Ich liebe Innsbruck!!

The beginning of the train ride to Innsbruck was pretty uneventful, I slept. When we got like half an hour away though, we were struck with the beauty that is the Alps. O mein Gott! Es war sehr schön! The scenery was breath taking! It was funny watching the people from MN react to the beauty that is freshly capped mountains. We all want to live there. Innsbruck is like Colorado Springs, only way older and more European.

Innsbruck itself is OK... not nearly as cool as the surrounding scenery, but we didn't get the full impact of the surrounding scenery because of the rain. It was still cool anyways. While there we stayed at this hostel that was built for the 1976 Olympics... you could definetly tell. But it was still a nice place. The next day we went to the golden roof building (aparently its really famous... fun fact: during WWII a wall was built around the roof to protect it from being bombed).

We also ate lunch at this fancy hotel... I had the best snitzel yet! We then were on our own for the next few hours so we wandered to the cathedrals and were amazed at their beauty... Overall a very good day (except for the rain and the chilly temps).

And to top the night off, when we got back to Salzburg there was a fireworks show over the festung! It was AMAZING. Great place to have a fireworks show. The fireworks weren't as amazing as they are in the U.S. but the background was absolutely breathtaking and tops that of Colorado Springs.

Oberammergau... A cute little town nestled in the mountains of Germany

O mein Gott! Oberammergau is a very cute little town in the mountains of Germany. It took a while to get there, but it was totaly worth it! I enjoyed everything about Oberammergau. The cute German houses and shops, the scenery (there was a small river running through the town, and the surrounding mountains... omg) the play, the church... everything! (pic to the right, the surrounding mountains of Oberammergau on the first day)

While there (the purpose for going there actually) we went and saw the Oberammergau Passion Play. It is this famous play that the whole town puts on once every 10 years. Their ancestors made a promise to God in 1633 that if they were spared from the devestating effects of the spanish plague that they would put on a Passion Play once every 10 years for eternity. They have stuck to this promise. Hitler went to the play twice (in those times it had a very anti-semitic theme, needless to say Hitler enjoyed it and allowed it to continue during his reign) and the day after we saw it, the chancellor of Germany was there to see it.

The day of the play the weather was GORGEOUS! We got some awsome views of the surrounding mountains, as well as the German/Austrian country side on the trains on the way to Oberammergau. The leaves are jsut beginning to change, so it is amazing. Can't wait until the leaves change in Salzburg!

The play was AMAZING... just can't say enough about it! It was a bit long, but soo worth it. The first part ran from 230-5. It was pretty cool but not nearly as cool as the second part. It covered Jesus' entry into Jerusalem up to his arrest (in between was Old Testament scenes and some songs about the relationship between the Old Testament scences and what was happening in the play at that point [The music was AMAZING!]). After the first part we went to dinner back at our hostel and then me, Chris S, our german prof and this other girl Carolyn went and got gelato (we were very disappointed when we looked outside and it was raining). The second part ran from 8-11. This was the exciting part of the play (but it was very cold - the theater is covered, but not fully so it gets pretty cold). The second part portrayed the passion very well. I was amazed at how they showed the crucifixion, they made it look very much like they actually nailed the guys to the cross. ( the pic to the left is the second afternoon in Oberammergau, 5 out of the 6 of us girls, enjoying the scenery dispite the frigid weather and the rain)

The next day, Saturday, was very cold and rainy. We went up to this cute little town Ettal, nestled further up in the mountains. There we went to a Benedictine monestary, and after that wandered over to a cheese factory... OMG it smelled HORRIBLE, I was getting sick to my stomach because of the VERY STRONG cheese smell.. it was awful, we stayed there and learned how cheese was made, so we were in there a while, i plugged my nose the whole time... after Ettal we had some time to walk around Oberammergau and enjoy the town, then headed to our next destination Innsbruck. (pic to the right, the cheese factory...)

Adventures at the grocery store

Note to self... need to bring a German-English dictionary to the store when I go... I have been telling myself this for the past 2 weeks, and still i haven't done it. It is quite and adventure trying to get groceries. The fruits and vegetables are easy, its the other stuff that gets a bit tricky.

The first time I went, I ended up getting a katchup like substance instead of pasta sauce (to my defence, it said Italia on the bottle and had a picture of the sauce on bread... who puts katchup on bread?!), it took me FOREVER to find butter, because there are no pictures on the butter containers :(, and I ended up getting some type of pork meat instead of chicken like I thought it was (it was still good anyways).

