ecbinvienna

It’s a perfect November Sunday in Vienna–gentle blue sky, temperatures just above freezing, but “es zieht” (there’s a draft). It was only a year or two ago that I learned the difference between “it’s windy” and “es zieht”. If you say it’s windy, that implies that you can see the effects of the wind. Tree branches are tossed, paper is blown about, and so on. When “es zieht” you feel the wind (and, boy, does it go right through you), but you don’t see it. Before I came to Vienna, I had never heard of having a draft outdoors, but now I know one when I see–sorry, feel–one.

Dunkin’ Donuts has finally made it to Vienna. Yesterday they opened a store on Mariahilfer Straße. Apparently, there was already a line when they opened at 7 a.m, and at its peak the waiting time was two hours!

The other bit of news that caught my eye was that 6% of Viennese apartments still have their WCs outside on the shared hall. It’s not so bad when you’re young and healthy. My first year in Vienna I lived in such a flat. It’s not so great as one’s bladder capacity starts to fail or when one has stomach flu. (Ick!)

(I hope everyone realizes that these are two *unrelated* news items!)

I *thought* everything was late this year. Last year I posted a photo of these trees with more gold and fewer leaves on October 12th!