http://www.restaurantwoche.at/lang/en/cities/wien/restaurants

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It’s no Sea World, (Austria is a landlocked country after all) but it was still a great experience. I saw a giant turtle gracefully glide through the water. I walked through a rainforest and heard all the noise and chatter from the animals. I saw the biggest snake I have ever seen.

It can’t be easy building and maintaining a giant aquarium in the middle of a city that is kind of like New York City. So in the end, it’s worth a visit.

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All these photos are parts of Vienna. I love the incredible variety of this city. Hiker, wine lover, water-sport enthusiast, culture hungry, Vienna has it all.

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http://www.figls.at/- fancy neo Austrian, very good service and food, some of the best ribs i had
http://www.fischerbraeu.at/ – typical Austrian beer house, good eats, good beer, very unpretentious, mixed crowds from students to seniors, we go there when we don’t want to cook, are hungry and don’t want to spend a lot
http://www.7stern.at/ – also very famous for its beer, order the skillets, gotten a bit touristy lately
http://www.plachutta.at/(there is also one around Schönbrunn) – very traditional Viennese cuisine, fancy, turn of century aura
http://www.weinhof-zimmermann.at/- Heurigen Klassiker, beautiful setting among the winery hills.
http://www.figlmueller.at/ – if you must eat in the 1st district, then only here.  very busy, reservation only.
http://www.bierig.at/intro_2.htm- one of the best price/grub/service ratios in Vienna, they have three locations, we go to the one in Spittelau, love their outdoor seating
http://www.caffelatte.at/neubau/aktuell.html- very good coffee, great weekend brunches, you can eat there for free on your b’day
http://www.himmel.at/oktogon/indexf.html – this is the one next to the tree circle, great cakes and lattes
http://www.feuerwehrwagner.at/- this one has the best roast chicken in Vienna, very nice Heurigen setting
http://tupalo.com/en/vienna/hanil-running-sushi- this is the running sushi at Naschmarkt that I told you about
http://www.lokalfuehrer.at/?site=detail&id=1505&show=tf – this is the running sushi in the 8th, has more variety on other than sushi dishes
http://www.blueorange.co.at/- if you ever want a decent muffin or bagel, great coffee to go with it too, they are in the 9th or close to the Naschmarkt, sells Ben&Jerry ice cream too
http://www.rocky-docky.at/ – very good steaks, haven’t tried the burgers but I’m sure they are good
http://www.santacruz.at/- it’s a far cry from the mexican food we know but it’s always fresh and good if you have a craving for it.  their ribs are famous but i don’t like them, too greasy and too much garlic. it’s in the Prater so if you are there it’s worth stopping by, they are always open in summer.

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Check out the article, titled “Surviving the Office Jungle Abroad”

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At least living in a desirable location tempts friends and family to come visit. My parents, brother and his wife, and almost all of my friends have come to visit me. Despite living here, I always struggle to put a daily sightseeing tour together for my guests. Finally I just put it down on paper, and whip it out whenever people show up. I include days of the week because some places in the city are better during the week or weekend. I also group sights together according to location to avoid zigzagging through the city.

Weekday – Tour of the Inner City. Start at Karlsplatz and walk down Kartnerstraße. Remind your guests to look up to see the beautiful architecture. Enter Stephansdom and tell your guests to make a round of the cathedral. Then tell them to go to the top to get a good view of the city. Walk Am Graben and explain the statue in the middle is a tribute to surviving the black plague. Check out the pretty Peter’s Church. Tell them about the underground bathrooms Am Graben and encourage them to take a look. Walk your guests to Café Central for a break. Then head on over to the Hofburg and encourage them to take a tour. Grab a streetcar that circles the Ring and explain all the buildings. At Schwedenplatz get out and take the U1 to Donauinsel. Let your guests see the mighty Danube. On the way back, get out at Praterstern and have your guests ride the Riesenrad. Jump back in the U1 to exit Karlsplatz again and eat anywhere in the Inner City (example: Palmenhaus) so your guests can see the Inner City at night.

