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Jubal in Vienna: Learnings And Suchlike

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Jubal:
I meant to do a lot more proper diary/blogging starting out here, but I haven't done so, for two main reasons:

* It is hard to blog when one has too much paperwork to do, and even moving to another EU country involves a fair amount of that.
* It's really hot here.
When I say hot here, I mean really hot - I've arrived in Vienna in heatwave conditions and it's hit 37 or 38 celsius some days. My brain's been running at about half capacity all week. Nonetheless, things have happened!

Vienna doesn't feel quite like anywhere else I've been - the feel to me is more southern or eastern than northern European, though this may be partly influenced by the weather. It's mostly a city of tall apartment blocks, with a centre full of imperial-level pomp and over the top baroque architecture. In many ways it feels far less tourist focussed than London; the Imperial era architecture and palaces form a backdrop to people living ordinary city life below. The past of somewhere like London has polished itself up for new vistors; Vienna's feels a little more like it has exhaled and decided that it's high time to take a nap. The central city parks perhaps suffer from this, feeling neither so bright as a well kept formal garden nor having been permitted the blast of wilderness that some city parks have regained in the UK - but for the city overall it feels nicer than it might do, the imposing buildings being treated as far less of an imposition than they might otherwise be.

My area, very close to the centre, is a grid-shaped district of apartment blocks that has cafes and bars nestling beneath them on some of the streets. The little "Billa" supermarkets are omnipresent (all seemingly complete with somewhat rushed and stressed looking staff, though I imagine the heat isn't helping moods), but there are many smaller shops that I'll hopefully get to explore. I need to find another apartment within six weeks - I got somewhere on a short let while settling in - but this area seems fairly pleasant, and here or a little to the north, somewhere on the half-hour walking line between this road and my office, seems a good starting area to look at.

I've got a lot of other thoughts that I'll try and get down in the next few days if anyone's interested, and am finding out plenty about life in Austria. Not least that Austrian police sirens sound disconcertingly more like they're announcing a cavalry charge than the arrival of law enforcement, which rather startled me the first time I heard one...

Clockwork:
Like :)

Jubal:
Thanks - let me know if any questions or curiosities arise :)

Glaurung (who's visiting) and I wandered around some more of the old city centre today. It's again an area of tall apartments and narrow streets. Even many buildings that would elsewhere be very imposing, like large churches and even to some extent the cathedral, are strangely less so because they're fitted closely into the network of apartment blocks so one never gets far enough away to see the scale and they don't tower over the neighbouring buildings. The exception is probably the Hofsburg palace, once home of the Habsburg rulers, which still has at least a couple of large, open approaches. Even that is somewhat less tourist-heavy than an equivalent place elsewhere might be, but it definitely retains a certain haughty glamour, coupled nicely with the presence of many horse and carriage sets in the square to one side of it. Horse & carriage is definitely the tourist way to get around the city, and it has a certain charm as an idea though I'm not sure I'll want to shell out that much money.

The Donau canal, which branches off the Danube and passes closer in to the city centre, is interesting if only for its lack of public face. Whereas in the UK riverside and canalside areas are often high in demand and gentrifying rapidly, the canal area has largish roads close in on either side, and a rather mishmashed set of mostly more modern developments a bit back from its banks. It's certainly no tourist hotspot. The lower canalside paths are wide and do have a range of small food kiosks, but the feel is very different to the relaxed nineteenth century developments to the west, with large-scale modern graffiti and younger (probably local) clientele. It's a strange sort of alive 21st century gash through the middle of a city that mostly feels a bit more like it has forgotten that time passes at all. Indeed, in the rest of the city the consistency of the architecture, all fitting the C18th/19th apartment style with occasional gaps for larger and more imposing structures, is somewhat remarkable.

Meanwhile Glaurung and I found a good restaurant/pub in the city centre, these days called the "Beer Clinic" (roughly rendered) but originally known as the "Golden Dragon". It's several hundred years old, and does a nice, though not dead cheap, range of local delicacies including Cordon Bleu and a "Kalbsbeuschel", a sort of stew made with calf lights and with a GIANT bread dumpling in it, which I had and which turned out to be very nice. The portions are dramatically well sized, and the interior of the pub is lovely, including some interesting dates and artefacts from the past. This included a painted sign saying "Turkenkugel" (Turk Ball) - which, just above it, did indeed have a large metal object embedded into the wall, apparently a cannonball from the 1688 Turkish siege. An old model "golden dragon" is just above the doorway, though there's a newer one (still well made enough not to appear tacky) in the main room with a pull-cord that lights up its eye. All in all a good meal & would recommend - I'll have to leave him to comment on the beer when he gets back, but the local wine I had was nice too.

More updates soon hopefully!

Gmd:
Sounds amazing! do keep us updated. I've got a friend in Vienna myself, but i know very little about the place!

Pentagathus:
+1

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