HN Explorer

Offer HN: Room in Vienna, Austria

47 points by consti2k ↗ HN
I can offer some place to stay in Vienna, Austria.

My girlfriend and I live pretty close to the city center, have a really nice and big apartment and can offer you a place to stay if you plan to explore Europe and want a good basecamp to get into east-europe:

* 40 minutes to Bratislavs * 3 hours to Prague, Budapest.. * 5 hours to Krakau * 7 hours to Warschau

* 20 minutes to the Metalab Hackerspace with Lasercutter and RepRaps!

Oh.. and of course Vienna is awesome, too.

Go see the world, you Americans! ;p

56 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 130 ms ] thread
frobozz
This means nothing to me.
guynamedloren
Well that was rude. I think it's quite a generous offer!
frobozz
Well I think you're probably to young to comment about this. Ask your parents. If you were alive 30 years ago, then I suppose you might be from somewhere other than Europe, Australia or New Zealand.
frobozz
Could the drive-by downvoters give me a clue about what's wrong with these comments?
RiderOfGiraffes
I didn't downvote you, but I would guess that you've made a side-reference that you think is witty, and most people don't get. Therefore it's a non-technical, information-free in-joke, and these are heavily discouraged on HN.
frobozz
I see, thanks. I shall steer clear of this sort of thing from now on.
jwcacces
This is not news
paulnelligan
I agree, couchsurfing.com is where to post offers like this ...

awaiting downvotes

rdl
I wish there were a hacker specific couch surfing type site. I don't think posting here can scale, but this is about the best right now. Maybe a way to support arbitrary affinity groups?
geuis
I'm interested in traveling again in the next few months. Can you contact me at geuis.teses@gmail.com?
jaywalker
Is the offer only for Americans?
consti2k
No, for everyone! I was just kidding: but yeah, everyone should travel and see the world. And if you don't have the money, you now at least have some place to stay for free (at least for a couple of days :) )
wyclif
It's a very nice offer, and kind of you to do it. I only wish I could take you up on it, Vienna is a beautiful city from what I understand.
robchez
Vienna was a total 'woah' city for me. The history, the culture the beauty of that city is amazing. I remember feeling like my head was swimming the few days I was there. For me it was easily the most beautifully amazing city in Europe. I am so jealous that you live there!
mayutana
Currently living in Europe and having visited many of the European cities, I find Vienna to the best among them too. This is a really generous offer and one could save a lot of money.
robchez
exactly! I really hope someone gives this a go. if i could take the time off work I would love to go there.

as soon as i left vienna, i immediately started looking for work there! alas not to many mechanical engineers required :(

CWIZO
Of the cities I visited Vienna was the least impressive to me. But to be fair, I only visited once during a high school trip, and we ware mostly looking for a way to get drunk. So I suppose I should give it another go.
mantas
Might hit the road in december.. Hope this is not only for americans :)
consti2k
The offer is for everyone, email me when you plan to come over - I should be in Vienna pretty much all year (although I might be in Warsaw on New Years)
detst
Your email isn't visible. You have to put it in the "about" section for others to see it.
turkia
Are Turks and/or Moroccans welcomed in Austria these days, or will I be chased into a corner by a mob and get bitten to death? Considering Austria's atrocious credentials as a collaborator with the Nazi's during WWII, seems like it, as well as many European countries these days, descend quickly into familiar bestial self. No wonder this offer is aiming Americans. Only lots are not white. Sorry.
consti2k
You are of course welcome, whatever background you have (for details, see my other comment about that :)).

Don't play the WWII card on me.

turkia
Well, your people played it on mine. So, just a reminder. "Austria" the beautiful is skin deep. Great architecture, wonderful "culture", only as long as you ignore the reality of Europe these days. Racism is raising it's ugly head again in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and of course France (one of the worst) and the UK. It's not all beautiful architecture and culture. Part of your culture is the very recent past, and unfortunately, the present.
consti2k
Racism is present everywhere, I give you that. And it's terrible that right-wing political parties are gaining more and more traction in Austria, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and probably pretty much every other country out there (including the USA and Turkey). Did the possibility, that neither me, nor my girlfriend are Austrian even come to your mind? All three of us (my gf, our dog and I) have different "nationalities".

Trolls are not invited to our cookie and cake party! :)

Yaggo
Generalization is not very constructive, you know.
turkia
That's exactly my point. It's generalization to suggest that "Vienna is awesome". It's is not so for many people now a days, who live there, or just visit.

Imagine walking into a bread shop and not being greeted by the "beautiful" Austrian girl (you know, blue eyes, blonde hair shtick) just because you look a Turk/Moroccan. Rather the the typical greeting, you're treated with a "YES!" - Imagine what it makes you feel, knowing that no matter how much more educated you are then this simple peasant, she knows she can humiliate you. In the past she could refuse to server you, hang a note on the door: "No Jews or Dogs." - Just saying.

I've heard so many stories from friends and colleagues living in Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris and London, I really take it seriously. It really is strange for me to hear "awesome" in connection with Vienna.

Europe was once full of labor and concentration camps. It might never happen again, but lets not forget that then it was the Jews. Now it's Muslims. Nobody really thought the Jews are going to "take over", but this is what modern Europeans believe Muslims are about to do today.

There were 191,000 Jews living in Austria before WWII, only 12,000 after.

So, when claiming a place like Vienna (with it's horrible record, past and present) is "awesome" just pause and remember what happend there in the 1930's, and what is going on there, and elsewhere in Europe, these days.

consti2k
Now that was more detailed: thanks, I got what you mean.

I promise you, that you would have a <strike>great</strike> awesome time with my friends and me in Vienna. I choose my surrounding wisely: racists have no place in my friendships.

