And in a bit I'm going to leave stacks of leaflets around the village where my parents live, to advertise my music lessons. It's time to get some business!
Last night I walked up town, which is quite rare for me, although I do live very close to town, I rarely walk up at night. I did so because I'm doing lots of cycling and walking to counteract the lack of activity due to lack of physical work, see.
Anyway, I fancied a pint (just one!), and instead of walking to my 'local', I walked up to a town center pub called the Tap & Spile. It's one of the few decent drinking places in town. Real ale, all that. It takes about twenty five minutes to get up there, and it's all uphill so a brisk walk is good exercise I hope.
Wolverhampton is a City. It has been since 2000. As I sat and drunk a pint of 'Old Rosie' I looked at the passers by and imagined the last time I sat on my own in a City watching passers by.
Vienna.
Wolverhampton, Vienna. Two very different places. And my god, the people are so different too. Here in Wolverhampton the average bloke wears a football shirt, is overweight, and has a shaved head. Last night I saw shitloads of them. Looking across Queen's square at head level last night was like looking across a plate of baked beans. Lager fuelled shouting, women squawking.
Yet in Vienna people dress to impress. Their clothes are a reflection of themselves. I was so glad to see jackets worn in the day, on trains and trams. And men with hair! And look at them all reading books! Everywhere, people sat and read books. Young beautiful women reading books on trains. Arty, clever, pretty.
Here in Wolverhampton when you use public transport the opportunity for eye candy* is lessened. It's mostly chavettes with their ugly faces stuck in mobile phones. Fat dolites with plastic bags full of oven chips and blue pop, waiting outside Asda for Taxis to take them back to their houses, all paid for by benefits.
I'm such a snob, but it's there and it's true.
Am I a snob?
And if you think Austrian girls are pretty, you should see Slovakians! Lordy!!! It said it my guide book 'Slovakian women are considered the prettiest of all Europe', well, they're right! Everywhere I turned there was a high-cheekboned sultry sex nymph.
I wonder where the ugliest girls in Europe are then?
. . . ummm
*the most sexist term ever used in a weblog entry. And you know what? it felt gooood!
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Me at Petre Ifan, and great monument on the Welsh coast. They say these things were covered in earth and used as burial chambers. I'm sure the archaeologists are right, but why spend so much effort creating such a powerful monument only to cover it? It's certainly a dramatic place, with views down to the sea.That was a fantastic day. The day before catching the ferry to Ireland.
7 comments:
Must admit that when I arrived in Vienna I got the impression that people looked healthier/better here. They certainly talk more about sports that they actually do rather than watch. Heck, even I'm getting into it now. Two days away just 'walking' in the countryside.
Mike
They certainly talk more about sports that they actually do rather than watch
Classic!
This is a tough blog-entry to reply to because I want to agree with everything you said, which pretty much equates to saying Continental Europeans are superior to the 'rubbish' low-brow culture you get in the UK (and the US/Australia by association).
However I'd hold back on that suggestion.
Continental Europe is not all it appears. They have thier own problems, they have thier own rubbish people and you can quickly tire of all that 'high art' and 'fine culture' that seems to abound.
On the flipside of the UK/US/AUS being havens for cheap, trashy, uncultured people, Continental Europe can be elitist, pretentious and over burdened with tradition.
However having said that, I've never been so disgusted with the low-rent culture that I see everyday as well.
How I'd love to take off to Rome right now!
I'm not comparing the UK to Austria so much as Wolverhampton To Vienna.
Basically, I'm having a pop at Chav culture.
Do you have Chavs in Australia? (Mike assured me they DO have Chavs in Venna, but I saw only one, (he could have been from the UK on holiday!)
I wikipedia'd the term 'Chav' and sadly have to report that Aussie does have 'Chavs', in significant numbers.
This isn't surprising as the UK off-loaded shiploads of the original Chavs to Tasmania back in the day. They have since found thier way to the mainland, and even New Zealand and South Australia, which were the only two colonies who didn't sign up for Chavs in the first place.
Although I will say that our Chavs, or just simply 'westies' as we call them, don't wear Burberry. That is a distinctly British trait, and you're welcome to it.
When I was in Sweden I learned that they call Chavs, 'Regarra', and outside of Stockholm there are entire colonies of them.
I'd imagine there'd be massive amounts of them in the former Eastern Bloc.
How about in Memphis?
Be honest Suave, have you ever owned an item of Chav clothing?
"Do you have Chavs in Australia? (Mike assured me they DO have Chavs in Venna, but I saw only one, (he could have been from the UK on holiday!)"
But seriously, there's no way you'd find a British Chav on holiday in Vienna.
They simply wouldn't go there.
The only chance of finding a Chav in Vienna is if he got confused and thought "Vi-ena" was a "mad" Spanish holiday Island.
When he got to the actual Vienna, he'd be very disappointed, and somewhat lost.
Actually Suave, you've brought back a bad memory of mine with this 'Uk Chavs/Austrian beauties' post.
I remember back in '96 in Central London a group of particularly nasty Chavs, or whatever they were called then, gang-raped, bashed and murdered a young Austrian woman, before crudely dumping her body into a canal.
I was out that night in the general vicinity, but neither heard nor saw nothing.
What a dreadful fate that woman received.
I couldn't imagine dying at the hands of chavs, what a way to go.
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