After the crazy flurry of the holidays which involved lots of Viennese food and relatives I was finally able to hit the streets of Vienna to go out. A place I regularly visit whenever I’m in town (mostly because my sister goes there) is the bar called Elektro Goenner in the passage next to the former Amadeus bookstore (now Thalia) on Mariahilferstrasse.

The beer is good, the music too, and the people your regular Viennese hipster-and-older crowd. Or, as my friend informed me today, they are also called Bobos.

So at about 2am, we were ready to take off and hit the sack, but not before getting a “Eitrige” (pus-filled one) at a Wuerstelstand, which is a cheese filled sausage, also called Kaesekrainer. And it looks like this (for those of you who don’t know):

Of course, in New York City, the place I currently call home, these kinds of sausage atrocities are deplored, while other, even worse food atrocities are openly celebrated.

But lemme tell you, there ain’t nothing like a good hot Kaesekrainer with mustard and a Semmel at 2am after several beers. Dee-licious!

And then it started snowing!

My brother started it. He would run out the day before Christmas and buy everyone in the family a mug with flowers on it or a tea light holder. (At least SEWA is better than the Happy Markt on Amerlingstrasse) You know, anything that cost more than 2 Euro was simply too much.

I prided myself on spending a lot of time thinking about gifts and getting everyone something nice. Unfortunately this year, due to the stress of final exams and an unexpected shortage of money in my account, I’ve had to go the SEWA route as well. I avoided the SEWA on Mariahilferstrasse which is almost always inevitably crowded and it’s so easy to knock something over with big winter coats, by going to the one on Josefstaedterstrasse. Not so crowded although they selection was smaller. Look forward to candles and incense underneath the tree!

You know they’ve also got disco balls…