Last Days of the Trip

This will be my second to last blog I think. My next one I will quite when I am at home. Currently I am sitting on the train from Galway back to Dublin where Nick and I will have to find a way to kill about 6 hours before we head to the Dublin airport to catch our flight to Heathrow, then Vancouver, and Finally Seattle. These last three days we have spent on the west coast of Ireland, based out of Galway in a little hostel called Salmon Weird. This hostel was by far the best hostel experience we've had (apart from the private apartment we got in Prague with the entire gourd, but I don't count that as a hostel anyway). The staff here consisted of two guys in their late 20's, Rob from New Zealand, and Sam from Australia. They were a blast. The philosophy of the place centered around everyone in the hostel talking and interacting because otherwise, according to Rob, his job would be too boring. This was also the first hostel we've stayed at where we cooked in the hostel instead of going out all the time. We went to dinner the first night we were there, and breakfast the first morning, but after that we pretty much ate in the hostel after buying some groceries at a local market. We're both a little soar from spending so much money and our a little worried about spending much more so we decided to buy groceries to save money, and we pulled out our last amount of cash and said that cash would have to last us home. Right now I have 38 euros left, and we have lunch and dinner today, and breakfast in Heathrow tomorrow. I suppose we'll have to eat in Vancouver since we'll be there for 6 hours before we fly to seattle, so that'll be some more cash needed. And airport food prices are NOT the lowest so I am guessing money will be tight if I want to survive on the 38 euros I have in my pocket.

When we got to Galway, we had expectations of a small city, next to the water with green flowing fields. And its not quite all of that. It is a relatively small place, but not too green, at least not from what you can see just around town. Its a very popular place with lots of culture though. There was one street we walked down quite a bit called shop street that had a ton of pubs, shops, music, and food on it, always packed with people. The city sits in the center of a bay with some beautiful islands surrounding the bay. The first day we got here we just explored the downtown area and ate some great food, bought a few things in the shops, and enjoyed the night life with some irish music and lots of drunk people stumbling around. That night when we got back around 10 (most of the traditional music stops at 9:30-ish) and actually spent a few hours just talking with people in the hostel. Along with Sam and Rob we hung out with Patricia from Berlin, Beatrice from Holland, Tom from England, another guy from New Zealand, a couple from Italy, and a couple from Arabia. Quite mix huh? It was really cool to just to talk with all these people and be in the presence of such a different group of people, all of whom spoke perfect English lol. We talked about what everyone was doing there, the different school systems, which country made the best alcohol, and other places each of us had been. Very good night.

The next morning Nick and I slept in and went to a place that apparently served the biggest Irish breakfast in town. That was correct lol. There was eggs, sausage, bacon, big hash brown pieces, and Irish pudding things both black and white that were very good, toast, brown bread, and a whole tomato. I didn't come close to finishing it. Nick and I weren't sure if they did the whole to-go box after meals (we hadn't seen anything like that since getting to Europe) but Nick really wanted to take his sausage, so he wrapped it and some other food into a napkin and put it in his sweatshirt. We ended up using the sausage later in a dinner dish we made and it was a fantastic add, so good job to him. After breakfast we decided to go to the grocery store and get food basically for the rest of our stay in Galway. We got enough for two dinners and all our lunches and breakfasts through this morning. Great prices on food. After that we went to a bike shop we had seen and rented some hybrid bikes for a few hours. It was ten euros and at this point we already were considering just stopping them money outflow for the rest of the trip lol. But I had this outlook where we are only here for two more days, how bad can we make it, and we're in Ireland for two more days and we haven't fulfilled out Ireland fantasies of flowing green hills and cliffs. So we rented the bikes and it was fantastic. We rode down a coastal trail to a small cliff area. We got to a point on the trail where we had to leave it and walk the bikes along the beach to this hill leading up the cliff. We locked the bikes to each another at the bast of the hill and found a small trail in the middle of the thick brush leading up to the cliff. Once we reached the top I went ecstatic. It was sooooooo cool. Although it was a small cliff (point defiance size), it overlooked the Irish ocean and islands, and it was a beautiful day, and was much better than just sitting in the city. It was a great afternoon just spending a few hours chilling at the top, sitting, relaxing, talking about home, and everything deep. We made it back to the hostel around 5:30 and started cooking. To our surprise, we made a fantastic dinner. Peppers, broccoli, sausage, and garlic in a stir fry, and penne pasta with a sauce all mixed together. It was great and fulfilling for much cheaper than what we would have paid for the same amount in a restaurant. After dinner we walked around that same street, got some soft serve at out new favorite Irish fast food place, and then found a pub with some music. We had a few beers and met up with some people from a traveling Irish traditional band. They were there to listen to the band playing and were actually from Virginia. Its odd but we met and talked too a lot of people from places other than Ireland. Its kind of like the Irish people already had their friends there, and a all the people we talked to were there as travelers and wanted to meet and talk to new people like us.

We made it to bed around 11 after talking with our drunk hostel staff haha. One of them had just come back from tackling a friend at a bar in celebration for a soccer game and broke his tooth! That next day Nick and I got up and made breakfast in the hostel, then went to the bus station to catch a tour ride to the cliffs of Moher. We paid 16 euros for a there-and-back trip to the cliffs. We got much more than that. It was almost like we ended up on a tour group that was much more extensive than what we paid for. Our bus driver took us to about 7 stops, castles, other natural features, the cliffs, traditional thatched roof irish cottages, and ancient tombs from the pre-christian Gaelic peoples. It was very cool, and the driver with his thick irish accent was a blast to listen to talk the whole time. We definitely got our money's worth from that trip. The cliffs themselves were just as I had imagined, massive and just sooooo Irish! We spent a little over an hour there and it was fantastic. Amazing views and the drops were insane. The wind was probably hurricane level, maybe 60 miles an hour. It was difficult to stand let alone walk. But that just added to the effect. On our way back however, Nick and both started getting a pretty bad allergic reaction that just destroyed our eyes. We Both have had miserable allergies this entire trip. But we stopped at a pub and had some food which always seems to help.

Once we got back we cooked our final dinner, which was essentially the same thing, and it was delicious again. We took our daily hour and half break from life by listening to music, and then went out for ice cream one last time. I went to bed at about 8:45 last night because I was so exhausted and didn't wake up until 8 this morning when I went for a run along the coast toward the same cliff we visited on the bikes. Along the way I watched a group of older couples go for a morning swim which was really cool to see actually. It reminded me of my parents and their morning tri-training swims. Cant wait to see them!!!

When I got back from the hour run we ate a quick breakfast and made our way to the train station. And here we are, in the middle of Ireland. We have 6 hours of time to kill in Dublin like I said, then 13 HOURS between our flight into Heathrow and out to Vancouver. Then 6 hours before the final flight leaves. The whole trip starting with this train ride is 39 hours. I am going to try and think about it one thing, or one leg at a time. All in all though its weird to think about how long we've been gone. Its summer time but this, for my family has been kind of like the long stretch of school between christmas and easter. Expect the catch being I can barely talk to them. That has been the thoughts part of traveling solely by hostel since leaving the center: communication. Wifi most of the time costs money and even then isn't very good quality. This last place was the best for quality. But I do feel like its been ages since I've seen the face of my girlfriend, and family. Its hard to believe 8 weeks has gone by, I can remember the first days trips from the center we took like they were yesterday. I am glad I have kept track of everything in this blog because I have been soaking up everything so fast, it will be cool to go back and read everything again.

We still have another 2 hours before we reach Dublin, so I'm going to plug in, listen to some tunes and try and fall asleep. Next time you hear from me I'll be in Washington!!!!

Second Day in Venice + Paris & the Ducocq's!

Its been 3 days since the last blog, or at least since I last typed one out. I have gone another full day exploring venice, slept on a 13 hour night train, met up with the Ducrocq's, a family just outside of Paris spent an afternoon in downtown Paris, then an entire day with the kids yesterday, and then another evening downtown. Today we have spent the morning and midday with one of the girls walking around the town of Surens, which is the town they live in, just outside of Paris. I have grown to really love this family, but I will start my recap with the second day in Venice.

