Snow - Salt right? (Living in Austria)

This is an old entry that I had written and forgot to post online. Its a little late and irrelevant, but it shows a little more into what living in Austria is like.

For the most part of this winter we have enjoyed warmer weather and very little snow (the exception being the last 2 weeks where it has been very cold and the last 5 days where it seems to have snowed every day). With the multiple days of snow there was a lot of shoveling that needed to be done and, you would think, salt needed to be put down so people wouldn't slip. Well, over here they do it a little different. Instead of having a big bucket of salt and walking around and throwing it down to melt the ice/snow, they have little "trucks" that they drive around on the sidewalks that put down rocks. The rocks aren't very big, maybe the size of a dime, but I guess they are supposed to help give you traction while walking on a slippery surface. I am not certain what they put on the roads but my guess is that it would be the same thing. Then once it gets warmer they hop in the little machines and come around and pick up the rocks to use again for the next. I dont think they work quite as well as the salt we would use back home, but it seems that they have a pretty slick system and if nobody falls and gets hurt it must be working.

Living in Austria - Autobahn

Here in Austria the highways (autobahns) are the easiest way to get from one place to another. Unlike back home in WI though they are not free. Here you have to pay a sort of toll so you can use the highway. But, unlike driving to Chicago there isn't nice little booths with friendly people that glady accept your money, over here you are supposed to buy something called a Vignette to put on your window. The Vignette goes on the windshield (either behind the rear-view mirror or off to the side on the upper right or left corner of your windshield - so it doesn't obstruck your view while driving) and is automatically read when you go past certain points (cameras on the highway).
The prices for a car:
10 day pass is: 7.70 Euros
A month pass is: 21.80 Euros
A year pass is: 72.60 Euros

It is possible to get to places without using the highways but it would take a lot longer, especially as there are a lot of tunnels that go through the mountains instead of going around or over them. (I think that is why you have to pay to use the highways here because of the cost to build them - they have to recoup that money somewhere - and I am sure a tunnel isnt cheap to drill)