the air.

This artificial heat made things uncomfortable in another way for me. It was freezing outside, but one would never know indoors in the African jungle heat I experienced everywhere. But it was bitterly cold outside, and that contrast made the cold feel even colder. Every time I stepped out of a building I felt like I was transported into some Alaskan portal. The cold attacked, and it really didn’t feel good.

So my American Experience was ever so slightly dented by dehydration and bitter and very noticeable cold… but was nonetheless absolutely amazing.

The Family Expands

The word that really summarizes the most important part of our trip is “family”.

It still shocks me that we were married for an entire year before my wife met my brothers. But thus is life. My brothers live as far as possible from my parents… but at least in the same country. I’m an ocean away from everyone. I miss my family all the time, and I couldn’t be happier that we finally achieved this huge milestone.

I’ve often thought you cannot truly know or understand your spouse without getting to know the family with whom they grew up. So, in essence, for this entire year my wife was lacking a great deal of understanding of who I am. Well, they have most certainly met now. And like so many other parts of this trip, we are closer because of it.

And like my family does so expertly, they let Devorah know with no uncertainty that she is 100% a member of their family.

Family Bonding

And Devorah also got to bond with my brothers in the perfect way. One of Staten Island’s finest escape rooms was blessed with our presence and our mighty minds hard at work. And once again we conquered our challenge with a glorious four minutes left to spare, some great memories, and a family a bit more united than it was an hour prior.

New York Requirements

Now, my New York City experience always has two requirements to be considered “complete”.

New York Pizza

First, I need to score myself a slice of New York pizza. Since leaving New York I have had to deal with over two decades of occasionally eating pizza just because I want pizza, not because I actually like the pizza I’m eating. It’s supremely important to me that when I’m in the neighborhood, I remind myself how pizza is supposed to taste.

And to be sure, the slice I ate did not disappoint.

I am hardly a New York snob. If anything, I don’t like it anywhere near as much as I used to. However, when it comes to pizza, I am a full-blown New York pizza snob. And damn proud.

Broadway: Come From Away

My second New York City requirement is to see a Broadway musical. And see one we did!

We saw a show called Come From Away, which tells the tale of the countless airplanes that were not allowed into American airspace for several days on and after 9/11. They were rerouted to a small town in Newfoundland, where the locals took in their guests and made them feel welcome. During this time the town’s population was nearly doubled!

It’s been way too long since I’ve been blessed to make it to a Broadway show, and I almost forgot how incomparably amazing it is. Jerusalem is not exactly the theater capital of the world, and even though I do occasionally make it out to see something here or there, it’s hard not to feel like there’s a bit of a void.

The Broadway Void

When you see a show on Broadway, you are overwhelmed with sights and sounds. The professionalism and talent are unmatched. And you just sit there mesmerized with awe from start to finish. Even if you don’t love the show you see, it’s hard not to appreciate the quality of the performance.

I am ecstatic to have broken my way-too-long stretch of not seeing a show. Now I can say confidently, I had a proper and incredible New York City experience.

The New York I Remember?

However, New York City isn’t the place I remember. When I was younger it felt like New York was the home of everything great in this world. It was just an endless sea of what to do. And to some extent, there’s still a bit of truth to that. We visited the Disney Store and the Hershey Store and an amazing costume shop and saw street performers flipping all over the place.

It was the spectacular spot I recall from my youth.

But New York for me as an adult feels like an endless hunt for a bathroom. No, not in the panic-inducing Harrisburg sense. Just a wild hop from McDonald’s (eww) to Starbucks (long lines and dirty looks).

New York’s still an adventure… I’m just getting old…

And now off to finish our journey in greener pastures. Vienna, here we come!

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The post The American Experience, Part 4: New York, Family, Pizza, and More! is featured at Jaffe World.