We woke up at ten so we could sleep in a little bit. Nick, Erin, Adam, and I had a pretty good feel for how the public transportation system worked by now, which is all the boats that go through the grand canal through the center of the city and the strait of water between the island our hostel was on, and the main city of venice. Erin still needed to buy her ticket for the night train to Paris that night, so we had to get to the train station first. We took the city boat through the heart of the city on the grand canal to the train station just for Erin to wait in like for 20 min, then be told that even though she already had a reservation and still needed to pay for the ticket, they couldn't do anything about it or sell her anything because it was too late. So we said we'd try later that evening. We then walked our way to the Rialto bridge while looking through shops and grabbing some gelato. That city is amazing. The canals are beautiful. We made it back to the hostel around 2pm and got ready to go to the beach. Once we had our trunks on, we took the city boat to the island of Lido, which has a very big white sand beach on it, around about 60% of the island. The boat ride took about 20 min before we landed on the adjacent island. From there we walked strait across the island and found the beach… oh my, there must have been 3,000 people there. The beach was full of people, tops on and off, kids running around everywhere, beach stands, volleyball games, and plenty if kites and sailboats. We swam for a bit and laid out on the sand taking pictures, really just enjoying where we were. Its weird, the longer we spend away from home, there is this cycle of thought that makes me appreciate where I am more. You see, I really wish I was at home with mom, dad, lauren, whit, the people i love. But then I feel bad because I only really get to do this once and know I should really appreciate and enjoy where I am, so I take a minute to think about home, and where exactly it is, and then where I am. Its amazing how much it hits you then, I am 5,000 miles away in ITALY on a beach! (But I am also wishing more and more I got to spend this time and enjoy where I am with the people I love).

After about 2 hours it was time to go back and get pack up. The four of us made it to the train station again on the city boat, and then ate dinner at a near by cafe. I picked up one last present down an ally with shops. Venice had definitely been my favorite place for presents! There are so many cool gifts that aren't too cheesy and lame, but more functional! I don't want to give them away but you'll just have to find out. We walked to our train at 7:40, with the train leaving at 8. With said our goodbye's to Adam, who was going to go to a bar that night and watch the soccer game with the Italians.

Our train ride to Paris ended up being 13 hours total. Fortunately I slept for about 10 of those 13. The first hour and a half Erin, Nick, and I (Adam stayed in Venice one more night and then traveled to Como to meet up with a friend) had fun the 6-bed slave cabin horsing around and sticking our heads out the window going 150 miles per hour. I passe out after that, once the other three french people joined our car and went to sleep. I had about a foot and a half from my head to the ceiling, and about 1 foot less distance than I was tall to stretch out my legs. Nonetheless, I fell asleep hard, had a very vivid set of dreams, one of which was about Stan Nelson and Mt. Rainier.

At 8 the ticket guy woke us up, and gave us back our passports which he had taken the night before. Erin was expecting to have to pay for the ticket now, but they told her not to worry about it! She basically got a free ride. That was cool.

The mother of the family we stayed with here in Paris wrote out directions for us to her house from the train station on facebook which we had written out, unfortunately, as we would figure out, the Parisian tram and underground system was out to get us. We got lost after getting ripped off by a guy at the ticket machine who we thought was helping us. 27 euros lost. Then we bought the right tickets, made the correct transfers on the underground. Then we had to figure out which tram to take. You see, Paris has TWO different transportation systems that you magically have to know how to buy tickets for simultaneously on a machine where you have to scroll through a thousand different menus before getting to the right one… in French. Once we had bought multiple wrong tickets a woman showed us how. We made it to what we thought was the right stop, then did some directional navigating, and started walking in the 80 degree heat with 60 lbs of stuff each. We somehow miraculously just happened to stumble across the correct streets and find their place as if it just appeared out of no where. It turns out the tram will take you about 50 feet from their doorstep, but we had no idea what that was or which train to take there.

Okay. So we made it into this home after not having a very good first impression of Paris. And from that point on, my time here has been some of the best moments on this trip if not the best. The Ducrocq's, Camille (mother), Elan (father), Hippolyte (13, boy), Eglantine (10, girl), and Felicie (7, girl) have been the most welcoming and loving family. They welcomed the three of us into their house with a French kiss on the cheek, fresh bread, and a cold glass of French ice tea. I could go on for days about how much insight I have gained from them, and all the laughs and fun I have had with the girls, and Hippolyte.

The first day we were there, the three of us students wanted to get the downtown Paris out of the way. So we took the train downtown (after buying another wrong ticket), and walked around by Notre Dame, The tower, the arc, and the other old historical buildings around the river. We made it back to the house in time to see the kids come home from school and none of them were shy in the slightest. They all came up and gave each of us kisses on the cheek and wanted to be with the whole time! They all speak an amazing amount of english. Even Felice, the smallest speaks very well for her age and can express what she is trying to say very well with body language and familiar sounds. Its amazing to see the kids think through how they can say something, and communicate to us. They just love speaking english and teaching us French. These kids are sooooo smart. That night we ate a home cooked meal: a cooked dish of tomatoes, mozzarella, cucumbers, other veggies, and cheese, sliced beef, salad with balsamic and oil, baguettes, and of course, an array of French cheeses, finally for desert, yogurt! Apparently thats they're ice cream, healthier huh? After dinner the family and the three of us piled into their big van that they never drive and got a free night time tour of Paris! (Mom they eat dinner regularly at 9pm!!!!) That was sooo much fun.

When we got back everyone pretty much went to bed. I woke up with Erin at 8 to go running. There is a park (actually owned by the US) about 50 meters from their house up the hill that we ran at. The days have been soooo hot so it was nice to run in the morning when it was still below 80. When we got back, Nick got up, as well as the kids, and Eglantine took us to pick up some fresh baguettes (a morning regular here). We came back and had a French breakfast (no not french toast). But baguettes and an assortment of spreads with very strong coffee. Camille went to work at this point and we had the rest of the day to ourselves with the kids. And guess what we did, we spent the entire day with these awesome french kids. We had multiple water fights, learned plenty of french, taught english, played music (they all play an instrument), made crepes, played around outside, played ping pong, watched a really funny movie called Top Secret, and then dropped water balloons on mom from the roof when she came home from work! At one point, I spent over an our with Felicie just coming up with fun things to do with a broom stick. It was one of the funnest days I've had on this trip. That night the three of us went out to a restaurant that Nick and his family went to 8 years ago. The evening was alright. We got ripped off a few more times, and the food was very good but not substantial. We were all anxious to get back to the Ducrocq's and didn't make it back until 10:30 when everyone was going to bed. Nick, Erin, and I sat at the kitchen table, killed a carton of sorbet while discussing things like life, travel, love, and what its going to be like when Erin leaves (tomorrow) and Nick and I go to Ireland for another week.

The next morning I slept until 9 when the kids got up and we went to get more baguettes. We had breakfast and then we spent a few hours walking around Suresens, the town they live in, with Eglantine. She showed us her favorite shops, including the pet store where she had to get a few things for Luva, her pet mouse. We went to a library for kids, flower shop to pick up flowers for Camille, a candy shop, and a high end smaller target type place. It was a nice afternoon before spending the rest of the day doing the same things again, playing with the kids. I can't wait to be a dad.

This evening when Elan, the dad got home we ate a delicious dinner of home made French lasagna, salad, french bread and cheese. After that we all had an intense ping pong tournament. USA won haha. The kids are VERY good. It has been so amazing to watch Eglantine and Felice and Hippolyte learn things to quickie. They can pick up on things so quickly. And they are sooo polite! It seems like it is so rare that children in the US say thank you as often, or offer to help with everything. It makes them seem very mature for the age. By the end of yesterday, Eglantine and Felicie were holding my hands all night long. And Hippolye and I were carving our names into our swiss arm knives. I am going to be very sad to leave them, but happy knowing I am getting closer to my own awesome family:) And Camille and Elan are soooo madly in love and head over heels for each other after 20 or so years. I love that. They are both hopeless French romantics (especially Camille). Cant wait to see my mom and dad like that (and of course see my own love:)

Eglantine wanted to type something.

eglantine says something : I am so happy to see three American, I can show them my life in france and they are very nice! nick is so strong, sean is so athletic and erin is so beautiful and they are the three very very funny!!!!Me and my brother, we teach them a lot of french words! bye bye !!! See you america!! eglantine

So tomorrow Erin is leaving for home at 8:45. Nick and I will leave the house around noon. We wrote in their traveler journal so they wont forget us. They just took a 6-month family trip around the world, and have a book of people signing it as their new friends, and we all contributed to it. But Erin will leave in the morning and it will just be Nick and I for the next 6 days. God help us haha. Our plane is at 2 to Dublin. I will dearly miss the Ducrocq's and hope they will visit the pacific northwest sometime.

We have had a slight change in plans for Ireland. We will stay in Dublin tomorrow night, and the night of the 1st of July as planned. After that we will take a train to Gaway, directly west on the other side of the country. We have the remaining three nights booked at a hostel there. We plan on taking day trips to the cliffs, and surrounding land scape. Maybe rent bikes. And I plan on going on some great runs. Mom! I managed to get my shoes packed!

One more country, a lot more planes rides. Can't wait to see you Lauren, Mom, Dad, Whit:)

Last Week in Salzburg + Finals + First Day of Venice

Well, the program is all over now, finals finished two days ago, and now Nick, Erin, Adam, and I are in Venice. I can't believe classes finished and I cant believe I will probably never see the center again, or be with all those people at once again. Kind of sad, but I have been really excited to move on. And Veniza is awesome. I cant believe this city exists without cars. But to fill you in on this last week I'll start on tuesday with the Deuche's Museum.

