And a month later she remembers she has a blog
Hmmmm what all have I done since November 21st. Had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner in Baden at this huge heurige (sp?), then went the next day to ski in the Alps. It was a five hour drive or so out to the glacier near Salzburg, and we didn't leave until the afternoon, so the 3 day weekend was just two days of skiing. But it was the greatest bargain ever - 120 euros plus lunches for a 4 star apartment house that had a spa we used after Saturday on the slopes, all you can eat dinner and breakfast buffets (dinner themes were meditteranean and then an amaaaaazing variety of Austrian food which I am going to miss so much). Plus equipment and lift tickets all included. Didn't take me long to feel at home with skis on, though my legs got quite tired the second day. The views were so incredibly beautiful, mountains with jagged snow covered peaks going on forever. There was one trail I did over and over again partly just for the view from the lift! (Also it was relatively empty, and just challenging enough that I had to push myself on it.)
Europe has been quite a workout. The skiing, all the stairs in church towers and castles, hiking up to castles, hiking in Cinque Terre, walking around cities including Vienna.
After that I had been thinking about a weekend in Warsaw or Prague but I was so tired that I stayed in Vienna for the next weekend. I also realized I had a month left so I started hitting up all the museums I've been meaning to go to - just finished the circuit by going to the Sisi museum today. She was one crazy lady, poor thing.
Went to Munich two weeks ago and loved it. We had a long weekend for some Catholic holiday and Friday got into Munich and used our Eurail passes to get to Fussen for free. Fussen is the location of two Bavarian castles, one of which was the inspiration for the Walt Disney castle. The tours were pretty cool, again gorgeous views, and those Bavarian kings also had their share of insanity. And perhaps scandal. It was really weird, the temperature was about 50 degrees and it was windier than anything I've ever seen. People's tickets were being blown out of their hands, and you couldn't move sometimes for the wind, or you could just lean into it. The tour guide at one of the castles said this was because of storms in Italy pushing warm air down off the Alps. Then back in Munich I took in the city sites and sampled the bier - Saturday night we did a brewery/beer hall tour where we went to local places and saw how brewing happens and I finally learned what the hell malt and hops are and do. Then Sunday I went to Dachau, which wasn't as harrowing as the death camps and featured the typical overload of written information in its museum. I invested in the audio guide which was OK, but I'd rather have had it contain the stories I was too tired to stand and listen to at stations within the museum.
Then it was finals time. A friend from home visited and I was a poor tour guide, although I did give her a scavenger hunt to explore the 1st district with. I spent much of the last two weeks working or procrastinating, as well as still running around to museums. The Vienna armory museum is really interesting - it's got weapons and military uniforms and other relics from back to the Turkish wars, but the most interesting sections were on WW1 and WW2. Especially WW1 - they've got the car Franz Ferdinand was assasinated in, complete with a bullet hole, and the military suit he was wearing at the time, cut open where the blood stains are because it had run down his side, but you can also see the little bullet hole in his neck. To look at something that was so crucial to altering the course of Western history was pretty awe inspiring. They've got interesting weapons from the war too. The WW2 section had some bizarre display by the museum featuring models of people eating brains and turning into animals - not sure what they were going for with that, though apparently some sort of commentary on the Nazis. The interesting part in that section was the propaganda posters all over the place. And they didn't mind that I was taking pictures. Oh and I went to a restaurant on my street for taglichessen - the daily menu special that includes soup and a main dish and in some places desert, though when it had been quite a while since we'd finished our plates and we weren't drinking anything and they hadn't brought desert we just paid and left. It was so good, though, these little fried circular slices of friedness with meat of some sort inside. And Austrian potato salad, so good. Sadly my German teacher forgot to put up a few recipes at the final and I was so relieved to be done that I forgot to ask her. Apparently next semester she's offering her regular cooking lessons which she didn't do this semester due to some sort of recent leg surgery.
So that's that. Lots of running around Vienna - I've still got a little more in me tomorrow, I might go back to the Belvedere to say goodbye to some wonderful art there while I'e still got my free pass, and I've got to go to IES to give them leftover food and drop off Tara's key. Then tomorrow at 6pm I'll leave for the train station (allowing plenty of time wiht my 4 bags!) and head for Rome. I really like Vienna, and I'm sure I'll be back to visit. But I also loved Germany when I visited - admittedly some will argue that Bavaria is a whole different deal. But Germans are more friendly - a few minutes in a bar there and I'd made friends from Munich, versus a whole semester here - most IES kids only know Viennese who they met in their apartments. And while the Viennese/Austrians are passive aggressive, Germans are just plain aggressive which is more my style. I definately love the European lifestyle in general, or the germanic life style, or something, and Austrian/German food is droolworthy. I'd love to live in one of the two countries again for a while and in fact next summer I'm hoping to be in Berlin on a free program and then have time to travel around more in Germany.
