Nostalgia, modernity in world’s ‘Christmas capital’

VIENNA—My first stop in this city, on a day for sightseeing, was, would you believe, a local Starbucks.

True, we had made our way to the Kartner Strasse or Corinthian Street, a pedestrian walkway in Central Vienna given over to shops, bars and restaurants, and now lit up nightly with fairy lights and glistening shop fronts. The morning we stepped out, we made our way to the Starbucks outlet near the State Opera House. I was there on a mission for my friend Emma Coinco, who had asked me to pick up a mug for her with the country’s name, apparently to be part of a collection.

But that’s not the end of my Starbucks story. I duly got a mug for Emma, with an image of the huge Ferris wheel that now lords it over Vienna’s landscape, plus two more Christmas novelty mugs for my family. As I approached the counter, I overheard the barista ask a friend if she was Filipina. He turned out to be Pinoy, and pointed to another Pinoy barista nearby.

Pinoy baristas in a Seattle-based coffee shop in the heart of old Vienna! I wonder if that’s some sort of omen?

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I sm in this city to take part (as an observer) in an international conference of security printers. Printers, manufacturers of security devices like holograms and microchips, and government representatives responsible for such things as passports, currency and security papers mix and mingle, sharing information and fixing deals.

Indeed, strolling through the exhibit area and listening to speakers on the field, I feel like I have found myself in the world of James Bond or Jack Ryan, as they speak of the plethora of new and ever-varying features to protect against counterfeiters and forgers. Still, I reflect, the field of human trafficking and smuggling must still be growing, for criminals to try to foil the latest security features almost as soon as these are revealed.

But this is a column about Vienna.

A friend who’s been here, learning that I was going on this trip, explained that to many, “Vienna is the Christmas capital of the world” (or, maybe, next to the Philippines). True, I don’t see any of those corpulent Santas that dot street corners in New York during the season, but I did see one “Father Christmas” figure come strolling down a street, a tall, slim man clad in a long red robe with a pointed hat and a staff.

In the evenings, despite the chilling winds, most everyone strolls over to any of the night markets around the city, the biggest being at the back of Rat Hause or City Hall. The building itself is decked out in thousands of twinkling lights, a spectacular backdrop to the market stalls and the milling crowd.

Name it, and you can find it in this night market. It is best known, according to our cab driver, for the “beer mixes” that are sold warm and steaming from booths, and for the huge heart-shaped cookies that are used at times in place of wreaths. But I have my own personal mission: to buy a  belen . There are Nativity scenes of all designs and sizes, as well as angels, reindeer, glass balls, and Santas, and if only I have enough euros with me, I would buy them all!

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Going around Kartner Strasse we find St. Stephen’s Church, which is undergoing repair on its façade, now covered in tarpaulins with huge photos of its original state to disguise the ongoing work. Inside, the church takes one’s breath away, especially because a Mass is going on and the choir’s voices float like angels’ whispers in the warm air.

As we approach the back of the church, the odor of horse dung assaults our senses. This is where a long line of horse carriages, with the creatures charmingly draped in woolen or leather blankets (I even saw one wearing a funny “bonnet” that covered its ears) waits for tourists.

We are on our way to Mozart’s House, in a narrow street indistinguishable from its neighbors. Entering, one pays for a portable hand set that directs one to input a certain number to hear a spiel about the scene we are beholding.

Mozart’s House is really a series of apartment rooms that fills one in on the works and genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. At the end of each segment, a fragment from the artist’s works plays, a fitting backdrop to the world of Mozart one has entered.

Of course, myself being a child of Hollywood, the exhibits bring me back to “Amadeus,” the movie based on a play that is about Mozart’s short, brilliant, driven but tragic life as told through the eyes of his rival, a musician named Salieri. But it is uncanny, walking through the rooms of one of the brightest spirits of the music world, breathing the same air he thrived on.

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And what can be more quintessentially Viennese than listening to a Christmas concert of the Vienna Boys’ Choir? We ride our way out of “old” Vienna to a concert hall in the more modern part and find ourselves joining a queue of senior citizens, who were bused to the city from all over Austria.

There are about 100 choristers between the ages of 10 and 14, who hail not just from Vienna or Austria but from all over the world. The choir has been divided into four touring choirs who together put up about 300 performances a year.

Apparently, this is a special Christmas concert for the senior citizens, who must feel drawn back to their youth as the pure, crystalline voices sing pieces by Mozart and Strauss, as well as Christmas classics and a rocking “Jingle Bell Rock.”

What strikes me is the multiracial makeup of the singers, as well as the Asian-looking woman conductor and pianist who enthusiastically introduce each set in German.

So it is with a mix of nostalgia and modernity that I immerse myself in Christmas in the “Christmas capital of the world.”