Vienna, 20th September 2011

MARRIAGE UNBLISSED As usual I'm writing from my couch-bed. It's 8am and the shops are not opened yet and I'm not that ready to face the world yet. While this is supposed to be a holiday, yesterday's experience was like a reminder in life. Married life to be more exact. Yesterday, the talk revoLved around the fact that the words 'marital' and 'bliss' don't always come hand in hand. When I first met Ömer, he said he couldn't see the point of getting married when it would only make one cry. His friends were unhappy because they couldn't be with their wives and children. Yesterday were some other realities of marriage: the reality of divorce, the building of a new relationship at the expense of severing existing ones that have been around for years and the pain of maintaining strained relationships. Every person has a different experience. Some good, some bad. Maybe not entirely good or bad but a mix of calm and storm. I think what can help is to keep old relations or legitimate relations outside of marriage for some kind of support. Not that I'd do it for the purpose of support. If friendship and family ties should 'break' it would have to be a natural progression of growing apart, not a forced one. I have no concrete experience yet. I'll see.  A WALK IN VIENNA Apart from all the talk on divorces and marital problems, I got to do some walking on my own. In the morning, I took a walk just to see what the neighbourhood was like. I took the safest route of walking straight with minimal turns just so I won't lose my way. Timed myself for a half hour walk that eventually ended up over an hour. I didn't have to go far when I arrived at the city center where we were at the day before. So the house I was staying in was not that far from the city centre. Later, while in a car with Erhan's brother-in-law and his friend I came across some beautiful, majestic buildings. One of them was the Parliament. I so wanted to see these buildings again. So when we arrived home, after breakfast, I rested for a few hours and went for another walk in search of the Parliament.  Looking at the buildings around, the whole place was like a big classroom to study architecture. I googled and found the right name to describe it: Renaissance. There is this gothic feel to some of the buildings also. I couldn't keep my eyes to the ground. Even the humble neighbourhood has nicely designed buildings. So as I walked, there were too many nice buildings to distract me. One of them was the City Hall. I didn't know what it was until I asked the guard at the gates. He said I could go in, so I did. I saw one opened door and went in. It was really gothic. The steps, the pillars, the ceiling. I would like very much to take a picture of the interior but I wasn't sure if it's allowed. I just let my eyes feast on the majesty of the interior. I thought I could only see these in the movies or museum. It's not. It's a design that is still in use. After the City Hall, I thought it was all right if I couldn't find the Parliament. There were so many of the other buildings I could visit. So I just went for another one of the majestic buildings that was in sight. Lo and behold, it turned out to be the Parliament building that I was looking for. I was just going for the very grand fountain that I saw from the car. If it wasn't so cold, I would have spent a bit of time sitting there. Anyway, I made my way back and along the way, I came across what I thought was a museum but turned out to be a University. Students coming out from the entrance confirmed this. Then I got tired and went to have a cup of hot chocolate and chocolate muffin at a cafe. There's nothing gothic about the cafe other than the dark chocolate muffin I was having. FROM HOT TO COLD The first day I arrived in Vienna, it was very hot. The second day, it rained in the morning and I thought the sun will shine again but it decided to lay low. It was quite cold the second day and I was less than prepared for the cold weather. Luckily I had my hooded long-sleeved T-shirt on. That kind of helped. Today, it's been raining since morning so I stayed in. Till when, I don't know...