Sledging + Dissapointing + Inspiring

It’s always a toss up on trains, what to do. The last few rides I’ve had a great book (called “white tiger” it is amazing you should read it), other times its just been too crowded to anything but keep my elbows tucked in and my feet held firmly on the floor to not kick or bother anyone and just stare out the window.

Right now though, its blog time.

OK so a little confession incase you haven’t noticed already, I am pretty behind in these! But I still want to share as much as possible with you guys so please bare with me.

After Germany Jamie and I caught the train to Switzerland. Now I have heard a fair bit of gossip about Switzerland since I’ve been in Europe, those who travel there are of two minds. The first is that it is completely worth it because there is beauty beyond imagining, but that always seems to always be drowned out by their follow up of “but…it’s really expensive”. Now when other Europeans are saying that Switzerland is expensive, you know you’re in for big bucks quickly disappearing from your bank account. So our plan was to hop in, see what we absolutely wanted to see, then get the heck out of there before we had to call our parents for financial backup.

Absolutely on my list for Switzerland was Lucerne, the humble town of the Lucerne lion. I read about this statue briefly when I was looking into where I would go, and this lion basically cemented my need to go to Switzerland. We were only in Lucerne for one full day so that was first on our list to do. Lucerne is a town of absolute amazing beauty, it is split between a large lake and connected through bridges as most well structured towns are... It is home to the famous water tower that you see on all the postcards and pictures of Switzerland. This particular day we were In Lucerne was one of incredible beauty, it was a nice crisp (though not freezing cold) morning and the sun had just come up and the lake made everything seem fresh. As the sun rose and it became lighter, gradually all around us appeared these incredible snow capped mountains. They felt so close like if you just went out the perimeters of Lucerne you would touch the base of them. Surrounded by such beauty we headed towards the lion. Following a map we made our way to the tiny lion signs in no time at all, but of course nothing can be this simple to find so of course we got sidetracked by the most common of all side trackers….

A slippery dip.

This slippery dip, curling in all its majesty from the top of a large courtyard, to where we were standing a little way down the hill. It wasn’t long but I swear it was put there because the locals get sick of walking up and down the steps all day. Once we had a go on it each however, we quickly forgot which direction was the right one, so just wandered off. Then after realizing the streets we were in were not marked on the tourist standard map, we wove our way back to where we started and eventually came to the spot I had come to Switzerland for. Mark Twain wrote that the lion “is the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.” It is a memorial for the Swiss guards that were massacred in 1792 during the French revolution. It was bigger than I imagined, and there were of course details that you don’t get from a photo. What struck me the most was that the lion was larger than life-size but it’s exactly what I imaged Aslan from Naria to be like. Mark Twain best describes it best though, so I will attach his words at the end of this blog for those who would like to read it…

From Lucerne we got the train to Interlaken where we didn’t have any particular plans for what we were going to do, it’s the extreme sport capital of Switzerland, but neither of us are particularly extreme sports types…The train ride through the alps just to get to Interlaken was worth it in itself. WOW. Breathtaking beauty of the alps and the Swiss countryside. I shouldn’t have started taking pictures, because once I started I couldn’t stop snapping!

We reached Interlaken at nighttime so we didn’t get to see what was surrounding us, but this place was a lot more snowy and cold than Lucerne was. We got to the hostel and upon checking in we were issued with hostel tokens that were, in my opinion, better than gold. These tokens would get us- FREE LAUNDRY. Yes folks, for the first time in 4 months my clothes were treated to the gentle wash of an automatic washing machine. Of course they would have been a little more comfortable if we hadn’t filled the machine to full capacity (and then some) trying to save our tokens by putting both our clothes in one load. Oh well, I got some extra coffee with the leftover tokens.

So…we were in the capital of extreme sports and needed to chose one, one within our price range and one that wouldn’t send our mothers into a tizzy….hmmmmmmmmmm..

Sledging!

