Greetings from Austria

[Mario R.]

Hi everybody,

My name is Mario and I found my passion in Scuba diving around 7 years ago. Actually I have fulfiled one of my childhood dreams with my first OWD certification in 2012. Once infected by the scuba virus with around 20 dives per year on the begining, I have ended up in over 100 dives per year in the last three years. Suddenly around 3 years ago I have explored sidemount diving and stucked with it, so did in the meantime over 200 dives with this system. I think it is perfect for wrack diving (doing it rather often), and it gives you a completely new feeling of freedom once when you can handle it. Everything up to 6 tanks is doable and makes a lot of fun.
Where do I dive? Mostly in cold austrian lakes or in different countries on the northern side of Mediteranean see.
I am looking forward to be a member of this huge community.

Best regards
Mario

 

[chillyinCanada]

Welcome, we are glad to have you here!

 

[wnissen]

Willkommen! I can only imagine how cold those Austrian lakes are, to me the 13C / 55F ocean around here is pretty cold. Enjoy the boards.

Do you have any recommendations for restaurants in Wien or Linz? Would love to get the opinion of a real Austrian. I am only just learning that many of the dishes we think of as "German" in the US, like tafelspitz and saurbraten, are in fact Austrian. Thanks.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Welcome. I have long been fascinated by the idea of diving in the Gruner See.

 

[Sam Miller III]

@wnissen
stated:
"I am only just learning that many of the dishes we think of as "German" in the US, like tafelspitz and saurbraten, are in fact Austrian .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ach Mein Gott !
My uma always said we are German and that is German food !
But the family cane from southern Germany...

Now I know..
Sam

 

[Mario R.]

Thanks guys for all those greetings!

@ wnissen - 13°C / 55°F is rather warm for austrian lakes. Well OK, on the surface we can get up to around 22°C/72°F but under 20m/60ft the temperature will remain around 5-6°C / 41°-43°F all around the year.
I am leaving in the near of Salzburg, so my home lakes for diving are Attersee or Wolfgangsee. I could recommend a lot of restaurants in Salzburg. In Vienna you should visit Schweizerhaus - it is very famous, but there are also a lot of nice other smaller and not so known places. Unfortunately I don't know anything in Linz, but if you are going there let me know. I can ask a few friends and give you some recommendations.

@Lorenzoid - sorry but for Gruener See you are too late - unfortunatelly diving is prohibited there for the reasons of environmental protection. But believe me Attersee will do as well. We have a lot of nice and clean mountain lakes that are nice for diving.

@ Sam Miller III, at least for Tafelspitz you are absolutely right.

Best regards
Mario

 

[wnissen]

Hi Mario, your response led me to a fascinating resource. The Austrian Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism (Das Bundesministerium für Nachhaltigkeit und Tourismus) has a list: Traditionelle Lebensmittel in Österreich (Traditional food in Austria), that includes detailed history, recipe, and references for the foods, such as this one for Tafelspitz.

To get us a bit back on topic, there are certainly advantages to those cold lakes, because I bet the visibility is very good. Most of the lakes around here are cloudy on the best of days, and some are only clear in the "winter", which is quite mild.

 

[Mario R.]

Hi

More known are by the way for example „Kaiserschmarren“ or Wiener Schnitzel“ but your source is quite good.

Regarding to the lakes, that‘s right, they are rather clear, but we have the same problem in the summer. So in the winter the visibility is much better.