Heute gegen die Kronen Zeitung

 Hello everyone!

Wow, where to even start? It’s been an absolutely insane first week and a half (has it really only been that long!). To begin, I think it’s important to set expectations for these posts. I’ll try to limit my writing about history, politics, and city planning to a minimum, but I guarantee it’ll pop up a bit (or maybe more than that. . . ). Fortunately there’s not toooooo much of that in the first week and a half so don’t worry too much! 

So where to start? (Didn’t I already say that?). Anyway, welcome to Wien! City of postwar housing blocks, highway overpasses, and car dealerships. Or at least that was my initial impression of it after taking the bus from the airport to my dorm. Let’s just say that the drive from the airport to Briggitenau isn’t exactly flattering. Brigittenau is the neighborhood where I live, sandwiched between the Danube Canal and the Danube. For recreation opportunities, it might be one the best locations in the city. The Wiener Wald (the massive series of city parks and forests) lies only a few miles away and the Danube Island is only a bridge away. The Danube Island is a 13-mile-long city park smack dab in the middle of the Danube, complete with connections to the enormous Danube Cycle Path which is 1,770 miles long (Don’t worry I’m not going to try to finish it!). As for the neighborhood itself, let’s just say it’s the ugliest I’ve seen in Wien. The Allies flattened this part of the city during the war, so there’s really not much left from before the war in my little corner of Wien. Fortunately, more interesting neighborhoods are only a 10-15 minute walk away, and I can assure any worried reader that the rest of Wien is absolutely gorgeous. What my neighborhood does have a lot of is public housing, in fact, almost every residential building here is public housing. For the Viennese, public housing is a perfectly acceptable housing option. Over 25% of Wien’s housing is public housing, and more than 500,000 people live in public housing. Public housing and socialist government housing policies have a long history here, dating back to the 1920s.

Photo of Brigittenau, with my building to the right. Yup, it's that ugly.

Sorry for the segway into government but I think it’s really important to understand the culture here, so let’s continue before I lose your attention entirely. As I said, Wien has always had a very far-left government, and that continues today. That’s in distinct contrast to the rest of Austria. Austria is (for Western Europe) a pretty far-right country. I know that this description would piss some Austrians off, but it’d be like the Texas of Germany. Immigration is THE issue here, and everyone talks about it. The ultra-right (maybe I should say mega-mega right?) FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria) just came in second place in the Niederösterreich elections (the region surrounding Wien), winning 24.2% of the vote. They have posters EVERYWHERE. I think I counted 20 coming in from the airport. Each one with the same message about closing the border and protecting “unsere heimat” (our homeland). I’ve put an example poster below so you can get a gist of what they’re like. Feel free to plug that into a translator, but I think it’s pretty clear. 

Pretty direct, right?

One good thing about living in an ugly neighborhood is that it really encourages you to discover the rest of the city. The last thing I want to do is walk around the depressing 50s-era concrete housing blocks and hordes of car dealerships (Why are there so many!!) all around Brigittenau. So here’s a bunch of pictures of the prettier parts of Wien to make up for it. 

 

            Stephansplatz and Stephansdom to the left 

Stephansdom

Don't know the name of this plaza yet

Schloss Schönbrunn

View over Wien from the Gloriette 

Front of Schönbrunn

OK- this one is pretty ugly. Nazi flak tower in the Augarten

View over the small village of Kahlenbergerdorf

View from the top of the mountain at Leopoldsberg above Kahlenbergerdorf

Me questioning why I decided to run up said mountain

Hiking in the Wienerwald 

View from the top of the hike, the weather was so clear you could see all the way to Bratislava

Hermesvilla in the Lainzer Tiergarten

As for my living situation, the building I live in is full of different students from across Europe and the world who are studying in Vienna. It’s both good and bad since it’s a bit hard to communicate something to someone who speaks Russian and only a tiny bit of German. Things here definitely feel a bit isolated and I don’t know if that’s just because there are tons of Eastern Europeans here who tend to keep to themselves (don’t know if that’s a stereotype but that’s what it seems like). Fortunately for me, living for 21 years in the Midwest and being taught the Midwest-nice way of life (Thanks Mom and Dad!), definitely gives me a bit of a leg up at meeting people. Today I was making dinner while another guy ate at the table. I asked him if he knew where my neighbor was (most likely on vacation) and if he knew anyone else here. The answer to both of those questions was no. It may have been a simple gesture, but his eye’s lit up as if nobody else had talked to him here in weeks. Turns out he’s from Süd Tirol (South Tyrol), his father is Solvakian and his mother is Italian (although he specified they prefer to be called Austrians)- it’s a whole other political thing so if you’re interested here’s the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Tyrol. He’s lived here since October but doesn’t really know anyone, and none of the other people on our floor (all Eastern European) really engage in conversation. He’s studying at the same University I am in too! Really nice guy! - Though his accent was a bit tough, people from South Tyrol speak in a pretty interesting local German. 

View from my dorm at night

As for my room itself, it’s pretty big for a dorm, coming from Champaign that is. I share my bathroom and a small front entrance area with fridges with a guy from Eastern Europe, who I’ve yet to meet. Or at least I think he’s from somewhere in the East because he’s got like 20 boxes of tea. After moving in, one of the other Illinois students said he thought it was pretty bad. But honestly, I don’t think my place is half bad at all. If there’s one silver lining to living in the worst dorm in Champaign with roaches, no AC, mice, no functioning water fountains or soap dispensers, a violent drunk, and one of Campus’s biggest drug dealers, all on one floor, is that I can really appreciate places now. As an aside, that business student who complained lived in Bromley his freshman year, one of the most expensive private housing options. Oh, and my view is pretty freaking awesome too. For those wanting to hear about skiing in the Alps for a week, that’ll be my next post. But here’s a little cliffhanger. . . 

Oh, wait, one last thing. The title of this post! Heute and the Kronen Zeitung are two of the biggest newspapers in Wien. The Kronen Zeitung has its headquarters directly across from my dorm building, and Heute was nice enough to buy the roof properties of my building and place a massive sign on top facing Kronen’s headquarters. 

Here's a little screenshot from Google Earth showing my building with the Heute sign directly across the canal from Kronen