Mariazell (orientation)

zip line = am besten

For orientation we went to Mariazell, a pilgrimage town in Styria (which is an Austrian state—Vienna, itself, is actually also a state of Austria [also known as ein Bundesland]). We had to meet at the Bahnhof Hütteldorf (Hütteldorf underground station) between noon and 2 PM on Thursday, August 19. I didn't want to be stressed out about arriving in that short of a time frame, which is why I decided to arrive on the 18th.

Picture from the bus. Styria = awesome

The IES staff took everyone's large suitcases, after which we got on the buses (three, total) and were driven to Mariazell.

The ride was very pretty, and the Austrians definitely have a thing for sunflowers—we passed several giant fields full of them, and I saw them in several other contexts throughout the trip (ridiculously oversized, at a children's funeral, etc).

We stopped at a truck stop, which had approximately 250% price inflation for Kinder Bueno (which is a chocolate-filled hazelnut candy) and other snacks—much like in America.

The hostel (just outside of Mariazell) served us a buffet-style dinner, after which (and after a few introductions), there was an All Austria Quiz——I won two prizes! I got free coffee for knowing that Vienna was known as Vindobona during Roman rule (rock me Nerdmadeus) and the biggest bar of milk chocolate I've ever seen for knowing that Falco was an Austrian pop star in the 1980s. :P 

Falco ist super-cool

The next day we had various information sessions and German placement tests. I took two out of three of the German placement tests since I was sure that I had failed the intermediate option.They seem to have been somewhat arbitrary, since I "placed" into Intermediate II (approximately 4th semester German, which is where I left off in terms of Case credit, and was therefore just after my "technical number of college semesters of Deutsch"). In the afternoon IES took us into the town for tours of the pilgrimage basilica and folklore museum.

The basilica was built in homage to a miracle, involving a statue of the Madonna and some friendly lumberjacks, as well as several miracles that occurred after various iterations of the church were built. Austria is overwhelmingly Catholic, and Mariazell is a large pilgrimage town even for Catholics outside of the country. That night IES had an all-male folkdancing troupe come and perform for us... and then gave us shots of schnapps. Mariazell is also known for their "medicinal" schnapps production.


The schnapps are herbal. And delicious. And can be bought for only €1 outside of the basillica. 

The next day, after my german placement interview (which I was also sure I had bombed), IES took us to the Erlaufsee. I hiked around the lake and swam (the lake was intensely cold), went back to the hostel, got in the sauna, then jumped in the pool, then got back in the sauna, then back in the pool, etc (the hostel was incredibly nice... I'm not even sure how it qualified as a "hostel"), ending with arm exercises with Kim (who's done ballet forever and ever).

After dinner that night, IES hosted optional waltzing lessons for us, so... I learned the basic steps to the basic Viennese waltz. Which, as I sit here thinking about it, I'm pretty sure I've forgotten. 


Sorry about the lump of updates today; I just wanted to get the old stuff out of the way so that I could actually write about my thoughts as I have them. IES has kept us approximately as busy as possible with orientation sessions and intensive German classes, plus I think a lot of us feel pressure to go out and do summery Viennese things before actual classes start and the weather cools down.