I have a week left.
Twenty four hours from now I will be on a plane over the pacific ocean. I seem to be the least excited person in the group to go home. I have seriously considered moving under the bridge over the Inn outside our dorm and making a living off of posing with Indian tourists in front of the Goldenes Dachl, I am pretty sure I can make a way better living than that stupid silver "statue" who is always there. God! Statues don't wear ski gloves when it gets cold out! I hate her so much. Anyways my plans were thwarted when the strange 90 degree weather we've been having is melting all the snow in the mountains which raised the level of the Inn which flooded out my potential home.
Perhaps its the fact that I just saw my parents and don't really feel "homesick" or perhaps its the fact that I am stressed out about this summer since I still have no idea whatsoever what I am going to be doing research on in Montana. I suppose Ill just have to make the most of this next week. I have a feeling that "making the most of next week" is going to mostly include studying for finals and packing.
Immediately getting back from the Baltics I had to scurry in finishing 2 economics projects (one on poland and one on romania and together about as interesting as a barrel of sauerkraut) among other work before my family got here on tuesday.
On Tuesday, my sisters, mom, and grandma arrived fresh from Julia's graduation. We chilled in Innsbruck for most of the week and it was really good seeing them. We wandered around the city, hiked around alpine villages with my gastmom, and I got to show my life for the past year to my family. On Thursday, dad came and we got to be together for the first time in almost a year.
On friday, fresh out of boring the ears off my classmates about the current economic situation of Poland, we hopped on a 6 hour train ride to Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia and one of my favorite cities I have visited this year. When we arrived, our hotel seemed to have booked us for a different week, so we were left to find somewhere else to stay. We ended up staying in the attic appartment of the hostel we stayed at when I was there 2 months ago. Although there were sketchy bathroom facilities and the beds didn't always function (which is a rarity since pretty much any horizontal surface about 1 by 6 feet can be considered a bed) I really enjoyed it and I think the 'rentals did too once they got used to the situation. I am trying to remember exactly what we did in Ljubljana for 3 days but it seems that all we did was just chill out, which this city is perfect for. We chilled out at a goulash festival, we chilled out watching Indiana Jones 4 (in a previously communist country), we chilled out in between chilling out. Most of our time was spent sitting at outdoor cafes or looking for the next cafe to go to. It was very relaxing. Not to mention I finally got the most bitchin' t-shirt imaginable. When we got back Sunday afternoon, my Hostfam invited us over for dinner and she made us a feast of home cooked Tirolean fare.
Since I put my family on an overnight train to Italy (they were on their way to Cinque Terra), I have mostly been involved in "studying" for finals.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Recovering from the Baltics
So for the past week we embarked upon a field trip and a kind of traditional farewell trip to Estonia and Latvia. We were all looking forward to multiple aspects of the trip, including receiving a stipend for the entire trip and having the whole thing funded as a part of the program and the fact that Gürtler planned it all so we wouldn’t need to worry about narcissistic train conductors with superiority complexes telling you that you are on the wrong kind of train going in the wrong direction or barely making your airplane back after getting lost from horrible airport directions from the overenthusiastic incomprehensible Japanese woman sitting at the front desk of the hostel. We were all looking forward to escaping the stress of the end of the semester work in Innsbruck and relaxing on the Baltic sea, a place that we all agreed we would probably have never thought of going before. I don’t think “relaxing” would really be the best term to describe the excursion. We spent most of our time in the past week trying to keep up with Gürtler’s disturbingly breakneck pace. After a day of marathon five hour city tours in German, awkward embassy visits, and mind-numbing university lectures Gürtler would encourage us to go out and experience the local nightlife even though we had to get up the next morning at times so early, I forgot they existed, to start the whole cycle again. As such, we spent most of our limited free time passed out on whatever somewhat horizontal surfaces we could find. And free time was very scarce, a few days we didn’t have time to stop for lunch and Gürtler told us that if we really thought we needed to eat lunch (which apparently to him is a foreign concept) we could steal food from the hotel’s breakfast resulting in vicious glares from hotel staff as we tried to secretly wrap up our improvised sandwiches in napkins. I think we all figured why Anita, his wife, prefers not to travel with Gürtler. But maybe I am being a little too critical, we did have a lot to see and little time to see it. I have definitely matured in my traveling and at the beginning of the year would’ve thought that our pace was frustratingly slow, but now I feel like I get a better feel of a city by slowing down a few times a day and relaxing at a café or watching people from a park bench. So overall conclusion: I enjoyed the trip but did not get enough of the aforementioned moments to get a feeling like I truly experienced the countries.
