What it takes to change your
life? Courage and trust. In this way, I embarked on my journey to Austria. I
arrived here on August the 6th, knowing only where I am going to
study and where I am going to live for the first 10 days until I find a place
of my own to rent. However, it is not my first time in this country, but I dare
to say the 5th time. Somehow, different reasons kept bringing me
back here once in a while, from the 9th high school grade.
I felt in love with Vienna right
from the beginning. Who would have guessed that I was going to move here, for
an indefinite number of years? I find it useless to set a specific number of
years, when only the opportunities and the turning points of life will determine
this. In high school, I started thinking about doing my Master abroad. As my
mind was trying to figure out in what city I would like to study, Vienna always
popped out. You see, for me, the lifestyle of a city is very important. I just
can’t move to a country just because it has an extraordinary good university if
I don’t feel myself at least a bit attracted to that culture, people, weather
and so on. Later on, when I conducted a solid research concerning my studies
abroad, Vienna turned out also this time to be the solution. Here, I had a good faculty with the profile I was looking for, taught in English - Webster University, International
Relations -, I loved the atmosphere of the city and the architecture, I was
willing to learn German, which would use me very well in the future, I had the
possibility to find a job since it was an international city, it was not as
expensive as other European capitals and it was relatively close to Romania.
So, here I am: a new resident of
Vienna! Now, 10 days from my stay have
passed, 10 days in which I learned once again to deal with uncertainty, to have
faith and to enjoy a new beginning. Luckily, a friend of mine, to whom I thank
very much, allowed me to stay in his studio from Vienna while he was in
Romania, in order to search a studio for myself. Therefore, in the first 4 days
I had appointments for visiting flats and eventually, on Sunday evening, I
found a great one to rent! But finding a flat here is another story, which I
will develop in a future article, including also practical suggestions for
those interested in finding accommodation. On Tuesday, I moved to my new place
and from there on, I settled. However, I did not waste the days and, taking
advantage of the first sunny days, I got familiar once again with the city,
with its spirit. Museum Quartier is
a great place to go in the evening, it has a lot of cafes, but also benches and
shapes to sit on and enjoy the conversations, movie projections and so on; Stephansplatz is always vibrant of
tourists, but walking on its small side streets, one can discover dozens of
antiquities shops and galleries; Nestroyplatz
is a chic place, leading you to the Danube, to many cafes and displaying an
architectural combination of old style and large multinational futurist
buildings. One of the highlights of my stay here remains the visit at the United Nations Headquarter,
at the Vienna International Center. Celebrating 35 years since they have been working
in this building, they had a free visiting day on the 15th of
August. Having in mind that UN is one of the organizations where I would like
to work, this opportunity was more than welcomed. Despite the fact that, of
course, there was a relatively long waiting line, and that the tour was limited
due to time constraints, I enjoyed being there and getting in contact with the
UN. After three Model United Nations, I
got to actually enter a conference room and take the seat of the Director –
General. Life has its own mysterious ways.
Let’s not forget to mention the people of
Vienna! It is an incredible mix of cultures! I encountered incredibly helpful
people, right from the beginning, when a young women just passing by showed us
how to buy the right tickets and after a few minutes came back in the train station
searching for us because she forgot to say something important regarding the
validity of the tickets. But I have also seen all kinds of weird of people; especially
the area Praterstern which, even though an important transportation hub, can turn
out to be dangerous and thus it is worth avoiding it as much as possible
(however, maybe due to the high number of police men, I never witnessed any
incident).
After all, why take this step and
make such a big change? Well, there are many reasons, but, behind them all,
there is an irresistible attraction in living for a while in another country.
And what better moment to do that other than now? For me, it really seems like
the normal course of action, I feel like I should have been here and I should
have done things this way; I don’t feel strange and I don’t feel a lack of
adaption; I just feel like HOME. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Romania and
it will remain my first home, I will always pride with my home country but now,
I am ready to have for some time… two homes.
The secret of adaption lies in
the feeling of being at home… wherever your head lies…
In depth analysis of short term rental vienna can be an enriching experience. While it is becoming a hot topic for debate, spasmodically it returns to create a new passion amongst those who study its history. It still has the power to shock the easily lead, who are yet to grow accustomed to its discombobulating nature. At the heart of the subject are a number of key factors. I plan to examine each of these factors in detail and asses their importance.
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