Just went out with my dog and discovered a large group of Japanese tourists walking around looking somewhat at a loss. It’s Three Kings today and a holiday in Austria and therefore the shops are closed. Poor things. Their tour guide doesn’t seem to have taken that into account.
Three Kings 2017 (reblogged)
6 Janhttps://ecbinvienna.com/2017/01/06/three-kings-2017/
Just because it’s so much warmer this year 5°C (41°F).
On the streets of Vienna
5 JanI’ve been meaning to tell this story for a long time. I find it illustrative of a particular trait especially among old ladies in Vienna, that is, their tendency to comment on things one might think were none of their business.
A friend of mine, many years ago now, was waiting for the bus to take her cat (in a pet carrier) to the vet’s. A little old Viennese lady came up to wait, too, and started a conversation–something that almost never happens in Vienna unless you have a pet with you. The conversation took place in German and went something like this:
Little old Viennese lady (LOVL): Dog or cat?
My friend (MF), with a big smile: Cat.
LOVL: Boy or girl? (In Viennese dialect: Bub oder Mäderl?)
MF: Boy.
LOVL: How old is he?
MF: Six months.
LOVL: Castrated?
MF: [!?!?!?!?!] No! He’s too young!
LOVL: My dear woman, it is high time!
Holiday Opening Hours
2 JanI went off today with some doubt to one of the public universities where I teach. I needed to pick up exams to grade, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get in. I suspect many years ago, when I first arrived in Vienna, that the university would have been closed through Three Kings Day (January 6). Today I used my key card and got in with no trouble. From the lights visible in offices I could even see I was not alone. Quite a surprise for me.
The Third Day of Christmas
27 DecWhat a surprise it was to step onto the street today shortly after 8 a.m. for the first walk of the day and find people and cars and open shops and simply activity in general!
For many, my surprise will be incomprehensible. Was it really so quiet the last few days? Yup. Shops usually close in Vienna at midday on Christmas Eve and remain closed for Christmas Day and the Feast of Saint Stephen (known in the UK as Boxing Day). This year, however, Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday, when most shops are closed all day anyway, which meant that we have had three days of wonderful peace and quiet (and a most unusual abundance of free parking spaces) with the Viennese enjoying one of their favorite things–Ruhe (also known as peace and quiet).
There’s a draft today
19 DecSomewhere in an earlier post I mentioned that a fellow dogwalker in the park taught me the expression “Es zieht” (which is what you say when there’s a draft in a room). She used it to describe a Viennese and Lower Austrian phenomenon, when there is no visible sign of wind outdoors but you can feel one anyway. Today we have beautiful weather and it is supposed to be 2°C (or about 36°F), but my hands got so cold I just had to step into Caffè Couture for a hot chocolate. There’s only one explanation: Es zieht.
Movies
25 NovFor the first time in ages, I am looking at the cinema listings in the newspaper and have been reminded that movies in Vienna are listed by district so that you can see what is playing near you. (After all, you wouldn’t want to have to leave your Grätzl!) I seem to remember that this is different in different cities. Certainly, one newspaper in Vienna lists films by title rather than by district. They–I think it is “Der Standard”–call this the only reasonable way to list films.
The other thing you need to understand when checking the listings is what OV and OVmU mean. The first stands for “Originalversion” (in the original language) and the second stands for “Originalversion mit Untertiteln”, or the original version with (German) sub-titles.
The cinema is a good place to go when there is “Hochnebel”. 😉
“Hochnebel” (High fog)
25 NovWe have had several days now of “high fog”. I’ve lived in Vienna for coming up on 30 years and finally have put the terminology together with weather it refers to. It is not a very pleasant weather pattern. It’s unrelentingly gray, it’s sometimes accompanied by drizzle (as it was this morning), and, in the words of the German friend who taught me the term, it stinks. Literally. These are the days in Vienna that make me think of my time in Chengdu, that highly industrialized city in western China!
This, too, shall pass. Let’s hope it passes soon!
Get ’em young
7 OctThis morning I had cause to walk past the university campus at about 8 a.m. I was simply astounded to see a group of what looked like students gathering at that hour on a Saturday for what looked like a kind of race, possibly as a team-building activity. The semester started this week and various orientation efforts have been made by all the Viennese universities. One reason this made an impression on me is that such events are a relatively new phenomenon here, inspired, I believe, by what U.S. universities do for their new students (who, in contrast to the Austrian students, of course, pay quite a bit for their education).
Particularly interesting was the set-up activity. The students must be starting at the medical school because the sponsors of the event were clearly pharmaceutical companies (see photos below). A lot has been done in the last 25 years in Austria to break the grip of the pharmaceutical companies on doctors (in those days the presents–and the creativity with which the drug companies circumvented the, then much looser, regulations–almost defy description). Now the motto seems to be “Get ’em young,” before the regulations kick in.
A fun bit of trivia about the Lipizzaners
17 SepApparently, the Lipizzaner horses are given the title “Professor” once they have completed their training. And given how Austrians, certainly older Austrians, love to use titles, I bet they get addressed that way, too. 🙂
Professor – UNNÜTZES WISSEN
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