Kiwi in Österreich!
Soooo, yeah, I know that this is way overdue. I've had pictures up on facebook for a while, as some of you know, I just never got around to writing about any of it yet. Here's a link to the first album and the second album for those of you that haven't seen them yet.
After I got back from Munich on Sunday the 22nd of April, Kerri arrived late the next Tuesday! It was so good to see her and really very nice to have a close friend here to talk to. Don't get me wrong, I really like all the kids that I'm here with! But you realize when seeing someone from home that there are things that the both of you can talk about and know what the other means. We ended up talking in the kitchen until pretty late and had to come back to the room and be all quiet so as to not disturb Katrin who already went to bed.
Wednesday after my class, we went downtown and walked around. I showed her the Old City, Getreidegasse, the Dom, the grave yard (from the Sound of Music), St. Rupert's Church (oldest in Salzburg), and various fountains with varying degrees of water shooting out of nostrils and such.
Theeeeen, I took her to Kebap man!!!!!!!!! lol, we got kebaps, went to a nearby Spar and got some water, and then headed down to have lunch along the banks of the Salzach. Now that the weather's so nice, you see people sitting along the river all the time! One time after class Sean, Rachel, Matt, and I got some ice cream and Rachel and Matt got a beer and we just went and sat on the bank. It's really nice :)
Kerri and I sat there a long time just talking after devouring our kebaps, which was really nice. Once again, it was just really good to have such a close friend suddenly with you...you never realize how much you miss that until you finally see someone after so long. We must have sat there for at least and hour and a half and we realized it was about 6:30 and we had to get to a grocery store before they closed.
On Thursday Kerri came with me to Antje's Austrian Identity class! :D We watched the Austrian version of the Sound of Music that came out in 1949, I believe. It was just called "Die Familie Trapp" or "The Trapp Familie." I guess it was a precursor to the American version. It was all in German and luckily we had the subtitles, but Kiwi never ceases to amaze me because she was able to follow it all! Her German's way better than she thinks, I bet ;)
We had an American barbeque style dinner that night with the whole group, like we do every Thursday since we've gotten here! It was awesome...I miss cheeseburgers :'(
That night we did Heimbar, where they had Karaoke too! That was fun and then Rachel, Kerri and I ended up having to walk back home. It wasn't so bad though because we talked the whole way, haha
Friday we slept in really late, lol, and then took a walk to Hellbrunn :) That's always a pretty walk, with the Alps all around and the fields! On the way we accidentally found one of the houses that was used in the Sound of Music! I think they just used the facade, not the interior, because we went in and it was really boring... We got to Hellbrunn and I showed Kerri the gazebo from the movie, which was exciting :D After that, we mostly just went and sat down on a bench in the really nice park there and talked again (noticing a theme? hahaha ^^).
That night Kerri made me cookies, which was amaaaazing! lol, except that at first we couldn't figure out why the cookies kept burning so quickly and we realized that the oven was of course Celius and not Fahrenheit...apparently that makes a HUGE difference, lol XD
Saturday we slept late again and then headed downtown once more. We hit up the Mirabell Gardens, which were gorgeous with all of the flowers in bloom ^__^ Of course, that is another Sound of Music site and we got pictures in certain spots for it, haha
After that, we headed up to the Festung, which costs a whole lot more once the museums are closed (go figure!). It was actually really nice to go up there at that time because the sun was setting and the Alps just looked amazing. All the lights were coming on in the city and it was really cool, because now that I know Salzburg well enough, I could pick out where so many things where as I was up there! Also, when we were up there, we could here classical music! I realized that one of the concerts must have been going on up in the "throne room," so here's a video of that and some views of Salzburg by night:
By the time we went back down, it was at least 9-9:30 PM and we hadn't eaten yet X_x So, we went to a restaurant, Frauenbergers, on Linzer Gasse. That ended up being so good, I ordered this amazing meal with grilled chicken breast, curry sauce, rice and fried banana! It was sooo good! Kerri got Wiener Schnitzel, of course ^_^
On Sunday Kerri had planned to leave. We went to the train station around noon, but, as we soon found out, all of the routes she could go were ridiculously expensive. For example, to got through Switzerland was going to cost her 153 Euro (I think...), one way!!! That was not going to work, obviously, so we headed back to the dorm (after getting a kebap, of course) and decided to look up other ways for her to get home. That didn't prove to be very sucessful...we even looked at flying :P Eventually, Kerri just started plotting her own route through Germany, then to Strassbourg and then finally Dijon. It's really kind of ridiculous, because Dij and Salz are pretty much on the same latitude, and really not that far apart, but it's impossible to get there from here x.x
I felt so bad though, because she had another day here and I had to work on reading a play for a paper and a presentation that I was going to have to do soon. But, I think that we were both tired anyways, so it was probably good to not be going around the city.
