The Shadow-gloom and Weight of the Sacred

The picture to the left was taken from the German Wikipedia entry "Mariahilfer Strasse." Click here to see the article. Though it is in German, there are some very good pictures of the street embedded throughout the article. Click on the picture for a larger version. I combine the two words out of habit (Mariahilferstrasse), but I think they are actually separated (Mariahilfer Strasse)--if you're concerned at all about being grammatical.

The first time I went to Vienna was in 2005 when Gretchen and I took a two-week survey trip of the city to make sure we really wanted to move there. The first place we went to was Mariahilferstrasse--a street lined with shopping on both sides, one of the most popular places to shop in Vienna. The street stretches west of the train station Westbahnhof, but whenever I think of Mariahilferstrasse, I think of the section east of Westbahnhof to the street's end at Museumsquartier. Any good travel guide will tell you to take the Ubahn to Westbahnhof (or further west) and walk towards Museumsquartier because the street is downhill in this direction. Otherwise, you could get tired pretty fast and miss out on the Mariahilfestrasse experience. On that particular day in 2005 we started at an Imbiss near the top of the hill and I got a döner kebap, which I didn't finish until the bottom of the hill at Museumsquartier. I always remember that experience of walking among the people, talking with some friends, as I munched on this delicious kebab. I have this Imbiss tear-dropped on my Google map of Vienna. It's the best kebab I ate in Vienna. (Incidentally, if you click on the picture from Wikipedia at the top of this post, or you can click here, you can see this Imbiss near the center of the photo at the intersection--it's a red color.) One couple with us, who were also serving as our guides for the city, said that the Viennese like to window shop on Kohlmarkt but then come to Mariahilferstrasse and look for similar, less expensive items.



When we first moved to Vienna, there was an English-language bookstore on Mariahilferstrasse. I bought one book there, but it closed not long after we moved there and, to my knowledge, it has not re-opened. But you can find other bookstores along the street, most of which will have at least a few titles in English, if you're looking for something to read. There are also no shortage hotels. We spent three or so days at hotel on Mariahilferstrasse (the Hotel Pension Haydn) after we had moved out of our apartment but had yet to depart Vienna. It was really cold then--last March--but we still enjoyed being there. Our hotel room was directly over the entrance to the Haydn Movie Theatre--an English-language movie theatre. Of course, as a major street in a European city, there are no shortage of cathedrals to look at, such as the Mariahilfer Kirche (pictured below).


During our first year in Vienna, we spent a lot of time at the University where we were studying German. We'd often head over to Mariahilferstrasse after class because it was the only place we knew of that had a KFC. The KFC's in Europe have a spicy chicken sandwich called a Zinger. I haven't seen them in the U.S. but it was what I generally ate there. There are plenty of other places to eat; you don't have to eat American fast food. We just want to KFC because it reminded us a little bit of home. Cafe Ritter (pictured below) is a traditional Viennese cafe where you can many of the traditional dishes and drinks.


Mariahilferstrasse during the winter is a much different experience from the summertime. The cold weather in Vienna tends to carry a healthy bite, but that doesn't generally stop people from getting out taking care of their shopping! The following video was taken during the Christmas season. It's not great quality, but it gets the job done:

If you find that your coat just isn't thick enough for Mariahilferstrasse in the winter time, don't fret because little stands, such as the one pictured below, pepper the city during the winter months. You can buy hot chestnuts, a hot cup of cocoa or the world famous punsch, among other things.



Summer or winter, Mariahilferstrasse offers a great piece of the Vienna experience. I can't wait until I can walk down that street once again.