Let it Schnee, let it Schnee, let it Schnee!!

Schneeflockes here, schneeflockes there, schneeflockes everywhere!  There’s even a guinea pig in Amelia’s classroom called Schneeflocke!   He’s white, in case you hadn’t guessed!  It started snowing 2 weeks ago and apart from a couple of days here and there it hasn’t stopped.  It first started snowing Tuesday lunch time and didn’t stop until Wednesday night (a massive dump, as Maciek says).  Needless to say, being the first major snowfall of the season I was a bit (an understatement) nervous about driving.  But I put on my brave hat and tried not to think about it, only to have my confidence shattered when I couldn’t even make it up the driveway!  Wheels were turning but we were going nowhere except sliding towards the stone wall!  So we didn’t make it to school that day.  I’ve had some practice since, so even though I’d rather not, I’ve been driving a fair bit, and confidence is slowly growing.

It’s been about 2 degrees during the day and minus in the mornings.  Wednesday was -13 on the way to school, the coldest yet!

Our house, left, top balcony

Amelia had ski school this week in the afternoons.  She’s not much of a fan, but I think it was more to do with the instructor than the skiing.  The hardest thing was keeping Noah entertained for almost 2 hours in the snow at freezing temperatures.  But it ended today with a little race (which I didn’t think she’d do, so very pleased!) and then a presentation at a café in town with medals for all the kids!  She’s very proud of herself!

Maciek started his winter job last week as a Lederhosen wearing non-German speaking waiter /bar tender in a hotel! (photos to come) He starts about 11am and finishes at 7pm so I have to collect him (more practice for my driving – at night time too on unlit streets!) as the conditions are too bad now for riding his bike, and he’ll ruin his Lederhosen.  He’s enjoying the late starts (as am I with the extra help getting the kids ready for school) as he gets to snowboard before work.  He’s enjoying it but finding it very challenging as not only is it something he’s never done before but he has to learn it in an environment where he can’t understand anything and the German and Austrian customers are a bit baffled with this man who’s wearing Lederhosen speaking with an Australian accent saying ‘Ich sprechen kein Deutsch!’  The Austrians also have a habit of keeping you in the dark and then wonder why you are standing around with a confused look on your face!  He says he gets through by laughing to himself, shaking his head, and asking the question ‘what the f am I doing?’ which keeps him going through the day!

In town

Looking forward to Christmas.  We have friends coming to stay with us which will be nice.  Not sure if the tree is going to make it though.  It’s looking a bit ‘over it’!  We’re constantly sweeping up the needles from the floor.  And we’re a bit over being laughed at too, for putting our tree up at the beginning of December.  It’s tradition here to put it up and decorate it on the 24^th.  At least that way it won’t die before Christmas day! 

It looks magical here at the moment.  Just like a postcard.  And the sun will be coming out on Christmas Day!

“Frohe Weihnachts und ein gutes neue jahr” to all!

XXXX

 

Nikolaus (and some scary photos)

Saturday we went to the ‘a bit like Bunnings’ shop and bought a real Christmas Tree and some trimmings.  I never thought I’d have a purple decorated Christmas Tree, but as much as I wanted to decorate our apartment with all the traditional natural Christmas decorations that are so common here, shopping around for them takes too much time (and doesn’t work so well with kinder in tow) and they are a bit more expensive, so I let Amelia choose the decorations, and purple it was!!  We played some Christmassy tunes and spent the afternoon putting it all together and I have to say I think it’s actually the prettiest little Xmas tree we’ve had!!   It’s modest, and a bit fat around the middle and skinny on top, but that’s what you get with ‘natural’!  Maciek was determined to go chop one down himself but I wouldn’t allow it on account of angry farmers shooting at him!

