Ireland!!!

On Thursday March 14 Jess, Alex, Brittany and I left for Dublin.  We were all so excited to be going to Ireland for four days!  First we took a train from Innsbruck to Munich, then had to switch trains there to get to Frankfurt.  Once we arrived in Frankfurt we had to figure out how to get to the airport, so we went to the information center there and we got on a subway for about 2 euro.  This 2 euro ticket ended up being the incorrect ticket, we needed to get the ticket for the airport (it has an airplane next to it), they do control the trains in Germany!  Once we got to Frankfurt we had to wait about an hour to check-in for our flight, and then had to wait about 2.5 hours.  Frankfurt airport is ridiculous, if you don't have to fly out of there DO NOT!  It is very unorganized and very winding.

We finally arrived in Dublin around 11pm and got to the apartment we rented around 12.  Saint Patrick's weekend is probably the worst weekend to go to Dublin; it is fun, but very crazy.  The lady we rented the apartment from was also staying in the apartment and she was wonderful!  She offered us a glass of wine or tea when we arrived, set us up in our rooms and made us feel very welcome.  The next morning she also made us a wonderful Irish breakfast that filled me up for most of the day.  Renting this apartment was the best decision we made (www.airbnb.com).




On March 15 we ate breakfast with Adrienne and she showed us a map of Dublin and explained what places we should go to and how to get there.  We saw St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ's Church, walked in the temple bar area for most of the morning, early afternoon.  Then we went to a restaurant called Avoca.  The food was pricy, but it was excellent.  We thought we were going there for shepherd's pie, but we all ended up getting something completely different.  I got some french fries (of course) and a butternut squash soup, which was the best soup I have had in awhile!  We walked around a bit more and saw the Dublin Castle, went into some tourist shops for St. Paddy's day where I got my friend Carla something good.  I also got myself an Ireland sweatshirt for 17.99 euro,which was pretty good!  We walked back to the apartment around 6pm and did not end up going out that night because we were all exhausted and we planned a trip we are going to do in mid-June.

The next day, 3/16, we got up early and Adrienne made us a wonderful breakfast again to start our day off right.  We walked straight into the temple bar area and walked through some street shops.  It was like going to a festival, every booth had something home-made, it was refreshing.  We then walked along the river, down O'Connell Street to The Garden of Remembrance, which is not necessarily somewhere everyone goes, but it was beautiful.  We then walked back into town and got an Irish Coffee at a place called Davy Byrne's Pub.  This Irish coffee was 7 euro, WOW!  After the coffee we walked over to Trinity College and spent some time in there.  The school is beautiful, but if I were a student there I would be annoyed with all the tourists always being on campus.  We then went and got a beer at Kehoe's, it is a bar established in 1803 with most of the original decor.  It was amazing that the furniture and smell in the bar was not musty and old, it was well kept over the past decades. :)

Kehoe's

After the beer we walked back to the apartment because we were meeting a family for dinner.  Jess's sister actually had a friend living in Dublin, so she invited us to dinner.  The food was amazing and we had a good amount of wine.  We arrived at her house around 6pm, I looked at my clock at 8:30 and then all of a sudden it was 11:40 pm and we kept this lady up so late (and she has children) and we hadn't even gone out yet.  So while walking back to the apartment we stopped at a bar called Slattery's. I had one drink there and we met two very nice Irish gentlemen that took us under their wing and brought us to another bar.  The name of the second bar we went to is slipping my mind (especially after wine and whiskey), but I know I had a lot of fun and everyone was out celebrating the "holiday".  It was a different atmosphere than I am used to, but I loved it and I loved making new friends in Ireland.  We got to bed around 5am on Saturday night.

Our new friend, Patrick

Sunday, Saint Patricks Day, was very dreary.  We relaxed most of the day and we wanted to be rested for our trip back to Innsbruck on Monday.  We were missing our first class on Monday, but it ended up being fine with the teacher.  Traveling on Monday was very long.  We started at 7am in Ireland, waking up at 4:30 to get to the airport by 6.  We ended up getting on the wrong train in Munich, so we had to either pay 45 euro or get off the train at the next stop.  Our choice, get off the train!  We waited for about an hour and a half for the next train and I made it back to my dorm around 8pm; a 12 hour travel day!!!  I ended up going to be so early that night, around 9:30.

School on Tuesday was very long, 9-4:30 and we also had class today, March 20, from 9-4:30.  We got a 1 hour lunch break, but it is still hard sitting in a classroom for that period of time.  After school today we went to the train station to buy our tickets back from Milan on April 1.  There was a pizza party for the WIST dormitories at one of the dorms.  The pizza party is hosted every second Wednesday at a different dorm each time.  This time it was at a dorm close to where I live, which was very convenient.  The pizza is between 2.50-3.50 euro depending on the type, and it is a whole pizza, not a slice!  They also have discounted beer and sodas!  It was packed, so finding a table was fun, but once we got the pizza we were all satisfied.  I got a pizza with ham and cheese on it and it was 3.50 and it was delicious, especially for the price.

