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11.27
Needless to say, my Thanksgiving celebration was a little different this year. For starters, I had class! We had a group dinner that evening, along with the Schroeder family and all of our professors. Chris and I gave a 'blessing' which was really a list of things we, as a group, were thankful for in the past months in Salzburg, and four others entertained us with an oboe/strings quartet before the meal began. As good as dinner was, it's just not Thanksgiving without the stuffing, mashed potatoes or pumpkin pie (all of which were missing). At least we got turkey! Not unlike our group dinner in Graz, we stayed for nearly 4 hours! It really was a fun evening!
Chris, Carolyn and I
Rather than our standard senior seminar class, we traveled to St. Pantaleon via lokalbahn (about an hour away) to meet Ludwig Laher, the author of a book we recently read ("Heart Flesh Degeneration"). During the Third Reich, there was a work-education camp in St. Pantaleon; this camp later became a detention center for Gypsies. We visited the cemetery, memorials and walked the exact path the prisoners had to walk four times per day, from the camp to the river where they worked. Herr Laher told us it would be a long walk, but I don't think any of us realize that long meant an hour and a half. Personally, I was freezing, and that's with my proper winter clothing (a jacket!) and good shoes. It is unbelievable how inhumane the prisoners were treated! Once we finally arrived at the Gasthof which acted as the camp headquarters we sat down for further conversation with Herr Laher and some hot chocolate. As nice as the Gasthof was, I couldn't shake the upsetting feeling -- on Christmas Eve 1940, 10 men were stripped naked, strapped to benches and violently beaten in the exact room we were enjoying ourselves in. It was ironic and disturbing.
St. Pantaleon
Memorial for the Victims
Megan, Carolyn, Jay and I
Katie and I
I traveled to Oberndorf/Laufen with 5 friends. Oberndorf and Laufen used to be the same town, but once the borders between Germany and Austria were drawn, the two were split; Oberndorf is in Austria, whereas Laufen is in Germany. 
Chris and I
Oberndorf is home to the chapel where "Stille Nacht" (Silent Night) was composed and played for the first time. We visited the small chapel (which of course, is not the original), sneaking in just before the hordes of senior citizen tourist crowded their way in!
Silent Night Chapel
Oesterreich - Deutschland
Upon returning to Salzburg, I headed to the Hellbrunn Christmas Markets with Katie. We took the gravel road near our student home, which has to be one of my favorite walks! It is gorgeous, even with the bare trees! And, Michelle, I realized something on this walk -- Austria truly is 'The Land of Green'...the leaves are gone, but the grass is as green as it was when I got here! (I'm guessing MN is pretty brown right about now!)
IT'S SO GREEN!
Untersberg
As recommended by our German teacher, a group of us ventured to nearby St. Leonhard for the Christmas Markets and Krampuslauf. The Krampus are a sort of Demon that come through prior to St. Nicholas, scaring the children into behaving well! I had heard stories about the Krampus prior to experiencing it, but that hardly prepared me! Men (or maybe women!?) raided through the streets in furry suits and frightening masks, wearing large cow bells on their butts and carrying cow tails and bundles of twigs. They were absolutely ruthless, wandering up and down the street whipping people. I managed to only get whipped once, however another girl in our group was grabbed and pulled out into the street! I am honestly surprised it is legal for them to be so vicious! I can't imagine a similar thing ever happening in the States! As terrifying as it was, there is another one in Salzburg on Friday, and I have plans to go!
11.21
Christmas season has begun here in Salzburg. In a way, it seems early, simply because in the States 'Black Friday' (the day after Thanksgiving) signifies the Christmas season for many people. As Austria doesn't celebrate our Thanksgiving (they have their own in September), they get an earlier start. So, the Christkindlmarkt (Christmas Markets) opened on Thursday! There are actually four different locations throughout Salzburg: Domplatz, Mirabell, Hellbrunn and the Festung. So far I have only walked through the markets by the Dom, but I hope to check out a few of the others within the next few weeks.
Anyway, on Friday night a few of us headed into town to enjoy the FIRST SNOWFALL and some gluehwein. It was a great end to the week!
