Rauchen!

I haven't posted to my Blog for some time and I really do need to let you all know about our trip back home to Australia, and our holidays in Belgium and in Malta but that will all have to wait as I have something I urgently need to get off my chest!

A LOT of people in Vienna smoke. And when we first got here in 2006 they could smoke pretty much anywhere they liked (except, thank God, on public transport). Sometime last year stricter rules were brought in to help bring Austria in line with general EU policies on smoking in public places. Now, all places that serve food must provide a non-smoking area. This often means two tables at the BACK of the restaurant (so that you have to walk through all the smoke) but in many cases it has prompted restaurants to go totally smoke free. Our local Italian and our favourite Thai are two cases in point.

So what's got me incensed right at the moment? Well, pull up a chair and let me tell you! On Friday I was walking through the DonauZentrum (or DZ, the shopping mall next to the kids' school) and I saw the big signs that said that all areas of the DZ are now smoke free - fantastic you say, but wait! Right next to this very large sign is a cafe in the middle of the mall - so no walls around it - and every single person sitting at the tables was smoking - and they are allowed to smoke there! How's that for craziness? I remain flabbergasted that 'all areas are smoke free' except for the cafes and eateries scattered throughout the mall where it's business as usual for smokers and their victims!

I would have taken a photo of the non-smoking sign with the smokers sitting next to it but there is another sign in the DZ which says that you can't take any photos inside the mall unless you want to be deported to the Gulags - I think that's what it says but my German isn't really good enough to be sure!

Paris!

Just back from a week in Paris and all I can say is 'wow'! What a beautiful city - you know, I have to say it again - before I came to live in Vienna I thought I would never be happy with a visit to Rome, London or Paris because these cities are so big and so 'familiar'. But, again, as with Rome and London, I was wrong about Paris. Yes, it is a big city and it is very dirty in places - definitely more dog pooh on the streets of Paris than anywhere else I've been so far but the compensations are amazing - there is so much to see and do, the city is just gorgeous, it is easy to get around on the public transport and the food is great.

And the thing that surprised me the most was the friendliness and helpfulness of the Parisian people - people going out of their way to offer help, people smiling at us as we mangled their language (and we didn't have much of their language beyond 'hello', 'thankyou' and 'please') and people who were going out of their way to be pleasant to our kids - I thought Italy would be the place where the kids were appreciated but compared to our reception in Paris, that is not the case. I don't know where the myth of the snooty Frenchman who won't talk to you if you don't have perfect French comes from but we certainly didn't experience anything but consideration and helpfulness.

Here are a few of my favourite things from Paris:

St Chappelle Church - a jewel box constructed from stained glass - a glorious space.

The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries in the Mediaeval History Museum - I had read the Tracey Chevalier novel about these tapestries years ago and had wanted to see them ever since - and they are beautiful - I sat in front of them for ages.

The lovely Art Nouveau entrances to many of the Metro stations (although this one with the glass 'fan' over the sign is one of the rarer ones)

The art - this is one of Monet's massive waterlily paintings in the Orangery - there are 8 of them spread over two rooms.

Other things we loved about Paris - pain chocolate, flan, French onion soup :), the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Rodin Museum, the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay and the area around Montmartre. We were a little disappointed by Napoleon's tomb (although seeing originals of love letters he wrote to Josephine was cool), the Pantheon and the Moulin Rouge.

So I think I am now learning not to write anything off as not likely to meet my expectations - it seems that all the reading and exposure to pictures and video of places does not necessarily breed contempt - which is a really great feeling to know I'm not jaded yet!

Let Sleeping Bulbs Lie

I love this!! It literally says "Watch Out, here sleep the flower onions". Every year these signs pop up during the winter to warn people that bulbs are planted under the pine cuttings. The idea of sleeping flower onions really amuses me!

A Belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Well, we got through Christmas and are still working our way through the mountains of baking I did - we still have mince pies, gingerbread and caramelised pecans but the Christmas Cake and vanilla kipferls are long gone, as are the mini Christmas puddings which were a success after THREE attempts to get them right.

We had a family of 6 around for Christmas lunch and despite a few hiccups in getting everything cooked and ready at the same time I think we did pretty well and I think our friends appreciated our efforts.

Hot on the heels of Christmas comes New Year and the Austrians really like to 'party like it's 1999' - in Vienna they fill the city centre for free concerts, impromptu fireworks displays and eating and drinking. At midnight they ring the big 'Pummerin' bell in the Stephansdom - this moment is of great significance to the Viennese.

Our New Year was relatively quiet as usual - we all went to the Konzerthaus to hear Beethoven's Ninth played by the Wiener Symphonika - it was an incredible experience, particularly as there was a 100 member choir on stage to sing the 'Song of Joy' bit. The concert was early and we were home by 9:30pm. The kids went off to bed and Nick and I watched DVDs until midnight, said 'Happy New Year' to each other and went to bed - I'm not really a celebrate New Year type of girl so even sitting up until midnight was a big thing for me!

