Trieste, Italy

Trieste, Italy is absolutely beautiful! This picture is JUST for you, Mom!! I'm out on a kind of pier that is all stone, looking back into the main city square with some of my classmates. We arrived by train on Thursday afternoon and I think most of us were overjoyed when we transferred to our other train in Udine and had the windows open with warm wind and sun rays shining in on us. Trieste has been no different and walking around the city and along the water without being freezing is so revitalizing. I've been in an unusually giddy and excited mood since Friday, I think because of all the sun and the warm weather. I can't wait for it to warm up a bit in Vienna. I think it will make it even more enjoyable.

On Thursday, we dropped off most of our things off at the hotel and met at a large coffee house near the old port. We had some itinerary business to discuss and also some "Triesten" history lessons. Trieste was once one of the Austro-Hungarian empire's four major cities along with Prague, Vienna and Budapest. It belonged to the empire for around 600 years before the Italians took it back. After WWI, it became part of Austria but after WWII it returned to its Italian roots once again. Because of this, Trieste not only has very Austrian architecture and is somewhat of a melting pot for the Italians, Austrians, Germans, Slavs and other Balkan nations. Pretty interesting stuff, really. We had Thursday night to ourselves so we split up into smaller groups to find some food and found a delicious pork place where we were served a large dish with many different cuts of pork and different ways of preparation. Yummy!

Friday was busy but really interesting! We met in the hotel lobby at 9am after our free continental breakfast and hiked to the military fortress at the top of large hill in the center of the city. It was really neat and had all kinds of weapons and armor from the middle ages. In the afternoon we too a bus to Miramare, the small private castle of one of the famous Habsburgs, Ferdinand Maximilian. The palace was situated at a point right on the ocean with ocean views in every room and a large park with lots of cool walkways and fountains. After exploring the palace and its grounds, we hiked to another small village near Trieste and found a great local place for dinner. More pork but all so delicious!

Friday night was spent mostly in our rooms talking and sharing stories and pictures with each other from home, Vienna and our other travels. This morning we met around 9am again and had a guided tour through Trieste by a very cheery lady. It was neat seeing most of the city and she was able to answer any questions about where to do this and how to do that, etc. etc. This afternoon was all to ourselves so we branched off into smaller groups for lunch, had more gelato and now we're catching up on some much needed rest from being on the go for the last 72 hours. We're done for today and will meet again tomorrow morning for a final excursion and then our train ride home tomorrow afternoon.

I've created another album of Trieste pictures so be sure to click on the link to the right of the page to see more from this bellissimo villaggio!

Ball Season!

We finally made it to a ball, the final ball of the season! Elmayer Kränzchen Ball was at the Wiener Hofburg Palace (Yeah, the big famous one in the center of the city!) last night from 6pm to midnight. Apparently most Viennese balls end around 3am or 4am, but because yesterday was Fat Tuesday, they started lent today at Midnight and have to get serious, or something.

I borrowed a dress from one of Jake's host-sisters. She had several to choose from but I really liked the one I picked because it was very simple and she actually made it herself! I felt a little under-dressed, actually, because most people were wearing prom dress-type dresses but I didn't really care. I did have to buy some shoes to match the dress... which I felt pretty guilty about but I actually really like them and they were a good price. Anyway, more group pictures to come!

There were four dancing halls - the main hall, a waltz-only hall, a contemporary music hall (i.e. hits from the 80s and 90s, haha) and a club in the basement. It was pretty neat to be able to take your pick and/or find the dance floor you liked the best. There were also numerous bars and several places to get food. Everything was REALLY expensive and you didn't get very much but I went ahead and bought one small glass of wine for €5.50 which, I suppose is pretty standard in the U.S.A. but in Vienna, that is very expensive!! I held out on food until the end of the night when I went to my favorite street-food stand at Karlsplatz where they have the BEST Käsekrainer (cheese-filled sausage inside a big roll with ketchup)!! Only €2.50 and it fills me right up.

