Austrian Internship: Day 8

Finally, it's internship time.  I'm ready to be out of this blasted hotel.  We're right next to the church and the bells ring ever 15 min, but at 8:45 they ring for 5 minutes.  And someone has been knocking around in the room next to us for 3 hours before we got up.  Geez.  Praying we find our train and get out of here soon.

We found out our train is actually a rail jet train, which is pretty cool!  Right now we're going around 110 mph through the countryside.  Going to meet up with our "employer" soon.

It is nearly 2pm and we have ridden 2 trains and 2 subways so far, and we're still not there.  We're hoping this is the last train we have to take...traveling is exhausting.  But we'll be working soon!

We arrived 2 hours early at the location we're supposed to meet our ride to our work,  and wouldn't you know, the whole train platform is under construction.  No bathrooms and no AC, even near the ticket office.  It'll be a long wait.

We were picked up in an ambulance at 4:20 on the dot, and we're on our way to the Red Cross!  This is my first time riding in an ambulence, and as Hawkins said, I'm glad I'm not riding in the bed.  ;)

We're being treated extremely well here at the Red Cross.  They've provided us with some snacks, a decent room, good water,  and some vouchers for grocery shopping (hoping it's enough for the month).  The boots they gave me are enormous and the pants way too small...hoping those can be exchanged or something.  For some reason the wifi isn't agreeing with us (just our luck...I wasn't surprised), and as we're the only people here for the night, we will just have to wait, although it is sad to have such limited contact with my family.  We're still not sure exactly what to expect here.  I guess you'll find out as I do.

It's incredibly flat here...not quite Kansas flst, but close, and it's around 85-90°F here.  I thought I left this weather in TN, but apparently I was mistaken.

We have the evening free and are probably going to bed early.  Tomorrow we have a dinner to attend and work starts on Monday!  Hoping and praying all goes well.

Goodnight from Austria!

Austrian Internship: Day 7

We treated ourselves to sleeping in this (technically yesterday) morning (until about 9), and are now heading out to see what we can see before leaving for our internship tomorrow! We started our day off by visiting Mozart's wife's and father's gravesites in the St. Sebastian Cemetary, and then we toured Mozart's birthplace. I felt as if I was in musician Mecca. There were original manuscripts (I saw Rondo Alla Turca), his instruments, and original letters from him father. And all the while you could hear his work playing in the background (yes...including Don Giovanni). I found out while we were there that I have two pieces of stone from the foundation of the house in which he composed The Magic Flute. That gave me chills. I'm certainly keeping those for...inspirational...reasons. ;)

From there we visited the Cathedral at Salzburg and then walked through St.Peter's Church, where the flight scene from Sound of Music was filmed (which also has FIVE pipe organs). After a quick bite, and a nap we plan to go to the Maribell Gardens for a stroll.

While we were there, we saw the fountain at which Maria sang, sniffed roses, and listened to an English concert band play. It was a good evening, but I'm ready to hit the road for our internship. We're both exhausted and are going to bed early, and we're hoping that we find the correct train tomorrow morning. No wifi today, as you've found out by now. 

Goodnight!

P.S. what's better than playing Flappy Bird and watching Turkish game shows in bed at 9pm? I need a life.

Austrian Internship: Day 6

We finally signed out of the Hotel Probst this morning, having made drastic changes in our plans and staying their 3 nights.  We both loved that quaint hotel and I'm bait sad to leave it.

After a quick stop for Internet to verify our train, we headed up to board an ICE train toward Munich to transfer and head to Salzburg!  Hopefully we'll find everything with ease today and not have a repeat of Wurzburg/Day 1 of Nuremberg.
Huzzah!  We got on board the ICE train to Munich and actually found non reserved seats and luggage storage in one try.  The Lord blessed us: we didn't have to spend any money on a reservation and we got comfortable seats.  On to Salzburg!

Traveling today has been a piece of cake thank the Lord.  We're on board a Meridian train to Salzburg now, and should arrive by 14:00, assuming we aren't delayed.  I'm really enjoying this relaxed day so far.