This was sort of the Pacific Science Center and museum of Flight combined plus a history of just about every type of technology you can think of. We went through floor after floor and exhibit after exhibit of telecommunications, musical instruments, PLANES, PARACHUTES, rockets, microbiology, computers, microelectronics, optics, water technology, anything and everything you can think of. My favorite was by far the astronautical exhibit and the aviation exhibit. They both had loads of old vehicles and cool simulations and models. There was one really cool exhibit about the evolution of rocketry in the space race. You got to see a scaled version of every rocket built starting with the Russian V2 explosive rocket, all the way through the Saturn V American Rocket and finally the Space Shuttle. It was amazing to see the size growing from each model. Then when you got to the end there was a real V2 Rocket coming out of the ground! The tip was about 6 feet tall, and you could look down 40-60 feet down a long shaft to the base of the enormous thing. Keep in mind that was the FIRST one in line of the scaled models. So that gave me a good perspective on how big everything was.

After going through the museum most of us wanted to get back to the center quickly so we could study more for finals the following day. That night I spent quite a bit of time on both history and stats. I have to say we were all pretty worried about the tests because the finals had come up on us really quick and all of a sudden it seemed like we were responsible for knowing a lot more than we did. But go figure, both tests were easy. I have to admit, these classes were wayyyy easier than they would have been during the regular school year at UP.

Once those were over, I went for a hot run (wed was the first sunny day in two weeks in Salzburg) up a local mountain and back down the other side and back. I had a little time to get ready when I got back before the group was off to our group dinner at a german place outside in their beer garden. The food was on the program and it was delicious!! I am a fan of most german food but my favorites for this trip have been the dumplings, escalopes of pork, schnitzel, goulash (thats actually hungarian but they serve it everywhere in bavaria), and of course the Doner Kapab. Gonna miss those foods, and the big portions. Actually, everyone says europeans eat less, but I don't believe that at all. The portions here are easily as much as as any American restaurant (except black bear diner). Wed night we all went out and had a good last group bar night at a few bars, and of course O'Mally's. When we got back I hit the sack and woke up at 1pm!!! Yeah, I know. But I have gotten up at 7am or earlier the entire trip, so I deserved it. But we spent about 2 hours as a group cleaning the whole center. We all had to clean and prepare our rooms for check out after that. Thursday night (last night) we all got dinner paid for us again, which was great. This time wasn't as fancy but it was still a blast to eat with everyone. That night I stayed in with Nick, Erin, Rachel, Avery, and Shane while everyone else went out again. We had sangria, listened to dane cook, played some guitar, and just enjoyed company on our last night. Erin, Nick, Adam, and I had 1:30am night train to Venice this morning, so we just stayed up until the train. It was sad to say goodbye. Kind of weird actually. Even saying goodbye to Whitney on skype felt like some sort of sad goodbye even though I am getting closer to her!

Getting on the train was a disaster. First of all, the place was deserted, and I mean conductors and all. We couldn't find a single train staff to help us figure out which train was ours. It turns out two trains going two different places were right in a line, so we saw a sign for the train going to Zurich and another sign on what looked like to be the same train going to Venezia. Hmmmm we finally deduced on our own that it was two separate trains. But then the real disaster came. All night trains require reservations so people can sleep in the compartments (which smell like nasty BO btw). We found our car, with our reservation marked outside the compartment door, AND IT WAS FULL OF PEOPLE! They were all sleeping and wondered mourned for a long time trying to find a train staff to help us make sure we were on the wrong train or wrong car, but finally Erin just marched in and woke these people up to tell them they were in our beds lol. They were a bunch of bro's from california or something. They were on the wrong car and they were pissed. Keep in mind this is like 2am by now lol. Anyway we finally got into our sleeping compartment and I felt like a prisoner or something. I had about a foot of clearance from my head to the celling and about 1 foot less length than I was long. Yikes. The place was hot and smelled like sweaty guy. I don't know that I got a solid hour of sleep. The ticket guy came in to check tickets at 5:30. We pulled into Venice at 8:50. The the real fun started.

We all had our backpacks and a large heavy rolling suitcase, Erin had two of those. We had a map and could point out where our hostel was on it. We spent 2 hours and 45 minutes hauling our crap across this tiny allyed city constantly going up and down steel stairs to go over little bridges. It was about 80 degrees. I was trying really hard to appreciate the situation. We finally got to the main canal where we knew we had to take a ferry across to an island to get to our hostel. We stopped there and ate a small breakfast and enjoyed the morning stillness and water view. We found the ferry station and bought "bus" passes for 36 hours, 23 euros. Expensive, but it turns out these bus boats are very useful and much better than walking through confusing tiny allies. There isn't any main drag here so you never really know where you are. But we managed to get out the door on our first mission to explore the city by 11:30 or so. We spent the day walking around the one big square, through all the little shops and gelato stands. This city is great. We even took a Gondola ride! You know? The little black boats with an italian guy in a stripped shirt and cool hat that rows us around the little canals. It was worth 15 euros (even though I didn't want to at first). But there has been one thing about this place that has made things especially tough. Its already been 45 days since I saw her, and there are couples everywhere kissing and going on boat rides. It def a city to go with your special someone, even more so than Paris from what I remember form last time. But I relayed missed her today, especially tonight. I've got it bad I know. But I got lots of cool things for my family and whit today! So I am excited to show them those. This evening we ate dinner at a VERY italian place and were there for almost 3 hours. It was great. I had some fantastic pizza. Nick had some pasta and then an hour after finishing he ordered another plate of the same pasta! We killed a few bottle of wine in the mean time and just talked about everything. I've really liked that about this trip. Everyone loves to just slow down and talk. That european trend has caught on with us.

After dinner we wondered around the water front of the main canal and sat on the steps of the gondolas and just watched boats go in and out. It was pleasant, but sitting right next to me was this young couple who were just holding each other, and I couldn't help but wimper and feel jealous because I wanted my woman:( Its getting easier to miss people after this long, especially because I have lost my home base and feel less at a home. But maybe being with Nick's family friend will change that. Ireland will just be the final touch. And I think I will leave knowing I experienced just about as much as I can handle.

After dinner and sitting around we got on the boat bus back to our island (which is really cool to have our hostel on because it over looks all of venice across the strait right out the window). Erin got off at our stop, but Nick, Adam, and I took the bus for an entire lap around the city! We were going to get our money's worth. It took about an hour 15 before we got back to our stop again. It was a great realizing way to see the city, and at sunset it was gorgeous.

I am in bed now, in this 16 bed dorm style room. Once again, cheap hostels haha. No wifi though:( so I cant post this until France, if even then. I am not sure if the family has wifi. But I am looking forward to tomorrow, another full day in Venice. We are going to another island called Lido for a famous beach. The entire perimeter of the island is public beach! So that should be cool to just relax at. I think that has been the best part since finals were over. We can really just relax without any time constraints to worry about.

Until next time!

Prague + Last regular week!!

So last time I left you with right before we got into Prague. The train stopped at Praha around 3pm. We decided to get on an early train So we could spend as much time as possible in the city. But when we got there we quickly realized that Czech Rep. would be the most difficult country for us yet. Now I know this is ignorant but very few people spoke English and most of the signs in the train station did not have english subtitles. So we needed two things basically: get cash, and find the hostel. We found a cash machine in the train station, so that part was easy. Czech money, which we all just called Chexs Mix haha (it was actually a crown but we didnt find that out til the end). So the next part would be to get to the hostel. We had the name and address... but no real directions. Fortunately, there was an iPhone present. We found out we needed to get on Tram 9. But where the hell do we find Tram 9? We saw what looked like a picture of a tram and followed the arrow outside the train station and about 500m away before we started to think...hmm this doesn't seem right, shouldn't the tram stop be AT the train station? But then I caught a glimpse of a tram a little bit ahead and found the stop for Tram 9. Go figure. But then we had ourselves a new problem: we all had large bills and the tram ticket booth required coins only. So now we need change. I went to a currency exchange guy across the street and exchanged a few euros and asked for it in change. He wouldn't do it, only cash. Okay now Adam went to a luxury hotel reception, that didn't work either. So eventually I just bought everyone's ticket with a larger bill (there were 10 of us) from a cigarette stand. We had tried to get change there too, but the lady wouldn't help us with that. The exchange rate was about 20 of the chexs mix for one USD. So we got on Tram 9, and knew we needed to get off at Lasarska, and that was four stops on the map at the tram stop. After 4 stops we got off...but something wasn't right because we were definitely NOT in the downtown area. We ended up going to wrong direction! Once the ten of us realized our mistake. We got back on Tram 9 going the OTHER way and rode it for 8 stops. Good logic huh? lol We made it to Lasarska and walked around the confusing little angled block for about 10 min before we found the little door to our hostel. Hostels always have the smallest and most discrete entrances most of the time with no sign. You'd thin because most of the stayers would be foreigners they would put up a big sign or something. The hostel in Budapest only had an 8x11 print out of the words "Colors Hostel" in about size 30 scotched taped on the door. Thank god we found that one. Anyway, we made our way to reception and the woman there was extremely nice. We all paid our share of the bill and she gave us the key to our room. Now, for all our other hostel experiences there were multiple small dorm-style rooms on one floor. This place however was primarily a student apartment complex with only 2 hostel rooms. But the hostel rooms were actual apartments. We had the entire 3rd floor complex to ourselves. The enormous place easily fit all ten of us. There was a living room, entrance room, a kitchen, balcony, large bathroom with a Jacuzzi, and two large bedrooms with beds. The place was huge, especially compared to the other hostels we'd stayed at. Not to mention WE HAD THE WHOLE PLACE TO OURSELVES. That was the best part.