We go on an excursion to St. Anton, a skiing resort, on Friday and then on Saturday we leave for Geneva.  Will keep you posted.

Gute nacht!

It's SNOWING!!! :)

So the last couple of days have been decently boring and uneventful, but I like it.  Not having as much to do gave me the time to experience the daily life in Innsbruck.  I am falling in love with this city!! :)  I'm learning the bus system more and more every day, I know which grocery store to go to and I'm learning that I'll have a slower pace life here and I'm more than ok with that!

The past couple of days I've been at the bank at least 4 times trying to set up my account, transfer money from the USA and then seeing if the money has gotten into my bank account here.  That has been the only errand I have had to run.  We have also been to MCI campus every day to use the WIFI to call our friends and family and to look stuff up on the internet.  Today I went there to try to get information on a trip at the end of June to Rome, Athens and Santorini.  I am looking forward to that trip!

Yesterday Jess, Alex and I went over to Pella's dorm to make pizza!  She was repaying us for making her spaghetti the other night. :)  She made the dough at her dorm and then we were able to put whatever toppings we wanted on our own.  It was great to sit and talk to the people that are in her dorm.  A girl named Carly from Nebraska was also there and we talked about going to southern France and she is going to come with us to Greece.  It is great to meet new people, and I especially love meeting people from different countries.

Tonight was an amazing night!  Around 7-8pm the church bells starting ringing and there was a new POPE!  We knew it would take a little bit for them to announce who it was, so we walked around trying to find a place to eat that had a television so we could see the announcement of the new Pope.  When we walked outside it was SNOWING!  I have never really seen snow fall, so tonight has been fantastic.  We found this Greek restaurant down the road from MCI and sat there for a little over an hour.  I loved this restaurant because it had a family feel to it.  We sat down and the owner lit a candle at our table and we watched tv with him.  The food was a little pricey, but FANTASTIC!  We all kind of ordered things without really knowing what is was, so when my food came out I was a little thrown off because it wasn't what I thought it was going to be.  I thought I was going to get potatoes with garlic  and yogurt sauce on top, but it was more of a spread you put on bread.  It was one of the best things I have eaten here in Innsbruck.  The restaurant is called Cafe Electra, if you are ever in Innsbruck, Austria go there!  Towards the end of our meal the owner sat down with his son (I think) and ate his dinner while watching some futbol lol.  I did not mind at all because of the family feel to the restaurant. There was also a random black (HUGE) cat inside. haha  Still a clean place though!  It was nice being over in Europe for when the Pope was announced, I felt more in tuned with what was going on.  It would have been wonderful to be in Rome, but Austria is close enough. :)

Tomorrow we are off to Frankfurt, Germany to catch a flight to Dublin.  They had some heavy winds and snow a few days ago, so the airport had flight delays and cancellations.  Hopefully everything is alright for our flight tomorrow because I am extremely excited to go to Dublin for the weekend and for St. Paddy's day!  Our train to Frankfurt will be about 6 hours and then we fly out of there at 8pm and arrive at 9pm in Dublin.  I am mostly packed, but will have to get up at 7:30 to make sure I have everything ready!  Wish us luck with the plane and pray we do not have any delays.  ;)





Gute nacht, ya'll

Back in Innsbruck :)

So we are now back in Innsbruck until Thursday, March 14, because we will be headed to Dublin, Ireland for the weekend!!!

In my last post I said I was making spaghetti for myself and some friends and it turned out great!  Alex and I went shopping on Saturday, and that is the only thing we did all day, except cook.  We ended up cooking all the meat we bought and made a huge pot of spaghetti sauce, which was good because there ended up being 6 of us eating the food!  The one thing we forgot was the fact that we do not have a ton of silverware, a huge pot, or a big pot for cooking the noodles.  Thank goodness there was a community pot in the kitchen for the spaghetti sauce, but for the noodles, we had to do in batches in our small pots. :(   Also, we had to improvise on the silverware part because we had nothing for Pella or Carly to use.  I actually loved cooking over here because it gave us something to do other than walk around the city center and eat out!  I also liked relaxing!

On Sunday, March 10, we went to a futbol game at the Tivoli Soccerstadium.  The FC Wacker Innsbruck team was playing FC Red Bull Salzburg.  We were not expecting Innsbruck to win because they were playing one of the top teams in the league, but in the first half they scored 2 goals and Salzburg did not score anything.  I was very surprised at how much I loved being at the futbol game; I thought I would have watching soccer.  It actually is very intense, game wise and fan wise.  The stadium was not full, but the fans that were there were very rowdy.  I bought a scarf as a souvenir to take home from Innsbruck. :)  At half time, I went to get a beer and a frankwurst to tide me over until dinner.  During the second half, Innsbruck gave away 3 goals, one of them being in the last minute of the extra 5 minute time added at the end.  We were all very sad that they lost, but we still had a fun time.

