It's On!

Hot on the heels of our last post, things are all go. Yes suddenly after months of uncertainty, waiting and much pacing around, we're back on track to move. It won't be this year as hoped, but we have a date picked, flights priced up and a small degree of panic has set in. 

The Date chosen is a bit special. On February 29th 2016 we'll be leaving the UK for Austria. Seen as we have an extra day, we thought we'd do something special, plus Lynda's mother turns 80 next year on February 21st, so we really needed to be here for that. 

So what's happening now? A little celebration is happening right now, but from Monday our timetable restarts. It's going to be a year of lasts, last British summer, last birthdays in the UK and even daft things like the last MOT for the car is likely to result in a bit of partying. If all goes according to plan, we'll have the movers in around November to quote for the move, and over the course of the next 10 months, we'll be boxing up what's not being used and discarding the stuff that just isn't coming.

As an extra treat this summer, we'll have another 'last'. Our last trip to Vienna before we move. Best of all, this final trip is being shared with a few friends. Taking in Salzburg then Vienna, we'll be enjoying a final trip, one last coffee and an slice of Sachertorte before it becomes home. 

That's the year coming up, and we're hoping to share it all with You guys reading it. In the meantime, you'll spot the a countdown timer on the right. In the words of Douglas Adams "Don't panic!"

Jess 

Home comforts and a tale of two airports.

We've been away this last week, and only one destination would do.  Yes, we've been living life in Vienna for a week. It was our first visit since May 2014, so we were really looking forward to experiencing the Viennese lifestyle, if only for a short time.

It wasn't all fun and games though, the main reason we booked the trip was to answer a few questions we had about living there, the most pressing of has to do with food.

Try as you might, it's a universal constant that the things you'll miss the most once you've moved, will be the comfort foods from home. For Jess , it's Twinning's English Breakfast tea from the UK. Twinning's do sell a English breakfast to the rest of the world, but it's blend is slightly different from the 

UK version. 

Lynda likes spicy foods, and the top of the tree for here is home made Nando's Peri-Peri chicken. This needs a bottle of marinade. The Austrians don't seem to like spicy foods in the same way, with many spicy foods seeming rather bland to our UK tastebuds. Finding these things in Vienna could be a challenge. Thank goodness for Bobby's. Bobby's is a Vienna institution and the home of lots of British and American foods. You'll find the store just a 5 minute walk from Karlsplatz station and a few steps from the Naschmarkt. Did they have what we wanted. Oh yes. With Tea sorted and the Peri Peri marinade found, we took around at the rest of the shop. It has everything from christmas puddings to PB&J in a jar and everything in between. birds custard brought a smile to our face and there's even British  style bacon and sausages in the freezer. Even popular beers are there. 

Having found the foods we'd miss, this move can really get going. 

A tale of two airports

The most common question we get asked when we say we're moving is "why Vienna?" Well, travelling home to the UK showed us why. An airport Is often a microcosm of the country you're visiting. That's why you can get a breakfast with a pint of larger at Cardiff airport! Anyway we had an early morning flight booked (the curse of a cheap ticket price) so, we left Vienna the day before to stay overnight at the airport hotel. Now travel to the airport is pretty cheap, around €6 from Wien Mitte on the regular S7 rail line. The journey time is about 20 mins. For a little more, you can use the City Airport Train or CAT express direct from Wien Mitte station. The trip is just 16 minutes but there aren't any stops. It also comes with the option of checking your bags in at the station if your flying certain airlines. So we checked the bags in after we left our apartment and spent the day looking around vienna one last time. The CAT station is really rather nice. The Green livery of the train is everywhere at the station, plus Wien Mitte offers you plenty of places to shop, bank and eat. At the airport, the Green theme continues with a beautifully looking platform, an escalator that leads you to the upper level. From there its just a gradual uphill ramp to the arrivals level of the Brilliant T3 Skylink terminal. Its all very nice. 

By mid afternoon, we left Vienna and checked in to the hotel at the airport, the rather nice NH Wien. Now as a rule, we try not to eat at the hotel. The food is often expensive, but more aptly, it's often a bit 'faffy'. The airport itself is just a short walk away, and there's more that a few places to eat. 

