Hedgehog

So…I’m sitting outside on the patio after eating dinner and talking with Maria and her son, Thomas, and I’ve started working on my research papers when all of a sudden I hear a little scurrying noise. I look around to see what it is and there’s a hedgehog eating out of the plate that’s sitting on the ground next to me. I’m somewhat in shock right now. I mean, Maria told me that she puts a plate out for the hedgehog every night but I didn’t actually think a hedgehog would come up and eat out of the plate sitting right next to me. And I’m typing on my computer and moving and it doesn’t even seem to notice that I’m here. I actually think the best part about this experience is the fact that it steps on the side of the plate to tip it up so that it can eat the food on the other side of the plate. I’m truly in amazement right now lol I don't have any pictures or anything to show for it but I just thought I'd share that...it was quite humerus! :)

Props to Franz

Vienna...where to start. where to start. Well, Thursday afternoon we arrived in Vienna. It was slightly chilly when we first got there and I was a little bit worried that it wasn't going to be as warm as we had all anticipated! But anyway, we got to the hostel, put our bags in our rooms, went down to the cafeteria, ate and then went on a really small walking tour. On the tour, we stopped in the square that had two museums and a GIANT statue of Maria Theresia. We all decided to take a picture with the elephant in front of the Museum of Natural History...however, you can't really see the elephant all that well lolEmpress Maria Theresia is someone who is VERY popular amongst the Austrians. She was the only female to rule Austria. She did a lot of things, mainly making it mandatory for EVERYONE to attend schooling for the first nine years. Anyway, in one of the big squares in Vienna, there's a HUGE Maria Theresia statue/monument which me and Kerry thoroughly enjoyed taking pictures with :)

On Friday, we woke up early and went to the European Union [the organization lol] and afterwards, they gave us this scavenger hunt we were supposed to do. It was so much fun. We had to go all through the city and it was really fun because we got to see so much more that we would have if we were just traveling on our own.
This is Laura, Me and Kerry in front of Burgtheater during our scavenger hunt. We had to somewhat rush through the scavenger hunt and not complete all of it because we had to get back to the hostel and get ready for the ballet, which was SO much fun! The ballet had a very sad and tragic plot to it. It was about Franz Joseph and Sisi's son, Rupert [I think], who didn't have a good relationship with his parents. He didn't like the life he was forced to live or the woman he was supposed to marry, etc. So, basically it was a ballet which followed him cheating on his wife, disobeying his father, doing drugs, and eventually committing suicide. Yeah-like I said, tragic. Despite the ballet being tragic, the "curtain" for the ballet was really umm...interesting lol
The ballet was not only really good, but it was really longgggggggg! There were two intermissions! TWO intermissions. I didn't even know you were allowed to have more than one. I mean, that's a little bit on the ridiculous side. lol But, considering we got standing seats [for only 3 EURO I might add], it was good that there were two intermissions so we could sit down :) This is me and Kerry during the first intermission!
After the ballet, a bunch of people went to a hookah bar and then I think to some disco club or something but me being a sleepy party pooper [as well as an extreme white girl when it comes to dancing], I decided to go back to the hostel with Kerry and Carrie. We just kind of walked around taking our time and we walked by Cafe Grienstiedl, which happened to still be open. So, we went in and got coffee and glorious desserts. :) We actually talked about Cafe Grienstiedl a lot in my Understanding Austria class. It just so happened to be one of the most popular places for very intelligent and famous people to go back in the day. People such as Sigmund Freud and even Adolf Hitler. So, we felt pretty important getting to eat there! Ha ha :)

Also in Vienna, there was the Spanish Horse Riding School which me and Kerry stalked because we wanted to get a picture with one of the boys. Well, unfortunately, they never walked by when we were stalking to so we had to settle for pictures of the horses...which were the most beautiful horses that I have ever seen. They were stunning! They were so tall and pure white and perfectly groomed. They were amazing. I was extremely tempted to reach out and touch them when they walked by but fortunately I thought about my actions before hand and decided that I'd rather not get arrested. lol
After stalking the horses and their riders, we all walked to like, the other side of town to this market we went to the day before that had tons of little shops where you could buy fresh fruit and vegetables or get seafood or classic Austrian food, etc. that was really cheap and also really really good. Unfortunately, we got all the way over there before realizing that it was Sunday and nothing is open on Sundays...lol woops! So, we had to turn around and walk all the way back to town. On our way there, we passed these horse and carriages (which are EVERYWHERE) and there were some horses "taking a break" and getting buckets of water, etc. Well, one of them accidently knocked its bucket over and all the water dumped out and it was EXTREMELY hot on Sunday. So, I felt bad and we went and told its owner that all its water had dumped out and that was when I realized there aren't any animal laws in Austria because she told me that I needed to mind my own business and it didn't matter because it's just a horse. So I went and bought a bottle of water and poured it in its water bucket while the lady just glared at me. Ha ha probably made her like Americans that much more.