Tomorrow is the beginning of our big Italian trip! So of course I just got back from stock-piling on snacks and goodies for the train. It will be just under 8 hours with one change in Udine, right after crossing the border into Italy. I'll definitely be bringing my laptop with the latest episodes of HOUSE and HEROES! We received a rough itinerary of the weekend from Frauke but it basically has us doing some site-seeing and meeting at coffee houses. We have an afternoon to ourselves and I think a few other "free-times." I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing how much Italian I've forgotten since my short trip to Como in 2004. Haha, maybe I still know enough to impress some of my classmates! :p

I'll try to bring you regular updates throughout the weekend. Gute Morgen everyone! :)

Well I've been slacking on the blog this week, sorry! I haven't really been doing anything too noteworthy compared to some of my other activities. On Thursday we went to Beethoven's house, one of the many, but it was where he spent the longest time in Vienna. Pretty cool and yet another reminder of how OLD this place is! On Friday, one of our fellow American students, Jake, cooked a giant pot of taco soup at a friend's house where we did some socializing with each other and a few Austrians. Delicious!

A lot of AHA students went away this weekend. Some were in Switzerland, some were in Budapest and I believe one went to Cologne. I must admit I'm a little jealous and I would OBVIOUSLY rather be off skiing somewhere this weekend but I've enjoyed some downtime and a healthy amount relaxation at home base.

It's been snowing pretty regularly the past few days but not very heavily. It doesn't seem to build up here like it does back home but maybe that's just because I'm not used to the city.

On Thursday morning, our entire group leaves for Trieste, Italy! Trieste was once part of the Austrian Empire and served as the only sea port. Now it's a part of Italy and is closely bordered by Slovenia and Austria. I'm not sure what our itinerary is yet but I know we're leaving by train bright and early Thursday and returning Sunday night pretty late. I think Frauke is going to give us more details about the weekend plans sometime this week... I will keep you posted!

I visited Jake's homestay today and it's basically a castle. Yeah, seriously... I'll have to take a picture tomorrow. He just got a new cell phone deal and it's way cheaper than what we have right now. He also bought his phone for about $20 in Switzerland a few months ago and it's WAY nicer than the ones we have now! So I'm thinking about buying a phone here and getting a cheaper pay-as-you-go plan. I think it will be cheaper in the long run, plus I'm going to need a cell phone after the program ends.

Anyway, back to the old grime! I have a little homework to do - just some German worksheets and a little dialogue. Then I'm going to watch some TV and go to bed! Gute Nacht! :)

Another visit to the symphony

Frauke scored some discounted front-row seats to a show at the Vienna Concert House tonight. She purchased them with AHA money so it was all free for us (except for the coat check, which you are REQUIRED to do!!) The performance was all strings with the following program:

Joseph Haydn: Symphonie G-Dur Hob. I/88,
Konzert für Violoncello und Orchester C-Dur Hob. VIIb/1
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Symphonie Nr. 3 a-moll op. 56

I really liked the first one, Haydn's "The Letter V," and I'm actually listening to it again right now! I loved the all-strings sound and I'll probably have to seek out another string concert, soon!

For our final project in music class we have to do a composer/concert report combination and I was thinking about doing it on Camille Saint-Saens. We are required to go to a live performance of the composer's work so I'm not sure how I'm going to figure that one out but I'll ask our professor.

My German is coming along nicely, I think. In Kitzbühel, I met some Swiss people and one of them hardly spoke English so we were forced to try to communicate auf Deutsch! In class this week I could already tell I had moved ahead of everyone else just a tad - it's pretty exciting! :)

I finally spent the rest of the money in my Scottrade account and I'm pretty confident it's a good stock. I already had just 3 shares but it is the only stock in my portfolio that ISN'T crashing to the ground like everything else... so I decided to spend my leftovers on more shares. Let's not get into detail about how my other stocks are doing...

Well it's been snowing here the past couple of days, windy and really cold! I'm debating another day-trip to Semmering on Friday to ski. Sometimes I think it's such a hassle but I know as soon as I get up there I will realize how it's SO worth it. We'll see what happens, I think it will be a game-time decision.

