Holidays in Austria: Thanksgiving, Christmas & Other Travels

A compilation of photos illustrating my most recent experiences in Austria and beyond...

The main plaza in České Budějovice or Budweis, (auf Deutsch) the home city of Budweiser Beer. As I am fortunate enough to be hosted by the Rotary Club of Freistadt, near the border with the Czech Republic, I enjoy the exchange student benefits of traveling with them on trips to visit the sister club. 

An hour and a half north of where I live is the larger Czech city. A reminder of the short distance is the delightful food we ate during the meeting, with dumplings, meat & gravy cooked and presented much similarly to what I might find on my plate in Austria.

This shot is from the concert hall Brucknerhaus in Linz, where the Mayrs, the Rotarian couple and friends of mine from Gutau took me for a concert. 

We heard 2 pieces from Mozart including his work: "Jupiter", with a overture from Beethoven to separate them.

These are model buildings from medieval times, on display at a Christkindlmarkt or Christmas Market in Linz.

Another type of stall with cheese wheels and meat products.

The McDonald's on the Landstraße in Linz, an internationally frequented spot in a much more fancier, older building than one might find at home in the USA.

The long main road running through Linz, with it's shops on the way, the Landstraße, and a Freistädter Bier themed tram making it's circuit. 

Frisch

Frei

Freistädter

The main plaza in Linz taken over by it's own Christkindlmarkt.

Next are a handful of perfectly wintry pictures from Gutau, on Thanksgiving. It made a perfect Christmas Eve atmosphere, and that was awfully nice considering we had no snow and it was warm Christmas Eve and Day for us in Gutau! 

This was at night in the Marktplatz in Gutau earlier in December as it snowed.

Lights and decorations around Freistadt's old town, including a bell hanging in the street matching up with the church's own bell tower.

Foggy, frosty morning in Freistadt's main square.

From the southern bridge looking off to the east and the hills.

The frost with it's cold hand over the town.

The appetizer to a meal with the Mayrs alongside a baked Krampus.

Venison, potato noodles, a pear, dumpling and red kraut.

Schweinsbraten: A prepared meal of pork, Austrian style with dumplings and kraut.

Typical Austrian Rotarian Fare: Stuffed Dumplings & Sauerkraut!

Nikolaus & Krampus: The ultimate Advent pair of the Turkish Saint Nick and the Alpine devil, this time in chocolate form.

(Cookies) Kekse und Krampus

The carriage for the two Advent characters.

Krampus is the demon that comes on the 5th of December to harass people, traditionally a threat to kids. His counterpart Nikolaus comes the day after on the 6th to gift the good children a bag of sweets or something special.

His holiness brought all the essentials in our bags for the Kapelle, the town band I played in, to their Christmas party. Amongst the goodies were chocolates, nuts, oranges and Jägermeister.

The elaborate Christmas party meal prepared for the Kapelle including: Venison, Red Kraut, Potato Noodles, Dumplings, a Pear, a Lemon Slice, small Tomato & a beer.

From the Rotary Freistadt's Christmas party: Vorspeise (Appetizer): Proscuitto + Melon

Chocolate & Ice Cream Crepe Dessert

My order of Fish for the Christmas Day meal with the whole host family at a local restaurant. We celebrated the birthdays of my host dad Christian and my host sister Julia: 60 yrs + 30 yrs = 90 yrs 

A model of a cross between my host city of Freistadt and it's notable towers and that of Bethlehem, found in the city's main church.

A sunny morning during the Salzburg Weekend with the Rotary students. We got to head up into the castle Hohensalzburg, one of Europe's largest fortresses.

Rooftop view of the city as we hiked up the mountain to the castle itself.

The high-rising, imposing walls of Festung Hohensalzburg impress their might upon the visitor.

Looking down on the city from a barred castle window.

A nighttime shot of Salzburg.

The Salzburg Train Station, clean, modern, and with the Alps in the back end view.

From my host club's Christmas party. We walked to one of the small churches on a hill (Kapelle) and drank warm Austrian alcoholic Punsch, ate the Kekse Christmas cookies and chatted, then entered the building to listen to 4 talented singers. They filled the entire hall with clear Christmas voices, singing beautifully in German.

The Dead to Remember

A Reminder to the Living: This is unfortunately not a direct translations as the first is, because while it makes sense to write that in German, we would rather come up with something else to put down in English.

A Merry Christmas from Philipp, Tobi and I with our Christmas Tree and it's multiple fiery Sparklers and Candles!

Our family meal for Christmas Eve was "Raclett" A Swiss creations with a sort of mini-grill to cook bits of meat, cheeses and veggies and then prepare as you like with a choice of sauces.

Julia and Tobi together :)

As Christmas has been here and gone already so fast, here are 3 pictures with some of my new close friends :) The time flies admittedly fast but we are certainly enjoying it as we can. Here our my classmates and fellow exchangers: Genevieve van den Bosch, my Tasmanian Oldie and Oriannyd Duran "Ori" from Venezuela here with AFS. We team up to add a bit of entertainment to the lives of our Austrian classmates on a daily basis! 

My dear Paloma Ros from Madrid, Spain and I at Tauplitz in the Alps during one of our Rotary exchange student weekends.

An Autumn photo taken of Gen & I at Pöstlingberg, the twin-tower cathedral perched on a mountain topping a view of Linz. Our time together has been fantastic, a learning experience for us both and undoubtedly an opportunity for me to gain highly valuable guidance whilst here. She flies home to Australia in January as she's a Southern Hemisphere kind of girl. From her ever-so-eloquent words "It's Good" that is how I choose to describe the dream life here in Austria! Bis nächstes mal! Liebe Grüße aus Mühlviertel-

Ben Hoffman Ellis