Ohrschluck

Another note on Austrian pronunciation: do you know what an Ohrschluck is? How about an Arschloch? In Austria, they're the same thing: an asshole.

At one point in my meanderings around Vienna this year, I somehow made it to Westbahnhof U-Bahn station at the rush hour, to spot a young man with a backpack run out of the southbound U-3 train and headlong into an older man using a cane. This older man proclaimed, in a dignified and quiet manner, the Viennese pronunciation of a common German-language vulgarity, which I took to mean "ear drink" quite literally.

"How quaint!" I thought. "How remarkable. I wonder what Ohrschluck could mean?"

It was not until I got home, and - in vain - tried to look up this "colloquialism" to realize that the stately, cane-wielding gentleman simply elongated his "a's" and his "o's" to the point of incomprehension (for a non-Austrian). I should have guessed!

Another Side of Thanksgiving

I suppose my last post was a little mean, and maybe I was feeling sorry for myself that I was missing out on Thanksgiving with my family in Wisconsin, being here in Vienna and all. I feel much better after partaking in a Thanksgiving party put on by my friend Jake - though I could have skipped the cooking for oodles of people part of the holiday (which Jake did most of anyway). Gross consumerism (re: Black Friday) is also evident everywhere, not just in the US. I can see it quite plainly just walking out my door onto Mariahiferstrasse, the Madison Avenue of Vienna, especially at this time of the year - Christmas shopping is in full swing.

Here are some photos of the Thanksgiving party:

It really amazed me how much effort Jake went through to get a dinner for ten prepared (with all the fixings). I come from the "lazy" school of entertaining, I guess. My mom never makes anything gourmet for our holiday celebrations - it would probably never go over with the traditional side of the family anyway. She normally does recipes she knows by heart, that take as little effort as possible, e.g. scalloped potatoes instead of mashed so she doesn't have to peel 6 pounds of potatoes. In any case, she always has time to make her own bread, which is really the best part of the meal, in my opinion. And really, who can blame her? I'm a pretty lazy chef myself.

Antiquariat oder Antiquitäten?

As is apparent to the average tourist to Vienna, dozens of antique stores, book shops, artist studios and other sorts of frivolous "specialty shops" lines the city's streets. Especially in my neighborhood, which is at the border of the 6th and 7th district, plenty of interesting-looking display windows beckon.


It seems to me that most of these places are hardly ever open, or open at the most inconvenient times for patrons (for example, from 10am to noon, three hour lunch break, and open again from 3 to 5 pm). This makes me wonder whether they ever do get customers, or sell anything. Perhaps these businesses are just fronts for nefarious activity (while I was at Lawrence, there was a dress shop that was never open - we suspected it to be a mob front) or perhaps a warehouse for some over the top collector.


In any case, some of the displays are quite bizarre. You can see for yourself here:

marzipan sunflowers

Lippizaner horse cake

Gucci

a leather kangaroo

Not all of these are from antique shops. Some are chain stores, or high-end shops, like Swarovski and  the Gucci store on Kärntner Strasse.  But each is...well, unique! Take a look at what Vienna's shops have to offer: 

stuffed birds wearing Swarovski