My Big Fat Greek Tour

The last three weeks have been so remarkably incredible.  So much to see and experience within such a short period of time. Sailing across the Adriatic Sea, seeing thousands of ancient ruins and olive trees getting tear gassed, visiting the Acropolis, the site of the first Olympic Games, encountering desperate immigrants, visiting the Vatican, St. Peter's, the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum, and so much more.  It is such a gift to have such a wonderful opportunity as a young (and poor) college student to have such a tour.  This tour seriously did open my mind to the real world and acquired a great deal from all of these experiences. 

We left Salzburg on February 17th at 11:00pm- I know sounds crazy- and began with an overnight bus ride.  No one was a huge fan of this, since, you know, trying to sleep on the bus is rather difficult and very uncomfortable.  The funny thing about this was that it felt like just a big slumber party on the bus with all 40 of us Salzburgers sleeping together....after all, we are a family now.  We arrived in Ancona, Italy to catch the ferry that would sail us across the Adriatic Sea to Greece.  I was so happy to be on a boat and be by the water, as that is one of the things I miss from back home. The ferry we were on reminded me a lot of the Coho Ferry in Port Angeles and the cruise ship that my family and I went on to Hawaii 9 years ago. It was a ferry designed like the Coho, but MUCH nicer with dinning, bedrooms, lounges, bar, and a casino, like a cruise ship.  But I was too tired to care about anything at that point, so I just slept the entire boat ride across the Adriatic. The next morning we arrived in Greece.  Our whole group was still very exhausted and it was a long bus ride to our first destination Kalambaka.  Kalambaka is a small Greek village, but very beautiful, and is home to the Grand Meteora Monasteries.  The monasteries we visited were very interesting and made the first part of our trip very relaxing.  All of us girls had to wear a skirt over our pants due to the Greek Orthodox customs.  We spent two relaxing days in Kalambaka.  The scenery from the monastery were incredible!  The monasteries are located on these high cliffs (or actually humongous rocks) that look down at the village of Kalambaka. Everyone's mouth dropped to the ground when we got there as it was a very new and fascinating geographical feature to see.  And let me tell you how amazing the food was!  Taziki sauce, stuffed grape leaves, stuffed tomatoes, feta cheese, baklava, and more! I know I'm going to be cooking a lot of foreign dishes this summer from all the places I've been to.  What's interesting is that the Greeks and the Turks are in dispute over who actually invented the recipe for Baklava.  Who knows?  But who really cares, it's good!

After Kalambaka, we continued on our journey to Delphi, which was my favorite place in Greece.  On the way to Delphi, we stopped at a beautiful beach town called Itea, which is actually just about a ten minute drive to Delphi, which sits up on a hill and looks over thousands of orchards of olive trees and part of the Ionian Sea behind them.  It's an amazing view, and don't worry, I took lots of pictures. The excavations and museum we visited the next day in Delphi were unbelievable.  I mean, it's just so hard to imagine that people actually lived at this very location.  We specifically got to see the actual sites of the Athenian Treasury and the Theaters.  It was all "breath-taking."

The next day, we continued onto Athens.  We encountered many challenges in Athens, that being that there was a huge protest happening right in front of our hotel.  My group had a scheduled tour of the Acropolis, which unfortunately had to be canceled that day, so instead, we all had a free day in Athens.  I got to go visit the Roman Market and walked all the way up to the Church of St. George, which is situated on Lycabettus Hill, the highest point in the city of Athens.  The highlight of that day was getting tear gassed. The protests taking place in down town Athens got so intense that the police had to use tear gas.  What a horrible smell!  And what I mean by intense is by yelling nasty things in Greek and setting things on fire.  Crazy!  Luckily the tear gas didn't effect me too much, except that it made my eyes water and cough quite a bit.  And we got to see the mass crowd from Lycabettus Hill going down the main street that went in front of our hotel.  What an experience to have!  Let me tell you; I experienced A LOT on this tour.  And stuff you would probably never experience in Port Townsend that's for sure.  The next day, when all the protests and rambling was over, we got to go visit the Acropolis.  The Greek term "Acropolis" mean "high city," which is fairly obvious since it stands out on top of everything else in the city.  Everything was amazing, although it started to rain on us that day.  On the way up to the Acropolis, we got to see the Theater of Dionysus.  Keep in mind that Greece was not only the root of Western thought and civilization, but also the origins of theater!  What I find intriguing is that the beginning of theater was used as a way to worship the Greek god, Dionysos.   The actors and audience gathered together for performances of service and worship- now I'm finding more and more connection betweens theater and the church.   Don't get me wrong- I always have known that they are connected.  As a matter of fact, I see the church, especially St. Paul's and all Catholicism, as just one big comedy act.  Overall, I'm sad to say that I wasn't too impressed with Athens, except for the Acropolis and excavations and awesome shopping it had to offer.  I found it too big and unsanitary.  Well maybe that's just because I've gotten so use to living in the classy Austrian lifestyle.  But of course, it was still worth the visit.  

