My first Austrian wedding was in May. The weather was cool, but sunny, the bride looked beautiful and it was heaps of fun.
But there are lots of differences between Austrian weddings and what I’m used to. Read on to find out all about the crazy Austrian wedding traditions.
I was really looking forward to summer 2014. Having arrived back in Australia the previous August, I had almost just gone through two winters, the Austrian one being a lot colder than anything I’d previously experienced. It started warming up around March, albeit slowly and we made plans for all the holidays and short trips we would take during summer. We live right in the mountains, among the lakes so there is plenty of hiking to be done, lakes to relax around and small, out-of-the-way places to stay.
Sadly, I missed Easter in Austria this year. I was enjoying some much needed sun and friend catch-ups in Australia. Like Christmas, it seems that Easter is taken a lot more seriously over here. Once again, completely different if you’re religious. So despite my not having actually been here, here are my impressions of it.
That’s New Year’s to us English speaking people. The name comes from the fourth century Pope Sylvestor the first. Eventually made a saint by the Catholic Church, his feast day is observed on December 31.Anyway, enough of the history… onto the good part!
This is definitely one of my top meal discoveries from Austria. Traditionally a Swiss dish, Raclette is enjoyed by many countries around Europe and is what I would call an interactive meal.
I don’t think it matters which country you’re in, or what visa you’re applying for… they’re always nasty and turn out to be a lot more complicated than originally thought.
Though we were prepared for the pain and work involved it was definitely still a highly stressful process. Continue reading
From my one Christmas spent in Austria, my impression is that they take it a lot more seriously than we do in Oz. To be fair, I suppose if you have kids it’s a different story, but even without young kids they seem to take it seriously here.
In June we took a mini break to Amsterdam. Neither of us had been there before and we were keen to spot some windmills and try the local… cuisine.
We booked ourselves a tiny room on a canal boat for four nights. We were lucky enough to have a shower in our room, though the toilet was communal (and the paper goes in the bin, please!), but for four nights it was perfect. Following are my impressions of the gorgeous city of Amsterdam.
I faced this prospect pretty soon after arriving in Austria because my German lessons were a 45 minute drive away. Thomas took me out to practice the first weekend so I would be comfortable.
It was not comfortable. It was one of the most frightening things I’d done in a while. Though I knew that in a matter of weeks everything would become automatic, the learning process was very scary. Continue reading
Looking for a job in a small town where very little English is spoken is not easy.
And because my German is not yet good enough (and won’t be for a while) to get a job that requires foreign speaking or writing, I really need to find a job where I can utilise my English.
