【明報專訊】“About myself
I am Laurenz Tinhof. My Chinese friends call me梁雁希. I am 16 years old and from Austria so my first language is German. I also speak English and a little bit of Latin. ”
Austria is at the centre of Europe. Our official language is German. We are a democratic republic that operates under a parliamentary system of government. Austria is a predominantly mountainous country because of the Alps (阿爾卑斯山脈), a great mountain range in Europe. Because of its mountainousness, there is little space for big cities. Mountains are one of the main tourist attractions, after Vienna and Salzburg (薩爾斯堡), Austria's two main cities. People come here to ski in the winter and hike in the summer. Beautiful rivers cut through the mountains, and one of these rivers is Danube (多瑙河), the second longest river in Europe.
Austria lies in the temperate climate zone. It can get as cold as -15℃ in the winter and as hot as 40℃ in the summer. We usually have snowy winters and rainy summers. Some of the mountains are covered by snow throughout the year.
I live in Vienna, the capital and the biggest city of the country with a population of 1.6 million. Vienna in German is Wien. An old city founded about 500 BC, Vienna has 23 districts, and I live in the 13th, a district on the boarder of Vienna. It's a rather nice district and there are many parks and green space. Residential buildings in my city are usually under five stories. I live in a flat with a garden on the second floor. "U-Bahn", a metro system in Vienna, is one of the most important means of transport in the city.
Christmas is the biggest festival in my country. Most people would attend Christmas Mass (彌撒), while everyone else would celebrate with their families and relatives at home. We would buy presents for each other and have big feast together. It's also the start of the second longest holidays in our country.
It is easy to spot the differences between Vienna and Hong Kong. As opposed to Austria, Hong Kong is packed with high-rise buildings over 20 stories. Hong Kong is a bilingual city with signage in both English and Chinese, whereas in Vienna all the signs are in German. Of course, Austrians are less busy. We savour our relaxed lifestyle. But at a closer look I realised despite all the differences we also share a lot in common. Our public transport systems work nearly the same way, despite the fact that we don't have minibuses in Vienna. Also, our streets in Vienna are as crowded as those here. Interestingly, there are nearly as many Chinese shops and restaurants in Vienna as the European ones in Hong Kong. I didn't quite expect all these, and I am looking forward to seeing more and becoming an explorer in Hong Kong.
