Cathedrals, Dark History, And Coffee Culture. Vienna With Katharina Bordet
Vienna brings to mind images of grand architecture, the sounds of classical music, and the smell of coffee and sacher torte. In this interview with Katarina Bordet, we explore the Gothic and Baroque churches, the museums, and the iconic coffee shops, as well as the darker places to visit — the asylum, the catacombs, and the echoes of psychiatry and fascism. The city is dense with history and culture, and we can only brush the surface today, but I hope you enjoy the interview. Katharina Bordet is an Austrian fantasy and nonfiction author as well as a lawyer, podcaster, and photographer. Show notes * Cathedrals, churches, and grand architecture * Catacombs, the asylum, churchyard, and darker places to visit * Vienna’s coffee culture, cafe recommendations, and the importance of cake * Music and opera in Vienna including outdoor venues * Local crafts and food at the Christmas Markets * The Viennese personality * Recommended books set in Vienna You can find Katharina Bordet at bruadarach.at Transcript of the interview Joanna: Katharina Bordet is an Austrian fantasy and nonfiction author as well as a lawyer, podcaster, and photographer. Welcome, Katharina. Katharina: Thank you, Joanna. Thank you for inviting me. Joanna: I am so thrilled to talk about Vienna because, as we record this, we’re still in lockdown here in the UK and we’re still in pandemic times. And I actually have a guidebook here on my desk, ‘A Weekend in Vienna.’ So, this is like virtual travel. Katharina: It’s really tough and, at the same time, helpful to listen to your travel podcast because like, ‘I want to go there.’ Joanna: Exactly. I’s fantasy travel at the moment. Now, let’s get into it because you have a series called ‘Wiener Blut’ translated as Viennese blood. Tell us a bit about your personal history with Vienna and what the city means to you and why you write about it. Katharina: I grew up in the Austrian countryside about two hours away from Vienna. I came to Vienna to study law. And so I didn’t really hang out. I was at uni and stuff like that, but I didn’t go around to touristy places much. I’ve been part of the writing and podcasting community for many years. I’ve been listening to audiobooks for ages and I think, ‘I want to read a book too. I want to write a book too.’ And then I met my husband, who’s a Scotsman. He came over, obviously, to visit, and then we went around all the cafes and I started showing him the things in Vienna. The more touristy stuff. The book idea started when we were sitting in the Café Landtmann right across the city hall. On the back of the menu, there was the story about how the goats in old Mesopotamia discovered coffee in the first place. And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s kind of a funny story.’ I like goats. And that’s kind of hilarious. I started researching the legends around coffee that we have in Vienna. And because I’m quite a coffee junkie, researching the different types of coffee there are, why they’re named the way they are was interesting. So, that’s why, in the first book, every chapter has the title of a different specialty coffee. That’s how the idea came to be and it just took off from there. Joanna: What parts of Vienna feature in your books? Katharina: I’ve mostly written about really the cafe culture. I’ve done a little bit of traveling around Austria. In the second book, I also go to Budapest because, back in the old days, the Austrian and Hungarian Empire was just such a thing. And a lot of the Austrian coffee culture is very much reflected in Budapest as well. There’s this very, very strong link between those two cities. I thought relations spread that wide because the...