When I came to Vienna, the big city, being a slightly awkward nerd, it took serious adjustment to the fact that all male/female and female/female greetings of p

When I came to Vienna, the big city, being a slightly awkward nerd, it took serious adjustment to the fact that all male/female and female/female greetings of people that know each other fairly well involved cheek kissing (twice, starting with the right cheeks). But I got used to it, and even learned different forms (twice, starting left - dunno where high chance for funny misunderstandings, thrice, starting right - Serbia iirc). I greet everybody with a Handshake when I meet them the first time but can say the most universal rule is just to be relaxed about it. People that are so uptight to have a bias against someone where the first greeting results into some awkwardness through cultural differences (where cultural differences cann also easily occur even within the same city), is not someone I want to be acquainted most of the time. Contrary I even find a little misunderstanding about greeting protocol on a first meeting being a good ice breaker. For business purposes I would of course always plead for erring on the conservative side ;) handshakes work well most of the time.