Europe has been gripped by what’s been described as a “Siberian freeze”. From the Ukraine to Poland, Hungary, Germany and Austria, temperatures have been very low, an average of -13 °F, with extremes of -30s °F in the Moscow area. Even in Greece and Turkey temperatures have dropped down to the 30s and they’ve had some snow fall. Needless to say it is freezing cold in Vienna, although, unlike the poor people in Russia, we have excellent heat and warm clothes. So we really can’t complain. It’s just that I can’t do my usual morning walk since it’s really painful, it actually hurts when the cold pinches your cheeks. So as soon as we get out of the house, we rush somewhere indoors were we can thaw.
Meanwhile, the political feeling in Austria is by no means warmer. Salzburg Austrians, for example, love the idea of the EU. Viennese, surprise surprise, hate it. The chart below shows, by Austrian state or land, who are the enthusiasts, with Salzburg leading, and who are the ney sayers. Truth be told, everyone profited and lost from the EU, as all deals in life have advantages and disadvantages. However, if you want true statistics, you gotta look at the economics. Viennese are a pessimistic grumbling folk, so anything you ask them will already be biased. Austria overall is doing better economically since it entered the EU. Of course they have to pay for it, millions of Euros, but wealth often comes at a price, non? And getting out of the EU, as the right wing has been preaching lately, just isn’t the answer. Austria is no Switzerland, and even if it was, what would it do on its own? The times have long passed when a country could afford to be an island. Besides, since the EU, Vienna itself has been booming with investors who want to secure the precious strategic Central European position.
Source: Wiener Zeitung
And yet in another piece of news, the insanity of the bilingual road sign issue in Carinthia goes on. When asked about it, most politicians not involved with Carinthia cowardly said “no comment”. The issue is plainly this: road signs in this region should be bilingual: German (Austrian) and Slovenian. Thus the Austrian high court decided long ago. They do this in Tirol since road signs were made, in German and Italian, and no one seems to mind/care. However, Carinthians have one thing Tirol doesn’t: a Mr. Haider. And this very right wing politician has put it in his head that he rules the land, and that this is very much his land. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Mr. Haider has succeeded in Carinthia. It is said that Carinthians are not very bright, but then again I’ve heard some unpleasant things about Lower Austrians, so let’s not take this thread any further. According to the news, Mr. Haider has recently taken to comparing himself to Jesus. Just as 2000 years ago Jesus rose and the stone was displaced (nevermind the incorrect citing of Biblical accounts here), there is now a governor (Haider) who displaces the road signs. (Original quote by Haider himself: Wahrlich, ich sage euch: Vor 2.000 Jahren ist einer auferstanden und hat den Grabstein verrückt. Heute findet sich ein Landeshauptmann, der die Ortstafeln verrückt.). Eh, I shall refrain from commenting. I will just end quoting one Austrian celebrity: “Austria must not have bigger worries.”
It sure has been a long time since the last blog entry, and January is almost gone. What have we been up to? Well, skiing of course! We have had lots of snow here in Austria, yes, even in Vienna, and we have been using every free day to get to it. The girly girl has gotten her first new equipment! Kids are spoiled these days….Why, when I was her age….but we won’t go there. Anyway, until now we always used to rent equipment (in Seattle) for the entire season. Turns out they don’t do such a thing here, not profitable enough. So each time you rent it can cost you up to $15 for a kid’s equipment. You can do the math and see that it can get pricey after 10 times of renting or so. So we took advantage of the great after Christmas sales and got a super duper equipment complete with poles for just about that price (not $15 but 10×15). The skis will last her about 3 years and the boots I’m hoping 2 years. The resale value on ebay is amazing, I could have spent easily just as much for used equipment. Not to mention the kid satisfaction value and the sparkle in her eyes when she realized this one is hers to keep.
So where does one ski in Austria? No, it’s really not a rhetorical question or an oximoron. Austria is a teeny tiny country, about the size of Lake Superior, or less than half of Washington state. However, if you lived here your whole life, and could ski all the way up until you are in your 90s, you would still find a new resort to go to every year. Don’t believe me? Check out this map of Austrian ski resorts. All the little white dots are clickable resorts, entire collections of runs. Sure, some are little and have maybe only 10 miles or less worth of runs. But then there are the huge ones with over 100 miles of runs. And then there are my favorite kind, where you ski from one mountain to another without even having to take your skis off.
