This is a fear that has been going around and around in my head for about eight months now. Will I regret relocating to Austria?
The fear has been planted by other expats. Every single one that I have met that have been here for an extended period of time aren’t happy about being here. When I ask how long they’ve been in Vienna, they make a face, roll their eyes, or grimace as if in pain. Then they mutter the years of their lives that they have spent in Vienna.
Chills go down my spine as I see this routine. Will this be my fate over the next few years? Will I inherit the bitterness that I see? Is this from being an expat, or is this the famous Viennese crankiness that is the influence?
Is being an expat a sentence to living in a gilded cage? (Vienna is so gilded that one cannot explain it any other way). Gilded cage or no, it’s still made out of iron bars. Is the door of my cage closing, and I don’t even realize it, or will I manage to fly free and find my happiness in this city?
I’d vote for crankiness. As you make your bed, so you must lie on it.
It’s always easier to blame the city you are in, the people, the circumstances… A lot of expats (here and elsewhere) are totally spoilt and cranky and although they often believe they would be happier “at home” they aren’t necessarily.
It’s what you make of your life, travels, expatriation… it’s up to you.
Brilliant comment Sandra.
good article, I fear that i will become as bitter as the Viennese people and ive felt a change in me, not positive but what i try to do is just keep thinking positively and surround myself with positive and fun people.
If you would stay at home you might have more regrets of the things you`re not doing so “youre damned if you do, you`re damned if you dont”
You should look at what you have, not what you dont have. Thats the problem with us, we always look at the things we dont have. We want it all. We need to make the best of our situation, be thankful for what we have and try to enjoy our time and life
I have the same fear Anna. I don’t want to be crabby like the Viennese. We’ll just have to keep working at it
hi!
first: i think you meet/ask the wrong people
)
2nd: i am more or less genuine Viennese (parts of the last 5 generations on mother- & father-side are from Vienna
)) i guess i can give you some info about viennese thinking from my view:
as you might know, Viennese always try to avoid aggressiveness and confrontations – this is where the they use the “Wiener Charme” to work arround (I guess this is one reason why Vienna is quite nonviolent compared to other cites.) they always like to talk it out at a Heurigen or Kaffeehaus (or compensate it with crankiness).
)
the crankiness is mainly a protection for the Viennese – if you expect the worst you got a good chance of being positively surprised. the crankiness is on the outside – mostly but not on the inside! and with the right ‘Schmäh’ you usually can see the inside
Also business is done not in office, but on a small table at the
Heurigen. As Metternich said “Der Balkan beginnt am Rennweg”! that
might also be the reason why one can bargain for mostly everything in Vienna – if you know how
And sometimes it is just some kind of mental relaxing, if you don’t have to be always happy.
this are very general views! of course there are a lot of different, nice and unnice, people in vienna, but you can find this “melange” everywhere …
PS: most expats I know, are quiet happy here – they adopted (parts of) the the viennese-lifestyle, which works quiet well (as ‘viennese’ is a mixture of a lot of cultures & lifestyles
)
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