An American Girl's Impressions of Vienna

Okay, so here's the quick and dirty ~ a few impressions of Vienna to be expounded upon in upcoming days, but something to get the complex, swirling, morphing thoughts and feelings about the city and the move out of my head and onto "paper."  


Truth is, it wasn't love at first sight.  I didn't LOVE Vienna the way I was hoping to LOVE Vienna.  I never had the "This is THE city for me and feels like home already" experience that would have made the decision to move there a no-brainer.


But I didn't dislike it either.  Well, unless you talked to me on Tuesday night, when I was tired from walking all over the city (and London the prior week), and the grocery store clerk sneered at me because I hadn't weighed my oranges before I got in line and I couldn't communicate with her because I don't know enough German, and I felt completely out of my element and out of sorts.  In which case, I'd have very clearly told you, as I told my husband that night, "I don't like it.  It's dirty, smelly, and unfriendly." (Not the most mature, thoughtful or productive conversation starter, I realize, but in my defense, I was really, really tired.)


Our time in Vienna, short as it was, was a combination of sight-seeing and doing real-life things, like going to the gym, going to the grocery store, eating in the small neighborhood cafe (where no one spoke English), riding the U-Bahn and walking through both tourist and residential areas throughout the city.  We also met with an assortment of people that live in Vienna, people from all over the world who have been there anywhere from 2 months to 22 years, some who like the city, love the city, aren't quite sure yet and some who don't like it very much at all.  We got lots of practical input on jobs, neighborhoods, rent, being foreigners/immigrants, learning German and we met some really nice, helpful, and supportive people.    


My thoughts about Vienna were (and continue to be) more akin to a roller-coaster ride ~ up one minute, down the next, then up again.  But if you think about it, this is probably far more realistic and telling about life anywhere, isn't it?


So, a couple of the ups and downs (in no particular order):


Up ~ culture and history abound!  Can't walk more than a block without running into an overwhelmingly grand palace or church or theater or a small cafe where great intellectuals once sat and conversed.  I find this incredibly fascinating and stimulating.


Down ~ smoking.  People really do smoke everywhere.  We were able to find seats and tables somewhat apart from smokers when we ate out, but the smell lingers everywhere.


Up ~ bike lanes everywhere.  I'm not a biker myself (yet, perhaps), but there are marked biking lanes all over the city and loads of people using them. Rather than being part of the road, as they are in most American cities, the bike lanes are part of the sidewalk and this took a bit to get used to.  The "sidewalks" are marked with a bike lane and a walking lane and I, for one, was not used to keeping an eye on where I was supposed to be as a pedestrian, particularly when coming up to a crosswalk.  But, my walking skills and ability to pay attention aside, the infrastructure provided for bikers and walkers speaks very highly about a citizenry and culture that is healthy and active (smoking aside).


Down ~ unfriendliness.  The individuals we met in Vienna, native Austrians and those from other countries and cultures, were all very friendly.  A lot of the service personnel in the cafe's and restaurants and gyms were friendly as well.  Now that I'm writing about it, I must admit that it seems that more people were friendly than not, which gives me pause about making the following statement ~ Vienna did not feel like a very friendly city.  By this, I mean that people didn't look at me and say "Hi" when I passed them in the street, nobody smiled at me when I sat down next to them on the train, and the grocery store clerks were completely and utterly ambivalent about my presence, except to collect my money (I've been shopping at Trader Joe's in California too long ~ "How are you? How's your day? Find everything you need? Have a great day!").  I'm going to have to think on this one a little more, though.....


This post is getting very long (so much for quick and dirty impressions), so I'm going to break off and share more in bits and pieces as the days go by.


Let me just close by saying that when the time came for us to leave, neither of us wanted to come back to California; we wanted to stay in Vienna.