My new life in northern Germany

The “Altstadt” in Bremen’s city center with the St. Petri Dom and Rathaus

It’s been just over two weeks since I arrived here in Germany and I could not be enjoying it more.  There have been a few speed bumps along the way and few challenges and difficult “goodbyes” but everything is falling into place slowly but surely.  My parents flew out with me and we arrived in beautiful, foggy Bremen on the 21st.  Immediately fears of “what have I gotten myself into” began to cover my mind like the fog that never seems to want to leave…

Oh boy…

But I’ve begun to learn to love the constant fog, it adds to the character of this new and interesting place.  But for the time being the fog was driven away from my mind that first night as I sat down for my first “german” meal of meat, potatoes and beer.  Oh, how i missed the beer!  But I know I must not get too comfortable with the meat as I am no longer in Austria or Southern Germany.  I am now in the “oh so cold” north, only a little ways off of the North Sea, and in Bremen fish is what will normally be on my daily menu.

First delicious beer in back in Europe

Over the course of my first week my parents and I spent most of our days moving into my new little house in the tiny town of Osterholz-Scharmbeck, which is just outside of Bremen.  I share the home with my landlord’s family who live on the bottom floor and a resident who is very hard to meet, splitting the top floor (still haven’t met him or her yet).   I’m out in farm country so I have a few interesting neighbors to keep me entertained.  My landlord who lives below me has been very friendly and helpful.  His english isn’t the best, just like my german isn’t too great, so we are working on it together.  I really like my set up, I wasn’t sure what to expect but I have plenty of room and the house has been great so far!

Home for the next 18 months

My new little “neigh”bors (sorry for how pixelated the photo is)

Besides just moving into my new home my parents and I got to explore Bremen itself.  We walked around the altstadt, visited the city’s massive cathedral and found some of the best restaurants that Bremen had to offer.  Also in my first week I had to come to terms with the fact that I had to learn how to drive a manual car.. I’ve never driven a manual and the only other time I had tried ended with me furiously quitting after stalling the car for the 1000th time.  But, I am now older and wiser and after a few days finally got comfortable in my little ford hatchback.  It had been a fantastic first week but it was quickly coming to an end and because of this I knew I had to come to grips with having to say goodbye, which I knew would be tough for all of us.  But luckily, thanks to my new employers we had one more adventure before they left.

Dad at Hofbräuhaus Bremen before the fußball (soccer) match

The local soccer team, Werder Bremen was taking on powerhouse Bayern Munich and we were treated with tickets to the game!  It was cold and windy but such a great time.  As fate would have it I actually watched Bremen play Bayern Munich just last spring when I was in Salzburg and sat IN the Werder Bremen section.  On that day, I was a little disappointed to not be able to cheer for Munich but now I know I had been in the right section the entire time.  Werder Bremen isn’t exactly that much competition for Bayern Munich and unfortunately they ended up losing 2-1.  But, they played really well against one of the best teams in Europe and in my opinion they outplayed Bayern Munich in the 2nd half only just coming up short.  I think I can get used to cheering for this group of underdogs.

Bremen in green vs Bayern in red

That night we had dinner at this fantastic Italian restaurant in Osterholz-Scharmeck and than it was time for goodbyes.  It’s never easy to move out (“finally” as my dad would say) but I had a feeling this “goodbye” would be harder than others.  It wasn’t a simple “goodbye, I will see you in a few weeks, or I’ll stop by later this week.”  No, this was a “goodbye, have a safe flight back across the ocean, I’ll see you in a few months.”

I am so thankful for all that my parents have done for me and how they have encouraged me to chase my dreams and not once have they tried to persuade me into taking an easier route, closer to home (well maybe my mom has tried one time)..  That night I spent a lot of time thinking about how lucky I am to have those two in my life and while I know I am where I am supposed to be right now in life and the world, I am absolutely looking forward to seeing both my mom and dad in May when I return for my buddy Garrett’s wedding.

Bremerhaven

My first week on my own went well, there were, as I said a few minor speed bumps, one of which has delayed my start date of work a week, until Wednesday the 8th (today), but all is good.  On the bright-side this has given me an entire week on my own to explore and try to get to know my new home.  I spent the first few days driving around town and walking around the shops to get an idea of where everything is in town.  I tried some local fish and had a few kebabs.. I had forgotten how amazing those were!!  But on Thursday I began to get a little bit of cabin fever.. So I got in my car, pointed my headlights north and drove ’til I hit the North Sea.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Bremerhaven but my day trip was most definitely a success.  I arrived at the coast just as the sun was going down and had a dinner of fried, freshly caught fish and a boiled potato from a shack right off of a dock on the water.  After dinner I headed up to an observation platform to watch the sun go down.  A few selfies later and I was ready to head back home.

Observation Platform in Bremerhaven

On the next Saturday I was lucky enough to be able to find good tickets to a Borussia Dortmund game.  Dortmund is about 250 km south of Bremen and home to one of Germany’s best soccer teams.  I had heard really great things about their stadium, Signal Iduna Park and how it was the loudest and rowdiest stadium in Germany and I knew I had to go catch a game there as soon as possible.  So when I saw that Borussia Dortmund was playing RB Leipzig I immediately searched for tickets online.  RB Leipzig isn’t very well liked in Germany thanks to their owners pumping massive amounts of cash into the team.  Most other clubs and their fans look at them as “cheating” the system or “buying the title” and because of this, almost everyone despises them.  The match was supposed to be really heated, as well as a great game as Leipzig was in 2nd place and Dortmund in 4th place in the league.

Signal Iduna Park, home to Borussia Dortmund

I got to the stadium a few hours before the game and enjoyed some beers, bratwurst and some German tailgating to prepare for the big game ahead. I was one of the first into the stadium so I was able to walk around and get an up-close view of the pitch.  Eventually the fans began to arrive (from both teams) and you could begin to feel how tense everyone in the stadium was.  The RB Leipzig fans where shielded in their very own section with plexiglass dividers to protect them from the Dortmund fans as well as having security guards and police all around them.  Signs around the stadium began to pop up saying things like “anti RB,” “RB and fußball do not mix” and many other things I can’t say on here as I know my grandparents read this.  A few fans were arrested for holding up lewd signs before the game and before I knew it the entire stadium was packed 80,000 strong ready for the match.  The atmosphere inside the stadium was incredible!! Fans singing, chanting cheering, barely sitting down the entire game.. It was unbelievable!!

 Gametime!!!

The game was incredible and Dortmund ended up winning 1-0.  The goal was scored right in front of me and the entire stadium went berserk.  RB Leipzig actually ended up scoring in the 93rd minute but the official ruled it offside and no goal.  What an ending!

For the rest of the week I had just been preparing for work which started today.  It went well and everyone is very friendly.  Almost everyone speaks english which is great, but I still plan on improving my german so that I can converse with them in their more comfortable language.

Next weekend I am looking forward to traveling to Frankfurt to see my Aunty Fran and Uncle Dan who are traveling here in Europe at the moment!  It’ll be great to see some familiar faces in a city I’ve never been too!  Can’t wait for that!

In other news, this week marks the one year anniversary of my arrival in Salzburg last year.  I have been working on this video for a few months now and it’s finally ready for everyone to see.  I know I posted this on Facebook a few days ago so some of you have already seen it but for those who haven’t here ya go!  Sorry it’s a bit long but it’s really difficult to fit 4 months of incredible moments and experiences into a short video.  That’s all for now, enjoy the video! Auf Wiedersehen!!

 

Bremen, Germany

On January 21st I am returning to Europe to start working in Bremen, Germany.  It’s an unbelievable opportunity and I am incredibly lucky for this chance to be able to work abroad and further my German language skills, as well as visit a few more incredible places this amazing world has to offer.  I will be working for a company called Bergolin, who make industrial coatings for a variety of products.  But my focus abroad will be in the sales department of their industrial coatings for their wind turbine blades as well as learning how the coatings are produced in the labs.  I got a lot of great feedback about my blog while I was studying abroad in Salzburg last year, and it convinced me to continue to write about my adventures in my new career.