The group decided we loved this place so much we wanted to make dinner there since we had a big kitchen. So we went to a local grocery market and picked up about 15 frozen pizzas, milk, and cereal. This would provide breakfast and dinner for both days. And that was the biggest $$ saver for the whole trip. The previous weekends most of our money was spent on dinner's out at restaurants. Now I know what you're thinking, what about experiencing the native food/culture? We had it covered. The hostel owners every friday and saturday night provided traditional food and drink from Czech for free! Friday night we ate homemade beef goulash and bread with local Czech brew. The owner at with us, as well a few other students that were staying there. He talked about the food and especially the types of beer that were made there and the history behind those. He was a really cool guy and you could tell he loved hanging out with students. The next night he provided Czech liquor and traditional desert wafers too! And yes, all of this was free (with our hostel booking).

That night we decided we would take a go at the famous Czech pub crawls. We found a brochure in the hostel for one, and signed up right there. It ended up being around 20 USD for unlimited drinks and cover at 5 bars/ clubs. Good deal yeah? Prague was a very inexpensive place, which I realized at the end of the weekend when I had only pulled out about 70 USD and hadn't spent 50. This was a big deal because the previous weekends had shown about a 150USD spent. But anyway, we met the pub group, which consisted of about 40 people, mostly Americans, at a bar near the edge of old town, pretty close to our hostel. We hung out and drank for about an hour before the group set off, led by a tall lanky guy with really cool hair. We all marched our way though downtown to each bar. Most of the group spent most of their time dancing at each place. However, from the beginning of the night, the Czech alcohol was not sitting with me well, so I laid low for most of the night and only had a beer here and there. I spent most of my time talking with (or trying to decipher) there Irish fellows who had just graduated their version of high school and were traveling around. They're accents were thick as pea soup. Funny guys though. The city was alive outside as we walked from place to place. Most of the cities we've seen so far shut down almost completely (except for bars) after ten. Not Prague. Shops were open til at least midnight, and

The last place we stopped at was a famous 5-story dance building. Each floor a had a music theme to it that was shone on the wall as you went up the stairs. It was insane. There were probably a 1000 people in this building. There were lasers, lit up floors, smoke machines, lots of bars, and tonnnnns of dance floors. It was a mad house. Definitely a place you could get lost in or easily overwhelmed if you were too out of it. Fortunately nobody had a problem. We got back to the hostel around 1:30am. I sat down in the kitchen with Tara and Adam and filled up a bit with water and just enjoyed where we were.

Saturday was a sleep in day for everyone. Yes, I know we were in Prague and needed to see the city, but don't worry, we were out the door by noon. We ate our cereal (Nick ate frozen pizza for breakfast) and were out the door with a plan for the day: market, castle, pool. First we spent about and hour and a half in the central pedestrian market part of old town. We all bought a few things and then made our way toward the river toward the castle on the other side. On the way we ran into a Stag party (British bachelor party) doing funny things in the streets to make money for their good time that night. They were all dressed in spandex, pink things, and huge fro wigs. We paid about 10 USD all together to wax the Groom's legs with wax strips. Just another cultural cool story! We found a tram that would take us to the base of the castle on the other side of the river, and then made our way up to the "largest castle in europe". But I didn't buy that because 1) it didn't even look like a castle and 2) I have definitely seen castle's that look bigger than that one. Regardless it was a cool place to walk around. We had a great view of the city from the top and spent an hour or so up there. Its funny to get those views of these large European cities and realize they don't have any skyscrapers and are very small in size compared to US cities, mostly because Europe never really bought into the whole suburb thing. After that we walked down and across the river across the 14th century St. Charles Bridge. There were painters, craftsman, and musicians scatters all over the large pedestrian bridge. It was really cool. One group of high school looking guys were playing a string version of "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica. VERY COOL. Our plan at that point was to go to this big public pool we had heard about. We found a tram that went the direction we wanted and made to this extremely large pool complex. There were two large outdoor pools and one large indoor one. There was even a 4-story water slide! We spent the hot afternoon there until it turned into a not so hot afternoon. We then got back to the hostel around 6pm. At which point we enjoyed the food our hostel owner provided.

Saturday night we ate more frozen pizza (mind you all this food only cost each person about $1.50 for the whole weekend). And of course we had to go watch the US play their opening game in the world cup against England. So we made it out to the big square at the center of the city where about 1000 people stood watching an enormous big screen set up against the 13th century gothic church. It was incredible. There were loads of Americans and British people in the crowd. It was kind of fun to be surrounded by English speaking people for once. We tied the game and then everyone met up by the famous astrological clock on the church. Some of us wanted to spent the rest of our chex mix on stuff at shops, others wanted to drink more, and others wanted to go dance. So we all went our separate directions (in groups of course) and eventually all made it back to the hostel. I went to go spend some more at the shops and actually bought Denise's Prague Starbucks cup at this time. I walked back to the hostel with Tara, Adam, Erin, Nick, and a few others. We ran into a few other on the way and discovered our friend Brendan had bought a pair of red plaid boxers that matched his shirt perfectly. We realized this because he stripped in the middle of the street in front of the huge crowds haha. I got a great picture. Back at the hostel I did the same thing as the night before. I sat out in the kitchen next to the balcony and just talked with friends. Great night.

Sunday was a pure travel day for most everyone. Adam, Erin, and I got up early though to go out to breakfast. We ate at this luxury hotel lobby restaurant. Very good traditional Czech breakfast food. And cheap. We made to the train and I spent almost all 7 hours in and out of sleep and reading a book for history class.

And that was Prague.

Now it was time for the last full week in Salzburg! Classes were normal for this week. Monday night's movie this week was The Lives of Others. It was about the Stasi secret police of the Soviets and how they watched people. It was a very good movie. Very scary actually. I have just loved history and its so amazing to learn about this war that only ended months before I was born. Tuesday was a normal day, rainy, just like the rest of this week. Wednesday was our field trip day. We went to the Siltronic wafer plant in Germany. This one of the world's largest producers of silicon wafers for all sorts of uses. We were given multiple presentations about the company and the process behind making the wafers and being environmental about it. Europe I have noticed is WAY ahead of the US in ecological development. They have this sustainability thing down pat. They do so many small things that save resources its crazy. We can learn from this and really should implement some of the same laws and practices they have here. But anyway we then were given a tour of the clean up portion of the plant, or the "green" part of it. Very cool. You could just tell the scientists there were genius'. On the way back from the plant we stopped at the "Longest Castle in Europe" but I didn't buy that one either because it was more of a fortress than a castle. But either way it was cool to walk through. Of course it was on top of a hill with great views and defensive positioning. Got a few pictures, including my signature pose of the heel click. We got back to the center at 4 and proceeded to do hw. That night however, a group of us went to this place call Hangar-7. I had no idea what it was until I got there but it was the owner of red bull's private hangar of toys. And when I say toys I mean jets, old planes, helicopters, fast cars, other devices, and just cool stuff. The building was incredibly made out of plexy glass and steel bars. The exhibit of his stuff was free and after walking around we hung out at the bar that was suspended from the roof of the hangar with glass floors looking down on all the museum. It was very cool.

We got home before 11 and I was pretty tired so I passed out. Thursday was our last 3 hour class of stats!! I was so excited about that. Thursday night Nick and I, because we both were taking a nap when everyone left to go to a bar to watch the game, played ping pong for about 2 hours, watched the movie taken, and then had a very philosophical talk about death, love, relationships, religion, and anything else you can think of. I really missed Whitney this night. Nick mentioned that it was really cool to watch our relationship grow over time. He knew me before I dated her, and has been there to watch as we have fallen for one another. It was really cool to hear him say that we work really well together. But it also made me miss her alot. We talked about our families and how much Lauren and Maria would have so much fun as friends because they are both smart asses.

