I’m listening to The Merry-Go-Round of Life right now,
which always leaves me with a profound sense of being alive & actually being on this planet. Vienna was
spectacularly beautiful & has somehow managed to wrangle its way into a
special place in my heart. I didn’t expect to be so enchanted by the city
before I arrived there & now listening to this music, I can’t help but
think of it all over again.
Winding our way down to the
catacombs I was struck by the eeriness of what we were doing: heading
underneath the earth to gawk at death, to amuse ourselves with it. There was a
simple dignity to the mummies & even the bits and pieces of bones down
there in the musky church cellar. Just by the virtue of being the remains of
the once living, they engendered a peculiar sort of respect from me. They might
have been monsters in their own lives, they might have been saints, perhaps
they were simply human, but I couldn’t help but admire them for the lives I
imagined they lived. And for the knowledge they passed down. I always feel that
way when I think about societies in days gone by. Maybe it’s strange, and
perhaps I’m making no sense at all (maybe these are the ramblings of an
absolute, over-emotional imbecile) but when I think of the past & the
humans in it, I am filled with a profound sense of thankfulness to them for the
knowledge they have given to us. Without the past and those who inhabited it,
we are nothing.
Alas, life is for the living & I
guess we really did live in the short while we were in Vienna! We got to watch
the Spanish Horses parade in front of us in the arena, nip nimbly here and
there, and be general show offs. A great, gleaming chandelier hangs from the
ceiling, and you can see the gallery where royals of days gone by were seated.
It’s all so regal, but also smells a little. Well, I guess we were there to see
horses.
Dr. Wasser put on a fantastic
disguise and led us around Vienna as Plague Doctor, mask and all. In those long
beaks they used to stuff all sorts of herbs to ward of the smell of the patients.
Supposedly they might have also lit incense in there. I suppose it adds to the
creepiness. We passed down side streets and sampled ‘remedies’ from days gone
by (I will never look at Almdudler the same again) & stared around a
magnificent Austrian lecture hall. It was truly a feast for the eyes: frescos
clung to the ceiling and gazing down from them were the faces of physicians, of
scientists, of philosophers (all looking rather fabulous I might add, with a
few angels thrown in for good measure). I don’t imagine I’d be able to pay
attention to a lecture if I ever had the privilege of attending one in that
room!
Oof. I’m not even through the first
couple of days. Maybe not even through the first. There’s so much more to
Vienna that I want to say… I can’t wait to return to that wonderful city.
With love & joy,
Ashleigh xoxox
PS. School. Well it’s going pretty well,
preparing for exams has been predictably stressful and I haven’t been doing as
well as I would have liked, but I’ll just have to try harder I suppose. (No, try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
–Yoda, the little green guy probably has a point.)
No comments:
Post a Comment