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Schnitz & Giggles
What happens when an American and an Austrian sit down together to debate culture? Is it going to be a victory for US? Will the Wiener take it all? Are they even making sense? Listen in and find out more about living la vida loca in Vienna & Austria.
Depending on traveling and "real life" work, we fry new episodes every 2-4 weeks.
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Schnitz & Giggles
[S2E8] Trash Talk Part 2: Bin-teresting Vienna and Odd Laws
Ready to uncover the second part of Vienna’s waste management including legal oddities? Join us on Schnitzel & Giggles as we navigate through the intricacies of Vienna's bin system and have a good chuckle at the humorous marketing campaigns by MA48, the city's waste management authority.
Discover why you really shouldn't leave your old sofa on the street, and enjoy the clever language puns that might leave expats like Mr. Giggles scratching their heads. We'll also reminisce about the nostalgic tradition of recycling glass bottles, a ritual cherished by generations.
Our adventure takes a whimsical turn as we marvel at the architectural delight of Vienna's Spittelau incineration plant, designed by the legendary Friedensreich Hundertwasser. With its quirky, colorful design, this once-dreary facility now stands as a testament to Vienna's commitment to blending art with practicality. We also eagerly anticipate the 2025 introduction of a refund system for plastic bottles.
But wait, there's more! Prepare for laughter as we explore some of the world's most bizarre laws, from Ohio’s prohibition on intoxicated fish to Austria’s bygone practice of cow-exploding in the Alps. We’ll also touch on Austria's unusual driving and social media regulations, where running out of gas can cost you, and certain social media posts might land you in hot water.
This episode promises to entertain and enlighten, leaving you with a newfound appreciation for Vienna's unique blend of efficiency and eccentricity.
and welcome back to the schnitzel giggles podcast welcome willkommen hi lucas hello, michael.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how are you today? I'm the same as ever. Yeah, good, good, good good, good.
Speaker 2:So we left.
Speaker 1:We left our last episode on a bit of a cliffhanger, true because you asked me a question and then you kept on talking, and talking, and talking and never gave me the opportunity to answer your very important question Maybe.
Speaker 2:Maybe because I didn't want this answer for my friend. So, for those of you who maybe stopped listening to the last episode or didn't listen at all, we invite you to go back and listen to that episode. It's the one just before this, for those very confused. Yes, uh, but the question that my friend had was uh, we were talking about trash disposal and how vienna has multiple bins for various items, and so I asked asked on behalf of a friend, of course if there were any consequences to improperly disposing of certain items. Yeah, and we were left with a yes, I think Maybe.
Speaker 2:Or definitely a maybe. Yeah, I remember it being a cliffhanger. I don't remember which cliff we were hanging off of, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so your friend is called Cliff. Is that what you're saying? Whoa, whoa, I said too much. You said too much.
Speaker 2:So are there consequences? Or I guess maybe we should, because we did get a little bit distracted with the Christmas tree conversation. But let's describe the different disposing bins that we have available to us as residents of Vienna.
Speaker 1:Right, there's that to be said, because, first of all, you have to know what we've been talking about before you can know if you're doing it wrong.
Speaker 2:Usually that's usually. I don't think that's ever really a requirement here in Austria. You don't have to know what you're doing wrong in order to be doing it wrong.
Speaker 1:So I was just trying to figure out some of these things here to give you a more precise answer. So, first of all, vienna is really one of the leading cities when it comes to recycling, waste management and all these related topics.
Speaker 1:Of course it is. Of course it is, and that makes Vienna livable, like we said in the last episode. And the kind of materials that Vienna tries to separate and recycle apart from each other, is there's paper, there's plastic, there's glass, there's metal, actually as well and organic waste, and then just this general waste.
Speaker 1:A few years ago, they put together the plastic and the metal into one container, like see any any old cans and some anything that's really plastic, even like, uh, wrapping material or just, yeah, anything that holds your food, anything plastic goes now together with the metal into those big containers that have a yellow lid usually it's just aluminum and plastic would be, considered in the same bin, you're okay right, there are like 16 waste collection centers in vienna of the big, so the mist plots we call it if you have anything bigger to throw with it, because you shouldn't throw like furniture or something like that into the regular trash, so you have to, actually you should be taking that over to those collection centers, to the mist plots. If you don't do that, for example, you might get fined.
