Austria is going through a proper cold spell right now. I live in Vienna, not exactly the chilliest corner of the country, but still. The snowfall this Friday was one of the heaviest I have seen in the city, and this week brought some of the lowest temperatures I have felt in almost ten years of living here.
Luckily, Austrians have taught me quite a bit about how to handle it.
When I first moved here, I treated winter as something to endure rather than live through. I would hibernate as much as possible. Stay home, keep the lights low, watch endless hours of television, eat comfort food, and repeat.
It did not go well. After a couple of winters, I realised that hiding from the cold was making me miserable. That was when I started to understand something fundamental about life in Austria. If you stay home every time it is cold, windy, rainy or grey, you will stay home for a very large part of the year. If you're miserable during miserable weather, you will be miserable for a long time.
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Accept the bitter cold and you will start to enjoy it
Austrians seem to have accepted this a long time ago. The lesson is simple: you do not wait for perfect weather; you adapt to the weather you have.
Unless conditions are genuinely dangerous, which in Vienna is actually quite rare, snow is an invitation. You go to a park, take photos and enjoy.
In my early years here, this mostly involved our dog. Snow meant long walks and chaotic play sessions. Now we have a toddler as well, and things have gone fully Austrian. This is his third winter in Vienna, and he owns a sledge. Whenever it snows, we go sledging.
When it snows, you suddenly realise how many families live nearby. Dozens of children appear, all properly dressed, all outside, all having the time of their lives.
That is the key, according to Austrians. There is no bad weather. You just need the right clothes.
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Snowboarding babies and snow prams
I have seen children as young as three or four being introduced to snowboarding in city parks. Parents holding them steady, front and back, because the slope is barely a slope at all.
And this is Vienna. If you go anywhere near the Alps, the standards rise dramatically.
One New Year’s in Salzburg, I saw something that genuinely stopped me in my tracks. A baby, clearly under six months old, lying flat in what looked like a crib mounted on a sledge. The parents were pulling it along through the snow. I think the infant was napping.
Austrians adapt. And more than that, they thrive.
That is one of the things I admire most about life in Austria. People complain, of course. You will hear it. Someone will look at the snow and immediately predict tomorrow’s mud. That is part of the ritual, but they are all out there. You hear the complaints because people are outside, living their lives.
Dogs are walked regardless of the weather. In Austria, dogs go Gassi outside. Always. Twice a day. Often three times. Minus ten degrees or pouring rain does not change that. In some countries (my own!), dogs are trained to use indoor pads when the weather is bad or every single day of their lives. That is not really a thing here.
And this mindset extends to children, too.
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Snow days are kindergarten days
This week, during an editorial meeting, our Italian editor mentioned that kindergartens had closed where she was because temperatures dropped to around 7C. On the next day, I picked up my child from kindergarten in Vienna, where it was around minus 4C.
Inside, there was a rack full of tiny winter jackets drying. Why? Because the children had been outside playing in the snow. We are asked to bring full snow gear so that the kids can go outdoors whenever they want. It is encouraged.
And honestly, it is lovely to see.
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We all know the studies. Fresh air is good for you. Being outside is good for children. Nature helps mental health. That's just part of life in Austria.
So why stay inside on a beautiful, snowy day if it is safe to go out?
Yes, there are times to be careful. Black ice is dangerous, especially for drivers. Warnings exist for a reason, but if conditions allow it, enjoy it, particularly in cities like Vienna, where snow is becoming rarer every year.
If you are new to Austria, if you are lonely, if you are tempted to hide indoors like I once did, my advice is simple. Do it the Austrian way. Go outside, watch the snow fall, watch children sledge down tiny hills, watch dogs eat yellow snow and immediately regret it.
Winter still feels long. But it becomes infinitely more liveable when you stop waiting for it to end and start stepping into it instead.
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