If I have enough time in the next few weeks I will hopefully document a few more of the specifics of the trip.
If I have enough time in the next few weeks I will hopefully document a few more of the specifics of the trip.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Springing
I knew something was changing when I began to see only the lower half of all the Austrian men's calves... Yes, the man-pris are in full bloom and you know what that means, spring in Austria. After a few weeks of ugly rainy days where it was too warm to go skiing but too cold to do anything else, spring has finally arrived in full force. It really sucks that we have to leave this country (in less than a month!) just as its in its most beautiful. Nevertheless I have been taking full advantage of the beautiful weather and this amazing place.
I discovered that I could be in an alpine meadow overlooking the Inn River Valley in less than 20 minutes from my dorm. From there stretch out many other trails that wander in and among the Alps. Because of this I have made it a point to go on a 1-3 hour hike at least once a day and I can't get enough of it. One of my favorite things about hiking here is the fact that sprinkled among the trails are a number of Alms and Huette which are essentually small traditional log cabins that serve food and beer to hikers excusively. Some of these places don't have roads leading to them and need to get their supplies hellicoptered or hiked in. There is nothing like an ice cold beer and/or a crisp apple struedel in the middle of a hike.
One of my favorite places to hike to is called Hoettinger Bild which is a small baroque chapel about a hour straight up the mountain behind my dorm in the middle of the wilderness that people like to make mini pilgramages to. Apparently its main feature, a sketch of Madonna and Child, is in some way holy or miraculous when some student found it or sketched it on that spot (I'm not really sure but thats what I got from all of the paintings in the chapel). Along the way I always say hi to the cows, sheep, and cream-colored ponies that are always roaming the hills of the alps. In my living here, I have come to appreciate the smell of manure and I will probably always associate it with this year (in a positive way).
Last weekend I realized was going to be really my last free weekend to travel while here and so I decide to make it to a place I always wanted to go to, Hallstatt.
Hallstatt is in the Salzkammergut, not very far from Tirol but not very easy to get to. It is the tiny town on the alpine lake that pretty much any travel book on Austria or any travel book on western europe usually has on the cover. The town was founded several thousand years ago as the salt in the area was the currency of the world until the past couple years. Since we have a buttload of projects due about possibly the most boring stuff imaginable, and spontinaity in this group is severly lacking, I was unable to recruit anybody to join me in my journey. I was determined to go regardless.
Although the city was amazing and totally worth it, I have totally lost faith and feel somewhat shocked, cheated, and slightly hurt by the things the Austrian train system did to me during the trip. We used to be wonderful travel-buddies, they were always on time and good to me with clean cars and comfy seats but apparently something went terribly wrong as the entire company seemed indictive towards me the entire trip. Getting there was not so much a problem, the first few legs of the trip were fine, but then came the last leg, only a 20 minute train ride. I got on the train that arrived at the track and at the time that my train was supposed to take. I didnt realize that I had gotten on a train going in the wrong direction until 20 minutes later when the ticket guy informed me. Apparently a few other Austrians made the same mistake so I didnt feel totally dumb. The wierdest part about this (and why I am telling you this part of the story) is that when we finally got on a train going in the right direction (an hour later), the whole train was a serious party. Everyone seemed to know each other and they were all dancing in the hallways and singing and it wasnt like they were going to the same place, people got on and off at many different stops. When we finally got there, some girl on a unicycle pointed me in the direction of the youth hostel where I played poker with a strange group of Czech cyclists (who were in a very large group that had a very cult-ish feel...bongo drums and bad guitar singing into the night) until I got tired and packed it in. More on the crimes of the train company later.
In Hallstatt, I visited some ice caves (way cool!) where I met some Australians (not Austrians) who were friendly enough to drive me back into town so I didnt have to walk. (I just want to say at this point that I love Australians, EVERY one I have come across this year has been almost disturbingly friendly and unbelievably fun, I dont know what it is about that continent but they are doing something right.) I also saw a church with a ton of painted skulls, had one of the best "interactive" museum experiences on the 'thrilling' history of the city complete with a 3-d journey back into time, went on a salt mine tour with long slides (they take your picture like at Disneyland), difficult to understand miner animitronics telling stories, laser light shows across subterranian lakes, mannekin cavemen with oddly placed body hair and salty walls, I licked them.
