Salzburg, the land of Mozart and FREE BEER?!

Two weeks ago (yeah, I'm behind in my blogging), I woke up and opened my door to make the 15 minute stumble to class. And what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a free keg of beer! Just sitting right in the middle of my door. There, all for me. All mine. For free. FREE. BEER.


It was like Santa went a little crazy and gave all of the rooms in the dorm a free keg. Which is exactly what happened. Heineken was doing some sort of promotion and gave every room in our building a free mini keg. Pretty amazing.

Such a thing would never happen in America. The way they view alcohol is so totally different here. I mean, we get FREE KEGS OF BEER, for Pete's sake. We also have Heimbar ("home bar") about once or twice a month down in the lobby of our dorm. Go on down, get a beer for 2 Euro, and then stumble back up to your room, if you so desire (or just sleep on the couch in the lobby like my friend Ben).

But yeah, alcohol is just so different. You can walk around the streets swigging a bottle of wine, if you want. You can get on the bus with it. You can get trashed in your student dorm kitchen. Or you can just have a glass of wine with dinner and friends. You can give your room mate a homemade bottle of Schnapps (like mine did! See Flickr).

Speaking of alcohol. This weekend is the start of Christkindlsmarkt, the open air Christmas markets in Salzburg! Guess who has two thumbs and will be in the old city, hitting up the Glühwein (spiced, warm wine) this weekend?

*points to self* This girl.

Venice, Or Laura has a Birthday in Italy and Wades in the Water

Here in Salzburg, they like their holidays (and extended lunch breaks, but that's another entry). So, in late October/Early November we ended up with a four day weekend. My pal Walter wanted to go to Venice and I asked to tag along. Soon, it ended up that Brian and Anne-Marie were coming, too. The more the merrier! And I just happen to love Brian and Anne-Marie, so it's all good.

So, off we go on a night train to Venice. The train ride sucked because it was cramped and there were loud teens in my compartment and the train was running an HOUR late. But, after what seemed like an eternity, we arrived in Venice. It was amazing: You are riding along on land, and all of a sudden, there is water on both sides of you as you take the bridge out to the island. After a lunch on the steps of the train station (where Brian kept trying to lure the ugly pigeons towards us with food), we walked around a bit. Walter mentioned something about wanted to see the church where the painter Tetian is buried. Brian misheard and thought he said Teesha. This was the start of possibly the funniest ongoing joke since arriving in Salzburg. Go back and read the name again with a Ghetto accent. And then you have why it was so funny, because the whole trip was filled with "When we gawn see Teesha? Where Teesha at? Teesha wouldn't stand fo' this...nnmm. Shiiiit, where Teesha?" It's probably one of those 'had to be there moments', but as the trip got longer, it was one of the things that kept Brian and I going. Anyway, we were all grumpy and tired from our train ride, so we decided to find our hostel, which was on the main land. Walter, naturally, got us lost on the way and the bus system in Italy is totally SCREWY in case anyone wants to know. But, after walking down a creepy tunnel (cue horror movie voices from Brian: "It's getting so dark! Let's go exploring! But let me change into my bikini and high heels first!") we found our hostel. Which, was actually a campground with little bungalows for rooms. It was pretty spiffy and the cheapest in the area. We ended up going back into Venice after a short nap. And partook of the first of many dinners comprised entirely of pizza and gelato. Mmm.

Next day, we set out to see the main tourist things and walk around the island. Somehow, Brian and I got started singing the old African American spiritual, "Wade in the Water". And of course, Brian improvised some excellent verses to an already creepy song: "Devil gonna getcha, Mama can't help ya, Daddy don't know you, Jesus don't love ya..." Funny stuff and appropriate for our horror movie walk and canal dodging. Along our walk, Brian and I had much fun pointing out the many fashion disasters (and were there ever!). Our main objective for the day was San Marco's square, which might soon be overtaken by pigeons if those Italians aren't careful. The church was gorgeous, the inside all inlaid with gold mosaics. A few pics from Venice:


(No, we didn't take a gondola ride. They start at about 80 Euro.)


After a nice day, we had a lovely dinner of *gasp* Pizza and gelato. It was pretty much amazing.

The next day was my birthday! We did some more walking around. And this day, Walter wanted to go see some modern art crap. I wasn't really all for that, but I figured I'd let him see the things he wanted to see, too. So, he drug Brian and I into the Peggy Guggenheim museum. Brian and I lasted about 10 minutes before we had to leave and be bored in the courtyard where we talked about the superior merits of Teesha compared to Peggy:


Then it was off for my birthday dinner which consisted of...pizza, again. And wine. Mm, good wine. We enjoyed ourselves very much and then went and sampled more gelato.

The next day we wandered around some and Walter got us lost:

(OMG SEND HELP PLEASE)

Walter wanted to go to some super duper (boring) art museum, so Brian, Anne-Marie, and I chilled in a cafe, at tiramisu, and scoped out the sailors at the nearby naval museum. Totally wins over modern 'art', I'd say. Anne-Marie went to join Walter, so Brian and I went and sat on the canal and had an adult beverage (that he just happened to have in his bag). It was something out of a movie: sitting on the steps of a canal bridge, day after your birthday, drinking with a good friend as you both laugh yourselves silly and the sun sets out on the sea. It's a night I'll never forget, even though it was such a simple thing, especially in comparison to the canals and gondolas and gelato.

