Oktoberfest!

Grüss gott! 

I just got back from München (Munich) and Oktoberfest.  It was crazyyy, but so much fun!  Other than that, I had a pretty uneventful week.  I don't mind though because it gave me time to adjust to starting classes again and getting back in the swing of things in Vienna.  I've gotten to really like all of my classes, so I'm relieved!  And I don't think they'll be too much work.  It is such a welcome change to get to learn about something that I always understand and have always loved.  Today in my Mahler class, we were lectured about what Mahler's intentions and thoughts were when he wrote his second symphony, and then a bunch of people from my class went to a performance tonight of the symphony in this beautiful Konzerthaus.  The concert actually turned out to be a youth orchestra, but they were AMAZING.  Youth orchestra in Vienna is a whole different level from the United States, that's for sure!

das Kanzerthaus for the Mahler concert

Ian and I at the concert

But the highlight of my week was DEFINITELY Oktoberfest.  I didn't think I would have that much fun since I don't particularly like beer, but it was amazing!  On Friday night, Carrie, my friend Amanda (who is from Minnesota and has an accent even thicker than Grandma and Grandpa and Anne's!!)  and I went over to Ian's apartment to put on our dirndls and braid our hair.  It turned out that Ian's roommates were on the same train as we were, so we all got ready together and ate and waited for our train.  We took the midnight train out of Vienna and into Munich.  That in itself was an experience!  None of us were sitting together and we were each in a compartment with 5 other strangers.  I just went to sleep until about 5 in the morning when I couldn't sleep anymore.  It actually turned out to be really fun though because 3 of the people in my compartment couldn't sleep anymore either and they turned out to be really interesting.  They were 3 Colombian students studying abroad in England, so they wanted to practice their English with me.  It is so fun meeting so many interesting foreign people all the time!

After the train, we got to Munich at about 6:15 in the morning.  We headed straight for the festival since we didn't have any reservations or anything.  It was pouring rain and freezing cold, but we didn't care because we were all dressed up and ready to be in a tent for the rest of the day!  We were some of the very first people in line for the tent, so we didn't have a problem getting in, but it turns out that the first tent we were in is one of the most famous ones and one of the hardest to get into, the Hofbräuhaus.  It was absolute chaos when they opened the doors of the tent and everyone tried to rush in.  At one point, I'm pretty sure my feet were not on the ground and I was just being carried by the crowd!  But we finally all made it inside and found each other and sat at a table.

After we sat down, the tent filled up with hundreds and hundreds of people within about 30 minutes.  People were chanting and music was playing and everybody was impatiently waiting for the beer to be served starting at 9:00.  (We got into the tent around 8:00.)  The waitress came and we all ordered a liter of beer (the smallest amount you can get!) for a hefty 10 Euros.  Finally, the first tray of beer was served and everyone went CRAZY singing all kinds of songs and chugging their first beers.  Our table did not participate in the chugging, but we were all pretty excited, too.  After we got our drinks, we ordered two of these HUGE pretzels that were so enormous that they fed all 9 of us!  Over the course of an hour, we downed the pretzels and I even finished my liter of beer!  We saw a couple of people from our program in our tent, so we said hi for a little bit and then moved onto another tent.

the Hofbräuhaus

some of us with our liters of beer!

Amanda and I in our dirndls :)

part of the giant pretzels

das Bier

We waited for about 30 minutes to get to another tent, but it had stopped raining by this point so it wasn't too big of a deal.  We went to the Paulaner tent and could only get in if we ordered more beer, so we sat down and immediately paid 10 Euros.  I couldn't drink that one, but it was still fun to sit at a different tent.  I even saw somebody from Emory when I was waiting in line to go to the bathroom!  (It took about 30 minutes in the lines for the bathrooms!)  We met a couple of Austrian people at the Paulaner tent, too, so it was really fun.  After the second tent, we went to a famous church right by the fair grounds, but none of knew what it was because we didn't have a tour or anything.  After the church, we got some dinner and were so exhausted from being up all night that we fell asleep in the train station waiting for our train home.  Finally, we got back on the train at midnight.  This train was not nearly as smooth as the way to Munich.  First of all, the lady across from my friend had a dog that climbed all over us, so we were constantly waking up to a wet nose and the dog jumping on our legs.  Secondly, the ediquette for the midnight train is to turn the lights off and not to talk, but apparently the dog lady and the weird guy across from me were unaware of this.  They jabbered on and on in a strange combination of German and English from midnight until 5:30 in the morning!  But finally, we got back to Vienna around 6:00.  I took the subway and made the cold, rainy walk back to my apartment (still in my dirndl!) and was home by about 7:00.  I brushed my teeth (since I hadn't been able to since Friday night!), took a much-needed shower, and slept until 1:00 in the afternoon the next day!

