Last Geographical Expedition - Different Land uses

This weekend me, and my collegue went all the way from Moosstrasse to Bergheim, which takes about an hour bus ride. This expedition's purpose is to record different land uses that we saw on the way to Bergheim. The picture that are taken start from the city center.

So, here is the first land use, beggining of our way and here we can see Central City area. It contains many sighseens and restaurants as well as many kinds of shops and entertainings that attract tourists and citizens. Many city buses are going here, therefore it is easy to get here. 

 

After about 5 minutes from Central City, goes the Suburban Residential Area. Many people live here
and as further you go, you can notice shops, restaurants, and other services getting less dense. More parks, small grocery shop, educational and sport facilities are located here.


The further we went, more areas appeared. After we left the Residential Zone, we saw the Service Center. Here, we can see the services that sell variety of products mostly for farmers, drivers, and probably for small buisnesses. These market you wouldn't find in Center, as they are meant to be built for another potential consumers.

 

After we left the city boundary, we saw numbers Lagerhauses. In other words, those are storages for plenty of materials, that are made/ manufactured nearby.
 
It was very interesting for me, as I saw connection with this Lagerhaus. Just 100 meters close to it, a wood cutting industry is located. Therefore, we could assume that this storage is located near forrests, so wood could be easily transported there


The most basic land use I noticed was farming. We can see a combine collecting grass for hay. And just near this farm we can see the market where combiners are sold.
 
We also took a picture of a railway station, which is huge complex and node point of many transportations in Salzburg. Many products from areas above are brought here to be transported

In conclusion I can say that in this expedition we saw a variety of Land uses, however Industries and some complexes are located in different parts of the city.

Thank you for attention! Hope not to do it next year

NGO in Paraguay

There are more than 2000 cities around the world bonded with one another through SCI program that made them sister cities. Sister cities are sharing development programs with one another, such as environmental, economical and cultural. Through such realtionships, those cities will grow in their development. Salzburg also has many sister cities, however they all are located in Europe. But let's just imagine the bond Salzburg made with less developed country, such as Paraguay, with poor and small village there called Teniente Morales. A few volunteers organized an NGO in order to help the sister city and collected 25000€ for its development. The essential question is, how correctly invest this money ? The head of the NGO is Johny, who decides how and where he should invest this money. With the help of professionals, he decides that the development ought to be economical and educational. After I heard about the project, I decided to help it and I planned the following part. As we know already, the financial situation in this region is bad. Poverty, lack of education and access to civil places is limited. In order to make successful investment, we will have to find out the number of people living in this area, and the numbers of poor people who are not making enough for their living. With this information we would individually investigate the problem , that is apparently connects us to their crops they plant, number of people in family, how educated they are and the transportation problems. After, we would invest in particular issues, that are shared between those poor number of people. The plan gets approved and when we arrive there we would first buy signs for the road that would be approved by local government that will directly point on the town and to the village, through 25 km trip to town, signs will be located every 5 km, we would spend 4 thousand dollars on them and it will improve the transportation to a market. Another thing is agricultural economy there. We would calculate and look up most profitable crops for growing each season and spend 5 thousands dollars on seeds that we would just give to the farmers who are in failure and debt. The very next thing we are going to do is to sign a contract with agricultural universities in Austria and US that will let students to finish their practice in university earlier and get benefits by helping people in Paraguay and teaching locals planting and caring for crops they didn't use before and with which they are not familiar.The total costs of promotions and contracts will cost about 10 000 dollars, however each volunteer is required to pay 1000 dollars for a 3 week program, and those money will go into primary and high school education of local kids, books, pens, and all of the supplies. The last 6 thousand we will spend on a bus, that we will buy,  that will go twice a day from village to a city and back, and drivers will be provided by government, meaning they will be paid by government,as our sister city relationship wants to develop. This system would work as : 1) farmers are making valuable and profitable product for the market, which would be successful there, as the price of it won't be maximal 2) the transportation to the big market is freely available, only low costs for a bus trip 3) next generations will be more educated and have chances to go to universities and grow up in a social class 

Salzburg Local Farming

This weekend Salzburg Geographical squad went to make a research about farms and local systems that produce natural products that will come on a local market of Salzburg. We went to 3 farms and most of them had the logos of Salzburg milk companies. We kindly asked the owners to get in to a farm and make some researches.

- This is how the common livestock farm look like. Each cow is tied to the metal fence so they cant run away or turn around. Cows are fed with the hay that is always available for them.

This is how it looks like from different perspective. The cow's tails are tied to the top so they won't be as dirty.

