My roomie, Brooke!
The greatest people ever who helped me eat birthday cake and watch Hairspray! From the left: Jocelyn, Rachael, Miriam, Veronika, Joyce, Caitlin, Me, and Brooke.
One of the best birthday gifts ever!! Thank you Joyce and Miriam!
Pretty flowers my host brother bought for me on the birthday. He truly is a super sweet boy!
One of the crazy floats in the Fasching Parade. This man swung around up there even flipping upside down!
A keg on a float in a city-wide parade...I didn't think I would ever see that. Only in Austria.
Crazy Cave-Men with their painted faces and cattle bones on strings. Rather Frightening.
Another unique sight at the Fasching Parade.
And...My pretty pirate with Brooke and I. My host dad was behind all of this...
Me and a snowboard!!
Me ACTUALLY Snowboarding!!
Riding the SNOW!! Amazing expereince!!
Kris and I...she taught me everything she knows!!!
Just Chilling...
Me and Budapest! It was so wonderful!
Parliament Building!
Our Flea Market that we enjoyed in the beautiful sunny weather.
Budapest by Night.
Most of our Budapest group posing like rock stars! Me, Brooke, Caitlin, Kendra, Kris, and Ryan...Rachael was taking the photo!
Greetings,
It seems just like yesterday that I was waiting in the Frankfurt terminal for the new group of students to arrive; I simply can not believe that I have been in class for four weeks already!!
Meeting the new group was really quick, and after I maybe met about half of the group, they had to head to Trier, and I headed to Hamburg, Germany. So, on Monday, January 21, I headed out again by myself. I went to Hamburg and found a hostel after walking through the rain. Because the weather was so awful, I stayed inside the entire night from about 3 in the afternoon on. I read my book and drank some tea and talked to the others who were staying at the hostel until I snuggled into a long night of sleep. The next morning I headed out to see the famous huge Hamburg Harbor and sit around enjoying the wonderful day it was. The ships were really big and neat to see and it was really refreshing to walk along the water and see the always growing, industrial city of Hamburg.
After seeing what I could of Hamburg, I jumped back on the train and headed south to Cologne. Cologne is a beautiful city at night with all the lights and I easily found my hostel, settled in for the night after eating some free noodles, and was off to sleep. The next morning while walking to the famous Cologne Cathedral, I ran into the group on the street and hung out with them for the rest of the day. When the time finally came, I got back on the train and finally made my way to Salzburg!
Back in Salzburg on the 24th of January, I was greeted happily by my great host family and started to do laundry, straighten up things, and get back into life. The first night I was back, I even was able to baby-sit my host siblings. It was an experience. I was in charge of three kids, none of whom I can really communicate well with, and was alone with them for over two hours. It was a lot of fun, but the language barrier was a battle.
Finally, Saturday came and I was able to meet who my new roommate was going to be. My host Dad and I headed into town to meet the group and came home with Brooke Etnyre from Illinois as my new roomie! That first night I quickly got Brooke initiated with Salzburg and we went to watch a movie with Miriam and Joyce, two friends from church.
The Sunday before classes started, we went to church and met more people, walked around more of Salzburg, and just chilled. It was then Monday morning and we both were starting the new semester in Salzburg. We had orientation, lunch, and Ellen, Jimmy, and I (the year students) took the new students on a ‘practical’ walking tour of old town Salzburg. That first night, we had some girls over and had a girl’s movie night together and watched Step Up!! Great movie of all time!!
The rest of the week flew by with classes and hanging out with the new people. Then, the next weekend came and it was super duper fun!! Friday night, I was able to go watch Jana’s, a girl from church, contemporary dance recital. It was really interesting; I had never before been to any modern art dance performances. Saturday was spent at an amazing Fasching parade. Fasching is the time before Lent and fasting time when everyone in Germany and Austria has parties and sincerely just eats a lot of meat and drinks a lot of beer.
At the Fasching parade, I saw the most outrageous floats, costumes, and signs. There were leopard skinned people, a LOT of pirates, men dressed as women, soccer players with cool whips, floats with kegs of beer ON the float, cave looking men with real beef bones attached to strings, half naked women dancing on the floats, and a lot of cool tractors that I took pictures of!! It was just so fun to watch all of the people partying and having a super fun time. At the end of the parade, we followed the remaining people and floats to the end and found our family. There I saw a really pretty pirate. My host Dad proceeded to going over and talking to him. I am almost afraid what he really told him, but we got a picture with him and he really is the prettiest pirate ever!
