Munich and Dave Matthews Band

So, the end of another week, another amazing week I might add. This trip keeps getting better, just when I think it can't get any better! Last week went by pretty quickly..Thursday our host family went on a mini vacation with some friends to a cabin in the mountains so Kristen and I were on our own! We cooked dinner Thurs and Fri night and we very proud of ourselves :) I finally got to watch some TV for the first time in a month.. Not that the family would never let us watch it but it would just be a bit awkward if we watched TV with them because there are only like 2 English channels here.. But I watched the Olympics which was cool!! The Austrians are pretty upset about all these Americans winning the downhill ski racing.. Woops! We had a field trip to a farm on the outskirts of Salzburg and we got to try all organic products and the schnapps they make there! I didn't like any of it... Friday night a couple girls came over for another card night, we played Phase 10 which is so much fun! We had to rest up for Saturday because it was the big day!!
Saturday Katherine, Lynlee and I hopped on the train at 2pm to Munich and made it there by 4. We walked around the city, which was beautiful I might add. It was the busiest city I've seen so far.. there were hundreds of people everywhere. We didn't get to see or do much because we had to get dinner and find the concert hall. We ate at the Hofbräuhaus, which I think is where Papa told me to go.. Did I go to the right one?? Well anyways it’s this world famous beer house. It was HUGE and so hard to find a table since we had to seat ourselves. We finally found one and ordered and had a beer. The food was alright but the experience is what we paid for. There were people from all over the world. 90% of the people in there were tourists. They had a band in the corner all dressed in old fashioned German clothes and you could hear them perfectly from anywhere in the building, which is amazing since it was so big.
After that we got a taxi to get us to the concert hall called Zenith. It used to be an old railway house, where they would keep the trains or material and stuff like that. It was so small! We checked our coats and made our way up to the stage. Even if I had been in the last row of the whole place, it would have been the closest I've ever been at the Dave Matthews Band concert. But no, I was not in the last row.. we pushed our way all the way to THE SECOND ROW. I was standing legitimately 5 feet away from Dave Matthews himself. DREAM COME TRUE. If I said last Saturday was the best day of my life, I take it back. This Saturday was, hands down. There was Americans on all sides of us, so we met people from all over, studying in places like Barcelona and Florence. But when Dave came on stage, nobody spoke, we were all too busy screaming and singing. It was amazing being so close and seeing the dynamics of the band and how they all interact with each other and the crowd. Dave talked to the crowd (and tried to speak in German which did not come out very well with his thick southern accent, but it was funny none the less). He played some new songs and some olds songs and some I've never heard live before. I met people who have seen him 20plus times in concert. This was my 4th time. He played for 2 hours straight, then did not one, but TWO encores, which is like, unheard of. For being such a small crowd in a small venue, we really showed the band how much we loved them! I will probably never be that close to the band ever again, which will stink when I see them twice this summer, but I will never forget those 3 1/2 hours of my life and how alive and happy I was to hear this live music that I listen to every day of my life, seeing the band right in front of me, with all their different facial expressions and see them dancing and having an even better time than all we were. Again, I could never explain in words how much this night meant to me, especially because many of you probably don't even know who Dave Matthews Band is and even if you do, you're probably not as obsessed with them as me. Just think of seeing your favorite band/artist/musician live, 2 rows away, in Germany, knowing every one of their songs and being able to sing along, only paying 1/3 of what you'd pay in America for those seats, with 2 of your best friends.. an equation of the most perfect night.
So after the concert I met a guy from Ma, who had a Patriots hat on so naturally I approached him. When I see a Red Sox/ Patriots hat here, it’s the most exciting thing! We met all his friends and sister and we decided to go out with them after the concert, since we did have to stay up straight until 630 am to get our train back to Salzburg. (we did not want to spend the money on a hostel since Munich is the most expensive city in Germany) We went to an Irish bar and met some more Americans, but that closed at 2, so we went to a bar called Americanos.. Of course.. so we met a great group of 15 people.. Most of us didn't know each other before this night and some people were traveling alone and just met all at the concert. We were saying on the way home how amazing it is that we can meet people from all over the world one night who are traveling and studying abroad and doing the exact same thing we are, and have amazing conversations with each person and learning something new from each person, yet never see them again. We might not even remember their names yet we will always remember the talks we had and the times we shared and how they made us feel. It was another great experience.
We made it to the train station around 5am, had breakfast, and our train was there so we were able to get on early. We made it back to Salzburg around 9 and I slept all day of course. Staying up all night really wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, I had been dreading it all week. It wasn’t easy, but it also wasn’t that bad. I would do it again over and over if I could see Dave Matthews like that again!! My night still doesn’t feel real, it feels like a dream..
So I'm sorry that I did not update yesterday, on Sunday.. I was just way too tired and my brain was fried and my post probably wouldn't have made any sense at all! It probably still doesn’t.. Anyway.. I didn't think anything could have topped last weekend in Innsbruck, but it did, and now I'm thinking nothing will top this past weekend in Munich, but hopefully it will, I still have much more travelling to do!! Going to Vienna from Fri to Tues with the school, so will not be updating until late next week and also will not have any internet service because I do not want to bring my computer. Today is a beautiful and sunny day in Salzburg, finally warm!! I went for a walk and just loved life!! Sent a package home for you Catherine Emily McGuire since your birthday is in 8 days :) Hope everyone is doing well at home, wherever you may be!! I miss you all, but still haven't been homesick yet! I wonder if it will ever come.. Hopefully not! Love you all, here are some pictures and a video from the concert!!