This is where the you begin to notice the differences. For most Europeans, the airport is something to be enjoyed whether your travelling or not. Vienna international offers tours, and observation deck and, hidden in the old Terminal two, was the World Market food stop. This little gem offers cheap food and drink as well as a huge window that overlooks the apron of the airport. You don't need to pass security to enjoy the view. 

There are other things that stand out to. There's a Billa supermarket in T1 and a rather nice Spar Gourmet in T3, plus a full size Billa in the grounds. So if you get home and need more than a few things to stock the fridge, it's covered. They're a great place to grab a bite too!

So Vienna International is a nice place to visit and fly from. Our Arrival at Heathrow was typically British. Our flight Arrived slightly early and thanks to the brand new T2 at Heathrow was brilliant. We were through passport control in the wink of an eye and at the baggage retrieval carousel. And there we stood, for 30 minutes. Amazingly, the brand spanking new T2's baggage system, Just for our flight by the way, broke. By the time we reached the arrivals area, we'd been on the ground for an hour. Still time to get some milk to make a very British cuppa later. Or not. Unlike Vienna, No supermarket was waiting to greet the weary traveller home. Instead, we had to make do with a WH Simths. For those of you not from the UK, WH Smith is a newsagent, bookstore and confectionary seller. At airports and train stations they offer very basic foodstuffs. Today however, no milk. Bare in mind this is a little before 09.30am. OK. No problem, as luck would have it, we had to leave T2 for T4. This meant having to use the Heathrow Express for a free transfer between terminals. Like the CAT, the Heathrow Express can whisk you into the city centre in under 15 minutes. It costs a lot more to travel from Heathrow to London Paddington then Vienna Airport to Vienna Mitte. The cheapest fare I could find was around £15 for a one way trip. Like for like, Vienna wins here. Further comparisons between the Heathrow Express and the CAT service prove unfavourable for the UK. The Station at Heathrow has none of the style of the CAT station. Admittedly, the station is much older, but still, its a rather drab and uninteresting place. Access to the platform is only via Lifts, and once you're on the platform, you see nothing but dull lighting tunnel walls. The transfer train arrives and we board. It's not pleasant. The seats look worn and dirty. Mine feels damp, like its been scrubbed or steamed clean. The results aren't inspiring. Fortunately, the journey is quick and we arrive a T4. Like the last station, there's no sense of style. Instead, as we make our way to the lifts, we're left to look at some unfinished looking tunnels. Laughably, someone has attempted to cover the drab concrete walls with what looks to be three white acrylic plastic sheets bolted to a wall here and there. There's not enough of it to make any impact though. Thank goodness we reach the surface and the hope of milk for that tea. Again though, there's only a WH Smith and no milk. We're two for two here. Arrivals halls at Heathrow feature little to entertain visitors or arriving passengers. The feel is very much 'Piss off'. Needing that milk, we try a hail Mary and head upstairs to departures. Its no use though. With the time reaching 10am, there's no milk in two terminals and we're getting annoyed. Defeated, we head back downstairs for the final leg of the journey, the bus back to our car.

The Bus goes from only one spot, and a nice chart that tells what buses go from where is located far away towards bus stop 13. Reaching it we see our bus goes from 3. Cursing under our breath, we head back, suitcases in tow to bus stop 3. Hurrah, there's a bus waiting and just 20 feet away, with a nicely dressed gentlemen in a suit in the lead ahead of us. Then the bastard bus driver, with us just feet away, pulls off. He saw us coming and yet, he chose to pull out rather than waiting 30 seconds for us to reach him. Its a further 15 minutes until the next bus arrives, featuring a bus driver that would make an Austrian waiter seem cheerful, sits, doesn't open the door or even offer to help with our bags.

In the end, it took two hours to get of the aircraft and reach our car, and all along our way, we met with the best of British hospitality and design. Depressing isn't it.

Happy New Year!

Ok, So its a bit late for an update, but with 2015 in full swing, its beginning to feel like thesis the year we'll actually move.

So whats been happening since my last post? The short answer is nothing. Or at least nothing that gets us closer to moving. That doesn't mean that we've stood still. We're still beavering away at learning German, Things are still being packed into boxes for use once we move, and above all, we've been running a few figures to see how much better or worse life could be for us in Vienna. More of that later. First though, Let's look at the German.

