The 'Bucket List', a Birthday, and a Ball (but not just any Ball!)

I will start this post with a quick side note. I know that I'm pretty behind in my posts at the moment (yes yes yes, but at least I'm trying!), so just to give you a reference for the time frame I'm talking about, this post is about the 3rd week of January, so the 21st - 27th January 2013. Warning : it was a busy week, so this is a fairly long post.

After another full-on weekend of skiing, I woke up on Monday equally as achy as the week before, and much too achy considering I'm only 20! I suppose I am English though, and the Austrians are much more used to bouncing back after an intensive skiing weekend. The first part of the week was spent working hard at the language school, and on my daily 2 hours of homework, and watching lots of Austria's Next Top Model (I got really into it!)

On Tuesday I had gone to Alice, one of the other TA's house, before the Language Exchange group, and we had put together a 'Bucket List' of things to do before we left Salzburg. Putting it all on paper made just how little time we had left seem very real all of a sudden, and I already knew how much I was going to miss this place once I'd left.

We kicked off the 'Bucket List' the next day when Alice and Cecilia came round to my house, to meet the family I was staying with, and most important, Ronja, the dog. They came over in the afternoon and we took Ronja out for a walk by the Leopoldskroner Weiher (the one I've mentioned a lot - absolutely beautiful, with the white house from The Sound of Music!), and then through a forest and back home. Back home we had tea and cake (how very British), and then they made their way home. It was a small thing to tick off the list, but as I was living further out of the centre than them it was actually the first time they had been to my house, and as all 3 of us are big dog lovers taking Ronja out was a must.

Fresh bird prints in the snow

Me with Ronja

The next day, Thursday, was Jody's Birthday. We went round to her house for some pre-drinks, cracked open the Tequila, and hilarity ensued from there. We played some drinking games in her flat, then went to the bar downstairs (that her landlord, a prince from Denmark, owns. Long story...) for some free champagne, and then on to the one and only O'Malleys Irish Bar for some Thursday night Karaoke. With such classics as Robbie Williams 'Angels', and 'Come on Eileen', I think it's fair to say that we had a great night.

Birthday girl cutting the lemon for the Tequila!

Singing our hearts out, how embarrassing...

I woke up on Friday feeling a little worse for wear, but laughing to myself at the memories from the night before. Luckily I had fully recovered by the evening, and it's a good thing too as I would potentially say that this evening was the highlight of my time in Austria so far. Every year the Alpine Mountain Club (or Edelweiss Club) of Salzburg holds a ball, the Edelweiss Kraenzchen. This is one of the most prestigious events of the year, and you have to know someone in the club to get tickets, rather than being able to buy them normally. The difference between this Ball, and any other traditional Austrian ball, is that everyone comes wearing Trachten (traditional dress). The parents in my host family had managed to score a ticket for me and 3 friends, and so Alice, Cecilia, Tim and I met outside the Kongresshall, Salzburg, at 7:30pm, fully clad in our dirndls and traditional jackets, but in all honesty, not really knowing what to expect.

As soon as we walked in, however, I knew this evening was going to be special. There were dirndls of every colour under the sun, a full brass band set up and ready to play, and, of course, plenty of beer and Wurstl avaliable from various stands around the building. We made our way to our table (the parents had scored us some seats at a table as well - nice), and sat down ready for the opening dance. The members of the Edelweiss club and their partners came in their pairs, until the whole dance floor was filled with people. As soon as the band started playing, the couples were waltzing (I think it was waltzing, but don't quote me on this...) around the dance floor, non-members of the club quickly got up to join in, and within the first 10 minutes the yodelling has already begun!. At every hour, on the hour, they would teach 3 or 4 traditional mountain dances to everyone on the dance floor. As we were 3 girls and 1 boy, Alice and Tim partnered up, and Cecilia and I danced together. Learning the dances was more fun than I can possibly explain here. We were there every hour on the hour, ready and raring to go! As soon as the taught dances were over, however, we made a sharp move for it, as apart from Tim none of us knew how to 'freestyle', as it were, on the dance floor, without stepping on anyone and everyones toes and generally making fools of ourselves. Between dances we went back up to our table, and had some great laughs while enjoying several 'Weissbiers'. About half way through the evening, Cecilia and I headed to one of the sausage stands for an energy boost, as the dancing was surprisingly energetic, and involved lots of stamping and clapping. We only saw the parents once in the evening, and as soon as they found out that Cecilia and I were dancing together, they were quick to say that two girls dancing together wouldn't last long at this ball. As it turned out, they were extremely right...!

