Tour of Austria: (Accidentally Salzburg) Hallstatt and Graz; also Halloween!

Once again, scroll to the bottom for pictures.

After my final midterm Thursday morning (Europe Beyond the Nation State), four of us from that class left straight from the test and went to the Westbahnhof train station – Allison, Ashley, Katie Mixon, and myself. Two of our other friends, Michelle D’Arpino and Julia Orrange (yes that is her last name and yes it is spelled with two “r”s – we were both eating orange slices once and she finished hers rather quickly causing me to make a sarcastic comment - she responded equally sarcastically: “my last name is "orange" – I obviously know how to eat one”), also met us at the station. One more friend, Liz, was also supposed to meet us, but the communication about the trip was thus far sub-par. Though we called her before we left, she didn’t get in touch with us until our train had left. Needless to say, we felt pretty bad, and she wasn’t particularly happy with us.

Anyway, we were on our first train and under the impression we needed to switch trains at Salzburg. So we went to Salzburg (check that one off the list). Turns out, we needed to switch a few stops before Salzburg, so we had to get on a different train and retrace our tracks. Yet another friend, Carli Smith, was supposed to meet up with us in Salzburg but she wasn’t ready, so it turned out just six of us were going to be in Hallstatt the first night instead of 8 (which worked out super for me, but I’ll get there later). We got on the train at the right platform and sat down. Ashley decided it may be prudent to ask and make sure we were on the right train. She came running back shaking her head and making a really scary face. Evidently we were on the wrong train.

She ran and got her bag. The rest of us started to get ours as well but we didn’t really hurry like Ashley was because we didn’t think it was a huge deal. Then the train started moving. We ran to the door where there was an OBB (the train system in Austria) employee by the door holding it open as the train was moving. He reached for Ashley’s bag, at which point we all thought we were going to have to toss our stuff and jump. Luckily, the guy yelled a couple times and the train stopped. Finally we got on train #3 (where we sat in the young child play cabin), took it a few stops, and transferred to train #4. As soon as we got on we made sure to ask if it was headed to Hallstatt. Once we were reasonably confident we were going in the right direction, we sat down and relaxed. Katie made our lodging reservations at a bed and breakfast, and the husband was kind enough to pick us up from the station because we got in about 8, it was dark, and we had no idea where to go.

I’m realizing this post is going to be really long, so my apologies in advance, but I figured it may be prudent to give a brief explanation of Hallstatt. Hallstatt is a small Austrian village in the Alps. It is completely surrounded by mountains, it sits on a lake, and is exactly what you would believe an Austrian village should look like. It is also an UNESCO World Heritage cite. To add to the beauty of Hallstatt, our two days there came right in the middle of the change to fall, so the slopes were covered in shades of red, orange, yellow, and green trees. Hopefully the pictures do it some kind of justice, but I’m afraid that may not be possible.

We stayed at a bed and breakfast named the Haus Lidy. We were the only guests there (in fact we found out that the day after we left they close down for a month for vacation), and we had three rooms. Two of them were labeled “Kinderzimmer,” which means the room for children, and one was labeled “Wohnzimmer,” which translates roughly to the master bedroom. Since there were six of us, we split into groups of two – Julia and Michelle took one kid’s room, Ashley and Allison took another, and Katie and I took the master bedroom because it had a king size bed and a set of bunk beds. All the rooms had bathrooms, warm comforters, a balcony, a TV, and plenty of space. It was SUPER fortunate for me that Carli couldn’t come with us that first night; she was supposed to be the sixth person and Katie’s roommate and I was going to have to find another place to stay. Luckily, I got to take her spot and I did the right thing and gave Katie the king bed, while I slept on the bottom bunk (don’t worry mom – no more top bunks for me).

After putting our stuff down, we walked 15 minutes into town to find some dinner. (For those of you who read this and have been to Colorado with the Blythe family, Hallstatt is similar to La Veta in size and layout, and different in every other way possible.) Because Hallstatt is so small, almost nothing was open, but we found one bar where we were served käsekrainers (I think I’ve mentioned these before – they’re bratwursts with melted cheese inside, and they are so so so good) and soup. The bartender told us this was pretty much the only bar in Hallstatt. Sure enough, 30 minutes after we got there, about 12 young people showed up. They told us they came to this bar almost every night. At one point the bartender walked in and addressed the other students in English using pretty crude language as a joke, and we all laughed. She felt really bad once she realized people who actually spoke English were sitting in the room as well. After making new friends for a little while, we decided we’d had a long day of travel and we were all ready to sleep.

