Where has the time gone?

Frühlingsfest

I am still here I promise.  I have been super busy and all together just trying to deny the fact that my time here is slowly but surely fading away.  I only have another few weeks before I have to hop on a plane and fly back to sunny Charleston.  Bummer, I know right….  Just kidding, deep down I am looking forward to returning to my home but Salzburg has definitely taken a piece of my heart and I will always look back on Salzburg as my home, even if it was only for 4 short months.  But, for the time being I am still here! And I have stories to tell!  It’s been awhile since I’ve written so bear with me because there is a lot of catching up that y’all need to do!  Going ALL the way back to my trip to Amsterdam, continuing through my trips to Hallstatt, Prague, and Frühlingsfest!  It has been a wild and crazy 3 weeks, but so much fun!

Amsterdam’s famous Red Light District

AMSTERDAM?!? Where do I begin? So much different than I ever imagined.  All I thought Amsterdam stood for was the Red Light District, tulips, and drugs.  Arriving, I immediately knew I was mistaken.  I mean, yes, there was all of those things but the beauty of the city was incredibly underrated.  After getting settled at our hostel we headed right into central Amsterdam.  We had a great lunch near our hostel before we walked down the Red Light District and took in the “sights.”  But for a Friday afternoon the “sights”were looking a little rough if you know what I mean.  So, we wandered the canals and took in the crooked architecture of Amsterdam.  Anyhow, we had a birthday to celebrate that night for our friend Dakota so we made reservations at a sushi place and for the first time in 3 months I had delicious sushi.  It really hit the spot.

One of Amsterdam’s many canals

That night we went out and found a great bar that had all kinds of local and great beers from the Netherlands and Belgium.  We were all exhausted from our awful train ride in that we barely lasted until midnight.  And after a few rounds we went home to get some good sleep for the next day.  OH! I forgot to tell you all about our wonderful train ride in.  So we were on a night train from Salzburg to Amsterdam Central with a connection in Munich.  We were delayed right off the bat because a train headed to Munich with a connection in Salzburg was late and they held our train up so that those passengers could make their connection.  Because of this we missed our connection in Munich.  We went to the Deutsch Bahn desk to file our complaint and to get our tickets fixed and we found out the next train didn’t leave until 3 in the morning.   3 IN THE MORNING!  So now we had 4 hours to waste in Munich on a Thursday night, wonderful.

Luckily the time passed quickly and we met some interesting people at the Munich Hauptbahnhof, including a group of English guys who were playing a game to see who could get the most high fives, hugs or kisses from any girls they could meet.  They were, interesting… Also we ran into another group of english guys who were doing something called the Red Bull “can you make it” challenge.  From what they told us, the Red Bull “can you make it” challenge was a race to see who could get to 6 out of the 30 or so checkpoints first and then get to Paris.  The kicker is, they aren’t allowed to touch any money and they start in Prague.  They can only use cans of Red Bull to trade for food, drinks, rides or whatever else they need.  We were more than willing to help them out and they traded us 3 cans of Red Bull for 3 muffins from Starbucks, which they were extremely grateful for.  You can check them out here.

Beautiful tulips in Holland

Now, back to Amsterdam.  We woke up well rested the next morning and headed out to see some tulips in the Dutch countryside.  We went to a massive garden called Keukenhof and were treated to not just tulips but all kinds of beautiful flowers.  And then at the end there was a traditional Dutch windmill that had an observation deck that we could climb to get a view of the tulip fields off in the distance.  The entire experience was pretty cool, for a garden.

Massive tulip fields

After the garden, we headed towards what I was looking forward to most, the Heineken Brewery! We learned about how the massive company was started by a 21-year-old.  Makes me feel like I’m a little behind in life, kinda like when you watch the Olympics and 16 year olds are winning gold medals for their countries…. Buncha overachievers.. Anyway, we were able to meet Heinekens massive horses that carry their beloved brew around Amsterdam to a few select bars.  We saw the brewing process and how Heineken was one of the first breweries to hire a scientist to create a unique brand of yeast specifically for Heineken.  This is the same yeast they use today and according to Heineken is why their beer has and will always taste the same.

