Month: February 2016

To Mom, Before I begin, this story has a happy ending!

So this weekend was the first trip we took that wasn’t scheduled for us by AIFS.  And it was a doozy… The plan was to go to Munich Friday afternoon after class, check into our hostel, then go find Hofbräuhaus and have a few beers, pretzels and dinner before turning in for the night so I could get a good sleep before the Bayern München game the next afternoon.  That plan could not have gone any worse…

My first problem arrived about 30 minutes after our arrival in Munich when I realized I had forgotten my Bayern München tickets back in Salzburg.. Apparently in my haste to pack some clothes for the weekend I forgot the main reason why I was going there and walked right past the 2 tickets pinned next to my bed… I knew I had the only key to my dorm and none of my other friends could get to them for me so my only solution was to return in the morning and retrieve them myself (more on this developing story later).  After freaking out for 15 minutes my buddies convinced me that a few beers at Hofbräuhaus would take care my issues for the night and the tickets were a problem to be solved tomorrow.

After a skip, hop and a jump we ended up in the famous beer hall right in the old town.  Somehow we found a table to fit 8 amid the somewhat organized chaos that is Hofbräuhaus.  We ordered pretzels and beer and quickly became friends with the tables around us as we got them all to raise their glasses to “prost” in the night ahead.  The famous glasses at the beer hall are massive, 1 litre to be exact, and the waiters and waitresses somehow carry around 6 in one hand as if it’s nothing!

I’ll skip the details but we had some beers, a few pretzels, fell in love with the pretzel maiden, fell out of love with the pretzel maiden when she ran out of pretzels, had a few more beers, had dinner, had another beer and ended the night singing christmas songs with a group of Norwegians at the table behind us until we were told that the hall closes in 10 and had to find somewhere else to go.  At this time, the forgotten tickets were just that, forgotten.

After leaving Hofbräuhaus we followed our buddy Ryan, who seemed to know where he was going.  We explored the old town a bit, met some Italians, wandered a bit more and just enjoyed the great weather and the city along the way until we found our way back to our hostels for the night.  We couldn’t stop raving about the beer and food and a few of us were pumped about the new mugs we had just acquired ;).

(6:30) ALARM CLOCK goes off, the fact that I don’t have my Bayern München tickets is very clear to me now as I must figure out how to get to Salzburg and back to Munich by 15:30 in time for kick off (cue mission impossible music).  Luckily the bus we took to Munich runs from 8:00-22:00 and is dirt cheap so I walked down to the bus station to reserve a seat both ways for about 16 euros total.   Luckily, it’s an easy trip (just shy of 2 hours and no stops along the way).  I was a little nervous as I only had about an hour once I arrived in Salzburg to get from the bus station to my dorm and then back to catch my next bus, but I didn’t have any better ideas so I had to make it work.  (The rest of the day will be documented like an episode of 24).

(8:00) My bus leaves Munich and all seems good, close my eyes to catch up on some sleep and re-energize for the long day ahead.

(10:00) Wake up slightly confused as to why the clock says 10:00 and why we aren’t in Salzburg yet.  Look out my window to see the Austrian-German border ahead which was wonderful because we should already be well beyond that point and I should be on my way to my dorm now.

(10:10) See sign on side of the road “SALZBURG 15 km”.  Again, wonderful as we should be there -15 minutes ago but I take a deep breath and try to relax.

(10:30) I’ve finally arrived after the longest 15km on planet earth and jump of the bus and sprint off in what I thought was the direction of my dorm.  I ask a nice cab driver “where is Wolf-Dietrich-Straße (my street)” and he says he doesn’t speak english.  Wonderful, so I ask in german “Wo ist Wolf-Dietrich-Straße” and he says he doesn’t speak german either.  Wonderful again.  I feel as though I know where I am so I run off in that general direction.  Luckily I was right and it ended up being only about a km away.

(10:45) Tickets in hand, bag thrown in room, back to the bus station.

(10:55) Run around corner to see my neon green bus with people climbing on board, MADE IT!

(11:00) Bus departs Salzburg for Munich…

(13:30) (kick off in 2 hours) Bus arrives in Munich after a bit of traffic outside of the city presumably because of the game.  Now I must find my buddy Taylor and get him his ticket, the girls already have theirs so that makes things less complicated.  What makes things more complicated is the fact that I have a phone that I can only use with wi-fi and so does Taylor.  I find a coffee shop with wi-fi send Taylor messages about meeting at the game.  I don’t know anything about the stadium but I figured it would be easier to find him there amongst 75,000 people then amongst the 1.3 million of Munich.

(14:00) Lost on the Munich subway, wonderful.

(14:30) Find group of friendly Canadians wearing team Canada hockey jerseys and talking about soccer, so stick with them until I get my bearings again.

