Andria's Travels

Innsbruck, Austria – Time for Christmas Shopping!

2005-11-28T22:40:00.000+01:00

Wow, I’ve been traveling so much that I can’t keep track of where I’m going! I have really enjoyed being able to see so many wonderful things during my time in Europe, but I have also started to get a little tired of always being on the move. So, my weekend in Innsbruck was the perfect opportunity to relax.

I left Vienna at 6.00 on Friday (25.11.2005) and took a train to Innsbruck. On the way to Innsbruck, I worked on some homework for my International Corporate Finance class. It was due the day after I got back, so I wanted to get it done quickly so that I could have some fun during the weekend. After working on homework for a couple of hours, I started reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I had brought it with me to Vienna, and it was fun to reread a book that I enjoyed when I was younger. The train arrived in Innsbruck at 10.45, and I immediately bought a bus ticket to head to Wattens, Austria. The Swarovski Kristall Welten (Crystal World) is headquartered in Wattens and I was very excited to be able to visit it. The bus ride to Wattens took about half and hour and it was very pretty. The mountains around Innsbruck were covered with snow, which makes for some beautiful pictures.

Once I got there, I was able to go right into the Kristall Welten. I was amazed by all of the different things that they are able to cover in the crystals. There were so many different pieces of art and they were all very unique. After my visit, I stopped by the gift shop – I couldn’t leave the home of Swarovski Crystals without buying something! I finished my shopping and had a cappuccino in the café before catching the bus back to Innsbruck.

When I got back to Innsbruck, I headed to my hotel to put away my luggage. I was staying at the Hotel Wiesses Kreuz. The hotel is over 500 years old, and Mozart stayed there with his father on their first journey to Italy in 1769. It was a beautiful hotel, and it reminds me of the hotel that my family stayed in during our trip to Fuessen, Germany in October. The hotel is located on Herzog-Friedrich-Strasse, which is the pedestrian town square in Innsbruck. The Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof), one of the biggest tourist attractions in Innsbruck, is located at the end of the square. The Innsbruck Christkindlmarkt and the largest Swarovski Gallery in the world were also located on the same street, so I was feeling pretty happy with the location of my hotel.

After checking into my hotel, my first stop was the Swarovski Crystal Gallery (conveniently located next door to my hotel) – are you starting to notice a trend here? It had a lot of interesting displays, including Elton John’s Red Piano from his Las Vegas show, and a bicycle and lawnmower that were covered in crystals. After spending a bit more money (another trend that started in Innsbruck), I left the store and headed down the street to the Christkindlmarkt. It was a nice little market, but not as nice as the ones that I have seen in Vienna. I am really enjoying all of the different Christmas markets that I have seen in Austria, and I will definitely miss this during the next holiday season. I ate dinner in a little Italian restaurant, and then I walked around town watching the snow fall. It had been snowing all afternoon, and there were 3-4 inches on the ground by the time I finished my dinner.

On Saturday morning (26.11.2005), I took the train to Garmisch, Germany. My uncle Hubert had told me that I should visit the town if I got a chance, because it was so pretty. It took me about an hour to get to Mittenwald, and then another half hour by bus to reach Garmisch. The train ride was beautiful, and there was snow everywhere. I am constantly being reminded of the “Courier and Ives” Christmas scenes when I look out over the landscapes. When I arrived in Garmisch, I wandered around the town for a couple of hours before catching the bus/train back to Innsbruck. It is a beautiful little town and it looked so pretty with all of the snow. Garmisch is a big ski resort town, and I can see why since they had a foot of snow already in November. A lady that I talked to said that there is a big international ski jump competition on New Year’s Day. I enjoyed my time in the town, and I was really glad that I had the opportunity to go there.

When I got back to Innsbruck, I decided to go shopping. Innsbruck is very well known for its shopping opportunities and its ski resorts – since I wasn’t going to ski, I decided to take full advantage of the shopping. I bought a few Christmas presents and a warm hat that afternoon. I headed over to the Christmas market for a mug of Gluhwein and some people-watching. I wandered over to the river, and then walked through the Old Town. Along the way, I started to notice that different shops had put fairy tales characters above their doorways. I walked down the streets taking photos of the different characters, and I got a pretty good collection of different fairy tales.

On Sunday morning (27.11.2005), I got up and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before heading to the train station. The train ride back went very well, until the train broke down. We had a 40 minute delay while the crew worked to fix the problem. But, I eventually made it home.

I truly enjoyed my trip to Innsbruck, even though I did not do much sightseeing. If you would like to see additional pictures of my trip, click on “Andria’s Travel Photos” and look in the folder labeled Innsbruck.

~Andria

Krakow – Jewel of Poland

2005-11-22T22:50:00.000+01:00

My journey to Krakow started at 6.00 on Friday, 18.11.2005. Yes, that’s how early I had to leave to catch my train to Krakow. I was surprised to see it start to snow as I traveled north (through the Czech Republic) to Poland. I knew that it would be cold, but I didn’t think about the possibility of seeing snowing during my trip. There was a woman in my train car that was from Krakow. She has been living in Vienna for the past 22 years, and she was going to Krakow to visit friends and go to the theater. I enjoyed talking with her during the trip, and she even gave me the name of a café to go to in the Old Town. When we arrived at the station, her friend’s son met her at the train. I said goodbye to her, and then she turned to me a moment later and said that her friend’s son had asked if I could go to the theater with them that night. I thanked her for the offer, but declined since I didn’t have any nice clothes to wear. We all laughed about it, and then went our separate ways. It was such a nice beginning to my trip.

After finding my hostel and getting some money (the currency in Poland is zlotys) I walked to the Old Town. Krakow has the largest town square in Europe, and I was impressed when I walked into it. A large part of the square was under construction, but it was still incredibly large, even with that part fenced off. Since I had arrived so early, I was able to walk around the Old Town for a while before the sun went down. I was amazed by how compact the Old Town was and how all of the streets are laid out in a perfect grid pattern (after the Tatars invaded and destroyed the city in the 13th century, the streets were rebuilt in a perfect grid around the main square). After walking around for a few hours, I found a café. It was a nice little place with about five tables and really good cappuccino. Krakow is such a pretty place, and it seems so different from the other Eastern European countries that I have visited during my travels. After enjoying the café, I went back out into the cold and wandered around some more. I had a dinner of meat pierogis and a Fanta for less than 2 Euros – the food in Krakow is really cheap! Before heading back to my hostel for the night, I was able to hear the bugler play from the city watchtower. This is an interesting tradition, and it dates back several centuries. During the Tatar invasion, a watchman in the tower saw the enemy approaching and sounded the alarm. Before he could finish the tune, an arrow pierced his throat – cutting him off in the middle. Today, the bugler always stops on the same note that the watchman was on when he was killed. I also learned that the buglers in the tower are actually firemen who watch over the city. Their first duty is to be a fire lookout, and the second is to play the bugle.

I got up on Saturday morning (19.11.2005) at 6.00. I was catching the 7.18 train to Oswiecim, so I needed to be ready early. The train ride took a little over an hour, so I arrived in Oswiecim around 8.30 that morning. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, “Oswiecim” is the town that Auschwitz is located in. The Nazis renamed the town “Auschwitz” when they arrived in Poland. By the time I arrived in Oswiecim, there was 3-4 inches of snow on the ground. It was incredibly cold and it was still snowing. Out of respect for anyone who may be reading this, I am not going to give any more details of my visit to the camp. I can say that it is the most emotional experience that I have had during my travels. I think it was very appropriate for me to be there on a cold, snowy day so that I could experience even a small fraction of the discomfort that the people in Auschwitz experienced. If you want to discuss this part of my trip in more detail, please feel free to email me.

I had dinner with Steve (from Australia) and Vanessa (from Canada) from my hostel on Saturday night. We had seen each other at Auschwitz, so we ended up spending the day together. For dinner, we found a little café and had a wonderful meal of pierogis and cabbage rolls. I was sooo full by the time we finished eating, but it was incredibly good.

I got up on Sunday morning (20.11.2005) and headed to Wawel Castle. Along the way, I was able to see several sights in the city, including the house that Cardinal Karol Wojtyla lived in before he became Pope John Paul II. Wawel Castle is located on Wawel Hill, which overlooks the entire city of Krakow. I was able to visit the Wawel Cathedral (the Polish National Cathedral) and the Royal State Rooms in the Wawel Castle.

Steve and Vanessa met me at noon, and we agreed to meet up again at 2 pm after they had toured the castle. I wandered back down the hill and ended up at Jama Michalika Café, which is located on Florianska Street (one of the main streets in the Old Town). This is the place that the lady on the train told me about. It was a neat place, with artwork all over the walls and an elegant atmosphere to have a cappuccino and a piece of cake. I really enjoyed it and I am so glad that I was able to find it before I left Krakow.

I met Vanessa at the bottom of Wawel Hill at 2 pm, and we headed for a shopping mall that we had heard about. It was near Kazimierz (the Jewish Quarter) so we walked through the Saturday Market on our way there. The mall was very nice and I felt like I was at home when I walked inside. It was just like being in Crabtree Valley, with Christmas decorations and everything. Plus, it was a Sunday, so I was really excited to be able to shop. (There are no shops open on Sundays in Vienna, which is something that Lara and I have not been able to adjust to.) We had a good time looking in all of the stores but I didn’t find anything to buy. That night, we ate dinner at the Bar Mleczny, which means “Milk Bar.” This is a cafeteria-style restaurant that was subsidized by the government during the Communist era so that the citizens could afford to go out to dinner. I think my meal cost 2 Euros, and it included meat pierogis and a mixed salad plate – very yummy! (I really enjoyed the pierogis there!)

Monday (21.11.2005) was my last day in Krakow. Since my train did not leave until 3:30 pm, I had a good part of the day to explore. Vanessa and I decided to go to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, which is 30 minutes away from Krakow. The Salt Mine is over 700 years old, and it is truly amazing!! We started the tour by climbing down 360 steps (200 feet below the surface) to the first level of the mine. During the tour, we visited the top three levels of the mine (there are nine levels total). There were so many great sculptures and the underground lakes were very pretty. The Chapel of the Blessed Kinga was incredible. It was carved by three men over a period of 67 years and the entire thing (even the chandeliers) is made from salt. I think the most amazing part of the salt mines was that all of the different sculptures and carvings were done by miners who taught themselves how to do all of the sculpting in their spare time.

Our tour guide told us a lot of great facts about the mine during our tour. For instance, the miners stopped digging the salt in 1996 – now they produce the salt by evaporating and purifying the brine from the underground lakes and the mine produces 15,000 tons of salt per year. She said that about 1 million people visit the mine per year and that there are more tour guides than miners currently working in the mine.

After the tour of the salt mine, we headed back to Krakow and had lunch before I went to the train station to head back to Vienna. It was a wonderful trip, and I am glad that I had the opportunity to go there. If you would like to see additional pictures of my trip, click on “Andria’s Travel Photos” and look in the folder labeled Krakow.

~Andria

Il treno aveva luogo in tempo! (The train was on time!)

