Advertisement
Published: December 29th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Innsbruck
Visiting the Christmas markets Christmas in Austria
I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday!
I just made it back to Siena safely after a great week in Austria. I left last Monday night on an overnight train. It was not such a good trip-there was this terrible family in the car with me. The mother kept yelling at the children and she kept telling me that I was on the wrong train. She asked where I was going and when I said ‘Innsbruck,’ she shook her head and told me I was in the wrong place. When I told her to leave me alone because I thought I was correct, she just clicked her tongue and kept shaking her head. Gotta love Italian mothers, right?
So, it turns out I was right and I made it to Austria around 4:30 Tuesday morning. After the train ride, everything else was amazing. Sarah’s family is huge and everyone lives in the same little town. They are all so warm and welcoming and even though I couldn’t speak that well with everyone, they treated me like a member of the family. Sarah and I went into the city on the first day and visited the small
Innsbruck
View of the city from the city hall tower we climbed outdoor markets where we ate and drank a lot of traditional Austrian treats. On Christmas Eve, Sarah and I drove around visiting her relatives, delivering Christmas cards and presents. We made stops at about ten different houses and at every stop they gave us something to eat (Christmas cookies, homemade breads and jams, apple streudel…), and some sort of alcoholic beverage. It was incredible.
In the evening we went to the huge family party on Sarah’s great uncle Johnny’s farm. Everyone exchanged presents and drank tea and had cookies. Sarah’s grandmother knitted hats for the grandchildren, and she made one for me too! I wore it all night. Sarah’s younger sister, Vanessa, plays the violin so they brought a keyboard to the party and we gave the family a little Christmas concert. Then we all just sat around talking and drinking…and drinking. Uncle Johnny just loves to give me alcohol and he kept bringing me more shots to drink with him. By the end, I was sitting around the table with all of the older men laughing and drinking. I was definitely the center of attention. They kept cheering ‘Liesel, Liesel!’ and taking shots (I will interrupt myself to
tell a funny story in explanation- everyone kept calling me Liesel and I didn’t know why. I didn’t understand until Sarah told me later that Liesel is a German nickname for Elizabeth, which I probably should have been astute enough to pick up on. It definitely made more sense then. At the party, I kept pointing to myself, putting my hand on my chest and saying slowly and loudly, E-LIZ-A-BETH and they would all cheer ‘Ja, ja! Liesel!’ and pour me another drink. Sarah and I had a good laugh about it). I posted a picture of me with Uncle Johnny. I think we are meant for each other, even though we can’t communicate. I’m thinking of moving with him to the farm to be his lover and milkmaid.
We also spent a lot of time in the mountains, walking around the resort areas and sledding. And by sledding I do not mean sledding in the way to which I am accustomed. Basically one day Sarah asked if I wanted to go sledding and I said, ‘Sure, I love to sled!’. Famous last words. So we were getting dressed to go, and Sarah’s mom gave me all of this
really intense snow gear. I have never been so bundled in my entire life. I had two pairs of pants and an intense snowsuit, a huge jacket, astronaut-like boots, a hat, huge gloves, and enormous snow goggles! I put it all on without asking questions and we drove to the mountain armed with our wooden sleds. We took the ski lift up the mountain, then continued walking up the mountain for about another half hour. I had a sinking feeling that I was in for more than I expected. My suspicions were confirmed when I saw someone whiz by on her sled. Sledding in Austria involved sitting on a wooden sled and speeding down this windy, icy mountain pathway, steering to avoid other people and to avoid going over the edge, and trying to stay on the sled while going around the sharp turns. I stopped dead in my tracks, horrified, and said to Sarah, ‘Wait, you don’t expect me to do that, right?!’ She laughed and asked what else I thought we were going to do. She asked me, ‘I thought you told me you loved to sled?’ I explained that to me, sledding meant sitting on something probably
made of plastic and going straight down a rather small, not too steep hill. She thought that was hilarious. She told me that in Austria only toddlers sled like that. So, we got to the top and, even though I was pretty terrified, I just started going. Although going around the curves was scary and I didn’t get to appreciate the gorgeous mountain views as much as I would have liked to because of my nerves, it was so much fun and after going once, I wanted to go again right away.
Although I had a wonderful time, I’m really glad to be hearing Italian again. It was often very isolating because everyone around me would be speaking and I never had any idea what they were saying (and Sarah didn’t really help to translate very often.) I played a lot with her four younger sisters, even though we couldn't talk to each other at all. We just made noises and talked without understanding each other- and we had disco dance parties and played playstation. They have this singing game (Singstar I think?) where you sing with a microphone to all kinds of songs. Her sisters love ABBA. I
think I sang 'dancing queen' with them about 20 times. The cutest was one when one of the littler sisters came over and wrapped me in a huge hug and said, in very slow English, 'I love you, Lisbet.'
Sarah's mom doesn't speak English very well and she always calls meat 'flesh'. She came over to me one day and, offering me a hamburger-like dish, said 'Vould you have some flesh?'. Although it sounded kind of gross, it made eating it seem so much more carnal and juicy.
I spent a lot of time talking to one of Sarah’s cousins, Matteus, who is 15. He spoke English really well, using a lot of slang words. He even called someone a ‘girlie-girl.’ When I asked him where he learned to speak so well, he got this huge grin on his face and said ‘I love MTV! It’s so cool!’ He told me that he learned English from watching hours and hours of shows like Pimp my ride, My super sweet sixteen, Cribs, and many other stupid shows. He was hilarious.
I took another overnight train last night (a much more pleasant ride than the first), and arrived back
in Siena this morning. All in all, even though I missed everyone at home, it was a wonderful Christmas in Austria!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.399s; Tpl: 0.022s; cc: 12; qc: 78; dbt: 0.149s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Leslie
non-member comment
:D
Hahaa...what a nutty christmas, I love it! The bits about sledding, your name and flesh absolutely killed me! Miss ya!