Heineken Brewery

We had a quiet night that night because when we returned to our hostel we realized that one of our friend’s laptop was stolen right out of our room!  Also another girl left her book bag on the bus by accident on the way back from the brewery.  Luckily, we were at least able to get the backpack back from the bus somehow.  But we all were a little annoyed and decided that a few beers and a kebab with our friends spent out in the beautiful weather was enough for us that night.

Amsterdam Arena

The next morning we woke up and got ready to go to the AMSTERDAM ARENA to watch Ajax take on FC Utrecht in one of Amsterdam’s biggest rivalries.  Utrecht is a small suburb  just outside of Amsterdam and while Ajax has had massive success in Europe winning the Champions League in 71, 72, 73, and in 95, FC Utrecht has been struggling to get out of Ajax’s shadow.  The two teams are known for violent clashes and we were super excited to watch a game between them.

The game started off slowly with Utrecht taking the lead and scoring the first goal in the 56th minute.  The game continued to be somewhat boring until FC Utrecht scored a screamer in the 84th minute to go up 2-0.  The fans in the arena began to slowly shuffle out at this point, thinking not only the game but the season may be over now with this loss.  If they couldn’t tie or win they would be in 2nd place behind PSV Eindhoven who have an easy schedule in their last 3 games of the season.  But, Ajax bounced right back with an amazing goal in the 86th minute and then as Ajax was putting on pressure for another goal, they were awarded with a penalty kick in the 88th minute which was cooly put away as they tied it up.  The entire arena was going ballistic and it was incredible to be a part of.

Beautiful Hallstatt

That night we headed back to Salzburg.  Luckily our train ride was much smoother and we arrived around 8 the next morning and straight from the station we hopped on a bus to go to one of the most beautiful places on earth, Hallstatt, Austria.  We spent an afternoon taking in the amazing views of the tiny town hidden deep in the Austrian alps.  With the wild swans in the water and the massive peaks rising above us, it felt as though we were in a fairy tale.

Lederhosen and Bayern Munich

The fun wasn’t over yet, the next day after class we threw on our lederhosen and hopped on a bus headed straight to Munich.  We had ANOTHER fußball game to catch!  This time it was a DFB Pokal semifinal match up between Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen.  The DFB Pokal is a single elimination knockout tournament involving all professional teams in Germany.  Bayern Munich won the last game between the two teams I believe 5-0 and it had been numerous games since Werder Bremen had even scored against Bayern so we figured we were in for a blowout.  We didn’t care though, we made friends on the metro in our lederhosen and sang our hearts out at the game and cheered and groaned with the fans as we loved every second of it.  Bayern won 2-0 in a game that was much closer than it should have been.  That trip was the exclamation point on an incredible 10 days that took me from Innsbruck, Golling, Amsterdam, Hallstatt and finally Munich.

Rooftop study session at the Universität

I came back to school focused and ready to pay attention.  I worked and studied hard, knocked out my exams that Wednesday and Thursday and got packed for our next excursion starting on Friday.  In Salzburg we are always going somewhere or another.  This particular weekend we were headed to Prague, Czech Republic!  I’ve been waiting 3 months for this trip.  I’ve heard so many people talking about how much they love Prague so I had extremely high expectations for it and I was not let down at all.  Ryan, Michael and I got to our hostel (which is apparently the #1 hostel in Eastern Europe), which was right off of the Charles Bridge and ran out to get lunch.  We had a traditional Czech lunch which for us included stew, ham, and potatoes and then headed out to meet our other friends who were all in Prague as well.

Prague’s astronomical clock

We climbed to the top of the worlds oldest and still working astronomical clock, which gave us an incredible view of the city.  We wandered around the old city and took in the amazing architecture.  The entire city had a gothic feel to it, the “city of a thousand spires” took our breath away and the statues on the Charles Bridge that were black due to years of debris added a sinister feel to the entire town.

