Keri Goes Abroad: hiking

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Hiking the Schafberg

Panta, me, Mary, and Claudia on a very unstable plank/bridge at the beginning of our hike

Remember how I said we had forty days of sunshine in the fall? One of our last truly sunny and warm days, Claudia, Panta, Mary, Bernhard (Claudia's friend), and I hiked the Schafberg. Normally by November it's cold and snowy enough that there isn't a lot of traffic on the mountain, but we lucked out.

I had made the conscious decision not to go anywhere for fall break this year. During both my abroad semester and last year I felt like I had to see everything, to go everywhere. By now I think I've seen many of the places I have always dreamed of - certainly more than I ever expected to see - and decided to explore more of Austria instead. Naturally, that meant hiking an Alp.

Claudia's friend Bernhard is an experienced hiker who had hiked the Schafberg upwards of 30 times last summer, and we enlisted him to lead us up the mountain. We got an early (and slightly chilly) start to our hike. Supposedly it's a six hour hike, but we decided that six hours Austrian hiking time is more like seven American hiking time. As my former German teacher would say, Austrians "truck" with the ease of mountain goats. Just ask my dad, who will most likely do an impression of his Austrian fishing guide leaping from rock to rock. There is certainly a different approach to climbing an Alp that we Americans experienced on this hike. Hiking a mountain like this can be a spontaneous decision, whereas anywhere I've ever lived I've had to plan well in advance to go on a hike of this magnitude. And schnapps is involved.

Anyway, Bernhard fearlessly led us up the mountain, over the rivers and through the woods, until we reached the top in the early afternoon. There we took pictures and ate lunch next to the cross at the summit. After a little wandering and a lot of gawking at the paraglider launching himself off the mountain, we sped down the mountain to beat the sunset and the cold. It was definitely a strenuous adventure, but it was one of the most enjoyable things I've done in Austria. There's nothing like working up a sweat with good company and a great view.

The gang (Bernhard was playing photographer)

Panta and his new best friend

The back of the Schafberg

Gipfelkreuz! The cross at the summit

Bernhard with the mountain sign

We watched this guy launch himself off a mountain

The mountain at the top of the photo directly above the paraglider is the Untersberg, the mountain in whose shadow Salzburg sits.

The whole crew: Mary, Panta, Claudia, me, and Bernhard

The slow descent

Friday, April 13, 2012

Orientation and Oktoberfest, Round Two

The view from my private room at orientation

This year, I had the privilege of returning to Saalbach-Hinterglemm for orientation as the all-knowing second year. Or rather, one of three all-knowing second years (aka the fearless leaders). Charles, the other American second year, had actually been at the other orientation last year. Fulbright divides the TAs in western and eastern Austria; those in western Austria end up in a hostel in the mountains, while those in eastern Austria apparently get either a castle or a monastery as their orientation location. Though a castle sounds fabulous, I'm sure we had the better views. This year, unlike last year, I got my own private room - confirming our second year status (stati?) as VIP. Additionally, we were given the task of "helping out where needed," which was the Austrian way of saying that we were there for boosting morale and answering questions, and very little else. This was fine with me. I was still slightly jetlagged and quite happy to take some afternoon siestas while everyone else was in workshops. The three of us (Charles, Tom the British second year, and I) spent some solid time napping in the sun in the backyard of our hostel. Last year the weather was so bad that I didn't even know that the hostel HAD a backyard! This year's weather made the annual hike quite pleasant. It was even more exciting because I had skied the very same mountain during my ski week last year. Unfortunately, it was missing Hans and his accordion. Still, there were Sound of Music sing-alongs, mountains to be seen and buttermilk and beer quench our thirst. Man, my life is tough sometimes.

Charles, the other American second year orienter

Tom and Charles, my counterparts and 2/3 of the fearless leader team. Tom was the British second year orienter

Hiking

Saalbach. I have skied the mountain on the far right.

With Adrienne, one of the first year Fulbrighters, at the top of the mountain

One of the stations that I may have a photo of from ski season.

Kara, a fellow Bowdoin German student, and me at the top of the mountain. We realized after we took this picture that we were wearing Bowdoin colors. Go U Bears!

Sitting outside in the mountain hut

The gang, singing along to Sound of Music

This is Celeste, who knew Maija from College. We left room for Maija in the picture - see how tall she is?

The Sunday after orientation, Emily, her boyfriend Matt, and I decided to go to Oktoberfest for the day. After my experience last year in the hostel, I decided that a day trip would suffice. Emily and Matt had never been, and I knew that if I didn't go I would regret it, even though I was exhausted. So we put on our tracht (dirndls and lederhosen) and went. Munich is about two hours away on a good day, so we figured we'd get there by about 11. We ended up getting to the fête closer to 1 due to a late train and a short stop in Müller for some cheap sunglasses. By the time we got to the Theresienwiese, the lines to get into the beer tents were out of control. The beermaids were practicing what my roommate Martina called "gesichtskontrolle" or face-control, meaning that if they didn't like how you looked, they wouldn't let you in. Each tent was closed to everyone who didn't have a reserved spot. We, of course, did not, and waited with everyone else in the mob around the door. The security guys were super unhelpful and wouldn't even point out if someone was falsely standing near the exit rather than the entrance. How typical. But we figured out where to stand, based on our German eavesdropping skills, and waited with the rest of the masses. Loud drunken people were never let into the tents, and if you looked American, it seems, they figured you would fall into that category. Italians were often placed in that category due to their volume, and the Australians due to their drunkenness. This left us standing there, holding up our fingers to show that we had three people in our party, smiling as politely and quietly as possible. Slowly, I maneuvered my way to the front of the crowd with my three fingers held high. The beermaid (not a technical term, but you know what I mean) spotted me, figured I was harmless enough, grabbed me and escorted the three of us to her section in the Biergarten area of the Augustiner tent. We ordered some 10 euro mugs - a price increase from last year! - and settled in with our drunk 16-year-old tablemates. They were AMAZED at our German (probably because they were so drunk) and we were amazed at the fact that they were sixteen and allowed to drink their faces off in public. By the time we had finished a beer and gone to the bathroom, however, they had been kicked out due to extreme intoxication. Unfortunately, this was after they tried to help Matt eat his food. At least it was before they puked all over everything, as I'm sure they were doing outside of the beer tent. We spent the entire day in the same seats, mostly people watching. It wasn't worth it to get up and lose our hard-earned position. Eventually our antsyness got the best of us - that and the necessity of a bathroom with a shorter line - and we left the tent to wander around the carnival. By the time we left we had seen our fill, spent too much money, and experienced Oktoberfest fully.