The next morning we ate breakfast about 9. It was traditional Austrian: a soft boiled egg, semmels (rolls), ham and salami, apricot jam, butter, tea and coffee, and orange juice. The room in which we ate breakfast was really cute, and the wife/proprietor who served us was so nice. We took our time enjoying the food, and eventually we made our way into town. Though the day started foggy, it slowly cleared off into a gorgeous, sunny, and warm enough day. We also happened to run into three other IES students, one of whom was Evan, one of my roommates, who had neglected to tell us he was also going to be spending about a day in Hallstatt this weekend.

First we spent a little bit of time in the Hallstatt museum where we learned mostly about the history of salt mining in the area. Then we decided to undertake the hour-long hike to the top of one of the ridges (under the impression that we could take a lift back down afterwards). We went to the store and bought pretzel-like bread, apples, chocolate, cheese, and water. The walk/climb was a little more difficult than we imagined, but we walked past a fantastic waterfall on our way up, and the views were absolutely amazing.

At the top we encountered snow. Of course this would eventually lead to a snowball fight, but first we enjoyed the view, took pictures, and sat down to eat our lunch. Julia and Michelle surprised us – they had also lugged a bottle of wine all the way up to the top of the mountain in their backpack. We had about a two-hour break up there where we just lounged, ate, and enjoyed the view. None of us really wanted to go down. Finally we decided we should make our way back down before the sun went behind the mountains. It was at this point that all five girls with snowballs ambushed me. Fortunately, super athleticism runs in the family, so I’m reasonably confident I dominated the snowball fight. Going down the mountain didn’t take as long as going up did (obviously), but we decided it was generally easier on our legs to just let our momentum carry us down – so we ran most of the way. Luckily no one fell.

Once we got down we went back to our place to rest for a little bit and pick out a place to eat dinner. On our way out we met up with Carli who had just arrived on the train. We all ate a really early dinner, and then decided that it wasn’t worth trying to find a new place to go out, so we went back to the bed and breakfast to watch a movie (Forgetting Sarah Marshall). Afterwards we were all really tired from all of our exercise, so we just went to bed. Carli slept on the top bunk in our room. It was interesting to have pillow talk with someone besides Pat for the first time in…3 months?

The next morning we got up to eat about 8 so we could catch the 9:15 ferry across the lake and the 9:30 train. Part of the track was under construction, so we had to get off the train and get in a van that took us on a windy mountain pass at about 57 miles an hour. Fortunately it didn’t last that long, and we got on another train that took us to a stop where we had to transfer to another train to get to Graz (our next destination – and if you’re counting, we’ve now been on 7 trains). Graz is in the Styrian province in Austria, which is a gorgeous area as well. It is the second largest city in Austria.

We arrived at about 12:30, and Patrick joined us a few minutes later. Julia and Michelle had decided not to go to Graz (because they had already been once), so Pat rounded our group back out to six. We walked about 20 minutes to our hostel, the Jufa, where we had 3 rooms. Pat and I were reunited, and Katie and Carli stayed together. Once again we set out to explore a new city.

The center of the city was about a fifteen-minute walk from our hostel. We walked in front of the city hall, and then down the street to the Armour Museum. Touted as the largest collection in the world, it boasts over 32,000 pieces. At first we were skeptical. However, there are 4 floors simply littered with guns, swords, and pieces of armour. There was even horse armour. It was a really neat museum.

We at lunch at a little local place where I tried the schnitzel. The berries that came with it were very good, but the schnitzel itself wasn’t quite as good as Schnitzelwirt. Afterwards we walked around the old town, and then decided to climb to the top of the fortress. After hiking the previous day, this wasn’t particularly easy, but the views of Graz from on top were amazing. We also got to watch the sun set behind the mountains, which was also really pretty. We walked down before it got completely dark and decided to head back to the hotel to hang out for a while and try and watch a little bit of the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear”. Unfortunately my Internet connection wasn’t good enough to pick up the streaming, but we read some about it. Since we had eaten lunch so late, we left to go find dinner around 9. We all decided we really wanted kebaps, so we went in search of a place to get one. The first guy turned us down and said everyone was closed. That was a mistake.

