WIENER NEUSTADT (Austria) is the city I call third home. It grew on me just like papas overalls from the 70s. It’s home it’s University it’s love. I see Wiener Neustadt being fundamental for future university nostalgia.

The dorms that we too often refer to as ‘Wihast’. The city is flat and free, at the same time it looks like a science park starting up. I ponder on what it will look like five years from now, I picture what nostalgia will be like for me then. Just a 30 minute train ride to Vienna, great for those magnetised to big cities, capitals and bright lights. Funny looking back at how hostile it seemed to me back then, with a population of 40,000 and bus connections full of unpredictable timetables. I was younger then, I’m a little older now, much has changed when I look at this city. The train station is where my outlook changes.

When I arrive, surrounded by Austrian and Austrian, I head to the taxis and get one for Viktor Kaplan Straße, my home here. University is part of why Wiener Neustadt has become a soft spot in heart. Here days are long, nights longer at times but it still feels like home a lot of the time. Behind the dorms lies an open field full of green grass and empty space. Great for clearing the mind, it is blank, like one would want their mind to be when faced with too much stress. The simplest way to say it is none other than therapeutic.

I have gotten fond of walks with friends in what feels like the middle of nowhere, the dorm life and the way of life here. A summer perk is the warm wind and fresh breeze, the weight feels worth it. The winters may be never ending but not the good times. All in Wiener Neustadt, just here in Wiener Neustadt. Serious fact: Med Austron, which I see outside my window every day, is one of the few cancer Centres that uses ion beam therapy.