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greenbagjosh · 11 months

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Friday 31 July 1998 - Night at the Rustler (W-Penzing) - guided by Franz Kaida’s voice - eating pizza rectangles in Schottentor - finally can take photos with the new camera

Friday 31 July 1998 Grüß Gott und Servus! Today twenty years ago marks the end of what is known as the Alte Rechtschreibung in German. The Neue Rechtschreibung is the new orthography of German, which is not limited to just spelling but also punctuation. I will tell more about it later on but that is one of the big news items of that day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/.../German_orthography_reform_of... This will be the first of three days heading eastward, possibly the farthest east from München I have ever been (Istanbul Sirkeci station in Turkey to date is the farthest). I will be going to Vienna, then Budapest, then return stopping at Vienna Westbahnhof - the Hauptbahnhof next to Südbahnhof was not constructed and opened until 2016. So here is the overview of what I did on Friday 31 July 1998.

- woke up about 7 AM from apartment - swung by the SSKM in Marienplatz to withdraw ATS 500 notes - arrived at München Hbf about 8:45 AM in time to find my Sommer Spezial car and reserved seat in 1st class - crossed into Austria about 10:30 AM, arrived in Salzburg around 10:45 AM, DB staff changed to ÖBB - a miracle with the camera happens about 12:15 PM, have lunch in the dining car to celebrate - arrive at Vienna Westbahnhof about 1:30 PM, try to find a hotel as the youth hostels are booked up - leave clothes bag at hotel room, walk to Johnstraße U-Bahn station - take U-Bahn to Prater via Philadelphiabrücke/Meidling station, end up at Prater by S-Bahn - take a trip down memory lane at the Prater, see the large Riesenrad Ferris Wheel - go into central Vienna with the U-2 via Schottentor. Have pizza slices before making the transfer - listen to FM4 La Boum de Luxe and hear a bit of "Mo Betta Blues" Denzel Washington "What the world needs now (is *not* another love song)!" - take a tram tour to the Upper Belvedere, just get postcard of "der Kuss" by Gustav Klimt - stroll along to Stephansplatz and admire the multicolored tiled roof. - have a cup of Segafreddo coffee, go to Westbahnhof to buy a phrasebook with Hungarian - take U-3 to Johnstraße and bus 51 to Linzer Straße - listen to Hit Radio Ö3, read phrasebook and go to sleep

Okay, are you ready to have fun in Vienna?😀😃😄🇦🇹 Let me give you some background on Vienna. Unlike Zürich, which I could remember from a relatively recent visit, I had only been to Vienna once as a young child. I barely even remember what I did there. I had to study maps so that I would have a general idea of what to see. I also had a German-language guidebook on Vienna, which included vocabulary not otherwise used in Germany, or even in most parts of Austria for that matter. The one map I needed to familiarize myself with, was the U-Bahn system. I think I did fine overall. Oh, and at work, everyone knew in advance that I was taking Friday the 31st July off, so it was no problem.😀

As the last weekend in July is usually the time that Bavaria and Austria are let go for the summer holidays, it was impossible to book a bed in any youth hostel. I had to improvise, but I did not know of any hotels in Vienna, so I went without any reservation - very unusual for me, given my custom of prior booking in advance. So with an open mind, I woke up (I forgot to do something important but could not remember what) about 6:30 AM, took my shower to avoid clashing with the roommates schedules, had a quick breakfast with coffee and then took the bus and U-Bahn into Marienplatz. The Stadtsparkasse had ATMs that would give 🇦🇹 ATS bills, for example the 500 ATS. This was worth about € 36 or around 71 D-Mark each. On the front was Rosa Mayreder who replaced Otto Wagner. https://upload.wikimedia.org/.../155px-500_Schilling_Rosa.... This was a new and possibly last pre-Euro series. Moritz Daffinger and Sigmund Freud among others would still be visible on their respective notes. I think I had withdrawn about 2,500 ATS, more than enough for the weekend. And it was time to head to München Hbf.

