Christmas – Kelsi's Travel Times

The view from the top of the ski hill that I live beside

In my last post I gave a little update on what my Christmas and New Years plans were going to look like as far as I knew. I was still waiting on a Visa to stay in country and waiting to hear more about whether or not our season would be able to go forward. Since then I have gotten my visa which is great because it gives me lot more freedom to leave when/if I want to, but things regarding my job here are still a bit uncertain as the restrictions in Germany and Austria remain in place. This means that we can’t start our programs yet and probably can’t for awhile yet and so I’m currently on the fence about whether it’s the best thing for me to stay here and keep waiting, or if I should just head home when it’s possible.

I’ll post another update when I get that all figured out, but for now I mostly want to just tell a bit about my last few weeks and show some cool pictures of the area where I’ve been living for the last while.

Most of my crew for the last month. Zach and Bree (from canada) and Merr (from Romania) On a walk up in the mountains on my birthday.

Christmas this year was a bit different to how I would have normally spent Christmas if I was at home, but I guess in some ways it also held some similarities to the last two Christmases that I also spent away from home. I was able to spend Christmas with a family that lives here in Schladming that I know because they work at the school here. With their four kids and a mix of German and American traditions, it definitely felt a bit more like home. My family usually celebrates with a mix of traditions as well so lots of the things that they did (for example, opening gifts on Christmas Eve) were very familiar to me. On Christmas morning we had sweet rolls (like a different version of cinnamon buns) and homemade eggnog which was delicious. After breakfast the rest of the morning was spent just playing games with the kids and chatting and such. It was relaxed but wonderful to spend Christmas with a family.

The days between Christmas and New Years were good as well. I had my first few ski days which were really fun and an awesome way to pass some of this endless free time. On New Years Eve I celebrated my twentieth birthday with pancakes, pizza, friends and a beautiful walk up in the mountains. Definitely the most low key birthday I’ve had in awhile but it was really enjoyable nonetheless. We ended the year off by watching a movie until midnight and then watching fireworks from our balcony. It’s a perfect vantage point because the main building here is one of the tallest in the area and has a wrap around balcony that allowed us to see fireworks all over the city which was super cool! My friend Mira also came to visit on New Years Eve and she’s been here since then. I’ve really enjoyed having a roommate again and the constant company that she’s provided!

Mira and I on the top of Planai (the ski hill)

The days since New Years have been a very relaxed cycle of skiing, reading, going on walks and playing a lot of games. There are currently five of us living at the center which isn’t much but it is nice to have a little bit of company. Other than those activities we haven’t done much because everything is still closed. We’ve been to church in Salzburg on Sundays and this last week we went to an open air Skating rink while we were in the city which was really nice!

This is the daughter of a family who lives on campus and she’s been my little pal these last couple weeks! Skating in Salzburg.

Ski day with Mira. The clouds were so cool in the valley, it looked like you could just ski off the edge of the mountain and continue right onto the clouds.

A lot of people that I’ve talked to lately have been pretty curious about how skiing here works since everything else is closed. It is also interesting to me that skiing is something that the government considers necessary to be open but I’m definitely not complaining. There are restrictions with how many people can be on a hill at a time, but with the lack of tourists here they’ve never reached capacity. You also have to wear a medical grade mask in the lifts, lift stations, gondola, bathrooms and anytime you’re waiting in life. They are really strict about enforcing it which is really good to see. Those are the main two things that allow them to keep the lifts open but I guess it does make sense to me that they can stay open because it’s really easy to social distance while skiing and it’s really nice for locals to have something to do during this quarantine time. I know I’m definitely taking advantage of this!

Mira and I on Reiteralm, which is 2 ski hills over. We went there to watch the world cup ski cross races happening there on January 9th and 10th.

So for the most part that’s what I’ve been up to lately, and just trying to get things figured out as whether I’m gonna stay here or head home. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this small update about my last bit of time here. I also want to put some pictures in here of the town of Schladming where I’ve been living for the last while, so if you’re interested to see what an Austrian tourist town looks like, then keep scrolling!

This is a picture of one of the more expensive hotels in Schladming, how it looks from the valley.

This is the lecture hall here on the Tauernhof campus.

A view from the valley of one of the ski hills, Hochwurzen which we can see from the school.

One of the main streets in Schladming leading to the square.

The white church is one of the two old church buildings in Schladming

This picture I think needs some explanation. So these are called Krampus and basically it’s just people dressed up who run around in the beginning of December with bells and whips in the town squares. They legitimately chase you and smack you with branches or whips if you get too close. They wear bells so you can hear them coming. It’s actually terrifying to be anywhere in town when you know they are there but the local kids think it’s really funny to hang around and get chased by them, so to each his own I guess.

A sunset view of Schladming from the climbing tower on campus here.

A view from a popular walking trail beside Schladming

It’s been a hot minute since I last sent out any updates, so here’s a small part of what I’ve been up to the last while!

My last few months have been eventful to say the least. With a busy bible school schedule and adapting to new Covid rules, it’s been a pretty unpredictable the whole time. The first 6 weeks after having my appendix out had to be pretty lowkey because I couldn’t do anything too strenuous, but since then I have been able to do more normal things again which has been really nice.