Also: let me know if your friends and/or colleagues in Vienna have trouble finding friends/nice-people. I can hook them up!

prs
I ask myself whether you have actually lived here or base your assumptions on hearsay from friends.

I find it intolerable to strike comparisons between the Holocaust and modern-day Vienna.

GFischer
I'm not going to defend the original poster, but Vienna does have some racism today, and especially against Turks.

Some of my family lives there (I have an Austrian half-sister), and when I stayed there, as a Uruguayan of German descent I never had any trouble, people were friendly and made some friends... but the son of the Uruguayan Consul at the time (a diplomat), who has some African or native ancestors and is thus a bit darker-skinned, had some trouble with buses not stopping when he was the only one at the bus stop, people being rude to him and other petty meanness.

xtho
I personally think it's rather irritiating that you go off on such weird reasoning when somebody offers you a place to stay. The difficulties with that line of reasoning become obvious if you start thinking about whether Turkey or Marroc have been free of guilt during the past 100 years. (Although that would be weird reasoning in itself.)

Anyway, if you had ever been to Vienna you would know that the people there aren't oblivious to the events of WWII. And greeting somebody with Yes/Ja isn't all too unusual in Vienna. I also wouldn't assume a girl selling bread in a Viennoise bakery is necessarily Austrian who speaks fluently German. The simple assumption that she had to be Austrian demonstrates a certain nationalist/racist bias on your part.

begemot
> no matter how much more educated you are then this simple peasant, she knows she can humiliate you

Education doesn't make you superior to anyone, and calling an honest worker a "peasant" shows that you are not especially enlightened.

> just pause and remember what happend [sic] there in the 1930's

You as a Turk should pause and remember what happened 1915-1917 in Turkey, and maybe this time you will have the balls to admit you committed genocide, before that you might as well give up on criticising anyone else's history.

endtime
I wonder what an Armenian would have to say about all your grandstanding...
jacquesm
You are making the classic mistake of conflating country aggregate with specific people.
ido 

    Are Turks and/or Moroccans welcomed in Austria 
    these days, or will I be chased into a corner 
    by a mob and get bitten to death?
I don't know where you got this, but nobody is going to bite or beat you (surely not to death!) here.
jacabado
Wow! I will travel to Vienna in the start of December! I really would like to meet you, whether you can give me a place to sleep or just show/point me some places around.

My contact is jracabado on the gmail com!

consti2k
I'll send out an email with some further info, later tonight.. looking forward to seeing you! :)
consti2k
Everyone is welcomed, the "Go see the world, you Americans!" was supposed to be funny and should not implicate that I 'prefer' to have an American as a guest.

You are welcomed if you are open-minded and non-racist (no matter what sex, skin-color).

If you are in a wheelchair or have trouble walking stairs, my apartment won't work for you (it's on the second floor) - but I can offer you to be your guide for the city and I can try to find a friends apartment where we can help you with an elevator.

Sorry for any misunderstanding/anger the last sentence provoked - seems like I didn't think that through.

SkyMarshal
It's cool. I'm American and it made me lol. Austria and Vienna are at the top of my 'places to see' list, so next chance I get to travel I'll certainly look you up.

One question - how do English-only speakers get along there?

consti2k
German is my first language, so I get along really well - but I've a couple of English-only speaking friends, and they seem to stay happy :)

Judging from what I know, there are quite a lot of English-only speakers in Vienna. Most of the young people in Austria speak English - so you won't have any trouble ordering food, going out partying or getting to know people (at least in an age group < 45).

If you plan to move to Vienna and are interested in any technical stuff, you should definably check out the Metalab to meet some people - I believe 90% of the people there are able to speak English (some are English-only speakers) and they might also help you meet other English-speaking people..

trizk
Advertisement: Room to let in Vienna, Austria

Big 3 bdr. apartment to share with exotic Vienna couple

* 40 minutes to where the Brat lives. * 3 hours to Prague, Budapest. * A couple of more hours to other places you may have never heard of but should definitely see.

$200 Brokers fee only.

Edit: Re down voting. Sense of humor... anyone?

trizk
Aarrgghhh. I am getting beaten by down votes. For what its worth Vienna is beautiful.

The offer to pay me a $200 brokers fee to connect you with this amazing opportunity is still open.

Sirupsen
hackercouch.com anyone?
tunaslut
yes - go build this!
Sirupsen
There we go, a potential weekend project! :)

Please upvote/comment if you would like to see this happening.

derrida
Awww. What a nice offer! I love to see this sort of thing! Good on you, I hope you have some amazing people come to stay!
grillmaster
How long does this offer stand? I've heard of a good music festival held in august at budapest. Can i make reservations for then?
follower
I can confirm that the Metalab Hackerspace is awesome and well worth heading along to. They were very welcoming, have great resources and friendly people.

I ended up staying in Vienna for two weeks (originally had planned only one) after being invited there after meeting a number of people from Metalab at 25C3 in Berlin. Really great for nocturnal people like me too--I think there was only once during the two weeks that I was hanging out at Metalab that someone said "Oh, hey, you're going to have to go now 'cos the last person with a key is leaving". And that was at 8:30am in the morning after being there all night. :)

They have a really well equipped electronics/maker lab/workshop--I did my first PCB etching there. And they let me make use of the facilities on a pay for what you use basis for the time I was visiting.

Can't tell you much about the city though. :)

andreasklinger
metalab rocks :) the whole nerdscene in vienna rocks :)

if anybody follows this post and comes to vienna - hit me up as well!

follower
Oh, you're based in Vienna, cool. I passed on a link to Garmz to a friend the other day. :) She has a site that's a marketplace for handmade goods. And I have an interest in customisable manufacturing, designer to customer connections and the like.
andreasklinger
Sounds interesting.

Hit me up ak (youknow) garmz (theother) com