Now this isn’t like tobogganing, as we discovered while heading up in the cable car towards the top of this alp which is popular for skiers and snowboarders. First of all this slope is not just one single hill, but rather a collection of slopes that create one big marathon slope designed for those serious about their sledging (or more commonly skiing…). The run weaves in and out of the ski track which, while crossing these areas while dodging skiers and snowboarders, is where I think the extreme part of the sport comes into it. Partly because we are cheap, and partly because we didn’t think it would be THAT much fun, we only got one sledge. This was a mistake at first cause really; neither of us knew how to do it right so it was more like we were pulling the sledge for the first part. Then once one of us worked out how to correctly use this contraption (I’ll leave you to decide who it was) we took turns, one would slide down parts of the hill, swerving along the track, while the other would run behind that person and try and not get too far behind. Then we decided to up the ante and both get on together. Without giving much thought to our area choice we both sat on and kicked off. Nothing happened. In that particular snowy patch we were too heavy together to float lightly along the top….but we tried a new area, pushed off and BAM we were off! It was ridiculous fun, we got ridiculed by some snowboarders in the open cable cars above us at one section of our journey, because obviously there is a hierarchy on the slopes and we were at the bottom of it so that was their prerogative. That day I was the coldest I have been this trip, my fingers were frozen my toes were numb, I was speaking funny cause my cheeks had become so numb with cold and my butt was both wet and icy, but it was seriously good fun. And the fact that it was that night that we had scheduled our laundry day, this soon became one of the best days on the trip! Happy.

The next day we were scheduled to leave for Geneva (our last destination in Switzerland) but before that we had scheduled in a number of hours to explore the town of Interlaken itself (because the slopes were about 45 mins by train outside of it). When we asked the lady at the reception if she had a good route for us to take to explore the city for the day, she laughed at us. We soon realized that allowing half and hour was enough time to explore Interlaken, there was no way we would need all day. So we checked it out, though what little there was, was charming, then hopped on the next train to Geneva.

Now Geneva. It’s one of the places everyone knows the name of but doesn’t necessarily know what is located there. That would be me before anyway. The only things I knew about Geneva was that that is where the Geneva Agreement gets its name and it was home to the UN. And that was enough for me! Once we checked into the most youth hostel-y youth hostel I have been in so far (when first entering it feels like a public swimming pool because it had light blue walls, concrete walls and the smell of chlorine) we went out to get dinner. That dinner almost sent us home bankrupt. The prices of food were absolutely ridiculous! Even McDonalds was hardly affordable, a simple Big Mac meal was about $17!! The next day we went to explore the actual town of Geneva and find out why it is that here is the place chosen to house the International Red Cross as well as the UN. Well for a start they claim to be the inventers of the humble watch, which I suppose is a good enough reason to sell watches in every shop right along with the Swiss army knives. They also have a large garden clock which was pretty cool (once we found it after walking right past it, but on the other side). They are also famous for a water fountain that sprays up like a sail, but of course we were there wanting to see it, so it had to be switched off. Home to the most confusing city it took us a number of hours to find the old city which is actually rather lovely with its cobbled streets, coat of arms on every building and charming little cafes in the alleyways. We went to the wall of remembrance which is a dedication to the leaders of the protestant revolution and depicts the likes of John Calvin in giant size.  The park that leads to this wall is home to a number of giant chess boards with giant chess pieces with giant boys smoking cigars while playing their games like they’re serious professionals playing for each other’s house deeds. Very amusing to watch.

We kept the best for last when we went to the UN on the last day we were in Geneva. We caught the train to the stop “nations” and got off to be greeted by the UN gate with flags lining the large entrance area and a huge chair monument across the road. 

Warning: biggest disappointment of my trip so far happens next....

After making sure that we arrived with plenty of time to catch the 10 o’clock tour of the inside of the building, we wandered around looking for the meeting point. We wandered, asked someone, then wandered some more. Finally (at 10:15) we found another entrance by following delegates and official looking people with lanyards with official badges, we got to a security checkpoint where people have to show their passport, and acting like I belonged there (which I most obviously didn’t, dressed in what I was wearing) I went to go through security and was told that the tours weren’t running until Jan 11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In case you didn’t catch my exclamation…

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 I was at the united nations building, the reason we had come to Geneva, and was being told now by a lady who clearly doesn’t realise what she is doing to me, telling us the tours aren’t happening. We were directed by this other official looking guy to this area, they have to have tours here, he said they would so why aren’t we being let in? and why aren’t there any other tourists…and why didn’t that lady at the tourist office tell me about this sooner…why did they need to be sorting out important international stuff today….why couldn’t they just wait until I had seen inside…..................can we come back on the 11^th Jamie? No.