I've been trying to keep up with the rest of the world on CNN, one of the four English TV channels we get here. Obama... you are crazy.

When you're tired, you fall more.

The sun was shining almost all day today so leaving early was VERY difficult! The views were incredible and I wanted to take a picture everywhere I turned but I knew the camera could never do it justice so I gave up after a while. The nice weather also brought the masses up to the mountain so it was a bit more crowded then yesterday and Friday but if you get far enough away from the main runs, you can avoid them pretty easily.


I'm in the train on my way back to Vienna! There's only internet for First Class so I'm just typing this out now and I'll post it online when I get back to my homestay. Anyway, I decided to stay a little longer and catch the 4:30pm with one transfer in Wörgl. It wasn't too bad and I got the chance to eat a little something before the 4 hour train ride ahead of me. BUT I was still really sad to leave Kitzbühel since it seemed like I only barely scratched th surface of the little town and its giant mountain! There were a couple areas I didn't get to the entire weekend. Oh well, guess that means I'll have to come back someday... Hehe. The hostel was great, too, I have no complaints. The price was right and they had everything I needed - and especially catered to skiers and snowboarders. I even got a ride to the train station!

I've been reading that skiing in Europe is usually pretty comparable, price-wise, to ski trips in the United States. I'll have to look into that sometime and see what it all works out to. I know lift tickets here are WAY cheaper, especially considering how much more there is to ski. So think about it, guys... Christmas in Kitzbühel? I hear it's beautiful! :p

Frischem Pulver täglich (Fresh powder daily)

No sun today, unfortunately, but at least there was tons of new snow and I imagine there will be lots tomorrow, too! I did a lot more exploring today and got a better idea about how big this place really is... pretty incredible. It was about two hours before closing and I realized I probably needed to start heading back - unthinkable back home!! Some of the ÖBB ski/train packages only offered 6-day passes and now I know why. There's no way I'll have skied every run at Kitzbühel before the end of the day tomorrow! Which reminds me - I have more decisions to make...

Tomorrow a direct train to Vienna leaves here at 3:15pm. I could quit early and get that train, but then I'd miss out on probably 2 or 3 hours of skiing. The next train leaves at 4:30pm but has one change in Wörgl - kind of a hassle with the skis but I did it on the way here so I can do it again. The connections will wait for late trains, too, so if the train you are on is late, the other train you're supposed to catch next will wait for the late passengers. Anyway, it would be nice to have a non-stop train passage but not a huge deal. I guess I'll see how I'm doing tomorrow. Who knows, maybe I'll be completely dead! I wanted to night-ski tonight but I just looked at the schedule and there's only nigh skiing on Friday! So I missed it yesterday, oops!

So tonight is my last night and I'll be headed back to Vienna soon. Three days here was not enough! I'll be planning my next ski adventure very soon... :)

No cool pictures from the mountain today but I've been collecting some funny English translations throughout my travels. They had a couple funny ones here - this what I've got so far:


Prague, Czech Republic - "DON'T ACROSS"

Kitzbühel, Austria - "LIFT UP THE BAR AFTER THE PROVIDED SIGNBOARD"

Kitzbühel, Austria - "Open safety bar straight before exit!"

Skifahren in Kitzbühel - Tag 1

Well, I didn't think I was going to have any pictures to share with you today because the weather was pretty crappy this morning. But I held out until the afternoon and it cleared up just enough to see some amazing panoramic views. It's pretty awesome here!!

I was a little irritated at first because the place seemed really "choppy." Like I got on the first gondola to get up to the main part of the resort, then I got onto another lift, then I could go back down or keep going up, and then I could get on this other one or this other one... but a lot of the runs weren't that long and there are TONS of cat-tracks! (I guess it makes sense that Austrians are more accepting of all that ski-cross crap!) But after lunch I found the money spot over on the back side. Suuuuper long runs and the weather was just starting to clear up back there so I was excited. I spent the rest of the afternoon back there and overall, I still haven't seen the entire resort. There's probably about half left that I still haven't seen!

