august 2024

Hallo.

This month, I took a week off and travelled to Vienna to see Coldplay with Maya and Satish. I also turned 26.

vienna huh

Coldplay was awesome. I learned that Chris Martin’s favourite Taylor Swift song is the 1. They also played Fix You and I cried.

Ernst-Happel-Stadion

What I didn’t expect was how much I liked Vienna. Here are various thoughts I had while over there:

“Wow, this [airport, escalator, outlet, park bench, etc] is nice ”

“Why does everyone speak better English than me?”

“They serve beer here?!”

“I can’t believe Hitler got rejected from this art school.”

“This schnitzel is distinctly average.”

“Why do I have to pay to use the public washroom?”

Hochstrahlbrunnen

I also put together a pros and cons list:

pros

• it’s mostly clean everywhere
• most bathrooms have an “in use” indicator and a satisfying deadbolt ‘In Use’ indicator
• no one is sleeping on the streets
• they follow rules
  • people don’t jaywalk
• everyone is generally calm and quiet
• they LOVE beer. It’s unbelievably easy to grab a drink anywhere.
• there’s wifi everywhere (at least in the city)

cons

• paying for water at restaurants!?
• some areas are super touristy (but European tourists)
• the bottle caps don’t come off
• ketchup tastes worse (less sugar)
• people generally don’t engage in niceties or pleasantries
  • they don’t say “sorry” or “excuse me”

activities

Here are some activities I’d recommend if you’re going to Vienna:

• Go to Prater Park. It’s beautiful in the evening. the Prater
• Go to the attached festival/carnival.
• Walk around the museum district.

slideshow

Here’s a TikTok slideshow from our trip!

TikTok · Kahvi Patel

vienna/europe reflection

Have I entered an alternate reality where the government cares more about trains than the military?

What surprised me is how convenient it all felt. Things made sense. Stuff works the way you expect it to. Mostly everything was intuitive.

Ex 1: I had to go to the bathroom after the Coldplay concert and there was no line. 50,000 people and I just walked in! (a testament to their stadium infrastructure).

Ex 2: I flew back out of Munich and went through their airport security. It was incredible. Just put everything in the bin and walk through. No separate liquids or laptop. It was quiet, no one rushing, but efficient.

lounging around at scale

They are so good at loitering (in a positive way).

The Viennese know how to enjoy themselves — this goes along with the loving beer point.

Everywhere you look, people are sitting, chatting, drinking, eating. It feels like an entire city optimized for that purpose.

The servers don’t rush you at restaurants or cafes. The city has parks with benches. The streets have wide sidewalks and places to chat. And it’s incredibly easy to get to and from all these places using public transit.

All of it makes you want to sit down and vibe.

returning

Coming back home, I was left feeling impressed. And maybe a little de pressed.

Why can’t Canada be this way?

→ Well, because Canada isn’t that old. We’re a young country — relatively. And it takes a while to set up all that infrastructure.

→But didn’t Europe have a war!? Didn’t they have to rebuild everything from scratch!?

Well, I never took a European history course in university (clearly). So I’m reading this book to give me some clarity on post-war Europe and how they developed to this point.

turning 26

a delicious coconut cake

Ashley threw me a wonderful surprise party to turn twenty-six, which is surely a good sign.

Twenty-six, the number, feels weird. But twenty-eight will be when I start panicking. An age where starting things means finishing them in your thirties. That’s intimidating. Scary.

Things to do before 27:

• drive to Mexico
• get a dog (?)
• save six figures
• do a muscle up
• backflip on grass
• 50 consecutive push-ups
• 30s handstand
• play piano in front of people
• 30hrs volunteering
• sail to Nanaimo for overnight
  • or Salt Spring, Pender, Galiano, etc
• do 5040 hike

other fun stuff

• Working out doesn’t help you to lose weight?
  • source - Kurzgesagt
• This post help put international calibre runners in perspective. 1km in 2:37!?!?
• We changed a flat tire for the first time

• I read this great MDN guide on Javascript Modules
• went on a river float!
• did a bike scavenger hunt!
• I finished The House of Kennedy. It’s tragic, but an interesting journey through that era of American history.

end

See you next month!

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