Keri Goes Abroad: May Day (100th post!)

Monday, October 24, 2011

May Day (100th post!)

The view from my train window.

Back on the first weekend of May, I uploaded a bunch of these pictures and celebrated an inner victory over my 100th post. That seems like a long time ago now, especially since I have about 20 more posts in the lineup.

My first weekend of May started with a train journey out to Bruck an der Mur (Bridge on the Mur), which is about a four hour train journey from Salzburg. My friend Catherine (or Jäger to almost everyone in our Bowdoin German class) lived out in that direction, and I'd been promising her for a year that I would go visit her. So with the end of the year in sight, I figured I'd better go. Jäger actually lived in Judenburg (Jew Castle - I kid you not) which was a short train ride away. We ended up in Bruck an der Mur due to a small get-together involving a bunch of Fulbrighters that I hadn't met. I didn't realize how spoiled we were in Salzburg to have so many of us in the same place. The poor people in rural Austria had to arrange "big" events to get a chance to see each other. Jäger, for example, lived in a tiny village (or willage if you're a native German speaker) without any Americans, Brits, French, Spanish or Italians. Just Austrians with a thick dialect. On the plus side, her German is a million times better.

Anyway, I met a ton of new assistants, many of whom were not going to be back this year, at this party. The following day, Jäger, Matt and I headed to Judenburg for Jäger's soccer game. The game was most interesting because of her coach, who wore jean capris and shouted in incomprehensible dialect for most of the game. Even to my ears, which are attuned to some strange German dialects, it sounded like "EWHODSIOEIOEFWHOIEWLKLKCCCHHHHHH." After that adventure, we took a small detour to a beautiful bridge and watched the sun set. Then we headed back to Jäger's, and I rested up for my next adventure - the Maypole.

Jäger and Matt, my wonderful hosts for the weekend

Jäger's soccer game

Cool bridge

The view of another bridge from our bridge

The picnic group!

Bowdoin reunion

Matt photobombed.

This is what we waded through to get into the water

Our picnic site

The Maibaumfest (Maypole celebration...aka May Day) was essentially just another excuse to wear a dirndl and drink beer. I guess it's kind of the beginning of beer-tent festivals, which apparently happen all summer long. The celebration we went to was at the Stieglbräuwelt (Stiegl brew world, the Stiegl brewery), which had set up festivities both outside and inside. It looked like a mini Oktoberfest, with fewer rides and longer dirndls, and with a giant pole in the middle. Every once in a while, a brave soul would try to climb the maypole, which looked like no easy task. We'd missed the major festivities, though, so I don't actually know if anyone succeeded in making it to the top. Certainly no one did while we were there.