When you pick a place for your ski vacation (and let me tell you, EVERYONE here takes a ski vacation), it’s not so much about “will there be snow?” or “will there be decent affordable lodging?”, but about “does my hotel have a spa?” and “can I ski down to my hut/condo/hotel room?” and “do we eat fancy or cabin food tonight?”. I used to just be happy to check the forecast for snow and then hit the runs at Mt. Baker before any of the other city people made it there to ruin it for me. I was quite happy with a bowl of chili for lunch and a dinner of Uli’s saussages or the world famous phish tacos at Graham’s , and don’t get me wrong, I still would be. But in this multitude of choices my head is spinning. As I did my research for this year’s ski trip, it seemed like every day I found another resort that was even better than what I had settled upon previously. In the end, we chose the most original and kid friendly lodging, we allowed that to be the deciding criteria. However, that still leaves us with about 70miles worth of runs, not to mention all the shopping and sights to be seen.
Last year we went to Zell am See. It was nice for a short trip (3 days), somewhat a bit too posh for my taste. We chose it because there was no snow in the low lands and glacier skiing was the only thing guaranteed. The snow showed up much much later, sometime in February. However, I would not go back there in winter. The ski busses and the slopes were way too crowded. Somewhat I think Kitzsteinhorn may be all the rage in Eastern Europe, because all we heard was Russian on all the busses, and I learned that you don’t want to get inbetween a Russian and his bus, even if it’s a small Russian. Zell am See is a good vacation place for summer. Then you can ski the glacier and then hit the lake at the bottom for sailing or swimming, a perfect vacation. Nevertheless, our lodgings were wonderful, we even had a small in-door pool, and the grub was excellent and very cheap compared to Vienna.
This year we are going to Flachau, in lovely Salzburgerland, only about 3 hours drive from home. There are plenty of runs here so I’m hoping people will spread out. You can also choose from a few mountains if the one you just happen to be on is too crowded, just ski down and hop on another lift to take you to another peak. They also seem to have plenty of 6 to 8 persons chairs, that should speed things up. We’ve chosen a farm for our lodging. I know it sounds strange, but here it’s quite common. There is nothing more relaxing than a vacation on a farm. You can do it in summer or winter or whenever. This one happens to be an organic farm (Biobauernhof) with lots of farm animals, poneys to ride, three farm raised kids to play with, a sledding slope right behind the house, and wholesome goodness for us to enjoy for breakfast. We’re renting a whole appartment, and from my conversations with our hosts, I gather it will be just like home, actually given our home is on a busy street, it will be far better than home. In about 2 weeks we’ll be there. Then I’ll be able to tell you all about it.
Now back to skiing in Austria. I could probably fill a book about this, and there are, no doubt, already hundreds of them on this subject. I am just giving you my humble perspective, realising that I have not even scratched the surface yet. We live in Vienna, which is very unfair when it comes to skiing. If you live anywhere else in Austria, a ski resort is within a stone’s throw, which means less than an hour drive. So our weekend choices are fairly limited, especially since we don’t have a car. Sure we rent once in a while, but every weekend is simply not feasable. The most popular one, and therefore the most crowded one is Semmering or Stuhleck. This is a great place to go for night skiing or during the week when you get a day off work. We have been avoiding it, some day we’ll go, but not now. Other ski places you can reach with the car (1-2 hours drive) are: Unterberg, Annaberg, and Mariazell. These resorts are all family friendly and off the beaten path, which means it will be you and the locals, no other tourists.
So far we have been to Unterberg twice, and it was wonderful (check out the pics). The lifts are a bit old fashioned, but you can get used to that. We also loved this hut, the Schneidlifthütte, for its rustic look and feel, the friendly service (it seems to be run by a family and not some no name corporation), and the great cheap food. Austrians don’t believe in overpricing the food in ski resorts. And even the passes are cheap compared to the most US resorts (around $25 - $20 for a day pass). Of course if you go for more days (5 at least) then the passes get even cheaper. When you get to Unterberg in the morning, the ski bus (bus ride included in ticket price) takes you all the way up the mountain to your ski lift. The lifts operate until 3:30pm and then you ski all the way down to the parking lot through the snow covered woods (about 4 miles). By 6pm you can be back in town, even if you take your time driving back to the freeway.
