So, yesterday, a friend and I crossed the border to Germany and went to Königsee. We couldn't have had more perfect weather and I was given reason #748 why Germany is superior to Austria:



We had an awesome time (it's always good to get out of Salzburg). We took a boat ride to the different stops, ate lunch in a biergarten, heard a horn echo between the mountains, hiked a bit and didn't break any bones. We both kept expressing how this was probably the most beautiful place we've seen since being in Europe. I got a sunburn and blisters, but it was totally worth it!

PS--The air there smelled fantastic!

The rest of the pictures are in my Flickr.

In other exciting news? 33 days, 16 hours until I fly home!

But I will miss getting to see things like this:

Laura Remembers About this Blog Thing

Hello, faithful (or unfaithful) readers! Please excuse the absence. As you know, I was traveling for a month in February. Then I had tow measly weeks of classes, followed by two more weeks of vacation. Don't ask me how the Austrian school system works, because I couldn't tell you.

I'm not going to write a proper entry on all my vacationing in February, because that would take just too much time. And my fingers would fall off. One of my hands is already going carpel tunnel on me, so you wouldn't want me to exasperate it, now would you? Besides, I spend a lot of time putting all my photos up on Flickr. This includes typing commentary for almost every photo, so you can go there and read all about the adventures. And comment on the photos too!

So, shortly. Mom flew into Munich. After spending the day showing her around Munich (and by showing her around, I generally mean the "Laura's Tour of Nazism in Munich", we headed to Salzburg. I showed her around the town here. It was fun having someone who had never seen the place before, as it helps me remember why I like this place (sometimes it's hard to remember). We climbed the Monchsberg and took an awesome tour of the fortress. Best part was standing on top of the castle and having the best view of Salzburg and the Alps.



Then it was off to Vienna for a few days. I love Vienna, so I had no problem with this. Coolest part for me was dragging Mom out to the huge cemetery where tons of famous people are buried. Check out the Flickr for pics of their graves. Here's a teaser. Your truly and her musical god:


After a few days in gorgeous Vienna, we flew to Rome! I could hardly believe that we were really going there. There was so much to see, that I thing a person would have to go back 3 or 4 times to even have a hope of seeing everything on their list. Mom and I hit up the main sites.

St Peter's Basilica:

Roman Forum (Cradle of Civilization, as our guide put it):

Roman Colosseum:

And much more. Check my Flickr.

We also went to Florence, Naples, and Pompeii. Unfortunately, my Pompeii pictures got deleted accidentally by a friend. :( So who wants to take me back so I can take the pictures again?

Copy of the David at Florence:

We saw the real one in the museum, but weren't allowed to take pictures.
And pretty cathedrals:


So yeah. Unfortunately no Pompeii pics. Pompeii was awesome and something I'd wanted to see since I was about 8 years old. We only spent about 3 hours there, and it definitely wasn't enough. The town is a lot bigger than I thought!

After we returned to Salzburg, Mom and I went up to Munich to pick up my friend Joyce. We did a day trip to the Dachau concentration camp (only 15 km outside Munich).


("Work Will Make You Free")

It was a very well done site. It's a place I would like to visit again because they have an amazing museum that I'd like to spend more time in. The visit was very moving. At times too moving. When I entered the building where they used to register the new prisoners, I got the strangest feeling. It was overwhelming and I almost had to walk out of the building. It was like I couldn't breathe and I was lightheaded, yet felt heavy at the same time. I don't know what it was. If it was the idea that I was really THERE finally setting in, or if it was my weird ability to sometimes pick up on 'things'. Either way, it went away after I moved through that wing of the building.

I said goodbye to mom the next morning. It was hard, knowing that I wouldn't see her for another 4.5 months. But I tried to think on the fun times I still had in Europe. And that included Ireland and England with Joyce!

See all my photos here: Click!

Laura returns

Hey, guys. Anyone still reading? Let me know. It's been a while since I blogged. I've been busy with school (have been having finals the past two weeks). And I also went home for Christmas which was one of the best things to happen to me since I've been in Austria. Ironic, no? And now that I'm going to be away from Salzburg for a month, I figured I should update before people think I completely dropped off the face of the earth. In February I am traveling the first two weeks with Mom to Vienna and Rome. And then the last two weeks my good friend J. is coming and we will be going to Vienna again, and then Ireland (!!!) and London. I'm so excited for this month!

Anyway. Since I'm too lazy to recap the last two months (and nothing much happened except Christmas), here's a list.

THINGS THAT ANNOY ME/SURPRISE ME/PISS ME OFF/ARE WEIRD ABOUT AUSTRIA

1. This place is named Salzburg. Which means "Salt Town". Salt is what made this place rich. Funny that the citizens have not yet discovered the joys of salt. When they have snow and ice, they don't put salt on the sidewalks or streets. Oh, no! They put ROCKS down. Small, gravel sized rocks all over the place. This accomplishes nothing, as it doesn't melt the ice. It doesn't provide much traction, either, which I believe is their intention. No traction. And then when the ice melts and refreezes? Now you just have ice with rocks frozen in it! And now that the snow is all gone, the stones are still there. They stick in your shoes. They get INTO your shoes. The look like crap. And are annoying. And then they have to pay someone to come sweep them all up in the spring. Silly Salzburg.

