"....God grant me the serenity to just remember who I am...." -- Joe South

 

Joe South was one of those singer/songwriters of the 1960s/70s who did more for others than himself. While he had a few hits like "Games People Play" and "Walk A Mile in My Shoes," he did more by writing "Rose Garden" for Lynn Anderson and other stuff that simply made careers. Jimmy Webb was among those kinda writers. The 14-year-old me was a big fan of lyrics more than the music. The first song I remember getting my attention like that was "Sound Of Silence." I suppose that's why much of my professional career has been words. They set scenes.

Speaking of scenes, I'll miss this one. Pretty much everywhere we've gone in Vienna has started and ended with this walk through the park across the street from the apartment. We've watched families, smelled the food, heard the sirens, watched the traffic and generally been a part of the daily back-and-forth of the neighborhood for three months. We've had issues with the apartment and we've not always meshed with everything going on around us, but we've been a part of it. We've made it a home that we'll miss when we get over to Liverpool starting this weekend.

Vienna is a city of music, museums and Habsburg palaces, in addition to its history with Sigmund Freud and a host of other figures from Hitler to Lenin. We could spend a year here and not see all we'd like, so we've chosen to Just Be. Maybe we could have traveled around Austria a bit more. Or over to Budapest or up to Prague. The trains go to Milan, Geneva and beyond but sometimes just walking to a perfect croissant across the street is more than enough. I feel bad for those who just want to see stuff. Life's more about sitting and watching than going and doing. At least I think so.

All that said, there are things about anyplace you won't miss. One of them here is the food. As mentioned previously, the menu in Austria is short. While they're big on root vegetables of all types, green vegetables are hard to find in a restaurant and in the grocery stores. There is a local salad with lettuce and what seems to be a light vinaigrette of some sort that can work but it's on top of a (very good) light potato salad. While the goulash (basically pot roast without the vegetables) is okay and the schnitzel can be very good, you've pretty much covered the regional palate. We've had a very good Italian meal and some good Greek food here. But for the most part we're eating better at home. 

England also isn't known for its cuisine, so we'll see when we get there. The British sailed the world in search of spices and, in my experience, used none of them. Apparently curry is big. Been a few minutes.

Graffiti. I am not against street art or tagging. It ballooned in New Orleans after Katrina to decorate the damaged so I get it. But that's not the case here. While the really historic buildings and the subway system have been spared, there's just absolute crap everywhere and it's awful. It's the same with litter. I thought the Austrians would be more meticulous about cleaning up stuff. But virtually every day in the park I pick up cans or plastic bottles or some other shit people just drop and walk away. There are plenty of containers for it too. But it's frustrating. Our park is pretty and nice. Don't fuck it up like that.

We've seen virtually no bugs and only a squirrel or two in the park. One cat. A few hedgehogs. Too many people have these little yappyass dogs that should be used for bait. Two have tried to attack me in the past few days but were barely restrained by leashes. While they are restricted on where they can be in the park, they're allowed to shit anywhere outside those areas and the US generally does a much better job of requiring the owners to literally clean that shit up. On the subway they're required to also have a muzzle. Would that be the case with Ted Cruz and Ron DeSantis.

Denise mentioned the other day that she feels much freer here than in the US and I certainly agree. There are so many things we simply don't have to be concerned about here -- things like gunfire and generalized violent crime and whatnot. While domestic violence and rape certainly exist everywhere, the number of women jogging alone in our local park or simply strolling in pairs speaks to an overall comfort level. As a guy, I am thankfully unaware of so much about this other than to know it exists. The level just seems to be a lot lower.

The US hasn't been attacked by a foreign power in two centuries, so it's entirely too late to expect or even hope it will begin to learn the lessons of cooperation and (gasp) socialism Europe has adopted since the end of World War Two. We have never been bombed flat, had to rebuild cities or completely depend on financing from outside to resume society. While lucky in that way, it has also made the US arrogant and far too preachy and it is about to pay the price unless some serious adjustments happen in November. The EU (except Hungary, which the EU chastises) and even the UK are better at freedom than the US these days.

We love our nachbarschaft (neighborhood) and our stadt (city). They have taught us some serious lessons. Vielen dank.