A couple blocks down we ran into a store where a Turkish man politely ushered us in. We all ordered one, and then Pat and Carli decided to share another one. Pat asked if he could make it himself, which the guy let him do. He loved Pat. Then again, who doesn’t? But Pat, like Mal in Florence, made his own kebap. Eventually we asked the man to point us in the direction of the best nightlife. This took us back by the first stand we had walked by, where the man there was now serving someone else. Without consulting each other, we collectively booed as we passed by. Eventually we asked some other young people where the best places to be were. They didn’t provide a whole lot of help, but we ended up taking an elevator to an upstairs club area, at which point we climbed the stairs and ended up on the roof. We hung out there until we all got cold, and then just decided it wasn’t worth wandering around anymore, so we just went back to the hostel and hung out before bed.

The next morning (the 31st) we got up and at breakfast an hour earlier than we meant to because the time fell back one hour here. Oops. We picked up the 10:26 train and were back in Vienna by 1 that afternoon. I immediately took a 4-hour nap, and then got up to prepare for Halloween. November 1 is a national holiday in Austria, so we didn’t have any classes the next day. We had a bunch of people over to our apartment, including Kelvin Bates, a friend from Davidson. He is studying in Geneva and was in Vienna this weekend. Unfortunately we only got to see him one night. We then went out to hear Tobi (one of our program directors who is 28) and his “hip-hop group” perform at a club. Finally, we called it a weekend and went home to sleep late in the day on Monday.

Sorry this post is so long. I’m going to include a couple final thoughts:

Study abroad is an interesting phenomenon. I can’t speak for everyone, but to me it feels a little bit like the first semester of freshman year. I’ve spent plenty of time building friendships with people with whom I believe it is worth spending time. Yet, unlike freshman year, once we all leave for winter break, we won’t ever be in the same place at the same time again. And it’s likely that I won’t see most of them ever again anyway. There are a couple I share mutual friends with back at home, which makes it slightly more likely. But still, we have six weeks left. It’s starting to all seem a little bit like it isn’t worth it to continue to try and build on these friendships. Obviously, I will continue building anyway because that’s who I am. But it makes me miss people from back home, and it makes me a little sad to wonder how much I’ll talk to people I met here, if I talk to them at all.

Sorry for the depressing endnote. I love it here. And I love the people here. On Thursday Pat and I leave for Istanbul for 4 days (we are aware of the suicide bomber attack that just unfortunately killed 32 – it wasn’t close to where we will be, but we will use as much caution as possible). When I get back, two friends from home, Laura Jerzyk and Quinn Rodgers are coming to visit (along with maybe a friend from Davidson). The next weekend there will be three or four Davidson people in town, including Pat’s girlfriend (and my good friend, I might add) Katie Lovett. The weekend after that I’ll be attempting to see Brussels, London, and Paris. The last two weekends of the semester I plan on spending in Vienna with everyone here. And I’ll make sure every minute is completely worth it.

The "Kid's Car" on the second train

Fog in the early morning over Hallstatt

Enlarge as many of these as you want. It was so pretty

From left to right: Julia, Allison, Katie, Ashley, and Michelle

snow...Snow...SNow...SNOw...SNOW!!

View of the lake and mountains with the town at the bottom

The girls in front of our bed and breakfast - the Haus Lidy.  Carli, who joined us late, is on the far left.

Pat and Allison in front of the Rathaus in Graz

At the Armour Museum

A view of Graz from the fortress

Carli and Pat with the kebap man who let Pat make his own kebap!

And the string of visits continues...

Once more, the formatting on my blog is being weird, so I'm going to have to include all of the pictures at the end.  Sorry!  

Again, I think the easiest way to do this is just to go day by day, because so much happened. I’m not sure I’ll remember it all, but here goes the best synopsis I can come up with for Paul Britton’s visit to Vienna. (Paul Britton is not the same Paul that I visited last post in Madrid. He is studying abroad in London, and is also one of our good friends at Davidson. He lived on the same hall as Pat and I did freshman year.)