Here's a pretty neat view of the city from my journey down to the very bottom:

Getting down before closing was a little stressful! Here, you can't just think about going down to get to the bottom. You can be 3 or 4 lifts away from where you need to be to get down to the right town! There are even a lot of runs that don't have a lift at the bottom - just a little town or village. Some lifts don't have any vertical, they just transfer you from one peak to another. So once again, just like Stuhleck, I was struggling to interpret signs and figure out how to get down to the right spot! Fortunately this time I didn't make any wrong turns.

I had to take a picture of this. You know you're skiing in Austria when...

I met a guy in Vienna Wednesday night who's last name is Reiter - Hah, I don't know if we're related. :p

Plans tonight? No idea. The hostel is pretty quiet right now, I'm not sure where everyone is, maybe out to dinner or something. I went to the grocery store and bought a mini-frozen pizza for myself and some soup packets for the next couple of nights. Gotta learn to conserve the cash!

I suppose that's all the big news for now. More later! :)

Made it!

I'm in Kitzbühel and found the hostel alright. It's pretty tiny and run by a couple who live upstairs but they seem great and breakfast is free! The other kids here are nice, too. I'm kind of regretting coming here on the train at night because I probably missed out on some awesome views... hopefully I'll get to see a little bit on my way home, Sunday. Anyway, lifts open at 8:30 tomorrow morning so I need to be up bright and early. I'll post pictures tomorrow night! :)

Kitzbühel ski trip now official!

Thank God I have three days to shred this! Today I purchased my second European ski package with ÖBB to Kitzbühel Ski Area in the Tirol region of Austria. Kitzbühel is just East of Innsbruck and takes about 5 hours by train from Vienna. I will be staying at the SnowBunny's Backpackers Hostel, only a short walk from the train station and ski lifts! My train departs Thursday after class and I'll stay Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. The package includes round-trip railfare and a 3-day ski pass to the resort.

In other news, plans to visit Philip sometime around April are in the works. Hopefully we'll be able to meet up at some point. I'm still planning to spend some time in Luzern with Greti & family around that time, as well. My other post-program travel plans are beginning to dwindle as I have realized I'd rather spend more time with family than try to "travel the world" in a matter of weeks. I'm now thinking to fly to Istanbul, take a bus to Izmir, hang out on some Turkish/Greek island on my way to Athens via ferry, then possibly fly back to Vienna from there. I'm open to any comments or suggestions!

So be jealous: Here's some chocolate Irmtraut gave us... some of them have Schnapps on the inside!! Anyway, tomorrow is Wednesday - my short day. I have class at 9am but I'll be out of there by noon and an entire afternoon of FREEDOM! We got some information from Frauke about public pools so maybe I'll track one down and do some lap swimming. Once again, I'm going to look ridiculous in my bikini because I didn't bring my Speedo... oh well, who cares?! I'll also need to start getting my things together for the ski trip because I'll have to leave IMMEDIATELY after class on Thursday. One other nice thing about the trains, though, is that you don't have to worry about getting there hours and hours ahead of time. They leave at whatever time is posted and all that matters is that you are inside before then! I'll have to admit, I'm still getting used to this as I've been horrendously early for most of my trips thus far. (I just spelled 'horrendously' right on the first try, wow.) :p

Not much other news. Hope everyone is getting their post cards! More on the way! :)

Group Photo!

(click to enlarge)

Last day in Salzburg & an afternoon in Linz

From Laura in Vienna, Spring 2009

Well my evening in Salzburg turned out more eventful than I thought. The hostel was hosting a Toga party! Free sheets were available at the front desk and everyone was taking part in the fun, including myself! Yep, I wore a Toga.

Saturday morning I headed out to Leopoldskron and found the Von Trapp house but couldn't really get close! Kind of a bummer but the place is private property and only allows private tours. But I got to see it a little bit so it was cool.