Yesterday afternoon was another cool discovery. We learned of a climbing gym in Salzburg!!! So of course I had to go. We found it north of town along the river, in a large warehouse, it actually looked just like edgeworks from the outside....but no on the inside. It was enormous!!! And usually there are a few beginners at a gym, not this place, everyone was a pro. Another strange thing, at all the US gyms I have been to, all of the top ropes are already set up, and if you want to lead climb, you can ask for a rope. Here, you have to rent a rope and set your top rope yourself!! The walls were riddled with quick draws, and we had to lead climb at set our own top ropes! The walls at this place were easily 70+ feet. It was extremely tall, taller than I've ever seen. Adam and I were the only one's who had any experience with climbing. Tara and Rosemary went with us and were beginners. So he and I led each route and set up the top ropes for the girls. That was actually really cool. We spent about 3 and a half hours there just climbing and having a great time. The atmosphere was exactly the same as it was at home. Climbers world wide seem to be chilled out and relaxed about just living life.

Yesterday through the end of this weekend we have kind of a weird schedule. Yesterday we had history, today nothing, tomorrow history, and monday just engineering. Tuesday is our last field trip to a technology museum in Germany. Then wednesday is FINALS. Thursday is clean up morning and then Nick, Erin, Adam, and I are headed out to Venice on a night train leaving at 1:30am on friday morning.

Today I will be doing HW and plan on going down town for a bit to look around for a few trinkets I still want to pick up.

I will probably post one more time before leaving Austria. Hard to believe its already been 6 weeks!

Switzerland + Vienna

Again, its been too long since my last post and its going to be tough to draw back to last weekend. It's hard to believe how much has happened in the last week. Each week here so much happens. It feels like an eternity since we were in Switzerland. However, the weeks seem to be going faster and faster as time goes by. We're at the end of the fourth week now, so next week is technically our 'dead week'. Then finals finish the following wednesday. Wow, that means as of this upcoming wednesday (its saturday right now) there is only one week left with the program!

Okay, so after the concentration camp last wed., Thursday was a regular school day. Thursday is the day I get to sleep in, however, I never do. I don't think I've slept past 8am on this trip so far. Not once. Anyway, I woke up at 7, talked to my beautiful girlfriend, and then went on a run with Brent, Jacob, and Dr. Kennedy. DK (Dr. Kennedy) took us up to this church on the top of a hill at the northwest part of Salzburg. The view was fantastic, however it would have been netter without as much fog. It was a good 50 minute run and felt pretty good. I've been proud of myself at how much I have been running. Although I am NOT at all hitting the milage I should be for summer so far, I am running more than I thought I would for this trip. Thank God Brent is here, he is always asking me to run, and I would not be going as much if it weren't for that. After the run I made my new favorite breakfast. Although I'm not sure what it is called, its where you cut a hole in the center of a piece of bread, butter the rest, drop it in a pan on the stove, and cook an end in the center of the hole. I saw it in the movie V For Vendetta and has always looked delicious, and when I expressed this to Nick he apparently ate them when he was just a little guy, and showed me how to make it. Since that I have made one almost every morning.

Classes went normally, with History for two hours, an hour break, then statistics for three hours, yikes. That class is tough to sit through for three hours. Our first exam was this last wed, and this was almost a week before the test, but I already knew I was in for it, as in I was not getting this stuff. Anyway, thursday night Nick, Erin, Rachel, Brendan, and I kind of finalized our plans for getting to Interlaken, Switzerland the next morning. It was a 7 hour train day. One the way there was transferred twice on three trains, the way back we hit four trains! Interlaken is out in the middle of nowhere in the Swiss alps between two large alpine lakes in a valley surrounded by 4,000 meter peaks, including the famous Eiger, which was our place of interest in going to the land of the Swiss. Little did we know what else we would do! A guy on our last train there from Canada talked to us for a while about our travels. HE had lived there for 13 years after dropping out of college because he didn't want to go back after a summer trip to the Swiss. He told us our hotel was a place where "you drank beer till you puked or till you got laid." Oh boy...

We arrived in the small town at 5:30pm on Friday the 4th and not 1 minute after walking off the train and pulling out a city map we had, a young woman on her bike rolled up and asked us if we needed help finding somewhere. She ended up walking us to our hostel about half a mile away. The people of this country followed that level of kindness and helpfulness the rest of the weekend. I had booked the hostel because it got great reviews and was the first hostel built in the city about 75 years ago. Balmer's Herbage ended up being no different from a coed fraternity house. It was insane. The place was filled with American, Australians, and Canadians looking to party and adventure. We stayed in a 36 bed dorm room. The bedding was as basic as you can get. A small pad with a thin comforter and very small pillow. Our little area was the 5 of us and two high school grads from Australia on 3 month backpacking trip around Europe. They smelled like they were 2 years in. Wow. Very nice guys though, they were a blast to talk to, as have most of the people we have met in the hostels on this trip.

That night we walked around town and enjoyed the cloudless evening. We ate dinner at this small pub about 200 meters from our hostel. But we didn't get there for about an hour because we were all taken back by how awesome Switzerland was. I can't quite put my finger on why we were all so Stoked. Maybe it was a combo of the view of the alps from their footsteps, the beauty of the town, the lively atmosphere that surrounded our hostel, and how everything had the swiss logo on it. We spent that hour going into shops and getting swiss chocolate, t-shirts, post cards, and other souvenirs. We made to dinner around 7 and ate some great 'traditional swiss food'. I put those in quotes because I'm not sure the country has a real food culture that is unique to itself. The food there was a variety of choices we'd seen in other countries, and american food. And we were told it was a place that served the best local food. But the Swiss also do not have an official language, so maybe the food follows. We noticed a good amount of italian influence in the food and language, as well as French, and German.

After dinner we hung out at our hostel for a while, which had turned into a huge frat party with its two beer gardens, indoor bar, basement club-bar, and loud music everywhere. Earlier that day we had discovered that Interlaken was a place where the adventure crowd swarms to do things like paraglide, bungy jump, skydive, and go canyoning. The last one, we saw being displayed on a tv inside an adventure co. shop. It looked like traversing through river canyons using ropes, jumping, floating, and swinging. So, at 9:30pm, we decided we were going to try and book that adventure for the next day, and then go on out original plan of hiking the Eiger trail. By 11pm we thought we had made a reservation for the next day, but after talking with the reception at out hostel, they said most people book in the morning for the following day. We booked at 10:30pm at night for the following morning at 8am. And it took a long time to get any confirmation. Needless to say, we were skeptical about whether or not we actually made a real reservation. Go figure, when we went to OutDoor Interlaken the next morning, we weren't in the system, but had just charged 500 dollars on Brendan's credit card…. and in some act of God the guy at the desk said he would just throw us a different time's slot for a four hour trip that day. We gladly took it, and came back when he said to meet at 9am. Another woman was there checking people in, and we weren't on the computer this time either…but we found the guy we talked to, and he didn't really know what was going on. But it sounded like he booked us when we actually hadn't paid anything! We still don't know if his card actually got charged. but we got to go no the trip anyway. So at 9:30am, the 5 of us suited up with extra padded wetsuits, special booties, and life jackets "more for padding than floatation". Then we drove 25 minute up into this canyon outside of the city, hiked another 15 minutes, and then dropped into this raging river to spend the next 2 hours traversing down. We had a South African, and Peruvian guide named Ren and Santiago. It was an absolute blast. We would repel down some waterfalls, jump off others, slide down natural canals, climb underneath waterfalls, and swing around corners off rocks 30 feet off the water. Brendan and I were the only two who would do flips off the rocks into the next pool. The process of jumping was difficult because you had to land a certain way to miss rock ledges, and clear the waterfall, and land lat enough to miss hitting the bottom. If you didn't jump just right, the guides would yank on your life jacket from behind to make sure you landed flat. However, that usually ended up with them yanking you back so that you land basically on your shoulders, and then everyone would laugh. Everyone made it down safe, although we were a bit worrisome before going when we heard someone had broken their arm and another with a broken leg the day before… but we made it! They said most of the inheres were not from jumping but from just walking around in the water because people wouldn't watch their footing.

