Pilgrimage to Mariazell

Between the unending stream of reading assignments, the prospect of my pilgrimage to Poland this coming weekend and my first midterm next week I cannot possibly post about the multitude of events that have occurred over the last few days and do them even an inkling of justice. Therefore, I will write solely on the highlight of this past weekend, namely, my pilgrimage to Mariazell.

The background behind Mariazell is rich in history and legend. A summary can be found at sacred-destinations.com.

The legend:

On the evening of December 21, 1157, a Benedictine monk named Magnus was in a forest looking for a place to build a monastery. At one point, his path became blocked by a huge boulder that was too big to go over or around, so Magnus took a small wooden statue of the Virgin Mary he had in his knapsack, knelt in prayer, and asked the Virgin Mary for guidance. Soon there was a great rumble and the rock split in two, allowing him to pass through.

Some facts:

Magnus and some locals built a shrine to the small wooden statue of Mary which was rebuilt multiple times to give us the Basilica in which the statue is housed which we have today.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Mariazell is the most-visited Marian shrine in Central Europe.

Emperor Joseph II dissolved the monastery and and banned pilgrimages there during his reign.

The ban was lifted sometime after Joseph II's death and today more than 1 million people visit Mariazell every year.

Conveniently, Mariazell is only about twenty miles from Gaming.

This used to be a small chapel

So, on Friday morning at 7AM roughly fifty or more students, faculty/staff and children of faculty/staff departed by bus where we were then dropped off at the nearby nature park. From there, we would have to hike 18 miles (or 29 kilometers) to Mariazell along the Erlauf River through the foothills of the Austrian Alps.

Erlauf River/foothills of the Austrian Alps

However, with eighteen miles to traverse I couldn't stay too long in one place to enjoy the trail's beauty without being left behind and so I walked, and walked, and walked. The first half of the hike was largely uneventful. I simply walked in silence, soaking in the natural beauty I had become completely immersed in. The Erlauf river was clear and vividly blue and green, there were countless waterfalls, high-arching bridges across the river that had to be crossed single-file, wild mountain goats and so much more.

Then the foothills opened up slightly, the river deepened and we got to do this:

Shortly after we discovered a cave:

Then, we found my favorite location along the entire hike:

And if you think it's cool when Kevin jumps from ten feet how much cooler is it when he does it from thirty?

For the final three hours of the hike we left the river, traveling instead through the countryside, passing by farms until we came a small town about five kilometers outside of Mariazell.

Without the beautiful Erlauf River and surrounding mountains to distract us, every minute of that final couple miles dragged on forever. However, we eventually made it - and just in time for 4PM Mass, after which we had some time to enjoy the beauty of the basilica and pray.

Then, after a full day consisting of an eight hour hike, Mass in Mariazell's Basilica, and some free time to explore the town and church ourselves, we finally boarded a bus back to Gaming. However, not before I got a souvenir:

Weekend in Gaming

While most of the student body went to either Switzerland or Prague in the Czech Republic I spent my weekend back in Gaming. This is partly due to my peculiar financial situation but also because 1.) I want to explore Gaming itself and 2.) I have what can only be described as a literal mountain of homework sitting on my desk. It should also be noted that I got a job cleaning the Mensa after meals. So, on Thursday evening, after slaving away with my mop and bucket, I met my roommate Jason G. at the Keller (the Kartause restaurant) where we enjoyed a few beers and more importantly the company of his grandfather who was visiting from the States. I probably had close to a liter of the Keller's light beer which is more alcohol than I've had before in one sitting. As a result I now believe that I truly understand what Benjamin Franklin meant when he said, "God gave men alcohol because he wanted them to be happy."

Friday I had plans to hike to the waterfall outside Gaming with a half dozen students, including good friend Andrew Rall. However our hike was delayed by a thunderstorm. The rain began to let up by 4PM and we decided to brave what was left of the inclement weather. Of course after hiking the three miles to the waterfall it began to downpour once again so that upon returning to the Kartause we were all fairly drenched. Still, it was a pretty great time to be had.

Every night also consisted of movies, beers, and board games until Sunday came and I'd hardly done any homework. I wish I could say that my weekend had consisted of lots of productive and profound studying but sadly most attempts just ended in impressions of books on my face as I napped. I did get a fair amount done throughout the day on Sunday but unfortunately I have enough homework still that the school week is going to be incredibly hectic. However, on a positive note, I definitely aced my history test this morning.

What little profound studying that may or may not have actually occurred.

unproductive, not profound "studying" that definitely occurred

Tuesday, August 25th

Night came and morning followed. The second day.

My room has a large window. So large, in fact, that the sun, peaking over the foothills of the Alps, poured copious amounts of light into my room at 5:30AM. Unable to sleep any longer I rose, too deep in a mental torpor to feel anything. That is, until I clumsily pulled back the curtains and saw this:

Thus began my second day in Austria.

At 8AM Dr. Franz Schneider gave the entire school a talk on just about everything there is to know about the country Austria. Immediately afterwards the whole student body crammed into four buses and we drove to the nearby monastery Melk in the valley by the Danube river. This is Melk:

Fun-size!

This is Melk before mass:

After a guided tour, lunch, and mass at Melk we then travelled to Durnstein, a town of enchantment dubbed by the inhabitants of Austria as "the most romantic place ever." With only little over an hour in Durnstein we practically ran up a mountain in order to walk among the ruins of Durnstein's castle - where, coincidentally, King Richard the Lionhearted had once been imprisoned by the king of Germany.

it's no wonder that King Richard didn't stay imprisoned for long. I mean, look at the place.

After racing back down the mountain so as not to miss the buses we actually had a few minutes to spare. Hot from our hike we decided that logically the best course of action would be to jump in the Danube. However, still missing my bags I had only the clothes on my back and decided that just wading up to me knees would be sufficient. Although I still plan on jumping head first into the Danube river some other time.

Then, that evening after returning to Gaming, Christmas had decided to come early. Leaving the Kartause for only ten minutes to go on a short walk, simply because I had nothing else to do, I returned to the lobby to find that my luggage had been secretly delivered in my absence. Maybe I should have jumped in the Danube after all.

me not jumping in

After checking to make sure that my extra crunchy peanut butter had made it through security it was time to go the local tavern, Urs, for the first time. This mad adventure was lead by none other than the glorious Steve Eddleson, with Will Goggins, Julian, and myself along for the ride. We all ordered half liters of Stiegal - except Will who got some girly drink I can't pronounce or spell. Not too long after drinking my Stiegal (which turned out to be the equivalent of two American beers) I decided to go back to the Kartause and go to bed. I also decided to start a beer diary. So far I've tried: Kaiser beer, which I didn't like; Weisenburger beer, which was better than Kaiser; and of course Stiegal beer which is the best I've had yet.