 We were also wondering what is the purpose of sawdust that is in there. The farmer told us that the cows are also fed with the sawdust in order to get some more nutriens.

Here is the sign on the farm that shows that the products and the milk that is produced here are coming straight to the factory of Salzburg Milch.

On the same farm you can see that they also have tractors and combines for carrying supplies/ livestock/ crops. This is the way they transport their products to the factories in order to get final product from the milk or any other products.

Behind the tractor, owners have storage where different types of trailors are stored. As this farm is more based on livestock, they have more trailors for livestock.

While we were walking and searching further, we went to another farm and saw pretty much the same, however here we saw the big storage of the hay.

This farm is a little different. You can see how they use special feed for the livestock instead of the sawdust and everything is better organanized and we could assume this one is more productive than the other.

Then we found out that this farm is working for another company, Alpen Milch, and the farm is a little bigger than the previous one, and there were little more cows as well.

This is the house of the owners that shows how do they live.

On the way back we saw something different. This farm wasn't focused on milk production and they didn't have any cows, however, they had goats and chicken, so we assumed they produce goat milk and eggs.

This is how chicken farm looked like outside, with the small house for them to lay eggs and be in warm place.

On Moosstrasse I took a photo of a local store that sells meat. The butcher store is very local and small and probably taking the meat from the area it's located.

The processes that we saw along with conditions for cows that produce milk for Salzburg region were good and natural. I, as a consumer, bought their products, as the processes of getting milk I saw were natural and owners didn't hide anything from us and were very hospitable.
                                       

                                          Thank you for your attention !

Salzburg and Austrian boundaries History

Today I did a research about the boundaries of Salzburg and Austria as a whole since 1914 untill nowadays. So, what is a definition of boundary? Boundary is something that indicates bounds or limits, in our case- geographically and politically. They can change by variety of reasons, such as supranationalism, annexations, occupations or devolution. This research will show you the history of Austrian, specifically Salzburg boundaries changes.
In 1914 Austria was a part of Austro-Hungarian Empire and had a big influence on Europe at that time. It contained many countries in it and the Empire was multinational and multilingiustic. Here you can see the map of the Empire of 1914

As you can see, Austria was divided by many regions and Salzburg was one of them.

Soon, in 1918, the Empire broke apart and Austria became an Independent country with some claims on German land. It was a republic of Austria. On the picture below you can see German-Austrian claims of 1918. Red highlighted area shows present day Austria.

As you can see on the map, Salzburg boundaries remained the same and even grabbed little of Bavarian teritorry. However, the Austro-Germany union after WWI wasn't official, so it was just more favoured by people and governmant, as Peace Of Prague Treaties forbade it. So Salzburg remained to be a part of Austria.


In 1938 Germans, through some forced agreements invaded into Austria, and made it a part of the Reich, many politicians in Austria didn't agree with it, but through German strategies, by March 13 Austria was an annexed part of Reich.

As you can see, during Anscluss, Germany annexed the whole Austria and now, Salzburg was under controll of Dictatorship and was a Federal State of Austria in the German Reich. As a majority of population liked the Nazi regime, they were supporting Germany and commiting crimes with them.

After Third Reich fell, the powers that were opposing them took controll over it, including Austria. Austria was divided among the 4 countries

Salzburg region was claimed by U.S.The Second Republic of Austria became a stable democracy. The regions that were claimed by U.S were developing and U.S liked the Tirol culture, so they advertised it. They also created radiostations for education and entertainment which actual goal was to controll the Soviet Unioin Part of Austria.

The two major parties strove towards ending allied occupation and restoring a fully independent Austria. The Austrian State Treaty was signed on 15 May 1955. Upon the termination of allied occupation, Austria was proclaimed as a neutral counrty, and "everlasting" neutrality was incorporated into the Constitution on 26 October 1955 ( Atlas of Austria )
.

During the permanent neutrality time, Austria got it's independence and claimed itself as a democratic country again.

Today, Austria is a Federal republic, and, as a citizen of the capital of Federal State of Salzburg, can assume that throghout 100 years, Salzburg and it's land was a part of 2 Empires and was claimed as a land of 4 different countries.

Salzburg traditional cloth

     Salzburg is famous for it's traditions and unique culture, connected to it's region called Tirol. Many citizens of Salzburg and those who live in Tirol region are following traditional style of clothing, however because of pop culture diffusion, people now wearing it mostly on celebrations, holidays or other types of traditional occasions. In the Old Town, many workers, such as horse riders, clercs in souvenir stores, etc. are wearing it to attract more people and to show tourists how typical traditional cloth look like. Old people are wearing cloth more frequently, as they are more into traditions than younger generations and are adopted to this style. This style of clothing made out of leather and high quality materials, so their costs are pretty high. Therefore, mostly middle and high class people can afford them.