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Paul’s plane landed around 7:30 in the evening. Pat and I, being the great friends that we are, went to the airport to pick him up. Of course, we cut it a little close, and as we were making a sign for him we saw him walk out and start to follow the directions we gave him (because we hadn’t told him we were going to pick him up). Instead of just going and getting him, we decided to follow him and see how well he did. Once we were sure he was going to make it on his own, Pat did the birdcall and got his attention, and we took him to our apartment. He was hungry, so we all went out to Centimeter (my mom and I went there a couple of times). Our roommate David went with us, and a friend of ours, Aliza, met us there. Afterwards we spent a little time at a bar, but all of us (except Paul of course) had class the next morning so we called it a night pretty early.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Pat and I each have three classes, and since the next week would be midterms, we needed to go to all of them to make sure we had all the notes and knew what would be on our tests. Paul spent the afternoon wandering around the area near our classes. We finished with classes and got home about 6:30. I’m pretty sure we accidentally skipped dinner (I may have made myself a small sandwich) but we had a bunch of friends over to hang out for a while. We never ended up going out, but we did spend time skyping (an internet video chatting device) a number of friends from Davidson. Eventually Paul fell asleep on my bed. I woke him up when I was ready to go to sleep, but after we both brushed our teeth I decided just to let him sleep there so I took my alarm clock to the living room and slept on the futon. Evidently Paul woke up at some time in the night and felt bad for being in my bed, because when I woke up he was on one of our other couches with no blanket. Once I got up he moved to the futon and went immediately back to sleep.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Pat and I had our last German classes of the week, so I forced myself out of bed, made it through the class, and returned to my bed to sleep for another few hours. Pat’s class was at 10:30, so when he got home we all got up and tried to make a plan for the day. Mostly, we decided Pat and I needed to study for our German midterm (which was the next day) and Paul should do a bit of sight-seeing while it was nice. So we sent Paul to the Schonnbrun Palace and Pat and I pretended to study (just kidding mom…). In the evening we too Paul to Schnitzelwirt (another place I went with my mom and every other guest we’ve had) for dinner, and then we packed it in early and called it a night. It was a much slower day, but we all needed it. At one point I turned to Paul and asked, “Did you come to Vienna to see Vienna or to hang out?” He responded, “I’ll let you answer that one for yourself.”

For those who were worried, I did put in a call to my mom to wish her happy birthday!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Pat and I had to take our German midterms, but we finished in a little more than an hour. Afterwards we took Paul to the Schweiserhaus (another place I went with my mom). A few minutes later we were joined by a variety of other students from our program. We ate lunch there and hung out for a while. On our way out all of them did the ride “Extasy”. I’ve attempted to include a picture – it starts spinning on the ground, moves up and spins you sideways, and then goes vertical and spins you upside down. It then slows down, and spins you the opposite way in the same three positions. It’s pretty intense.

No one got sick, but a couple of people (Paul included) weren’t feeling too hot afterwards. Everyone went back to our apartment where we hung out for almost the entire afternoon. At about 7 the three of us went to have dinner with one of our program directors. We had a good time, but after a couple hours Paul and I left to go meet up with everyone we had been with earlier in the day. Pat was pretty tired, so he decided to stay and hang out and told us he would meet up with us later (which did not actually happen). Coincidentally, Paul and I ran into the people we were looking for at an u-bahn stop, so we followed them to a club named U4 (cleverly named as it is right off of the U4 line). When we first went in, it didn’t really seem like it was worth the 10 euro cover. After a couple hours though, it turned out to be really fun. Paul and I tried to talk to a few Austrian girls by asking them if they spoke English (not the best of pick-up lines). They just scowled and shook their heads (which is almost definitely a lie). Paul, in a bit of an angry tone, responded “Was ist das!?” (Vas ist das…means what is this?) and stormed off. I just laughed and followed.

A couple times during the night Pat texted me to ask where we were and if Paul was still with me. Because my phone was in my back pocket, I never actually felt it buzz. Eventually he texted my old phone (which we had fortunately given to Paul), and Paul responded in a timely manner. This eased Pat’s nerves – he told us the next day he was rather worried he was going to have to go out searching all over Vienna for our lost friend. Paul left about 2:15 and went home (he took my keys and it was just a few stops away from our place). When he got there, he thought he has lost my keys because they weren’t in his pants’ pockets, so he had to be buzzed in by our roommate Tad. Fortunately, they were just in his jacket. I left about 3:30 and got home at 4. Luckily Paul was asleep on the futon and not in my bed this time.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Yet again, we all slept in rather late. Once we all woke up, we decided it would be worthwhile for Pat and I to do some studying during the day since our midterms started the next day. However, we also needed to visit the Roman ruins museum, so we took Paul to go do that. We thought it was going to be more extensive than it was, but it only cost 3 euro to get in. It was mostly just the base of a house they had found underground and then a bunch of displays about Roman life in “Vindabona” (the name of Vienna back then) and stuff like their aqueduct system (which was really elaborate and pretty impressive).