Speaker 1:To give you one little answer if you just put it out on the street, if you just put it on the street, put out in the hallway or in the hallway, just for example, like some people do. If they catch you, there might be a fine for that. There's another kind of waste that we haven't talked about, uh, but if you own a dog and you're out in the street, sure the dog needs to do the regular dog business.
Speaker 2:You are actually required to pick up the remainders of what your dog has left on the street yeah, a source of much laughter, I think, for people has been the the various marketing signs that have been put up over the years of you know, dogs doing their business and then a line through it like either they're not allowed or the signs that talk about making sure that you're picking things up ma48 is. Yeah, that's one thing either they're not allowed or the signs that talk about making sure that you're picking things up ma48 is yeah, that's one thing is they're really clever.
Speaker 1:Their marketing strategies are really usually very funny. Yeah, lots of puns. I think one of my favorite ones was, as we just mentioned, the word for waste or trash is mist yeah and if you're asking german, do you have it's has to yeah and there's this one thing out there, where it says hast du la miste?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a funny one, so you caught that. Yeah, of course that was one that made me chuckle.
Speaker 1:The sad part is that lots of them, I think, just escape expats, because a lot of them are just Viennese twists and words. Yeah, there's certainly been some that I haven't understood.
Speaker 2:Because if I read them I was like this is really funny. But if I think about you and other people like me maybe not me, come on, no, I'm just thinking, I think about you. You idiot, you don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:Don't twist my words, I'm just saying look, I was just saying something nice here about you. Like I was thinking, like I see this it's really funny, and I think of my friend michael.
Speaker 2:He's like, ah, he would love that, but he wouldn't get it because he's an idiot, he's a dummy, he doesn't understand these things.
Speaker 1:Yes, plus, he doesn't speak the language. That's what's going on. But the idiot part was I don't know, was that true? We'll see. We'll see juries out, yeah, the jury's out on this.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so separate. Separate space, yeah, and for dog waste and the dog and if dog.
Speaker 1:They even put some signs out. Sometimes on some public lawns they put a cute dog like a sign with a cute dog image and it says there's 36 euros if you don't pick up after me. And the MI48 has come up with a great sub department and they call them the waste watchers, but waste being spelled like the trash the waste because there's waste watchers, but waste being spelled like the trash the waste because there's waste watchers as well. That's yeah. I hope everyone knows that so you don't have to over explain this anyway, my reaction wasn't uh wasn't funny enough.
Speaker 2:Maybe could you please laugh for me that's hilarious, thank you.
Speaker 1:So those waste watchers, they go around. They are sort of the the mi48 police in that thing and they I mean they don't carry any guns, but it seems to have some authority to to find you to jump out and jump out yeah, they sit and push.
Speaker 2:Ah, he caught you. That's what. All those bins that they say they have the rocks for the winter are there? They actually have little cameras yeah, then they jump out there's a person sitting in there yeah watching for offenders you just threw your chewing gum into the plastic. Thing is that's yeah, this is the problem with the socialist paradise man. You get the, you get the secret police involved.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, like things just fall apart yeah, you see people taking out the trash and they're all sweaty and like they're looking around, since they're all concerned am I gonna get very stressful, very stressful however I've, I did find out that the first of all the waste watchers. They could tell you to clear up the clear the trash, yeah, before they find you like any dog warning yeah.
Speaker 1:So if it gets really bad, there are some fines that might go up to a thousand euros. Or if you just don't cooperate and and they give you some time, even like to clear some big trash, uh piles, there's a two thousand fines for that. Or in case you don't pay, you might get eight days of prison.
Speaker 2:Wow, for for being a repeat offender of just not picking up your dogs.
Speaker 1:No, no, I mean for like let's say you're, you bought a new bed and you'd put the old bed out on the street. And they say like, can you please remove the bed?
Speaker 1:and like no, and then if they find you and you don't, pay that fine just take your stuff to the misplots people right, although if you don't have a car, if you don't have like, if it's really oversized stuff that you have to get rid of they even I think you have they charge you a bit for it. But you can call the mf for it and say, like I have this, I have like this old pickup yeah, I have a desk to get rid of and something I don't have a car. They come and pick it up for you and you might have to pay a fine, not a fine like a fee we have.