Language Confusion.

This summer, as a last hurrah for the summer holiday, we took a trip to Japan. The weather was a wee bit on the warm side and the food and culture just awesome, and all in all we enjoyed what was our last big holiday before moving. The thing is though, Even though we've been to Japan a few times before, Jess discovered a new problem. In the past, Jess spent some time learning Japanese. It's nothing fantastic, but enough to order food, drinks and ask where things are. However, this year she hit a new problem. Because she'd been learning German, parts of that language got mixed up with the Japanese. She found it very confusing. Where as a simple 'please' or 'O kudasai' was usual for Japanese, on more than one occasion she answered with 'Bitte' instead. She said it felt like her brain was in a panic, trying to find the correct response and it latched on to the first word in a foreign language she could find. 'Domo' would become 'Danke' without warning.
Lynda, already fluent in two languages, Welsh and English, didn't struggle to badly, although she occasionally has issues in Vienna with German as her head tends to go from English to Welsh, then french and then to German. The price of learning in Welsh I suppose. Either way, the holiday was enjoyed and to a certain extent the accidental German was useful. Especially as we were flying Lufthansa home.

A little eastern promise.

Living the good life.

As we've touched on in previous posts, Cuts to local government have meant less work for Lynda of late. So money has been in our minds throughout December. Now moving to another country is a scary process, and you'd have to be insane to not have the odd moment of doubt/freakout. Jess had one such moment this week. She was worried about the cost of living out in Vienna. Now there's a fantastic website called www.numbeo.com which happily lists the cost of living for cities all over the world. The figures are added by local people and as such, with enough data added, you can get a fair picture of the cost of living out in Vienna, or indeed any city. Reading the figures was a real eye opener. so we sat down and compared our current outgoings with known figures in Vienna, then we tried a like for like comparison. Wanna see the results? Of Course you do!

These are our average bills over the course of the year. We've only included the household bills as opposed to things like HP agreements because many of those will continue even after we've moved, thus not really changing anything.

Let's start with the easy bit.

RENT
Living in the Welsh valley's is fairly cheap, and the average rent on a three bedroom terrace house is around £450 per month. As it happens a friend has just rented such a property.

By contrast, rents in Vienna are a bit more, and for less. €650 will get you a fairly nice 60sqm 2 zimmer (One bedroom apartment) apartment. This is where it gets interesting though. Included in your €650 will usually be your water rates and what we call in the UK, Council tax.

The council tax is an extra £59.16 per month and water rates are an extra £50 per month. So now our UK home is actually costing £559.16 per month.

Over the Year the figures give us.

item PA.                                            Cost UK.                                  Cost Vienna. 

Council tax.                                       £710.                                       In rent
Water.                                                £600.                                       In rent
Rent.                                                 £5400.                                     €7800
                                                        ---------------------------------------------
                                                         £6710                                      €7800
                                                        (€8723)

Converting it to Euro's (@ €1.3 at time of writing) and things seem to be fairly good.

Transport

Transport is close to Jess's Heart. Through work, she sees an average of 15000 to 20000 miles a year. We joke that Jess see's more of the car than of our actual home. In fact, ditching the car is one of the main reasons to move.

So where does that put things. Well due to the mileage, Taxes and insurance, We spend £5500 a year for the pleasure of driving! Public transport isn't a solution as in many area's, buses stop at 6pm. Train services aren't much better, running at just one an hour after 7pm. In the Valley's, it really is a car or nothing.

Looking at Vienna though, and things get soon much better. Public transport is a dream, and since your in a city, cars aren't needed at all. So the cost of annual passes for Vienna are just €700 for the two of us. Needless to say, its a huge saving. Even venturing outside the city is cheap, and trains can be taken to Salzburg for example for as little as €38 each way for the two of us. Its a big plus for Vienna then.

Home Comforts.

With any home these days, we have to heat them, power them and of course, get the internet in. So looking at our bills here is a bit of an eye opener.

