Changing Seasons

Heralding Carneval Season!


Ball Season in full swing!




Snow flakes amid signs of Spring?
(Gerstner's Confiserie)





Peter?

I'm no slouch in the having-fun department.
Or so I thought.
Until I moved to Vienna.
First thing I noticed, a very high percentage of the population seems to be out at the coffeehouses at all times of the day and night. All the more amazing, seeing how well kept und run the city is, they must fit in a lot of work also, besides visits to the equally well frequented restaurants.
On monday, three months after the elections and uncounted meetings, - plus regular deadlocks -, of the two main political parties, they finally have agreed to form a new "grand-coalition" government (with only one percentage point separating winners and losers and the smaller parties not willing to cooperate with either of the main parties, there was no other choice besides new elections). Monday night, we finally could go to bed with the certainty of a new Chancellor yet still guessing about the next finance minister. That's what sleepless nights in Vienna are made of! Having been busy all day, I was walking by the Finance Ministry yesterday, when I remembered that by now the name of the new finance minister should have been divulged. Conveniently, two well-dressed gentlemen were just meeting in front of the building and they kindly gave me all the answers I wanted. Did I say well-dressed? Well, that's another Austrian trait: Very distinguished dressing. I'm in awe every time I walk the streets and keep wondering how those elegant Viennese fit in shopping and visits at the taylor's and shoemaker's. And then all the formal wear one needs in this town! Myself not quite over the sleep deprivation of the New Year's celebrations and the Viennese already enjoying breakfast at the coffeehouses on the morning after the big night, I noticed huge bill boards listing events of the Carneval and Ball Season which actually was in full swing! Ball dresses already flying out the shops overnight!
I should have recognized the signs of the times appearing all over town in shop windows on New Year's Eve: Clowns, feather boas, Venetian masks.
I panicked for a moment when I spotted an Easter bunny in a shop window yesterday. Sign of the times, again? I calmed myself down: Must be a Peter Rabbit figure. What was I writing about? Oh yes, having fun in Vienna. I need to work harder to have more fun. My Viennese New Year's resolution. Wish me luck. ;-)
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