I am perhaps biased, but must defend Vienna.

You , unfortunately visited at a time that Vienna is full of tourists.

Alll schools and many business closed from December 23 to January 9.

Thus many residents leave the city to enjoy a vacation during this time.

The social system also provides an extra month wage at this Holiday time making trips possible for many.

Those remaining in the city usually avoid the central areas due to crowds.

Thus you did not experience the " Normal " Vienna that most find a polite city but the " Tourist" Vienna filled with those who have no sense of politeness.

Please come again at another time. Avoid some of the most touisty areas and experience the real Vienna.

You've been unlucky and also may mistake visitors for locals. Apart from the odd waiter, the Viennese are undoubtedly the most polite residents of a capital city that we visit.

Specific examples are (a) their tolerance and appreciation of my attempts at German (b) stopping for pedestrians crossing the roads (c) even teenagers will still stand up on buses and trains to give their seats up to older people.

I find the Viennese are formal, some take this as coldness, but it is simply the way they are.

Jeff

I love the formality! I'd read in all the guidebooks about the Viennese being cold - but I found the formal way of speaking and behaving a) charming and b) made life easier for me as a visitor: the civil formula for greeting each other and for getting the business of collecting theatre tickets or ordering Buchteln under way very easy.

Every time I buy a lottery ticket I dream of re-locating to luxury residence in the 1010 zone!

Interesting to read.

Paris Expat, sorry about your bad experience. From many other posts I have read I think most visitors enjoy their stay in Vienna. Viennese - formal? probably yes, concerning some habits, or dress codes. "cold"? never heard of this?! Rude? not specifically; but always possible of course, like everywhere else.

I am convinced however that when traveling, "first impressions go a long way", I mean a psychological effect that after some initial minor incidents (good or bad experience), involuntarily we tend to perceive situations in a selective manner, stressing the facts which seem to confirm one´s opinion about "the locals". So we generalize quite fast, but in fact we only happened to meet some polite, or impolite people in the beginning. You write: "..it became something of a running joke". That´s exactly what I mean.

The only rude people we encountered in Vienna, were as usual, American tourists. THis is something I'm used to. Maybe it was the same for you Paris ex-pat.

I must defend vienna and especially its people.In my travels to Europe,they are perhaps-the most polite and helpful of all.Amazing tolerance for my halting German and the service staff are simply outstanding.Given the fact,that vienna is visited by hordes of tourists from all over the world,i did not come across any of the 'cold' untruths that is stigmatized onto them.

I was in shoe shop,when i stupidly dropped my wallet which was green in colour and so happens the shoe i liked alot was of the same colour,so when i 'discovered' the dissapperance of my wallet..i was devastated- i thought i had been robbed...later the excellent service staff combed the area and found my wallet right on top of the green shoe which i had put back on the display..and till now i can still remember the incident and what was said to me her.." i could not imagine such a thing would ever happen in Vienna"...how true was she..the one week i was in vienna last december,just before xmas..it must have been the best ever time i had..so please come back to vienna..it is a city that just a pleasure to both sight and senses..i know coz i am going back again and will keep coming back..

@ParisExpat

the only situation I imagine your experience is waiting in front of tram/bus/S-Bahn and when you want to enter a lot of "very quick" older persion rush through you and try to get the best seat, even hitting with their crutch..haha..I try to avoid them by myself.

But I must confess during the hight season in the city I am sometimes annoyed myself by too many tourist but that´s mosty due to the fact that I don´t like bulks of people.

So please give our City another try and come in the later spring which is a nice time in our city.

Last weekend we visited Vienna, and while our first experience at the S-Bahn station at the airport was not good, we had only one other bad experience at a restaurant. We were tired and wanted a good meal at the end of our first day so we went into a non-touristy restaurant in an old building (one large room in an L shape) and since we are non-smokers we wanted to sit at the end where there were no smokers up to then, anyway. The waitress refused to let us sit there because her young legs would have to exert too much energy to go there. It was the same room! Our response was to leave. In all fairness, that happened to us only once in Vienna, and it has also happened to us once in Germany. In both cases we left. After that, all our experiences were super. I must say though that the people who helped us when we looked lost were, in one case a man from what used to be Yugoslavia (I can't remember which part anymore), and a young man from Sweden.

Another thing worth noting is that what I at first mistook for a short and slightly unfriendly attitude from a waitress in a restaurant was no such thing. I was wrong. In fact she was just really stressed out from having to serve a room totally full of customers, with more waiting to come in. So at times something that may seem to be so is something entirely different.

Hi there everybody. I know this is an old posting, but I just had to put my two cents in as well. I live in Vienna, I am doing an exchange year with my university, and I have to admit, I find the Viennese very rude...This is a sweeping generalisation of course, as I have also met very very friendly and polite people from Vienna, but in general, I agree with ParisExpat. Most people cut in line, walk right into you, do not even get out of the way when they see you struggling with a piece of luggage for example. However, I believe this is just a culture difference, I don't think they actually mean to be rude. But even so, sometimes I find myself throughoughly fed up with Vienna due to this! I love Vienna as a city, but as for the locals, I am not the hugest fan...But I am used to extremely polite people, coming from Norway, and going to university in the UK, so I might be biased....Hope I haven't pissed anybody off, I don't mean to say that EVERYONE in Vienna are like this...Also, I think this is a city thing, because in the Alps and the little towns around Vienna, people seem to be lovely!! Anywho, that was just my opinion...I do love Vienna anyway though!!! :)