First Week in Salzburg

So It’s been about a week in Salzburg now and I’m in love with it! It’s gorgeous and everything I expected and more. Wednesday we had an orientation and they introduced us to the city. Thursday we had 2 classes and a walking tour around the entire city which got us acquinted with it and now we are pretty good at navigating our way around. I’ve had dinner with my host family every night and breakfast every morning. Sabine makes great food, all organic which surprisingly I like. Our cook at the school, Bregite, cooks typical German and Austrian food which is good but obviously not good for you! I’m going to start running in between my classes along the river in the city which has a perfect view of the mountains and the Fortress.
Friday we got to sleep in FINALLY! And went around the city, got a cell phone, bus pass and train pass. Then we had a dinner at the school for all the host parents to come. Some of my friends and I had to help out so we got to cook! I made some cool Bulgarian dish and learned how to dice peppers and onions. Then Bregite made us real homemade hot chocolate with milk and real bars of chocolate. Delicious! After the dinner a group of us went out to the Augustiner Brewery which is famous around the world. It was huge and had about 5 big rooms with tons of tables, some rooms were smoking and some were non smoking. You walk into this hallway where you pick up your mug, either .5L or 1L and you go and pay for it, then you wash it out in this fountain, then you go and get your beer! We all had fun and stayed there for quite a while getting to know each other better. It was very loud and there were many different groups of people from all over the world.
Saturday our host family took us up to Eagle Nest Mountain which is where Hitler’s eagle nest is located. You can’t go up to the eagles nest in winter because the road is very very narrow and the snow would make it way too dangerous to go all the way to the top of the mountain. During the spring and summer thought it’s a very nice restreaunt supposedly. I don’t think I would want to eat there… But we dropped Sabine and Leona off at a little ski mountain because Leona is learning how to ski. Then Bernhard took me and Kristen and his son Alexander on a hike through the woods. May I add it had snowed all night and we were the first ones on the trail! The snow was up to our knees but we had walking sticks with us which were like ski poles. We walked to where Hitler’s house used to be, but has since been destroyed. Bernhard knew a lot of History which was very fascinating to me and he was like our own little private tour guide. From there we hiked to a museum which was in one of the old buildings in Hitler’s camp he had up on that mountain. It was again very fascinating like all the other museums I have been too. I bought a interesting book with lots of information and pictures in it for cheap which will be good when I start teaching and I can say I actually have been there! We got to go into the bunkers that were used to go from building to building in Hitler’s camp. Most of Hitler’s close friends and politicians had houses on the mountain where he did, so they had underground bunkers to walk to each house with so they would not have to be seen. Some of his party members also hid out there when bombs raided the city. This was Hitler’s place of relaxation and leisure. I can see why he would like it since it was very calming and peaceful. There were many pictures in the museum of him enjoying his time there in the woods. He had a huge window in his house so on a clear day he could look down and see all of Salzburg. This trip was really great because it got us to know our host family better and it was nice that they included us in their family time. We had some nice conversation again over lunch about our countries and the differences. I’m definitely learning a lot from Bernhard about the history of this place. On the way home they took us by where they filmed the Von Trapp house in the Sound of Music. They filmed the back of the house in one mansion and the front of the house in a different one, neither of which were the real house. They live within walking distance of where they filmed the back of the house where the lake is, I will add a picture. Kristen and I are going to walk down there within the next couple days to get a closer look.
Then Sat night was one of our friend’s birthday, she turned 21! So we all went out to an Irish pub in town that is known for being the most fun place but also having a lot of Americans. We met a lot of people from California and a lot of Germans and Austrians as well. Some Austrian guy game me a rose! Don’t ask me where he got it from!? It was a very fun night to celebrate our friend’s birthday in Europe! We were all saying last night how we’ve only known each other for not even 2 weeks and we are already such good friends.
Classes start tomorrow, so today Kristen and I are just going to lay low. I’m going to try to make it out for a run!! This next week will be interesting because we will really have to start settling down and doing school work, which I have not done since the beginning of Dec! Its so hard to sit in a classroom and pay attention when you look out the window and see the most breath taking mountains and you just want to be outside and exploring! But that’s why I’m here I guess; to learn.. I’m excited to start to get to know the city more and become a member of it! Me and some friends are planning a trip to Munich, Germany in Feb to go see my favorite band, Dave Matthews Band, play there.. and Also a trip to Innsbruk which is in Austria to go skiing for a day and explore the city I have heard so much about! Will post again in a couple days..Love and Miss you all!


