A Tale of Two Markets

Right now, you can't swing a schwein schnitzel in Vienna without hitting a Christmas Market and the scenery is beautiful.  However, I've also discovered the same vendors hock their trinkets at multiple markets, which is probably why I now head straight for the food and drink huts (ok…..mainly drink)  instead of the shopping.  Listen, if you've seen market after market full of huts selling the same wooden toys, alpaca wool socks and ceramic frog salt & pepper shakers, you would shout "drink please!" too.

Last weekend was different.

We discovered 2 markets worth keeping on the list for next year at Stilwerk Design Galerie Wien and the Mittelalterlicher Adventmarkt at The Arsenal.  Consider these two the "polar" opposites of Christmas Markets in Vienna.

Normally, Stilwerk Design Galerie is a multi-level mall filled with stores catering to the avant garde of Vienna's contemporary minimalist, modern and mid-mod interior design for every room of the home.  One could outfit a bare apartment from studs to reveal with one visit to Stilwerk.  During weekends in December, the shops and individual artists display their wares for the Christmas season.  It was lovely to wander the mall, surrounded in warmth and beauty, looking at all of the displays and shops.  Inspiration everywhere!

A return to the Middle Ages was waiting for us at The Arsenal.  Cauldrons of bubbling wine and rotisseries of meat filled the cold air with the smell campfire vittles.  This market was a 9 year old boy's dream:  handmade swords, shields, knives, slingshots, bows and arrows.  We told Jake he could buy a weapon if he would dress up with Mom and Dad in the "Robin Hood, Maid Marian and Friar Tuck" costumes for sale.  Surprisingly and lucky for us, he declined.  The food at this market was spectacular, the vibe Middle Ages and the artisans turning wooden furniture legs on "people powered" machinery fun to watch.  It is a shame this Market only runs for 4 days.  I would return for more and probably end up with both a costume and slingshot.

Fried Pingu? Tastes Like Chicken

Really, it was only a matter of time before someone fell ill in our house.  But a pneumonia diagnosed by stethoscope was totally unexpected.  Over the past couple of weeks I noticed that some of the kids on Jake's bus were missing here and there.  Last week I rode his bus to school and heard one of the older kids in the back hacking up his lung and the antennae went up-smoker's cough or something more sinister?  Mike and I were surprised on a recent trip up to school just how many teens were lighting up on the walk away from campus.  That being said, I started making mental notes of all of the coughing and hacking surrounding us from ubahn to grocery store.  Much more than the typical smoker's cough we normally hear.  It never ceases to amaze the number of Austrians who shop for organic and bio foods and then light up a cigarette on the way out the door.  In addition, as a certified member of the germaphobic society (we drink wine and use Purell at our meetings),  I am always amazed how many people do not cover their cough.

When Jake started with his sniffles and cough, we chalked it up to typical cold season. With his history of asthma, we know the drill and pulled out the puffers and decongestant.  Until early Sunday morning when his fever spiked, breathing turned shallow and heart started racing.  This is known in our house as Code Red.  Cue "Pingu" our trusty nebulizer.  Even at 3:15 am, our deliriously ill kiddo knew help was on the way with Pingu.  Until we made the ill-fated decision to plug in Pingu using only a plug adapter.  ZZZZZapoof.  In a moment of clarity, Jake asked, "Did you fry Pingu?"  I had to answer that we did.  Cue the tears for our faithful friend.

Luckily, we saw the Pediatrician on our street for a same day appointment and with a stethoscope he diagnosed what I suspected through previous experience, a pneumonia in the right lung.  Last time this happened, Jake ended up in hospital for IV fluids.  This time, we trundled home with instructions to stay home, start 10 days of antibiotics and buy a new nebulizer.  Settled at home with some of our supplies, I texted Mike an placed an order for some chicken soup and asked him to stop to pick up our "new Pingu".  God Bless dear Mike, here is what we got.

It Ain't Your Nonna's Recipe, Guarantee!

New Pingu Looks Like a Soviet Cell Block

With Thanksgiving on the way, our plans have obviously changed, but our humor about this new life away from the comforts of "home" will not.  When Jake asked what fried Pingu might taste like, I only had one answer……"tastes like chicken, of course."