I had a Sommer-Spezial ticket for Vienna, 89,00 D-Mark for one way in first class, quite a bargain, but with the "usual strings attached". I also had my Eurail Pass which I was going to use on 1st and 2nd August. I found the train car and it was full, I was the last to arrive. The train left about 9:10 AM. I had the radio going,📻🎧 listening to Bayrische Rundfunk 3 aka Bayern3 (which I listened to the most during Summer 1998). I think about Aying the signal was getting weak so I switched to the Rosenheim repeater frequency. It worked for a while until Traunstein. If you have been between München and Salzburg, you can likely imagine you are first going through a fairly flat forest land up to Rosenheim, then slightly hilly terrain up to Freilassing with mountains to the south, with a couple of lakes (eg. Chiemsee). It is the same trajectory I took 20th and 21st June 1998.

At Freilassing, the Hit Radio Ö3 station could be heard clearly. After it played "Everybody" by DJ Bobo, the announcer was mentioning the Lassing mine disaster in the Steiermark - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassing_mining_disaster. It happened 17 July and I heard about it first on 24th July when I was trying to tune in the DRS channels while in Lindau/Bregenz. After that, the train rolled into Salzburg to change the locomotive from DB to ÖBB to go the rest of the way to Vienna Westbahnhof. The train would not change direction until then.

The train stopped at Attnang-Puchheim, then went on to Linz and St Pölten. I was trying to take photographs with the point and shoot camera I bought in Milan. Until then I did not know the technique to properly thread in the film, so I had been just clicking the button and turning the thumbwheel, and all the while the counter went up to 36 shots and I had no idea. Then I had a fresh roll of film that I opened, opened the back, and then there was a slot with a tooth that I should have put the film in, so I did that, and the next thing I knew, there was resistance with the frame advance thumbwheel, and I thought I had mastered the camera. I took a few shots of the rear of the train (it turned out that the slot was the secret). 😃To celebrate this "victory", I treated myself to a chicken lunch in the dining car.😋 I had the chicken plate with vegetables including red bell pepper and some quinoa-like grain with an Austrian beer. I think it cost only 350 ATS altogether. I had to be careful with my finances thereafter, as I did not know, how much the hotel would cost for the night.

When I arrived at Vienna Westbahnhof, it was about 1:30 PM. I thought there would be some directory for hotels, but there was this office that would take care of travellers so they found a low-budget hotel for me in the Penzing district, about a 15 minute tram ride away. I would stay at Hotel Rustler, on Linzer Straße 43, close to Johnstraße and reachable by bus, but had to take care of the local transit fares first. I bought a 24 hour ticket for 80 ATS. I took the tram to Linzer Straße, and the hotel seemed a bit spooky. 😱 The man took my 350 ATS and gave me a towel. My room was a single bedroom and had only a sink but no toilet and no shower. Breakfast was included. At least I would have some quiet at night. I left my clothes bag there and went into the city center. I wanted to see the Prater, so I went on a southern approach, kind of through the current Hauptbahnhof which did not exist until 2015 or so. I did not wait for the bus so I decided to walk to the Johnstraße U-Bahn station. In Austria cars can have personalized plates, prepended by the district code to which it is registered. One rich guy who owned a Vienna-registered 🚗 Corvette had "W-HALCO" as his personalized plate, I am not sure where the photo of it is anymore. At a park along the way, there was a sign "Wer Tauben füttert, füttert auch Ratten" (If you feed pigeons, you also feed rats). 🕊=🐀

Probably 25 minutes after I left the hotel, I arrived at Johnstraße. The station was the current western terminus of the U-3, and before passing the ticket cancellation machines, there was this grotesque figure called the "Hudriwudri", and stood atop a circular ashtray to remind passengers to not smoke in the station 🚭 and also in the train. The Hudriwudri wears very little, aside from a homburg hat, circular glasses, a purple and pink necktie and purple shoes. Passing the Hudriwudri, I went downstairs to the platform where U3 would go to Westbahnhof and change to the U-6 and do the anticlockwise circle to the Prater. There was a train waiting. As it departed and headed to Schweglerstraße and on to Westbahnhof, I heard the next-station announcement with the same voice as the tram, following a bing-bong chime. Almost every time, the voice would also announce the line transfers where applicable. For busses and trams, he would sometimes say "Kurzstreckengrenze" to announce the end of a current discount fare zone, and sometimes "Wir bitten Sie, an älteren oder behinderten Fahrgästen, sowie Personen mit kleineren Kindern, Sitzpläte zu überlassen." to ask passengers to give up their seats to the elderly, disabled and mothers/fathers with young children. His voice seemed a bit monotone. I would find out later the name of the person doing the voices, and he had been doing that from approx 1976 to 2012 when he retired.

