So I got on the subway, switched to another subway, and then got off at the stop that leads to the neighborhood where I took my "Deutsch im Park" lessons. From there, I took the first streetcar I could find. My idea was, if I saw something interesting I'd jump off...if not, I'd just ride to the end of the line and find another streetcar.
Which I did. When the first streetcar came to the end of its run, I got off and walked around until I found more streetcar tracks. I followed them until I came to a stop. That streetcar came, I got on, and rode it to the end of its run, which was Hietzing. Schönbrunn Palace is located in this district, and I passed it as we drove along. As usual, it was thick with tourist buses. No, thanks.
Waiting at that stop for the next streetcar, I took my only picture of the day:
Sometimes life's noises get to be a bit too much.
So I rode the next streetcar to the end of the line, then stayed on for the trip back. Along the way, a first-ever experience for me in Vienna: the streetcar was stopped at a light, and when I looked out the window, I saw somebody I knew! It was one of the teachers from the "Deutsch im Park" lessons. You can only exit the streetcars at the designated stops, not when they're stopped at a light, so I couldn't jump out and say hello. The odds of spotting someone you know in a city of 1.7 million people, when you hardly know anyone, are pretty slim.
I rode to the Westbahnhof. There's a cool old coffeehouse nearby called the Cafe Westend and I thought I'd stop for a cup, but I was hungry and dinner is kind of pricy there, so I walked along Mariahilfestrasse looking for a pizza joint. Found one, bought a few slices of veggie pizza, and sat there thinking about things.
Then home on the subway. At the last stop I bought B some flowers from the flower stand, then took the bus the final leg home. She liked the flowers, and I like public transportation. A lot.
----
One of the most basic things people do is talk. (It's also one of the most annoying things they do, but that's another story.) Talking is natural for us---when we're speaking a language or languages we know.
After seven years of coming back and forth to Vienna, my German ought to be a lot better. But I'm a lazy student and grammar just kills me. Languages built from the ground up, quickly, have a logic and sense to them that old languages do not. I imagine learning Esperanto or Klingon would be a breeze compared to learning any other existing language. But German----shit, don't get me started.
Today I decided to start memorizing irregular verbs. The one I started with means "to stay." So I wrote on a piece of paper, in English: I stay, I will stay, I did stay, I will have stayed. I did the same for you stay, he/she/it stays, you (plural) stay, and they stay...also for the formal you (because German has that.)
In English it would be easy...you've seen it, above. But in German there are different ways of saying stay, different ways of saying will, and did, and every other fucking permutation. The word for stay is bleiben, but it can (and must!) also be said bleib, or bleibt, or bliebe.
So I only got through one word today.
Still, this is good for you. You have to strain your brain once in a while. It keeps the neurons humming. In the US, it would probably be better to learn Spanish, since that's what we'll all be speaking in a hundred years anyhow (I'm not making a joke----how many Native Americans still speak their native languages? New people come in, their language dominates, and that's how it goes.)
But I started with German as a second language so I'm sticking with it. Unless I blow my fucking brains out trying to learn it, of course.
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