Winding down

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.

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.

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.

This semester

So we are currently hiding in our rooms from our Stocksprecher (Austrian form of an RA) because we have a floor meeting that none of us want to go to. Basically we sit there for an hour and sort of become his audience as he enjoys explaining to us for the 5th time how to properly seperate trash among other simple things that would take a normal person 5 minutes to say or type up in a sign to post on the door. We all told him we would be at our weekly Gemeinsamenes Essen, our dinner all night and we wouldn't be able to make it. It was a true excuse but we're all back and OH now he's knocking on our door now!

...

Phew, good, he went away.

He's nice but I feel like they think we're lazy or something because we're American and tend to be almost condescending and strict to us. Like the time they told us to take out the trash on the floor a few days after me and my roommate's trash week was over because there was still some trash in the bags when the week was over. It's a trash schedule, not a rental car. I secretly retaliated by correcting the grammar on a sign they made sure to include an english translation on a sign telling us to lock the kitchen when we leave "even on day."

So maybe I'm making mountains out of molehills but we really hate going to those meetings. Anyways while I am exhiled in my room, I thought it would be a great time to give my impression of the scolarly aspect of the semester thus far.

We are 4 weeks in and already halfway through this short semester as we finally finished our midterms at the begining of this week. So here are my classes:

German: Prof. Giacomuzzi
Pretty much the same as last semester, early in the mornings three times a week. He is just about as dead and bored as us in this seemingly everlasting 1.75 h class. This semester we are reading a book and while I enjoy the fact that I can read it without having to refer to a dictionary every two seconds, I do not enjoy the fact that the book is unbelievably odd. We also have to give a 45 min long presentation on a subject having to do with our major. I did mine on the evolution of sex which sounds a lot worse than it is (my intention). I was discussing the benefits of sexual organisms vs. asexual at the genetic level.

Psycoanalysis: Prof. Kennedy
Another repeat professor, but this time the course is much more interesting both by the subject matter and by the things our prof (a priest) tells us he believes (ie his great aunt being a witch???). But he is really a fun prof and is one of the classes I probably look forward to the most. While I find it hard believing everything he says to be exactly true, such as every dream being a disguised important message from our subconscious, its still an interesting subject. We have also discovered that he's cured cancer at least once by having the patient talk to him.

Philosophy: Prof. Loeffler
Professor Loeffler is a huge intimidating man with a "I just killed a puma!" look always on his face. But after talking to the man and learning about the impossible subject he teaches, I see it more as a "I just read some 18th century Austrian philosophers and actually kind-of maybe understood what they were talking about!" kind of look. Class is humorous since the subject is extremely difficult to comprehend he will often jump back and forth between english and german so that we understand the difficult aspects of the philosophy. He often does this many times in the middle of a sentence so class is usually taught in Deunglish. His english is excellent but we spend most of class between giving ourselves anurisms in trying to comprehend what he is talking about and stifling giggles on the hilarious english phrases he comes out with ("Why do cows make moo?"). As you can tell, I really do not enjoy the subject matter and find Austrian philosophy often very pointless and unnecessary and also very self inflated. This makes this class very difficult for me. I also am really missing taking natural science courses.

Habsburg History: Prof. Guertler
So the Guert decided to don some professor pants this semester and teach us about the history of the country in which we are residing. I am also having a few problems with this course since I was never very apt at history, find the history of this family often boring (mostly marriages and treaties), and I am so used to tuning out this man when he talks since he is famous for repeating himself about 50 times that I find it difficult paying attention in class, not to mention the fact that it starts at 6pm. Class though can be hilarious since Guertler gets even more excited when talking about his favorite subject (if that was possible) and he enjoys jumping around the room, giving us bug-eyed stares as he explains the intricacies of the royal family. He also likes bringing large maps in of Europe over which he'll run to and point out countries in a very good Vana White impression, "BOEMEN!!!" I did write one of the most difficult papers I can remember writing in this class as I had to write 6 pages in german about Franz Stephan who was only famous for being married to Maria Theresia (famous emperor queen). He is mentioned briefly only a few times in any history books about the family.

Economics: Haigner and Sendelhofer
Randomly our econ class is seperated into two parts taught by two teachers, Monday is Haigner and Friday is Sendelhofer and both are teaching entirely different aspects of the subject. Haigner assumes we are grad students of economics, even Katy, our econ major walks out of class confused sometimes. Luckily the class is taught in english but a dialect I am unfamiliar with since it is filled with economic terms I have never heard before. He also enjoys putting complicated equations on the board without explaining what the variables are as well as graphs with unlabeled axies (killing me as a scientist). Sendelhofer is much lighter. He explains more the history of European economics (namely the EU) and has clear slides that he follows pretty well so that when you stop paying attention to what he is saying since you are so amused by how much he sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger, you can easily catch back up.

So those are my classes for the semester, nothing too too exciting but I am looking forward to taking some science classes again next year.

Not much has happened since my last post. I went skiing on Sunday (rather than study for econ) and it was really nice. I went to Stubai Glacier which is the only place still open around here (its a glacier so you can ski there year round) and everyone else in Tirol thought it was a good day to ski too so it was a bit crowded and though I was skiing on mushy moguls by the end of the day, I was still happy to be on the slopes again and I realized I am going to miss it a lot next year.

Only 44 days left and I am already missing Innsbruck.

Fön with Fünferschlag and ...COOKED OATMEAL???

I am so happy that week was over. Here is what I have been up to the past three weeks:

Fön
Yes, he came again in full force and whenever this dry wind decides to rip through the city, every time I feel its affects worse and worse. It started with insomnia and headaches, but this last time it culminated to vivid day-dreams that would last minutes and by the time I finally snap out of them I find myself somewhere with no recollection as to how I got there.

Concerts:
My host family and I have been having trouble finding times to meet since our class this semester is rather wacky (class begins at 6pm on Tuesdays), so rather than dinner they have been inviting me to some strange events, most of them being concerts in some form. First, two Monday's ago, my host-brother's band Stichprobe, had a concert at the Weekender. While their experimental rock music wasn't to much to my liking, it was fun to finally see him play. I had never been to the Weekender before and really liked it, but it strangely reminded me of an Austrian Legends. Then last Saturday, as we were having a group Knödel dinner (traditional Tirolean bread dumplings the size of pool balls with cheese, bacon, or spinach) my host mom gave me a call to see if I wanted to see a band at Triebhaus (concert venue) with her because she couldn't convince anyone in her family or her friends to come. The band sounded interesting and it turned out being really fun. They were called Fatima Spar und die Freedom Fries and they played a really interesting mix of dixeland, swing, baltic folk, pop, among others. Plus the trumpet player of the group harmonized with himself by playing two trumpets at once, one of the most amazing trumpet feat's I've seen! Then the next day my host mom's cousin in law (???) who was in a chior had a concert of Haendel's "Messiah" which she invited me to. I said yes regardless of the two mid-terms and 6 page paper in german about one of history's most boring figures I had due that week. I did enjoy parts of the symphony but 2.5 hours is a long time for me to sit still.

