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More Cowbell

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

After the rock star life in Cologne, we took a very long drive to Zermatt which included a tunnel through the mountains where you drive your car onto a train that takes you through it.  It saves about 200km of driving instead of going around them.

Zermatt is a pretty town in a deep valley at the base of the Matterhorn.  All of the guidebooks and hiking maps talk about the changeable Alpine weather here, and we got a taste of it.  The first day we took the Gornergrat train up to the top of a nearby peak for amazing views.  The entire skyline was sunny and clear with absolutely beautiful views of the Monte Rosa, the Dom, and Dente Blanche.  The hike back down was great, but the Matterhorn was covered by its own set of clouds and nearly invisible.

All over town there were postcards, photos, and paintings of the Matterhorn that were little reminders of what we were not seeing.  The next day was same, but we thought maybe if we headed up a different set of cable cars maybe we would get a break in the weather or a different view.  That plan didn’t quite work out.  We got to the top of a ridge covered in clouds and decided to start our hike anyway.  The winds were over 40kph (and my treasured NZ knit hat was blown off and lost!), but I might have been able to cope with that.  When rain moved in, it started to get uncomfortable, and finally when the hail started whipping us, I gave up and turned around. Luckily we made it back to the cable car in time before they shut it down because of the high winds.  We got off halfway back down the mountain and were greeted with sunshine again.  I guess that’s what they mean by “changeable.”

Then on our last morning in Zermatt during breakfast we noticed a break in the clouds.  We left our coffee and muesli and scrambled to get a camera.  Finally, there it was.  Our view lasted about 15 minutes, but it was so impressive and what we came for…  the Matterhorn.

Here is the mountain teasing us:

Finally, here it is!

Posted in Living Abroad, Switzerland, Travel | 2 Comments »

Long Road to Ruin

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

After we got our fill of the mountains in Tirol and Voralberg, we cruised up to Köln (Cologne).  It was a long drive, but we were motivated. One of our favorite bands, the Foo Fighters, played there and we had tickets.  They put on a great show, and we headed back south again happy and tired.

Oh yeah, and Cologne has a nice cathedral, too.

Here ‘s the Foos in action:

Posted in Germany, Living Abroad, Travel | No Comments »

Zwo Bier

Friday, August 19th, 2011

Now that I have recovered from the Kirchtag celebrations I thought I would take one more post to mention a few more thoughts about the festival.  Before it started all of the locals and the expats who’ve been here a while kept warning us that it would be crazy and we would just want to get out of town.  I think they underestimated us, because we had a great time and weren’t really to0 bothered by the crowds and the noise.   Of course, we were participating in and contributing to the crowds and the noise, so I guess I  didn’t mind it.

The local newspaper estimated that there were over 400K people visiting for the festival last week.  That’s pretty amazing considering there are only about 60K people who live in the whole town.  Even more amazing is the organization of event.  Even after the big parties on Thursday and Friday nights, the streets were swept and completely cleaned up by morning.  On Saturday night around 3AM a big line of about 10 trucks waited at the end of our street.  As soon as the last band stopped playing, they pulled in and started taking down the tents and packing up the tables and benches.  By Monday morning, it was hard to believe anything unusual had ever happened.

The other weird thing about Kirchtag is how the attendees changed over the week.  The first few days were clearly just diehard locals who live in the oldtown.  The next few days were more people from the area, but still mostly Austrian.  The majority of these folks were dressed in Tracht.  By Saturday the fashions and the language changed to Italian, as huge numbers of our southern neighbors came to party.

The topic of language brings me to another point.  I’ve been getting more comfortable with everyday transactions.  I know how to ask for things at the deli and how to respond when the checkout clerk asks for my customer card or whether I need a bag.  Some of these expressions become routine after a while and I don’t have to think too much about them anymore.  However, the real barrier to our progress with German is the accent here.  Many people in this area speak a different dialect that is completely lost on me – I can’t understand a word of it.  Even those who speak “regular” German (I won’t call it hoch Deutsch because it certainly is not), speak it with a strong regional accent. We are just beginning to figure it out after months.

