Austria and Vermont

I am sitting in a little cafe next to Klagenfurt University, nursing a melange and waiting for a meeting to start. It's always funny to me how much Austria reminds me of Vermont, at least the countryside. I'm not in the part of Austria with the taller mountains, and the train ride down from Vienna to Klagenfurt sort of felt like I was driving to the Tunbrudge World's Fair. The biggest difference, of course, is that Austrians are much nicer than Vermonters. In both places the drivers are unfailingly polite and will always stop to let folks cross the street (unlike a lot of places overseas where pedestrians are fair game). The big difference in regards to pedestrians is that the Austrian variety will not cross against the light - you can be standing on a little side street at 10:00 at night without a car in sight and a crowd of Austrians will simply wait for the light to change.