April, 2005 - Nr. 4
Vienna Connection
Well, hello there!
Spring is in the air, every time I look around...sigh!
OK, so not quite the original words of a disco song we all know, (or most of us know, in any case!) but still quite appropriate, because can I please say, it’s 22 degrees here today!!! And we’re not talking Fahrenheit. It’s gorgeous! Birds are chirping, crowds are sitting in the Stadtpark sunning themselves, watching tourists come one after the other to take their token picture with the Golden Johann Strauss statue (yes, I of course also have one of those pictures stuffed away somewhere...I highly recommend taking one, it’s tradition!). The Burggarten is filled with University Students practicing their latest Capoeira moves while onlookers are picnicking, wishing they were as flexible or at least as muscular as the gymnasts they’re watching! Sigh, this is Vienna in Springtime (at least for me!) The chairs are outside the cafes, filled with people who just couldn’t wait to get outside and enjoy the first rays of true warm sunlight after a cold snowy winter!
(Ok, I know I can’t make any lectures about cold snowy winters...I was in Toronto, my eyelashes froze after ten minutes outside on one of those nasty freezing days!)
Actually, what I thought was rather funny, that the chairs were outside the cafes here on the very first day the temperature was above zero! It must have been about 2 degrees, and I saw the chairs being prepared...I thought, why in the world are they doing this now? Who in their right mind would sit outside with ice cream when it’s 2 degrees??? Well, lo and behold, 3 hours later as I was walking back from rehearsal, I saw 5 people with ice cream sitting outside on one of the chairs that had been installed earlier that day!
As they say here, WAHN-SINN!!!!
One other big symbol that spring has arrived in Vienna is the opening of Tichy. For those who don’t know, Tichy is an institution in Vienna...it is the ice cream palace to end all ice cream palaces...in the 10th District, at Reumannplatz, and everyone knows it! The same waitresses who must have been there since the place first opened all those decades ago, dressed in pink and white stripes with little white aprons zoom around the place with their little computer zapper machines ready to take your order. And while it’s being taken, the order is already being made, and just before you can say, mmm, I can’t wait for my ice cream, there it is sitting in front of you! None of that "20 minutes or it’s free" business!
Well, I was there with a friend of mine after we both decided that we didn’t feel like going to the opera, and good thing we didn’t because we won Tichy Bingo (because our order number was 666, which we both thought was extremely funny, and wondered if it was a sign for something!) and got our ice cream for free! Oh, how lovely!
I just love Spring! Anyhow, it’s not all fun and games, I assure you. I have a lot of work to do for school as well, and am rehearsing non-stop, but I did want to take a bit of time to check in with you all and say hello! Enjoy the springtime, …….. until next month!
Caroline :)
Comments to: ckuehn@echoworld.com