The rest of the night was spent making a really good salad, watching Dirty Dancing-Havana Nights, and then bringing in my birthday all together at Shamrock with Miriam, Cameron, Brooke, and ME!! It was a great beginning to a super birthday.
Sunday morning was church and I was even sung to! It was spectacular. Then, we ate a lot of cake and tea at coffee hour, and then headed quickly home for lunch with the family. I did some homework in the afternoon then Brooke and I went for a short walk up Mönschsberg. Later in the afternoon we got the party started! All the girls came over and we ate some amazing cake that my host Mom made for me. It was Miriam, Joyce, Jocelyn, Brooke, Veronika, Caitlin, and Rachael!! We ate our cake and then I got the best birthday gift ever from Miriam and Joyce. Channing Tatum is an actor from Step Up and She’s The Man. Miriam and Joyce got me a birthday calendar with men on it and they put a photo of Channing Tatum’s face on ever photo!! It is a very precious gift and it is hanging in Brooke and my room now!
After cake we all sat together and watched another amazing chick-flick…Hairspray!! It was so great to watch that movie. When the movie was done, we all headed into town to meet up with the rest of Salzburg College at the Augustiner Brewery. I think over half of our college was together and it was so fun to really get to know them better after only really knowing them for a week. After chilling at the Augustiner, we moved downtown to Murphy’s Law to watch the Super Bowl. It was so different to be in Europe watching the most American sporting event ever. The Giants won! I do not follow football, so if the Patriots would have won…that would have been great too!! The night ended after the super bowl did and I definitely had a super birthday that was a lot of fun that I was able to spend with so many friends!!
The second week of class began and work began to pile on. Tuesday, however, was Fasching Dienstag. This is the last day before the fasting begins! We had another birthday in the college and we all went out together to celebrate Anna’s 20th. As it was Fasching Dienstag, there were loads of people out dressed up again and I even got a picture with another pirate. The rest of the week was rather uneventful.
The weekend came and Brooke headed with a few others to Munich and Dachau while I stayed home to do some homework and just relax. I spent the day reading, writing papers, and also found time to enjoy a really nice walk on some trails.
Sunday, January 10 came and Brooke and I again headed off to church. It was a beautiful morning, and after church we were ready to enjoy the sunshine and warm weather. We got on our bikes and ran home, packed some sandwiches and snacks, and headed to Helbrunn Schloss. On our way to Helbrunn, Brooke and I discovered some more amazing landscapes and areas of Salzburg. We met our family at the park area and then headed for a little hike up a small mountain. We were able to see a really neat stone theater and then spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the edge of the mountain overlooking flat pastures, the pretty city, and the magnificent mountains laid out before us.
The third week of class arrived and I definitely had loads more work to get done. This semester I have an Austrian Cuisine class. Every Tuesday I get to go and make a new Austrian dish and enjoy it with dessert! I am also taking an International Marketing class the entails a lot of reading and field trips to go on. In addition, I have an Economics and Politics of the European Union class that is taught by a great professor. I am learning so much about the EU this semester; I never thought I would find it so interesting. Besides these classes I am taking a Business class and two classes of German. My German is not as good as I would hope it would be, but it is so much better.
Valentine’s Day has never been a very important holiday for me, but I had a great day this year. After a long day at class, Brooke and I had no plans and our friend Cameron invited us over to watch a movie. When we arrived, he had bought us each a pretty flower and gotten us chocolate. Incredibly sweet and nice!! We also made some homemade popcorn in the pan and watched a really interesting movie. It was a super night for a great day!!
The weekend finally came again and it was totally a great! I WENT SNOWBOARDING!! At 6 in the morning, Brooke and I got up and prepared our bikes for a ride across town. We arrived at EM Stadium and were able to catch a free shuttle bus to Ruβbach Ski Resort. We got to the mountain, rented our equipment, got our ski passes, and went to the bunny hill.
The first ride down the small run was not very successful. I didn’t make it up the lift all the way, and then practical fell down the part I had made it up! I could not make my body do what I could remember from my first time snowboarding. It was some pretty rough runs at first, but I was finally getting it back down.
