Past to Present

My first few weeks in Vienna have passed and I am already halfway in love with this city. It’s just big enough for me, the right mixture of cultures and ethicities, pompous without being too pretentious. On my first weekend here, I took advantage of the free entry at the Vienna museum/ Wien Museum and went to see the exibithions with the lovely Emily, an Erasmus student I met through couchsurfing. It’s quite a big museum with a number of different floors that feature different exibithions. It was very interesting to have a look at Vienna throughout the Middle Ages. It made me think about the unique position that comes with Austria being situated in deep in the centre of Europe and the resulting history with the surrounding states.

In times like these, with the European idea under duress, questioned like it is right now, it’s scary to think of borders being re-erected, given Europe’s volatile past. The Vienesse are aware of that too, especially with the upcoming repeat of the presidential elections and the tension that comes with it. The city itself however seems quite open to me, a mix of cultures and i’ve been enjoying that a lot. It might not quite be up there with my favourite places yet but Vienna is certainly on its way there as I keep discovering more of it.  

In vein with that, the museum also had a temporary exbithion called 'Chapeau!' that is all about hats and other head coverings and their role in culture, society and religion. I really recommend checking it out as it is very fascinating to see how much different headpieces tie in with societal status and the expression of political beliefs, especially in a city that has long been one of the hot spots of the hat industry.

I’ve also added Ai Weiwei’s exibithion to my Vienna bucket list and I’m very much looking forward to seeing that in the next few days.