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.
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