Okay so back to the trains, on the way back, I caught a 6pm train that was supposed to get back to Innsbruck by 10. Once in Salzburg I get to the platform where the train back to Innsbruck was supposed to leave. It said on the computer that it was leaving at 9pm, it said on the board in the station, it even said it was leaving on the platform. I got there a few minutes early so I started to read as I waited for the train, then I looked up and the sign on the platform that had just said Innsbruck was blank. I run down to the ticket office to ask the man which track the train was leaving from and Herr Grumpy told me that this train does not run on saturdays. He said that the next one was at 12:44am, great, thats about in 4 hours. So now I am stuck in Salzburg for 4 hours and after living in this city for a month I knew it was already about 3 hours past the time that about everybody in the city decides to run inside and hide from the darkness resulting in almost no nightlife or even just people walking around. I managed to kill 4 hours so I got back on the train (which now should arrive sometime around 2am) and as I am getting on, the man informs me that the route the train usually takes is being worked on so we have to take a 2 hour detour. Great. So I arrived back in IBK at about 4 am Sunday morning, exhaused and about ready to kill the next person I see happily wearing a red scarf and Austrian train uniform... I arrived 6 hours later than I meant to turning a 4 hour trip home into a 10 hour one.
Although the transportation was extremely frustrating I was glad I went but I wish I could've convinced a few others to come with me since I was kind of lonely at parts and didnt really meet any travel buddies in the hostel.
On Wednesday for Gemeinsames Essen, all of us with Trachtenkleidung (Lederhosen and Dirndls) decided to suprise Guertler by all wearing them. It was basically me, the lederhosen pimp, with 6 other dirndl ladies. We thought it would be fun to embaress him at the restruant when he is forced to associate himself with a whole bunch of Americans wearing traditional Austrian clothing. We weren't doing anything else embaressing other than just wearing the clothing. It was fun and though he didnt show it, he was a little embaressed or suprised (we decided that Guertler likes to give suprised but does not like to be the reciever). However the walk to/from dinner was a different story. EVERYONE on the streets was staring at us, making comments or laughing. A group of Indian tourists actually stopped to pose with us when we were walking through the Altstadt! Usually an Austrian walking through the streets in traditional garb doesnt get a second glance, its a part of everyday life, but for some reason, they could tell we didnt belong wearing them or something. I guess they couldve just heard us talking....
Anyways, we are leaving for a field trip to Estonia and Latvia tomorrow and I am excited to check out these Baltic states. Itll also be nice traveling on someone elses adjenda and not having to worry about issues AND we get to stay in hotels. The concept of a private bathroom while traveling is still kind of foreign to me... Anyways the internet is supposed to be great and I can easily take my computer so I think I will so expect more posts in the next few days.
I discovered that I could be in an alpine meadow overlooking the Inn River Valley in less than 20 minutes from my dorm. From there stretch out many other trails that wander in and among the Alps. Because of this I have made it a point to go on a 1-3 hour hike at least once a day and I can't get enough of it. One of my favorite things about hiking here is the fact that sprinkled among the trails are a number of Alms and Huette which are essentually small traditional log cabins that serve food and beer to hikers excusively. Some of these places don't have roads leading to them and need to get their supplies hellicoptered or hiked in. There is nothing like an ice cold beer and/or a crisp apple struedel in the middle of a hike.
One of my favorite places to hike to is called Hoettinger Bild which is a small baroque chapel about a hour straight up the mountain behind my dorm in the middle of the wilderness that people like to make mini pilgramages to. Apparently its main feature, a sketch of Madonna and Child, is in some way holy or miraculous when some student found it or sketched it on that spot (I'm not really sure but thats what I got from all of the paintings in the chapel). Along the way I always say hi to the cows, sheep, and cream-colored ponies that are always roaming the hills of the alps. In my living here, I have come to appreciate the smell of manure and I will probably always associate it with this year (in a positive way).
Last weekend I realized was going to be really my last free weekend to travel while here and so I decide to make it to a place I always wanted to go to, Hallstatt.
Hallstatt is in the Salzkammergut, not very far from Tirol but not very easy to get to. It is the tiny town on the alpine lake that pretty much any travel book on Austria or any travel book on western europe usually has on the cover. The town was founded several thousand years ago as the salt in the area was the currency of the world until the past couple years. Since we have a buttload of projects due about possibly the most boring stuff imaginable, and spontinaity in this group is severly lacking, I was unable to recruit anybody to join me in my journey. I was determined to go regardless.
