Many older people have big apartments and make rooms available to students in their homes. Student housing is at a premium in Vienna. Most resident landlords will at the start consider you to be a boarder. Whether you remain one or eventually manage to integrate yourself into another life-style will depend upon your interest, initiative, adaptability, and acceptance of Austrian habits and attitudes to life in general. Rooms are kept at a lower temperature in the winter than in the U.S. Austrians are very concerned with saving energy through conservation of electricity, gas, and hot water, and you will be expected to cooperate.
Friends meet in Viennese coffee houses or wine cellars.
Parties and loud discussion sessions in residences are seriously frowned upon. After 10 p.m. rooms must be silent . This is a rule all over Austria and is backed by police regulations. Most bathrooms will have a bathtub only, with a hand-held shower attachment. You are not allowed to alter anything in the apartment, such as hanging pictures, without permission from the owner.