“i hob…”  is roughly how they say “ich habe…”  and it gets more complicated from there, as some words are not just pronounced different, but actually a different word. It’s all part of the experience and generally everyone understands us, if not the other way around.  We learned quite a few new phrases during the festival, the one that got the most use being “zwo bier.”

A few more scenes from Kirchtag to finish off – If you want to see the dancers, the parade, and more from the set up, check the link to our photos on Smugmug to the right at “Our Photo Gallery” under Other Travels.

Posted in Austria, Living Abroad | No Comments »

Camouflage

Saturday, August 6th, 2011

I was hoping to post every day during Kirchtag, but I’m falling behind.  I’ve just been too busy soaking up the atmosphere.  More people fill the streets each day.  The entire oldtown area is filled with snack food stands and “gastgartens” that serve sit-down food.  They are packed in next to each other and any spaces in between are filled with beer stands.  Right now in Villach, you are never more than 20m from a beer, which is a good thing because it could take you a while to navigate the crowds to get there.

Speaking of crowds, I’ve never lived in a place that had a big festival going on like this. It’s incredibly convenient when you want to get home after being out at night.  A few nights ago it started to rain and we just popped back into our apartment to wait it out.  Everyone else was scrambling for umbrellas or spots under the beer tents.  The flip side is that it is also pretty difficult to get anything done in town this week.  It takes me about twice as long to walk to the grocery store because I have to make my way through crazy crowds of people (yes, the music, dancing, and beer start in the morning!).

We haven’t been able to get to our garage all week, so we left the car at Eric’s work parking lot.  The entrance to the garage technically was left open, but realistically there is a spinning ride on one side and a wurst stand on the other.  The crowds overflowing from these two make it impossible to get to.  We don’t really need to go anywhere, but I am a little disappointed that we didn’t get to use the pass for car to go in and out of the festival area.  It was quite an effort to find the right office at the townhall, explain where we lived, where our garage was, ask for a pass, and give them our license plate number – all in German.  I was pretty proud of myself, but it turned out to be unnecessary practice.

I mentioned the rides above, and I should note that these are not just little carousels for the kids, but a bunch of huge spinning and flinging things that throw you around in every direction.  They seem like a particularly bad idea for a bunch of people who just spent hours drinking beer before getting on them, but what do I know?  They all seem to be having a great time.

Many of those same people who are eating, drinking, and dancing here are dressed in traditional outfits.  I was told before the festival started that a lot of people would be, but I didn’t expect so many.  More than half the crowd is kitted out in Tracht, which is the general name for the Lederhosen, Dirndl dresses, and other types of clothes that you probably associate with the Alps.  Last week we headed to a shop and got out the credit card (this stuff is expensive!).  The clothes we bought hung in the closet for the first half of the week as we worked up the courage to go out in it.  In reality so many people are dressed up that you look a little funny if you are not.

Here we are all “tracht-ed up”:

Posted in Austria, Living Abroad | 6 Comments »

Mmm mmm good

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

Tuesday was soup day at Kirchtag. What kind of soup?  Kirchtagsuppe, of course!  It’s a creamy, heavily seasoned soup with 3 kinds of meat – chicken, beef, and pork. It’s served with a slice of bread called Reindling, which is sweet and almost like a cinnamon roll with raisins. The secret seems to be in the combinations of herbs and spices that are used, and everyone has their own recipe.  Six of the local restaurants served up their best versions at a tasting contest with some of the local dignitaries.  I tried a couple of them at lunch with some friends, and there were all pretty good.  I might have to learn to make it someday.

The festivities are ramping up in intensity and frequency each day.  More soon!

Here is some of the crowd enjoying the soup.

Posted in Austria, Living Abroad | No Comments »

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