Schule und Reisen

The first two weeks of classes have gone really well. I am in all the classes that I wanted/need to be in. I’m not crazy about one of my classes, Österreich Aktuell. The professor is kind of weird and I want to fall asleep during class. My favorite class has to be Free Writing. Our professor gives us prompts and we take it from there. It’s fun to let the creativity flow out onto paper. Plus it’s great practice. My Art History class is bound to be interesting. The professor is involved with renovations to historic sites all around Salzburg and he really knows his stuff about art. German Lit is kind of boring. The book we are currently reading is not one that I’d pick up and be excited to read. I prefer my Harry Potter book, in German of course. The DaF course is a little dry but going well. I have the same professor for Free Writing so he’s awesome. That’s it for classes so far, we’ve also had a ton of homework but it’s doable.

Now for the truly fun part of the past two weeks: my day trip to Innsbruck. We left around 8 Saturday morning and planned on leaving around on the 9pm train. The train ride was AWESOME! I wish that the seats were that nice for plane rides. The train ride was about 2 hours long and the scenery was GORGEOUS! The alps are awe-inspiring and everyone should see them at least once.

Once we arrived we found a tourist booth and got an Innsbruck Card. This card allows you to get in free to museums, public transportation, and discounts at certain stores. It’s a must if you want to stay within a budget. We also got a map that definitely came in handy. We then headed to the cable cars that take you to the top of one of the mountains in town. Let me tell you that the view was breathtaking. We didn’t want to leave. There was a hiking trail that you could walk up the mountain, but we quickly nixed that idea as we had a tight schedule. It had also recently snowed and we got to throw snowballs at each other for a minute. That was fun haha. After we spent about an hour of taking in the view and taking pictures we decided to head back down and explore the Old City.

I forgot to mention that I have been to Innsbruck before. My dad and I went, the summer I graduated, on a 10 day Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy tour. We only got to spend a few hours there and it was raining. Today there was not a cloud in the sky and was everything I remeberd and more. Once we got back to the Old City we went to St Jacob’s Cathedral. It is ethereal. Marble floors, gold leafing everywhere, a huge organ, the statues themselves are beautiful, and some of the painting on the wall/ceiling literally come off the surface. For instance, if there was a scroll held by someone in the painting part of said scroll would be 3D rather 2D. So it jumps out at you. After we spent a while taking in the Cathedral we went to see the Golden roof.

The Golden Roof is part of a building that has been around for over 500 years. It was built during Maxamillion’s rule. The roof is literally made out of gold. You can go inside the building and take tour and see artifacts and look out from the balcony that the roof covers. When we finished we got some of the most delicious gelato I have ever had! I should have taken a picture of it because they formed a flower out of the flavors I chose. However me + multitasking + gelato in a cone = a mess. So I decided not to. You’ll just have to take my word that it was not only delicious but presentation definitely gets a 10/10.

We then decided to go to the Imperial Palace and walk see what it would have been like to live as a King or Queen. It was fun trying to find the entrance because the Palace covers a good deal of the Old City. My friends trusted me with the map, which I did well navigating even though I get lost in my hometown. We finally made found the right entrance and started the tour. I wish we could have taken pictures because it was beautiful inside. I could definitely see myself living there if I were a Princess let alone Queen. My favorite rooms were the ballroom, dining room, and the dressing room (which was all pink).

After we toured the Palace we went to Swarovski  Crystal World. It’s a museum for well you guessed it Swarvoski Crystal. It was so shiny, glittery, breathtaking, and at times weird. It was neat to see all the creations made out of high end crystal. I even got a little Four Leafed Clover magnet. I highly recommend going if you have the chance. The pictures below give a better glimpse as to what I saw.

Once we made it back to the Old City we decided to get dinner and then head home. We went to this nice little pub/restaurant. We all ordered Schnitzle and it was pretty good. Dessert was better though. We ordered three things, an Apple donut pastry, brownie, and Vanilla Ice Cream with Whipped Crème and Hot Chocolate Sauce. My favorite was the ice cream, but the Apple pastry was a very close second.

We then caught a train back to Salzburg and promptly fell asleep during the trip back. We were exhausted but had a fabulous time. I can’t wait for the trip to Vienna next weekend and Prague the following weekend.

Hat ein schönes Tag!!!

-A

Erste Woche in Salzburg!!

SALZBURG IS AMAZING!! It’s so amazing that I haven’t had much down time to blog let alone update Facebook and such. This first week has been so much fun and filled with shopping, traveling, eating, and learning how to navigate the bus system. This post is going to be a bit of a long one since I have so much to tell you. Let’s start with the flight and train ride to Salzburg…

