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Published: November 22nd 2010
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Sorry it has taken so long for a second entry!
So the first weekend I was here has crazy. For one I arrived a day late so I missed everything. I missed the orientation, I missed the instructions and just the basic living protocol. Then after being sick and traveling for two days I find out the next day we have to be up at 8 am for a tour that will last all day. I arrived Thursday night. So we spend all day Friday on tours that frankly were not that great, and while some were kind of cool they just tried to cram way too much in. And some of it I understand is important to them because it’s a huge part of their history but to us it was just another boring old thing we had to see in a long line as they drag as around and we are still exhausted and most are still adjusting to the time change (which I had no problem with luckily). The only bright side was that I was able to immediately set out who I knew I could be friends with. I found first my roommate Lauren, who
since then I have come to dearly love as my companion, whom I do not of course respect (it’s an inside joke, we really do respect each other).
Anyway we started out at the Salt Mines (Salzkammergut). They were cool. We had to wear these ridiculous white things suit and it was really cold. But we rode down on these trolley things that were just a piece of wood raised up and put on wheels. Then we walked around and had an awesome tour guide and got to go over a big underground lake and walk over the border underground between Austria and Germany. And then we hung around and checked out the Celtic village there.
So then it was finally lunch time and they give us food and informed us that after lunch we shall be going up to the castle on the mountain at the bottom of which we are dining. It looks awesome and we are excited. Except then we are told we will be hiking, not taking the train. Right after lunch. So we hiked. And hiked. And hiked. And eventually we got there and the castle was this crazy uphill castle. I feel
really bad for the guy that had to move the cannons….But we finally got to the plateau and it was pretty cool, we got an audio tour which was a nice alternative and we made up names and back stories for the two voices and then we got to see the medieval torture and weapons gallery before the Birds of Prey show. I found new friends there too. Pat who is now part of the group too. And Alex who conveniently lives next to us. The next day we again were told we must rise at 8 am. Oh and here is the best part, on the weekends (Friday-Sunday) they do not serve us lunch or dinner. So after all that we still have to walk to the store to buy and then prepare ourselves food! And they give us 3 Euros for a meal. Which F.Y.I. isn’t enough. Unless you have Kebab (mmmm and more on that later). I had already unpacked and adjusted to the time change, but was still soo tired and just back to eating normal foods without being ill. So on Friday we saw the castle and the Salt Mines but because it was an
excursion we had dinner at this brewery that was not very good except the dumpling and then went to the store since the next day we had to make our own dinners but we would not get back before the store closed which made for such an aweeessome Friday. So combining the fact that is was Friday, we had had a crap day and we still hadn’t been to any bars we decided to go out. I missed the first day and night so I missed the scavenger hunt, and I also missed everyone going out as a group, and since I don’t really know many people it was fairly upsetting. I haven’t really talked to a lot of people but everyone that I have is super nice I guess everyone realized that since we were all going to have to live in close quarters with each other for the next 9 months we should just skip it all and go straight to being friends and so everyone acted like we were already friends which was really great. However everyone was still recovering from their night out the night before but I was feeling pretty great so Pat, Lauren and
I decided to go out. I haven’t seen the town and don’t know where the bar is and neither did Lauren so we were searching really hard to find someone willing to go to guide us. It was a lot of fun.
So finally we make it to Saturday. We had a tour to this beautiful huge lake. Then we had this tour of the summer/hunting lodge of the Franz Josef and his wife. Basically she was awesome and he liked to kill everything he could find. And was the last emperor of Austria. And the house was pretty great. We stop at the restaurant and surprise its Beef Goulash. Goulash is never good. Especially not when ill. But like everything in this country it was served with potatoes. Also there was yummy chocolate cake that was for dessert. Today we were expecting more tour guides overwhelming us with information and hours of standing and walking and dragging ourselves along, that’s what we are expecting. But surprise! We go to this adorable little town right as the weather clears and is sunny and mild and warm and the town is amazing, and there is a bone house and we
have ice cream and no guided tour and suddenly the world opens up and we are all a little happier. And then the luck of God have it, we got most of the afternoon off. All along the way everytime a group would form I would just randomly join them and talk with the people and I was beginning to know people and learn names which was nice. So Sunday we all had a day off, unfortunately I had to get up early again because I had a student worker meeting at 9 so I had to get up early again!! So luckily Lauren is a morning person, so by the time I was done she was ready and we went out exploring. However we forgot the map so we got lost and couldn’t find old town. But we found some other very useful things and still returned in time for the student meeting and to get ready for the really nice dinner we had to meet our professors. The dinner was delicious! We ate at a really nice restaurant for the welcome dinner with all our professors. Our first course was as usually salad, and it had potato as
part of it, but it was the most amazing potato ever, and the salad dressing was some kind of oil and vinegar, with maybe buttermilk, typically something I wouldn’t like but this was so amazing I ate everything but the blob of Kraut Salad. The second course was steak. Everyone knows that this is a food I do not like and when the announced that as the main course I just hung my head and wish I could have gotten the vegetarian option. So when my medium steak arrived, I picked up my fork and butter knife and spread around the seasoned butter on top of it and the vegetables. I then cut the steak with the butter knife. It was the softest most flavorful piece of anything I have ever had. I ate every bite, and all the vegetables. And the final course was dessert, which was apple strudel with raisins and homemade whipped cream and fresh French vanilla ice cream. Although I was almost full to begin dessert I ate it all because it was so good. Even better than the awesome Chocolate Torte from the day before. We got back pretty late and just went to bed.
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