I can hear the bells

Tante Erika and Tante Frieda (sisters of my grandfather, so my great aunts) picked me up at the train station in Leoben, and then we drove to Eisenerz. Eisenerz is a small-ish town about 30 minutes drive from the station Leoben, which is in the heart of Austria. It was comforting to have a ride home, and I was bombarded instantly with several questions about my whereabouts and my wellbeing and of course, my lost backpack. Number one most important thing to note is that my relatives don’t speak English. I’m speaking and thinking now in German, and even though they have an Austrian dialect, it’s going quite well and I’m loving being able to be understood after all this time in Eastern Europe. Ha, it’s amazing how much comes back to you when you are surrounded by the language, I find myself rolling words off my tongue that I never even thought I knew…and suddenly they’re coming out and I’m saying them without thinking. I thought I would have forgotten a lot, since the last short course in German I did was two years ago, but surprisingly not. Anywho it’s rather obvious that they are thrilled to have me here, and I couldn’t be more excited myself. Very welcoming. Very comforting.

This is what greeted me on the drive through the Alps to Eisenerz;

That's the town from the mountains

Eisenerz is the town where my grandparents, great grandparents, and most relatives grew up and many still live there. My grandparents (who moved to Australia after the war) speak so fondly of their hometown, and all the family and friends they still have there. They are happy and have made a life for themselves in Australia, but I think in their heart of hearts they must miss it terribly. It’s been 50 years since they married and moved away, and I’ve only been gone 5 and a half months…I’m not missing home too much because I know I’ve go back eventually (ulgh ;), but venturing out into the wide wide world without knowledge of any return to the place you call home must be hard. And they didn’t speak a word of English when they came out, so kudos to them for that.

Tante Erika's (newly renovated) house

Uhh..hello, I'd live here

Tante Erika showed me around her beloved town, and man; is my family history here! For example, my Tante Erika lives now in a house, where generations and generations of Gierers have lived – since, GET THIS; 1939. 1939!! Almost 80 years of the Gierer clan. My grandfather was raised there, and then Tante Erika was raised there, and then her kids…ect ect. Amazing.

A town nestled among snow capped Alps

The church where my grandparents were married some 50 years ago is still here, and also where my great Aunt married. I just waltzed up to that, standing before an old church, that to someone else is, yeah, nice and pretty, but for me, so relevant to generations of Gierers before me. Tante Erika told stories of the family weddings, were new Gierers were created. Yes, there was extreme emphasis placed on the church and Gierer weddings.

We passed the house where my great grandmother lived. Still standing. Been there for hundreds of years.

In the mountains, we walked past the house were my grandfather was born and raised. The school he attended, some 75 years ago still stands there, and now my father’s cousin’s children attend it.

This is the kind of town where everyone either a)knows one another or b) is related. I’m sure of it. It’s the kind of place where you don’t need to lock your doors at night, everyone says hello to each other on the street, and the local hospital looks like this;

(behind the supermarket)

...and then you get this, just randomly situated before the backdrop...

The church of many vows

We went to the cemetery, again, where generations of my family are buried. Lighting candles for my ancestors that have passed, I stared at the grave stones for a while. ‘Gierer’ gravestones. It was as if I was seeing my family name for the first time. And this sounds perhaps silly, but it was almost overwhelming, within a few hours I felt as if I’d walked through a timeline of my family history; birthplaces, childhood homes, schools, the trade school where my grandfather learnt his trade as a mechanic, the church were so many were married, and then finally, the gravestones of where the deceased lay. And everything was in that town. Utterly astounding.

I learnt a lot about where I come from. The Austrian heritage is always something I’ve known, and I knew of the town, but now I know so much more. It’s amazing – all my roots lie in this little place, and I feel truly lucky to have been able to visit it and see the special places, and spending time with the Gierer clan that are still with us today.

That night, in true Austria fashion we ate a lot, drank a lot and played cards whilst drinking spirits till late. Tante Erika, Tante Frieda, Adi, and a grandson from Tante Frieda – Markus. Markus is 25 years old, not part of the Gierer clan but a grandson of someone who married into the family. Gotta hand it to the Gierer clan, they are scheming little foxes. It was promptly slipped into the conversation before he arrived that he wasn’t seeing anyone currently and was ‘quite handsome’, with a waggle of the eyebrows from my cheeky Uncle Adi. Whilst the rest of the family sung his praises I simply smiled tightly and sipped my drink. Later though, he arrived and everyone so conveniently situated themselves so we were settled quite closely on the couch, and to everyone’s delight we got on quite well, laughed a lot and had a lot in common. It was throughout the evening I noticed a few things form the scheming clan; a subtle bottle of wine that was pushed towards us, the subtle backing away of the clan as they left us to our conversation, the hushed whispers and raised eyebrows amongst the ladies, with sneaky glances and excited smiles in our direction. It was fairly obvious, to both Markus and myself, what the elders were trying to accomplish, and we had to laugh at their attempted plan to, presumably, make me the next Gierer to be married off in that famous church, as so many Gierers were before me. Did I come to stay with Austrian relatives or sign up to underground dating service? After tonight, I’m not quite sure.