Speaker 2:We have faced in the past where we've had a larger item that that needs to go to the, to the trash, and we have no way of getting it there. It'd be a pretty long walk. Yeah, I mean, the nearest misplots isn't that far away from us, but still be a long walk with the grocery they're not usually not that close.
Speaker 1:Uh no, it's more the exception if you live close to one. I mean looking at this from a practical side sometimes. So I got never, never got fined for anything. But sometimes you see people they put out like, say, an old chair and say gratis on it or something like it's so free for taking. I mean, legally probably that is already like a violation of the the law. So if, even if you say like it's free for taking, it's still it's a block in the street, you're like it's, it's a fire hazard, it's whatever it is, yes, but usually nothing happens, uh, you know, usually stuff like that gets picked up pretty quickly and then within a day it's gone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is sort of like a an unwritten rule. That's in vienna, lots of people do that and it's. I've never encountered any problems with that. However, if someone has a bad day and they watch you and you might get into a problem with the, I wonder if there's part-time waste watcher jobs available where you can just kind of like.
Speaker 2:Is that why all the old ladies are standing outside or in their windows and all the old guys sometimes do? Yeah, just standing in their windows just. And all the old guys sometimes do, yeah, uh, just standing in their windows watching. Are they like waste watchers?
Speaker 1:they're part of the secret police austrian. Well, in a way and that's that would be another full episode to talk about there are lots of uh austrians who kind of become self-declared waste watchers or self-declared police yeah men or women? Yeah, so you might have a whole another episode in it right, there's people just looking out the window and just looking for any kind of irregular behavior from other people. Sometimes they just watch, sometimes they call the police, sometimes they shout at you passive, aggressive, no, sometimes just give you a bad.
Speaker 2:Look like a, like a real strange look yeah, but that would be a whole different episode.
Speaker 1:I think we have enough one thing that most people wouldn't know, including austrians, I think, concerning what trash goes where yeah we talked about paper and cardboard yeah and the paper one is is a delicate one, since the rule of thumb is it's for clean paper. So the classic example is when you order pizza yeah yeah, and it has a cardboard box.
Speaker 1:yeah, and you, you finish your pizza and you have a nice meal. What to do with the box afterwards if, if it only has a cardboard box, you finish your pizza and you have a nice meal. What do you do with the box afterwards? If it only has a few spots, like here and there, it goes into the paper trash. But if the box has been squeezed and parts of the cheese and some stuff is still on it and it's still greasy, it's very greasy, then it's considered general waste. Sometimes you have to put a pizza box into this one or the other one, so that's something to that's.
Speaker 2:That's kind ofa. I mean, my friend will often decide whether or not to put his pizza boxes in the regular trash or or paper trash, solely on a whim, you know it's just random, tells me it just whether or not my friend wants to walk all the way down to the corner where the paper bin is with a handful of cardboard, or just put in the the one in our hoof, yeah, or in his front, in his, yeah, criminal cliffs, yeah criminal cliffs cliffs. Uh, cliff's hoof, or is it?
Speaker 2:criminal michael no, no, that's my friend. So, cliff, yeah, yeah, because because there is the the added with some of these other bins. Not every building or HULF is going to have its own glass, plastic, aluminum bins, like they're usually within the neighborhood, somewhere where you go and have to drop them off, which very, very fun.
Speaker 2:What kind of satisfying thing is. It's probably not the best way to dispose, because it probably creates a lot of work for other. Is it's probably not the not the best way to dispose because it probably creates a lot of work for other.
Speaker 1:But like when you, when you drop the the glass bottle in and it shatters it's kind of a cool. When I was a kid, I always asked if I could do that I.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't help a lot but, this time, that particular moment that was the chore, that was my moment it's like can I throw a glass bottle in, mommy?
Speaker 1:and I would just, and I would hit it like as hard as as possible of course the, the opening is quite high.
