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)

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)

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)

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!

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")