HOME |
RSS | 
The Eisriesenwelt is an enormous cave system south of Salzburg, Austria. It’s forty-two kilometers long, the first kilometer of which is covered in wondrous ice formations. The cave is open to visitors during the summer, so visit if you’re in the area. Check out more pictures at the link.
Link -via American Digest | Official Website | Photo: Eisriesenwelt GmbH
Comments Off
The Krampus Parade in Graz, Austria stands your idea of Christmas celebration on its ear, right? This video was recorded last December. Read more about Krampus in previous posts at Neatorama. -via Buzzfeed
The politics that led to World War I are important, but difficult to teach in American schools because the events are distant in both time and place. To capture the interest of students, teachers often tell the story of how assassin Gavrilo Princip would not have been in shooting range of Franz Ferdinand that fateful day in 1914 if he hadn’t stopped to buy a sandwich about the time the Archduke coincidentally passed by. Mike Dash first heard the story from his history-student daughter, and decided to investigate.
I was astonished by the story, too, though not because of the strangeness of the coincidence. It bothered me, because the details are new (you’ll struggle to find a telling of the tale that dates to before 2003), and because it simply doesn’t ring true. That’s not because the modern version isn’t broadly faithful to the facts; it’s not even utterly implausible that Princip might have stopped off at Schiller’s for a bite to eat. No, the problem is that the story is suspiciously neat–and that the sandwich is a quintessentially Anglo-American convenience food. The dish was named in the 1760s for John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, who was in the habit of requesting his meat placed between two slices of toast so he could lunch at his desk. But it took time for the idea to cross the Channel, and I find it hard to believe the sandwich would have featured on a Bosnian menu as early as 1914.
Dash found the surprising origin of the story, which gives us a glimpse of how, and why, our understanding of history tends to change over time. Read the entire account at the Smithsonian history blog Past Imperfect. Link
Thieves in Vienna, Austria made off with 21 tons of mustard and ketchup.
The loot was in a semitrailer parked in a lot over the weekend northwest of Vienna. Police say the truck driver showed up Monday to deliver his cargo only to see the trailer missing.
Police assume the thieves were more interested in the trailer than its contents.
Authorities are on the lookout for the missing mustard as well as the $22,000 trailer. Link -via J-Walk Blog
(Image credit: the NeatoShop)
Lots of great skiing mountains also double as hiking trails in the warmer months. However this area in Austria has got to be the only place this doubles as a hiking spot and a great place to scuba dive.
Located at the foot of the Hochschwab Mountains, in Tragoess, Styria, Green Lake is one of the most bizarre natural phenomena in the world. During the cold winter months, this place is almost completely dry, and used as a country park where hikers love to come and spend some time away from urban chaos. But as soon as temperatures rise, the snow and ice covering the mountaintops begin to melt, and the water pours down, filling the basin below with crystal-clear water.
The Bregenz Festival brings opera to the shores of Lake Constance in Bregenz, Austria in July and August. They are now building the stage on the lake front, which is, as you can see, quite an enterprise. See more pictures of this fantastic stage and its meaning at Kuriositas. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Kecko)
In 1983, Fritz Gall and Friedl Umscheid opened the Nonseum in Herrnbaumgarten, Austria. The Nonseum is a home for inventions that never took off -many of which never made any sense in the first place.
Now, the Nonmuseum has hundreds of useless items on display, and has just celebrated its 100,000th visitor. Among the many eccentric inventions of this unusual museum, you can find a Portable Anonymizer that’s supposed to keep your identity a secret in real life, a foldable snow sled, a guillotine for finger nails, and even a Champagne Cork Catcher – a device that keeps the cork from flying away when you pop open the bottle.
The object shown, housed at the Nonseum, is the foldable sled. Link -via the Presurfer
Comments Off Now I want a horn suit! Not that I could play it like Koni can… Link -via the Presurfer
It was the perfect place to grow marijuana: a section of the rhinoceros pen that only one zookeeper had access to. A zookeeper in Austria thought he would never be caught.
Salzburg Hellbrunn Zoo director Sabine Grebner said today (Mon): “It’s horrible! We never thought such a thing was possible. We are here for families and kids – and we don’t have anything to do with drugs.”
Police said the 59-year-old rhinoceros carer kept 33 marijuana plants in a part of the enclosure which is hidden from visitors’ view, adding that they acted on an anonymous tip-off by “customer” of the offender.
(Image credit: Flickr user Martin Belam)
The roof of the reptile house caught on fire at the Poestlingberg Zoo in Linz, Austria. One species that couldn’t make a quick getaway from the billowing smoke were the four huge tortoises.
Quick-thinking firemen and zoo staff adapted oxygen masks designed for humans to save the lives of the 140lb African-spurred tortoises.
“We expect them to make a full recovery,” vet Isabella Eberle told CEN. “The masks were designed for human use but we managed to make them fit.”
Comments Off 
Home to close to 30,000 pieces of historical weaponry, the Zeughaus Museum in Graz Austria represents the area’s rich military heritage. The museum’s collection includes guns, swords, and armor, including this complete set of armor for a horse.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
This Christmas, forget Santa. There’s a mythical creature that’s making a big comeback: the Krampus.
Popular in Alpine villages centuries ago, Krampus scared kids straight—his long red tongue upped the fear factor—and taught them that evil bows before good. He served Santa’s forerunner, kindly St. Nicholas, who had “the power to send Krampus back to hell,” says Austrian ethnologist Ulrike Kammerhofer-Aggermann. [...]
But by the 1800s, church leaders had marginalized Krampus. Now he’s enjoying a mini-revival, mainly for the fun of it. The Austrian state of Salzburg alone has 180 Krampus clubs, more than half set up since 1990, says Josef Moser, Jr., chairman of Austria’s Krampus Museum. Revelers roam streets in Krampus garb, rattle bells, and roar. “It feels good!” says Moser.
Think of Krampus as the “anti-Santa”, the demon who comes to punish children who misbehave during the year. Krampus Night is celebrated on the eve of St. Nicholas Day in Europe, particularly in Austria.
The Krampus tradition, whilst once done with a modicum of sobriety is now used as an enormously great excuse to get completely inebriated. Think of it as an old Europe version of Spring Break but, alcohol aside, with slightly different preoccupations and – of course – at a different time of year. Very well, just think of it as an excuse for young people to behave badly.
Read about the origins of Krampus and see more depictions from history at Socyberty. Link -Thanks, RJ!
(image credit: riptheskull)