After three wonderful mind-enriching days in Athens, we went onto the Peloponnesian Peninsula to visit the excavations of Mycenae and the Theater of Epidauros.  We crossed the Canal of Corinth, which was quite amazing, but very cold and windy.  I especially liked the Theater of Epidauros, which sat thousands of people on very uncomfortable cement seats.  The stage is known as the "orchestra," forming half a circle, like how the musicians in a real symphonic orchestra are positioned (this is also where the real name for orchestra comes from, obviously). 

The final destination of our tour of Greece was Olympia, the town where the first Olympic Games were held.  We were only there for one night, but the next morning before we headed back across the Adriatic Sea back to Italy, we visited the site where the games actually took place.  It was incredible to see the very spot where the Greeks lit the first Olympic Torch and actually raced chariots.  At the end of our tour a bunch of people in our raced each other from the start to finish line of the stadium.  What fun times.

Our 10-day tour of the Hellas concluded and we headed to Patras to catch the ferry to continue our tour in Italy.  Getting back to Italy was an unexpected experience for us.  As our bus drove up to the port to drop us off to walk on the ferry as passengers (we used the same bus all throughout the tour, but here we had to get off and walk on as passengers) While our program director went inside the port office to get our tickets, hundreds of (supposedly) African immigrants were trying to sneak into the port to immigrate to Italy (illegally).  Some of the immigrants (mostly men who had to be in their 30's) tried crawling under our bus to try to sneak on the ferry.  All of us on the bus were freaking out.  We drove away and went inside the port where immigrants were still standing outside of the port gate. I must say that it is the European country that has made me experienced the most culture shock.  All the other places, such as France, England, and Germany, I have visited have a classy and rich feel to them.  Greece, on the other hand was it's own self, although it is a part of the European Union and uses the Euro as its currency, but the Greek culture and language are so different.  I'm so grateful that this study abroad program I'm participating offered such a visit to a very beautiful and unique country.  The boat departed Patras and we were sailing back across the Adriatic Sea.  It was 6pm Greek time as we sailed away from the scenic Greek land.  I stood outside on deck watching the sun set and moving farther away from the Hellas.  I closed my eyes that night and reflected back on all of my life experiences and accomplishments.  Despite some of the struggles I've been through, the majority of my life has been good.  When I opened my eyes, I was in Italy. 

Italia for the Win!

I was looking at a map of Italy the other day and I'm now proud to say that I have traveled through the entire Italian Peninsula.  Our ferry back from Greece docked in Bari, which is basically at the bottom of the Italian Peninsula (or very close).  We got off in Bari and drove all the way to Pompeii.  On the way to Pompeii, we got to drive through and see some of Naples, which I was not too impressed by, being that I saw it as Italy's version of Bremerton.  Not so into the Navy towns.  Pompeii was an interesting place, but would've been better if it wasn't down-pouring rain.  We didn't even get to see the Vesuvius because it was so cloudy, but it was quite an interesting site to visit.

Afterward, we continued onto Rome, where we would spend the next three nights and see a few famous and beautiful things.  Our first day in Rome, we had a guides tour with a professional tour guide who took us to the Early Christian sites of Rome, the Catacombs of Domitilla, and St. Paul's Basilica.  In the afternoon, we went to visit the Colosseum and Roman Forum.  After seeing all those pictures of the Colosseum, there I was standing in it.  I even walked the whole perimeter of the inside, but sadly again, it was still raining.  But we still managed to get to the Trevi Fountain to make a wish and to the Spanish Steps.  At the end of the day I was soaking wet.  Unfortunately, doesn't have a very good metro system like all the other major European cities do.  The city of Rome only has two main metro lines.  This is because there are so many ancient ruins underneath the city and having a huge and efficient metro line system would interfere with and damage these ruins, which makes perfect sense.  But still, it makes transportation in Rome a thousand times worse than Seattle.

The next day in Rome, was our visit of the Vatican.  At first we went and visited the Vatican Museum, which led us to the Sistine Chapel.  Standing inside the Sistine Chapel was phenomenal!  Realizing that I only learned about this renowned chapel nine years ago as a 11-year-old homeschooled student, I was actually looking up at the real painted frescoes of Michelangelo.  They were all so much bigger than I was expecting them to be.  I was in total awe the entire time I was in the Sistine Chapel and could have spent an hour in there.