Speaker 2:It's like I mean it's yeah, I don't know large 1.5 meters or it's more of a big, big box it's like a box crate container like a normal trash bin, for those of you trying to picture this at home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like, uh, like your shoulder level or something like that, that's probably average. Yeah, so throwing it in. I recall, now that I'm talking about this, I think I recall I was I was still so small as a as a kid, that I think my mom picked me up with the ball in my hand so I could actually throw it in and really, and I just hit it like, smashed it as hard as I could and said it was just just this great feeling as a kid when you usually you try not to break things and smash but here this is to break something and not get in trouble exactly it's a fun moment.
Speaker 1:You're doing something for the environment. It's fun good childhood memories.
Speaker 2:Have your children uh realize this potential source of joy and delight well they've watched me doing it, but so far they haven't done it themselves. You're unwilling to give that up. I don't want to give that up, that my.
Speaker 1:This is my position.
Speaker 2:No no, son, I'll handle this. This is a man's job, exactly. But, daddy, I want to throw the glass in no, no, wow, you need to let your kids live a little. Hey, the the bag is getting kind of full of glass.
Speaker 1:I need to take them out. Can I take it?
Speaker 2:I'd like to help the family.
Speaker 1:Daddy, can you bring some more beer, so we can actually have more glass and there are other.
Speaker 2:there are other sources of glass bottles.
Speaker 1:By the way, most beer bottles go back to the store, as you probably know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was actually going to. There's a refund I'm going to bring you know you could be buying beer bottles and they they're worn on kind of the outside because like where they've rubbed up against each other or exactly for things over the years after the cleaning and refilling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some pretty old beer bottles out there yeah that's are used, used again and again.
Speaker 2:So those regular beer bottles, because you get charged the recycling fee when you purchase.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a redemption value that exactly you could technically go back to the little machines and turn them in and get some, get some money back and, by the way, I don't know if you knew that, starting in 2025, there'll be they have this refund system also applied to plastic bottles is that right.
Speaker 1:So in the future, if you buy a plastic bottle, you also pay some cents, extra cents, and you can return it. So just so you, if you think you're paying a little more for the same drink you just bought a week ago, you might pay a little more, but they actually get the money back too. So they want to try to keep the plastic out of the system, which might even reduce the amount of waste that goes into the plastic slash metal containers. But just to wrap up the whole nonsense that we're talking about here, at least concerning the, the recycling engagement of vienna, maybe one last comment about this topic is you know the place, spitalau?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's actually also a stop for the u-bahn yeah, for those of you who may not be able to picture it and have been in Vienna, it's the large Willy Wonka looking building. That's a very American description of it's also a wonderful, wonderful work of architectural art.
Speaker 1:Oh, my like. Yeah, I've never thought of it this way, but Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I mean, Well, you don't read very much.
Speaker 1:Well, first of all, yeah, I actually only look at pictures.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And judging from that picture no, look, I've, because this is, they call it incineration plant.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is that the term for it?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And, to be fair, I knew this building. I've seen this building before I even heard of Willy Wonka, to begin with, because it's not, or at least it didn't used to be, so popular here in vienna in austria. You're not older than willy wonka I didn't say I'm older than willy, I'm just saying the story wasn't really known until I think they made the first, like one of the newer movies or so, and then then it kind of became more known in in austria all right I mean that that thing is has been designed by world famous artists, artists, his name was friedensreich hundertwasser.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so he was.
Speaker 2:I think he was even born and raised in vienna yeah, his building in the in the third district, right right is, is quite the tourist. That's one of the top 10 tourist spots yeah the hundertwasserhaus. It's on the tram, on the way to one of the baseball fields, and so it's incredible the amount of people that get off at that stop. Yeah, that are that are going out to.
Speaker 1:You know, try to get a picture right, he was just this visionary artist and he basically just built a, an apartment building. Yeah, that's, that's it yeah, that's all. But the whole part apartment building is a big, big work of art. Yeah, and he was just known for his like asymmetrical and like thinking out of the box kind of architecture yeah so it looks a little wacky to like from from a, from a, from first impression and the same.
Speaker 2:The incineration plants looks similar designed yes, was it designed by him or or kind of just decorated in his style?
Speaker 1:he was still alive like he's, he planned it all okay there is.
