Snowboarding the Alps

Last weekend I snowboarded the Alps!!! Me, Anne and Kara went to Innsbruck Friday evening and walked around the Christkindlmarkt and spent the night in a hostel. The next morning we woke up and caught a bus that took us to Stubai Glacier. It was about an hour out of town. The bus ride was cool, because everyone was going to the mountain and they had all their equipment on the bus. When we made it to the resort we then took a Gondola to the main section. Once at the main section we rented our equipment. I had a Burton Lux 147. It was a fantastic rental and I put more scratches on the bottom of it than it had when I first got it. Kara and Anned skied, but the three of us were all at about the same level, so it made the day easy. When you are getting on the lift, though, it was a little more difficult. The main lifts were 4 and 6 seaters and there is no queue. There is a mass of people and you just shove your way to the front and once you get there, then you divide into 6's. The snow was more ice and rocks, than snow, but the fact that I was on the Alps made that irrelevant. I only had a few falls and walked away with the usual black and blue knees and rear end. The craziest part of the day was the t-bar lift. I rode with Anne and I pretty much just hugged her the entire way up. They wouldn't let me strap all the way in while riding it up, so I had to go up the hill being dragged by a pole with only one foot in bindings and the other on my stomp pad. If you are a skier the pole sits on your hind quarters/thighs and it pulls you up in a sitting position. If you are a skier that pole that the skiers sit on, you straddle. It was an experience and me and Anne laughed so hard we were crying by the time we made it to the top!!! Not something I want to do every time I snowboard, but I got the hang of it. A little bit of a side note. Instead of having lift tickets that you get scanned they have plastic key cards and when you walk past the gate it picks up the card and you can just walk through, so you leave it in your jacket pocket for the day and you are good to go. It was really cool. If you wanted to go another day you could just recharge your card instead of buying a whole new lift ticket.

On the way home we rode the bus back down and ended up meeting two other Americans studying in Salzburg and a guy from Notre Dame studying in Innsbruck. It was such a random meeting and it made the bus ride home great and not nearly as long.

When we made it back to Innsbruck we caught the train home and were back in Salzburg in 2 hrs. So we arrive in Innsbruck after it was dark, left the city to ski while it was dark and returned from skiing when it was getting dark, but the city is still beautiful at night especially with Christmas lights. In the morning we did get a glimpse of the Olympic stuff as the sun was just peaking over the mountains.

Thanksgiving '09

We had a Thanksgiving Day feast fit for America! It was great, Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans and gravy. For desert apple and pumpkin pie. Our cook Brigitte out did herself this time, it was almost like being home.

Vienna Take 2

Two weekends ago my class went to Vienna on an extended field trip. We left Salzburg at 9am and our first stop was Mauthausen. It is a concentration camp just outside of Linz. I have been to Dachau where the main focus of the camp was extermination, but Mauthausen was a little different. The main purpose of the camp was to hold POWs and it was a labor camp. There are people who survived 7 years there. It was stilleerie, but it didn’t have quite the same feeling of sure horror as Dachau.

Upon arriving in Vienna we checked into a hotel. At first we were all really excited to be staying in a hotel versus a hostel, but after it was all said and done, I like the hostels better. The advantage of a hotel is you don’t have to bring your own towel and the maid makes your bed everyday. The things I like better in a hostel, even if you have to bring your own towel or rent one, is community kitchens, common areas, helpful staff. The kitchens are great, because you can save food or if you buy food you can always leave it in the kitchen with your name on it and you can cook a really cheap meal. You also never know who you are going to meet in the kitchen or in any of the common areas. It is awesome talking to people and seeing where they have traveled and what they liked and didn’t like about cities. We have gotten great advice from people on what to do in cities this way. The staff at hostels also knows of great place to go around town. I’m sure the lady at the desk in the hotel would have known, but she wasn’t as friendly as a hostel front desk staff. She treated her job more like a job and less like an enjoyment. We had an awesome evening just hanging out around town, but wished the next morning we had gone to bed a little earlier.

We started the morning off with a 3 hour bus tour, this was cool, because we got to see a lot more of Vienna than we would have on foot on our own. The funniest part of the bus tour, though, was the amount of people who fell back asleep, at least half of our class. They just missed out : )

For lunch they dropped us off at a market! You could buy pretty much anything you wanted to eat. Next to the food market was a flea market. Every Saturday it is set up, so we spent most of our lunch break looking at stuff from the flea market. I wish we’d had more time, but we had another tour of Vienna in the afternoon. This time it was a 3 hour walking tour. It was nice to get all the information about Vienna, but 6 hours of touring in one day is a little much. We decided it would have been better to have the bus tour the day before and the walking tour that morning. We didn’t have a lot of time afterwards to look around on our own before the sun went down at 4:30.

