{"id":4400,"date":"2017-12-05T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-09-12T15:03:46","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T19:03:46","slug":"so-your-character-is-from-austria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victoriagracehowell.com\/staging\/6258\/so-your-character-is-from-austria\/","title":{"rendered":"So Your Character is From Austria … Featuring Becca @ The Punk Theory, Anna @ My Bookish Dream, & Kat @ Life and Other Disasters"},"content":{"rendered":"


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<\/span> It’s time for this week’s So Your Character is … Post! This is a weekly segment where I interview lovely volunteers from around the world to give you a firsthand account of being a citizen of their respective country or having a disability. I’m hoping to encourage international diversity, break stereotypes, and give writers a crash course on how to write a character from these different places on our planet. If you haven’t checked out last week’s  So Your Character is from Brunei … be sure to hop on over there and give it a read!<\/span>
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<\/span> Disclaimer: The content below may be culturally shocking to some. Each of these posts are as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.<\/span>
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\nMy name is Becca, I am 22 years old. I live in Austria. Originally from Tyrol (in the western part, with lots of mountains and nature), I moved to Vienna (the capital, in the east) to study here. Currently, I\u2019m working on getting my Master degree in communication science.<\/span>
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\nMy hobbies include yoga, bouldering, surfing, snowboarding, but also sewing, baking, and crochet. In my blog ThePunkTheory.wordpress.com I talk about my love for books, movies, and TV shows.<\/span>
\nBlog<\/a>\/\/Facebook<\/a>\/\/Twitter<\/a>\/\/Instagram<\/a>\/\/Goodreads<\/a>\/\/Tumblr<\/a>\/\/BlogLovin’<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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My name is Anna and I\u2019m 21 years old. I moved to Austria three years ago and have ever since then lived in Vienna, which is the capital city. I\u2019m currently studying Art History at the<\/span>
\nUniversity of Vienna. I love reading, it\u2019s been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember, aside from that I love art, painting and going to museums. I also enjoy watching anime, tv shows and listening to music.<\/span>
\nBlog<\/a>\/\/Twitter<\/a>\/\/Goodreads<\/a>\/\/Tumblr<\/a><\/span>
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<\/span> My name is Kat, short for Katja, and I am 23-year-old born and raised in Vienna, capital of Austria. That\u2019s also what my part of the questionnaire will focus on, because I didn\u2019t feel equipped to talk about my country as a whole. I am a former film student, aspiring writer, and book blogger obsessed with all things pop culture. Currently, I am on a gap year, trying to figure out where I want my life to go and also where I want to live in the future. <\/span>
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<\/b><\/span> What do you feel is unique to your country? Landmarks? Celebrations?<\/b><\/span>
\nBecca: <\/b>One special thing about Austria is that it has so many different things to offer. We have it all, from mountains with skiing areas and little villages to big cities like Vienna. Within just two or three hours you can get a complete change of scenery. <\/span>
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<\/span> When it comes to celebrations, Austria definitely has some weird stuff to offer. For example in December St. Nicholas is accompanied by the Krampus, some sort of Demon who whips up the bad kids. There are traditional runs of several Krampus clubs doing performances!<\/span>
\nAnother weird one is Perchten. You might compare it to Halloween, as you dress up (preferable as some old hag with a mask on) and go from house to house. As a kid you may get sweets and a little bit of money, the adults usually get Schnaps (a traditional Austrian shot).<\/span>
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Anna: <\/b>Austria has many castles and palaces, for example, Schonbrunn Palace, Hohensalzburg Castle, Hofburg Imperial Palace, Belvedere and much more. St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna is at the center of the city and is considered one of the most important churches. The celebrations that I feel is unique is the Oktoberfest, which actually happens during September despite its name. The other celebrations that I know of are Christian holidays, so they aren\u2019t really unique.<\/span>
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Hohensalzburg Castle<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
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Hofburg Imperial Palace<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Kat: <\/b>Vienna is mostly known for its culture, having been a sort of European hub for centuries due to its quite central location. It allowed the city integrate a lot of influences from other countries over the years. I personally really enjoy the Vienna downtown area. It has everything from gorgeous churches, opera houses, former imperial residences, and lovely small cobblestone side streets.<\/span>
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\nAs far as celebrations go, Vienna is known for some pretty big yearly events such as the <\/span>
