{"id":28519,"date":"2018-09-22T12:59:35","date_gmt":"2018-09-22T16:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=28519"},"modified":"2018-09-22T12:59:35","modified_gmt":"2018-09-22T16:59:35","slug":"september-22-2018-the-hazards-of-vienna-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=28519","title":{"rendered":"September 22, 2018 – The Hazards of Vienna City"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m tired.<\/p>\n

And not just physically but emotionally and spiritually.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t slept much though which isn\u2019t helping and is contributing to all three facets of exhaustion.<\/p>\n

In my early 20s I stayed in a hostel in Paris.\u00a0 To use the shower, you had to push a button, a kind of automatic faucet button, that would stream water from the showerhead for a set amount of time \u2013 maybe 45 seconds.\u00a0 Basically you had to keep pressing the button to rinse, lather, repeat.\u00a0 It was sometime after the third push that I made a silent vow not to stay in hostels anymore.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m in my 20s!\u201d I thought.\u00a0 \u201cI really need to grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve broken that vow only a few times in the ensuing decades, perhaps most notably in Stockholm when I feared the bunk bed would collapse and crush me in the night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m tempted to make a similar vow about AirBNBs.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m in my 40s!\u201d I\u2019m thinking.\u00a0 \u201cI really need to grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just the shower in the kitchen \u2013 that was in the listing.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not necessarily Momo the dog living in the place \u2013 again, he’s in the listing.\u00a0 But what wasn\u2019t clear was that my bed at this AirBNB would normally be that dog\u2019s bed; there was therefore a daily territorial fight for control that rivaled any fight for covers with a loved one.\u00a0 The dog\u2019s gonna win in the end since he sheds and even when he\u2019s not taking up the bed, he kinda is, ya know?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I think more than anything though it\u2019s that I awoke this morning tired.\u00a0 More tired than usual.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had a lingering sense of defeat and resignation but this morning was much more of the crisis of conscience and place and being, a psychological and emotional white flag raised.<\/p>\n

So what better time to go see the Sigmund Freud museum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I gather the museum is in a shared space, housed as it is in Dr. Freud\u2019s former residence\/office.\u00a0 To enter, you have to buzz to be let into the main building, much as a patient would have done to see the doctor in its heyday.\u00a0 I had already skimmed the reviews of the place and decided it was more a somewhat dusty and word-heavy experience (shocking, I know) and I viewed it more as a curiosity than a necessity.\u00a0 Plus, I\u2019ve been overspending on certain aspects of this trip (transport and meals have been more than I had budgeted to be honest), and so I\u2019m cutting museums en masse as I\u2019m not really in the mood.\u00a0 Besides, in my current state of mind I thought lying down on Freud\u2019s couch could either be cleansing or cataclysmically awful\u2026 and I am much more of a mal vivant than a bon so\u2026.<\/p>\n

Some tourists were baffled about how to enter the place as I was there and I told them about the buzzer they needed to press.\u00a0 I consider that my good deed of the day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I also went to see St. Stephen\u2019s Cathedral, one of the typical Vienna \u201cMust Sees!\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s in the now commercialized city center known as Stephansplatz \u2013 there\u2019s plenty of high end shopping, Starbucks, and souvenir shops nearby.\u00a0 But back in the mid-1300s it was THE church of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Inside the church.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I don’t know if below is supposed to be the Pope, Donald Trump, or a really poorly done Paul Newman…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I circled back to hang out in Sigmund Freud Park to people watch, read a few chapters of Great Expectations, and this being Freud, daydream.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Across the way is the Votivkirche, a 19th<\/sup> Century gothic church built to give thanks for Emperor Franz Joseph surviving an assassination attempt in 1853.\u00a0 Would the same could have been said for Franz Ferdinand in 1914.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In any case, I wasn\u2019t sure if it was a sign of the financial strain that should rightly be placed on the church due to its repugnant and ongoing abuse scandals, or if it was just as part of a thank you for funding restoration efforts, but I did find it funny to see NASCAR style endorsement deals displayed prominently on this \u201chouse of the lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Votivkirche, brought to you by Breitling.\u00a0 \u201cBreitling: It\u2019s Time\u2026 To Talk To God!\u201d\u00a0 And by Bling Bling.\u00a0 \u201cBling Bling \u2013 Say a Prayer and Scratch Your Way to Lotto Heaven!\u201d<\/p>\n

