Addicted to chocolate

WOW, chocolate was harder to spell than it should have been... the German is growing on me. (chocolate - Schokolade, close enough right?)

Anyways... so atleast for like the past 2 weeks I have been on a sugar/caffeine high and it is NOT good. It all started when midterms came around (ok it started before that but I don't have a good excuse as to why)... they kind of just snuck up on us. We were all busy planning our break when all of a sudden the profs were telling us what to study (vaguely of course... not a fan of this European way of schooling, grades based on 2 tests - and they dont really give you a good study guide, especially the German proff). Of course our program leader prof Ohm decided that the weekend before midterms was a great weekend to go to Vienne... NOT. Well, midterms came and went... they were ok i guess, as good as can be expected when studying the night before.

Back to the addiction. Well, I had taken up eating chocolate and drinking diet coke (well the austrian version anyways) to stay up and study, but I didnt quit after midterms... bad choice. After midterms came break, and the first few days involoved getting up early to catch a train or plane and staying up late, so I needed the caffeine. Well, some time in Rome, where I didn't have chocolate, I got a huge headache... NOT GOOD. SO I had to go to the grocery store and get some coke - that and we were soo exhausted from walking around all day that we needed caffeine so we didnt crash at 7 o'clock.

Now, somehow I have to ween myself off this caffeine addiction before the chaos starts again... NO FUN.

Vatican City



Pope Benedict XVI



The second full day we were there was dedicated to Vatican City. We made our way over there to see the Pope and hear him speak in St Peter's Square at 1030. There was quite a crowd (though prob not as big as it would be during the main tourist season). The pope drove in a vehicle around the crowd then up to his place on the stair of St Peter's Basilica and then there was a reading from Matthew in 7 different languages and then the Pope spoke.

After we heard him speak in English we headed over to the Vatican Museum (otherwise we wouldn't have accomplished what we wanted to for the day cause he usually talks for like 2 hrs and it was like 1130 by the time we got out). We stood in line for a while for the museum, but then we finally got in. We wandered around inside and eventaully made it to our destination, the Sistine Chapel. We sat and stared at the paintings (done by Michealangelo - we learned about them/were tested on them in Art History class) for a while.

After the chapel, we wandered our way through the museum and found a room dedicated to the aborginal people of Australia, that was interesting. By then we were tired and hungry so we made our way out. We decided on gelato for lunch, very good choice (it is going to be hard going from gelato back to ice cream... gelato is so much better, and the chocolate gelato that I had in Rome was EXTREMELY good). Then we headed back over to St Peter's Basilica.



me in front of St Peters



Boy was there a line to get in, it stretched almost all the way around the square. But it went relatively fast, took about half and hour to get in. All I have to say about the inside is WOW. I can't even discribe it. The art was beautiful! And the Sacrasty... oh my goodness! We walked around and admired for quite some time. After the inside of the basilica, we went down to the grottoes (under the basilica). There we saw graves of many dead Popes, and 2 queens. The highlights we definetly seeing Pope John Paul II grave and the gave of St Peter. John Paul's gave was quite simple, which made it stand out. St Peter's grave was just the oposite, really elaborate. It was beautiful. We were eventually rushed out becuase they were closing, we had gotten to the grottoes just in time.



swiss guards at St Peters



After the grottoes, it was getting dark, and we were hungry so we decided to go back. We took the metro back and went to the store and got some pasta and pasta sauce and made that for dinner, we invited Ali to eat with us, because he was there. We ate, Ali wasn't a fan but he was polite about it, and then we went back to our room to relax for a bit. After a while, Ali came back and told us not to go to sleep, cause he was cooking us dinner... and he wouldnt take no for an answer.


We ate a second dinner of hot dogs and sat around with Ali and Amin (from Iran) and the Italian guy staying there. The conversations got alittle more interesting that night. They told us that facebook and most email are illegal in Iran, and what is not is filtered by the government. They have to use a portal in order to get on facebook. We also learned that the Iranian people like Americans, its the government who doesn't. Also Amin said that he would like to one day come to America, but doesn't think the American government would let him (he is an Art professor back in Iran).



After dinner the Italian guy gave us some fruit to eat... it was like nothing I had seen before. It was orange on the outside, but on the inside it looked weird. He didn't know the name of it in English, and I don't remember what he called it in Italian, and if I couldn't spell it. I looked it up though and I think it was a Persimmon. It was pretty good, different but good. After that though, it was time to hit the sack because we had a long day of traveling ahead of us.

