Maibaum

Last week was the 1st of May and a public holiday here in Austria and all over Europe. Locally the tradition of Maibaum is to raise a massive maypole and then people try and climb it to grab the pretzels and sausages hanging from it! For real! 

On the advice of one of our teachers, Doris, myself and some fellow students travelled twenty minutes from Salzburg to attend the festival in Grassgmain. It takes many hours to raise the maypole using wood and ropes, so the people watching spend the time eating and drinking traditional products as well. It was a lovely sunny day, after several days of continuous rain, so we had a lot of fun in the sunshine. 

On our way to the Maibaum festival

This is how much the maypole had been raised when we arrived,
lots of men drinking beer and slowly putting it up

Slowly getting higher...

And higher...

Nearly there...

And up!

If you look closely you may be able to see the hanging pretzels and sausages that people climbed the pole to get. They are hanging from this first circular ring

The first climber was an old man in only his underwear!

A young girl who didn't quite make it to the top

Another man that made it to the top

Don't be too worried about safety, they add this hay at the bottom of the pole in case anyone falls

We had a good time waiting for the pole to go up!

Me and Neal in the sun

Throughout the day a wind band played, whenever they raised the maypole or someone climbed the pole. Hopefully the video below works! 

Another reason we had a fun day was that the day before we all handed in our essays, which are one of our final three exams. A great feeling to have it done.  The weather has continued with cool and rainy days, alternating with a couple of days of sunshine. On Sunday it even snowed in the morning! However it quickly melted in the rain. 

Sunday morning snow from our window

Melted by the snow, you can't see the mountains from all the low cloud cover

A very enjoyable start to the month of May!