Oatmeal
I have been eating a lot of it lately since its cheap and filling. About three times I have been asked by curious Austrians in the kitchen what I was doing when I was cooking it. I was really confused why they were asking since they sell large bags of it in the store, they must also eat it, but apparently they don't ever cook it... One time one girl was really interested and I told her what I was doing and then she announced to several other very interested Austrians in the kitchen, "So you add milk and water and oatmeal and you cook it, then add sugar, cinnamon, and fruit!" And everyone was very amazed at this fascinating looking grey mash I was consuming and I now feel very self conscious when I eat it.

Schuhplatterl
So a few of us signed up for this weekend-long dance course at the university sport institute. I was looking forward to it all month. It's called the Schuhplatterl and is the hysterically nerdy bouncy slap dance that they do in Bavaria and Tirol. There were about fifteen other students in the class and our tiny southern tirol teacher and his accordian-playing sister in law taught us about six different dances. The dance itself is suprisingly difficult, and after doing 8 hours of it that weekend, my thighs were extremely raw from all their slapping, and my hamstrings were worn out from all of the "hochsprungen" (high kung-fu-esque kick jumps) we had to do. The entire experience was really fun and we ended up making a lot of Austrian friends, but I often find myself jumping and slapping myself around the streets of the city to practice.

Search for Lederhosen
So I was greatly inspired after the above course and decided that it would be fun to own a pair of lederhosen, the only accepted wear when doing the Schuhplatterl. I was starkly against buying these when I first arrived here since they were unbelievably expensive - 300 euro for the cheapest pair - but I've grown a liking to them in the past 7 months. I went to one of the really nice places just to try on a pair and see how they felt and when I put them on, it felt like I was born to wear them and I became obsessed. I started checking Austrian Ebay as well as the the poor excuses for second hand shops they have in town and even visited a giant flea market and I came across almost nothing. I had every Austrian I knew (Host fam, Guertlers, teachers) helping me out with this search. Finally my host mom pointed out that a Trachtengeschaeft (traditional clothing store) in town was having a sale with lederhosen half off). A lot of boring things you dont care about happened and then I found myself paying only 99 euro for a brand new pair that fit me perfectly. It was over my budget (I told myself I wouldnt pay more than 60 euro) but they fit me, were exactly what I wanted, and weren't unreasonable. And now I have no remorse whatsoever, I'm obsessed, and even though the Austrians in the kitchen are snickering at me, I can't stop wearing them, I'm actually wearing them right now.

I think that's all the interesting things that have happened recently.

Spring Break (woo!) parts 2 &3: Die Verrückte Verwandten and French Fries, Waffles, Chocolate and Sprouts

Wow, time is really flying by this semester. Finally I have time to sit down and update my life. I was unable to document the rest of spring break during the spring break because of the amsterdam hostel we had had one internet and I barely had enough time to check my email until the angry spaniards behind me in line for it started making impatient angry grunting noises that I was already taking too much time on the computer making for a very awkward and uncomfortable blogging session.

Well I was able to use my unbelievable skills in Microsoft Paint and create the complex map of my very busy two week travel schedule:

Note: Blue is Airplane, Red is Train, and Green is Driving in some sense

Where did I leave off last time? Oh yes. When we got off the airplane in Cologne, there were my two relatives (who, I just looked it up, are my 4th cousins, once removed) Mannfred and Mechtild waiting for me at the gate. Luckily I recognized them from my visit with them 3 years ago. Immediately they were extremely friendly as Mannfred, jolly as the head Kiebler elf, started chatting away as Mechtild, kind as ever but still with a typical German frankness, tried to calm him down. They are too young to be my grandparents but too old to be my parents. They drove me (and Aaron who was on the flight but taking a mighnight train to meet his parents in Munich the next day) to the city and started to show us around, and then they took me (and kindly invited Aaron too) to their son's house for dinner. There I had one of the best home-cooked meals I have ever had this year. It was Sauerbraten, or litterally sour-roast. Its a typical Rhineland meal where horse flesh (we ate pork) is marinated in vinegar for days then cooked in a sweet and sour sauce. So delicious. Aaron's and my embaressingly low alcohol tolerances were revealed that evening as they kept producing various sorts of alcohol to drink and us being polite guests refusing to refuse. The limits of my bladder were also tested that evening on the hour long ride to Aachen.

The next few days were really fun as they excitely took me around Aachen, Cologne, and the Sauerland (where the earliest records of my family come from in the 13th century). Some highlights include:

-Aachener Dom- My favorite cathedral in Europe, a collage of Romanic, Gothic, and Baroque and with some of the most vivid mosaics I have seen, plus the remains of another great Charles, Karl der Grosse (Charlemagne).

-Cologne Chocolate Museum- Interesting but a dissapointingly low amount of free samples

-Coincidental swastika patterns in a 2000 year old Roman Mosaic in the Roman-Germanic Museum

-Visiting the spot where Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands all come together

-Holy Saturday seeing the blessing of the Semmel, a special double fish-tail shaped bread in Attendorn, after which you go home and eat with butter and ham. As well as witnessing the post semmel blessing lumberjack contest. The young men of the town split into 4 teams and pick 4 large trees to cut down and have a mini competition on who can fell theirs first. The trees were used the next evening for their easter fires (shaped like burning crosses?).

-A delicious Easter Dinner in Cobbenrode, in the Gasthof where my great-great-grandfather, Josef, was born before emmigrating to America.

-Seeing the exact spot the where an ancestor had a farm in the 1300s, named by the locals "Home of the Birds"

-Learning just about everything to know about that finger of my heritage

-"Improving" my German by speaking it nonstop for 5 days straight

-Being able to relax and take it easy

Some lowlights include:

-Catching a cold from the constant rain/hail/thunder/lightning/sleet/snow/wind

-Constantly playing "the guest game," one of my least favorite social traditions where you are required to argue on who will pay for your dinner/museum ticket/cough drops

-"Improving" my German by speaking it nonstop for 5 days straight

On that last note, I just wanted to say that it was really interesting coming back here. I had visited these relatives about 3 years ago in high school and it was this trip which actually inspired me to take German in the first place at ND which was where I was inspired to come here to Innsbruck. It was really cool that I could effectively communicate with them this time around (their english is very slim). Also, you would think that my German would improve after speaking it nonstop. Well, no, it didn't. First of all, it was kind of hard to understand what they were saying at first since they speak a different dialect, and I am so used to trying to decipher Tirolerisch (English's equivalent would be a Scottish person with turrets). I will admit that my comprehension did improve by the end. Then having to concentrate so hard all day, at the end of the day, I was so exhausted I could barely communicate in any language. Finally I think my subconscious was so fed up with having to tolerate this foreign thought pattern that it started slipping in small semblences of English in my German such as adding an "s" when I wanted to plural a word or even just speaking in English when I meant it to come out German, it was so dstrange. The worst part was, when I met up my friends in Belgium after leaving my relatives, I couldn't even really speak english to them. I remember staring at the lady's face at a Brugges TI for 30 seconds when I couldn't remember how to ask for a map in English or German.

