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A-Wandering We Will Go
Sep. 29th, 2007 05:39 pmMy goal for today was to find Pickwick's , a combination movie rental, bookstore, cafe and bar that caters to the English-speaking population of Vienna, and get myself set up with a membership to rent movies. The idea is good, but honestly it seems like it would be a bit out of my way to get movies. But, honestly, it has a really good selection of movies, and this weekend seems to have shown me that sometimes I just need to watch something in my native tongue. However, the selection of books was rather disappointing- while they were grouped fairly consistently by genre, they were *not* in alphabetical order. Clearly, the place makes more money selling drinks, coffee and renting movies than selling books.
The area around Pickwick's also contains a little English-language bookstore called Shakespeare and Company, after a more famous bookstore in Paris that attracted Hemingway and a number of other authors of the bohemian trend. I stopped in there, though honestly I was looking for something lighter than what they were offering. I should probably take a picture and send it back to the Shakespeare Society in a letter. That would make them laugh, I think.
I did a lot of window shopping and wandering about. There was a lot to see there, and it seems to be a big tourist area- I clearly heard several people speaking in English, something I think was Arabic, and French. I also saw a *fantastic* sign in the doorway of a Beisl, that read "Kitsch as Kitsch can." I love bilingual puns!
Anyway, I'm rather glad that I went wandering about- I found a number of decent-looking restaurants, including two separate running sushi joints, and bought a replacement for my current little black notebook. What I would really love, however, is one of these. They seem so incredibly practical- I'm always wandering around scribbling something that I want to remember about a place in Vienna, and these things look absolutely perfect for that. I'm keeping an eye out for a place in Vienna that sells them. (With my luck, they'll only stock the ones for Barcelona and Prague by the time I get there.)
Returning to Vienna makes it clearer in my mind how Milan was different architecturally- Vienna is less colorful than Milan, where all the buildings were painted something warm and bright. Everything here is the same shade of beige stone or white. Also, there are none of the foyers with lovely mosaics or marble staircases- usually it's just a sturdy wooden front door with the glass case to one side holding a menu or sample of the products. Somewhat more adapted to cooler weather, I think.
I wish I'd brought my camera today, but that will have to wait for tomorrow, I suppose.
In other news, I got my budget straightened out in my head, and in my excel sheet, which is why I was in such a good mood today. I'm apparently living well within my monthly budget, and had money to spare for a little fun today. I only spent a little money, honestly, and still found myself doing the reflexive comparison shopping thing, but in the future I'll have a better idea of what I need to buy and what I need to pay, so I should be okay. If anything, this should have been one of my more expensive months, because I had to settle into the housing and all that.
On Monday, I'm moving into my permanent residence for the year, and I intend to go and visit it today or tomorrow. My mom also found me a church to go to, which is both Episcopalian and *very* close to where I'm going to be living. Rather good deal overall, there.
Well the upshot of all this is, that life is good, and I feel as though I'm better prepared for anything else to come down the bend. Now if only the bank would send me a damn card to use ATMs.
The area around Pickwick's also contains a little English-language bookstore called Shakespeare and Company, after a more famous bookstore in Paris that attracted Hemingway and a number of other authors of the bohemian trend. I stopped in there, though honestly I was looking for something lighter than what they were offering. I should probably take a picture and send it back to the Shakespeare Society in a letter. That would make them laugh, I think.
I did a lot of window shopping and wandering about. There was a lot to see there, and it seems to be a big tourist area- I clearly heard several people speaking in English, something I think was Arabic, and French. I also saw a *fantastic* sign in the doorway of a Beisl, that read "Kitsch as Kitsch can." I love bilingual puns!
Anyway, I'm rather glad that I went wandering about- I found a number of decent-looking restaurants, including two separate running sushi joints, and bought a replacement for my current little black notebook. What I would really love, however, is one of these. They seem so incredibly practical- I'm always wandering around scribbling something that I want to remember about a place in Vienna, and these things look absolutely perfect for that. I'm keeping an eye out for a place in Vienna that sells them. (With my luck, they'll only stock the ones for Barcelona and Prague by the time I get there.)
Returning to Vienna makes it clearer in my mind how Milan was different architecturally- Vienna is less colorful than Milan, where all the buildings were painted something warm and bright. Everything here is the same shade of beige stone or white. Also, there are none of the foyers with lovely mosaics or marble staircases- usually it's just a sturdy wooden front door with the glass case to one side holding a menu or sample of the products. Somewhat more adapted to cooler weather, I think.
I wish I'd brought my camera today, but that will have to wait for tomorrow, I suppose.
In other news, I got my budget straightened out in my head, and in my excel sheet, which is why I was in such a good mood today. I'm apparently living well within my monthly budget, and had money to spare for a little fun today. I only spent a little money, honestly, and still found myself doing the reflexive comparison shopping thing, but in the future I'll have a better idea of what I need to buy and what I need to pay, so I should be okay. If anything, this should have been one of my more expensive months, because I had to settle into the housing and all that.
On Monday, I'm moving into my permanent residence for the year, and I intend to go and visit it today or tomorrow. My mom also found me a church to go to, which is both Episcopalian and *very* close to where I'm going to be living. Rather good deal overall, there.
Well the upshot of all this is, that life is good, and I feel as though I'm better prepared for anything else to come down the bend. Now if only the bank would send me a damn card to use ATMs.
