In Vienna I feel very comfortable. Here modernity and antiquity, urbanism and alternative movements, in politics - the Greens and radicals - surprisingly coexist. The reason for this, I think, is the Austrians' passion for beauty, chic, classical music and democracy. And the symbol of all this is - in the very heart of the city - the medieval St. Stephen's Cathedral, reflected in the mirrored walls of the modern department store 'Haas House'.
While walking around the city in search of a place to have a bite to eat, you absolutely do not have to go to the most fashionable restaurant of the most famous hotel in Austria, the Sacher. You can quickly get something quality and inexpensive at a Wurstelstand - street stalls with local fast food. A hot boiled sausage (Leberkäse) in a wheat bun (Semmel) easily restores strength and lifts your mood. If you are a vegetarian and like something very original, visit the cafe-restaurant 'Wrenkh'. If you suddenly want to try natural meat and dishes prepared in the old-fashioned way, and also want to be served like an English lord, look for 'Plachutta'. Beer lovers can go to a special beer establishment - Salmbräu, where beer is brewed right on the spot. Wine lovers can easily satisfy their passion in local cellars, the so-called Heurigen.
All these are recommendations, or, in local parlance, 'tips' for rubberneckers who only get acquainted with the external world. And for those who want to touch the soul of the Austrian capital, I would advise them to be sure to visit the city's museums and cafes. After local masterpieces - Klimt's paintings in the Belvedere, Schiele's in the Leopold Museum, and Dürer's in the Albertina - a cup of one of the 20 varieties of coffee with some pastry is a must! In any cafe, some famous person may easily sit down at the next table, for example Hermann Maier, the legend of alpine skiing, or the mayor of Vienna, without guards or companions.
Austrians love order. Maybe not as crazy as the Germans, but still. Their homes are clean and good in their own way. At the same time, the intelligentsia prefers not to clean themselves. For this there is a large market of guest workers. Polish women work here as cleaners, illegally, on the sly, with pleasure. Yugoslavs clean the streets. In general, in Austria it has somehow happened that immigrants have taken on the heavy work and divided it by type of activity. Arabs sell newspapers in any weather, Turks work on construction sites and road repairs, our Jews have 'occupied' the markets. The Austrians themselves manage public transport and the post office.
The attitude toward ecology and resources in Austria at all levels is the most serious. Not a single light bulb burns in vain here. House entrances are equipped with contact switches, and the light burns exactly as long as it takes you to ascend to your floor and open the door to your apartment. Water taps in public places are equipped with photocells so that when you have washed your hands, the water stops flowing. All waste in the country is customary to separate. For this purpose, rows of bins stand everywhere in the courtyards of houses. For everything separately - for food waste, iron, paper, plastic and glass (dark and light are also separated). When I drive past the only nuclear power plant in Austria, I never cease to be amazed. It never worked because at a referendum the people said: 'No!'
What really struck me about this country was the nudist culture of life. I had heard about nudists before I came to Austria. Once a week, a friend of the acquaintances with whom I lived in Vienna at first used to come to wash, because he had no amenities at home. After his shower, he walked around the apartment naked, and he was not embarrassed by either the young mistress of the house or the girlfriends who dropped in to see her. For me it was a cool performance, and it seemed that only one step remained to actionism. But those around me behaved as if nothing unusual was happening.
When I was shown Vienna and its surroundings, the city amazed me with its beauty, clean streets and, unusual for us, Biedermeier architecture and luxurious parks. Despite this, in the evenings before going to bed, closing my eyes, I saw pictures of the outskirts with naked people. On the peninsula of the pond near Wienerberg - exhibitionists, in the thickets of the virgin forest near the wild Lobau lakes - some pagans, thousands of naked bodies on the Danube bank near Ölhafen looked pompous, and there were countless of them on the old riverbed in Gänsehäufel.
In the mornings I jogged with my friends along the green shady alleys in Schönbrunn Park (this is fashionable here), after the run we steamed in a youth sauna. I could not believe it - I sat surrounded by unfamiliar beautiful naked women in the steam room, at the same time swam with several in a tiny pool and lay among them on one wide lounger in the relaxation room. Moreover, all were sober and relaxed.
It turns out that the tradition of communal baths was formed in Europe in the Middle Ages. And the founder and father of the nudist movement in Austria can be considered the Austrian artist and world-famous architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000). Without any doubt, he was both an eccentric and a genius. Tourists from all over the world strive to see his factory in Spittelau and the Kunsthaus Wien. He believed that God does not live in a straight line and that the most important independence giving freedom is independence from money. It happened that he taught at universities naked. In general, I had no choice, and I became a nudist. Now in summer I go to sunbathe with nudists on the Danube, and in winter I go to warm myself in the Oberlaa thermal baths. There I always visit the sauna and the so-called Kräuterstuben - steam rooms with various aromas of healing herbs.