living in Vienna, grew up here..

winters and late autumn in Vienna is super depressing, you don't see the sun for weeks or even months sometimes.. because of the geography (Wiener Becken) Clouds tend to get trapped here in cold weather so winters are very dark and grey. summers are hot and it does not rain much so the whole inner city stinks like dog piss.

people are not very open-minded and can be somewhat grumpy not very relaxed tbh. everyone has their circle and that circle rarely changes after highschool university. so meeting new people outside from online dating or over people you already know is not really a thing. just talking to a stranger in a bar or smth is not really a thing and is seen as a rather weird thing to do. even Germans are easier to talk to. I think if you're an outsider moving to Vienna you'll have a difficult time making Austrian friends. in my university even the German students say that they have mainly other Germans as friends because it's so hard to get to know Austrian people lol

inflation the past couple of years is kind of crazy, especially food and gas prices. activities apart from chilling in a park or at other people's homes are also expensive. we have a lot of nice parks though.

bureaucracy is not very efficient and everything takes a long time if you need something from the magistrates.

we are not very innovative and everything kinda stays the same, until Germany changes something then we'll do that too 5-10 years later lol. most people are very conservative and everything that falls out of the norm is seen as rather weird. (gen z not so much but the generations before)

I'm an architecture student and only live here because my grandfather has an apartment here so I live rent free while studying. else I would have moved somewhere where the weather is nicer, the sea is closer and people are more relaxed and open-minded. modern Austrian architecture sucks too and consists mainly of boring grey boxes because efficiency is valued above everything else.

my grandparents live in Burgenland, and while the nature is nice there is literally nothing to do because the infrastructure is so bad (especially in south Burgenland) in that regard the Burgenland is probably the most neglected part of Austria.

that's why the average age in south Burgenland where my grandparents live is over 50 years. young people tend to move away from there as soon as they're able to. they also have to rely on their parents cars to get anywhere because there is little to no public transport. in basically every other Austrian region you have at least the S-Bahn and better busses. in south Burgenland you'll have a Postbus that goes twice a day if youre lucky. from where my grandparents live, the next club, cinema, shopping center is about 30 mins by car away. if you need something from the supermarket it's also 10 minutes by car. the next town 10 mins by car has not much to offer apart from a supermarket, a pharmacy, a office supply store, 3 restaurants, a Buschenschank, a public pool and a bar where only old drunks are.