The Vienna Of My Dreams
It has to rank as my second favourite city in Europe. Yes, after Inverness I would have to choose Vienna. I've only been there twice, mind you. The first time was in 1986 when I was studying psychology and had developed a worrying infatuation with Sigmund Freud. This led me to grow a beard and, as you can see in the photograph, hang around the great man's memorial stone wearing skimpy shorts.
I also visited his consulting rooms which have been recreated in the very building where he treated his patients and developed his ideas of a subconscious mind. Years later I realised that Freud's theory of psychonalysis was riddled with mysogynist flaws and I turned my back on notions of the id, ego and super-ego. (My amateur work as a dream interpreter still comes in very handy at parties though.)
I returned to Vienna a few years ago as a simple holiday-maker intent on nothing more mentally challenging than taking in the sights and findlng the place that makes the chocolate torte. It really is a city of the imagination. Its imperial grandeur, its culture of art and music and it's dark history under Nazi annexation. You can walk the streets for hours and never get bored.
It was our website team who asked me to look out this dodgy and discoloured photograph. They're making a online album on the 30 Days in Europe website and if you have a look there you'll see a variety of BBC Radio Scotland personalities in exotic locations.
If you find yourself dreaming about any of them tonight, do let me know.
I'll get my cigar.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~46~RS~)
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So, you interpret dreams?
There were seven fat cows and seven thin cows..................
(If you need the punchline, ask the Archbishop of Lublin. I'm pretty sure he's heard this one).
>8-D
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I used to write my dreams down.
A cartoon dog with an sds drill is the recurring dream I always have.
What does this mean?
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Jeff - what's that you're holding in your hands in the pic? I too studied Freud around the same time as you (albeit in the somewhat sunnier climbs of Scotland!) One can only wonder why the previous comment was moderated! ;-)
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Nice wee blog Jeff and a great photo! I am interested though why have you have only returned to Vienna once since your initial trip? It looks a wonderful city....it's on the list!
If you can never remember your dreams what does that mean?
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Jim...I think it was a bottle of water but it might have been a brochure. I can't quite see. Looks like a Freudian pose though!
Norrie...would love to go back again, but so many places to see in the world and it's not a great place for small children.
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#5
Norrie - if you NEVER remember your dreams it means that you were probably too pissed when you went to bed!
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Jim! I have never.....oh sorry just read that again.
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Actually if anyone is really interested in dreams, the most convincing theory I read came from Nicholas Humphrey in his book The Inner Eye. He says dreams should be understood in terms of evolution...why do we need to dream? He argues that they help us experience social situations and empathise with other humans. Midwives who themselves have never been pregnant often dream vividly about giving birth..and this helps them understand their patients. Anyone ever had a dream about dialling 999? Sometimes we dream about situation we might one day find ourselves in.
When someone tells you about their dream it's always interesting to ask how they felt emotionally in the dream. That usually gives you a clue to its cause or "meaning".
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Bugs Bunny dreams of Jeanie. (She's a light brown hare).
>8-D
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Jeff - there must be lots and lots of us on here whose first trips to Europe were on school trips and in my case some memorable trips on the ss uganda! I will need to look out some old info on that!
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Norrie, that's a good idea and I'll mention it to our website team too.
I remember saving for a school trip to Paris that was cancelled at the last minute. I was so disappointed, but got there eventually.
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#11, #12
I never got to go on those SS Uganda trips - I got a bike in compensation! The Uganda ended up going to the Falklands, if you recall - I don't suppose that was quite such a fun trip... But perhaps worth a journalistic mention.
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I did a School Cruise on the Dunera (think it was bit smaller than the Uganda) Greenock - Bergen - Gdansk/Gdynia - Copehagen - Grangemouth.
I would have been about 11 or so. Slept well, ate well, made new friends learnt stuff. Still remember the Vernicular railway in Bergen, almost all the buildings in Gdansk/Gdynia had bullet/shell holes (this was in 1967/8) and the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen.
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Jamboesque ~ you extract a memory from me. I was thinking on a KGV Glasgow - spain - canarys etc trip but!!! A 79 or 80 trip aborad the Uganda from Dundee to possibly Hambutg, then Gdansk, Cpenhagen, Finland?, then home.....I need to re-raid that ancestral loft!
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