I moved to Vienna, which was named the most livable city in the world, to finish my master's degree. I found the locals unfriendly and couldn't connect with the culture.

• I finished the second half of my master's degree in Vienna as the pandemic started.
• Unfriendly locals and freezing temperatures made me feel unwelcome and isolated.

Halfway through my international journalism program at City, University of London, COVID-19 hit. I was forced to move back in with my parents in rural Wales for three months. I then made the impulsive decision to fly to any airport that would take UK travelers. I found myself on the last flight out to Belgrade, Serbia.

With Brexit looming and the end of my degree in sight, the countdown to settle somewhere with the ease of a European Union passport was diminishing each day. My friend had a spare bed in their apartment in nearby Vienna, so I decided to finish my master's degree in the Austrian capital.

The Global Liveability Index named Vienna the most livable city in the world in 2022 because of its infrastructure, healthcare, and culture.

But the only expectations I had were the old-style baroque architecture and the snowy winter nights. What I got were cold attitudes and overwhelming feelings of alienation.

It was difficult for me to make friends in Vienna

Over tea, one of my very few Austrian friends told me: "In Vienna, you get to know someone by looking away from them."

It's a running joke among all my non-native friends about the difficulty of breaking into an Austrian friend group. The unfriendly attitude of the Viennese is famous throughout the German-speaking world: They're often referred to as "grantig," which means passive-aggressive grouchiness. Vienna was also named the "unfriendliest city" in the Expat City Ranking in 2022, with 54% of expat survey respondents saying they found it hard to make friends with locals.

I expected a small support system when moving to a new place, but I wasn't quite prepared for how difficult it would be for me to make friends in Vienna. It seemed there were a set number of social hurdles that had to be passed to get into anyone's social life.

This made things more difficult when I moved into an apartment in the ninth district, a 10-minute bike ride from the city center.

I felt even more isolated when the winter started

Past October, Vienna suffers the same as many other northern cities in Europe; the nights are long, and the weather is cold. A Portuguese friend phrased it well: "You don't live in Vienna in winter. You just try to survive it."

The white and gray buildings that reflected the light so beautifully in the summer now morphed with the perpetual gray clouds. Winter in Vienna was like a black-and-white movie you couldn't escape.

I was inside most of the time, and many of my brief summer friendships froze. With the lockdown shutting down most businesses, it wasn't easy to keep friendships going. Plus, it was too cold for any meetups outside anyone's apartment.

I was surprised by the darker side of Viennese politics

About the time I got my own apartment, Vienna was holding its mayoral elections. I remember passing a poster for the Freedom Party of Austria. On the poster, there was a white woman screaming in fear and a brown man behind her. He looked menacing and was holding a knife. I found a few other posters in equally poor taste. They focused on the worry that Austria was becoming increasingly Islamic.

While xenophobia is in every society — including in my homeland — it struck me how openly the Freedom Party of Austria exercised its xenophobic ideals on the streets.

Ultimately, I learned a lot

I came to Vienna at a crossroads in my life, transitioning from someone pretending to be an adult to someone with aspirations.

While there were rough moments along my journey, I don't blame Vienna.

As a drunken conversation with an American Austrian concluded: "Austrians are very proud, very direct people, and they aren't the nicest people, but they know that it's all half a joke."

Though I may not have thought it at the time, the negative experiences I had in Vienna and with its people were important. I realized I could no longer be carried around by the winds of chance, hoping that everything would work out. While in Vienna, I learned I had to take responsibility for my own life and live as though my future depended on it — because it eventually will.

My cultural clash with Vienna made me see what I wanted and didn't want for my future, and for that, I'm grateful.