We headed down to the dance floor for the 4th or 5th time. The dances had been getting increasingly harder and more complicated throughout the evening, and as soon as this dance was announced, quite a lot of couples who had been waiting on the dance floor made to leave. Cecilia and I didn't realise this, and at the same time two Austrian guys were making a bee-line for us, and had asked us to dance. As it was obvious that we didn't have any other partners, and we'd been too slow to remove ourselves from the dance floor, the only thing we could do was accept. We were soon whisked away into a blur of twirling, whirling, clapping, slapping, stomping, pausing only to look at each other, only to see the other looked just as helpless as we were feeling! It soon became clear that the boys had no idea what they were on about as well, and so we tried our best to improvise and copy other couples around us, but it was basically a hysterical car crash of a dance. Luckily, the next few taught dances were a lot easier by comparison, so Tim and Alice joined back in with us. One particular highlight of this session of dancing has to be when you were told to grab your partners left knee, lift in up, and then hop around in a circle. Not only did this make me very glad that I had gone with a long dirndl in the end, but the sight of Alice and Tim hopping around one-legged next to me is an image that I will treasure for a long long time! We tried out the disco in another room as well, but without much success, and so came back for the last taught dances, and eventually called it a night around 2am. It truly was an amazing night, and more so as we had gone with little to no expectations. Everything was such a great surprise, and if you ever EVER get a chance to go to something similar, I would fully recommend you grab the chance with both hands.

The club members entering

The dance floor fills

No clue what I'm doing...

On Saturday evening, we had a get together of all of the Salzburg TA's, rather than just the English ones. It was nice to meet some of the Italians, Spanish and French girls that had been living here as well. We had a buffet style dinner, with various chips and dips etc to start, pizza, and then some nice cakes to finish, both home-made and shop bought. It was a pleasant evening, and nice to catch up with everyone as I'd been away skiing for the last 2 weekends in a row. After the dinner, we headed into Salzburg to try and spend the evening at our favourite beer hall, Augustinerbrau, but unfortuantely it was shutting earlier than we thought. Instead, we went to one of our trusty Irish bars instead, where we spent a fun evening swapping family and childhood stories.

On Sunday we decided to tick a few more things off of our 'Bucket List', and so the same gang as Friday night, Tim, Cecilia, Alice and I, went for a nice Sunday afternoon hike up the Kapuzinerberg. It's a mountain I hadn't been up previously, and on a completely different side of the city, so it was great to experience a completely different view. On the way back down, the steps were very slippery and so Alice took a tumble, but seemed alright in the end. We went to our respective houses for dinner, and then Alice and I came back into the centre to take advantage of 'Mozartwoche', and visit Mozarts Geburtshaus (birth house), which had free entry in the evening as part of the week. Having lived in Salzburg for the best part of 4 months now, it seems a small miracle that I had avoided any Mozart-related activity, but now was the time for that to end. We arrived just in time for a tour, although admittedly that didn't last too long, as there were only 4 things to see. Noteworthy is his kitchen, his first violin, and a piece of his hair. Although I'm glad I can say that I did do something Mozarty in the end, I will also say that I'm glad I didn't pay the €13 or so they usually charge for entry. We were in and out in about 45 minutes, and it definitely wouldn't be worth the money. However, we did get to tick it off the list, and then head to the Augustinerbrau for a second attempt that evening.

Slippery steps!

Mozart's kitchen

Mozart's first violin.

We met Tim and Cecilia again, and had a really relaxed evening teaching each other different card games, and I enjoyed a huge Kasekrainer (cheesy sausage mmmm) as well. Another full week, and the time is really flying by now!