We've been on the road for almost an hour now, and I think we can safely say: we're really in Europe. Rolling hills and scattered villages and farms surround the tracks, and off in the distance I got my first glimpse of the Alps.  This feels surreal.  It's like I stepped into one of my old history books.  Sure, the city is "europe" too...but it's much more heart warming out here.

Also, I'm listening to music for the first time since I've been over here, and I feel American again for a bit hearing Taylor Swift come on shuffle.  It felt good.  Judge away.  Who am I kidding though?!  I'm a musician...hearing orchestral music reminds me that I need music...I realize now that going without it almost depresses me, and I didn't notice before.

I've decided that bringing a hiking backpack would have been much better than a suitcase.  Especially for the type of travel we're doing.  Hawkins and I are considering writing down Travel in Europe for Broke College Students.  Yeah there's Rick Steves...but then there's also the perspective of a broke college student on his first time.  We have advice Mr. Steves doesn't.  ;)

We were told that Salzburg is hot this time of year.  That is correct.  We did arrive at 14:00 on the dot safe and sound and took a long walk to the cheapest hotel in the city that the Lord so graciously provided.  It is in a shopping alleyway, in a 700 year old building, and we had to limb four flights of stairs I can barely fit my shoulders through to get to our room.  Our hostess is an older woman who doesn't speak a lick of English, and that makes things very difficult.  There is hair on the pillows and blankets and we have a community toilet and shower, but hey.  It's a room.

We have so much we want to see around here...I'm not sure we'll get to half of it, and we don't have a ton of money.  We shall see what happens, and I'm sure you'll hear of it.  If not tomorrow, sometime this week.

Tonight we hiked the mountain that overlooks the entire city of Salzburg, and we are currently just relaxing, leaning against the wall of a castle, taking in the view.  In the distance I can see a HUGE fortress, 8 steeples, and only around a quarter of the town.  The city may be busy and loud...but here, where it is quiet and calm, the world is beautiful.

As we spent most of our day in travel and finding our hotel, even with getting up early, all we had time for was finding a grocery store and our hiking.  Tomorrow we plan to tour Mozart's house, maybe see a few churches and gardens, and perhaps the fortress.  Then, finally, we get to start our internship!  I'm very excited to have the upcoming structure and work.

We shall see when I am able to post next: most likely it will be from Eisenstadt!  Until then.

-J

Austrian Internship: Day 5

We started our morning early today, having a wonderful hand made breakfast at our Hotel (The Probst is a great place), and we are on board our first ICE train to Munich.  We found out the hard way that you need to make reservations for your seats (we were told we may need to, but didn't know for sure), but thankfully there are places with tables and standing space for people like us.  There are 4 tables in our area and about 14 people in one room.

We plan to transfer in Munich (I keep wanting to use German spelling...Munchen...) and get on a train and then a bus to Dachau to go see the concentration camp.  If we have time later this evening, we're going to see some things in Munich itself.  We'll see how things turn out.

Our ICE train ended up being 10 min late to Munich...(amd 20 min late om the way back to Nuremberg) which was the transfer time to get to Dachau.  So we saw our train pulling out just as we stepped off onto the platform.  The wait isn't long though, and we'll be on our way in less than a half hour.

The lower platforms of the Hauptbahnhof in Munich look SUPER sketchy.  It actually reminds me of an episode from Person of Interest.  There is a heavy fog/haze hanging in the air, everything is under construction, and there are beggars everywhere.  Thankfully we're still alive.  ;)

On the short train ride to Dachau we sat across from some girls who spoke Spanish and English interchangeably in their normal conversation.  I've said it's always a huge relief to hear English...but I never thought I'd be relieved to hear Spanish.  It was actually nice to hear and understand a little bit.  Dr. Page would be proud.