Rome



Well... I got up at 4 so I could finish my last minute packing, eat and be ready to catch our taxi by 5 (cause the busses to the airport don't run that early. We took our taxi to the airport and when we went to the counter to check in, they said we weren't in the system... we were not happy, so we found a computer and double checked our email then started calling around (I called mom) to figure out what the problem was. After like half an hour, we decided that we were going to leave the airport and keep trying to call to see if we could get on a different flight. As we were leaving though, the ticket guys stopped us and told us that the tickets were under our first names instead of our last... dumb. But they were helpful and got us on the next flight out (1150). So we went back to our rooms and took maps until it was time to head back to the airport.





Rome, you can see St Peter's the dome on the right

The rest of the plane stuff went smooth, we had to sit in the Vienna airport for 5 hours which we weren't happy about but we got to Rome at 8 pm (if we had gotten on our original flight we would have been there by 11 - half a day of exploring Rome lost :( ). Well we got to the Rome airport, waited half an hour, got our backpacks (had to check them cause they were too big) and caught a train to the main train station (the Rome airport is way out of the way of everything). Our next adventure was finding our hostel... Well, it was dark out, and the place where the train station was was very scetchy, especially in the dark. We walked to where we thought our hostel was, and rang the bell and the guy told us that that wasn't the place and he drew us a map and we had to walk another couple of blocks to  where our hostel really was. We dropped our stuff off and set off in search of food (by then it was like 10pm and we were STARVING). We settled for Kabap (a familiar food), got felafal with it, and called it good.



Trevi Fountain

The next day, we kept pushing the snooze button on our alarms, but finally got up at 8. We ate breakfast and then were off. First we stopped at a church that was on the side of the road on our way to the train station. It was quite cute. Then we wandered around the train station trying to figure out how to by metro passes for a while, but eventually found the ticket machine, I had to go get smaller bills, and we took the metro to where we thought the Trevi fountain would be. Well, that was the wrong stop, but we did find this really cool basilica. From the top of the stairs of that church we could see alot of the city (Rome looks much cooler in the daylight :) ). We wandered in and looked around for a while then were off again to find the fountain... a much harder fate than it ought to have been. But, we eventually made it, after another stop in another basilica.





Pantheon aka the Basilica of Siant Mary and Martyrs



Our next destination was the Pantheon. I wasn't quite sure what that was before we got there, so I was suprised to discover that it was yet another basilica (later in the day, we learned that it used to be part of ancient rome - a pagen temple of some sorts - and some pope back in the day turned all the pegan temples into Catholic churches [fun fact: some of the Catholic churches, the buildings that is, are Christ, the Pantheon being one of these churches]).



Lightning McQueen in the disney store



From the Pantheon we were off to see this building with some statue on it that we had seen from afar at the basilica from earlier. But first, lunch. We found this cute little restraunt along the road that we decided to stop and eat at. We both had Pizza. It was delicious, now I can say I've had true Italian pizza. Anyways, we made it to the building we were looking for, after a few more stops including a disney store (since Chris pointed it out, we just had to go in and look around). The building we were headed towards turned out to be the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuela II - otherwise known as the scar on the face of Rome - the Romans hate it. From there we could see alot of what is left of ancient Rome.



Our next stop, the Coluseum. We took a guided tour of the Colusium and the Roman Forum, and learned lots. Like the church fact, and how people used to take the iron and marble that was in the Coluseum and use it for their own good - especially that church. This weekend the structure of the Coluseum, and therefore it was not able to withstand the earthquake so part of it collapsed and that is why some of it is missing. Also that they did not charge admission to the Coluseum prior to 1996 or 1997. Even when the games we going on way back in the day, there was no charge - the emporer wanted is so all could enjoy the games, it was a form of entertainment equivalent to todays TV. It was truely a family affair.



Roman Forum



After the Coluseum, we were off to the Roman Forum. We learned here that at some palace that used to be there, now all that remains is partial ruins, the Catholic church took the marble that was used to decorate the palace and used it to renovate St Peter's Basilica back in the 15-1600s. By the end of that tour it was dark so we headed back to get a snack, we were still full from lunch and chill for the rest of the evening.