2. They don't believe in sending you bills. Like, no monthly reminder that you have to pay your insurance this month. No. But they sure as hell believe in sending you a note when you are a week overdue! And then they KEEP sending you notes. Those of us living here have come to the conclusion that the Insurance Company owns stock in the paper company. "Waste all the paper you can! Send out more over due notices!"

4. Which brings me to another point: ONLINE BILL PAY! IT'S A GREAT THING, AUSTRIA! Learn to use it!

5. Cell phones. Minute plans are a great thing too, Austria. Stop with this "Load your phone for 20 Euro and then when it runs out, you're screwed!" Because don't think you can re load your phone online. What were you thinking? I'm convinced I could become a millionaire by introducing the minute plan system.

6. I could also become a millionaire by showing them how to number their rooms in buildings. It took me about 2 months to learn where my classes were. They numbers don't increase with each floor and they are not sequential in a hallway. I really don't understand it. Some even have NEW numbers taped over the real numbers. What?!

7. Austrians rarely look each other in the eye on the street. I had fun the first few weeks by freaking out old people when I smiled at them on the street.

8. You bag your own stuff here. And you pay with cash. Heaven forbid you pull out a card and hold up the line by 20 seconds. People seriously will start to push or call out "What the hell is going on?" No patience, these people.

9. The number of things I have noticed that, had this been America, I could sue over. For example:
-The rocks on the streets. Could fall and break my neck!
-In our dorm, the hallway lights do not stay on. If you want them on or want to go up the spiral staircase at 2am, you have to feel around for a light switch in the pitch dark and hope you don't break your neck or find that ax murderer waiting in the silence.
-Our dryer sparks. So people just don't use it. Why risk electrocution?
-The stores sometimes don't refrigerate eggs OR milk. Weird.

10. Kids. I hate the kids here. They all try to be hard American thugs. But they live in one of the richest cities in Austria and don't even know what a 'ghetto' is. They are rude as anything too. Loud and obnoxious. And they get out of school at 12 noon. So THEY'RE ALWAYS AROUND. I have a special grudge against them because some hooligans threw a water balloon at me from a school window. Nice school discipline, huh?

11. Don't even THINK about expecting your waiter to be polite.

12. Don't get in the way of the bikers. They WILL run you down.

13. So will the cars.

14. Austrians were never Nazis, no. What Second World War?

Ok, that's enough for now. I'll leave you with my most favorite billboard in all of Austria. It's the Austrian National Ski Team advertising...something. I don't even know. Does it matter? It's cute men with Days of the Week underwear!

Thanksgiving, or Laura half fulfills a childhood dream.

Our BGSU program threw a Thanksgiving party for us. It was held at Sternbräu brewery here in Salzburg. All our teachers at university were invited, as well as our room mates and friends. All told, there was probably about 200 people there. Outside of the food, there was supposed to be an entertainment portion. I volunteered to be on this committee, and unfortunately, the girl who was SUPPOSED to head it up, did jack crap. Luckily for our program director, Amber and I saved him the embarrassment of not having a show to put on. Amber and I decided, Hey! We're in Salzburg! The home of The Sound of Music! And none of the Austrians have the foggiest idea what it is! So, we put together a few numbers from the show. We sang The Lonely Goatherd, Edelweiss, and So Long, Farewell. WITH TWO PEOPLE. And it was amazing. Also, we bought dirndls. :D We go all out, I tell you.
The dirndl I bought wasn't really the kind I was looking for; I wanted something more traditional, but the lady selling us them insisted this color looked better on my skin, as did the top. So whatever, it's pretty.

So Amber and I performed in our dirndls. And we were wonderful; I can't tell you how many compliments we got. But what was even better was the feeling of singing Sound of Music (My favorite musical since I was like 6), in Salzburg. On a real stage (albeit small) in dirndls.

Yodeling. Those people int he background are our goatherd, girl, and baby. :) Amber has this on video; hopefully I'll be able to get a hold of it.

After the lovely entertainment, it was time for dinner. The brewery actually did the cooking, aside from the stuffing and pumpkin pie. The turkey wasn't at all like the heaps of the stuff we get a home; it was small turkey medallions. We all knew it wouldn't be fair to compare to home, but we couldn't help talking about our grandma's sweet potato casserole or grandpa's turkey. So the food wasn't what we were hoping, but the pumpkin pie was amazing. It was homemade by the students and our program director's wife. The Austrians didn't really like the pie and were amazed at how much of that stuff we scarfed down. It was GOOD.


I think in this picture you can see why the dirndl lady told us we both needed push-up bras to make them look right. :)

After dinner, we all headed out to our favorite Irish pub for a little celebrating.

All around, a good Thanksgiving. I mean, how can you top singing Maria in Salzburg?
(Take that Lehman High School, I don't need your approval)

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!