ABroad In Austria: November 2010

So to be honest, Nichole and I did not encounter the Krampus on our late night, snowy walk tonight. But, Jan and I did have a run-in when we were out on Friday, and I'm not gonna lie, I was a bit scared. As the story goes (thanks to my research on the ever truthful Wikipedia, yeah right) the Krampus accompany St. Nicholas around the countryside visiting the families. The Krampus are responsible for punishing the bad kids with minor forms of torture, and may even carry them away, while St. Nick rewards all the good children with gifts of nuts, fruits, and candies. Around Austria, leading up to the Feast of St Nicholas on December 5th, it is common to have Krapmus runs, which I hear is like a parade of Krampuses, or Krampii, thoughts? They go around "beating" and "whipping" the townspeople that attend the gathering. They also make the rounds at the local bars, getting successively drunker, scarier, and more annoying. I have a minor scratch and bruise on my arm from one sitting on my lap and my arm encountering the spike on its back. Fun times for sure.

This week also brought our first real snowfall with accumulation. I've bought my skis and ski outfit, so I'm ready to go skiing this saturday for the first time out! Hopefully the snow continues falling in the mountains. Nichole and I did venture out tonight after the kids went to bed because it was so peaceful, in stark contrast to a normal day inside the school walls. We saw some wildlife, well really just a single jackrabbit. But, thats more jackrabbits than I've seen in my whole life. Because of the lighting and the snow we failed to get a good picture, so you just have to take my word for it. We capped off our walk with a few perfectly made snow angels in front of the school!

We were blessed to have a "headmasters holiday" (surprise day off) as we wrapped up the first trimester on Friday. Thursday night, in lieu of a typical Thanksgiving, we had a great replacement with an all-school awards dinner downtown at the Sternbräu. The kids got all dressed up and had a great time, as did the staff. Naturally we capped off the night with some glühwein at the Christkindlmarkt, which finally looks perfectly festive with a coating of snow!

It's a Winter Wonderland at AISS

Christkindlmarkt!!

Surrounding the Markt they had 3 wind assembles playing Christmas music on terraces. You can't see them though.

Hotel Sacher all decked out

Krampus!!!!

and here he's whipping a bartender, lovely.

Today I went to Vienna, or Wien as we say here in Austria. But I'm sure you've already figured that out, so I shall stop stating the obvious. It was a great culmination to a pretty fun filled week! On Monday Elizabeth and Vanessa arrived all the way from Findlay (sort of, but really Columbus, via Budapest) and we went out for a decent dinner and drinks for our typical monday night shenanigans. I say decent only because it was All Saints Day which apparently means the whole city of Salzburg closes and we could only eat after going to the THIRD restaurant on my preferred list of possibilities, naturally the company was much better than decent. I got to see the girls again Wednesday, after a bit of a bus direction mishap on their end not thanks to the lady at the Jufa, we thankfully met up at Hotel Stein for a friend's birthday. It was great to reconnect with fellow Findlay-ites and see a couple familiar faces!

So, back to my trip to Vienna. I hitched a ride with the soccer team to their tournament at AIS-Vienna, to save a few bucks and be a top class freeloader. The 45 minute trip into town from the school was relatively painless, until I got off the U Bahn and realized I really had no idea where I was going. The free map from the TI center was about as worthless as they come with more detail than your average atlas road map (only later, at about 11pm did I realize there is a more focused "Old City" map on the other side, whoops). After walking about the block a few times I eventually made it to the NaschMarkt, which is by far, THE BEST open air market I've been too so far. I wanted to buy everything . . . . you name it, it was there! I settled on a single sweet potato and can't wait to cook it up here at school in the measly microwave. Not to be forgotten is my other purchase that was eaten on the spot, delicious green olives stuffed with some sort of sheep's cheese. On Saturdays the markt has the addition of a flea markt at the far end, and if I didn't live in a 10 x 10 dorm room, or just completed the biggest purge of personal belongings ever, or eventually have to move everything back across the ocean, I would have been tempted to buy everything.

I continued on through Vienna under the guidance of the always informative Rick Steves. His self guided walking tours are amazing and took me to the major sites inside "the ring." The highlight would have to be climbing the 343 circular stairs up the south tower of St. Stephens Cathedral. Only recently have I discovered how dizzy circular stairs make me, and how terribly they mess with my depth perception on the way down. It was a great view of the city and awesome to get above and away from the scaffolding that is currently surrounding the church. The Hofburg Imperial Palace was really impressive, but unfortunately I missed the practice time of the Lippizaner Stallions in the morning. One question though, why is it called the Spanish Riding School if its in an Austrian palace? The rest of the tour took me past the Opera House, down through the shopping streets, and into the nicest "public" WC I've never been to. In a previous life it was a swanky Wine Cellar. Now its a bathroom with mahogany doors, fancy tile, and fixtures; no big deal. Clearly though it costs 50 cents. Other highlights of the day include: the best kase krainer I've had so far, seeing the Advent Markt before its all set up so I know where to go right away next visit, and passing through one U-Bahn stop 5 times because I continuously was lost for the first hour I was there.

After my adventures I was able to catch the boys last game, the championship, of the tournament. Unfortunately they lost, but they had a great day of games to be proud of and brought home a 2nd place trophy to add to the trophy case that I'm pretty sure we don't have. I guess its got to start somewhere!

Thank you Rick Steves, as always, the guidance was amazing. And with that, its bedtime over here after a long day and an even longer week. My survival was made possible by the morning light courtesy of daylight savings time coming a week early in Europe.

(I had a hard time being selective with the pictures, so there are a few more than usual!)