I will be living in a tiny city a few kilometers outside of Bremen, Germany called Osterholz-Scharmbeck.  But my home base will pretty much be in Bremen, which is in it’s own state known as the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, which is the smallest of Germany’s 16 states.  Bremen is a city of 550,000 people, it’s the 11th largest city in Germany and 3rd largest city in the north behind Hamburg and Berlin.

I can’t wait to get to work and to travel in this new region of Europe.  Being in Salzburg last Spring I was easily able to travel to the east to countries like Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, but now I will be able to easily travel to the nations in Scandinavia, Belgium and France which are all new territory for me!

I don’t plan on writing too often, maybe once or twice a month as obviously my focus will be on my job and not traveling as often as possible like it was last Spring.  It will be a new and exciting chapter of my life and you are all welcome to follow along just like last year!  Until next time, Auf Wiedersehen!!

 

After over 100 days I am back home. Being home is fantastic, hugging my parents and my dog after being away for so long makes me so happy but I can’t help but feel as though Salzburg and my extended family of 50, who are now scattered across the country still have a sizable chunk of my heart.  But before I get into that I still have to fill you all in on the past 2-3 weeks where I took a few interesting trips to Berlin and Venice!

My trip to Berlin was a little bit of a spur of the moment thing.  I didn’t have any plans most of the week until I heard Serge and Matt were headed to Berlin, so I found a train and a hostel and thought I’d meet up with the boys on Friday.  The train was great, I left Thursday night and rode through the night, directly to Berlin.  I got to my hostel which was incredible and blew my mind, it was called the Wallyard Concept Hostel and had a courtyard, open lobby and comfortable rooms, easily one of the best hostels I stayed at all semester.  Right off the bat I was beginning to like Berlin.

 

Selfie in front of the Brandenburg Gate

From the hostel I headed out to find Serge and Matt and some other friends who I had found out would be in Berlin.  We decided to meet at the Brandenburg Gate and from there we walked around what felt like the entirety of Berlin.. Well, it was probably more like a mile before we bought subway passes, but that’s not the point.  We walked through the Brandenburg Gate, checked out the Reichstag, had a great lunch outside in the middle of Berlin, walked to Checkpoint Charlie and than hopped on a subway to the East Side Gallery.

 

Serge in front of the Reichstag

Checkpoint Charlie or “Checkpoint C” was the best known of the 3 checkpoints on the border of East and West Berlin.  Today the Checkpoint is surrounded by tourist fanfare but in reality it was once the main crossing and meeting point of East and West during the Cold War.  The checkpoint is little more than just a wooden shed and sandbags.  It is by no means permanent and has been built up in recent years to preserve it.  The reason that it looks so cheap is because the Allies (England, USA, and France) refused to look at the Berlin Wall as a National Border and didn’t want to give credence to the Soviets by building a permanent checkpoint structure along the Berlin Wall.

Checkpoint Charlie

From Checkpoint charlie we got on a subway and headed out to the East Side Gallery.  The East Side Gallery is a 1.3 km stretch of preserved Wall that has been painted by artists from all over the world.  Following the fall of the Wall in 1990, artists were invited to come and paint on the Eastern side of the wall to celebrate a hopeful future of freedom and finally putting the final nail in the coffin of reconstruction following WWII.  It’s a bit surreal seeing the Berlin Wall still standing in such a long stretch.  Even covered in art, the Berlin Wall is still incredibly intimidating so I can only imagine what it must have been like untouched, cold, grey, and not to mention the watchtowers and armed guards looking over the entire area.  We stood there staring at the wall taking in the aura and history of the moment and only one thought came to our minds as we found ourselves in this incredible situation…  We have to climb over to the West…

Escaping East Berlin at the East Side Gallery

As the sun started going down we knew we had had a full day and we got ready for dinner.  We had a mediocre meal in the middle of East Berlin with a great view of the TV Tower.  the place we ate had lounge chairs so when we finished eating we could have a few beers and people watch in the square while the Tower loomed over us.  We were blown away to find out that the Tower was built by the Soviets during the Cold War and not in the years after reunification.

 TV Tower in East Berlin

That night we met up with Julia, Erica, Brooke, Josh and Maddie and headed to a club at Serge’s urging.  I’m not much of a “club fan” but it was definitely a fun time.  We spent most of the night laughing at a bachelorette party of American girls embarrassing themselves over and over.  But as we were getting ready to go the bartended started pouring alcohol all over the bar and then pulled out a match and lit the entire bar on fire!!  WHAT?!?!

THE BAR IS ON FIRE?!?

This stunt kept us around for a little while longer, but as our group started to trickle out Serge, Matt and I decided it was time for a midnight kebab and headed home.  The next day I had to head home so I was happy to have hit most of the main spots in Berlin on my full day there.  I had another great train ride, smooth connections and no delays and I got home looking forward to seeing my parents the next day!

May Pole at Stiegl Bräuwelt

As luck would have it May Day celebrations from May 1st had been rained out and pushed back a week to the day mom and dad got in.  I figured they would be exhausted but this was something they could not miss.  May Day is a celebration similar to Labor Day in the US, except it is normally celebrated on May 1st.  The main attraction is the raising of the massive May Pole manually!  No machines involved, just straight man power and time.  It normally takes 2-3 hours to raise the pole with many breaks in between for those raising it to have a few beers.  Once raised, it is tradition to attempt to climb the pole to the first wreath, where bread and wurst are hidden.  I’m not sure what would happen if someone fell from that height but I’m glad I never found out.

Two brothers climbing the May Pole

But while the raising was going on we had time to relax as a group and drink some fresh Steigl beer!  We pulled on our lederhosen and dirndl and took in all that is May Day.  I was curious about how difficult it would be to climb the pole and decided to check it out.. I immediately knew that climbing it was not for me, but thanks to my great friends they caught me in the act of checking it out..

Not for me…

 

Haley, Connor, Emily, Dakota and I at the Stiegl tent on May Day

Not too long into the celebrations I got word from the parents that they were finally here (after getting lost and taking a quick nap) and I got to see them for the first time in 3 months!  I got mom and dad a beer and introduced them to the entire group.

Dad was definitely a fan

They hung around for awhile before we all went to eat dinner together.  It was a great week and celebrating mothers’ day and mom’s birthday in Austria are two things I’ll never forget!  The end of their stay in Austria came way too fast and the end of the week came before I knew it.  I said goodbye for the next 3 weeks and as they headed to Italy, so did I!  Another last minute trip, found me hopping on an early morning train headed to Venice!  Most of my friends headed to Istanbul, Turkey and I had to take a hard pass on that “adventure.”  Luckily they all returned safely after the weekend.  But the only two people left in Salzburg were Emily and I, so we made plans to go somewhere neither one of us had been before during this semester and we were lucky enough to find a cheap place to crash while we gorged ourself on Italian food.

First meal in Venice

Our train arrived around 2 in the afternoon and we immediately set out to see the “must see” sights in Venice.  We stopped but the Rialto Bridge on our way to Piazzo San Marco, and on our way we stopped for lunch on the Grand Canal.  I had my first of many caprese salads that afternoon and some delicious gnocchi.  After that amazing first meal, we headed to Piazzo San Marco with gelato on our minds

Piazza San Marco

We were told that it was supposed to rain the entire weekend in Venice, but we were very lucky that both days were beautiful, and the rain held off until the nights.  I spent most of my semester abroad trying to fight off the urge to go to Italy.  I love Italy and everything about it, but I wanted to go to new countries and experience new cultures and foods on my grand adventure.  But now that I was here, I knew this was right were I should have come right away!  The food, the architecture, the people, and the language were all amazing and I wish I had spent more time in Italy.  Oh well, I have my entire life to explore the world.  There isn’t much for me to say other than the entire weekend was amazing.

Looking over the Grand Canal

Bruschetta and Caprese Salad

This place is incredible.. I never want to leave..

