Tales of Everday Life
The Wedding Visa “What do you mean, three months?” The immigration official’s words had just dug a crater-sized hole in my heart. What had happened to only three weeks outside of Schengen to get my visa renewed? “Is there anything I can do to stay?” I asked the official at MA35, crushed. “Well, do you [...]
Exploring Beethoven’s Bastion with Harry Lime
It’s winter, and only the hardiest souls are out exploring Vienna’s back streets. With many content to stay indoors, perhaps now is the time for a little crowd-free urban exploration – and the place to go is Mölker Bastei. This unsung city corner near Schottentor offers five hundred years of history, all within a stone’s [...]
A War of Words Waged from the Windows
Imagine Linke Wienzeile 22 – a plain 1850s egg carton of a building – as a giant refrigerator with 24 magnetic letters you can rearrange to catch, or attack, the world’s fancy. For a good 15 years, Armin Bardel, photographer/artist/philosopher and resident in LWZ 22’s bel étage, has been decking out six panes of his [...]
The Taming of the Cold
The days are growing shorter. It is already getting dark as I leave the office; the air stings my face and I wrap up my woolly scarf tighter as I head down the street toward my tram stop on the Ringstrasse. It’s almost winter; what did I expect? Suddenly, the warm aroma of roasting chestnuts [...]
Rochusviertel – Flakturm and Schnittlauchbrot
For me, it was love at first sight: the Rochusviertel. It’s quiet, green and so varied. Just ten minutes to the Prater, five minutes to the highway, and ten minutes home from the 1st District. The Rochusviertel is the area surrounding the Rochusmarkt. It’s bordered by Rennweg up to Schlachthausgasse, along Stadtpark and the Donaukanal. [...]
Beating Holiday Stress To the Punsch
It is a scientifically proven fact that people who spend too much time in shopping malls in November and December start to exhibit signs of psychosis, particularly when additionally exposed to Christmas carols. But, tu felix Austria, don’t despair, Christkindlmärkte (Christmas markets) are the perfect counterweight to the hectic modern holiday season, bringing old-fashioned cosiness [...]
Nicholas Parsons: Too Nice to the Austrians
Sometimes the truth about national character is easier for a foreigner to see than a local. It was with this in mind that, years ago, I put some hours of careful study into a little book called the Xenophobes Guide to the Austrians, by one Louis James, part of an engaging series of revelatory tomes [...]
The People May Petition, But Will Lawmakers Listen?
Popular petitions (Volksbegehren) enable the electorate to initiate the law-making procedure. Yet the outcome of petitions is not binding for legislators, in contrast to plebiscites (Volksabstimmung), where the electorate decides whether a proposed law is passed. “Only in very few cases have popular petitions in Austria actually yielded concrete results,” conceded Eva Glawischnig, head of [...]
Is Day X Coming?
At the moment, Germany is the strangest country in the world, or at least in Europe. Due to the debt crisis, the entire continent is focusing on Germany, yet the country itself isn’t in a crisis. Nonetheless, the Germans too are noticing that these days, everything is accelerating and intensifying; there is a nervous buzz [...]
OpinionDecember 1, 2011No CommentRead More