Our adventure in pictures

I finally uploaded our pictures to Picasa!

To view the album directly, check out the album online here.

Map of our Adventures

I like google maps- here is roughly our route for the past two weeks! It isn't quite finished yet, but we're up to Firenze/Florence...


View Ana and Rebecca's Adventures in a larger map

Home again...

My laptop was stolen in Vienna (one of the safest large cities on earth!) so I am currently without my picture loading software, but rather than bore everyone with pages of text and pictures I will post photo albums from the last few weeks on the Photo Gallery page in the next few days. Otherwise, it would take forever to sort it all!
In any case, Ana and I have survived our adventures and have many stories to tell...

Wien, take 4

Ana and I are finally in Vienna! We have met up with Tim Irving (a friend frOm home) and a korean girl we met on the train for an afternoon tour of downtown. Went out for a last sachertorte with viennese coffee and later a kebap... Can't beleive that tomOreos is our last day! I picked up my bags from the hostel, except for the one with my laptop and important documents... Hopefully it is found before we leave!

Guess where we are!

Ana and I are having a CRAZY fun time on our adventures- a piece of Austrian candy for the person who leaves a comment correctly guessing where we are right now!

Travels so far (Paris-Basque Country)

That was getting a little long, so here is the second part of our week in overview

Bas took us to Hallum (where Opa's family came from) in the morning and then dropped us off at the train station in Leeuwarden. We spent the afternoon going to Paris, with a short layover in Brussels on our way.

Mylene and her friend Aman picked us up in Paris and treated us to a FANTASTIC 3 course French dinner (i ate frogs legs while sipping Bordeaux and watching the Eiffel tower sparkle) and a driving tour of Paris by night, complete with drop off service at our cute little hostel.

oh blast, I am out of time. More to come!

Hola from Barca! (Venice-Netherlands)

I am currently sitting on the computer at our hostel in Barcelona- we walked from the bus station last night between 11:00 and 12:00 through a still very busy La Rambla to this funky little place in the Gothic Quarter really close to the water end of Barcelona's busiest shopping street. The internet connection is decent and nobody is in line, so I will try to upload a few pictures and let you see our who/what/where of the last few days. Hard to believe that it has already been a week!

 First stop: Venice, where I ran around the city with George, Erin, and Mr Madden for a day and a half... (click read more)

Tolosa!

We just spent two days with the Amonarriz family celebrating Grandma´s birthday, visiting pre-historic caves, walking through Donostia/San Sebastian with ginormous ice cream cones, eating too much good food, driving through Basque villages, and taking evening bike rides through Tolosa- today, a visit to San Fermin in Pamplona/iruña (and giving mz flatmate Mikel back his contact lenses) and then to Barcelona for two days. Ana and I had so much fun in Paris and the Netherlands. She is a great travel buddy!

Much love from the Basque country, -becks (and ana)

Paris!

Mylene and a friend of hers picked us up at the train station last night and treated to an a,azing dinner and tour of the city... Ana and I just zoke up and are going to explore it on foot all day; tonight on to the Basque Country!
much love, drop us a note- wikes i need to figure out these French kewboqrds!
PS the Netherlands were FANTASTIC!

Hi from Fulda

Hi all- just a note to let you know that I am still alive and in Fulda with Anna Stein! I had a great time with half of the Madden family in Venice, can't wait to see Ana in a few days!

Goodbye Graz

I have not really had time to be sad about leaving Graz- everything is has happened so fast here that even sitting on the train (with a roller duffel, small duffel, and two large backpacks) on my way from Graz to Vienna for the last time still seems like just another part of my routine. 

Even though the last week has been "normal," there are so many moments that stand out as having been really exceptional. Like Monday night, when Ruth and I made a quick trip to meet some of our new Austrian friends at a pub and ended up hanging out and watching a movie for the entire evening. Or last night, when the same three guys (+Maria!) came over, and Basti made us Kaiserschmarrn. Christoph brought Maria and I "goodbye Austria survival" gifts of Manner Schnitte and Mozartkugeln. In Maria's words, "unglaublich," unbelievable! 

