Mitch and Mike's Austrian Voyage: Update

Hello all, I hope everything is well back in the states. Just thought I would give you a quick update of what is going on here in Austria. First of all, I know that the weather here is much more pleasant than what I left behind in Illinois. It has been about 30 degrees every day (not much different from back home), but since I've been here there has been maybe a total of 1 inch of snow, making it much more pleasant than the amount of snow I know some of you have been seeing.

Seeing this out my door when I wake up every morning makes it easy to
get up and get going.

I thought I might give you a look into a normal day here in Austria for me right now. It is still technically the off-season, and we are practicing 2-3 nights/week, so there isn't a whole heck of a lot going on. I wake up in the morning, and take a 20 min bus ride to a neighboring town to work out. I get home from there around noon, eat lunch, and then usually head into the football offices here in Hohenems to work on learning the play book, help plan our next practice, etc. In the evenings I usually work on something for grad school, send emails, or try to connect with people back at home. Nothing too overly exciting, but I'm always trying to stay busy or go exploring in a part of the area that I have not seen yet.

One of the things that caught me the most off-guard here was the music. Almost everything is from America. New hits, hip-hop, and top 40 music from America plays almost exclusively on the radio stations here. If it's not American music playing, it is either some kind of German rap or a techno mix. It is also fairly obvious that there is no F.C.C. in Austria, as none of the words that are edited out on American radio get nixed; the songs are played as-is.

Saturday I watched the local men's professional basketball team and the women's professional handball team play. The basketball was great, and reminded me of home just a little (although they do obviously play by international/Olympic rules). I had never witnessed a handball game before, and I was amazed by how physical the play was. Both teams won their games, with the basketball team beating a team from a town in Austria which I cannot pronounce, and the handball team beating the team from Vienna by one point in the last minute. It was pretty cool, and I am planning on going to a pro hockey game this weekend, which should also hopefully be cool.

Yesterday afternoon a local girl that I met on Saturday night offered to show me around some parts of the area that I had not yet explored. One of the coolest places we went to was a town just south of my current home called Feldkirch, a town the borders Liechtenstein. Although it was extremely cold and tough to stay outside for much more than 30 minutes or so. The sights were really pretty neat, and I'll post a few pictures at the bottom of this post to show you some of the town. However, maybe my favorite part of the town was a 15th century bell tower that the local girl showed me. As she read the plaque on the tower and explained to me some of the history (such as the tower holds the largest bell in the entire state of Vorarlberg), she also told me that there is a famous fairy tale connected to the tower that I found to be quite funny/odd that went something like this...

15th century tower in Feldkirch

"There was a young woman held captive at the top of this tower." She told me.
"Oh, really? And someone came along and saved her? Something like the story of Rapunzel?" I asked, thinking I was quite ahead of the game.
"No, they burned her alive up there, and that's pretty much the end of the story." She said.
Evidently the "fairy tales" in Europe area a little less romanticized than the ones we tell in America, haha.

Again, I hope all is well in the States, and check back soon for more updates. Please enjoy a couple of pictures below of Feldkirch, Austria.

Mitch Niekamp
Go Blue Devils/Boys!