More about Austria

Here's a funny thing: Austrians don't talk to one another--much. I was just in a supermarket for a few minutes and the whole time the only conversation I heard was a few words between a customer and the meat guy. That's it. Lining up at the cash with three or four other customers and the cashier, no words were exchanged. Nothing other than the cashier stating the total owing. This would not happen in Mexico. Walking into the store, if you passed someone greetings might be exchanged and certainly people would be talking to one another throughout the store and absolutely the cashier would greet you as you stepped up and say a farewell as you left. This is normal. But in Austria it would, apparently, be unusual.

People accuse Mexicans of not being readers and this is true--at least you never see anyone reading anything, even a newspaper, in public. And certainly not an actual book. But they do constantly chat with one another. And if you pass a stranger in the street away from the center of town, you certainly say hello. If you walk into a restaurant you will certainly be greeted--by name if you are a regular. But Austrians are a taciturn lot.

The water however is fantastic: some of the purest water on earth, it comes right from glacial melt. All the lakes are pure and full of fish that are good to eat. Quite a contrast from Mexico which has one rather polluted lake and one little river in the south. Yes, where I live there is something we call a river, but as nearly all the year it consists of about two inches of barely moving water, I hardly think it counts.

And Austrian bathrooms are mostly really good. Modern, high-tech facilities. And no hunting for light switches--you walk in, the lights go on. Just like escalators. They start moving as soon as you approach.

And for lunch you can have a really big sausage:

That's a bratwurst with fried potatoes and onion mustard