I left extremely disappointed and unimpressed, while Jamie just sympathized and tried to keep a straight face at all my incredible overreaction and lead me away before I started abusing the UN security force.

Geneva made up for it however, when I was brought to the doors of the International Red Cross. This museum was so incredibly inspiring and educational, an absolute highlight of my trip. We spent about 3 hours in the fairly small museum pondering over the prisoner of war files that are all held there (there were no Graetz’s) and were gathered by the Red Cross back in the day. Over 4 million files. They had a very inspiring section on the Red Cross' work during the second world war, which after Dachau was particularly moving. While the concentration camps were around, the Red Cross wanted to send in care packages to the people in the camps and have people visit the prisoners, as they do in other jails. Surprisingly, the Nazis agreed. However although they could send some people in, they made a stipulation that those who went in would need to stay there for the entire duration that the camp exists. 10 people voluntarily went into a concentration camp to help others in whatever way they could. How incredible are those people, I’m almost sure they didn’t know the extent of the suffering in there, but they wouldn’t have been stupidly ignorant either… Anyway, a special museum that I am so happy we visited! How could we not when we got 50% off…:P

Anyway, this is becoming way too long and I have the habit of rambling on terribly in these things don’t I?

I hope you are all doing splendidly, only 1 and a half months left! UGHR! Where did all that time go?!

All my love xoxox

Mark Twains bit about the lion:
“The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff — for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies.

Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered, reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion — and all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of Lucerne would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where he is.

– Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, 1880”

Munich and surrounding

My train ride from Salzburg to Munich was the shortest I have been on so far, just 1.5 hours, but it felt like the longest by far. Jamie!

Got off the train and went to the tourist info place as arranged, however Jamie had decided to alter the plans already and instead went and waited at the train coming in from Salzburg. Unfortunately, he got the wrong train and missed me completely. Great start haha. Eventually we did meet up and were reunited for the first time in 4 months, yay!

Now accompanied by a travel buddy, we went off to explore Munich and work out just why this city is raved about by all the other backpackers I have met so far. On our free tour the answer soon became apparent quite strongly, Beer. This city has a LOT to do with beer. Not being a beer fan myself, I was starting to wonder if I would enjoy Munich as much as I was supposed to. The fact that this city is where Hitler really started to develop a name for the Nazi party, where he had his failed revolution and was thrust in the limelight, made the cities history more appealing to me than its favorite beverage.

I did learn a thing or two about beer however which was quite interesting. For one beer is more or less so the invention of the Monks, who used to make it for their private consumption. Now they have commercialized the beverage just a little bit and it is now at the disposal of every person from the age of 16 (legal age of beer drinking in Germany) and up. Not to mention worldwide. Anyway, apparently these beers with the history of being made in the monasteries are still considered to be the finest by the locals. One beer has not needed to do any marketing for the last 200 years! In fact the pope, who is from Munich, loves his beer so much that he gets a barrel of his favorite sent to the Vatican every month, making this beer known to the locals as “Gods Beer”.  The Hofbrauhaus is arguably the world’s best known pub, and although we didn’t make it in there (there was a soccer match on this particular day so the place was jam packed) we heard enough to make me not want to go in there. This pub has been around for a LONG time, so long that when it was first built it was built without any toilets and the hundreds of men would urinate on the street. There are still ditches running along the path from the doorway, where the pee used to run along. When the men started to get sick of having to leave the hall, which meant losing their seats and even worse, their BEER (not to how chilly tinkling in the winter would be), they started to get pretty inventive. They decided that the waste system worked fine, it just needed to begin a little earlier, so they created a “gutter system” running under the tables and then outside, so that the men didn’t even have to stand up, let alone leave the room! And just because that isn’t revolting enough, they also needed to come up with a system to make sure that they didn’t spray everyone else around the table on the legs while they did their business, so they invented a walking stick system where they would tap the leg of each person to warn them they were gonna go. The walking stick also served as a useful tool to help one aim, especially after a few. YUCK. 

Anyway, enough about that. Munich is a very pretty city and has the famous Glockenspiel which is considered to be one of the most overrated tourist attractions in Europe. Jamie and I never actually saw it, we saw the beginning one day, but the music plays and nothing moves for about 5 minutes, so we gave up and had to leave (we were late for our tour).

