A different kind of Thanksgiving...

Matthew with the Trukey...

So... Thanksgiving isn't celebrated here in Austria (Obviously, cause it's and American holiday) and so we had class ... and of course with my luck I had a test in the one class I had that day, German. It wasn't too bad. After class my German conversation group met with our Austrian girl and had lunch at Haci's kebap (it's a Turkish food, kind of like a greek guerro only not...) then came back to our rooms.

Well finally it was dinner time. We headed over the the restraunt where we were to meet our teachers and some other guests. I sat next to this 92 year old woman (who only spoke german)and her daughter, the woman used to host students in her home which would have been way cool, as well as some of my classmates. To start off the night the upper german class put on a skit about the first Thanksgiving in America... SO FUNNY.

Pumpkin soup

the other German class

my chocolate muffin

 Then came a German thank you song and a prayer then time to eat. First we had pumpkin soup. Then we had turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing and some mixed vegetables. Not bad for the Austrian version :). We ate and talked for a long time. Then they brought out dessert... chocolate muffins, some other kind of muffin, topfin strudel (not quite sure what this is...) and apple strudel. NO PIE :(, I dont think they have pie here... our conversation partner was appalled when we said we normally eat pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, she couldn't believe we eat pumpkin sweet.

After dinner it was time for more entertainment... We all sang 99 Luftballoons, pretty funny cause all you can really understand is "99 luftballoons" the rest is kind of a jumble.

After that we had a little trivia quiz about Austria, it was supposed to be a self quiz but the old lady and her daughter helped me and I won second place so I gave them the prize, which was a pretzle on a string made into a necklace. After that the boys in our group sang The Weight. And then the picture frenzy started.

old lady and her pretzle medallion

our group

Never thought I would miss this soo much (until i had it in Great Britian)...

English!! being understood/understanding others without even trying was such a great feeling! Though I did catch myself a few times trying to speak German to some English folks, that might be a problem when I first get home...

American pizza ... the last night to get out of the cold we decided to eat dinner at Pizza Hut... European pizza is ver good (WAY less cheese, and it is a thin crust) but not the same.

pepperoni ... I don't think they know what peperoni is here in Austria... They are definetly missing out.

Hamburgers!!! I don't even remember the last time I had a real hamburger... the one I had when I was stuck in Canada was AWFUL... it was like a sausage patty on a bun, nicht gut! We went out to dinner the second night at this restraunt, and you could tell we were Americans, and that we hadn't had a burger in a REALLY long time (except those who cheat and go to McDonalds or Burger King down by the train station). All 7 of us ordered a burger and fries.

free unlimited refills ... the greatest! not a luxury that we have here in Austria

Soda ... Ok so I have soda in Austria (the cheap off brand kind... its not that bad, but not the same), but the soda over here is WAY different... I can't even explain it. It is really sweet. I had a diet coke at the movie theater, and I couldnt even tell it was diet... When I took the first sip I was like WHOAH ... I am not sure I like it. And when we got to Munich we found a place that sold Mountain Dew! We were all shocked, the boys totally cleaned that place out of Mt Dew.

movies... in English. HP7 was the first movie I have seen since I left. Even just having the opportunity to go to a movie that we could understand was great let alone it being Harry Potter!

TV... havent watched a television show from a TV in three months... at the hostel they had friends on and we all just kind of sat and stared (even thoguh I have never really watched friends before).

you know you're in Austria when...

you are told that you speak American. This really happened. In philosophy class, our professor was listing of languages (i don't remember why) and he said: German, Italian, Spanish, French, English, American... without even wavering. Then asked us why we were giggling. We thought it was hilarious, but SO true.

mountain dew is illegal... something about the caffiene content being too high...

the legal drinking age is 16. These people love to drink. In all of Europe, Austria is the second leading country in beer consumption (like 150 L per person per year) behind the Czech Republic.

there are about a billion coins to the money system. ok not a billion but ALOT. there are: 1 cent, 2 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 20 cent, 50 cent, 1 euro and 2 euro coins... a bit excesive I think.

