Dobratsch: Natural Park

Tuesday August 7th, 2012

My austrian father decided in the morning that we should head to Dobratsch , a natural park in the area. So we bundled up in the car and headed out to drive to the park. On the way there we stopped by a bakery in Villach and picked up something to eat.

Mmmm. Lots of cakes and pastries. You can also see the cremeschnitte in the middle of the display.

As always with the bakeries here my austrian father asks me what I want and I usually point to something that looks good (since most of the pastries are unfamiliar to me). I picked something that looked like it was sweet (as opposed to savory).

My mystery pastry. Could there be something inside?

Why of course! Chocolate filling!

The park Dobratsch (http://www.naturparkdobratsch.info/) is just outside Villach and is actually a mountain . You have to pay a park fee to get in (there is an office on the road, somewhat similar to U.S. national parks). You then can drive up all the way to the top with various sightseeing stops on the way (w/ parking lots). 

Dobratsch is approximately marked with the arrow.

 At our first stop up the mountain we had a view to the South/Southwest. There were even some telescope goggles you could use to look around (for free).

View, you can see some red rock where more recent slides have happened.

Climbing back up to the parking lot.

Closer to the top of the mountain we stopped at a parking lot to cross the road to stand on a viewing platform. We made some paper airplanes to throw into the air and see how long they would fly. Surprisingly my paper airplane flew the longest and actually hovered in the air for a few seconds before diving down on the mountainside. There was also some interesting history of the mountain listed in English at this stop.

"The Landslide of 1348

Floods and extreme periods of cold prevailed from 1342 in Europe. In 1348 the first severe thrust of a series of earthquakes led to the breaking down of the sodden and rugged heights, which at that time rose up in place of the niches of the Roten Wand. The bed of the River Gail was filled in. A reservoir of about six square kilometres was formed. Over 500 people died, but hardly anyone died in the landslide because it took place in unsettled terrain. Villach suffered most deaths through fire, which started from open fireplaces.

A document from 1491 reports that Arnoldstein Monastery lost 17 hamlets and nine parish churches, that were all mentioned by name. This was by no means the truth, but brought numerous privileges for the Arnoldstein Monastery from the responsible Patriarch of Aquileia. To pay for the emergency, the large parish of Hermagor was also ascribed to the monastery"

Wait, shouldn't emergency be in quotes? Since the Arnoldstein Monastery was lying? O_o I asked my austrian father about it.

Me: "Wait, they lied about having damage during a large earthquake to get more money."
Austrian father: "Yes. Pretty smart actually."

The view

Can see how part of the mountain just sheared off. The rock is quite poor.

More explanation on the landslide.

Apparently at this stop there is a wildflower walk/tour you can take at the same parking lot you park in for the viewing platform (parking lot 6). I was told that you have to have a couple hours to do it though. We continued driving until we reached the 'top' of the mountain (i.e. the farthest we could go by car). We got out and took a break.

Apparently Milka makes muffins?

Looks good but I think the actual muffin part left something to be desired. Tasted more like a dry cake.

We started walking up a path that leads to a higher peak but took a left turn into a cow pasture after a 5-10 minutes walk.  It is not necessarily obvious that you can take a left turn onto the cow pasture. All you really see is a 'gate' of three barbed wires (w/ red markers). You can unhook the wires individually and step in the field, and then re-hook the wires back into the fence. I asked my austrian father if many people visited this area and he said 'no, mostly only specialists and hunters' (the hunters have a private hut in the area; specialists referring to geologists or people familiar with the mountain).

It was actually quite a beautiful area and you really only needed to mind where you stepped occasionally to avoid the presents left by the cows. You can walk out to where the ridge of the mountain is and look out. It was probably about a 15-20 min walk but we spent some time sitting in the pasture area.

I was told the trees are small because the rock is poor (mostly gravel) and a lot of the water drains away before the trees can use it.

View from ridge

Sitting in the pasture

Some sort of mountain goat?