Out on slopes, many of the runs had T-bars to use to get to the top. These bars had contraptions that you put between your legs or sort of leaned on for the ride up the slope. These bars would have not been hard to use, except with a snowboard it is NOT easy. I never once made it up the entire bunny slope to the top with these bars. My roommate, Brooke, loves to tell this next story. I feel if I don’t tell you, my whole snowboarding experience will be compromised. However, I am not going to tell you. The following text was submitted by my wonderful and so supportive roommate, Brooke:
On the bunny hill the “platter lift” as I was told, was the way you got to the top. You would take this round plastic rod thing, that hung off the rope and put it between your legs, this would then pull you up. Well this platter thing worked great for skiers but it was mighty hard for snowboarders. And the best story of the day happened on this lift. My roommate, who had the most trouble with this method, took a spill next to a fence, while riding the lift. As she let go of the platter thing, it wrapped around the fence, which then began to pull the fence, and in the end pulled it right out of the ground. Finally, someone stopped the lift and my roommate and I are standing on the top of the hill with a 20 foot fence out of the ground, having no idea what we are supposed to do, and I am crying I’m laughing so hard. Well needless to say, someone did come fix the fence and I had a story I told anyone who would listen!
Needless to say: I never went back up one of those slopes with the T-Bars again and Brooke really did tell everyone who would listen her story of the day!!
Instead of these awful slopes with “put the rod between your legs” contraptions, I headed up the big dogs. It was so scary at first looking down on these really steep runs, I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to make it down for lunch. But, I made it down and it was totally wonderful. We ate our sandwiches for lunch and headed back up.
Brooke and I, along with Ryan, Kris, and Ellen, headed down some new runs and I was finally improving. I was using both of my edges and able to make it down some considerable distance without falling on my knees or bum. It seemed, however, that I was sometimes falling more just trying to get up onto my snowboard than when I was going down the mountain. Luckily, I had a good friend, Kris, help me sometimes. She is really good at snowboarding. She also comes from Montana and attends MSU, so she and I always have good conversations about good ole’ Bozeman.
At the very end of the day I was so tired and I thought my body was going to give out, but I was able to make it down the very last part of the mountain without falling once! It was a remarkable ending to a very superb and beautiful day. I was really happy about my snowboarding and hope to keep going every year from here on out!
Sunday came again and that meant church also. Brooke and I went to church and then came back home to get started on some homework. I had a twenty page paper due about “the EU’s role in the world” and had to get started on it. Monday and Tuesday were also filled with writing days and by Wednesday morning, I had my paper done.
The rest of the week was fairly uneventful and very relaxing after getting that large paper done. And, then we all decided to go to Budapest, Hungary!!
Kris, Ryan, Rachael, Caitlin, Kendra, Brooke, and I all wanted to get out of the city and I had one weekend left to finish my rail pass, so we chose a great destination of Budapest to visit. Saturday morning at 2 am, we all got on our train in Salzburg and by 9 am were already in another country!
One of the nicest days yet met us as we got off the train and headed into the city to explore. All day Saturday we walked around the city seeing the sites and enjoying the day. We walked all down the Danube River, saw the really neat Parliament building, walked through the beautiful castle complex, and even went through this really neat underground Labyrinth. The Labyrinth had a lot of unique dark paths to go through and many interesting paintings on the wall.
By the end of all of this site-seeing we were all getting very tired and finally set off to find a hostel. We found a hostel, put our things down, and then set out to find some Hungarian food for supper. We came across a really nice restaurant and enjoyed a super meal. I had a mushroom cream soup that was so nice and a Hungarian pasta dish with cottage cheese. It was all very good and we were entirely satisfied by the end of our meals.
To finish up our night in Budapest, we decided to see the river and buildings all lit up at night. It was very beautiful and we had a lot of fun before heading back for a much needed good night of sleep!
Early the next morning, Sunday, we all got ready and headed to a store down the way to grab a bite for breakfast. Most of us were able to buy a delicious fresh roll for about a dollar to fill us up for breakfast. Mine was a roll with a certain cream inside along with raisons. It was so great, I got another one later before we headed back home.