The next day, it was time for us to head back to Salzburg. We were all happy to go. Venice was a lovely city to see and I am happy to say that I got to see it. But it's one that I don't think I'd want to go back to for at least several years. And maybe only for a romantic get-a-way or something. Venice was just too crowded and touristy and dirty for my likes. And it was hard being in a country where you didn't understand the language or how the bus system works, etc. We really all noticed how much we took Salzburg for granted. Our train ride home gave us a few pains, but with the help of some Teesha jokes, some Wadin' in the Water, and some cake, we made it back to Salzburg just fine.

So long, Venice (and Teesha!)



To see all my Venice pictures, click here.

Halloween, in Which Your Heroine Is Emo

The day of Halloween, we had a personal tour with our art history teacher at an old castle onthe outskirts of Salzburg. Built inthe 16th century as a hunting lodge of sorts, it is famous for its trick fountains and mechanical devices run by the water. Check out the Flickr pictures here to read all about it. I described the whole trip, including our awesomely evil professor spraying us all with water and getting us into secret areas. Awesome tour, awesome castle.

After all this, we had to attend a Halloween party at my program director's house. Amber and I went as emo kids. Because even though they are so ~*~uNiQuE~*~ they are always seen in groups. Wearing the same thing. For those who don't know what 'emo' is, just type it into google. Or look at pretty much any MySpace page. Basically, it's young(ish) kids who like to think they are very deep and misunderstood. They write bad poetry and listen to music like Fallout Boy and My Chemical Romance. They wear too much eyeliner and eyeshadow. Black nail polish and straight hair that must cover at least one eye completely. Spend five minutes in any shopping mall and you'll see emo kids everywhere. It's like a disease.

Even though it was meant to be funny and poking fun at the emo kids, I got many compliments along the lines of "OMG YOU LOOK SO HOT AS AN EMO GIRL AND OMG HOW DO YOU DO THE EMO LINGO SO WELL?" Let's just say I was emo before emo was hot. Yeah, back when I was 12 or so. All the rest of you are posers. Emo kid hotness:



Along the way to the party, we found the location of Salzburg's old witch tower! I'd read about it and knew it existed but never found it. The tower was used back in the 16th and 17th centuries to hold women accused of witchcraft before they were burned at the stake. Nice. Sadly, the building was destroyed during WW2, and there's a used bookstore on the spot. However, they still have the old iron sign that used to hang above the tower. There's also a picture of a woman burning in a fire on the side of the building. Anyway, I thought it was pretty rad that we found the building on Halloween. The iron witch:



The party was pretty fun. Most people came in costumes, and surprise! Amber and I found a fellow emo kid!

Brian, so emo that even his skin turned black:



There was also Radely as an iPod commercial. Boy, did he get some strange looks on the bus when we rode over together. But it was totally worth it, see?



There was a coloring contest. Being a good emo kid, I refused to conform to the system by coloring my pumpkin orange. Mine was black. Like the dark abyss that is my soul. There was also chili, which was amazingly good. Of course, it was free, and free food always tastes amazing.

To see who else showed up to the party, you'll have to view the rest of the pictures at Flickr (link below). Not trying to name drop or anything, but the Seedy Sheriff, Kriss Kross, Groucho Marx, and Justin Timberlake were all there.

See all of the Halloween pictures here.

Um next, Venice!

Vienna

All right, here's the deal. Vienna was AMAZING. And I'm going back as soon as I can. It's probably the most consistently gorgeous cities I've ever seen. Everywhere you turn there is a gorgeous building to look at. The atmosphere was something bordering on magical. I'm going back as soon as I possibly can. Because I loved it and also because I didn't get to see one of the main things I planned to: the Zentralfriedhof (cemetery). People such as Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss, Brahms, etc are buried there. Must go and worship at graves of musical geniuses. (kidding)

Other deal: I don't have the patience, nor the webspace here to put up even over view pics from our 3 day trip to Vienna. So. You're going to have to go to Flickr and see the photos. There is commentary on all the photos there so you'll know what you're looking at. Be sure to view the photos individually. I think, if you do slideshow, you don't get the commentary.

Flickr Vienna set photo link:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/22248978@N00/2R2tv9

On the way to Vienna, we stopped in Melk which has an amazing 18th century cloister. With an amazing library that almost sent me into fits of geekiness. We then stopped at another town and climbed another mountain (surprise!) to visit the ruins of the castle where Richard the Lionhearted (Think Robinhood) was held prisoner for 2 years. Apparently, he insulted the Austrian prince on his return from the crusades. Don't mess with the Austrians, man. They'll make you huff and puff up a huge mountain and stick your rear in a cell. (He was eventually bailed out by the French. Weird, huh?)


Then it was on to Vienna. Where we stayed in a gorgeous 4 star hotel right in the center of town. The view from my window was incredible (see Flickr :D ). The next day, the group split into two parts and took walking tours through the city. Seeing such things like.