Anyway, we spent the next 2 hrs or so just kind of wandering around. We stopped in a park to just kind of relax before going back to the hostel to head to the train station. It was so pretty outside and the breeze felt absolutely AMAZING in the shade so me, Aaron, and Karley just kind of layed on the steps for a little while. This is my and Franzi [my magnet that I bought of Franz Joseph II who is probably the most famous of the Habsburgs and I take pictures with him when we travel to new places].
He's kind of like the angel/devil on my shoulder advising me when it comes to decision-making.
Overall, Vienna has probably been my favorite trip over all. Italy was stunning, and I've always wanted to go there, but Vienna was the most fun and I had my favorite people with me and I got to experience so so much! Everything I've been learning in class basically became real. It was truly amazing and I'm so thankful that I got to experience it.

Melk

On Thursday, we headed to Vienna at 7 A.M. :/ On our way, we stopped to visit Mauthausen. Mauthausen was quite a bit different than Dachau. Mauthausen wasn't just a concentration camp, it was a death camp and was the last concentration camp to be liberated in 1943. If you got told you were going to Mauthausen, you knew that the possibility of you making it out of there alive was very slim. It was extremely emotional. I couldn't take pictures. It was really weird considering it was SO PRETTY and there were so many horrific things occurring there. After Mauthausen, they thought we would need something to cheer us up a little bit so we stopped in Melk next. Melk consisted of a monestary/abbey and a private school. It was GORGEOUS!!!

We had a guided tour through Melk and it was so amazing! I couldn't use my flash, obviously, so they didn't really turn out all that well. One of my FAVORITE things about it was the library.
It reminded us of the library in the Beauty and the Beast...so we took a picture in it. :)
I'm not really sure what this is but it looked neat lol
this was the really cool stairway that was an optical illusion. this is looking up, looking down looked the same but there's a mirror at the bottom so it made it look REALLY long and it was just really cool lol
this was the church in Melk which was so freaking beautiful!!!!!
That is my trip to melk! :) Next stop was Vienna :)

Rain Rain && More Rain

Since I got to Europe, it's rained consistently. I literally haven't had one day in Salzburg when it didn't rain at least once! Well, not too long ago, I made the comment of "oh! well, at least it doesn't rain like it does back home where it just POURS!" Yeah, good job Mallory. It's been doing just that since yesterday late afternoon....while I was walking home...with my laptop. Ha Ha Me and Karley had to stand under the little overhang thing at the front door of some random storm with my umbrella shielding us FROM THE HAIL!!!!! It was absolutely ridiculous. Today, the high was 50...that's how magnificent it's been! Ha Ha ooh well, everything is a new adventure.

Tomorrow I have my first midterm in my Understanding Austria class. This means that I'm going to be up most of the night studying since I haven't been able to make myself sit down and actually study. It's awful. Not only am I having to study :( and suffer through cold weather and rain, but I also have to deal with the fact that the food here is so freaking amazing and I can't seem to stop eating it...and to make it worse...it's mostly bread! AAAGGGHHHH!!!!! Someone save me! Just kidding-it's all great! :) Except for the homework and studying...that I could be saved from! Ha Ha

Thursday morning we leave for Vienna for four days and I'm pretty excited for it! It's going to be a lot of fun! We're going to Mauthausen, an orchestra, palaces, tour of the EU agriculture something, etc. I don't have a schedule...just my memory so that's all I could come up with! :)

I guess that's all...class is about to start! I guess just pray that it stops raining and it warms up and that I get all my presentations and papers done and that I do good on my final tomorrow and Wednesday and that we have a safe trip to Vienna on Thursday! :)

Munich

Yesterday, ten of us, out of everyone in our program, went to Munich for the day. We went in groups of 5 so that we only had to pay 6EURO for a ticket that would work for the train, buses, and even sbon (like the subway). Me, Laura and Karley met at our usual spot at 730 to walk to the bus stop by the school and ride it to the train station. There was only one problem that occurred...we missed the bus by literally 2 minutes. Ha Ha so, we ended up having to walk 45 minutes to the train station and instead catch the 915 train! :( It was okay though because weren't really on a time schedule or anything! lol

We got there a little bit after noon and we got on the subway thing that took us to Dachau. Yesterday, for the 4 1/2 hours we were there, I experienced one of the most overwhelming and humbling experiences of my life. I've always been intrigued with WWII, but actually being there where the absolutely horrific events took place was a whole new experience.

This is the sign that you see when you're entering the whole place.