2005-11-07T23:30:00.001+01:00

Lara and I decided to go to Venice about three days before we left (so, I guess that means we made the final decision on 01.11.2005). So, we left for Venice at 15.30 on Friday (04.11.2005) – yes, that was the day after my parents left. Just to give you a little bit of background information, we were only going to be able to spend one day in Venice because we were arriving on Friday at 22.30 and we had to catch a train at 6.45 on Sunday morning. We planned the trip in the midst of our Global Strategic Management class, which was a week-long block class, so we had to be back in class at 9.00 on Monday morning (see, we go to class!!).

When we arrived in Venice (on time!), we found our hostel and checked in. It was a neat little place and it was close to the train station (a plus, since we had to leave so early on Sunday). After checking in, we walked around for about an hour and even had some gelato. Ironically, we found out of Saturday that the district we are staying in is the Getto. This is the old Jewish Quarter, and it was one of the most densely populated regions in Venice. It was named “Getto” for the copper foundry that was located there, and it is where the origin of the current word “ghetto” came from.

On Saturday (05.11.2005), we were up and out of our hostel by 6.30. Since we knew we would only have one day in Venice, we wanted to see as much as we could. First, we took the vaporetto (water taxi) down the Grand Canal and looked at all of the beautiful buildings. I found out that most of the ground floors of the buildings are not occupied because there is so much flooding in Venice. We arrived at Piazza San Marco (the only Piazza in Venice) around 7.45 and I was surprised by the size of the square. It is much larger than I thought it would be. When we got there, the square was almost deserted, except for a few people and the entire pigeon population of Venice (well, it seemed that way). We were able to take some nice pictures because the square was so empty.

Then, we decided to find some breakfast. We walked for quite a while, following the “Per Rialto” signs (Dad had told us not to rely on the map, but to follow the signs and the crowds). We got to the Ponte Rialto, which was also very quiet, so we were able to take some good pictures there too. We continued looking for a place for breakfast and eventually ended up in the market that we had passed during the Grand Canal tour. It was so neat to see all of the fruit and vegetable stands, along with butcher shops, fish markets, and cheese shops. We also saw plenty of boats pulling up alongside the market to unload their produce at the market. As we walked past the fish markets, the smell of seafood was so strong that it reminded me of fishing off the dock in Morehead City, NC. It was the first time that I found a place so completely different from home, but with such a familiar feel (or smell) to it.As we were walking around, I came to the realization that the Venetians are entirely dependent on their boats for every aspect of daily life. We saw boats loaded with fresh produce at the market and also boats loaded with things like toilet paper, paper towels, and bottled water – essentials to everyday life that you don’t really think about in terms of how they are transported to their final locations. After walking around for a while, we found a little coffee bar and we ordered cappuccino and pastries for breakfast. I felt like a local as I stood at the bar and drank my cappuccino.After breakfast, we headed back to Piazza San Marco to see the San Marco Basilica. While we were waiting to go inside, we saw workers starting to set up the wooden sidewalks that are used when the city floods. Since Piazza San Marco is the lowest point in the city, it is the place that gets flooded first. Before we left Vienna on Friday, I had looked at the weather forecast and it looked like it was going to rain a lot on Saturday. So, I was fully expecting to get wet at some point on Saturday, but I was hoping to get out of Piazza San Marco before it started flooding. We went inside the Basilica and it was beautiful. We were also able to see the Golden Altar, which is an amazing sight – 150 enameled panels with different scenes on each one of them. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. The Basilica was impressive, but I don’t know if I am used to seeing ornate churches now or if it just wasn’t as good as some of the other ones. At any rate, it didn’t blow me away like some of the other churches that I have seen, but I am glad that I was able to see it while I was in Venice.As we came out of the Basilica, we were able to see and hear the outdoor orchestras that play in the cafes surrounding Piazza San Marco. The music was nice, and I was glad that I could have the opportunity to hear them play. Another interesting sight that we saw was the multitude of tourists that played with the pigeons in the square. A few enterprising entrepreneurs sell pigeon feed to the tourists (which explains why all of the pigeons were there this morning – they were waiting for breakfast!) and people will actually pay for the chance to feed the pigeons. So, we watched these people pay for the pigeon feed and have their friends take pictures of them with pigeons sitting on their hands, arms, shoulders, and even their heads. A couple of the people even poured it on their friends’ heads so that they too could enjoy this thrill. It was a very entertaining sight, and it reminded me a lot of “Home Alone 2” and the Bird Lady in Central Park.After watching the pigeon entertainment for a while, we headed back to the Ponte Rialto to go to a bookshop that was listed in Lara’s guidebook. This bookshop makes and sells leather-bound notebooks and photo albums. The shop was amazing and the man and woman who own it were so friendly. He was joking around with us and telling us that we could work for him – he said he would give us “bread and water…and if you work very hard, a little wine.” We had a wonderful time in the shop, and I bought a leather-bound scrapbook to fill with the memories of my semester abroad. I am looking forward to getting home and starting work on it.

After our stop at the bookshop, we headed for the Fondamente Nuove to take a boat to Murano. We bought our tickets for the vaporetto and headed across the Adriatic Sea to Murano. The boat trip was amazing! Just being out on the water was such a wonderful reminder of home. Seeing the choppy water splash against the boat reminded me of being out in the boat with Dad – something that I have really missed this semester. During the trip, we passed San Michele, which is the cemetery island of Venice. It is filled with mausoleums and has different sections for different religious faiths. We arrived in Murano, and it was a very interesting little town. It is actually made up of four islands that are connected by several bridges. We walked around all four islands, stopping to look in many of the glass shops (Murano is world-renowned for its glass-blowing shops and showcases). We even went to the showroom on the brochure that Mom and Dad had given us from their hotel in Venice. We decided that the hotel must have thought they were wealthy, because even with a 20% discount, we still couldn’t afford anything in the showroom. I think we wandered around Murano for about three hours before deciding that we wanted to go to Burano. We had a little bit of trouble finding the boat dock for the LN line (to get to Burano) and we ended up missing the first boat, but we eventually made it onto the second one (barely).The boat trip to Burano was even better than the one the Murano! There is something that I love about being out on the sea in a boat and smelling the salt air. It was such a great reminder of the beach at home. The town of Burano is very small (even compared to Murano) and we wandered around it for about an hour. Burano is well known for its lace, and there were so many shops selling everything from tablecloths to toilet paper covers to doilies. The houses on the island are all painted different colors, and they are so bright and cheerful. It reminded me of Rainbow Row in Charleston, SC (except that there were a lot more houses here than on Rainbow Row). We caught the vaporetto from Burano at 5 pm and took it all the way back to the Fondamente Nuove stop in Venice. It was a wonderful ride, and I enjoyed being on the water one more time. We started looking for a place to have dinner (all we had eaten was pastries and cappuccino this morning) and finally settled on a little rostericcia near the Ponte Rialto. The food was pretty good (I had spinach and ricotta cannelloni and tiramisu) and Lara and I shared a bottle of Chianti. After dinner, we walked back to Piazza San Marco because I wanted to see the square and the Basilica lit up at night. The square was very pretty (especially because the pigeons were gone). We took a few pictures, and then decided to take a vaporetto back to our hotel since we each still had one more ticket to use. It was an interesting trip because it took us through a part of the city that we had not seen (including the port) and I got to see a really big container ship being unloaded (yet another reminder of Morehead City). It was such a long day that we were both in bed by 9 pm.

Luckily, it did not rain on us at all while we were sightseeing. The rain started on Saturday night, after we were back in our hostel for the night and it was still raining when we left on Sunday. I guess you could say that we were really lucky. We had a great trip (even if it was quick) and I am so glad that I got to see that part of Italy. If you would like to see additional pictures of Venice, click on “Andria’s Travel Photos” and look in the folder labeled Venice.

~Andria

The Family Vacation – Part II

2005-11-03T22:00:00.000+01:00

So, at the end of Part I, Mom and Dad were heading down south to Venice while I was going back to Vienna for a few days of classes. It was nice to get a chance to relax before resuming my ‘tour guide’ duties. I really wanted to make sure that Mom and Dad had a memorable trip, but I didn’t realize how much work it would be to organize all the logistics.

On Friday (28.11.2005), I headed to Salzburg to meet Mom and Dad. On the way there, I took a detour to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp near Linz. The concentration camp is located next to the Weiner Graben Rock Quarry, which is where the prisoners were forced to work. The entrance to the quarry is a steep stone road and 186 steps leading to the bottom of the quarry. These steps were known as the “Stairs of Death.” The concentration camp was smaller than I thought it would be, but still a very overwhelming place. As I continue to visit different concentration camps, it continues to amaze me that these seemingly tranquil places were once the scene of such horrible atrocities. Even though I am able to see the remnants of them, it is still difficult for me to imagine and understand what actually occurred there.

After my visit to Mauthausen, I continued on towards Salzburg. I checked into the hotel and watched a little TV (CNN International – TV is a luxury that Lara and I don’t have right now). I headed back to the train station to find some food and write a few postcards while I waited for the train from Venice. It was a rather long wait (about three hours), so I got to do quite a bit of people watching. The train station in Salzburg wasn’t as interesting as the one in Prague, but I still managed to entertain myself and stay out of trouble. Mom and Dad arrived at 9 pm and we headed back to the hotel. They had brought a bottle of Chianti from Venice, so we stayed up late drinking wine and talking about what they had been doing.

Salzburg

On Saturday (29.11.2005), we got up early and headed into the historic section of Salzburg. When Patti (Lara’s friend) visited us in September/October, she had gone to Salzburg for a day and taken a “Sound of Music” tour. She had really enjoyed it because you got to see a lot of the countryside and some of the places that the movie was filmed. So, after talking to her about it, I decided that I wanted to go on one, too. I found a really good tour company listed in my guidebook, so I convinced Mom to sign up for it with me. Since it was foggy this morning, we went to the tour office first and signed up before beginning our tour of the city. After that, we decided to visit the cathedral because it was still too foggy to see the city. The cathedral was beautiful! I am constantly amazed by the fact that I can see so many different churches and cathedrals, and no two look the same. Every time, I think that there cannot possibly be a more impressive one, but there always is. After visiting the cathedral, we came back outside and the fog was gone! So, we walked about the historic part of the city and saw many interesting sights – the Glockenspiel with 35 17th century bells, St. Peter’s cemetery (which was the model for the graveyard scenes in the “Sound of Music”, Mozart’s birthplace and the town horse bath (a big pond in a square that basically functioned as a car wash for horses). We also found a market in the University Square. Since it was Saturday, there were many vendors selling everything from vegetables and fresh meat to candy and clothing. We got lunch at the market (hot dogs and a krapfen brezel – an Austrian donut shaped like a huge pretzel). After lunch, Mom and I split off from Dad and did some shopping before we headed to the tour office for our “Sound of Music” tour at 2 pm.When we started the tour, I wondered if it would be cheesy, but it actually turned out to be very good. We did see some of the sights (the house that was used for the back side of the movie house, the Glass Pavilion, and the church where the wedding was held) but we were also able to see a lot of great scenery as we drove around the Lake District. We even drove through the mountains and stopped to take pictures of a steep gorge. Part of the tour included stopping for coffee and cake at a café, and seeing the headquarters for Red Bull. Apparently, the owner of Red Bull wanted to build his company headquarters on the lake, but the city officials would not let him. So, he built the headquarters and had a man-made lake put around this, so the building is on a lake.I also learned some interesting facts about the Sound of Music, and I figured that I would share some of them with you.