Bridge of Sighs

Basilica di San Marco

After our loaded first day, where we saw almost all of the sights on the main section of Venice our trip turned into us gorging ourselves on incredible food, relaxing, and then waiting until our next meal..  But, all great things have to come to an end, and after two full days in the beautiful city we had to get on a train and head back to Salzburg.  Unfortunately, on our way out I misread the departure time of our train and instead of leaving at 5:00 pm it left at 15:00 which is 3:00 pm..  So we missed our train.. We caught the next one though and got back to Salzburg at 4 in the morning.. oops.

And just like that our last weekend that we would be able to travel outside of Austria was gone.  But, don’t be fooled I still had one more adventure in me and I headed out the next weekend to get in some May skiing.  Yes, I said MAY skiing.  At some places in Austria there are ski resorts that stay open year round.  This one in particular is right outside of Salzburg near the small town of Zell am See.  Kitzteinhorn is the name of the resort and it is situated on a glacier about 10,000 feet up that looms over the valley and lake.

Kathryn and I at Kitzteinhorn

I went with my friend Kathryn and I wasn’t sure what to expect.  With the weather being about 60 degrees outside I wasn’t sure how much snow there would be or how the good conditions would be.  To my surprise there was plenty of snow, and the conditions were actually pretty good!

Top of Kitzteinhorn at 10,000 ft

Ever since I arrived in Austria and my first afternoon of skiing back in February, I knew that I needed to get a picture of myself skiing in my lederhosen.  I finally had that chance today and I didn’t let it slip!

Looking over Zell am See in meine Lederhosen

The afternoon was so bizarre, I never thought I’d be surrounded by snow in late May, let alone enough to ski on!  Not to mention being able to sit and have lunch on the mountain with short sleeves and a beer and watch as kids flew past me in their super G suits practicing downhill skiing.  Now I know why Austrians are such great skiers, they can ski whenever they want throughout the year.  But, unfortunately I was not prepared for the conditions of May skiing.  I didn’t have my face covered and I left that afternoon with one of the worst sun burns I’ve ever had.  My beard protected most of my face but my forehead and neck got roasted, but, I did get a fantastic goggle tan.

“Our” Untersberg as the sun goes down

The next day a few of our classmates set up a picnic of sorts dubbed “soberest” on one of the local hills for all of us to say goodbye to each other.  We still had 5 more days and would say goodbye to these people 2 or 3 more times but it was a beautiful afternoon and we had a great view of Untersberg.  We took tons of pictures and brought up memories of our first few weeks in Salzburg which felt like a few days ago.  We all couldn’t believe how fast this amazing adventure has gone by..

Serge, Connor, Lucy, Haley, Emily Mitch and I at “sobfest”

We stayed up here for about 2 hours talking and sharing stories and watching as the sun went down.  It really put into perspective how much I’m going to miss these amazing people.

Myself, Matt, Dakota and Connor

Group photo with nearly everyone in it

After this we had exams and papers due and we didn’t get much of a chance as a group to get together until our usual Tuesday night bowling session which was a blast as usual.  And before we knew it, it was Wednesday.  Our last full day in Salzburg.  I had 2 exams but once I finished them I found out as a group we would be taking over Augustiner Bräustübl and than moving to our favorite bar in town, O’Malley’s Irish pub.  it was a heartbreaking night as one by one we had to trickle out as some of us had flights leaving as early as 2 am the next morning.  At O’Malley’s a few of the girls put together a list of “superlatives” for everyone in the program.  Some were good and others were cheesy but I loved my superlative “most likely to be caught out wearing his lederhosen.”  Funnily enough I was actually wearing my lederhosen again that night so I guess they nailed that one.

One last liter at Augustiner Bräustübl

Anyway, that night was full of some of the toughest goodbyes I’ve ever had to say.  We had grown so close to each other over the past few months in a foreign country and we all made friendships that will last a lifetime.  I had no idea coming into this semester that the last night would be this difficult.  But as I said earlier, all good things must come to an end.  As the night came to an end, Serge, Haley, Connor, Dakota, and I found ourselves on the lock bridge in the center of Salzburg and we couldn’t do anything but just stand there.  We all knew how much we would miss each other and none of us wanted to be the first to break it up and go to bed.  Eventually Dakota had to go, but we convinced him to get one last käsekrainer with us for old times sake.  After that, we hung out a bit but we all knew we had to get a little bit of sleep before our flights out.  So after one last teary eyed goodbye we headed back to our dorms.

More of the crew in the Bier Garten

One last game of pool at 3 am

Gonna miss my Austrian family: Serge, Connor, Emily, Haley,Mitch and Lucy

And of course, my last kebab…

Sun going down on Salzburg for the last time

The next morning I almost missed my shuttle to the airport!  I barely made it, but I made it.  I had a great flight and tried not to think too much about all of the people I’m leaving behind and was thankful I had Lucy and a few other friends on my flight to Philly as well so it wasn’t exactly a final goodbye.  It was smooth and before I knew it I was back in America with wifi and data again!

First view of America after nearly 4 months

One last thing before I shut this down for the time being.  I want to thank my mom and dad for everything they did while I was gone this trip wasn’t possible without them.  Also thanks to Meredith for being patient and dealing with the time change every day.  I had the most amazing 4 months in my life but coming home to the amazing people in South Carolina makes returning home just as great.  I couldn’t ask for a better family home or abroad.  I love you all and thanks for the memories.  Auf Wiedersehen!

Thanks for giving me the world mom and dad.

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!

Just guys in Plitvice Lakes (Dakota, Connor, Matt, myself and Serge)

Where to begin.. Easily the best spring break I’ve ever been lucky to be a part of.  Even though the break began with a visit to Krakow, Poland and a sad trip to Auschwitz, the next week and a half was full of life, friends and beautiful countries.  The group consisted of Dakota Scozzari, Connor Dugan, Matt Heckman, Serge Virvo and myself.  Over the course of 12 days we visited 5 countries, 8 cities and spent over 40 hours on different trains and buses.  This is our Spring Break story..

Arriving in Ljubljana, Slovenia

First up on our tour of eastern Europe was the country of love, sLOVEnia.  At least that’s what they advertised around the city.  We arrived at our hostel around lunchtime starving and craving some great Slovenian food.  The hostel receptionist recommended the best burger joint in town though.  He said it was “the best burger in Slovenia, because they use different ingredients”… We were a little curious about how you could use different ingredients for a simple cheeseburger so we asked what he meant and he casually said “oh, because instead of beef they use horse.” Wait, what?? HORSE???  This guy must be joking..  He was not.

Best burger in Slovenia??

Our rumbling stomaches decided for us and for some reason we trusted him and headed to the restaurant fittingly named “Hot Horse.”  The menu contained a wide selection of horse and nothing else.  The burgers were massive and about the size of a dinner plate.  The taste wasn’t terrible but the feeling of guilt for eating Seabiscuit was more than most of us could handle.  On a side note, they did have some incredible fries.  But was it the best burger in Slovenia?  Neigh.

That feeling after eating horse…

Feeling guilty about what we just did we decided to go for a long walk and head into the city and hike up to the castle.

Ljubljana Grad

Ljubljanica River

That night our hostel receptionist booked a local attraction for us called an “escape room.”  “Escape rooms” were a tourist attraction that was an interactive puzzle meant for a group. You and a small group are locked in a room for an hour and the idea is for you to work as a team and uncover the clues to escape from the room before the time runs out.  None of the clues involve brut strength but we were allowed to move anything in the room that wasn’t nailed down.  So naturally as soon as we were locked in, we absolutely tore the room apart. The clues were anything from hidden keys, hidden codes, weights of objects, and buttons pushed in a certain order (it was actually extremely complicated).  We found numerous keys that led to more keys until we finally found a key that unlocked a big wardrobe and all that revealed was another room behind it with more clues.  After working our way through the clues in the second room we found the key to get out of the “escape room”.  The problem was, was that it was protected by a 3-digit combination lock and we had no clue what the code was.  We knew we were running out of time and we figured we had about 15 minutes left to figure out our final clue but the code was very tricky.  So while the guys were working hard to do the math to figure out the surprisingly difficult combination properly, I just started flipping through the dials..  There can only be 1000 combinations anyway right??  Luckily when I got about 130 combinations in the boys figured out that the first number was a 6!  That definitely narrowed it down for me so with only about 10 minutes left I started at 600, 601, 602… Finally at 642 the lock popped open and we were able to escape!