We were fortunate enough to get a free day in Rome on our last day there.  I got to go to several churches that I've been learning about in my art history class, such as Il Gesu, Santa Maria della Vittoria, and San Pietro in Vincoli, which holds Michelangelo's famous marble statue of Moses.  It was nice not having to follow a tight schedule and to just go at our own pace.  After looking at all the places we've been learning about, me and a few other girls I hung out with that day, ate the most delicious pizza, pastries, and gelato one could have in Italy.  We were extremely full afterward and spent the rest of the afternoon shopping.  On our way back to the metro, we stopped to visit the Pantheon and then to fabulous coffee bar that serves really good cappuccinos for only 1 euro.  I was so grateful that the sun finally decided to reveal itself on our last day in Rome and give it some blue sky.  I was able to go back to Trevi Fountain and make a second wish and get some better pictures and climb the Spanish Steps without slipping and then look over the beautiful city at the top.

We left Rome the next day, departing for Assisi.  Assisi is cute little Italian town situated on a hill and is home to two famous saints: St. Francis and St. Clara.  There we visited the Church of Santa Chiara (St. Clara) and St. Francis Basilica.  The inside of St. Francis was very unique with some very interesting frescoes.  It was a very nice town to visit and I believe that it was where I had the best pizza in all of Italy.

Our next stop was a three-night stay in Florence, which was my favorite place of the entire tour and now my favorite Italian city.  Afterall, Florence did take the place of Rome as the capital of Italian art in the 15th Century.  The Florence of Cathedral, which we have learned a great deal about in art history, was very fascinating.  Not so much the interior of the building, but the exterior.  In addition, the cathedral has a Baptistery with gilded bronze doors, which are referred to as the "Doors to Paradise" as well as a campanile (bell tower) designed by Giotto.  Florence is also home to two famous art museums; the Uffizi Gallery, which displays Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" and the Academia Gallery, which displays Michelangelo's beautiful statue of "David."  Out of the number of art galleries I have visited within the past six months, I now rank the Uffizi my number one.  That leaves the Musee D'Orsay as my second, Louvre my third, Museo del Prado in Madrid, and the Musee Marmotton (Monet) in Paris.  I now find it hilarious when I think back to the 11-year-old girl I was who had no appreciation whatsoever for art.  And now here I am studying art history, visiting many famous art museums, and minoring in Music.  Funny how things turn out.  Besides art galleries, Florence has many fascinating churches, such as the Medici Chapel San Lorenzo, Santa Maria dell Carmine, Santa Maria Novella, and Santa Croce, which we have also been studying in our art history course. Florence was so beautiful and your perfect average Italian city.  After talking to my mom the other day, I also learned that I walked across the very bridge that my grandpa got into Florence by while serving in World War II as it was the only bridge still standing. 

On March 7th, we headed to Padua, our final destination of our three-week-long spring tour.  On the way to Padua, we stopped in the small town of Ravenna, which is home to the famous churches of San Vitale and Sant'Appolinare.  San Vitale is well known for its mosaics, which we have studied a great deal in art history.  They are very beautiful mosaics.  Later that evening we arrived in Padua.  Out hotel was far away from the city center so we didn't go visit the actual city until the next day.  Padua was a nice little Itallian town, but many things were closed the day we were there due to it being Mardi Gras.  There we visited the Capella Scovegni, which consists of many frescoes by Giotto, St. Anthony's Basillica, and the Gattamelata Sculture by Donatello.  From Florence onwards, everything from our art textbook was coming to life.  You have no idea how much more I've learned to appreciate art after visiting all these amazing museums, churches, and sites.

Now I'm back in Salzburg, with only 2 months left until I head back to America.  I'm having so many mixed feeling about coming home, but all I should really do now is enjoy this beauty and culture that's in front of me this very moment.