Two separate houses were used to film the house in the movie. The house that was used for the back side of the film house really is on a lake, but there are not steps leading from the pavilion into the lake (like there are in the movie). Also, when they were filming the scene where the canoe tips over, the littlest girl in the movie (Gretel) was afraid of the water, so they had divers in the water to help her. Unfortunately, when they filmed the scene, the boat tipped over the wrong way, so they couldn’t really help her that much.
The Glass Pavilion scenes were filmed using two different structures. One of them is the real Glass Pavilion (in Salzburg) and the other was a prop made for the movie. The movie prop did not have any windows in it so that the actors could swing around the columns during their dance sequences.
The church that the wedding was filmed in is much smaller than it appears in the movie. Apparently, when they were filming those scenes, Julie Andrews had to be filmed coming down the aisle four different times, and then the pieces of film were spliced together to create the look of the long aisle in the church. Also, the abbey for the nuns was not connected to the church (it is actually located in a different town all together) so the scene where the nuns let Maria out of the abbey through the gate was filmed in two different locations as well.

Dad met us at the end of our tour, and we headed to dinner. He had scouted out a couple of restaurants while we were on the tour (that was part of the ‘to do’ list that we gave him). After dinner, we wandered back through the Old Town to our hotel and enjoyed some Sacher Torte and wine while we watched the news.

On Sunday (30.11.2005), we got up and packed all of our bags to check out of the hotel. Before breakfast, we walked up to the train station to see if there were lockers so that we could store our luggage until our train left. I had heard that Daylight Savings Time was supposed to occur that day, so we happened to check the clocks at the train station – and they had been turned back an hour! I’m glad that we checked so that we were able to take our time checking out of the hotel and eating breakfast.

After checking out of the hotel and storing our luggage at the train station, we headed towards the Hohensalzburg Fortress above the town. On the way, we stopped at the Mirabell Gardens to take a couple of pictures. Schloss Mirabell is a huge house that the Prince-Archbishop built for his mistress and their 15 children in the 17th century. The Catholic Church did not take kindly to him having a mistress and 16 children, so he was forced to resign and imprisoned in the Hohensalzburg Fortress until his death. The Mirabell Gardens are famous (because they were used in the “Sound of Music” and they are beautiful, too. One interesting section of the garden is the Dwarf Garden, which has different statues of dwarves doing different tasks. We even managed to find the dwarf that was sticking his tongue out! We continued through town towards the fortress and took the funicular up to the top of the hill that it sits on. (Mom really liked watching the funiculars go up and down the hill, so I took this picture for her.) The fortress was interesting (although not as impressive as Prague Castle) and we enjoyed seeing it. Dad and I took some great pictures of Salzburg from the top of the fortress. After that, we headed back to the train station to collect our bags and take the train to Vienna. When we got back to Vienna, I made dinner (a smorgasbord of meat, cheese, bread, fruit, and wine) and did a couple of loads of laundry for Mom and Dad. Then, I took them back to their hotel (I’m such a good daughter!) and made sure they got checked in and settled for the night.

Vienna

Mom and Dad spent the last few days of their trip in Vienna. On Monday (31.11.2005), we toured the Hofburg. This is the palace that the Habsburgs lived in during the winter months. The tour consisted of seeing the Royal Porcelain and Silver Collection (very impressive – and I was glad I didn’t have to polish all of that silver), the Sisi Museum (about Franz Josef’s wife, Empress Elizabeth), and the Imperial Apartments. One of the interesting displays that we saw in the Porcelain and Silver Collection was the Imperial Napkin Fold. Apparently, it is a closely guarded secret that only two people in the world know.We sat down to eat lunch (leftovers from last night’s dinner) on a bench near the Hofburg, and we had an uninvited guest try to join us. A dog came over and kept sniffing at our food and trying to get some of it. Fortunately, we were able to keep it away from the food, but I can say that I am glad I don’t have to guard my food that closely for all of my meals – it definitely takes away from being able to enjoy your food! After lunch, we toured the Schatzkammer, which is the Royal Treasury. Some of the impressive pieces that we saw included the Holy Roman Empire Crown and the Chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The next stop for the day was Paolo Bortelolli’s – where you can get the best gelato in Vienna (in my opinion, anyways). We ate gelato and walked around for a little bit before heading back to their hotel. I didn’t eat dinner with them that night, but I heard that they had a good meal.

Tuesday (01.11.2005) was All Saint’s Day, so a lot of the attractions in the city were closed. I also did not have class because the university was closed, so I was able to spend the whole day with Mom and Dad. We went to the Lipizzaner Museum to see the history of the famous Spanische Hofreitschule. After that, we walked around the 1st District for a while until Dad suggested that we could “go to Starbucks and get some real coffee” while we were waiting to tour the Stephansdom. My mouth dropped open when I heard that! (Dad won’t touch Starbucks at home, but I think he was missing American coffee.) That’s where we ended up though, and it was nice to sit down and have a cup of coffee in a warm place (it was cold outside). We went back to the Stephansdom at 3 pm, but they weren’t giving tours that day (since it was All Saint’s Day), so we just wandered around and looked at the church. It is very impressive, just like all of the other churches that I have seen. We parted ways for a while after the Stephansdom, and then Lara and I met back up with them later for dinner. Dad had found a little Italian restaurant on Floriangasse, so we went there and had a wonderful meal. After dinner, we walked to the Hotel Sacher and had the original Sachertorte and apple strudel for dessert. Lara was so nice to us – she picked up the bill for dessert (although Mom and Dad did protest a lot about it).

Bratislava

Wednesday (02.11.2005) was the last day before Mom and Dad left to go home. We decided to go to Bratislava (just over the border in Slovakia) for the day. We took the train and got to town around 10 am. Unfortunately, we did not arrive in the main train station, so we had to figure out how to take the bus to the town center. It was an adventure, but we eventually got there. I’m just glad that Lara had let me borrow her map so that we knew where we were going (sort of…). Bratislava is a cute little town, and our first stop was at Schokolade Maximilian (a place where Lara had told us to go). We had chocolate fondue with whipped cream and sugar wafers – it was really yummy, and hopefully Lara and I can go back there one more time before we leave. We wandered around the town for a couple of hours and had lunch at a place called Lebowski before catching the bus back to the train station. Overall, I enjoyed the trip to Bratislava. It is a cute little town, and I think it will start to become the “Prague of Slovakia” over the next few years. When we got back from Bratislava, I headed back to my room to grab my computer. Dad had brought a CD-Rom with him on the trip so that he could have a copy of all of my pictures before he left. We went to dinner at the same Italian place that we went to on Tuesday night, and it was just as good the second time around. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for a glass of wine. I said good-bye to Mom and Dad (yes, I did cry a little bit) and went home. They were leaving early the next morning to get to the airport and catch their flight.Well, this is the end of our family vacation. We all had a wonderful time, and I’m so glad that Mom and Dad could come over to visit me for a while this semester. If you would like to see additional pictures of our family travels, click on “Andria’s Travel Photos” and look in the folder labeled The Family Vacation.

~Andria

Austrian National Day and the 50th Anniversary Celebration

2005-10-26T23:30:00.000+02:00

Today is the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Austrian State Treaty. Just to give you some background history, after the end of World War II Austria was occupied by the four major Allied forces – United States, Great Britain, France, and Russia. The whole country was divided into four sections with each of the Allied countries controlling one section. Since Vienna is the capital of Austria, it was also divided into four different sections for the countries to control.

Austria was finally granted its freedom as an independent sovereign state when the State Treaty was signed at the Belvedere Palace on May 15, 1955. However, it still took some time for the foreign troops to withdraw from the country. On October 25, 1955, the last foreign troops left Austria. So, October 26 was the first day without occupation by foreign troops, and it was declared “Austrian National Day.” This was also the day that the Austrian Parliament passed the Neutrality Law, declaring that Austria would always remain a neutral country in international affairs. Even though neutrality was a clause of the State Treaty, the Parliament passed the law on October 26 as a symbolic measure to show that no other country was influencing their decision.So now we come to the 50th anniversary of this great occasion. Since all of the federal museums have free admission for this holiday, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity. In the morning, I went to the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, which is the Military History Museum. It is actually located in the Arsenal in Vienna (which is a huge complex housing the museum and many other military departments). I wanted to go here because my uncle Jimmy told me that the car that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in (which started WWI) was in a museum in Vienna. I did a little bit of research and found out that it was in the Military History Museum, so that’s how I ended up there on the morning of Austrian National Day.

I enjoyed visiting the museum a lot. There were so many displays with different types of weapons and armor, and the history dated back to the early reign of the Habsburgs. Some of the most interesting exhibits included a French military surveillance hot air balloon from the 1800s and a display on the Austro-Hungarian navy (which no longer exists because Austria became a land-locked country following the loss of most of its territory at the end of WWI). I was able to see the car that the Archduke and his wife were assassinated in, as well as the uniform he was wearing when he died and the chaisse lounge that he died on.

My choice to visit the Military History Museum on the 50th anniversary of Austrian National Day was very appropriate because it was also the 50th anniversary of the Austrian Army. In the afternoon, there was a huge parade at the Ring in the middle of the city (the Ring is the 3 mile road that circles the historic center of Vienna). I was able to be on the front row in the crowd, so I had a great view of the entire parade. It lasted two hours and I was amazed to see all of the military equipment and troops that participated. According to a press release by the city, it was “a military parade of arms and armor around Vienna’s Ringstrasse…Four thousand soldiers, 195 tanks, 100 aircraft and 100 horses and dogs will form a convoy 7.5 km long (~4.7 miles), accompanied by military bands, guards, and standard bearers from all the nations of the European Union.”

The entire parade was phenomenal! Although I am not an Austrian citizen, I felt proud to be able to witness this historic event. There were so many different things to see in the parade that I don’t know if I can remember all of them. First, squadrons of helicopters, fighter jets, and cargo planes flew over the center of the city. It was amazing because they just kept coming, and it seemed like they would never stop. After that, the parade began around the city. I think the Army brought every piece of equipment that they owned to this parade because it seemed like it would never end. They had everything from heavy tanks to Bradley armored vehicles, construction equipment to ambulances, jeeps with machine guns to fire trucks. In addition, every unit from the Army was represented – firemen, K-9 units, cavalry, packhorses, divers, hazardous materials handlers, troops outfitted for service in desert, mountain, and snowy climates, military police, medical units, honor guard, and many others that I can’t remember. The parade also featured United Nations peacekeeping forces and equipment, which is very appropriate since Vienna is the 3rd headquarters of the United Nations.

The city had set the entire parade to music and they had speakers set up around the Ring. It was so thrilling to see all of these military machines going by with the instrumental music playing in the background – I kept getting goosebumps! In addition, they had standard bearers from EU nations and several other countries, including the USA. I felt very proud to see representatives from the Marines carrying our flag in the parade.

It was such a wonderful experience to be able to participate in this historic event, and I will never forget it. If you would like to see additional pictures of the parade, click on “Andria’s Travel Photos” and look in the folder labeled Austrian National Day.

