Penultimate Travels

This post will cover my last official stint of traveling in Europe. I'm really about ready to be done with this whole blogging thing, so excuse how sloppy this entry may turn out to be.

My two week journey started with a visit to Paris. I stayed with my cousin Daniel, who is the son of my grandmother's cousin, or something like that. I think that's right. My great-great grandfather is his great-grandfather. Anyway, the point is that we're related, and he was nice enough to put me up for the weekend in his apartment (flat? I guess this is still Europe) in downtown Paris. The room in which I was staying had a balcony with this view of the Eiffel Tower:

No zoom was used in the taking of this picture

Daniel and me on his other balcony

I started off my first day (Friday, May 14) with a visit to Les Invalides, a former hospital for soldiers which is now the premiere French military history museum. It was an interesting contrast to the Imperial War Museum in London, if for no other reason than the subtle wording of some of the exhibits. In London, the language of the exhibits was very smug, and even in displays that described some sort of military defeat, the language used still implied a sort of "oh, don't worry, wait until the next exhibit and you'll see how sweet we are" attitude. In Les Invalides, the exhibits describing defeats (which were the majority) used language with more of a "well, we tried really hard, and we just got screwed, but please give us some credit" attitude, and the exhibits regarding victories were more like "OMG FINALLY WE WON ONE!!!!!" Also amusing was the group of teenage Germans that I decided to follow through the museum so that I could observe their reactions. At the beginning, they were really excited and kept laughing at the exhibits. By the time we got to about 1944, they were so disgruntled and moving so quickly that I couldn't keep up with them anymore. I thought about America and giggled on the inside.

What else was cool about Paris? Well, meeting up with Meaghan and Sarah certainly was. Being with them saved me from having to be TOTALLY alone in the most romantic city in the world (which Paris really is, by the way). We did a lot of stereotypically touristy things, like museums and restaurants and more museums and, finally, the Eiffel Tower. Here are some pictures to prove it:

Inside Notre Dame Cathedral

Montmartre

Jazz hands outside the Moulin Rouge

Smile, Mona!

On the Eiffel

After Paris was the group trip to Hungary. Our first day there was marked by hangovers (due to the 5 AM train ride and the logic of just staying up and going out all night beforehand) and really awful weather. Day two was much cooler - we went to a random small town in northern Hungary on the Slovakian border, and since we had some time to kill, we crossed the bridge into Slovakia, where beer costs 1 euro for half a liter. Truly the land of milk and honey. I may or may not have drank too much beer before getting on the bus and subsequently peed in an abandoned Soviet swimming pool as soon as we got off. This may or may not be a picture of said pool:

The night concluded with a home cooked Hungarian meal and some Hungarian dancing, which was a lot of fun. The next day involved another stupidly long bus trip to another little town (Pecs, so not that little, and also one of the European Capitals of Culture in 2010) and some marginal weather, but it concluded with an awesome party at the university where we were staying, much of which I don't remember thanks to this guy:

Purchased as a salute to our Commander-in-Chief, the work "Barack" in Hungarian actually means "peach", the particular fruit from which this bottle of Palinka was distilled.

On the last day we went to an excellent museum called the House of Terror and also explored Budapest. It was fun. There are more pictures on Facebook.

After Hungary we made our way to Prague by way of Vienna, and as soon as we got there, we went straight to the fabled five-story club, the largest of its kind in Central Europe. It was awesome. The next day, Jonathan and I took a long walking tour of the city and then joined John Greil in the old town square to watch the International Hockey Championship Game between the Czech Republic and the highly favored Russian team, which went into the game with a 27-game winning streak. The Czechs won 2-1 in an amazing upset which sent the whole city into a frenzy. Despite the short description, Prague was honestly some of the most fun I had in Europe.

Amazing

After Prague came a couple of days in Vienna, which involved a relaxing tour of Schönbrunn Gardens, a night at the Vienna Opera House, and a day of walking around near the Hofburg and eating at Cafe Sacher. See Facebook for more pics, but here's just one of them:

Coming soon will be my wrap-up post, in which I'll share final thoughts about the overall experience!

Rock Me Amadeus

Holy crap. Where was I?

Right, so after two weeks of actually having to do "school" and neglecting my blog so that I could do exciting things to make up for having to do "school," I find myself bored enough once again to sit down and tell y'all what happened.

I guess I technically never finished blogging my spring break. Well, after departing Nice and arriving in Geneva, Jonathan and I hopped trains across Switzerland to get back to Innsbruck. Our itinerary got fouled up from the beginning when the first train we were supposed to take was either incredibly delayed or just never showed up because of the ongoing French strike. Instead of just sitting there and taking it, we decided to fly by the seats of our pants and just hop the first train to Zurich. So we did. We accidentally sat in first class, which was great until the conductor found us and ordered us to move. When we got to Zurich, there was another train leaving in 30 seconds for another town even closer to Austria, so we hopped on that one. We repeated this process of not really having a plan and just running from one train to barely catch the next one until we found ourselves in Feldkirch, Austria, where we finally got stuck with an hour layover. We used the hour to explore a bit and to get dinner at an Imbiss close to the train station, where I ordered THE BEST KEBAP I've ever eaten. Yes, for the record, the best kebaps are served by authentic Turkish immigrants in Feldkirch, Austria, near the train station. The restaurant randomly had American flags plastered all over the outside, too, which made no sense and thus made me incredibly happy.