(15:00) (kick off in 30 minutes)  I get off at the right station and begin the trek from station to stadium, I can see it off in the distance and it is massive.  Also the weather has turned from clear to miserable and a small rain has begun and temperatures have dropped.  Canadian friends have disappeared as they admit they don’t actually have tickets they just wanted to see the stadium……

(15:10) wi-fi has returned and I check my phone for messages from Taylor, still no word.  Beginning to worry if I’m about to ruin his day by not being able to get the guy his tickets.  Continue to check for any sign of him, no luck.  Wait 10 minutes hoping to see him and finally decide to head inside.  Just as I’m about to turn off my phone to save battery my phone buzzes and Taylor tells me exactly where he is and I get him his ticket!  Mission completed!

(15:30) Climb up to the top deck after purchasing my fc Bayern scarf and just as I turn down the tunnel the security guard stops me and pulls me aside.  Doesn’t speak english but clearly motions for me to tuck my scarf inside my jacket before sending me on my way.. Slightly confused but oh well..

(15:35) Not confused anymore as I get to my section and see a sea of blue and white (fc Bayern are red and white).  Teresa and Camy are there and they also have their red and white tucked deep inside their jackets as we pray we survive the game amongst 5,000 SV Darmstadt fans.

(15:40) This is how my life ends… An SV Darmstadt fan has noticed that we are not what we appear and yells at us that “THE BAYERN SECTION IS OVER THERE!!”  I have put my scarf away in one of the girls’ bag and nervously laugh it off, determined to show these people that I am the most loyal SV Darmstadt fan to ever come from America.

(15:56) SV DARMSTADT SCORES FIRST!!! I jump and cheer and the same burly man that had just told us where we should be sitting is now hugging me over Taylor’s head as another man is grabbing my arm to celebrate with us as well!

(16:00) I am accepted into the tribe..  I have learned the chants and songs of the SV Darmstadt fans and have been accepted into this crazy group of people.

(17:30) The game is over, Bayern Munich make a 2nd half push and score 3 goals (2 from Muller, his 2nd was incredible! and 1 from Lewandowski) to win 3-1.  The Darmstadt fans are sad but cheer on their team with the same enthusiasm as they did in the first minute right to the very end.  Their players come over to our corner and applaud our support before heading to the locker room.

(18:00) Can finally be Bayern München fans…

(18:05) Really, really cold……..

(20:00) Grab dinner at Munich’s central train station before catching our bus back to Salzburg.

Sunday morning is still rainy and our ski trip which was planned to happen today has been pushed off to next weekend which looks like will have a few days of snow.  Fine by me as I am completely exhausted.  After sleeping in I get word that a few of the guys are planning a hike up one of the local hills that overlooks the city and we all meet around 3 in the afternoon to attempt the climb.

The hike was slightly tougher then I imagined it would be, but we finally made it to the top and were pleasantly surprised to find an old monastery that serves beer!  So naturally, we had a beer while enjoying the great view before heading down before dark.

We were slightly caught off guard with the incredible views on our way back down and at every turn we had to stop to take photos as we were floored by the sun going down behind the Austrian alps.

I’ve taken about 100 photos of the fortress but it still doesn’t get old for me so here is another….

And then as we were sitting on the defensive walls we saw this..

What a way to end the weekend..

This is where I leave you guys as I look ahead to starting my classes on Monday and getting down to business.  But before I go I have 1 more photo to share which I discovered on my phone Sunday afternoon.  I have no recollection of taking the photo but I’m pleasantly surprised by my steady hand following the night at Hofbräuhaus.  Without further ado, I give you the Rathaus-Glockenspiel!!!!

And on that note Auf Wiedersehen!!

Where to start.. The past week and a half has been an absolute blur since I have arrived in Salzburg, Austria.  Right off the bat we jumped into our 2 week intensive language program where they attempt to shove a half semester of German language course into 2 weeks.  We took a placement test to divide us into our varying levels and judging by the looks around the classroom I was not the only one who seemed to not be able to sprechen sie deutsch that day…. Anyhow, I did well enough to place into the level I needed to for course credit back at the U of SC.

Our second day in Salzburg included a great hike around the city from our AIFS tour guide Andreas who is great.  The guy knows so much about Salzburg and Austria it blows our minds, from Mozart to the plethora of Cathedrals all the way down to the little things like why there is a huge chunk missing from a house in the middle of the city.. (US tanks were apparently too big to fit through Salzburg’s tiny streets and bumped into a few homes during WWII) But Andreas admits it is better then the alternative of US planes dropping bombs on the beautiful city.

The tour took us up to the defensive walls built across the river from the fortress, the views were incredible again, this country doesn’t seem to have any bad views from what I’ve seen so far..

