So let's do a short recap here, shall we? After all, I fancy 4 weeks to offer more than enough learning opportunities for someone like me. ;-)
Feats accomplished and lessons learned so far are:
1) driving without a "Pickerl" (= toll vignette) on Austrian highways amounts to a fine of at least 120 EUR, my dear friends. And that's the case when they pull you over and you're able to settle the fine on the spot. In case you don't have enough cash with you, the fine will increase severely - ranging from 300 to 3000 EUR. So next time I'm on my way with a rental car lacking that much-needed Pickerl, I'll make sure to use the (later discovered) "evade toll roads" feature on the GPS.
2) I hiked up my first mountain (note: not one of the city's hills) around here 10 days ago in splendid, crips winter weather - only to be blinded by all the glistening snow and the blazing sun at the top. Consequentially, I now possess a pair of high altitude sun glasses - with that in store, I hope to be able to fully enjoy my next mountain explorations. ;-)
3) Learning a new dialect is lots of fun. Especially when you are confronted with so many twists and turns in regards to grammar, neologisms (or just filling syllables without a real meaning, like aga, ibi or the like?) and, most of all, PRONUNCIATION. After having been officially "granted" permission to continue speaking high German by my colleagues (a hard-earned honor), I was more than once asked just how I would manage to understand most of what is being said around here. To which I usually reply "Pardon?". They mostly get it. ;-) Honestly though, I don't have a clue what people are talking about most of the time but I try to just give very intelligent answers. BTW, the smart reader will be able to tell fact and fancy in my ramblings apart. :-P
4) Food is a whole topic for itself. Keeping the fact aside that my grammar is getting totally messed up by various uses of articles, genders (I used to look at yogurt as something masculine, but it got neutered by now) and, most of all, propositions (ah, the intricate use of propositions!), THERE are much more examples of terms that did get me thinking. Take for instance, something very simple - sausages. In Germany, we would call a thin, long pork sausage a "Wiener", whereas over here it's called the "Frankfurter". Anglophiles will be able to understand the thing without a doubt, but for me the question remains: if Germans regard it as an Austrian thing and Austrians put the blame for inventing that delicacy (?) on the Germans, then WHO really was there first - or, why would no one step up and claim intellectual property for it instead of rejecting it? Puzzling... and if you add to that the whole mess with the English use of "franks" vs. "wieners" (I won't delve into G- and R-rated subtleties right here), you might get the picture.
5) Learning new moves - be it Qi Gong or Pilates during the weekly company fitness program (oh yeah!!!), jogging during weekends, hiking up mountains or dancing Salsa with a couple of new colleagues - there are plenty of opportunities for me to stay in shape. Add to that the fact that I just signed up for the Austrian Alpine Club and I'm certain that there's no cause for dull weekends. And if all goes well, I'll even find nice swimming club to continue my aquatic workouts - the only drawback to that is the fact that there's only one pool in the whole of Salzburg at the moment. Let's see if it works out nonetheless...
6) Exploring the real estate market of Salzburg. Quick summary? Oh my! Like in every other attractive city, you can get everything from rat hole to palaces, for ridiculous prices - the latter one in both directions! So even though I have only seen half a dozen of flats yet, I'm starting to get a picture of what I could get here for my pre-determined maximum rental fee. Currently, things are looking very good for a nice flat that I inspected yesterday. So keep your fingers crossed for me, please! Otherwise, I still have 2 months to go, but it would be all the better if I could manage this rather soon than late. After all, it would save me a lot of time to go and see other flats - time that could be invested into more joyful explorations (see above point). :-)
7) Last, but not least at all - my most daring feat of the week so far: I finally got officially registered here, after, uhm, a number of weeks of persevering in a ghost-like status in between EU residencies. Btw, there's still a catch with the whole issue, but I won't delve into that here and just hope that time will solve that issue. Anyway, I'll soon have a new account here AND hence be able to activate my mobile modem. Yeah! :-)
Well then, I'll be off for now...
Hanna
P.S.: Geduld, die deutsche Übersetzung folgt bald!!! ;-)
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