When we got back we were all beat, but we pressed on! We had brought about 10 lbs of food from the center in a large bag and saved ourselves from paying for any meals besides dinner. We ate lunch at the hostel outside, and by this time is was about 80 degrees. Then we headed out for the Eiger. We took one train up to a small town called Lauterbrunnen. From here we boarded a cog train (a train that has gear-like tracks that prevent the train from sliding down the steep terrain) up to an alpine village called Wengen (Ven-gen). The view from this place wa incredible. The village sat on top of a mile-wide canyon with Lauterbrunnen below and the three peaks above. I felt like I was in a Jurassic jungle. Water falls littered the huge canyon. And the mountains rose from the horizon like colossal earthy skyscrapers. It was amazing. I was so excited. We then took a cable car up a vertical ridge about 3000 feet to the start a trail heading directly to the base of the Eiger. We all went crazy when we got to the top. I've never seen anything so huge and overwhelming. I felt so incredibly small and insignificant. On our way toward the mountain we climbed some smaller peaks and played int he snow covered ridge. We turned around after about 3 hours of hiking and climbing. We ate a small lunch at the base of the mountain and I enjoyed the moments I would be closest to this incredible mountain I would probably never visit again.

On the way back, we had to hike the ridge back to the cable car station, and then hike down the 3000 foot ridge because the car had stopped running. This was bittersweet because we had already had a long day, but the views would turn out to be amazing on the way down as the sun set, and we saved about 25 euro, however the decent took about 2 extra hours. We stopped numerous times to take pictures of the changing climate zones. We went from rocky and snowy to dry and rocky areas, to light trees, down through heavily wooded areas to the bottom. The trail was actually pretty confusing but we could see where we wanted to go from the hill so knew which directions to take. We passed a few hilled farms and cows, and ended in the middle of a rural area outside the town of Wengen after 2 hours. We took the cog train back to Lauterbrunnen, and than the 30 minute train back to Interlaken. We were starving at that point and found the first pizza place we could find and ordered the biggest one they had, American style. When we got the pizza, the guy who worked there noticed how fast we were ripping through it and told us to slow down, saying that American's don't enjoy their food as much as they should and just rush through dinner. We prompty kept ripping through the thing because what he didn't realize is that we had just spent the whole day expending more calories than we had eaten in the last three. We ended up just talking and laughing at the little place at our outside table for an hour and a half after we ate. It was nice to relax. We then tried to find our hostel in the darkness (it was about 10pm by this time) and got lost for about 45 min before we figured out where to go. When we got back, we all showered and climbed out sorry asses into the small, but very needed bed. I slept like a rock.

The next morning we got up for our 8am train, and made four transfers, which made the 7 hours go by quick actually. Sunday night was our weekly group meeting back at the center, where everyone shared their weekend experiences. Other groups went to Venice, and the mediterranean coast in Slovania.

The week was prey full of school because we all had the exam on wed in statistics. Our class trip wasn't until thursday, yesterday, when we went to Vienna. But wed night after the exam, I was on the group dinner committee. We made breakfast for dinner. I was in charge of making over 50 french toast! It was delicious. And this whole week starting around 10pm we all have been out on out balconies watching the lightning storms to the west of the city. Reminds me a lot of the storms we used to watch i Arizona.

Yesterday we all took a train to Vienna at 5:45 in the morning! A german teacher for the year program, an Austrian woman named Gundi was our private tour guide for the city. We visited the old castle of the Hapsburgs. This family ruled Austria from the 12th century through the first world war. They're strategy for preventing conflict with other empires was to have a ton of kids, and marry their kids off into the royal families of other nations, thus preventing most bad relationships. Good strategy actually, it worked for almost a thousand years anyway. After a tour of their castle, we walked around the "ring" which is the main street of the city. Vienna is split up into quadrants, and from about 1200-1700 the central quadrant was guarded by a star shaped wall that made a ring around the city. When it came down, the place where the wall stood became a main drag. We ate lunch outside St. Stephens cathedral after walking around inside the 13th century gothic structure. The main entrance to the church was built in about 1000 AD. Incredible. We shopped for bit, then met up again to go to the natural history museum. After that it was about 5pm and we made it back to the train station. The teachers left to go back to Salzburg while the rest of the group went to hostels to stay the night before we left for Prague this morning.

Now I am on the train, just went across the Czech Republic border. Actually, as I am typing this I looked out the window to a very broken down apartment building to see a large man sitting on his window sill completely naked. Nice. We are planning on getting some mopeds tomorrow and driving all around town! One thing I have noticed is that I have developed a much better skill of weekend packing. I am down to a lot less weight than the first weekend to Budapest. And the one thing I brought on this trip that has made a huge difference is a towel. God you def need one to survive. You don't when you'll be able to shower, and whether or not you can find a towel at the hostel. Next time I need to bring floppy floppies.

We have heard literally from every person were talked to the Prague was the best city to visit is Europe. Hopefully it hasn't been built up too much! I'll let you know.

Until next time.

Concentration Camp + Switzerland

So last wed., the group went to visit the Nazi concentration camp at Mauthausen, Austria. It was actually quite erie. It rained heavily all day, which was appropriate. The camp was kind of like I'd imagined. Very symmetrical. The barracks were ridiculous for the amount of people they fit into them. Each bed fit three people, when the frame was smaller than a twin. And the labor they were required to do was carve out stones from a rock quarry and carry them up this enormous set of stairs to the top of the quarry. I had trouble walking up that crappy set of stone stairs, and I had on hiking boots. These people had to carry 100lbs of stone up the case without shoes. I cannot imagine. They also had the infamous science experiments going on in the 'sick quarters'. Anyway, the day was quite dreary, although it was nice to put a real perspective to the event.

I'm actually going to bed now, I'll fill in the trip to the Swiss land next time:)

Things other than travelSo,

So after a week of filling you in, I didn't really have the mental energy to talk about things other than pure travel and reactions from that. For this post, I want to sort of paint a picture of how I am living over here, the everyday stuff, and how it feels different, better, worse, and what not.

First off, I am a guy who is used to wing 2A in corrado hall. We are up until the fat lady sings...which happens usually around 2 or 3 am on any given day. Here, the night seems to creep up on you and tell you to go to bed right around 9:30 or 10. I'm positive this is a result two things. First, it is custom here to shut up around 8pm every night, and the neighbors aren't afraid to tell the police how loud the Americans are being. And second, its much easier to get exhausted here. Between walking everywhere, traveling, learning, cooking, and "celebrating" :) its easy to get tried as hell, and just want to go to sleep, all the time. I guess this will be good habit forming for the rest of summer.

Our rooms are quite nice. My bed is almost as comfortable as the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in (Will's guest bed in his room at home). It has made me realize I like firm beds. So when I get back to P-town, with my current bed fiasco, I'll keep that in mind. Our desks are great, and there is more than enough room for everything we brought. I am trying desperately to prevent myself from associating hw with my bedroom. Thanks to my psych teacher, Dr. Bailey, from last semester, I realized doing hw in my room all year probably contributed to my lack of sleep abilities. So my room here is for relaxing activities only. The showers and bathroom, one in each room, are nice as well. The rooms really feel like hotel rooms. We have one small table at the center, and a balcony with a glass door opening out to it. Nick and I are on the third floor so we have a great view of our courtyard and basketball court. I have enjoyed multiple warm nights out there, either skyping with Whit:), reading, or just enjoying where I am.

That's a good segway into my main topic: down time. I have really noticed this week that we really don't experience much of it, at least so far. Currently, my conclusion is that I have not gotten past the mental status that I am here on a temporary vacation. And thus I have a tendency to want to cram in everything I can while I am here. Unfortunately, you can't go non-stop for two full weeks without feeling depleted, let alone 8. So I am going to try to come to the realization that I am LIVING here for 5 1/2 more weeks as part of my (temporarily) permanent life. Maybe that will help me pace things, and not feel so rushed. I have always been a bit of a rushed guy in general, so I have going against me. Hopefully I can start to settle down and relax just as I would at home during the summer....

But that brings up another thing. I really miss the people closest to me. This last weekend in Budapest for one reason or another the homesickness set in. My guess is that its because I have started to reach that maximum time I can go on max speed and I start to want some comfort from them. So I'm hoping my attitude change will heal a bit of it. Me being the optimist, I also started looking at it in a brighter light. This trip has really made me appreciate things like mom's absolutely fantastic cooking. I have never had so many Nutela sandwiches in my life, and I love that stuff. I think I am doing an okay job of cooking. We don't really go out to eat. In fact, I have not been out to eat once on this trip other than when its paid for on our class trips, or on this last trip to Budapest when we didn't really have a choice. During the week here nobody goes out to eat. Guess that's good for a money standpoint. Still, I have found a bunch of really cool restaurants and cafe's on a few of my runs, and want to eventually have a bit there before the trip is over.

Once again, that leads to the next thing: runs. Coach Conner put a pretty concrete milage schedule on us before we left. Lets just say I haven't quite lived up to that. However, I do think I am doing much better than I thought for this trip. The altitude is a bit higher, so its difficult to go farther and faster. Plus the exhaustion I mentioned earlier makes it hard as well. But I have been regularly going on runs every other day, about 50 min on average. That may be a good amount for most, but realistically I should be at about 60 miles a week by now, which is about 8 miles a day, everyday. Hopefully I'll continue to work up from where I am at. As the sun comes out more I'm sure that'll help.

