I’ve been exploring Austria the past two weeks so this blog is dedicated to my eyes and heart being more open to everything around me. Here are 15 Things you didn't know about Austria
As maybe some of you know, I’ve been here for over a month
now. Locals continuously ask me, “Why did you pick to come to Austria? Of all
the places you could be instead!” I laugh and explain my simple explanation and
yet I find new reasons why I love Austria every day. Here are more observations
that you maybe didn’t know about this little country that is my home for the
next few months.
1. About one fourth of the population lives in Vienna. The
population of Austria roughly is the same as London.
2. At a crosswalk everyone will continue to stand and wait for
the green man to flash in order to walk, even when there are no cars coming.
3. Austrians really do wear lederhosen and dirndls out and
about. I’ve been caught staring.
4. Dogs are everywhere and are allowed to go everywhere. This
includes but is not limited to: restaurants, public transportation, and even
stores. And – the dogs here are especially cute for some reason.
5. Everyone learns to ski and hike up mountains at a very young
age. I’ve been passed by an 80 year old man and an 8 year old child on a hike
up a “small hill” which really means “mountain” in English.
6. Austrian men must do 6 months of mandatory military service,
which includes a wide variety of ways to serve in the civilian service. A
friend spent his 6 months working on an ambulance.
7. Cobblestone streets are very common and hard to walk on…
heels are very uncommon.
8. Tipping is not customary. You usually just round up the bill
and nobody will yell at you.
9. Nothing is ever spicy, and when the locals think it is you’re
confused
10. The beer here is sweeter compared to others.
11. Austrians follow the rules very closely, especially with
public transportation and biking laws.
12. About half the Austrian men are overweight.
13. It is not unusual to get nudged, bumped or shoved when in public
and someone is passing you. This is not considered rude if it happens.
14. There are over 20 million travelers and tourists to Austria each year, which is almost 3 times the actual population and the one of highest in all of Europe.
15. Schnitzel is normally meat, mashed down really thin, covered in breadcrumbs and fried. Julie Andrews thinks it is
served with noodles, but I’ve never seen that and it’s normally served with
potatoes or a salad.
I got lunch one day with a friend who has been struggling with adjusting here. It was hard to hear the negative things she was saying… It really struck a nerve with me for some reason. When we parted ways, I went to my room and it kept bothering me. It was almost like I had to fight for all those people that love traveling and feeling uncomfortable and who don’t want this experience to be negative. So many people aren’t able to study abroad for a semester for many reasons - bad timing, money reasons, nerves, and no support. People don’t realize how strong they are until they encounter something that really makes them challenge themselves by thinking and dealing with emotions. At home, it is very easy to change your situation because you know it and you know how to change it and you are comfortable with dealing with it in your native land/language, more than elsewhere. Here it is different. You don’t feel comfortable and you don’t know how to feel better because sometimes what is making you feel anxious, awkward or crazy isn’t definable. It’s really hard. It challenges every bone in your body that screams for a routine and comfort and laughs back at it and says, “Nah, we are going to make this interesting”. It’s hard shit! I don’t know what it was but I had an urge to make the most of being here while I was pondering these emotions. I refused to sit in my room so I put on my tennis shoes and decided to go for a run, since it was so beautiful. I had no idea where I was going to run to but I just started. I ran along the tram tracks since the possibility of me getting lost was very high!
I had a huge test Friday for my German intensive
class the next day. All we had to do was write about a topic of our choice. Simple
enough! But we also could not use a dictionary! Poor teacher got some weird
stuff from me when I was trying to be creative with describing what I wanted to
say instead of knowing the word! Ha! I wrote about something that I knew a lot about,
my passion for traveling and exploring and being uncomfortable. While I was
writing about my jog in the park, in German, and my thoughts, I began to get so
emotional! I was writing a huge exam about my passions – I was able to express
myself and what matters to me in German! It was pretty amazing. It brought me
back to why I wanted to come to this German speaking language so bad in the
first place – for that one little moment against all the tough times where you
are writing or speaking and your emotions come across. In that moment
everything makes sense. All the pain and the hard nights you spent studying the
grammar and verb formation was worth it and becoming bright red in the grocery
store when the cashier tries to talk to you. It was epic. I could have written
what I wrote in German, French, and English and that is a beautiful moment for
an International Relations major to realize. I can do this. All this work is
going to pay off, I just have to keep pushing myself because it’s only just
begun. I was really struggling in this course but the more
I got my homework back graded and with nice notes about how he can see my
progress, something has changed in me! The last homework we turned in, we had
to write about an event and describe the situation and location. The title of
what we had to write about was, “an interesting situation with interesting
people”. I just started writing about whatever came to mind. It was so fun to
look up words and create something. I created a very unique scene and happily
turned it in. Over the next few days, our teacher decided to have a game where
he read some of them out loud and then we all had to guess if it was from one
of us or the media. He read mine first and he read it with such emotion and
with a mysterious tone. It was crazy to hear the words I had labored over come
out so wonderfully. Everyone in the class guessed that it was from the Media
and I smiled when he revealed that I had written it. He said I wrote beautiful
and that it was like he was reading a novel! Sometimes all you need is a little
push to have a change of heart about everything you knew before. That was mine.
