Chewing Gum Graveyard Only those with strong nerves should continue to read this story. The pictures that you are going to see are highly unsettling and not suitable for small children. Don't read on if you are easily offended. If you do, be prepared to see the unspeakable, to enter the realm of disgust. Although thousands of people are passing through this place every day, few know about its significance. Be prepared to enter... CHEWING GUM GRAVEYARD! The year: 2002. The place: Vienna, Austria. I have no idea what it's like in other cities, but my guess would be it's not really any different. I guess this is one of the things that you just don't notice normally. The problem is that once you started noticing it, you can't really ignore it any longer. I really get a bit queasy on Mariahilfer Strasse, knowing what I'm walking on. I'm told I'm overreacting. That's possible, but I still find it disgusting. Mariahilfer Strasse is Vienna's best-known shopping street, 1.5 miles of perfect shopping experience. You can get just about everything here. However, this place also seems to have a more sinister function: it's Chewing Gum Graveyard. Every day, thousands of shoppers spit out their chewing gums here.  Traces of discarded chewing gums are everywhere.  At crosscroads...  ...and in front of shops.  Always take out your gum before making a phone call.  Discarded gums in front of the H+M store would indicate that people tend to take out their gums before buying cool clothes...  ...whereas discarded gums in front of the C&A store indicate that you should take out your gum before buying cheap clothes.  Always throw away your gum and the occasional flyer before eating a fish meal at Nordsee.  I wonder: Is it possible to draw conclusions about the quality of takeaway pizza by comparing the number of discarded gums in front of "Pizza Buon Giorno"...  ...with the number of gums discarded in front of Pizza Hut?  Either people who like kebabs chew less gum than people eating pizza, or they just feel less compelled to throw it away in front of this Turkish restaurant. Now please brace yourself for a truly disgusting spectacle at Bortolotti's ice cream parlour:  It seems that ice cream is the most potent natural enemy of chewing gum. I wonder if people would still enjoy their ice cream as much if they took a closer look at the pavement?  Sometimes it seems to be a question of hit-and-miss (well, miss rather than hit). Yuk.  But whether it's in front of Douglas's perfume shop...  ...or the Benetton store, throughout the whole 1.5 miles of Mariahilfer Strasse you'll walk over the discarded remains of former sugary bits and pieces ejected from other people's mouths. *** The opinions expressed here are those of Horst Prillinger and his only. Please note that while he is taking great care to ensure that all the information displayed here is correct, he cannot be made responsible for any factual errors that may have occurred. Under no circumstances is his employer in any way responsible for anything published on this site. |
Last update: 27.06.2003; 18:19:54