the Paulaner tent

our Austrian friends in their lederhosen

I am totally rested now and ready for another week in Vienna!  Our first week here, they gave us a presentation about culture shock and told us that we were in our "honeymoon" stage of our trip and that we would soon go through a homesick and depressed stage.  But I am still waiting for the honeymoon stage to end because I still feel so lucky and so happy every day that I am here!  I can't wait for Mom and Dad to come, and hopefully Sarah and/or Leah, too!!  (Keep your fingers crossed!!!!)  I miss you all lots and lots and wish that you could be here with me!  Hope everything is going well in Amerika!  As we say at Oktoberfest, "brost!"  Auf Wiedersehen!!

Opa!! (Griechenland!)

Yeia sou!

That's Greek for "hello," but I had to look it up on the internet because I still don't know any Greek except for "thank you!"  But I just got back from Greece last night after a week of amazing sites and INCREDIBLE food.  On Saturday morning, Carrie, Katie, Ian, and I took a train from Vienna to Budapest and spent the day walking around Budapest.  We decided to walk to a synagogue because the synagogue in Budapest is the largest synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world.  The bad part is that we got to the door and couldn't get in because of Rosh Hashanah services going on.  So we went to get some traditional Hungarian food and realized that we had no Hufrus, the Hungarian currency.  To get us even more frazzled, it had started to downpour right when we left the train station.  So after walking for about 45 minutes and getting completely soaked, we decided to take a bus tour of the city since we wanted to see as much as possible in one day.  Once we saw that the bus tour was an open-air bus that gave us ponchos and would not actually keep us dry, we realized that Budapest was going to be a wet day and we decided to laugh about it and work the ponchos!  The bus tour ended up being really incredible and we got to see so many beautiful churches and buildings.  After the tour, we went to a delicious restaurant that accepted Visa cards since we had no money.  I got an amazing chicken sandwich that came with salad and tomatoes and fresh mozerella...so good!  After lunch we went to the Saint Michael church, which is one of the most beautiful churches in the city.  We saw a wedding going on and it was absolutely incredible!  By the time we had eaten and walked around a little bit more, we had to head to the airport to catch our flight to Corfu.

the 2nd largest synagogue in the world

the 4 of us in front of a view of the city...it was really dreary but it was much more beautiful than the pictures show!

in front of the Saint Michael church

my chicken sandwich!!

On Saturday night, we got to Corfu and someone from our hostel picked us up and brought us to Sunrock Hostel.  It was completely dark, so we had no idea what Corfu looked like at all.  After showering in the hole in the ground that they used as a shower, I went straight to bed after a long day.  I woke up the next morning to one of the most incredible views I have ever seen.  Our hostel was right on the ocean with rocks and islands everywhere.  We got breakfast and dinner for free, so I had french toast every morning while looking at the ocean.  On Sunday, we hiked "up the hill" to a bus to take us from our hostel into Corfu town.  "Up the hill" turned out to be basically climbing Mount Everest, but it was compensated by the incredible views the whole walk up.  Corfu town was amazing too...cute little shops everywhere and an old fort that had one of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen.  After going to the main museum and exploring the town, we ate at a restaurant in the middle of the town square where I had my first encounter with real saganaki...no words can describe the deliciousness.  The cheese was absolutely incredible.  They don't serve it with any kind of bread, but the cheese is so amazing that I had no problem eating it plain.  After lunch, we went back to the hostel to watch the sun set on the beach.  After sunset, everybody in the hostel eats together.  Each dinner includes a Greek salad and a main dish. Even though it was hostel food, I have never had a better salad or chicken in my life.  All of the food was indescribably delicious...I have been so spoiled!  After dinner, we just hung out at the hostel and looked at the ocean.

view from the patio of our hostel

view from the fort in Corfu town

a small street in Corfu town...we loved the Greek flags!

