The Hills are Alive

This weekend I had the privilege of traveling to the scenery of one of my favorite movie's of all time: The Sound of Music! Jennifer, Jessica, and I departed from Regensburg at 9:45 and arrived in Salzburg, Austria at 1 p.m. We switched trains at Munich and I had time to get a Starbucks coffee. This is where my weekend of good fortune began: Starbucks was having a free tall coffee day.? I had never heard of such a thing, but I gladly took my free coffee without debating. When we got to Salzburg, we bought a one day bus pass to save some time finding the hostel. The hostel upgraded us to a four person room with our own bathroom. We had a roommate Friday night, but the room to ourselves on Saturday night. We met up with Toby and Kelsey at Mozart's House for a guided tour. I learned many interesting facts about Mozart and his house was beautiful.

The five of us hiked to the castle next. We thought we could walk around it without going in for free, but they wanted us to pay. Instead, we climbed on the rock wall and took some amazing pictures of Salzburg. The weather was sunny and 70 degrees all day. Another piece of luck came when a Salzburg festival happened to be going on all weekend. We walked around the open markets and I bought myself a birthday present, since I turn 20 in less than 2 weeks. I got a pink paisley scarf from an outdoor vendor. After that we wandered the downtown streets and stopped for Gelato. I got peanut butter & nutella flavored ice cream!

Jennifer, Jessica and I were on a time schedule because we had to get back to the hostel in time to watch the free viewing of The Sound of Music. We changed into our pajamas and brought our bread, peanut butter, and jelly with us to the projector room. The audience consisted of 2 girls we met who are studying abroad in Switzerland and they go to Pepperdine in Malibu, California. There were also 2 boys who were backpacking Europe. The girls and I sat and ate pb&j's and pretzels while we sang along to the movie. The movie got us very excited for the tour the next day!

We woke up and got ready, then went downstairs for a wonderful continental breakfast. The word 'free' while traveling abroad is even better than in the States. The breakfast had the typical Europe menu items: bread, cheeses, cold cuts, jelly, eggs, cereal, and coffee. After breakfast, we got on the big tour bus for a 4 hour ride around Salzburg. The tour guide was a precious old man who really did a great job telling all the secrets to the movie. We saw: Liesel's gazebo where she danced 16 going on 17, the wall of the house where Maria sang 'I have Confidence', the nunnery, the back of one of the Von Trap houses where they fell in the water, the church where Maria married, the famous foot bridge for Do-Re-Mi, and the Rosegarten. The guide said it would take 20 hours to see every scenery in the movie, so we just hit the highlights. We had an hour to roam the church, but the girls and I went to a cafe for 30 minutes and split an apfel strudel and coffee. The tour was worth the opportunity to just drive around and look at Austria. And, there is nothing like being able to watch a movie and say "I've been there!" Had it not been for the rainy weather, it would have been an absolutely perfect day!

The rest of the day we roamed downtown and the markets again. We were exhausted from a day of constantly moving. In the morning, we woke up to the breakfast again, checked out of the hostel, and were on our way by 9 a.m. Our last stop before leaving Salzburg was the Nature Museum. Although most of the information was in German, we spent about 2 hours walking around the museum looking at everything from dinosaurs, aquariums, space exploration, and more. We got on a train around noon and were home by 4 p.m.! I love being able to conquer a country in a 3 day weekend.

Oktoberfest

Everyone says you have to go to Oktoberfest, so I went. My two friends, Jessica and Jennifer, and I looked at our calendar and decided the only day we had to travel to Munich was Thursday night before we went to Salzburg. After school we left around 4:40 for the hour train ride. We followed those dressed in dirndls and lederhosen for a fifteen minute walk to Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest is basically Dult fest, which was held in Regensubrg, times about 5! The place was huge. Luckily, we went on a week night or else the crowds would have been unbearable. We each got a giant pretzel and some form of dessert. I chose a white-chocolate covered apple. Jennifer and Jessica rode a very fast, spinning ride and I held all the stuff. I know my limitations on fun and I drew the line there. We walked around until about 9, then got on a train to come home. Even the train was packed leaving Munich. It was standing room only! And most of the Germans were living up to their stereotype of smelling not so great. However, at least I can say, I experienced Oktoberfest!

The 50 Mile Bike Ride

Fifty miles is no exaggeration. I pedaled every single one of them. Jessica, Jennifer, and I met Mr. Griffin and Dr. Basile for a day of bike riding. I treated myself to a chocolate croissant this morning because I knew I would burn the calories during the bike ride. We went along the Danube, stopping after about an hour for coffee. We hopped on a wooden boat with our bikes that took us to the other side of the riverbank. This old man with a huge paddle shuttled us over. Then, we proceeded to bike for another 2 hours until we came to the town of Kelheim, which happens to be where I had just TRAINED 2 weeks earlier to view an old monastery. We parked our bikes at the bottom of a hill and hiked to view Ludwig I's memorial. I took a picture in front of the memorial where I am sporting some spandex biker shorts that were padded in the butt and I am very thankful for them! I would not have made the 50 miles without them.

Inside the memorial was a beautiful marble floor surrounded by stone angels that had plaques of all the battles. I climbed 165 stairs (this is after 25 miles of riding) to the top of the memorial to look down at the city of Kelheim. We left the memorial and road our bikes another hour and a half. We were all very hungry for lunch (even though it was now 4:20 p.m.) We split a huge cheese plate with bread. I got a milchkaffe (milk coffee) that have become my favorite thing to order here. After the lunch/snack, it was time to bike the rest of the way. It was a very difficult ride back because my lower body was in serious pain. There were a few tears shed, but at 6:30 I made it home! I loved biking through the country side of Germany and passing so many little towns. My favorite is seeing churches with a steeple in every single town I passed. Even though I may not be able to sit down for a week, seeing Germany from a different perspective is worth it!