Some of the girl on our first day in Salzburg

Me helping Alexander through the snow

Where the filmed "The Sound of Music", in the back of the house where the lake was..I live about 5 minutes from here

One of Hitler's bunkers

Kristen and me standing where Hitler's house used to be, the view behind us would be so much prettier on a sunny day!

Differences and Similarities I have seen so far...

Couple Pictures of the Mountains we can see from our balcony...




Observations

They recycle EVERYTHING and have a different trash for food(natural waste), plastic, paper, and "dirty" paper (tissues..)

The house I live in is called an energy saving house. The walls and floors are heated, there are no vents.Showers should be short to conserve energy and water.

Showers don't have ledges on them and the toilet is basically in the shower.

Austrians LOVE fresh air and the house I'm in has a vent that brings fresh air into the house all the time. In class, they always keep a window open.

They think the wifi is bad for your body, so they shut it off at night.

The toilets have 2 handles, one for a lot of water and one for a little.

You can drink water right from the tap. You could even drink it from the toilet. Everything is spring water.

They take the bus everywhere.. I've already gotten very good at public trasportation!

Beer is served at McDonalds, BurgerKing, etc

Everything is much more expensive for clothes, food, shoes, electronics etc

Everyone smokes, even in bars and public places sometimes.

When our tour guide talk about the Holocaust, they never say "Holocaust".. Out of 6 or 7 tours we have taken here that have to do with German History, I've only heard the word used by one person. They call it either "the time of Hitler or the Nazis" or "their dark period" or "after WWII"

They eat a 3 course meal for lunch. Maybe its just our cook at the college but I'm not used to having more than a sandwhich for lunch!

When people see we are American, they ask if we are either from California or Florida. Seems like they think those are the best places in our country! And none of us are from either of those places..

If I think of any more I will continue the list...

Pictures from the last days in Germany

Dunkin D's! For you Nana and Papa..

Nazi Party Rally Grounds

Largest barrel of wine

Oldest Jewish Cemetary in Germany
View of Heidelburg from the Castle
part of the castle.. Kristen and me
Castle again
The group shot

Bonn, Worms, Rhine Valley, Heidelberg, Nuremburg, SALZBURG!