Unfortunately, in all too short of time, I had to say "Auf Wiedersehen!" to my relatives and hop on a train to Brussels to meet my friends.

Part III

I called Katy (with Monika and Kevin) on the way to Brussels and we decided to meet at the Mannekin Pis (18 inch tall peeing boy fountain, you know the kind of fountain that is naturally seen as a symbol for a european nation) at a certain time. I wanted to see two things in the city before meeting up and taking the train to Brugge: the building shaped like an atom (Atomium), and the worlds largest Art Deco Church, also the Basilica of Brussels. They didnt care for either so I had to see them before our meeting. Getting off the train, I discovered that in everywhere but America, they seem to celebrate the day after Easter as much as if not greater than the holiday itself. As such, no TIs were open, and I had no map. With no help from the 6 euro guide to Brussels from the one newsstand that was open, I managed to find both. Being a huge Art Deco fan, I found the basilica to be a real treat, like some sort of space-port ripped from a 1920s Sci-Fi comic book. The Atomium building, built for a 1970s world expo was also amazing. It looks like a giant atom model (shaped like an iron crystal). I was standing among the amazing chrome structure, taking in its scientific beauty when the ice that started raining from the sky reminded me that I had to meet my friends soon. A series of events fell into place including, my cell phone running out of money, a delay on the subway, meeting two nice Americans on the subway, and my friends not being there 15 minutes after our meeting time that resulted in me finding myself in some stranger's house. I later discovered that they decided to book it to Brugges without me and not to wait in the raining ice when I called them on Skype 5 minutes later in a really nice flat owned by the afore-mentioned Americans. I really dont know how I find myself in these situations.

So, long story short, we ended up meeting in Brugges (miracuously since I did not have any directions to the hostel [called 'Hostel Snuffel' btw]).

Brugges was fun, we ate a lot of chocolate, waffles, and french fries as well as some of my favorite beer in Europe, each in their own specific glass goblets. While there, we decided that Flemish was our favorite European language. It was also nice being in a city for once that was not almost completely destroyed in a recent war (Unlike Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Cologne, and Aachen).

The crappy weather unfortunately followed us from Belgium up to the Netherlands as we went to Amsterdam. We found the city overall to be extremely dangerous. There was so much to see but you could never look up at the distractingly quaint old buildings or disturbing prostitutes because you might wander into the street, fall in a canal, tread on the streetcar tracks or (God help you) tread on the bicycle path. After 48 hours in the city we had been Pavlovianly trained to get a surge of adrenelane when we heard the jolly (or in this case, life threatening) chime of a bicycle bell so that you could sprint to the safest bicycle-free location in the area. I also did the Amsterdam things like walk through the red light district in which I was informed that I looked ready for sex, as well as meeting up with two goons (Al and Mary) for a trip in a coffeehouse. Because of poor planning, (and a fast-pass sort of ticket distribution system) our stop after the coffeehouse was the Anne Frank house (sobering in more ways than one) which I was overall a little dissapointed with. It was so empty (no furniture left, just the rooms). It was a good presentation but I've never read her diary which I think would give the place a lot more meaning to me.

After a few days in Amsterdam, we headed over to the west side to Haarlem (namesake of the neighborhood in New York which was once called New Amsterdam), to relax in a B&B in the Dutch countryside. Besides running around the city pretending to be in a gang, we took a day trip to Keukenhof, which is supposedly the most photographed place in the world. It was what would happen if the Rose Parade had a bastard child with Disneyland after a messy one night stand. Its a giant garden, open two months of the year in spring when all the daffodills and tulips begin to bloom. Although we were there a little early and there wasnt as much color as there were in the postcards, there were tons of flowers out and it was really pleasant (even sunny for a few moments). We were able to go crazy in hedge mazes, tiptoe through tulips and play giant chess. When traveling I find that spending day after day in the major cities can get old, fast, so it is nice to mix it up with some nature. Note that Kevin refused to go and is forcing me to read "The Dictionary of Manliness" because I decided to pay to see some flowers. Oh and the Dutch know how to do it: chocolate sprinkles on buttered toast for breakfast. And I found out I slept in the same bed as Rick Steves.

Well we had a pretty painless flight back (direct to Innsbruck, so easy) and started classes again this Monday. After a week, I can tell this semester is going to be tough (I already have 3 projects due by Tuesday) but not impossible. I'll give a review of my classes soon.

Spring Break (woo!): Part 1 - Dalmation Vacation

Wow, that was quick, I just had a whirlwind tour of some of the old Yugoslavic nations (thanfully without any landmines) and have already started to settle in here in northwestern Germany.

As I stated below, I am still in love with Slovenia and espeically its tiny capital Ljuibjana. If Disneyland decided to squeeze in their own repilca of Salzburg between the Matterhorn and It's a Small World, something resembling Ljuibjana would come out. Between the quaint castle on the hill and the way the tiny little river lazily wanders through the small canal between colorful markets and classical buildings there is a feel that just makes one want to stay there forever. Maybe next time since we had to hopon a train to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia after being there for only 24 hours.

When we arrived in Zagreb, we followed the suprisingly complicated directions to the hostel that used three different modes of transportation as well as took one hour to get there from the train station. HostelWorld definately said that it had a good location. HostelWorld lied. It was definately in the 'burbs, a good 45 minute walk from the center. When we finally arrived, we found ourselves in front of an appartment complex over which the door someone had written "Hostel Carpe Diem" in spray paint on a board. It was about the feel and size of if someone had taken their TC appartment (or choose random college appartment complex) and had put 4 bunk beds over their room. We were kind of baffled why it got such good reviews on the internet, maybe because others had the same/similar experiences as to what happened next. After getting settled, we ask the guy at the desk a good place to eat, but in the process he invites us to a birthday party they are having in the basement. At the sound of free food, we go downstairs, and discover a group of older twentysomething Croatians sitting around a table, creaking with the weight of numerous unmarked bottles filled with alcohols a variety of different colors. It was not the birthday of a felow hosteler but of a friend of the owners and they were using the hostel common room as their prepatory room slash hashish hot box before going out. Though we could barely understand what they were saying in their thick accents, they started shoving all these different drinks in our hands. I got halfway through a glass of something sickeningly sweet when someone said it was a special liquor made from mistletoe berries "You know, like what you kiss under at Christmas!" ... I asked him if he was sure since the boy scout running around in my head reminded me that mistletoe ironically is a very toxic plant. He said yes and in the end it seemed okay since I did wake up the next morning with full feeling in all of my limbs. After a few drinks on an empty stomach we finally get up and ask the guy to point us to how to walk to the center of town. He pulls out one of those maps hostels always have to give out they get from the TIs and circles where we were on the map. It was somewhere in the margin between the title and the edge of the page. I felt like I was in the middle of a Kevin Nealon bit. We then stumbled out of the hostel and by this time the the grappa had almost completed its task in dissolving all rational thought. We manage to wander to somewhere that was on the map and make it into town, but the whole time I was freaking out that I would have to make myself drunk to find my way back again (this came from one time when I helped my roommate study for his psycology final freshman year). Since the interesting part of this story has long gone, I'll just say that we found the center of town, ate, sobered up, attempted to have a St. Patty's day* Guinness at a bar named and inspired after "Tolken" and found it closed and so settled on a place called 'Oliver Twist' (England was closer to Ireland than we were and at the moment it was as close to an irish pub we could find), and we managed to find our way back (sober!) just as the birthday party left to go out.
*Note it was the first St. Patty's day of the year since Pope Benedict kindly granted us two this year

