Day 22. St Ulrich is a more touristy spot as there is a kids amusement park, a ski resort and many mountain trails that people can hike or bike. Christoph’s family had converted their house into a small hotel and I was given room #3. They were also hosting 2 girls whose parents were in Italy and training 2 workers named Lawrence and Florian. They had a robotic dairy barn attached to the house but it was cleaned out for the summer as all the cows were in the mountains and at their other dairy barn in the Alps. I was shown their electric bikes and went on a tour around the area by myself. In the evening, I went up with Christoph to their mountain barn and helped them milk their 40 cows. The barn was at the elevation of 1392m above sea level and you could see the rain clouds below. Christoph’s grandparents lived at the mountain barn and it needed a diesel generator to run the milking equipment. The cattle get brought down in September as it starts getting too cold for the vegetation and are brought up there in March.
Day 23. I helped clean the cattle collars for when they return to the robotic milker in the winter and then wandered around the area until the evening where we went to a music concert in the neighboring town of St Jakob. There I learned the term “Kubave” which means encore.
Day 24. It was a sunny day, so Christoph, Florian, Lawrence and I went to clear weeds from the pastures in the mountains. This required weed wackers and a special mower to handle the steep slopes and we then raked and pitch forked the weeds into bundles and tossed them into the trees. It was a lot of work, but despite not being used to the work, I was able to keep up
Day 25. In the morning, I helped Christoph’s mother, Maria, make some Tyroleon Krapfun with the help of several other women involved with the St Ulrich Brass Band. When we got the first part done, I decided to climb up to the St Jakobkrueze. It is a giant cross that has rooms in it that I can see from my bedroom window if the weather was right. It took 2 hours to get to the top and there were a few games and an abandoned concession stand. I could have stayed longer except for the rain and I was soaked by the time I got back to the house. I quickly got dried off and then we went to the St Ulrich town square where Christoph and his brothers were playing in the local brass band in an open concert.
Day 26. Christoph took the day off to show me around Kitzbuhel. It is a famous town where the world ski competition is held. James Crawford, a Canadian, was about to be honoured next week for winning the competition and they were going to name a gondola after him. Christoph knew the place well as he helped set up for the competition and used to compete. We also got a tour around the countryside and saw an ethanol processing facility that was built by 2 farmers who grew corn in the area. When we got back to Christoph’s home, some people from the Austrian Landjugend including Julia, who went on the exchange to Ontario 2 years ago. They filmed some videos about Christoph and his friend who makes yogurt at their dairy farm. In the evening, I went with some of Christoph’s friends to a Bezirkmusikfest in Kossen. It was a lot of fun and Walina showed me how to dance and we partied until 3 in the morning.
Day 27. I got everything packed and said goodbye to Christoph and his family. I took the train to Vienna and stayed in a hostel overnight and took an early morning flight back home. This has been an amazing trip and I got to meet many extraordinary people. Every day I got to learn something new and have stories that I will never forget. There was a lot of cooking and seeing the sites and I got to learn different farming techniques and the problems that affect the people here. I would highly recommend to anyone who has the opportunity to travel to Austria to take part in this exchange.
