It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Or at least I would hope so, as tomorrow is Christmas (Merry Christmas to all!!). I’m home, albeit briefly, but since you’re probably more interested in all things Austria as you’re reading from my Austrian postings, I’ll finish up the post I started last week about Christmas (or Wiehnachten) in Vienna. My apologies; I got a bit distracted with packing and last minute shopping and saying goodbye to friends and such, then finished this post in Albuquerque but lacked internet access to post it.

Never one for doing a so-so job of things, Vienna has gone all out on their Christmas spirit. Every open space has at least one little wooden Christmas stall selling seasonal wares.  Those aside, there are officially 13 Christkindlmarkts around the city. Each one is bustling with holiday cheer, packed with folks drinking their glühwein (mulled wine) and lingering in front of the stalls.  The lights are outstanding, and not just in the Christmas markets, not even only in the first district (though those are pretty dang spectacular), but glowing from the most obscure side streets all around the city. 

Alright, that's not an obscure side street, but please compare the size of the red balls to the cars

The whole city seems to be filled with the perfume of roasting chestnuts, spiced drinks, and gingerbread. The only bit of ambiance lacking was a whimsical white dusting over everything. Well, at least until the day I left, when it started snowing as I drove to the airport.

By far the best things about Vienna in December are the Christkindlmarkts. Unfortunately I never did make it out the the one in the Schönbrunn courtyard which is supposed to be worth seeing, but I did get around to quite a few of them. Although I had wandered through various ones since they began opening in late November, I made a more thorough exploration with Christian on the Sunday before Christmas. We met up at the Karlskirche market and caught up over a mug of glühwein (I hadn't seen him in almost a month) before taking in all of the sights.

This particular market was more geared towards handcrafted items - even if not necessarily Christmas themed - than the other ones I had been to, and it was really neat to see the handiworks displayed.

We then walked over to the market at Spittelberg, packed into narrow streets with a lot of history behind the Museums Quartier. I think this may have been my favorite market, and a lot of the shops that were behind the stalls were also open. Even sans market, I'd like to go back and poke around through some of those shops. Plus Christian pointed out a good bräu, sort of like a  heurigen except they brew their own beers rather than making their own wine.

Christian and I also popped into a chocolate shop where he insisted I purchase some Zotter, a Viennese specialty chocolate I’ve seen around quite a bit. Walking out, I unwrapped the bar and broke off a piece to offer him, causing him to laugh. He said the next time we saw each other he would show me how this particular chocolate is meant to be eaten: sliced in thin strips and let melt a moment on the tongue before chewing. I thought chocolate was chocolate, but hey, I’m willing to give it a shot if it makes that much of a difference!

We continued perusing the stalls, stopping here and there to take a closer look at some of the fun things they had on display, not all of which were strictly Christmas-y.

He also stopped at a stand to introduce me to another Viennese (or Christmasmarket – I’m not sure which) specialty that I would have totally bypassed: Feuerflecken. It’s sort of a mix between a large tortilla and a crepe heated up with yogurt (either with garlic or garlic flavor) spread across it and a dash of salt and pepper, folded up and eaten in crepe fashion. Sounds odd and relatively simple, but perhaps because of the crisp evening or perhaps just because it’s good, I really liked it.

After a while we ducked into a café for some hot chocolate to stave off the cold, then Christian had to go. But I was in a Christmas market mood, so I drove over to the Belvedere. The Christmas market there was a little smaller than I was expecting, but perfectly charming and spirited. Although I didn’t linger for more than half an hour, I’m glad I stopped by. It’s amazing how many different things they can offer at all of the different markets!

I then made my way back to the city center to see it lit by night. I had seen the Christmas lights there before, I just wanted to walk through one more time before going home. I started by going up Kärtnerstrasse and the lights just continued to get better. It wasn’t just streets, either; stores were also decorated lavishly.

Kärtnerstrasse and Kohlmarkt, respectively

Graben (not taken that night, obviously)

Although it was getting relatively late, I was surprised to see that people were trickling into Stephansdom. Curious both about that and the illumination I could see through the stained glass, I decided to pop in. It must have been mass or something along those lines, and a particularly elaborate one being an advent day, but they had a really neat light display.

I was going to swing through the Rathaus market on my way home, but it seemed to be mostly closing down, so I just made my way back to Bisamberg. However, this is what it looked like one night I went with Joe.

Having finally made it to that handful of markets, plus my few wanderings over the past month, I really wish I had gone through them more than I did. I also really want my friends and family at home to get a chance to come to Vienna during this time of year. If you have any control over when you get a chance to come, I highly recommend coming sometime between mid-November and December 24^th for the Christmasmarkets alone. Also, for a little more detailed information on the main markets, here’s a brief overview.

Bis bald!

Lessons About Krampus (or There's More to Saint Nicholas than You Thought)

I've spent so much time working on the Belgian portion of my blog (which, granted, can't be that much work since I haven't finished it yet) and studying for my finals that I have totally neglected keeping my devoted fans (i.e. probably only my parents) up to date on the happenings around Wien.