Nurnberg

This week was busy! I have officially been in Germany for a month now. I started the week off by hosting the first girls Bible study in my dorm room. Two girls came, Jessica and Marta, who is from Poland. Tuesday brought a tour of the Old Town Hall in Regensburg. The Town Hall provided a meeting place for the political meetings of governing princes from the surrounding area. My friends and I attempted to make a strawberry cake from scratch using ingredients that required lots of "improvising." For example, we needed strawberry gelatin and I'm not sure if we bought pudding or jello. It still remains a mystery. The purpose of the cake was to celebrate the program director's birthday the following evening. We had a pasta dinner, movie night, and strawberry cake (however they turned out more like strawberry brownies with the dense consistency) at The Johnston's and at Griffin's. Thursday, I baby-sat for the four Johnston children. Finally, Friday came and the group took a day trip to Nurnberg.

The train ride lasted about an hour. Once we arrived, we got on a city train that took us to the Nazi museum. The museum is located where the Nazi party use to rally. I spent the next 2 hours walking around with a speaker device that told me all the information in English. It was information overload as far as content, but I learned so much about WW2 and Nurnberg. I found one fact very interesting: typically when a political party receives a "majority" vote, the percentage is 5-7%, Hitler came into power with a 34% popularity vote. I was absolutely amazed.

We took the city train back into old town and my friends and I took our time walking to the next excursion. We had to be at the Albrecht Durer house by 3, but from 2:30 to 3 we hiked around the Nurnberg Castle! I was so happy to finally get to look through a castle. I had only seen a castle the week before from the train. At 3 the tour of the artist's house began and the tour guide dressed in an authentic outfit of Albrecht's wife. The lady guide did a wonderful job and was absolutely precious. Albrecht's house was considered "modern" because it had a rope attached to the door allowing it to be opened from the 2nd floor. This house had 3 kitchens. One for the wife, one for the mother-in-law, and one called the "color kitchen" where Albrecht mixed all of his paints. We left the artist's house and spent 30 quick minutes walking through the toy museum since it closed at 5.

A group of us ate dinner at an underground German restaurant. I split a macaroni and cheese dish with Jessica. For dessert, I got sugar-roasted almonds from a vendor off the street. At 730 we loaded back on the train to come home!

Gimmelwald & the Mountain Hostel

From Bern we took a train to Interlacken West, a train to Interlacken Ost (east), a bus to the Gondola, and a 5 minute ride on the Gondola/cable car to arrive in Gimmelwald. When we arrived it was 9 p.m. so we couldn't see much. We walked about 100 feet to the hostel where the lady who runs it told us "the conditions." The four of us slept 4 across in the top row of the bunk beds in the girls room. Other rooms were family, boys, couples, and the honey-moon suite. To use the shower cost 1 franc for 5 minutes of water time. However, we all forgot towels and the hostel had none. You may ask, what did I use?? I used the long sleeve t-shirt I had worn the entire day during Bern. You just got to make due and I did. Also, Gimmelwald is a town of 100 people and no grocery store. I brought apples and granola bars for breakfast, thankfully. I think those were all the conditions, but it made for a memorable and fun stay. I rose to the occasion with creativity to make it through the weekend. We all fell asleep early because we were tired from our long day of travel.

I woke up at 7:30 a.m. and looked out the hostel window. The snow-capped Swiss Alps were staring me in the face. Our hostel was literally carved into the side of the mountain and we were surrounded by green grass and mountains. I took my shower (remember everything I went through to get clean), made hot tea, and sat on the picnic tables outside to read my Bible and journal. Once everyone had eaten breakfast and gotten ready, we went on hike #1 of the day. We opted for the 'children's trail' and walked for over an hour down the mountain seeing farm animals, small creeks and waterfalls, paragliders, small cabins, and other hikers. We decided to turn back because we were hungry for lunch. When we got back to the hostel, we split 2 cheese pizzas for the 4 of us followed by sharing a Swiss Chocolate bar and a few games of cards.

Next, we hiked to Murren which is the larger town about 50 minutes away. We took picture breaks because it was some steep hiking at times. Once we made it to Murren, we walked through shops and took in the town. We contemplated what it was like growing up in this environment. Some favorites on the hike included seeing the Edelweiss Hotel (reminded me of the Sound of Music), buying an Edelweiss patch for my AOII jacket, and talking to 2 American men. These guys were about 50 and were brother-in-laws. They are vacationing for 2 weeks and they were desperate to watch some college football. I gave them our hiking map because it was much better and I knew the way back. We even took our picture with them. I've noticed whenever I hear someone speaking English I am almost compelled to speak to them. It makes me not miss home as much. We got back to the hostel around 4, but kept walking around Gimmelwald. I had seen signs a few times that day saying "ring bell for Alpkasse" (swiss cheese). I figured, what the heck, you only get fresh swiss cheese once in your life. So I buzzed this cabin, and a woman stuck her head out the 2nd floor window. She came down and walked us across the street to this building. When she opened the door, it was a small room with shelves filled with the most amount of cheese I have ever seen! We got a little to take back to the hostel and used it in the pasta we made for dinner. Jessica and I sat and talked on the picnic tables sipping hot chocolate until the sun went down. We all went to sleep early again because we woke up at 5 a.m. to come home.

When I woke up early to take my shower, I looked out the window and saw the most beautiful, starry night sky I had ever seen. With no city lights, the stars were like spot lights. I still haven't decided if I like Gimmelwald better at night or during the day. Then, we rode the Gondola down to the bus, got on a train and headed home. I slept a little on the train, read a book, and worked on homework. Visiting Switzerland will probably be a highlight of my trip studying abroad.

"His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth..." Psalm 48: 1-2