Introduction to an Alpine Winter

As my last post mentioned, Salzburg was expecting some snow.  We saw our first taste of it last night before we went to bed, and this morning, we opened up the curtains together and saw our tree saturated with snow.

It's always sort of magical to see the first snow of the season, especially in a new place.  When we spent our first year in Oswego County, I remember looking at the tree in our backyard and thinking about how it would be covered in snow in a few short months.  Little did we know what an Oswego winter entailed, or about the massive icicles that would hang from our balcony.  Let's just see what an Alpine winter has in store for us.

Birds fly overhead.  We made sure that the windows in our building are closed, otherwise I bet we would have another visit from that little bird seen here.

This is a snow skull created by Ben, sitting atop one of the recycling bins.  (Wait until you see the recycling situation here!  I already had a problem with people not recycling in the States, but Austrians take it to a whole other level.  Being environmentally friendly is going to be one practice that we bring back with us.  EVERYONE is going to have a compost pile, so pick a nice corner of your backyards!)  Ben used found materials to create this abrasive social commentary on the weather's disastrous effect on fronds and foliage. (or something like that :) )

Snow attaches itself to spiderwebs.  

Bikes line the pathways of our complex, another show of Austrian's commitment to being green.  You will notice that while the bikes are covered in snow, the tiles underneath are completely clear.  Good job, Austrian engineering!  I have a phobia of getting hurt, particularly of slipping and falling.  Getting on and off buses on rainy days is scary (there are railings, of course), and I think I've avoided skiing for this long because of my fear that my bones will just break.  These tiles, however, give my tortured mind a break.  I'm not going to be running on them, Dad, so don't worry, but I won't have to worry so much!

National Holiday in Austria and First Snow?

Today, Austria celebrates a national holiday - its declaration of permanent neutrality, declared in 1955.  Earlier in the year, Austria signed a treaty that ended the Allied occupation, and one day after Allied forces left Austria, they celebrated with this holiday.

It seems like most people have gone home to be with their families this holiday weekend, so that means we have some glorious peace and splendid quiet to look forward to!  Some homemade Wiener Schnitzel is in the works for dinner tonight! 

In other news, the weather report just updated that we are to expect three to six inches!  I accepted the 1 to 2 inches that was previously reported, but 3 to 6 seems a bit excessive for a first snow.

Oh well, when in the Alps...

Strange Occurrences

When we moved to Salzburg, I was surprised by the number of modern buildings.  I guess that I came here thinking that everything would be ancient, but that's not the case.  Most of the supermarkets look like they were built or renovated within the last five years, and housing complexes are given new life all around the city.  For example, there is a crane nearby that is doing, I don't know, something to this building.  One late afternoon we witnessed the following:

  
To see this huge crane lift something as trivial as a wheelbarrow - giggles. 

Next, the other day I had the idea to use our common room for the first time to paint my nails, and as I moved the clunky, plastic chair, a bird comes out of nowhere and spastically flies around the room.  Of course, I scream as if a person were chasing me and I fly back into our room.  Good thing that my husband grew up in the country, because the man is a Bird Whisperer.

Ben went out there with a kitchen towel, and within three minutes, he had caught the bird and had taken it outside.  I waited in our room and tried to call to Ben, but when he didn't answer, I decided to be brave and go out there.  This is the scene that I found:

A story in pictures, no?

And curiouser?  It happened again yesterday!

And for the final strange occurrence: swans.  Beautiful, right?  White.  Pristine.  Regal.

How about these adjectives?  Alarming.  Deceptive.  Eww-inducing.

We took a walk to Hellbrunn, a place that I wrote about before.  It was a beautiful fall day, and we decided to walk around and see some sights.  You know that I'm not very good with gardening vocabulary, so forgive me, but in the fountain near the "trimmed hedges planted to make geometric shapes," there were two swans.  They were white, yes, but lurking beneath the surface were their

Swan Feet.

Looking at a swan foot is like looking back in time.  That thing could have been around with the dinosaurs.  I just have to sum it up as "strange."

Cemeteries and Catacombs

October is one of my favorite months, and it's mostly because of Halloween.  I'm not talking about dressing up in a costume, but moreso the spirit of the holiday: cemetery visits, scary movies, and that indescribable smell.  You know it when you smell it.  It's the smell that makes you think, "Ah! Halloween-time."  It's part fallen leaves, part crisp air, part burning wood, and why do I try to describe something that I just stated was indescribable?  Because, simply, it makes me happy.  

In the spirit of Halloween and all things macabre, we decided to see what our new home has to offer to evoke the spirit of the season. Our adventures took us to the St. Peter Cemetery and Catacombs.  

Each memorial was distinct, and they all looked as if a family member had just come to take care of the graves, carefully weeding them and lighting the candles.  You cannot tell in the pictures, but many graves had little glowing white candles enclosed in the lanterns.  We didn't see anyone lighting the candles, so that added to the mystery of this beautiful place.  

The catacombs were built inside the mountain.  I had the preconceived notion that the catacombs would be underground in a dark passageway, and that we would continually hear the drip of dankness reverberating throughout the place.  That was not the case.  The catacombs were chilly, yes, but dry.

It's a fake smile because the stone was COLD.  

The windows and lookouts offered us spectacular views of Salzburg's skyline and the cemetery below.