Only took us 54 minutes and 17 seconds to escape (cutting it close)

The following morning we caught a bus to Lake Bled.  The weather was perfect and we couldn’t wait to see it after some of our classmates who had already been couldn’t stop talking about it.  Lake Bled did not disappoint, it was absolutely beautiful.  We began the day with a hike all the way up to Blejski Grad way up on a cliff overlooking the mountains and lake.  We were still carrying our bags and not in great hiking shape so the climb almost knocked us out.  We finally made it only to realize that there was a gondola that could take you up on the opposite side… Oh well, exercise is good.

Hiked straight up to Blejski Grad.

The few from the top was amazing and totally worth the climb as soon as we got to look out.

Lake Bled from Blejski Grad

We stayed up on the castle walls and had lunch as we were too tired to even think of hiking back down already.  We had some warm soup, a beer and just soaked in the sunshine and the view.  Our trip was off to an incredible start.  After lunch and our hike back down we had a few hours to kill so we walked around the lake and took in the larger than life scenery and great views.

Didn’t dare get any closer to this swan..

After an hour or two we ran out of things to do so naturally we went to the “world famous” Lake Bled Casino.  There was a sign out front that said 10 euros = 15 euros so we went in with 10 euros and decided to see how lucky we could get before catching our bus.  We traded our 10’s in for 15’s and we were given scratch off tickets and immediately mine revealed another 10 euros.  Off to a great start!  We wanted to play the table games but they didn’t open til 8 that night so we had to settle for slots.  There were a lot of machines to choose from because nobody was there, go figure.  As I had 25 euros already from my original 10 I decided to just bet as big as I could on the machines. I found one called “lion safari” and within 10 minutes I was up about 40 euros.  I couldn’t believe my luck as about 30 minutes after entering the casino with 10 euros I left with 50.  The other guys weren’t as lucky as I was unfortunately.  But luckily it was only a loss of 10 euros.

Beautiful Slovenia

That night we headed out and caught a train to Zagreb where we would be staying the night before catching a bus to Korenica the next morning.  We didn’t get much time in our hostel, Wallaby House Hostel, but the owner, who was an Aussie named “Cracker” immediately offered us shots of some Croatian liquor and insisted we go out and have fun.  We didn’t plan on having a big night but he convinced us to go check out a local club that always had live music.  Quite frankly the music was pretty awful but in the back of the club they had an Italian restaurant with some delicious looking pizza.  So instead of dancing with the locals we grabbed a table and pigged out on Croatian-Italian pizza.  No regrets.  We didn’t stay long after that, knowing we had to catch a bus the next morning taking us down to Korenica.

All of Korenica, Croatia

We arrived in Korenica around noon and checked into the only hostel in town and got settled.  It was a great hostel and ended up being one of our favorites.  We quickly made friends with the people running it and a few of the other visitors.  We were invited on a hike up the surrounding hills to look out over the town.  After our hike the previous day where we had to carry our heavy bags all the way up to the castle we figured we would have no problem hiking the little hill.  We couldn’t have been more wrong.  We barely made it and when we got to the top the view wasn’t even as nice as the one at Bled.  But it was still a great place to catch our breathe and relax as the sun gradually slid down behind the mountains.

halfway up

We returned back to the hostel, made some dinner and picked up some 2 liter bottles of beer.  Yes, 2 liter bottles of beer.  Instead of 2 liter bottles of coke or sprite like normal countries they had 2 liter bottles of beer.  We met some more people that worked at the hostel and one girl who was Australian got us and another group to play some great drinking games.  We are about 3 days into our trip and the biggest thing I’ve discovered so far is that the Aussie’s don’t mess around when it comes to alcohol.  But we had a great night playing card games, making the best out of what the tiny town had to offer and laughing our butts off until we all passed out in our bunk beds.

Plitvice Lakes National Park

The next morning we were dropped off at Plitvice Lakes ready for yet another big hike.  We were blown away by how incredible this place was.  We were warned that parts of the Park might be closed because snow melt and a little rain might cause flooding and some trails might be under water or unsafe to walk on, but we were lucky that the entire park was completely open to us.  Right off the bat we discovered that the Croatian word for “waterfall” was “slap” so we found the biggest slap and made too many obvious slap puns before moving on.

Serge, Connor and I at the biggest slap

On a rock by the big slap

On a ledge looking at the big slap

Don’t look down man

Prom picture

Under a smaller slap

Our very own Serge “slav squatting”

The park was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life.  The entire time we were blown away by the waterfalls that seemed to just weave their way through the forest.  Not to mention how crystal clear and blue the water was.  We could see right into the deep pools to see the fish and trees under the water.  I could have taken thousands of pictures but luckily I only took about 150…  It’s so hard to describe how breathtaking it was so here are some of those photos.

After one of the best days of our break we headed back to our hostel to wait until we caught our night bus to Split.  We didn’t have much of a choice when it came to busses in Croatia.  In fact there were only 2 bus companies that would be able to take us to Split.  They were called Bus Croatia Bus and Croatia Bus Bus.  No joke.  After a lengthy debate amongst ourselves we decided that Bus Croatia Bus was the Bus bus company for us.  The bus would arrive in Korenica at 11:30pm and it actually only stopped to pick you up if you flagged it down like a taxi.  If the driver didn’t see you it would just go right by you we were told.  And being so late we were told just to go out to the street and flag down every bus we saw until we found the one going to Split.  Also we were told the bus could be either 30 minutes early or 30 minutes late so we had to just go stand on the side of the street in the dark like idiots hoping that our bus would come sooner or later.  A foolproof plan if I’ve ever heard one.

But for the time being, we had 4 hours to waste at our hostel until our departure.  We made dinner with our leftover spaghetti from the night before and decided to play RISK.  We laid out the board in the middle of the hostel and for the next 2 hours our militaries battled it out for world domination.  Alliances were made, betrayed, made again and betrayed again.  At long last, the dust settled revealing 2 supreme military commanders in control of 3 continents each and not wanting anymore bloodshed a final Peace Treaty was signed and the terrible war came to an end.

Gen. Rogers and Gen. Scozzari

Around 11 we headed out to attempt to catch our bus but made sure that our hostel kept our 5 beds open just in case we weren’t successful and needed a place to sleep that night.  After waving to 4-5 busses, none of which were going to Split we were beinginng to think our bus wasn’t going to show up. But finally around midnight, we saw headlights and the destination SPLIT lit up above the windshield and we knew we found our bus.

Roman ruins in Split

We arrived exhausted in Split around 5:30 in the morning but we had to wait until 7 to meet our landlord to let us into his Airbnb.  We walked around the promenade and couldn’t believe the size of the old Roman ruins that the city has been build in and around.  Finally our landlord showed up just as the sun was rising and as soon as he opened the door we climbed in our beds and fell asleep.  When we finally woke up around noon, the weather was amazing and we put on shorts for the first time all spring and headed out to have lunch looking out over the Adriatic Sea.

Promenade in Split built into Diocletian’s Palace

Seeing Split with the sun shining on it was a completely different city than the one we saw at 5:30 in the morning.  It was incredible.  We had planned on only staying 24 hours and leaving early the next morning but at lunch we moved some things around on our schedule and decided to take another night bus out of Split so we could get 2 full days in the sunshine.  After lunch we got some of the best gelato outside of Italy and walked along the water taking in the first day in what felt like years were we didn’t have to wear winter coats.