SUN! We have only seen three days of sun since landing in Salzburg. Now those three days were phenomenal. They keep saying its going to get better.... I am sketpical....but hopeful. One of those three days I went on an exploratory run (all of my runs have been pure exploring runs, with lots of turn-arounds and discoveries), and discovered a perfectly picturesque field on a high hill that wound around to a view that took my breath away...not good on a run, lol. I have been aiming for hills I can see from the center on all my runs. If I can reach them I get three good things from them. 1) A hill workout 2) An incredible view of Salzburg and the Alps 3) Visual orientation to find my way back to where I came from (this also has really helped general orientation for the city as we walk around).

This next thing has to do with last week, I forgot to mention it in my last blog. However, I am not sure how I did because the Brussel's Symphony is one of the highlights of this trip so far. Now you all know I am a band geek, and a general music buff of all kinds of music. And I have listened to quite a bit of classical and symphonic music. After all, a third of my iTunes is easily symphonic music. So I have alot to compare to. But this talented group of music God's from Belgium blew me away. I have never in my life heard such a beautiful sound come from a group this size. Yes the technical skill was there, but the intonation among every player in the ensemble was so pure, so perfect, I thought I was back at home listening to a movie score through my noise canceling headphones. The sound filled the room from the bottom up. It was absolutely amazing, it was pure grace. I was in heaven for two hours in a 1000 year old concert hall in downtown Salzburg. They featured a pianist in their first piece, which lasted 45 minutes. He played the entirely of this song with his left hand. His right fell down at his side, neglected as if he forgot he had it. Then, after the intermission, as if he had discovered it, what he did to that piano was unbelievable. I instantly thought of the movie August Rush when the little boy discovers his hidden talent for guitar. The speed at which he played those notes, without sounding scattered or "too much", resembled dominos at first. Then it wasn't in any order. It was more like a circus, his fingers, moving around, over lapping each other, all while his head stayed still (unless he slightly stood up sometime, kind of like Ray Charles' signature move). The way he moved reminded me a little of a hurdler. His limbs moved with skill and speed, while the rest of his body was constant. Amazing. I was in awe when we left.

I am taking two classes right now, Engineering Statistics, and History of the Cold War in Europe. History is by far my favorite of the two. I really enjoyed studying the cold war in high school, and much of what we are learning now over laps with what I did then. My favorite book of all time is 1984, and we watched the movie and discussed it in class. Dr. Eifler is the most amazing lecturer I have ever had. His presentations, although fast paced, are extremely fluid and intriguing, almost a little dramatic. The power points must have taken weeks to make haha. Statistics is less than exciting... Dr. Kennedy is an interesting guy. He is probably the best guy for the program director job. He'll down a full liter with us any time of day and plays foosball regularly. But statistics is a hard class to make exciting. I am learning, but history just over shadows a bit. We have regular and heavy hw for both classes, which is difficult to complete between travel. But we manage. The first exams are next, and I still don't feel like I am in student mode yet. We'll see how it goes.

So that just about covers my life here so far. This wed we are going, as class, to a concentration camp in Germany, then to a lake country afterwards, probably to get rid of some of the dismay I imagine we will be left in after the camp. Then this weekend the plan for Nick, Rachel, Erin, and I is to go to Switzerland and spend the weekend hiking at the base of the Eiger. This is where I'll get my pictures to make Chase jealous haha. I have been looking forward to this alps trip since we left, so I hope it works out well. We'll take a cable car to about 5 thousand feet, then hike another 2 thousand to base camp. I am STOKED!

Until next time.

A Week of Catching up, Eagle's Nest, Munich, Classes, Budapest

So, its been a solid week since my last update, and for that I apologize. I don't want to say I've been "work busy", but I have been busy. Between the different trips, outings, and homework (yes it is still substantial), its become increasingly difficult to find time to reflect on everything. But I'll always make it my goal to catch up on everything I missed.

After Saturday at Hallstatt and the toboggan ride, I was afraid that was going to be hard to beat. And for that weekend, my fears were realized. The Eagle's Nest wasn't as interesting as I had hoped. I mean, I'm the concept was cool to think about, and the documentation center at the base of the mountain displayed mountains of information about Hitler, yet the way our group was presented to everything was not as I had expected. The first thing we did was drive an hour to the base of the Ubersalzbuerg, which is the name of the entire base-like area of hills that surround the Eagle's Nest. On these grounds were dozens of other buildings serving purposes like barrack, tea house, tactical center, cafeterias, etc. It was a sort of pseudo base for Hitler's disposable activities. The Eagle's Nest was the high point of the base located on a mountain tip named after him with a magnificent view of the tallest alps, as the mountain itself is apart of them.

Before we went up to the Nest, we spent 2 long hours walking around the Documentation Center, a museum about everything Hitler and Nazi, while we held little red audio players to our ears, with about 85 different stations of information. We would walk through the center and press the appropriate number for the exhibit we were looking at. It took way to long to get through, but once we got down to the actual bunker, things were more interesting. Talking later in our history class, we discussed how the center was purposefully designed starting a window covered room and slowly working our way down into the darkness of the broken cement bunker, and how that affects our perception. That was cool to think about.

The trip up to the Nest consisted of a bus ride to a large walking tunnel that went deep into the mountain about 200m below the Nest. All 22 of us then boarded an old, brass elevator that took us up to the Nest. Once there we realized the whole place had been turned into a restaurant! The only thing we could really view was the exterior, and walk around the top of the mountain. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVED climbing up and down the different rock passages. It resembled the top of the Haystack actually.

Monday was a full day, kinda of. I had class from 8:30 until 1. After that, Erin, Ranchel, Avery, and I (Nick had class), hiked up the Kapunsenburg, a small mountain right next to the center. Took us about 3 minutes. We passed a gorgeous villa on the way, and when we got to the top, we found a castle. Go figure right? We were really stoked when we saw it because it was sort of hidden in the tress and kind of creeped up on us. Once we explored a little, took a few pictures, and made our way to the other side…. lo and behold, a restaurant. It was still really cool though. Guess thats what they do with they're old building here. The date on the castle was 1500 something.

Monday night was Rosemary's birthday, needless to say, the entire group went out to our so far favorite Irish pub, O'Malley's, and followed that up with a great dancing place. It was a great night. Pictures say the rest.

Tuesday was an ordinary day of classes and hw from 8 until 10:30 (pm) or so. Not much to say there.

Wednesday was Munich. We left at 7, drove 2 hours, and spend the day touring the 1972 Olympic Park, and the BMW headquarters plant. Both were awesome. I was especially excited to see the track where Dave Wottle ran for a Gold in the 800 with his signature come from behind kicks, and where Pre lost to that Norwegian guy.

The BMW plant was incredible. The lobby made us all feel like we were in a space craft. I have never seen a place so high tech in my life. There was small little game exhibits having to do with the technology of their cars, such as a game where you extract hydrogen from water through electrolysis. The tour of the actual plant was almost scary. All I could think about was the movie Terminator, the machines had taken over! Our guide told us the entire plant, that puts our 800 BMW 3 series a day, is 97% automated. It was insane to see the millions of dollars worth of robot arms that seemed to move like humans, picking up and really throwing around the doors, chassis of the largest luxury car maker in the world. No pictures allowed though, can't steal any of their trade secrets!

Thursday was another normal class day. I get to sleep in on thursday until about 10. The schedule switches everyday for the three classes. The time slots are 8:30-10:30, 11-1, and 2-5.

Friday we left for Budapest, Hungary. It was really exciting to head to an eastern European country I knew nothing about. Our history teacher offered this trip as a connection to our class through the Terror House in Budapest, depicting the fear through the cold war. It was very interesting, but yet again, too much information at once, with not a whole lot of background. The house itself had been used by the Nazi's and then the Soviets as a headquarters for Hungary, and place of interrogation and execution.

Nick, Rachel, Brent, Avery, Jacob, and I shared a hostel in downtown Budapest. This was our first hostel experience. It was pretty cool. The place was on the third floor of a classic building downtown, near the river. (Not that the floor's in Europe go 0,1,2,3,etc. The first night we tried to check into the second floor (1,2), which was a private apartment. Once we found it, the hostel manager, a young hippie ish guy showed us the whole place and told us about the city. Greg was his name, or so we think. He was a weird fellow, to say the least. Both nights we were there, we had two new people in the two extra beds, both were older couples that didn't talk to us at all, boring. But we did meet a couple guys from Boston, and then two guys from Sweden (Whitney's homeland!) and Norway (Lars' homeland!).

