Stephansdom: Beginning to Communicate

I made an attempt to speak German today and was treated rather well. I had turkey, rice, and milk at a little houfbrau we found after leaving the museums quarter and walking along Maria H strasse. When we first walked up to the restaurant we decided that we wanted to sit outside and we stood there waiting for the waiter to seat us, but they just kept walking by us and looking at us strangely. It finally dawned on me that we were supposed to seat ourselves. It is nice once you know the customs of a place and then you won’t feel as silly. After finishing a fantastic meal we headed over to St. Stephan's.

The trip to St. Stephan's Cathedral was a realization of how different the Austrian churches are to ours. Everything had meaning in the design and the arches were amazing. I was struck by how small i felt next to it and how while there were so many tourists from all over there were still people there genuinely praying. I love that the sites that tourists are drawn to are not necessarily separated from those that still hold function and significance to the locals. In America we mark off areas of historical significance and refuse to let people in to use it. Within the cathedral we took the tour of the catacombs. Our tour guide was incredibly educated and slipped from German, Italian, French, and English in the same sentence explaining the same things to such a diverse group and he was so young! I enjoy the custom of paying afterwards for most things here, as it seems to make you feel more welcome and less rushed. Going into the catacombs it seemed a person could definitely smell death and feel the weight of the place. While some rude Americans were just laughing and pointing at a skeleton all I could think was while it looked really cool, it was facing mortality and the fate of a people experiencing the plague. There were some bodies that were placed 400 in a chamber but later, when the plague became a problem there was just a pit (that we could look down into) where bodies were all just tossed into. The scent was sweet and moist with an earthy undertone and the lighting was very dim. The guide said "bones were stacked like firewood" and when I looked it was the truth. An entire wall of bones neatly stacked and waiting for...? After leaving St. Stephens we got some Gelato from a place called Fratelli's and it was intimidating to ask in German, excuse me-do you speak English?, and have the lady yell "NO!" and begin to walk away. Luckily I quickly piped up and attempted to pronounce the word for scoop and asked for what i wanted. I am noticing if you just bumble through trying to speak it as well as you can they seem to appreciate it and tolerate you. Some have been very warm and even helped me with my pronunciation of certain words. A big city with a mixed bag of people tired of dealing with stupid Americans.