Walking Tour of Kuchl

In one of my classes, I mentioned that I'm living in Kuchl. Kuchl seems to have a decent representation in the schools in Hallein, but when I mentioned that Kuchl has a population of over 6,000, they seemed surprised. One girl said she thought Kuchl only had about 1,000 inhabitants. I guess you don't have to go from living in a suburb of Chicago that's 80,000 people big to a farm willage outside of Salzburg for Kuchl to seem small. Maybe they have barn parties I could join in on, you know, as part of my effort to experience all facets of Austrian culture. We'll see.

The reason Kuchl has a dormitory at all is that there's a school for Holztechnik and Holzwirtschaft here. What that means exactly, I'm not sure. I think they learn how to process and market wood, but it's a bit unclear. Anyway, the Holztechnik students get nice housing. Behold, my room, or about half of it:


I found out that my bed, which is bigger than a twin and smaller than a double, is a standard size in Austria. I'm not sure they have a name for it, just measurements, though. And then there's my kitchen, in all it's ovenless glory. I'm still trying to figure out how I'll be able to bake anything.



The whole building, and its twin next door, is pretty new. It opened in February 2008. For being open less than a year, though, it's fairly dirty. But I suppose that's a habit of student living.


Then there's everything outside the dorm, most of which, because this is a farm willage after all, includes animals. I found one of the cats that chases the chickens around. As it turns out, the reason the chicken crossed the road is because a cat was on its tail. True story.


Then these are my nextdoor neighbors. I think there might be as many cows in this willage as people. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but not much of one.


These are my other neighbors, a few houses over. I wonder if they vacation in Italy for the winter. The house seems a bit drafty.


I wouldn't have even know there were sheep in Kuchl if I hadn't gotten lost my first day looking for the dorm. But now that I know they're there, I stop by and say hi every day on my way to the train station.




The most important thing in any old European city, town, or willage, is the church. Fitting the size of the willage, the church is on the smaller side, too, which would be even more obvious if the sun hadn't bleached out the megahuge mountain that stands right behind it.


And this is the main street of the town, named after a bank, because they don't have much else going on. It's not a bad showing, but you have to remember there are only four or five stores not located on this street. But how much more do 6,000 people need?


Last but not least, some more typical Kuchl housepets. I'm not sure they're the friendliest of pets, though. The one with the horns always eyes me as I walk past. I'm kind of glad they're kept behind an electrified fence, to be honest.


That's Kuchl in a nutshell. Of course, it might be argued that even with everything I left out, Kuchl could fit in a nutshell. Oh, this little farm willage of mine... It's a good thing, I promise.