We had seen most of the main sites on Saturday and this day we decided to head to a Flea market all across town. It was another sunny day and the long walk to the bus station was very nice. We then found our bus and made our way to the outskirts of Budapest to find a true Flea Market. It was literally an oversized garage sale with everyone selling their different odds and ends. It was neat to see, but my favorite part was sitting down outside in the sun and enjoying a cold Sprite!! There were loads of antique things and neat furniture, but nothing I was really interested in or attracted to.
After our Flea Market, we headed back into the central part of the city and walked around some more. We grabbed some Gyros for lunch, road the really long escalators down into supposedly the deepest underground system of Europe, and then found a really nice park to sit down at and just relax.
When it was time to go find our train, we headed to the station, spent the rest of our Hungarian money, and waited to board. Then, we saw these two boys who we had seen multiple times since our train ride to Budapest. It actually happened that when we were almost to Budapest, we stopped at a very small train station 5 minutes from the main one. Three of us saw a boy get off the train and then he turned around to watch the train pulling away from him. He was standing outside looking very confused and lost. He had obviously not wanted to get off at this small station. After we got off at the main station and were headed out to see the city, we saw the same guy and his friend and were happy to see he made it into town. We then saw him two or three more times while walking around and at the castle. This was all on Saturday.
Then, while waiting for our train on Sunday we spotted them AGAIN like I was just saying earlier!! It was so incredible!! So interesting too! Kris then happened to say hi to them and then we started talking. They were from Brazil, studying in Germany, and were only in Europe for about three weeks. Also, they were going to be on the same train with us to Vienna. So, on the train to Vienna they found us and we sat together and chatted. In Vienna before changing trains, we realized again that our night trains were actually attached to each other and we would be technically on the same train all the way AGAIN from Vienna to Salzburg. As we talked longer, the two guys told us they were going to be in Salzburg on Saturday this upcoming weekend. If any of us are free, we are hoping to meet up with them again and show them the sights of Salzburg! It was just so crazy how one thing lead to another and by the end of our weekend we had made friends with two absolute strangers who we thought we would never see again!
After our long train ride back home, we finally crawled into our beds around 12:30 and were up for school again early Monday morning. I had German class, Economics, and I even had a wine tasting class that was a part of my Austrian Cuisine class.
The rest of the week will probably entail a lot of studying, a few movies, bible study, bike rides, and some walking or running outside in the wonderful weather we have been having. Next week I will have mid-terms and then go on a trip to the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium at the end of next week. After my field trip I will begin another two weeks of holiday and this time I should be heading south to France, Spain, and Mallorca for a week and then heading back up north to meet up with my parents!! I am very excited about my upcoming adventures and especially ready for visitors!! I can not wait!
I hope everyone else is doing well and the weather is not always bad. If there are any questions about my adventures or you want me to elaborate more about some of my last trips, just drop me a message or email and I would be happy to fill you in!!
I really hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy!!
Take Care,
Leibe,
Dana
Meeting the new group was really quick, and after I maybe met about half of the group, they had to head to Trier, and I headed to Hamburg, Germany. So, on Monday, January 21, I headed out again by myself. I went to Hamburg and found a hostel after walking through the rain. Because the weather was so awful, I stayed inside the entire night from about 3 in the afternoon on. I read my book and drank some tea and talked to the others who were staying at the hostel until I snuggled into a long night of sleep. The next morning I headed out to see the famous huge Hamburg Harbor and sit around enjoying the wonderful day it was. The ships were really big and neat to see and it was really refreshing to walk along the water and see the always growing, industrial city of Hamburg.
After seeing what I could of Hamburg, I jumped back on the train and headed south to Cologne. Cologne is a beautiful city at night with all the lights and I easily found my hostel, settled in for the night after eating some free noodles, and was off to sleep. The next morning while walking to the famous Cologne Cathedral, I ran into the group on the street and hung out with them for the rest of the day. When the time finally came, I got back on the train and finally made my way to Salzburg!
Back in Salzburg on the 24th of January, I was greeted happily by my great host family and started to do laundry, straighten up things, and get back into life. The first night I was back, I even was able to baby-sit my host siblings. It was an experience. I was in charge of three kids, none of whom I can really communicate well with, and was alone with them for over two hours. It was a lot of fun, but the language barrier was a battle.
Finally, Saturday came and I was able to meet who my new roommate was going to be. My host Dad and I headed into town to meet the group and came home with Brooke Etnyre from Illinois as my new roomie! That first night I quickly got Brooke initiated with Salzburg and we went to watch a movie with Miriam and Joyce, two friends from church.
