Mines and Mauthausen

Sunday, May 26 

This morning, as usual, we woke up. 

Audrey and I leisurely packed and headed down to another excellent Austrian breakfast.  Seriously, these breakfasts are great. Lookout U.S., cuz I'm gonna start eating cold cuts and gugelhof every morning. 

We set off for the Hallein Bad Dürrenburg salt mines. It's exactly what it sounds like - people mine salt there.  Originally, salt water deposits were trapped inside the rocks when the tectonic plates shifted (y'know, geology and stuff).  Now they do everything by machine, rather than with tiny pickaxes and headlamps (although that would be AWESOME).

We got to wear these fancy white suits into the mines to protect our clothes:

 

Nice, right?  Jealous, right? 

I bet you are now!  By the way, the girls pictured above are pretty fabulous people.  

So we went down these big stairs to the entrance of a tunnel, where we boarded a tiny train.  It was basically a long wooden board on wheels.  We all lined up on it, one after another, held onto each other, and blasted through the tunnel into the mine!

We got to watch these cool informational videos with entertaining portrayals of historical figures.  

The important thing here though is the SLIDES.  As you go lower and lower into the mines, they have these cool slides for you to go down.  You line up in small groups on the slide, then ride the thing down on your butts to the bottom!  What a blast.  Abigail and I (mostly me) were nervous, but we did it!

Yay slides!









We finished our tour of the salt mines, then all piled into the bus for lunch.  We went to the Rosenberger, where we enjoyed a tasty lunch and great conversation. Doc told Abigail and I about the research project and book he's been working on - he has researched the life of Dr. Fried, who began the Vienna Summer School. He was especially looking forward to visiting the concentration camp that afternoon, since Dr. Fried's brother died in a connected camp.



Mauthausen, the concentration camp, was a big experience. It was very moving. We were able to explore the camp thoroughly - we saw the barracks (where the prisoners slept), the memorials, the rooms where the prisoners were gassed, and the quarry where the prisoners worked carrying rocks up the hill. There are photographic exhibits in some of the old barracks, with pictures taken as documentation.







Overall, the experience was very powerful.

The memorials there recognize different people groups who were victimized by not only Mauthausen, but by the other concentration camps.







The thing that stuck with me the most, however, was the juxtaposition between the sadness of what happened at the camp and the beauty of the surrounding landscape.  Despite the cold and the rain, which set the appropriate mood of the camp, it was impossible to ignore the beauty that has persevered through the years. It is hard to comprehend that such horrible things happened in our world, but knowing that we can recover as humans and do what we can to prevent it from happening again is something to hold onto.

After visiting the camp, we drove home to Vienna.

Lilo had made our special "goodbye" dinner for my housemates and I (Annika, Rachel, and Audrey).

We celebrated Audrey's birthday with wine and a special birthday flower!  :)

Our weekend in Salzburg was really cool - we got to experience a lot of history, learned a lot about the past in Austria, celebrated Audrey's birthday, and survived the rainy weather.

Feeling lucky to have the Salzburg experience, and luckier to be able to come home to Vienna!