Heading back

Going back through the fence on our way back. The kids would unhook two of the barbed wires and then we would step over the lower barbed wire to get back on the main path.

Me petting a cow. Actually quiet friendly (courtesy of my austrian father).

We went into Villach for some lunch at Rainer Cafe (quite popular with my austrian father). I ordered a version of Frittatensuppe which wasn't quite good as in the mountains (probably because boullion cubes were used in the broth).

Hot day for soup but it was a small serving.

My austrian father had to go to a meeting so I spent some time with the kids in Villach. We decided to climb St. Jakob's tower. For some reason the spiral stairs seemed even smaller than last time. Perhaps it was because I was carrying a bigger bag.

View of St. Nicholas Church from the top of St. Jakob's Church.

The rest of the day was pretty quiet and I spent some time with the kids.

My pet project: Austrian cookbook

Monday August 6th, 2012

Today I started some work on an Austrian cookbook. This was partially inspired by my mother telling me that all the different foods (especially the sweets) she saw on this blog I had to make her when I got back home. So far its been slow going. I'm currently in an older cookbook that likes to 'tell a story' so the recipe is never a straight forward list. Plus I have to use an online translator to go from German to English. I did manage though to get a Reindling recipe from the newspaper.

Later in the day I went down to the lake with my younger austrian siblings and father. We saw some ducks and my austrian sister snuck close to take some photos for me.

Cute baby ducklings!

Getting ready to head back into the water

Otherwise the day was pretty quiet. More to come soon.

Villach's Flea Market

Finally an update! I've been busy this last week and will be traveling more this next week so I will try to update when I can.

Sunday August 5th, 2012

Sunday morning I got up early to head to the flea market in Villach. Apparently it is held on the first and third sunday of every month (this possibly changes in the winter). My older austrian brother was around so he drove me into town and I walked over the Drau River, through the Hauptplatz, and eventually turned onto what looked like a parking lot with some stalls on it.

Some decorations from Kirchtag still up.

St. Jakob's church

Statue past Hauptplatz. I turned to the left and crossed a small park to get to the flea market.

The flea market wasn't as big as I thought it might be and had a mix of what looked like professional flea market vendors to people holding garage sales (?). I stopped by a couple of stalls who all initially thought I was Austrian and tried to speak German to me. One stall I stopped at had some medals that looked interesting. While I am not very familiar with medals they looked interesting and when I asked the price it seemed okay. I bought two medals and a pin (the vendor threw in the pin for a little cheaper then what she originally asked because I bought two medals). One of the medals the vendor said would be more interest of me as an American but she didn't have enough English to explain why. She told me the medals and pins I bought were all Austrian.

The flea market. There were a couple other rows to the right of these stalls.

The next stall I bought some items at had some old postcards (the type with family photos/portraits on them). I was surprised to see some of the postcards had writing on them. I picked out some that I liked and also noticed that the vendor even had austrian post from WWII with the nazi stamp on them. They looked interesting but since I can't read German I decided it probably wasn't worth it to pick them up. When I showed the postcards I wanted to the vendor he also tried to sell me some more expensive postcards that were some sort of print/watercolor (and I am assuming also older). Unfortunately for the vendor the photograph postcards spoke to me more.

I suppose one difficult thing about the flea market was trying to judge if the prices were fair and if I was buying what I think I was buying. Since I'm not a collector or historian I decided to go with the 'even if it turns out not to be old or what I thought it was I will still like it' mentality. This mentality seemed to work the best and I was happy with what I bought even if unsure about the prices. Price wise things seemed more 'okay' rather than super cheap. One point in my favor is that the flea market obviously didn't cater to Americans and mostly had German/Italian/Slovenian tourists and Austrians. Thus the probability of someone trying to rip me off seemed low.

Me and my austrian finds got picked up by my older austrian brother (I should admit that I also stopped at Alem Kebab on the way). Once I got back to the house I decided to do some research on the medals and try to figure out what exactly they were.