After arriving at the U-3 platform for Westbahnhof, I took the passage to the U-6 platform. The U-6 was built as a low-floor tram originally and was subsequently refurbished to subway standards. The U-6 was kind of like a roller coaster ride between Westbahnhof and Längenfeldgasse since the Otto-Wagner-designed Gumpendorfer Straße station was elevated while the rest were underground up to Philadelphiabrücke/Meidling. Meidling is an intermodal transfer stop for S-Bahn and the U-6. The S Bahn as well as the "Wiener-Baden Bahn" was on the surface. Waiting for the next S-Bahn to the Praterstern, it took about ten minutes as it was not yet the beginning of the evening rush hour. The train came and made its way past Matzleinsdorfer Platz, the former Südbahnhof which became Hauptbahnhof, the Belvedere, Wien Mitte commuter rail station and finally Praterstern. Praterstern is like a Coney Island, less so a Six Flags park. Admission is free of charge, rides require tickets, including the famous giant ferris wheel. 🎡🎢 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna....

When I walked through the Prater, it was like my previous visit in 1976. The one thing I remember from that time, was the pony ride, so I stopped by. There were a few roller coasters, fun-houses, the Liliputbahn, a gravity drop thrill ride, . There even were a few currency exchange places around the Prater. They accepted many eastern European currencies to change to the Schilling, particularly the Czech Koruna, Slovak Koruna, Hungarian Forint, Yugoslav Dinar, Polish Zloty, Romanian Leu, Bulgarian Lev and many more. One place in the Prater that I wish I went, was the Schweizer Haus. https://www.schweizerhaus.at/menu.asp. That is Vienna's best beer garden. Pretty much anything you might find in Germany, is served here as well but with a Vienna twist. This includes the famous Vienna Sausage known as "Frankfurter", Bratwürstel, Gulasch, Schnitzel, Sauerkraut and the grilled half-chicken, Oktoberfest-style. They can slice up a fresh white radish, and make their own potato chips in-house. Powidltascherl are essentially pierogies. Mohnnudeln are dumplings with ground poppy seed topping. As for beer, they have proper Czech Budweiser, Gieskirchner and Paulaner Hefe. At some point I hope to eat at the Schweizer Haus, next time I visit Vienna. 😋🇦🇹

I wanted to see more of Vienna after the Prater. To go back to the center, particularly Karlsplatz, I would need to take the U-1 to Schwedenplatz, then U-4 and U-2 to Schottentor. Schottentor has an interesting tram stop which has its lower level exposed as a departures platform. I bought some pizza, one with ham and mushrooms, and the other a spinach and fried egg, and I ate it at the stop, since eating was not necessarily prohibited at the station, but it was frowned upon in the trams. I then went on the U-2 to Karlsplatz to have a look around. Karlsplatz is where the famous Opera building is located, great for ballroom dancing events and professional performances.

I thought after seeing Karlsplatz, it would be a good time to go on a surface tram tour around the city center. The lines 1 and 2 run along the former location of the city wall. I went clockwise on line 1 to Schottentor, passing the Parliament and Rathaus. Then I changed direction, took the tram 1 to Volkstheater and changed to line 2. I went to about Schwarzenbergplatz so that I could see the Schloß Belvedere. This is where many of Gustav Klimt's works are stored. I would return in January 2002 to see his works, including "Der Kuss". I even bought a postcard for a professor who liked Klimt's works, and she let me know when it arrived in the USA (I think 5th-6th August 1998). And after that, I went through the Stadtpark to Johannesgasse, then along the Kärntnerstraße (both pedestrian zones) to the Domkirche St Stephan. This cathedral was built in the 14th Century AD in the gothic style with some romanesque elements here and there. Its roof is one of the most interesting of all cathedrals I have ever seen, namely on the top there are black, grey, green and white tiles, and in the stripe below there are black, yellow, green and grey in sort of a diamond shape. One side has two eagles, one with the shield of the Republic of Austria and the other with the shield of the city of Vienna.

