Out in Vienna - Thursday, 25 February 1999

From the outside this looked like a good place to have my first Wiener Schnitzel. Actually it's all slightly too much: the staff have been forced into traditional dress that, although it is still worn in rural areas, has no place in Vienna. It's nice and cosy here, though, and the resident pianist is doing his soothing cocktail bar thing.

Having crammed ourselves into one of the wooden alcoves, we have both decided that we are famished enough to need a starter. Actually we're not, but I only know that now that I'm halfway through the pile of stodgy cheesy stuff that I ordered as an 'appetiser'.

The food is good stuff but, like all traditional food, is basic and a bit over-rated. I guess that's the thing with traditional food - there's nothing special about it apart from the fact that people have been eating it for a long time. Anyway, the Wiener Schnitzel is good stuff - the veal is really nice - and I guess it's thanks to the civilised atmosphere and the wine that I haven't been tempted to make any Bambi jokes.

On the way home I thought I'd try to find Krah-Krah again. I know roughly where it is and what it looks like. It's down in the corner of the city centre that they call the Bermuda Triangle, between Schwedenplatz, Morzinplatz and Hohermarkt.

I've wandered around for a while but I can't find it. I have come across lots of other lively bars, though - this is that part of town where bars are trendy merely by association with the bars nearby. These little streets are also rather pretty, with old cobbled streets and the usual gorgeous Viennese architecture that I still haven't got used to.

(When I went back to the Bermuda Triangle on Saturday night it was heaving with 18-25 year olds, all being trendy by associating with the bars that they were trying to get into.)