Sunset...so pretty!

On Monday, we spent the entire day on the beach at our hostel.  We got to take a boat ride with a guide who showed us a couple of nude beaches, a beautiful private beach, and a really cool cave.  I even got to drive the boat for a little bit!  The boat ride was probably my favorite part of my whole trip.  After the boat ride, we got another delicious lunch, laid out some more, watched the sun set, and ate yet another incredible dinner at the hostel.  (This time a Greek salad and a cheesy pasta.)  After a lazy but beautiful day, we sat on the porch again for the night and tried the homemade Greek wine that the hostel had...very delicious!  (Two ladies staying in the hostel heard us talking about how little money we all had and they bought us each a glass of wine...so nice!)

the hidden beach our guide showed us

The water was CRYSTAL clear!  And the beach was all small stones, no sand.

Katie, Carrie, and Ian at sunset

On Tuesday, we had our usual breakfast, packed our backpacks, and headed into Pelekas town to look around for a couple of hours.  We saw a really neat Greek church, which looked much different than the churches in Vienna and Budapest.  Then we ate at a restaurant where the saganaki was feta...very interesting!  I am definitely a saganaki conoisseur by now.  After exploring for a couple hours, we went back into Corfu town (this time getting a van up the "hill") and caught the night bus to Athens.  We stopped at a cheap bakery and a couple rest stops while we were on the bus, so we had things to munch on, but it was pretty difficult to sleep.  The plan was for the bus to ride all night and get to Athens around 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning, so it is not difficult to imagine our surprise and panic when the bus pulled in at 4:00 in the morning and we had no place to stay and no idea where we were going.  We decided to take a taxi to our hostel, but our taxi got lost.  It was amazing though because when we got lost, we were at the bottom of a hill that had a beautiful view of the Acropolis all lit up!!  But one we finally got to our hostel, the workers said they had no rooms available until 10:00 in the morning and nowhere that we could sleep.  They handed us a map of the city and said see you in 6 hours.  We headed to Syntagma Square and slept for about an hour like homeless people until we decided that we might as well watch the sun rise over the Acropolis if we were going to be awake for sunrise.  We headed over there and slept on a rock for a few hours until the sun rose, then slept again until 10:00 and went to our hostel to sleep for a few hours.

a street in Pelekas town

the restaurant in Pelekas

the Acropolis at night

our homeless crew...we were even followed by a stray dog!

After our adventurous homeless night and morning, we stopped for a delicious 2-Euro gyro (they always put french fries on them in Greece...so good!) and then went to the Acropolis Museum and the National Archeological Museum.  Both places were really cool and told us a lot about the Acropolis and the Parthenon.  Once we finished at the museums, we took a bus tour around the city to see everything in a nutshell.  (We are all big fans of bus tours by now!)  The weather was so beautiful and everything was so ancient and amazing and we could not have asked for a better first day in Athens.  After exploring, we went out to a dinner of chicken and potatoes (YUM!) and then went shopping at all the vendors along the streets.  We were still pretty exhausted, so we went to bed pretty early.

the cheap gyro place (chicken gyro for me!)

the very first Olympic stadium

the Parliament building (love the Greek flags!)