Dachau.  This placed moved me more than anywhere I've ever been, I think, and yet I cannot find adequate words to describe it.  I cannot come close to doing it justice.  We toured the prison cells (including torture areas), the sleeping and bath quarters, a *massive* museum that took us nearly 2 hours to complete, and several memorials/chapels. At the very end, a huge group of people circled the memorial near the front of the compound and hummed Amazing Grace together while holding hands.  It was...indescribably deep.  I kept thinking to myself: what is the solution to so much pain?  How could they possibly see past their suffering?  And hearing that hymn...I was soberly reminded that there is a Solution.

We ate at the Hopbrauhaus tonight for dinner.  It's the oldest restaurant in Germany,  dating all the way back to 1516.  As the story goes, when Mozart came to Munich to give a performance to the  royal court, he stopped by the Hopbrauhaus for a drink afterwards, as it was then owned by the royal family.  Also, if you would have told me that a pretzel dipped in sweet mustard and veal sausage tastes amazing together before I came to Germany, I wouldn't have believed you.  Turns out, it does taste amazing.

Munich is enormous.  SO many people are bustling about.  We saw a live polka band in the Hopbrauhaus (there ya go, Dad), a string ensemble playing classical in the streets, and a man in lederhosen playing guitar on a street corner.  After looking through the Munich Fuseball (soccer) shop and touring the Rathaus (a municipal building larger than St. Peter's Cathedral), we're heading back to Nuremberg to crash one more night before we head to Salzburg.  Today was another great day, and our adventuring skills are getting much better!

I'll write to you next from Austria!

Austria Internship: Day 4

Well, compared to yesterday, today was absolutely spectacular.  I could eat, sleep, and we had plenty of access to water!  Things I have been extremely thankful for today: water, people who wave back and smile, and cheap groceries (we ate for under 5E tonight, thanks to Aldi's).

 As I said yesterday (I think...I don't remember much of yesterday to be honest), we're in Nuremberg.  After sleeping off my sickness somewhat, we headed to the info center to ask for directions.  The info center is our new favorite place.  We found a hotel there last night, and we got plenty of directions and things to see.  This morning, it was filled with Amish women.  Last place I expected to see Amish women...made me grin.

First, we headed to the Documentation Center, or the Reichsparteitagsgelände as the Germans like to call it (I dare you to say all that...it's really hard), and we went through a massive museum that was guided by audio tour (and it was super cheap for students!).  Interestingly enough, nowhere in the Documentation Center are they called Nazis.  They're always referred to as the National Socialist Party.  I took a picture of the Rail Memorial (you can find Nuremberg pics here) that is filled with cards to the dead of the German railway.  Each card represents 100 people.  The gravity of the place we were in still hasn't sunk in.  We found it hard to do such a massive portion of history justice.
We walked all around the 11sq km Nazi Parade Grounds after touring the Documentation Center, finishing up at the Zeplin Field.  If you've ever seen a video of a huge Nazi parade with Hitler overseeing,  we were there.  We stood right where Hitler did 70ish years ago.  There is SO much history here, but the city doesn't maintain it.  The grounds are crumbling and there is anti-Nazi graffiti everywhere.  It's as if they've chosen to ignore their embarrassing past, which I don't necessarily blame them for.  Hawkins pointed out that we didn't have museums to slavery in the 1930s, and I thought that was a good point.

After extensively touring the grounds, we headed back to the city and toured the German National History museum.  It was HUGE.  We didn't have time to see all of it like we wanted to, but we saw armour, art, weapons, instruments (DW would have LOVED that section...SCADS of pianos/harpsichords...), clothes, chests...you name it, it was there.  We saw a hat that was made out of pure gold that apparently a sun priest used to wear...I took a picture for my little brother, Jacob...cause I could see him wearing that.

We stopped by St. Jakob's church, and stumbled upon Jakobstraße, and Hawkins was pleased with both.  We've seen so many relics and cathedrals that I am immensely satisfied.  Even if they aren't the particular ones I want to see.

