kunsthaus hundertwasser

My good friend Erica, who works in the Embassy's Public Affairs Dept., gets invited to fun events through her job. She got invited to a photography exhibit at Kunsthaus Hundertwasser and was allowed a guest so she chose me. :) In my German class last year, someone did a presentation over this art museum so I had heard a lot of great things about it. I told Erica I would meet her at Schwedenplatz at 6:50 and walk there together (the exhibit event began at 7:00).



I left my house at 6:20, because I had to go by bus and U-bahn to get to Schwedenplatz. I didn't want to be late, so I was really frustrated when the bus was delayed a few minutes. That meant that I would probably miss the subway and have to wait 7 minutes, and I had strategically planned this to meet Erica right on time. I ran to the U-bahn station (in heels) only to see my subway leaving.



I got on the next one, which left 7 minutes later and I was about to call Erica and tell her I was running late, when the doors opened and Erica walked onto the subway. Vienna is huge and the odds that we would be on the same subway (let alone the same compartment of the subway) were slim. It ended up being perfect that we were on the subway together because the subway broke down... This is so unusual for Austria. In fact, I kept thinking, "Are we in Italy??". If I had taken the earlier subway, I would have made it to Schwedenplatz on time, Erica would have been stuck on the broken down subway (the delay time in total was 1 hour) and we wouldn't have been able to go together.



We had to get off 5 stops early and walk a long way (again, in heels). Erica kept saying she felt like we were on a hike, because Vienna has become atrotiously hot, yet again, so we were sweating and probably looked pretty dissheveled by the time we arrived. Also, Erica had to stop to get a bottle of water during our "hike." Twice.



We finally made it to the Kunsthaus at 8:00. We had to be at a dinner at 8:30, though, so we literally stayed at the Kunsthaus 17 minutes and then took the tram to dinner (where we arrived 30 minutes late). The Kunsthaus was nice, though, and it would be worth visiting again, we decided. They have a really pretty restaurant there and since the featured photographer had Mexican roots, they had live Mexican music and it reminded me a lot of San Antonio.



Vienna is so big and I feel like it will be impossible for me to truly know it by the time my internship is over. As we were walking to the Kunsthaus, we realized that we were in a completely foreign area (and a really nice one at that). I keep making a mental list of all the places I want to explore here....there just isn't enough time!

Apparently, working 40 hours a week is slightly different than studying abroad, where you have zero responsibilities and go to class for an hour in the afternoons. Go figure.