That night we got to experience our first Christkindlmarkt or Christmas Market. It was fun! There were a bunch of booths set up with different foods and Christmas style presents. We walked around and looked at everything while singing “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.”

Sunday was a free day for us. We could choose what we wanted to do and see. I started the morning off by seeing the Lipizzaner Stallions. I didn’t actually see the performance, just the horses, but they were still cool. Next I got to see the “Beauty and the Beast” library reincarnate. It was incredible! It was two stories with beautiful balconies and it was filled with books. I was with a few other girls and we sang Disney songs and took tons of pictures. We all decided it had to be possible to bring the library home. In the afternoon Me, Ruby, Anne and Kara went to a coffee shop to just sit and observe. Coffee shops are very popular in Vienna and it is something that they are known for, so we used that as an excuse to go. We planned on it being an hour or so event, we ended up staying in the coffee shop for almost 4 hours, just talking and people watching!

Monday consisted of a few more field trips. We toured the Parliament building and the tour guide was by far one of the best we have had. She was direct and to the point and made everything very clear. This was one of the better tours we took. The boys had started this game to keep themselves entertained while on tours and it carried over to the rest of the group for the day. What you do is try and catch someone else while they are not paying attention and if they are walking you trip them up a little and if they are standing still you hit the back of their knee so that it gives out from underneath them. So the day was filled with laughter as we tried to “get” each other. It definitely helped pass the time when we were walking from one tour to the next. The next tour of the day was with a section of the government that helps immigrants integrate into the Viennese life a little better. They set up class to help them learn German and they help with loans and finding houses. It was really interesting information, but way to long. Our professor was even falling asleep. Then lunch and another tour. This one was over the resistance movements in Austria during World War II. Again very interesting information, but a little to long. After that last tour me, Kara and Chris went to look at the Royal Treasury or where they keep the expensive jewelry. Definitely a museum worth seeing!

That evening a few of went to an opera. It was called “Der Sauber Flöte” or “The Magic Flute.” It was one of Mozart’s operas, so it was all in German. Each person had there own screen to look at so you could pick what language you wanted your subtitles in. I picked English, because the woman in front of me had hers in German, so I could listen to the German and read the German and if I didn’t know a word I could then look at my screen for

the meaning. I enjoy hearing German even if I don’t catch it all. The opera in Vienna is student friendly. For 3 Euros you can buy a ticket, this is an excellent price, except you have to stand up through the whole thing, but overall it was worth 3 Euros. That evening everyone stayed in and we talk and ate a giant pizza!

Overall, Vienna is a cool town and a great place to visit. I like smaller towns a little better, but Vienna is a must see if you are ever in Europe.

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Salt Mines

Salzwelt-Salt Mines

The salt mines are in a little town called Hallein a few train stops away from Salzburg. Once in Hallein you have to catch a bus that will take you the remaining few kilometers up to the saltmines. Well when we got there and looked at the bus schedule we had just missed the 13:05 bus and the next bus didn’t come until 15:05. We found it odd that the bus ran every hour except the one we needed.

So instead of waiting two hours for the next bus to come we decided to walk. Once we made it out of town to the rode that was to lead us up the mountain we found a sign that said 4 km and at that point in time we had probably already walked 1. We began the trek up anyways, thinking this can’t be that bad. It wasn’t that bad, but we tried to hitch-hike t

he entire way up. Believe it or not no one wants to pick up a group of 6 college aged kids and take them a few kilometers. To our surprise the salt mines were only 3 km up not 4!

Before starting our tour they made

us dress in these silly outfits claiming it was so we didn’t get dirty while in the mines. I, however, believe it was just so the staff could have something to laugh at. We rode a train into the mountain, slid down slides to get to different levels of the mine, rode across an underground lake in a wooden raft (the whole scene could have been from Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter) and we traveled into Germany all in the course of two hours.

One of the coolest parts of the tour was our tour guide herself. She started the tour off in German and says, “Mein Englisch ist schleck. Ich werde in Deutsch sprechen.” My English is bad and I’m going to speak in German. And it was, the entire tour was in German. I think it made the experience more authentic. When I come back here I’m going to do everything in German even if I don’t understand a thing. It was awesome to hear the tour in the original language it was suppose to be spoken in. Overall, a great day. And if you were wondering we caught the bus back down, so we didn’t have to walk back down.

An Interesting Field Trip

Winklhof

Winklhof is a Fachschule or the Austrian equivalent of a specialized high school. Teens who are 14-17 years old go here to learn about proper farming techniques, horsemanship and a more extensive home ec. The school also prides itself on being all organic. There motto is “lernen durch tun” which literally translates to “learning through doing.” So basically they have a full farm on the school grounds as a way to give the students hands on experience. And the kids basically run the farm. One of the craziest things that happened while we were touring around was to watch a goose be de-feathered. They pretty much put it in a tumbler with spikes. I’ll leave the rest up to your own imagination from there. They then took us to the room where they make schnapps! Homemade schnapps anyone? The last part of the tour was to their market. On Fridays the students can sell their produce to the local public and a few other vendors come to sell organic produce, meat, cheeses and a guy even had herbs.