~Andria

The Family Vacation – Part I

2005-10-25T23:30:00.000+02:00

When my parents found out that I would be living in Vienna for four months, they decided to plan a vacation to come and visit me. So, my dad planned out their ‘travel route’ and I planned my schedule so that I could do some traveling with them. They arrived in Vienna on 18.10.2005 and had some interesting stories to tell about the flight over and trying to find the pension that I had booked for them. (Apparently, my directions weren’t quite as good as they needed to be and my father doesn’t like to ask for directions, so my mother said he made her walk all around Vienna.) I met them at their hotel after my class, and I was so happy to see them! My mom (being the wonderful mother that she is) brought me a suitcase full of things that I had requested. She’s so good to me! We went out to dinner that night, and I got to hear all about their adventures and how the rest of the family was doing.

Over the next few days, my parents did some sightseeing around Vienna and generally entertained themselves because I had class. At night, we would find a new place to have dinner. On Wednesday night, Lara came to dinner with us and we went to a little Italian restaurant that I had found called Cantinetta La Norma. I had been there one time before, but the waiter remembered me and he treated us so well for the entire evening. It was a nice treat for all of us, especially when he brought us little glasses of amaretto at the end of the meal.

Prague

On Friday 21.10.2005 (Dad’s birthday!), we took a train to Prague. It was a lot of fun for me to see how much enjoyment Mom got out of the train ride – she enjoyed watching the landscape as much as I do. We talked about what a nice way it is to travel, but unfortunately, I don’t think it would work as well in the States. The train ride took about four hours, and we arrived in Prague around 3:30 pm. We took the metro to our hotel, and it was very nice and located right around the corner from the Old Town Square. The desk clerk told us that the building was built in the 15th century. Our room is very nice, and it has a wonderful mural painted on the wooden ceiling beams.

After getting settled, we ventured out to find a restaurant. We had a wonderful dinner of goulash with bread dumplings and potato pancakes and a beer. Yes, that’s right, yours truly drank a beer – and it was very good (the Czech Republic is known for its beer so I figured that I had to try it). After dinner, we walked around the city for a while. Many of the buildings, including Prague Castle, were lit up and they were beautiful at night.

On Saturday, we started the day with a visit to Prague Castle. There is a beautiful cathedral there, and Dad and I climbed to the top of the tower. We were able to see the entire city from the top of the tower, and I was surprised by how big Prague really is. It was such a pretty day, blue sky with no clouds in sight, and we got some wonderful pictures of the city below the castle. After visiting the cathedral, we watched the changing of the guards at the castle gates, and it was an impressive sight. After the changing of the guard, we toured the Old Palace and the Golden Lane.

After visiting the castle, we walked to the Charles Bridge and climbed the Lesser Town Tower. it was really neat because it had an exhibit that told about the history of the Charles Bridge. I had no idea that it had been rebuilt so many times! After the visiting the bridge, we found another restaurant for lunch and then I did some shopping before we went back to the hotel to collect our bags and go to the train station. Our night train (to Munich) was leaving at 10:00 pm, but we wanted to get to the train station before it got dark. Once we got to the train station, we had an interesting experience. Apparently, a lot of interesting people hang out at the main train station in Prague, and we got to see quite a few of them as we waited for our train. In the end, we made it to our train safe and sound, and were on our way to Munich.

Munich

We arrived in Munich around 6:30 am on Sunday (23.10.2005) and we had about three hours before our train left for Fuessen. Since I had visited Munich the weekend before Mom and Dad arrived, I was able to give them the 50 cent tour through the historic district. We also had some breakfast before catching the train.

Fuessen

We arrived in Fuessen around 11:00 am and checked into another wonderful hotel. So far, I had been batting 0.1000 since I booked all of the hotels for Mom and Dad. This one was particularly nice because we had a sitting room with a TV attached to our room. After finding some lunch (at the Pizza Americano restaurant), we decided to take a walking tour of Fuessen. It started to rain lightly, but we still enjoyed seeing the historic sights in the town. Dad lent me his hat so that I could stay dry, but I don’t think I can pull off the “Aussie hat” look as well as he can. After another wonderful dinner, we decided to go to bed early since we had a full day planned for Monday.

Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein Castles

On Monday, we left our hotel early to go to two of King Ludwig II’s castles. Hohenschwangau was his boyhood home and Neuschwanstein was his dream castle that was never completed. I had visited Neuschwanstein when I was in Europe in 1997, but I did not get to visit Hohenschwangau then, so I was looking forward to it. We visited Hohenschwangau first and I really enjoyed being able to see the castle and its furnishings – it seems to bring the history to life when you are able to see it in person, versus just reading about it and looking at pictures.

After visiting Hohenschwangau, we took the bus to the top of the mountain that Neuschwanstein is located on. We went to the Marienbrucke, which is the bridge that Ludwig used to visit so that he could watch his dream castle become a reality. Then we walked down to Neuschwanstein. This castle is truly amazing, and I can see why Walt Disney modeled Cinderella Castle after Neuschwanstein. The castle was only 1/3 completed when Ludwig II died (under questionable circumstances), and the Bavarian government started giving public tours in it within six weeks of his death (Ludwig had used a quite a bit of money to build the castle, and the government wanted to recoup some of it). After seeing how incredible the castle was in its unfinished state, I cannot even begin to imagine how it would have looked if it was completed.

After visiting the castles, we took the bus back to Fuessen so that I could get my bags and catch my train. I had to travel back to Munich, and then on to Vienna so that I could go to class on Tuesday. We went back to the hotel and had a picnic lunch, then Mom and Dad walked me to the train station (I guess they didn’t want me to get lost). I hopped on my train and headed back to Vienna. Mom and Dad were staying in Fuessen for the night before heading down to Venice for a few days. I was sorry that I wouldn’t be able to go with them, but a little bit glad to have a few days “off duty.” This ‘tour guide’ stuff is hard work!

Well, this is the end of the first part of our family vacation. At least I was able to rest for a few days before the second part began. Hopefully, I will be able to finish the story of our travels over the next few days. If you would like to see additional pictures of our family travels, click on “Andria’s Travel Photos” and look in the folder labeled The Family Vacation.

~Andria

Munich – Capital of Bavaria

2005-10-18T22:00:00.000+02:00

I left for Munich on Saturday, 15.10.2005, which was pretty amazing since I had only decided to go there two days earlier. As most of you know, I am a planner, so it was unusual for me to just “pack up and go” (well, as close to packing up and going as I can get). But I am really glad that I went because I had an incredible time and met some wonderful people along the way.

After I arrived in the city, I decided to do a little bit of exploring. The Old City was very close to my hostel, so I walked down the street towards Marienplatz, which is where the old and new town halls are located. The city of Munich was pretty much destroyed in the WWII bombings, but the Germans made picture catalogues of all the buildings before the bombings started. So, after the war, the city was rebuilt to its previous grandeur. However, the New Town Hall did survive the bombings so it still looks as it did when it was completed in 1906.

I also visited the three main churches in the Old City – St. Michael’s, St. Peter’s, and the Frauenkirche. I was able to climb to the top of the steeple in St. Peter’s and the dome in the Frauenkirche to look out over the city. It was beautiful, especially since the sun was beginning to set. The New Town Hall has a 100-year-old glockenspiel in its tower, and I was able to make a video of it moving when the clock struck 17.00.

On my way back to my hostel, a group of street musicians were playing in front of a store. The group was Tal Consort, and they were absolutely incredible! They played several different classical pieces (the instruments were flute, oboe, violin, and bass) and I enjoyed the music so much that I bought their CD. It was definitely a good investment, and I have already enjoyed listening to it.

Dachau

On Sunday morning, 16.10.2005, I got up early to go to the Dachau Concentration Camp (located about 45 minutes outside of Munich). On my way to Dachau, I met a wonderful man whom I now call “the good samaritan.” I was looking at the subway map to figure out which line I should take to get to Dachau and he came up and asked me if I needed help (in German of course). I pointed to my map and said “Dachau” and he communicated to me (using hand gestures) that he was also going there, and that I should follow him. At first, we were going to take the train to Dachau that I had seen on my map, but then another train came and he motioned for me to get on it with him. So, I did (even though I was somewhat apprehensive). We got off the train at another station and he said “busse Dachau”, telling me that there was a bus to Dachau. Still skeptically following him, we walked out of the station and I saw that there was indeed a bus going to Dachau. When we got on the bus, he said “das zu arbeit”, which I could understand meant “this works too.” We had a 40 minute bus ride to Dachau and I am glad that I took that route because I got to see some beautiful scenery along the way. During our trip, he was able to communicate to me that he had three children – two daughters and a son. His son is an electrical engineer, one of his daughters is a designer, and the other daughter is studying medicine at Princeton in New Jersey. I could tell that he was very proud of his family. As our bus ride came to an end, I asked if I could take a picture of him. He seemed surprised, but was very pleased that I had asked him. As we got off the bus, he took me to the bus stop for the concentration camp, and told me to wait for the bus going to ‘KV-Gedenkstatte.’ Then, he gave me a big hug, I thanked him for all of his help, and we parted ways.

Once I arrived at Dachau, I was somewhat apprehensive of how I would feel when I walked into the actual camp. Since I know that many people are reading this blog and I don’t want to upset anyone, I am going to refrain from going into details about what I saw or how I felt during this experience. The exhibits were very descriptive, but pictures and text can never convey the whole truth about Dachau. I think the curators did a very impressive job of putting the memorial and museum together. It was a very moving experience for me to visit the camp, and I am glad that I went. The only way that history will never repeat itself is if we don’t forget what happened in the past.

Schloss Nymphenburg

After Dachau, I headed back to Munich and went to Schloss Nymphenburg, which was the summer home of the Bavarian royalty (like Schonbrunn is the summer home of the Habsburgs in Austria). It was not as impressive as Schonbrunn, but I still enjoyed visiting the palace and gardens. (I think I am beginning to be spoiled by all of the beautiful palaces and museums in Vienna!) I was able to see the palace as well as a small palace that was built for one of the queens to use as her ‘hunting lodge.’ It was very intriguing because it was basically a miniature version of a palace. One of the more interesting exhibits was the Masrtallmuseum (Royal Carriage Museum). There were so many beautiful carriages, and I could not believe how ornate some of them were. One of my favorite pieces in the museum was a miniature carousel for the royal children.

Duetsches Museum

On Monday, 17.10.2005, I got up early and went to the Duetsches Museum. This museum is basically the European equivalent of the Smithsonian, and it was truly amazing! I spent over two hours going through exhibits on many different topics – mining, electricity, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, printing, textiles, music, aeronautics, cars, trains, bicycles and carriages, marine transportation, tunnel construction, bridge building, glassblowing, ceramics, and paper, just to name a few. All of this, and I didn’t even see all of the different sections of the museum! Most of the museum exhibits were described in German and English so being able to understand the descriptions exponentially increased my enjoyment of the museum. In addition, the outside of the museum had a barometer, an astronomical clock, and a sundial on the buildings.