Saturday – go to Naschmarkt to see the Fleamarket as well as the food market. Go to Schönbrunn and encourage your guests to take a tour and walk the gardens. Take a break either at the Gloriette or Dommayer café. Go to the Technical Museum if you have male guests, they seem to like that kind of thing. If you have female guests, go to Mariahilferstraße to go shopping, they seem to like that kind of thing.  Go to dinner at a Heurigen. Apologize to your guests when they have digestive problems from all the greasy food. Or just tell them to drink more to burn the fat away.

Sunday – Choose either the performance of the Spanish Riding School, see my post about that here, or the Vienna Boys Choir. Go to Kunsthistorische Museum and encourage your guests to take a tour. The guides are awesome. If the weather is nice, choose a pretty garden to walk through and sit comfortable in a coffeehouse.

I think that sums Vienna up, unless you have other suggestions.

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In an earlier post that I wrote right when I came to Vienna, “Greetings in Vienna”  I mention how you cannot over-greet an Austrian. You say hello and good-bye what seems like a million times.

Apparently I forgot my own observations. I had a meeting scheduled with my boss this morning. I walked into his office, sat down, and got started talking to get to the heart of the meeting right away. He looked at me a bit funny and I asked if everything was okay. He said, in quite straight-forward Austrian style, “You know what I don’t like that you do? Sometimes you don’t take a moment to just chat. You also don’t sign off on your emails. It’s abrupt. But it’s okay, I know that you are a nice person anyway.”

I paused for a bit. I had to give the guy credit. He was right. My head is so clouded with work that I forget to say a quick, “How are you” before starting a meeting. Another Austrian co-worker had commented as well that I didn’t sign off on my emails all the time.

So back to lesson one when I first got here. You can’t greet an Austrian enough.

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hi!

first: i think you meet/ask the wrong people )

2nd: i am more or less genuine Viennese (parts of the last 5 generations on mother & father-side are from Vienna )) i guess i can give you some info about viennese thinking from my view:

the crankiness is mainly a protection for the Viennese – if you expect the worst you got a good chance of being positively surprised. the crankiness is on the outside – mostly but not on the inside! and with the right ‘Schmäh’ you usually can see the inside as you might know, Viennese always try to avoid aggressiveness and confrontations – this is where they use the “Wiener Charme” to work arround (I guess this is one reason why Vienna is quite nonviolent compared to other cites.) they always like to talk it out at a Heurigen or Kaffeehaus (or compensate it with crankiness).

Also business is done not in office, but on a small table at the
Heurigen. As Metternich said “Der Balkan beginnt am Rennweg”! that
might also be the reason why one can bargain for mostly everything in Vienna – if you know how )

And sometimes it is just some kind of mental relaxing, if you don’t have to be always happy.

this are very general views! of course there are a lot of different, nice and unnice, people in vienna, but you can find this “melange” everywhere …

PS: most expats I know, are quiet happy here – they adopted (parts of) the viennese lifestyle, which works quiet well (as ‘viennese’ is a mixture of a lot of cultures & lifestyles )

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Frankfurt – the people are most definitely friendlier. The women are more fashionably dressed (a much needed break for my poor abused eyes in Vienna). The city is cleaner. Sightseeing in Frankfurt is minimal. Having spent a day in the city, I saw all that I needed to see.

Vienna – poor Frankfurt can’t compete with the glory of Vienna’s Inner City. Vienna is stunningly beautiful. Frankfurt is functional. Also the sightseeing possibilities in Vienna fill four full days easily due to the wonderful options of palace tours, museums of every kind, coffeehouses, gardens and so on.

To sum up really quickly the difference between Vienna and Frankfurt: Throw a stone in Frankfurt and you’ll hit a bank. Throw a stone in Vienna and you’ll hit a church or a palace.

My conclusion: Skip Frankfurt and just use the airport to get on your next plane to Vienna.

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http://www.borealisgroup.com/careers/jobs/

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