"...the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls..." -- Paul Simon

 

I became aware of Paul Simon's great song about the same time I was reading "Paper Lion" -- the George Plimpton account of his time in training camp with the Detroit Lions. Plimpton's book came out in 1966 and "Sounds Of Silence" in 1965, so they both actually took place about the same time. I would have been 11 or 12, depending, so highly impressionable. Simon wrote about subway walls and tenement halls, which were alien to me in suburban Dallas, while Plimpton's book often referred to the late Alex Karras -- a Lions player at the time. Karras said his life had various episodes separated by airplane flights -- something I also didn't know at the time. But since then I have understood both quite well. These days it seems our daily episodes are separated by subway rides as pictured here.

(Denise gave me a justifiable but only slight hard time this evening about how I digress in conversation. There is always a set then a subset then a subsubset etc so I can extend a simple point for an hour with various stories and asides until I soon forget the point of the original story. This can be adorable or fucking frustrating, often at the same time, for both teller and listener. I do not apologize.)

Anyway, our trip here started with getting from Point A near our apartment to Point B across half this historic city to Stephansplatz and the other great areas we should see and have seen. Or least some of them. It's midsummer and it's hot and it's a grossly overdue tourist season and we're waiting on a lot of these until after Labor Day when tourism slacks and most of the locals are back from vacation. I have seen a half-dozen places just around here with signs saying basically, "Sorry! On vacation for a week/month!" Good for them. We'll catch up later.

For now we're filling in the gaps between the points. It's a five-stop ride from here to the Inner City, so now we're stopping and exploring at each of the stops we used to just cruise by. It's called Being A Local and it's why we're doing things like we are. We're finding florists and small tobacco spots and dollar stores and corner groceries and the other places any neighborhood has anywhere. Today I actually helped a tourist (in German) make sure she was on the right subway. I can bitch in the grocery line about slow service and roll my eyes with local contempt at people, well.... like me. As long as I don't open my American mouth for too long, I'm good. Frankly I think I'll get a much worse reception in England.

The local public transportation is the subway, bus and tram system. You simply figure out where things are going, get on and go. BUT...

It is not free. You pay for it by the ride, by the day, by the month (like us) or whatever. It appears people just hop on and off but there are monitors and they will ask for a ticket and if you don't have one they will write a pricey citation and will publicly humiliate you. In our case, it's $18/mo per person and I keep the tickets at the ready. We have not been asked yet, but it's only a matter of time. But the idea of paying a third of a tank of gas (or less, depending on what you drive) to go ANYWHERE YOU WANT IN THE CITY FOR A MONTH is simply lost on most of the US. Less than a half-dozen cities in the US have that kind of operation and it costs way more. We're too far gone as a country to think we can create more. Cars and guns are how we measure our freedom, so there ya go. A shame.

Oh and here's something else...

I took this picture tonight in the park across the street. Denise and I went over there to just enjoy a 75-degree evening with a nice breeze and finish our drinks and actually have a smoke and watch folks walk by. A couple of things to note...

1) This was taken at nearly 10:30 at night. The park was reasonably busy, including some children. There were walkers, a couple of joggers and some dog folks.

2) Crime was not a major concern. Not that crime doesn't happen here (I noted this morning a womens shelter nearby). But this park is well lighted and active even at such a late hour. There were women walking together and moms with daughters. 

3) The only bugs were juvenile houseflies. No. Mosquitoes.

One of our topics of discussion this evening was whether we miss the US and we agreed we do not. I have a new grandchild I want to see and there are of course other family and friends but, as far as a place to actually wake up and do stuff, we're entirely happy here. Not that it's paradise. Austria has one of the lowest COVID vaccination rates in Europe and was the site of loud protests at the height of the pandemic. While historic and gorgeous, its apartment complexes (like ours) are largely ugly and Soviet-like. The cuisine, aside from a few items, is boring and not particularly healthy. I get tired of lugging groceries when it would be easier to just toss them in the car and pull into a driveway to unload.

...but for each downside, so far, we are seeing at least one up or more. I realize we're early in our adventure and we have many steps to go in this year abroad. We'll continue to cruise and observe and communicate. it's why we're here.

The words of the prophets are indeed literally on the subway walls here. And everywhere else. This part of the world is covered in graffiti and most of it is ugly and seems pointless. At least to me. 

But since when did I make the damn rules?