J
As I said, I have been exploring all around Graz
recently! Last weekend one of my good friends from Georgia, Ashley, and I
decided to just spontaneously take trip out to go hiking! Of course we missed the
bus so we went over to the tourist office and asked where they recommended for
some outdoor exploring – then next thing you know we are taking a bus 40 to the
last stop to Gosting. Gosting is super easy to get to and yet when you are
there you feel so far from the main city. The steep but short ascent passes by
the “Jungfernsprung” is from legend where the lovesick and saddened Anna von
Gosting threw herself to her death. I did not actually know that until I looked
it up! So, I cannot verify the legend and didn’t see any upset ghosts while I ate
my sandwich on top. It was just a quick 30 min hike up we were nuzzling with
some ancient castle on top of a hill overlooking the valley. It was pretty
cool. The ancient castle had great views of the strategically important valley
of the river Mur, Graz, and the surrounding areas. It was a perfect Saturday spent
having lunch while exploring a castle with a good friend.
The next day, Ashley and I woke up even earlier to
catch a bus that took us even farther away and to a bigger hill to hike up! We
were so pumped and ready for our climb from the success of the day before’s 30
min trek. We were at a place called Schockl Mountain. Schockl has everything
from steep slopes to an extended plateau. You can hike up, bike up, or treat
yourself to a comfortable cable car. It is not the highest mountain of Graz (at
1445 meters) but it is a very popular destination for locals and those
outdoorsy tourists. The tour guide described it as a “small hill” that “is an
easy hike to the top”. We thought great - unfortunately, to Austrians the words “small
hill” don’t exactly mean the same to a person from the American Midwest! We
started off our trek following other people, this habit has become quite normal
for exchange students. We were following on a rather easy path through the
woods and then hit a path that was just under the cable car since they had
cleared the trees under it. We thought it would be a faster way so we hopped on it
and kept on it for 30 mins. This was straight up. I’m talking we had to use our
hands to grab onto things since our footing wouldn’t hold. It was crazy. The
path we were taking never met up with the one we were on before so we were forced to
stay on this extremely difficult path that was legit vertical. We would stop
every 15 mins to pant and bitch about how this was a “little hill”. It was somewhat
comical. Old men and small children were easily passing us and we were doubled
over cussing in English and being whatever you imagine two 20-something year
old girls being midway through a strenuous hike. It was hilarious looking back.
After 2 hours of this, we finally made it! It was epic. We were sweating and
almost crying at how happy we were. A cute couple crossed the finish line with
us at the same time and congratulated us on our success (in English) and
offered to take our picture. Apparently they had been behind us the whole time
and we never even knew it! Ha! We were being so loud and annoying that a random
couple felt the need to give us praise for our effort at trying to be Austrian.
So funny. We ate lunch on top of the mountain and had a panoramic view of the
Triglav Mountain at the border between Slovenia and Italy and Slemen near
Zagreb, Croatia, over the plains of Pannonia to the mountain tops of Wechsel,
Rax, and Hochschwab in the north and Stubalpe, Gleinaple and Koralpe in the
west. It was pretty awesome. The trek down took 2 hours as well since we
decided we couldn’t even climb up the route we came so no point in going down
it! We would have probably just fallen the whole way down! It was great and we
were exhausted from the endurance test the ride home. We both agreed that it
was the unknown that got us through it all. Knowing how hard it was – I might
have to train before we go next time.
This past week was spent with catching up on the
classes I had missed while in Belgium… oops! But I have friends in every class
so it wasn't too difficult since classes were only on the second week when I took
my little vacation. Wednesday I went out with all my friends to a cool party in
town. Friday I spent the evening making dinner with Ashley and planning our
Easter Break – which is 3 weeks long! So we will be doing some exploring even
more. I think a Balkan Tour will be in our future! I hope! Saturday we both
headed to Vienna for the day on an early train. It was a fun train ride since
her flat mate came with us since he had to go to Vienna for the day too! We
spent the day with Ashley’s friend (she lived with her for a year, is from
Italy, and studies Dentistry in Vienna) just walking around Vienna. It was a
beautiful day and the sun wouldn’t stop shining it seemed. It was nice to spend
the whole day just enjoying the wonderful city and hitting places like the City
Park and enjoying spritzers for happy hour at an Australian Bar (yes, Australian
not Austrian!). We took the 8pm bus home and were back by 10:30. Had high hopes
of going out but that never happened and I had a nice quiet Saturday night!
Today I bought a bike!! Yes, I am not a proud owner of a bike J I am so Euro now! I found
the Austrian craigslist here and just sent some emails (in German) and 40 euro
later I have a rusty, mint green bike! I love it! I can’t to zoom all across
town in my new bike! Pictures of my new lifestyle coming soon! Also - I am training for a half marathon in Salzburg! Whole new world y'all :)
Happy birthday to my Grandma Chari! Miss you!
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