Sisterly visitation

Greetings and apologies for the long radio silence. I have lots to write about so there should be a good spate of posts over the next few days.

Looking back to the weekend before last, I was delighted to see my lovely sister Meg, safely returned from her gap year travels in Belize.

Up among the vines on the Kahlenberg

We had a wonderful time enjoying the culinary and cultural offerings of the city centre, and also had a lovely evening walk up the Kahlenberg (above) with Steph (click here for her blog). On our last evening together, after a meal at the Wiener Deewan (a pay-as-you-like Pakistani restaurant) we went up the same hill again, this time by night with my friend Gabi. The view over the sea of city lights was stunning, particularly as much of the centre is illuminated at night. Apparently, this is a favoured viewing point for the New Year fireworks, so we celebrated with non-alcoholic Sekt and the cupcakes that Meg had baked and brought with her.

Other highlights included riding the Riesenrad (=Ferris wheel) in the Prater, which has survived since 1897, outliving its contemporaries in London, Blackpool, Paris and Chicago.

We also queued for standing tickets at the State Opera, of which more in the next post!

Beauty and the banal

The inner city is full of beautiful buildings put to somewhat incongruously banal uses:

Petrol station

Just a bit of decoration.

One small corner of a vast edifice - the police station.

Needs no introduction.

BILLA is another supermarket chain

In the huge Neo-Gothic Rathaus (town hall)

Ausdruck der Woche #5 (und Besuch)

[ENGLISH SUMMARY BELOW]

Vor drei Jahren habe ich drei Monate lang in Muenchen gelebt und gearbeitet. Während dieser Zeit wurde ich von der Familie Heimkes untergebracht, die ich durch die Gardoms (siehe Post 'Visitors') kennengelernt hatte. Wie ich auch schon erwähnt habe, studiert die zweitälteste Tochter der Familie jetzt in Wien. Ihre Mutter hat sie diese Woche besucht, wobei wir uns auch mal zum Abendessen im ehrwürdigen Kaffeehaus Cafe Diglas getroffen haben. Wie wir es in München gepflegt zu tun haben, habe ich ein paar schöne Ausdrücke von der Edith erklärt bekommen, wovon einer zu meiner bisherigen Erfahrung in Wien besonders gut passt, und zwar:

ins Butterfass fallen = to fall on your feet (literally, to fall in the butter churn)

Die dritte Mitbewohnerin, C, ist jetzt nach Wien zurückgekehrt und ist genauso lieb und nett, wie ich schon von ihren Emails und Postkarten mitbekommen hatte. Noch ein Schuss Butter fürs Fass.

N.B. according to someone else, "das sagt kein Mensch!". Oh well.

Woman churning butter; Compost et Kalendrier des Bergères, Paris, 1499

English summary:
As previously mentioned, one of the daughters of the family I lived with in Munich three years ago now studies in Vienna. Her mother was visiting this week so we met for supper in Cafe Diglas, a venerable Viennese coffee house with an evening pianist! As was always our wont, our conversation frequently went off on linguistic tangents and I learnt some new expressions - this one seemed particularly appropriate to my experience in Vienna thus far.

The third flatmate, C, is now back from holiday and is just as lovely as I had already gathered from her emails and postcards. More butter for the churn!

Getting ahead of myself: la Asociación Cultural Paraguayo-Austriaca

One excellent aspect of living in a capital city is that you have access to a gigantic pool of people, in which you can therefore find a good number who share your most obscure interests. Rather like doing A-levels at Hills Road, where a year group of 900 made it possible to scrape together 15 who wanted to do Latin!

So, when I googled Paraguayans and Guaraní in Vienna, I immediately came across Asopara, the Paraguay-Austrian Cultural Association. I made contact and on my arrival in Vienna was invited to the director Roberto's house, which was full of extended family members and friends, to meet them and watch some of the women rehearsing folk dances for a performance at a festival in Greece. A visiting Paraguayan music ensemble also accompanied them there.

Following their tour, the Association put on a cultural evening in Vienna this Friday. This consisted of a pianist who played jazz adaptations of Paraguayan songs, the Paraguay Ensamble and the dance group  Jeroky Paraguay ("Dance Paraguay" in Guaraní), rounded off with Paraguayan food.

The people I met on both occasions were unbelievably warm, friendly and welcoming. I came home from the cultural evening with a list of telephone numbers - Lorenita who would help me with learning Guaraní, Dulce who invited me to drink tereré with her, Isabel who offered me a place to stay if I ever needed one and the details of her relations in Asunción so that I could go there on holiday, .... I was also very happy to see Susi and Leandro (the smiliest toddler I have ever met) again. The infectious joy that characterised the folk music seemed to overflow in generosity and warmth from everyone I met.

Dulce and Isabel

Culinary Adventures

Plums are in season. We had an excess, so P and I baked a cake - that being the obvious solution to the issue.

Nuss-Zwetschgen-Streusel-Kuchen (Nut-Plum-Crumble cake)

Then on Monday I went to see Milena in Floridsdorf. It was her first day of school (her school is a ship - http://schulschiff.at/) and my first day of work at BOKU.

I've eaten Schnitzel a few times in Vienna but this time we made it ourselves! You have to beat the meat quite thin before doing anything else; we did this by hand but there is in fact a utensil specifically for this purpose, named (but of course!) a Schnitzelklopfer.

Ausdruck der Woche #4

ins Fettnäpfchen treten = to put your foot in it

[ENGLISH SUMMARY BELOW]

“(Bei jemandem) ins Fettnäpfchen treten” heiβt, dass man unabsichtlich etwas sagt oder tut, das für die andere Person(en) unangenehm oder irgendwie tabu ist. 

Die deutsche Redewendung vervollständigt den entsprechenden englischen Ausdruck „to put your foot in it“, indem sie erklärt, was das mysteriöse „it“ eigentlich sei. Man verliert zwar den Sinn, dass „it“ etwas unaussprechlich Schlimmes ist, aber niemand will in ein Fettnäpfchen treten!

In welcher historischen Situation wäre es also möglich gewesen, unabsichtlich in einen kleinen Napf Fett zu treten? So was steht ja meistens nicht auf dem Fuβboden. 

Angeblich haben war es früher unter Bauern üblich, einen Napf mit Fett neben der Eingangstür zu stellen, damit die Bewohner des Hauses ihre Lederstiefel einfetten konnten, um sie wasserfest zu halten. In dieses Näpfchen konnte der unbedachte Gast aus Versehen treten, und so den Zorn der Bäuerin auf sich ziehen. Laut einer alternativen Erklärung war der Napf da, um das Fett zu fangen, dass von aufgehängten Schinken herabtropfte.

English summary:
Literally 'to step in the little bowl of fat', this phrase is more explicit about what exactly the 'it' is that one puts one's foot in. Apparently the origin goes back to the country habit of keeping a bowl of grease on the floor by the door for rubbing into leather boots to waterproof them. Alternatively it may have been there to catch the fat dripping from cuts of meat or sausages hung up to dry or smoke. Perhaps both are true, and there were just plenty of opportunities to put your foot in it.