Farewells & the Viennese Eiskaffee

The first of the Fulbrighters, Amelia, leaves tomorrow morning. A few of us went out to brunch with her today. Everyone's a bit sad as the reality of our situation begins to sink in. Within the next three weeks, we will all be back in the US and heading in completely different directions.

For brunch, we went to Weltcafe (meaning "World Cafe"), which now that I think about it, is one of the first cafes I went to when I came to Vienna. It's funny how things have come full circle ... and how time in Vienna can be measured in cafe-hours. Vienna is the city of cafes, after all.

Amelia and I had arrived at the cafe first, and then were waiting for two other friends, Don and Vikki, to arrive. In the meantime, we both ordered drinks. I ordered a mango lassi (mango, yogurt, and spices) and Amelia ordered an Eiskaffee. Interestingly, "Eiskaffee" does not translate into "iced coffee", but rather into "ice cream coffee". Therefore, the drink is made of coffee with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, freshly whipped cream, and usually sprinkled with espresso beans or cinnamon.

When Don came along, he couldn't decide between the Eiskaffee and the Eisschokolade. Similar to Eiskaffee, Eisschokolade is iced hot chocolate with vanilla ice cream and freshly whipped cream, topped with cinnamon. Don, however, wanted to mix the Eiskaffee with the Eisschokolade, so he asked the waitress if he could substitute vanilla ice cream for chocolate ice cream. Unfortunately, the cafe didn't have chocolate ice cream, so he had to think of another plan. He told the waitress what he was trying to make. She looked at him quizzically and said, "Wait a minute. I'll go ask the kitchen." Poor waitress! This was her first day and we were really making her work! She came back a minute later and said that the kitchen would make something for him. The "something" turned out to be an Eiskaffee with mocha, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and topped with chocolate sauce. It was apparently delicious.



After we all had our drinks and food, we left the Weltcafe a happy bunch. The next few weeks will be filled with farewells, packing, administrative tasks, and of course, fun times in cafes!