On Thursday, we got up really early and went to the Acropolis and the Parthenon.  I was glad we went to the museums the day before because I knew what I was looking at a little better.  There were so many neat things to see and the top of the hill had a beautiful panoramic view of Athens.  After that, we hiked up another hill to some ruins that none of us knew what it was, but it was really neat looking!  That's part of the cool part of Athens, everywhere you go there is some sort of cool ancient ruin.  After the hike, we had more 2-Euro gyros and chicken souvlaki sandwiches with french fries (soooo good) and we went to the Agora, which has a museum and the most well-preserved ancient Greek temple.  The last part of our ruin exploring was Arch of Hadrian and Zeus's Temple, which were both really cool and right by our hostel.  They are also right by the National Gardens, so we walked around there for a while before we went back to get ready for dinner.  We decided that we wanted to splurge and have one nice dinner for our last night in Greece, so we went to this little place that we had seen the night before that had lights and music.  I had one last saganaki, but it was definitely the best of the trip!  After dinner, we went to a performance of traditional Greek dancing that had live music and really cool costumes.  It was really different than any other kind of cultural dancing I had seen, but very neat.  After the performance, Carrie, Ian, and I went out to a street of clubs in Athens and met some other Americans who were studying abroad in Athens.  They took us to a couple of really cool places...going out in Greece may even be more fun than Vienna!  (Close call though!)  Everywhere had really cool lights and music and we got free water and a bowl of bugels, barbeque potato chips, and egg rolls (a very eclectic combination of food for one bowl of snacks).

a ruin by the Acropolis

view of Athens from the top of our hike

my yummy chicken souvlaki sandwich

Carrie and I at our splurge dinner

my last saganaki! (with a lemon on it)

traditional Greek dancing and costumes

the musicians at the Greek dancing

On Friday, we took the train out to the 2004 Olympic Stadium before our flight back to Vienna.  The whole village was totally deserted, but it was still really cool looking.  None of us could believe how poorly it was kept, but I'm sure it was beautiful when it was brand new.  We saw all kinds of pools and the outside of the main stadium, which were both really neat.  After exploring the old village for awhile, we found a mall by the train station and had one last gyros sandwich.  Then we went to the airport and came home.  On the plane home, we were served a huge dinner of Greek salad, cheese, orzo, beef, crackers, bread, and some kind of Greek pepper with sour cream.  It was the perfect way to end the trip.  We all had an AMAZING time in Greece, but it felt so nice to get back to Vienna.  It was nice to hear the somewhat-familiar German as opposed to the completely foreign Hungarian and Greek.  Needless to say last night was an early night for me!  Anyways, I know this was a long post but Greece was all I could have asked for.  Miss you all lots and hope everything is going well!  Auf Wiedersehen!!

part of the 2004 Olympic stadium

one of the practice pools...Michael Phelps was there!

my last gyros sandwich

the Greek sign at the gyros stand

Packing for Greece!

Hallo!
Today is the day before we leave for Greece and I am so excited!  I had my German oral final yesterday and the written final today, so I am all done with my German Intensive course.  All of my other courses start on Monday, September 20th.  But I did a lot of fun things this week!

On Sunday, I went hiking at the base of the Alps (shocking, I know!) and it was beautiful.  It was actually pretty warm out that day, so we wanted to take advantage of the last few weeks of nice weather before the snow comes.  After hiking, I went to the Opera House and waited in line to get standing tickets to the opening night of the Viennese Opera Season.  I waited for about an hour and got a ticket for 3 Euro...not too bad!  I watched the first act of Wagner's Tännhauser from the very last possible row in the theater, but it was still incredible.  I can't believe that there is an opera every night that we can go to for only 3 Euro!

a vineyard/restaurant towards the top of the mountain

view from our hike

I had a little cold, so I didn't do much on Monday.  But on Tuesday, I had to go back to the Naschmarkt for class and find the stand called Dr. Falafel.  After looking up and down the market for about 30 minutes, I finally found him and bought enough hummus and falafel for my entire German class.  (My program reimbursed me!)  It was the most delicious hummus and falafel that I have ever had!!!  I had to ask the Doctor a few questions, and he turned out to be a really interesting person...his family was from Israel and he spoke 7 languages!  Other people in my class had to get other food, so we had a huge feast on Wednesday morning in class, which was perfect since it was my birthday!  But on Tuesday night, my roommates surprised me with a huge delicious dinner of chicken, rice, and brownies for my birthday.  It was so nice of them!  Then on Wednesday morning, my roommate who is in my German class took me to my favorite bakery and got me ein shokocroissant, my very favorite!  Then after class, my friends from school and I went to Cafe Central, which is one of the most famous Kaffeehauses in Vienna.  Leon Trotsky used to go there, pretty cool!  It was beautiful and had delicious hot chocolate.  Then I got another chocolate croissant, went to Katie and Carrie's apartment, and went out for pizza at our favorite pizza place.  Then Carrie and my friend Ian and I went to an American bar and watched American sports for a little bit so that I could do something fun on my birthday, even though we all had German oral finals on Thursday!  It was nice to be somewhere American.  So all in all, it was a good day!

my surprise birthday dinner!

