My name is Kerry Smith (aka a new girl in vienna). I was born in Brighton, England (UK) and have lived there most of my life. I am currently living in Vienna, the capital of Austria.
When and how did you decide to move to Austria ?
The decision to move to Vienna was a quick and unexpected one. My boyfriend was approached and offered a job here and we decided to leave our life back in Brighton and experience a new adventure together. Between my boyfriend accepting the job and us arriving in Vienna to live it was only 6 weeks... so as you can imagine we had very little time to plan! We have now been here for 7 months.
With regard to finding somewhere to live, we were very lucky in that my boyfriend's employer provided a lovely lady to conduct the apartment searches for us and find somewhere suitable. We visited Vienna for a weekend before the big move and viewed 11 rental apartments in one day! She also helped translate documents etc for us.
Have you ever lived abroad before? How many countries have you visited?
I have never lived abroad before but I love to travel. So far I have visited South Africa, Argentina, North America, Canada, Qatar, Egypt, Morocco, Cape Verde Islands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Croatia, Slovakia, Cyprus, Santorini, Kefalonia, and of course Austria.
What are the main differences beetween Austria the UK?
Austria also being part of Europe there are of course not too many cultural differences from the UK, however, the language has been a huge challenge for me. I think until I can speak German well I will continue to feel like a tourist here.
Do you miss anything from your homeland?
The main things I miss are my close friends and family. Anyone who has moved to another country not knowing anyone will know how hard it can be sometimes without friends around that know and understand you or who you can just call up and say 'fancy a pint?!'. I also miss Waitrose a lot! haha.
It has been hard to meet people and make friends. I have of course joined a few https://www.expat.communities but even so it has been a challenge to meet like minded people and it wasn't really my intention to only hang out in the international https://www.expat.community. It would be nice to integrate into the Viennese community too but I think that is going to take a long time.
Any 'memories of an expat' you would like to share with other expat blog members ? Your best souvenir, or maybe your worst experience ?
I think the worst experience here has been finding that people can be often quite unfriendly or rude compared to what I've been used to back in Brighton. Over the past months I have come to realise that perhaps this is just a cultural difference and not intended personally towards me. Another difficult experience for me has been finding a job. This is something I'm still working on unfortunately.
Your blog: when did you start it?
I started my blog about a month after our move here. I had never even read a blog before then! But I was spending a lot of time on the internet and came across a few other expat blogs and thought it would be a nice idea to start one as a way of letting my family and friends back in the UK know what I've been up to. I never really intended it to be anything else but I'm really happy that others enjoy reading it too.
Did you make new friends with your blog?
I have now met a few people through my blog which has been lovely and unexpected.
Which advice would you give to people who would like to live in Austria ?
My advice to anyone considering to move to Austria would be to go for it! It appears to me a very beautiful, safe and clean country and offers a high quality of living. My advice would be to learn learn learn German! and have a clear idea about your future employment plans.
