Villach

Villach is the second largest city in Carinthia, a state of Austria. Every year the Villacher Kirtchtag celebration is held in summer. It started as a church day in 1225 when Holy Roman Emperor Frederick decreed Villach could hold a funfair on the day of Jacob.

Austria is trapped in the 80s. Or all the carnival rides in Villach were 80s carnival rides from America.

Make sure to turn the volume all the way up before playing this video.

Every good European festival has a costume parade.

Never go full Schuhplattler.

The horror. THE HORROR!

Every good parade also needs floats pulled by tractors.

Villacher is the main beer around town, and they have a Beer Garden next to their brewery that's pretty good.

The jester wears many masks.

Food not found at most fairs.

There were plenty of alcohol options at the fair.

Sometimes its hard to take this country seriously.

The churches are imposing.

Landskron Castle is next to Villach and houses a bird and monkey sanctuary.

Free-range macaques from Japan roam the grounds of the monkey sanctuary.

Most of the pictures in the blog will be monkey pictures.

Landskron Castle is in the background.

The monkeys learned how to operate pulleys to obtain apples.

The view from Landskron Castle.

The Romerweg, an ancient Roman road, also runs through Villach, near the hotsprings.