Update – Day 2 in Krems…

Hey, what's up?! Here is a sunny email from cloudy Austria (actually
today is the first cloudy day, the weather has been gorgeous!). This is the first chance I have had to use internet, in Krems there are no internet cafes that we can find (I have finally heard of one I will check out this afternoon). Instead I have to use the internet in the Festival office (the Kontraste Music Festival where the monks are playing). The little village where our hotel is in (Furth, pronounced Furt, approx. 10km from Krems) rolls in the streets at 9pm, it is truly TINY. No cafes, only two bars, and they close by 11pm. So absolutely no internet over there.

Some people have wanted a quick rundown of the Monks and their wives. I will now introduce them:

I have answered some questions below, emailed to me by Dan:

> 1) Are there any Black people there? (weird question , I know. Just occurred to me though.)

I saw a lot of diversity at the Vienna airport, but not much in Krems.
There are a few Asian kids here, going to school I assume, but not a
lot of ethnic diversity where we are. Kind of like Boone, NC. It's probably more diverse in the cities.

> 2) Is the pub scene as out of control as we seem to think it is?

We haven't had time to go to the pubs, because we don't have access to a car and our days are pretty structured. We return to our little village around 10:30 each night, which is approx. 10km from Krems, and we have no way back (trains stop running around 9pm, and cabs cost approx. 20 euros each way). Now last night we did get to hang out with some true salt-of-the-earth Austrians, Franz and Isolde Teufner, who are wine growers in Furth (pronounced Furt, the little village we are staying in). We had a hilarious evening in our tiny little hotel bar. He didn't speak any
english, she spoke a little, but our group was rather boisterous, the bier flowed and we all had a lot of laughs. When you see the pics of them, you will know what I mean. Exactly what you would expect of Austrian country people. Down to Isolde's smile. Straight out of a movie, I tell you. Oh, and I got to try this amazing grape juice mixed with mineral water, straight out of the grape garden behind the hotel. Simply delicious!!

 

> 3) Is techno as big as we Americans think that it is?

Same as above, only more so... haven't had the chance to find out, though I'll bet in Krems it is not as big. I will check out Frankfurt and let you know.

 

> 4) Have you seen anyone in Lederhosen yet? Met anyone named Ingrid or Hans? Or are those Swedish names?

No one in Lederhosen! A crying shame. No Ingrids or Hans, but a Christoph, Liseolotte (Lise for short), Joseph, Martin, Tobias, Toni,
Julia and Peter. Mostly normal names, except Franz and Isolde. Oh, and
Rienhard Hauser, proprieter of the Zum Elephanten where we ate last
night. Now HE was a fascinating individual! (update: we met Hans Joachim Irmler the day after I wrote this).

 

> 5) Do they have the bomb chocolate over there?

Haven't had any of the chocolate yet. But the Weiner Schnitzel.... apparently Austria has the BEST Weiner Schnitzel, and it is really, really good. Not what I thought it was at all - it's either pork or veal in a long, flat steak, breaded and fried. Yum. Also tried Potato pasta - not so good. Very weird, and hard to explain.

(UPDATE: YES, chocolate is good in Austria and Germany, too. I mean really, really good.)

 

> 6) Is David "The Hoff" Hasellhoff still HUGE over there? (if so, I want photographic proof)

Have seen nothing about David Hasselhoff yet, but I will DEFINITELY
get proof when I do.

 

> 7) What is the weirdest thing you've encountered so far?

A topless announcer on a TV game show (NSFW). I thought it was an ad for a sex hotline, but this morning someone else told me it was a game show. Very weird.

 

> 8) What is the coolest thing you've encountered so far?

Hmm, will get back to you on that one, probably the amazingly beautiful tiny side streets where people live in Krems. We spent about an hour last night just wandering through the side streets before dinner. They go up the sides of the hills, and are very tightly packed together (actually, the buildings are butted up against each other) and all the sidewalks and roads are cobbled brick). What an awesome place to live! Though it would take getting used to being that close to other people. Pics of Krems

 

> 9) What don't you like?

The food is a little hard to get used to (like you said it might be) but I am adjusting. It's very greasy, and finding something a little more base or healthy is difficult. And ordering is a bit stressful, because all of our guidebooks do not have all of the words to translate! So ordering is quite a hilarious task! That and not being more free to go where I want to go. But that's ok, being in a group definitely has it's advantages.

Oh, and I hate the way there are two names for lots of places, because
Americans couldn't for some reason use the right one. Like Vienna.
It's actually called Wien (veen). And the Danube river is actually the
Donau (like don-aw like owl). Why couldn't we use the original? And
how the heck did we get Danube from Donau? That's when I become
embarassed to be American.

 

> 10) What do you like?

Lots of things! It's so strange, and yet so similar. The people here are a strange mix of austerity and ostentation. The buildings are amazingly ornate and decorative, but inside is very often quite simple and sometimes even austere, depending on the type of building. I really would love to see the inside of some of the homes, to see how people live... and the gardens are amazing, too. Outside all seems to be about beauty. And the history is just.... we can't compare it to anything we know in the states. I mean, streets and buildings that are HUNDREDS of years old. The place the Monks are practicing was an old Monastary wine cellar, and I think the guy said the building is at least from the 1700s. And the church on the hill is from the 1600s. WOW. We are excited when a home in our area is over a hundred or a hundred and fifty years old. It's just incomparable.

End of part two. On to part three --->

 

 

Contents copyright Jamie Goodman and The Monks