After the Duetsches Museum, I wandered around the western part of Munich before heading back to the Old City one last time. While I had been wandering through the city the past few days, I kept seeing metal statues of lions that were decorated with different artistic motifs, usually reflecting the type of store that they were placed in front of. I asked the desk clerk at my hostel what they were for, and she said they had been created by the city of Munich. Different individuals or businesses can pay to have artists decorate them with a theme. The money is given to charity, so it serves a dual purpose of philanthropy and advertising for the business. The two shown below were both for the clothing store Hertie.

It was time to head back to Vienna on Monday afternoon, and that is when I had my second encounter with some wonderful people. I was sitting on a bench waiting for my train when I heard the couple next to me talking. It was surprising to hear them speaking English…and even more surprising to hear them speaking English with a southern accent! I asked them where they were from, and the woman said “Alabama.” I told them that I was from North Carolina, and we struck up a conversation. We talked during the whole trip back to Vienna. Fred and Reneea are from Alabama, but they are living in Switzerland for three months to start a NGO (non-government organization) to help orphans. When I met them, they were heading to Romania to deliver blankets to children in an orphanage in Oradea. We had a wonderful trip back to Vienna, and once we arrived, I helped them find a place to store their luggage and a hotel near the train station, since they were leaving very early the next morning for Romania. They have reached Oradea, Romania by now, and I hope they have a successful journey.

And so, my trip to Munich came to an end. My parents arrived today (18.10.2005) in Vienna, so I will be showing them around the city and traveling with them for the next couple of weeks. Next up on the itinerary…Prague, Czech Republic!

If you would like to see pictures from my Munich trip click on “Andria’s Travel Photos” (on the right) and click on the folder labeled ‘Munich.’ I will try to have them posted in the next couple of days.

~Andria

Switzerland – The 6-Day Whirlwind Tour

2005-10-14T22:00:00.000+02:00

I started my tour of Switzerland on Wednesday, 05.10.2005, at approximately 7.30 in the morning. In order to get to Lausanne, Switzerland (on Lake Geneva), I took a 12 hour train ride. The scenery in Europe is so amazing, and I love being able to see so much of it during my train travels. The European train system is incredible, and I will definitely miss being able to use it when I go back home. Just to give you an idea of my itinerary for this trip, I was planning on going to Lausanne, Interlaken (and up to the Schilthorn), and Lucerne. This meant that I would be traveling in the French-speaking part of the country (Lausanne and Lake Geneva) and the German-speaking part of the country (Interlaken and Lucerne).

Lausanne

I arrived at Lausanne around 19.30 on Wednesday night and found my hostel pretty easily (which is good since it was dark by that time). I have been impressed with all of the hostels that I have stayed in while traveling and the ones in Switzerland were no exception. Unfortunately, I had started catching a cold the day before I left for Switzerland, so my next stop was at the Pharmacie to get some cold medicine. After that, I got some dinner and went back to the hostel to settle in for the night.

On Thursday, 06.10.2005, I got up and took a train to the Chateau Chillon. It is a castle located on Lake Geneva, and it is also one of the most well-known castles in Switzerland. As an added bonus, this is one of the places that I visited during my last trip to Europe (8 years ago) and I wanted to come back and see it again. I enjoyed touring the Chateau, which is known as the place that inspired Lord Byron’s poem, “The Prisoner of Chillon.” After returning from the Chateau, I explored the Old Town of Lausanne and visited the Cathedral, which is the biggest church in Switzerland. I climbed the tower of the Cathedral and when I stepped out onto the balcony, I had an amazing view of the city. The sky was bright blue and so clear that I could see the mountains on the other side of Lake Geneva. I finished exploring the Old Town and ate dinner at a self-service cafeteria called Manora, and then I decided to head down to the Ouchy district. The Ouchy district is on the waterfront of Lake Geneva, and it includes a large marina and a boardwalk. I walked along the waterfront and watched all of the skateboarders and families enjoying the beautiful evening. Lausanne is known as the “Olympic Capital” of the world because the International Olympic Committee is headquartered there, and they have a large Olympic Museum (Musee Olympique) located in the Ouchy district. When I arrived at the museum, it was already closed for the night since it was after 18.00. This did not bother me since my main reason for coming was to walk around the gardens and see the Olympic flame. However, when I arrived at the flame, all I could see was the natural gas coming out of the fixture – apparently, they only turn the flame on at noon every day. So, I did what any normal tourist would do – took a picture of the flame fixture (minus the flame) to prove that I was there, and headed back down the waterfront to enjoy the evening.

Interlaken and the Schilthorn

I left Lausanne on Friday morning (07.10.2005) and headed for Interlaken, a small town at the base of the Swiss Alps. My objective was to go to the top of the Schilthorn, which is the mountain where they filmed part of the James Bond movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.” The Piz Gloria, a revolving restaurant, and a viewing platform are located on the top of the Schilthorn. If you would like to learn more info on how the James Bond movie and the Schilthorn are linked, go to http://www.schilthorn.ch/

(there is a button on top of the menu to translate the site into English). I had to take two trains, a funicular, and two gondolas to get to the top of the Schilthorn (it is 10,000 feet high). I could feel my ears popping as we kept going up towards the mountain. When I got to the top, it was COLD! It was about 23ºF, as opposed to the 50ºF weather at the bottom of the mountain. I went out onto the viewing platform, and it was snowing. That means that I saw snow twice within one week, and it was only the 7th of October. (I can tell that this is going to be a rough winter for me.) I do have to say that the Swiss Alps were phenomenal, so I did not mind the cold weather too much. It is so mesmerizing to see all of this beauty surrounding me. After my trip to the Schilthorn, I came back to Interlaken and checked into my hostel. I asked the desk clerk for a recommendation of a good restaurant for Swiss fondue that was not touristy – someplace where the locals would go to eat. So, she told me about the Restaurant Laterne. It is a quaint restaurant located on a side street in Interlaken, and it was exactly what I had asked for. I had a wonderful mixed green salad and traditional Laternen fondue, which is a cheese sauce with white wine and garlic that you dip chunks of bread into. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day in the Swiss Alps. Lucerne

I took the 7.08 train to Lucerne on Saturday, 08.10.2005. I arrived in town that morning and dropped my luggage off at my hostel so that I could spend the day exploring. My first visit was to the Fortress Furigen. This museum is actually located between the towns of Stansstad and Furigen, so I took a 15 minute train ride to get there. The Fortress Furigen is an actual fortress that the Swiss government built in 1941. It was built as part of a plan to protect Switzerland in case of a Nazi invasion. Many fortresses like this one were built in the Alps. If an invasion occurred, the Swiss government would go to a secret bunker in the center of the Alps while the troops left their border posts to gather around the fortresses in the Alps. But, after the end of the cold war, the government decided to open it up to the public as a museum. As an aside, the Swiss roadway system was designed so that it could be destroyed – if an invasion occurred all of the roads leading into the country could be blown up, making the entire country into a mountain fortress.The inside of the fortress was an interesting place – lots of dark, damp passages and rooms cut out into the mountain. It was somewhat unnerving when I first arrived, because I never would have found the place if I had not seen the wooden ticket stand built onto the side of the mountain. I walked into the museum and the first thing I saw was a machine gun aimed at the place where I had been standing outside. Seeing that machine gun aimed in that direction sent a little chill up my spine. Overall, the exhibits in the rooms were well done, but I must admit that the museum gave me a strange feeling when I left. I am used to seeing military museums that have well-lit rooms with exhibits displayed in glass cases – a very clinical and sterile environment. However, this museum was completely different. It was such a cold, calculating place, and it made me think about the “art” of warfare in a totally different light. It also made me wonder what other fortresses I might be walking past without even knowing it. After the Fortress Furigen, I headed back to Lucerne and went to the Swiss Transport Museum. This is a museum that houses so many different exhibits that it is overwhelming – and they are all about transportation! I enjoyed seeing the different exhibits on cars, planes, trains, and even an exhibit on the building of the Gotthard Tunnel (which is the main road through the Alps connecting upper Switzerland with Italy). Plus, since the museum is on the waterfront of Lake Lucerne, I was also able to enjoy some wonderful scenery as I walked to and from it. The next stop on my itinerary was the “Crying Lion.” This is a statue that represents the Swiss mercenaries who died while fighting in the French Revolution. The inscription above the lion says ‘Helvetiorum fidei ac virtuti,’ which means ‘To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss.’ On Sunday morning, 09.10.2005, I decided to head to Bern for a night (even though it was not originally in my plans), so I walked around Lucerne a little bit more before I caught my train. One of the most beautiful sights that I saw was the old Chapel Bridge and Water Tower. Bern

The town of Bern is the capital of Switzerland, and when I arrived there I immediately started exploring the area. The tourist information center had a good city map with a walking tour, so I started out with that first. As I walked along looking at the different sights, I noticed that Bern has a lot of fountains. You see them in the middle of the streets, in the middle of the squares on street corners, etc. I bought a guide book, and found out that the city has over 100 fountains! Here are two of my favorites: During my tour around the city, I found two interesting museums. The first was the Bernisches Historisches Museum (Bern History Museum). I was able to see the history of Bern from the 13th century, as well as exhibits of Nordic nomads and Asian culture (these two were traveling exhibitions). I also went to the Schweizerische Schutzenmuseum (Swiss Shooting Museum), which shows the evolution of marksmanship in Switzerland. One of the most interesting things that I saw was an assault rife that was made as a movie prop. It looks pretty normal, doesn’t it? Until you look at the view from the back, of course! This rifle was designed to shoot around corners and it really works! After my walking tour and museum trips, it was time to head for the hostel and a good night’s sleep before I started my journey back home. As I walked back to the hostels, I was amazed by the scenery that was surrounding me. One of the best things about Switzerland is all of the beautiful views of the mountains and lakes or rivers. It seems like every time I think I have seen the most beautiful landscape, I find another one that is even more impressive.

I will have pictures posted in my photos page in the next couple of weeks. Click on Andria’s Travel Photos and look for the ‘Switzerland’ folder.

~Andria

Sights Around Vienna

2005-10-13T23:00:00.000+02:00

Carmen

Even though I have been traveling very frequently, I have also managed to see a few of the sights in the beautiful city that I am living in right now. On Tuesday, 27.09.2005, Lara, Patti (Lara’s friend that was visiting), and I decided to go to the opera. Tickets to the Staadsoper are quite expensive, but on the day of the opera you can get standing room tickets for 3,50 Euro. So, we went to the Staadsoper at around 16.30 and stood in line for an hour and a half waiting for the ticket window to open. When it opened, we bought our tickets and then went to stand in line for another hour to wait for the auditorium of the Staadsoper to be opened. We finally got to go into the auditorium, so all of the people with tickets herded into the standing room. It was quite crowded, and I don’t think the city of Vienna has the same fire codes that we do in America. The opera that we were seeing was Carmen and it was amazing! I cannot even begin to describe how incredible it was to be in a beautiful opera house hearing one of the world’s greatest operas. I am so glad that we went, and I am looking forward to going again before I leave Vienna.

Spanische Hofreitschule

On Tuesday, 04.10.2005, I went to see the Spanische Hofreitschule (Spanish Riding School), which is the home of the Lipizzaner Stallions. The school has been the home of the stallions since the 1700s and it is world-renowned for being the one of the best riding schools in the world for precision horsemanship. During my tour of the school I found out several interesting facts. First of all, there are only 17 riders, and they train 65 stallions that are stabled there. No other riders are allowed on the horses. Also, women are not accepted as riders or horses – it’s an exclusive “Boys’ Club.”