I'm currently sitting in a Dunkin Donuts (Josh Rowe would be happy) a short walk from our hotel right now, because the internet here actually stays connected.  Had a European mocha...it's quite different from home.  They put it in a tall glass, and it's actually pretty good!  Anyway, we're planning on going to Munich and Dachau tomorrow.  Hopefully I'll be able to write to you then.

Miss hearing English and hugging my family.

Until tomorrow!

Austrian Internship: Day 2

There is no possible way I can tell you everything we did today, as tired as I am, and how early I have to get up in the morning. So, I'll shoot you some rapid-fire facts, and since a picture is 1,000 words, you can finish the story on your own here.

Smoking here is like the US in the 90s. Everyone does it. There are even vending machines for cigarettes (something I've never seen).

Garden plots: you can by a 50x50 ft plot of land with a shack to garden on outside the city, due to lack of space in the city. Tons of people do this, and they actually produce a lot of food.

Even though we've ridden the train and bus at least 10 times so far, we've only had two people check our ticket. They are very lax about ensuring you actually have one, but if you are caught without one, they'll fine you 10x the actual ticket price.

I know no German, but just being here 24ish hours, I've already picked up on some small words and phrases such as the polite way to say please or thank you, hello/goodbye, where is the toilet, excuse me, etc. For some reason I've had to be reminded several times what "excuse me" is...for some reason, "entschuldigen" is difficult to remember.

My 1st and only redhead sighting was today. I know now I'm not completely alone.

Our trip down the Rhine was absolutely spectacular. You'll see by my photos that there are *gazillions* of castles on the Rhine, and we actually got to take a self-guided tour of the castle at St. Goar. The man who takes the tickets there thought I was French, presumably because the gentleman in front of me was of that particular nationality. He gave me a French map, told me the cost in French, and since I know "please" and "thank you" in French, I guess he still thinks that. Weird.

After looking at Beer Steins in St. Goar (they're hand made out of crystal...and rang anywhere from $98-600ish. I thought about getting a particular friend of mine a Brazil Stein, but it was $200...), Hawkins and I found an outdoor pavillion where tons of people were gathered to watch the World Cup. The local news showed up to film our reaction as Germany won! We're probably celebrities by now. Anyway, fireworks are being set off everywhere, cars are (still, at 1am) honking, hundreds of people are yelling and dancing and kissing in the streets. Amazing.

That is a highly terrible and undetailed account of my day, but I am fighting a losing battle against jet lag, and I still have my family and my wonderful lady friend to talk to tonight. As I upload pictures. The busy life of a traveler!

Tomorrow I plan to write to you from a hostel in Nuremberg, assuming I have WiFi. If I don't get a post up...I don't have WiFi.

OH! WiFi saved Hawkins and me tonight. I mooched of some random German's signal, because we got off our tram 3 stops early and got a bit...turned around. Not lost. Mom.

Anyway, we're alive and getting ready for bed. Until tomorrow!

-J

Austrian Internship: Day 1

It feels surreal to be sitting here in the Charlotte International Airport with my good friend Jacob Hawkins (who will hereafter be affectionately referred to as Hawkins), waiting on our flight to Frankfurt, Germany.  I woke up this morning still not believing this trip is actually happening, and here we are.  This airport is enormous; I would venture a guess it's even larger than Reagan National that I flew into in Washington DC: past security is so large it looks like a mall from back home.

The drive to Charlotte was a simple one.  All of my family came with us to see us off at the airport, and the trip through security was short and uneventful, thank goodness.  For the first time in my life I saw an attendant in a bathroom...He was casually counting his tips with a towel draped over one arm and a bowl of mints at his elbow.  For some reason all I could think of was the Looney Tunes Show.

We have about thirty minutes until we take off, and the next time I'm writing to you will technically be Day 2 of our trip...but for me it won't feel like it (YAY JET LAG!), so I'll just stick to one post.  I'm starting to get excited.  We'll be in Germany soon!

...As I checked in, the man who looked at my passport said "huh, I know a Creasy."  I asked him what his name was, and he responded "Steve."  Apparently, however, this Steve Creasy is from West Virginia,  and works for US Airways.  It's a small world.