you have to pay to go to the bathroom (it's a European thing)... seriously!? Everyone has to go to the bathroom, why do they make us pay to go in public restrooms? It means you really have to plan ahead (and makes it hard to travel with children).

there are NO water fountains... in Vienna, one might find this spout thing that has a constant stream of water, but there are no water fountains to be found, anywhere... I have noticed that in all the European countries I have visited...

you can hear the church bells ringing from miles around. Especially at noon and 7am and 7 pm. This is a very Catholic country. There is both a monestary and a convent in the altstadt area, and they ring bells before mass and prayers, as well as noon. Bells also are rung during the concecration, which I find interesting.

the public transportation is EXCELLENT. Here in Salzburg there are buses that go all over the city, and even to the surrounding countryside. And then there are the trains... the train system here is very extensive and good. You can go pretty much anywhere on a train (for a lot cheaper too).

every student has to go to a concentration camp as a field trip (in thier version of high school)...

everyone dresses so nice (ok thats a European thing). Jeans and a t-shirt are not typical. It is an unwritten rule that sweatpants or pajamas is not acceptable in public.

the dates are written backwards... I get so confused sometimes. instead of 11-16-10 they write 16-11-10, which is ok if the date is greater than 12, but gets really confusing if it is not.

the hill are alive with the sound of music :). 62% of Austria is mountainous...Enough said.

How can such a beautiful country have such a horrible past...

Entrance gates into the main camp





Today we visited one of Austria's main concentration camps, Mauthausen. I learned alot on this trip, in a different way. Dachau was more like the history of the camp, though there was alot of what the camp was like sprinkled in. This camp isn't as well known in the states, but it held about 200,000 prisoners and over 105,000 of these prisoners died there. Our tour guide was very good at relaying to us what it was like for the prisoners in the camp (though unless you have experienced the horrors yourself, you will never truely understand).



barracks



beds...
at one point they were sleeping
8 people per bunk..



In preperation for this trip, and since we were missing German class to go, we had to watch a video of a survivor, and then present it to the class. My video was on this lady Maria Catharina Van Büren. She was from Holland and was a political prisoner, basically. In her interview she describes having to strip and shower once they arrived. She discribes the hunger they faced, only being given 2 slices of bread and 1 bowl of soup (more like water) a day. She talks about the stairs of death that lead up from the quarries that they were forced to work at and how the Jews were just pushed off the edge of cliffs. It was interesting listening to her describe the things she went through. And how death was an every day part of life.



"execution site"
where the gas chamber, giant
fridge and crematorium is



Well in the beginning of our tour, our guide took us up to the outer wall of the camp, the part that was visible to the surrounding countryside (it is up on this big hill). He told about how people knew what was going on up here, but were scared to do anything about it. Seeing these prisoners walk through town, emaciated, dying on the streets just became everyday life for the residents and they thought nothing of it. Then he showed us an aerial shot of the camp just before it was liberated. And there was a soccer field on the other side of the wall! and right next to that was the barracks where they took the sick and just let them starve and dye there. The people watching the game could see into this small little compound and see these people, but did nothing.



one of the many memorials



Inside the camp, he took us to the first place the prisoners went once they walked throught the enterance gates. The place where they stood and were stripped of all their belongings, and some of them were beaten. They stood their naked, in all weather for hours (it was kind of chilly today, and I can't even imagine having to stand in that place naked for hours). We next walked into the showers (where the soldiers would play with the temp, so it would be scalding and/or freezing) and where they were shaven of all their body hair. The barracks was another story. barracks that were built to fit like 300 people, were at one point packed full of 800 people! We were then taken down to the crematorium and the gas chambers... such an eerie feeling. 



"Monument for the European youth
and young people who
here or in other places
lost their childhood, youth and lives
Never Again!"



