Austria Day 4...take 2 and day 5

I forgot to mention that after returning from the cross country skiing with Moritz, I skipped the first afternoon session to visit the only museum in Mariapfarr. The Stille Nacht museum.

From Austria-Mariapfarr

Mariapfarr's little claim to fame is that a young man named Josef Mohr lived in this town in 1816. During the two years he lived here, he wrote one of the most beloved Christmas songs ever known, Stille Nacht, or Silent Night. The museum is only open for 4 hours a week, so I jumped at the chance to visit the museum during one of the hours its open. I walked in and was quickly placed into a tour group where the tour guide spoke enthusiastically about the Catholic artifacts (mostly shreds of Cardinal robes that visited the town). The entire tour took place in Austrian German and I really struggled to keep up. Finally, after 30 minutes of seeing pictures of stained glass windows and long decomposed flower wreaths, the guide took us to the highlight of the tour, a reconstruction of Josef Mohr's bedroom, complete with the original furniture and a plasma screen tv (sorry no pictures allowed). It was a very odd experience. Right before Josef Mohr's room, the people of the village had hand crafted a miniature version of the Creche (Nativity scene) next to a miniature version of what the city looked like in Josef Mohr's time (it hadn't changed much). To save costs (and perhaps the environment), the townspeople used barbie dolls for the women and hand-made period outfits from old clothing. Despite the cheap materials, the entire scene looked completely real! I really wish I could show you photos, the scene was surreal. I now know how Austrian villagers keep themselves entertained on cold winter nights. I also saw the original copy (its a cheap museum) of Stille Nacht. The church where the song was first sung is actually several kilometers away from the village, but the museum was quite nice. Since I couldn't take photos, I bought a few postcards and some souvenirs for the family and headed back to the workshop. On the way back, I saw this lovely little sunset over the alps.

From Austria-Mariapfarr

Now back to the last day of the workshop.....
After the long day before me, I was not looking forward to the 3 hours of student presentations that stood between me and my bed in Marburg. However, I drank some coffee and sat through them anyways. I ended up learning a lot more interesting work. My labmates and I said goodbye to the Uni-Würzbergers and our table companions from the night before, then piled back into the car for the 7 hour drive back to Marburg. Well, it was supposed to be 7 hours. As a fitting closing for the week, the drive back took place in snow and traffic. We didn't arrive back in Marburg until 12 hours after we left Mariapfarr. I checked email for the first time in 5 days, realized that nothing was important enough to keep me from sleeping, and crawled into my own studentendorf bed. Thus ended my Austrian travels. Before I move on to the other posts, I leave you with a link to the photos for this trip. Feel free to leave comments!

Ausria Day 4- Enjoying the farmhouse...

The last day of the workshop, I decided to slow down a bit and enjoy the farmhouse that we stayed in.

From Austria-Mariapfarr

As much as I really wanted to go downhill skiing again, I felt like I had avoided my labmates all week and that I hadn't given our farmhouse a chance to be cool. Instead of heading back to the slopes with Volker and Wenlan, I headed back to a small lunch with my labmates in our farmhouse. I took the opportunity of sunlight to snap a few pictures of the stuffed animals that adorned our house.

From Austria-Mariapfarr

This little guy freaked me out every time we walked down for breakfast. I always felt like he was hissing at me.

From Austria-Mariapfarr

The farmhouse was located far up in the hills, so far, that we could clearly see the ski slopes that I had been on the day before.

From Austria-Mariapfarr

The farmhouse was very quaint and had this adorable (but incredibly smelly) giant puppy that loved to get attention.

From Austria-Mariapfarr

After I took a short 20 minute nap, I joined my labmate Moritz and headed out to the cross country trail that passed by our little farmhouse. I still had my cross country skis from two days before, so Moritz and I planned on finding out where the trail led. The sky was sunny and clear so it was the perfect day for viewing the hills around us. After navigating the steep section near our farmhouse, the path seemed free and clear. Moritz is seen here saying, "look mom, no poles!" (not really but he could have)

From Austria-Mariapfarr

The trail lead us through snow covered forests and alpine valleys, even more beautiful now that I could actually see them.

From Austria-Mariapfarr

After about 30 minutes, Moritz (wisely) suggested that we head back. I, however, was convinced that a beautiful valley lay just beyond the trees and convinced him to push through. No less than 5 minutes after I convinced Moritz to continue, my last reserve of energy completely gave out. However, stubborn person that I am, I refused to tell Moritz and just pushed ahead anyways. My stubborness paid off as 5 minutes later, we found this amazingly beautiful mountain pass.

From Austria-Mariapfarr

It was like a storybook picture, we even saw a dog hopping through the valley below. We snapped some photos, then hurriedly skiied through the valley and back to the main trail back to our farmhouse. The views were captivating and I kept pausing to snap pictures.

From Austria-Mariapfarr

However, the gently lowering sun reminded us that we had to return for the afternoon session so as quickly as our legs would allow us, we skied back to the farmhouse.

