Austrians are...

Quirky!! I'll be quick because I have to get in the shower and then go down to IKEA and buy stuff and it's snowing and it always takes me 5 hours longer to get anywhere.

SO yesterday. My friend Jackie and I and Carl went to this "performance". We are always up for a free show and there are a lot of them around Vienna. Weelll, what I would see on this night would really make a deep and lasting impression in my mind. Jackie was like oh I think it's near a train station. So good. That's fairly easy to get to. (sidenote: Jackie is this 5'3" red head from England and is so meek and docile and quite, you cannot imagine her exerting herself beyond a whisper. Needless to say, we get along great. kind of a yin and yang situation) We follow her. We don't know "exactly" where we are going but we know the general idea. It's 9 pm on a weeknight and it's -3 degrees. I digress.

It's not at a train station, it's in an abandoned railway house or train yard. We get close and hear loud yelling by a large group of people (maybe 50) and marching. Something akin to what you could imagine during the era of Hitler. Undaunted, we shrug and look at each other and think eh well, it's theater right? ha ha. Let's go in!

Inside: a gigantic hollowed out hall that has train tracks running through it. 6 tons of bricks on one end and ominious lighting around this space. I would say it was half a football field large and about 4 stories open to the celing. We open the door--we are late, and about 300 pairs of eyes turn to us. Luckily the "play" doesn't stop. There are 20 "actors" in space suits yelling in unison something in German that none of us can make out. Ok, let me pause here. Hearing German is like hearing a big dog bark. When it's just everyday German its fine and okay, does sound a bit harsh, but not big. Then imagine 300 dogs. all barking their heads off. now the scene is a bit more intense. Fun and games are over.
That is what it was like. Yelling hitler style in German in this massive open space while "actors" are marching in place and in unison to these people yelling in unison. Echo and reecho. It's a terrifying sight. Jackie did mention they were perforiming a play by shakespeare called Coriolan. Did NOT look like a Shakespear play to me. Apparently it was a show done by a group called theatercombinat and the play was subtitled: Turn terror into Sport. OOOOOhhh kay.

For all I know in the next act they were going to sacrifice a live sheep. It could have happened. Abandoned railway stations are super places for stuff like that to happen.
The ad on the flyer says (in my german translation): Political rhetoric against incompetant bodies/humans.

WWWOOO. well, it was one "cultural experience" for the day. We all walked back in silence to the trainstation. If we could have understood more it wouldn't have sounded so intimidating. To recover, we went back to our flat for homemade apple pie! It was a nice balm after what we saw!! (thanks for the recipe Anna/gma P)

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Here's some pics of the snow. AGAIN. It's been snowing off and on for 20 hours straight.