Teresa and I @ the Christmas Markets
11.22Saturday was another early morning, as we had a day excursion to Mauthausen (a concentration camp) and Linz. After a two-hour bus-ride, we were at Mauthausen. We started off by taking a walk down the Totenstiege ('stairs of death'). Mauthausen was selected as the location for a concentration camp largely based on the presence of the "Wiener Graben" quarry. Prisoners would have to carry 50 lb. blocks of granite up the narrow, steep, 186 step flight of stairs about 6 times per day. If one person stumbled, he would take down whoever was behind him. It was a little nerve-racking and dizzying going down (and almost worse going up), especially since the steps were not even as wide as my foot is long (although, I do have big feet). Point in case, I could not imagine having to carry my backpack along with me, let alone a 50 lb. block of granite.
Entrance
Memorial
Totenstiege
After viewing the quarry, we had some time to walk through the camp, visit the barracks, gas chambers, crematoriums, etc. It was the first weekend we had snow, and it was absolutely freezing, which was perfectly appropriate: as we walked through the roll call grounds, the audio guide commentary noted that the prisoners had to stand outside, without moving for at least an hour, two times per day. Now imagine being undernourished, sleep-deprived, weak and frail, with only a thin layer of clothing to fight the penetrating chill of the wind, snow or rain. Our three emotionally-draining hours at the camp passed by very quickly.
The Wailing Wall
Roll Call Grounds
Gas Chamber
Gate
At 1, we met back a the bus to head towards Linz (the capitol city of Oberoesterreich). Their Christmas Markets had just opened that day, so we walked through before finding a cafe. No one had planned anything they needed to see, so we took advantage and enjoyed the warmth of the cafe. We also visited the Dom (cathedral) which may be one of the prettiest churches I have ever seen. It is a Gothic church, but it had a simple elegance, and wan't so over-decorated like many churches of that period are. We had a group dinner in Linz before heading back home to Salzburg.
Linzerdom
Christmas Markets
Carolyn, Chris and I
All in all, it was a great day: long, cold and emotionally-draining, but completely worth-while.
On a separate note, I will be coming home one month from today, which is hard to fathom. My time here has gone by SO fast! I am excited to see everyone from back home, but I'm not ready so say goodbye to Salzburg and the rest of Europe. I have a lot on my plate in terms of academics before the semester is through (6 papers due within 3 weeks!), but hopefully I will be able to squeeze in a few more day trips before the end. I only have three weeks left in Salzburg, and then I will be traveling with two friends to Berlin, Dublin and London. So, while I have lots to look forward to, I'm not quite ready to get there just yet.
11.14
It was another bright and early morning starting off with a 4.5 hour train ride to Graz. Graz is the capitol of Steiermark, and Austria's second largest city in Austria with a population of about 250,000 (compared to Vienna's 1.7 million). All in all, it was a successful train ride: I knitted an entire ball of yarn (I'm currently about half done with my 4th scarf) and earned 5E for getting a perfect score on a vocab quiz (part of the new round of cultural incentives).
When we arrived in Graz, we dropped off our stuff at the Jugendherberge (youth hostel) and took the bus into town. We had some free time to grab lunch before meeting up for our group tour of the city. The tour was a lot of fun and very interesting. Our guide used a combination of German and English, and he was very easy to understand.
Sporgasse - the old main street
That evening, following a tasty dinner, we checked out the Mur Insel (a man-made floating island that was built in 2003 to honor the title bestowed onto Graz for being the yearly cultural center of Europe), walked past the 'friendly alien' which is actually the 40 Million Euro Kunsthaus Graz (Modern Art Museum), and then headed up the winding staircase to the top of the Schlossberg for some amazing views.
Teresa and I by the Mur Insel
Mur Insel
11.15The day started off with a tour of the Landeszeughaus (the largest armory exhibition hall in the world). Again, another interesting, funny and easy to understand tour!