I thought I would make it through the week without a single injury, but on the last slope before the farmhouse, my legs again gave out and I lost my balance on the cross country skis (yes, it is possible to do this). In a scene reminiscent of the day before, I tumbled head over heels. Cross country skis do not release as easily as downhill skis, so my left ski (and leg) ended up criss-crossing with my right leg, twisting my knee in the process. Apparently my camera fell out of my purse and snapped this photo.

From Austria-Mariapfarr

I struggled the 100 meters back to the farmhouse, stripped off the skis, and then crawled back into bed for a 5 minute nap. My knee hurt pretty badly but it was still functional, so I swallowed some pain killers and returned to the workshop. After the last session, all workshop participants piled into a charter bus for a catered meal on top of a mountain. I wish I had taken photos, but my body was completely exhausted at this point so anything other than sleep was completely incomprehensible. Despite consuming a cola (something I never do after 3pm) and wiggling my legs, I kept finding myself collapsing into a pile of jackets beside me. We finally left the restaurant at midnight, which meant that I didn't crawl into bed that night until after 1am! I am pretty sure I fell asleep while my head was falling onto the pillow......

Austria Day 3---Downhill skiing

On Day 3, I woke up to gentle rays of sunlight pouring through the window. I ran out to the balcony and saw glorious sunshine!

From Austria-Mariapfarr

Hoping that the sun stayed around, I packed my gear for downhill skiing. During the morning coffee break, I conversed with my labmates and discovered that yet again, they would return to the farmhouse for a nap. Wanting to take advantage of the sunny day, I met up with my Uni-Würzburg buddies again and secured skiing companions for a day. As soon as the morning session ended, we drove to the market, picked up some food and water, then ate our way to ski lift 25 minutes away. After arriving, we quickly found the ski rental shop recommended by the lady in town (12 Euros for a half day rental!), strapped on our boots, and headed to the slopes. One of the Uni-Würzberg colleagues had never skiied before. Since the only other colleague only knew how to snowboard, I ended up teaching the new colleague how to ski, a frightening prospect considering that I had only skiied 8 times in my life, usually on a fake mountain in Indiana. I had never skiied on a real mountain. My most realistic ski experience was two days skiing at a Michigan resort. (Michigan is not exactly renowned for its ski terrain). In fact, I had not stepped into downhill skiis in over 2 YEARS!. However, the colleague insisted that I could teach him, so I spent the first hour of my downhill day remembering how to fall safely, turn, stop, and slow down (in that exact order). I couldn't complain too much as the view from the idiot hill (direct translation of the german word for bunny slope) was still pretty amazing.

From Austria-Mariapfarr

Wenlan, was a fast learner so he soon felt confident enough to navigate the easy slopes on his own. Volker (snowboarder) and I (skiier) then took off for the real hill. I was mildly anxious. Mostly because I was still exhausted from the day before. However, I refused to let tiredness overtake me, so Volker and I hopped onto the six seater lift (it even had a little shell that you could close to keep the wind out) and rode to the top. The view from top was AMAZING! The pictures below do not do it justice!

From Austria-Mariapfarr

From Austria-Mariapfarr

From Austria-Mariapfarr

Volker and I rushed down the hill several times. I learned that falling in fresh snow powder isn't very conducive to downhill skiing. AFter a few wrong turns, we ended up on an advanced slope, where I learned that running into snow piles (although a fairly unpleasant experience) does keep you from running into a tree. Note: The Europeans do not block off hazardous slopes, they just assume that you aren't dumb enough to try them. They also don't really tell you which slopes are really hazardous until you are already on them.

However, Volker and I managed to find our way back to the more basic slopes with just an hour left before the lift closed. We quickly rushed down the hill and discovered the joys of mini ski jumps (microscopic is more like it, but I did achieve air time of about 0.2 seconds and still land safely). I eventually regained my ski legs back with enough time to take three more runs in under 25 minutes! On the last run, however, my ski legs gave out and I had a rather dramatic head over heels tumble where snow somehow permeated through my three layers of ski clothing, one ski ended up 2 meters from where I ended up, and my glasses became completely covered in snow. It took me about 5 minutes to put myself back together and meet Volker at the bottom of the hill. Promptly at 16:00, the skilifts closed and we headed back to ski rental shop to return our skis. We found Wenlan, somehow mixed in with a group of schoolchildren. He had given up for the day and take his skis off already. I however, anxious to partake of all the ski time I could, used piles of snow along the way to relive my downhill experience. We packed up our gear, paid for the half day, then loaded into the car for the trip back. After a few wrong turns, we made it back with 15 minutes to spare before the afternoon session started. Before I could return to the program, I had to snap pictures of the amazing sunset in the mountains.

From Austria-Mariapfarr

I rushed into the women's restroom to change out of my sweaty clothes and then joined my colleagues at the tables. On a previous hike, I had discovered that dried figs can quickly restore energy to the system, so I snacked on dried figs and managed to stay awake for the last two sessions of the day. The group then piled into the car for a dinner in town, where we happened to find the only hotel with a full salad bar. Since one never gets enough veggies when traveling, I was extremely excited, especially since Austrian and German salad bars feature red beans (all vegetarians or semi-vegetarians know the amazingness of this food). After dinner, the group members piled back into the car for the trip back to the farmhouse to enjoy Austrian beer and dried fruits. I rediscovered the wonderful stretching powers of yoga with my Yoga for Skiers yogaamazing podcast and then fell asleep around 12:30am.....