The next time I went, I was looking for cinnamon... first I had to find the spice isle. Then I had to figure out what cinnamon is in German, that took a while, but finally I found a container with what looked like cinnamon stick and it said zimt, so then I found some ground up cinnamon (and it really was cinnamon). Another item on the list for that day was oatmeal, that was fun to try to find... NOT. I finally wandered over to the cereal isle and found what looked like oatmeal, it said Haferflocken, and just got it and hoped it would work (there is no quaker brand here), and it did, but I had to look up how to make it.

Today I was searching for some meat. I got some frankfurters, similar to the American hot dog, because I was almost positive that there was no cheese hidden inside (they do that here, put cheese inside the sausages (Käsewurst)... not good). Then I wandered over for my second attempt to find some chicken. I don't think I wandered far enough, but I did find some type of bird meat, and figured that would be good enough, I would look it up when I got back. It looked like chicken, but it said Truthahn, which actually means turkey. At least its closer to chicken than pork :).

Oh and another thing... they do not give out plastic bags to put groceries in (we knew that before we came because of last years group warning) and you have to put your own groceries in your bag.

So moral of the story, unless I want run the risk of eating something gross, or want to eat some unknown substance, I need to bring a dictionary with me to the grocery store.

I think I'm gonna like it here

Every day brings another adventure... I've been in Salzburg for just over 2 weeks. At first it was a bit overwhelming, had to figure out the bus system, where our classes were (I still dont think I could find my Philosophy class because the building is in the altstadt, and there are tons of nooks and crannys to get lost in) and get used to the fact that everyone speaks German ... and trying to communicate with my broken German has been testy at times. But it's getting better. I can get to three of my classes no problem and am starting to become familiar with the city. I still get turned around ALOT though.



The kids in my group are great (there are 16 of us from St Bens/St Johns, 10 boys and 6 girl) and we all get along wonderfully. We are really noisy compared to the Europeans though, I am sure they get annoyed with us. But we stick together as a group which is nice. Last weekend all but 2 of us, climbed (ok, half of the group hitch hiked half way up) Gaisburg, which was awsome. It was a VERY LONG hike and tiring, but we made it and the view from the top was AMAZING.

Yesterday we went up to the fortress that overlooks Salzburg. It was awsome. we learned about the history of Salzburg and about the archbishops that made significant contributions to the city. we also got another AMAZING view of the city and the surrounding mountains from the top of one of the towers of the festung (festung = fortress in German). It was another fun group adventure that we took on our afternoon free of classes.

Oh and that's another thing. I do LOVE my class schedule (not necessarily the classes though). I have 2 classes Mon, 3 Tues, 1 Wed, 1 Thurs and only have class on Friday if we have a program weekend (this weekend we don't). It is going to be a VERY hard adjustment next semester though...

Ugh... the coins

There are sooo many coins in the Euro currency... theres the 1 cent, the 2 cent, the 5 cent, the 10 cent, the 20 cent, the 50 cent, the 1 euro and the 2 euro coins... I think that is a bit rediculous... and here the coins are actually worth something, (instead of just a quarter, you can have a 2 euro coin, which is nice i guess) but I keep forgetting that I have coins that are worth something, so they just keep piling up... not good, cause they get heavy. Luckily I have had ample opportunity to spend my change this weekend, with the bus down the mountain (that will be a later post) and a vending machine snack at the train station, I'm down to like only 7 Euro in change :). But still rediculous.

One cool thing that I found out yesterday is that the coins can have different pictures on them depending on what country they are minted in... the paper money is all the same. I found this really cool and couldn't believe I didn't notice it before (we had a discussion over lunch on our hike up the mountain and someone mentioned it).

Salzburg ... first weekend

Salzburg... we have multiple times already been tempted to burst out in song :) It is soo green here. And the Alps... AMAZING, Ive only seen the mountains high enough to have snow on top a few times becuase there are always clouds in the way though... Thurday and Friday during the day we spent as a group exploring Salzburg and learning (or at least seeing) where our buildings are that we have class in (which I dont remember where, that might become a problem come tomorrow.. luckily almost everyone has the same classes). In the evening we were still as a group, minus the leaders and a few really tired girls and we went to get kebab.

