kelle.de

Vienna has this strange appeal to it. It would be a perfect city. It’s got clean air, excellent public transport (known to have the most dense coverage of a town in Europe), and an almost absurd abundance of cultural things like museums, artists, historical sites, and the like..

Someone told me, although he has been living in Vienna for a number of years, he doesn’t even know his way around, because he is a “wormhole traveller”, referring to going by subway for whichever destination.  I think this is probably happening to a lot of people, and admittedly to me as well (although i have been living in Vienna only for 1 year so far).

Yesterday I was in the 12-Apostel-Keller. A very nice so-called “Stadtheurigen”, a type of bar-style restaurant with typical Austrian cuisine. It’s located in a large cavernish cellar, looking very ancient, possibly even actually dating back from roman times. The drinks are fresh and the food is tasty. What is a bit odd is the unfriendlyness of the waiters. A waiter there in fact seems to be somebody you really have to wait for.  When they arrive to take your ordes, though, they can get quite impatient. Make sure you know exactly what you want, they might not come back for quite a while, extending the wait. The unfriendlyness actually is hard to describe. It’s something about showing some certain attitude, like reluctancy, disgust, and rolling eyes. It seems like nothing special, the diligent consumer probably has seen that in other places quite many times.

But in this case it’s that spectacular that it’s actually worth experiencing. Get good food and good wine and enjoy evil wait(er)ing times