If you have no intentions of living here - skip this blog - you will probably find it very boring...
Ok, let's start.
This will be all over the place with a lot of rambling and as i think of things they will simply be put "on paper".
Things about Salzburg -
Firstly- please don't ASSUME people speak english. You live in a german speaking country. Have some respect and ask them first 'do you speak english', or try to say it in your best german. I don't appreciate people back home cracking out their best mandarin on me and assuming i speak it back.
I am really surprised at how many people don't speak English.
In Vienna - everyone speaks english. Here, not so much. All the 'younger' people do as it's mandatory in school... but there is no doubt it is an older generation here.
Lederhosen and Dirndl (the male and female traditional dress) is completely normal attire. People here wear it to work, the office, on weekends, because they feel like it, it's raining, it's sunny - it's really weird, funny and amusing, but i love the tradition of it. Apparently it has come back into fashion over the last few years, so it's cool for the younger generation to wear it.
Don't you DARE cross at the traffic lights unless it is a green man flashing. Everyone stands there with no cars in sight until the man goes green... you will be 'tut tutted' by everyone if you break the rules... weird.
Electricity
Same voltage as Oz. Remember to buy adaptors at home. The power points don't have an 'off and on' switch. To disengage the power, you must physically remove the chord from the power point. Otherwise it stays on. Word of warning for Irons and hair straighteners especially. If coming from the States, you can buy a power board, but they are expensive, and you can probably buy a new toaster and kettle for cheaper.
There is a cute rule that any months that don't have a letter "R" in them is when your children are allowed to not wear shoes - it's a cute way of making the kids keep warm... so for May, June, July and August let the kids sit in the 'kinderwagon' (pram) without shoes on - otherwise get 'tut tutted' by all the oldies here.
Dogs are welcome everywhere. In ikea, restaurants, you name it, they are there. And they all seem strangely well behaved...
Bicycles - are everywhere - it is such a great city to bike ride in. Bike lanes everywhere. Just remember it is illegal to ride a bike without a working light on the front, but you don't have to wear a helmet. It is illegal for kids to be on a bike (riding themselves or as a passenger) without a helmet. I think the fine is 20euro.
Parking - there are things called 'blue zones' - i can't figure it out. There are so many zones/signs etc i can't keep up. Basically, park wherever and pay for a ticket. Parking is cheaper than Bronte (i think everywhere in the world is cheaper to park than Bronte) but a parking ticket costs 21 euro... kind of cheap parking when compared to Early Bird Parking in George Street...
Speeding fines - they move the radars. They are big brown boxes and look like a small phone booth. Get a GPS, they show up and beep madly at you when one is approaching. The police here a bizarre - slightly corrupt but strangely honest. If you get pulled over and of course you are on "holidays", they will say to you "ok well you can pay me 30 euro in a fine" (cash) - if you say you only have "20 on you" - they will usually accept that - but here is the weird part, they then issue you a receipt... WTF??!!? They don't have a point's system like us. In regards to driving on your Aussie license - i think it's only valid for 6 months, then you have to get an Austrian license... but don't quote me on that.
You have to get your tyres changed from Summer to Winter tyres. Its law. And if you don't - it's really dangerous, and of course very illegal.
Mobile Phones and contracts -
I have gone with T Mobile. They are the only ones that offer an 'international package'. 2 year contract, iphone 49 euro a month, 1000 free sms, and 1000 free minutes talk within Austria. Remember we live only 15 minutes to the German boarder, so you could get stung with a big bill quite easily.
Gyms
I go to FittInn - 19 euro a month, nothing flashy, it's weights, no classes, sweat it out, and it has a women's only section. It's down at the train station.
Red Bull get a great rate at Holmes Place Gym, it's like 'fitness first platinum', pool, sauna, classes etc. 69 euro a month. They are unisex saunas... old people's penis' and vag everywhere. Gross.
Cross Fit has just started here - starts at 99 euro a month on a 12 month contract.