Although the city was amazing and totally worth it, I have totally lost faith and feel somewhat shocked, cheated, and slightly hurt by the things the Austrian train system did to me during the trip. We used to be wonderful travel-buddies, they were always on time and good to me with clean cars and comfy seats but apparently something went terribly wrong as the entire company seemed indictive towards me the entire trip. Getting there was not so much a problem, the first few legs of the trip were fine, but then came the last leg, only a 20 minute train ride. I got on the train that arrived at the track and at the time that my train was supposed to take. I didnt realize that I had gotten on a train going in the wrong direction until 20 minutes later when the ticket guy informed me. Apparently a few other Austrians made the same mistake so I didnt feel totally dumb. The wierdest part about this (and why I am telling you this part of the story) is that when we finally got on a train going in the right direction (an hour later), the whole train was a serious party. Everyone seemed to know each other and they were all dancing in the hallways and singing and it wasnt like they were going to the same place, people got on and off at many different stops. When we finally got there, some girl on a unicycle pointed me in the direction of the youth hostel where I played poker with a strange group of Czech cyclists (who were in a very large group that had a very cult-ish feel...bongo drums and bad guitar singing into the night) until I got tired and packed it in. More on the crimes of the train company later.
In Hallstatt, I visited some ice caves (way cool!) where I met some Australians (not Austrians) who were friendly enough to drive me back into town so I didnt have to walk. (I just want to say at this point that I love Australians, EVERY one I have come across this year has been almost disturbingly friendly and unbelievably fun, I dont know what it is about that continent but they are doing something right.) I also saw a church with a ton of painted skulls, had one of the best "interactive" museum experiences on the 'thrilling' history of the city complete with a 3-d journey back into time, went on a salt mine tour with long slides (they take your picture like at Disneyland), difficult to understand miner animitronics telling stories, laser light shows across subterranian lakes, mannekin cavemen with oddly placed body hair and salty walls, I licked them.
Okay so back to the trains, on the way back, I caught a 6pm train that was supposed to get back to Innsbruck by 10. Once in Salzburg I get to the platform where the train back to Innsbruck was supposed to leave. It said on the computer that it was leaving at 9pm, it said on the board in the station, it even said it was leaving on the platform. I got there a few minutes early so I started to read as I waited for the train, then I looked up and the sign on the platform that had just said Innsbruck was blank. I run down to the ticket office to ask the man which track the train was leaving from and Herr Grumpy told me that this train does not run on saturdays. He said that the next one was at 12:44am, great, thats about in 4 hours. So now I am stuck in Salzburg for 4 hours and after living in this city for a month I knew it was already about 3 hours past the time that about everybody in the city decides to run inside and hide from the darkness resulting in almost no nightlife or even just people walking around. I managed to kill 4 hours so I got back on the train (which now should arrive sometime around 2am) and as I am getting on, the man informs me that the route the train usually takes is being worked on so we have to take a 2 hour detour. Great. So I arrived back in IBK at about 4 am Sunday morning, exhaused and about ready to kill the next person I see happily wearing a red scarf and Austrian train uniform... I arrived 6 hours later than I meant to turning a 4 hour trip home into a 10 hour one.
Although the transportation was extremely frustrating I was glad I went but I wish I could've convinced a few others to come with me since I was kind of lonely at parts and didnt really meet any travel buddies in the hostel.
On Wednesday for Gemeinsames Essen, all of us with Trachtenkleidung (Lederhosen and Dirndls) decided to suprise Guertler by all wearing them. It was basically me, the lederhosen pimp, with 6 other dirndl ladies. We thought it would be fun to embaress him at the restruant when he is forced to associate himself with a whole bunch of Americans wearing traditional Austrian clothing. We weren't doing anything else embaressing other than just wearing the clothing. It was fun and though he didnt show it, he was a little embaressed or suprised (we decided that Guertler likes to give suprised but does not like to be the reciever). However the walk to/from dinner was a different story. EVERYONE on the streets was staring at us, making comments or laughing. A group of Indian tourists actually stopped to pose with us when we were walking through the Altstadt! Usually an Austrian walking through the streets in traditional garb doesnt get a second glance, its a part of everyday life, but for some reason, they could tell we didnt belong wearing them or something. I guess they couldve just heard us talking....
Anyways, we are leaving for a field trip to Estonia and Latvia tomorrow and I am excited to check out these Baltic states. Itll also be nice traveling on someone elses adjenda and not having to worry about issues AND we get to stay in hotels. The concept of a private bathroom while traveling is still kind of foreign to me... Anyways the internet is supposed to be great and I can easily take my computer so I think I will so expect more posts in the next few days.
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