And the band sounded especially tuneful and jaunty this morning.
Main themes were peace and freedom, two “F”s in German: Frieden and Freiheit. The banner in the photo says “Watch wars [without doing anything] and cut the budget for those fleeing them?” Interesting, but typical for the Social Democrats, that the sign uses the less negatively connoted “Flüchtende” (fleeing people) rather than the older, more loaded “Flüchtlinge” (refugees).
My Trafikant (proprietor of the Tabak Trafik I always go to) has died. He was in his 80s and had been in bad health for a long time, but it is sad news for me. He was a complicated person — I thought he might be on the autism spectrum and from a time when no one understood that — but he was a fixed point in the neighborhood, and he loved Maylo. (In fact, he loved all dogs.)
The women who worked for him, who, quite possibly are now out of a job as concessions for this kind of shop are so limited, have written in the announcement of his death that he was more than a boss and employer. He was a person (a Mensch) with a heart, principles, and open ears. They should know. They worked with / for him for many years and took care of him when he had no family left.
I fear, given government efforts to reduce the number of Trafiks, that this is the death knell also for my Saturday ritual of picking up the Kurier and an instant lottery ticket, at least at this one place.
To see what kind of place this Trafik and its Trafikant had in my heart you can check out these previous posts shown below. I think my favorite is “Our Trafik”. That captures him well.
https://orf.at/av/video/onDemandVideoNews53058
The magazine Condé Nast Traveller has released the results of their survey on the friendliest city in Europe. (We beat out Lisbon!?!) I hardly know what to say. Friendliness is fine, but the famous “Grant” (grumpiness) in Vienna also had something.
Makes me think of the Boston Globe (New York Times?) headline when the Red Sox finally won the World Series after well over 70 years of not winning it: Now just a team like any other?
Maybe the Russians were involved?
I couldn’t resist this postcard, which I sent to my mother. (She’s been worried about what Putin might do since before he invaded Ukraine.)
What it says is: When the end of the world comes, go to Vienna. It’ll happen 20 years later there.
… but there still are a number of people who feel the way this spectator did: “Why are you running [in this race]?” “For fun.” “Huh. Well, if you think so. I wouldn’t do it.”
One of my kindest and most faithful readers asked if I had survived the invasion of Swifties. This made me think I should share these posts from the Wiener Alltagspoeten (Vienna’s Everyday Poets).
Wiener Alltagspoeten is a movement, one could almost say, started and run by Andreas Rainer. It comprises a website, Facebook page, and a couple of books. It’s a collection of “seen and heards” from the streets of Vienna.
The two excerpts below come from the Facebook page. In the first one, an older gentleman is saying he doesn’t know who this “Tannor Swift” is, but he finds it utterly ridiculous that some total idiot wants to ruin the day for 200,000 peaceful people. The only thing is that it’s pretty much completely in Viennese dialect (e.g. Vollwappler, versaut, and depatt), which makes it especially memorable.
The second one tells the tale of, again, an older gentleman, this one in the upmarket district, Döbling. He is usually observed driving through his neighborhood playing classical music full volume on his car stereo. After the concert was canceled, he was heard playing Taylor Swift. 😊
Seen on Twitter. The City of Vienna has a few ideas on how to discombobulate the Viennese this April Fool’s Day. 1: On the tram say “I’m getting off” [so that people make room for you to get out the door] and then stay on. 2: Stand on the left on the escalators. 3: In your regular neighborhood restaurant order “Just a glass of tap water today”. 4: (my favorite) At the bakery buy “Brötchen” (rolls) and then ask for a “Tüte” (bag) to put them in. Both those words are High German and sound really weird in this context. Viennese would probably say “Gebäck” and “Sackerl”. 5: (also good for anyone familiar with the grumpy side of the Viennese) Smile at complete strangers on the street and greet them in a friendly way.
Sorry, in some ways you had to be there, I think, but they made me laugh.
From Helmut Qualtinger, author, cabaret artist and more.
“The problem for every Viennese: One can’t bear it in Vienna anymore–nor anywhere else.”
My comment: For my German (Viennese)-speaking readers. Just a quick note for the others: the “erl” at the end of a word forms the diminutive thereby making each amount sound harmless or at least more harmless than it otherwise would. You’ll notice there is no “erl” on the last one. That’s because it’s “a double”–in other words a two-liter bottle of (usually very acidic and unpleasant) wine.
Yes, you read that correctly. As of yesterday our restaurants are open and people are allowed to eat out. There are, of course, certain restrictions, but they don’t seem that tough.
What is really interesting and, I feel, particularly Viennese is that the city of Vienna is issuing gift certificates to each household for use in a restaurant. EUR 25 for single households and EUR 50 for families. Gives new meaning to the expression “Put your money where your mouth is,” doesn’t it?
ecbinvienna 