I visited Austria twice: first in the Tyrol province as a kid (in the mid-80s), and then for a longer period in Vienna in early 2009, when working for the United Nations. The two experiences were very different (a cozy small village in the mountains during the summer, and a large capital city during the winter) but equally gratifying, tourist wise.

I didn’t stay in Austria long enough to express a judgment on living there, but it seemed a clean, organized country, albeit on the expensive side of Europe. I grew up and spent most of my life in warm tropical areas, so any country with a temperature lower than 25 degrees Celsius (80°F) hardly gets my stamp of approval.