"Or sushi,"  he replied.

Happy Thanksgiving and blessings to all!

On Your Market, Get Set, Go!

It is mid-November and Christmas Market season is underway!  No Thanksgiving to butt into the Christmas frenzy here in Vienna.  We barely had a brush with Halloween.  I have the feeling that I'm losing friends on Facebook from posting one too many scenes of "Christmas in Austria".  So, if you clicked the link to the blog, that must mean you want to be here, in my personal Winter Wonderland.  Expect another Christmas Market post or two before December 25th, especially if there is some snow involved!

The somber Austrian mood lifts when the markets arrive in town.  In multiple locations around Vienna small wood huts are set up and open for business selling food (bread bowls of soup, candies and pastries, yum), drink (hot wine and spiked punch, double yum) along with Christmas ornaments, gifts and trinkets.  Large or small, strolling the markets is a darn good time.  We had the opportunity to hit some on their opening weekend with visiting family, my Mom and Aunt Barbara.  Their presence was an early Christmas gift for us.

Naschmarkt

Vintage Ornaments at Naschmarkt

Santa's Street Interview….Naughty or Nice?

The beauty of the St. Stephen's Market was enhanced by the full moon.

Drinking Hot Wine in Refillable Mugs

Table Top Skills

Rathhaus Market on Opening Night

Full Moon Over Snowman Tree

The lights are also going up around the Inner Stadt.  With the pedestrian shopping streets sparkling above and some hot wine in hand, I plan on doing some Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree.  Best wishes to all of you for happiness and good health during this Season of Joy.

I'm A Bag Watcher

I've been considering this topic since summertime when I saw an elderly woman cross the street towards me.  She was wearing a floral snap-up house dress and sensible elderly woman shoes with black socks.

She was carrying a Prada shopping bag.

There was something about the sight that wasn't quite right.  "One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong" was my Sesame Street ear worm.

At that moment, I became a bag watcher.
Now, months later, I can't stop.

In Vienna, shopping bags are the necessary accessory.  Women and men will carry the extra "papier pouchette", in addition to the traditional purse, briefcase or backpack.  This is a dress code rule I've not yet adopted, but do enjoy taking note as I'm out and about.  Of course, on occasion,  these bags will represent an actual purchase.  More often than not, they are like the glove compartment in a car or a portable junk drawer.

At the risk of getting yelled at or worse, I deployed my Secret Squirrel skills and started surreptitiously checking out the contents of these bags (snapped a few pics too).  Typically, the bag contains some outerwear, shoes, newspaper or magazine and umbrella.  Sometimes a bottle of water, snack bag or fruit.  Utilitarian indeed.  Generally, women tend to go with the luxury or clothing brand bags and men tend to have Nespresso or "non-denominational" bag.  On rainy days, they go plastic.

Dolce & Gabbana and Daisy Dukes

Man Bag

The most amusing bag watching was on Halloween at the school sponsored "Trunk or Treat".  I spied an elementary school kid in costume collecting candy in a Louis Vuitton shopping bag.  Of course, I wanted to track down his Mom to see what LV she was carrying!

So, I've started my bag collection (yes friends, in addition to my purse collection), just in case I decide to join in.

I'm ready, rain or shine.

Welcome to Veniceland

We are back from a whirlwind trip to Venice during Fall Break.  It was exciting, beautiful, and delicious.  Ah....la dolce vita.

Land Ho!

A View to a Thrill

St. Mark's Basilica

Doge's Palace

House of God

Rialto Bridge

Gondola's for Hire

So why am I feeling sad in a happy kind of way?

I think it's because I learned that Venice is now an exterior shell.  The city's people, along with much of its heart and soul, have relocated elsewhere.  In fact, according to the tour guide we spent time with, there are only about 58,000 full time residents in a city that once boasted a residential population of 175,000 in the early 1950s.  Been to Disney?  Know how the Main Street is just a shuttered facade of joyful commercialism?  That is where Venice is headed.  Boutique hotels, restaurants and shops of all shapes and sizes now make up the "Main Street" where there were once Venetian families living life.  I've linked an interesting article on the topic in the side bar.  Ticket lines, huge cruise ships and crowds of tourists like us have changed the face of a city where St. Mark the Evangelist's remains were returned from Egypt, heralded by the construction of St. Mark's Basilica in the year 828, and when Venice became City of the Winged Lion.