Just spent 2 more days in Germany.. We went to Bonn and saw a Germany History museum. That has been the highlight of the trip for me. The museum started after WWII and went until the Berlin wall fell down in 1989. They had so many artifacts such as news papers, draft cards, videos, pictures, clothes, cars.. everything you can imagine. Our tour guide was really awesome too she brought it a lot of personal family stories about her grandmother and grandfather who went through the war times. Her grandmother’s sister just received a letter 10 months ago confirming that her husband had died in WWII because they could never be sure about the where abouts of some people. 60 years later and people are just finding out what they have probably known all along. Its mind boggling. They had a couple pieces of the Berlin wall. That was the best part of the museum. I actually never learned in school about the wall or why it was constructed, all I ever knew was that it was bad. Our tour guide taught us a lot about the conflict and what brought on the division of Germany. It’s amazing also how after WWII Germany was almost COMPLETELY destroyed. Most of the history I’m learning while I’m here is post WWII because they have lost almost everything from before the war including buildings, documents and people..
Then we drove along the Rhine River Valley. It was pretty foggy and a bad day to see the beautiful landscape but it was still gorgeous. We saw many castles and on each side of the river were very steep mountains that had vineyards on them. Our tour guide told us that each side of the river makes very different wines because of the different soil and times the sun hits them and what not. I want to go back there in the summer during wine season.
We then moved on to Worms which was one of Germany’s oldest cities. It was also almost completely destroyed after WWII. We went to a Jewish Synagauge that had been destroyed 3 times in the past thousand years. We learned some history of the Jewish people in town. Then we went to the oldest cemetery in all of Germany. It was a Jewish cemetery. The oldest grave dates back to the year 1100. We learned a lot about the Jewish culture and about their cemetery. It started snowing so the grave yard looked gorgeous and like something that came right out of a movie. Worms was also the place where Martin Luther started his revolution and began the Lutheran Religion. We saw some monuments dedicated to him.
Then we moved onto Heidelberg where we spent the night and the next day went on a tour of a HUGE old castle from the 13th century. It was nearly destroyed in a battle somewhere in the 1500’s but it’s still spectacular. Again, the snow was falling and really made everything much more beautiful. I will put some pictures up but they do not do justice, it’s just something you have to see in person. In the castle they had the world’s largest wooden barrel to hold wine. It took up an entire room and help something like 50,000 liters of wine.. That number could be completely wrong but it’s somewhere in the tens of thousands of liters. It was built in the 1700’s. Then we walked all the way down the side of a mountain to the town of Heidelberg below. It was a typical European town that you probably can picture in your head. Quaint and quiet, cobblestone streets, different colored buildings, churches and cute little cafes. We got lunch and walked around and window shopped.
We then drove through the Nectar River Valley which again with the snow was very pretty. They call it one of the most romantic things to see in Europe. I’m sure in the summer it would look gorgeous also, but seeing it in summer and winter would be like night and day. I definitely want to return to this part of Germany some day in warmer weather. Also, I’m used to the snow and seeing snow look beautiful in the trees and whatnot, but some people here have never really experienced this since they live I warmer parts of the country.
Then we went to another small town that I can’t even remember the name of which doesn’t really matter since it was boring! All I remember about that town is I was late for the bus that day! Woops. Austrians are very punctual!
Then we spent a night in Nuremburg where the Nuremburg Trials took place and the Nazi Party Rally Grounds were. We got there late so we had dinner and a couple drinks at a bar. We met a cool bartender names Rico (ha) who was from Columbia but moved to Germany so it was nice to hear his story! The next day we toured around the old city and then drove past where the trials took place, but couldn’t go in because it is still a working court house. Then we went to the Rally Grounds which I can barely describe to you in words. There was a museum where we got a head set and this cool hand held thing where we could choose what exhibits we listened to and could walk around on our own. I could have spent an entire day there listening to everything, but we only had 2 hours. Some of the videos/pictures/information I got there almost had me in tears. I had goose bumps almost the whole time. I can’t even describe the emotions I had while knowing I was standing in a place where once the most powerful and evil man alive had stood and made thousands of people believe in what he was saying, even though it was lies and he was evil. After the museum we could walk around the grounds a bit and saw some buildings where Rallies had taken place. Again, I cannot put into words how it felt to be there. And it’s still probably only half of what I’m going to feel when I actually visit a concentration or death camp. I’m looking forward to it/not looking forward to it at the same time. By this time, we were all ready to be done with Germany and move onto Austria!
We then traveled about 3-4 hours to Salzburg! Finally!!! We were met by our host families who took us around the city a bit. My host father’s name is Bernhard and the mother’s name is Sabine. They have 2 young children, a girl who is 5 and a boy who is 1 ½. He took us by our school which is LEGIT built into the side of a huge mountain. We have orientation there tomorrow morning. They both speak really good English, but the daughter doesn’t yet obviously but we are trying to teach her as she is trying to teach us German. We had dinner with them and they poured us a delicious glass of wine and we had a toast but me and my roommate Kristen toasted wrong so they taught us the proper “Austrian” way. Sabine told us she doesn’t cook normal Austrian or German food which is alright! She asked us if we liked Chinese food! Sounds good to me. The house is GORGEOUS and HUGE. We have the whole upstairs to our self, called the “penthouse” with a balcony and our own bathroom. It’s much more modern than I expected. Even more modern than any American house I’ve ever seen. Its only 3 years old they said. We had some nice conversation over dinner about differences between our countries and what their visits to the States have been like. Looks like I should start unpacking.. and I definitely need a good night sleep because sleeping in hostels is not the most comfortable thing in the world! My camera is broken at the moment so I will be trying to upload more pictures later from my friend’s camera.. love and miss you all! Some postcards are already going to be sent out tomorrow so check your mail!