There a a few other gyms, but they don't offer Red Bull rates, and Holmes Place is far nicer than any others.
They have no idea what personal trainers are or outdoor group fitness sessions. Forget doing Bondi Boot Camp. It ain't happening.
Manicures Pedicures and Waxing.
It barely exists. Laser surgery is SO expensive, it's about 60 euro for a mani, 60 euro for a Pedi, and waxing... what is waxing?? Brazillian?? What? Forget it.
Spray tans... never heard of them. They still think Solariums are the 'healthy looking tan'. Slip slop slap hasn't caught on yet... mind you the sun is much tamer here than back home...
Strip clubs and Brothels
Most strip clubs are also Brothels. There seem to be quite a few Brothels down near the train station, but only a few 'strip clubs'. The reason i mention this, I find it quite interesting that for a small country town there are so many brothels... Underground sex world maybe?? I don't know, i'm just starting rumours.
Food
Say good bye to Asian food and Indian. Readily available in Vienna (30,000 indians reside in Vienna - so awesome choice of Indian food there)
There is a great asian grocer though in Salzburg where you can get all your asian food fix, not far off the Linze Gasse.
Puff pastry, peanut butter, nappy bags, no boost juice, butchers are different (bye bye t-bone steak), good old bbq snags, etc... difficult to track down.
I was also told by our landlord that BBQ'ing (Australian style) is illegal here... but no one cares... but just a bit of info just in case your neighbours complain.
You can't buy bags of ice at the service station, but in winter put all your drinks outside, it's colder than the fridge.
Billa, Lidl and Hofer are the cheapest grocers, Spar is everywhere (Big Spar's are like a Hypermarket) Merkur sells more exotic stuff (Ben and Jerry's ice cream etc) and there are a few others...
Get used to eating Pork. A lot of pork...
I find the food unbelievably salty. Very heavy and stodgy, but so delicious. Knodels (dumplings), goulash, schnitzels, Sauerkraut, the beer.... the beer... it's so cheap... beer is cheaper than water.
Australian wine is cheaper here than in Australia. You can buy a nice Hardy's wine from 2 euro to about 20 euro. Moet / Piper/ Veuve is about 35 euro. Malibu/ Jager and all your yummy liqueurs are not usually much more than 10 euro. It's all sold at the supermarket/ petrol station. No such things as 'bottle-o's'. The cheeses are beautiful too. Fruit and veg is never very fresh. It goes mouldy within 48 hours. Everything is very seasonal... you want pumpkin?? Not in season?? Forget it.
Seafood - you live 5 hours drive to the nearest water - don't eat the fish, it isn't fresh...
The most difficult thing to get used to is the 'separation of products'. The grocery stores sell exactly that - groceries. You won't find birthday cards, paracetamol, nappies, washing powder, toilet paper... you have to get your food from the grocery store, go to the chemist to get your paracetamol. and go to Bipa (Priceline equivalent) to get your toiletries, nappies, tampons, razors, toilet paper, washing powder, fake tan, make up etc. It is unbelievably annoying -and completely inconvenient. The larger hypermarkets have most things in the one spot, but there is only one near us, another at the train station and another at Euro Park.
The refrigerators are so small in the kitchens here you almost have to shop every day.
Drugs and Medication
They are obsessed with homeopathic medicine. It drives me up the wall. I'm all for modern medicine. My daughter had a cough for 4 months. After about 10 visits to the doctor i finally got given an antibiotic (after breaking down in tears after he told me she 'didn't need antibiotics') and her cough cleared in 48 hours. I have a great doctor, it's not him, they just prefer children to recover naturally and strengthen their immune system. They will give you every herb under the sun and advise to wet towels in their room as the air is always so dry... 100% humidity to be exact... but after 4 months... just give me the fucking antibiotics. I feel as though there is a very fine line between a mother having the choice over her child's health and a doctor interfering with it... it drives me insane.