We were able to go on a few excursions outside of Munich.

The last day we were in Munich we took the train out to Fussen, which is where the giant castle built by King Ludwig (I remember the name cause it was Jamie’s favorite word to use for everything when he learnt it), which is also the castle that inspired Walt Disney when he saw It and so the castle for Sleeping Beauty was modeled on it. The hike up was a lot of fun dodging the ‘authentic’ 1800s horses lugging up their carts of camera yielding Chinese tourists while enjoying the beautiful snowy wilderness. I had wanted to get an action shot in front of the castle when we got to the top, unsure of how Jamie would take it I told him briefly before we started the hike and then quickly asked a Spanish lady to take our picture while we did our appropriate poses. Thank you Jamie.

The first excursion was to Dachau Concentration camp, the only concentration camp to last the entire time of the Nazi rule. It was originally set up to house the politicians who part of the communist and social democrat parties, and who were suspected of plotting to overthrow Hitler, or who would not vote him in after the Reichstag fires.  As the Nazi reign went on Jews, immigrants, gays and anyone else from minority groups where thrust into Dachau (one of the MANY camps around northern/eastern Europe). I will not even attempt to try and describe what life would have been like for the many that were overcrowded into this camp, because I would never be able to do the suffering and the terror that they went through justice. I have no idea. I will just say however, that the day we went was cold. Very cold. Jamie and I were both shivering and our limbs were feeling the chill particularly bad. It was snowing and my shoes were getting a little wet from all the slush that was on the ground. We were both wearing thermals, 2 socks, long sleeves, fleece vests and big jackets. The clothes that the prisoners were issued with back in the 30s/40s were a single set of flimsy pajama pants and a button down top, with a cap and a pair of fabric slip ons. They had to stand out in the weather (Jan through Dec), in the dead of winter, for at least a couple of hours every morning and evening for roll call. Roll calls, if things weren’t perfectly in order, could sometimes last up to 13 hours. Doing that in the freezing cold, the strong wind, the wet slushy snow on the ground wearing next to nothing…can’t even begin to imagine the torture. The rest I will just briefly explain using the pictures I took.

The entry gate of Dachau, the gate has the inscription (Hard work makes you free) in German, a form of psychological torture for the prisoners who would never get out, no matter how hard they worked. Today there is a open gate policy, to signify that this camp should never be closed off again. There is also a side path entry so that the returning victims from the camp do not have to enter the same gate they were forced through years ago.

The large space is what you see as soon as you get through the gate. At first it seems large, but when you consider how many people were confined to this area, it would soon become small. The long flat building to the left is a reconstruction of what the 30 originaly on the property looked like. this free space in the centre of the camp was used for roll calls every morning and evening.

One of the most common forms of torture that the nazis used on the prisoners. This particular one involved a person kneeling on the right raised platform while he lent over top with his arms outstretch. the guard would then whip the prinsoner with a whip 20 times. The prisoner would need to count outloud in perfect german after each whip. If the prisoner did not say the number loud enough the count would start again. There were also a lot of foreign prisoners which meant that if they could not count to 20, or had bad pronounciation of the number they would be whipped until they either got it right or passed out. THis torture was one of the three most common, so understandably one of the first things that the older prisoners would teach the new prisoners when they first got into the camp, was how to count to 20.

THis monument was erected to commemorate the many prisoners of concentrations all over europe who took their own lives by jumping onto the electric barbed wire fences. THis form of suicide became a sort of "movement" to send the message to the Nazis that although they had taken all their dignity, all their possessions and families they could not dictate how they would end their lives.

Communial toilets in the bunkers, there would have been very long waits as there were far more prisoners than toilets and absolutly no privacy whatsoever. The nazis thought of these people as animals, and animals have no need for privacy.

These bunks are replicas of what the bunks looked like towards the 40s, thare are no dividers and no pillows or matteresses. The bunkers are built to hold a mazimum, of 250 people. There is a large copy of a nazi documentjsut outside this room that shows that the number of people in some bunkers were up to 1000, 1500 and one even had 2000 in it. The overcrowding is just unimaginable, the people would have to sleep intop of each other, in piles and piles, and in the morning they would wake up to carry the many dead out to roll call.