On Saturday (this would be April 10, for all of you who are taking notes), I went to visit my (then) new friend Michele in Salzburg, which is truly a city fit for a king. We had a lovely day doing a lot of stereotypical Salzburg stuff. I still haven't seen The Sound of Music. If you really want to know more about what I saw in Salzburg, watch this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_3Ogv-bjO4

Salzburg: a fascinating town...

...where fascinating people live fascinating lives.

After a week of the usual, our friends from Salzburg came to visit Innsbruck, and we all had a great Saturday hiking up the Nordkette, cooking Mexican food, and doing other stuff. Lizzie was supposed to come to Innsbruck too, but there was an angry volcano in Iceland that prevented her from doing so. What the hell, Iceland.

On April 23, I hopped a train to Neckarsulm, Germany to visit my extended family, none of whom I had ever met before. I sat in first class again (accidentally) and got kicked out, as usual. Meeting my relatives was a bit challenging at first, since German was spoken exclusively. I can honestly say that, by the time I had to leave on Sunday, my German had actually improved considerably. All of that improvement is gone now, but whatever.

We kicked off the weekend by driving past the houses where my maternal grandparents grew up - right down the street from each other. After that we went out to a local brewery where I sampled some of the local beer. Only later did I properly realize that more people actually prefer wine in that region, which at first seemed rather anti-German to me, but after I tasted the wine, I changed my mind, because it was really good. On Saturday morning I went to the pool (baths, I guess) with my cousin Diana and my other cousin, Philipp. Yes, Philipp and I have the same namesake. There were two Philip(p)s and two Wolfgangs, so learning names was incredibly easy.

L-R: Eberhard, Wolfgang, Wolfgang, Philipp, Philip (Me), Marion, Angelika

Saturday evening/night involved driving to another town to hear a concert in which Diana's boyfriend Dominik was performing. He plays the trumpet. So does Philipp. I was in good company. Anyway, the evening involved a trip across German wine country in a VW convertible in 70 degree weather and Germans playing a hilarious rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. I took some videos which I would upload if my internet would cooperate.

After the concert, we went to a party in a fire station. Imagine, if you will, three old dudes DJing and mixing up some classic German music, a bunch of other old people dancing on tables, and a bunch of young people standing around drinking and laughing at the old people. In a fire station. It was awesome.

On Sunday, Wolfgang and I went to the motorcycle museum in town. We rode his motorcycle to get there. Afterward, we cruised through the countryside for a couple of hours. We eventually arrived at a small mountain where a biker convention of sorts was happening. Apparently it happens every Sunday. So yeah, I got to see some crazy German bikers up close.

I am exactly this cool

So, after a lovely weekend with my family, I came back and took midterms for a week. A slight reprieve was had in the hike up to Höttinger Alm that a few of the guys decided to take on Thursday afternoon. I ordered some Speckknödel and Kraut at the Alm. And a beer, of course, because a beer is exactly what a body needs after a long hike up a mountain. A beer is also what a body doesn't need right before a dangerous run back down that mountain. I like to live on the edge, though.

What a view

The highlight of the weekend (May 1st now...moving right along!) was Gauderfest in Zell am Zillertal. Imagine, if you can, a day of drinking awesome beer, eating awesome food, watching a sheep judging contest, dancing on tables, watching Alpine wrestling, drinking more awesome beer, singing and continuing to dance on tables, and drinking more awesome beer. That was Gauderfest. Man, the German-speaking world knows how to party.

Wouldn't you?

This picture really sums up the atmosphere

This past weekend I was in Bologna visiting Maria Sengenberger. We had a great time, despite some logistical difficulties involving the city of Modena. Italian public transit is never particularly reliable, but Modena really is a special case. I would talk more about it, but that would just make me angry and would also ruin the inside joke that Maria and I have.

We visited Maranello on Saturday to see the Ferrari museum, which was honestly rather disappointing. It was really small and didn't have all that many cars or displays. There's nothing else to do in Maranello except see Ferraris, so we were done there after about an hour and a half, but still ended up waiting for an hour to catch the bus to MODENA so that we could get back to Bologna.

Like I said, we were bored waiting for the bus, so I decided to see if I could break the speed limit. I couldn't. I wasn't wearing my running shoes.

The nightlife in Bologna is fantastic. The city is home to the oldest university in the western world, and all of the students hit the streets every night because no one really ever has homework. Maria and I bought some wine at an outdoor market, had a fantastic dinner at a classic Bolognese restaurant, and then sat on some steps in a piazza and drank the wine and just took in the atmosphere.

Maria and me standing next to the best fountain EVER

Well, I guess that's it! I'll be going to Paris for four days on Thursday, followed by a week-long excursion to Budapest, Prague, and Vienna. My life certainly isn't getting any worse. Thanks to everyone I mentioned in this post for showing me such a good time!