But for all of these resorts, except for Semmering, you need to have a car to get there. So the city of Vienna has designed a very original solution to this problem. Within the city limits, on a hill, there is the Hohe Wand Wiese. You can easily get there with public transportation. It is a small blue run, not even a mile long. But it is excellent for practicing for a couple of hours after work, or on a weekend afternoon with the kids. You can buy a day pass for $14 or a 10 point card for $7 (or $3 till 2pm). Kids passes are half price. So for less than $20 you can ski there with your whole family. For families it is the perfect deal, since kids get tired, and very rarely is it worth the price of a full day pass. It is not crowded, even on weekends, so you can go up and down as many times as your legs and lungs will allow you. It’s like the warm-up before the “real” ski vacation in the mountains, and if you work hard, you can be just as tired at the end of the day, as if you would have skiied down the whole mountain.
As we continue our life in Austria, we will discover more beautiful places to ski. Here are some of the ones on my list:
So I have my next 5 years all planned out, or, if I win the lottery, just the next two ski seasons. Servus die Wadeln!
On Silvester (New Year’s Eve), where do you go to party if the Big Apple is too far away? Vienna of course! Say what you may about cranky Austrians, but they know how to party. New Year’s Eve is a big celebration pretty much all over Europe. In Vienna it is tradition and a grand scale event. Aside from the usuals, such as fireworks, fire crackers, champagne and food, there is the Silvesterpfad (the new year’s trail). The Viennese are not content partying at home or with friends in enclosed settings. So the entire downtown becomes the party place, literally. All the way from the Rathausplatz to the Stephansdom there are booths with everything for sale from the annoying Glücksbringer (good luck charms) in the form of pigs, horse shoes or clover leaves, to booze, to bratwurst, to cone hats, to laser lights, and many more things, too many to list here. On the Slivesterpfad you stroll from one booth to another, sipping a little Glühwein (mulled wine) here, eating some saussage or Maroni there, trying out pig shaped hats or swinging a laser light, all the while making merry with a bunch of strangers as the downtown fills up with people all the way up till midnight.
There are also stages set up along the way with various bands playing everything from classical to grunge. You can start practicing for the ball season at the Rathausplatz where they play all the Johann Strauss waltzes and you have to guess the name of the one they are just playing. In front of the Opera House is a bank of video screens showing popular operettas. Every year there are new highlights, new shows and new artists who come to entertain young and old. No less than 13 stages have been built this year. The highlight this year will be the Prater, welcoming the new year in front of the famous Viennese giant ferris wheel.
Dancing, twirling, eating, drinking or walking you finally make your way to the Stephansplatz, where you join others in throwing firecrackers and lighting diverse fireworks at midnight. If you have small children you should get out of downtown by 10pm or so, but if you don’t hold on tight to your clothes and other belongings and try and stay out of the range of fire. How they manage to not report loss of eye or limb this time of year I will never know. I have been told though that you should only wear your raggedy clothes to this event, as it is common to get them ripped off of you, depending on where you are when the clock strikes 12. As midnight approaches, the masses migrate towards Stephansdom. Just before the old year comes to an end, the music stops and the countdown begins, culminating in the booming chimes of the ‘Pummerin’ from the bell tower, to the accompaniment of Strauss’s Blue Danube as midnight passes. Then the sparkling wine corks pop and complete strangers joyfully wish each other a Happy New Year full of luck and happiness. And to get the year off to a good start, the crowds carry on partying until the early hours of the morning.
As it is fit for the world capital of music, the new year starts off with the traditional New Year’s Concert, at about 11am on January 1st. Those who have managed to get a ticket a year or two in advance (last week one ticket sold for over $1000!!) barely have time to run home and change and take in a caffeine breakfast so they don’t fall asleep to the soft rythm of the Strauss waltzes. And thus a whole new year has begun, this time it is 2006. May it bring us health and happiness and get us closer to peace! Prosit Neujahr!
