Thanks to my mom and dad (Tom McManus) for encouraging me to write my very own blog; Nicole Dabbs for giving me the inspiration...as her blog is so cute; and to my soon-to-be husband, Christoph, for bringing me to Austria in the first place!
In my blog "babbles" you may notice a constant theme of irritation regarding my living in Austria. While I am happy to tell you there are many wonderful things here, I have found that I do not fit well in this culture. Mainly with regards to food, but other things as well. The food topic may come up quite a bit as I constantly am finding myself pathetically day dreaming of food items none of you would ever imagine a person daydreaming of. For example: BREAD. I will go into detail in a later blog, don't you worry.
For this Babble I will focus on something I love about Austria: the landscape and scenery.
*Click on any of my included photos to see a larger image!
Those musical, rolling hills and Alps are famous for a reason. The hills may not really be alive with "the sound of music", but they are alive with trees, vegetation, and wild life. Then in the winter, skiing and snowboarding. Winter sports are the Austrian equivalent of US NCAA football during the fall season. Everyone has a favorite Austrian competitor, especially with ski jumping (Skispringen auf Deutsch). Ski jumping is an amazing sport to watch. One needs nerves of steel to partake in that sport. The Alps are breathtaking with their intimidating peaks covered in gray and white...then wrapped in a blanket of soothing green at the base. Through out the green valleys are little hints of brown... cozy alpine cabins, clinging miraculously onto the sides of mountains, worthy of a slot in any of the Lord of the Rings films. As you pass through these valleys the wonderful smell of crackling fires and roasting pork will put you to sleep, then make you drool.
Below are some photos of the Alps in western Austria (I found these photos on these sites: : www.telegraph.co.uk; piste-off.com; www.student.britannica.com; and www.chalet-austria.com)
Raised terrain is not the only topographical feature that Austria has to brag about. There are miles of quaint farm land nestled in the flood plains. Large, shallow, salt water lakes in the Eastern parts of Austria... sharing a border with Hungary. Deeper, fresh water lakes nestled in between the mountains in the west. There are thermal and sulfur springs, over which now exist fancy spas and baths. And of course, the rivers. Most famous of those being the "Blue" Danube... (Die Donau auf Deutsch). Although, one really needs to be closer to the mountains to see the Danube at its "blue-ist". As it runs through Vienna and the flood plains it is the usual river-brown.
Above is a photo of my favorite... a shallow river right on the other side of the Italian border called fiume Tagliamento in Italian ( I found this photo on www.protezioneciile.fvg.it). It wiggles secretly through the Carnic Alps (section of the Alps that runs along the border of Austria and Italy, north of Venice). This sparkling mineral-blue river is barely deeper than a couple of feet until it develops into a mature river during the spring thaw and summer rains. I discovered it on our drive from Vienna to Venice in March 2008.We also have spectacular Austrian scenery right in our own back yard. We live in a little town called Hainburg an der Donau. Our little town is sits right on the bank of the Danube River, east of Vienna, at the border between Austria and Slovakia. Bratislava, Slovakia is just down river from us, about a 10 minute drive from our home. Our town is wonderfully old, and full of history and ghost stories. The first thing people notice about our town is how medieval it looks. We have the original medieval town walls, watch towers, gates, and a castle overlooking the town and river perched on its very own hill.
Below are some of our personal photos of Hainburg that we have accumulated over the past couple of years:
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, and I hope you enjoyed my first babble!
~Stephanie