From Paris to Berlin

Paris was a very short trip, one day. I think it was enough for me though. I got to see the Eiffel Tower, stand in front of the Louvre, gaze at the gargoyles at Notre Dame and eat a chocolate filled crepe. The best part of the afternoon was a little park in front of Luxembourg Palace. The leaves were changing colors and the weather was mild. People were just hanging out in these chairs spread all over the park. They were metal and some were modeled in a reclining fashion, so to get our local experience we lazed around in reclining metal chairs and enjoyed the sunshine. It was a great way to relax and just enjoy being in Europe.

Berlin!!

I am so glad I decided to stay 4 days in Berlin! It was by far my favorite city and I can't wait to go back. I think the reason I enjoyed being in the city so much was because it brought everything I had learned in German class to life. I got to see and touch the Berlin Wall. I got to walk were Checkpoint Charlie was. When looking at buildings and the overall atmosphere of Berlin you could tell when you were in the east side or the west. We got to stand on Hitler's Bunker and see where he worked. I took pictures in front of the Brandenburg Tor.

Something that did take me by surprise was the lack of touristic attractions. There were the typical tourist shops with souvenirs, but only a few. Nothing compared to Barcelona, Rome or Paris. The city was not designed with the intention of drawing big crowds of tourists. Yes, tourists came, but not in the same numbers as other capital cities. It was great. There were more local people walking around and tons of German being spoken everywhere. Another shock was how much English was in the city. Most signs had English right next to the German. It was nice, but it didn't challenge my German skills quit like I thought it would. I definitely got to speak German (I purchased my train ticket home all in German), but most people knew English if I got into a problem.

Berlin was also a very inexpensive town. They have grocery stores called Netto. Greatest thing ever! except they don't have microwaveable popcorn Have you ever had a craving for something and you can't find it, microwaveable popcorn! My host family doesn't have a microwave, so when our hostel did, my first thought was, perfect lets have some popcorn tonight. This was a lot easier said then done. I may have to have my host mom show me how to make some on the stove top, because typing this is making me want some now. : )

The other great thing about Berlin are Backerei. The sell delicious pastries and breads and their coffee tastes as good as a local coffee shop, but half the price. I had a pastry the last day that resembled a pecan pie. It was great! Pie for breakfast! or a late night snack which ever you prefer.

One of the funniest things I saw, was will sitting inside one of the Backerei on the main Alexander Platz. (Alexander Platz is the main square on the east side of Berlin.) The WWF, World Wildlife Foundation, was trying to raise awareness by talking to people that walked by. But they were having a very hard time getting people to stop and talk to them. It reminded me a little bit of Chi-O clock at OSU. You avoid that place in between 11 and 2, because you don't want people to had you fliers. It was the same thing here. Well two of the guys got a little bit fed up with people ignoring them so they began tag-teaming people and ambushing them. When a person would walk by they would trap them, almost like in basketball when you try and trap your opponent. One of the guys would step directly in front of the person and the other guy would walk to the side they were trying to get around. This approach was almost worse than just talking to the people. I laughed so hard when they started ambushing people! That was truly one of the best people watching experiences.

Another great thing about Berlin is the wurst stands set up everywhere! All the wurst and sauerkraut you can handle!

The hostel we stayed at was excellent: U Inn Berlin. We had great beds and the showers stayed hot the whole time you were in them. I can't think of any new lessons I really learned in this one. Pretty much a compilation of past findings.

1) The people working the front desk have great tips for seeing the city.

To see all the major sights if you have a bus pass take 100 from Alexander Platz to the end of the line and then take 200 back. Take your map/travel guide with you and read about the sights you pass.

2) If there is a kitchen use it. They have pots and pans for everyone to use. A good lesson here is either make breakfast and lunch or breakfast and dinner and spend money on one nice meal a day. We had spaghetti one night. This is also a great way to meet other people in your hostel. Most of them are traveling Europe and have great tips on what to see in other cities or tips on what to see in the city they are from.

3) Talk to the people in your hostel. You never know when you will stumble across a great piece of traveling advice or just meet someone interesting.

4) If you are nice to the people at the front desk they will let you keep your bags there and still use the facilities even if you are not staying there one more night. This is great when you have to check-out at 11, but your train doesn't leave until 8 that evening.

Enough for now. I have to say I loved traveling and see all the different cities, but I almost wish I would have spend my entire 2 weeks in Berlin and done day trips away from the city the last few days. I know now though that Germany is the country I want to explore more and see what else it has to offer.

I was glad to be back in Salzburg, but not for classes to start back up. Ben your care package has been the highlight of my week!