Friday evening, we all ate dinner at this place along a cobblestone street eating at an outside table. We had traditional Hungarian food, which was delicious! They serve a lot of paprika, and goulash. The food and the atmosphere was fantastic. It was sunny and warm the whole weekend. My family- if you guys remember the irish place we ate at in Spain across the street from the cathedral, this was similar. After dinner we walked across a famous bridge there, and up a mountain through a jungle-like trail to the top to see a huge greek-looking monument with epic statues of men beating up dragons, and an elegant woman holding some religious relic out. From the top was the best view of a city yet on this trip. When back down we found a gelato stand, then spent the night dancing at a jazz club near our hostel call Fat Mo's dancing to a live funk band! That city really turned on around 10 pm, it seemed like every person under the age of 30 came outside at that time.

Saturday we all met up to see the Terror House with Dr. K and the Eifler's and Dr. Bailey (the Scottish ethics prof). After the tour, we all split off for lunch, some market time, and then the Thermal Baths! There are over 50 thermal springs in Hungary, and the largest 5 are in Budapest and are utilized as public thermal baths. We spent a few hours wading around the sulfur deposit heated pools. They looked the same as a resort swimming pool, but were heated like hot tubs with the natural heat deposits.

That night we ate dinner at the same place, haha but all ordered different meals (expect Nick). We then search around for a long time trying to find this roof top bar place we had heard about…and after an hour of walking and navigating, we found it. At the top, we ran into some English guys at the beginning of their bachelor party. This was one of the best parts of the trip so far. We spent a good two or three hours talking to these guys. I have never had so much fun talking about sports, politics, and general shooting the shit was people before. They were hilarious, more than willing to talk and hangout, and just generally awesome people. The accents helped. I talked to two guys named Andy and Woody mostly. It was awesome.

After wards, we went back to Fat Mo's again for another hour of dancing, then went to bed back at the hostel. The hostel cost each of us about 16 euro total for both nights, including breakfast. It was a really cool place. Oh! That's the other part of Hungary I wanted to talk about, the money. One US dollar is equal to about 230 Forins. When we got cash out, we would withdraw about 20,000 of this currency. So it was fun trying to calculate that in our heads to figure out prices. The best way for us to get around was the subway. The system was very similar to London's underground, and was the 2nd built in the world, after London.

Sunday morning (this morning), we woke up, and headed to the train station for our 9am train. We were all talking about how crazy it is that 48 hours ago, we were intimidated, and knew nothing of this country, and now we feel like we cold navigate Budapest like we lived there. Another thing that has been on my mind is how I have begun to really miss home. I have been basically fine thus far, but this weekend for whatever reason, I am missing my mom, her cooking, dad and Lauren a lot right now, and don't even get me started on Whitney. It is fantastic to travel with friends and have this much fun, but sometimes you just want to share these huge experiences with your closest. The train ride is almost 6 hours back. I'm back on it now, with 5 to go. Time to catch up on some sleep.

....................

It's now 5:30 and I am back in the dorm. I am just now realizing that we really don't have any down time here at the program it seems like, and I didn't realize how much I need it. Better go get some. Adios.

Lake Country, Salt Mine, and Toboggan!!!

Today was an absolutely epic day. We woke up this morning after a looonnnngggg night of dancing which I will leave at that. A big blue charter bus took us about an hour away from Salzburg to a place that resembles almost any rural european post card, Hallstatt, Austria. This is one of the oldest towns in Europe because of the large salt deposits in the mountains. The history goes back 7000 years when the mine was first being worked on! We toured the salt mine, still in use today, and were told the story of the salt mine itself and how it formed, and the story of the people who first mined it. We got to see tools used over 3000 years ago and SLIDE down the miner's "fireman's pole" which are wooden slides they used to get to the different levels. It was an amazing place.

After that we walked around the town in awe at its preserved beauty and peacefulness. We ate lunch at a local eatery and ordered some traditional Austria an food, including their famous apple strudel. Delicious. Hallstatt was easily the most beautiful location I have ever been. I still can't believe we were just there. The city was built strait into the mountain, without ruining any of the natural mountain land. Most of the buildings were just built into the rocks, with much of the mountain protruding from walls. Europe seems to have the whole natural preservation of land and eco thing down much better than we do. Well they just practice clean building and minimize reduction of land without all the trendiness behind the "green".

After that we stopped at a toboggan place on the way back. We all bought two rides and grabbed a little plastic sled, were hooked up to a ski lift, towed 10 minutes up a mountain, and had a 3 minute ride of craziness down the mountain overlooking the amazing lake country. However this thing would not fly in the US. We didn't sign and liability forms, we were barely told how to operate the dam things. It was amazing. I was confident in my toboggan skills because I have been on a similar (but much smaller) one at Mt. Hood....but apparently I wasn't skilled enough. I feel off the ride half way down my second run. Sketchy huh? About 5 people fell off, and nothing was done to stop the other from coming behind. The whole ordeal was just sketchy, but I loved it.

Hitler's Eagle's Nest tomorrow.

Orientation Day

So last night I didn't update because I spent the evening out at my first bars! Both bars we (Nick, Avery, Rachel, Erin, and I) went to were Irish pubs. Of course. Actually, most of the bars in the Salzburg area are Irish, go figure. Anyway, we spent most of our time (and money) at O'Malley's Irish pub in the back of the place with an Irish bar tender named Danny, I think it was. He was a funny guy, kept calling the girls "cheeky". We tried a variety of drinks, including the "Red Headed Slut", Nick, naturally, was brave enough to try it. We had a blast there and made our way home. The 15 minute walk was colder and wetter than we had hoped after a long night. But we were back and warm in the center watching The Hangover by 11 and then promptly wen to be at 11:30.

Waking up at 8 was tough, but a nice hot shower in the amazing tall showers we have here. At 9 we all attended a longer than necessary meeting covering all the rules and info about emergencies. After that I went to the store with Erin, Rachel, and Avery to get the weeks food. I can tell grocery shopping is going to take some getting used to. I tried real hard to plan out my meals. All I could do was try to think of the meal Whitney and I cooked all school year together in her appt. So I have stuff for about 5 different meals. I'll get better as I go I guess.

When we got back it was time for the main event of the day: The Salzburg Scavenger Hunt. The whole thing took about 5 hours. We were given a two sided piece of paper with psudo directions to places we couldn't pernounce and barely make out on the map we were also given. We were split into groups of 5 and set out on the adventure. We had to get pictures with a bunch of different objects, buildings, people, and places. This ranged from yodlers, to churches, giant red cows, giant chess boards, graves of Mozart, irish pub bar tenders, and castle gates. My feet hurt afterwards as we all met at the oldest brewery in Austria, established in 1492, he year Columbus sailed the ocean blue. There were a ton of little food stands in the brewery and three huge cafeteria type rooms where we could sit. Afterwards it was a long quiet and exhausting walk back to the center.

I went on my first run with my friend Brent. We both felt the elevation difference. We made it 50 minutes before finding our way back. Dinner tonight was on our own so the kitchen was full of everyone trying to find pots and plates and cook all our grocery food. Nick and I made pasta. Tonight its Faculty clean up for the kitchen. From now on kitchen duty rotates two people a night.

Tomorrow we start classes at 8! Saturday we're going to the Sound of Music's lake country where the house was. Sunday we're headed to the Eagle's nest where Hitler hid and eventually killed himself. Cool huh?

Awesome time so far.

We made it!

Well, Mr. Etheredge and I made it all the way to Austria without a hitch. I'm not gonna lie, it was tough to hang up the phone with Whitney in Chicago and say goodbye to easy communication, but the center has a good wifi thing set up so skype will work :) The flights in were long, the first flight to Chicago actually felt the longest, maybe because we were nervous and excited and a bit sad (or at least I was). The 9 hours flight to Frankfurt was full of characters. Of course there were a minimum of 3 babies screaming there little lungs out like they were on a mission to make the most noise possible. Then there was the woman sitting in front of us with that mucus-y couch and would vigorously and repeated couch 10 times and follow that with a large hock-up and spit the loogie that followed into the puke bag. All nine hours this went on. The media screens were awesome, however the man behind me didn't seem to understand that he didn't need to punch the computer screen. Beyond that the flight was a breeze.

Dr. Kennedy (not murphy mom), was right outside baggage claim to pick us up and took us right to the center. We get to stay in the center tonight! Jet lag to make up for, bed time.

Last weekend at home

Well this is really a testing blog to make sure I am doing this right. I have two nights left at home and it has definitely hit me in the last few days. 2 months isn't that long but the isolation from family, friends, and Whit plus the distance will be more than I have experienced before. Nick too I think. I am stoked beyond belief but I can tell its going to be big, if that makes sense. I plan on updating this blog whenever I can with pictures and video, so check often. I am not sure if you can comment on it or anything like that, but feel free to do that on my facebook, I'll check that too but I figured this would be better for longer blogs.

48 hours and I say goodbye to FW and hello to SB (Salzburg)!