dagmaraka, Porgy and Bess is a good location for good jazz- have you seen the "Falter"?
A newspaper with all the information about any cultural event- from opera to movies, from high culture to sub-culture, including eateries.
Some good political articles too.
Will you go to the "Long Night of the Museum" tomorrow- or better today?
http://langenacht.orf.at/index.php?id=740
damn, damn, triple damn!!! i forgot!!!
now i will have to get a pass to kunsthistorische museum - with it you can get to 5 or six other museums till the end of the year. good deal.
People can get used to anything. Even to a noose around their neck, as we clever Slovaks say. The boys at the the boxing club now mostly leave me be as I'm becoming a regular. We're certainly expanding women ranks at the club. There's five of us now. Me, my colleague and convert, whom I talked into joining, Magda from Poland, then a chubby young girl who hangs out mostly at the bar in the club, and two new additions: a fierce blonde roller-blader with a half shaved head with some funky patterns colored on it, and a fragile older woman in a soft grey sweatsuit that looks like she lost her way to the yoga studio.
Magda came with me three times. Boys are happy. Magda is a young pretty firecracker, she chatters with the boys and boys like to be chattered with. I kept to myself before, did my stuff and left, now I hang at the club more. It's better for the boys' workout too. When one or more of us watch, they go all out at the heavy bags or in the ring, until the trainer rips them apart. We came up with code names for the boxers, since we don't know their real ones. "My boyfriend" (Bosniak that wanted to "party with me") now flirts shamelessly with Magda, sends her air kisses and all. "Elephant boy" (fat kid who claims to be 14) picks on us constantly. Quite annoying little brat, if you ask me. "You are the most funny," he tells me amidst the huffing and puffing, when we try out combinations en masse. That throws me off balance somewhat, but I'm learning to phase him out. "Hop like a bunny," he tells Magda when she asks what the trainer said to do. Neither of us understands German well (me not at all, to be honest), so we keep getting lost in instructions. Magda shoots him a glare that could kill, but hop like a bunny we do. #18 (one of the older boxers who trains in the ring and wears a sweatshirt with #18 on it) and Mr. Serious watch us mess up all the steps and sweat our butts off at rope jumping from the side. One has to get used to the side audience. Frau Klaudia is a tough trainer - no breaks between rope jumping, we go 15 minutes straight. Same at the end of the workout, except every time she whistles, we have to do push ups, ab crunches, jumps or somethin along the line until she whistles again. Then we jump more. Then we sprint-jump. She's a sadist.
I'm still in the giddy stage. I get excited when I get a combination right, practicing my three and four-combinations and getting up to speed in my office, in the kitchen, in my head. I got my new gloves last week. Tried them on in the office. Naturally, the assistant from the Institute walked in to borrow a chair at that precise moment. Didn't even have time to pull them off. Ever tried to hide boxing gloves on your hands under your desk while maintaining a polite conversation? That ain't easy. Then the history researcher walked in on me air-punching in the little kitchenette while I was waiting for the water to boil. Hard to explain to someone you barely know... But that's part of the business. Tomorrow we have the main trainer, Johann, again, coming back with our star, our stallion, our trophy-winner Marcos, who is just 15, but wins all the championships in this part of the world. I hope all the wimmins come again, so that I can do my thigh crunches on the machines relatively unnoticed. The thigh cruncher faces the bar. It's somewhat disturbing to open and close one's legs while three guys watch, cigarettes hanging out of their mouths.
good to see you smile, nimh. ya had me worried there for a bit...
Hey, your stories always make me smile
Guys are easily distracted. You know that already.
Great writing, Dag, very lively. And I wish I had 10% your energy.
Unfortunately, all of it is siphoned into things like boxing, or a2k-ing, or painting, or cleaning,...or whatever else but the Dreaded Diss that I am paid to finish here.... grrrrrr. I feel the hell coming. You know, the hell that them dissertation survivors talk about going through. I get the whole schpiel by now - waking up with a heart pounding, being stressed and nervous...but no. still not able to write. just dabble at it. but it's a-coming, and it will be ugly...
So.. my boss is coming from Boston this Sunday. I'm trying to organize a small crowd for dinner - something rechtig viennese, perhaps a nice brewhouse with good food, but one that wouldn't be terribly loud and smoky. then again, sunday night should be ok.
i looked into siebensternbrau - anybody ever heard of it? Ul?