Croatian gelato (no banana Splits in Split though)

Diocletian’s Palace from across the bay

Beautiful Croatian coastline

After walking along the coast we decided to take a hike up to the hills overlooking the city. It was an easy hike relative to what we’ve been doing since our break started so we really enjoyed it.  Along the way we passed a park full of families, kids playing soccer, and dogs running around.  Also, we ran into a group with about 20 old men playing bocce and sat down and watched.  They were really into it and pretty feisty so it was some top notch entertainment.  After about 15 minutes of this we continued on our hike.

Some soccer in Split

When we reached the top we didn’t want to leave, we could have stayed up there for hours.  Again, we couldn’t believe how blue the water was.  We weren’t sure what to expect coming to Split, thinking it’d be nice to go somewhere warm at least once on our spring break but we were now so happy we decided to come.  It quickly became one of our favorite destinations.  For me it was my favorite stop on our break.  From the mountains, rocky Adriatic coastline, Diocletian’s Palace and great food I wished I could have stayed for the rest of the trip but I knew we had some great adventures ahead of us still.

More great views in Split

The next day we checked out of our airbnb and put our bags in storage at the bus station.  We didn’t have a plan for the day so we decided to walk out to the ocean and relax some more before taking the night bus to Budapest.  We grabbed some lunch at a small Croatian restaurant on our way to the beach.  I had a Croatian dish I couldn’t pronounce but it was spicy chicken with charred vegetables that left me stuffed.  There is nothing better than a meal cooked with fresh ingredients and we all left completely satisfied with our find.

Fresh prosciutto

Again, the coastline didn’t disappoint and we could have stayed out there until our bus left but we were all pretty drowsy after such a great lunch.  We walked around the bays of Split enjoying the views, skipping rocks and making the most of our last day here.  With the sun slowly setting across the water we made our way back to a coffee house on the promenade to get dinner and wait for our bus out.

Does it get any better??

“we travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”

Our bus/train ride to Budapest was one of the worst segments of our trip.  We hopped on the bus for 6 hours and rode from Split to Zagreb where we had a 5 hour layover before being able to get on a train that would take us to Budapest.  Out of the 5 of us, all but Dakota had already been to Budapest but we still wanted to show him how neat the city was.  We had originally planned to stay there for 2 full days but by staying gin split an extra day we only had about 1 fun day.  For the full day we wanted to make sure we hit the Szchenyi baths again, the castle district, Parliament and the ruin bars.  But for the time being we just wanted to get some sleep after the bus/train ride from hell.  Our airbnb was great, we all finally had a real bed and not some thin hostel bunk bed and a washer/dryer!  Having clean clothes again was amazing and rejuvenating.  With our new found energy we signed up for another escape room.  Apparently they were first invented in Budapest and we looked at reviews and found one near us that had an investigation theme to it.  We were supposed to solve a murder case before the killer got to his next victim by the end of the time.  This room was a lot harder than the one in Ljubljana and included a metal detector to locate a key under a gravel floor, a keyboard missing certain keys, and a few key fobs that when all placed on their correct spots opened a safe with the murder weapon in it.  Unfortunately we finished 3 minutes over the hour and were not able to stop the killer… Oh well…

Golden Eagle in the Castle District

The next day we woke up early and headed across the mighty Danube to the castle district. We hiked up to the Royal Palace and walked up to the castle district to enjoy the view of Parliament across the river.  This is where I saw this massive bird, I had to get my picture with it.  It was cool for about 5 seconds before I laughed and the birds head turn around so fast to stare at me right in the face.  It had a hood over it’s eyes but it definitely could still hear me perfectly.  From there we headed to a small cafe we had seen the last time we were in Budapest called Delirium Cafe.  It was a craft beer cafe that served mostly Belgian beer.  The guys were raving on about a beer called Delirium Tremens that is supposed to be one of, if not the best beer in the world at the moment.  Apparently, in Salzburg were is only 1 place that sells it and it costs 18 euros for a .33 liter bottle.  But in Budapest it only cost 900 forints or, less than 3 euros.  We got lunch there as well and had some traditional Hungarian goulash soup before heading to the baths.

Beer, goulash, and warm blankets.

From Budapest we travelled to Krakow, Poland for the final 2 legs of our trip.  I love Krakow but the city wasn’t in full Easter festivities as it was 2 weeks ago so most of the holiday excitement was gone from the main square.  We still enjoyed the city to it’s fullest though and we were lucky that the weather was so nice to enjoy meals outside.  I unfortunately didn’t take any photos in Krakow this time as I had already seen most of the city so I just put my phone away and enjoyed the sites.  From Krakow we hoped on a train that took us straight to Bratislava, Slovakia.  We arrived around noon and walked straight to our hostel.  We were in a great spot and met some really neat people in our hostel.  They told us of some places to get great Slovakian food and some cool eastern european bars and sites.

View just around the corner of our hostel, and Serge

We walked around the city taking in the city as much as possible before night fell.  We had plans to get dinner at a restaurant called only, Slovak Pub.  And then get a few drinks at a bar called, KGB Pub before going to watch the Real Madrid vs Barcelona game at Loch Ness Pub (not the most Slovakian pub.. obviously.)  The Slovak pub food was incredible, it seemed to be a mix of Austrian, German and Hungarian food.  Which is totally alright by me.  We enjoyed it thoroughly.

Bratislava, Slovakia

Slovak Pub for dinner

With the comrades at KGB Pub

hijinks at Loch Ness Pub

We had a great night to end our spring break adventure.  We couldn’t have had anymore fun and we all were in great spirits, yet ready to go home when the sun came up the next morning.  I couldn’t have asked for a better group of guys to travel with and I hope we can find another weekend to go on some more adventures before the end of the semester.  But this is where I leave you guys for now!  Sorry it took so long to post this!!  This weekend I haven’t done much other than school work so I won’t be posting until the next Tuesday after our adventures next weekend.  Until next time, Auf Wiedersehen!!

 

 

First off I’d like to say that my classmates and I are ok and we are all safe following the terrorist attacks this morning in Brussels, Belgium.  Also, our thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims and family members of those that lost their lives today in a senseless act of terror.

In a weekend marked with extreme highs and extreme lows we returned today to Salzburg on a rollercoaster of emotions…  Looking back on the weekend it’s tough to describe my feelings on the trip.  I can’t seem to decide whether or not it was a fun trip, an informative trip, or a sad trip.  Krakow and those that have called the city home have gone through so much in the past 100 years, yet the city exuded joy and beauty around every corner, and as Easter is coming up the city was full of color and festivities.  Yet, we left quietly and deep in thought.  We spent 2 full days in Krakow, making sure to explore the old city as much as possible, and 1 day touring the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau.

Discovering Main Market Square and the Easter Market

Waking up on Saturday morning we saw the rain had stopped and Krakow had a beautiful day in store for us.  We were all starving so we headed out in search of some traditional Polish foods, like some pierogi or kielbasa.  We wandered without much care letting our noses sniff out the incredible smells wafting through the city.  Our noses took us to Main Market Square in the middle of Krakow.  The market was beautiful, the architecture was amazing with St. Mary’s Basilica towering over us and a market that must have been the best smelling Easter market in the universe.  We were like kids in a candy shop and all ran off in different directions to get lunch.  Most of the group wanted pierogis but I found a great stand selling szaszlyk.  What is a szaszlyk you ask? The best shish kebab you will ever taste that’s what…

Szaszlyk among other meats cooking

I wanted to buy the entire thing but that would have cost me about 100 Polish zloty (25 euros) and I wasn’t in the mood to splash that amount of cash in my first hour in Krakow.  So instead I bough about a fifth of it and a beer and returned to our picnic table excited to show off my prize to the group.  Instead I ended up jealous of what they returned with, from pierogis to kielbasas on sweet onions, crepes, polish stew on sauerkraut and chocolate waffles I was left wishing I explored more before I settled on my szaszlyk.  One bite later I was again convinced I picked the right dish, then I tried a pierogi and loved it, then the kielbasa and then the stew… Where has this food been all my life… We could have stayed at that picnic table all day just running back and forth between all of the different stands.  We almost did but our stomaches wouldn’t allow us.  We shopped for some Easter souvenirs and tried tasty Easter candies.  Some food we found out was meant for decoration and wasn’t exactly supposed to be eaten… cough cough Haley.. Gingerbread Easter eggs sitting out in the cold apparently turn to rock.