It was a little bit rainier than it had been earlier in the weekend, so we went home and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening doing homework, studying, and watching American football that was on our ESPN America channel. I also watched the Davidson women’s soccer game against Chattanooga (which we won, keeping us alive to get into the Southern Conference tournament). Later that evening the three of us skyped with Jonathan Fisher (a good friend of ours at school) and Mary Marshall Meredith (also a good friend and a soccer player). Our test wasn’t until 1 the next day, but we decided it wouldn’t hurt to get an extra hour of sleep or two since we had spent so much time not sleeping over the weekend.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Pat and I woke up and studied a little bit more for our test and then went and took it while Paul gave himself a self-guided tour around the ring. Afterwards we went back to the apartment where I started studying for the next day. Eventually I had to take a brief nap, and when I woke up the other two had gone to go get food to cook for dinner. After one final meal together, Pat and I took Paul to the train station to catch his train to the airport. His flight was pretty late so he didn’t get home until after 1 am, but I would like to think his trip was completely worth it.

Midterms – October 25 – October 28: For my 5 classes, my midterms were as follows:

Cross-Cultural Philosophy was a paper that was due a week in advance. So I had no formal test in that class.

German was a test the Saturday Paul was here. It went well.

Austrian Art and Architecture was a written test where we had to identify a set of slides and then respond to two essay questions. It wasn’t terribly difficult.

Political Science – The New European Security Architecture was a verbal exam on Tuesday. It was reasonably straight forward, it was done in pairs, and Pat and I did really well.

Political Science – Europe Beyond the Nation State was a written exam on Thursday and was surprisingly easy – or it just happened to be exactly what I had studied. 

Thursday immediately after that test, I left with Allison, Ashley, Julia, Katie, and Michelle to go to Hallstatt and Graz for the weekend. Patrick will be joining us when we get to Graz. But that’s another post.

This is the ride named "Extasy" - as you can see the cars are upside down
and spinning around in multiple ways.

This is Paul attempting to put on his "that was so awesome and I feel great"
face after doing the ride seen above.  You should have seen him a mere
two minutes later.

This is paul re-enacting where he woke up Friday
morning after he evidently slept-walked out of my
bed.  

Me, Patrick, and Paul right before Paul left.

I forgot to mention that on Tuesday after my midterm  Roger and I went to see
an ATP tournament being held indoors in Vienna.  We got to see Thomas
Muster play - the only Austrian to ever be ranked #1 in the world!

Madrid with Paul Ream

It’s now been six days since I have posted, and I’m sorry the number of posts per week is getting lower. It seems that every weekend I go and do something or host a visitor, which prevents me from catching up. So here is my post covering my trip to Madrid, which took place from October 14-18. In order to help myself remember as much as I can, I’m going to do it by date like some of my Cairo posts were.  Also, I don't know what's going on with my computer but I'm just going to have to put all the pictures at the end of this post.  Sorry!

Thursday, October 14:

I had a German test at 9 in the morning. I had to get up early to run my mom to the City Airport Train so she could fly home (once again, it was great having her here), and then I hustled to my class. I ended up getting an A on the test, so it all worked out. Anyway, I then attended my 1:25 class in which we had to perform the Melian Dialogue. I digress.

After class I went home and finished packing. I had a 7:30 flight, so I got to the airport around 5:15. Turns out in Europe, especially flights within the EU, they don’t even open check-in until an hour and a half before the flight. So I got something to eat, checked in, and went and used wireless Internet at my gate for a while. I flew Iberian Airlines (the only easy way to get straight to Madrid), and my flight was a little late getting into Madrid, but there was Paul Ream, a good friend of mine from Davidson, waiting with a sign to pick me up (it said “Panel” which is a nickname a group of us gave ourselves last year…and I would explain it but after reading it you would just think it was stupid, so I’ll spare you the headache and myself the embarrassment).