Any other recommendations where i can take an elderly professor with a mixed group of people (older and younger)? near Westbahnhof, or in the center...
Siebensternbräu seems to be a good choice.
Typically Viennese might be a Heurigen- wine and food only. I would avoid Grinzing though.
A good place to be is the 7th district- the part called Spittelberg. It was historically the part of town with pubs and amusement, now it has become an "in" location.
Westbahnhof is not such a good lacation.
I found a web page with some good Bräus- grin, coming from Chicago.
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/keith-cgi-bin/austria/wien/pubpage
You can look into 12 Apostelkeller
http://lokaltipp.at/jsp-content/homepage.jsp?chn=9&id=461
Adam is nice too- close to the Rathaus-in the 8th district
http://www.adam.at/
Piaristenkeller is liked by tourists-
http://www.piaristenkeller.at/
I have to run now, but will ckeck later tonight.
It's a bit outsite, quite famous by some bus operators - but I've been there twice (not crowded then at all) and would go again to this place, even knowing a bus-load of Americans would be there
:
Kahlenberg just has a view, with is worth driving up there (and you can stop in Grinzig as well for a 'Good-night-sip!).
(My Floritzdorf/Bisamberg relatives even go themselves to the one or other Heurigen in Grinzig.)
i agree with walter, kahlenberg is a nice place for a meal with a view - we must have taken the tram (streetcar) and bus to go up there three or four times. just getting out there is a lot of fun.
for food, service and ambiance, we found the "grand cafe" in the grand hotel ana wonderful - we went for lunch a couple of times - just sitting there and watching the people was an experience.
for "wildbret" ( venison, wild boar ...) , we'd go back to "zum leupold", schottengasse 7 , anytime.
we went several times to "cafe westend" , mariahilferstr 128 - right across from westbahnhof , several times. the food was good, prices reasonable ... interesting crowd.
in grinzing we went to "rudolfshof" , cobenzelgasse 3 , right across from the streetcar stop. schrammel music, decent food, busy, but not wild.
an enjoyable place - on a sunny day - is "meierei schoenbrunn" in "kronprinzgarten".
with tears in my eyes ... hbg
ps. i assume you know that you can go for "coffee" - but what a coffee it is !!! - at kunsthistorische museum. we also went to some nice, small restaurants behind the museumsquartier - sidestreets from "siebensterngasse".
Weather should be nice on Sunday, warmer as today.
Kahlenberg is nce for a view- but the food isn't as good as it was. It depends how long Dag wants to stay out- coming back from Kahlenberg at night can be a problem- busses don't run very late.
Lunch would be a good idea.
Leupold is a good one- very central.
On a warm and sunny day most Heurigen are very nice- as long as you can sit outside.
A nice one end of tram 41- Nierscher- tram 41 runs from the Schottentor/University
Line 38 to Grinzing starts from there too.
Sievering and Nussdorf are places for Heurigen we like better than Grinzing.
Goldene Glocke in the 5th district- Schönbrunnerstr.8 is very nice, more than 100 years old, but I am not sure if it is open on a Sunday.
i do want to stay around westbahnhof as much as possible. cafe westend or the siebensternblablabla (geeze louise, will i EVER remember the whole names of anything around here?) sound good for sunday. but am definitely gonna make a list of places to go around on my own or with colleagues. so keep the tips coming, i will love to explore them all!
You will be tipsy by then!
very punning of you, walter!
tipsy-
angesäuselt sein, an dullihö haben, angeflaschelt sein,an Draher haben, an Fetzen haben, fett sein, vollfett sein,
it seems the Viennese have as many words for tipsy and more tipsy as the Innuit have for snow.
Well, if dagmar really explores them all, she truely will be vollfett! So, just leicht angeschickert might be okay.
Better she will not ride her bike in such a state- she will loose her driver's licence.
But I guess she will drink Schiwasser or Kracherl or Obi'gspritzt-she is doing sports and lives so very healthy.
nah, i am doing sports monday wednesday and friday. tomorrow i am going to a bar with friends. better learn all of those expressions to laugh at collegues ( on the other hand, that may not be such a brilliant idea)