The next day we woke up to Salzburg blanketed in a 2-4 inches of fresh snow that turned the entire city into a postcard and it really began to sink in that this was our new home for the next 4 months… After a few snowball fights amongst friends that made the locals roll their eyes we tried to act like it wasn’t that big of a deal and continued on with our day.

Wednesday we finally had to come to reality that we are in fact here to study as well as travel… So we attended our first german language course which lasts 4 hours a day… Our teacher (Ines) is wonderful but she tries to only speak german to us so we can learn as quickly as possible.  It seems to be working, as already I can tell my language skills are catching on really quickly! After about 2 hours she convinced us to go up to the roof of the Unipark (the building our classes are in) and check out the view for a short break.  What we found was stunning and for the millionth time left us all with our jaws on the floor…

From the huge mountains to the fortress it feels like I’m in a fairy tale.. The mountains seem fake they’re so gigantic and the novelty still hasn’t worn off, every break in class we all run up to the roof and marvel at them as if we’ve all never seen mountains before…

 

After 3 days of long german classes we finally reached the weekend! We were scheduled to go on a horse drawn sleigh ride up into the alps to a little town called Filzmoos.  While there we were to have lunch in a small cabin nestled at the base of a few huge peaks.  Our sleigh driver was a little too generous with der Schnaps, but we were all toasty warm when we arrived at our destination.

 

On the menu was gulaschsuppe and kaiserschmarrn… and beer.  The gulaschsuppe was great and has been one of my favorite foods since arriving but the kaiserschmarrn (which roughly translate to the emperors mess or something like that I really didn’t fact check that so just take my word for it..) was out of this world! It’s pretty much just a thick pancake that has been cut up and mixed with cinnamon, powdered sugar and strawberries and it tastes better then it sounds..  After stuffing our faces we all had to return to the horses and say goodbye to Filzmoos, as they couldn’t stay too long out in the cold weather..

 

Naturally being this high in the mountains and seeing the snow a group of us planned a ski trip for the next day.  We found a free shuttle to take us to the local resort called Flachau and used our free day on Sunday to ski our hearts out and take in one of Austria’s favorite hobbies.  Oh and it’s so much cheaper to ski here then the states… 40 euros for a lift ticket, 25 for rental and only 8 for beer AND gulaschsuppe on the mountain… Thats cheaper then the tiny hills in NC!!

But Monday was back to real life and work, (just kidding) but this week has been packed with work.  We got our class schedules and we started planning our trips around Europe and we’re all slowly becoming used to the everyday ins and outs of Salzburg.  We are finding our favorite wurst carts, kebab shops and pretzel vendors around the city and taking full advantage of them at every chance we get. My personal favorite is the krapfen brezel, which is basically just a pretzel donut with cinnamon sugar on it.  If we didn’t have to walk so much we’d all have put on 10 lbs already but thankfully we do.  

Anyway, this is where I leave you for this segment of my blog, sorry for the lengthy write up but so much has happened and I couldn’t leave anything out… I will be posting again next monday as this weekend I am going to a fc Bayern Munchen game and skiing again on Sunday before classes start monday!  Thanks everyone for tuning in, auf wiedersehen!!

After what seems like the longest flight of my life I have officially arrived in London England!! The first stop on my 4 month long European adventure! After a short drive to the hotel and a quick nap at the we were free to explore the city for the day.

After navigating the tube from our hotel we found ourselves under Big Ben, and the London Eye.  A short walk away brought us to Trafalgar Square but the rain pushed into a small restaurant for dinner.  The sights were great but we didn’t spend too much time on them as we are going on an organized tour in the morning which will bring us to all of those neat places.  So instead we found the nearest english pub and settled down with a few rounds for the night

Sunday morning we went on a bus tour of London and made stops at Buckingham Palace to say hi to the queen, St Paul’s Cathedral (where we stopped for tea), and Tower Bridge/ Tower of London.  After the tour we were set free to explore and we headed to Camden Market to get lunch at Nando’s chicken, which we had been told was some of the best spicy chicken in England.  Definitely checked out!

After lunch we headed to Kings Cross Station to try and find platform 9 3/4!  Along the way we found an urban outdoor gym… And of course we had to get in a quick workout to earn a few more beers at the pub tonight, the leg press machine was a little broken but that didn’t stop Dakota and I.

But at Kings Cross they had a lot of touristy rubbish there for pictures but we didn’t get to pose for any photos at the wall because the line was way too long.  Oh well, didn’t want to go to Hogwarts anyway.  As of now we’re preparing for a night out near Trafalgar Square with Admiral Horatio Nelson for a couple of pints.  GO PANTHERS tonight in the Super Bowl! Til next time, auf wiedersehen!!