EDITED: You can read lots of travel stories about the famed “grantig” or “raunzen” of the Viennese people. Some writers encourage us to write off Viennese rudeness as “Kulturgut.” Others say it is hopelessly ingrained in the descendants of a former aristocratic capital. We recognize how fortunate we are to travel to foreign cities around the world and interacting with grumpy servers and subway workers is definitely a first-world problem!
Sarah in particular wrestles with high emotional sensitivity and doesn’t easily let rude behavior roll off her back. Intellectually, we know that a person’s bad behavior is a reflection of their worldview and we try not to take anything personally. That said, we liked our collective experiences in Prague way better than Vienna!
We read about the sullen service in some Viennese establishments. Sarah was not prepared for the downright rude behavior. A sidewalk cafe waiter was so busy chatting with his non-customer cigarette-puffing friend that her order was sidelined. At a different cafe, the server brought us food we did not order; when we challenged him, he pretended to be “forgetful” and re-plated the food. But then up-charged us for the stuff we didn’t order. A subway ticket-taker berated us “Americans who do not know lots of things” for not reading the fine print on our ticket, when our simple apology and his ticket validation would have sufficed. Our Air BnB host messed up our e-keys TWICE locking us out of our rental apartment and never apologized.
On the flip side, we were enchanted with the music programme at MozartHaus and were especially impressed with the skill of the young pianist. The cafe at the Belvedere Palace served delicious food with seemingly happy career waiters. The food and service at Kellergwolb was outstanding. Our tour guide at the Spanish Riding School was knowledgeable and patient with our questions. Dinner at the Melkerstiftskeller, on the advice of our friend Angela Malik-Stenson, was delightful. And “Sturm” is a new harvest favorite of Sarah – basically young wine (low APV) that is still fermenting, slightly bubbly, a bit cloudy, and only available for a few weeks in the fall.
Where in the world are the Gills? 