The first time that Jeff and I went to Vienna we traveled there by bus from the town in Moravia where we were working at a university earning $100 a month, the average wage in what was then Czechoslovakia. It was 1991, not long after the Velvet Revolution, and our eyes had adjusted to the monotone colors of the post-Communist world. (Olomouc's main square on the right.)
In Vienna, the shops full of fur coats, Rolex watches, and elaborate cakes dazzled us; the prices shocked us. By sheer chance, we had a care package from Nancy with us because we hadn't had time to bring it back to our dorm room before catching the bus. We cursed the bulkiness of the box as we tromped through Vienna looking for a hotel we could afford.
But we were so grateful for Nancy's care package on our last day there when we had hours to go before the bus home and not even a schilling left for the ladies' room. We had a poor man's picnic of peanut butter direct from America and the rolls we'd stuffed in our pockets from the breakfast buffet that morning.
We went back to Vienna several times after that and, as our income grew, we could appreciate the deliciousness of Demel's, the English language bookshops, and the joy of spending a cold day inside a cozy weinstube. With so many memories of Vienna wrapped up in our Czech experience, we had to stop there with Luke on our way to Prague.
Vienna still dazzles with opulence, clinging to the glory days of the Hapsburg Empire. But the city's musty imperialism is offset, at least to a small extent, by more pedestrian traditions.
On our way back from dinner and a leisurely stroll through the streets crowded with late night revelers, we stumbled upon modernVienna's more egalitarian sense of grandeur.
The State Opera house was putting on Anna Bolena, and to our delight, and that of a hundred others who didn't have tickets, there was a live simulcast of the performance for the passersby. We stood for a while and enjoyed the music and spectacle that didn't cost us a cent. Too bad they didn't do this back in '91.
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