As spring arrives, Vienna changes entirely. Flowers take over the town from street intersections, to parks, to buildings’ balconies and windows. It feels as a colour explosion after a most grey and long winter. It all starts with a famous wind around here locally named Föhn. It’s a dry and warm wind that in less than 24 hours strips you of the winter jacket and warm pullover to a t-shirt and a flimsy jacket.

What’s interesting about this wind is the supernatural powers associated with it by Austrians as well as others in the Alps region. They say this wind makes people do crazy things. The phenomenon is called Föhnkrankheit in German (Föhn sickness) and it is manifested by illnesses ranging from migraines to psychosis. During this wind, studies say mortality due to suicides and accidents grows by 10%. On aspirin derived preparations you can find sometimes in the prospect that it is indicated for Föhnkrankheit.

Soon after the wind, coffee shops, bars and restaurants pull out their tables on the streets, parks are full of students shedding their sickly paleness and together with the slight tan, the entire population becomes happier. You can see smiling people all over the town, babies learning how to walk, children riding a bicycle for the first time, young people enjoying a coffee, a beer or a wine splash out in the sun, happy to be wearing their sunglasses for the first time.

Two weeks ago there was a festival in front of the Municipality and i would like to tell you a little about it. It was organised by the Steiermark region, also known as Styria, the green heart of Austria. The festival’s name was The Steiermark Spring. What happens there? This region takes over the square in front of the Municipality and shows the world the best they have.

Folk music specific to the region, the wines they are so proud about, their beer, their food and most of all their hospitality and good humour. I was pleasantly surprised by all of it. Not just the perfect organisation of the event, that is the norm here in Vienna, but the way in which the Viennese and tourists enjoyed the feast.

There were a lot of tourists because the weekend coincided with the Vienna Marathon with over 50000 participants. As me, they were very happy about everything but i would like to give special mention to the Austrians present. Vienna is home to many nationalities, one prouder than the other but in the same manner it is home to Austrians from all its regions, all very proud of where they come from.

I enjoyed seeing how much they cared for their traditions and how glad they were for the opportunity to show off (in a nice way) and represent their region. I saw a lot of men dressed in leather shorts specific to the Alps, the so called Lederhosen and women wearing green skirts with flowered aprons and white linen shirts.

Everybody was singing around me, wine and beer were flowing endlessly, pretzels and ham sandwiches with horse-raddish were being eating.

Styrians are famous for the pumpkin oil sold all over Austria as a delicacy and believe me it is awesome when poured over an omelette, for their region’s specific wines like Welschriesling, Weißburgunder, Morillon, Traminer and Schilcher.

The region’s capital city is Graz, aparently very similar to Sibiu in Romania. It was the only city holding the title of European Cultural Capital in 2003 and twice was the imperial capital. They say about Graz that they are famous for the enjoyable tendency to idleness. Sounds a lot like Transylvanians. This is the region’s English version website for more details. I will travel there this weekend and will come back with my own impressions.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Enjoyed this article? Subscribe to the full RSS Feed