Also.. the girls and I discussed how there have been many moments we’ve had while on this trip that we cannot put into words. We decided to call them “wild moments” you know, like some is just so cool, amazing, breathtaking, things you’ll never forget, people say it’s “wild.” So here are a couple wild moments I will share with you..

- The day I say goodbye to my parents, went through the airport security, and was all on my own.
- Being on the grounds of the Nazi Party Rallies where Hitler himself had been and brainwashed thousands of people.
- Sitting at dinner with my host family, talking and laughing, and realizing I had become a part of their family already.
- Running along the river in Salzburg on a sunny day.
- Sitting of the top of the mountain in Innsbruck looking out onto the entire world.
- Hearing Dave Matthews playing my favorite songs, arms length away from me, making eye contact with me.
- Walking down the busiest street in Munich during the day, with hundreds of thousands of people around, then walking on that same street at 4am with not a soul but the group of us.
- Watching the sun rise over the mountains while on the train back to Salzburg.

View from the top of the WORLD

Single chair lift

trail from the top

Girls at the top of the mountain

Where we ate lunch

Lisl, Me, Kimily

Tram ride up






Hope you all enjoy :) will post again on Sunday!

Innsbruck, Austria

Sorry I haven’t updated in so long! The week was kind of boring so I figured it was pointless to post, but this weekend was one of the most amazing weekends of my life!!! Ok well first for my week.. Classes as usual.. We went to this science museum that is within a 5 minute walk from our school on Tuesday. Every Tues we have fieldtrips around the city. It was pretty cool, very interesting and they had many cool exhibits like the human body and dinosaurs and a lot of cool animals. It’s probably to the locals like the Boston Science Museum or Aquarium are to me.. seen it a hundred times on field trips in grade school! But none the less it was a fun day out of the classroom and also not sitting at home! Wed night is “college night” in town, so the group of us went out again to our favorite bar O’Malley’s! Again another fun night.. Met a group of Americans who just arrived and are studying in Salzburg so it will be nice to know some fellow English Speakers! Thursday we had to go to the Museum der Modern which is a Modern Art Museum, for my art class. We had a tour and had to take notes in order to write a paper that’s due this week. I love art museums so I had a great time and I also enjoyed the tour because you learn a lot of history behind every piece of work.
Then Friday was off to Innsbruck, Austria! It was about a 2 hour train ride which got us there at 4pm.. We caught a bus and checked into our hostel and got ready to go out on the town! It was 8 of us girls in one room, 4 bunk beds, and very cramped. The first thing we did was run to the Billa (aka Shaws, Stop and Shop) to get some food because we decided that on trips we will buy bread and PB+J and split it and eat it for 2 meals a day and eat out for one meal a day to save money! So I’m very PB+Jed out right now.. Then we all got dressed up and went to a bar called Jimmys and downstairs there was a club called Blue (something), I forget.. We danced and had a great time and stayed out maybe a little too late especially since we were skiing the next day! Saturday 4 of us were up at 630 to catch a bus to get rentals and go to the mountain. I skied last weekend and the weather was not so good on Sat morning so I was thinking this is not going to be a very fun day/I don’t want to spend the money. BOY WAS I WRONG. We drove all the way up a mountain which had another little town separate from the one in the Valley. We were very high up. Then from there we took a tram that could hold like 20 skiers and their equipment. I take it back when I say I am not afraid of heights. I was almost hyperventilating at how high we were going/ how unstable we seemed to be. And I was still thinking, man this weather sucks, is this really worth it? As soon as I thought that though, we broke through the clouds and it was sunny and we were on top of the world. Literally. It looked like we had landed in heaven. There were mountains EVERYWHERE. Like the kid you see in movies or on pictures that you don’t think are real. Those kind of mountains. The 3 girls I was with and I were speechless. I’m still speechless just thinking about it. Words, Photos, nothing will ever do the sight I saw justice, you just have to see it yourself. If I tried to explain to you in words what I saw/ felt on Saturday it would take me 10 pages and I’m not