[Story/ Experience Share] Vienna, Austria || What surprised me when I just got there? What should I aware of?
|| Vienna, Austria ||
What surprised me when I just got there? What should I aware of?
Before we start the story, allow me to share some background knowledge about the situation. I visited Vienna in February 2020. It was a cold cold winter. I was here for being an exchange student in Wels. The reason why I was in Vienna was that first, they had a straight flight from Taipei to Vienna which was convenient for me. The second was I had a friend who works here and it was the perfect opportunity to hang out with her again !!
Still remembered my flight from Taipei arrive at Vienna international airport in the early morning on Sunday. First, I took the train and walked to my hotel then leave my luggage there, waiting for my friend to catch me up at a cafe. After that, we visited some tourist spots and had a really nice lunch and snacks during the evening. Everything was great and the view was amazing. After dinner, before I headed back to the hotel room, we spent some time in the supermarket. For me, I just wanted to grab some drinks and food for the next day on the train.
When we walked in, soon I noticed that some sections in the supermarket were covered by a blanket. I had no idea what's going on, never meet things before like this. I was surprised. At the moment, the only reason I thought of is maybe the supermarket was running out of some products and they couldn't get ready on Sunday. However, the true reason was that the supermarket in Austria usually closed on Sunday, except for the one in a big city or at the train station, Because there will be lots of tourists who need something from it. According to what my friend told me, Sunday is which call "Family Day". Usually, people spend their time with family at home. So that's why all the supermarkets closed on Sunday in Austria.
It is a fun fact for me at that time to know all the supermarkets in Austria closed on Sunday. However, after a week I spend in Austria, I now seriously know how important to know the schedule of the supermarket in Austria. The university I went to is located in a city called "Wels". It takes you around 100 mins from Wels to Vienna. It is a small town in the countryside. All the stories are within walking distance.
The dorm I stay had to cook my own food during weekends. On the first weekend, I was kind of starving at noon. So I decided to shop in the supermarket. BUT, after I arrived at the market, I realized that it was Sunday today and it was closed. And at the place where I stay, on Sunday, most of the stories were closed. The only shop open were the vendors on street, to sold ice cream and pizza. The last thing I could do after all this was to ask my roommate for some food.
After getting the experience, every Saturday morning become my shopping day of the week. No matter how busy I am, I will go and do the grocery. For the tourist or person who plans to visit Austria for work or study, please keep this in your mind and never forget it.
Do grocery before Sunday, or otherwise, you will starve.
One more cool thing that I want to share is about the weather. We know that in Taiwan, the coldest winter the temperature gonna drop to 5-6 degrees. However, in Austria, at night the average temperature is around -5 to 2 degrees. So my friend told me that, if you had something to freeze, just leave it out there, for example, coke, beer, milk...etc. You got more space and it is kind of more environmentally friendly.
So here are my drinks on the balcony during the night
The last thing, these are the snacks from my dear friend!!
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