Vienna Again-a

We left the mask exhibit to stroll throughout Vienna. The city is very historic and majestic! Sculptures, statues, fountains, courtyards, squares, city buildings, museums, and palaces were all a sight to behold! The weather was beautiful - sunny with blue skies - and we plodded along the cobblestone and brick streets to the sound of horses pulling carriages and crowds of people. We sat on the edge of a large marble fountain with an extraordinary sculpture above it, and ate the sandwiches we had packed from the hostel.


























Cheese Sandwich




MICHAEL!!!


After the mask exhibit and lunch in Vienna, we looked for the music museum called Haus der Musik. I had been greatly anticiating checking out this museum because we read it was very interactive - visitors could compose their own musc using interactive stations and create "brain ochestras" and so forth. It sounded very elaborate, creative, and high -tech. Unfortunately, it turned out to be none of the above, save for the "high - tech." We were both highly disappointed at the museum's simplicity and lack of information. It was very over-the-top in its presentation but honestly there was no substance. It looked like the museum cost millions to put together - it was very flashy - but it was seriously meant for five yr. olds...There were a lot of interactive presentations about sound, but they didn't explain very much...just often mentioned how your brain is "tricked" into picking up sounds without exactly explaining what that "trick" is. The "composition" game was comprised of squishy dice that you roll and depending where it lands a device reads the dice and assigns a particular phrase in a certain key so that you and the other player can essentially write a duet. Although the concept isn't such a bad idea, the phrases were very limited and the players before us "composed" practically the same song that Jack and I did due to this. I guess I was hoping for a) a bit more creativity and b) the opportunity to use my brain and musical skills a bit...

We spent a significant amount of time in the museum as it was very large and there was indeed a lot to see. For how huge it was, however, I only learned a few things, but they are interesting:
1) white noise is actually the sound of every sine wave at once
2) the human auditory region relies on electro-chemical activity in order for us to hear (i didn't realize there was a chemical involved as well). But of course the museum didn't bother to further explain this..
3) The human ear can only hear the range of 2,000-18,000 Htz.
4) In the noisy room we were in at the time, my hearing could only pick up as high as 14,250 htz.

One impressive looking room of the museum had tentacle-like coils spiraling out of the walls in all directions with showerhead-looking speakers on the ends. It all looked quite impressive, but when we stepped closer we noticed that out of one speaker emitted a farting noise and out of another the sound of someone clearing his throat. These noises were labeled, as though they needed explaining. Every speaker emitted a sound and it created quite a cacophony, but there really wasn't anything much to gain from the scene. That kind of sums up the Haus der Musik for ya. I'm sure they were attempting to explain the relationship of your position amongst sound waves but since there was no explanation, the room was meaningless.

That evening we stocked up at a grocery store and ate bolgna, salami, and cheese sandwiches on the stoop of a closed store. We were in a very classy neighborhood and I think we may have stuck out like sore ones but we didn't feel uncomfortable in the least. We killed some time by wandering aruond the streets before we caught our train. We found a jazz club called Porgy N' Bess but the show cost money and we wouldn't have been able to stay through its entirety.








Oh I forgot to mention that earlier, between lunch and finding the Haus Der Musik, we wandered around these streets and shops. Jack was very interestd in an antique shop and ended up buying out the shopkeeper's entire coin collection! It was an added 10 lbs of metal to his backpack but he was EXTREMELY excited about it! He bought an old Austrian newspaper from March of 1945 that he was also mad about. Over dinner sandwiches he decided to give the paper to Chris Lison for this birthday when we see him in Muhlhaussen. He says Chris is a history buff, is excited about the topic of WWII, and loves puting his hands on old relics.

That night we travelled to Berlin. It turns out that all the sleeper cars only have 2nd class in them and it is an extra 50 euro for us to get a bed. So we slept in coach and pulled out all the chairs to form 3 small beds. Unfortunately two other people joined our cabin so Jack and I had to sleep mostly on top of each other. Although uncomfrotable, it was nice to lie flat (unlike on the way to Budapest) and we did get a fair amouhnt of sleep. We were refreshed for a long day of trekking around Berlin. The two other Germans in our car were Zara, who was very sociable and smiled and laughed a great deal, and Markus who was quiet and more reserved, but very polite.