Salzburg Day Two

Sunday morning, June 7th, I woke up early and went to take a shower in our castle bathroom, which unfortunately was basically the exact same as the bathrooms in our dorms. Disappointing. I was looking forward to showering in an elaborate stone shower but no dice. When I got out of the shower I made the unfortunate mistake of looking up and seeing the ceiling covered in other "Mitbewohners". They were so scary. They looked like some sort of daddy long leg breed but with thicker legs. They were skinny and probably 3 inches in diameter. In other words, not welcome by me. Since our ceiling was literally dripping with spiders, I was in constant fear that one would descend onto me and therefore flinched at any little tickle.

We headed down to breakfast and had a very traditional Austrian breakfast of meat, cheese, bread, and yoghurt. Our plan for the day was to visit the salt mines. We took the elevator down the mountain and a train and bus and made our way to the mines. We met up with a gorup of 10 other students and went together.

The mines were really cool. We had to put on these gigantic white suites because it's so dirty underground. We took a little train ride to go horizontally into the mine and then took these wooden slides downward.

We walked through all the tunnels and saw how the salt went from being part of the earth to being edible. We also learned about the history of Salzburg and what a large role salt played in political decisions. At one point underground, we crossed from Austria to Germany. So I finally made it to Germany...even though it was underground. Someday I will go there for real.

The tour of the salt mines ended and we made our way to the bus stop, only to find that the bus left 5 minutes before we got there and wasn't going to come again for an hour. We desparately needed to get going and luckily there was an available taxi back at the salt mines. It took us to the city train, which also conveniently left just a few minutes before we arrived, which meant we had to wait another 50 minutes for the next one. so we eventually made it to the train station where Professor Lowe was waiting with our luggage. We grabbed some Burger King to go and ran aboard the train just in time for its 4:08 pm departure.

Mistake at the Mozart House

6.6.09

While we were at the Mozart house, I stopped in the gift shop to do some browsing and stumbled upon a book about the real Van Trapp family and how the movie The Sound of Music compared to the real story. I was surprised to notice that after just a quick glance, I had already spotted grammatical mistakes. One section was discussing the life of Maria Augusta von Kutschera and referred to her as "it". The pronouns were incorrect. My guess is that the book was originally written in German and this was a mistake made in the English version. But it seemed like such an obvious mistake. It jumped right out at me. So many people visit the Mozart house that I would think having high quality texts for sale would be important. Apparently the editors didn't stress over the mistake too much because a person, a very important and well-known person, was referred to as "it".

Salzburg Day One

On Saturday, June 6, we (Donnie, Vanessa, Sam, Professor Lowe, her son Alan, and I) went to Salzburg.  We took the 9:40 am train and arrived by 12:45 pm. A taxi took us to our castle, yes castle. We stayed in the Johannes Schlößl der Pallottiner. 

The scenery leading up to the castle and the exterior were absolutely gorgeous. After depositing our belongings in Donnie’s room since ours was not ready, we went out exploring. There were cows on the property! 

A little farther we came across a café alongside the mountain with an excellent view of the city. 

To get down the mountain, instead of hiking or taking a little train, we took an elevator. Yea, that was pretty cool. It took us right through the center of the mountain all the way to the bottom. It was pretty high up because on the way down my ears changed pressure.

There were no available walking tours of the city L and I was disappointed because everything I had heard of Salzburg was that the landscape was gorgeous…and we weren’t even going to see it. So we went to the Salzburg Museum instead. It was good, but definitely had nothing on the Vienna Museums.

Then we went to Mozart’s house, where he lived for 26 years. There were descriptions of all the people who lived there and what the room was used for. There was a display indicating that the family dog was shot because he was barking. That was sad. There was also a room in which everything was upside down. The floor was the ceiling and looked like stars, the ceiling was like a town, and the paintings on the walls were all hung upside-down. I really didn’t understand that room – there was not an explanation or anything – just randomly thrown into the mix. I saw locks of Mozart’s hair, which were a light brown and I saw his silk wallet among a bunch of other things like his small violin and several types of pianos.

After Mozart’s house, we went to eat a large dinner since we hadn’t had anything all day and we were pretty much on a one-track mind to get food. Vanessa and I split the house platter made for two and it was enormous! There were two schnitzels, two chicken breasts, two pork, two bratwurst, fries galore, and cole slaw. 

