Altstadt

Sunday was a gorgeous day. I planned to into the Old City of Salzburg and take some pictures and tour some of the churches. But first! My friends and I had planned a Big Ol' American Brunch. We had pancakes (ok, they were really crepes because the Austrians don't do regular pancakes apparently) with peanut butter and/or jelly, hash browns, and eggs with ham. SO GOOD.


After eating ourselves silly, we figured it was a good time to visit the old city and walk off that breakfast.

The old city is about a 10 minute walk from where I live. Once you pass the apartments and banks and kebab stands, you climb a set of steps and it's like you are transported to another time! The old city is so beautiful, complete with the narrow streets and cobble stones that you would imagine.

First up was Mozart square. As my friend Amber says, Mozart is Salzburg's Jesus Christ. He's everywhere and they are more than happy to claim him as their 'son'. Amber and I chillin' with Wolfie:



The highlight of our trip was to visit the Salzburg Cathedral (Dom). It's gone through a few re-buildings due to fires. It was most 'recently' rebuilt in 1629. The magnificent dome of the cathedral was destroyed by a bomb during WWII and was rebuilt in the 1950s. The inside and outside are masterpieces of baroque architecture. The inside is incredibly ornate, with paintings of Bible scenes all over the ceiling and walls. You could sit in the cathedral forever and still not see everything.

From the inside:


The inside of the dome:


Next we visited St. Peter's church and cemetery. The cemetery has very unique graves and markers. It also served as the inspiration for the cemetery in which the Von Trapps hide out in in The Sound of Music (it was a set in the movie!).

A few famous people are buried here, including Mozart's sister, Haydn's brother, and the US General of the last occupying forces in Salzburg. (see Flickr site for pics of their graves). After spending some time in the cemetery, we paid 60 cents to enter the 'catacombs'. They aren't catacombs in the sense that there are no bodies. Rather, it's places of worship built right into the mountain by the early Christians. You can still see the altars and paintings inside.


Next, it was to the inside of St. Peter's. It was gorgeously decorated in Rokoko style and houses the body of St. Rupert. This church was first built around 700. It's another church where it's hard to see everything at one time. Guess I'll just have to go back!


After that, we took a walk down Getreidegasse, the oldest and most famous street in Salzburg. It's also the street where Mozart was born. His house is now a museum, but I haven't been inside yet (there are pics of the outside at Flickr). We treated ourself to some Eis (ice cream) that is a bit Italian in style and taste and so good. And only 1 Euro!

We ended our day feeling accomplished and happy. But there's still so much I have to see. There's several places we haven't been to, as well as more churches. Churches to Austria are like Wal-Marts to the mid-west. So, hopefully we'll have some gorgeous weekends and I can go on more adventures in the old city.

PLEASE visit here to see all the pictures from the Altstadt. It's well worth it; it's so beautiful! You can also leave comments there on the pics.

This Friday Walter and I are going to Berchtesgaden! AKA, Hitler's mountain playground!

Gaisberg

Last weekend, our group took a hike up the Gaisberg mountaing, just on the edge of Salzburg. We took a bus up part of the way and then walked the rest. The way up with the bus was incredibly steep! It was almost scary to look out your window and see nothing but a steep cliff on the other side. We joked about not leaning to far over, lest the bus over balance and topple over the cliff! The worst part was that it was incredibly foggy. You couldn't see anything looking out the front window. It's amazing that the bus driver made it up the mountain, but I suppose he's done it enough times that he could do it blindfolded. Once we disembarked from the bus, we got a lecture about how dangerous the mountain can be. Every year, dozens of people are killed on Gaisberg. One of the ways there are killed is very strange. It snows a lot and this makes the trees break and fall. These fallen trees are then covered with another layer of snow and hidden from view. However, when a hiker steps on this, it acts as a spring trap and the trees spring up and throw the snow and hiker into the air.

When we got off the bus, look who was waiting for us:

Ol' Bessy and her sisters were just laying around in a field, seemingly waiting for us. The way we all took pictures, you would think that us mid-west kids had never seen a cow before.

Unfortunately, it was so foggy that I couldn't take any pictures. The mountain did look incredibly beautiful and eerie in the fog, though. This picture did turn out:


It's a cross part way up the mountain. It serves as a sort of memorial for those who die on the mountain every year (between 5-30). It's also supposed to remind those who pass that they are mortal and can die, too. Finally, you are supposed to see it and be reminded that God created the beautiful nature you are enjoying (including the fog).

Afterwards, we enjoyed a cup of coffee in a darling hut that was about 400 years old. Jeesh. We sat in a cute cute CUTE fireside corner. I wish I had thought to take a picture.

Perhaps I'll visit Gaisberg again when it's not so foggy.