The Sunday before classes started, we went to church and met more people, walked around more of Salzburg, and just chilled. It was then Monday morning and we both were starting the new semester in Salzburg. We had orientation, lunch, and Ellen, Jimmy, and I (the year students) took the new students on a ‘practical’ walking tour of old town Salzburg. That first night, we had some girls over and had a girl’s movie night together and watched Step Up!! Great movie of all time!!
The rest of the week flew by with classes and hanging out with the new people. Then, the next weekend came and it was super duper fun!! Friday night, I was able to go watch Jana’s, a girl from church, contemporary dance recital. It was really interesting; I had never before been to any modern art dance performances. Saturday was spent at an amazing Fasching parade. Fasching is the time before Lent and fasting time when everyone in Germany and Austria has parties and sincerely just eats a lot of meat and drinks a lot of beer.
At the Fasching parade, I saw the most outrageous floats, costumes, and signs. There were leopard skinned people, a LOT of pirates, men dressed as women, soccer players with cool whips, floats with kegs of beer ON the float, cave looking men with real beef bones attached to strings, half naked women dancing on the floats, and a lot of cool tractors that I took pictures of!! It was just so fun to watch all of the people partying and having a super fun time. At the end of the parade, we followed the remaining people and floats to the end and found our family. There I saw a really pretty pirate. My host Dad proceeded to going over and talking to him. I am almost afraid what he really told him, but we got a picture with him and he really is the prettiest pirate ever!
The rest of the night was spent making a really good salad, watching Dirty Dancing-Havana Nights, and then bringing in my birthday all together at Shamrock with Miriam, Cameron, Brooke, and ME!! It was a great beginning to a super birthday.
Sunday morning was church and I was even sung to! It was spectacular. Then, we ate a lot of cake and tea at coffee hour, and then headed quickly home for lunch with the family. I did some homework in the afternoon then Brooke and I went for a short walk up Mönschsberg. Later in the afternoon we got the party started! All the girls came over and we ate some amazing cake that my host Mom made for me. It was Miriam, Joyce, Jocelyn, Brooke, Veronika, Caitlin, and Rachael!! We ate our cake and then I got the best birthday gift ever from Miriam and Joyce. Channing Tatum is an actor from Step Up and She’s The Man. Miriam and Joyce got me a birthday calendar with men on it and they put a photo of Channing Tatum’s face on ever photo!! It is a very precious gift and it is hanging in Brooke and my room now!
After cake we all sat together and watched another amazing chick-flick…Hairspray!! It was so great to watch that movie. When the movie was done, we all headed into town to meet up with the rest of Salzburg College at the Augustiner Brewery. I think over half of our college was together and it was so fun to really get to know them better after only really knowing them for a week. After chilling at the Augustiner, we moved downtown to Murphy’s Law to watch the Super Bowl. It was so different to be in Europe watching the most American sporting event ever. The Giants won! I do not follow football, so if the Patriots would have won…that would have been great too!! The night ended after the super bowl did and I definitely had a super birthday that was a lot of fun that I was able to spend with so many friends!!
The second week of class began and work began to pile on. Tuesday, however, was Fasching Dienstag. This is the last day before the fasting begins! We had another birthday in the college and we all went out together to celebrate Anna’s 20th. As it was Fasching Dienstag, there were loads of people out dressed up again and I even got a picture with another pirate. The rest of the week was rather uneventful.
The weekend came and Brooke headed with a few others to Munich and Dachau while I stayed home to do some homework and just relax. I spent the day reading, writing papers, and also found time to enjoy a really nice walk on some trails.
Sunday, January 10 came and Brooke and I again headed off to church. It was a beautiful morning, and after church we were ready to enjoy the sunshine and warm weather. We got on our bikes and ran home, packed some sandwiches and snacks, and headed to Helbrunn Schloss. On our way to Helbrunn, Brooke and I discovered some more amazing landscapes and areas of Salzburg. We met our family at the park area and then headed for a little hike up a small mountain. We were able to see a really neat stone theater and then spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the edge of the mountain overlooking flat pastures, the pretty city, and the magnificent mountains laid out before us.