Starting with Gas and electricity. Well these were never going to be cheap. Our combined bill for the year comes to around £1600! Much of this has to do with the size of house we live in and the account holders reluctance to switch to direct debit. No taking the average in Vienna the bill falls to €1800. Its pretty much like for like with Vienna coming out slightly cheaper. Given we don't know what our actual consumption will be until we're there, the figures are likely to change.

Moving on to TV, Telephone and internet. No home is complete without any of these. Currently we're using Sky to provide all three. on our current packages the cost per month is £100 or £1200 for the year. Ok its on the higher end of things, but amazingly moving to sky broadband actually saved us money over using BT. In Vienna, The current big player is UPC (www.upc.at) Looking at they're pricing structure made our jaws drop. Cutting the cost in half to just €49 a month or just €720 a year was impressive. More so if you look at the internet speeds offered. Sky are currently pushing 20mb down and 1mb up here, basically a technological miracle. In contrast, UPC is offering 125mb down and 12.5mb up. And its not even they're fastest speed. Its a huge saving, and although the channels provided will be predominantly german language, somehow, it doesn't seem to matter (Jess is also a fan of Frauen Tauch on RTL 2)

The only spot where Vienna works our bad for TV's is the tv licence. The UK TV licence is £145.50 per year whilst the Austrian equivalent is somewhere around €300.

Food shopping 

Finally there's food shopping. on a quick calculation, our average food shop is around £40 a week. So we allowed for that to be £40 in both the uk and Vienna. So we spend around £2080 a year on groceries. looking for a more accurate gauge of things, we decided to do a direct comparison using Billa and Sainsbury's. So we hunted down a Billa promotional leaflet and set to work. The results were surprising.

Billa shop.                                                  Sainsburys 

Ham offer €5.99 kilo.                                  £10 kilo
Iglo 6 white fish fillets (400g) €5.49.           £4
Bacon €4.99 kilo.                                       £7.33
Crisps 150-175g €1.32.                             £1 on offer
Soup can 500g offer €1.66.                       £1.40                  
Pasta 500g offer  €1.06.                            £1.55
Iglo frozen veg mix offer 300-400g €1.99 £1.75
Can meals 400g €1.32.                             £1.80
Eggs free range 6 €2.59.                           £2.15
Cold meats 100g €0.99.                           £2 pack 100g
          €38.39.                                                 £32.98 (€42.87)

Its a little unscientific but Billa comes out slightly cheaper.

Totals

So what's the results. Take a look.

Food.                                                £2080.                                     €2080
Transport.                                         £5500(car).                              €730(public pass)
Gas.                                                  £800.                                      €1800 (both)
Electricity.                                         £800.                                       """""""""
Tv, broadband, phone.                     £1200.                                    €720
Tv license.                                        £145.50.                                 €300
                                                        £17,235.50.                            €13,430

By moving, our annual costs just on these few items drops dramatically, Just shy of saving £7000! Now much of that is down to a lack of car, but still the savings speak for themselves. Vienna will afford us a better quality of life and for a lot less than the equivalent UK lifestyle. Suddenly the moving isn't so scary at all.

Under 12 Months, Limbo...

So, In theory we should be celebrating the fact its now less than 12 months until we move. unfortunately, things are in limbo. The NHS is going to hold me up it seems. Add to that the world of Council cuts that has left the E3 program gutted (Budgets have been slashed by 90% for most schools), so work is a bit thin on the ground.

Right that's enough of that. let's get on with the fun stuff. Moving to Vienna is still happening, plans are in motion to pick up the slack and this week we had to pop to everyone's favourite Swedish superstore to pick up our third tub, packed ready for moving. However, the big news this month has been that we've been in Vienna. From the 7th to the 14th of May, we were in Vienna for work. We picked a new place to stay as we needed a 2 bed room apartment for Lynda's mother. So just off of the Ring, and behind the Rathaus, We had a gorgeous apartment that was home for a week. Now I need to add a few pics :)

First up, A return to one of Vienna, Cafe Central. It was Lynda's birthday on the Sunday so we headed out to Cafe Central for indulge in a typically Viennese dessert.

It had been a long weekend for me, so the Chocolate was needed. 

Lynda and her Mother, relaxing whist we wait for...