Salzburg Part II

Wow, I just realized that it has been a while since I wrote my last post!  I have been extremely busy during the last 4 weeks of the second semester with some intense upper division classes, a trip to Budapest, life at the UP Center, and a five day visit/weekend trip to Vienna with my parents.  I may be loving the Austrian lifestyle, but I'm still in college, so no matter where I'm studying in the world, I'm going to experience the same old stressful classes and sleep deprivation like any ordinary college student.  This semester I'm taking Fine Arts, Music, Metaphysics, and Theology (Christian Faith in Europe), and German- basically the same classes I took last year, but this time ALL upper division, except for German, which is a 200-level class.  Again, this is a semester to get most of my core requirement classes under my belt so that when I go back to UP next fall, I will be able to work focus on my major and minors (classes that I actually enjoy and find interesting!).  Oh, and did I mention that I have finally settled on a major?  I'm proud to say that I'm now officially an English major and German and Music minor.  I know I've said that I do believe it's crucial for one to speak a second language, but it's not obligatory that one must earn a degree in a foreign language.  As long as you know enough vocabulary, verbs, and are able to understand a foreign language, then you will be in good shape.  But, really, it's no required that all need to get a a master's or Ph.D in a foreign language, but if you want to go ahead.  I think it'd be silly to stop speaking and taking German since I've been living in a German-speaking country for the past five months; especially since my speaking and comprehension of the language has gradually improved!  And besides, since I'm now only a German minor, I only have to take one German class each semester.  This way, I will be able to enjoy the language more and not have worry about taking the GED of foreign language fluency exams.   

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Budapest, Hungary for the weekend.  It was a very beautiful and interesting city full of rich architecture, bridges, baths, markets, and lots of cheap food.  The city is separated by the Danube River; one side known as "Buda" and the other side known as "Pest" and what do you know they just put those two words into one!  We spent most of the time walking around (that was A LOT of walking we did) and seeing all of the historic landmarks, churches, and palaces.  The city lights were so beautiful.  I could see that Budapest had a lot of similar characteristics with Prague as in architecture, and style.  One thing that I really did like was this huge indoor market they have.  It had all kinds of food, such as fruits, vegetables, bread, meats, and cheeses as well as a bunch of Hungarian style clothing, tea clothes, dolls, etc.  It was really cool and yet another great cultural experience. And best of all, were the Turkish Baths.  It was freezing cold outside and the warmest bath was 37 degrees Celsius, which felt very nice and very relaxing.  The bath we went to also had a spa where you could get a massages, manicure, pedicure, facial, etc, but sadly couldn't really fit it in on a college student's budget. 

On February 1st, I went to the Salzburg Airport to meet my parents, who came halfway across the world just to see me- and have the chance to see Europe of course.  It was a dramatic and somewhat emotional moment (mostly for my mom) because it was the first time they had seen me in five months.  It was their first visit to Europe so they really didn't handle the whole jetleg thing very well (as I figured) and were just exhausted for the first two days.  Of course, I did most of the speaking and leading them around.  First, I showed them around the Center (where I've been living for the past 5 months) and they were amazed how nice my dorm is.  Well true, compared to most other dorms, I've gotta say they are pretty nice.  Sadly I had to go to class that afternoon and had to cut my tour short.  The next day, we went out to lunch and then I showed them around Altstadt.  I showed them around Linzergasse, Residence Square, The Dome, and all the magnificent views.  I tried to take them up to the Fortress, but sadly the tram to get up there was under repaire.  Again, I had class that afternoon and had to run back to the Center.  Thursday, I got to spend more time with them since I'm done with class by noon that day and for the 39 of us Salzburger's, Thursday is Friday for us.  Once, again we went out to lunch and then we went on the Sound of Music tour, which was very entertaining.  The tour took us to all of the locations where they filmed the Sound of Music.  It was so surreal for me being that this classic and internationally known film was (and still is) my all time favorite as a child, which I would watch continuously over and over again, and here I'm now living in the actually town.  Our tour guide had a very good sense of humor, which made the tour more interesting.  The tour was four hours long, but totally worth it as it took us out to the Salzgammergut Lake District and I was worried I wouldn't have time to have my parents see it.  No matter the weather conditions, the lakes, mountains, and green hills are amazingly gorgeous! 

On Friday morning, we set off to spend the weekend in Vienna.  Since I had already been there twice, I ended up playing my parent's all time "Vienna Tour Guide" since I'm quite familiar with the city.  We stayed at the very same hotel that my group and I stayed in the first time I went to Vienna as a junior in high school, which brought back many fond memories of my first visit to Europe.  The first day I mostly showed them around Ringstrasse and the Innerstadt (Ring Street- street that circles around the inner city).  The next day we went on a bus tour of the city.  For the third time, I got to visit the beautiful Schonbrunn Palace.  I was happy to show my parents one of my favorite places in the world, but unfortunately the weather was very windy, which limited our time in the gardens.  Otherwise, we had a nice tour and my parents really enjoyed it.  The best part of the weekend was going back to the Volksoper (yes, for the third time!) to see the opera Carmen.  Not to make anyone jealous, but this was my second time to see Carmen at the Volksoper.  This time was better though.  Our seats were right in the middle of the second row, which gave us an excellent view of the stage and the orchestra.  Carmen is my all time favorite opera. I just find the music so immersing and touching.  There were many times I wanted to start singing, especially when Carmen sing "Habanerra"  But, the whole thing was just amazing and I loved absolutely every bit of! Afterward, we went across the street for some Sacher Torte (a traditional Austrian chocolate cake that's very rich and melts in your mouth) and some very fine Austrian wine.  What a way to end the weekend with my parents.  The next morning we had to say our goodbyes as I headed back to Salzburg and they headed off to spend a week in Italy.  I'm so thankful that they got to have the opportunity to come visit Europe and see what an enriching and fascinating part of the world it is.  