We finished off this huge and delicious meal with a meringue.  I wasn’t a fan of this – it didn’t taste like a dessert to me and I didn’t like that it dissolved the second I put it in my mouth so there was nothing to swallow.

After dinner, Vanessa and I went shopping but stores closed ten minutes later so we were forced to go back to the castle. Easier said than done. As is custom when Vanessa and I venture out on our own we got lost. This time it wasn’t in nice Vienna where there are signs. It was in the rainy, muddy woods. And it was getting dark. We managed to get on the wrong trail, which wasn’t quite taking us as close to the castle as we would have liked, so we cut through the woods. I swear I saw grave markers! I wanted to stop and take a picture but it was raining and we wanted to get the heck out of there. We finally made it to our room and collapsed. Since it was cold (~ 47 *F), raining, muddy and we would have to climb down a mountain to go anywhere fun, we stayed in the room and just talked and played cards. There was no tv or internet so our options were somewhat limited.

It was actually a really fun night, but it wouldn’t be study abroad in Austria if we weren’t scared somehow. Everytime we looked up at the ceiling we spotted a new “Mitbewohner” – but not the nice kind – spiders. They were everywhere. We were freaking out. Vanessa actually got up on a chair to kill the spider but had a massive freak out when she came face to face with the gigantic beast. I even started tearing up I was so scared – but that’s just me. – I HATE spiders. It was horrible. We laid in bed cuddling and telling stories trying everything possible to distract ourselves and avoid gawking at the horrible beings. In the end we finally fell asleep. That was the end of day one in Salzburg.

Lange Nacht der Kirchen

5.6.09

Today we went to Die Lange Nacht der Kirchen. This is where all the churches leave their doors open all night and you can listen to music and concerts and tour the churches.  We first went to the Stephansdom and listened to a children's choir. Then we went downstairs to see the catacombs. That was really cool. The catacombs of the Stephansdom holds the most human bones in all of Vienna. It was dark room after dark room filled with bones. Some of the walls were actually stacked bones and skulls but the bones within the rooms were just thrown in together with no apparent order and no identification. There were a few full skeletons of more important people laid out but for the most part it was just a mixture of loose bones. Creepy. It was just like being in a scary movie. The passages were narrow with low ceilings and practically pitch black. Not for those who get spooked easily. But it was actually one of my favorite things I've seen here. I thoroughly enjoy somewhat dark and creepy things because the stories behind them are fascinating. 

 

We also went up to the top of the Stephansdom. That was quite exhausting. It was 348 steep stairs up this tightly winding spiral staircase. I was dizzy within the first few steps. It took probably twenty minutes to get up to the top. Needless to say after what would have been the equivalent of about 40 floors worth or stairs, our thighs were on fire. Up at the top of the Stephansdom we were able to look out these windows and see far into the city which was at the time lit up with lights. After a few minutes of enjoying the view and catching our breath, we began the long climb down, which, for me, was worse than going up. The stairs were oddly shaped triangles of various uneven heights and I had the constant feeling that I was going to stumble down them at any moment. But I safely made it down. That was the end of my church tours. I would have loved to see more, but I wanted to get home before the subway stopped running so as to avoid a hefty taxi charge.

Concert at Schönbrunn

4.6.09

Tonight there was a free concert by the Vienna Philharmonic at Schönbrunn. There were thousands of people there and absolutely zero concept of personal space.  But the music was lovely. Or at least I’m pretty sure it was. From where we were standing, the stage was about an inch tall, so we the only sound we received was from the speakers set up around the garden. So it was honestly like listening to a cd. But the scenery and experience of being at Schönbrunn made it well worth the long train ride.

Arriving at the concert several hours before it began:

Pretty gardens:

OSCE

4.6.09

Today we went to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). It was serious business. We had to be professionals and go through security and get temporary id’s to be allowed in the building.  After going through all the security proceedings we met with Susanna Lööf, Press Officer, OSCE Secretariat.  She briefed us on the history and purpose of the OSCE.  The OSCE strives to bring stability, prosperity, and democracy in 56 states.