Saturday we had free and 11 of us decided to go climb a mountain.. so we did. We picked a relatively small one to start (good idea cause we started at 1140). We climbed up Kapuzinerberg, it was a nice hike (ok, not so nice, lots of stairs, some very steep) and it has AMAZING views of both the city, the fortress and the alps... It was a blast. At the top we found this little cafe type deal and we rested outside and took pictures and played with the kittens that were up there (they were soo cute). The hike back down was more interesting... Chris took as around the mountain, some of the hiking was not so ideal... but it was a fun adventure and thats all that matters :).

The first picture above is of the three chem majors of the group (3 out of 16, thats a pretty good percent considering). The next one is of the whole group that hiked and the bottom two are the fortress and a mountain respectivly.

Barcelona

FINALLY NO RAIN!!!!! the day and a half we spent in Barcelona, was the only time we didn't see any rain... we were soo happy, and the temperature was nice enough for shorts and capris! And there was a beach!

One of the best parts of Barcelona was the market we went to... it was HUGE, and in the food section, there was a TON of fresh fruit, for cheap.. we took full advantage of that :)

Also swimming in the Mediterranean was a highlight. The first night we just stuck our feet in cause it was a bit chilly to go all the way in. But the second day, we had beach time, and went in. One thing I did notice was that Europeans are much more liberal about swimwear that in the U.S.... but the beach was great :) but then a jellyfish got within inches of me and I was done swimming cause I was not getting stung.

Other sights in Barcelona... Segrada Familia (me and the sea turtle pic was taken there) a modern cathedral, not finished yet, but still really cool. The Barcelona Cathedral, and a park designed by Gaudi.

Paris

This was my least favorite city that we visited... and it was really when the culture shock hit, that is for sure... but still had a blast :). We had almost 3 full days here. Again we began with a walking tour, that covered the highlights (only a little of which I remember because I was running off 2-3 hours of sleep becuase we went to bed super late the night before (not a good idea) and had to get up super early to catch our train). Then we went the Louvre in the evening, in which we saw the Mona Lisa and alot of other art work (What is with European artists and naked art work? It was getting a bit ridiculous...) and the Notre Dame. Oh and the painted ceilings at the Louvre... I am in love... soo cool, I want one :)

The next morning we slept in (greatly needed), then went to another art museum (not really my thing, one was ENOUGH, but...). Then we hiked up this HUGE hill to the Sacre Coeur Basilica... at the top you could see alot of Paris, but it was even more impressive inside... WAY COOL... huge mural above the alter, we sat and stared for like half an hour (way better than the Jesus mural in the Great Hall at St Johns). Then we went to the Eifel Tower and were there for like 2 1/2 hours... cool, but not the coolest thing in Paris.

The last day we went to mass at the Notre Dame and traveled to the Palace of Versailles... AMAZING... thats all I can say... wish we had palaces in the U.S. ... or even really old, really cool cathedrals.

Paris

well... it took a while (cancelled flight and 2 early mornings in a row) but I finally made it to Europe! The 2 days we were there we were on the move from 9 till late into the night...but it was a blast. My favorite parts were St Paul's Cathedral, and Wicked.

My first full day, we did a walking tour and saw the highlights of main London, which was cool and educational. We learned alot, and saw alot of the famous landmarks of London (including the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, in which the guard was playing Mamma Mia, which I thought was HILARIOUS and really cool). By the end of the tour we were getting rained on... it rains ALOT in London, kind of a bummer. I would totally live there if it didn't rain so much. But it was a great place to visit. I do wish we would have had more time there... and that I could have gone to Windsor Castle.

The second day was way more exciting. We went to St Paul's Cathedral... OMG it was AMAZING. I can't even describe it. I am in love with European Cathedrals. We spent 2 hours looking aroung, and we went to a Eucharist service there ... that was an adventure. We thought it was a Catholic church, until we noticed that it was a woman presiding... it followed the Catholic Mass very well, so we were all very confused... so we asked once it was over and found out that it was the Church of England (aka Anglican)!

We then visited a buch of landmarks including: the Millenium Bridge (the bridge in Harry Potter 6 that gets destroyed by the death eaters), Platform 9 3/4, the British Museum, the Tower of London (didn't get to go in, because the tour took 3 hours, and we got there too late :( ) the Tower Bridge and went to Evensong at Westminster Abbey (also Anglican). We then got changed and went to Wicked.... OMG it was AMAZING. I LOVED IT. It was a great end to our time in London.

We will see if this works

soo... I decided that I would start this blog, to tell about my adventures in Europe :).... we will see how long it lasts. Not too big on writing, so we will see how this goes.