Introductions

Hello everyone! We are the Vienna Sausages and our great team consists of four awesome members, Emille Krzyzanowski, Ashley Burnett, Conner Crooker and Grant Cozad. We did initial research over the city of Vienna and the country of Austria. Our departure is coming fast and I'm sure everyone is just as excited for the trip as our group is! Here some of the information we found about the country of Austria!

The exchange rate is 1.37 euros per 1 us dollar. 91.9% of people in Austria are Austrians, 4% Yugoslavians, 1.6% Turkish, and .9% German. Typical imports are machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, and oil. The main exports are machinery and equipment, motor vehicles and parts, paper, metal goods, chemicals, iron and steel, and textiles. Austria is slightly smaller than Maine and about 75% of the area includes the mountainous territory of the eastern alps. Forest and woodlands cover about 40% of the land. The country contains many snowfields, glaciers and snow-capped peaks.

Austria's population is around 8,223,062. the Ethnic groups that are among the Austrian population are Austrians at 91%, Yugoslavs at 4% which includes croatians, slovenes,serbs and bosniaks another 1.6% are turks and .9% are german and 2.6% accounts for and unspecified group. The language that is predominantly spoken in Austria is German. And they are mainly Roman Catholic at 73.6%. The median age of the population is 44 years old!

One of the more famous tourists attractions in Austria is the Schonbrunn Palace. It offers a Privy garden aswell as the oldest zoo in the world and a labrinth and maze. Austria has a couple ski resorts that are very popular in the winter seasons. Seefeld, Tyrol has held the Winter Olympics twice in its existence. The other, St Anton am Arlberg is more for the experienced skier that has much experience to take on the rugged mountain terrain. Grosslockner Alpine Road is another popular attraction which give the tourist the great view of Austria's highest mountain.

Austria imports motor vehicles, metal goods, oil products, and food the most. The top four imports, in order, of Austria are cars, refined petroleum, crude petroleum, and petroleum gas. Austria's biggest import partner is Germany with 44.5% of all trade, Italy comes in second with 7.1%, and in third is Switzerland with 5.2%. Austria Exports machinery, equipment, motor vehicles, paper, metal goods, iron, steel, textiles, and food. The top five exports are packaged medicaments (antibiotics), vehicle parts, spark-ignition engines, petroleum gas, and cars. Austria's biggest export partner is Germany with almost 29.5% of total trade, Italy is second with 8.6%, and the U.S. comes in third with 4.3%. To give an idea, imports from the USA amount to more than $5.1 billion per year.

Vienna is Austria's capital and the largest city. Vienna sits right between the foothills of the Alps and the Carpathians; specifically right by the Vienna Woods which is a foothill section of the Alps. It is situated right along side Europe's second largest river, the Danube. This river cuts right through the mountains. The total area is about 160 square miles and the elevation is about 510 feet."The Vienna basin was a nodal point of ancient trade and military routes. It linked north and south along the “amber route” that ran southward from the Baltic and linked east and west along the Danube." The area first prospered as a trading center. The surrounding regions are Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary and strategically, Vienna commands these surrounding regions. Part of this reason is because they are in control of Europe's most important land and water routes. Vienna has become a center for art, music, architecture and education!