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This past Saturday (Oct. 2nd) my wife, Lisa, took me to Vienna to go to the museum “Dialog im Dunkeln” for my birthday. She went all out, vying for the full dinner in the dark. She wanted us to have the full experience of being blind and did we ever! It was an incredible experience that brought with it some realizations.
Hold on a second though. I’m getting ahead of myself. There are some people in the back that have a question.
What is Dialog im Dunkeln and How Does it Give the Experience of Being Blind?
So Dialog im Dunkeln is the name of a place in Vienna a couple of blocks from the University subway station that focuses on bringing the experience of being blind to life. Located down some stairs in the courtyard of Freyung 6. The standard experience is a tour through some of the old underground passageways that lay beneath the city of Vienna.
The unique thing about this tour though is that you are given a white cane that is used by the blind and it is in pitch black. You are lead through a series of different simulated experiences such as walking over a bridge, going through a train station, crossing the street, and going into a store.
With not being able to see anything the (simulated) sounds of these experiences are heightened and incredibly offputting. Not only that, but you are feeling around and trying to hold onto anything that will allow you to find your way, even if that thing is one of the people in front of you that you have never met before.
You just can’t see anything…
Dinner in the Dark
If you want a little more than just the standard experience you can double down and do dinner in the dark. Doing so, in my opinion, completes the experience of being blind. It is a full, prearranged four-course meal with three drinks done completely in the dark. The waitstaff is all blind themselves. Therefore serving in the dark is not a hindrance to them in any way shape or form.
While eating I found myself either guessing where things were on my plate or feeling around the plate with my hands. It became increasingly difficult with each course. One would assume the opposite would happen as you have had some time to get used to it, but every course brought a new challenge that you have to overcome.
Just imagine, or even better try, being in complete and utter darkness and trying to eat a plate of rice without knocking over your drink! Luckily I just knocked over my drink once.
Pricing and Opening Hours
Dialog im Dunkeln is open Thursday through Sunday with varying hours.
Thursday: 11:00 am to 5:00 pm
Friday: 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Saturday: 10:00 am to 7:00 pm
Sunday: 1:00 pm to 7:00 pm
The standard experience where you walk through the many simulated experiences has differing prices including some package deals
Adults, full price: 19.90 Euros (~23 USD)
Adults students, senior citizens, people with disabilities, apprentices, civil servants and military personnel discount: 17.50 EUR (~20 USD)
Students younger than 19 and Kulturpass Holders: 15,50 EUR (~18 USD)
Family Pack
Parents & Adult Relatives:17,50 EUR (~20 USD)
Children & Adolescents: 15,50 EUR (~18 USD)
The dinner in the dark includes the standard experience with the added dinner. This event happens only once in a while. Currently, they are doing it twice a month, but that is subject to change from month to month. You must reserve ahead of time and you can select your menu from the options available.
Price per person (minimum of 2): 84.00 EUR (~97 USD)
The Overall Experience
The experience of being blind is one that definitely causes some anxiety. You are feeling around in the dark like you would while looking for the bathroom in the middle of the night after a one-night stand with someone who lives with their parents. Perhaps you don’t want to turn on the lights because you might wake up the whole household, but you also don’t want to knock anything over. You worry about falling down some stairs or god forbid you run into someone in the dark! It’s a scary affair that starts as a thrilling adventure. You feel like you can kind of make things out, but in reality you can’t see a single thing.
Eating dinner completes the experience. You hear people at adjacent tables chatting and laughing as they struggle to eat their meals. Conversation roars even louder between courses, Yet throughout the whole experience, there is an almost tangible layer of awareness and fear because all you want is to be able to see what you are feeling, hearing, smelling, and tasting. You want to be able to see the room you are in, the people around and across from you, and the food you are eating. But you can’t.
You are stuck in a world that you can’t see a single thing. Part of you can’t wait to be able to get to a place you can see things again. Another part starts as a small whisper that slowly grows into an internal scream of despair. That part of you sets in as the darkness starts to bear down on you and turns large rooms and to suffocating small boxes as you wonder “What if I am never able to see again?”
Even after eating dinner, they leave you sitting at your tables for a while. I am not certain as to why, but I can venture to guess. After the events are all said and done sitting there in the dark and becoming ansty allows you to ruminate on what it’s like to be blind.
The experience of being blind is one I believe that everyone should try at least once. It really opened my eyes to the struggles of those who are blind as well as gave me a better understanding and ability to empathize with them.
Overall it was an incredible, albeit scary experience that I would highly recommend. It makes for a night to remember.
Have you had an experience like this? What was it like? If not, would you want to? Let us know in the comments below!
Until next time travel authentically, travel nomadically, and let the world leave its inscriptions on you as you do on it.