At our hostel we met these 2 brothers from Iran, Ali and Amin. They were really cool. They cooked us dinner, which we were not expecting at all. It was really good. We had this steak-like meat and a chicken. I guess in Iran they love meet. There was quite a language barrier when talking with them though, because one of the bother's english was not good at all and the others was ok - they spoke Farcy. But we had an enjoyable meal and talked alot. That night we learned that they only have like 1 type of meat in Iran.

OH and this is my rant.. ok, so the Brazilians at the hostel next door had locked themselves out of their room so they asked to borrow my phone, which was fine. I went out in the hall to talk to them, and discovered that the lady next door had left her like 4 or 5 year old kid home by himself. So what we had thought was a cat earlier (we were reading and it sounded like there was a cat outside) was actually a little boy crying for his mom! What the heck?!! That little boy had to have been left home alone for atleast 2 hours. The Brazilians brought him out into the hall, cause they were concerned and let him sit with them. And we, or I should say I (Chris doesnt like kids) comforted him as well when we discovered he was out there. His mother turned out to be the owner of the hostel next door, and when she came with the keys the boy went running crying to her. I felt soo bad for the little boy, and enraged at his mother. I dont know if that is a cultural difference or what, but that is not cool, to leave your 4-5 year old child at home alone for several hours.







Dachau...

WOW... what a day. Definetly one I won't forget. Definetly a sobering experience... Don't know how people could do those horrific things to fellow human beings.

We (Chris and I) got to the memorial site and got our little audio guides then wandered over to the enterence of the camp. The gate at the entrance - the Jourhaus, which was a remake of the original because the US forces tore it down ro something after the camp was liberated and they took over that site. There was an inscription on the door that said "Arbeit macht Frei" meaning "work will make you free".

We walked through the bunker - where prisoners were held and tortured and then headed to the museum, which was the old maintenance building. We learned all about the camp: the brutal way the prisoners were treated, history, types of people imprisoned and how they were identified, we listened to first hand accounts of survivors, the liberation by the American solidiers... Definetly couldn't have read all that in a text book.

We even heard about the 7 women who were able to carry out their pregnancies and have their babies in Dachau, and how the American soldiers burst into tears during the liberation of the camp when they saw them - new life amongst the dead.

Then we went into the barracks, saw the 3 different types of the bunkers from 3 different times in the camp; 1933-34, 37-38 and 44-45. Tthere were like 50 bunks in each room and 5 rooms per barrack building and 34 barrack buildings. At one point these barracks, only meant to hold 6000 people, were crammed with upwards of 30,000 people, and the disease spread quickly. While in the barracks we heard accounts of the standard to which they were forced to make their beds, and what happened if it was done wrong, as well as the fear the people had of disease.

We eventually made our way down the main road and saw the religious memorials (and behind them behind the gates of the camp is a convent... the nuns there pray over the souls of those lost in the camp), the crematorium and the gas chamber.

At one of the memorials in the camp there is one that says "Nie Wieder" which means never again and I certainly hope that is true. This was a horrible time in history, I hope we have learned from our mistakes.

Vienna

What a weekend. We left for Vienna an hour after class on Thursday, got there, dropped our stuff off at our hostel and then went to eat dinner at this turkish restraunt. The food was actually pretty good (don't remember what what I ate was called though). Then we ventured over to St Stephans Dom (Dom=cathedral in English) and peaked inside there and then walked around that part of town for a bit. When we finally got back to our hostel we were all exhausted, but since all 6 of us girls were in the same room for once we decided to bring back our childhood a bit and played truth or dare... very interesting.

The next morn we got up early (ok so it was like 715, but that is still early...) and ate breakfast and then we were off. We were given a tour by a St John's grad who had been living and teaching in Vienna for a year. It was very interesting - pic to the left is of a Jewish memorial from WWII.  We went around and saw all of the main buildings around the Ringstrasse (what used to be the whole main city way back in the day) and then ventured a little outwards. We ate lunch at this cute little cafe (fun fact: Vienna is know for it's cafe atmosphere where you can sit there and talk all day if you wanted to and you wont be hassled or run out) I had this noodle soup - i think the noodles were like cut up crepes, kind of tasted like it, definetly wasn't noodles I am used to - and fried fish. After lunch we headed to Karl's Kirche ( Charles Church). We went inside and admired the European style of the church - I cannot express how much I LOVE European churches, all the ones I have seen so far have been amazing, can't wait for St Peter's Basilica in Rome. After that we had the rest of the day free

... the group mainly just hung out at the bar in our hostel cause they had 1 euro beers (.33L).

