Shopping in Austria: Things to Buy - Part II
5.) Tracht & Clothing
Now we enter the real high-end market. You always wanted to look like you featured in "The Sound of Music"? Expect to spend a lot. Traditional Austrian clothing, or "Tracht", consists most prominently of a Dirndl dress for ladies and Lederhosen for the gents. A complete set of tracht for a man or woman can easily sum up to 2,000 Euros if you go for the properly made stuff. Cheaper versions are available, but you will have to look for them.
Alternatively, you could also look for Tracht-style accessories - or a dinner jacket fit for the Opera Ball. Cheaper clothing sells in shopping malls like everywhere else in the World - for example, in the Mariahilfer Straße, Vienna′s primary shopping lane, which is more of a local′s place than a tourist destination.
For souvenirs, I recommend to get a "No Kangaroos in Austria" T-shirt that is sold all over the place. T-shirts saying "I like Fucking in Austria" were sold by the small village of Fucking in Upper Austria for a while, but I don′t know if they still do.
6.) Music: Annotations, CDs & Instruments
Austrians pride themselves of being residents of the World′s most musical country. So why not buying a Bösendorfer? They are sold in Vienna and elsewhere in specialist shops. For a smaller budget and less space in your suitcase, go for annotations of your favourite composers. There are plenty of old book stores and archives in all major cities and shops specialising on annotations and music literature.
CDs can be bought almost anywhere, but for specialist music stores with a range of classical CDs, Salzburg and Vienna are best. Try the Siegmund-Haffner-Gasse in Salzburg or the shop at the national opera Staatsoper in Vienna. The complete works of Mozart sell for some 100 Euros these days, but you can get it on Amazon. For an original small instrument, look out for an "Okarina".
These hand-made flutes of clay were popular among shepherds in the Alps of Austria and Italy. They are still made and sold relatively cheaply, though few people know how to play them these days. At folk music festivals, you might have an opportunity to hear an Okarina in action.
7.) Firearms: Guns & Rifles
If you want to make business in Austria, you got to drink coffee and shoot big mammals. Cafes and hunting parties are still fertile grounds and platforms for all kinds of business. The Upper Austrian town of Steyr has a longstanding tradition in making guns and ammunition and there are fine arms made in peaceful little Austria. Classic ones are the Glock 17 or the Steyr Sturmgewehr rifle.
Hunting guns can be purchased in specialist shops, for example in Vienna, Graz or Innsbruck. It is not as easy to get a gun in Austria as it is in the US, so check the legal requirements in advance. As in most countries with a hunting tradition, taxidermists are not uncommon and you can get a trophy stuffed as a souvenir from a hunting trip.
Go to "Shopping: Things to Buy, Part I - Part II - Part III"
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Further Reading
Currency, Money and how to save some
