Aprapo of Nothing

I was listening to a documentary podcast from RTE (imagine an acute accent over the E) over the weekend which discussed shanos dancing in Ireland. An internet search revealed that that is actually sean-nos (old-style) and boy is it nifty.



Looser than the Irish dancing I grew up seeing. I got the link and lots of other good info from this site.

The documentary was called "Heel Up" and available here or at Itunes.

It's all in the fine print. . .

A very busy (seriously) restaurant.



The serve bunnies here and they slaughter them themselves.

Which evangelische evangelikalische witch is which?

Lots to upset the observant reader at MSNBC today. Let's start off with the witches. I have no energy to debate the figures. No -my objection de jour is to the lazy translation that as the first commenter points out is terribly confusing to the modern English speaker.

False friends time, Freunde

What we in the US would refer to as Mainline Protestant denominations in the States are referred to as the "evangelische Kirche" in German. There are lots of exceptions - the Methodists for instance are a Freikirche. (I am not going to speak for Switzerland here.)

Historically you got shoehorned into whatever religion the guy who ruled your neck of the woods decided was most profitable for him in year X (treaty of westphalia??). If he felt his ties to Austria or Rome or whatever were useful to him, you stayed Catholic. If he had his eye on some monastery property you were free to reform if you were doing it yourself and if not a reformer could be imported.

Prior to that, some poor slobs had made up their own minds, but territory went back and forth (some towns near where MG comes switched back and forth between some flavor of Reformed Chritianity and Catholicism 7 times. Seven times!!) But anyway, after year X, your leader decided and you could like it or lump it. He was free to switch after that. You, peasant farmer in the town of XYZ-heim, not so much.

There were lots of Reformers though, and once having made the decision to split off from the Western Church, they continued to split (e.g. Christianity in the U.S.). Soon there were many varieties of the new Reformed Christianity. Unlike the US, though, the government's big ol' mits were stearing this process the whole time, and because religious freedom brought so much chaos, you weren't even allowed free to be the particular flavor of Protestant that you wanted. In the North - way Calvinist, middle Germany Lutheran, down by us, some kind of mish-mash. The point being in each location there was only ONE Protestant church with the locally acceptable seasoning - and they joined together to form (drum roll please) the evangelsiche (Gospel) Kirche (church) after the collapse of the monarchy.

This has absolutely nothing to do with modern Evangelical Christians.

If I meant "evangelikal", I would have said "evangelikal".

Tiles, Yey or Yech ***

The Kitchen tiles - I know, I know - they're not soooo bad, but what to do with random fruit? Ehhhhh brown tiles with ehhhh Birch-finish. I am considering the darkest wood countertop that ikea has. (We are not talking about forever in this apartment, so it's ok if they eventually stain and treating with oil a few times a year is also acceptable.)

*** (German) Igit (eee-git)

arrrrgh blogger is again refusing to let me load a photo, so ya'll still can't see our future kitchen tiles.

So I guess I will have to start off our new moosie series -The Cheapskate's Guide.

We were pretty disgusted with our travel guide in Vienna, and we felt that there must be some sort of guidance for travelers on a tight budget. We certainly don't know it all, but our travel guide was crap. So I will offer up a few measly tips here.

Looking for a great little bar (studentenkneipe) with reasonable prices, Czech Budweiser Beer and brick oven-baked "fladenbrot" (imagine a pita like bread) with a wide variety of fillings? Not much for the vegan here, I am afraid, most contain cream or cheese.

All of this in the 1rst Bezirk and it all hidden in a tiny alley that will have you feeling like a true insider. Oh and have I mentioned that the prices are reasonable? It's smokey; it's a keller (cellar); and the music is loud, but it's a cheap evening out. Here's the menu at Kolar.
It's in the tiny Kleeblattgasse.

For Jodi

Weak proof that there are vegetarians in Vienna. Even weaker because this vegetarian store had closed. But up until recently there was vegan ice cream to be had. And hopefully Ms J. will be pleased to hear that the fallafel restaurant made a real impression on MG - cheap and super tasty! The tahini was soooo good. I thought back fondly on Sunday Veggie Cooking at the unviersity. We don't have much middle eastern food around here (one of the things I most miss from the States.)

Here's the web address for Maschu-Maschu. And because I like torturing myself with memories of dinners past.

The good stuff

You might be a German Redneck if. . .

This is in your Schrebergarten or among your Streuobst.