It’s been two weeks since I’ve returned from Austria and still didn’t manage to put up some words about it.

I don’t know where to begin. It’s my first business trip abroad. How this all started? Well it’s kinda’ complicated to explain it all. The main idea is that myself and my boss got involved in a knowledge exchange between Salzburg University and “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu. The University payed for plane tickets from Sibiu to Munchen^[1], from where we had to take a train to Salzburg^[2]. We stayed at a very nice old professor for about 5 days. I can’t say I’ve seen much of Germany but I managed to see a lot of Salzburg.

It stroke me how similar Salzburg to Sibiu was! The same narrow streets, same small two stores houses, same tall fortifications. The difference was that it’s maintained, and is has a very good infrastructure. Every single corner is used, everything has a purpose, everything is centered around tourists. The people of this small city simply know how to attract tourists from all over the world. I simply loved the attention they payed to small details like lighting, the cute shops or the funny graveyard. I was also impressed about the huge tunnel carved right in the heart of the mountain connecting the two parts of the city and the cool relaxed atmosphere all around the city.

In the coming days, I’ve visited the recruitment office of the University of Salzburg and also had a meeting in Graz^[3] with the Technical University there. I was amazed of the systems they run there where everything is student centered, centralized and starting with this year paperless. Every student has a smart-card trough which he can do everything from paying his studies and printing his grade book to accessing the local library. We’ve managed to establish some contacts at both universities and also brought a lot of ideas home. We’re like 100 years behind … but I’m sure we can cover some of this distance.

I’ve been keeping this for the end … remember the old professor I’ve been mentioning at the beginning of my post, well he was one of the nicest person I’ve ever met, and I’m sure we caused a degree of discomfort staying and living with him these 5 days. He never said anything about it and also payed for meals, snacks, museum tickets, everything … he didn’t let us pay for anything … but wait … that’s not everything! It turned out that he was a pilot! He took on a ride at 10.000 ft. round the alps in a small 4 seater Cessna aircraft. It was so cool for me to fly again. It’s been 6 years since I stopped flying^[4] and I still miss it every day. It was like a dream come true.

To conclude this post, it’s been the 4th visit to Austria and my second visit to Graz and I think I’ll be going back someday.

Cheers,
The Lion.^[5]

1. Germany. [»]
2. Austria. [»]
3. 200 km from Salzburg. [»]
4. I almost got my pilot license back in 2001. [»]
5. The song to this post is: Keane – The Frog Prince. Open “Lion’s Radio” and scroll down to listen to it. [»]