“Are you American,” she asked.

“Yes,” my friend said.

“I can tell. Americans are so prude,” she said as she laughed.

Four of my female friends and I had a surprising experience when we went to the Alpen Therme Spa in Bad Hofgastein. We were enjoying the comfort of the outdoor heated pool with the Alps encircling us, when we decided to move to the saunas and steam rooms.

The saunas in the “Sauna World” area of the spa are located in wooden huts outside, but we didn’t know that we had to cross through a crowd of mostly older, nude men soaking in the outdoor hot tub to get there.

Once we left the heated pool, I learned that in most areas of the spa, Austrians keep their bathing suits in the lockers and towels on the hooks.

The surprise wasn’t that people were baring it at the spa, but that men and women of different generations were naked together and everyone except us appeared comfortable with it.

However, there was a separate sauna area for women who didn’t want to join the men.

But spas aren’t the only place where Austrians bare it.

Three times during the bus ride to Zell am See to go snowboarding one Sunday, I saw men urinating in clear view on the side of the road. Rumor has it that there’s no such law as indecent exposure here.

Nudity is found in the live fine arts, too.

While in Vienna, my friends and I attended the musical “Romeo and Juliet”, which was voted Best New Musical Production in 2005, at the Raimund Theater.

During one of the dance numbers, all the men threw off their shirts, but in a manner that reminded me of the Chris Farley-Patrick Swayze Chippendales skit seen on "Saturday Night Live."

And in the scene of Romeo and Juliet’s final night together, both actors woke up naked in Juliet’s bed together. The actors were actually nude because I saw part of Romeo’s bare rear and when Juliet slipped into her sheer nightgown, nothing was left to the imagination.

Maybe that’s why “Romeo and Juliet” was rewarded with its Best New Musical title.