You need a script for EVERYTHING. So stock up on drugs before you come over here. They keep Berocca behind the counter. I'm not kidding. You need a script for combantrum, strong fish oil tablets, steroid cream for eczema, cold and flu tablets... you get the drift... Ammoxil (which kills everything and is the doctors 'standard' antibiotic in Australia) is like trying to get Heroin on the black market.
Stock up before arriving. Or when you travel to London/the states stock up there.
CATHOLICISM AND RELIGION
Hello Pope. Ok, if you take no note of anything else on this page, please take note of the following...
WHEN YOU FILL OUT ANY FORMS... DO NOT PUT DOWN YOUR RELIGION. If you are Catholic, you will be taxed 1.1% of your wage. This is not a donation - it is law. If you 'admit' to being Catholic, you will receive a monthly/quarterly bill in the mail. You must pay it. Believe me i know. After being threatened with court, and many letters going back and forward it was settled - but it was stressful.
If you do put down your religion, and you don't want to pay the bill you do get given an option.
For 16 euro you can 'de-register' from the Catholic Church. Isn't that nice of them? That's not Blackmail is it? Either you pay, or you are shunned from the Church. Awesome.
What you owe PRIOR to de registering YOU MUST PAY. But once de registered, no more payments.
Of course if you want to contribute to the church, then go for it.
It was a law bought in when Hitler was in power. In Germany they don't even send you a bill, it is automatically deducted from your wage... last year in Germany 9 million dollars in revenue was raised through the Catholic Tax... they track you down, it was the first letter in our mailbox waiting for us... how do they find you, you ask, keep reading...
GKK
Is the 'medicare' of Austria. You will be given a GKK card - use it the same way as your medicare card.
A 'mutter kind pass' is like a booklet for kids. Immunisations etc. Every child must have one to receive child care payments, and baby bonus.
The baby bonus is out of control. I think about 15,000 euro per child. crazy.
Child care (Krabbelstube) is about 250 euro per month and you get about 100 euro back from the government.
It's about 2 euro an hour (max) - it's crazy how cheap it is.
The teachers are also far better educated compared with Australia - they are actually teachers - and they are not (all) 18 years old.
Renting and agent fees
It's no lie that it is tough to find an apartment in Salzburg. We were lucky.
You have 2 options:
1. Rent privately - as in, no agency involved. Usually advertised in the Salzburger Nachrichten Newspaper.
Note that they call the 'lounge room' a 'room'. So, if it is a 2 room apartment, it is one bedroom and a lounge room.
It is really normal to share bedrooms here too. Children share one bedroom, and parents have the other. Houses basically don't exist, it is all apartment living (if you want to live in the near vicinity of the city). You arrange a time to inspect the property with the owners, you pay a bond of i think 3 months, plus a month (??) or rent in advance, then you direct debit the amount into their bank account. The 3 month bond can be paid through a 'bank book'. I can't remember the finer details, but it is really normal, and they do them all the time - we don't have the equivalent in Australia, but i think the book remains with the bank like a 'trust'...
On top of your rent you pay a fee to the government of 1% of the annual amount of rent. Not sure why, you just do. It's not negotiable - it just is.
We have a great 135sqm apartment. Storage room underneath, car space, right in the heart of it all, big deck, 2 bedrooms (3 rooms) plus a seperate dining room and we pay 1400 euro a month. On top of this you must pay for your bills in advance. So, we pay on top of our 1400 euro a month, 150 euro a month to cover our heating and electricity. You will receive a bill - sometimes you will owe a little more to top up the usage v's amount paid, and sometimes you will get a refund.
It's a great system. We don't and haven't recieved a single bill since living here, as the amount has always been give or take a few dollars, and it's direct debited or credited back onto our 'bankomat card' (eftpos card/visa card)
Kitchens - it is not odd to have to install your own kitchen. Or if the previous tenant had installed a kitchen and want to leave it, you can purchase it, or up the rent a little bit to pay it off over the term of the contract, or if you don't want to purchase their kitchen they will take it with them (weird i know) and you install your own.
