Salzburg is a city rich with landmarks, my favorite of which is the Hohensalzburg Fortress. Built atop one of Salzburg’s “mountains,” it is visible from nearly everywhere in the city. In many ways it watches over the town and the inhabitants within. The views from the fort are also amazing. Because of these reasons, and of course the history, Salzburg College took an excursion there as a part of our “Understanding Austria” course.
Salzburg College in general has a big focus on incorporating the city of Salzburg, in addition to Austria as a whole, into classes. For “Understanding Austria,” we walked Mönchsberg (Monk’s Mountain) to the fort, were guided through both Salzburg and Vienna, had excursions to Hallstatt and the Mauthausen Concentration Camp, and had tours at the UN, the Austrian Parliament, and the Representation of the European Commission, in addition to many others. For some of these we had to write short papers as a way to reflect on what we had learned in class. For my German course, we took a class trip to the local farmer’s market in order to practice ordering food and also learn more about the differences between High German and the Austrian dialect. I expect these experiences to continue in the next quarter with my other classes.
In addition to actual field trips related to classes, Salzburg College also tries to get us engaged and incorporated into the community through optional trips. The biggest of these was going to a different coffee house every Tuesday with one of the staff. Here we got to experience traditional Austrian cafe culture was also getting to know each other better. We have also gone on skiing and snowshoeing excursions. Finally, the staff post various activities going on around the city related to culture in the group Facebook page.
