Awesome Austrian Adventure

**from Monday

So I’m a little in love with Austria right now. I know I never got around to describing my birthday party (11 empty bottles of wine, 20-odd grilled cheeses) or meeting my Czech family last week (awkward, kind of), but I really just want to jump into my fabulous long weekend.

Okay, so I didn’t tell my parents (or really anyone back home) until after I got back to Prague, because I didn’t want anyone to worry. But, I spent my weekend in living with a family in rural Austria, farming/gardening (kind of) with my friend Caity. Random? Well, over the summer, I read the Frugal Traveler column in the New York Times, and for one week, the writer decided to go WWOOFing in France. It was this amazing article about how the writer contacted this family, and lived and worked with them for a week.

So two weeks ago when my Tunisia plans fell through, Caity and I were kind of joking around WWOOFing over our long break instead. Except this turned into a “Hey, that’s not such a bad idea.” Soon enough, we found a different program on the internet (WWOOF was difficult to sign up for) and sent out a few emails to families that sounded interesting. A few hours later, we received an email from Eliza, a student in Vienna whose family lives in Rohr, Austria. Her description on the internet was one of our favorites (probably because it mentioned making apple cider!), so we jumped at the chance and bought our tickets to Linz a few days later.

Fast forward to Thursday morning: Caity and I took our Czech midterm (ughh) and ran to catch our train from Prague. We even made chocolate chip cookies for the family, an American sort of welcoming gift. Somehow we managed to catch all three of our connecting trains (even with 4 minute layovers!). It was a long ride, and I’ll be honest, we definitely noticed a difference crossing the border from the Czech Republic to Austria. We had non-sketchy modern trains, the landscape was greener, and there were far fewer abandoned old buildings. The Austrian countryside was beautiful!

We didn’t really know what to expect when we got off the train in Rohr Bad Hall. But a small, smiling woman came up to us and asked if we were Emily and Caitlin, so we followed her. She was Eliza’s mom, Cathy; she walked us back to her house about 2 min. from the train stop, showed us where to drop our bags, and immediately began feeding us (little did we know, the theme of our weekend.)

Although it was a little awkward at first, complete strangers and a little bit of a language barrier, it was a great first night. Cathy made us pumpkin soup, fried mushrooms, potatoes, and even pulled out some homemade apple cider (sus most, in German). One of her sons, Elias, came home from high school, and we met Christian, her husband, as well. We spent most of the night talking about different things (the US election, if Americans are fat, haha) but mainly we poured over their German atlas book, pointing out different things. Cathy and Christian were shocked at the lack of mountains where Caity lives in Indiana. Christian also brought different types of nuts from their farmhouse a few kilometers away and a bottle of Austrian red wine. I had a feeling it was going to be a long weekend forcing myself to eat new foods; which ended up being true, but not too bad. The pumpkin soup was delicious, the hazelnuts okay, although I hate mushrooms and don’t like red wine. I must say that while the mushrooms were really well cooked, I just couldn’t get over the fact that I was eating mushrooms. I decided, kind of as a joke, to keep tabs on all the new foods I tried over the four days.

The next morning, we ate delicious musli mix (granola, yogurt, fruit, etc.) and went with Christian to their farmhouse in Schliebham. It was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The house had no modern heating system, only two woodstoves. Caity and I gathered walnuts in the back yard and picked apples before Christian showed us how to make most, the alcoholic version of the cider we had for dinner the previous night. Caity and I had a trip picking apples, as we realized that we were standing on top of a hill in Austria, using this old wagon that seriously would be an antique decoration back home in the US. The most machine was crazy too, another thing I can imagine being on display in the historic Hyland House back in Guilford as some farming machine.

Now, we slept in Eliza’s room on our first night, but Cathy and Christian kept asking if we would rather sleep in Schliebham or in Rohr for the rest of the week. We ended up gathering our stuff and bringing it with us to Schliebham that morning. Later that afternoon, it kind of dawned on me that we were staying in this freezing cold, rural farmhouse for the night. When Christian left us with a box of spaghetti, sauce, and bread for the next morning, I was kind of like, “Woah, did this really just happen? Is he really leaving us here alone in this house?”

Caity and I barely had a grasp on how to light the woodstoves when he left, and we needed showers, despite the fact that the bathroom was not heated and the hot water wasn’t working in the bathtub. I’ll be honest, I was getting pretty nervous after neither Caity or I could relight the bedroom stove, even though Christian said it would probably stay warm all night (it was the awesome clay heater that stayed warm for HOURS after the fire went out, amazing). Caity washed her hair in the kitchen sink, but I chickened out because the kitchen was still really cold even with the stove on. We cooked our spaghetti and watched Pride and Prejudice on my computer before going to bed early. Although scary and uncomfortable at first, we ended up having a cozy, quiet evening. Plus, the super thick, heavy, down blankets we had were amazing.

On Saturday, both Cathy and Christian met us back at the house in the morning with a big breakfast in tow. Caity and I sheepishly explained how we couldn’t get either stove to light earlier in the morning, but soon, Cathy got it going and started cooking again, so the house was warm and cozy. We bundled up again (did I mention that I wore 3-4 layers most of the weekend?) and gathered some more nuts and cleared leaves. We had a third (!) meal of grilled chicken, potatoes, cheese, and salad and Christian showed us his studio (he’s an artist) upstairs before we packed up our things again and went back to Rohr.

Just as we arrived back in Rohr, we met another family member. There are six people in the family, by the way; Cathy, Christian, Elias (17), Julian (18), David (21), and Eliza (23). In Austria, everyone has to either serve the military for six months, or do civil service for a slightly longer time. Julian just joined the military in Linz, and he came home on Saturday for the weekend.

