by At this time of year, thousands of Brits are taking to the ski slopes of Austria, enchanted not only by the pistes but also by the absurdly beautiful villages, excellent food and drink (who doesn’t love gluhwein?), and , that Austrian. Save your parents for free, Kind hotel. It is doubtful, then, that InterNations’ recent Expat-Friendly Places survey has well and truly put Austria on the bold stage. It is ranked as the worst country in the world (well, out of 53 countries) for “local friendliness”.
As a regular visitor to Austria, I have to admit that I am a bit confused. I had many strange experiences there, to be sure, but nothing that I would call unfriendly in the least.
Take my most recent trip there, last weekend. Vienna in winter is beautiful and, if you’re lucky, you might get some snow — despite this, the transport systems of trams, buses and the metro continue to run like clockwork. Food markets open here early and I started at the most famous Naschmarkt, with its two main streets, one for restaurants, the other for food stalls. But rather than the expected frivolous traders, I was pressured (with encouraging smiles!) to try a product I had no chance of taking home. No matter: slices of wurst and cheese produced on the farm, and nuts and berries, were offered, along with more exotic offerings, such as imported fruit and mountains of baklava. And if you want to know more about their products, you will make a day of stalls (“So, they are the grains in my bread Ur…”). So far, so friendly.
After shopping, coffee. Long before Starbucks, Vienna was famous for its coffee houses (they are on Unesco’s intangible cultural heritage list) and they look as grand today as they did when Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schnitzler and Gustav Klimt visited. There are the same tiny tables, newspapers are readily available and no one will bother you, even if you stay all day over one cup. Although I passed on the absurdly rich cakes and pastries (sachertorte, apfelstrudel, punschkrapfen), I was assured without hesitation that Viennese desserts contained no calories: “Sachertorte is purely soul food.”
So, if Austrians are funny, how can they also be unfriendly? This is the place, after all, where they invented a best-selling chocolate called Mozart balls (after their most famous composer), a ballet for horses (at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna), the night snack that a favorite of sausages and sekt (Austrian Champagne), not to mention baby-grown lederhosen-style.
I decided to see if this was true of Vienna’s other famous intangible heritage: music. It is everywhere. There are three opera houses and countless concert halls. The Viennese love music, and although they take it seriously, they can also approach it with a certain playfulness. The Haus der Musik, at first glance, looks like a typical Viennese museum – albeit on the small side compared to the endless parade of palaces and churches of the imperial Ringstrasse. Here, after making my way through a twilit maze in the Sonosphere, where you create music with your own movements, I took a turn, as you do, with an Austrian family to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic.
Let me explain. The orchestra is on the screen, tuning up, as you come and choose from several famous pieces (mine was Eine Kleine Nachtmusik) and, standing on a podium, send them with a virtual stick. If you get to the end, the whole orchestra will stand up and applaud. If not, a mad trombonist, harpist or violinist will tell you to get off the podium and hand the baton to a professional. At least, I think that’s what he said…
All that music was before a big night out in Vienna. There are about 450 balls every year in Vienna, mostly during the winter. One of the most traditional, the Coffee House Owners’ Ball, draws 5,000 people to the Hofburg imperial palace. Spread over 18 rooms, each with different music – from opera to jazz and disco – the place is so spacious and the layout so intricate, they actually give you a map. There is an opening ceremony, where white girls are introduced to the VIPs on stage (it was the imperial family) and dance the first waltz, then the sekt corks start popping, everyone gets on the floor and let the Austrians generally formal. their hair down, with frenzied polkas and human car crashes in the madcap race called the gallop.
Did I say formal? That, perhaps, is at the root of the misunderstanding. Austrians like going to balls and wearing dirndls and lederhosen and generally just being Austrian. They are extremely courteous and unfailingly helpful to lost tourists. That’s not to say you can’t annoy an Austrian. Being late will not be tolerated – but the worst concern is being accused of being Germans. Vienna was the capital 700 years before Germany was even a country, and it would be a shame if you forget it.
My theory is that you get the best of the two closest countries: everything works (as in Germany) and they like to have fun (as in Italy). And I am not alone in my assessment. According to the World Liveability Index, Vienna is the best city to live in on the planet and has held that particular crown for the past 10 years. Perhaps, on this occasion, the statistics had slightly missed the point.