Impressions of Zagreb: a suprisingly nice, clean capital of what was once a war torn country only 15 years ago. The nightlife there is incredible since theres such a large student population. Like any city it was nice to walk around for a few hours and get the feel for it but there is really not much to do there otherwise. An example is that Ivan Mestrovic's house was a highlight of the visit. He is the famous Croatian sculptor who sculpted all the statues (of actual people) around ND campus, including the much disputed over First down or We're #1 Moses and the well-loved Pieta in the Basilica. The ND tour guide in me got really excited about that museum.

Next we hopped on a flight over to the Pearl of the Adriatic, Dubrovnik. The city was breathtakingly beautiful and really is like a foritfied fairy tale village floating on the electric blue waters of the Dalmation Coast. Like with any other medieval village, it is really fun to wander the streets and imagine the city 700 years ago without all of the kitch tourist shops or scaffolding. But this gets old after about a half a day. Though the sun did shine in the two days we were there, it was not quite warm enough to go swimming or really lay out in the sun, but we did spend most of the time sitting in cafes sipping pivo (beer) and taking lazy sun-naps on the rocks between the large sun-bleached city walls and the Adriadic. It seems like the perfect place to be as a destination for a week where you could just unwind and relax and which was not too condusive to our style of travel at the moment (4 cities in 5 days). Oh and the weather did not keep me from swimming in the Adriadic. No warnings that I'll get sick from the cold from the mother of the family running our hostel would stop me, and I did take a chilly dip in the calm waters just before the sun set on our second and final evening there.

We then took a bus to Split, 4 hours up the Dalmation coast (I dont know if the dogs have anything to do with the area but I think Roger meant something different than a giant place in England to house 101 dalmations when he suggested moving to a "dalmation plantation." To me a house on the Cratian coast sounds much more pleasant.) The bus ride was our only option (no trains) but was really neat. We stayed on the winding coast the entire time which lead to 4 hours of amazing views and nasuea.

Split was really neat since its basically an old roman palace complex that people just kind of moved into and made into a small village 500 years after the guy who built it died. Because the original building is so incorporated with the later medieval village, it is now one of the best preserved roman ruins. Since it was raining and the nightlife lacking, we decided to see 10,00 B.C. (only thing playing) in english with Croatian subtitles. All I have to say about it was that I got $4 of entertainment out of it but at the same time I was cringing from all of the canned dialouge, anachronisms, and geographical errors the film had. In the end, the movie gets two thumbs down but two thumbs way way up for Croatian theater.

After a few hours in Split, I flew off to Cologne or Köln, to meet my German relatives. I had met them 3 years ago and in a sense since that trip inspired me to take German, they are the reason why I am here today. But this is the end of the first part of my Spring Break adventures. Tune in next time for part two - Die verrückte Verwandten

Fanging the March an and arrival in Ljubljana

So I still find it a little sad that I am currently sitting in the Slovenian capital and I am in a city whose name I am still unable to pronounce. Ljubljana (Note: NOT pronnounced "Lu-did-your-mama-") has been just charming, but more on that later.

What has happened since I was stuck in Munich trying after a two week excursion to desperately seek a nights sleep in my own bed. Well after spending a rather expensive time at the internet cafe, I jumped on my train (earliest to IBK) in a fairly empty compartment 10 minutes before the train was supposed to leave. Immediately the train is filled with rather, colorful characters, and a very large woman in fishnet tights, a jean shirt, colorful sweater, and pleather leopard skin jacket squeezes in on my right as a skinny man with hair the same shade of red as his blindingly bright crimson leather pants slithers in on my left. Well we sat there watching the sign outside the window showing how late the train was going to leave "5 Minuten verspaetet...15 Minuten verspaetet..." Note that during this time, the woman got up and went to the bathroom and after about 15 minutes a very large, old, sweaty man, wearing the same clothing as this woman came back with a wig and make-up in a bag, sat in her place and took her luggage as his own. After about 70 verspaeteted minutes, the train finally jerks forward and we were on our long and slow way back to Tirol.

I got back on saturday, the 1st of march, and even though we did not have class until the 10th, I was very busy.

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week, we went to a Hauptschule, the austrian equivalent of a middle school, and helped out for half the day in their english classes. This was an amazingly good time. I was assigned about 6 13 year old boys and we spent the three days, making paper airplanes, making them "American" cuisine, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (which recieved a suprisingly high reception), teaching them nation ball, among other activities. I'm not really sure how much english they learned since the teachers didnt really tell us how advanced they were and never really gave us a lesson plan, but it was really interesting for once being on the other side of the classroom. Learning a language, you realize how much you take for granted your own language is, and how millions of people all over the world are struggling on how to conjugate the past tense passive plural 1st person version of the verb "to be" while I can immediately conjure up "I was being" in seconds. On the other hand, I suppose I did devote the first 4 years of my life to the subject. On one rather humorours note, another group in our classroom found my name rather humorous after I wrote it on the chalkboard so that my group could remember it. Mary, who was the group leader of these hooligans, would tell me every day of the shenanigans they would get into over my name. Like when they needed to come up with a group name, they begged her to be my name, and whenever I left the room, they would jump up to the chalkboard and start writing it all over. At one point I cornered one of the little buggers, and asked him what he found so humorous. He said in a very good young Terminator accent: "It ees like a leetle parrwot dat lives in a haowse und ees wery silly!" Well I have always known that the word "Vogel" is always associated with craziness in German, an insult is calling someone a Vogelkompf (bird-head), and saying someone's screw is loose is "He has a bird." But I guess I'm now proud of the fact that my name has become a legend in this Austrian middle school.