After exploring St. Peter's in the Alt Stadt, we crossed the river to visit St. Sebastian's Cemetery.  Yes, we made a day out of visiting cemeteries.

Along the perimeter of the cemetery, there is this arched walkway, enclosing the field with tombstones.  

Wie, bitte?

 

Family Visit and The Sound of Music

Recently, we had some visitors.  My aunt from New York and my cousin who is currently living in Hungary spent a few days in Salzburg.

On the first night, we visited the Augustiner Bräu.  The Augustinian Monks began brewing beer in Salzburg in 1621, after resettling from Bavaria.  A monastery continues to hold majority ownership of the brewery, and of course, they brew their beers according to the Purity Law of 1516.  As I'm not a fan of beer, I had a Coke made with real sugar instead, and let me tell you, it was so good.  Simple pleasures, man.

For food, different vendors had stands along the outside perimeter of the beer hall.  As is tradition, silverware was optional.  We had delicious pork and chicken, and several types of salads: carrot salad, Greek salad, and a Bologna/Extrawurst and onion salad.  If you come to Austria, be prepared to increase your vinegar consumption.  Most salads like these are full of it, and you either love the flavor or hate it. 

My cousin in all of her feasting glory.

Beautiful picture of mother and daughter - it was so nice to see familiar faces!

I love the person holding all of the mugs over Ben's shoulder.

   
The next day, we decided to do the Hop On, Hop Off bus tour.  We were given terribly uncomfortable ear buds, a map, and we were off!  As a teacher, I appreciated the differentiation available on the bus; if you wanted to hear about the historical sites around town, tune to Station 2 for audio in English, and if you want to learn about the connection of the sites to The Sound of Music, tune to Station 10.  Several other languages were offered, making it very tourist-friendly.  We were all able to get what we wanted out of the audio, and it was interesting to compare what the audio said in German to what was said in English, suggesting that what German-speakers found important was sightly different than English-speakers. 

As this is Salzburg, many of our stops included Sound of Music shooting locations.  And now for an embarrassing story: when we found out that we were coming to Salzburg, people's reactions were either:
1. Oh, moving to Germany is really exciting!  Enjoy the beer and bratwurst!
2. Where?
3. Oh my God, Sound of Music, Maria Van Trapp, xoxoxoxo!

Although many, many people love The Sound of Music, Ben and I are just not fans.  I didn't grow up on it, like many people.  My musical of choice was, and has always been, The Music Man.  If we went to the real River City, Iowa, I would be a picture-snapping freak (is the movie based on a real place, by the way?), dancing in the library, looking into the billiard hall and hiding things in the corn crib, and singing about women with questionable morals while a little girl looks on and laughs (if you don't understand, please see the movie).  I understand the hysteria, but mine is directed elsewhere.

Anyway, we tried watching the movie last spring, and after the "I Have Confidence in Me" number, Ben gave up.  We have since watched half of the movie (thank you, intermission), and admittedly, it was exciting to see places around town in the movie.  Here are some of those places.

This is Leopoldskron, the fictional residence of the Captain and his children.  The tour guide said it was closed to the public, but that link there shows that you can visit!  You can hold your wedding there or come for New Year's Eve.  I can speculate at the cost of renting the place.  On a thriftier note, seeing the palace from across the lake takes about a five minute bus ride from our apartment. 

And the famous glass gazebo, now located at Hellbrunn.  (It was moved from its original location at Leopoldskron.)  This is a few miles from our apartment too, and we can't wait to see the trick fountains in the spring. 

        
So, you know in the movie when Liesl jumps from bench to bench while singing about being sixteen going on seventeen?  Oh course you do!  Well, some tourist decided that he or she was nimble enough to jump as if he or she was sixteen, and broke his or her hip.  They have since locked up the gazebo, but Ben tried anyway.

Thank you, dear family, for visiting us in Salzburg!  Seeing family so far away from home was indeed magical! 

Mail Call

And we're absentee-voting.

Mirabell Gardens - Flowers, Swirls, and Dwarfs

Mirabell Gardens is part of the larger Mirabell Schloss, or Mirabell Palace.  We find ourselves walking through the gardens a couple of times a week because of the location, the flowers, and the ever-entertaining tourists taking pictures.  We, however, are not "above" taking photos, as this post will document.  You will not see us dancing around the Pegasus fountain or using the stairs for different musical notes.

These first photos were from a visit in September.  As you can see in the photo with Ben, they had dug up the flowers in the swirls (I have great vocabulary for gardening) and were about to plant a fresh, new batch of blooms.

On a visit in October, the light made everything look and feel surreal.  I didn't do anything to these photos.  Ben looks like he could be standing in front of a backdrop in a movie.  Ben and I have talked about how you can't take a bad photo in Salzburg, and we might just be right.

Also, note that the "swirls" have been filled in with yellow flowers. Wikipedia didn't really help me find the word, but trust me that I tried.

Oh, wait?  What is that dwarf doing amidst all of the flowers?  Well, our favorite part of Mirabell Gardens is the Zwerglgarten or Dwarf's Garden.  Tourists don't come there nearly as often as the large square with the fountains and Roman statues.  When we visited, there were maybe three other people there.  It was nice to have some peace and quiet in the middle of Salzburg, although some of the statues were quite alarming!

Is that really a goiter?