     On the picture below, you can see how it look like and also notice the interior of the store and other types of cloth they are selling in this style.

  As I tried on the cloth myself, I can tell that the materials are expensive and made of leather, wool and detailes are hand-made. You wouldn't find the exact same item in the store. The prices are pretty expensive, The shorts cost around 200 Euros and the Jacket around 300 Euros. Outside the Austria, this outfit would cost much more expensive, as it is unique and would not probably be produced in another country, or even another Austria region and it be exported. The full set of traditional clothing would cost from  2000 to about 4000 Euros, depending on the season collections.

Below you can see a set of Male and Female Outfit that you can buy in the store. ( left is male, right is female)

   Such outfits have it's roots from farmers and hunters who used animal materials and through time it became a fashion style called "Landhausmode". Today, many designers have adopted the shape, texture and colors and combined them with modern trends. This clothing represents the national pride and appreciation of traditions and cultural heritage. 

Here is a picture of one of the stores which is located just in the center of an Old Town. People promotes the style and when you are in center, you can notice lots of such shops as well as people wearing them. 

  Here is the map of the store 

                                     Thank you for attention! Learn more of a folk culture of Tirol region

  In most of the cities there are plenty immigrant communities that actually diffuse their culture and traditions to the country they are staying in. To take an exaple, I went to such community; it was Turkish mostly and I've made an expedition myself to show you the example of how immigrants can impact other culture by spreading their traditions.

This is how a typical Turkish neighbourhood look like in Salzburg. Usually, it is either low or middle class. It is located just near the train station and has a lot of Turkish stores, restourants, and other buisnesses around. I saw a lot of Turkish people in this community and they are living there, so we can assume that this is a Turkish community. 

Just on the way to the neighbourhood shown above, I saw a lot of  such stores and cafes that have traditional routes from Turkey. This small cafe, as they call it "bistro" has typical traditional fast food of Turkey, such as "kebab", "durum", etc. and mostly, Turkish people from those communities are visiting it and all the cashiers and cooks are speaing Turkish. I visited it and had one of those traditional meals, inside, the traditional music was playing as well as Turkish channels on TV. 

Another traditional store was selling fast food. National products and food that are common to eat on their motherland. Those products were mostly snacks, such as nuts and sweets, such as "rahat lukum". There were a lot of kinds of their national food that not only offers fast food. 

Down the street, I saw the store that was selling national cloth and what is important, mostly for women. As the way how women are dressed in Turkey is one of the biggest traditions they follow, this tradition is even connected to religion. The store is selling special scarfs that women have to wear on their head and hijabs, that by traditions, they have to wear it casually. So most women from the community are going to this store, as it is the closest one to the neighbourhood, and buynig their traditional, even cultural cloth.

This is the view on the fast food "bistro" and this is the best example of how the traditions of immigrants impact city life and businesses.
In this link ypu can check how this community, that is located by the train station look loke 

     Salzburg Geographical Expedition team visited a labyrinth by the Landeskrankenhaus Salsburg. The labyryinth was designed as a phylosophical symbol that can represent many things from issue you have to solve to the way of life: from birth to death. The structure of the labyrinth has one entrance and one final destination. While you are going on it's road you may consider many questions and realize that you may be close to your goal, however, you will have to find out much more in order to complete it.
     I myself realized and felt the two perspectives of this labyrinth: perspective from Google map and being inside of it. From Google map you see it's shape, the full shape which shows you the labyrinth with it's clear passes; however, you don't know what is it made of. My expectations were that the labyrinth is surronded by short walls and you actually have to go through it. When I got there, the labyrinth was used as a decoration for the most part and the road was not wide and made of rocks. Also I expected the size of it be bigger. However, in the labyrinth entrance were written words that have some meaning, that you couldn't see on the map. The labyrinth is not the map, it represents more some symbolic meaning about life and it;s difficulties. The labyrinth, however, organazes the space as it influences mind and behaviour. As it is located just by the hospital it
probably influences patient's spatial's environment.
     This labyrinth was a good exercise for our Team to develope geographical imagination. First we saw the map of it in 2D where we couldn't recognize small details that could affect our opinion about it. Later we went there and saw much more, more of our sences were used there: we could touch it, srep on it, feel the environment and facility that surrounding it and it's purpose.







                                                                               


                                                                           This is the picture I took during our expedition, lower,                                                                         you can see the link that will show you it's look                                                                                       from 2D perspective.                                                        

                                              Map on which labyrinth is located