The Kaiserschmarrn or Shredded pancake with plum sauce or jam. It Was DEADLY. Meant to share, Lynda and I tucked in to the heavy pancakes. Seriously, there must have been 6 eggs in there. There was so much that Lynda took it back to the apartment and finished it for breakfast. 

Whist Food is an important part of the Austrian lifestyle, days out give a chance to explore. A cruise on the Danube is a very 'Touristy' thing to do, but Lynda's mother had only visited Vienna once and some how, during the whole trip, we missed almost every single thing to do in Vienna, including the Danube river. We only found Mariahilferstasse by accident. So onto the river we ventured. 

Drink in hand and the Danube for a backdrop, who could ask for anything more. 

After 3 and a half hours though, the three of us were so relaxed, we were virtually in a coma.

Shopping is certainly something I go in for, and it wasn't long until I hit up a Saturn Store. See.

I'm only slightly ogling those motherboards, honest. 

Finally though, and something that really drove home why we want to move, we went out for a stroll on Friday night and wandered across the road to the Rathaus. We were met by a young blonde girl handing out disposable rain poncho. Clearly, something was going on. Rounding the corner, We met a huge crowd stood around a stage set up in front of the Rathaus. There was a free concert happening. It was being Televised across Austria and Europe. The Concert was called, 'Europe Sings' and as the rain began to fall in the park, I melted away to the sound of live classical music from the stage. 

That one evening cemented Vienna in our hearts. From there we wandered up the Ring, Met a bicycle race along the way and ended up in Cafe Schwarzenberg before heading back to the apartment.

so that's how we spent part of May. We saw lots of other things, A great show at the English Theatre, The Zoo at Schonbrunn and Lynda and her mother even visited Mayerling whist I was working up in Uno city. I'm already missing Vienna and it'll be Christmas before we're back again. Summer we'll be off to Japan, But I'll be thinking about Vienna. 

13 months to go - Best laid plans gone arwy.

So it's the 13 month mark and next month, on the 12 month mark, we'll actually be in Vienna for work. I'm covering the Vatsim worldwide conference taking place at 'The Stage' near uno city. However, whilst next month brings Sachertorte and schnitzel, this month brings about disarray.

Uncertainty rules. 

First up, E3. A few months back, I mentioned problems that could turn up at Lynda's work. Here's a quick recap. Lynda has her own business working in schools and youth clubs. She teaches teenagers new skills that aren't available during the normal school day. Well, thanks to huge deficits run by the council, a whooping £70m hole in the budget, and cut from London and Cardiff, things are not looking good. We were concerned that the whole E3 program could be scrapped. It hasn't been scrapped, but it has been reworked. Cuts have come thick and fast and for the final block of the year, work is looking scarce. Originally, we had a back up plan of leaving the country early for Vienna. However, given the difficulty of starting a new life premeturely, we have been forced to think again. 

Secondly, and another great reason for not leaving this coming May, is that I've developed a medical issue. It's nothing serious, but I'm now waiting to see a specialist to help get it sorted. Now its fair to say that the NHS doesn't move swiftly, and this is no exception. I've been told I could expect an appointment between 6 months and a year from now! As you can imagine, this has thrown the cat amoungst the pidgeons. Given I could be seeing a doctor around March next year, plans may change. 

At the moment, we're crossing our fingers for an early appointment, but truth is, it may be the end of 2015 before we can move.   

Best wishes,

Jess 

14 Months to go! - Bargains and must haves

Its 14 months to go, and we've had a bit of an emergency this month. I'll get to that later. For now though, we've been packing. Yes that's right, we've just packed the first box of many, 14 months in advance. Ok, it's not as bad as it sounds. Because we've moving from a shared home, we're short on a few things. Items like towels, kichen bits and bobs and various other things are going to be needed after we move. With that in mind, the post Christmas sales have been plundered for a few great bargains. A set of nice towels we the most recent purchase and, with a. Small pile forming on our coffee table, we figured we'd need a box to keep things in. So off to ikea for a cheap plastic tub and lid we went. 