It is also normal for them to take their lights and curtains... nothing an Ikea run can't fix... but ask the question "does the kitchen, lights and curtains stay"?
2. Go through an agent.
All the fees are exactly the same as above, but you have to pay a 'makler fee'. (Agent fee).
Yes, you, the tenant have to pay the agent a fee. Why? For letting the apartment to you...clear as mud right?? It's the exact opposite in Australia.
And, it's expensive. 2 months rent. So for our place we would of had to of paid - 3 months rent as bond, 1 month in advance, our electricity and gas bill as well in advance for the 3 months and 1 month, the 1% fee to the government and the Makler Fee (almost 3000 euro)... it is not a bond, you don't get it back, it's simply a fee you pay and never see again. Ridiculous i know. I have heard it is the same in New York and london though... just be prepared for it.
Rental amounts are negotiable.
5 year contracts are standard. You can break the contract after 12 months though.
Krankenhaus
The public health system is 'included' in your residency. The care in the hospital is great, the hospital itself is shit.
I gave birth to our second daughter in the Hospital (Landeskrankenhaus) - i thought i was a stray dog that had been hit by a car and thrown in the RSPCA pound.
4 women in one room, no curtains, no tv, no privacy, one bathroom, no nursery, the food was slop and i chose to starve... you get the idea.
For an extra (very very very minimal amount) you can upgrade to Private Insurance (Red Bull again get a really good rate) - it is DEFINITELY WORTH IT. The private rooms are brand new (new building) - but you need to have this private insurance for a certain amount of time prior to the baby being born/falling pregnant/getting sick etc.
If you have public insurance and choose to stay in the private hospital it is about 1500 euro for the stay (5 days is standard with childbirth) - so you still have options... with private health insurance this is all covered.
As i said, the doctors were amazing (all doctors speak english), the 'schwesters' (sisters/midwives) were great, although not one of them spoke a WORD of english.
Doctors
The health system is amazing. Awful working hours, but overall very good.
You have a sick child, you don't go to the GP, you go to a KinderArtz (child doctor) otherwise known as a paediatric doctor (of which back home you would pay $400 for an appointment for). Children go to children's doctors, adults go to adult doctors, problem with your Vagina - don't go the GP - go straight to a Gyno - it is all completely covered by the GKK (public system). Free of charge.
You are not allowed to change or switch doctors within 3 months. You can, but it will cost you money and isn't covered by the system. Not sure why. So, once you start seeing a doctor, stick with them for 3 months... bizarre i know...
Registering to live here
You must register to live here. It's very easy. You go down to Mirabell Platz and on the ground floor you take in your apartment contract and you are given a stamped piece of paper (no cost) to register you and every other person as being at that address.
This is how the catholic church finds you, it's also so your mail doesn't get lost, and it's also how they know who has and has not registered their television and radio, etc.
If the police come knocking, they will probably ask to see your "meldung" to prove that you live there. Keep it handy - i keep a copy in my purse for the post office if i need to pick up a parcel and need to show my address.
Register your tv and radio... Apparently it is illegal not to register your tv and radio.
If the 'inspector' comes knocking - you DO NOT HAVE TO LET THEM IN. they have no right to inside your apartment. Just ask them if they speak english, chances are they don't, and tell them 'thanks but no thanks'.
You register down at the post office.
It's actually not cheap, i think 25 euro a month - which i think is actually quite expensive (??) this is not sky channel (our foxtel/pay tv equivalent) it's free to air.
Sky has english TV. We don't have english TV and i am dying without it, BUT it does force me to listen to tv shows in german, and watch good old CNN international.
Also, everyone has satellites on their roof. You have to buy a 'set top box' type thingy, and that gets you access to "free" to air television. We paid about 200 euro for our and i think we get 400 channels... most of which i have no interest in (all in German). The better the set top box the stronger the receiver = the more channels you get....