Speaker 1:There's one funny detail, um, that most people maybe don't know. Even again, like like austrians, he used to wear this, this hat. It's it's more like a soft type of hat, has a little bit it's not like a baseball cap, but has a little bit of this a brim, a brim. And if you pass by the incineration plant at Spittelau, there's actually a huge hat on top of it and that's sort of resembles the hat he was always wearing. So some people believe it's just his kind of his trademark thing, because he was known for wearing this hat all the time, so when any public appearances he would be wearing this hat.
Speaker 1:But this whole construction and the design of this whole plant was not just an easy project for everyone involved, including him, and so at some point he got really frustrated and in german, when you quit something, you just say I have the hat on, meaning I just throw my hat onto something, or just you're just dropping my hat. You quit, yeah, you throw down this hat. So to some part, the people who were involved in finishing the work some some inside joke.
Speaker 1:It's a great story to tell yeah, I mean that's that's they added it so remembering him as an artist and that he actually wanted to quit, and he threw his hat in you're saying as in english you thought I would say you throw in the towel yeah, throw in the towel. That's maybe like similar yeah same idea. So you would see a big towel if this was built in in america.
Speaker 2:Be less impressive design wise um I don't think I've. I've noticed a hat on. I'll have to keep my eyes yeah, keep, keep your eyes peeled for it is it at the very top of the it's on, it's on the.
Speaker 1:It's not on the tower, it's on. It's on the roof part, like on some side corner all right, it looks like like a ufo, some type of like I have to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have to. I go by it fairly often.
Speaker 1:If you take the u6, you can actually you can actually see it like from very close. There's the u-ban station, there's a train station right there, so it's a very important spot in the city, very impressive architecture yeah, it is actually legitimately a landmark.
Speaker 2:I mean, you can see it from from a lot of different spots in the city and it, you know it has a kind of a reflective ball at the top of the tower. I guess you could say that reflects sunlight at certain times of the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty noticeable and they burn up all the waste there and they create heat for heating apartments.
Speaker 2:That's one of the functions that it has yeah, it's one of those cool design elements that is very functional but doesn't look like another incinerator.
Speaker 1:Maybe around the world that would be more of an ice, or yeah, exactly, and I'm that old that I still remember the way it looked before oh really and was just really ugly plant okay, and it was just not a nice landmark because it was already a prominent spot in the city to begin with.
Speaker 1:So whenever you pass by and there's lots of like routes by car or by train that you pass by there, a lot and that's what I've been saying again and again on this podcast and even off the podcast is how the viennese people and the austrian people they look at something and they say, well, this is ugly, let's make it more beautiful.
Speaker 1:And it's just not the function that's important, but also the way it looks yeah and the viennese probably won't rest until they feel like, okay, this is it fits in it fits in a little bit more.
Speaker 1:And of course, there's different tastes and just styles and and tastes change over time and so we have different eras of beauty, which is maybe considered ugly later on, or right, or vice versa. First it's ugly, then it's beautiful. So there's lots of stories where the viennese just rebelled against some stuff that was considered ugly, yeah, at first, and they said you couldn't put like, you can't build a house that looks like this right next to the other house, and so on. This, yeah, that's part of vienna lifestyle. To have those kind of improvements you can just have like a factory over there, the blending of functionality and beauty. Well said, well said, yeah. This episode is really for your friend, cliff, I think, think.
Speaker 2:That's right. Yeah, I mean, that is kind of how we started. We wanted to help Cliff avoid any negative ramifications of his inability to throw trash in the proper receptacle, right, For your friend Criminal Cliff.
Speaker 1:Criminal Cliff, I do have some more tips on maybe to make him aware of. Okay, because everywhere in the world, every country has some weird laws. Sure, I enjoyed even the us of a. They have so many special laws.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's laws on the books that were that had a purpose at one point but now are kind of just, yeah, just nonsensical because it's outdated or sometimes it's.
Speaker 1:You don't even know why. I mean, I found a law that's, I think, an ohio law okay where it says it's illegal to make fish drunk I mean I would love to hear islands have a have a problem with, uh, with drunk fish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd love to hear the back story to that or just another law.
Speaker 1:I don't know which state that's from, but um, it says you're. You're not allowed to wear a fake beard to church because it might lead to some unnecessary hilarity I wonder if that, wonder if that was a real problem.
