RE: Vienna waits for you - a letter to my home town
Great post Jill! Very interesting to hear how different it is from pretty much anywhere in Australia. I visited Europe a few years ago but not Austria, only Italy and the Netherlands, but I do recall people being quite rude compared to us chilled Aussies. Not saying we are any better or judging in any way, just the customs were quite different. I got yelled at for not weighing my bananas at the shop before going to the counter haha! I had no idea you had to do that yourself. We have found our International Exchange Students from Germany and Belgium always say we are so chilled Down Under. I would still love to visit Austria and also Switzerland one day and just accept people are the way they are and focus on the beauty of exploring foreign lands.
I think complaining is just a human thing all around though. Many Aussie bitch about everything like their life is so hard but really it's just like an addiction to suffering. When life is great... find something to be upset about! People even hunt for a reason to be angry about something. We've all got so much to be thankful for. In fact I'm listening to an audiobook by Buddhist monk Charlotte Yoko Beck and she states it is in the human condition to complain. We have to learn to recognise it and not react when it arises in our thoughts.
Billy Joel is amazing hey. Saw him a few years ago live and it was great. He looked very old but still sung like a legend.
Thanks!
Yeah I always find it interesting to hear people’s thoughts about their own culture and the place their from too.
Yeeeaaahhh and Europeans have a bit of a reputation to be rude and harsher XD thing is though, we don’t always mean it you Know? Although someone actually yelling at you leaves very little room for doubt hahahaha
Hmmm yeah I think it’s part of the human condition to complain too. I also don’t think we should stop, it’s part of a healthy mechanism to vent frustration. I complain a lot too, the difference is I then usually do something about it. Haha
And if I complain at nothing, I’m usually aware of it, acknowledge it and laugh about it in the same breath.
I truly think a bit of complaining is healthy. It’s just really tough to be tolerant of it when it comes at the magnitude some Viennese folks practice it in. And then also, for someone who has gained a completely different perspective through travel and living in lots of other places, it’s hard to sympathize with some of the nothingness Viennese like to complain about haha.
All in all there’s still some very lovely folks though, but it’s the same everywhere I suppose XD
Please DO hit me up if you ever plan a trip to Vienna btw! Need to tell you all the good places to eat and stuff! Haha ;D and if you want I can connect you with some of my friends who are truly lovely and welcoming. :)
Also jealous you saw Billy live <3 I love that song. Especially because it’s true. There’s this thing called “Gemütlichkeit” which refers to the state of being happy and comfortable surrounded by good people but also to a way of life, of taking things slowly and not hushing so much all the time, which is still very prevalent in Vienna, though a lot of young’uns Have kinda lost that. I know I have to consciously step on the breaks and slow myself down sometimes.
To put it in Billies own words:
< "It was an observation that you have your whole life to live. I lot of people in their 20s think they have to get it all together by their 30s and they kill themselves trying to get the golden ring. You have an entire life to live. The lyrics, 'slow down you crazy child' - in other words, you have a whole life. We tend to put older people away, and it's all about young people. Well, wait a minute, why do I have this whole lifespan? What's the point of it? Some people will get there sooner, and some people will get there later. Slow down, you're going to be fine. No matter what you do, be good at it, and whenever you get there, you get there."
And actually this song is the perfect reminder to me and I’m listening to it again at just the right time. I’m turning 30 in 2 weeks and I’ve been havin these panic attacs that I’m running out of time, because I’m single, and childless. my career is going great, but I’m terrified I’ll run out of time to build a family sometimes.
But at the end of the day... I think I just need to chill the fuck out. Haha it’ll come... XD
Thanks again for the reminder Billy haha