about to write a novel here. So we got to the top of the mountain and all we could do was yell and scream because we were just so happy and could not believe our eyes. We didn’t even ski for like a half hour cause we just wanted to stare into what seemed like heaven. Then we started to ski and the skiing was amazing. So warm, so sunny. The snow was perfect, the terrain was perfect and I only fell once! We could see the town below us through the clouds and mountains on all sides. We stopped every couple minutes just to sit down and enjoy the view. Hundreds pictures were taken, not by me, so when I get them from my friends I will post them. (Keats—all I can say is WOW YOU WERE RIGHT! Hope we can ski mountains like that together some day..)
Then we got hungry and decided to eat on the mountain.. all the way at the top, which we hadn’t been to yet. To get to the top, you need to take a ONE SEAT chair lift. It looks like it was made in the 1950’s. It was legit a chair on a rope.. again, on this ride up I was FREAKING OUT. I made the mistake of looking behind me and I was convinced that if this thing broke I was falling off the face of the earth. I was very very relieved when I made it to the top and decided I was never doing that again. However, the view from the top was even more miraculous then the previous view we had. We ate at a little (when I saw little I mean TINY) family owned restaurant and got French fries and chicken nuggets.. so Austrian right? Well, we were all dreading the ski ride down, since again we were at the top and the trails at the top were harder and also narrow and had nothing to stop you if you got out of control.. So I Pizza skied the whole way down, it was that scary. But I made it and did a couple more runs and we called it a day. Like I said, amazing day shared with amazing friends which I will never ever forget for as long as I live! We made a pact that one day we would save the money and come back in 20, 30 years and ski it again together!
Saturday night we were so pooped we walked around a bit then passed out by 10pm! Earliest I’ve been to bed in months! We had to check out by 9 which we did and then we did some tours around the city. We wanted to go to the Crystal World which Innsbruck is famous for but it takes like 3 ½ hour to get there/ do the tour and we just did not have that kind of time since we were taking the train home. But we went to the Golden Roof which Innsbruck is also famous for, built by Maximillian I about 500 years ago.. There’s a lot of history behind it but I won’t bore you! We have been learning about him in class so it was a cool adventure on our own to back up what we have been learning. We 2 tours, one inside where the Golden Roof was and one inside the church where Maximillian was supposed to be buried. It was amazing, I felt like I was on a ride at Disney World! They really love this Max guy in Innsbruck! His tomb was surrounded by huge statues of his close friends and family, with his on the top. See pictures below. Then we made it back to the train station, but the train was late! So we were in the cold for a half hour longer than expected. Today was definitely the coldest day we have had since we’ve been here. Bitter cold, almost unbearable. But the sun was out which made it bearable. We all slept on the train and we knew as soon as we got back into Salzburg because the sun disappeared. Salzburg doesn’t get such nice weather because of something to do with the way it’s situated in between the mountains... I don’t know how to explain it.
Well one thing’s for sure, If I wasn’t a mountain person before this I’m definitely now. And if you don’t think you’re a mountain person, I promise you if you made it to the top of a mountain of the Alps in Innsbruck, you would consider yourself a mountain person. I also picked up some post cards so look out for them to some of you in the coming weeks! Tonight at dinner Leona started singing, in english, If you happy and you know clap your hands! So now Kristen and I have something we can sing wth her in English HA! She loves singing, even at 7 am....I’m very very tired after only a weekend of traveling.. I can’t imagine how I will feel after my 2 week break where I am going to about 5 different countries! 5 days of classes, then Munich on Saturday to see Dave Matthews Band! That might quite possibly be one of the greatest nights of my life since I am in love with them.. Maybe I’ll get to meet the band since it’s such a small venue? Ha, I can dream.. Ok well if I have forgotten anything I will post again later in the week! Love and miss you all, I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since I’ve been gone!! PS- Happy Valentines Dayy!