So that's that, I guess. Maybe some time I'll get around to posting pictures, but don't anybody hold their breath.
Auf wiedersehen.
Europe has been quite a workout. The skiing, all the stairs in church towers and castles, hiking up to castles, hiking in Cinque Terre, walking around cities including Vienna.
After that I had been thinking about a weekend in Warsaw or Prague but I was so tired that I stayed in Vienna for the next weekend. I also realized I had a month left so I started hitting up all the museums I've been meaning to go to - just finished the circuit by going to the Sisi museum today. She was one crazy lady, poor thing.
Went to Munich two weeks ago and loved it. We had a long weekend for some Catholic holiday and Friday got into Munich and used our Eurail passes to get to Fussen for free. Fussen is the location of two Bavarian castles, one of which was the inspiration for the Walt Disney castle. The tours were pretty cool, again gorgeous views, and those Bavarian kings also had their share of insanity. And perhaps scandal. It was really weird, the temperature was about 50 degrees and it was windier than anything I've ever seen. People's tickets were being blown out of their hands, and you couldn't move sometimes for the wind, or you could just lean into it. The tour guide at one of the castles said this was because of storms in Italy pushing warm air down off the Alps. Then back in Munich I took in the city sites and sampled the bier - Saturday night we did a brewery/beer hall tour where we went to local places and saw how brewing happens and I finally learned what the hell malt and hops are and do. Then Sunday I went to Dachau, which wasn't as harrowing as the death camps and featured the typical overload of written information in its museum. I invested in the audio guide which was OK, but I'd rather have had it contain the stories I was too tired to stand and listen to at stations within the museum.
Then it was finals time. A friend from home visited and I was a poor tour guide, although I did give her a scavenger hunt to explore the 1st district with. I spent much of the last two weeks working or procrastinating, as well as still running around to museums. The Vienna armory museum is really interesting - it's got weapons and military uniforms and other relics from back to the Turkish wars, but the most interesting sections were on WW1 and WW2. Especially WW1 - they've got the car Franz Ferdinand was assasinated in, complete with a bullet hole, and the military suit he was wearing at the time, cut open where the blood stains are because it had run down his side, but you can also see the little bullet hole in his neck. To look at something that was so crucial to altering the course of Western history was pretty awe inspiring. They've got interesting weapons from the war too. The WW2 section had some bizarre display by the museum featuring models of people eating brains and turning into animals - not sure what they were going for with that, though apparently some sort of commentary on the Nazis. The interesting part in that section was the propaganda posters all over the place. And they didn't mind that I was taking pictures. Oh and I went to a restaurant on my street for taglichessen - the daily menu special that includes soup and a main dish and in some places desert, though when it had been quite a while since we'd finished our plates and we weren't drinking anything and they hadn't brought desert we just paid and left. It was so good, though, these little fried circular slices of friedness with meat of some sort inside. And Austrian potato salad, so good. Sadly my German teacher forgot to put up a few recipes at the final and I was so relieved to be done that I forgot to ask her. Apparently next semester she's offering her regular cooking lessons which she didn't do this semester due to some sort of recent leg surgery.
So that's that. Lots of running around Vienna - I've still got a little more in me tomorrow, I might go back to the Belvedere to say goodbye to some wonderful art there while I'e still got my free pass, and I've got to go to IES to give them leftover food and drop off Tara's key. Then tomorrow at 6pm I'll leave for the train station (allowing plenty of time wiht my 4 bags!) and head for Rome. I really like Vienna, and I'm sure I'll be back to visit. But I also loved Germany when I visited - admittedly some will argue that Bavaria is a whole different deal. But Germans are more friendly - a few minutes in a bar there and I'd made friends from Munich, versus a whole semester here - most IES kids only know Viennese who they met in their apartments. And while the Viennese/Austrians are passive aggressive, Germans are just plain aggressive which is more my style. I definately love the European lifestyle in general, or the germanic life style, or something, and Austrian/German food is droolworthy. I'd love to live in one of the two countries again for a while and in fact next summer I'm hoping to be in Berlin on a free program and then have time to travel around more in Germany.
So that's that, I guess. Maybe some time I'll get around to posting pictures, but don't anybody hold their breath.
Auf wiedersehen.
posted by trude at
6:38 PM
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