Cafe Central...so pretty!

my delicious pizza birthday dinner from Pizza Mafiosa

On Thursday, I had my final and then I had my second day of my Mahler class.  We went on an excursion to a Mahler museum, which was really cool.  My professor is such a Mahler nut that he told the museum tour guides that he would give us the tour.  It was really interesting and the museum itself was beautiful.  This morning I had my German written final, then came back to my apartment to try to fit a week's worth of traveling things into my one backpack.  So far it's going pretty well...I'm almost done packing!  I've got a lot left to do before we leave though, so I better get going.  I will write again when I get back from Greece!! :)

Auf Wiedersehen!

die U-Bahn, der Naschmarkt, und mehr!

Guten Morgen!

Today is the first day that I have slept in since I left home, so I finally feel completely rejuvenated and un-jetlagged!  It's so nice to not be tired!  But I've gotten to do lots of neat stuff the past few days...I said that we were going to the St. Michael Basilica on Wednesday and the tour ended being really neat.  My friend Katie and I were the only ones on the tour and we got to go into all kinds of chapels and rooms that are not open to the public.  There are also some remains of Roman ruins right by St. Michael's, so that was pretty neat to see too.  Right by the church is also the building where Haydn lived...totally cool!  Also in the same square was the Hoffburg Palace, which is a huge old palace that is incredibly beautiful and still open for all kinds of tours inside.

the St. Michael Basilica, one of the oldest churches in Vienna

the Hoffburg Palace

Haydn's house!

On Thursday I had another German test, so hopefully it went well.  I feel like I'm starting to be able to recognize more phrases when I'm out, but I am by no means able to rely on my German to get around!  Then on Friday (yesterday), my German teacher gave us a sheet of paper with directions in German to different places in the city and we had to find her at the last spot.  We ended up finding her at the Naturhistorisches Museum, which is the Museum of Natural History in Vienna.  The museum is in the museum district right next to an enormous sculpture of Mother Theresa, so my teacher picked a beautiful spot for us to find.  Then it turns out that my teacher (Frau Sommersberger)'s husband is a retired worker from the museum, so we got to go on a private tour with just my class and Herr Sommersberger.  The museum was so incredibly neat.  Mom and Dad, I think we should go back there when you come to visit!  Since our tour guide was my teacher's husband, we got to go up on the roof of the museum to an INCREDIBLE view of the Museum District, the foot of the Alps, and the entire city of Vienna.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Then after the museum, our whole class went to a Kaffeehaus and ordered a drink and a pastry in German (paid for by my program of course!) :)  The waiters were instructed not to speak English to us, and our waiter said I had very good German!  I ordered the most delicious Hies Shokolade (hot chocolate) and a Schockotort (a type of Austrian chocolate cake).  Austrian coffee houses are so much fun because as long as you order one thing they don't care how long you sit in there, so my class and teacher just sat in the Kaffeehaus for a while and relaxed.

Museum of Natural History with Mother Theresa statue in the background

view of the Rathaus and the city from the roof of the museum

After the Kaffeehaus, Katie and I went to the Naschmarkt, which is Vienna's most famous outdoor market.  It was one of the most amazing markets I have ever seen!  There were some of the strangest fruits and meats there, but it was really neat to see.  Mom, Dad, Leah, and Sarah would have gone crazy with all the food!!  After the Naschmarkt, the entire city of Vienna celebrated the U-Bahn being open for 24 hours.  Since it was the first night that public transportation was always available, the whole city stayed out all night going from club to club and bar to bar.  I went home around 3 a.m. and the streets were still filled with people.

fruit at the Naschmarkt

HOOVES!!!! ewww

I know that was a really detailed description of everything, but I have had a really busy couple of days!  I will write again soon and I miss you all lots and lots!  Salud!

from Vienna with love!! :)