The days after that until classes started on Monday, I traded off skiing and sleeping. I also tried cross country skiing with my host mom and found it rather fun.

Monday, March 10th, our classes for the spring semester started. This sesmester I am taking: German, Physcoanalysis, Economics of the EU, History of the Hapsburg Empire, and Philosophy of Austrian Philosophers. I have only had a week of the courses and will give my impressions of each after I get a better feel for them.

So after a rather short week of classes, Austria got tired of school and work and decided to give us two weeks off for easter break. Hours after our Economics course ended, Aaron, Kevin, and I jumped on a train to Slovenia to begin an unfortunately short trip of the Adriadic coast. We will be traveling down Croatian coast over the next five days. On Wednesday, I found a flight up to Northern Germany to meet the original German silly house-parrots and I will be traveling around Aachen, Cologne, and Cobenrode where the family name was founded. After easter with the family, I will then jump on a train to Belgium to meet some friends as we hit Brugges, Amsterdam and whatever we find inbetween.

Ljubljana seems so surreal to me. I feel like I am in Disneyland or something. Everything is so clean, quaint, and laid-back. Hovering above the city is an interestingly lit bright blue castle guarding the small city, as asthetic art neuvo buildings dance with one another down the quaint pedestrian streets. The city breathes with groups of young students strolling the streets and a small river silently runs underneith it all. I have been here only for a few hours, enough time to wander around the small center of town, get a buzz of Slovenian beer, and step on a disturbinly squishy toad (it lived) and I have already fallen in love with Slovenia. In retrospect, I wish I had a car and a week to explore this tiny country. Unfortunately tomorrow, we must take the train over to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, after a long day of Ljubljanaian sightseeing.

Most Relaxing Day Ever

I am currently in Munich awaiting a train that'll take me back to Innsbruck. It's been exactly two weeks since I left on a Sunday night and I am really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.

My final day in Marrakesh was amazing. I slept in a little, and had a nice breakfast on the beautiful rooftop terrace feeling like Indiana Jones looking over a 1940s Cairo. Then I wandered the souqs for a few hours, snacking on orange juice and the cheap dates and nuts all around. During this time, I stumbled across a very small local looking barbershop. Since our hostel had a lack of hot water making it almost impossible to shave, I was already looking pretty grizzly so I wandered in and asked (or pantamimed) for a shave. The man was a professional; it was my first straight razor shave and by far the closest shave I've ever had. Afterward, I momentarily mistook it for a baby's bottom. Soon it was time for my hammam.

In a culture where running water is not common in households, the Moroccians rely on large bathhouses or Hammams to get a weekly cleaning. I would have preferred to go to one of the ones the locals use to really get a sense of it but I didn't want to go alone and no one in the hostel was willing to go so I chose to go to one of the little more 'expensive' places that cater to foreigners a little more and lead them through the whole process. I soon learned that a traditional hammam involves a very steamy room where one sits, and applies this oily buttery substance to soften up their skin. Then you find a friend (or in my case, the lady working the place) to get some abrasive black soap and a glove that seemed and felt like it was covered in steel wool. You can imagine what came next and through the winces, I could see small pieces of my skin falling to the ground. After a quick rinse or bucketfull of hot water in the face, it was all over and I was left in an invigorating feeling of tingly cleanness. I decided to slurge a few Dirhams and paid for a short relaxing half hour massage afterwards. It being my first full body massage, it was relaxing once I got over the awkwardness. When I left the place, I was in such a hypnotic state, I could barely muster up the energy to get my oily self back to the hostel.

At the hostel, I enjoyed a wonderfully filling 5 course lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon sipping mint tea while lounging in the sun on the terrace like a pampered poodle.

I took an evening flight back to Madrid, spent a sleepless night worrying that I would miss my early train the next morning. Ironically I think the only time I did get sleep, was in the 15 minutes after my alarm was supposed to go off. Needless to say, I made it to the train station in time for my short high speed train to Barcelona.

I really liked the city of Barcelona and would love to go back there at some point. Unfortunately after traveling almost straight for a month, I was ready to be back in my own bed. Also, unlike Lisbon, I was unable to meet any people at the hostel with whom to travel the city so I was alone most of the time. I take that back, I did meet people but it was only last night, the night before I left. It was nice since I had so much freedom and could do so much, but I missed having someone to talk to or to hand the camera to when I see a rediculous photo opportunity (as opposed to the pair of giggling Japanese tourist girls). I did have a lot of fun just randomly sitting places and people watching. I thought the city was beautiful and I think Gaudi is a genius.

The hostel (called Mambo Tango) I stayed at was also really cool but I have been so spoiled by the Traveler's house in Lisbon, that nothing can compete. They also had activities every evening and one of them was watching 'Motorcycle Diaries' which the hostel had said embodies their philosophy. I thought it was really good and felt stupid when I didn't realize it was a semi biographical film about Che Guevara until the very end. The name of the hostel 'Mambo Tango' actually is a refrence to the film and that lead me to wonder if the hostel was run by a bunch of commies. Well at least they had toilet paper.

I'm a nerd: Part II

With my unsurmountable expertiese in Microsoft Paint, I created this as an account of my journies in the past two weeks:

Portugese Mornings, Spanish Afternoons, and Moroccian Nights

Wow, certaintly a lot has happened since my last post. I'll try to provide a brief digest of what has happened in the past week.

Traveling to Lisbon was not too bad. Skipping the boring details, I was stuck in Munich at 10 pm until my flight that next morning at 6 to Lisbon. It was a Sunday night and so all of Munich's famous beer halls had closed early, so I uncerimoniously popped back a can of beer I had bought at a convience store at the metro station as I waited for the train to the airport. Sleeping in Munich's airport was about as uneventful as sleeping in an airport could be, I woke up at 4 am totally disoriented, and the whole flight to Lisbon is now kind of a haze.

When I arrived to Lisbon, I had only one night at the hostel booked, planning on spending one, maybe two days in Lisbon and head down south to the coast and explore southern Portugal/Spain until I had to meet Aaron, Hayley and Mariel in Madrid in three days. When I arrived, I was so exhausted from the flight and from Egypt I just decided to stay there and relax, rather than just check cities off a checklist. Best decision of my life. Lisbon may be one of my favorite eurpean cities I've visited this year. Part of it may have just been the amazing hostel I stayed at. Its called 'Traveler's House" and it is worth going to Lisbon just to stay there. They made us the best free scrambled egg breakfasts, had knit sheets, an amazing lounge with bean bag chairs (makes all the difference), a comfy TV room, and nightly activites including a pub crawl that lasted until 6 am. The city itself is amazing. Between some of the most beautiful, unique archetecture I've seen in Europe and pastry shops selling the best custard pastries EVER (fresh out of the oven with cinnamon and sugar) are old women hanging out the window yelling conversations to each other between hanging laundry amongst a labyrinth of ancient structures. The other amazing thing about the hostel was that it was perfect for me as a single traveler. Since the place only had about 40 beds and the common space was so condusive to chilling and conversation, everyone knew each other. Also rather than the wasted girls from some state school studying in Florence for the semester, my hostelmates were an interesting mix of Europeans on holiday in Lisbon for a week. I guess Lisbon is not exactly the list of the average student in Europe who has a week break off to travel. I ended up making many good friends ranging from Brits, Canadians, Austrailians, Germans, and Austrians. I spoke more German in Lisbon than some days in Innsbruck. On my last day, when I left, a group of my new friends actually walked me to the metro station. It was really sweet and sad that my time in Lisbon was over.