"Uniqua" House Insurance and Personal Insurance
This is a little different to Australia. The company we use is called Uniqua. You pay insurance based on the size of your apartment. We were lucky that our upstairs neighbours have the exact insurance we were after, and so she called the agent from uniqua and basically said 'do the same for downstairs'. It's normal for someone to come out and physically inspect the apartment to give you a quote. I think for our 135 sqm apartment, we pay about 20 euro a month - much cheaper than Australia...
BUT HERE IS THE BEST BIT...
For an extra 10 euro a month (30 euro all up) you get (what i think is best translated as) 'personal insurance' - if, for example, you are riding your bicycle and you hit a roller blader (there are plenty of them here) and they are injured, you are covered for their medical bills (i'm sure an insurance company have a much more specific description)... it also means if you go to a friend's house and break something, you can claim their loss because it was your fault on your insurance. It's cheap, and worthwhile paying the extra bit just to ensure if there is an accident your person is covered...
Sound of music
No one here knows about it, nor cares about it. It is an 'american thing' and of course they have all heard of it, but it plays no exciting part in their lives. They are more interested in claiming Mozart as their own than the Von Trapps.
Sundays
At first i thought EVERYTHING is closed. The lakes are still open, Fingerlos, M32, Heart of Joy Cafe, Ice cream shops, parks, animal parks, Haus De Natur (little aquarium and science centre) is open as well as chair lifts, ski slopes etc.
A brand new Spar AT the train station is now open from 7am-11pm EVERY DAY. Makes life SO much easier.
Just for interest, Chemists (Apotheke) are closed from 12pm on Saturdays... so if you need scripts filled or medication, get it before 12pm, otherwise head up to the hospital and they have a list of chemists open (it is literally a window in a wall, you call the bell, window slides open, you pay and leave)
Bahnhoff / Train Station
Salzburg to Wien on Westbahn ranges between 19 euro and 25 euro. Takes the WXACT same time as driving. It has wifi. It's very beautiful (leather seats) and so easy. 2hrs 45 mins.
Obb trains are double the price (for no reason) - both companies run hourly to Vienna (Wien).
Munich is an hour and half away.
I get my big city fix regularly.
Reiffesen bank
Bankomat card is exactly the same as eftpos. Withdrawl fees etc.
They don't do cash out here.
If paying with the card, say "Bankomat" - exactly the same as saying Eftpos.
Red Bull will point you in the direction of the Fuschl Branch. They are very helpful.
Babysitters
5 euro to 7 euro an hour is the going rate. Stop it - i know!! Au pair's are cheap too. But you need the space. Plenty of students here that are more than willing and capable to babysit.
Cleaners
Going rate is 9/10 euro an hour. So cheap - and such a worthwhile luxury. Love it.
Language
They speak german, with Austrian dialect. I studied German for about 7 years or so, when i arrived i had no idea about half the words, because it was "austrian"...
German lessons are readily available... enrolling in classes would be a good idea i think.
Few other things;
Kaka means poo. Loulou means wee wee. Po is bottom. (i have no idea if that is all spelt correctly). I tell you this because it's their slang.
They also have an obsession with sticking tablets/medication up your ass. You have to ASK specifically for 'syrup' - especially for children, otherwise you will be sticking things up your/your kids 'Po'.
I hope this info is useful... sorry it's so jumbled... i wish i had a bit more insight prior to moving here. The paperwork required is out of control.
Bring EVERY document with you. Uni degree, birth certificates, marriage certificates... you will need to get it all legally (with a stamp by an authorised translator) translated from english to German - but worry about that once here.
Just make sure you bring it all with you.
There are no queues, people are friendly, life is a little slower, work hours are short, summer days are long, Ikea is never busy, the customer service is terrible (they will finish their conversation before acknowledging you) but everyone smiles at each other and everyone is so polite. It was voted as one of the safest countries in the world. People are honest, and it's a breath of fresh air.
Enjoy this beautiful country.
Ciao.
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