Retail therapy foiled by European fashion

I took myself shopping today, feeling the need for retail therapy, specifically for clothes.  However, that didn't go so well for two reasons: sheer number of people and strange fashion. Let me explain.

First, tomorrow is May Day (May 01), which is a national holiday.  As it falls on a Saturday, UN staff (me included) had today off instead.  I was told that this is great, because it means we can shop and run errands in relative peace, since most other people are at work.  Ha!!  Maybe I stil need to get used to the sheer number of people everywhere all the time, because according to me the stores on Mariahilfer Strasse were all super busy. If this was supposed to be a relatively quiet day, I am scared to think of what the pre-Christmas weeks will be like!

Secondly, the fashion here definitely does not match my taste.  There seem to be two dominant style extremes:
1- expensive, reserved, old-lady, beige and boring (even with extensive use of animal print)
2- flashback to the 80's - in a bad way. Ruffles, asymetrical, layers upon layers, parachute sleeves and tops, oversize everything, even Converse! All that's missing are the leg warmers.
Then there's the colour palette for the summer here: variations on beige, white, peach, and washed out prints.  Your basic nightmare.  Finally, everyone seems to have a love affair with 3/4 length leggings - also a throwback from the 80s.  Worst of all are the Jeggings - you got it, leggings made to look like jeans.  I don't care how young and hot you are, that is never EVER a good look, it just looks cheap and a bit trashy.

SO, I came home just about empty-handed.  However all is not lost: late in the day I peeked in that high-end mall close by, the Ringenstrasse Galerie.  Heaven: it was just about empty, and there were actually clothes I might consider.  I'll definitely need to go there soon... but not this weekend.   :-(

To finish things off, another retail nightmare: around 6 PM, I went to the grocery store (stores close at 7 PM on weekdays).  From the top of the stairs leading into this particular grocery store, I had a bird's eye view of the store.  For just a second, it looked like a colony of ants in a frenzy, madly stocking up on food... And that's when it occurred to me that between tomorrow being a holiday and Sunday being the usual Sunday  (they roll up the sidewalks on Sundays), all stores will be closed ALL weekend.  For some reason, people suddenly feel the need to buy 12 bottles of mineral water and fight over the last schnitzels (not kidding!).  I almost turned around and walked back out, but I did need a few things and really, there are no options if you're out of food, so I dove in.  I somehow managed to peacefully ignore the frenzied shoppers around me, and even had a laugh with a stranger while waiting in the long line-up for the cash.

In between all the shopping madness, I did manage to get a decent haircut.  I was a bit worried I'd get a terrible one, because hardly anyone here has short hair so there was a good chance of getting a stylist who had no idea how to do good ultra-short cuts for women.  But lucked out and I stumbled upon a trendy salon, complete with extreme stylists, lots of flashy hair colours and styles and bling, edgy decor and music so loud I could hardly hear a thing.  By the way, noise turns out to be a bad thing for me: the more noise there is, the less I can understand a person talking to me in German.  So then have I use my decent German to tell them that I don't understand them, which in turn confuses them. "She speaks German yet tells me - in German - that she can't understand me? Wait... Is this candid camera?"