Vienna: Hanging Out

Still catching up on posts. More to come!

We went to Vienna to attend BF's cousin's wedding, and as a side perk, I enjoyed four parties in four days: Coffees, cakes, white wines, proscuitto, sausages, dumplings, shnitzels, and stunningly good company.  

We basically did a lot of hanging out. Except, I don't think one would call it “hanging out.” More like “spending time with family and friends.” (When you say this, you should drink a “weiner mélange” and have your pinky raised, delicately, up.)


I met so many cool/nice/international/interesting people. The BF's family was united en masse for the first time in quite a while, and it was nice to see them all catch up with each other. The family-in-law are very genteel, very close and speak very good, lusciously-accented English. The women all chain-smoke thin cigarettes, have perfect hair and wear thick gold bracelets. The bride's father-in-law was like my dream of an elegant European man. He speaks several languages, has his initials monogrammed below the breast pocket of all his shirts, has a cathode-tube jukebox, and wears glasses without earpieces, perched on his nose. He's almost slightly more of a nice person than the BF. His daughter (bride's sister in-law) told me he takes all his business meetings in the very charming, very Viennese and ancient café across from his office. He has a running tab there.


One of the most surprising and delightful things of the weekend was getting to spend so much time with the bride and groom. They were very calm, and were so happy so many of their friends and family had come from around the globe to celebrate with them. They even had a family dinner (an Official Introducing of the Two Families) at their apartment two days before the wedding. BF's cousin is sweet and graceful, and her now-husband is incredibly generous, chill and has excellent hair. He picked all BF's family up from the airport (four different arrivals!) and even took us out for drinks two days after their wedding, and just hours before a dawn flight to their honeymoon in Morocco. (BF's family is pretty much obsessed with the new husband, and I like him, very much, too. AND he took us, by chance, to two different Jewish-run restaurants, and he could pass for Israeli. My bubbe would have approved, and my mom definitely will.)

  1. Can we kick it (in Vienna)? Yes, we can.
  2. Jukebox!
  3. Fathers of the groom (left) and bride (right)
  4. Not yet married 
  5. Siblings
  6. Enjoying ice cream 
  7. REALLY enjoying ice cream 
  8. At Kaffee Alt Vien