Speaker 2:Who would wear a fake beard to church? All these dudes, all these young kids who were passing themselves off as bearded men?
Speaker 1:It might have been addressed towards the women, because it would have been the women who wore the beards?
Speaker 2:We don't know.
Speaker 1:I didn't even think that it doesn't specify is it for men or for women. It's a general law, it seems. Wow, yeah, interesting, there's lots of laws, like funny laws that happen between the relationship of men and women in the States. Like a woman can't cut her hair without the permission of the husband, or stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those are.
Speaker 1:I don't think we have those kind of laws, but I found one law that you might think is really Austrian, very specific, more applicable in the Alps than in Vienna. There's a law that was in place until the year 2001,. So it's not there any longer. No, let me back up. The law permitted you to do something which is now illegal.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, wow, that's a pretty important distinction that you're bringing up.
Speaker 1:It's a pretty important detail, but I think neither you or I will ever be in danger or even the criminal cliff won't be in danger of violating this law, because up until the year 2001,. It was legal to blow up a cow Like have the cow explode. The reason behind it is that I think this was law more specifically for Adelberg, which is the far west province in Austria. So if you're up in the mountains and a cow dies, it's lots of efforts to get that dead cow back down to the valley. It's what most of the farmers did.
Speaker 2:Just blow it up, just blow it up.
Speaker 1:So that was the usual, did they not have like?
Speaker 2:knives in for Adelberg and grills. It sounds like an opportunity for a delightful barbecue, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, I never talked to any of those people who did that. They said it's just far quicker, it's far less work and you can't just leave Probably a lot more fun, and more fun too, yeah. So I wonder how much the fun factor had to play in that uh as well, or if it was just all like oh no, it's necessary because we need to do that for all burgers have a little bit of fun out there.
Speaker 1:It's like a 500 year old tradition to blow it up. So I don't think that's the case, uh, at least. So they can't do that any longer, so they have to find other ways. But I mean, imagine you have a cow in like high altitudes mountain and you need to take care of it. I would assume sometimes nature will take care of it too yeah, there's just leaving the cow wasn't an option.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like like I'm sure there's plenty of animals that die but maybe they're afraid that more like it would draw in bears or wolves and they would look for more cows to be found there I wonder if disease prevention was a part of it, like maybe if these cows died with some sort of thing.
Speaker 1:They didn't want the local that makes even more sense because it would take weeks and weeks until yeah, meanwhile, all the the foxes and bears are eating this disease cow, and that's you know, but if it's close to, I know some path that people walk by and a water source, a water source, yeah so just to be clear, we can no longer blow up dead cows no, unless we're fine for cliff cliff, unless you travel back to pre-2001.
Speaker 2:The good old days. The good old days, yes.
Speaker 1:Back in the 1900s, back in the 1900s, yes but here's another thing that is maybe more practical you can get fined in austria if you run out of gas on the highway. I'm not sure if that's the same law in the states, I don't know if, if there's a if, there's a fine for that.
Speaker 2:So if you like that's just an unfortunate mistake well, that's, that's the point.
Speaker 1:It's a mistake you could have avoided. So if your car breaks down on the highway, of course you're in trouble and then there's no, yeah, you just need to get, get it off the street again and the police might come and help you, but not find you. But if you say, oh, my car just got stuck because it's it's running on empty, it's it is actually, you're potentially endangering the traffic on the highway, because if someone has a real breakdown and your car is just blocking, so, if so, if you're out driving and you run out of gas, you need to like go quick and tear out one of the hoses or something.
Speaker 2:So it looks like your car broke down for a different reason that might be a good tip, the whole engine is gone. Yeah, I don't know where. All the gas must have leaked out with all the other stuff. What a weird coincidence.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure what the amount you have to pay would be. Thankfully, that has never happened to me, but they even teach you that in driving school. Never happened to me, but they even teach you that and like in driving school. Yeah, yes, we also. We also learn in driving school that you know when, when the gas, if your car runs on empty, it's almost empty, like this little light goes on, yeah, and usually that means you have 50 kilometers left yeah, that's which this might lead into a different episode, but we always can have the understanding that it's 50 miles.