Basti, Maria, Peter, Christoph, and me- last goodbye!

I have also managed to say goodbye to so many friends, spend an entire day hiking in the Vorberge (foothills), fail my first university exam (and therefore the class), score an A on an oral history exam, 

sell my bicycle (for the same amount I bought it for!), go for one last coffee at Café Binder, and move out of my apartment.

On Tuesday I escaped to the edge of Graz and hiked up the castle ruins which have been tempting me since I first arrived in Graz.... (click Read more)

Mittlealterfest Oberkapfenberg

Today Bastian drove Ruth, his friend Peter, and myself to Kapfenberg (second largest city in the Steiermark) for their medieval festival. I felt like a kid in a candy shop!
The full album is in the Photo Gallery or on Picasa for your viewing pleasure.

Horns were blown, imaginary arrows were shot

Trumpets, drums, and flags spinners performed 

(click Read more)

a Midsummer Night's Dream

 Last night may have been one of the best Graz nights I have had.
It started out with a free moccachino at Parks (because my card was full) and then migrated to Stadtpark, where  some Swedish girls (Maria and Elena, the ones wearing wreathes in the picture right) planned a Svensk Midsommar festival/party. There was laughing, singing (in Swedish), a decorated Midsommar tree, eating of raw fish and Knackerbrod, drinking Radlers (while the Swedes drank schnapps... they have a lot of drinking songs), and dancing like crazy people in the circle around the tree.

Well, Maria invited two of her Austrian friends, and we got talking when they heard that I was from a place where there was fantastic backcountry skiing. I started to explain my "bucket list" for Graz, and a few hours later five of us (Christoph, Bastian, Ruth, Mikel, and I) were going up Schlossberg to see the stars and the city by night. There might have been some climbing of the Hacker Lion statue once we got to the top...

Afterwords, we sat on the wall near the Uhrturm (clocktower) and talked until it was time to go home (hiking plans for the morning... more on that to come). We all live in the same direction, so we walked home... and made a short detour for Kabap before finally coming home. Ruth and I gave Mikel hugs goodbye, and finally hit the hay. 

Mikel, Bastian, Christoph, and Ruth on the wall

Tomorrow, Bastian is taking me to a Mittelalterfest in a town just outside of Graz :) Another check off the list!

BTW, here is the link to the pension that Christoph's family owns/runs in St. Anton von Arlberg... Christoph designed the website http://www.gaestehaus-kolp.at

Processing...

Since coming back from Croatia I have been trying to deal with the fact that I am leaving Graz in a week. There are so many things that I will miss about Graz... here are ten of them, in no particular order...

1. 

   Taking down the maypole in Hauptplatz

    There are yogurt vending machines at the 
   university.
2. I am free to think critically about american culture, politics, and history and have opportunity to epress my thoughts 
3. I'm not fluent in German yet. I can't leave before I'm fluent, can I? now where i can generally understand people, and am starting to learn to express myself. And there are so many other languages around me! 
4. Transport- bike everywhere. public transportation rocks. and it's flippin easy here. 
5. it is hard to have a "buybuybuy" supermarket when you have to pay for every (resuable!) shopping bag and walk home with it 
6. distinct coffee culture, sweet lokals, and 300 types of bread...

Cooking Turkish

Petra, Mediha, and Ezgi invited me over last Friday (before I left for Croatia) for dinner and a lesson in how to make a delicious Turkish desert called Helva. Here is how Mediha made it:
Helva (from Istanbul)

• 1,5 cups flour into a pot on medium heat, stir continuously
• 1,5 cups sugar + 2,5 c water in a second pot
• When the flour starts to brown a little add ~ 200g butter and approx. the same amount of sunflower oil. It should  be about as thick as cream of wheat. Keep stirring until it boils.
• Drop a little batter into the sugar water. If it turns white quickly, you are ready for the next step.
• Pour the sugar water into the batter. Watch out- it is a little explosive! Stir rapidly until thick. 
• Cool, spoon onto a plate, and enjoy!