Well, I have my midterm exams next week and a week from today, my group and I will be embarking on our three week long tour of Greece and Italy.  I've heard from many past Salzburgers that it is the highlight of the year.  I would have to believe them since the tour includes a visit to Athens, Pompeii, Pisa, Florence, Assisi, and Rome.  Ha!  This is one of the reasons I applied for this program.  When will I ever have the opportunity to go on such an extraordinary tour like this?  I have absolutely no idea!  But I'm so grateful for all the tours and and experiences this year abroad is giving me.  It sure is opening up my eyes to the world.  Now I just need to get through this busy week of exams and before I know it I will be standing on the Acropolis in Athens! 

The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain

Vienna, Munich, Innsbruck, Prague, Ulm., Strasboug, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Barcelona, Madrid.......4 months abroad and 8 countries visited and now my time here in Salzburg is halfway over. NOOOOOO....... how could this be?  But wait, I still have 4 months left here.  Just enought time to still visit Berlin, Zurich, Coppenhagen, Budapest, and Dublin, as well as Rome and Athens, but luckily those two cities are included in our three-week tour of Greece and Italy in the spring.  Well, these are all of the places I hope to visit at some point next semester (the next 4 months of my year abroad).  Aside from classses, I really want to get the best out of my time here abroad and travel to all of these places before I come home in May.  I have absolutely no idea when or if I will ever get to go back  to Europe someday so my advice is to just "take advantage and go out and explore, dream, and discover!" like Mark Twain expresses in the quote of his I have posted here on my blog.  Our spring semester begins this coming Monday, January 10th.  This semester, I'm taking German, Fine Arts, Music, Philosophy, and Theology- again, all core requirement classes, but this time harder.  Now that I have an idea on how the classes are here, I'm being very optimistic about next semester as I try to balance out 13 credits and travel to the rest of the European cities/countries on my travel list.  I think I can manage.      

I began my new year in Spain.  My friend and I left Salzburg on the morning of the 1st via train to Munich and flew from there to Barcelona.  We spent the first two days in Barcelona, which I've got to say is pretty much all of the cities of California smashed into one big city (i.e. San Francisco, Santa Cruz, San Diego, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, etc).  But it was absolutely beautiful.  The weather was just perfect and it was nice to get out of the freezing cold snow.  Barcelona has a big pier with a mall witha huge marina and beautiful beach with lots and lots of palm trees.  I swear that I took at least 20 different pictures of just palm trees.  The main steet of Barcelona is calles Las Ramblas, which is basically a market where craftmakers sell their work and where you can buy souvenirs, have dinner, and such.  It was really neat, but crowded. Our second day there we just visited museums and saw all the sites that one of out Lonely Planet travel books told us to do.  We first walked to the Gothic section of town where we saw some beautiful churches and cathedrals and visited a couple of interesting museums that we free.  It was Sunday so I got a chance to see a part of a service (Catholic service of course).  We just so happened to enter the Cathedral when the priest was giving his sermon, which sadly, I could not understand at all since I don't speak Spanish.  But still, it was a cool experience.  So far I have see a service in German, French, and now Spanish- pretty good for my label as "Daughter of the Deacon."  My mother, an Episcopal Deacon, would be proud!   That afternoon, we went to the Guell Park, which is a park up on the hill that looks over the cirty.  It was established by Eusebi Güell who wanted to create a stylish park for Barcelona aristocracy.  It's basically the Santa Cruz-like area of Barcelona that totally reminded me of PT due to its unique beauty and mass load of tourists.  The park had some amazing views of the city and really cool stone structures and statues, including a lizard that's mostly made up of colorful stone tile. Otherwise, this park was well worth the visit and the endless hills we had to climb.
Out of all the three places we visited in Spain, I think Barcelona was my favorite because it was the warmest and had the beach and palm trees.  And I've got to say I was really excited to see a real body of water and port, which reminded me more of home and what I grew up around. And I also had the best Paella ever.  If you don't know what Paella is, it is a popular Spanish dish with rice and vegetables and is usually served with seafood or chicken.  I learned about several other varieties of Paella on this trip, such as Paellas with noodles or black beans and even beef.  The kind I had was a seafood Paella with shirmp, mussels, and calamari.  The funny thing was that the shrimp still had eyes.  If you are friends with me on Facebook, look for it in my pictures.  But still, it was all great.

