Finding my roots

I was a late bloomer in the whole 'dreaming of overseas' stakes. I never really knew where I wanted to go, except for Vienna. I've always been drawn to Vienna: partially due to an interest in classical music; partially because I thought I was Austrian. Not in a 'maybe I'm secretly a Hapsburg princess' kind of way, but that my father's background might have been Austrian.

My ancestry is complicated. I have multiple families, as my biological dad didn't hang around for long. I know the background of my mum's family, and my other dad's family, but the non-existent dad has been harder to trace, especially as my mum never spoke about him. I knew of a grandmother in Berlin, and a vague memory of being told my dad was Austrian. Then I got my full birth certificate, which stated he was born in Cheb, Czechoslavakia (now Czech Republic). Research (ok, Google) advised that Cheb was a very German town, despite being within Czech borders, so I decided I must have misremembered the whole Austrian lineage thing and let it go. Until today.

Today I took a walking tour, and as I was the only person on the tour, I got chatting with the guide. Turns out that Czech was all part of the Austro- Hungarian Empire pre WW1, and that the area of Cheb was Austrian. So the town was a German speaking town, not a German town. However, when Czechoslovakia was granted independence, the German speaking people were ostracised by the Czechs.presented the chance of becoming part of Germany during WWII, they supported the Germans, thus the impression that Cheb is a German town.

So anyway, I'm probably Austrian, not German (as well as Spanish, French, English, Irish and Scottish). Which makes me like Vienna even more.Not that I need much encouragement, it's such a nice place. With such good food. And such good coffee (oh, Vienna coffee. Coffee should ALWAYS come with cream on top).

Anyway, that's all for now. I'm going to see the Spanish Riding School tomorrow, and to log off this blog post before my computer times out.