Then, Christian asked us if we wanted to go for a walk to “see the sun” (the sun became another theme of our weekend). We had pretty gross weather on our entire trip – cold, damp air and very cloudy skies. Christian said that we could drive part way up a mountain and break past the low fog (fog being his and Cathy’s new favorite English word). I remained unconvinced, but it sounded like fun.

So, Caity, Christian, Cathy, Elias, Julian, and I drove to a mountain nearby. Julian just has the equivalent of his driver’s permit (driving age is older in Austria), so he decided to practice, and Caity and I teased him after the car stalled, despite that we can’t drive stick shifts at all. But anyway, the mountain was ridiculous. We parked about halfway (maybe) up, but we hadn’t reached the cloud level yet. Christian, however, was convinced that we would if we just did a little hiking. So hiking we went. Not kidding, the MOST INTENSE hike I have ever gone on. Again, I was still wearing two pairs of pants, two shirts, a sweatshirt, and my jacket because it was so cold. By the time we got to the top, I was ready to pass out and was sweating profusely, as was Caity. The “trail” was crazy steep and I was breathing at my normal running pace, but for 45 min. of solid hiking. Despite taking a break on heavy exercise in Prague, I still thought I was in pretty good shape too. The rest of the family more or less took it in stride, and Caity and I laughed in between gasps as realized that we were owned by two middle-aged adults. Unfortunately, even at 1100 m (3300ish ft?), we didn’t break the fog.

Coming down was almost worse. It was easier effort wise, but again, this was no well-traveled trail from back in the US. We could barely find our way back down, and the whole way was coated with slippery, wet leaves. I was happy that I didn’t slip on the way down, almost everyone else did. Still, Caity and I were good sports and laughed about it most of the way. Christian joked about how only two crazy American girls would join the family on their adventures. Afterwards, we returned to Rohr for (hot) showers and another big dinner with the family.

It was such a nice evening too. Caity and I talked for a long time (instead of studying for our midterms) about tons of different issues that come up when you’re in a radically different environment. Both of us felt really refreshed after we had recovered from our hike, and just realized how good this trip had been for us. I had been pretty tired over the past few weeks and even getting a little homesick. I kept wishing that I could go home to Connecticut for a weekend for some peace and quiet in my own house. Rohr was the next best thing. Caity and I were able to de-stress in a real house, detox from the polluted Prague air, sleep a lot, eat real, unprocessed, good meals, have a family around (even if it wasn’t our own!), exercise, and basically get all the good things our body had been missing. Staying with the family in Rohr was like getting a tune up after getting so worn down.

But anyway, Cathy and Christian had been telling us that we didn’t have to “work” on Sunday because they were taking us to meet Eliza and go hiking. Eliza had been hiking and staying with friends for the weekend about an hour from Rohr. We enjoyed another big family breakfast and watched a skiing competition on TV before driving out to a bunch of mountains by the deepest lake in Austria. The surrounding village was one of the most gorgeous towns that I have ever seen. As in, I want to move there someday. Pictures don’t capture the beauty of this place. Anyway, we finally found a parking spot (seriously, every Austrian was out hiking with their family) and started up one of the mountains to meet Eliza. Caity and I were still sore from the night before!

The weather was pretty intense too. The sun finally came out (more Austrian jokes here), but it was freezing cold in the shade and warm in the sun. Caity and I spent most of the hike burning hot and panting, yet faces freezing. The hike we went on similar to the previous night’s, but was longer and had more up and down areas towards the top. I still wanted to pass out. But the top was amazing. Wonderful view of the giant lake and surrounding mountains and villages. We ate bread and cheese for lunch, along with some tea and coffee (surprisingly no water…) and took some photos. Caity and I marveled at how some little children seemed to have taken the hiking in stride as we almost died on the way up. We have decided that it’s a mixture of some crazy Austrian hiking genes and the fact that they start hiking at the age of two.

But again, the trip down was out of control. We took a more direct route down the mountain, and let’s just say we didn’t pass any other hikers on that trail for a reason. I thought the previous night’s hike down was bad, but it didn’t compare. I fell four times in the span of five minutes in one particularly slippery part and sustained some intense bruises and scrapes. After that, I was shaking the entire rest of the way down, and we had a long way to go from that point. It took about two hours to climb all the way down! Even Caity admitted that she had never been so scared in her entire life. Anyway, we collapsed into the car and went back to Rohr.

For our last dinner, Cathy went all out. She cooked weiner snitzel, potatoes, carrots, salad, rice; played a traditional Austrian music CD; and brought out more cider and Austrian beer. Did you know, by the way, that the drinking age in Austria is 16? Anyway, Eliza, Elias, and Julian all teased her about her efforts and why she wasn’t wearing her traditional Austrian dress. It was a fun, delicious, relaxing last meal. Afterwards, Christian gave us some of the photos he took over the weekend (he’s an amateur photographer) and we looked up the chocolate chip cookie recipe we used online because they liked our cookies so much. We said goodbye to Julian, who was heading back to the military, and Cathy who was going to bed early before going to work the next morning.

This morning, Christian showed us how to make the delicious musli mix before we packed up. Eliza also showed us some of her pictures from rock climbing in Greece and from Istanbul over breakfast. We packed up our things, and before we left, Christian filled the kitchen table with apples from the tree outside their window, some fresh tea leaves, and a bunch of vegetables and pumpkins for us to take home.

It was really hard for us to say goodbye, especially with the impending doom known as midterms that wait for us back in Prague. Caity and I really felt like 5th and 6th children in their home for the weekend and it was hard to thank their family enough in the note we left behind. I can’t wait to go back to Austria in November, even if it will be a totally different area.

More photos soon!