After that, train time. I got to the station about 6 minutes before the next train left for Linz. When I got to Linz, there was some kind of festival going on - there were tons of people out walking around and lining the streets in preparation for what seemed to be a parade. So I walked up and down the main street, battling my way through the crowds, but it was worth it! Linz is a really nice little city with tons of shopping and a really cool open square. I didn't have time to see the Mauthausen concentration camp memorial because the bus schedule was a little weird and I wouldn't be able to come back until 8pm. Maybe some other time, Linz is only a couple hours away. I also went into the Neuer Dom, Austria's largest church. Pretty spectacular but not as "decked out" as some of the other churches I've been in throughout Europe. (St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague definitely takes the cake!)

After a few hours of exploring, I headed back to the train station to catch the next train back to Vienna. I got there with about 5 minutes to spare and even managed to grab some snacks from the grocery store on-site before the train departed.

Last night I met up with Aaron and Mark for a weekend debriefing of all our adventures. Today it's wet and rainy so I don't know if I'll find the motivation to go anywhere. It's been warming up lately but still overcast most days. Hopefully the weather will improve!

(More photos from Salzburg and Linz have been posted on the sidebar!)

From Salzburg

(I wrote this in the hostel yesterday but couldn't get the internet to work. I'm home now but I'll go ahead and post what I wrote and update you on the last day of my trip, later.)

I'm in Salzburg! What a beautiful town, even in the dreary European winter! Thursday morning I left Vienna at 9:40am and arrived in Innsbruck about 4 1/2 hours later. I only spent a few hours checking the place out but I'm glad I dropped in. It is a lot bigger than I originally thought and bustling with 20- and 30-somethings, entire streets dedicated solely to late-night dance clubs, REAL bike lanes and pedestrians walking the streets wearing snowboard boots and/or with snowboards, skis and ski boots in tow! (There wasn't any snow on the ground, either!) It wasn't even just one area of the town that skis and snowboards were being carried around - it was everywhere!! I couldn't STAND being there any longer the ability to show off my gear, too, so that's probably why I made an early departure. My overall opinion of the place was great, though, and while I was walking around I thought about what apartment building might be good to live in... ;)

I left Innsbruck on the 17:30 train and hit Salzburg right at 19:30. I had looked up some hostels online before I started my trip and picked out the YOHO as a good potential spot. Following some directions I'd written down, I found it pretty easily from the train station and it only took me about 10 minutes to walk there. My 8-bed dorm room was €17 per night and includes free nightly screenings of The Sound of Music. Dinner on-sight was €6 and all-you-can-eat breakfast for €3 in the morning. I could eat wiener schnitzel forever - love the stuff!! Tonight I'm going to try the Potato Gröstl, some kind of potato thing.



After breakfast this morning I climbed Kapuzinerberg, a big hill that
rises directly above the city. It was a pretty good hike and had me
huffing and puffing towards the end, despite me THINKING I was in good
shape. The views were spectacular, though, and totally worth it. Here
is a view of the Hohensalzburg Castle ("Festung") from my hike - and
yup, I went up there, too!

Here it is looking back at the hill I was on earlier.

When I got back into the old town area, there was a little pretzel stand with some huge pretzels and I decided that sounded perfect for a quick lunch. Low and behold, the pretzel stand was owned by the Reiter family who have been making pretzels for generations! Obviously it's unlikely they are the same family as mine, but it's still neat to see Reiters everywhere. I don't think I've ever met another Reiter in the U.S.A. who wasn't in my family.



After that, I hopped onto bus 25 which took me to the Hellbrunn Castle - the location of The Sound of Music's famous gazebo! Definitely checked that out and the park I was in was absolutely gorgeous. The whole place is open and free of charge so I was able to walk around and enjoy the little walkways, ponds and greenery.



Tomorrow morning my plan is to get up, have some breakfast and check out, then head to the Leopoldskron Castle just south of town. Leopoldskron was the Von Trapp mansion in The Sound of Music. I'll be taking pictures! After that I'm going to get back on the train and head to Linz to check out the situation here. It looked pretty neat just going by on the train and I've never been there so heck, why not?! Hopefully I'll be able to track down the Mauthausen concentration camp memorial, too.

