OPIUM ICE CREAM

                                             A Surprise Flavor

     One evening leaving a restaurant in Vienna where we’d enjoyed a really good, if different, pizza my travel buddy said, “An ice cream would be a perfect topping of a great meal.”

     “What a good idea!  I’m sure I saw an ice cream kiosk a block from the hotel when I was scouting out the neighborhood this afternoon before you arrived. (She lives in LA). We should hit it if we cross here and then turn right,” I answered.

     We did just that and then joined a short line in front of the kiosk. It was hard to make a choice of the twenty or so flavors displayed. Each was labeled, but in Austrian or German. It didn’t make any difference as norther of us spoke either language.

    I tried to find out from the young man behind the counter what flavor the vanilla-looking ice cream with tiny dark specks in it was.  Maybe chocolate chip?  The fellow didn’t speak any English, which was surprising for a young male.

     Not wanting to hold up the line forming behind us I gave up the conversation and just took the ice cream.  For this ice creamaholic, I knew no matter what the flavor it would be good. Licking our cones we walked off heading toward the hotel. Suddenly we heard a  young man  say, “Ladies, ladies. That ice cream you are eating is opium ice cream.”

    “What!” we exclaimed simultaneously.

     “Yes, you know like from the poppies that grow in Afghanistan. Opium ice cream,” he commented.

     After a minute a light went on in my head and I said, “Oh, you mean poppy seed.”

     “Yes, Yes.” He strolled past us licking on his cone.

     He was standing directly behind us, and we both wondered why he hadn’t jumped in to interpret for us when we were trying to converse with the vendor.

     We had a good chuckle over my opium ice cream and often mentioned it on succeeding trips when we were together.

TRIVIA

From Germany

Perfect climate and conditions abound along most of the Danube  for grape growing The area is hilly leading down to the river. It was strange to see vineyards planted in horizontal rows rather than vertical ones. It was explained that it makes picking the grapes easier for the girls and for the men to carry the full baskets of grapes to the trucks on the roads that lead through the vineyards. The vertical planting also provides for maximum sun to reach the all the leaves.

Eight ships constantly cruise the Rhine River to siphon off old oil to recycle and to keep the river clean.  What a good idea!

The Danube depends on rain fall and the river can be either too high or too low to transit. I have been grounded in each instance. There is not a thing you can do about it so go with the flow---no pun intended.

In Germany we were told that a single cross designates a church, but a cross with two crossbars designates a cathedral. Inside, the pulpit will be on the right if it is a church, on the left in a cathedral. Before people could read, monks had different floor tile designs so people would know where they were. Dom means dominate, to the highest power.

In Germany the expression tomcat means a hangover. The remedy is to eat salted fish followed by wine---so the fish can swim---From a docent with a very good sense of humor.   

Streets were crooked in medieval times because one can’t shoot around a corner. After the invention of the cannon, streets were straightened because fighting no longer took place in the streets.

Burg denotes a castle before the advent of artillery when the structure was primarily used as a fortification. Schloss refers to a castle after fortification when the structure was primarily a residence.

A good description of Rococo architecture is Baroque gone mad.

During the city walking tour of Regensburg I had kept an eye peeled for the Café Prinzess. Dating back to 1686, it is the oldest coffeehouse in Germany, and I wanted to stop there for at least a cold drink. It was a really hot day and after checking out the inside and upstairs of the café we elected to sit outside in the shade. We ordered iced coffee. Served with chocolate chip ice cream, it resembled a float rather than any iced coffee I’d ever had. It was different, but good and this ice creamaholic sure didn’t complain!

A few years later we stopped at an ice cream kiosk in Vienna one evening after dinner. I was trying to find out what the ice cream was with the tiny black flecks in it, but the language barrier was too much to cope with so thinking it was tiny bits of chocolate I bought it. A bit later the fellow behind us explained that it was opium ice cream—like from the poppies grown in Afghanistan. Then the light bulb went on in my head---I was eating poppy seed ice cream! I did get a lot of mileage out of the story though after  returning home.

A VIENNA EXPERIENCE

                                      OPIUM ICE CREAM

One evening on my third visit to Vienna, my traveling buddy and I finished a great pizza, and as we were walking outside she said, “Wouldn’t ice cream just top off that great meal?”

“While I awaited your arrival I scouted the neighborhood and I’m sure there is an ice cream kiosk around the corner about half way down the  block on the way back to the hotel.”

She followed my lead and as we turned the corner we could see the queue in front of the kiosk. We joined the queue, and when it was our turn I realized the young man understood no English. After several failed attempts to learn the flavor of the ice cream I was eying, I just opted for what looked like maybe chocolate chip but with micro chips. As we walked away, a young man standing behind us who had overheard my attempts to learn the flavor started talking to us. “That is opium ice cream you are eating,” he said.

            “What,” We chorused.

            “You know from the poppy, like they grow in Afghanistan.”

He repeated this twice and finally the light went on in my head as I said, “Oh,. You mean poppy seed.” Sure enough, that is what it was!

The young man continued on his way.  As he disappeared around the corner I said, “I wonder since that young fellow understood and spoke English why he didn’t come to my rescue when I was inquiring about the flavor.” 

My friend giggled saying,, “Now you can go home and tell everyone you ate opium ice cream in Vienna!”