Indoor Market

Beautiful St. Mary’s Basilica

From there we finally went to explore the rest of the square.  We wanted to get an up close look at St. Mary’s, so we paid the 5 zloty fee and went in.  I have my mom to thank for dragging Alicia and I through cathedrals from England to Italy for my appreciation of the beauty of these incredible buildings.  Il Duomo was amazing, St. Pauls was great but St. Mary’s in Krakow may have stolen my heart.

Inside of St. Mary’s (photo cred to Lucy Kirby)

After saying a prayer and lighting a candle we left to get a tour of the ancient Jewish quarter of Krakow which is known as Kazimierz.  Originally King Casimir III the Great welcomed the Jews to Krakow in the 1300’s and built a wall around their very own section of the city.  He was welcoming and as long as they paid their taxes they were welcome in Krakow regardless of what religion they followed.  Krakow’s jewish population grew exponentially and by the 20th century there was an estimated 70,000 jews calling Krakow their home.

Store fronts in Kazimierz written in Hebrew

Today Kazimierz is open for all sorts and isn’t just strictly for Jews but there still is a very strong Jewish culture to the quarter, hence the name “the jewish quarter.”  We were able to see the 2nd oldest synagogue in Europe and the old walls of Kazimierz.  We also saw many of the filming locations of Steven Spielberg’s 7 time Academy Award winning film Schindler’s List.  On one site there was a memorial to the city’s former Jewish residents.  A city that held 65,000-70,000 Jewish citizens prior to WWII was reduced to a little over 2,000.  In 5 years the Nazis were able to destroy over 600 years of Jewish culture in Krakow.  Again, I noticed the small stones placed on Jewish memorials, like the one the nice lady told me about in Budapest at the “Shoes on the Danube” memorial.  Our tour guide pointed out that because stones don’t wilt and die like flowers they have become popular forms of remembrance.  I didn’t have one on me but I made a mental note to pick one up before our trip the next day to Auschwitz.

Memorial to Krakow’s former 65,000 Jewish Residents

After Nazi occupation in the 40’s many of the city’s jewish areas were destroyed but a few survived.  One such place is an old Jewish cemetery.  During WWII it was used as a dump by the Nazis.  This may have saved the graveyard honestly, as most of the other Jewish cemeteries in Krakow were destroyed during this time.  Following the war, Christians cleaned it up, replaced the headstones and attempted to restore as much dignity to the cemetery as possible so the residents could once again rest in peace.

Jewish Cemetery in Kazimierz (photo cred to Lucy Kirby)

We woke up early Sunday morning ready for our tour of Auschwitz knowing deep down that today was going to be a very emotionally exhausting day for us all.  We walked outside to find that the sky seemed to be in the same mood as us, dreary and grey.  We met our tour guide and hopped in our small bus and attempted to mentally prepare for the day ahead.  We were shown a small documentary on Auschwitz filmed by a Soviet soldier upon their discovery and liberation of the camp.  It was graphic and woke us up pretty quickly to the horrors committed by the Nazis at Auschwitz.  Little did we know we had no idea what was ahead of us.

“Arbeit Macht Frei” (work sets you free)

We arrived and followed our tour guide through the gates of Auschwitz I, the labor camp. Here lived political prisoners and Poles.  The gate we walked under read in german, “arbeit macht frei” which translates to “work sets you free.”  This was the smaller and first of the 2 main Auschwitz concentration camps.  The prisoners here worked at plant about a 4.5 mile walk away.  6 days a week they had to wake up, walk 4.5 miles, work for 10 hours and walk back home.  Most prisoners didn’t live past 5 months.  Eventually, the Nazi’s realized they needed to move their camp closer to the plant so they made the prisoners build Auschwitz II Birkenau.  Upon completion Auschwitz II Birkenau became the largest and bloodiest concentration camp in Nazi Germany.

Yet, in Auschwitz I we were able to walk through the barracks, previously built for Polish soldiers and learn the awful stories of the camps.  The barracks are now a museum documenting the horror story that is the history of the camps.  I can barely remember what our tour guide told us, as the atrocities seem to all run together but I took photos of what we were allowed to take photos of.

Electrified barbed wire fence around Auschwitz I

Some prisoners would throw themselves onto the fence in order to commit suicide just to escape the horrors of the camp.

Map of where most prisoners came from

Luggage taken from the Jews upon arrival

Shoes taken from the dead

In another room, there was a pile about this size of nothing but human hair.  Upon arrival, their heads were shaved and the hair was intended to be woven into rugs to be sold.  We weren’t allowed to take photos of the hair out of respect to those it used to belong to.  That room was the worst thing I’ve ever had to witness in my life.  It’s tough to describe the emotions that run through your mind upon seeing 2 tons of human hair just sitting in a pile, still in braids and buns…  How can such evil have ever risen to power?  How could people hate each other like this?  We walked out to a hallway lined with photos of some of the dead.  We just stood there drowning in disbelief and sadness.  Tears on our faces as we stared at portraits of victims with shaved heads.. Did we see just see their hair in the other room?

Used containers that contained zyklon B pellets

“Death Wall” Execution by firing squad was carried out here on thousands.

Chimney of crematorium and gas chamber at Auschwitz I

Gas chamber of Auschwitz I

The ovens in Auschwitz I

I was shocked we were allowed to walk into the gas chamber and again we found ourselves overcome with emotion as we saw the chambers and the ovens.  Again, how can people have been this evil to each other?  In the gas chamber there were openings in the ceiling where the poisonous zyklon B pellets could be dropped in on the unsuspecting victims, who were under the impression that they were just there to take a shower.

Original sign and walls

After a short break, we got back on our bus for the quick trip to Auschwitz II Birkenau, the death camp of the complex.  We arrived with the infamous brick archway looming over us.

Entrance to Auschwitz II Birkenau

Here the train tracks split and the occupants of the cattle cars were gathered in between the trains so that they couldn’t see the rest of the camp.  Here they went through selection, the fit men were separated from the women and children.  Those deemed able to work were sent to the camp those deemed unable were sent to another area of the camp.  They were under the impression that after 24+ hours in a cattle car without a toilet amongst 70-80 others that they were going to be allowed to shower and clean up.  They entered an underground facility where they were allowed to strip out of their clothes.  From there, they entered another room complete with shower heads and hooks on the walls for their towels.  They were sealed in, gassed, and then cremated before ever setting foot in the rest of the camp.  This was the fate that met over 60% of Jews arriving at Auschwitz II Birkenau.

Cattle car for carrying 70-80 Jews, (24+ hour journey, no restroom, 1 grate for air)

(Remains of massive Auschwitz II Birkenau gas chamber)

Auschwitz II Birkenau had I believe 4 gas chambers/ crematoriums.  As the Soviets were closing in on the facilities, the Nazis attempted to destroy as much evidence of their crimes as possible.  The final gas chamber (above) was blown up as the Soviets were just 5 miles away from the camp.

Memorial behind crematorium

The memorial reads “To the memory of the men, women, and children who fell victim to the Nazi genocide.  Here lie their ashes.  May their souls rest in peace.”

Beds for the prisoners

The sleeping quarters were more than just awful they were dehumanizing.  Three levels, separated by stone and wood planks.  The prisoners fought to not sleep on the bottom level as rats as large as cats would feast on the dead and living that were too weak to fight them off.

“To forget a holocaust, is to kill twice” -Elie Wiesel (Auschwitz survivor/ Nobel Peace Prize Winner)

I laid my pebble here in the sleeping quarters amongst some flowers in other bunks.  We stayed in this hut for about 5 minutes comforting each other as a group as we listened to our tour guide listing the atrocities that took place in the sleeping quarters.  Again we couldn’t believe that some people were able to survive this horrible place.

