I also encountered some interesting folks on my way to Vienna. Apparently my first train was a full one, because I ended up in a compartment with a group of boys who must have been around 11. I know enough Spanish and Italian to understand that one of them could swear in more languages than the others, and was instructing the rest of them. The smallest one spent much of our time together reading a Simpsons comic in Czech, which I found hilarious. I couldn't understand it, but Crusty the Clown seemed to be central to the plot.
I wandered around most of the day, starting in the MuseumsQuartier and then heading to the MAK (contemporary design/art/architecture learning/exhibition space) once it opened for free. I still wish I'd spent all day at the latter. They had an extensive permanent collection that I barely got to see in between the exhibition on Hans Hollein ("everything is architecture") and the Design Lab's Design Labor exhibition, which considered craft and objecthood in the digital age.
The USMNT had its knockout-stage World Cup Match that night, which they successfully didn't lose for almost as long as possible before they finally lost it.
My last morning I grabbed a quick McDonald's coffee with one of my hostelmates, an Aussie named Leong who'd lived in London before his current tour, which would take him through Europe and back towards home. I ended up in a cafe most of that day, drinking more coffee and trying to write about the Biennale before catching a train to the airport, sweaty and overcaffeinated.
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