The founder and co-CEO of InterNations, Malte Zeeck, remembers his recent visit to Salzburg where he attended an event organized by the local InterNations Community.
After my previous visits to official InterNations Events had led me on a tour around the Mediterranean south of Europe, from Athens over Rome to Madrid and Barcelona, the trip to follow was a short one.
As I happened to attend a wedding in Salzburg on the weekend right after an upcoming InterNations Event, I simply started the journey a couple of days earlier, so I could join the get-together on Thursday night. After all, Salzburg is just a 90-minute car ride away from Munich.
The InterNations Event was hosted at Glüxfall (a pun on the German word Glücksfall or ‘stroke of luck’), a charming café and bar right in Salzburg’s historic city center, close to the alpine river running right through the town.
Unfortunately, despite the promising name, the venue didn’t bring us the hoped-for good luck at first: since it was raining cats and dogs that day, we couldn’t make use of the picturesque patio and courtyard — an ideal setting for mellow summer nights. Nonetheless, our guests had decided to brave the elements. In spite of the frankly horrible weather, there were 92 InterNations members from over 30 countries on the guest list.
Before the attendees started arriving, Lucy — one of the InterNations Salzburg Ambassadors – and I were interviewed for the Salzburger Nachrichten, one of Austria’s daily newspapers. Lucy, a Polish expat, and her fellow InterNations Ambassador Miguel from Madrid, are both very active and committed event hosts who take good care of the InterNations Salzburg Community.
With roughly 1,500 members in the Salzburg area, the community is far smaller than the one in Vienna, which is among the largest InterNations Communities in Central Europe. However, such a relatively modest size does have its distinct advantages: I noticed that the atmosphere at the event felt very casual and familiar.
I was very happy to thank Lucy and Miguel in my brief introduction speech for creating such a welcoming community, as well as the many Group Consuls present at the event for offering a wide range of fun activities in Salzburg, like a bike ride around town or a Spanish movie night for the Cinema Group.
The Consuls also did a great job of presenting what they’d been planning next, so the guests could find out more about upcoming Events and Activities in town — for example, Tina Turner (not the rock legend, but a fantastic InterNations Consul), who runs the DinnerNations Group and is part of the Salzburg City Life team, or Victor, who had recently created an Outdoor and Adventure Group for InterNations members in Salzburg.
I really enjoyed talking to various members, such as Verena, a former InterNations Ambassador in Salzburg, who is still a regular at our events, or expats working for Red Bull (the headquarters of the brand are located in rural Fuschl am See close to Salzburg), the city’s international airport, or the Austrian branch of multinational retail chain SPAR.
The pouring rain notwithstanding, the enjoyable evening was indeed more than a simple stroke of luck.
(Image credit: Malte Zeeck / InterNations)