This is where our tour ended, upon exiting the sleeping quarters we were led back to the front and out the gate.  We walked silently back to our bus and rode silently back to Krakow.  It wasn’t until we got off the bus with our stomaches growling that we opened up a bit.

We woke up Monday morning determined to make the day a great day.  We grabbed lunch in the Market again and took a walk around and fought off the cold as much as possible.  I tried this sandwich creation that consisted of a thick piece of bread covered in onions, sliced sausage and ground pork with corn, peas, and diced carrots.  It was so delicious that I had to show it off.

Pure joy

From there we went and wandered along the old castle walls.  We found some great statues and the Barbican.  The Barbican was the old entrance to the once fortified city center.  Today the city center is surrounded by a circular park that was once used as a moat to protect the city.

Krakow Barbican

We goofed around a bit imitating statues, until the weather got so cold that we had to retreat back to our airbnb condo, but not before we found a familiar flag!

THE US CONSULATE!

We returned this morning, our first train out of Krakow to Katowice must have been built in 1960 but it still seemed to work properly… kinda.  It was slow and rickety but it got us to Katowice on time for us to catch our connection to Vienna.  It was on my way to Vienna that news of the bombings in Belgium reached us.  From here I had about 6 hours to think back on the weekend and the events at hand.  It is incredible that humanity constantly puts itself through evil over and over.  From the Nazi’s in the 40’s to ISIS today.  What can possibly lead people to be so truly evil to the core.  But even amongst the evil there is beauty in the world, and thankfully for every truly evil individual willing to blow himself up there are millions willing to stand up and help others.  I was left looking through my photos and a few really stuck with me, we need to cherish these beautiful moments, hold friends and family close, try and be the best versions of ourselves possible every single day, and make sure to live every second of our lives to the fullest.  Auf Wiedersehen.

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.” -Anne Frank

Buda Castle from across the Danube in Pest

After a long delay I’m back with a new entry to cover the past 2 weeks of my time here in Austria.  The past few weeks have been crazy busy with travel and then school work really kicking in so I apologize for the laziness here.  But anyway, on to the fun stuff.  Two weekends ago we did our first trip outside of Austria (not including Munich), we went to Budapest, Hungary.  A place I had no intention of going when I decided to study abroad but now I am so happy to have been able to have experienced it.  Budapest has a unique beauty to it that is really just so tough to describe.

First I want to apologize in advance, I am going to use the english translation of most of the places we went in Hungary because the Hungarian language really threw me for a loop… I was constantly speaking german or english and could never get it right…  Anyway, Friday morning we woke up bright and early to catch a train from Salzburg headed straight east to Budapest.  It was the smoothest ride I’ve ever been on, every stop was on time and we arrived just ahead of schedule around noon.  From there we headed to the nearest atm to withdraw some Hungarian Forints.  I had heard the exchange rate was wild but wasn’t sure what to expect.  I figured I would need about 140 euros for the weekend so I did the math and had to double and triple check my numbers.  Apparently 140 euros equals about 40,000 Hungarian Forints…. So, with my new found riches burning a hole in my pocket I was ready to tackle all that Budapest could throw at me.  We headed for our airbnb for the weekend not sure what to expect but was blown away with our little condo, a 3 minute walk from St. Stephen’s Basilica and Parliament.

We got settled and stopped by the grocery store to buy some beer and get ready for the night.  We had heard about these bars in Budapest called “ruin bars” and we were excited to hear what the fuss was all about.  Apparently ruin bars are bars and clubs built into some of the older buildings falling into disrepair in the old city.  Instead of tearing them down they’ve been converted and stuffed with old furniture and crazy decorations to make a really unique experience.  One ruin bar we went in actually had 2 real trees growing up right in the middle of the building… My favorite bar was called Szimpla kert, it had a garden, courtyard, multiple stories, live music, projection screen on a 2 story brick wall, and literally anything else they could stuff into the place.  We were lucky enough to snag a table and enough chairs for the group to sit at and just people watch for most of the night.

In the projection theater area of Szimpla

After leaving Szimpla at around 1 we headed home but made sure to stop and grab some kebabs and stumbled into a barcade… After some intense games of guitar hero and air hockey we realized how late it was and that if we wanted to wake up before noon the following day we needed to get back.  Although our friend Serge did try his best to drag us into a karaoke bar, we resisted and made it home without much incident.

Szechenyi Thermal Bath

We woke up not feeling so hot the next morning and the only solution to a Hungarian hangover is one of their thermal baths.  One of Europe’s biggest bath complexes was only a sketchy subway ride away.  Only 5,000 Forints got us a locker and entrance all of the rooms of the bath.  We didn’t take advantage of it though as just laying in the warm water was incredible.  Who would have thought I’d be swimming in March in Hungary… There were 3 large pools outside, one for swimming laps, one that was a stationary pool and another was a whirlpool that had angled jets to create a Hungarian lazy river that was anything but lazy.  You could really pick up some speed along the outside wall.

(right to left) Connor D, Serge, Connor F, Haley, Mitch and myself.

We left the baths feeling like new men (and woman) and were ready to see some of the city.  We wanted to stop by Parliament, St. Stephens Basilica, and Hero’s Square.  Since Hero’s Square was right around the corner we headed there first.  Hero’s Square is a statue complex with statues of the 7 chieftains of the Magyars among others and Hungary’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  Problem was, we were on one side of a river/pond/reservoir and we weren’t sure how to get across except for a small wall… Oh well, we figured it out..

Made it safe and dry

Hero’s Square

We stayed here for a while relaxing on the edge of the monuments really doing our best to take in how massive everything was here.

From there we headed back towards our little condo to see Parliament and St. Peters before  it got too dark.  This is when our friend Connor’s most unlucky 24 hours of his life began.  We went to buy tickets for the subway to take us home and as the tickets were only about 300 Forints and most of us only had huge 20,000 Forint bills (the locals aren’t thrilled about making change for that) Connor Fahey decided to just hop on as there wasn’t anyone monitoring and no turnstiles to walk through.  At first it seemed smart but we grabbed tickets anyway, at our next stop a burly Hungarian woman steps on, flashes a badge and asks us for our tickets.  We all had them except Connor, and he was given an 8,000 Forint fine.. Not too bad, just 25 euros but still not fun.  More on his awful luck to come.  We got back to our stop and hopped off and headed straight to St. Steve’s to get a view of the city.  We payed and started the hike up to the top.

Spiral stairs to the top, the crew, Parliament from the top

We had heard of a memorial down by the river called “Shoes on the Danube” so we headed there next.  There are about 60 pairs of shoes cast in iron facing the water on the very spot that Jewish victims were executed and dumped in the Danube River in 1945.  An old lady told me it was a sign of solidarity to place a pebble on a shoe as if to say “we were here, we remember you.”  It was pretty solemn and shut us all up, as the realization of some of the atrocities committed here and throughout Europe 70 years ago aren’t just articles in a history book anymore.

Shoes on the Danube

We needed something to lighten the mood so we got Mexican food in Hungary and had a few margaritas.  We headed back out to the bars again that night and just made the most of our last night in this beautiful, crazy city.  The next day our friend Connor’s horrible 24 hours picked right back up.  As we’re all getting ready to go to Buda Castle and Fisherman’s Bastion he’s getting nervous looking for his wallet.. fast forward 20 minutes of all 6 of us searching and we can’t find it.  Luckily he has some money on him still so it’s all good, not really though.  He thinks he must have lost it the night before at the bars.  Anyway we head across the river to explore the Castle and Bastion.

