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Postcard from Austria 3

Here it is, the final postcard from Austria as Stuart Tomlinson finishes his placement

By Stuart Tomlinson

ACCOMODATION IN VIENNA

The first thing you will notice is that prices are cheap and affordable. For my of my stay here I have paid about 290 euros (less than 200 pounds) a month inclusive of all bills in my shared accomodation - and this is not one of the cheaper apartments, you could probably get an apartment for significantly less if you tried hard enough.

My flatmates, a native Austrian doing a similar course to what I am (Computer Science) and a French UN intern made interesting flatmates.

If you're beginning your search in the summer or are going to be a full-time student here then you should first go to look at halls ("studentheim"). As a regular tenant the cheaper ones are around 140 euros a month all included, during the summer as a temporary guest Haus Doebling where I stayed at was only 210 - ensuite shower included in 70s style but clean accomodation. Bear in mind most halls here have very long waiting lists outside of the summer, and you really have very little chance of getting a place from October to June unless you try half a year in advance or even more. However, as temporary accomodation in the summer for those just travelling or looking to find an apartment room it can be just the thing you are looking for.

If you go on for apartment hunting, the best place to start is Vienna's OeH branch website (Vienna affiliate of the Austrian NUS). Here you will find the cheapest accomodation and are most likely to be sharing with fellow students. Other than that start hunting around the boards at the various halls or university buildings (Technical University halls are a good start due to their large number and lack of sprall, otherwise try the OeH buildings) or newspapers (such as the Bazar, an advert paper, or the Kurier, more conservative paper but with a good accomodation section) particularily if there are several of you and you would like to rent a whole apartment.

As a side note, don't be surprised if you see "KEIN AUSLAENDERS" (no foreigners or 'outlanders') on some adverts. What racism there is here is overt. It's your choice whether you still want try to give these people your business - there are many places who welcome international students, and some who love to practice their English.

Food here is inexpensive - especially when the euro is on one of its weak days from our perspective. Don't expect to find many supermarkets - the two biggest chains are Spar and Billa followed shortly by Zeitpunkt, most of which are convienience stores. There is the odd InterSpar and a Merkur here and there (at Landstrasse U-bahn station, under the Gerngross shopping centre on Maria-Hilfer Strasse, Alterlaa etc) but unless you happen to live in the suburbs you will do most of your shopping at the local store. Enjoy it, feel what it felt like before supermarkets were here, and remember that they only open between 7:30 and 19:00 - you're in trouble if you need anything after then or on Sundays (Sunday Billa at Praterstern u-bahn with the theme park).

Most services are still publically owned - you will get your electric from Wien Strom, your gas from Wien Gas, although the phone system has been recently privitised from the Post Office (post.at). A land line "Festnetz" is normally still provided by Oesterreich Telekom, and there are numerous fast and cheap broadband Internet providers (although I never actually signed up with any). For mobiles (called a handy, which is a odd since it's an English word) there are four networks. A1 (Austrian Telecom again), One, T-Mobile (previously Max before being bought by Deutsche Telekom), and the much smaller but often cheaper Telering. A1 has the best coverage outside of Vienna, One has most young people signed up inside of Vienna (so may be cheaper for you when you make friends), Max used to be popular, and telering's coverage is not particularly good but as I said, may be cheaper. It works on similar payment scales to UK mobiles - contracts require 12-months, or pre-pay systems (SIM card 40 euros). If you rarely use the phone it may be the cheapest way to go for temporary usage. (side note: Max and One do not do wireless Internet access on pre-pay, A1 do, telering unknown)

Finally, there is the public transport. It is amazingly cheap, for 45 euros a month it will get you a universal pass on all buses, undergrounds, trams, and all inside city trans (schnellbahn) 24-hours a day. In the busy periods all modes of transport are between two and three minutes apart (except the schnellbahn), and in the quiet periods between 5 and 15 minutes depending on the route. This is the system every city should have.

Getting there. If you ever decide to go, train is always an option, but if you want to fly you can take a regular airline into VIE, Vienna International, or RyanAir into Salzburg or Graz then take the train (you can get a return for 50-60 pounds this way if you choose the right time of year).