Here are a couple pic, will put up the skiing ones tomorrow since I didn't take my camera cause I didn't want to break it!!

Check out the mountains in the background..
First trip on our own!
Top of the mountains leaving Innsbruck today..
Maximillian's church
Statues
Tomb
Pretty colors
The Golden Roof

Lauren, Kristen, Katherine, Me, Jessie, Lisl

Weekend

So the rest of my week went well.. Classes seem to be getting more interesting and a few were even cancelled due to snow! The past couple days have not been so pretty weather wise, but that is expected here at this time of year. I’m happy if we get 1 or 2 sunny days a week! Thursday night a couple of us went out to a local Irish pub called Murphey’s Law and had a beer. They had a Boston Red Sox banner hanging in the pub! I forgot to take a picture of it but I will be in there again tonight for the Super Bowl so I will get one then. Friday I only had one class but it was not very nice weather out so instead of exploring I went home and napped! It was nice to catch up on some sleep. Friday night Kristen and I had some girl friends over to play cards and plan our trip to Innsbruck, which we did successfully! It was really nice of Sabine and Bernhard to let us have people over, and they said we were surprisingly quiet!

Saturday, yesterday, I woke up at 630am and went skiing! Again, the weather wasn’t good so I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out. The first run I took I feel about 5 times and started to think this was not going to be a very fun day.. Skiing in the Alps is much harder than skiing at Wachussett mountain that’s for sure! The snow was so different and they didn’t groom it well so it was tough getting used to it. And my skies were also too long for me so I had to exchange them at lunch which helps tremendously and in the afternoon I definitely had more control. As the day went on I began to know the trails better and it got easier for me. The fog lifted off the mountain and the view was pretty, still not as nice as it could be on a sunny day though! By 3 we were so dead tired that we stopped at one of the many cabins on the slopes and had a coffee before skiing all the way back down. It was really nice and relaxing. To be honest, I was surprised at how there weren’t many people there. It would have made it some much more difficult for me if it was crowded. We found this one trail that we all fell in love with and there never seemed to be anyone on it! We would ski for a couple minutes, then just sit down and enjoy the view and we were never in anyone’s way because there were hardly any people on the trail. It was ideal and I was not expecting it to be like that. The weather probably scared people away!

Saturday night we went over to our friend Hannah’s house because she was having a party for everyone to go to and get acquainted a little better.. She only lives 2 houses down from me so it was an easy walk! After that a couple of us went to our favorite pub, O’Malleys. I know what you’re all thinking.. why are we going to Irish Pubs in Austria? I honestly couldn’t tell you, but they are the most popular places and also the most fun!

Today I will get some homework done and most likely go watch the Super bowl with everyone.. It doesn’t start until midnight here so I probably won’t be able to make it past half time.. GO SAINTS! Love and miss you all!