Sat was another early morn... A bit more exciting though. Today we were off to Schloß Schönbrunn (the Schönbrunn palace). This was the Summer residence of the Habsburg monarchy that ruled until the end of WWI (1918). Inside was gorgeous...after the inside we were free to explore the grounds and then do whatever. I spent about 1-2 hours exploring the grounds with a few other people... WOW, the leaves on the trees were amazing. We ate a snack, really it was more like dessert, at the cafe at the top of the hill - I had Apfelstrudel (applestrudel), it was delicious. After that we headed back into town for some real lunch, Kabap, a favorite amongst the group (its kind of like the Turkish version of a Guerro). Then we went to the Art History Museum as a requirement for our Art History class, spent a while there then went back and napped. That evening we went to this fance Strauß- Mozart concert that was actually quite entertaining. They had dancer and singers as well as the orchestra.

Sunday was a free day. Chris, Nickie and I went ot Mass at the Hofburg Kapella (chapel) (a REALLY old church that once belonged to the Bobenburg monarchy - they ruled before the Habsburgs). We went there because every Sunday the Vienna Boys Choir sings at Mass. This weekend they were there along with a few members of the Vienna Phil Harmonic and the Mens Opera. We had to sit way up high in this little room to the side of the church, and watch the mass on a TV screen but it was so worth it. After Mass we went to a little cafe and chatted for a while and read an Austrian newspaper. Then we headed off to St Stephan's Dom to get some better pictures. Then it was lunch time and time to go back to Salzburg...

 Overall it was a good trip. Got to experience Vienna. It's a pretty nice city, but wouldn't want to live there (1.7 million people is too many for me).

Fliegerlied: So ein schöner Tag

So the other German Prof before we went to Oktoberfest spent a class period teaching that class German drinking songs. This is one of the favorites of the group. They played it at Oktoberfest multiple times and also when we were at the bar at our hostel in Vienna. Here is a video of the children's version (a.k.a. not in a bar, but as a cartoon).

The Hills Are Alive... a.k.a. Untersberg

So Saturday, while most of the group was in Prague, the Chris's and I along with Chris P's roomate Bartek, whose from Poland, as well as three other girls from Poland decided to climb Untersberg, the highest mountain in the Salzburg vicinity. It is also mentioned in the Sound of Music, its the one Maria is singing "The Hills Are Alive" on.

Fun fact, there is one family that owns that mountain, as well as the open air museum that we went to a few weekends ago. And it straddles the border between Austria and Germany.

Well... anyways. We had to take a bus to the base, but when we got there we found out that that spot was only for the cable car ride up and the hiking trail started like a couple of kilometers away. So we had a nice scenic walk around part of the base to our starting point. And then we finally reached the base and started up.

It was quite a hike up, but totally worth it. We got to interact with the Polish people. Throughout the course of the hike, there were 3 different languages being spoken - Polish, English and German. The Polish people spoke Polish amongst themselves, we spoke English amongst ourselves (we meaning me and the Chris's) and then the common language was German, unless we didnt understand then Chris P or Bartek would translate. Overall a very interesting hike.

At the top, we could see for kilometers. The hills were definetly alive! And the colors were amazing as well. We stayed at the top for quite a while, braving the cold and the wind, to look at the surrounding landscape. Like most of the mountains in Bavaria and Austria that I have noticed, there was a cross at the top.

The only good thing about fall... the colors!

O my goodness! Fall is definetly here. We were unpleasently suprised this morning when we walked outside and it was FREEZING! None of us were happy. But we can't complain too much because besides a couple of days, the weather here has been BEAUTIFUL! Last years group said it rained alot when they were here, we have only had a couple of days of rain. Mother nature definetly likes us.

Yesterday was perfect. The temperature was just right, and since half of us had no class and the other half only had one class we decided to spend the afternoon playing football. 13/16 of us played and then we had one of the guys roomates from Cairo, Egypt playing with us too. It was a blast. We have never had a group that big play before.