Speaker 2:Yep, that might be an issue which is, you know, maybe cars are built different, but that is a significant difference in mileage or kilometerage. Yeah, I mean the.
Speaker 1:But the number is not just a random number. They picked because by law on the, on the highway, on the you know motorway, yeah, the law also says there has to be a gas station at least every 50 kilometers.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:And if you see the Raststation, for example, you see those stops. It often says you can get off now, or it says in 46 kilometers there's the next one. So it has to be less than 50 kilometers. So in case you're driving on the highway, just maybe not watching it and suddenly the light comes on and you just missed the exit for that gas station, yeah, you should make it to the very next one.
Speaker 2:That's less than 50 kilometers away okay, but if you pass that one, well then, and then, then.
Speaker 1:That's why you should have known better then the australian is going to be angry with you and you're going to make the news and you go to prison. Well, good thing I don't drive that much. And another thing if, if you do drive a car, in Vienna especially, there's something called Hubverbot. It's a law. You're not permitted to honk for fun. It's basically only for emergency situations, since the density of the city. And you might see when you enter the city, you might see the symbols where there's this old-fashioned horn so you're not like they're using the circus now these days.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when you see that, that's kind of there's a traffic sign just to remind you yeah, you're in the city now. You're in the city now, don't just go honking that's only for the rednecks, it's only for the honkies, it's only for the honkies, it's only for the honkies. Yes, and one last weird law that I'm not sure if it's even a it's not a law, but it's been, it has been fined and has been persecuted is if you post a certain picture on social media on a certain day, oh, do you know what?
Speaker 2:I'm talking about? Yeah, I have.
Speaker 1:I have a vague memory of what you're talking about, but I don't think I could give you the details so if and the funny thing about it is it's a picture of a certain dish, of a meal, a very austrian one okay yeah, and it's ayanoca. Yeah, so I don't know how to describe ayanoca. It's just egg noodles, something like that. You might get uh into trouble with the police on april 20th if you post that. Yeah, I think now you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I don't know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:I remember that it had something to do with young adolf, young adolf, or even old adolf, because his favorite food was the iron knuckle. Yeah, and so some people, as you and as you might might not know, like, um, I mean, you know, but I don't know if everyone listening to this podcast knows cliff might know so. So this is a very big good tip for criminal cliff and anyone. Yeah, that anything that's related to to the nazi regime, yeah, has been outlawed in austria, so any symbols, anything that resembles just that is you can. You can actually get into trouble. And there's there's cases that are being even public cases where people have been trying to promote some Nazi ideology or something. And, of course, people who are fond of Hitler. They know that April 20th is his birthday, birthday and it used to be an actual, an official holiday in the third reich yeah and so this day is still very it's a very sensitive.
Speaker 1:It carries a lot of weight, so if you just post a swastika online, you're already in trouble yeah, no matter the day, no matter the day yeah yes, and even if you, if you, might post a picture of, like a, a portrait of out of hitler on the 20th of april, that might also get into trouble yeah that would be. But just posting some food images. You think, oh, that's a very innocent way of sure of just posting your favorite food. Maybe right, but it's not just any kind of food.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a pretty bland meal, yeah, out of out of Out of all the potentially favorite foods, and that you might post as a food blogger. Like you might consider. You're a food blogger who puts Iron Acro on any day On any day. You might want to reconsider your career choice because you're not really doing it right.
Speaker 1:Especially if you're not a food blogger. And this is the only picture of any meal.
Speaker 2:That's one of those things where it's probably not an accident if it's done, like the chances of somebody randomly posting such a meal.
Speaker 1:If you're a food blogger and you have 20 posts a day and one of them happens to be done.
Speaker 2:maybe it's not, as it's still a pretty boring dish to post a picture of and others. It's still pretty pretty, pretty boring. Boring dish to. Yeah, but if you picture, if you're.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't want to defend people posing, I'm just saying it. It could potentially happen that someone said, well, let's, let's cook something simple today, hey look at the simple bowl of egg noodles that I post, that I've made.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah it's. Yeah, don't do it.
Speaker 1:It's hard to, it's hard to defend. I'm trying to trying to find a way here for like For the innocent. For the innocent, yeah, but the chances of you posting such an innocent meal on a particular day are very, very slim.