 

Connor on the far right seems in good spirits for now…

Parliament from Fisherman’s Bastion

Dancing to random European electric music

On the way back we had to cross the Danube on a huge bridge and I guess because it’s so long sometimes the dogs getting walked don’t always make it to the other side before having to do their “numbers” and our fun-loving friend Connor had the luck to step in dog poo not once but TWICE on the same bridge within about 50 yards from each other… Kid can’t catch a break.. Anyway, we’re about to leave Budapest and he figures how much worse can his day get.  Much worse Connor, much worse.  We’re finally on the train and headed back to Salzburg.  The people that work for the train are checking our tickets and Connor who has purchased a ticket has the ticket digitally on his phone thinking that would suffice.  It didn’t… He is fined 30 euros which again is lucky because they claimed that wasn’t his ticket and we thought they were going to just kick him off the train at the next stop (which would have been his luck at this point) but he somehow made it back to Salzburg…

Connor, a defeated man.

Fast forward a week and we are headed to Vienna now!  Our wonderful program planned us a trip to the capital of Austria to see the city and explore the history and culture that Vienna has to offer.  We took a walking tour of the city and finished beneath St. Stephen’s Cathedral (yes, another St. Stephens) and we’re set free to enjoy the city.

St. Stephens

Not much happened that first night except we found a fun bar for all 30 of us to crash and enjoy, but most of us were tired and didn’t stay out late.  The next day a few of us headed to the naschmarkt, which is a huge outdoor market in the heart of Vienna.  We got food, explored, people watched, found Mozart and just enjoyed our day.  We planned a nice dinner at an old restaurant called Zwölf Apostelkeller (12 Apostles) and enjoyed a traditional Viennese dinner in a cellar build in 1339.  It was fantastic and again, I took it easy that night and just looked forward to Sunday when we got to tour Schönbrunn Palace and Stift Melk Abbey.

Zwölf Apostellkeller

Mozart

The boys watching the ducks

Wakey, wakey bright and early Sunday morning for our bus to Schönbrunn Palace where we were going on a guided tour and get some free time on the grounds.  I was lucky enough to come here with my family 6 years ago, but my memory didn’t do the palace justice.  The size and beauty doesn’t translate to pictures.  Even though we were told numerous times that it’s ten times more amazing in the spring we were still amazed.

Schönbrunn Palace

The palace used to be the Hunting lodge and Summer home of Franz Josef and the Hapsburg family.  The tour was wonderful and even though the gardens weren’t in bloom our hike up to the Gloriette still provided us with a great view of the palace and city in the background.

The Gloriette in the gardens

Schönbrunn from the Gloriette

From there we headed out of Vienna to Stift Melk before Salzburg.  Again I was lucky enough to have been able to see the abbey 6 years ago but I remember being very fond of it and was excited to go back.  The abbey was originally a castle build in 1089.  Since, it has been remodeled numerous times and the Benedictine Monastery we see today was build in the early 1700’s.  The Abbey still houses monks today and holds the remains of many of Austria’s first ruling dynasty, the Babenburgs.  Also the library inside houses books from the medieval era…  But the chapel stole the show. It was unbelievably beautiful and was a great way to end a great weekend.

Stift Melk

Next weekend starts our spring break where we will be exploring much of Eastern Europe.  I can’t wait to get back and tell you all as much as I can.  I can’t guarantee an internet connection though so who knows when my next post will be.  If all goes to plan I hope to post next Tuesday but we shall see.  Happy early St. Patrick’s day and auf wiedersehen!

I started my classes this past week and so far they have all been great, I am taking courses on Austrian Culture, Folk Art, WWII in Central Europe and continuing my German language courses.  So far my favorite course is Austrian Culture, as our teacher seems to get the most out of us by really grilling us in the hour and a half he gets twice a week.  I thought WWII in Central Europe was going to be great but the teacher just kinda reads from his powerpoint for the entire class period.  My Folk Art teacher seems to like me but I’m kinda scared of her, oh well.

But enough about school, I went skiing again this weekend to my new favorite ski resort, Snow Space Ski Amade, in the Salzburg region.  Ski Amade is a huge and is really 4 resorts connected across 2 mountains about 45 minutes south of Salzburg.  The resorts are Flachau, Wagrain, Alpendorf and St. Johann.  So far we haven’t ventured to far away from Flachau where we get dropped off at but on Friday we took a tram to Wagrain and tested the waters for a bit in that resort.  It was great skiing but a little more crowded then Flachau so on Saturday we just stuck to the main resort we get dropped off at.  On Saturday we had a better idea of the resort so the day went much smoother, we even found time to hike up past the highest ski lift on the mountain.  We ended up on a ridge over-looking the Ennskraxn and the little city of Kleinarl.  We were on the highest point around for a few miles and it literally made us feel as though we were on top of the world.  Definitely worth it even though ski boots are the worst things in the world to walk in, let alone hike in.

If we had the choice, we never would have left but lift tickets cost money and we wanted to get our money’s worth.  After a full day of goofing off and typical behavior of 4 guys in college we had to call it a day.  Exhausted we headed home looking forward to Sunday where we were going to be treated to an FC Red Bull Salzburg game by our program AIFS.  

FC Red Bull Salzburg play in the Austrian Bundesliga and they are the reigning champions of the past 2 seasons and it seems as though they are going to make it 3 in a row.  They’re on top of their league at the moment and the team they are playing sit 3rd so it should be a great game.  The team they are playing is FK Austria Wien from Vienna so I expected a pretty good fight.  Turns out they aren’t very good, maybe it was an off night but Salzburg cruised to a 4-1 win and really just outplayed Vienna from the opening whistle.

For some reason though, Fc Salzburg has a 30,000 seat stadium but only seems to attract about 10,000 fans a game.  It kinda puts a damper on the atmosphere inside the stadium but the Stiegls were flowing and we made as much noise as possible regardless and had a great time.

Classes again on Monday and Tuesday, not much to talk about here…

But on the way to class Tuesday we saw a billboard for the Red Bull Salzburg HOCKEY team, yes there is hockey in Salzburg.  Apparently they’re in the playoffs and they played about an hour after class gets out Tuesday night.  Seems like a no brainer considering tickets are only 15 euros.  I wasn’t sure what to expect but buckled up for the ride ahead as I hear things could get pretty rowdy in Red Bull Arena.. (If you hadn’t figured it out yet, everything here is sponsored by Red Bull because Red Bull is headquartered just outside of Salzburg.)

Just arrived and it could not be any more different then an NHL game… It pretty much has the atmosphere of a soccer game, flags waiving, fans chanting and jumping in unison, the away section is divided from the rest of the stadium by plexiglass boards for their safety.  Standing room around the entire rink with seats behind that!  We bought tickets for 15 euros and got to stand on the glass the entire night!  We asked one of the locals what the biggest differences between Austrian hockey and the NHL and he said “bigger ice in Europe, no fighting in Europe, the refs suck and the players are a bunch of wusses…”  Sounds fun lets get this started…

The arena isn’t huge but it was one of the loudest sporting events I’ve ever been too.  We found out that it’s the quarterfinals of the playoffs and so far Red Bull Salzburg is leading the series 2 games to 0.  However they played terrible that night and got smashed 5-1.  There were a few names that didn’t seem Austrian so we looked them up and both teams had some Americans and Canadians on them which made it fun to know at lest a few players could understand our yelling.

Anyway as you can expect the game got pretty chippy by the 3rd period as the Salzburg players weren’t too thrilled with getting smashed at home.  But again, the “no fighting” rule kinda just makes it so players square off and can’t hit each other… Don Cherry would be very disappointed.. Regardless they still get penalties which is pretty dumb considering nobody threw any punches but anyway it still gave us a chance to mess with them in the penalty box.

The opposing team seemed to find our heckling pretty funny considering they were wining  by 4… Salzburg on the other hand did not find us funny…

By the way, this happy fellow is Brett Sterling, from California who unlike the other guys in the penalty box could understand me when I told them “to stop dancing with the other team and throw a punch”… Oh well, still had a great night.  Definitely going to return for another game later this week if the series last long enough.

But anyway, that’s it for now.  Last week was somewhat of a boring week with the focus being on school and getting my schedule figured out for the semester ahead.  Next weekend should be more interesting with our first big trip planned and ready to go, more on that next week so stay tuned.  Auf Wiedersehen!

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!!