Another interesting story regards a superstition about the Spanische Hofreitschule. Lipizanner stallions are born with a dark coat of hair, but as they grow older, the hair lightens until their coats are completely white (which is a well-known characteristic of the Lipizzaner Stallions). However, there is a small percentage of the Lipizzaners (less that 1%) that are born with a dark brown coat and they stay that way as they get older (I could go in to the biology of it, but it’s too boring). These horses are thought to bring good luck to the riding school. The superstition says that if there is ever a time when there is not at least one brown stallion in the school in Vienna, all of the riders and horses will get sick and the school will collapse. So, there are currently three brown stallions residing in the riding school in Vienna right now. Rathaus Reception

On Wednesday, 12.10.2005, the Mayor of Vienna held a reception for the exchange students that are studying at schools in the city. A large group of us went to the Rathaus together, and it was nice to see everyone so dressed up, instead of in jeans (like we normally are). As we entered the Rathaus, I was amazed by how beautiful the inside was. We had our reception in an enormous banquet hall, where they served plenty of food, wine, and beer. Everyone had a wonderful time. I even got to meet Sonja Kato, Social Democratic member of the Viennese Parliament (far left); Dr. Hans K. Kaiser, Vice-Rector of the Technical University Vienna (left); and Mag. Ulrich Hoermann, General Director of the Austrian Exchange Service (far right). There are no words to describe how fortunate I feel to be able to live in this beautiful city and have so many wonderful things to see and do right at my doorstep. I have to keep reminding myself to explore the city that I live in as well as the surrounding areas, so that I don’t miss out on anything. I hope I will have the chance to do that since my parents will be visiting in a few days and I get to be their tour guide for the city.

~Andria

Budapest

2005-10-11T14:00:00.000+02:00

Lara, Patti (Lara’s friend) and I met up in Budapest on 01.10.2005. Lara and Patti were coming from Prague, and I came from Vienna (after getting back from the Dumlerhutte the night before), so we all met in the Keleti pu train station in Budapest.

Before I tell anything about the city of Budapest, I have to tell about my misadventures getting to the city in the first place. Originally, Lara and Patti thought they would arrive at a different train station, so we agreed to meet at our hostel. Before I got to the Keleti pu train station (where I happened to meet up with Lara and Patti), I originally got off the train at the Kelenfold station. This station was closer to my hostel (according to the directions from the hostel), so I thought it would be faster to get off at this station, instead of going all the way to the main station. Before I go any further, I need to preface the rest of my story by saying that I made a bad decision because I did not exchange any Euros for Hungarian Forints before I arrived in Hungary. Part of this is due to the fact that I was running late and afraid that I would miss my train, but part of it is also due to my arrogance in thinking that I would easily be able to find an ATM and take money out of my bank account when I arrived in Budapest.

So, I got off the train at the Kelenfold station, and start looking around for an ATM. I quickly realized that there wasn’t one anywhere at that station. Kelenfold wasn’t really a train station anyways, but more of a train platform for the locals to use. So, I wandered around, getting more and more anxious, because lack of money was not my only problem. As I was looking for an ATM, I began to realize that nobody in the whole train station spoke English…except for me, of course! For the first time, I knew what it felt like to arrive in a foreign country with no money and no way to communicate…and that is the scariest and loneliest feeling in the world. After continuing to wander around the station for about 40 minutes, I saw that a night train was coming from Vienna to Budapest. So when it stopped at the station, I hopped on board and illegally rode the train for ten minutes to get to the main station in Budapest. When I arrived at the main station, Lara and Patti were waiting for me…which was a very welcome sight after my early morning adventures!

After I finished hugging Lara and Patti and telling them how glad I was to see them, we found an ATM, got some money, and then headed out to the Backpack Budapest Hostel. The directions to get to our hostel were not entirely straightforward, so we had a little bit of trouble finding it. But, we eventually found it and got settled into the “Jungle Room,” named because of the jungle animals painted on the walls. Since it was after 1 pm, we decided it was time for lunch and headed to Borbirosag Etterem, a restaurant that was recommended by the lady who runs our hostel. It was an excellent choice, and we enjoyed a wonderful meal that included traditional Hungarian goulash and a wonderful Hungarian wine. It was nice to sit down and have a relaxing meal after the crazy morning that I had gone through.

After lunch, we decided to walk around Pest, and we ended up at the National History Museum. The National History Museum was a very nice museum, with a lot of interesting historical information about Budapest and Hungary. One of the most interesting sights was a suit of armor from the 15th century that was smaller than me. It was very surprising that the men in Europe used to be that short. Once we finished touring the National History Museum, we headed back to the hostel to rest for a little bit before going out for the night. We wanted to go up to the top of Buda Hill and view the city lights after it got dark. Lara, Patti, and I left the hostel around 8:30 pm and took the tram to Buda Hill. From there, we climbed up to the castle, and walked along the front to look out on the city. We were rewarded for our efforts with some magnificent views of the Chain Bridge and the Parliament building. After taking some beautiful pictures of the city lights, we were going to go to a café on Buda Hill to have some coffee, but it was getting late and we were afraid that the tram would stop running and leave us stranded on the hill. So, we headed back to our hostel, and did what any normal American would do when they want coffee at midnight – we stopped at the Jiffy Jet to get some! On Sunday, we checked out of our hostel and headed across the river to view some of the sights in Pest. Our first stop was the Zsinagoga (Jewish Synagogue). This is the largest synagogue in Europe, and it is very beautiful. One of the interesting features of the Zsinagoga is the twin clock towers. The clock on the right tower is set to Budapest time and the clock on the left tower is set to Jerusalem time. The Hungarian Holocaust Memorial is located over a mass grave from 1944 (next to the Zsinagoga). It is dedicated to the 600,000 Hungarian Jews who died in the Holocaust. The memorial is very unique, because it looks like a weeping willow with steel leaves, and the names of the victims are engraved on the leaves. It is a beautiful and moving tribute to those who were killed during the Holocaust. After visiting the Zsinagoga, we headed towards Szt. Istvan Basilica (St. Stephen’s Basilica). This is the largest church in Budapest, and its size is very daunting when you are standing beside it. We originally approached the church from the back side, so it was quite an experience to walk around to the front entrance and see the actual size of it. From the Basilica, we went on to the Opera House. It is a beautiful building, and we were disappointed that we could go inside because it is supposed to have one of the most beautiful auditoriums in Europe. However, we still enjoyed looking at the outside of the building, which was very impressive. The next place that we visited was the Terrorhaza, or House of Terror Museum. This is a museum that was opened in 2002 in the former Secret Police Headquarters in Budapest. The museum showed how the Hungarian people were treated by the Arrowcross (who were affiliated with the Nazis) from ~1914 to the end of World War II and by the Soviet Police from the end of World War II until the fall of the Iron Curtain. It was a very shocking experience to see the methods that the Secret Police used to control the Hungarian people and to realize that they were still being used only 15 years ago. Seeing this museum has once again reinforced for me how incredibly fortunate I am to live in America and be able to experience all of the freedoms that we take for granted on a daily basis. In retrospect, I am very impressed with the museum curators and how they have displayed this unsettling history to the people of their country and the world. It will hopefully serve as a constant reminder of the past, so that these acts will never be repeated in the future.

After the Terrorhaza, we had lunch at a place called the Mensa. It is an old Communist cafeteria that has been turned into a restaurant, and they still serve traditional Hungarian food at excellent prices. I had chicken goulash, which was amazing! I am going to have to learn how to cook some of the meals that I have eaten over here so that I can enjoy them when I get back to the States. The other dish that I had was baked chicken with potatoes, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese. It was excellent, and I was stuffed by the time we left the restaurant. As an aside, Lara had a bowl of yellow pepper soup with dumplings in it (or so we thought). It turns out that the white balls (which we thought were dumplings) were actually balls of fresh mozzarella cheese! So, here is a picture of Lara showing off one of her many talents…blowing a bubble with a ball of mozzarella cheese! It was time to head back to the hostel after we finished our lunch. We picked up our bags, and headed for the train station to go home to Vienna. It was a fun-filled trip, and Lara and I were both very glad that Patti was with us during our explorations of Budapest. As you can see, we were very tired when we got home! If you would like to see more pictures from this trip, click on “Andria’s Travel Photos” (on the right side) and select the album titled ‘Budapest.’ I am going to try to get my Switzerland adventures posted in the next day or two, so stay tuned!

~Andria

Mountain Trip to the Dumlerhutte and Kremstaler Landmatura

2005-10-05T00:30:00.000+02:00

After spending a few days in Vienna, I left on 29.09.2005 for a trip with the Buddy Network. The Buddy Network is a group of WU students who organize trips and outings for the international students at the university. We left at 8.30 that morning, and took a four-hour bus ride from Vienna into Upper Austria (see map below).

We arrived at the Nationalpark Panoramaturm Wurbauerkogel at about 12.30. We were supposed to hike up to the Panoramaturm and then either take a chairlift or toboggan back to the bottom of the mountain, but it was raining so we just took the bus to the top, and then back down the mountain again. The Panoramaturm is one of several national park centers that are part of the Nationalpark Oo. Kalkalpen (see map of park below – look for red dot to find Panoramaturm). The view from the top of the Panoramaturm was wonderful! We were so high up, and the mountains were all around us. It was overcast and misty, so the pictures I took were very pretty with the clouds right next to the mountains. After the Panoramaturm, we took the bus back down the mountain, and continued on towards the Dumlerhutte. Let me preface the next part of this post by saying that nobody on the trip had any idea what was going to happen…

So, the bus parks in front of a store in this little town, and the trip organizers tell everybody that it’s time to get off the bus, and to grab our backpacks. At this point, they inform us that we have about a three-hour hike ahead of us to get up to the Dumlerhutte. Those of you who know me know that I am not a ‘hiking’ person. This announcement was a bit surprising to me (and most of the other people), especially since the trip organizers had not mentioned this fact before. We all started walking along a trail, and I was thinking to myself, “I can handle this…it’s not too bad.” We walked for about half an hour on the trail until we got to a mountain lift. The lift was used to take up some supplies that the organizers had brought along for the party at the Dumlerhutte (CD player, schnapps, beer, etc). Once everything was loaded in the lift, the REAL hiking began. We hiked 1495 m (~4900 ft, for those of you who need a conversion) up a mountain to get to the Dumlerhutte. Besides the fact that we were hiking up a mountain (and by hiking, I mean climbing up rocks jutting out of the earth), we were doing it in the rain, so everything was slippery and muddy. But, in the end, I made it all the way up the mountain (mainly because the only way I could go was up). It was quite an accomplishment, because I never thought I would be able to do something like that. Once we arrived at the Dumlerhutte, we had an Austrian buffet dinner. During the dinner, the trip organizers admitted that they didn’t know how difficult the trip up the mountain would be. I can honestly say that if I had known how difficult it was going to be, I probably wouldn’t have gone on the trip. In hindsight, I can admit that I did enjoy myself, so I guess I can say that I am glad that I didn’t know, or I would have missed out on a great opportunity.