The trip did more harm than good. Whist the box of brand new homewares is sitting just waiting for a home, we found that Ikea was discontinuing a few items of furniture. Now when we decided to move, for fun we went to ikea, both here and in Vienna and Innsbruck, to do a bit of fantasy shopping. We picked out several things, including the very nice, and very comfortable Ektorp sofa, for example. We did struggle with a good tv unit. However, the Ikea Expedit range introduced a great looking unit that fitted in with two other items from the Expedit range. Now for those who aren't familiar with it, the Expedit range has been an ikea staple for many years. However, whist we were shopping, we caught sight of the tv unit, complete with yellow 'Now or Never' ticket. Panic stations. 

Reaching home confirmed the worst. The Expedit range was being discontinued. The online outrage was tempered a little by the news that the range would return restyled with slimmer sides and slightly rounded corners. That's all we knew though, and with the spectre of losing our tv unit (from what we knew of the new range, the tv unit may not be remade.) we took the plunge and ordered the unit, a 5 by 5 box shelf unit and a seperate smaller unit a whole 14 months early. It does present a few problems. For one, the seven boxes have to go somewhere, and we won't know until we go to build the units next year if they're all intact. Still, it makes life interesting. The new stuff isn't due until next month (the tv unit is popular and has been delayed apparently). 

Until then, we're still battling on with Rosetta Stone, slowly closing in on the end of the first level. Plus, come the first week of May, we're off to Vienna for work and a short break. 

Jess B

10 reasons we love Vienna

Ok, so the title of the post says it all, or at least some. Coming from a small Welsh town, in the heart of South Wales, you live a very sheltered life. Whist we only love some 30 miles from our capital city, we may as well be in the middle of nowhere. So coming to Vienna, its not long until you notice the various different things the Viennese do compared to the Welsh and British. Here are 10 little things we've noticed during our stays in the Austrian capital. 

1. Coffee shops. 

Perhaps one of the most well known things about Vienna, is its coffee houses. This is a city that runs on coffee, but not necessary on caffeine. Take Vancouver in Canada for instance. There you'll find coffee shops littering the street like a rash. Starbucks as far as the eye can see. The city is addicted to caffeine. Its a recognised excuse in Canada that your late for work due to the line at the coffee shop. I've even seen coffee shops set up in a companies foyer for the workforce to enjoy a hot cup of Joe. It's a frantic but laid back life the average Vancouverite enjoys. 

By comparison, the Viennese coffee shops are slow, studious affairs. Whilst its true that a cup of Viennese espresso will keep you awake for days, the atmosphere of a typical coffeehouse is relaxed. Here you can come and enjoy a single cup of coffee, open a book and sit all day. It's not just coffee on the menu though. They often serve several varieties of tea, soft drinks and beer. Then there are cocktails, both non alcoholic and full on booze. If your hungry, there's often a bewildering assortment of cakes and pastries to tempt the sweet toothed diner. For something more savoury, there's usually a goulash soup, a schnitzel and other such Viennese delicacies. 

Come evening time, a coffee house is a great place to relax. Enjoy a beer, a meal and a coffee whist a piano player plays in the corner. Most coffee houses I've been to can stay open until midnight, with food still being available until 11pm. It's all a far cry from Wales, where coffee shops shut early, often by 7 in the evening. 

2. Going to the dogs 

One of the oddest things we noticed on our first trip, were dogs. We're not talking strays either. Nope the Viennese love dogs. Ok so there's nothing wrong with that, but that's not the whole story. The first time we took note of the dogs was at a supermarket. The dog and its owner were doing the weekly shop, and unlike the UK, this was fine. In fact, dogs on leads seem to have free reign around the place. Shops, restaurants and cafe's are all dog friendly. Given that here you can't get a dog into a shop unless your blind, it was quite shocking to see dogs wandering the aisles with thier owners. I like it. 

3. Followers of fashion. 

Uk dress sense is often a weird mix of skin exposing clothing tied with very conservative colours and patterns. In vienna though, colour is everything, and more so for the men that the women. Bright red or  bright mustard coloured trousers are popular with the men along with a nice jacket or shirt. For women, everything from neon colours through to bold patterns can be seen, especially on a Saturday night after the theatre or opera have finished. Compared to the jogging bottoms and hoodie seen in the valleys, Vienna is a veritable cornucopia of style.