The Rotterdam 

That being said, we adored Venice and hope to return.  If you go, put these two "must see" places on your list after making the typical tourist rounds:  The Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the island of Burano (yes, with a B).

Peggy Guggenheim, the socialite whose father went down with the Titanic, purchased the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal in 1949.  It now houses her vast collection of modern art, from Surrealism to Cubism, as well as a modern sculpture garden.  She collected and exhibited Jackson Pollock before he was Jackson Pollock.  For several years she purchased "a picture a day" from the cutting edge of the modern art movement including, Duchamp, Kandinsky, Ernst, Picasso, Calder, Miro, and Dali and many more.   Even if modernism is not your thing, wandering the Palazzo and gardens captures the imagination of what it was like for Peggy to live in such a beautiful space from the 1950s until her death in 1979.

Alexander Calder "The Cow" 1970

Marino Marini "The Angel of the City" 1948

The view from Peggy's bedroom

Jackson Pollock "Circumcision" 1946

Man Ray "Peggy Guggenheim" 1925(?)

Rene Magritte "Empire of Light" 1953-1954

Pablo Picasso "On The Beach" 1937 (reportedly Peggy's favorite)

Robert Delaunay "Windows Open Simultaneously Part 1" 1912

A view through the jeweled gate to the sculpture garden

Spending our final day on Burano was a family highlight.  This colorful island remains one less travelled, a place where you can still see families walking together and children playing in the square.  While Murano is known for glass, Burano is known for textile and lace making families with histories dating back to the 15th century.  Of course, I shopped at Emilia Atelier and left with an embroidered linen tablecloth (thanks darling husband!) and a tour of the family's lace making museum.

Color Washed Canal

Colors of the Sun

Burano Under a Blue Sky

Even the Laundry is Photogenic

I cherish our dear boy's exclamation as we vaporettoed through the Grand Canal, "I'm proud to be in the land of my ancestors!"  Lucky for him, there are more ancestors and more lands to explore.  Ciao Venezia.

Shop Til You Drop

I've always been quite proud of my shopping abilities.  Spent years perfecting the practice.  From full on retail purchases at those "boutiques that shall not be named", to penny purchases with a double coupon at a discount dive, to elbows flying at "the biggest sale of the season" at Macy's, I've done it all.  In fact, one of the activities I looked forward to in Vienna was the shopping.  Never mind the fact that I am unemployed at the moment, I saved some cash and I'm ready to spend.  Except for grocery shopping.  Fact is, I've lost what little mojo I had.

Let me explain.

What should be easier than buying some groceries?  Strolling the aisles, comparing prices, discovering recipe ingredients and how best to cheat on the diet.  Well, I've come to discover grocery shopping in Vienna is a full on contact sport and it drains the life out of me. every. single. time.

Navigating the postage stamp of our grocery store, InterSpar, is like an episode of Wipe Out.  Have you ever seen Wipe Out?  Contestants run an obstacle course, which is intent on kicking their ass.  Literally.  That is what buying groceries is like in my neighborhood.

There are ground rules.  For the record:  I have broken these rules and have been adequately shamed into correcting my behavior.  In fact, nowadays, the checkers at the registers all duck and look away when they see me coming.  Perhaps they have tired of "educating" me.

RULES:

1.  You will pay to use a shopping cart.  If you are lucky, someone will take pity on you and show you how to do this, instead of letting you stand there like a dork while pulling on a bunch of locked carts.  The money is returned when you return the cart.

Locked Up For Your Shopping Convenience.

2.  Produce is not weighed and priced at the cash register.  ALL shoppers (yes, YOU) will be sent back to the produce section to properly weigh and print your pricing sticker at the ONE "convenient" weigh station.  Good luck if you don't know the German names for produce.  Pray that there are no other shoppers giving you death stares as you try to figure out onion is zwiebel.