Things from home I miss:

Obviously my friends and family!! Skype is nice, but not the same! Mom I miss your soup, especially in this cold weather!

Food delivery. Yes, I love home cooked meals, but even Cher doesn’t cook every single night. A greasy bacon pizza once and a while would be nice! Oh and maybe some REAL American Chinese food (oxymoron?) But at least I’m eating healthier.

Non smoking restaurants and bars. Yes it’s nice for the smoker but not for the non smokers like me who come home and smell like I’ve smoked 2 ½ packs in one night! When I get home at night I hang my clothes on our balcony to air them out.. yet in the morning I still seem to smell like smoke.. Oh yes I forgot I have long thick hair. Shower here I come!

Being able to pet dogs on the street. You know when you see a cute dog and you can walk up to the owner and ask if you can pet it, and they usually always say yes? Yeah not here. Everyone looks so intimidating and walk so fast and their dogs don’t even stop to smell a fire hydrant, I would never bother then to ask to pet their dog. I miss my puppies 

Driving! The busses here stop at 11 at night, even on the weekends, so if you want to stay out later you have to take a cab which is pretty pricey. I miss my car and being able to not have to walk to a bus stop, plan on when I’m leaving. It’s nice to just get in a car and go and come home whenever and again not have to plan my night around the busses!


Action shot
Trevor, Me, Kimily, Lisl, Kyle
Katherine, Me, Kimily


Katherine, Me, Lynlee

Me and my roomate Kristen

Some of the girls in our group

Jessie, Lynlee, Katherine and Me at Murphey's Law

Update!

Hi all! Classes began this week! Sunday was our first nice sunny day and I went for a run in the afternoon. There were so many people out and about! Walking their dog, ice skating, or out with the whole family.. I've never seen anything like that before at home! I ran by where the Von Trapp house was filmed.. and on that lake there were people skating and fishing, it was really cute. Then Kristen and me had dinner with our family and after the kids went to bed we played a German card game and drank wine with them. The card game was a lot of fun I'm going to try to find it here and bring it home! Afterwards we sat around and talked about politics and such.. I'm really lucky we have a great host family.. Some of my friends have families who don't want to socialize with them or can't speak english very well so it's hard to hold a good conversation.


Monday classes started. I had Understanding Austria which is taught by a professor who came on the Germany field trip with us so we know her pretty welll. She is very enthusiastic and animated about the way she teaches and that class will probably be my hardest one but it's interesting to thats ok! the I had Beginning German where we didn't really do much, just introduced ourselves, etc.. in english haha! We have German again tomorrow so we will start learning some of the language! Then I had a night Economics and Politics class which is my favorite so far! My teacher worked as a political advisor to the EU so he knows his stuff. He really gets us engaged in class discussions and we have already talked about many things I've never thought about before. A lot of what he says, my host father Berhard has talked about at dinner and such so if I ever get stuck in that class I always have him to help me out! Wednesday I had History of US/EU relations early in the morning.. And I practically fell asleep. My professor is very very intelligent and knowledgable, however he doesn't teach us, he talks AT us and also talks about nothing really relevent to the course! I had his class agian today thinking it would get better on the second day, I was wrong. Complete Bore. Hopefully it will get better. Finally I had Modern Art History which should be interesting but is also a bit boring. Oh and my teach is 70 years old and can barely talk. But thats ok shes really cute and nice!


Besides classes I've been exploring the city a bit more.. Taking the bus to the train station and the local mall. I went on a little walk today by myself to get to know the city better since it was such a beautiful day out today! I went up this small mountain that my school is built on and took some pictures overlooking salzburg which I will put down below.. Ive also been a little sick this week with a cold so I have not done much at night. Tonight a couple of us will meet for a coffee and hang out.. and Saturday I am going skiing. Hopefully I'll catch some of the superbowl on Sun? I'll update again after the weekend! Love and miss you all!



View from the mountain this morning
Again

Mountain outside my house this morning

A needle pulling thread.... from the Sound of Music

View from my classroom window