In between our visit to Barcelona and Madrid, we wanted to take the train up to San Sebastian for a few hours, which we had heard is a popular and touristy becach town in northern Spain.  Unfortunately the train only went to a town called Bilboa, about an hour outside of San Sebastian.  We figured that if we tried to take a bus from Bilboa to San Sebastian that we wouldn't have enough time to look around there so we just decided to stay put in Bilboa and have lunch and walk around for a couple of hours before I train to Madrid.  It was a nice little town, similar to Salzburg with a new part and an old part separated by a river.  After walking around and looking for about two hours, we hoped back on the train to Madrid.  Our train left pretty late in the afternoon and we didn't arrive Madrid until 10:30pm.  Since none of us had never been to Madrid before, we kind of got lost trying to look for our hostel, but luckily we found it.  The next day we walked around a lot seeing all the popular and famoud landmarks of Madrid.  We stopped at this market place thing that sold a bunch of beauiful jewelry, scarves, hats, etc.  I bought a bracelet with pearl beads and a scarf.  I was happy looking at all the jewelry and everything until I walke under a tree and felt something splatter on my favorite red coat from S. Oliver.  Yep, you can probably guess.....bird crap!  After growing up in Port Townsend with lots of seagulls, crows, pigeons, and other birds, I had to be splattered on in Madrid wearing my favorite coat!!!!  Well, luckily there was a McDonald's across the street so I was able to wash it all off in the restroom sink.  So we continued on and there was no permanent damages to my coat after all, but still.....GROOOOSSSSSSS!!!  After that little incdient we walked around the Botanical Gardens, which were really cool, even at the beginning of January.  It was like being in a jungle and best of all there were cats there and one looked like a (much) smaller version of my cat Rio.  Madrid was where I got to experience most of the wonderful food, such as a (real) Spanish tortilla, which is really thick and contains less cheese and Churros dipped in hot chocolate, mmmmm.  The next day in Spain, we went to the Museo del Prado, which is like a smaller version of the Louvre.  They just so happened to be having a temporary Renior exhibition which we got to see while we were there.  After taking a semester of art history here in Salzburg from an amazing woman, Frau Dr. Loos, who is a retired art museum curator,  I'm able to apply and recognice the things I have learned  from that class and continue to appreciate art as well.  Then we went to the Reina Sofia, the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid, which had some very interesting displays and was, again, very Port Townsend-esque, obviously.

Spain was a lovely place to conclude my Christmas break and it was good to get away from the freezing cold and snowy climate of Salzburg.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Salzburg, but it does get pretty cold here.  As a matter of fact, I think that Salzburg is the most perfect town for me.  I don't feel isolated at all like I do in PT.  I can walk a few blocks to the grocery store, train station, and it takes about ten minutes for me to walk from the Center to Alstadt where all the great shopping is.  Plus, I can also hop on a bus at the train station that can take me directly to the airport, Ikea, or Europark (a humungous mall on the outskirt of Salzburg).  I just feel like I have access to EVERYTHING here, except sailing.  I really really really like it here, but I will have to come home in May as will need to get a job in order to earn all the money back I spent to have all of these advenures until I go back to Portland in the middle of August.  Oh well, it will be nice to have four months to relax and recuperate after spending eight months abroad in a foreign country and see all my peeps back in PT.

So here's to a new semester with even better and more exciting adventures.  I hope to savour every moment from here on out as I continue to explore, dream, and discover.