One note- the "cup" we used was just a regular cup. Mediha said that she has made it from many different recipes, and this time she didn't use one- so everything is approximate!
Our main dish was pasta- which, I learned, the Turks top with yogurt! Evidently my love of eating just about anything with yogurt would be quite at home in Istanbul :)

In other news, it is only two weeks until I leave Graz. At this time on July 1. I will be on a train somewhere in northern Italy, on my way to meet up with Erin and her dad and bro in Venice. Yikes! So much still to do... time for a list!

1. go up Schloßberg on a clear night
2. eat a Steirer Schnitzle
3. go to the RitterFest near Brück on der Mur
4. have coffee at the cute blue place near the Opera that I saw the first week here
5. finish my "regular's" card at the climbing gym 
6. ... Suggestions??

Hrvatska day 2 - Zagreb

Goodbye, Hostel Elena!

I left my four hostel-mates soundly sleeping when I rolled out at 7 am Sunday morning. It turned out that a slightly later bus was a bit cheaper and got me there only ten minutes later, so I bought my ticket and then walked across the street and got some breakfast at the supermarket. On the bus I had a chance to talk with a lady from London who was an expert in applied linguistics. I explained that I had found my lessons and discussions on language and culture more interesting than my civil engineering internships had been and asked what sorts of opportunities there were for linguists. She laughed and said there wasn't much, that most become teachers, the pay wasn't great but at least you got to travel (if you liked that sort of thing), and asked how the outlook was for civil engineers. It was little bit of a wake-up call for me. Yes, I am loving languages and cultures right now and could be perfectly happy living off of oatmeal for the rest of my life, but is that enough compared to the stability of a career position with a city or civil engineering firm? At the same time, I don't know whether having a desk job with my signature on legal design documents scares me more or the idea of being in one place for more than a year or two.

Best guides ever!

Ana was waiting for me at the bus station when we pulled in at 12:30. We drove to her house and she fed me cherries Turkish coffee (unfiltered caffeine) and then turned me loose to explore the city while she finished up a German report. Zagreb was not what I had expected. Sunday afternoon and about half of the shops were closed, but all of the restaurants were open and the streets were full of people and a soap box derby and a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. There was music and laughing and the buzzing of mopeds- so much more lively than Sunday in Graz!
Ana met up with me at later in the afternoon and we had dinner at one of the restaurants just up the hill from the main square. A little while later we met her boyfriend and the two of them gave me a walking tour of downtown, complete with a lesson in recent history, from the breakup of Yugoslavia to the acceptance of Croatia into the EU which had been announced two days before. When it started to get dark we walked down to a pub on one of the streets that were filled with them and spent the rest of the evening swapping stories over Croatian beers.
It was the first time that I had talked with people my own age who had experienced their country at war, and one of Ana's boyfriend's stories made me smile. He was staying at the home of a Serbian for a debate tournament in high school and went to brush his teeth. As he pulled out his toothpaste his host came in with a machete and asked "what, is our toothpaste not good enough for you?" - and then they both started laughing. "It is so great to be able to joke like that with a Serbian," he said.
If you get a chance, I definitely recommend a trip to Croatia. You will be stunned by how clear the waters are, warmed by how friendly, welcoming, and quick to laugh the people are, and drowned in the thousands of years of history.

A day on the Croatian Coast

For the past week or so I had been debating where to go over the long weekend. I facebooked a classmate from Croatia, and she sold me on her home country. I was at first going to go with some other girls, but they had other trips planned or school assignments (some people here actually have to study) so I got on the bus at 10:00 with just my backpack. My shoulder bag stuffed with a jacket made a perfect  pillow, and I slept remarkably well considering. The bus was unloaded at the Slovenian border sometime around 2 am for passport control. A few minutes later a Croatian border guard walked through the bus, and we were officially admitted into Croatia.
Besides a short stop at a rest station (with a meters long line for the bathroom), I the next thing I distinctly remember is blearily asking the fellow next to me if the bus leader had just announced that we were in Zadar. At 5 am I stumbled off the bus, asked a taxi driver which direction town was, and walked through the gate as the sun hit the islands. My first hours in Zadar were spent walking along the white stone promenade and through the city. There is a "sea organ"built along the wall which is "played" by the waves as they roll in. The rhythmic splashing of the water was turned into chords which were quiet and peaceful in the morning and louder when the breeze picked up in the evening. You can listen to it on the Videos page. (click Read more)

Hi from Zadar!

