I’ve talked about my struggles of learning German in multiple posts, and I will no doubt continue to do so. One of the difficulties of living in Austria is that no proper German course will prepare you for the perplexing conglomeration of dialects.
Moving on my previous post of favourite places being based on experience, I want to share my favourite three (ok I had to increase it to five) places from my first trip in 2011 and why.
Even if you read my recent post on why one person’s favourite place is not always a reliable indicator of whether or not you will enjoy it, you’re probably going to judge me on this one. At least you might screw up your face a little…
Here I present to you my three most underwhelming places in the world.
When you return from a long trip encompassing a variety of countries and places, one of the most common questions you hear is: “What was your favourite place?”
It’s a terrible question. Not only because I couldn’t possibly decide, but also because one person’s experience is so subjective, that it wouldn’t necessarily translate to anyone else.
A lot of people like to brag about their claim to fame. Maybe their uncle once dated Claudia Schiffer… maybe their great-grandfather invented the cuckoo clock… perhaps a distant cousin on their mother’s side was in the team of scientists who discovered penicillin… whatever is is, you go ahead and brag about it.
I’m going to brag about mine now.
My claim to fame is… I’m related to the platypus.
What is a platypus, you ask? He’s this guy.
German is an angry-sounding language. You know it, I know it. When Austrians get together over dinner they generally start speaking in their very loud, angry voices.
I remember the first few times I had dinner with my now in-laws… I would sit quietly, eating my dinner, sipping my wine, just trying to stay in the background because I certainly didn’t want to get involved in whatever it was they were so mad about. Their heated conversation would be sporadically punctuated with cackles of laughter and then the grim faces would return and they would start arguing again. Or so it seemed to me.
When someone’s celebrating an occasion in Austria (birthdays, someone’s last work day etc.) and keeping it low key and easy, they might simply invite a few people over for a bite to eat, or in the case of a work environment, bring something along to share with colleagues (including the mandatory prosecco, of course, because we are in Austria). Quite often there will be cakes, pastries and other standard things you might expect. But there could also be something you were not expecting: a giant pretzel sandwich.