After a good night’s sleep, I woke up to another surprise on Friday morning…SNOW!!! Apparently, this was the first snow of the season in Austria, and we were lucky enough to be on the mountain when it happened. Of course, this did make it more difficult to climb back down the mountain (it was pretty scary), but once I got to the bottom I was OK.

Once we got down the mountain, we piled onto the bus and went to Schlierbach to earn our “Farmer’s Diploma.” This was a lot of fun, and we all looked so silly in our aprons and straw hats! In order to earn our diploma, we had to complete seven different stations: knowledge of Austrian agriculture; taste-testing most (cider), schnapps, and bread; knowledge of different plants on Austrian farms; cutting grass with a sense (scythe); baking Bauernkrapfen (Austrian donuts); milking a cow; cutting wood with a jigsaw; ‘driving’ an old wheelbarrow; and drawing agricultural pictures (the Sense sharpening station was not open that day). Below, you can see my General Certificate of Agriculture and my interesting agricultural drawings. As you can see, I completed with my certificate with ‘great success.’

Before leaving Schlierbach, we had another Austrian buffet with meats, cheeses, and bread. I am enjoying all of the Austrian food that I have been eating, but I really miss my mom’s home-cooked meals. Oh well, only three more months and then I can enjoy it again. After dinner and the presentation of our certificates, we piled onto the bus (again) for the three-hour trip back to Vienna. I was very tired and happy to be home again.

To see more pictures of my adventures on the mountain and at the Kremstaler Landmatura, click on "Andria's Travel Photos" (on the right hand side), and look for the album titled 'Mountain Trip to Dumlerhutte.'

Next up in my adventures…a recap of the trip to Budapest. Unfortunately, my next entry and more pictures from the mountain trip and Budapest will have to wait until next week when I get back from Switzerland.

~Andria

Orientation – Part Two (19.09.2005 – 24.09.2005)

2005-09-28T22:43:00.001+02:00

Schloss Schonbrunn

On Monday (19.09.2005), we toured Schloss Schonbrunn, which was the summer home of the Habsburgs. It is an enormous place, and very overwhelming because there is so much to see. Schonbrunn was originally a hunting lodge until it was given to Empress Maria Theresia by her father. Maria Theresia remodeled the entire palace and the grounds extensively, and the palace and grounds still look the same as they did during her time. We took a two-hour tour of the house, and I was amazed by how ornate all of the furnishings are. As a side note, the palace has an interesting heating system. Each room has an elaborate porcelain furnace in one corner. These furnaces are lit from passages that are built inside the walls of the rooms, so that the smoke and dust from the furnaces does not go into the living spaces of the palace. Another interesting fact that I learned was that Empress Maria Theresia had sixteen children (and 11 of them survived to adulthood), which is an amazing accomplishment considering that she was alive during the 1700s.

Ottakringer Brewery

On Tuesday (20.09.2005), we went to the Ottakringer Brewery in Vienna. Ottakringer is a very popular beer in Vienna, probably because it is brewed right here in town and it is cheap. Now, most of you know that I don’t like to drink beer. And after visiting the brewery, I can still say that I don’t like to drink beer. However, I did enjoy the tour of the brewery. Our tour guide had never given a tour of the brewery in English (he normally gives the tours in German), but he did very well. The picture below shows the bottling room at the brewery. If you look to the right of the Inspektions-maschine, you can see a blurry green line of beer bottles as they whiz by on the bottling line.

United Nations Office

On Thursday (22.09.2005), we visited the United Nations Office at the Vienna International Center. The UNO in Vienna is the third headquarters for the UN (behind the NYC office and the Geneva office). It was established on 01.01.1980 (the day before I was born!) and is the headquarters for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs. During our visit, we watched a video on the UN as a whole, and had a lecture on the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, which is an organization devoted to helping to bring economic development to third world countries. The picture below shows Lara and I with some of our friends (from left to right: me, Stefan, Lara, Alberto, Eugeno, Roser) in front of the United Nations Office.

Stift Melk and the Nastl Wiengut, Keller, und Heuriger

Saturday (24.09.2005) was a busy day! First, we went to the town of Melk and visited the Stift Melk (Melk Abbey). Before we toured the abbey, we were able to go into the gardens for about 45 minutes. The gardens were gorgeous, and the weather was perfect as well! We wandered about, and followed a little map that we picked up from the entrance to the gardens. Two of my favorite places were the Pavilion and the historical water basin. The pavilion was built in the 1700s for the monks’ recreation and it is filled with amazing frescoes. (By the way, I didn’t know the difference between a fresco and a mural, so I found a great website that explained it. Go to Fresco Techniques and Materials and you can find out the difference too!) The historical water basin is an interesting place because of the sculpture in the center of it. The sculpture tells the story of Jesus walking on the water towards his disciples, and Peter getting out of the boat to meet him. As Peter begins to walk on the water, his fear overcomes him, and he starts to sink, and Jesus reaches out and saves him, saying “Have faith, be not afraid!” After we finished walking through the gardens, we took a guided tour of the abbey museum. It was beautiful! The museum is set up in the Imperial Wing of the abbey, where Maria Theresia and her entourage stayed when they were traveling to the western part of Austria. The Imperial Wing has several hundred rooms, and it always had to be prepared for Maria Theresia, in case she needed to stay there. And with all of this preparation, she only stayed at the abbey three times during her lifetime. One other interesting fact is that the Austrian people used ‘reusable’ coffins in the 18th century in order to save money. Instead of burying a person in a normal coffin, they would put them in a coffin with a trap door on the bottom for the funeral. After the coffin was lowered into the grave, the gravedigger would pull on a latch, and the bottom of the coffin would open, allowing the body to fall into the grave. The coffin would then be pulled back out of the grave to be used again for someone else.

In the afternoon, we visited the Nastl Weingut, Keller, und Heuriger (Nastl Vineyard, Cellar, and New Wine Tavern). A Heuriger is a wine tavern that sells ‘new wine’, that is, wine that is from the current year’s vintage. These places are common in Austria, and the wine is very good and relatively cheap. Gunter and Renate Nastl own the winery, and Renate took us on a tour of the vineyards. She also showed us the wine cellar, which is very modern. The Nastls produce about 40,000 bottles of wine a year, and their family has been operating the winery since 1659. The picture below is of Lara and me with Renate Nastl. If you would like to know more about their winery, you can go to www.nastl.at.

Renate told us an interesting story as we were touring the wine cellar. We walked past some wooden barrels, and she told us that this is where they ferment the red wine. The first three barrels in the foreground of the picture are for each of her three children. Red wine was put in a barrel for each child in the year that they were born, and they will get it when they are grown. That’s a pretty nice inheritance!

After the tour of the vineyards and the wine cellar, we had a wine-tasting in the Heuriger. The Nastls make some very nice wine, and I bought two bottles of their Sauvignon Blanc 2004 before we left.

The Park at Schloss Schonbrunn

On Sunday (25.09.2005), we went back to Schonbrunn to visit the gardens. It was well worth the visit! It is difficult for me to find the words to describe how massive the gardens are. Just to give you an idea, my guidebook said that 20 hectares of grass have to be mowed 21 times a year. Since one hectare is about 2.5 acres, that’s equivalent to almost 50 acres of grass. And that doesn’t include all of the trees, bushes, and flowers in the park that need to be cared for. Needless to say, it is a massive undertaking for the gardening staff at Schonbrunn, and there is always something that needs to be done in the gardens. The picture below shows a rolling scaffolding that is used to trim the trees in the park.

Lara and I climbed to the Gloriette, which is on a hill overlooking the back side of Schloss Schonbrunn. We could see the entire city of Vienna from there, and it was amazing. Even though we have been to Schonbrunn twice, we have only seen about half of the exhibits on the estate. I know that I will have to go back at least one more time to see the Palm House and Sundial House, the oldest zoo in Europe, the Roman Ruins, the Court Bakery (where I can get a recipe for apple strudel – yum!), the Carriage Museum, the Small Gloriette, the Maze, the Schone Brunnen, the Obelisk Fountain, and the Japanese Garden. Look for more info on these places in an upcoming post!

Well, that concludes my travels during orientation. Tomorrow, I leave for a two day trip to a mountain hut in the Alps, and then it’s on to Budapest for two days! Look for updates to my photo album in the next few days here.

~Andria

Orientation – Part One (12.09.2005 – 18.09.2005)

2005-09-27T23:30:00.001+02:00

We have been participating in our Orientation program and German class for the past two weeks, so I am sorry that I have not been able to post any blog entries for a while. Our orientation program was not a school orientation (like the one at NC State), but rather a cultural orientation program. This meant that we went on different trips in Vienna and Austria to learn more about the area that we are living in for the semester. It was a lot of fun, and I learned quite a bit about life in Austria. We also had our German class for the past two weeks, so I have learned to speak enough German to get by with. I also signed up to have a German Language buddy, so she will help me with my German, and I will help her with her English. I am starting to enjoy living in Vienna even more, now that I know more about how and why the city has evolved to its current state.

And now, on to the travel portion of the blog post…

Schloss Belvedere and the “New Austria” Exhibition

On Thursday (15.09.2005), we attended a lecture on the Austrian Political System at school. It was a very interesting lecture, and I was glad we were able to attend, since elections will be held in Vienna this fall. An interesting fact that I learned is that there are over 600 political parties in Austria (and no, the 600 is not a typo). Apparently, it is very easy to form a political party in Austria (you only need one person to do it), so whenever someone has an idea or reform that they want to promote, they just form a new political party. However, out of the 600, only 4-5 parties are of national political relevance – the rest are related to regional or city politics.

After the lecture, we took the tram through town to Schloss Belvedere. Schloss Belvedere is a palace that now houses the Osterreichische Galerie (Austrian Gallery) and it hosts different exhibitions throughout the year. We went to the “New Austria” exhibition, which shows the history of Austria from 1914 (when the Habsburg dynasty ended) up to present day Austria. This exhibition is being held because Austria is currently celebrating their 50th anniversary as the Republic of Austria. The State Treaty of Austria was signed on 15.05.1955, and the last occupying forces exited the country on 25.10.1955. October 26th is National Austria Day, since it was the first day that the country was unoccupied. Since this year is the 50th anniversary of the State Treaty, there are big celebrations happening all over the country and I can’t even imagine what the celebrations on National Austria Day will be like. The New Austria exhibition was very interesting, and I think I will be going back to have another look at it (you can never get the full experience when you are being herded like cattle on a guided tour).

Vienna City Tour

On Friday (16.09.2005), we went on a bus tour of the city of Vienna. It was very interesting, but I would much prefer to get out and walk around at places, as opposed to having a fleeting glance of them as we drive by. We were able to walk around the Hundertwasser-KrawinaHaus, which is an apartment building that Friedensreich Hundertwasser built in the early 1980s. This building is very unique, because Hundertwasser coated the outside with different colored plasters (for each apartment) as well as tiles and bricks. Seeing the Hundertwasser Haus was a great experience for me, because Hundertwasser also designed the power plant that is located near our school. The Fernwarme Wien is a power plant that burns the city’s trash to make electricity. It definitely looks different from our power plants back home, doesn’t it? Something that I have learned in Vienna is that Austria does not use any nuclear power. In the 1970s, the president of Austria commissioned a nuclear power plant to be built in Austria. After it was completed, the Austrian people voted on a referendum on whether to produce nuclear power or not. The president assumed that the people would vote ‘yes’, since the nuclear power plant had already been built. Instead, he was greatly surprised when the Austrian people overwhelmingly voted ‘no’ to the production of nuclear power. Therefore, no nuclear power is produced in Austria.

