Austria is not Czech

For some reason I thought Austria would be a bit like Czech. It is so close to the Czech Republic I figured it would be similar. I was wrong.

Austria is more German than Czech. Except things are cheaper and they have Sushi! Caviar! Sandwiches! and best of all, when I ordered an Espresso, it came with a... straw!

I used to drink my coffee with a straw at work, which caused at least one person to comment on it. So I laughed out loud when I got my Espresso in a paper cup to go, with a sip lid on top and then just before giving it to me, the clerk added the straw... Perhaps I am part-Austrian.

Except I jay-walk. If you are walking along an empty street and the short cross street is also empty, but there is the little red man shining at you - do you cross? Austrians don't (or at least did not in the entire one day of research that I did on this topic). The nearest car might be 5 minutes away, but in a crowd of 20 people they all were waiting. I bravely did my own thing at first. Then I later stopped doing it and waited too. Mostly so I could smugly and hoity-toitily laugh secretly at the tourist who would step into the completely safe intersection in front of the crowd.

Austria was very Christmasy so they had many stands selling Punsch: some sort of hot orange cider or wine.

In fact after the cider, I updated my blog with stories similar to these: My reflexes were affected however and I was rudely disconnected/ran out of time before I could post the update and lost my work. I know, I am such a whiner.