Belated End of Year report from Vienna

Subject: Belated End of Year report from Vienna

Date: January 22, 2008 6:21:01 PM GMT+01:00

Vaihingen, den 23. 1. 2008 (belated letter for the End of year in Vienna)

Vienna & Danube arms from Kahlenberg on a rare clear and sunny day

The Advent Season has passed and Christmas is fast approaching. In Austria it is regarded as a two and a half day family celebration. Traditionally the  evening of the 24th belongs to the nuclear family: Mother, Father and children; the following two days are reserved for visits to both sets of grandparents, one set for each day. Usually these family days are joyful gatherings with traditional foods and merrymaking, very much like our Thanksgiving festivities. We do not know how much these old traditions are still observed by the youngest group of parents.

On Christmas Day we were a bit gloomy and missed our family. Fortunately we had discovered a telephone and internet shop near our subway station which was going to remain open during the holidays. So we went there on both Christmas Days and made many long calls to family and friends in the States.  

When it got dark, we took the "Ring" street car and felt good by being surrounded by throngs of cheerful, well-dressed holiday revelers. We ended the ride at our favorite Cafe House, sipped our Cafe Melange, enjoyed "Apfelstrudel mit Schlag" and observed the other lonely people ...

One late afternoon, soon after Christmas, our electricity suddenly went off. We were in total darkness, without heat and hot water. Luckily there were plenty of candles about. Richey found the fuse box and replaced a blown out fuse; but darkness persisted; so he ventured down six flights of stairs to the electrical switch box in the basement, but all to no avail. By now stores had closed and there remained nothing better for us to do but postpone our problemto another day. We were in bed by 7 p.m. and joyfully recalled younger days when we would have appreciated such an opportunity. 

The next morning Richey checked the fuses one more time, and voila... magically the electricity came back on! Heat and light returned, the refrigerator started humming, and the hot water heater kicked back on. Our breakfast was prepared in no time.

On the next day we had the sniffles, stayed inside and enjoyed the warm, comfortable apartment.

Brigitta, exchange partner, returned from Los Angeles on the 30th. When the electricity disappeared twice again, we were glad and relieved that she was there to take care of the problem. 

It is one thing, to have a technical problem in your own home. Richey would either be able to fix it himself or would know whom to call for help. Being in someone else's home is a totally different matter. We were surprised how clueless and utterly helpless we felt, acted, and actually were...

New Years Eve ("Sylvester") and New Years Day were wonderful and emotional days for us: The Viennese "go wild": City hall plaza transforms into a Times Square-like ocean of revelers who gather to ring in the New Year. We did not feel up to late-night partying. Instead we enjoyed Andre Rieu's Year-end concert on TV. Shortly before midnight Brigitta took us to her roof top balcony to watch the Midnight fireworks. It was bitter cold, so we got all bundled up and toasted in the New Year with a bottle of Champagne. The firework displays were spectacular and lit up the sky everywhere for an hour or more. According to Brigitta, all these fireworks were done by private parties from the rooftops, in the streets, or from public squares. She insisted that all this was done by private individuals and perfectly legal and no permits were needed. What about fires, we asked? Oh, there may be one or two, she replied, but so what ....

Despite the cold, it was a magical, clear night: the spectacular, colorful explosions in the sky, the good champagne and of course the wonderful company and surroundings are unforgettable. 

The next morning we listened to the yearly TV transmission of the famous Viennese New Year's Concert. We had been sad that we could not attend in person, but not only had the tickets been sold out months ago, it was way too expensive for us.  The live TV  transmission was beautiful and we listened enthralled and with glassy eyes.

When we arrived in Vienna a month before, we had not known  what to expect. Yet we must have felt some deep longing for connectedness and we found it here through the magic of music. We thought than that nothing could possibly match such emotional highlights. 

Next night Brigitta invited us for supper in Grinzing. We had no idea that a real treat was awaiting us. 

First the place: Grinzing had been and supposedly still is a small wine producing village. Over the centuries this suburb has become famous  for "wine, women, and song", tasting the Heurigen (new wine) and eating and spending a weekend evening with family and friends. Many old farm buildings and barns have been converted into modern, rustic-style restaurants with large fire places, and wooden tables and benches.  "Our" restaurant had a very large entrance-dining hall (probably the former barn) with a beautiful large, tiled fireplace. We got a table next to it. In the center of the "hall" was a large round buffet, set-up with traditional Austrian dishes to one side and international foods, salads and desserts to the other. Brigitta selected for us some traditional Viennese foods.This tasting-experience was fun, just a bit on the heavy side, but accompanied by a glass Heurigen, it was a perfect meal. As we were finishing our feast, an accordion player wandered in. He spied Brigitta and strolled right over to our corner, all the while playing familiar Viennese tunes, singing and drinking his Heurigen. Soon we were moved to tears, mostly due to the glasses of Heurigen which we were sipping. We sang and hummed along.  Did we dance? No, we probably did not trust our legs anymore at that point. I hasten to say that we did get home o.k. later that night... on the subway!

A note of praise for the Viennese transportation system: it is a very modern, super-efficient, cheap and convenient system for moving the masses of people. Most users are frequent travelers who purchase monthly or even yearly tickets at very low cost. There are no (visible!) ticket inspections: during our month in Vienna we did not once get checked, neither on the bus nor the subway. Vienna has one and the same price for traveling in the city on any of the urban transportation systems, regardless of distance and the number of times transfers. This system seems to work on an intrinsic honor principal (like our supermarkets and department stores used to be). Some people buy their tickets in automats at the station, or on the bus or train. In addition to day tickets, you can chose tickets valid for a week, a month and even for the whole year. Brigitta, e.g. has a year's pass which her bank purchases for her and charges and renews automatically. A great many people seem to have these arrangements. After buying and validating one time our one-week tickets, we simply walked onto any bus or subway for a week, without any control whatever. 

We got a bit jealous and embarrassed when thinking about our one-size-fits all American transportation system: cars and highways. Why can't we too, like the Europeans, put our emphasis into creating more and better public transportation facilities? 

As you can see we were very impressed by Vienna and have probably written too much about it. We'll try to be more concise in the coming episodes about our German adventure.

IMPORTANT NOTE: our email address continues to be <s.r.novak@cox.net> . Please do NOT try to reach us any other way or we will not get your mail. 

For some crazy reason, WE must SEND our outgoing letters from abroad  via the <@mac.com> address.