One of the biggest demonstrations I’ve ever seen in Vienna. And one of the loudest. I was teaching and had to interrupt the class!
The Volksgarten has just turned 200
2 MarI saw a story on the ORF website this morning that the Volksgarten in Vienna, famous, among other things, for its stunning rose garden, came into being 200 years ago yesterday. It was the first garden in Austria to be designed and created by an emperor specifically for the people. (The emperor at the time was Franz I, great-nephew of Empress Maria Theresia.)
For several years, I apartment sat for friends of my family’s. It was a 200m2 flat in a distinguished old building (took two days to clean those traditional double windows!) right behind the Parliament in Vienna. The Volksgarten was less than a five-minute walk away and I sat there often.
Two other vivid memories: riding past on the tram and seeing the Lippizaners grazing in the Volksgarten (the Hofburg caught fire in 1992 and the horses were led to safety in the park) and sitting on a bench in the rose garden not quite a year ago having gone to Josef-Meinrad-Platz to test my way out of quarantine. I got there only to find that the computers were down and no testing was taking place. It was the first time I had been out of the apartment in over a week, and it was wonderful.
More (in German): https://wien.orf.at/stories/3196759/
The Pandemic (remember the pandemic? ;-))
25 Feb
The front page of the Kurier reminding us that it was three years ago today that the first coronavirus cases were detected in Austria. Things moved very fast after that. As of March 1st this year, most of the restrictions will fall. Public transportation in Vienna has been something of a holdout, still requiring FFP2 masks. Even that will no longer be the case, although a third of Kurier readers polled have said they will voluntarily continue to wear them.
Snow
22 Jan
We woke up to snow yesterday and it has been snowing off and on since then. Beautiful. đ
Stories from the Trafik
14 JanThis morning, as on every Saturday I’m not teaching, Maylo and I went to the Trafik on our way home from our morning walk. He got his treats and I got mine (newspaper and instant lottery ticket). Then because it wasn’t busy we got into a chat, quite a heavy chat as it turned out.
The Trafikant, nearing 80, was born in Vienna during the Second World War and told how his mother would wrap him in a blanket and carry him down to the air raid shelter in the cellar.
One of his employees then started talking about her experiences during the war in Bosnia before her family fled to Vienna, how she, too, spent time in bomb cellars. From her accent, I could tell that she wasn’t Austrian born, but we had never talked before about where she came from. (I personally am so allergic to the question “Where are you from?” when I have lived here over half my life that I very rarely ask it of others.)
We had gotten onto the topic of how each time we thought it was the last war in Europe and how the whole misery is being repeated now in Ukraine when another customer came in and Maylo and I left.
I think Trafiks are often microcosms of the world around us.
Makery Vienna – Vienna Makery
7 JanI have just discovered that there is a DIY restaurant in Vienna. That’s right — you pay for the privilege of cooking your own meal. I just wonder who gets to do the dishes …
Pelé
30 DecOne more great lost this year. Of course, his soccer playing was incomparable, but I will miss most his smile, his humanity, and his humanitarian efforts. I’ll never forget that the day David Beckham arrived in Los Angeles with great fanfare, Pele was playing in a match to benefit UNICEF. The article in the NYT reminded me of the beauty of Rob Hughes’s (essentially philosophical) writing about soccer and introduced me to that side of PelĂ©’s greatness.
How refreshing
10 DecI have just bought replacements for my hiking boots, which served long and well until the bottoms dropped off. (We could get up to 5 cms of snow tomorrow so this seemed like a good moment.)
What was refreshing about this experience? When I asked if they had already been waterproofed, I was told yes, they were ready to go so I didn’t need to buy the waterproofing spray I had in my hand. Even in Vienna, many businesses have succumbed to what I call the McDonald’s mentality. You know, if you only order a hamburger, they ask if you want fries with it; and if you order the hamburger with fries, they ask if you want an apple pie with it. In German, you could call it the “Dazu-MentalitĂ€t” because the phrase is “Pommes dazu?” or “Apfeltascherl dazu?”
I was really grateful that Jack Wolfskin, the shop where I bought my boots, has not succumbed.
Pension office
22 NovI went to the pension office this morning to clarify a few points and saw that some things have really changed in Austria and some things haven’t.
One thing that has changed: the woman in front of me in line at the reception desk was talking about her “Partnerins” (female partner’s) appointment. When there was some confusion about her name, she explained that when they had married she had taken on her partner’s family name and officially changed it on all her documents. Then I overheard that she herself isn’t self-employed but rather her partner, and she would like to be covered under her partner’s insurance.
This would have been unimaginable even five years ago (Austria enacted “Ehe fĂŒr Alle” or “Marriage for All” on 1 January 2019, building on the civil union that became possible in 2010). For anyone who would like more information, here is a website (in German) giving an overview of the history of same-sex marriage as well as legal details: https://www.familienrechtsinfo.at/eherecht/ehe-fuer-alle/
Something that hasn’t yet changed? When I came out of my appointment, there was a man waiting, with his large, well-behaved, non-service dog. Wish I’d known I could have taken Maylo!
ecbinvienna 