Landeszeughaus
We were given the afternoon to do whatever we pleased, so I headed out to get a better look at the mausoleum, and the Dom (Cathedral). We also walked through the Stadtpark (city park) before visiting Kunsthaus Graz. I have to admit, I enjoyed the building itself more than the art inside. There main exhibit was entitled 'Leben?' (Life?). The submissions were by a variety of artists, who interpreted the topic pretty freely. Most of the works were bazaar (it is modern art, after all) but there were a few that were pretty unsettling also. Next up we checked out the Geology Museum, which was surprisingly interesting, especially since 3 of the girls I was with had recently taken Geology back at CSB|SJU. Honestly, I enjoyed it because they did!Our group dinner that night was thoroughly enjoyable! We stayed at the Goesserbraeu (a restaurant associated with the local brewery, Goesser. Their slogan is a clever one: Gut, Besser, Goesser [Good, Better, Goesser] though I'm still partial to Salzburger Stiegl's: Es muss ein Stiegl sein [it must be a Stiegl]) for nearly 3.5 hours. We later discussed the likely hood of such a thing ever happening in the States...I've personally never done it.
11.16After dropping our stuff off at the train station, I went to mass at the Cathedral. It was full, so we stood in the back the whole time. It was a nice mass, but weird not being able to sing along.
We took one more stroll up the Schlossberg for a day-time view of Graz. The weather was perfect!
Carolyn, Chris, Teresa and I @ the top of the Schlossberg
A walk past the Opera House, and a stop at a nearby cafe concluded our weekend in Graz.
Thanks to the ever fabulous Cultural Incentives Program, I spent a whopping .05 Euros of my own money. Not too shabby!
11.7
After class, I headed to the Bahnhof (train station) to start my 6.5 hour journey to Lahr, Germany, the hometown of my host family, the Wickert's. For those of you who don't know, I traveled to Europe for the first time in June 2004 with my high school German class. After a few weeks of travel: Paris, Cannes, and Grindelwald (Switzerland), we headed to Lahr where we stayed for 2.5 weeks with a host family. That fall, Carola (my exchange partner) came and stayed with my family for 3 weeks. I've been lucky enough to maintain contact with the Wickert family over the years and I was very excited to see them again.
I got to Offenburg (about 20 minutes from Lahr) around 7:30 on Friday night, and Karin and Charly met me at the train station. We headed off to dinner, and got to talking. Karin told me that she had prepped herself to speak English over the weekend, but that it was hardly necessary. I guess my German has improved over the last four years!
Unfortunately Carola is currently in New Zealand working as an au pair, so I didn't actually get to see her, but I did get to talk to her via Skype and a web cam. I also talked to one of the boys she takes care of, Jack (he is 8, and he's been to the US 'loads of times'). That was pretty much the extent of my English speaking for the weekend.
11.8
After Frühstück (breakfast) we walked into town to enjoy the festivities of Chrysenthema Lahr 2008 -- a large, well-known flower show featuring chrysanthemums. I guess they average 300,000 visitors each year, which is saying a lot as Lahr has a population of roughly 40,000. Karin's mother and sister also joined us. We rode the Riesenrad (ferris wheel -- I can't remember the last time I did that) and got a nice view of the city, even picking their house out of the sea of monochromatic rooftops!
The main event for the day was a fireworks display. I was expecting your average run-of-the-mill show, but that's not what I got! They had the show in the Marktplatz (market place/town square) and it was perfectly orchestrated to a series of music, including an instrumental from "Pirates of the Caribbean".
When we got back to their home, I spoke with Daniel (Carola's older brother) via Skype. He's currently studying at the university in Achen, which is about 5 km from the Germany-Holland boarder. We also watched a bit of TV, which I haven't really done all semester, as I don't have a TV! There was a famous Saturday night show on called "Wetten Dass..." that's on about once every two months. It's comprised of a series of bets as to whether or not people will be capable of doing certain 'outlandish' acts. For instance there was the guy from Texas who can kick himself in the head 45 times in under a minute. Another guy could scale the outside of an 18 story building faster than someone else could run up the stares. They also featured a few American celebrities -- Kid Rock, P!NK, and Uma Thurman. It was interesting because of the way they dubbed things. First the question would be asked by the host in German, and then it was translated into English via a small ear-chip. Then they would respond in audible English, but their voices were dubbed over with a louder German voice.