I took the overnight train from Lisbon to Madrid and decided to splurge on a couchette since we had such a sarcastically awesome experience in Egypt. It allowed me to randomly meet an Austrailian on month six of his year long around the world trip, something I can only dream of doing.


Madrid was lots of fun, like Lisbon I took it easy, a new travel philosopy which after trying it out in Lisbon I am really starting to enjoy. I love traveling alone since it allows one to meet new people so easily, it was nice traveling with friends again. Since the city is so much of a metropolis, we found ourselves spending most of our time in the large Retiro park, picnicing, boating, and wandering around. I overall found the city to be kind of forgettable; I enjoyed it but it seemed to me to be like any other large capital but without any specific character. After hearing of the 15 euro cover charges and 8 euro beers, we decided to opt out of trying the city's infamous clubs. But we did see an awesome Spanish cover band in the bar under our hostel.


After 2 relaxing days in Madrid, I boarded the plane for my second trip to Africa in the past week. Expecting the relentless touting and untrustworthy people I came across in Egypt, I was pleasantly suprised. When we first got here, it was a little stressful since our hostel is in the maze of the old city and small children kept trying to show us the way but we didn't have any money and didn't want to pay them so we spent most of our time swatting them away like annoying flies (who would then scream "Fuck you, sex!" at us and run away). Other than those first frantic minutes in the city, I've found the people here are always smiling, even when you decide not to go into their shop, they will smile and wish you a good day or joke with you. I still have the feeling like I am a walking wallet a little bit, but I am much more comfortable and I feel less like I am sticking out like a clown at a funeral. My favorite thing here that Egypt, in my opinion, was lacking is the food. It is unbelievable, I could just sit here and eat all day. Marrakesh is centered around a large square called "La Place" french for "the square" and there is always activity there. Marrakesh is proud of the fact that it is the largest African square. During the day its filled with snake charmers, acrobats, belly dancers, men with monkeys that will throw them on you if you get too close, musicians, and other street performers. On the outskirts are men selling nuts and dried fruit (I'm obsessed with dates now) as well as other carts selling glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice for the equivalent of 40 cents in large carts that will frantically try to get you to go buy their juice if you go within a 30 foot radius of their cart and since there are often 5 carts next to each other, it results in a quite amusing display of gestures and cat calls that we would either split up to multiple or pick our favorite performance and patron him. At, around dusk, the entire square turns into the most amazing food court ever. Entire open air restraunts are wheeled in and seem to pop up with the delicious smelling smoke that starts to rise around dusk. Between the smaller stalls selling Moroccan delacacies such as snail soup and boiled sheep head, giant displays of raw skewered chicken, beef and other meats lie atop a colorful selection of greens. Walking through the place is wonderful amusement as the waiters try everything to get you to eat there from highly amusing American and British catch phrases to tempting offers such as free mint tea (berber whiskey). Once we pick a place no sooner do we order is our food served, freshly cooked and all enfused with the wonderful rich yellow color of saffron. We feast and wobble away as our stomachs are uncomfortably full on only 5 euros. After dinner, I enjoyed walking around the square stopping at various storytellers or musicians, understanding nothing but just as amused as the locals at the crazy antics the man is performing. I also enjoy a post dinner spiced tea, so spicy with cinnamon and cloves that it hurt to swallow.


Our days here have been a mixture of wandering around lavish palaces of Marrakesh's glory days of being the capital of Morocco and their beautiful gardens, as well as walking and barganing at the many souqs here. Just steps from our very comfortable palace-turned-hostel are the many wonderful souqs, arabic for markets. They have everything here from tea to hookas to chickens to giant barrels full of colorful spices. Wandering around I was really wishing I had a lot of money, a need for half the things in the market, and room in my backpack to bring it back to IBK since I am seriously addicted to barganing. My favorite was when the guys would bargain with themselves. A great example that happened to me was that I just wanted to know the starting price for a pair of sweet linen pants an man had in his shop, here's how it went:


I was just looking at them, not even interested in buying them and the man swoops over and starts telling me about the amazing things about these pants. Not remotely interested in buying them, I ask him how much he wants for them
-300 dirham!
-okay, thanks, I'm not interested...
-Wait wait wait, 280 dirham! Special student price!
-Um, I dont even want them
-Gimme a starting price for you!
-I said I dont want them
-Just tell me how much you want for them
-Um, okay I probably wouldn't pay more than 80 for them, but I dont want them
-No no no! way too much, you need to be serious!
-Okay, bye!
-okay okay okay! 250!
-I said I dont want them!
-230!
-Look crazy man, stop bothering me with the stupid pants!

The conversation pretty much went on until finally he's bargained himself down to 100 dirham already has them wrapped up and handing them to me.

-I said I don't want them!
-Okay, 100 final price!
-No (and I walk away, after which he chases me down)
-Fine, 80!

And before I know it I have given him the money and am walking away with these pants I didnt really want in the first place. Half of me is like "shazam! I just unintentionally bargained these pants for a great price!" while the other half is kicking myself for even paying for the dumb things.


I could spend a month wandering the souqs and markets watching the people or coming across random ones such as the olive souq, where there are 10 different stands selling amazing looking olives after which I accidentally discovered that I could get about a pound of olives for the equivalent of 30 cents (wanting a small snack, I gave the man the change in my pocket and said this much worth of olives, expecting 10 or 20, he gave me a giant bag full of them). Or getting lost in the old, labyrintine, residential part of town during which the children kept following us trying to show us the right direction back. But since we didnt want to go back, we just kept ignoring them. Every dead end we hit, we would turn around and there would be one or two more in their gang, until about 10 were trying to lead us the way. Then one pushed the other one into Betsy, and it distracted them long enough for us to run away.


I am sad that I have to leave this wonderful country tomorrow, but I am excited since I have heard so many wonderful things about Barcelona, my final stop before Innsbruck. Since I have a late plane tomorrow, I think I am going to try out one of the traditional Hammams, a Moroccian bath. It involves a lot of abrasive soap and painful scrubbing but I have heard it leaves one feeling unbelievably clean and relaxed. Like an expensive spa treatment but at one tenth the price.