\nOpera Ball (society highlight of the carnival season), the Life Ball (Europe\u2019s biggest charity event supporting people with HIV or AIDS) or the Danube Island music festival (an open-air concert spanning up to three days completely free of charge). They tend to attract big crowds and media coverage from all over the world. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The image shows St. Stephen\u2019s Cathedral or as locals would lovingly call it the \u201cSteffl\u201d<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\nTell me about your country’s environment. What are some of your favorite places?<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

Becca: <\/b>When I\u2019m in Tyrol, I just have to step outside to enjoy the nature. There are many remote places to sit down and relax. In Ziller Valley, where I originally come from you can do everything from snowboarding to hiking or climbing. So whenever I have holidays I head for Tyrol to be in nature.<\/span>
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<\/span> But even in Vienna, you can find many green spots. You wouldn\u2019t expect it from a city this big, but there are numerous parks. My favorite one is the park surrounding Sch\u00f6nbrunn castle. When the weather is nice I spend hours strolling around there!<\/span>
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Anna: <\/b>I haven\u2019t actually visited that many places outside of Vienna, though I hope to do that in the future. But what I have seen from the countryside, while traveling, was simply beautiful. <\/span>The nature is stunning and just calls you to explore it. My favorite places in Vienna are the many beautiful parks, the Museumsquartier, Sch\u00f6nbrunn Palace, and I love spending time near the Donau.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Sch\u00f6nbrunn Palace<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Kat: <\/b>Vienna has been known to rank very high in quality of life studies. There is great public transport as well as many green spaces and parks all throughout the city. I am not sure I really have a favorite place to hang out though, mostly I just like wandering around, because I often feel like I am still discovering new aspects to my own hometown. <\/span>
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\nTell me about your country’s food. What are some of your favorite dishes?<\/b>
\nBecca: <\/b>Well, most of the typical dishes are either super greasy and heavy or extremely sweet. The most famous main course is the Wiener Schnitzel. Research among my friends shows that almost every household eats Schnitzel on Sundays, there\u2019s no way around that.<\/span>
\nHowever, what I prefer more are the Austrian dessert. Sacher cake is a dream coated in chocolate and easily one of the best cakes in the world. Austrians also have a thing for puff pastry, the most famous version of that being Apple Strudel.<\/span>
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Anna: <\/b>My favorite savory traditional Austrian food is Wiener Schnitzel. It\u2019s definitely the staple food and one you can find everywhere. I have a big sweet tooth and cakes are something I adore eating. Two traditional Austrian cakes that I love eating are the Sachertorte and the Linzertorte. They are both my favorites, even though they are quite different from each other.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Wiener Schnitzel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Kat: <\/b>Austria\u2019s cuisine can go both ways \u2013 either be very savory or very sweet. For one there is the infamous Vienna Schnitzel, which is breaded and pan-fried cutlet of veal (that last part is important if it\u2019s not <\/span>veal, it\u2019s not a Viennese Schnitzel) or Tafelspitz, boiled veal or beef in broth served with horseradish. But if you look at the sweeter side, I would definitely recommend Kaiserschmarrn (Emperor\u2019s mess), a kind of shredded pancake, or Sachertorte, a special chocolate cake made at the hotel Sacher \u2013 its recipe being a secret still.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Kaiserschmarrn<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Tell me about any different speech patterns in your country. Slang? Idioms? Words for things such as \u201cbiscuits\u201d instead of \u201ccookies\u201d?<\/b>
\nBecca: <\/b>In Austria, we speak \u201cGerman\u201d or so they say. To be honest, no German is able to understand us. Especially in the western part of the country (like in Tyrol) the accents are VERY strong and not even the other Austrians are able to understand us. But apart from that, we have some general words that are different from German: for example, a T\u00fcte is a Sackerl (Bag), a Kartoffel is an Erd\u00e4pfel (potato), Sahne is Schlag (cream). <\/span>
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<\/span> Anna: <\/b>This is a question that I don\u2019t feel I can answer properly. First of all, the official language of Austria is German (which is not my first language). And I do know that Austrian German has quite a lot of slang words, but I don\u2019t know any of them.<\/span>
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<\/span> Kat: <\/b>Upfront, I want to say that there is no such thing as an \u201cAustrian\u201d language. We may have different accents or dialects, but what we speak is still proper German. However, we do have different terms for words compared to the Germans. Here a couple examples: a prune is a \u201cZwetschke\u201d in Austria and a \u201cPflaume\u201d in Germany. A tomato is a \u201cParadeiser\u201d in Austria and a \u201cTomate\u201d in Germany or potatoes being \u201cKartoffel\u201d in Austria but \u201cErd\u00e4pfel\u201d in Germany. You see, it\u2019s mostly food-related. <\/span>
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