Vienna

On Saturday I had a leisurely stroll through the Naschmarkt in Vienna. I say leisurely in the sense that I had no particular objective in mind, and time on my hands. However the market itself was an intense hive of activity. At one end, exposed to the blazing sun, huckster stalls sold everything from antique glass to plastic toys, Bakelite records to brass fittings, daggers to ancient sets of surgical instruments, football jerseys to lederhosen and any manner of useful and uselessly lovely junk. Wiley old traders who would not have been out of place in a biblical epic, a Star Wars movie or a Monty Python sketch were perched between other kinds of crafty folk. Young men with slicked hair and mobile phones looked impatient with their trading heritage while gray haired hippies in waist coats, trapped in time, seemed more interested in simply being there, discussing their collected wares than in any thought of commercial gain.

In the food market, the scent of olives, spices, herbs, fish, coffee and countless other delights assailed the senses. All weekend I've searched for words that would capture the sheer abundance of the wares on display. Fruit ripe and bright. Meats, fish, vegetables. Nuts, berries and seeds. Any manner of bread. Great pallets containing spices, peppers and countless varieties of salt in hues of white, pink and orange. Even the word display seemed inadequate. Passive. Moving though the narrow aisles it was as if the goods themselves were animated, calling out in myriad languages to be picked, tasted, squeezed and chosen. I regretted that I wasn't on my way home to cook! Along the way paused for a coffee. A very special coffee that had me thinking that I must acquire one of those little coffee pots and learn the art of making real Turkish coffee. However I suspect that there's some sort of special licensing requirement for handling such potent substances!

After that it was off to the Leopold Museum. I went along originally to have a look at their small Klimt collection and the works of the sadly short lived Egon Schiele. As it happened they were running an exhibition about the Art Nouveau architect and designer Joseph Maria Olbrich. All I have time to say about that is if this is your kinda thing, you have until the 27th September to see a pretty amazing exhibition!