Miss Euro Blogger - Bursting the Bubble

Austria feels a sense of pride when it comes to being what they call nostalgic about the past and going against the mainstream. The rest of the world calls it being backward. In 2015, the Austrian government at the time passed a law that would finally take Austria to the same progressive level as the majority of Western countries: banning smoking in bars, restaurants and clubs. However, it wouldn't be Austria if things were that simple. The government gave establishments over 2 years to prepare for the law to come into effect - May 2018 - which would fall under the legislative period of the next government. I was very happy about the law as I am one of those 'annoying' people who get a headache and burning eyes as well as the urge to cough as soon as I am exposed to smoke. At the same time, I thought the long time before the law actually will be enacted may be problematic as the new government may have other ideas. It turned out that I was right... and in this case, I wis...

  via GIPHY A magical thing happens every year in Austria right around this time: people remember how to smile! When I lived in California, I was really confused why everyone was so damn happy all the time. I arrived in LA in the middle of September and my mood had already gone into hybernation ready for winter. But there is no real winter in LA. My body was confused - and my mood even more so. And then I got it: sunshine makes people happy! Eureka! Who knew?! Now as spring has sprung in Austria, I can see the same phenomnon. Yesterday, I ran into a neighbor. She smiled at me! And even greeted me! I was confused but immediately showed appreciation by smiling and greeting back. Of course, the springtime-miracle mood-lift doesn't work on everyone - my downstairs neighbor would rather bodycheck anyone in her way than crack a smile. Gee lady-no-smiles, give it a try, it doesn't hurt.  Nevermind the sourpuss face from downstairs, I love this time of the year! I know this sm...

I love cheese! Pretty much all types of cheese - aged, young, ripe, flavored, soft, hard, French, Spanish, Austrian, from the cow, from the sheep and from the goat - and sometimes even from the buffalo. There are few culinary things that satisfy my tastebuds more than delicious cheese with crunchy bread and paired with a good glass of wine. There is no doubt that Europe does cheese very well and you can also find delicious cheese plates here in Vienna. Selfless as I am, I sacrificed my waistline once again (after my two part series of coffee and cake tasting in The Ring-Part 1 and The Ring-Part 2 ) to find the best cheese plates in town for YOU! WeinRaum Across the street from the Theater in der Josefstadt in the 8th district is a tiny little wine bar called WeinRaum. It seems to be a family-run place with only two people working there. The wine selection is not huge but big enough to taste several whites and reds during the course of an evening. They have a lot of meat dishes t...

Building on my experience with the first four cafes at the hotels along the Ringstrasse in Vienna, I continued my research and visited a few more. I gained quite a bit of weight during Part II, but hey, I do it for YOU! :) Ritz Carlton Vienna While the Ritz Carlton at first glance is not a typical Vienna-born hotel and the name suggests more of a 'chain', it does have quite a bit of Viennese charm. It is also housed in one of those grand, spectacular looking buildings that looks like it is over 100 years old - and maybe it is. As soon as we stepped in, we were greeted very friendly. Although we were dressed very casual after walking through the rain and cold and weren't in any way fancy (picture a wool with a pom pom), they gave us the red carpet treatment from beginning to end. The lobby is absolutely beautiful and feels no less grand than the original Vienna hotels. The lounge cafe (Melounge - very clever name combining the Viennese traditional coffee 'melange'...

No, not the one you wear on your finger but the one that circles around the inner city of Vienna! The wide boulevard-like street is just over five kilometers long and celebrated its 150th birthday in 2015. Along the Ring - or Ringstrasse as it is called in German - you find some of the grandest buildings in Vienna including the parliament, the famous city hall, the University of Vienna, the Burgtheater, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Natural History Museum, and most impressively of all the State Opera that Tom Cruise descended off of in one of the Mission Impossible movies. Sprinkled in between these monuments are some of the grandest hotels of the city. Men in top hats open the door for guests. Royalty and pop stars take up residence in one of the hotels along the boulevard when they come to Vienna. As a local, I would of course never stay at any of these hotels, however, I am fascinated by them and there is one way to soak up their atmosphere: the hotel cafes! It is a common...

New Year's Eve is once again upon us. My expectations on how to spend that evening have changed tremendously over the decades. As a child When I was little, the most exciting part about New Year's Eve - and also the only expectation I had about that evening - was being allowed to stay up late. A staple in my childhood for that night was to watch 'Dinner for One'. Other than that it was all about watching TV, trying to stay awake until midnight and if I made it, shoot off some cheap fireworks in the backyard. As a teenager Growing up in the Austrian Alps, going out to a club wasn't really a thing. What the kids in the countryside did was meet at a hut in the mountains where we were surrounded by snow. Someone's uncle always had a hut and we would meet there in the early evening to get started on the bags of alcohol we dragged up there. One by one, we passed out somewhere on the floor or if you were lucky on a chair. It was a simple time. In my early...

So... I got married this year... twice... to the same guy - of course. As you know from my previous blog posts, I have been married before and was a happily divorced woman. In the years following, I didn't think I ever wanted to get married again. I had the 'been-there-done-that-meh-not-that great' kind of attitude. And why do something again that wasn't all that the first time around. Nonetheless, what I didn't think was going to happen happened. I met a boy. Boy was cute. Boy treated me right (respectful, loving and caring). Girl moved in with boy. Fast forward two years - boy popped the question on a cliff by the pacific ocean in Malibu. Girl said yes! And then... the planning phase started. I absolutely hated my first wedding. I hated the dress, the venue, the officiant, the atmosphere and the bored faces of the guests. At the time, I only had a few months to put a wedding together in a city that I just moved to. I had no clue what I was doing. That's ...

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