Charles Bridge

Old Town Square, Prague

That night we went on a bar crawl called the “Drunken Monkey” and had one of the best nights of the semester.  We started with a few drinks at the real “drunken monkey” bar and then moved on as a group across the city to a club literally called “dance club.”  It was way too loud but it was fun when you are surrounded by friends.  From there, we were treated to two other clubs right in the middle of Prague in Wenceslas Square.  Again, not exactly my cup of tea but with friends it was a blast.

Church of Our Lady before Tyn in Prague

The next day was much more relaxed and we decided we needed to see the John Lennon wall which was only about a 4 minute walk from our hostel.  The wall has long been home for graffiti artists looking for a canvas they could legally use.  But ever since the death of John Lennon in 1980, the wall has been a tribute to John Lennon and the Beatles.  With the majority of the wall dedicated to the Beatles, and John Lennon song lyrics and murals.

John Lennon Wall

John Lennon Pub

That afternoon we acted like typical tourists and toured the city, shopping, eating and just enjoying Prague.  It easily is one of my top 3 cities in Europe with Krakow and Salzburg.  We spent our entire afternoon shopping and goofing around until it was time for dinner.  We had a small bite to eat before a few of us headed to a small cocktail lounge where we could spent the rest of our Czech money.  We were encouraged to buy some Cuban cigars and have one of Ernest Hemingway’s favorite drinks that he used to have when he spent time in Prague.  It was nice to have a low-key night, and just relax and sip on our drinks in a quiet atmosphere for once.  I’m much more suited for this kind of night than the loud, thumping club atmosphere from the night before.  We had a blast before we called it a night knowing we had an early train to catch the next morning.  Ciao Praha!

View from the astronomical Clock

The next week we had 2 more birthdays to celebrate, for George and Serge!  We had a joint birthday bar crawl through our favorite bars in Salzburg and the entire study abroad group joined in!  We started off at a Belgian bar called Alchemiste before heading to Bricks to play some pool/ darts/ foosball and then to an Irish bar to sing some karaoke.  We had an absolute blast and ended the night with some käsekrainers and bread.

Karaoke for Serge and George’s birthdays

Lucy, Dakota and I having a blast

That week was a busy one and we had our 2nd round of midterm exams (don’t worry parents, I did well on all my tests). So, even with all of my traveling I am still keeping my grades up! Somehow…. But on Thursday of that week we were treated to a dinner with Mozart.  We all had to get dressed in semi formal attire and we were led to one of the oldest restaurants still active in Europe for a dinner where our entertainment was a string quintet playing Mozart’s masterpieces.  It was definitely one of the coolest experiences for us so far in the land of Mozart and classical music.

Connor, Serge, and I before the Mozart dinner

Lucy, Haley, Serge and I looking our best at the Mozart dinner

That was our last moment of upscale dignity before we once again threw on our lederhosen and dirndls and headed to Frühlingsfest for a weekend of carnival rides, amazing food, friends and of course liters of beer!  Frühlingsfest is the same thing as Oktoberfest except in the Spring.  Also it is more laid back, with less tourists and more of a local crowd.  There were only two massive beer tents but a few other beer companies had their own sections of the park.  The two main tents belonged to Augustiner, and Später.  Paulaner and Hofbräuhaus had their own small beer garden areas as well.

Dakota and I at Frühlingsfest in front of the Augustiner Bräu tent

We arrived Friday morning and got to the park around 4 in our Bavarian best.  There isn’t much to say about Frühlingsfest honestly.  It was just a ton of fun.  The rides were a blast, the beer was amazing, we made friends with the locals and other tourists coming into town as well and all in all had the time of our lives.

Good beer, good food, great friends

Trying to soak it all in

Also this past weekend I was able to finally see my parents for the first time in months!  I also spent time in Berlin and celebrated May Day here in Salzburg with the raising of the May Pole.  More on all of this to come in the next few days!  This is it for now! Til’ next time, Auf Wiedersehen!