She ended up leaving around 10:00 the next morning (Monday), caught a train to Munich where she was actually able to buy a more direct ticket to Dijon, although if I remember correctly, that itself was 90 Euro for just one way :P
Despite trains being stupid, it was so good to see her! :D I had such a good time showing someone this little city that I love so much and it was just plain nice to have a good friend to just talk to for hours :)
After I got back from Munich on Sunday the 22nd of April, Kerri arrived late the next Tuesday! It was so good to see her and really very nice to have a close friend here to talk to. Don't get me wrong, I really like all the kids that I'm here with! But you realize when seeing someone from home that there are things that the both of you can talk about and know what the other means. We ended up talking in the kitchen until pretty late and had to come back to the room and be all quiet so as to not disturb Katrin who already went to bed.
Wednesday after my class, we went downtown and walked around. I showed her the Old City, Getreidegasse, the Dom, the grave yard (from the Sound of Music), St. Rupert's Church (oldest in Salzburg), and various fountains with varying degrees of water shooting out of nostrils and such.
Theeeeen, I took her to Kebap man!!!!!!!!! lol, we got kebaps, went to a nearby Spar and got some water, and then headed down to have lunch along the banks of the Salzach. Now that the weather's so nice, you see people sitting along the river all the time! One time after class Sean, Rachel, Matt, and I got some ice cream and Rachel and Matt got a beer and we just went and sat on the bank. It's really nice :)
Kerri and I sat there a long time just talking after devouring our kebaps, which was really nice. Once again, it was just really good to have such a close friend suddenly with you...you never realize how much you miss that until you finally see someone after so long. We must have sat there for at least and hour and a half and we realized it was about 6:30 and we had to get to a grocery store before they closed.
On Thursday Kerri came with me to Antje's Austrian Identity class! :D We watched the Austrian version of the Sound of Music that came out in 1949, I believe. It was just called "Die Familie Trapp" or "The Trapp Familie." I guess it was a precursor to the American version. It was all in German and luckily we had the subtitles, but Kiwi never ceases to amaze me because she was able to follow it all! Her German's way better than she thinks, I bet ;)
We had an American barbeque style dinner that night with the whole group, like we do every Thursday since we've gotten here! It was awesome...I miss cheeseburgers :'(
That night we did Heimbar, where they had Karaoke too! That was fun and then Rachel, Kerri and I ended up having to walk back home. It wasn't so bad though because we talked the whole way, haha
Friday we slept in really late, lol, and then took a walk to Hellbrunn :) That's always a pretty walk, with the Alps all around and the fields! On the way we accidentally found one of the houses that was used in the Sound of Music! I think they just used the facade, not the interior, because we went in and it was really boring... We got to Hellbrunn and I showed Kerri the gazebo from the movie, which was exciting :D After that, we mostly just went and sat down on a bench in the really nice park there and talked again (noticing a theme? hahaha ^^).
That night Kerri made me cookies, which was amaaaazing! lol, except that at first we couldn't figure out why the cookies kept burning so quickly and we realized that the oven was of course Celius and not Fahrenheit...apparently that makes a HUGE difference, lol XD
Saturday we slept late again and then headed downtown once more. We hit up the Mirabell Gardens, which were gorgeous with all of the flowers in bloom ^__^ Of course, that is another Sound of Music site and we got pictures in certain spots for it, haha
After that, we headed up to the Festung, which costs a whole lot more once the museums are closed (go figure!). It was actually really nice to go up there at that time because the sun was setting and the Alps just looked amazing. All the lights were coming on in the city and it was really cool, because now that I know Salzburg well enough, I could pick out where so many things where as I was up there! Also, when we were up there, we could here classical music! I realized that one of the concerts must have been going on up in the "throne room," so here's a video of that and some views of Salzburg by night:
Click to viewBy the time we went back down, it was at least 9-9:30 PM and we hadn't eaten yet X_x So, we went to a restaurant, Frauenbergers, on Linzer Gasse. That ended up being so good, I ordered this amazing meal with grilled chicken breast, curry sauce, rice and fried banana! It was sooo good! Kerri got Wiener Schnitzel, of course ^_^
On Sunday Kerri had planned to leave. We went to the train station around noon, but, as we soon found out, all of the routes she could go were ridiculously expensive. For example, to got through Switzerland was going to cost her 153 Euro (I think...), one way!!! That was not going to work, obviously, so we headed back to the dorm (after getting a kebap, of course) and decided to look up other ways for her to get home. That didn't prove to be very sucessful...we even looked at flying :P Eventually, Kerri just started plotting her own route through Germany, then to Strassbourg and then finally Dijon. It's really kind of ridiculous, because Dij and Salz are pretty much on the same latitude, and really not that far apart, but it's impossible to get there from here x.x
I felt so bad though, because she had another day here and I had to work on reading a play for a paper and a presentation that I was going to have to do soon. But, I think that we were both tired anyways, so it was probably good to not be going around the city.
She ended up leaving around 10:00 the next morning (Monday), caught a train to Munich where she was actually able to buy a more direct ticket to Dijon, although if I remember correctly, that itself was 90 Euro for just one way :P
Despite trains being stupid, it was so good to see her! :D I had such a good time showing someone this little city that I love so much and it was just plain nice to have a good friend to just talk to for hours :)