We took the 45-minute underground ride home (but it was very nice that their underground runs all the way to the airport). Paul is staying with a host family – a mom, her sister, and three sons, ages 26, 22, and 13. They have a relatively small buy very homely apartment, and they were very, very generous. We arrived around midnight, and spend an hour or so in the kitchen talking to the aunt. It really made me miss Spanish. I discovered my listening abilities were OK…certainly not anywhere near as good as Paul’s are, but my speaking abilities are still way behind. Granted, I haven’t taken a Spanish course in almost a year, but still. However, native Spaniards swallow all of their “s”s and speak so quickly…it is truly remarkable. Mostly I listened to them talk and tried to understand what I could and answer anything she asked without sounding like a fool.

Paul allowed me to share his double bed for the weekend, and about 1 a.m. I told him I was pretty tired, so we headed to bed.

Friday, October 15:

Paul usually doesn’t have class on Fridays, but this Friday his internship class was taking a tour of El Pais, the major national newspaper, so I went with them. The tour was all in Spanish, but it was easier than the night before because she knew she was speaking to a group of Spanish as a second language students. I didn’t understand everything, but most of the important stuff I understood (like how the entire sports room was devoted to different football (soccer) teams except 6 or 8 desks). It was pretty interesting, not to mention really large.

Afterwards we went on a walking tour around the city. We saw the main square, the oldest active restaurant in the world, an area of the city that looks like Vienna because the Hapsburgs built it, and eventually the royal palace and church. The architecture is quite interesting all around the city, and it just feels like a much, much bigger city than Vienna (because it is, about three times as big). We walked through an enclosed market place and tried some food, then walked past a statue of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and finally went home to retire for an afternoon/evening fiesta.

We woke up about 9:30 and went out to start our evening. For dinner we went to a local shop famous for it’s huge sandwiches. How huge you ask? They were made of toasted bread, cheese, and ham. Only not like the ham you get in the store or in a Subway sandwich. This was like ham cut right off of the Christmas ham. Thick, juicy, tender, real cuts of ham. Pilled so high I couldn’t fit my mouth all the way around it. The sandwich itself was as long as both of our heads but together. We each had a half and were completely satisfied.

Afterwards we partook in the Spanish tradition of botellón. This pretty much means going to an open air place, spending time with a bunch of other students, and hanging out in clusters until sometime between 1 and 2 in the morning, at which point everyone leaves and goes to a bar or club. Did I mention, by the way, that the weather in Madrid was gorgeous? Clear blue skies, 70 degrees; it was absolutely amazing. It got kind of chilly at night but that’s ok. Mike Anderson, another Davidson student who is studying in Madrid for the semester, also joined us. After hanging out, we went to a bar that is shaped like a cave. In fact, there’s even a drink named Panther’s Milk that you can order (and we did order), and when you order it all of the lights go on and milk starts shooting out of one of the stalactites into a large fishbowl. Unfortunately we stayed there too long, so by the time we got to the club (Kardinal) that we were going to go to, it was too expensive (we were on the list to get in free or cheap, but that only works up to a certain point). We ended up going to another bar where there was basketball on tv and pool and hanging out for a while before we decided to call it a night.

We got to bed about 6 a.m. Now, I should probably clarify that this is apparently what Spanish youths do every night. Apparently Paul’s older brother (host) used to do that Thursday through Sunday night and go to work on Monday. It was fun to do one time, but I probably will not ever do that again.

Saturday, October 16:

We slept in. Way in. But eventually we got up and went and ate a kebap (the kebaps in Spain are lamb instead of chicken, a refreshing change, and they usually serve them with fries and a special sauce). After eating we went to watch his young host brother, Ricki, play in his own football (soccer) game. Unfortunately, the referee never showed up, so they had to cancel the game. Just from watching warm-ups though, it was easy to tell that Ricki is really, really good. As were the rest of the kids on his team.

Afterwards, we met up with a couple of his friends who had bought tickets to an Atlético Madrid football (soccer) game. On our way it was really amazing to see how many people were turning out for the game. Everyone was dressed in red and blue and all heading the same direction. I also bought a scarf to fit in. Once inside and seated, I surveyed the stadium. It was about twice as big as the Rapid stadium, though the scoreboard was pretty plain and didn’t really do a whole lot. The game was pretty exciting, an Atlético victory 2-0.

Saturday night we decided to go a bit slower. We walked around and tried a variety of foods at different restaurants, and eventually went over to Mike’s place to hang out for a while. He had a couple of friends and his roommates there, so it was fun to meet more new people. Tonight, however, we left about 1 to make sure we could catch the last underground back to Paul’s apartment.