The first medal. The one that the vendor told me would be interesting to me as an American.

Apparently this medal is called the 'Pour le Merite' (Blue Max) and was Germany's highest awarded medal during WWI. It was originally started in 1667 by Frederick William I. The medal was stopped given out after Kaiser Wilhelm's abdication in 1918 (so strictly a medal of Prussia). Now before you get too excited, this medal is obviously a reproduction. Why do I know that? One reason is that according to the web these medals are famously difficult to get ahold of and can go for around 10,000 dollars. The second reason is that the metalwork on this medal is not that fine. Considering that a fine reproduction of this medal goes for 50+ euros (I didn't pay anywhere close that amount) I suppose the price I paid for this is okay. It can be a pretty pendant. :D I find it somewhat curious though the vendor called it Austrian considering the original medal is Prussian. Perhaps it is an Austrian reproduction? I can't find any information though on Austrian reproductions.

Medal number two.

From my research this medal is the Military Service Bronze medal that was started in 1963. It is given to everyone who has successfully completed basic military training. Considering that all Austrian males aged 18 are required to do 6 months of military service (as I mentioned before, males can do other types of service to replace that) the possibility this medal is genuine is quite high. But I don't know if I would stake my life on it (I'm somewhat suspicious of it being actual bronze). I saw this medal going for sale online for 20 euros which meant I actually got a pretty good deal.

A austrian (?) pin with an 'a'. Although I don't know why it has those colors since the austrian flag is just red and white...

I think after some research the colors of the pin are white-red-yellow because it represents divisions within Austria. For example, Carinthia's colors are yellow-red-white. While I would like to believe this is a Carinthian pin I must consider that these colors could be in reverse of the Carinthian flag. I found a few places in the Upper Austria region that have a white-red-yellow flag. Although they do tend to hang the flags sideways so I could still pretend that it is Carinthian. Maybe... I don't know since I couldn't find any photos of something like this on the internet. I should ask my austrian family.

Now for a glimpse at some of the postcards I bought. Some of them had dates but I'm too lazy right now to go look at them again.

I think this might be might favorite.

How could I say no to a Jack Russel terrier photo?

I'm rather amused by the HUGE ladle the cook has. And the bike in the middle of the photo?

The rest of the day was pretty quiet and my younger austrian siblings didn't come until later at night.

Saturday: The biggest day of Kirchtag!

I don't know if I will have as much writing for this post as I have had for the other posts. Considering I have 80+ photos and 30+ short videos as part of this post I think I can let those speak for themselves (also I'm pretty tired, took about 12+ hours for all the photos and video to upload on to here). If you have any questions drop me an email and I can always add in extra information into the blog.

Saturday August 5th, 2012

I headed into Villach Saturday afternoon to catch the Kirchtag parade. It looked like it was going to be another hot day which I wasn't entirely happy about.

What is this? I think it is the wagon for the local brewery in Villach. Just outside the main area for the festival

Another view

Saturday is suppose to be the biggest day of Kirchtag and to get into the main area of the festival you have to pay a nine euro fee (only on saturday, and you get a pin to wear to show you can enter the area). I paid and since the parade didn't start until five I wandered around the fair area.

Many booths that looked like this. Sweets, and more sweets, and toys...

The hauptplatz had beer gardens set up that were separated by small stages. Each stage had its own music group.

Small Stage music group

The maypole again. I didn't know Villach had one. I think they only put if up for the festival

View from Hauptplatz

You thought I was joking about the stalls filled with baked goods... Well here is another one!

Some music group members hanging around

As I detoured over to the ride area past St. Jakob's church I ran into a group of people dancing.

Why hello ferris wheel. You never seem as popular though as the other rides however I noticed that people can get their seating platforms to spin if they want to as they go up and around.

And what is this?!

A booth with alcoholic drinks in huge glasses. Basically if you wanted something to drink they would scoop it out of the 'glass' and serve it to you in a small plastic cup.