As it turns out, every movie you've ever seen with the screaming child in the plane turned out accurate.  I took a melatonin mom gave me to supposedly help me sleep, and I have white noise playing in my ear buds, but wouldn't you know it I can still hear that kid.  This feels strangely similar to the 32 hour bus trip I took to Canada...still about five hours of our trip left.

Another update for you whitest we're on the plane: we have about 1.5 hours left, it's about 11 pm eastern time, and the sun is rising on the opposite side of the plane.  Hawkins and I both have "slept" an hour-ish, and were just now awoken by the stewardesses offering coffee and muffins before we land.  Currently it's -72°F outside, and we're just at 39k ft. We should touch down an hour early.

4,512 miles and 7 hours and 39 minutes later, at 6:40am local time, Hawkins and I landed in Frankfurt, Germany.  Our adventure has begun!

We made it safely to our good friend Mr. Butch Smith's house in Frankfurt a few hours later.  Both being exhausted,  we are collapsing, surrendering for a few hours to jet lag.  Oh, a bed has never felt so wonderful.

The rest of the day has been an absolute whirlwind.  Here are a few things I have noticed, for your entertainment:

1) the average car in Frankfurt is an Audi.  It's like seeing Hondas in the US.

2) I have yet to see a single natural red-head.  I truly feel alone.

3) I am not tall compared to most people here.  Some people make me feel short.

4) Interestingly enough, beverages in order of cost here are: wine, beer, and then water.  The exact opposite of what they are in the States.

We started our touring by visiting a museum of Frankfurtian history, that dated all the way back to 1200ish.  There, we saw lots of armour, swords, hand-paintings, and we even saw original polemics by Martin Luther.  That was super cool.  The architecture here is astounding, and everything is so much more quiet and relaxed compared to the constant bustle of America, even somewhere as small as my hometown.  (Oh, if you'd like to keep up with photos for the trip, check here.  I don't have time to creatively put them in posts.  Jet lag, you know.)

As we walked through the town square just past the municipal building, we suddenly came upon a throng of angry, shouting people.  As it turns out, it was a Palestinian protest, dealing with recent tensions between them and Israel.  The German riot squad (looked similar to our SWAT team), a large police perimeter, and everything.

Escaping the protest (which was quickly overseen by a police helicopter and a news helicopter), we stopped by the remains of an old city guard tower turned into a restaurant (the bathroom was in the very top of the tower, so you could relieve yourself while you look over Frankfurt), and ritzy hotel that Mrs. Smith wanted us to see that featured a constant elevator.  This particular elevator was different because it had sets of boxes that travel in a large oval shape from the lobby of the building all the way to the rooftop, and it never stops moving.  Sound dangerous?  It probably is.  I nearly fell down the elevator shaft my first time getting in.  Not really.  But I wasn't graceful.

We finished our day at the Kanonesteppel, as authentic as German food gets.  I ate Farmer's Style Bratwurst with sour kraut (yes Dad...I did in fact eat sour kraut), along with home-made mashed potatoes.  I am now stuffed, sleepy, and quite content.  If the food remains this good, I might gain 15 pounds (sorry, Virginia... ;) ).

The only sounds I can hear are an occasional car below, the whir of my own computer, and Mr. Smith's stone age old, "YOU'VE GOT MAIL."  Not only are the Germans relaxed, but their builders are quiet and quaint: there is no air conditioning, and right now we don't need it.  The temperature is perfect.

I could write to you for hours about all the new things I'm seeing here in Europe.  It still hasn't dawned on me that I'm half way across the world.  Getting used to the travel system here will be a challenge (as all directions are in German...go figure...), but I'm already greatly enjoying myself.  Tonight, I go to bed satisfied, and expecting a wonderful internship ahead of me.  Hawkins is succombing to jet lag beside me.  A Skype call is all that is between me and the same fate.

Until next time, my dear reader!  I can't wait to tell you more about our adventures.

Auf Wiedersehen!