Speaker 2:Very rare.
Speaker 1:Very rare, so better not do it.
Speaker 2:I mean continue posting pictures of food, but you know, if it's a boring dish, you know, just enjoy it. Well, mew, I think, is boring.
Speaker 1:Some other people enjoy it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess I'm a little judgy here.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's some other Austrians, if you post a picture of a burger, they might say well, a burger.
Speaker 2:I hate that A burger. Put that cookie down. Put the burger down.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying down, Put the burger down.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying yeah you're just saying oh, this got really tense really quick. Yeah, it's about law persecution. I didn't realize that these noodles were so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the police is already waiting outside for you.
Speaker 2:For me. I'm not the one who likes the noodles.
Speaker 1:But you know, criminal Cliff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean. So they're going to question you maybe. Yeah, anyway, this escalated quickly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some of this stuff may not make it. You might never hear this. You might never hear this, although it's, I think it's a fair warning uh sure, especially concerning the whole thing that's austrians and germans. They don't want to play around. The police won't play around with those no, and rightfully so.
Speaker 2:That's, uh, I mean, I think, the the, the laws and restrictions of certain symbols and and terms and things like this that are related to to Hitler and the third Reich are they should be kind of blotted from from usage, especially because the people who are using them are doing so, in a way, to try to revive the sentiments behind it, and and these days it seems like, uh, these types of sentiments are rising around the world.
Speaker 1:so, exactly, well, we've gotten deep and political yes, and, and austria and germany tried what they can to remind people of how severe the consequences are following that kind of ideology yeah and so if you think it's funny to wear uh like a nazi uniform for like for a costume party, yeah, it's, uh it's not funny here, it's not think it's funny to wear, uh, like a nazi uniform for like a costume party?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's. It's not funny here. It's not clever, it's not original, it's not funny, people have done it before. Yeah, don't do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah although I mean and one, maybe one sentence to be said. I want two sentences to be said about the austins. Of course there's people make fun of, of that as well.
Speaker 2:They kind of trying to joke about some of these things yeah, we're far enough away from it now technically that people kind of lose the seriousness of it.
Speaker 1:There might be parodies of, you know, the nazis and everything.
Speaker 2:Uh, it's sort of permitted if you do it in some forms of art yeah, parody form and and things like this, uh, to poke fun and show the the absurdity of of that mindset is certainly certainly a useful tool. But but I think most of the times when people are posting these, they aren't doing it in a in an ironic form of parody, trying to poke fun. They're doing it because they think that those things were good and I I remember there's a.
Speaker 1:There's a movie that came out a couple years ago, I think. In english it's called Look who's Back and in German it's something like Ich vergesse den deutschen Titel.
Speaker 1:But it's such a weird plot Because it's a German movie playing in Berlin and all of a sudden, where the Führerbunker used to be, suddenly Adolf Hitler comes up and he's alive In modern day Berlin, oh geez. And it's like this comical way of kind of the taking him and he becomes like a celebrity again, but just because of who he is. Yeah, but he still has this kind of racist mindset and everything and they kind of try to promote him and make him like, use him as some some figure, yeah, but he still talks, uh, in all these in the those manners.
Speaker 1:So they say it's played by germans, yeah, and they kind of make fun in some way of hitler. But also at the same time the movie kind of shows how, how hitler's ideas still gets attention and and followers, yeah, even in 21st century. So it's, it's sort of it's, it's a very smart movie. I think, uh, you can say that, uh, so it's, it's funny in some sense, but not not, it's not just yeah, too soon maybe it's too yeah yeah, for some it might be too soon, but I think it also it's also a way for the germans to to deal with the whole.
Speaker 1:Sure, yeah, the process, this whole process, because it's a heavy weight on the shoulders of the germans and and the austrians, this whole history, which we might get into another episode I mean, I feel like we we have uh discussed some of it in the past.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, it comes up again and again, of course, yeah, unfortunately it's. It's uh the elephant in the room eating christmas trees.
Speaker 1:That was the previous episode. Well, whatever, alright, well, check it out. Good bye, bye. Yes, have a happy and nice day. Good bye, bye.