"Work Will Set You Free"
One of the monuments in the camp that says "Never Again" in different languages.
At the camp, there are only two barracks that are still standing for everyone to walk through and see the extremely small living areas that they had to stay in. This is where Barrack 7 once stood. Someone left this rose with a note on it that said something in German. All I could understand was the name and a date.
This was the room where they would go in and think they were going to take a shower, when instead of water coming out of the "shower heads" in the ceiling, gas would come out...

The whole time I was there, it was ridiculously difficult to just not cry my eyes out. If the different rooms and places weren't difficult enough, they had videos and everything on display which would really hit you pretty hard.

After the camp, we decided to lighten the mood a little bit and head to the Hofbrauhaus in Munich. The Hofbrauhaus is an extremely large brewery in Munich. It was really cool...and the beer actually tasted amazing (but to set the record straight, I only tasted someones beer! I ordered a coke..you can check my receipt). :)

On our way to the Hofbrauhaus, we passed by this absolutely GORGEOUS catholic church. We lucked out and got there right before 5:00. The reason it was good that we got there then was because at 5:00, the bells go off and then these little people in the clock tower start going around the bells and everything. It was basically just like a giant koo koo clock. lol It was really cool.

Well, that just about sums up my Munich experience. Unfortunately, time ran out and we didn't get to go to all the places we wanted to visit but it was still really cool. Today, 8 of us are camping out in McDonald's studying because we get free wifi here! yay for homework....

Romeo, Romeo, Where For Art Thou Romeo?

On Saturday, we all took a trip to Verona, Italy. It was absolutely beautiful! When we got there, of course the first thing we did was eat lol Unlike Salzburg, Verona served ice with their drinks!

I've never had a sprite taste as good as that one did...EVER!
Once we were done eating, we walked over to "the Arena" which was basically just a smaller version of the colosium...but i dont think they used to do gladiator fights or whatever in there haha anyway, it was really pretty and they were actually setting up for a Michael Buble concert which was held there that night. Unfortunately, being poor and having to pay for everything ourselves, me and Karley opted out of getting tickets so we didn't attend haha
After walking throught the Arena, we found "Casa di Giulietta" AKA Juliette's house.
All the different letters to Juliette and the signatures of people and everything was really cool and slightly overwhelming at the same time! haha
Me and Karley got to go inside and take a picture on Juliette's balcony :)
After that, we wandered around and actually found the old Roman ampitheater (which is behind us). We asked someone how to get there and their response "across the bridge"...however, we couldn't find a bridge!
I saw these sunflowers and they were absolutely STUNNING!!! and I was so amazed and wanted to buy some....then I found out they were fake and I was really upset! BUT, they still made for a really good picture! haha
We finally found the bridge to cross and trecked up all the stairs and it was definitely worth it because this was the view from the top!

Of course, we had to take a cheesy picture...yes, we all took one! So don't make fun of me because I wasn't the only one!

Well, Verona has been my favorite place so far to say the least. However, next week we go to Vienna, then Prague and Budapest, and then Florence, Pisa, Genova and Milan so I'm sure I'll change my mind every time I go somewhere new! :)

Venezia

Italy. Italy. Italy. I can talk about Italy all freaking day. It is absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!!!! Thursday night, me and like 15 other people went to the train station in Salzburg to catch a train (at 1AM) to Venice, Italy. The train ride all went well and it was quite uncomfortable (but definitely not as bad as the airplane ride). Anyway, Friday morning around 9AM or so, we all got on a boat and went to the island of Lido, which was where our hostel, Locanda da Scarso. The owner was just absolutely precious! Him and his son run it (maybe his wife-I never saw her so who knows!) and it has been in their family since 1906. He was so nice, he cooked us breakfast every morning, let us use his computer in his office, etc.

After checking in, we headed to the bus stop aross the street and this is the view we got every single time we walked out of our hostel:

It's gorgeous isn't it? I mean, it should be a postcard! Ha Ha Anyway, we went to San Marco where we walked around, grabbed something to eat and then we did what everyone should do when they go to Venice...take a Gondola ride!
After the gondola ride, we walked around some more, ate dinner, blah blah blah. Ha Ha On our boat ride back to the island, this is the gorgeous sunset over Venice that we got to see...like every night!
Once again, it should be a postcard right?! :)
On Sunday, me and Karley went to Doges palace which we toured through and they had a dungeon/prison in it and the old supreme courts, etc. All the rooms were absolutely gorgeous! The artwork was just so pretty!
Me and Karley were wasting time so we just road around on a boat (which ended up taking 2 1/2 hours to get back to somewhere that looked familiar). But this was just a random picture that I took while we were just going all over the world lol I thought it turned out really cool. :)
Our last day there we all went to Murano Island, "Glass Island." On glass island, they literally just make glass. Everything that they made was just absolutely gorgeous and absolutely amazing because i can't figure out how they do it...even after watching them do it! Ha Ha

Well, that's my Venice trip! It was oodles of fun!!! :)