After several hours in Linz I'll probably get on the train again and return to Vienna - hopefully before dinnertime. (The train system is SO great here - I know I keep saying that but for example: I purchased a round-trip ticket from Vienna to Innsbruck when I got to the train
station yesterday morning and I can take up to two months to complete it! So I can get on, get off, get on, get off, etc., etc., as long as I'm along the route. Pretty awesome!) Anyway, so getting back to Vienna tomorrow afternoon will work out nicely because spending the ENTIRE weekend on the go can be exhausting.

I guess that's all the news so far, I'll be sure to update again when I get home tomorrow. Tschüss!

Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)

One of Mozart's most famous operas, "The Magic Flute," was pretty amazing to see in Vienna. We were at the Volksoper and had some awesome seats. The entire thing was in German so of course I had some trouble fully understanding what was going on, bBut I looked up the synopsis online ahead of time, like my mom suggested, and it was a little easier to follow along. The singing was incredible and the costumes were really cool! Although it was a little long and sitting through another opera will be a stretch, I'll probably find myself at another one sometime soon. "Ein Sommernachtstraum" or "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is also playing here and that would be pretty cool to see. Also "Die Fledermaus" is a famous Johann Strauss Operetta now showing and "Die lustigen Nibelungen" is supposed to be interesting, too. They get kind of expensive so we'll see how my budget is doing later in the semester.

Anyhow, Will and I had a great time despite some ticketing discrepancies. (Apparently he bought tickets at a different venue then where he thought we were going? Either way, we made it there and enjoyed it thoroughly!) Afterward we met up with the rest of our AHA gang at 1516 Brewery (we're basically regulars now, the Irish bartender upstairs loves us!) for some Saturday night fun. I'm sitting next to Amy, from Michigan, enjoying my favorite brew from 1516, the Stout. This beer has hops from Oregon! (As long as I know, "Ein dunkles Bier, bitte!" meaning, "A dark beer, please!" I will be fine here in Austria!)

I've decided that if I'm feeling up to it this weekend, I'll be headed to Innsbruck for a few days. I'd like to spend a day in Salzburg on the way back and possibly an afternoon in Linz to check out the situation there. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be skiing since I'll be walking around a lot. This is a tough decision for me because after last Friday at Semmering... I'm dying!! I have nothing going on next weekend so maybe I'll zip down there again for a 100% skiing-only trip. I don't think St. Moritz is going to happen because there is no place to stay that is relatively inexpensive! St. Moritz is such a ritzy place - maybe I'll save that trip for when I'm a millionaire. :p

Getting a little irritated...

So I've been able to deal for the first month or so but now it's REALLY starting to get on my nerves! EVERYBODY here smokes and every restaurant, bar and public place is full of smoke! My clothes always smell like smoke and now my room is even starting to smell like smoke... it's SO gross!! Now I have to do my laundry twice as often just to get the smoke smell out of everything. I still smell it in my hair after I wash it sometimes, too. I guess the anti-smoking wave has yet to hit Vienna. I'm not sure about the rest of the country. I might have to escape to Germany where smoking isn't as prevalent!

Anyway, just had to get that out. I'm sitting in the school "study lounge" area where there is free internet. The internet at our house will be fixed tomorrow... somehow the router was reset so all the settings went back to default. There's a few of us here just reading, doing homework, talking and surfing the web.

I only have one class today: German. We had a little quiz last week on everything we've learning so far. Greetings, numbers, how to say/ask where you are from, where you live, what languages you speak and how old you are. Pretty basic stuff so I think I'm getting it down. I'm starting to pick up a lot of other German, too, like where we are going and what we're doing. The vocab isn't there yet but in due time! The street names don't seem so foreign to me anymore and I think my pronunciation and German reading is improving a lot. I feel a lot more comfortable romping around town now, too, because I'm becoming a lot more familiar with everything.

That's all the news for now. Still undecided about what to do this weekend... Irmtraut suggested Innsbruck so maybe I'll spend a couple days there, then a couple in Salzburg? We'll see. Talk to you later!