When I arrive in Austria on May 11, it will not be the first time that I have set foot in the country.
Last March I was an exchange student in Germany for 10 days. During that time, I talked my friend from Germany into taking me to Austria on the last day of the trip. She reluctantly obliged after I insisted that I wanted to see another country. (I believe she wanted to take me to a castle near Munich.)
The weather at that point was mid-50s and constantly raining; it really felt like Seattle. There was a little snow left from where it had been piled up.
My friend chose to take me to Reutte, a small ski town south of Füssen, Germany. Unfortunately, we were in a ski town when there wasn’t any snow. To make matters worse, the city museum was closed because it was not ski season.
We had allotted four hours for our Austrian excursion, and there was not much to see or do. Luckily, however, several shops along the main road were open for business since it was a unusually warm day.
At this point I had grown accustomed to Germany so Austria was a new experience. As far as differences, there were a few things that caught my attention.
Buildings looked a lot cooler in Austria because they had painted shutters around the windows. I had seen this a few times in Bavaria, but not as much as I did in Austria. Most buildings in Reutte had painted shutters.
The second main difference that I noticed was the dialect. I was taught by a native Bavarian German speaker in high school so when I walked into the first shop in Austria and heard “Grüß Gott!” it really caught me off guard. In fact, I think I asked my friend what the shopkeeper had said. “Grüß Gott” is the preferred way to say “Hello” in Austrian German. Translated literally, it means “Greet God.” In Germany, I was accustomed to saying “Guten Tag” or “Hallo” when walking into a shop. When I exited the shop I heard “Servus!” which is a way of saying “Goodbye.”
But what amazed me the most about Austria was how easy it was to cross the Germany-Austria border both going to and coming from Austria. We took a bus into Austria, and there was merely a road sign that said, “Welcome to Austria.” It was literally as smooth as driving from Indiana into Ohio. Once in Austria, I didn’t have to worry about exchanging money because Austria, like Germany, uses the Euro. Say what you will about the European Union, but it sure makes travel a whole lot easier.