Graz – the second largest city in Austria

On Saturday (09.17.2005), we took a bus trip to the city of Graz. The weather was cold and rainy that day, but we still had a good trip. We went on a two-hour walking tour of the city, which was very nice. Graz is relatively compact, so we were able to see quite a bit of the city in those two hours. Below, you can see a picture of my friend, Roser, and I dancing as a street musician plays the violin. As you can see, we were having fun despite the weather. While we were on the Graz city tour, our tour guide pointed out the first apartment building in Graz. Apparently, a wealthy banker decided to build an enormous house on the center square of the city. When the house was completed, the banker had run out of money and could not pay all of his debts. So, he gave rooms in the house to the people that he owed money to. And that’s how his house became the first apartment building in Graz.

After we left Graz, we went to the Osterreichisches Freilichtmuseum Stubing bei Graz (Austrian Open-Air Museum at Stubing by Graz). It is a museum that has rural homesteads from all nine provinces in Austria, and some of the buildings date back several hundred years. Our tour guide at the museum said that all of the buildings are original, not reproductions. He said that when the museum curators find a building to add to the collection, they go to the original site and take pictures and draw up plans of the building. Then, they take it apart piece by piece, and number each one as they go. When they get all of the pieces moved back to the museum, they put them back together to reassemble to building – kind of like a gigantic 3-D jigsaw puzzle. The curators of the museum also maintain vegetable and flower gardens and keep farm animals at the museum to make everything as authentic as possible. If you would like to see more about the Osterreicheisches Freilichtmuseum, you can go to www.freilichtmuseum.at.

Fest der Freiheit

On Sunday (18.09.2005), Lara and I went walking throughout Vienna with a couple of friends. While we were out walking, we came up a huge festival in front of the Rathaus (City Hall). It was a celebration of Austria’s 50th anniversary of freedom, and it was very interesting. Bands were playing American music (John Phillip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever) and there were American cars from the 1950s. We even saw some people dressed in poodle skirts! As a part of the celebration, the city mayors from London, Moscow, Paris, and Washington, D.C. came up on stage and spoke about what a great country Austria is. It was a unique experience to see so much American culture in the center of Vienna, and it felt a little bit like the Fourth of July!

Well, that is the end of the first part of Orientation. I will be posting the second part very soon!

~Andria

Il treno è sempre in ritardo. (The train is always late.)

2005-09-12T22:51:00.002+02:00

Well, it has been a long week. Lara and I took an overnight train to Florence on Monday night. From Florence, we immediately headed to the Cinque Terre, a series of five towns (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore) that are located between Levanto and La Spezia on the northwestern coast of Italy. We stayed for two nights at the Albergo Souvenir in Monterosso, and spent a day and a half exploring the towns. On Tuesday afternoon, we went to the beach and swam in the Mediterranean Sea. It was wonderful! Since it was rainy on Wednesday morning, we took the train to Riomaggiore and worked our way up through the towns until we got back to Monterosso. I was blown away by the panoramic views in all of the towns. It was truly an awe-inspiring site to see the towns perched on the cliffs above the sea and know that they have been there for hundreds of years. We left the Cinque Terre early Thursday morning and headed back to Florence. We found a wonderful hostel, Ostello Archi Rossi, which was situated right in the heart of the old town. It was truly a unique place, with interesting paintings and drawings from travelers all over the walls. On Thursday afternoon, we wandered around Florence, looking at all of the hustle and bustle of the city. We walked to the Duomo, which is the biggest church in Florence. Its dome can be seen from miles around the city. My first impressions of Florence were lots of traffic, people, mopeds, busy streets, and trash. Much different than the Cinque Terre. On Friday, Lara and I went to the Galleria dell Academia to see Michelangelo’s David. It was an amazing sight! The statue was so big in real life, and it is incredible to think that it was carved out of a single piece of marble! After that, we walked back to the hostel during a thunderstorm, and changed into dry shoes before venturing out again. We went to the Ponte Vecchio, which is the oldest bridge in Florence. There are two stories about the Ponte Vecchio that I learned while I was in Florence. When the bridge was first built, it was lined with butcher shops. The city bankers lived in a district near the bridge, and they had to cross it each day to go to work. The bankers did not like the smell of the butcher shops, so they complained to the Medici family (which was the ruling family of Florence at that time). The Medicis kicked the butchers out of their shops, and replaced them with the goldsmiths and diamond-carvers of the city, and their descendants still sell jewelry in the shops to this day. The second story is that the Ponte Vecchio was the only bridge in Florence to survive during the German bombings in World War II. A German commander couldn’t bear to destroy it; so instead, he blew up the buildings on both sides of the bridge to make it impassible. After visiting the Ponte Vecchio, I went to the Palazzo Pitti, which is the palace that the Medicis lived in during their reign. It was a beautiful place, and it houses six different museums. I visited the Galleria del Costume (Costume Gallery), Galleria Palatina (Palantine Gallery), Appartamenti Reali (Royal Apartments), and Museo degli Argenti (Silverworks Museum). All of these were very impressive, especially the Museo degli Argenti, which houses many of the Medici treasures. I also visited the Museo di Storia della Scienza (Museum of the History of Science). Some of the interesting things that I saw included some rudimentary microscopes and equipment that was used at the beginning of the study of chemistry. I also got to see Galileo’s embalmed middle finger and his first telescopes. I met back up with Lara, and we went to dinner with a couple of girls that we met at our hostel, Vickie and Suzie. They are Australian and they are backpacking across Europe for six weeks. On Saturday, I went to the Museo dell’Opificio delle Pietre Dure (Museum of Precious Stones). I thought this museum would house some more of the Medici treasures (which it did), but they were not what I expected. This museum houses the collection of stone mosaics that were made during the Medici reign. Basically, rich families would commission artists to create beautiful artwork out of different types of marble. This artwork could consist of tabletops, cabinets, door panels, or whatever the family wanted. The artist would create a “draft” design by painting with oil on canvas, and then the design would be created using different colored stones, such as marble, granite, quartz, coral, mother of pearl, just to name a few. It was very intricate and detailed work, and the results are extraordinary. After that, I went to the Cappelle dei Medici (Medici Chapels), which is where the Medici family crypt and the tombs of the Grand Dukes are located. When I walked into the Cappella dei Principi (Princes’ Chapel), I was left speechless. The whole chapel is composed of stone mosaics and the dome is covered with eight Biblical frescoes painted in vibrant colors. The chapel contains the tombs of the six Grand Dukes in the Medici family, and each tomb has the ducal crown on top of it. I have not been able to find the words to describe how I felt when I walked into the chapel. All that I can say is that it was breath-taking and it brought me to tears. I met Lara later that morning, and we went to the Palazzo Vecchio, which is the old palace of Florence. It now houses the town government, including the mayor’s office. We went on the “Secret Routes” tour, which allowed us to go through several hidden passages in the palace—very cool! On Saturday afternoon, I visited the Macchine di Leonardo exhibit, which was an exhibit with models of Leonardo da Vinci’s machines that he invented and recorded in his Codices. It was interesting to see the early beginnings of many machines that our society uses today. Then, Lara and I visited the Uffizi, which houses an enormous collection of art from the Florentine Renaissance period. It was a very impressive gallery, but it was difficult to truly appreciate all of the art in a two-hour period. After the Uffizi, we went back to the hostel, picked up our backpacks, and headed to the train station to wait for our overnight train. We got back to our dorm room around 10 am on Sunday, and we were both very glad to have a day to rest before orientation started. I have uploaded some additional pictures from the trip here. Look in the album titled “Italy.” ~Andria

I didn’t lose my luggage!

2005-09-04T22:56:00.001+02:00

I landed (with all of my belongings—YAY!) in Vienna on September 1. After checking into my dorm, it finally hit me…scheiβe, I’m in Austria!! After several small mishaps (funny now, but not so much when they were happening), I finally started to get settled in. Gerald, my buddy from the WU, took me to dinner at a pub and I had my first Austrian meal—Wiener Schnitzel and German potato salad. Very yummy! On September 2, Lara’s plane arrived, and I took the Underground and CAT train to the airport to meet her. Over the past couple of days, we have been wandering around Vienna. Basically, we picked a different direction each day and started walking to see what we would find. Memorable highlights include:

Maria Hilfer Straβe, which is one of the main shopping districts in the city (and relatively close to our dorm) – I will definitely be returning to this area frequently
A Viennese wedding on Saturday (we walked up to the church and watched the processional)
Wandering around and eating lunch in the Volksgarten with Blue, an Australian that Lara met on her plane
Buying stamps that cost €1,25 each (equivalent to about $1.60) to mail postcards
Wandering around the Museum District and listening to the street musicians outside the Spanische Hofreitschule
Meeting new people in our dorm, including Diana (from Bosnia), Queenie (from Hong Kong), and Kirsten (from Singapore)
Trying to learn some German so I don’t continue to look like the tourist that I am

I have uploaded my pictures here. Look in the album titled “First Impressions of Vienna” (it’s the only album up there right now). Feel free to take a look, and let me know what you think. For those of you who know about my internship with Progress Energy this summer, I have been fascinated by the lighting system in Vienna since I arrived, which is why I have included several pictures of the street lights in my photo album. Tomorrow, we head to Florence and the Cinque Terre (that’s in Italy, for those of you who don’t know). I look forward to sharing my adventures with you when I return!

~Andria

T - 3 Weeks

2005-08-10T22:07:00.000+02:00

Tonight, I realized that in three weeks I will be on a plane flying over the middle of the ocean on my way to Vienna. It was a startling thought for me, because I feel like I still have so many things left undone. I am sure that I will get through all of it before I leave, but it still seems rather overwhelming right now. Plus, I have to finish deciding what I want to pack. I don’t know if you have ever tried to pack in two suitcases for four months, but it is a rather daunting task for me.

On another note, today someone asked me what one thing I really wanted to do before I left the country, like it was my last wish or something. My reply was that everything I wanted to do would still be here when I got back. But, after giving this reply, I really started pondering the question. I haven’t really thought about what I will miss while I am gone, other than my mom’s cooking. I’m still trying to think of my absolute final answer. So, my interim answer for right now is that I will miss my sports. I love going to baseball games during the summer because of the atmosphere that you feel when you enter the park. And the ACC football conference is going to be AWESOME this year, especially since the defending champions are the Virginia Tech Hokies (which is my home team, for those of you that don’t know). I guess I will have to catch up on all the games using Espn.com this fall. Oh well, at least I will be back in time for ACC basketball in the spring. So right now, I guess my one thing that I want to do before I leave the country is to go to another Durham Bulls game. I’ll have to see if I can manage to work it in to my schedule. :-)

Well, I guess the countdown has begun, so it will be interesting to see what happens in my last few weeks at home.

~Andria