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Quick question---gift for Austrian hosts

We are on our way to Slovenia and Austria tonight. I just realized I was so focused on packing light that I neglected to include a gift for our hosts in Vienna. We are doing a home exchange and they have already been in our home. They brought a box of Mozart Balls (!) for us. All I know about them is they seem to eat healthy and organic----from the opened packages of food they left behind. Could not tell if they are vegetarian, vegan., or omnivores. They also appear to like American popular culture--- left a bunch of InStyle. People, and similar magazines.

We flew from Seattle to San Jose yesterday, as our flight to Europe departs from here tonight. We have no car and it is hot and smoky outside, so we are limited in how much shopping we can do. But there is a Whole Foods two blocks away. Can anyone suggest something compact and portable that we could pick up there? Could be food, housewares, or anything else they carry at Whole Foods, but should be distinctly American. We will have to carry it our whole trip as Vienna comes last.

Posted by
5516 posts

The Whole Foods near me sells Lake Champlain chocolates and they are pretty good. I'd go with chocolate since that is what they brought you. You could also get a bottle of wine, but that would require that you check your bag.

Posted by
3843 posts

Up-to-date magazines are easy to carry. American magazines are very expensive overseas.

Posted by
16261 posts

I guess I could get the magazines at the airport; they would be easy to carry and I know which ones they like. The stack they left behind was 6" high! She is a mystery writer and maybe she gets interesting ideas from People magazine. . .

Maybe a couple of mags and a flat box of fancy dried fruit or similar? Hesitant about chocolate as we will be carrying it around so long, and it is quite warm there.

Posted by
3952 posts

WH has a lot of California nut and dry fruit mixes. Get a local, reusable bag with simething in English on it. Our Berlin friends say they use their Santa Barbara shopping bag every day.!

Posted by
5384 posts

American magazines are a luxury here! At my office, the People, InStyle and Martha gets passed around numerous times.

American chocolate is not to many people's taste here, so skip that. Dried fruit is a dime a dozen here as well.

I fantasize about Whole Foods but I'm American so that's a bit different. Maybe a Whole Foods canvas shopping bag filled with magazines?

Posted by
16261 posts

OK! So glad I mentioned the magazines at that appears to be a great choice. I will have to get them at the airport as I did not find any at Whole Foods, it I am sure the airport will have what I seek. I can slip them flat into the back of my bag before I check it. ( Have to check the bag as I am carrying trekking poles).

Posted by
5516 posts

American chocolate is not to many people's taste here

If you are talking "Hersheys" then I agree, but a lot of the artisanal American chocolate is made in the European style.

However, I agree that chocolate would not be a good choice if you are not going direct.

Posted by
16261 posts

Mona--coincidentally, the landslide shop at SJC where I went to buy magazines had nice flat boxes of See's peanut brittle. So my gift will be 3 magazines: US, People, and a Rolling Stonesspecial edition, plus the peanut brittle. I was actually shocked at the price of mGazines, as we only get them by subscription ( New Yorker, Smithsonian, The Economist, and Sunset) and they are not expensive that way. People was $6.99 plus tax and the Rolling Stone was around $12.50.

So I wonder how expensive these mags are in Austria?

Meantime, here in the airport business class lounge, I found German-language magazines for free. I picked up a Men's Health ( in German) for my son, and Der Spiegel for myself, to read on the plane.

Posted by
3952 posts

Have a great trip and home exchange, one of our favorite ways to travel!

Posted by
5384 posts

Cost of the magazines in Austria? Not applicable as you can't even get them here.

Posted by
6 posts

Hi
I have inlaws in Austria,they love smoke salmon,easy to transport vacuum packed, also they like maple syrup,and years ago I always brought peanut butter. A book of your own country would also be good.
It is a beautiful country, drive the small country roads so much better if you want to see the pretty villages.
Carolle

Posted by
5384 posts

Smoked salmon, maple syrup and peanut butter are all now readily available in Austria.

Posted by
14507 posts

"The Economist" has the price indicated in Euro as well as other monetary prices.

Posted by
8055 posts

In my European experience with smoked salmon, they have lox or soft smoked salmon not the hard smoked sorts that are found in the PNW. In any case, there is pretty much nothing you can't get everywhere in the age of the internet, so if it is a nice local product, it doesn't matter if they have similar things available. Nice candy is nice candy. A good bottle of local wine is interesting to people in another locale. I can buy smoked salmon of course where I live, but if a house guest brought some it would be a nice gift. I would avoid things like peanut butter which are basic staples rather than 'nice gifts' (unless the person requests it of course)