Page 23 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2016 - Austria

A POR TR AIT OF A USTRIA  21

Skiing at Mooserwirt, Tyrol, in winter
devoted to individual towns, streets every German speaker will find it
or even squares. Visitors may enjoy the easy to communicate with every
traditional religious festivities, and the Austrian. While the Vienna Burgtheater
Giant Chocolate Festival in is regarded as one of the foremost
Bludenz and the Dumpling German-language theatres
Festival in St Johann will in the world, many Austrians
prove memorable. speak a pronounced
Many restaurants local dialect. When
organize special weeks when travelling, the visitor
regional cooking or local game needs to remember that
dishes feature on the menu. many things have different
Although events are often A traditional names here than in Germany.
local, Austria is also a venue for horse-drawn carriage A bread roll, for instance, is
acclaimed international festivals, called a Semmel instead of a Brötchen, a
such as the famous music and theatre tomato is a Paradeiser and not a Tomate,
festivals in Salzburg and Bregenz, the and the hospital is the Spital, rather than
Wiener Festwochen and the Viennale. a Krankenhaus.
Austria is traditionally a Roman Catholic
Language and Religion country, although only 60 per cent of its
Modern Austria is virtually a one-nation inhabitants today belong to the
state, but there are some Slovenians in Roman Catholic church.
Carinthia, Croatians in
Burgenland, and Czech
and Hungarian minorities
in Vienna. Austria became
a haven for refugees
fleeing from the former
Yugoslavia in the 1990s,
as well as for people from
other regions of the
Balkan peninsula, and for
Turks coming in search of
work. Around 95 per cent
of the country’s
population speaks
German, although not A typical Alpine pension in Kartitsch, East Tyrol

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