How to explain Austria to those who only think of classy things when they think of it, like Mozart and Vienna and shit?
First of all, in Austria, you can buy Mozart Balls (I have left the apostrophe s off of that one...too easy):
There are a lot of people who overestimate their European good looks:
The police have no problems pulling you over if you have a German license plate; magazines cost more there than in Germany; they charge you money to get in and out of the country via mandatory toll stickers (€7.50 for 10 days AND you get to painstakingly scrape off your windshield once you're back in a normal country) and €9.50 for passing through the Tauern Tunnel (each way).
Many, many Austrians are also very nationalistic, which leads to endless discussions in the state of Carinthia as to whether city-limit signs should be biligual (for neighboring Slovenia) or not (they decided on not). And thanks to their never having really confronted their national socialistic past, many Austrians are willing to sweep all uncomfortable things under the rug ... or lock them in the basement.
Oh, and a few unsavory people who happen to be related to my daughter also live there. Maybe that damages my objectivity a bit. I think our daily visits to the in-laws, who smothered our kid in baby talk while barely being able to shit out a single sentence to their son kind of made our Austrian vacation wear on our nerves. The last image we had of my MIL was her bending her entire torso into their trashcan outside to retrieve a diaper (sans no. 2) Björn had thrown into it. Because apparently all trash is not created equal...
1 comment:
But, but...where did she put it instead?
And I think that you must be amused to see that the blog post is followed by positive ads for Austrian travel and goods.
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