Time has flown on my trip to Austria. I’m at the halfway mark of my trip and it’s been incredible so far. I started my trip in the capital city of Vienna and spent a day and a half with all the other IYFE delegates that are also travelling Austria. We had a seminar put on by Landjugend, Austria’s rural youth organization. During this they introduce us to the country and what the exchange would look like. We were also fortunate to do a walking tour with them showing us some of the gorgeous sights that Vienna has to offer. After our stay in Vienna we all headed by train our separate ways to our first host family.
My first hosts were Helene Zauner and David Eder and they live in a house that houses 4 generations of David’s family which include his Oma, parents, themselves and their 2 1/2 year old daughter. They live in Hainbach Austria in the Upper Austria region. Hainbach is pretty cool as there are only 3 houses and one church in the village.
They live on an organic cash crop farm that grows wheat, barley, triticale, grass and pumpkins. The pumpkins are harvested for oil production and sold direct to customer. They also have a wood lot where they harvest spruce and pine for lumber
During my 12 day stay with them I have seen a lot of the area. This has included shopping at the local on farm stores, picking blueberries, roasting sausage and bread on a campfire, attending friend and family birthday parties, going to a water park and touring both a chicken and dairy farm. We also participated in a biking music festival that had traditional music playing along the bike path. A big highlight has been our time in the mountains. They only live 30 minutes from the mountain area so we have spent many days in that area. We hiked the Grünberg mountain, ridden the Schafberg bahn train, boated the Mondsee, swam in both the Attsee and Wolfgangsee lakes. We also took a day trip by train to the famous Hallstatt which is a picturesque town nestled into the mountains along lake Hallstatt. The whole area offers amazing views and the lakes are all a vibrant blue.
It has been a great start to my exchange and I can’t wait to see where the next step leads me.
Julie De Bruyn