London...Wasn't It Loverly

Well, sadly but true, the first five days of my Christmas break didn’t go exactly the way I was hoping they would.  I've got  to say that this was the most epic adventure of my life.  I had quite a few incredible experiences and learned many valuable lessons.  Life Lesson #15 I learned on this adventure: Nothing is perfect, no matter how much of a perfectionist you are (like me, unfortunately) and that things don't always go the way as planned. So here’s my sad/turned out to be happy story in a nutshell:

My cousin Glenna arrived in Salzburg on Tuesday night during finals week. The plan was for us to leave Salzburg early Friday morning and take the train from there to Munich. Since we have been having loads of snowy weather here in Salzburg for the past two weeks, our train was extremely late. So we were waiting at the Salzburg train station for about 2 hours until our train finally came. The train ride from Salzburg to Munich takes around 2 hours, but since our train was so late, we arrived Munich quite late. The flight we were going to catch to Dublin was actually flying out of Memmingen, which is about 2 hours outside of Munich, so we had to change trains in Munich to get all the way out to Memmingen. This is the part when we knew for sure we were definitely screwed! Instead of two hours, this train ride from Munich to Memmingen took us well over 4 hours. The whole way it was snowing like crazy, so, yeah, we definitely missed our flight to Dublin. It was late in the afternoon, so there was nothing else flying out of Memmingen, but we did notice that there was a flight to London the next morning. So we just thought we might as well go spend a few extra days in London and just get a hostel for four nights before my Aunt Marge and cousin Ann got there. After a long and exhausting day of traveling, we got a cheap hotel room in Memmingen above a German Gasthaus (restaurant) that was in a totally red German-style A-frame-ish shaped building. The next day, we went back to the airport, checked in, went through security, customs, and waited in the terminal for an hour until we learned that our flight had been canceled due to the mass snow in London. Here we were really screwed and  had to come up with a plan C, so we took a bus from the airport back the Munich train station. Since the snow was so bad, we just decided to give up on planes and trains and decided to take the bus to London. That would mean going through the Chunnel, which I had always wanted to experience doing, but honestly, it was not exciting at all.  The bus didn’t leave until Monday, the 20th in the late afternoon, so we got a hostel for two nights in Munich and spent two days exploring the city. I’ve been wanting to explore more of Munich, so it was okay. We tried to make the best out of it.  We went to the Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas Market), did some shopping, went to a Medieval Market (totally reminded me of PT!), ate some of the traditional German wurst, had awesome Indian food, and went on a historic tour of the city.  So, yeah, I'd say we made the best out of it, although I was really dissappointed that I didn't get to go to Ireland.  But heck with it!  I'm still here for 5 more months!  Alles gute!

Trying to get to London through the snow was very challenging. Going through the Chunnel was something I thought I would never get to experience doing.  The entire bus ride from Munich to London took 24 hours. It left Munich at a quarted the 6:00 in the evening.  Luckily I slept most of the way, which was a really good thing since I hadn't had much sleep since the beiginning of finals week. We arrived to the Chunnel the next morning.  To take the Chunnel, you have to go through A LOT of security.  If you are taking the Chunnel by bus, everyone is required to get off with all of their luggage, go through French customs, get their baggage X-rayed, and then get back on the bus.  It was a pain since I was really tired and my suitcase was somewhat heavy. But after that, there's more. When we got back on the bus, we had to get off the bus again (but without our bags thank God) and go through British customs.  It makes sense why both the French and the British would have such high security at the Chunnel, but still it was a hassle and very exhausting.


We arrived in London the day before my Aunt Marge and Ann got there, so we got a hotel near Victoria Station.  We had some good Turkish food for dinner that night and then went back to the hotel and crashed.  24 hour-long bus ride= EXHAUSTING!  The next morning we went for a nice walk through Kennsington Park.  It was so nice not to be rushing to get anywhere or carrying heavy bags.  We were just able to walk through and absorb the beautiful nature of Kennsington Park. My favorite part in the park (and all of London) is the bronze statue of Peter Pan.  As an English major, of coure, I've thought of so many differnent interpretations of James Matthew Barrie's renowned play of the boy who refused to grow up.  I wish I didn't have to grow up! London was absolutely beautiful. All of its archtecture, scenary, and history are all so fascinating.  Walking the streets of London made me feel like I was in scene from Mary Poppins- and I was constantly humming songs from the movie, too. The next day we went on a tour around London on a double-decker bus where got to see all the famous landmarks of the city such as Big Ben, Parliment, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, etc. That night we went to the stage performance of Dirty Dancing, which was absolutely amazing!

It was absolutely wonderful being in London for Christmas, but VERY different from what I'm used to. I was happy to spend it with family, but it was a little strange not to be celebrating Christmas with my parents.  Our Christmas was very simple. On Christmas Eve, we went to Harrods, which is a humungous department store with pretty much everything you can imagine- designers clothes, perfume, make-up, electronics, toys, appliances, you name it they've got it!  Then Glenna and I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollow.  We spent all Christmas Day in our nice little town-house-like hotel that had a kitchen.  We made crepes for Christmas breakfast, opened stockings and presents, listened to music, watched movies, and had a nice and simple dinner.  Although I did miss my parents and friends back home, this was the most relaxing Christmas I had ever had. 