Time to pack it in for my final Arabian Night.

And he's off! ...again

I apologize for that post, it was kind of an unfair outlook on an interesting country. We somehow managed to get back to Cairo again even with the shady dealings of the travel agency we were dealing with. I really think its a front for some kind of mafia. Our train tickets back were actually crumbled pieces of blue paper with scribbles all over it (I dont understand how people can communicate through writing in that language) that we never actually ever had in our possession. Two other egyptians on the same 'ticket' carried it the entire time and actually moved to a different compartment than us but I think the police didnt give us any trouble since we were caucasian or something. The rest of the trip was amazing and I really enjoyed myself and am glad I went. I have some thoughts on the country in general that I would like to write down so maybe you'll see them in the future.

We got in at 5 am in Munich yesterday and I've had about 30 hours to recoup until now I leave for a huge 2 week trip to Portugal, Spain, and Morocco. I have an early flight from Munich tomorrow so I need to take the train in a few minutes and am going to spend an interesting night at the airport. www.sleepinginairports.net says its a pretty decent airport to sleep in, so that should be good.

I'm excited for this trip because much of it is going to be alone. I'll keep you updated as I go and as I find internet. I get back to IBK on March first.

Adios!

Egyptian Mistakes

I am sitting here in a tiny interntet cafe in the middle of Luxor, southern Egypt. Outside there is an endless chorus of car horns due to a mixture of the Egyptian's already high propensity to honking horns and a local wedding that is occuring this evening. What can I say about my experience here in the past 3 days that would not bore you in its length?

We arrived to our hostel in Cairo at 2am after a long day of traveling. Outside, there was a military officer with an AK47 hiding behind a bulletproof panel. The entry way to the building was a tiny alley, covered in dirt with old plastic bags and other assorted trash in small piles against the wall. We stepped up into the lobby of this almost derelect building and entered an elevator that has been miraculously working since the 1800s; a cage on a string. As we ascended the building we could see the years of age as the concrete was severely cracked and there was plaster chipped out of the walls and trash strewn about. "what have we gotten ourselves into for the next four days?" I asked myself. However when we arrived onto our floor, turned the corner, we entered into an oasis within this building of comfortable furniture, friendly lighting, and comfortable beds.

I really wanted to head down to Luxor at some point during our trip (an 8 hour train ride from Cairo). This is where the Valley of the kings is and some of Egypt's really cool temples lie. By the time I had everyone convinced, we found it nearly impossible to get any of the night trains from Cairo while we were there both because Egypt's train system is unbelievably difficult and we were told that they were all sold out. It looked like we were going to have to spend all 4 days in Cairo. When we arrived at our hostel at 2am, the man there said he could get us tickets down to Luxor no problem because he has "connections." Also for a relatively good price (considering the fact that we didnt speak a word of Arabic and it would lead to less stress to us) he said he could also hook us up with a driver and an english speaking guide for a day in Cairo (to show us the pyramids) and in Luxor. I was wary of this since one thing I had read in my tour book was "Do NOT book travel arrangements through your hotel, we cannot emphasize this enough." If only we had listened... In our exhaustion and naivette, we signed on for everything.

After an amazing night's sleep, we got up to meet our driver and tour guide. It started out being really awesome. They were able to drive us around and see the smaller pyramids (step, hanging, and red) pyramids at which some of the 'nicer' kids in our group, okay mostly Christian, got swindeled into riding donkeys and camels at unbelievably steep prices. These guys are professionals at even forcing tourists to take a picture of them after which you're obligated to give them something (and they will yell at you if its not enough). I started getting a little wary when they took us to a carpet school to see how egyptian carpets are made. It was actually kind of interesting but I felt it was wasting good pyramid seeing time. I also was waiting for them to take us to the back room so we could unload our wallets on them for some carpets. They did and they were very good salesmen. I refused to purchase anything, but it was really annoying because as I waited for the rest of the kids in our group to finalize their purchases, other salesmen kept coming up to me trying to get me to buy something. It was like being in the market but in a closed room so I couldn't walk away or be rude. One guy was trying to show me that their carpets are fireproof as he lit his lighter on it, then quickly smudged his finger over with his finger as the pungent smell of burning wool wafted into the air. Then they distracted us by taking a group picture as out of the corner of my eye, I could see our tour guide collecting her commission.

When we went to the Pyramids at Giza, she took us to a stable so we could see them on a camel ride. It was definately something on my list but due to our horrible group haggling skills (Christian's niceness) and the fact that the Pyramids themselves were closing and camels at this point were our only option, we ended up paying what I later red at least 3x as much as we should've. Albeit a tad uncomfortable when they ran, and once I got over the sinking sensation that I had just been swindled out of my mind, the ride was really fun and awesome as we got to see the Pyramids at sunset and actually go up to and touch some of them.

That night, a man from our hostel escorted us to the train station and gave us our 'tickets.' They were small pieces of cardboard with arabic writing on one side and "Cairo-Luxor" printed on the other; there was nothing official about them. Well they ended up passing and we got on the train for a very long night. We had no beds, just the ancient train chairs and the jerky rocking to lull us into a wakeful sleep. Arriving in Luxor, we were bombarded with hotel touts and taxi drivers, that were begging us to come along with them. We managed to find our contact in the chaos but it was difficult (as he was one of the sleeziest men I have ever come across). Without telling us what we were doing, he popped us into a van and we went to meet our tour guide. They took us to valley of the kings and a combination of all the tourists also there and him rushing us through a few tombs (amazing - wouldve liked to spend more time there) I felt like I was on a tourist conver belt: get off the bus enter the ever moving que of tourists through the sight, get back on and repeat. He said we had a lot to do so we raced out of the valley (with some new random tourists, half arabic speaking, we seemed to pick up in the valley). And he takes us to an alabaster factory. We were all sick of the whole thing and it felt like a waste of time and as soon as they were done with their lame demonstration, the 6 of us waited outside for the other randos to finalize their purchases. We were tired, we weren't doing what we wanted to do at our pace, and nobody was telling us anything as to what we were doing next. I felt like I was seeing Egypt through a window. At this point we decided to ditch the losers and asked him to just drop us off at our hotel before he could take us to a horrible and expensive restraunt with bus boys wearing king tut headdresses.

Once we broke free, it was as if an immense weight had lifted off, we could relax and do what we wanted, it was amazing. The rest of the day we walked around the city, enjoying saying 'no' to the street hawkers (Me: "Oh crap, this buggy driver is following us" Hayley: "Good! Waste his time!"), watched the sunset on the nile, and enjoyed the mystical Luxor temple in its nighttime dramatic lighting.