The third week of class arrived and I definitely had loads more work to get done. This semester I have an Austrian Cuisine class. Every Tuesday I get to go and make a new Austrian dish and enjoy it with dessert! I am also taking an International Marketing class the entails a lot of reading and field trips to go on. In addition, I have an Economics and Politics of the European Union class that is taught by a great professor. I am learning so much about the EU this semester; I never thought I would find it so interesting. Besides these classes I am taking a Business class and two classes of German. My German is not as good as I would hope it would be, but it is so much better.
Valentine’s Day has never been a very important holiday for me, but I had a great day this year. After a long day at class, Brooke and I had no plans and our friend Cameron invited us over to watch a movie. When we arrived, he had bought us each a pretty flower and gotten us chocolate. Incredibly sweet and nice!! We also made some homemade popcorn in the pan and watched a really interesting movie. It was a super night for a great day!!
The weekend finally came again and it was totally a great! I WENT SNOWBOARDING!! At 6 in the morning, Brooke and I got up and prepared our bikes for a ride across town. We arrived at EM Stadium and were able to catch a free shuttle bus to Ruβbach Ski Resort. We got to the mountain, rented our equipment, got our ski passes, and went to the bunny hill.
The first ride down the small run was not very successful. I didn’t make it up the lift all the way, and then practical fell down the part I had made it up! I could not make my body do what I could remember from my first time snowboarding. It was some pretty rough runs at first, but I was finally getting it back down.
Out on slopes, many of the runs had T-bars to use to get to the top. These bars had contraptions that you put between your legs or sort of leaned on for the ride up the slope. These bars would have not been hard to use, except with a snowboard it is NOT easy. I never once made it up the entire bunny slope to the top with these bars. My roommate, Brooke, loves to tell this next story. I feel if I don’t tell you, my whole snowboarding experience will be compromised. However, I am not going to tell you. The following text was submitted by my wonderful and so supportive roommate, Brooke:
On the bunny hill the “platter lift” as I was told, was the way you got to the top. You would take this round plastic rod thing, that hung off the rope and put it between your legs, this would then pull you up. Well this platter thing worked great for skiers but it was mighty hard for snowboarders. And the best story of the day happened on this lift. My roommate, who had the most trouble with this method, took a spill next to a fence, while riding the lift. As she let go of the platter thing, it wrapped around the fence, which then began to pull the fence, and in the end pulled it right out of the ground. Finally, someone stopped the lift and my roommate and I are standing on the top of the hill with a 20 foot fence out of the ground, having no idea what we are supposed to do, and I am crying I’m laughing so hard. Well needless to say, someone did come fix the fence and I had a story I told anyone who would listen!
Needless to say: I never went back up one of those slopes with the T-Bars again and Brooke really did tell everyone who would listen her story of the day!!
Instead of these awful slopes with “put the rod between your legs” contraptions, I headed up the big dogs. It was so scary at first looking down on these really steep runs, I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to make it down for lunch. But, I made it down and it was totally wonderful. We ate our sandwiches for lunch and headed back up.
Brooke and I, along with Ryan, Kris, and Ellen, headed down some new runs and I was finally improving. I was using both of my edges and able to make it down some considerable distance without falling on my knees or bum. It seemed, however, that I was sometimes falling more just trying to get up onto my snowboard than when I was going down the mountain. Luckily, I had a good friend, Kris, help me sometimes. She is really good at snowboarding. She also comes from Montana and attends MSU, so she and I always have good conversations about good ole’ Bozeman.
At the very end of the day I was so tired and I thought my body was going to give out, but I was able to make it down the very last part of the mountain without falling once! It was a remarkable ending to a very superb and beautiful day. I was really happy about my snowboarding and hope to keep going every year from here on out!
Sunday came again and that meant church also. Brooke and I went to church and then came back home to get started on some homework. I had a twenty page paper due about “the EU’s role in the world” and had to get started on it. Monday and Tuesday were also filled with writing days and by Wednesday morning, I had my paper done.
The rest of the week was fairly uneventful and very relaxing after getting that large paper done. And, then we all decided to go to Budapest, Hungary!!
Kris, Ryan, Rachael, Caitlin, Kendra, Brooke, and I all wanted to get out of the city and I had one weekend left to finish my rail pass, so we chose a great destination of Budapest to visit. Saturday morning at 2 am, we all got on our train in Salzburg and by 9 am were already in another country!