Austria cont....

My apologies for not finishing with the rest of the Austria entry. I've had a lot happen in the last few weeks (visitors, traveling, traveling + visitors, thesis writing, etc) and I am just not that dedicated to blogging. I'll try to fill you in on the details later. But for now...continuing the Austria story.

Day 2: Massive snowstorm but I'll ski anyways

On day 2, I woke up, peered out the window and saw white. No sun, just white. The light snow the night before had turned into a mini-blizzard. The conference started at 8:45am that day, which meant that we had to leave the farmhouse by 8:30am. We quickly scarf down the fresh bread and homemade jam and load into the car. The driveway up to the road is on a slight incline so we carefully try to drive the car on top of the 5 inches of freshly fallen snow. It turns out that a rear wheel drive car won't actually climb a hill with 5 inches of fresh and 4 inches of old snow. We tried 10 times to get up the hill, at one point coming within 3 meters of the road, only to slide back to the parking area. Finally, after 15 minutes, the owner of the house walks out and tells us to take the hill backwards. We look at him like he's crazy but try anyways. It works! So for the next three days, the only way to get out of the house was to drive backwards. Weird.

We arrive at the conference 15 minutes late and grab seats in the back. If you remember from my last post, I wasn't really registered for this conference, I was just supposed to sit in the back and stay quiet. Our late arrival ensured my spot. However, I should not that because we arrived late, we ended up sitting next to this professor from Berlin. I found out later that he was married to the Chancellor of Germany, so I met the first man of Germany. However, you should never EVER call him that unless you want to be placed on his blacklist. Don't even mention politics unless you want to see an angry German. I really enjoyed hearing about his research on materials chemistry so hope I can run into him again someday. ....Anyways....

The conference schedule for the week looked like this.
07:00 -Wake up, pack for day
07:45am- Breakfast
8:15am - Leave for Conference
8:45am - 10:15am: Conference talk (yes, one speaker, not multiple speakers)
10:15am-10:45am: Coffee break
10:45am- 12:00am: 2nd Conference talk
12:15am- Departure of ski bus
17:00 - "Afternoon" session begins (I love how the afternoon session is really an evening session)
18:00 - Second afternoon session begins (no coffee break)
19:00 - Break for dinner
22:00- Finish dinner, return to farmhouse
22:30- Snacks and Schnapps with labmates
11:30 or 12:30 - Fall into bed

Repeat

That leaves a little more than 6 hours for sleeping at night. I could have taken the option to skip skiing and return to the farmhouse for an afternoon nap, but that would have been crazy. Instead, I decided to "dig in" and go skiing everyday. This meant that I usually dozed off for a few minutes during the 'afternoon' sessions. However, I was shocked to discover that my body could actually keep up with this marathon, in fact, I felt more alive than I had in a long time! It turns out that the body can deal with a lot as long as you pump it full of caffeine and balance it with fruits and protein.

I won't bore you with the details of the talks other than to say that I learned a lot and feel much wiser for having listened. All the presenter slides were included in a book so it was pretty easy to follow along. I will however share a great deal of information about skiing.

On the first ski break, I joined up with some chemists from Uni-Würzburg that I met at the last Austrian conference. My labmates decided to return to the farmhouse to sleep, but I wanted to stay out and enjoy the snow, even if it was pretty nasty outside. So Uni-Würzbergers and I headed to a local eatery to check out the local cuisine (overpriced but filling) and then headed to a ski rental place to rent some skis. After much deliberation, we decided it was too dangerous to downhill ski and instead decided to try Skilaufen, or cross country skiing. After getting fitted and receiving an amazing deal on ski rentals, (7 Euros for skiis and boots per half day!), we headed to the local trail. After spending 20 minutes figuring out how to attire ourselves properly, we finally figured out how to move and set across the lovely expanse of skiland.

Despite the falling snow, the scenary was amazing! The hour long ski run took us through snow covered forests, snow filled bowls, wide open fields, and next to a few quaint Austrian homes. I apologize for the lack of photos. I thought I took dozen of photos on this portion of the trail but I can not find them on my camera. Thus I conclude that I actually didn't take the photos. This photo of the village at the start of the path is the only one I can find. You can see the snow clouds hanging over us. The effect was actually quite nice.

From Austria-Mariapfarr

I learned a lesson the first day of skiing that I should have remembered later. Cross-country skiing in exhausting! It really takes a lot of energy to slide across snow and not fall over. After this first day of skiing, I was ready to collapse. However, I perserved and made it to dinner that night where I dined with current and former students of my boss in Marburg.

From Austria-Mariapfarr

It was really great to connect with former group members and learned how somethings (like the awesomeness of people in the group) never change.

After enjoying our dinner and sampling the local beers (the driver tried non-alcoholic ones), my group then headed back to the farmhouse for Schnapps and snacks. I finally fell asleep sometime around 1:30 in the morning.....and now I will leave for my next post.