First things first, it’s not a hot dog; it’s a frankfurter.  In Vienna.   Everywhere else in Germany and Austria, it’s a wiener (pronounced vee-ner.)  But for some reason it’s a frankfurter here.  You buy them at stands like this one. 

They cost two-and-a-half euros, about four dollars.  Unless it costs three euros.  At the same stand.  But from the window with the short line.  Long line, 2.5 euros, short line, 3 euros.  I’ll never figure out Europe…

Anyway, for your 2.5 or three euros you get two ‘hot dogs’ on a cardboard tray, a blob of senf (mustard) and a slice of bread wrapped in a napkin.  If you want to eat like a local, you grab the hot dog, sorry frankfurter, with your bare (yes) hand, dip it in the senf and take a bite.  Then you take a bite of the bread.  Then hot dog, then bread.  Repeat as necessary.

Interesting.  I’m not sure which would confuse people in Vienna more;  our hot dog buns or the fact that hot dogs come in packs of eight and buns come in packs of six.  Anyway, we ate our hotdog(s) the local way.  I’m sure no one noticed that we were Americans.  Well, maybe our colorful coats (everyone seems to wear gray here), my white sneakers or the camera around my neck told them, but not our hot dog eating skills!

Speaking of money, everything in Europe has a price.  We were a little surprised that it costs 50 cents (half a Euro or eighty American cents) to use a restroom.  We were more surprised in the grocery store.  Using a cart costs 50 cents.  Bags cost between 18 and 21 cents depending on size.  So many things we use for free cost something here.  At the same time, they don’t appear to care if you actually have a ticket for the street car or not.  And tipping is pretty much non-existent.

Today was a great sunny and mostly warm day.  We took a street car counter-clockwise around the ring road.  The cars are nearly identical to the Green Line cars in Boston.  Both the old cars and the new cars.  Afterward we followed a walking tour from Rick Steve’s book.  Along the way we got our hot dog(s).  Nicer was a break at Demel, a cake and candy company and cafe.  Sacher Tort is the canonical dessert of Vienna, named after the (apparently) famous Sacher Cafe.  At Demel we had their version plus coffee melange which is pretty much the same as cappuccino.  It was nice to sit after a few hours of walking.

For dinner we tried out a new restaurant (heck, they’re all new to us!) Italian restaurant near the hotel.  We really liked it; good food, plenty of it and a very friendly owner/waiter.  Everyone smokes in Vienna and non-smoking sections are few, small and right next to smoking anyway.  As more people came in, we finished up and hit the street for some relatively fresh air.

While on our walk-about today, we saw a sign for the Kandinsky exhibition at the Kunstforum (Kunst = art) Museum.  Turns out it’s nearby.  Tomorrow we expect rain, so we may have breakfast and then head over there.  And maybe another hot dog now that we know how to eat them…