Anyways, got a little side tracked... Fall. Oh the colors! The leaves are in their peak on the color factor. It's like a MN fall only with mountains and the evergreens mixed in. A great combonation. We had a great view of the different colors when we were on top of Untersberg as well as the cable car ride back down. The colors are a great contrast to the very green grass on Gaisberg as well. This is one of the mountains that we walk towards as we walk to our dorms.

Sports with the boys.

Ok, so the boys in our program outnumber the girls almost 2:1. And they love sports. They love to play and love to watch sports (even willing to get up at 2am, or just stay up all night to watch Vikings, Packers and Twins games... crazy i know). Well Chris brought his American football and his fußball (aka soccer ball) with him. We regularly went out and played football when it was not raining or the field wasn't too wet.

Well recently we discovered the joy of fußball... We ( me, Chris S, Chris P and Chris P's roomate Barteck from Poland) went out and played for like an hour yesterday and it was a blast. We found this new field to play on, it's not as wett and slippery, but it hurts alot more when you fall (I fell quite a bit).

Today I went out with both Chris's, Leaf, Jack, some other kid I dont remember his name (all from the U.S.) and Connor from Ireland. We headed to the field that we were at last night playing, but when we got there there were a bunch of little Austrian boys (ages lik 6-10) playing. So we asked if we could play and they said sure. So we played the 7 of us big kids vs all the little ones (at one point there were 11 of them playing). They were actually quite good, but we still beat them. I was proud that I was able to understand alot of what they were saying (or learned to understand) except when they spoke in dialect and really fast. We played for over 2 hours, it was great! Overall it was a good way to end the afternoon.

I now know why they try to keep us busy all the time...

Since I left on August 23rd, I have not had a single day where I had nothing to do. Besides my pre-program travel, during the week we have classes and on the weekends we have always been doing something. Going places as a group, climbing mountains ect. This is the first weekend where we all kind of did our own thing. Some people went to Prague, some to Vennice and some stayed in Salzburg (i am one of those some) and we are climbing a mountain tomorrow.

Let me tell you, culture shock/homesickness slapped me in the face this morn. I had a bit of culture shock in Paris, but that was so early in the trip and I had no time to stop and breathe so it did not hit me this hard. I have been walking around Salzburg for over a month now, noticing the differences amongst the American and Austrian cultures. I have struggled though german conversations, have had some successes with conversations, but not without pitfalls. And sometimes I just get frustrated becuase everything is in German and I just don't understand (like at the Eagle's Nest, it would have been interesting to read all the infromation in the Dokumentation building about Hitler's reign, but it was ALL in German, most of the museums we have been to have atleast had a little English).

Some of the food is great. Like the pizza, there is way less cheese on European pizza and I think it's great becuase i can eat it withought having to pull any of it off. But they do put alot of cheese in some of their other foods, so I have to be careful and try to decipher the ingredients in the grocery store otherwise I am unpleasantly suprised...
And the Gelato... WAY better than ice cream. Can't wait to go to Rome and eat gelato there (2 weeks!).

The people are alright. I feel that they aren't as friendly (this might just be a me thing, but the people don't smile or acknowldge eachother as they walk by). I miss the many familiar faces of home, or of even St Ben's/St Johns.

Mom you would be proud

So last night we went to this Mozart concert up at the Festung and there was a dinner before hand. Let me tell you it was a pretty classy place. We all had to dress up and everything. Well anyways, the food was well... interesting to say the least.

We started off with bread (no pic cause that's just boring). Then we had this very interesting appetizer type deal... It was like green leafy things and some beats and some stuff all mixed together in a gelatin type deal (like chopped meat and vegetables). It looked gross, and tasted even grosser, but I tried it... and there's proof in the pics (there mom you happy?).



After that we got this soup type deal... I wasnt sure what to think becuase I am not a fan of creamy soups. But I ate like a third of it. Next came the main course. I had salmon and potatoes. That was good. Then the dessert.... SOO COOL. They made a treble clef out of powdered sugar, and there was pistachio ice cream (suprisingly good) and this baked thing with chocolate inside (we were all plesently suprised when we found the chocolate!) and rum cherries. I very much enjoyed this dessert (besides the cherries, cough medicine kind of ruined cherries for me).

After dinner we went to the concert. Very good. And for one of the songs they brought out an alpen horn... SO COOL.