I decided to have strawberry coconut flavor. I think it was about 2.50/3.50 euro for .2 liters. I don't know what was in that stuff but I was 'buzzed' for about an hour after I drank it.

The 'claw' machines. There is another whole side to this with just as many machines on the other side.

I probably spent a little too much on the fair games but I don't usually do fair stuff back at home and so it seemed worth it to try stuff out while I was in Europe (I also blame the alcohol).

The temptation....

I played the duck game again and managed to get another stuffed animal.

A pig... somehow it seems oddly appropriate

I noticed people lining up on the side of the street about a half hour before the parade was to start. Eager to get a front row seat I stood against the wall under St. Jakob's church. A personnel person came along though and told us that we couldn't line up on that side of the street and that we would have to go on the other side. I manage to get over to the other side of the street quickly enough to still have a front row seat. However I did watch the personnel people clear the stone wall under St. Jakob's  about 10 times leading up to the parade.

The very smart people staked spots above the stone wall by St. Jakob's church.

Even the news/educational channel (ORF) for Austria showed up. They interviewed a woman in costume who was about 2 feet from me.

Interviewing more people.

I saw this random guy going around dressed in a dirndl. It seemed that he was carrying a box with small bottles of schnapps? He would be stopped by a person who I think would pay some sort of fee to have them both drink a small bottle of schnapps. I'm sure there was some purpose to having him drink the schnapps too but I never quite figured it out....

Five o'clock rolled around and we didn't see anyone. It wasn't until 5:30 pm that we saw the first paraders coming through (I'm guessing since we weren't at the start of the parade route it took awhile for the paraders to reach us).

Now before we start this photo and short video extravaganza from the parade I want to encourage you to take your time looking at the photos and videos. You may be thinking, but aren't all lederhosens, didndls, and austrian costumes the same? NO, each area has a different type of costume and if you pay close attention you can tell the differences (not to mention some different time periods were covered). Also this parade included participants from Slovenia, Italy, and Norway (? If I remember correctly I was told Norway) so you will get to see some traditional clothes from those areas as well.

In regards to the videos, yes I know there are a lot. Each video though ranges from 20-90 seconds and they are worth watching. Will you see Italians, Slovenians, or Austrians (the rough order you will see the costumes in is Austrian, Italian, and Slovenian; I will try to point out when the switches occur)? Will they be dancing, singing, playing instruments, giving out alcohol (often have girls carrying small barrels of schnapps, you can often seem them at the beginning of music groups), or doing a combination of all those things? WELL YOU WILL JUST HAVE TO WATCH THEM TO FIND OUT!!!

Look at those stockings and shoes...

Handing out candy.

I think these are slovenian costumes but they were kind of thrown into the austrian part of the parade. It could be a group from one of those areas straddling the border between Austria and Slovenia.

 And now the Italians!

Nice neck strap!

Now to the Slovenians!

Hey look! Its Vrhnika! That village is quite close to Stara Vrhnika, the village my great grandfather was born in.

OH SNAP! IT'S STARA VRHNIKA!

I'm pretty sure all Slovenians love accordions. My austrian father has told me before that Slovenians are also really known for playing some very good accordion music.

And these do not look like slovenians. I think we are back to Austrians?

Yep. Back to Austria.

Because I was surprised to see Stara Vrhnika I didn't have enough time to get a video of them (very small group and they were moving quite fast). So I circled around to another part of the parade route and managed to catch them. First is Vrhnika and then I think 1 or 2 other villages after that. Stara Vrhnika starts when you see the wheelbarrow/wagon. It was pretty cool to see some traditional clothes from my great grandfather's birthplace. I wonder if I had any relatives in that group.....

 While I was happy to see the parade it was still pretty hot (in the 80s F) and I was happy to catch a train back home where I spent the evening relaxing and planning to visit the flea market in Villach the next day.