3.  You will not be forgiven for taking too much time at check out.  By anyone.  The checkers at the grocery are actually former members of the Austrian Olympic Fast Pitch Softball team.  Their ability to throw your groceries down the conveyor and demand payment before you have finished putting the last yogurt on the belt is truly astounding.  In fact, once your last food item is pitched at you, the next shopper occupies your space.  Even if you are still in it.

4.  You are the grocery bagger.  After having food items fast pitched through the check out, you are solely responsible for paying and getting the hell out of the way.  One item or 50, you have exactly 3.6 seconds to move into the bagging station before the next shopper's groceries are tossed at you.  Oh, forgot to mention, grocery bags are not provided.  Unless you pay for them. 

Obviously an American Taking Up Bagging Space.

I briefly considered looking into grocery shopping psychotherapy, until I chatted up other expats and discovered I am not alone.  These kind souls shared their coping strategies with me and I've developed a couple of my own.


RULES FOR POSITIVE MENTAL HEALTH WHILE GROCERY SHOPPING:

1.  Have a plan.  Gone are the days of pondering grocery items.  Someone will surely step into your line of sight at the shelf.  I have my list and google translate ready to go.

2.  Stand your ground.  I strategically place my grocery cart to keep others from pushing me out before I am ready to move on.  Now, I won't be leaving food items behind simply because the checker and next shopper have decided I've over stayed my welcome.  I also buy more time by using large bills to pay.  The checker needs more time to count the change.

3.  Drink wine and eat chocolate.  Before and after grocery shopping.

4.  Smile.  Following Rule 3 makes this possible.

Two brief highlights.

I bent over at the bagging station (another broken rule) and knocked over a tall stack of carts.  The loud crash resulted in the store grinding to a halt while checkers and shoppers stared, frowned, and shook their heads with disapproval.  Laughing, I snapped a photo and picked up the carts, except for the ones that crossed the "No Entry" zone.  Alarms sound if you do that.  Don't ask how I know this.

"Baby Got Back"  and Knocked Over the Carts.

A woman ahead of me completed her check out and accidentally left an item behind.  After much consternation, the checker lady was going to make her head back to the end of the line to pay for it.  When I added it to my haul, yet another rule was broken and both women were truly surprised.  Random acts of kindness are possible at the grocery.

Made it Home.  It is 10am.  Now What?  Wine and Chocolate.

Perhaps alternating grocery shopping with a dip into "those boutiques that shall not be named",....what the zwiebel, I'm naming names......Prada, Hermes or Louis Vuitton, will help me get my groove back.  It is certainly worth a try.

The Antiques Diva and Me

It has been a while since my last post, sorry dear readers, we've been on a steep learning curve when it comes to life in Vienna PLUS we've been enjoying a visit from dear friends from Arizona.

As I've mentioned here before, a long time interest in other people's treasures resulted in great days spent with Arizona Family Estate Sales & Appraisals, LLC and my thrift shop booth, Retro Ranch Resale at Copper Country Antiques in Tucson.  The birth of "Retro" for you below, I truly miss it.

Add earning an International Society of Appraisers antique/personal property appraisal certification to the weekend estate sale and thrift shop action and you have a full blown HOBBY.  Even before the move to Vienna, I looked for information on antiques shopping in my new city and found The Antiques Diva on the internet.  What an interesting story of how a trailing spouse found her calling organizing antique shopping tours and started a business empire across Europe.  I started following her on both Facebook and through her blog and before long reached out to see if there was some way my appraisal certification and experience might fit with her business model.

Lucky for me, she extended an invitation I could not refuse, a guest blog opportunity on vintage and thrift shopping in Vienna.  Feeling like a cub investigative reporter on her first assignment, I set out to do my research while loving every minute of it.  The final product linked below.

http://antiquesdiva.com/antiques-diva/a-vienna-waltz

My "pie in the sky" dream is to launch an appraisal service for expats or shoppers who are shipping antiques and residential contents back to the United States.  Our personal experience with damaged items during our move and the utility of a professional appraisal during the insurance claim process tells me that this type of service is valuable.  The challenge will be turning the dream into a reality.  The Antiques Diva graciously provided both an opportunity and inspiration.  Thank You.