“I’ve never been to Vienna before. I applied for my studies, I got a dormitory room and we flew from Turkey, me and my mom. The first time in Vienna I was thinking oh my God, this is so amazing; I will be spending 3 years here. But I gave the wrong address to the taxi driver and my mother and I ended up walking through the snow in Vienna to find a hostel. It was the first time we ever saw winter in this way, cold and icy and filled with snow. And we had to walk 10 blocks through it. Looking up at the buildings, we didn’t realize the streets were filled with ice.

First I fell down, then my mom, I stood up to help her … while we were walking these 10 streets we fell down around 20 times. At the time we reached the hotel, we were all bruised and blue, ha ha

I can’t forget that day, it was freezing cold and it was really important to see for the first time the place in which I knew I will live for a tremendous amount of time. 4 years for me is a lot because I calculate like 17% of my already consumed life is in Vienna. Now walking on the streets I am not impressed anymore, but back then it was really a big moment for me, to get to know Vienna.”

Onat moved from Turkey to Vienna in 2010