Imagine grass instead of the snow for a clearer picture first. The captives weren't aloud to touch the grass at all or else they would get shot at by the guards in the watch towers. But often a guard would take a prisoners hat and throw it on the grass, ordering him to go and fetch it. If the captive ran to get his hat, the watchman would shoot at him. But if the prisoner refused to get it, then the officer on the ground would shoot him for disobeying. If somehow the prisoner was successful in run and getting the hat without being shot, the officer would throw it back again and in the end the situation was a lose lose for the prisoner.

The crematorium used to cremete the dead bodies. Nearing the end of WWII and the closure of this concentration camp, there was a lack of coal and such enormous quantities of bodies that they had to stop using the crematorium and instead throw the bodies into mass graves. When the americans came in to take over the camp, they found hundreds of bodies piled up outside of this crematorium.

 

This statue is called "the unknown inmate" and the words below translate "To honor the dead, to admonish the living." It was erected to commemorate all those unknown people who were killed and died in this concentration camp. It is a particularly powerful piece because it shows the prisoner in his anti-nazi state. For on the prisoner is wearing an overcoat that is not official unifrom, and it is also too large which means he does not look neat enough. IF he had been in the camp he would have been punished for this. The prisoner is also standing in a relaxed position, he is not at attention and this would also have been punished by the Nazis. The part that strikes me the most I think is the fact that he has his hands in his pockets. The Nazis put the pockets his these unifroms for the sole purpose of psychological torture, the prisoners were not allowed to put their hands in them under any circumstance or they would be tortured by the guards

It was an incredibly sobering experience but one that is invaluable I think, I am very thankful for the oppertunity to see it as is Jamie. 

On to Switzerland next my friends,

Love to you all! xoxo

Austria extended...a bit

I left Austria feeling rather cultured and ready to tackle any opera critics.

The first night I went to an orchestra playing Mozart and Stauss, as well as mini opera and ballet performace. The dress for the performace was casual, which is good cause if it had been even one notch higher than casual, I would not have had the appropriate attire. I was accompanied by my Japanese room mate, who I had spent the day with. She taught me about the Sacher cake, which was supposed to be a hugely famous chocolate dessert cake that comes out of Austria, I’s never heard of it but it sure did not sound like it would kill me to try. We went to the Sacher Hotel where it all started, and dined along with the rest of the extremely rich and high-class people at the café and payed a lot more money that I would usually on a coffee and some cake. The cake apparently is made in a wooden box and needs to the right temperature to do this and that and then layered with chocolate. It sounds and cool amazing, but I think I prefer homemade double recipe with fudge icing..half the cost as well!

The next evening I escaped to the opera. The guide book and fellow travelers I had met, all say that to got to the opera you will have to get there 2 hours early and stand in the lines that lead around the building if you want standing tickets. Being a pretty chilly three days in Vienna, the prospect of standing out in the night freeze didn’t appeal to me much at all, but I couldn’t go to Vienna and not go to the opera. I must have done something good during that day however, because when I got there I was able to walk straight in, was directed into a tiny corner of the opera house and went straight to the ticket counter and bought my 3 euro standing ticket to the Viennese opera, no waiting, no cold and no empty pockets. To add to this bargain of mine, the cloak room was even free!! Here I felt extremely underdressed, it’s not that I didn’t respect the art and therefore didn’t think it was worth dressing up for… its just that I honestly don’t have ANYTHING more classy to wear than a black skivvy and grey cargo pants that i should probably wash more often than I do….

The performance was very different to what I was expecting. When I think opera I think of overweight ladies with huge dresses and wildly overdone make up complete with black beauty spot, standing with their hands clasped in front and belting out ridiculous note. This, however, was more like a theatre performance with singing in the opera style. . I’m glad that the opera was in German, because im sure the fact that the singers trill and sing each word for about half an hour each would annoy me if it was in English. The best part is that I understood the play because they have nifty individual subtitle screens for each person, with the opera translated into 4 or 5 different languages. 

After getting my tiny taste of the music capital of the world, it was time to move on to another music capital of Vienna. I knew a little more about this music though.

