Five Things Vienna Made Me Miss About the Last Century

Well, ladies, it's New Year's Eve. And as we sit back and contemplate our various "top 10" lists from the past year, a certain nostalgia inevitably kicks in.

I'm also feeling nostalgic today, though my nostalgia isn't for what changed in 2009 so much as for what's changed over the last century. I'm just back from a vacation in Vienna, you see. And unlike other European capitals I've visited in recent years -- Paris, Amsterdam, Helsinki -- Vienna feels decidedly less modern and cosmopolitan. Instead, it's got that proverbial "Old European" feel, the kind that makes you reach for one more hot chocolate mit schlag, crank up the Johann Strauss and break out the Wittgenstein.

So after a week of doing precisely that in this beautiful old city, here are five things I find myself missing about the old days:

1. Newspapers -- Carl had old media on his list of the Top 15 Losers of 2009. And how. If I read one more mournful review of Harold Evans memoir, "My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times" -- about the author's years as the editor of the London Sunday Times (as well as a narrative of the demise of old journalism) -- I may just have to spike my hot chocolate with some schnapps. But I'm happy to report that in the rarefied world of the Viennese coffeehouse, newspapers are alive and well. The tradition goes something like this: you wake up, go to one of these fine establishments, and pick up one of perhaps 50 newspapers from around the globe, which you then spend the next three hours perusing while sipping your hot beverage of choice. No laptops. No BlackBerrys. Just a room full of people bent over their broadsheets. And what lends this whole experience an even more anachronistic feel are the incredibly cool, wooden newspaper holders they use (which look something like this). Kinda makes you want to . . . blog about it.

2. Smoking -- Vienna must surely be one of the last major European countries not to have imposed a smoking ban in public places. I'm not nostalgic for smoking per se (though I do own up to being a happily reformed ex-smoker). No. What I'm nostalgic for is that era -- long before the advent of the nanny state -- when we all smoked with abandon and no one worried very much about the health consequences of things like alcohol and cigarettes. So while I don't regret where science and public policy have taken us on these and similar issues, I do miss that youthful (and misguided) innocence that led us to believe we could do anything to our bodies and worry about it later.

3. Grandeur -- When you go to Vienna, the thing that strikes you most is the enormous size and scope of everything you see: the palaces, the churches, the lecture halls. This all evokes "empire" in an old-school sense, where power doesn't just emanate from conquering foreign nations but is embedded in the very architecture of the buildings and even the boulevards. It is scenery that is at once majestic and splendid and yet reaches out -- rather than up, a subtle and disquieting contrast with today's architecture of power and the tragic backdrop of 9/11, which reminded us how easily that power can be assailed.

4. Decorum -- The grandeur of Vienna is not only embodied in its ornate cityscape, but in its social codes. Everything about the way Austrians conduct their lives -- the formality, the propriety, the hierarchy, even the horse-drawn carriages -- is a throwback to another day. There's a downside to this loftiness, to be sure. (Before we left on the trip, a friend warned my husband and me to be sure and use the honorific "Dr." when referring to ourselves, as we would garner much more respect.) But there's also something elegant about these social mores, captured beautifully in that scene from "The Sound of Music" where the captain and Maria dance that traditional Austrian folk dance on the patio. (You knew I had to work that in, didn't you?) What can I say, ladies? It's a long way from Chuck Schumer's casual utterance of the B-word. And somehow it's hard to imagine the likes of the Salahis party-crashing Franz Josef and Co. at Schönbrunn Palace.

5. Freud -- Yeah, yeah. I know. Psychoanalysis is soooo old-school. But I have a soft spot for it, nonetheless. Because there was a period, long before we sought refuge in pills, yoga or various forms of self-help, when the way we tried to fix our problems was to sit down (OK, lie down is more like it) and talk them through on that iconic Viennese chaise: the couch. I'm not saying psychotherapy didn't need to move on. I'm just saying that there's something really appealing -- and still palpable in the whole Viennese gestalt -- about stopping what we're doing, analyzing our lives for an hour, and then making a positive change (perhaps after another dollop of schlag).

So maybe what I'm really nostalgic for -- as I resume my perch at my desk in London and re-immerse myself in a minute-by-minute update of the world's events -- is time.

Which must, as the saying goes, march on.


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