After all what I had been through trying to get to London, I was really happy to get back to Salzburg. My flight left London precisely on time and returned back to Salzburg safe and and sound.  I'm here in beautiful Salzburg for the next four days until I leave for Spain on New Years Day.  Better use these days to catch up on sleep!  Happy New Year!

Semester Done, Dublin and London Here I Come!

Whew, I made it! Wow, I'm halfway done with my sophomore year of college, if you can believe it!  I have had so many incredible and life-changing experiences these past 4 months, and it's not even over yet!  There are still many places I need to go visit before my time up is here.  In three weeks, Ireland, England, and Spain will be checked off my list and then I get to travel a lot around Greece and Italy on my spring tour.  I'm planning to get a lot more traveling in this next semester because I have absolutely no idea when, or if, I'll get to come back to Europe someday, so I really want to take advantage of travelling oppurtunitie this coming new year!
My final exams went okay, but I can't really say how I did until I see my results. I'll just say I think I did quite fine, after all I did pull at least 3 all-nighters last week. Crossing my fingers!  Now the pressure is over and now I'm off to a wonderful and relaxing time in Dublin and London for two weeks.  I'll come back to Salzburg for a few days, sleep, do laundry, and repack, and then my friend and I will be off to Spain on New Year's Day.  We will be going to Barcelona, San Sebastian, and Madrid.  It'll sure be a nice contrast in terms of weather conditions after spending 2 freezing cold weeks in the UK, that's for sure!
Wishing you all back home US, or any of you elsewhere in the world, the Happiest of Holidays!

Two More Weeks Until Freedom!

Well, everyone, I'm drawing really close to the end of the semester here.  To tell you all the truth, I couldn't be anymore excited for this semester to be over because 1) I'm so ready to be done with classes, 2) I'm excited to see my favorite cousin of all times for whom I haven't seen in a year and 5 months, and 3) I super duper and extremly stoked to visit Ireland and London.  I finish finals on the 16th of December and the next day, Glenna and I will fly out of Munich to Dublin. I'm going to have three weeks of complete freedom to do and see whatever I want in Europe and not have to think about writing papers or studying for tests.  Since I have my so called "three weeks of freedom,"  I thought it would make the most sense to travel to places that are farther away from Salzburg (i.e. Ireland, England, and Spain- which are the places I will be traveling to!).  Glenna and I will spend 5 days in Dublin and hopefully tour the southern countryside of Irealnd.  Then on December 22, we will fly to London and meet up to spend a week (including Christmas Day!) with her mom Ann (who is also my cousin) and my Aunt Marge (her grandma).  It is going to be a Christmas to remember and I couldn't be any happier, although I do wish my parents could come spend this wonderful oppurtunity with us!  But I'm just so thankful that I will be able to be with family during the holidays! 
Before I embark on this wonderful two week Christmas vacation in the United Kingdom, I have a few obtacles to jump through.  I have text book chapters I still need to read, projects to finish, and LOTS of studying to do!   Next week is our last week of classses, which in college terms is called "DEAD WEEK."  I've adjusted to the cultural and social difference here in Austria just fine, but the classes taught here and living and going to school  with the same 40 people has been a really big challenge for me.  I think these are to two major things that all of us have been struggling with here.  But, unlike everyone else here, I'm not homesick!  Don't get me wrong.  I really do miss my parents, friends at UP, some special people at St. Pauls, and of course my cat, but most of you will understand that I really needed to get out of  PT and actually experience the real world, which I have been doing.  I have totally been learning more outside of the classroom since I've been here, no duh.  To be honest, now that it's been a year and half since I graduated high school and all of my friends have moved away, I don't have anything left there except my family, St. Pauls, and precious childhood memories-that's all.  Yes, these are the roots of my life and I love my real blood-related family and St. Paul's family, but seriously, this is a time for me to experience living differnent places and meeting new people.  The longer I live away from Port Townsend, the more I will be able to appreciate it.  Will I ever come back? Maybe I will or maybe I won't.   It all depends on where life will choose to take me after my 8 months here in Salzburg. Port Townsend is the place where I was born and raised and it will always be a part of me, but now it's time to leave it all behind and go out and experience the real world, which I have absolutely been doing over here!
So please wish me best wishes and luck as I go through these next two (stressful and tiring) weeks of  the semester.  Before I know it I will be looking at the beautiful green fields of Ireland and I will not have school on my mind!