Ok, the title is confusing. When saying wiener, you probably misunderstand, thinking first I've been doing math with Norbert Wiener's equations. That's of course not what I'm talking about! Wiener is how people are called here, in the capital of Austria.

Vienna had the reputation of having the best quality of live throughout Europe.
A perfect place for a Digital Nomad at first.

Well, there was only one way to make sure of it. I therefore took my one way ticket and checked for myself.

I was only staying for 4 days. Then I would go to Bratislava. I had heard good things about that infamous city. Eventually I could also reroute to Czech Republic if that seemed more appealing. I'm quite sure that's a country I should go though and I still haven't been.

4 days. That's quite often how long I stay in one single place. That's too short. Too much traveling, too fast. I should stay a little longer. Moreover the Airbnb that I found is a very low budget and has a coworking space included. What can I get better.
Ok, let's stay for a little more than a week and see.

Plans or not, things break

A few days later my computer breaks. After a couple of days trying to solve the situation I end up to a repair shop. The guy is gone for the weekend but I call him. He will come anyways.
I'll keep the laptop and call you in he afternoon. It seems that the connector is disconnected, I should be pretty straightforward.
"It seems like it's not the connector but the complete screen to replace. It will be too pricey, you shouldn't fix it." was his conclusion in the afternoon.
No point of riding back to the shop, it's broken. 700€ is more than I bough my second-hand Macbook.

Fortunately my Airbnb/coworking is able to lend me an 8 years old Mac Mini. These things are still amazing. Only 2Gb of RAM natively but it looks and feels like a brand new thing!
That means I could work from there. I had to find a solution, but in the meantime I could get some work done.
I couldn't afford to buy another laptop again, but I had my old MacBook Air that didn't sell and I could get shipped. That would keep me for another week or more in Vienna.
Not the end of the world to be honest, I didn't have concrete plans anyways. If my laptop had to let me down at some point, it had done it at the best time and place.

My coworking/co-creative space is a good zone for trading knowledge. I'm getting involved into the Steem blockchain as a mean of storing persistently information with a decentralized technology. I also discover SteemIt and its pros and cons, attempt to get into the Utopian network and hear about all these new kind of communities.
Maybe some new perspective for the Neomad project...

Enjoying the area

May had started over a week ago. The weather has been gorgeous and the trees are in bloom. all the way and I still haven't biked along the Danube. I need some green.

One thing that I had hardly explored so far was to take time to be in one place. Take time to actually meet people and build plans. Take time to be a local.
I ended up being a Wiener for a month.

Vienna is a cultural hot spot. In the border between the Balkans and Western Europe, it has a mixed culture and mindset.
People are supposed not to be so friendly in the first place. But you always make your way and they will help you.
English is the second language, and even kids are able to speak and understand. It makes interactions pretty easy. They will probably speak German to you in the first place and immediately switch to English when they see you unresponsive face expressing how disabled you are to get a single word of that basic sentence he addressed to you.

Moving around Vienna is easy by bike. City-bikes are available all around the city center. for only 1€ subscription you access all bike stations for free.
The city has plenty of bike lanes.
Public transports are pricey. 2.50€ per trip one way. It's a great deal if you make longer trips, but for going a few stations away walking or biking is probably the best option (price and speed).

Walking or biking can be longer than expected because of the red lights.
That's one point that was very specific to the city, their red lights. I insist on red because you always see them red.
Crossing a road can be 2 or 3 traffic lights. And unlike most other cities of the world they are dis-synchronized. It's so obvious that it almost seem it was done on purpose.
Concretely it means you will cross the first part (don't miss it, it won't last more than the minimal required) and the red light will turn on for the next section. Passing that section, you will probably end up with the third section that just turned red.

Crossing one street can take up to 5 minutes. You may need to consider that when walking or biking to your destination. After a while you will make your way to avoid zones with traffic lights!

That's a smoking country!

Coming back to Amman from Petra (Jordan) 2 year ago, the bus I was riding was a _smoking permitted_ bus. I would even say _smoking recommended_. People would go out and breath some fresh air without cigarette on breaks before getting back on board and light it on again.
I really understood I was in a different part of the world that had not evolved on that point and was greatful to be European by then.

That was ignoring that the [Smoking Ban](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_ban) was not applied in the entire Europe.
Indeed Austria (as some South East countries in Europe) is actually still a smoker-allowed country for bars and restaurants! Meaning of course people keep the mindset of smoking in public places.
So if you travel there, keep your shampoo, soap, laudry and bottle of water close if you're a little smoke sensitive, you are going to be a passive smoker at some point!

Prost, und guten Appetit

Street food is good and cheap. I was very much surprised of that. A sandwich with local sausage, a large cup of stirred chicken noodle, or a local fried veal sandwich will cost less than 4€. Good local ice creams will be even cheaper for a 2 or 3 scoops.
A daily menu lunch can be 7 or 8€ for 2 courses even in a restaurant a little fancy.
Strangely coffees are expensive. A Melange — a coffee with milk — or even a black coffee will always be more than 2€, eventually 3 or more. If you go to Starbucks it may not be shocking for you but it is for me. Having a good luch for the price of 2 coffees doesn't make much sense to my European standards.
A standard beer is half a liter. That's a lot. You get used to it in the end, but don't ask for a large beer or they will come with a 1 liter glass!

What's next?

Vienna will have been a spot for sure.
I'm on my way the the Netherlands now and I will have to get back there for multiple reasons.
A place where many interesting things can happen. As long as you are open to them, as always...