In Vienna, Do as the Viennese
If we are what we eat, countries are what they commonly serve to their inhabitants on a daily basis. To get in contact with the authentic food traditions skip the tourist restaurants offering tourist menus and just eat where locals go. Every city has its owns table manners and as Roman streets are full of pizzerias, hot dog stands are everywhere in New York, take-away patisseries are generalized in Paris, or Sundays in Buenos Aires come together with a lunch at a steakhouse, Vienna is decorated with distinguish coffee houses.
It is impossible to describe the capital of Austria without mentioning the abundance of cafés, and consequently it is impossible to abandon the metropolis without having a moka break. Coffee arrived to the Alps in 1683, when Muhammad IV sent his army from Constantinople to Vienna. The Turkish left so quickly that they forgot to carry back home an incredible amount of goods, and between the left supplies there was a considerable number of coffee beans. Actually, it was an Austrian soldier called Kolschitzky who keep the beans for himself and opened the first coffee house in Vienna. The Blue Bottle rapidly became very popular as a meeting point for artists, politics, poets, musician and activists. By that time and despite Frederick the Great’s attempt to prohibit the beverage in Germany, the growing coffee culture was spread around Central Europe with Johann Sebastian Bach as one of the main fans. He even composed a short love song called Coffee Cantata.
During the 19Th and 20Th centuries Viennese Coffee houses add a playful side to their atmosphere with entertaining cabaret shows, card tournaments, and chess games. Nowadays, art exhibitions and live music complete the scene of the modern Austrian cafés. This places are also perfect to try the large variety of Viennese pastries and other typical specialities and they are usually situated nearby the best hotels in Vienna. When going to Austria you will automatically notice that coffee houses are an important piece of the urban culture. Just take a walk around your hotel Innsbruck and you will meet plenty of this mythical hubs that much more than mere coffee houses are “embassies of the Kaffeehäuser tradition”.
Following local gastro-habits immerse travellers in the national customs, at the same time that going out for dinner and drinking is an essential part of the fun of travelling.
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