At the beginning of December each village hosts the arrival of ‘Nikolaus’, the Austrian Santa.  There are stalls in the village centre selling food and the delicious Gluhwein, and at the one we went to here in Kirchdorf, there was a wooden tripod holding a cauldron of fire, sitting atop a mound of snow, where the witches were hanging about (hey, it’s a different culture, right?).  Nikolaus comes dressed more like a red and white bishop than the Santa we know, flanked by six little girls dressed as angels.  There’s traditional music played by live musicians in the Musikpavilion, and Nikolaus walks through the crowd greeting all the kinder before handing out little bags of treats.  The treats include peanuts and walnuts (in the shells), a mandarin, a piece of ginger cake, a small chocolate bar.  It’s very sweet, something very simple and oldy-worldy about it.  It starts at about 5pm so it’s dark, and very cold.  The tradition here is that all the good children are visited by Nikolaus, but if you have been naughty, then the ‘devils’ come after you.  They are called Krampus, and they are teenage boys dressed up in the most terrifying costumes!  Honestly, the week leading up to these little festivals, there were a few ‘devils’ knocking around town just popping up in random places.  We encountered some on our way back to the car from gymnastics class, with a group of teenage girls, just hanging around, and as soon as I saw them my legs went to jelly!  People have been telling us about this for months.  It’s fantastic to see, they said, but really scary.  They whip your legs with a bunch of sticks tied together like a big witches broom and it really hurts, they told us.  Don’t stay with the kids, let the kids see Nikolaus, then leg it, they told us.  So we were there with our friends, Amelia says she’s not scared, it’s just boys dressed up, it’s not real.  So we hung around a bit, not really sure what to do, or how long after Nikolaus left they’d come out.  I saw a large group of people standing on the lit ramp leading to the library, lots of families with children, so I went there thinking it’s a safe place, they won’t come near here with all these kids.  Plus around the bonfire was a barrier, so we assumed they would stay in there, as they do in other villages we were told.  How wrong was I.  Suddenly the music went from calm lovely Christmas to raging heavy metal and all this smoke appeared and all these middle sized devils came stomping out.  Within the barriers at first, phew I thought, safe up here.  But then they started to stomp through the crowd, and to my horror up the ramp where all the children were!  Amelia watched, not bothered, just boys, she said, in costumes.  It only lasted about 5 minutes and I thought, that wasn’t too bad, okay then, let’s go.  But then the music became louder, more smoke, and the sound of a chainsaw!  And the ‘big’ really terrifying ones appeared.  They wear chains and big bells on the costumes so they even sound really terrifying, and the costumes stink like real wild animals.  We stayed put, like statues, don’t make eye contact, and they won’t notice we’re here.  Amelia’s face buried into my belly!  They were really aggressive too, going at teenagers mostly, one of them had a boy of about 14 cornered against the wall, whipping him over and over again.  The look on the boys face was pure terror.  As soon as the excitement started to die down, we legged it!  A little too late.  We feel like the worst parents in the world!  My friend told me that she was at the shopping centre that day and a group of them turned up, during the day.  Everyone was screaming and kids were crying.  We heard the next day that a 13 year old girl was beaten so badly she ended up with broken bones.  I asked why it’s allowed to continue like that, and my friend said, because it’s tradition.  I guess in some societies nothing can shake it.  I just have to remember what I learnt on Contiki all those years ago, it’s not wrong, it’s just different, but in this case, i think it's at least a little bit wrong!   At least we have something to threaten the kids with if they misbehave!  Not really, wouldn’t dream of it, the model parents that we are!

A great day in Salzburg

Driving to Salzburg

 We took a trip to Salzburg on Saturday as we needed more stuff from IKEA and the nearest one to us is just out of Salzburg city centre, just under an hours drive.  It’s around -5 degrees in the mornings now with lots of frost which usually disappears by 9am.  But in some parts of the valleys where the sun doesn’t shine it remains there for the day and looks like it’s been snowing.  We captured this picture on our drive to Salzburg.  It was still like this on the drive home early evening. 

IKEA was once again a nightmare with kinder in tow but once it was over we knew we could relax and go with the flow for the rest of the day.  We took advice from Karen (she hasn’t been mentioned in a while, poor old Karen!) to get us to the old town and enjoyed a lovely wintery day wandering the streets.  The Christkindl Markt was on.  Stalls and stalls of beautifully handcrafted Christmas decorations, sweets and treats, and Gluwein which we have only recently discovered by us and will be continued to be enjoyed through the winter!  It’s a sort of mulled wine, warmed up, and I for one love it!  Good for relaxing the nerves too on a stressful afternoon!  Noah had a great sleep for over 2 hours which gave us just enough time to take it all in.  The smells wafting from the stalls are delicious, including frankincense (which I have just discovered is a favourite at this time of year), orange, cinnamon, and all the usuals like hot chocolate and roasted chestnuts, mixed with the lights and decorations, really bring the atmosphere of Christmas to life.   

(What’s not coming to life though are all the poor dead animals draped around middle aged ladies with chignons in their hair and botox filled foreheads, prettying around with their pursed rouge lips and fur trimmed handbags and boots!  Loads of them, very posh…..i wish I’d have had the courage to sneak some photos as they minced passed us!)

The city itself looks gorgeous, bit hard to tell though with so many people and all the Christmas kerfuffle!  We will have to go again at a quieter time of year when we don’t need to stop in at IKEA on the way, and actually try to see a few of the tourist attractions. As evening fell the Christmas lights made it look magical, and it was nice to hear so many languages and accents from around the globe, made us feel like we were on holidays again.  A lovely happy interesting day.

 

Yum....Gluwein!