The last 12 hours have been CRAZY! I learned how to make Helva from Mediha, had some fun conversations with little old Austrian ladies while we waited for our 40 minute late bus, got my passport stamped by the Slovenians while the Croatians only glanced at it, and stumbled off of said bus at 5 am this morning in time to hike into town and see the sun rise on the islands near Zadar. So lovely here!
More to come- Ana has invited me to stay with her in Zagreb tomorrow night!
Miss you all, leave me a comment!

Vienna III: Van Geest Edition

   I have been avoiding blogging all of this because every time I sit down at my computer I feel guilty for not working on my history paper... but that is in the final stages, so here is the week's news from Graz in summary.
   Monday afternoon I jumped on a train to go meet two very special girls who were passing through Austria on their way from Prague to Venice. Erika was my roommate for a year and a half, but studied abroad my last semester at Calvin. She and her sister Marijke are currently in the middle of a month backpacking around Europe. Wien Meidlung train station was the first time we had seen each other in two and a half years. There was much screaming and hugging :) (click Read More)

Vacation!

   This travelling and semester abroad stuff is hard work- so what better way to escape it all than with a vacation! The Fakultäten (departments) at TU Graz have a tradition of taking interested students on Excursions during the semester to show them applications of what they are learning. I signed up for the Wasserbau (Hydraulic/civil Engineering, paid €25, and was swept off on a 2 day, all inclusive tour of water projects:
Montag, 23.05.2011 (click read more)

Pancake breakfast

Sunday brunch in Top 24

Click on the slideshow to go to the album.

Becks visits Budapest

Monday, Me: "have any plans for next weekend?"
Ruth: "no, why" "'cause i was thinking about going to Budapest."
As we were falling asleep Wednesday, Ruth asked "is there anything that would keep you from going this weekend?"
"No, but my KWB project is due Friday. But if we can finish it tomorrow and go Friday/Saturday..."
   Thursday evening I left the Zeichensaal at 9.30 with the KWB project finished.
Ruth: "I'm not going to lecture tomorrow. Budapest?"
And so began the adventure...
   By now the train system is routine for me. Get up at 6.00, leave for the station by 7.00, train leaves at 7.25. Arrive in Vienna at 10.00. I was a little slow pulling things together and we were both running on around 6 hours of sleep, but we parked our bikes and bought our tickets with plenty of time to spare. Four hours later the landscape flattened out and the announcements started coming in Magyar, Deutsch, and English- our first minutes in Hungary! We snagged a visitor's guide (German, they were out of English) from the info booth at the main train station and stepped out into the bustling streets of Pest. (Click read more)

A little history...

Some background on the Magyar people
Originally, Buda and Pest were separate cities occupying the west and east banks of the river Duna (Donau/Danube). The Romas had a settlement there which was followed by a town. Parts of medieval Buda, including the Mathias Church, sit on a hill which was fortified in the 13th century by king Béla against invading Turks. When the Turks finally overran Hungary in the mid-1500's, they turned the church into a mosque. Not all of the 150 year occupation was a bummer for the Hungarians. When the Turks were ousted they left behind a series of naturally heated baths and ornate aribesque-like art. The next major occupation for Hungary came when it joined the Austrian empire in the 19th century. Maria Theresa's portrait is in many halls in Budapest! Many of the Neo-Gothic constructions and renovations date from this period, including the Mathias church re-model, the Fisherman's Bastion, Parliament, and the Chain Bridge (which connected Buda and Pest in 1849).
Unfortunately the dual-monarchy meant that Hungary was dragged into WW1. In 1919 it was its own state, which really didn't mean much to the Germans and Russians who rolled back and forth through the region 25 years later. Most of the major buildings and bridges have been re-built at least once as a result of the wars. Post-war Hungary set origionally had free elections, but the elected government formed a coalition with the Communists and were eventually edged out. Despite a revolution in 1956 the communist party ran Hungary until 1989, when the barbed wire fence separating Hungary from Austria was finally cut.

