There's Something About Austria

   It felt so strange to fly out of Germany yesterday and not head home. Instead, our little group of world travelers landed in Vienna, Austria. I am a little homesick, but with only 2 days left I am determined to power through my craving for family time and nostalgia for pop tarts!
   Vienna is really a spectacular city. The architecture is breathtaking, and it looks as though it is still Christmas in Vienna. There are long strings of twinkling lights strewn from building to building, lighting the way down cobblestone streets. Fully-decorated Christmas trees mark the entrances to all the various shops and cafes. Hot chocolate and cappuccinos are easy to come by. It's like my own personal winter wonderland, sans-snow. Vienna is a grand city, but it certainly lacks the hustle-and-bustle feeling of Berlin; everyone seems to be shopping or eating or traveling to do one of the previous.
   I'm not sure I have a clear impression of Austrians as a collective group. Olaf has plenty of opinions to share, but he is German and therefore disinclined to give compliments to his neighboring nation ;) On the street and the subway, the Viennese seem slow to smile. In this way they could be compared to the Germans, who tend to show a neutral facial expression, except for what Olaf calls "Austrian face". Essentially, the default facial expression in Austria is the frown. From what I've seen, this is not an unfair stereotype. There does not seem to be any reason for me to smile at passersby because my nonverbal greeting is almost never returned. That said, Vienna does not seem to be a young city in the sense that many of its people appear to be, well, old... and I guess old people frown more :P
   The funny thing is that aside from small details like facial expression, and even there I'm reeaally grasping for a common characteristic, I often feel as though I could still be in Germany. The dialects may differ, but both Germans and Austrians speak German, so I understand about the same amount of what strangers around me are saying. That is, I understand very little :P Since we have only had time to explore one Austrian city, it is difficult to glean many cultural differences between Germans and Austrians, although I'm sure if I ask Olaf he could come up with about fifty.