Vienna's Fusion

A blog post by Maria Rocha, Spring 2011

It seems that fusion pleases me: Latin-soul fusion in my music, Tex-Mex fusion in my culture, and strawberry-banana fusion in my smoothies. Vienna is its own strange fusion between the old world and the new. Half the city is covered in ancient architecture that is nothing short of magnificent. Greek gods lounge across the roofs of many buildings, while down the street, angels and saints watch over the city from the spires of the city’s many churches. The other half of the city, which I have yet to explore, looks much like America. The buildings are practical and border on boring. Efficiency is the goal.

The old city too is a lovely mixture or church and state. In the Hofburg near the treasury museum, there is a simple chapel that was built for royal use. Now tourists visit and marvel. The other buildings in the old city are stately and packed with history rather than economic work sites filled with cubicles. The churches, like every church I have seen here so far, inspire wonder, awe, and the inevitable clicking of cameras. Sadly, pictures cannot even come close to capturing the beauty of such ornately decorated churches and spiritually inspiring Cathedrals. Accordingly, after viewing the first two churches through the lens of my camera, I threw my camera to the bottom of my bag and wandered around the next church with my mouth and eyes wide open. Yes, I gaped. I goggled. I stared at every swirl in the ceiling, every statue of the Virgin, every bone in the decaying corpse underneath St. Raphael, and at every depiction of the crucified Christ. I lost track of time. For once, I wasn’t keeping up with an agenda. I lost myself in the beauty and I recommend it to anyone….

The funny thing about the part of Vienna we saw is that on one corner there may be a lovely church but on the next H&M, Gucci, and Lacoste beckon to the avid consumer inside of every American. (When I say every American, I mean this American.) It would be a lie if I did not say that the sight of a seemingly endless row of sought after designer wares did not cause me to let out a small gasp. It seemed to me that Vienna could not hold anything else that pleased so many. Oh, how wrong I was: Outside of the aforementioned shops stood a middle-aged man playing classical music on the clarinet. With exquisite songs in German on the one corner and melodic accordion in the middle of the next street, the street was sensory overload in the most beautiful way possible. Music and languages I couldn’t name filled my ears, as my eyes took in my surroundings, my nose smelled the pastries and cigarettes, and my entire body shivered in the wind. So the day progressed. Moments of awe layered with fun and a bit of wine. Days like this don’t just come around every day…or ever, in Texas.

After a long day of exploring Vienna, I never thought I would find myself climbing a mountain in the middle of the night. The group I was with laughed all the way up the snowy hill and the occasional snowball flew. I could only focus on keeping my balance…. As a Texan, snow is still a novelty to me. However, as we reached our destination, which was only about 3/4 of the way up, a hush fell over almost everyone present. We stood together and quieted the few in our group who had missed the moment. As soon as everyone standing on the edge of the overlook found the silence and just stared down at a sleeping Gaming, one of our friends began to play the harmonica. His soul sang through his music and the sound floated around all of us and down to the peaceful city. I began to weep. I wasn’t wailing and my shoulders weren’t shaking. Rather, silent tears of pure happiness slid down my face and into my smile. At the end of the song, everyone let out a collective sigh and we made our way back down the mountain. Thus ends the first week!