Aaron, Mariel, and Hayley left that night (more shady dealings with train tickets and meeting the proper people) because they wanted to spend more time in Cairo, but Christian, Anthony and I stayed behind for one more relaxing day here. After an amazing nights sleep, we lazily got up and spent most of the day at Karmak temple, one of the largest temple ruins in Egypt and we walked around the city, enjoying ourselves. I was really enjoying Egypt all day today; we had thought that having someone else worry about transportation and touring, it would give us less stress but it was quite the opposite, no one was hurring us along so that they get us to a Papyrus factory and collect our commission.

We jump on the long trainride back to Cairo tonight, spend all day there, probably visiting the Egyptian Museum and walking around downtown, then take a late night out of Cairo back to Munich. Its going to be a long, long next two days.

I apologize for this post if I seemed a little negative, but I just needed to vent my frustrations, even though they were all our own fault. I am having an amazing time here, and it will be sad to leave tomorrow evening.

Oh and Happy Valentines day everyone!

Egypt

I have safely arrived in Africa! Its about 3 am and we are getting up early tomorrow to tour the great Pyramids in Giza. It is such a cool feeling to be here. Maybe its the massive amounts of smog, but there was definately a different feeling in the air I could sense the moment I got off the plane. We've been here for 2 hours and already we've been attacked by hotel peddlers, gotten stuck in the sketchiest elevator in existence, gotten locked in the hostel bathroom (during which an amusing conversation taken out of context about how to use the key to get out of the bathroom took place), and nearly died on the white knuckle race on the drive from the airport to our hostel.

It's been already an amazing introduction to this interesting country.

France in my Pants

So I am a huge nerd and created this handy little map with my excellent skills in Microsoft Paint:

As you can see by the handy route key, after sadly saying goodbye to all of my friends in London (I miss them much already and they had better come visit me here at some point...), I took the Chunnel to meet Christian (from the IBK program too) in Paris. The whole chunnel experience was interesting but stressful since I almost missed the train due to a series of events including confused clerks at British Grocery stores and half of London's Underground Lines deciding not to work Monday morning. The whole process was like getting on an airplane, but in a train station, including seperate terminals and people checking tickets before you get on, I was overall disoriented by the whole process. The ride itself was quick and easy and I didnt realize we had even gone under the channel until I looked outside and everything was in French.

In Paris, I met Christian at our budget hotel in Montmartre, the old hangout of the Bohemians in the last turn of the century, known for the Moulin Rouge and sketch artists that will hunt you down and attack you with their rediculous requests to draw you:

"profile?"

"no"

"Portrait?"

"no, go away"

"Characature?"

"No. Please stop bothering me"

"Sketch?"

"Look! Someone else in desperate need of a rediculous Paris souvineer!"

After walking the 10 miles between every major landmark in the city: Notre Dame, Louvre, Arch de Triumph, we ended at the Eiffel Tower, to witness it's hourly ten minute "sparkle," a pretty spectacualr remnant of that giant Y2K thing everyone made a big deal about 8 years ago.

Christian and I decided that the McDonald's corporation deliberately funded these in order to subliminally encourage Parisians and tourists to frequent their locations at every hour since we both randomly had a craving for some McFastfood for the first time in a long time. Since we weren't in Rome, we didn't feel obligated to do as the Parisians did and succumbed to what in retrospect is one of the cheapest meals one could get in the city of lights. We then retreated back to the hotel to share a rediculously tiny "two person" bed.

The next morning, we conqured Versailles, as the French Revolutionists did 200 years ago and we got a fairly good impression of the wonderful Train-station-turned-art-museum, Orsay. In the evening we met up with my friend, Alicia, for dinner. She is an ND student I know from band who is studying for the year in Paris. She unfortunately had finals that week but she made it out to see us.

On Wednesday, we hit a lot including the correctly pronnounced ND cathedrial:

As well as the inside-out Pompidou modern art museum that I thought was an interesting break from all of the Madonnas I've seen in the past few months but I questioned the validity of all the work once I came across 3 blank canvasses. The thing next to it said was "an experiment in colors." The only experimentation the artist needed was to decide whether to use "snow white" or "cotton" paint color. We conquered Napolean's tomb which in my opinion was a little gawdy for the guy who used the Sphynx for target practice. Then Eiffel's Tower (up it this time), for a sunset view of the city, then finally off to the Louvre for their nighttime hours (open till 10 on wednesdays). It was really relaxing being there at night because since it was the end of the day, I didnt have that museum stress I always have that I need to be somewhere else, or at least outside where its warm and sunny. But we were exhausted from the long day and attempted to see most of the Louvre in 3 hours which resulted in "Louvre Sickness": the internal battle between body and mind, when one wants to run around and see as many masterpieces possible but has not the stamina to do so. It results in a semi-epileptic state as one sits on the increasinlgy comfy couches in the museum staring into nothingness.

At the end of the day, we had done so much I went a little "In-Seine"

I'm really sorry about that one...

Thursday, Christian and I split ways as he went north up to Bruges, and I started the land treck back home to Innsbruck. My goal for the evening was Strasbourg, a cute canal city on the French/German border. On the way I stopped in Nancy for a few hours for the sole reason that I heard they had a good Art Neuvo Museum there. The museum ended up being like 4 rooms in an old house full of cool looking furniture but it kind of wasn't worth the trouble and I was the only person in the museum and there was a highly unnecessary number of museum docents that would awkwarly stare at me the entire time. The redeeming quality of Nancy though was that there was a free zoo in the park with goats, rabbits, ducks, and, what? monkeys? Plus the place was overrun by a large number of peacocks that were no doubt scheming on taking over the world, starting with the rabbit/ginuea pig pen:

Strasbourg was a really cool town; half-timbered houses lining canals, with a skeletony gothic cathedral domineering the entire city. Its also a university town which gave it a refreshing lively feel. It was a great town to just wander around in; I rented a bike for half a day and enjoyed just riding around. Strasbourg was also interesting for me because it was the first time I had ever traveled alone. It was kind of daunting but at the same time allowed for more people to approach you and meet you. For example the random spanish lady I met in the cathedral who didnt speak a word of english or german and somehow managed to communicate with me. She apparently lived in the area and offered to buy me a cup of tea. A little skeptical, I accepted her request but it was strange since we really had limited means of communication. I think she thought I was married because of a ring on my hand. I also think she invited me to her house at one point, but I awkwarly told her I had to meet some friends soon or something. I wonder what wouldve happened if I had taken her up on her offer, she was nice but from her mismatched and dirty clothes she seemed a little strange to me.

On the way back to Innsbruck from Strasbourg, I had a layover in Stuttgart for a few hours. It was really a nice city in my opinion: perfect mix of old and new. There were some old classical buildings sprinkled among modern ones so that it didnt have the stuffy museumness of some older cities but it still had a little charm. Plus everyone was walking around and the city was abound with street performers, young kids, old couples, and lovers, all walking down the same main street.

Now I'm back in Innsbruck for a few days before heading off to Egypt on Monday.