First Couple Days-- Cologne, Germany

So I made it! After 7 hours in the sky and 3 hours driving and no sleep in the past 30 hours I’m at my first destination in Cologne, Germany. I got a little lost in the airport when I landed but found my way and found the Salzburg meeting point and met Pheobe, our guide and instructor. Then we drove on the Audibone (?sp) which I had to ask what it was because I didn’t know. But basically you can drive any speed you want. There is no speed limit, so people were going by us at 100mph and over… We arrived in Cologne around 1130am and checked into the hostel then walked around the city. It’s so built up and modern I almost don’t feel like I’m in Europe. Even with people speaking different languages it doesn’t seem weird because in any major city you go to in the US you hear tons of different languages around you all the time..

We walked across this very long bridge and there were all these locks locked on it and our tour guide told us to read what they said. They were all people’s names and dates.. Its called Locks of Love. There were thousands and thousands of them.. all with couples names and special dates. I’ll upload a picture and video when I can. It was incredible. Then we went to the The Dome which is like known around the world. It’s a huge HUGE cathedral. I’ve never seen anything like it. Then we all decided to climb the whole way up…1000 steps. It was an adventure but brought us all together. The view from the top was incredible. Oh yeah, there are about 23 people on the trip. It’s a little less than usual but there are a couple kids in Salzburg that were here in the fall that are staying for the spring but did not come to this field trip with us. Then about half of us went to a local pub to have our first German beer. It was a cute little hole in the wall and we kind of got dirty looks when we walked in. Obviously not a tourist site. But we had fun and talked about where we were all from. A couple people are from New England, most people are from Illonios.. couple from Mississippi and Texas.. It’s a good group of kids and we are all going to have a lot of fun. After dinner the group of us went out to a local bar and had a few local beers, which I will get the name of later.. I tried to order a beer in German and the bartender laughed at me! We went to bed pretty early since we had been up for 30 plus hours.

The second day in Cologne started off with a bus tour of the city which was very interesting and informative. We went into an old Mideval church which I will put pictures up. Then we went to a museum of Roman ruins because the Romans had once occupied the city of Cologne. Actually cologne means something about Romans but I can’t remember right now. We saw excavations of a Roman Queen’s fortress which were discovered after WWII because when the bombs hit the city, the old fortress was buried underground so it was the discovered. Half of it was still pretty much intact. Then we went underground into the Roman’s old sewage system (which doesn’t have sewage in it anymore obviously!) It was cool to see how the Romans used these systems that we still have in place today. Then we ate a quick lunch, did a little shopping, (I had to buy a watch since I don’t have my phone on me all the time to check the time!) and then went to an art museum that I had to go to with my Modern Art class for an assignment. There were a lot of Picasso art there and other famous artists. My camera died by then so I didn’t get any pictures! Now I’m back in the hostel waiting for my housing interview. We are all planning on spending a night out on the town but as of right now I’m way too tired and we have to be up very early tomorrow! Will write again at the end of the Germany when I get to Salzburg and meet my family.. here are some other observations I have made so far:


Differences from the states—

People NEVER J walk.. even when there are no cars coming. And they look at you funny if you do it.

If someone walks into a store or bar and nobody is coming in behind them, they shut the door so hot air won’t come out. (unlike us we just let it shut on its own)

If someone is on a bike and you are in their way they will run you over

Every taxi in the city is a Mercadese

A small beer is very small. Smaller than our sizes at home. But Large beers are bigger than ours.

If you try to speak German, people will be very nice and try to help you (maybe laugh at you!)

The city looks much like an American city, except for a HUGE cathedral in the center.

If I think of more later I will post them!

Ps. Danka means thank you and it’s the only German word I know for now!

Love and miss you all,


Lynn

Departure

I will be leaving the US on Thurs Jan 21 and arriving in Frankfurt Germany on Jan 22. Check back then for an update and some pictures!