All in all, it was a great weekend! It was awesome to speak auf Deutsch...I think I spoke maybe 10 words of English the whole weekend, 2 of which were "ferris wheel" (They wanted to know the English word). Hopefully I'll be lucky enough to meet up with them again someday!
10.27Fall Break. Greece. AMAZING.We landed in Athens around 2:30, greeted by a gust of WARM air! It was definitely a nice change to leave behind the fleece jacket and don the capris! Our hostel happened to be on the same street as a famous sandal shop; they have made sandals for a handful of celebrities, including the Beatles. I HAD to buy a pair! Hand-made leather sandals from Greece constitute a pretty awesome souvenir in my opinion!We decided to take the funicular up Mount Lycabettus which promised to offer amazing views of the city, especially at night. I was not disappointed. Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot to do once we got up there, so we didn't stay to long. Rather than taking the Metro (subway) back to the area of our hostel, we decided to walk. We found a really fun area with a variety of little shops and food vendors that stayed open until 9 (relatively late compared to similar markets in other cities). We found gyros for 1.80E, which was without a doubt the best buy of the trip! I always thought the gyros at the county fair were good, but I don't know if I will ever shell out $6 for one again, considering I had the real thing for the equivalent of $2.50. 
tower of the winds and the acropolis
10.28Happy Okhi Day! We devoted the day to visiting the Acropolis and the ancient Agoras. Once we arrived we were surprised to find out that admission was free for the day (saving us at least 10E), can't argue with that. Greece was celebrating Okhi Day, the anniversary of their prime minister's rejection of an Italian ultimatum in 1940 regarding entrance into WWII. We slowly wandered our way up the Acropolis hillside, being led the entire way by a stray dog. (There are dogs (and cats) EVERYWHERE in Athens, they are well-fed and friendly, but it's still a strange sight). It was amazing to turn the corner and the Parthenon was right there. It was so cool! 
parthenon
10.29We started our day off with a 6 hour ferry ride from the port in Athens to the Cyclades island of Mykonos. The weather was perfect once again, making the ride much more enjoyable. We ported around 2, and got settled in at our hostel. It turns out you simply can't escape German -- the lady at the hostel was originally from Hanover, and she proceeded to speak to us in German, which was pretty cool. The only down-side of our hostel was it's location -- a half-hour walk outside of the downtown area. In the end that didn't make much of a difference though, as the weather was as perfect as you could hope for. We walked into town and did some exploring. The street were really cute, and we even saw the famed pelican, Petros. 
10.30The main event of the day was a trip to the near-by mythical island of Delos. The ancient ruins were endless, and the island was filled with history.
Back in Mykonos Town, we found the famous windmills before heading back to our hostel, and spending some time on the beach. I went in the water (Aegean Sea), but only up to my knees as I didn't pack a swimsuit (silly me...I had to fit 4 months of my life in 2 suitcases, and I didn't think to pack a swimsuit I would only be wearing once...). 
That night we ate at a family restaurant near our hostel. I was adventurous and I tried calamari. It's hard to describe other than 'chewy'. At least I can say I did it!10.31We relaxed in the morning and took the ferry back to Athens in the afternoon. I knitted pretty much the entire way (I am now nearly done with my 3rd scarf). We upheld our Athens tradition, having gyros for dinner. 11.1 We returned to Munich, and did a little bit of sight-seeing. The 1972 Olympic games were held in Munich, and we visited the stadium (Three Olympic stadiums in one week...I was on a roll!)We took the train back to Salzburg, arriving back 'home' around 6pm. It was nice to hear the familiar voice on the bus announcing the next stop, and actually know where you were going!
Chris, Carolyn and I
St. Pantaleon
Memorial for the Victims
Megan, Carolyn, Jay and I
Katie and I
Chris and I
Silent Night Chapel
Oesterreich - Deutschland
IT'S SO GREEN!
Untersberg