Sunday, October 17:

It was a good thing we went to bed earlier because we got up about 9. After a small breakfast, we headed out to the Rastra (I think that was the name) – Madrid’s biggest open-air market. Here I purchased the cheapest jersey I could find, and I also bought the Atlético patch that hopefully I can have sewn on during winter break (Aunt Carol Beth???). After walking around here for a while we went to a museum where we saw a variety of works, but most importantly and impressive was Picasso’s Guernica. It is way bigger than I imagined it after seeing it in textbooks, and just as graphic and meaningful.

For lunch today we were invited to join in the family meal (called la comida, which means food, because it is the major meal of the day). There was a nice potato salad as an appetizer, but the main dish was amazing. It was a chicken stuffed with LOTS of ham and cheese. I made sure to eat whatever was put on my plate, which was a lot, and then his host mom put more on my plate, so I ate that too. There were 11 of us – Paul, his host mom, aunt, the three brothers, two grandparents, one girlfriend, and a friend of the mom’s named Michael (who had a very young child there with him who didn’t eat with us), and me. The grandmother was hilarious. Kind of reminded me of Patrick actually, but she was so funny to be around (at least what I understood). And I’m sure I was the butt of a few jokes I didn’t understand.

It was another beautiful day, so we spent most of the rest of the day walking around Madrid’s central park. It’s pretty big and really beautiful. There were all sorts of families walking around or boating in the lake, trick roller skaters doing tricks, and plenty of trees and shade to sit and nap under. After the park we went to another museum and saw more artwork (if you wanted to spend all 4 days in a city like Vienna or Madrid seeing art, you could – easily). Finally, we ate one final kebap and wandered around the city a little bit looking for desert. We settled on some kind of warm tortilla with chocolate inside. Eventually we headed home to get some rest and do homework (Paul had class Monday and I had a written midterm due).

Monday, October 18:

I got up about 6 and left by 6:20 to get to the airport. I was there a little early again, but that’s much better than being late. It also gave me time to work on my midterm (which I had done by the time we landed). I ate McDonalds in the airport for breakfast and watched the sunrise. I got home in time to take a nap before turning in my paper.

It was an amazing trip. So much fun, and great to see another Davidson friend and learn what all he’s doing. Paul’s Spanish is unbelievable. I guess that’s what happens when you study in a country and are immersed in it for two months. At any rate, it was definitely worth the money and three classes I missed.

That’s all for this post. On October 20th another Davidson friend visited Pat and I in Vienna for a few days, but that is another post altogether. Hopefully that’ll be up before I leave tomorrow for Hallstatt and Graz!

Paul (third from the right) and his classmates at the newspaper

A main square in Madrid

The church next to the royal palace

Beautiful stained glass

The Royal Palace

Our ham and cheese super-sandwich

Milk coming out of a stalactite in a bar

The Atlético Madrid game

The Rastra

Paul at the entrance to the park

Paul and I in the park

The Chrystal Palace and lake in the park

The sunrise on Monday morning over the airport

Mom in Wien!

Since it has been two weeks since she first arrived, I'm sure i'll accidentally leave out details or forget parts, so my apologies!

Mom landed around 4 on Thursday afternoon (October 7), and once I got out of class I went to her hotel to meet her.  After she showered and got ready we met Patrick and his parents (who had been in town for a few days already) for dinner.  We went to the Schweiserhaus (which I believe I’ve written about before?) where my mom and I split a leg of pork (literally a leg – you can see the foot) and shared a few drinks with the Mullers.  It was quite an enjoyable dinner, and afterwards Pat and I did a ride that takes you up in the air and rotates you around.  It’s reasonably slow so you can see the whole city, but our moms still were unable to watch.

Out to dinner with Roger, Allison, and Ashley

Friday morning after my german class I went and picked her up again and we went back to the institute to see where I have all my classes and to meet a few friends.  There we ran into Sarah Andrews whom I have known since we were five.  She was visiting one of her sorority sisters who currently lives a couple floors above me.  We spent the rest of the day walking around parts of the city.  First we walked around St. Stephen’s Cathedral, then the Museumsquartier (but didn’t go in anywhere), and then we spent some time in the Naschmarkt where she was kind enough to pressure me into buying some peaches.  For dinner we met Allison, Roger, and Ashley for dinner at my favorite schnitzel restaurant – Schnitzelwirt.  It was quite enjoyable.