4. Hello, goodbye. 

Lets face it, as a nation, we don't really make eye contact. Social interaction is kept to a minimum when out and about. So when we first got to vienna for a break, we were surprised to find everyone we met greeting us with Grüß Gott or god be with you, as a polite hello. Leaving a shop often invited a Tschuss or, bye. It seems the Austrian's and the Viennese like to feel connected to those they meet. It's very similar to the 'have a nice day' tradition American's have, but a little less false sounding. 

5. Saturday nights are right for tea drinking 

If there's one thing a great deal of British people worry about, it's going out on a Saturday night. To much beer, a bag of chips, being sick after the chips and finally, a good fight, is what makes many town centres no go area's on the weekend. So imagine my surprise on the first Saturday night out I spent in Vienna. We called in to a cafe, sat out on the terrace and watched the world go by. Other people were enjoying a drink and a bit of polite conversation. Come eleven o clock, an old lady, somewhere around 80 wandered into the cafe, ordered a coffee and cake. We paid the bill, caught the 11.30 tram home, which was quiet, and that was Saturday night. Now I'm not saying it's always like that, and we did see several expensive cars parading around the ring, showing off. Compared to a valley's Saturday night though, trouble was minimal. 

6. No takeaways?

So, it's been a long week and you don't want to cook. In Wales, you thumb through the selection of menus by the phone and order a Chinese, Indian or pizza. In every town or village, there'll be at least a fish and chip shop or Chinese. In Vienna though, things are different. On and off we've spent over two months living in vienna, and we've yet to find a Chinese, or and Indian that you can get delivered to your apartment. There are plenty of proper restaurants that will make food to go, but no British style takeaways. There's plenty of street food, from the traditional sausage stand, to the rather nice noodle box places (noodle boxes are cheap but very filling). As for pizza delivery, why bother. Pizza is available by the slice almost everywhere and companies like dominoes simply don't exist there. Things are changing, although one of the first companies looking to offer takeaway food for home delivery is McDonalds of all companies. For oriental food, Akakiko also offers home delivery, and they make some of the best Asian food around. 

7. Beer me!

We've already touched on the lack of drunks on a Saturday. Much of this is down to the Austrian drinking culture. Its nothing to have a beer with lunch, or a early afternoon tipple. Moderation is key in Vienna. It's seen as a great shame if you overindulge with the booze. Often a group will order bottles of wine along with the same amount of mineral water. It's brilliant to feel that you can have that drink with lunch if you want. Just remember to keep it under control. 

8. Smoking

Ok, it's hard to not mention the Austrians love of Cigarettes. Unlike other countries, Austria is rather resistant to change when it comes to smoking. It's not to bad these days as most cafés and restaurants have separate smoking and non smoking area's with a glass wall protecting the non smokers. But smoking is still seen as an ok thing to enjoy. 

9. On time public transport.

This is something that will make no sense to anyone from the UK. We first noticed it when visiting the SCS mall in Vösendorf. The free bus that takes people back and forth to the U6 station runs on time, every time. The first one we missed by two minutes (an acceptable amount of time to still be on time here I the UK.) So for the next one, we came to the stop early. The bus was due to arrive at 52 minutes past the hour. At 51 minutes past, there was no sign of the bus, and we were certain it would arrive late. However, as the clock turned 52 past, the bus rounded the corner and was at the stop. It could have been a one off, but after several visits to Vösendorf, that bus turns up dead on time, every time. The same goes for trains, U-Bahn and even trams, although trams can be delayed by parked cars on some lines. Given that a train here in Wales is considered on time if it arrives within 10 minutes, Viennese transport timings are the things of wonder. 

10. Food seasonings.

This is one of my personal favourites. The Austrians like to taste their food, and are really not scared to season. They aren't fans of chilli though. We used a packet sauce to make a batch of chilli con carne last time we were in the capital. The result wasn't that spicy, but it was certainly full of flavour. We got heartburn halfway though the meal. Similar experiences come from tinned soup. Whist a tin of Heinz soup in the UK needs a bit of salt and pepper, Austrian Goulash soup needs no salt at all. It's refreshing to be able to taste food, but the poor salt and pepper shaker is seldom used at our table and I have to wonder if high blood pressure is common in Austria.