After our tour we were allowed to wander. Naturally we wandered through the many different memorials and then we made our way down to the Totesstiege - stairs of death. A set of 186 stairs, very steep, leading down into a rock quarry. Prisoners were forced to carry 50kg (over 100lbs!) slabs of rock up these stairs multiple times a day. Our guide said that people set on this detail only lived 4-6 weeks, and that the average healthy male that would carry these slabs was only like 94 lbs. We walked down cobblestone path to the stairs - which was very uneven which made it a bit difficult - then walked down the stairs into the quarry. The stairs were super steep and not even at all, I can't even imagine how hard that was to carry 50kg on our back, weak from hunger, up those 186 stairs multiple times a day!We wandered around the quarry for a while, which was breathtaking by the way, but in a somber way, and then it was time to go back.



cobblestone path...



place where they threw Jews over the cliff...
memorial says parachute site...



Totesstiege, stairs of death...

Perfect Fall Weekend!

So after a rough morning in German class, and receiving 4 hours of homework all having to do with the Mauthausen concentration camp that we are visiting next week, I realy needed a good afternoon. We are done with classes for the week because it is a free weekend, and most of us are sticking to the general area this weekend (maybe a day trip to Munich, but nothing big - though in the beginning of the week we were thinking about going to Budapest, but we all needed a rest).



view of some of the mountains from the football park

Since the whole group was still in town, and the weather is BEAUTIFUL, we decided a football game was in order (American football, not soccer). Oh my goodness is Salzburg beautiful in the fall, well not just in the fall, but the leaves make me appreciate fall. We went to a park that is near our normal playing spot, but bigger. From this park we could see the surrounding mountains without the obstruction of buildings. OMG, soooo beautiful. And with the colors of the trees and the ground being covered with leaves... sehr schön! Some of us were more interested in playing in the leaves and staring at the scenery than playing football, but we eventually got the game going and played through sunset.

Watching the sun set over the mountains was also beautiful. It is definetly something I miss when I am at school. You forget how much better the mountains make the sunset.



oldest restraunt in Europe by
St Peters abbey church (built in 803 i believe)



Friday, I got to sleep in and it felt wonderful! In the afternoon we decided to get outside becuase it was another beautiful day! We walked around the altstadt, something I haven't done in a while. We went inside this cute little Christmas store, and that got me really excited for Christmas. The Christ-Kindl markt is going to be set up soon and I am sooo excited! I LOVE Christmas!





Salzburg (well a piece of it)



Anyways... We walked around the altstadt and we were realizing how much of Salzburg we still haven't explored. We are gone alot of the weekends and during the week we have class and homework and play football, so we don't get to the parts of town that we aren't familiar with.





After altstadt we decided to walk along the river towards our rooms for a while. It was so calming. I love that even though we are in the middle of a city that there is still a small town feel. Not like any of the other big cities I've visited here. Definetly unique and I love it.

 

altstadt - with the festung on top of the hill

Today we decided to go to what is known as the "salzburg lake district" a place with 4 pretty good sized lakes about an hour away from Salzburg. We were alittle dissapointed that it was cloudy, but at least it wasn't raining :). We walked around the largest lake in the area Mattsee. It was quite a walk. We spent about 3-3.5 hours walking around the lake. It was gorgeous. I love the Austrian countryside :). We walked next to the lake, through the forest (oh the colors), through cute little villages and even by some farms (got some funny looks from some Austrian dairy cows).


Mattsee





unsere Kuh Freund!







sehr schön! (very beautiful!)



Oh and before we walked around the lake we played at this park. It was so much fun. And quite a sight, 3 20 year old girls and a 21 year old guy playing at this park. Austrain parks are so much better than those in the US we have decided. Their structures are way cooler. The net swings... so much fun. And all the parks we have seen have zip lines! SOOO much fun. And this park had this cool little contraption, it was like a tetter totter mixed with swings on steriods, we had a BLAST!







our fun new toy at the park, it swings up and down and around all at the same time if you push correctly!



European Education....

The education system is ... different here, that is for sure.