The sun is shining brightly today in Vienna. We’ve been having one of those stretches–so common here in January–where it is overcast so long one forgets that there is such a thing as sun and blue sky. Long may this last! 🙂
Violence in the city
3 FebSomething terrible is happening in this city I love. We are not used to violent crime, or really much violence (or crime for that matter), in Vienna, but in the last few weeks there have been reports of a tram driver being knifed in the back, violent demonstrations against a ball organized and attended by the extreme right wing, a dog (a Pekingese so it was clearly not self-defense) being kicked and throttled on the platform of an underground station, my neighbors were broken into and robbed when they were away for four hours only, and this evening coming home from work I saw two men attacking another man at a major underground station.
At first I thought it was just shouting. Then I saw they were pushing, kicking, and hitting him. It looked as if no one was going to intervene when suddenly four women emerged from the crowd and started to run interference to protect the victim, who was not only one against two but was also so drunk he was completely unable to defend himself. These women kept this up long enough and effectively enough, one on the phone to the police, that the attackers gave up and disappeared, at which point someone from the underground oversight appeared and took on responsibility for the drunken, battered man.
The women went their own ways, obviously previously unknown to each other, having simply stepped in spontaneously together in the interest of protecting the weak.
There is a campaign on in Vienna encouraging people to show more “Zivilcourage” (“moral courage” according to leo.org). These women, and not really anyone else in the crowded concourse, seem to have taken that message to heart.
If things go on as they are, we are all going to need a lot more “Zivilcourage”.
More wildlife in the city
31 JanMylo and I saw a fox in the park yesterday evening on our last walk of the day, practically downtown. This city never fails to amaze me.
Auf Wiedersehen
11 JanNote to self: The Viennese aren’t famous for speaking with each other on public transportation, but if for some reason you exchange (civil) remarks with someone it’s important to remember then to say “Auf Wiedersehen” when you part.
January 7th in Vienna
7 JanToday the city came alive again. The 12 Days of Christmas are over, and everyone is going back to work. I, for one, am glad. I spent the holidays home by myself nursing a badly injured little dog and feeling very alone. Vet’s office closed for days in a row as I worried about whether the latest development warranted calling the emergency number and getting the vet away from her celebrations and, on top of that, many friends out of town. Now life is getting back to normal. And the sun is coming up noticeably earlier. It was already bathing the park in a rosy pink at shortly after seven this morning.
Tschüs!
29 Dec“Tschüs!” is a form of leave-taking, rather like “‘Bye!”, originally from Germany. It has made its way into Austrian usage to the extent that even my absolutely original Viennese friend, C., closes some of her telephone conversations with me with it. And yet there are some differences. “Tschüs” is now widely used in Germany. Even when you leave a store the sales clerk might use it instead of the more formal “Auf Wiedersehen”. In Austria it is seen as something you would use in an informal setting ONLY, and a story from an equally original Viennese friend of mine, B., illustrates this.
B. works for a organization where all address each other with the informal “du” rather than the formal “Sie”. Among them is a German colleague who even uses “tschüs” with clients, that is, indiscriminately in Austrian eyes. Out of curiosity B. had just finished talking about the differing uses with this colleague, sharing the Austrian understanding of “tschüs” and mentioning that Austrians only expect to hear it from people they are on “du” terms with. The German colleague was very interested by this and perhaps took it a little too much to heart. Five minutes later when she was getting ready to leave the holiday party she said “Auf Wiedersehen” to a group of colleagues (all of whom she addressed with “du”). And one of the colleagues, without having been privy to B.’s conversation, said, “Hey, we’re all ‘per du’ here. You don’t have to say ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ to us.” 😉
Christmas greetings
24 DecSome things, thank goodness, never change–or at least they haven’t changed yet.
I am in the process of sending out my Christmas and New Year’s greetings by e-mail and am getting a slew of auto-replies back. Almost all of them say that the recipient is out of the office until January 7. Apparently, people are still honoring the twelve days of Christmas here. What a wise folk! 😉
The Wiener Linien
1 NovThe Wiener Linien is the public transport authority in Vienna and true to form they are running extra trams on this All Saints holiday to accommodate those people who can’t afford a car or simply choose not to drive to the cemetery for their traditional visits to the graves of late loved ones. Classic Vienna.
State holiday
26 OctAbsolutely perfect fall weather (see below) for the Nationalfeiertag today and a record number of people in the Vienna Woods to make the most of it. What does Austria celebrate on its state holiday? Many Austrians themselves are not sure. A quick look at the German-language Wikipedia shows that it is Austria’s return to sovereign state status when the last occupying troops (Brits in the province of Carinthia) left. The Austrian parliament then immediately enacted a law ensuring Austria’s eternal neutrality, a point that is now viewed with some skepticism given Austria’s EU membership. So today Austria celebrates its sovereignty and its neutrality. True to Austrian custom there is no extra day to make up for the holiday even though it falls on the weekend. On Monday we all have to go back to work. In the meantime we get to enjoy this:
Another website
24 OctIn looking for information on Austrian demographics (in which I found out that in 2006 about 9.8% of the people living in Austria were non-Austrians, which is one of the highest percentages in the EU) I came across this website with impressions of Austria written by an Austrian: http://www.tourmycountry.com/austria/unique-austria.htm I wanted to share that with you.
ecbinvienna 