Weird and nice things about Austria

One particularly annoying thing about both large corporations and highly developed nations is that they tend to become parasitic. They are always assessing you little extra charges, fees and taxes to drain away your life-blood. Or that's how it feels! Two examples, Lufthansa now charges you about $50 US for every checked piece of luggage. Both ways. And Austria charges €1.75 for each day you are in a hotel or AirBnb. This is just a little extra added on top of the multitude of other taxes.

The excuse for this is, of course, that the large corporation and highly developed state is taking care of you in some way, i.e. taking responsibility for parts of your life. Which, when you think about it is really just taking over parts of your life. An opinion writer in Canada before I left called this being a "junior partner in your own life!" Yep, pretty much.

The reason this bugs me is that Mexico is not like this. You are responsible for yourself. If you trip and fall into a hole, people nearby will be likely to assist you, but the government will not be interested.

Ok, what else? There is an old-money upper class here that you see at the opera in particular. Tall, slim extremely well-dressed women over six feet tall and fleshy, suspiciously tanned men in very flashy clothes that have the demeanor of mafia godfathers. And then there are the more rustic, earthy, very plainly dressed men that you find driving taxis.

 Austrians are quite fit; you rarely see anyone really overweight. And all sorts of middle-aged and elderly men and women are getting around riding bicycles. These things may be connected.

Time for a nice item: Salzburg has a remarkably well-developed and efficient bus system. There seem to be over 200 lines and the busses run about every 15 minutes during the day and every 20 minutes in the evening--and usually until midnight. Buying tokens is very easy. There is a machine that dispenses them at the bus stop. You can press a button to have the menu in English. Instructions are clear and simple. You pay with a credit card and your selected token along with a receipt is delivered instantly. I got a 24 hour token for €3.90 and used it for four trips.

One of the most dangerous places you can be is between a woman of a certain age and a glass of Sekt. I've been elbowed and shoved a few times.

Of course, just the names of streets can be strange. Here are the directions I had to follow to walk from my AirBnb to the nearest bus stop: right on Jodok-Fink-Straße, 72 m then left on Glockengießerstraße, .1 km then right on Michael-Filzgasse, 92 m left on Innsbrucker B, .2 km, slight right, then 53 m right on Maxglaner Hauptstraße.

Ending on a nice item: I quite like food in Austria. In the supermarket are an incredible selection of cold cuts, all of them tasty. The fruit and vegetables--especially tomatoes--are excellent. The milk--alpine milk!--is lovely. Whenever I come to Austria the first thing I want to do is head to a restaurant and order a wienerschnitzel, which is a lot like a chicken milanesa in Mexico, but with veal. But actually it tastes very different. Served with cranberry sauce. That little white nylon bag contains a quarter lemon so when you squeeze it over your schnitzel, you don't get lemon in your eye and the seeds don't drop on your food.

But yesterday I discovered a new dish: Gekochter Tafelspitz, a very traditional Austrian dish of slow boiled beef brisket. Here is the presentation:

Gekochter Tafelspitz

Sorry about the lighting! I was facing a big window. How it is served is first they place the large plate on the table with just the fried potatoes and a bed of creamed spinach (the green stuff). Then they place some pieces of beef on the spinach with some of the stock and the julienned vegetables. This comes from the bowl on the right. There is lots more for you to serve yourself. On the left is a small plate with two small bowls; these contain apple horseradish and chive sauce for the beef. The whole thing is just a delight. I had it with a glass of Zweigelt wine, Austria's answer to Pinot Noir.