The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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VIENNA, Austria—At noon on the 20th in Ljubljana I had luncheon in one of those little state guest houses that you find in different parts of Yugoslavia. The state has taken over a private house which is used to entertain guests. This house was set in a charming garden, a little bit out of the city and we had a small lunch party of only eight people so that we really talked with great freedom and the guests asked me a number of questions. One woman in particular wanted to know about the position of women in the U.S.

I had a press conference at the hotel at 4 p.m. and after that I went to a little reception for men and women where I again answered many questions about women in the U.S. and then we were off to Zagreb, having dinner on the train and saying goodbye to Mr. Vilfan who was going on to Belgrade after we arrived in Zagreb.

Mr. and Mrs. Vilfan have been so kind to us ever since we arrived in Belgrade that I hope they will be in the U.S. again before long so we can show our appreciation.

Dr. Gurewitsch got up at a very early hour on the 21st so as to see a small children's rehabilitation hospital which he had not been able to see on his first visit to Zagreb. He considered it an excellent beginning and was very glad to see the work being done there. Immediately on his return we went to the airport to find that our plane was late. Our kind hosts waited, however, for a long time before seeing us off. I felt very guilty about keeping them but there was nothing one could do. We kept the Zagreb officials and our own Consul General and the members of his staff at the airport until we finally left nearly an hour late!

We arrived in Gratz about 11:30 a.m. and started at once to motor to Vienna. We had all the necessary passes but the Russians have lifted their restrictions so we never once had to show them on the whole drive.

It is beautiful country and we enjoyed it except for the fact that we didn't stop for luncheon until much too late and everybody was exhausted.

I have never been in Vienna before, a fact which everyone seems to find very extraordinary.

We drove around the city a bit because we wanted to pick up our mail at the American Express Company on the way in. I was happy to find some family letters but appalled to discover that cables and letters sent from Greece and Yugoslavia three weeks ago had not reached the U.S. We were even more surprised to find that letters mailed here are censored by the Russians and will not get out for three days at least! Somehow you never think of things like that till you actually come up against them and it never occurred to us to ask before the letters were mailed.

After a very good dinner we walked around and got a good view of St. Stephen's but it was so dark we could not see more than the outlines of the church.

I look forward to two very pleasant days here.

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Vienna (Austria) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 1, 1953

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
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Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

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MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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