Just before New Year, after the Christmas stalls are packed away, the New Year's stalls come out for a few days. These stalls sell tiny little "Glueckwuensche" or good luck charms and the idea is that you get a few for yourself or to give to others to bring luck and good fortune for the next year. The standard good luck charms seem to be pigs, dice, ladybirds and four leaf clovers.

So there's my little update. I hope your Christmas celebrations were joyful and I wish you all the very best for 2009.

Christmas is Coming!

Well, it's been awhile since I posted and I am sorry about that! This won't be a long post and probably no pictures this time so I apologise for that too!

The kids finished school at lunchtime last Tuesday and they don't go back to school until 7th January - a nice little break. That's good for me right now as I am sick as a cat and the weather has been pretty cold and nasty so I'm quite happy that I don't have to go in and out of the house and on the public transport if I don't feel like it.

We are making slow progress to being ready for Christmas Day. All presents now wrapped, Christmas cake made, all ingredients purchased for other baking - well, that's about it but that's not too bad is it? We are having 9 people around for Christmas lunch and I must admit that I do find that a bit daunting - I am used to providing a cold Christmas lunch for that many people but this whole 'bake a turkey' thing has got my head spinning.

We have a very small oven so it is very hard for me to figure out how everything is going to come together so that both the turkey and the vegetables are served hot. I'm sure it will be OK on the day but it's a bit stressful. Not to mention the stress of the fact that we live in an apartment above our landlady and 6 of our guests are children!!!! Noisy children!!!! And no, we do not have easy access to a park or anywhere we can take the kids to blow off some energy - and besides, did I mention it is cold??!!

Yeah, well, that's all the joie de vivre from me for now - Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays to you all - please keep your fingers crossed that my meal is a success and that the children will be kept happily occupied with the endlessly entertaining activity of sitting quietly and speaking when spoken to!!!!

Nikolaustag - 6 December

This blog entry is a little late but as we have joined in the tradition of Nikolaustag (St Nicholas Day) since we moved to Vienna I thought it was worth writing about.

"On the night of Dec. 5 (in some places, the evening of Dec. 6), in small communities in Austria and the Catholic regions of Germany, a man dressed as der Heilige Nikolaus (St. Nicholas, who resembles a bishop and carries a staff) goes from house to house to bring small gifts to the children. Accompanying him are several ragged looking, devil-like Krampusse, who mildly scare the children. Although Krampus carries eine Rute (a switch), he only teases the children with it, while St. Nicholas hands out small gifts to the children. In some regions, there are other names for both Nikolaus and Krampus (Knecht Ruprecht in Germany). Sometimes Krampus/Knecht Ruprecht is the good guy bringing gifts, equal to or replacing St. Nicholas. As early as 1555, St. Nicholas brought gifts on Dec. 6, the only “Christmas” gift-giving time during the Middle Ages, and Knecht Ruprecht or Krampus was a more ominous figure." (this information is from the website http://german.about.com/library/blnikolaus2.htm)

In Vienna, there doesn't appear to be an actual Nikolaus or Krampus going from door to door. Here the tradition seems to be that the children leave their shoes out on the evening of the 5th December and in the morning they will be filled with walnuts and mandarines if the children have been good or lumps of coal if they have been bad. Even this seems to have been watered down a little and now you can buy chocolates and sweets with either Nikolaus or Krampus on the wrappers- this is what my kids receive as they aren't keen on mandarines and lumps of coal are hard to find!!

Vienna and Modern History

This may be a strange subject for a blog entry but I am a student of History and my main area of interest is Russian History (specifically the period since the last Tsar) and since moving to Vienna I have been able to really see where History was made.

Currently I am reading 'Young Stalin' by Simon Sebag Montefiore and he talks about the time Stalin spent in Vienna before the 1917 Revolution in Russia. It just amazes me that Stalin, Hitler and Tito were all in Vienna at the same time yet never met (of course they had no reason to meet - Hitler was a struggling artist, Tito was working as a mechanic and Stalin was a leading Bolshevik and working on his "Marxism and the National Question"). Montefiore says that both Hitler and Stalin enjoyed walking in the gardens of the Schoenbrunn Palace - these gardens are still beautiful (see below) and I have walked through them many times in the past 2.5 years.

I love living in Europe and being able to actually walk where people who shaped the direction of the world in the 20th Century have walked. It is such a blessing for me, with my love of European History, to have this chance to live for an extended period in Europe. Similarly, I am grateful for the opportunities to see the Art, experience the Music and enjoy the Architecture of the Europe I grew up learning about.

There, enough for now - I promised a friend I would try and put up a blog entry today and I have kept my promise - hope it hasn't been too boring.