In the labyrinths at the Belvedere 

Saturday was a beautiful day, so we started it by going to the Schonnbrunn Palace.  The palace itself is quite large, but the grounds are enormous.  We spent a good portion of time in the labyrinth area of the grounds where we encountered a variety of puzzles.  It was actually a lot of fun and the weather was perfect.  Afterwards we went to the Albertina Museum.  There were two special exhibits: Picasso and Michelangelo.  Both were fairly large and quite interesting to see and read about.  We also spent some time in an exhibit by a current painter (I don’t remember his name) who did a variety of graphic animal and nature paintings.  They were all quite large and detailed and really pretty cool.  For dinner that evening we tried a restaurant named Centimeter (because you order bread by the centimeter).  My food came in a hatchet and my mom’s soup came in a pretty large bread bowl.

Entrance to the Albertina Museum

Sunday morning escapes my memory, but that afternoon I let my mom wander by herself while I went to play tennis with Roger.  It was the first time I had really hit since late July, and it was the first time I had ever played on red clay.  It was quite the experience.  It actually is a lot different, and the ball does get a lot heavier and it takes a lot more effort than I thought it would.  Needless to say, I was really, really sore the next day. Pat and his parents got back from Salzburg, so that night we had dinner with them again, and they wanted to go to Centimeter because they had not been yet.  Thus we went back there for a second night in a row.  It was fun though – we ordered a wheelbarrow of food, and our waitress loved us and invited us back.

Dinner with the Mullers

Monday I got up and went with my mom to the Belvedere Palace before I had class.  In the upper Belvedere there was an extensive Gustav Klimt exhibit (including “The Kiss”) along with plenty of other paintings by a variety of artists, including Van Gogh, Monet, etc.  In the lower Belvedere there was a large Rodin exhibit with all of his most famous sculptures.  Almost all the information is also in English, so it wasn’t hard to understand or learn a lot.  Unfortunately I had to be at class so we didn’t get to spend that long there, but we did walk around the garden for a minute and through the grounds, and all of it was beautiful.  The weather was just perfect for almost her entire stay.  I don’t remember what we did in between my classes, but I have a class late on Mondays so we didn’t eat dinner together, but we did meet up afterwards and went to walk around the Rathaus (the city hall), which is gorgeously lit up at night.

Tuesday I have class almost all day, so my mom had to fend for herself for most of the day.  She bought an opera ticket (yes, just one – she says that’s all they had left…) and after my classes were done we met and had a quick bite of pizza before she went to go see it.  Her seat was in a box with a few other women, and according to her it was really well done and funny and impressive. (She went to see the Barber of Seville.)

Looking down at the Lower Belvedere

Wednesday we went to the Kunsthistortious Museum.  It houses one of the best Egyptian exhibits outside of Cairo and Berlin, and it made me feel good to be able to walk her around and tell her stuff about everything we had seen in Cairo.  I had to leave for class so she walked around there for a while more.  Afterwards we did a little shopping (I got new clothes!) and walking around.  We went to the Hotel Sacher and had Sachertorte (their famous chocolate cake) and then we walked around the Donauinsel for a while (it is a man-made island in the middle of the Danube river that stretches a long ways, and we got to watch the sunset).  For dinner we went to a new restaurant (for me) named Vapiano.  Felix, who lived with my Uncle David in NY this summer, picked the place and joined us, along with Ashley, Allison, Roger, David, and one of David’s friends that was visiting, Molly.  The food was really good.  At one point it got a little emotional, but it only lasted a couple seconds and everyone thought it was adorable.  Afterwards we went out to try a glass of Sturm (a drink that is the stage before wine and only available two months a year), and finally I had to call it quits because I had a test the next day.  

Enlarge it - my mom loved the colors of the vines

Thursday I got up bright and early and helped my mom get to the train that would take her to the airport.  I was in a rush because I had a test shortly afterwards, so I hope she figured it all out ok.  The goodbye was short and sweet, but it was great having her here and it went by so quickly.  I’m more than halfway done now, and I can’t decide if that’s a good or bad thing.  But mom, I love you, and I’m glad you got to come.  Dad, Kat, and Jess, I’m sorry you weren’t able to join, but hopefully someday you will get to come see all of this!

Some more pictures:

The Rathaus at night

Quick! Fake run this way!

At the Donauinsel

Mom blends in with the post in this one

A little bit emotional, but we had a great time