Pride

I have always been proud of my Austrian roots. Proud to shout for the Austrians while watching Ski Sunday, proud to tell my friends of holidays back to my Mum's village in the Pinzgau and proud to have family ties to such a beautiful country.

After more than five years living here, I'm more proud than ever. Proud to have learnt the language properly and proud to have made a good life for me and my family.

On the eve of my departure for a new life in New Zealand, I am proud to have called Austria my home and to call myself half-Austrian.

So, from now on, this blog will become a Kiwi Adventure, but I intend to post primarily auf Deutsch. Since it took five painful years to learn the language, I need an outlet to practise, and this is it.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Awesome nights in the Beisl

A by no means complete rundown of the most awesome nights spent in Fuschl's best nightspot.

The time we me and Bill played against two gay skinheads at trivial pursuit in German.. and won.
Bill was convinced they were gay, but I wasn't so sure. Then again, the only questions they could answer were about Doris Day or Liberace. They didn't stand a chance against us though and we sealed the win getting a tricky question about Kurt Waldheim right.

The time Fuschl's local pornagraphic film-maker popped by, got outrageously drunk and insulted Americans for relying on credit cards.
Weird, weird night. The guy was a total asshole, telling everyone how he had traveled all over the world but thought the US was stupid because they had too many Mastercards. Apparently this was because he was unable to sell his smutty movies there. Highlight was when he yelled out a list of all the places he'd been: "I've been to Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles..." then Werner (a mulletted Beisl regular) said, "I've been to St. Gilgen!"

The time we tried to ride a unicycle up and down the road outside.
Don't remember much from this night, whose unicycle it was or who suggested we have a go, but I do remember Bill being adamant he could do it. I think he managed about three pedal turns.

The time Bill did handstand pushups against the door.
More Bill. On this occasion, after being challenged by Ingrid, he proved his manliness to all by first doing one armed pushups, then jumpy-style pushups with claps in between. Finally, he pulled a handstand leaning against the door for balance, and did about three pushups, going quite red in the face in the process.

Any time that I won darts cricket with a full house. 
Cleaning up on darts cricket is truly a satisfying experience. Though not the most prolific winner, during the spell between finishing my first beer and ordering a third I'm usually on fire. The tactics are simple: knock out the 19s, 17s, 16s and 15s first, load up on points then try and polish the rest of the board off. That 'thunk' when you hit the final bulls eye makes any evening out well worthwhile.

Our leaving do - unprecedented levels of loud drunkeness.
A packed pub, with regular faces and Beisl rookies alike, this was a great night. I wore Lederhosen, and felt suitably proud. The time capsule that is the Beisl was in full effect. Before we knew it, the funny little cuckoo clock thing in the corner peeped 4am, Natalie and Flo were yelling their heads off and Felix was dozing in the corner. Good times indeed, terrible times for many the next day.

A huge thanks to Martina,  Beisl owner and bartender for the past five years, and possessor of the finest cockney London accent South of the English Channel. You couldn't ask for a better hangout and nobody pours a Stiegl like Martina. Since she too is moving on shortly, it really does feel like the end of an era. The place will not be the same without her.

If I've missed any epic nights out, leave a comment or mail me!

Leaving Fuschl

The view from the balcony - nothing short of stunning.

A strange feeling, but our flat is emptied, cleaned and Fuschl am See is no longer our little village.

Three and a half years, dozens of swims in the lake, countless jogs through the Ellmautal, a few hundred litres of beers consumed in the Beisl and numerous walks with Angus in the pram - and later without - along the lakeside.

In short, it's been an amazing time. As the Austrians say "Ein Auge weint, das andere lacht." Basically we're crying with one eye but laughing with the other. Sad to leave, happy for new things.

We definitely didn't become locals in the time we were there. Small villages in Austria are no different than anywhere else and it's not always easy to integrate. But we met some lovely people, whose friendship made us feel extremely welcome. Were we Fuschlers? No, but then our landlord's wife was from a farm four kilometres away, and even she wasn't considered a local.

Interestingly many of the locals who showed total indifference while we lived there knew that we were moving, and asked us about it during our last days there.

Fuschl is one of the most beautiful place in the world, we'll never forget it. Especially not after our epic Abschiedsfeier...

Dankeschön.