St. Stephen's cathedral:

Heldenplatz: (where the Hapsburgs had a palace and where Hitler gave a speech after the Austrian Anschluss)

After leaving the tour group to explore on our own. An incredible art and artifacts museum in yet another Hapsburg palace:

Trank melage and ate Wienerschnitzel and Sachertorte in the Cafe Sperl where Hitler used to come to spout off politics when he lived in Vienna as a young man:


We attended the opera Elektra at the Staatsoper House (had such bad seats, we could see approximately NONE of the stage). Chilled at another cafe afterwards and soaked in the Viennese experience.

Next day, was the day of palaces. And of rain. It rained all day. No relief. I think Vienna was just sad I was leaving. We saw Schloss Belvedere, built for a French general. It now houses a huge collection of art. Including Kilmt's famous "The Kiss". Schloss Belvedere:


Then it was to Schloss Schonbrunn, which was probably my favorite thing. We had a self guided audio tour which meant you could take your time and look around each room as long as you liked. The place was incredible and looked like Franz Joseph and Sophie (Or Marie Theresa) had just stepped out for a moment.
It was hard to get a good picture because: a) It was raining. And b) The place was freakin' huge.


Sorry this was a lame update. But I spent a lot of time uploading the Vienna pics to Flickr, so go check them out there and read all the good commentary that I wrote. :) YOU'LL FALL IN LOVE WITH VIENNA, TOO.

http://www.flickr.com/gp/22248978@N00/2R2tv9

Berchtesgaden

I'm only a 30 minute bus ride from Berchtesgaden. For a Nazi history nerd like me, this is like living as close to history paradise as possible. Knowing that the historic points shut down at the end of October, I prodded a friend of mine, Walter, into going with me. I booked a tour to see the old Nazi sites on the mountain and to take us up to the Eagle's Nest, Hitler's playhouse on the tip top of the mountain. A short bus ride and border crossing later, we were in Berchtesgaden. Berchtesgaden used to be just a quiet little mountain village until some members of the Nazi party started buying out local residents in order to make their own playground. Many high-up Nazi officials had homes here, including Hitler, Speer, and Goering. Soon, the small town was a bustling Nazi center. They even had to build a train station to receive the flow of visitors visiting Hitler. Part of the station as it looks today:



Those three arch ways are were Hitler's private receiving area was. It's now a travel office and hocks cheap souvenirs. Haha, Hitler. Ha. Ha.

Remnants of the train station's Nazi past can still be seen. Such as this victory wreath, which used to have a swastika in it. Above the door, you can barely make out the faint outline of where the Nazi eagle used to be:



You can see more pictures of the building's past in my Flickr.
After exploring the train station, we took a short walk into the old city. It's a typical, quaint Bavarian town.

We found an amazing looking cemetery. Wandering through, you see many graves from Wehrmacht soldiers. The saddest one I saw was of three young brothers who all died in the war.

I found the fountain where Storm Troopers took a picture back in the 1930s. (Click here to see the original). I look just as fierce, don't I?


The buildings in town were gorgeous and I took many pics. See Flickr.

Also found the infamous Rathaus mural. You see this in many film clips from the end of the war when the US reached the town.


The Wehrmacht soldiers were modified after the war to be less menacing. A pair of them used to hold grenades triumphantly over a dead Russian's body. Not too PC nowadays, I guess.

After thoroughly exploring, we hooked up with our tour group, only to learn that the Eagle's Nest was closed. It started to snow early up in the high elevations and they closed the house the day before. I was really bummed out, but they did off us another tour for a reduced price. They drove us part way up the mountain and showed us where so-and-so's house used to be, where the old SS barracks were, etc etc and then we went to the documentation center. The documentation center stands on what used to be a Nazi hotel built originally for use "by the people" on the cheap. However, it was used exclusively for high ranking visitors. It has a nice little museum in it. But the best part, is that some of the hotel and Martin Bormann's (Hitler photographer) bunkers are still intact underneath. We got to go in and explore. These particular bunkers (there were miles of bunkers that transversed the mountain) are a great example of the entire system because they were never completely finished. So, one can see the finished product in some places, but also where they just stopped working, leaving the rock exposed. I took way too many pics, but here's a small sampling:





You can see more bunker pics and descriptions of the rooms/tunnels in Flickr.

The Eagle's Nest wasn't visible all day. There was a snow cloud that hung over the mountain and though we knew it was there, we just couldn't see it. There's a local legend that a dark cloud literally hangs over the mountain because of its Nazi past. Well, that day, just as I was coming out of the bunkers, that cloud lifted for about 15 seconds:



TA DA! The Eagle's Nest! At least I got to see it. I'll be coming back in spring when it reopens. I'm sure the view from the top will be astounding.

Back down in town, Walter and I took some gorgeous shots before hopping the bus back to Salzburg:



As always, please head over to my Flickr account to view all the photos. The bunker shots and the panoramic pictures are great!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/itcouldbewurst
And click on the Berchtesgaden set.

Up next (internet speed and school willing) Vienna and Venice!