My first experience in Austria was moving there as part of my Master’s programme. I had to go to two different foreign universities as part of my studies at Swansea University. Since I was doing German and Spanish, I went to Vienna and Barcelona.

Overall I had a great time in Austria although I had a lot of work to do. They say that Erasmus is easy but at least my experience in Vienna was the opposite. I met some amazing people with whom I have kept in contact; we were also able to do some limited travelling while I was there, such as going to Mariazell and Laxenburg. I was also able to go to Budapest and Prague as well with this group.

One thing that I was not expecting when I went to Austria was how difficult it would be to get from place to place. Because of the Alps, some of the travel times are very long and a lot of the roads twist and turn in the mountains. Just because the distance isn’t very far doesn’t mean it won’t take a while to get there.

Visiting Austria

If you are looking to visit Austria, you can reach there through one of the airports. The main ones are Vienna International, Linz and Salzburg. You can also use some of the long-distance coaches, such as Flixbus to get to Austria and travel between cities as well. If you have access to a car, please note that you need to have a vignette for the Austrian motorways. They can either be purchased when you first enter the country at petrol stations or you can purchase them online. Be warned that if you do not have the vignette, you can be fined a lot of money. In 2021 this fine was an instant €120. An annual vignette costs €92.50 in 2021.

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