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Sunday, August 18th - Vienna, Day 2, 9062 km
It is another warm, pleasant day as summer in Europe is making a fine appearance. I have breakfast in the youth hostel and then pack and check out. I call my SERVAS host, Robert Boyer, and he suggests I bring my bike and gear to his place right away before I set out so see attractions.
Robert lives about a kilometre from the city centre in an older apartment block. It is nice enough inside, without the stale, musty smell of some ill-tended buildings.
Robert is 30, a young single straight man (as far as I can tell), relatively attractive and - like most SERVAS hosts - much friendlier than most Austrians. His English is excellent, having been raised by British/American parents in Vienna and having traveled with them quite a bit. He gives me tips on what to see. The stores are closed but most of the galleries and tourist attractions are open.
But the bit news on this otherwise relaxed day is from Russia. Mikhail Gorbachev has been overthrown in a military coup while on vacation in southern Russia. Three generals have put him under house arrest, claiming that he has undermined the Russia's power base with his glasnost and perestroika reforms. They want a return to the golden era of Russian imperialism.
The news has eastern Europe sitting on the edge of their seats. In the past two years, all the European Communist governments have fallen, except for the USSR. Gorbachev has let Russia's former prisoners escape without retaliation, where past Soviet regimes have invaded any country who tried to pull away from its control, such as Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. The new military junta seeks to reverse this trend, but it seems unlikely, after two years of independence, that any of the former East Block country will let Russia dominate them again without violent resistance.
"It's amazing that you are here to witness this on the front lines," Robert tells me. "But I am leaving for Hungary tomorrow, which is really the front lines now," I respond. Yes, he admits. Vienna was the front line for more than 40 years. It was occupied by the Russian army 1n 1945 who controlled the north-eastern third of the country for ten years. The original Soviet plan was to have different regions vote to either stay under Communist control or for independence. The first region to vote was Soviet occupied Austria, which soundly rejected Soviet control. The Soviets then refused to allow any further independence votes and the next year the Hungarian government rebelled and was violently repressed.
With my head still swimming with this amazing political development and concerns about whether I should change my plans, I set out to see some sights. I go the Belvedere Palace, which is in a beautiful park on the south edge of the city centre with an upper and lower palace set around reflecting ponds and an orangery. The upper palace is on a rise a kilometre from the core. There is a statue of a female sphinx near the entrance. I wait 20 minutes, while bus loads of tourists get their pictures taken between her 
breasts, before I can get a shot of it with the city in the background.
Then I go to the Kunsthistorisches Museum on the west edge of the city centre to see the displays of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. They are housed together in two connected rooms. Schiele, a protégé of Klimt's, is not well known as he died very young, but I love his punk style of twisted forms. He spent many months in prison for painting obscenities - naked women with vaginas showing - and nudes of himself. 
They are all very edgy, but there are even 'normal' landscapes and views out of prison windows resonate with me strongly. Klimt has a picture of Judith II staring into my eyes with such a warm ecstasy on her face, the full length of her dress hanging open and the back of the head of her lover near her crotch. Their respective styles were such an affront to 19th century mores that they wished to overturn. Religious and moral oppression can produce the finest art when it is overthrown.
I take Robert out for dinner at a local Greek restaurant. He is a delight to take to after several days with social contacts. He is concerned for my safety in Hungary, but I think it will take weeks or even months before the junta can consolidate power in the Soviet Union before turning their attentions to the former serf nations outside their own boundaries.
As the day has progressed, I feel increasing comfortable with this decision and keen about being closer to a political situation where tourist attractions are not my only reason for being there. I pack my bags with the anticipation of moving back into the former East Block tomorrow, continuing on my path down the Danube to Budapest. I am quite excited.
PHOTO 1: lots of impressive edifices in Vienna
PHOTO 2: like this one
PHOTO 3: and this one
PHOTO 4: Why didn't I write down their names?
PHOTO 5: Belvedere Upper Palace
PHOTO 6: Belvedere Lower Palace
PHOTO 7: view of Vienna from the Belvedere with sphinx
PHOTO 8: Kunsthistorisches Museum
PHOTO 9: Judith I by Gustav Klimt
PHOTO 10: self portrait by Egon Schiele
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