I just discovered Google Maps...

Check it out! Where I have been so far...


View Semester Travels in a larger map

And tomorrow morning, off to Budapest! G'night, all!

Eastern Styria: Castle Riegersburg and Zotter chocolate

   It's time for the Weekend Update! This Saturda's Ausflug went to eastern Styria, a land of green hills draped with small farms and orchards. The landscape is dominated by the castle Riegersburg, which sits at the tip of an old volcanic outcropping. We took the cable tram up the hill and walked over to the raptor park which is on the hill's lower slope. There was a show with owls, a falconry demonstration, vultures, and the first bald eagle I have seen in five months. Really beautiful birds! The show was completely in German, but I understood more than 80% without a problem- woot!

   After the show we went up to the fotress itself. Riegersburg was one of the border fortifications against Hungarian and Turkish invasions starting in the 13th or 14th centuries. From the 16th to 18th centuries it was the site of several witch hunts and trials. We walked through the Hexenmuseum and I was surprised that the witch phobia was sweeping through the northeastern American colonies at about the same time. Today, the castle is owned by a "von Lichtenstien". Yes, the nephew (or cousin or something like that!) of the royal family in the country of Lichtenstien! The aristocracy is alive and well in Europe!

   Our third and final stop was at the Zotter chocolate factory a few km away. After touring the "edible zoo" (a collection of animals that we eat, built to raise awareness that at one time the meat in your hamburger was alive) we entered the factory, museum, and Genussweg (pleasure path). We sampled cocoa beans, liquid chocolate from 10-100% cocoa, compared different bar chocolates with everything from flowers to yoghurt to green tea to pumpkin seed mixed in, flavored drinking chocolate (stirred into hot milk), chocolate balls rolled around pieces of fruit/nuts/whatever in miniature copper cement mixers, and finally bars where a flavored filling was sandwitched between the chocolate layers. Everyone had a little bit of a chocolate hangover on the way home!

101 days of Europe

   The highlight of my 100th day in Graz was Marietje's birthday party. Marietjen (middle in the photo) taught us all a series of traditional Belgian dances, complete with live music! The first two of were in a circle and we rotated partners so that all the girls danced with all of the guys- I can now say that I have danced with a dude wearing Lederhosen, lol. 

Back to "normal"

   Well, classes have started again. Two new ones on my schedule: my project management course is in a four hour block on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, and technical writing is through WSU Online. They should be balanced by the two courses that I am wrapping up at TU Graz in the next week or so. If I pass, I will have fulfilled my design and lab requirements at WSU. Woohoo! The next step is to petition to have my Austrian Lanugage and Culture course count for my multi-cultural studies credit at WSU. How can studying abroad not get you cross-cultural credit? Especially when your classmates are from literally all over the world- Japan, Macedonia, Russia...
All this work is making me wish that I was back here:

Even so, it feels good be back in Graz and into some form of my normal routine!

Leave me a comment, they make my day!

Family tour of Graz and Salzburg

   I just said goodbye to Mom and Dad at the train station here in Graz after two and a half days in Graz and two days in Salzburg. Tuesday morning we snagged some Kuchen at the market and took the tram out to Schloß Eggenburg and toured the museums and houses. The gardens around the big yellow building are full of blue peacocks. In one corner of the grounds there was an archeology museum with pieces from the Hallstatt period through the Romans. Dad had a great time translating grave stones! The palace also had beautiful "State" rooms, an art collection, and a coin museum because the builder was head of the Hapsburg mint.
   On our way back into town, we stopped by the "Friendly Alien" for a quick walk through the modern art exhibits and a lovely view over Graz. (click "read more")

Wiener Parents, ja!

