Personal Weblog

Thursday, December 2, 2004 [Advent]
Advent is the 4 week period before Christmass. It's celebrated much more here in Austria then in Holland. But this is the case here for a lot more religious events. Advent, which comes from the Latin word for "arrival" or "coming", begins four Sundays prior to Christmas. A tradition during the Advent period is to lit a candle on every Sunday. Another tradition is the Advent calender. This is a calender designed in such a way that a flap of the calendar is opened which conceals a gift (chocolate) inside. There are 24 flaps, so one starts at the 1st of December and when the last flap can be opened, Christmass has begun.
Sunday, November 14, 2004 [Living in new house]
It has been 4 four weeks since we moved from Seewalchen to Oberhofen am Irrsee. We had a lot of help from family and friends which made moving a lot easier. Gradually we are settling down in our new house in which we really enjoy living in.
Thursday, August 26, 2004 [Bought a house]
We bought a house in Oberhofen am Irrsee, about 10 kilometers north of Mondsee. It has a 110 m� surface, a garden of about 450 m� and a beautiful view over the Irrsee. It is the right house, of a block of three houses, from the photo on the right. We'll be moving into it around the beginning of October.


Sunday, August 22, 2004 [Creating Personal Weblog]
I have been thinking about creating a personal weblog for quite some time. But today I decided to finally give it a go. Currently I live with my girlfriend Dagmar, at her parents, in seewalchen am Attersee. The Attersee (See photo) is the biggest lake in Austria. We are looking for a place for ourselves however. I hope, you'll be reading more about this soon. Most of the photos on this weblog have been taken with my mobile phone, so don't mind the relative poor quality.
Thursday, August 19, 2004 [Roadtrip]
Two friends of mine, Remco and Matijs, decided to go on a roadtrip to Austria to pay me a visit. They arrived here late in the evening after a full day of driving, and were quite interested in checking out the nightlife of Seewalchen. Fortunately there is pretty cool bar, Liehmann, here in Seewalchen, were we drank beer and some fine bottles of Prosecco. The next day we had great weather, sunny and about 30 degrees, and decided to go to the top of the Gahberg were there is a Gasthaus and a great view over the Attersee. Later we checked out a beach at the Attersee. Before they went home, they had to get some gas and Tijs was extremely pleased with the 'low' gas prices they have here in Austria.

Saturday, August 14, 2004 [Salzburger Festspiele]
The Salzburg Festspiele, or Salzburg Festival, is one of the World premier art festivals of classical music, opera and theatre. It runs from the last week of July to the end of August. Dagmar and I went to see a concert from the Wiener Philharmoniker in the Gro�es Festspielhaus from Salzburg. It was the first time we heard a real concert play and it was quite impressive.
Saturday, July 3, 2004 [Erdbeerland (Strawberryland)]
In the end of the spring the strawberries start to ripen. Shields pointing to an Erdbeerland are popping out of nowhere. At these stawberrylands people can pick their own strawberries(for a price per kg), during which they can eat as much strawberries as they want. We were lucky that the night before it had rained a bit, and therefore the strawberries were freshly washed.

Saturday, June 19, 2004 [Trip to Holland]
Watching Holland perform in the European soccer championships in front of the tv in Austria, is not as much fun as seeing it in a bar in Holland. So I decided to travel 900 km to watch the match Holland-Czech-Republic in my favourite bar, the Fantast in Valkenswaard. Although the outcome of the game was not what I hoped it would be, it was great fun, and it was really nice to spent some time with my friends again.

Monday, May 3, 2004 [New job]
I found a job as a Software Engineer at Porsche Informatik, in Salzburg. It is a subsidiary company of Porsche Holding, one of the biggest private enterprises in Austria and one of the most successful European automobile trade companies. Porsche Holding is in charge of the brands VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda and Porsche. At the moment Porsche Informatik is as a consultant, developer and operator of IT solutions for automobile-related activities and pertaining services in Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czechia, Rumania, Croatia and Germany. Salzburg is about 60 km away from Seewalchen, but is almost all highway with now and then some spectacular scenery (see photo on the right).

Saturday, May 1, 2004 [Musikkapelle - Seewalchen am Attersee]
Every year at May 1, which is a national holiday in Austria, the Musikkapelle from the Rosenau awakes the local population with some fine Musik. They start at 6.00 am (in the morning) to make their round. Some locals organize a small buffet where the musicians can have a rest and can get something to drink and eat. As a reward the Musikkapelle plays a couple of songs there. Since the parents from Dagmar and their neighbours created a buffet as well, we also got a 'private' concert.

Wednesday, March 3, 2004 [My new car]
Since I had to give up my company car when I quit at CGEY, I was without transportation. Because Dagmar already found a job in Salzburg, I couldn't use her car either. After checking out some local car dealers what they had to offer, I decided to buy a new Mazda2.

Winter in Austria [Skiing]
One of my favourite things do during the Austrian winter is skiing. Since there was lots of snow this winter, the skiing conditions were pretty good. My two favourite skiing areas were Kasberg (see photo) and Gaissau-Hintersee, both about a 45 minute drive from Seewalchen.
Saturday, January 31, 2004 [Musikerball - Seewalchen am Attersee]
Every year the Musikkappele from the Rosenau, a district in Seewalchen, holds a Musikerball to raise fundings. There was a life band, which played most of the time Schlager musik, lots of beer and Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut in case one would get hungry. Fortunately there was also a cocktailbar in another room and dance musik for the youngsters (like me).
Saturday, January 31, 2004 [Ski championships Seewalchen]
Since I am a registered inhabitant of the village of Seewalchen, I was allowed to compete in the yearly ski championships of Seewalchen. It was held on a hill near the Attersee (see photo below). Most of my opponents were wearing ski race suits, and have most likely been skiing since the day they could walk. So I was not surprised to find myself at the last place in my category. But it was fine day to ski and I had lots of fun.

Monday, January 5, 2004 [Gl�cklerlauf - Sch�rfling am Attersee]
Every year on January 05, the eve of Epiphany, groups of white-dressed men meet at nightfall, wearing heavy lanterns on their heads to tour the streets of town. The elaborate headgears can be considered true works of art, as their skilful production takes hundreds of hours. In addition, the men wear broad leather belts with heavy bells (�Glocken� in German) attached. The aim of this unique parade is to shed light during the dark winter months and to reawake nature from its winter sleep. We went to the Gl�cklerlauf in Sch�rfling, a neighbouring village from Seewalchen. With a cup of Gl�hwein and light snowfall it was a really nice atmosphere.