Monchsberg

Last Saturday, our program director took us on a hike up the Monchsberg. You have seen that in the pictures in previous posts. It is topped by the Hohensalzburg fortress. The Monchsberg has been fortified for centuries and is the best preserved fortress in the world. This is because it was never successfully attacked. After climbing up the mountain, I can see why! The climb wasn't hard (everything was paved or packed with gravel) it was just steep and very long to the top. A short way up the mountain is an old church; it was really beautiful inside! Outside the church, part of the Sound of Music was filmed. However, the fortress is by far the most outstanding feature on the mountain. We didn't go into the fortress itself (but I plan to later) but it was incredible to see all the fortifications. I loved seeing the old walls, gates, and other fortifications and couldn't help but wonder what it felt like to stand there back in the 16th century. The mountain also gave us a great view of the Altstadt (Old City) of Salzburg, which is really beautiful. The climb was worth it all once we got to the top and saw the incredible view!




And here is a video I took of the Altstadt from the downward slope of the mountain(just push play):


One pic of Altstadt:


To view the rest of the photos from our mountain excursion, click here.

You won't regret it!

Way to class

Would you like to see what I see on my way to classes? Drab buildings and more student dorms, you may ask? Well, yes. Part of the way. But also these views:

The Hohensalzburg Fortress:


And the Alps:






Almost makes going to class not seem so bad.

For those interested, the classes I am taking: 20th Century German Literature, German writing, German conversation and grammar, German as a foreign language, and art history. And yes. They are all in German.

Schönes Augsburg

The day after Oktoberfest, my two friends took me around their home town of Augsburg, Germany. It's so beautiful and so full of history! I wanted to take pictures of every little detail of every building. And the town is so old, it's hard to comprehend. My friends tossed around phrases like "Oh, yeah. This church is 1000 years old. Built on top of ancient Roman ruins."

We saw all the main sites in Augsburg, including two churches, the Rathaus, the weapon's arsenal, and the old city wall. We also visited Fuggerei village, which is the oldest social settlement in the world. It was created by the architect Fuggerei in 1516 as a place for the poor to live. They paid about .88Euros (in today's money) a year. In order to live there, they had to attend the church. Mozart's great grandfather lived in the village. The village was heavily damaged during WWII bombings, but it was rebuilt in its original style. It's very adorable, with small streets and tiny doors with 'cubby holes' above them, most of which hold saints' statues. People still live there today and pay the same price, plus utilities. They also have to deal with tourists coming through their mini-town on a daily basis.

A street in the Fuggerei:


The city wall:


The Rathaus:


Inside the 1000 year old Cathedral, St. Mary's:


The weapon's arsenal:


These are only a few of the pictures I took. To see all the pictures (and in bigger, clearer format) from beautiful Augsburg, please visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/itcouldbewurst/


After our all day city tour, we had dinner with my friend's parents. They were both so nice! And they were very patient with my German. We had dumplings with cheese. After dinner, we had Schnapps (so strong!) and my friend played accordion and we all sang songs. Man, did I feel Teutonic.

Up next (hopefully) : pictures of Salzburg and my hike up the Monchsberg.

Oktoberfest

I stayed with a friend in Augsburg, Germany for the week before I had to be in Salzburg. She and her friend were lovely company and such good hosts and tour guides! On Wednesday, we took an early train into Munich for Oktoberfest. It was too early for most of the drunks to be out so we got to see the grounds before it got too crowded.
After walking around for a while, I met up with people from the Austria program outside the Hacker Pschorr tent (to the right). It's theme was "Beer Heaven" and even had paintings inside with people entering Beer Heaven. Inside, I got my first Oktoberfest beer. With our tickets, we also got half a chicken was was THE best I've ever had. I also had one more ticket for beer but ended up giving it away because there was no way I could drink another one. In many ways, Oktoberfest was a lot like you see in the movies. There was a brass band playing:


And there were fat men standing on tables, singing and swaying:
More from the tent:

This one got turned and I'm to lazy to switch it. But look! Beer all gone and Laura in an 'authentic" Bavarian hat!These are gingerbread hearts that are sold all over Oktoberfest:
We also spent some time walking around the main sites in Munich. My pics didn't turn out well because of the dark and rain. But look! It's the inside of the Hof Bräu Haus! (Hitler spoke here)

That's all for now. Going to have to figure out something different for the pic posting. This formatting sucks.

Wilkommen!

Well! Finally, I'm able to update this blog. I hope some of you are stilling checking it. We JUST got internet in our dorm last night. Of course, my dorm was the only one that didn't get internet right away. We had to go through a bunch of bureaucratic BS just to get the net to work here. This first week in Salzburg has been insanely busy! We've been running all over the city (sometimes literally!) trying to get things done, paperwork handed in, IDs made, take tests, go to meetings, etc. This week was also the first week of classes. They should have had us come a week early just to get the paperwork out of the way! And for all the talk about "German Efficiency"? I really have seen none of it. It seems all so chaotic: go stand in this line and get this paper and then hang around here and then get yelled at and then run to this other building and then try to make class again, etc. etc.

Besides the craziness, everyone here in the program is really cool and I've made some good friends already. Hopefully, I'll meet some nice Austrians/Germans and will become good friends. The regular university classes don't start until next week so many of them aren't here.

Up next! Oktoberfest pictures and memories! Now I must run to class.