We left Cincy right on time and made it to Chicago just in time to run as fast as we could to our connecting flight to London. The flight to London was pretty uneventful. They served dinner and breakfast. Dinner was pretty good. I had the beef and potato meal, they also served a spaghetti meal. For breakfast the served blueberry yogurt (gross) and banana nut bread. The in-flight films were Kungfu Panda 2, Midnight in Paris, and Thor. The latter didn’t start until we were about to land and I am upset that we didn’t get to see more of Chris Hemsworth’s abs haha! We arrived to London about 30mins early. You’d think they’d let us land so we could be on our way. Well that is not the case. We circled the airport for another 30mins and when we arrived at our gate we couldn’t even reach it! There was a crane in the way and of course it wasn’t the airlines crane it was the airports and no one was around to move. So we were ultimately 20mins late deboarding. We had about 45mins until our connecting flight left. Let me tell you that the Heathrow Airport in London is CRAZY!! If you have a connecting flight that is International-International you must go through security again. Needless to say we didn’t really have time to stand around and take in our surroundings. We made it to the security line after walking what seemed like forever. As luck would have it the line we got in only had one working XRay and Metal Detector. I was about to scream! After a long wait we made it through security and looked at the departure board for our gate number. We had about 20mins so I assumed we’d be alright. That is not the case, the board said that the door was closing at that very moment. My crazy luck struck again and the gate was on the very end of the airport!! We sprinted through the airport going up some stairs, back down some stairs, through long hallways, up more stairs, back down stairs, and finally another long winding hallway. Alas I arrived at the gate breathless but my friend was not to be seen. She had dropped her things in the hallway and I didn’t know. However we both boarded and then sat at the gate for another 20mins. 20MINS!! What’s up with that? Say you’re leaving then don’t.. that’s just CRAZY! Anyway, this flight was really nice and we got a brunch. It was some kind of Quiche. It had spinach, mushrooms, and some kind of pork product.. I didn’t eat it haha. Finally we arrived at the Munich Airport got our luggage and found the train. Once we got off the U-Bahn (Subway) we transferred to a passenger train for the 2 hour ride to Salzburg. I fell asleep about 15mins in and woke up seeing mountains out the window. It was GORGEOUS! Once we arrived to the Hauptbanhof we got directions to the hostel and walked. That’s right walked with all our massive luggage. It was fun J.

Now for the first few days in Salzburg…

We arrived at our hostel and were starving. It was a nice little hostel and at that time we had no roommates! We were in a room that could hold 6 so it was nice to have the room to ourselves. We also had free WiFi! WiFi, let alone internet, is very difficult to find here. So I made some skype calls to family and just relaxed a little. It was only 2pm so sleep was not yet feasible. That night we met up with a mutual friend and had dinner. I had my first legit Schnitzel! It was fantastic! I have since had it prepared two ways, traditional and one with a Champignon mushroom sauce. Both are fantastic! The next few days were filled with a lot of walking around and shopping. I bought the first Harry Potter book in German J I’m such a nerd haha. We also got to see Schloss Mirabell and Mirabell Gardens. They filmed Sound of Music at the Gardens. The scene where they are singing Doe a Deer in a beautiful garden is Mirabell Gardens. I also got to see several churches and the fountain that Maria starts singing “I have confidence”. Salzburg is gorgeous and I’m fairly certain my parents are going to have to drag me away kicking and screaming to get me back to the states.

Moving in to the dorm and Oktoberfest…

On Thursday we moved into the Dorms. I’m in Haus Humboldt. It’s nice and my roommate is Awesome! We get along great and both are addicted to Harry Potter haha. Thursday night there was a get together at my advisors home here in Salzburg. It was a ton of fun and I met all the people involved in the program. A small group of us that live in Humboldt decided to not go out to the bars that night with the other group, but we stayed in and went to the terrace on the roof for a drink and to just chill. It was a ton of fun. You also wouldn’t believe how many stars you can see here at night! There’s hardly any light pollution that we have in the States. Friday we had a meeting at the University and filled out a ton of paperwork. Afterwards there was a tour of Salzburg then we were free for the weekend. Another group of us decided to get dinner together and then chill on the terrace again. We also finalized plans for the trip to Munich for Oktoberfest the next morning…

Oktoberfest is an experience I will never forget. It was so much fun! Although we had a minor setback in the morning, someone lost their keys so we had to search. We didn’t find them but left anyway. We made it to the Hauptbanhof and set off to Munich. The train ride was quite eventful. It was packed with people going to Oktoberfest. Lots of Lederhosen and Drindels. Also, alcohol can pretty much be consumed wherever in Europe. So naturally people were drinking on the train and having a merry time. We arrived in Munich around 11:30 and took the U-bahn to the exit for the festival. When we arrived it was so packed! There had to be what seemed like thousands of people there! There was only one common goal “Eat,Drink, and Drink some more”. We walked around for a bit, tried to get into a tent for a drink (impossible), rode the Ferris Wheel, and found a restaurant for food and drinks. We got a table fairly quickly. I ordered a Potato Knödel and it was pretty good. However the Beer and Saurkraut were much better! I had two Raddlers. For those who don’t know what a Raddler is it’s half beer and half lemonade. Let’s just say that the beer here is 100x’s better than in the States. We sat at a large table and were joined by a group from Spain and brothers from California. The brothers didn’t know much German so they tagged along for a few hours. After eating we went to the “Park” by the big statue. This is where everyone went to nap and just relax after drinking. We just sat around talking and having a good time. In the end we left and had quite the adventure getting home. The train was packed and there were no seats. So we sat on the stairs between levels. It was fun and all in all everyone had a great time.

Yesterday…

Yesterday my roommate and I decided to just have a lazy day. It was wonderful after a week of Go Go Go. We literally just sat around talking, doing our nails, and napping. We did eventually go to the McDonalds down the street for dinner and to use their free WiFi. When we got there one of our friends from the dorm was already there and there were about 20 other people with their laptops out working and skyping.

So that in a Nutshell is the first week of living in Salzburg. Today is the first day of school and I’m not too nervous about it because we aren’t taking classes with the rest of the University. Our classes are for BG students only so that’s nice. This post is almost 1500 words so I’m signing off.

I’ll try to post as often as I can. It will at least be once a week.

Schönes Woche!!

-A

PS Here are the classes I’m taking:

Art History

Contempary Austria

Intro to German Lit

Free Writing class

And German Classes which will be assigned on Thursday.