One of the nicest days yet met us as we got off the train and headed into the city to explore. All day Saturday we walked around the city seeing the sites and enjoying the day. We walked all down the Danube River, saw the really neat Parliament building, walked through the beautiful castle complex, and even went through this really neat underground Labyrinth. The Labyrinth had a lot of unique dark paths to go through and many interesting paintings on the wall.
By the end of all of this site-seeing we were all getting very tired and finally set off to find a hostel. We found a hostel, put our things down, and then set out to find some Hungarian food for supper. We came across a really nice restaurant and enjoyed a super meal. I had a mushroom cream soup that was so nice and a Hungarian pasta dish with cottage cheese. It was all very good and we were entirely satisfied by the end of our meals.
To finish up our night in Budapest, we decided to see the river and buildings all lit up at night. It was very beautiful and we had a lot of fun before heading back for a much needed good night of sleep!
Early the next morning, Sunday, we all got ready and headed to a store down the way to grab a bite for breakfast. Most of us were able to buy a delicious fresh roll for about a dollar to fill us up for breakfast. Mine was a roll with a certain cream inside along with raisons. It was so great, I got another one later before we headed back home.
We had seen most of the main sites on Saturday and this day we decided to head to a Flea market all across town. It was another sunny day and the long walk to the bus station was very nice. We then found our bus and made our way to the outskirts of Budapest to find a true Flea Market. It was literally an oversized garage sale with everyone selling their different odds and ends. It was neat to see, but my favorite part was sitting down outside in the sun and enjoying a cold Sprite!! There were loads of antique things and neat furniture, but nothing I was really interested in or attracted to.
After our Flea Market, we headed back into the central part of the city and walked around some more. We grabbed some Gyros for lunch, road the really long escalators down into supposedly the deepest underground system of Europe, and then found a really nice park to sit down at and just relax.
When it was time to go find our train, we headed to the station, spent the rest of our Hungarian money, and waited to board. Then, we saw these two boys who we had seen multiple times since our train ride to Budapest. It actually happened that when we were almost to Budapest, we stopped at a very small train station 5 minutes from the main one. Three of us saw a boy get off the train and then he turned around to watch the train pulling away from him. He was standing outside looking very confused and lost. He had obviously not wanted to get off at this small station. After we got off at the main station and were headed out to see the city, we saw the same guy and his friend and were happy to see he made it into town. We then saw him two or three more times while walking around and at the castle. This was all on Saturday.
Then, while waiting for our train on Sunday we spotted them AGAIN like I was just saying earlier!! It was so incredible!! So interesting too! Kris then happened to say hi to them and then we started talking. They were from Brazil, studying in Germany, and were only in Europe for about three weeks. Also, they were going to be on the same train with us to Vienna. So, on the train to Vienna they found us and we sat together and chatted. In Vienna before changing trains, we realized again that our night trains were actually attached to each other and we would be technically on the same train all the way AGAIN from Vienna to Salzburg. As we talked longer, the two guys told us they were going to be in Salzburg on Saturday this upcoming weekend. If any of us are free, we are hoping to meet up with them again and show them the sights of Salzburg! It was just so crazy how one thing lead to another and by the end of our weekend we had made friends with two absolute strangers who we thought we would never see again!
After our long train ride back home, we finally crawled into our beds around 12:30 and were up for school again early Monday morning. I had German class, Economics, and I even had a wine tasting class that was a part of my Austrian Cuisine class.
The rest of the week will probably entail a lot of studying, a few movies, bible study, bike rides, and some walking or running outside in the wonderful weather we have been having. Next week I will have mid-terms and then go on a trip to the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium at the end of next week. After my field trip I will begin another two weeks of holiday and this time I should be heading south to France, Spain, and Mallorca for a week and then heading back up north to meet up with my parents!! I am very excited about my upcoming adventures and especially ready for visitors!! I can not wait!
I hope everyone else is doing well and the weather is not always bad. If there are any questions about my adventures or you want me to elaborate more about some of my last trips, just drop me a message or email and I would be happy to fill you in!!
I really hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy!!
Take Care,
Leibe,
Dana
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Our Christmas meal in our Hostel in Athens. It was a great time and a lot of socializing with our new friends from Costa Rica, France, England, and Sweden.
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