I arrived into Salzburg quite late in the afternoon, and even though it was rather dark outside I could still make out the mountains and the amazing forests and lake that surrounded Salzburg. SO much beauty! Of course Salzburg is best known for its role in hosting the movie, The Sound of Music, a musical that I have seen so many times yet somehow have never actually owned.  So naturally, my first port of call was to do the sound of music tour, which I thoroughly enjoyed belting out each song in the bus accompanied by my fellow (mostly female) tourists. We made it to the gazebo where the famous I am 16 going on 17 song was performed, unfortunately the doors were locked because too many people had fallen while trying to reenact the scene, and broken their legs. We also went to the tree lane way where the kids were seen dangling from the tree in the movie while their father rode down in his car. The bottoms of these trees have been trimmed because too many people were climbing up them, and then falling hurting themselves, trying to reenact this scene of the movie also. The church where Maria was married was not blocked off however, and I was able to walk slowly down the aisle imagining I had a 30m long train and 30 nuns performing for me. And then of course the river where the kids fell from the boat while wearing their curtain clothes was there, along with the grand patio where max and the baroness sip pink lemonade. All up and very exciting tour! That day I also made it up to the big fortress which was quite large and fortressy, but most spectacularly just offered amazing views over Salzburg and beyond which was spectacular!

A few interesting things I learnt while in Austria. The edelweiss flower is grown all over Europe wherever there are alps, but Austria has sort of nicked the emblem as its own. When the Austrian president was greeted by the Ronald Reagan on a state visit they played the song “edelweiss” which is a song written for the sound of music stage musical, thinking this was their national anthem! The song brought tears to many of the delegates faces, all those except the Austrians who were wondering why a folk song was being played to welcome them on such an auspicious event….I suppose they didn’t have the internet back then to google what the Austrian national anthem actually was. Also, did you know that the sound of music is actually loosely based on a real story and the von trap singers AND Maria actually exists? 

Sorry for the slow upload of blogs these days,  if you want excuses just email me :P

Love you all very very much!

Lauren xox

My encounter with the devil

Christmas so far in Europe has been on display in the form of the most gorgeous Christmas decorations and light displays I have ever seen. The Christmas markets are an especially magnificent highlight of Christmas time here, with the individual wooden stalls all done up with fairy lights standing in rows creating the perfect white Christmas atmosphere.

I have been told that the Christmas markets in Austria are the best, so while I have been in Vienna and Salzburg (both of which I am utterly LOVING and will write about later) I have made sure to venture to them. Last night i teamed up with another aussie girl in my dorm and we went to the Christmas market where they had a choir of people singing beautiful hymns and carols. With the snow falling, all rugged up in our winter gear and a hot bratwurst sausage in my hand I was enjoying myself immensely.

Market scene

me with my wurst

Today we returned to this market and again there was a performance, this time a group of kindergarten children. We were enjoying their performance when suddenly the most hideous, scary monster came out of nowhere. Beating a drum and with bells ringing with each step. He climbed up the steps to where the kids are and started to approach them looking menacing. While many of the kids started to cry and scream and huddle together to get away from it, another 2 monsters came of nowhere again with the same drumming and bells. I had NO idea what on earth was going on, they were scary enough for me let alone for the kids!

Its a wonder any of the kids want to meet santa! :S

After noticing that none of the rest of the crowd were particularly concerned, just more entertained, I began to suspect that there was more to this than just rude gatecrasher’s scaring innocent children.

The tradition is one of mainly Austrian and Hungarian decent, where the Krampus (or devil) is a creature that comes out during the advent season and follows St Nicholas around. While St Nick gives presents to good children, the krampus is there to warn and even punish bad children. The tradition goes that in the first 2 weeks of December young guys dress up as devils and roam the streets scaring children and women. Well can I just say that they effectively did that today! Wikipedia informs me that "In some rural areas the tradition also includes birching – corporal punishment with a birch rod – by Krampus, especially of young girls. Images of Krampus usually show him with a basket on his back used to carry away bad children and dump them into the pits of Hell". How intense is that!!!?!

The belief is also that if you get hit by these creatures they are thought to bring you good luck and blessings. Yea, no thanks.

Definitely one tradition that I am happy does not exist at home, something you have to be brought up with I think….. :S so for now I need to makes sure I avoid Christmas markets alone at all costs :P