Light at the End of the Tunnel
- Kyra Menzel
- Feb 7, 2018
- 2 min read
Vienna has been magical lately. It is the same city but for some reason, I am seeing it a little differently. For example, it snowed all day today and the whole city looked like it had been (heavily) dusted with powdered sugar. I don't know why, but snow just makes winter more bearable. Vienna has a tendancy to be grey. Grey, cloudy, and cold. So snow was a welcome surprise and brightened things up a bit!
Oliver and I decided to be semi-adventureous and take a walk in the city park, Stadtpark. In my mind, this is the mini version of Central Park in New York; a little piece of the countryside surrounded by a concrete jungle. There were little marshmallow snowsuit kids building snowmen, hordes of tourists wrapped up in Vienna paraphenilia, and an old man with a fedora feeding the ducks and pidgeons by the pond; the main ingredients of a happy winter park. Well that, and a sneaky husband throwing snowballs at you every chance he can get.
The Stadtpark was the first public park in Vienna, opening in 1862. There are statues of famous artists, musicians, and composers, the most famous being the gilded gold Johann Strauss monument. Johann Strauss was an Austrian composer of operas and dances. He was known as "The Walz King" becuase of his influence on the walz in Vienna in the early 1800s.
Life hasn't gotten easier, but the margin of adjustment is getting smaller. It seems that there is a light at the end of this particular tunnel. I am not fluent in German but I understand more everyday. I recognize more and more people in the halls of the chapel on Sundays. I have a rythmn and pattern at the grocery store. And I am grateful for those little routines and miracles that remind me how far I have come. This Viennese snowfall was a reminder of how beautiful my new city is.
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