After seeing the ⛪ Stephansplatz, I needed to go to the 🚉 Westbahnhof rail station to buy a🛒📕 phrasebook, hopefully there would be one for Hungarian, even if written for German speakers. Vienna is close to two other countries so it would seem logical. But before that, I somehow felt the need to have an espresso, as coffee houses are so common in Vienna. I found one that featured Segafredo coffee. I had a cup of espresso and I think also a small cookie about the size of a pink eraser. And an 8 ounce glass of water to go with that. ☕+🥛+🍪 During the time I was enjoying my evening espresso, I was listening to the FM4 La Boum de Luxe show in "Denglish", namely alternating between English and German. They even played a section of Mo Better Blues when Denzel Washington as Bleek Gilliam singing a spoof of Jackie DeShannon's "what the world needs now", and he said mockingly "is *not* another love song!". FM4 is still broadcasting even in 2018. After that it was time to head to the rail station before the shops would close for the day.

The journey from ⛪ Stephansplatz to Westbahnhof would be fairly simple. Get on the U-3 and stay on for five stations and head to the national railways. I left the radio on and recorded just static for the time I was underground, so however long it takes to get from Stephansplatz to Westbahnhof by the U-3, that is as much white noise as I recorded. What I wanted to record, was the voice of the subway announcer but that did not work until I went from Westbahnhof to Johnstraße. But I was not ready, I had to go to a bookshop to buy a phrasebook. 📕🛒 The only relevant phrasebook available was "Osteuropa", it had enough Hungarian for my purposes. Other languages included Albanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Romanian, Polish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Russian. It was written for German speakers, so I had to learn to speak from a German point of view rather than my natural US English view. The book was bought, and then it was time to go back to the hotel.

I only had to take the U-3 to Johnstraße and the bus 51 to Linzer Straße to get to the hotel. Once I arrived, I went to my room and read through the phrasebook to try to learn some phrases, like "jó napot", "kerem" and "köszönöm". Hungarian has about nine vowels and almost 30 consonants, some of which require two letters. For example, the letter S is pronounced as "Sh" and SZ is pronounced as "S". The letters Ö and Ü are essentially the same as in German but there long and short versions, German uses a short Ö and Ü by default and to lengthen it, the letter "h" is used, like "öh" and "üh", but in Hungarian, something like a double acute accent is used, as Ő and Ű. Another consonant that is difficult for most to pronounce is "gy". It sounds something like a short "dzyerh". From Wikipedia "The sound voiced palatal plosive / ɟ /, written ?gy?, sounds similar to 'd' in British English 'duty' (in fact, it is more similar to the Macedonian phoneme ' Ђ ' as in '?????'). It occurs in the name of the country, "Magyarország" (Hungary), pronounced /ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ/ " Oh and what is a "pályaudvar"? Its an important word to know. That and "napijegy".

Well I thought I got pretty much a good vocabulary for my needs, and it would be put to the test the following day. Before I went to sleep, which would be about 11:50 PM, I would take some time to listen to the radio, a bit of FM4 and then switch over to Hit Radio Ö3. On the radio was Dr Motte with the 1998 Love Parade theme song "One world one future", then it went to hip-hop flashing back to Summer 1992 for some bizarre reason. Before the news, Hit Radio Ö3 played "Jump around" by House of Pain, "Jump Jump" by Kriss Kross and an abbreviated "Insane in the membrane" by Cypress Hill. At midnight the radio announcer said "es ist Null Uhr", and the newsreader did the news, mentioning the Lassing Mine Disaster and progress made, as well as it being from that moment in time, the German Spelling Reform was in effect.

That was all for 31st July 1998, and it's now a new month, and the new German grammar and punctuation reform goes into effect. And I visit a new country and virtually visit another (at least through radio waves). Find out more tomorrow.

Gute Nacht und bis morgen! Jó éjszakát és holnapig! (31st July 1998 I did not learn that phrase) 🇭🇺 Dobrou noc a až zajtra! 🇸🇰

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