Mariazell

A short 3 hour drive outside of Vienna is Mariazell, the small town in the Alps known for it's Basillica or church.

This originally gothic church was expanded during the baroque and now includes an impressive amount of gold and silver decorations, the metal for which was donated by Maria Theresa herself. Including a large altar made almost entirely out of these precious metals, with the exception of a small wooden carving of Mary, who wears clothes, like a doll, 363 days out of the year. The clothes are just as elaborate as the silver and gold statues and figures surrounding Mary. They are made from the former pearl and diamond encrusted gowns of wealthy woman from all over Europe.

You may be wondering how this tiny town in the middle of the Alps ended up with such patrons. The wooden Mary carving was actually believe to work miracles and people would take pilgrimages from all over to come and see the Virgin's altar. To this day many Catholics travel to Mariazell for this reason.

Which creates a bustling tourist town and a lovely area to visit for college students such as myself! Today and tomorrow we have the afternoon off from our busy schedule of meetings, german interviews, and sessions, so today I hopped on the bus and headed to Mariazell. Known for their Gingerbread or Lebkuchen, I bought a small piece for myself and also tried some Lebkucheneis or gingerbread ice cream, which was surprisingly good! In addition to Lebkuchen, Mariazell is known for their herbal schnopps and pumpkin seed oil. The schnopps is very popular and you can find it all over in the stores. The Kerbiskernöl or pumpkin seed oil is not as common, and although you can find it in the city center in ornate bottles at exorbitant prices, it is better to take a side street and find it at a more local place. Follow a little old lady in traditional dress and she may just lead you to the store that sells it in large quantities for much cheaper. Kerbiskernöl, with it's distinct taste, is incredibly healthy and makes a great salad dressing if you are unsure of how else to use it.

A short 15 minute bus ride took us back to our Jugend und Familien Gasthaus, a surprisingly modern hostel type building, complete with a recreation area with an air hockey and a pool table, a small Kegelbahn or bowling alley, a short zipline, a pool, a sauna, a buffet style restaurant area, and a bar. It also had several conference rooms which serve as our meeting spaces.

Tonight we met in the largest room for a "Traditional Austrian Surprise" as we were told on our schedules. It ended up being about 10 Austrian men in Lederhosen performing traditional dances and then teaching us how to do the dances. It was quite a sight!

Hans, the accordian player, and his wife made us all a treat of bread with honey and they brought honey schnopps for everyone to try.

But the fun didn't end there, for their next dance they brought out axes and a log and told a story about lumberjacks through dance.

This included actually chopping the log in the middle of the conference room and lighting the scraps on fire to cook lard for eating after wood chopping.

Pretty much the most insane evening ever!

Wien!

You only wish you were where I am right now:

Notice the large dome on the right side, I am across the street. Below is a photo of the dome from the front. Go ahead, be a little jealous.

When Mayo, my Viennese exchange student from a few years ago, found out she was going to be in Spain when I got here, she got me in contact with her friend from school. His father and him hosted me and were most gracious. Although I did get lost a little bit trying to find my way there and eventually, with the help of a surprisingly friendly Viennese woman in the U-Bahn, I found my way to their beautiful apartment. Where I proceeded to nap for several hours, waking up only in time to walk to a Spar grocery store and pick up a half off pastry (closing time! woo!) and then eat it in Stadtpark on my way to the IES Abroad Center.

Stadtpark is one of Vienna's many public parks, all of which are incredibly well maintained and manicured. This was just one example, with ornate stone archways, sculptures and even benches surrounding a manmade waterway.

After stopping by my future campus, which by the way is housed in an old baroque palace, I slowly wandered back, noting the surprising amount of H&Ms along the way. All that is left for the night is repacking for my Orientation in Mariazell tomorrow and more sleep!

I spent 8 Euros on this Post

I am in Frankfurt safe, sound and decently well rested. I had a row of 4 seats all to myself! It was amazing, I just sprawled out all over and got really comfy with my 4 pillows and 4 blankets! I was so shocked when we pulled out and there was no one there. It made the flight incredibly tolerable, that and the touch screen personal TV monitors. Yay Lufthansa!

We got in about 20 minutes early and it took all of twenty minutes to get through immigration, security, hit an ATM and find my gate. Much luckier than my last trip to Vienna I guess! And I don't know who likes Frankfurt but I think they are crazy. It is just too big and too complicated! I walked down a long hallway only to turn around and come back on the other side of a wall. ... German engineering? Either way, I think my plane just pulled in, I was worried at first that the gate was going to change cause it looks like an all Lufthansa area but an Austrian just pulled in so it should be mine! I have tons of time between flights, hence the spending 8 Euro on internet. That and the me forgetting my paper with the info about the family I am staying with tonight. Oy vey self. But hey, thanks to my forgetfulness, you all get to hear about my wonderful trip and I now have the first official blog post for my Welt Frau blog! Woohoo! Well heres to hoping I don't bore you and you keep on reading. Cheers!