Stay classy, church.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

A few more architectural marvels to post here \u2013 The Hofburg Theater and an ornate building that I guess usually fronts an ice skating rink but right now there\u2019s a circus in town.\u00a0 I\u2019ve tried searching for the name of the building but I got nothing.\u00a0 I feel like such a clown.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After sitting in a park flipping through the misadventures of Pip in Great Expectations<\/em>, a book I\u2019m kinda hating, I noticed on my map that I wasn\u2019t too far from the National Parliament building.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t believe I hadn\u2019t seen it before in all of my walkabouts\u2026 turns out I had, I just didn\u2019t realize it.\u00a0 It\u2019s under MAJOR renovation, so much so that it looks to me like they\u2019ve put up temporary trailers akin to a solution to overcrowded classrooms in US schools.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the prettiest Parliament building I\u2019ve ever seen\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I also wandered over to the Heldenplatz to take in a number of sumptuous buildings, from the Austrian National Library to the Imperial Armory.\u00a0 Most of these, if not all of these, are museums or research facilities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hey, so the armory is a little, I don’t know, violence oriented.\u00a0 Can we family it up a bit?\u00a0 How about those angelic cherubs we got lying around?\u00a0 Let’s use those.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As I made my way back to my AirDogHouse, I made a few random detours to sights and statues.<\/p>\n

I like to think this statue is called, “Go away, kid.\u00a0 You’re bothering me.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

When you see a sign for Time Travel Vienna… you go check it out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Though I have no idea what 5D is.\u00a0 Height, width, depth, time, and… smell?\u00a0 Maybe it’s plague.\u00a0 If you haven’t been recently, you haven’t been — The All New Plague Pit!<\/p>\n

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***<\/p>\n

If I told you the coffee here was dreamy, how would that make you feel?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Ladies and Gentlemen… a horse’s ass.\u00a0 Also a statue in the background.\u00a0 ZING!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Salieri killed him.\u00a0 Is that what Mozart looks like?\u00a0 I’m askew,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Street Sign game — this parking lot allows trailers, motorbikes, and vehicles up to 1.9M.\u00a0 What does it prohibit?\u00a0 Um… bombs falling or leaking into a car?\u00a0 I have no idea what that’s trying to tell me.<\/p>\n

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***<\/p>\n

That is a man’s head in some sort of steel waterfall thing…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

I\u2019m prepping for my 6 AM train to Wachau tomorrow to run.\u00a0 Maybe some endorphins will help my mood and outlook.\u00a0 I had hoped this trip to Europe would provide a reset or epiphany breakthrough for me.\u00a0 Walking in the steps of Freud today, I think I was dreaming.<\/p>\n

As for nightmares \u2013 I\u2019ve run a lot of races.\u00a0 I have never seen a race timing chip like this.\u00a0 I spent the last ten minutes trying to get it on my shoe.\u00a0 It shouldn\u2019t be this hard but I just couldn\u2019t seem to thread my laces through the plastic notches.\u00a0 It\u2019s worse than trying to pull one of those plastic bags open at the grocery store.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I am now and always have been a poor excuse for an adult.<\/p>\n

I really need to grow up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m tired. And not just physically but emotionally and spiritually.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t slept much though which isn\u2019t helping and is contributing to all three facets of exhaustion. In my early 20s I stayed in a hostel in Paris.\u00a0 To use the shower, you had to push a button, a kind of automatic faucet button, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}