Austria
Where to begin?
I guess if you think about Austria, you think about Mozart, Sound of Music, the United Nations and Silent Night. But that´s just the tip of the iceberg. I am born and raised as an Austrian, but even if Austria is a small country, there is plenty to write for the next 200 years.
Short facts about Austria
Austria is located in the heartlands of Europe, covering 83,855 square kilometres, which is 32,377 sqare miles. We (officially the Republic of Austria) are a parliamentary representative democracy, consisting of nine federal states.
Austria and the 9 federal states
Vorarlberg, Tyrol, Salzburg, Carinthia, Upper Austria, Styria, Lower Austria, Burgenland and Vienna.
Languages
The official language of Austria is German. There are many different dialects and influences from other languages though, so if I would pick some dialect of the inner mountain regions, just a few Germans would get it.
Other official languages in certain states/regions are Hungarian, Croatian and Slovene.
Shape
Viewed from space, Austria looks like a Schnitzel. That may be the reason why aliens did not visit our planet yet, because our country remembers them to return home for lunch.
Austrian coat of arms
The Austrian coat of arms - the so called Bundesadler
Population & cities
The capital city of Austria is Vienna, which is also our largest city with about 1.6 million inhabitants. Entire Austria is the home of about 8.4 million people.
The second biggest city is Graz, the provincial capital of Styria, followed by Linz (Upper Austria), Salzburg (Salzburg) and Innsbruck (Tyrol).
Landscape
Since Austria is located at the Alps, our landscape is quite mountainous. Especially in western Austria. Of all the 83,855 square kilometres, about one quarter may be considered as low lying, 32% of the area are below 500 metres (that is 1,640 ft).
The highest mountain of Austria is the prominent Großglockner.
