Exploring!

As promised, I'm back with a report from my day of exploring Purkersdorf!! This morning I successfully got my Meldezettel, which is basically my registration form giving me permission to reside in this city. I did the whole transaction in German which required a lot of pointing and confused looks on the part of the lady helping me, but we made it through, and at the end of it I was gifted with a lovely little welcome packet: a bag filled with brochures, maps, and very helpful information about Purkersdorf.





















As I left the building with where I got the Meldezettel, which is located in the city center pedestrian zone (Fussgaengerzone), I discovered that Fridays are the day for the outdoor market! There were stands of fruits, vegetables, cheese, breads, wine, and other delicious looking items. I was a little overwhelmed so all I bought was a mini quiche from the one of the bakery stands, but I will do real shopping there in the future, now that I know it exists! After wandering through the market I found a cafe where I could sit to peruse my new information packet. I successfully ordered auf Deutsch (again, pointing helped). Because I know any German professor I've ever had would be upset if I ordered Kaffee without Kuchen, I had to order a slice of cake too. Thus, today I ate my first Sachertorte (Viennese specialty--basically super delicious chocolate cake). It did not disappoint. This could be dangerous.

Inside the goodie bag, I found a letter from the mayor of Purkersdorf, information about the history of the city, public transportation time tables, fliers about various upcoming events, and brochures about local services, nearby attractions, and self-guided tours on various themes. There was also a map with suggestions for running around Purkersdorf, which I found very exciting. It gives you suggestions based on different lengths, and it looks like a lot of them go through the Wiener Wald (Viennese forest), which sounds thrilling. I'm going to try the first one this afternoon, because running through a forest sounds awesome. There are also maps of hiking trails. I embarked on a quasi-scavenger hunt through the city center, trying to spot all the historic buildings in the Stadt-spaziergaenge brochure (city stroll). If my goal for life in Purkersdorf is to not look or feel like a tourist, I failed miserably today. I was taking pictures of everything, retracing my steps over and over, and staring confusedly at signs. Oh well. Amongst the highlights of today's stroll were the following:

 St. Jakob the Elder Catholic Church, in the city center, between the Marktplatz and Schloss...

 ...the old post office: originally built in 1558 as a rest stop on the road from Vienna to Linz (which followed the old Roman Road), converted to a post office in the middle of the 18th century, temporarily housed some famous people over the years including Pope Pius VI, Mozart, and Casanova, today it holds restaurants and offices...

 ...Schloss Purkersdorf: not as "Schlossy" as I hoped it would be, but still very pretty, originally built in the middle of the 12th century, held the Kaiser's "forest office" from 1500-1788, destroyed by the Turks in the first siege of Vienna in 1529, rebuilt, and then destroyed by the Turks again in 1683, rebuilt, and home to Kaiser Leopold 1 for a while, today it houses a museum, therapy center, and administrative offices for the area...

 ...definitely the best part of today's adventure was when I accidentally stumbled upon this forest path that brought me to a scenic outlook over the entire city. I was following a road (aptly titled Berggasse--berg means mountain...) towards a monument, when all of a sudden there was no more road, just a rocky dirty path. The path got narrower and narrower as I kept climbing until all of a sudden I was no longer in civilization. I continued, not certain of where the path would lead me or what kind of animals were in the woods, still climbing, until the trees cleared and opened into an area with benches and a picnic table and a gorgeous view of the city below. This place is absolutely delightful.

The rest of the exploring consisted of touring a few stores in town, and attempting but failing to find other landmarks on the map I was following. Oh well, I have all year.