We are now nicely settled in Vienna as of August the 1st.
We live in the centre of town, in a nice and quiet square, surrounded by palaces and Churches. We are also very near the canal and the attractions there, so we are being kept busy for the moment enjoying this fascinating city.
We have rented a modern penthouse, built on top of an old Vienna building. This seems to be rather common lately in Vienna. We have glass windows all over the place and in these first few days, my wife is getting worried we will have “ excessive light” and that it will affect our paintings and furniture. The mere fact of not having curtains is strange, specially for her, but the other buildings are very far away so we do not feel our privacy to be invaded by neighbors.
We hope that by the end of the month, we will also manage to set up the satellite dish and watch some TV, because here I have 99 cable channels and they are all in German!!! With no possibility of changing the language. So Discovery, NatGeo, etc are all in German, not to mention US films and shows which are also translated without keeping the option of listening to the original sound track. Rather stupid if you ask me. And they still argue and protest when I complain. I would rather they just accept they simply do not want to provide the service!
Ah, service! That is a concept totally absent in Austrian culture. What is important here is the protection and well being of the worker. This implies that they can shout and abuse you at will; they can and will overcharge you for the simplest of jobs and then ignore your complaints; and, yes, it also means that when I or you, the consumer, can take time to use their “ services” be it banking, shopping, etc, THEY, the workers have finished there day and are closed for the weekend.
Today, when I phoned my Bank, as I have done every day for the past week, to remind them that we are still waiting for my wife´s debit card ( in a country that refuses to accept credit cards as a general rule), the “ boss” who came on line, reprimanded me (!!) for failing to understand that it is August and that they have a lot of work.
But the best story, no doubt, is what happened to a friend of ours who was traveling on the Underground with his 4 year old child who, as they were leaving the train, disappeared! He had fallen down on the rails because of excessive separation between the train and the platform. So our friend sounds the alarm, and this employee, in full uniform ( don´t they like wearing one!) starts shouting at my friend and blames him for the time lost! My friend, who speaks good German, takes offense and proceeds to grab the employee by the neck, shouting murder at him. Police appear out of nowhere and they arrest my friend who can explain himself and demands, only then, help to get his child back safely on the platform. Only when he starts threatening with legal actions do the police and the employee fall back and calm themselves. Ah the land of the worker’s rights! F*ck the consumer!
On trams and trains in this country they have special seats reserved for old and pregnant people. These are clearly marked by the images of an old MAN, and a pregnant WOMAN. The other day I was seated in one, when this old lady comes along from the other side of the tram ( she was comfortably seated herself actually before this) and starts waving her umbrella at me because I was seated in the special seat. The fact that another 30 free seats were available in the tram seemed not to bother her. Once I get her to understand that I do not speak German, she continues her ranting in English. I respectfully point out that she is not on the list, the picture being of an old MAN! And that she looks like a lady even if she shouts like Hermann Goering. She tells me, in no uncertain terms, that the said sign refers to both ladies and gents. So I then point out to the pregnant woman picture and rub my own stomach and say, that if a picture of a man, applies to a lady who shouts like Hermann Goering; a picture of a lady with a swollen stomach must also apply to a man who looks like Hermann Goering ( that would be me) and that I suffer from sciatica. She then asks me if I think I am funny and that she will call the police, to which I say, please Hermann “ make my day”!!!! Then she hit me on the head with her umbrella…
So, as you can all see, we are having a nice time getting adjusted to our new life and neighbors… I am now going to send this post and go and wish good night to my neighbor from across the street who has clearly adopted us and now that the weather is reasonable in Vienna spends the whole day and most of the night in his terrace staring directly across at us. So far he has not expressed an opinion on the way we are decorating the house, but tomorrow I am definitely going to ask him for suggestions!
All the best
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