Page 23 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Austria

A POR TR AIT OF A USTRIA  21

Skiing at Mooserwirt, Tyrol, in winter
fans to the small town of Hohenems in communicate with every Austrian. While
Vorarlberg. There are a plethora of local the Vienna Burgtheater is regarded as
and regional events, too. During Honigfest one of the foremost German-language
(Honeyfest), in Hermagor in theatres in the world, many Austrians
Carinthia, girls dress up as speak a pronounced local
bees, while costumed dialect, though this is easier
young men snap to understand for those
bullwhips to “wake with a basic command
up” the earth for spring of German than Swiss-
during Aperschnalzen. German. Some things
Another seasonal festival have different names than
is the New Year’s Day salute A traditional they do in Germany. A bread
(Neujahrsschiessen), where local horse-drawn carriage roll, for instance, is called a
squads dressed in traditional costumes Semmel instead of a Brötchen, a tomato is a
raise antique musket rifles. The regional Paradeiser and not a Tomate, and the
authorities also organize sports events hospital is the Spital, rather than a
and art exhibitions, and local theatre Krankenhaus. English is understood far
and music festivals. more widely here than in France or Italy.
Nominally, 74 per cent of Austrians
Language and Religion claim to be Roman Catholic, but church
Modern Austria has very little linguistic attendance is one-third of this figure.
or ethnic diversity despite
being a haven for refugees
fleeing from the former
Yugoslavia in the 1990s,
as well as for people
from other regions of
the Balkan peninsula. A
small number of citizens
are ethnic Slovenes,
Croats and Hungarians.
Around 90 per cent of
the country’s population
speaks German, although
not every German-speaker
will find it easy to A typical Alpine pension in Kartitsch, East Tyrol

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