Our schedule had to change a bit when Covid regulations got tighter here, for example we couldn’t have any guest speakers coming into the school anymore, and a community curfew affected certain activities that we could do in the evenings. But overall it was super cool that we could continue with our programs for the most part unchanged, because most of the other hotel/retreat center facilities in our part of Austria had to close. We also had to be a lot more careful about wearing masks during work and when we came in contact with anyone outside the “bubble” of our school.

So for the most part I just want to tell about a few different activities and hikes that we’ve done in the last few weeks with some photos included. I could also tell more about work and stuff, but none of that has changed too much except with a few new rules, so I decided to stick to the few things that are likely to be a bit more interesting.

The first really active thing that I did after getting my appendix out was a walk/ hike up to a waterfall with my friends Johann and Emma. It was about three hours up to the top, more of a long walk then a hike, and really fun because we were just chatting the whole time and it was really great to finally do something active! When we started walking it was super sunny, but once we got a bit higher up we were in the shade behind the mountains so at some point it was pretty cold and frosty, but it definitely made for some cool pictures!

There are some parts of the valley that never get any sun during this part of the year so there was really thick frost in a lot of places

Once we got up to the top we stayed up there for awhile and had some lunch and admired the waterfalls, it was freezing up there but luckily we could get a ride back down to the school from one of the staff. It was overall a super fun day!

You can’t see the whole waterfall but it was really beautiful!

A few weekends later we went on a different hike, one that I’ve been on before with another friend of mine. It was definitely a bit more difficult than the last one, but still super enjoyable so I’ll put some pictures in here, it was such a beautiful day!

Have to be a little bit Canadian and build inukshuks when I find flat rocks!!

We spent a lot of time at the top trying to walk up this creek without cracking the ice, it was slippery but very fun!

Next adventure type thing that we did was take a day trip to Salzburg. We went as a group of five people and just walked around the city for most of the day, walking to see a bunch of the different tourist spots in the city and just admiring the old architecture and seeing a few different things. Mostly everything was closed because of Covid but we could still go into a few churches and old buildings which was really cool. It’s hard to believe I’ve been in Austria for so long and living so close to Salzburg and I’d never really spent much time there until now, but at least I got there eventually and could enjoy spending the day there with my friends! I could try to write some more details about our day, but since pretty much everything was closed, I think our day in Salzburg would be best told in pictures. So here’s a bunch of pictures from our day , most of them were taken by my friend Emma with her Camera so they are actually nice!

These are the Bastions Gardens outside the Mirabell Palace. It’s really beautiful, they still have flowers even though these were taken in December!

A super cool view of the Castle taken from one of the many bridges in the city that crosses the Salzach River.

This is the group I was in Salzburg with: Ruth, Emma, Mikayla, Johann and I

The Hohensalzburg (upper Salzburg) Fortress. Unfortunately it’s closed right now because of Covid but it’s still beautiful and you can see it from a lot of different places in the downtown of the city!

Pictures definitely do not do it justice but this is inside the cathedral, there were so many beautiful paintings on the walls and ceilings. One of my favourite things to do in older cities is visit old churches so this was super cool for me!

In the summer this is a pretty cool fountain, but it was pretty frozen while we were there. The paintings are still cool though!

Even though there aren’t Christmas markets this year because of Covid, I thought it was pretty cool that they still put up the Christmas decorations throughout the city!

So those were the more exciting events of my last few months here. Despite all the previous and new Covid restrictions it’s amazing that we could still run our Bible school and that I could be here! It’s really crazy to me that this fall season here is already at an end, I feel like it flew by, but I’m also looking forward to what will come next even though I have pretty much no idea what that will be for me.

Trying to figure that out is slightly more complicated. When I first came to Austria my plan was to stay here one year, and since I started here last December that usually would have meant that I was home by now. But mid November I was asked to stay on staff here, and since I didn’t have plans as to what to do when I came home, I decided to say yes and stay here until this April. Things since then have gotten more and more complicated. At first I had planned to still go home for Christmas, but due to cancelled flights and difficulty rebooking I figured it would just be easier for me to stay here or stay in Germany with a friend of mine.

After those plans fell through the Austrian government decided to keep borders closed to winter tourism until January 10th which would meant that I would have to stay in Austria because of the closed borders. Then last week they extended the closure again until January 24th, so I was planning to figure out a way to go to Germany to be with friends. But my visa expired on the 17th of December (which I didn’t really take into account), and so I can’t travel out of the country until I get my visa renewal, which is still in the process.

So long story short, I’m stuck in Austria for at least the next few weeks until I get my visa. Kinda unfortunate to be here over Christmas but there is a few people here that I can spend a bit of time with so I’m thankful for that! It’s also kinda cool to have so much time to myself during this season. This time alone has already given me a lot of opportunity to process these last months and this year in general, and the quietness of this Christmas season has also been a reminder to me of what this season is really about. I think taking the busyness and stress out of this season will definitely be a change for a lot of people – myself included – but it’s a good way to force us to focus on simplifying things for ourselves this year, and I really do think that is a good thing!

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this little update about my last few months. If you have any suggestions of how I should occupy my next five weeks of what will essentially be a lot of me time, please let me know! I’ll obviously have a lot of free time so if you want to call me or send me an email, feel free! I’d love to hear from you.

Merry Christmas!

Tag: Christmas

Time off in Austria

Still in Austria?