So, where did I leave off? I suppose nothing particularly noteworthy happened between the last weekend of November and the first weekend of December, when I went to Belgium with Lauren. My German 153 class ended, which I was sad about, but it meant I had two full days a week free, which was nice since I needed to buckle down and pick up the last few odds and ends of Christmas presents. Luckily I had the foresight to get a lot of them this summer, not sure if I would still be here in the fall and winter and thinking it would be fun to bring my friends and family things from Europe. Oh! Wait, there were a few things of note that happened that week (sorry, working more in stream of consciousness mode at the moment). Monday morning, since I didn't have class, Anna and I went out to Pandorf, a 'designer outlet' mall about 40 minutes out of Wien. I admittedly splurged a bit with a few birthday presents for myself and picked up some odds and ends for a few other people as well. I was pretty impressed with the stores they had there, actually, and it was fun just to get away and go shopping with Anna (wait, what, did I just put "fun" and "shopping" in the same sentence?? What's become of me?). Then, Tuesday, Anna rounded up some fellow Deacs and the five of us met up with Joe at Charlie P's for a birthday drink.

Although I'm not one for staying up late on a work day, it was worth it on this occasion. I thought it being a Tuesday and all that it would be a pretty relaxed night, but what I didn't know was that every Tuesday is Med School Night (the Uni Wien med school is less than a block away), so the basement was packed. We managed to find a table beneath the stairs and cozied up down there, chatting and all that. Wow, it felt like college all over again (take that as you will). Suddenly two heads popped below the staircase and, seeing a bunch of people (though more likely seeing a group of girls - though had they done their math right it would have looked like three sets of couples, but the guys were sitting/standing off to the side a little more), they decided to join in. Meet Markus and Geno. I actually didn't even talk to them all that much, but as we were leaving Markus got my number. Harmless enough.

So, Belgium that weekend. The week after Belgium I spent most of Monday studying for the oral portion of my Uni Wien German final the next day. I was slightly irked when I took said final because our professor had told us to memorize a paragraph that we had written up about ourselves and turned in which she returned, corrected, however when we got into class on Tuesday she told us that we would need to say ten things about ourselves, and she had those categories listed on the board. Granted, it was more simple than what I had written up, but it was only some of the same information. I still passed with flying colors, though, so I suppose it's all okay.

Also, Tuesday (December 6th) was Saint Nicholas day in Austria. They don't really celebrate Christmas the way we do (which is a whole other story), but suffice it to say that Santa Clause plays a very small role in their celebrations. His main role is actually on his name day. Let's just say he's not as fat and jolly as everyone seems to believe he is. You see, in Austria he goes around on the evening of the 5th with his cohort Krampus, derived from the Old High German word for "claw", and they meter out rewards or punishment based on how good children have been in the past year. But it's not really so simple as that. You see, as you might imagine, Saint Nicholas is the treat-giver, but if you were bad you weren't just given a stocking full of coals. No no. Krampus actually took you away in a bag or basket. Ever wonder why you were always told to go to bed before Santa came when you were a kid? There's your answer. They say only the bad kids stayed up late (but I resent that!). Or, if you were a girl then Krampus whipped you with a birch stick (just for being a girl it seems). And Jolly Ol' Saint Nick just looked on passively, then they went on to the next house.

 "Greetings from Krampus"

But that's not all. Although the tradition isn't as rampant as it once was, apparently it's pretty common to dress up as Krampus in black robes (or goat fur if you're really into it), dawn a mask, and drag chains on the evening of the 5th and go around terrorizing people. People then dress up in priest robes to be Saint Nicholas on the 6th and pass out chocolate and such to make amends for Krampus' mischievous ways.

Also, while we're on the subject, I just wanted to correct a commonly held belief. Coca-Cola is actually not responsible for our current image of Santa Clause. We have Thomas Nast, German-born American caricaturist commonly referred to as "the Father of American Cartoon", to thank (and being born in 1840, he was around way before Coka-Cola started using Saint Nick in their ads).

Alright, now that you've had your Austrian history lesson, I'll only mention that the 8th was a National holiday (Immaculate Conception) and leave it at that. Well, I'll also point out that it used to be a day for going to church, but Austrians would also then go to Hungary or the Czech Republic for the day to go shopping, meaning Austria lost lots of money, so the church and businesses reached a little compromise that businesses could open at 10:00am after people had had time to go to church in the mornings.

Friday night the WFU students had a Christmas/Farewell Party which was great. I'm sure they were all ready to get home, but I have to admit I was sad to see them go. The party itself was pretty laid back, just music and hanging out, and we ended with a showing of White Christmas, which somehow I had never seen. It was almost my new favorite Christmas movie. Almost. Nothing tops A Christmas Story.

Saturday night Markus asked me to come join him and some friends at a bar I hadn't been to before - Look Bar. It's right next door to a really snazzy place called Dino's (which reminds me of a 50's Gentlemans' Club - and I mean that in the original sense of the term, not today's version...). Look Bar is a deceivingly large Irish pub and may be worth checking out again some time. It was fun and got me out of the house for the night, but I don't really think anything's going to come of it.

I really don't have too much to report on from the last week. I had the rest of my German final, so studied a lot for that, I've been reading a ton (ripped through two books in the past week and am impatient because I have to wait until I go home before I get the sequels since the english bookstore I knew of here closed), and had a really superb final riding lesson.

But as great as this has all been, I fully admit that I cannot wait to get home! Not that I've been counting the days or anything...