Vienna 2000 - the CampVienna 2000 - the CampJuly 30th through August 8th, 2000
Vienna 2000 took
place between July 30th and August 8th and involved nearly 5,000 boy scouts and girl
guides from around the world. The image at left shows a bird's eye view of
the Vienna 2000 camp. The Markt Platz, or market place, is the circular area to the
upper left of center. Our subcamp, Andromeda, is located on the left-hand side of
the image and in the lower center of the photo. Unfortunately, our particular
campsite is just to the left of the left edge of the photo! One of the first tasks
at any camp is to set up our campsite. Since our troop's contingent included only 8
scouts and 4 leaders, we were paired with 10 scouts and 3 leaders from Wien Pfadfinder
Gruppe 32 to make up our jamboree troop. In Austria, the boy scouts and girl guides
are combined into a single scouting organization and our Austrian partner troop included
two girls in its contingent of 10 scouts. In addition to the girls in our own troop,
the campsite next to ours was occupied by a combined troop of 41 girl scouts from
New Jersey who were attending Vienna 2000 with a girl guide group from Straffordshire,
England.
The camp was divided into
three subcamps, the subcamp you were assigned to depended upon the age of the
participants. Augstine was the subcamp for scouts from 10 t0 13 years of age.
Andromeda was for scouts 13 to 16 years of age and Wiener Blut was the subcamp for scouts
16 to 20 years of age.
In Europe, the older scout program, Rovers, handles scouts up to age 20 and leaders are 21
years old or older, as opposed to 18 year 0ld leaders that the BSA allows. The
photo at left shows the main gateway to Vienna 2000 with the main street seen to the
rear. This was the main way into and out of the jamboree. For safety purposes,
the main gateway, along with all of the other camp structures, was bolted together, as
opposed to lashed. As you can see, the main gateway was quite an impressive and
complex structure and presented a strinking first impression to visitors to the jamboree.
The gateway to our subcamp, Andromeda, is shown in the photo below
right. Unfortunately, during the latter days of the camp, the entryway turned into a
mini-lake, as seen in the photo. The jamboree site itself is the site of an old
military airfield that had seen service in both World War I and World War II. We
were told that the old runways still exist, buried some three feet under the current
surface of the site! No, none of the scouts went digging on site for relics.
The jamboree's main street
was lined with the flags representing the countries of the scouts who were participating
in the camp. Main Street lead from the Market Place, or
Markt Platz, to the jamboree entrance gateway,
which can be seen in the distance. Subcamp Augustine can be seen on both sides of
Main Street, which divided that subcamp. For the first part of the camp Main Street
was a dusty lane but the rains that dominated the latter part of Vienna 2000 turned it
into a quagmire which became impassable for camp vehicles. The photographs of the
camp gateways and main street are courtesy of Martin Dietrich of Wien Pfadfinder Gruppe
12!
There was an official camp
television station, called "Scouty Vision," and an official camp newspaper,
called "Scouty Planet." While Scouty Vision was mostly in German, Scouty
Planet was printed in both English and German, although the English translations left much
to be desired. A favourite item for Troop 461's members in each edition of
"Scouty Planet" was an advice column written by a staff member who called
himself "Dr. Scouty." Dr. Scouty's 
advice sometimes left
quite a bit to be desired. For example, in the first issue of "Scouty
Planet," Dr. Scouty advised one writer who was wondering whether to bring his
overshoes or condoms to Vienna 2000 as his pack was not big enough for both. Dr.
Scouty, being the romantic he was, advised the puzzled scout that it hardly ever rains in
Vienna but that he would be meeting quite a few wonderful maidens at Vienna 2000 so he
should leave his overshoes at home. Dr. Scouty was more of a romantic than a
weatherman since the latter part of the jamboree was dominated by thundershowers and
mud. In a later issue, Dr. Scouty was asked advise by a "rover"
(Explorers/Venture Scouts) leader who was lamenting the fact that he had been at Vienna
2000 for four days and was still alone in his tent! Europeans sure have a different
view of scouting and camping than we do in the States!
For our camp gateway, we erected a short tower with
a flagpole that flew both the Austrian and US flags, showing the dual nationality of our
jamboree troop. The photo at right shows Steve Baldovsky and Mike Hohenwarter atop
our gateway tower with the flags flying. As you can note, this was after one of our
wet, stormy periods and some of our scouts had laundry set out to dry next to the
gateway. In the site on the other side of us were some girl guides from New Zealand
with a mixed girl scout/girl guide troop from New Jersey and England on the other side of
our campsite. Across the parade field was a contingent of scouts from Lichtenstein
with scouts from Germany and Sweden filling out the remainder of the parade field.
One of the activities at the jamboree was a
two-day out-of-camp adventure. Several of our members enjoyed an overnight hike in
the mountains. Two members of our group, Steve Baldovsky and Mike Hohenwarter,
signed up for a difficult mountain hike
which included a tough
hike in the Alps and a night in a mountain cabin. Two others of our group, along
with Mark Hohenwarter, enjoyed an intermediate mountain hike. Chris Gore and Jerry
Cumberledge enjoyed an overnight bicycle trip throughout the Austrian countryside while
Alex Peoples and Chris Shepardson tried their hands at building a raft and using it on a
lake near the River Danube. The photo above right shows Mark Hohenwarter, one of our
adult leaders, with Mike Flowers and Zach Wile. Pictured along with our three
members are Susa Hummel and Lisa Mühlhauser, two of the Austrian scout leaders of Pfadfinder Gruppe 32 Pax Hill,
which joined with us to make up our jamboree troop.
While the first four days of the jamboree were
hot and sunny, the weather turned rainy
Thursday night with a series of severe thunderstorms that caused nearly everyone's tent to
get wet. The rains also turned the dusty dirt paths next to the latrines and wash
stations into mud holes which soon became impassable. During those rainy days, there
wasn't much to do but trudge up to the Lipton Tent in the market place to enjoy a Cola and
perhaps a Schinken Käse Toast (grilled ham and cheese sandwich) or two. Schinken
Käse Toasts were a bargain at only öS 25, 25 Austrian Schillings. There were
several cafe tents at Vienna 2000. One of the neatest was the Andromeda Cafe, which
was located in our subcamp. One of the attractions in the Andromeda Cafe was the
Cuddle Corner, where one could take a friend, take off your shoes and enjoy a friendly
time.
Despite the weather, the camp volleyball
competition went on. In order to reach the subcamp finals, Troop 461's team had to
defeat teams from Sweden and Croatia. Despite some stiff competition from an
Austrian team, our group's team managed to win the Subcamp Andromeda championship by a
two-to-one victory over the Austrians. In the spirit of international cooperation, two of
Troop 461's members played for the Pax Hill Gruppe 32 team, but the
Gruppe 32 team was eliminated early in the competition. 
Water was a major part
of the latter portion of Vienna 2000. But the skies cleared enough to enjoy the
planned program of the camp.
The last Saturday of the camp involved an evening of "open pots" where each troop would prepare a dish indicative of their home country, making a sufficient quantity to share with visitors from other countries. Mike Flowers was in charge of organizing our entry into the "open pots" evening. Our group made pancakes, which were enjoyed by our visitors. One German group made tacos, which we never thought of as a particularly German dish! A nearby Girl Guide group from Scotland made haggis, a dish particular to Scotland, which is a blend of spiced meats cooked in a cow's stomach. A few of our scouts and leaders were brave enough to try that dish.