   Mom and Dad were subjected to essentially the same Vienna tour that I did with my friends about a month ago, so you should recognize the locations of some of the pictures! We took the U-Bahn into downtown and did a walking tour around Stephansplatz and the Dom, down the main shopping streets (Dad was not as amused as Mom and I that "douglas" is the name of a makeup store chain), past the Oper (where Mom met a charming gentleman selling Mozart tickets), and through the Hofburg.

   In the afternoon we headed out to Schönbrunn and walked up to the Gloriette through the gardens. The weather started out clear and sunny, but by the time that we reached the huge summer palace it was a little cloudy, though not unpleasant! Mom and Dad went on a tour of the imperial apartments while I explored the Carriage House- Ana, it is definitely going on our list! 

   Over the next 24 hours we also made stops by the Hundertwasser houses, Belvedere palace and gardens, the Nachsmarkt, parliament, Stadpark, Manner chocolate store,  and espresso and tortes (including Sacher) at a Viennese Café/Konditorei... by the time that we finally got on the train to Graz, Mom and Dad were pretty exhausted!

  

Donostia/San Sebastian

   Kike invited us to visit him at 'work' in San Sebastian Friday morning. I had never been in a studio before and was amazed by the brightness and business of the MKLZ set! There was so much going on at the same time, both obvious  and behind the scenes. People running around controlling cameras and cueing the audience, sound and video mixing in the upstairs booths (sooo many buttons!), and Kike and his co-host Ilaski talking while a producer was whispering into their ear buds. A guy named Julian gave us a tour of the entire studio building, including the sets of a news program, tv show, and even a green screen stage. Afterwords we watched them film an episode of MKLZ and got to walk around the set. Basically we were given the vip treatment- and it was so much fun! A huge thanks to the MKLZ/EiTB/Amonarriz crews for their hospitality and the experience!
    After lunch at home we drove back to Donostia to explore the city. It is really different from what I have seen anywhere else. The buildings are "new" compared to others in Europe, having been re-built after the Napoleanic wars. They are a warm sandy colour and arranged along straight, orderly streets. The windows above the street level are lined with flower pots and have flags hanging from them. After months of the twisted passages and painted facades in Austria, Donostia was a little bit of a shock. I think that to really appreciate the city I would need to go back and spend a few weeks, maybe a month, living it. (click read more)

First day with the parents- Bizkaia

   Mom and Dad got in to Tolosa around 10 pm Wednesday evening, just in time for another dinner. Kike opened a bottle of local cider, which was shared over shrimp and a seafood and rice dish prepared by Gurutze (really, she is a fantastic chef!). After our meal, she and Jone took us over to Kike's sister's new house, which they had prepared for us to sleep at. We all crashed within a few minutes and slept like logs.
   Thursday morning launched another whirlwind tour of the basque country, this time in the province of Biskaia. We started with a visit to Gernika (Guernica), the historic seat of the Basque government which was bombed in 1937 by the Luftwaffe as a sort of pre-war target practice. Next, we walked through Bermeo and introduced Mom and Dad to pintxos and pelota. The sun was out and it seemed like most of the town with it- the waterfront park was packed. Kike hosts a show called MKLZ on the Basque television, so wherever we walked people would recognize him and stop to chat. I realized why the Amonarriz family goes to France for vacation!
   We drove a little ways along the coast from Bermeo for lunch, finally stopping at a place overlooking the mouth of the river that flows through Gernika. Rather than a muddy delta there was a wide, sandy beach with evenly breaking waves and aquamarine water. Kike and Gurutze insisted on treating us to lunch. I ordered a local dish made of little stuffed squid in a black ink/tomato sauce- I know that it sounds a little strange, but it was actually very very good! We decided that it was a little bit like Dad's steamed muscles in the northwest- the locals love it, but everyone else thinks they're crazy until they actually try it! We walked down to a nearby beach after lunch and explored a little harbor full of txalupas. Dad counted three boat launches and wanted to know why Anacortes couldn't have even one in town.