After our meeting with Susanna Lööf we met with Elizabeth Kaufmann and Forest Atkinson, whose jobs it is to promote the U.S. in the OSCE.  The OSCE is not well known, partially because decisions and actions take a long time to put into effect. The OSCE operates on consensus, which means that all 56 states have to agree upon the same decision. Something I found interesting was that decisions are politically, not legally binding. This means that nations are somewhat held to only the honors system.  Because of the high probability that nations will not always uphold their end of the bargain, “Name and Shame” meetings are held, in which the OSCE talks about which states are not upholding their commitments.  Even though there are 56 states in the OSCE, there is a sense that everyone is unique with their own government yet at the same time they get along. They have barbeques together, go to café’s, and basically shoot the breeze together. A lot of diplomacy happens outside of the office and then the official decisions are made within the board room.

Then we went to observe the permanent council proceedings.  This was by far the highlight of the day. It was a gigantic room with an ambassador from every country in the OSCE and all of their assistants. Along the side of the wall you could see the translators in their booths. We all had headsets and could control whatever language we needed.  For example, when the ambassador of Kazakhstan was speaking, I toggled back and forth between the English and German translators.  It was fascinating to watch. The translators in the booths were listening to the speeches at the same time as everyone else and simultaneously translating them.  That is just so impressive to me. You have to be able to listen to what they are saying, remember it, simultaneously translate it, while listening to what is being said while you are spewing out the translation.  So they are listening and talking at the same time and always just a few words behind the original speaker. It was unbelievably impressive.

Sometimes a “relay” is used.  This is when the original speech is translated twice over.  For example, let’s say that a Kazakhstanian is speaking and it needs to be translated from Kazakh to English but there are no English speakers who know Kazakh.  But perhaps there is a French speaker who also knows Kazakh.  In a “relay” the original Kazakh would first be translated by interpreted one from Kazakh to French and interpreter two would listen to this French translation and translate the French into English.  This is all going on within seconds of each other so that the audience gets the message only moments after it is originally spoken.  That is complete craziness. I can’t believe anyone’s brain can function that quickly.  The “relay” technique is often used because it is impossible to find translators for every language into every other language.  So you get translators who can cover several bases, and then in a sense cross multiply them.

At the end of our minds basically being blown away by the intensity of the council proceedings, our group had another meeting with Nikolay Borovskiy, Chief of Language Services Section.  He informed us that the six official languages of the OSCE are English, French, Russian, Spanish, German, and Italian. The language services provided are written translation, oral interpretation, and editing. Additional money is spent to have important texts revised by another person to ensure perfection.  There are three different kinds of interpretation that the OSCE employs: consecutive, simultaneous, and whispering.  Whispering is a technique in which someone stands next to or behind someone and interprets directly into their ear. This technique was first used in the Nuremberg Trials in 1945.

All the interpreters and translators of the OSCE are freelance. They are hired for each session, which lasts approximately one year and they can also work daily contracts. Currently, French and Russian are the most in demand languages in the OSCE.

I was super excited to learn about the salary of the interpreters. 427 Euros/day for a minimum of 300 days/year is awarded whether you work those days or not. Interpreters are also allowed only a maximum of 8 meetings/per.  That comes to about 128,000 Euros, which is roughly the equivalent of $180,000. Every year. That sounds pretty darn good.

United Nations

3.6.09

Today in the afternoon we went to the United Nations to sit in on a briefing. We got a bit more insight as to how translation and politics combine in the United Nations. After our meeting, we got the chance to circle the floor and peak in on other rooms. We came across one meeting and there was a representative from every country in the United Nations and they all had head sets so they could switch to whichever language they worked in.  It was pretty awesome. Too bad pictures were not allowed. It’s all very top secret.

Fountain and flags outside the UN:

That night we met up with some Austrian students of Professor Camilla Nielsen and went out to eat at a Heurigen.  We were all Americans studying abroad in Austria and they were all Austrians wanting to study abroad in America so we thought it was a good trade off.  The only thing that was disappointing was the Heurigen itself. The food looked good, but was above all of our budgets so we ended up not even having dinner that night.  And what’s more, they had very a limited drink selection.  No pop, juice, or even water. The waiter was thoroughly insulted when I asked him if he had one of these options.  Apparently Heurigens only sell drinks that they produce themselves, which is wine and beer. The waiter rudely told me that I shouldn’t have come if I didn’t like beer.  Yet another fine example of the excellent service here in Vienna. psh.