Kaixo, Euskal Herria!

What a whirlwind of a week! Let me see if I can put together what happened, more or less...

   My second day in the Basque Country, Gurutze, Kike, and Jone took me on a driving tour of their part of the Basque Country. The car ride alone was worth flying across Europe- the roads wound around, over, and through mountains as green as I have ever seen and along a shoreline that made Chukanut look tame. Our first stops were Zarautz and Zumaia, two picture-perfect coastal towns in Gipuzkoa. We walked along the harbors and climbed the steep stone streets to enjoy stunning views over the Bay of Biscay and the coast. Each town has a stone harbor filled with Txalupak (small work boats) and a dockside that reminded me a bit of home. The cool, breezy weather meant that the sandy beaches were nearly deserted- they will be packed as the weather warms up! 

   Our drive back to Tolosa took us through Asteasu, which Kike explained to me was the home town of author Bernardo Atxaga. Part of his book Obabakoak (which Kike was surprised to hear that I had read- thanks, Em!) takes place driving to the fictional town of Obaba on the non-fictional mountain road to Asteasu. The journey and stone town were even better in reality than imagined from the story. Absolutely lovely!

When we arrived back in Tolosa Jone and I were dropped off at a favorite kafétegia (café)/hang out spot for young people in Tolosa, where I learned a new version of BC from Jone and her friends before we walked over to their garage to hang out until dinner. (Click "read more"...)

Tolosa!

Hi from Tolosa! After 12 hours travelling (train, bus, plane, car) I arrived at the Amonarriz Zubeldia house last night. woot! This morning I took a walking tour of Tolosa with Kike and Jone, had Kroketas with the family on the side of a mountain, went to the Donostia/San Sebastian aquarium after walking the sea wall and enjoying the salt air, and met Liere (sister 3) when she got off the bus from her basketball tournament, and finished a dinner of Tortilla Patata by tasting some wine and cheese with Kike and Maddi (sister 1). We discovered that I am the oldest of the girls here, while Jone is the youngest of the girls in Anacortes.

Sunny Salzburg

   Only one week into Easter break and I am ready for it to slow down a little bit! I got home at 8:30 pm last night after three fantastic days in Salzburg with Petra, Pavel (Russ.), Gabriel (Deu.), and Marietje (Belg.). After spending the first afternoon wandering around the city, we decided to buy a 24 hour "Salzburg card" for the next two days, which gave us access to more than we could possibly see in that amount of time...
   In lieu of a long-winded, blow by blow account of our adventures, here is a summary and I'll let the pictures fill in the rest (If the slideshow does not start, click here to go to the photo album)

(Thanks to Petra for sharing her photos with me! The album will be expanded when I swap with Marietje, Pavel, and Gabriel)
Day 1:

• 4.5 hrs on the train from Graz to Salzburg, met Gabriel there, found hostel.
• Lunch at a really nice place on the east side of the river
• Wandered around town, over the Mönschburg, along the river
• Bought bread, cheese, olives, and wine for a picknic-style dinner at the hostel
• Evening walk through town...

Quick hi from Salzburg

Slovenija

   This weekend has been a whirlwind tour of the two largest cities in Slovenia! I met the Petras at the train station and we caught the 10:36 train to Maribor. The town was pretty quiet since it was Sunday afternoon (and Palm Sunday at that!) but really lovely. The region of "lower Styria" was connected to the Austrian Steiermark (Graz's state) for much of the last 300 years. We wandered around the beautiful old town and enjoyed the riverfront park, espresso in the town square, and linner at a Serbian restaurant near the water. 

   At 6:00 we caught our next train to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. We walked through the dusky old town and crashed at a hostel just long enough to re-charge for another day of exploring. The city is about the same size as Graz but has a different feel. The parts of the town are so different- there are pockets of counter-culture graffiti art, Venitian style bridges, Art Nouveau decorated buildings... all overlooked by a medieval castle. It is a real hybrid of old and new, urban and natural. There are huge green parks and a central market bigger than Graz's. To the north you can see the last of the alps. (click read more...)