After the game we went to the train station to see if we could buy our train tickets to Frankfurt, Germany for our flight to Dublin.  We found out quickly we will have to do it online and we actually need to do that today since we leave on Thursday!!  We ended up going to Galway Irish pub after the train station on Sunday and had 2 beers and some food.  They have the best chicken tenders I have tried, which was surprising to me.

On Monday, March 11, we met up with Jessica and Pella at noon to go see where our campus, MCI III, is located.  We have a beautiful view from out campus because it is up on a hill.  It took Alex and I a total of 30 minutes to get from our dorm, Panorama, to MCI III with stops to meet up with the two others.  After that we met up with Drenusha to sign our contract at the bank, but they ended up being closed until 2:15, so we went back later without Drenusha because she had class.  I had to wait one day to put money into my account, and rent is due March 14 (they really gave us a ton of time!) :(  I have to give my bank information to my dorm today at latest for rent and since I am not sure my mom can get a wire transfer over here by March 14, I had to pull out 300 euro and pay the ATM fee and the fee wells fargo charges me.  I am over getting less money for what I have in my bank account. :(  Plus with the wire transfer I have to pay 35 dollars and the exchange rate.  It's pretty dumb.

The rest of the day Monday we went to MCI for the wifi connection and waited on Brittany to get back from Vienna.  We then decided to reserve a table at a restaurant called Stiftskeller because we heard they have great food.  We reserved a table for 10 at 7pm, which is incredibly late for me to be eating, but I guess is early for most other people.  I had the Tirolean kedgeree of fried meat and potatoes and it had a fried egg on top.  This dish came in a skillet and was incredibly.  I love my meat and potatoes, so I think I'm going to like a lot of the food here.  This meal was definitely hearty, though.  After dinner I headed back to my dorm to get some sleep because I hadn't been feeling well all day.  I ended up skyping with my two good friends back in Orlando, Stephanie and Ali, and then facetimed with my sister.  It was nice to catch up with all of them on what is going on back home.

At first I wanted to do summer classes when I get back on July 1 and be a week late for classes, but for the class I have I do not think that will be possible.  The work load is intense and I will already be a week late.  I did not want to take any classes in fall and be committed to Orlando for my last internship, but I think I may have to because I do not know if I can handle going straight back into classes after getting back from Europe 1 day prior.  I need to talk to my mom about that today!

Now, I am going to watch some of my TV shows because some immaculate person showed me how to get an add-on on the internet to watch Xfinity!! I LOVE YOU! :)




Guten Morgen ya'll

Vienna :)

We are just a bunch of major travelers!!!  We left for Vienna on March 7, 2013 at 8 am!  We met Jess at the train station at 7:30, though, so our bodies were extremely tired!  The price of the ticket wasn't too bad, 30 euro, and we went to Vienna/Wien for 2 full days and 1 night!  That was just enough for us right now because we still need to get to know Innsbruck!

We arrived in Vienna around 1 pm because our trained stopped for some reason (we didn't know because they said in German lol) and we got there an hour later than we should have.  Brittany and her friend Leslie who lives in Vienna picked us up from the train station and we went straight to Schönbrunn Palace.  This palace is huge and was the princes summer house, I mean come on do you really need that much space for a summer house? lol  We stayed there for about 2 hours walking around.  We walked up the hill to another part of the palace.  There was also a zoo there, but we did not go into it.  

After the palace Leslie dropped Alex, Jessica and I at the city centre for us to be able to walk around because she had to go ride horses and Brittany wanted to join her.  The three of us went to St. Stephan's Cathedral and it was just beautiful, on the outside and inside.  We then walked around and got a sandwich and some gelato, which was delicious of course!  We then had some time to spare, so we sat on a bench down by the danube river and enjoyed the view.  There was a lot of cool graffiti to look at underneath the bridges as well.

We took a subway to meet back up with Brittany and Leslie to have dinner at Leslie's apartment.  She was making us Schinken Flecken, which is her specialty!  Brittany calls is macaroni and cheese on steroids!  It has ham and bacon in it with broad noodles and a cheese sauce!  It was absolutely delicious.  Leslie's apartment was beautiful and there was more than enough room for us to sleep, for free may I add.  We went to a roof top bar that night for a beer after dinner.  We were all extremely tired, so we did not stay out past 12:30am.

We were supposed to get up at 8am the next morning, but we did not get up until around 10am!!  That put a damper in what Leslie could show us in Vienna the next day.  She first took us to her school which is on top of a hill and has incredible views.  It was a bit foggy that day, but it was still a great view, I can just imagine how good it is when the sun is shining.  The school is a bit small for my liking though, I am glad I chose MCI, Innsbruck!

We went to the National Library where Hitler's famous speech was done after seeing Modul University. There was no reneovations to the area, so it is incredible to see, a bit moving as well. After the library, we saw the Parliament building and Rathausplatz. There was a festival going on at Rathausplatz, so there were little areas set up selling food and goodies. There was also an ice skating rink around the entire area that were almost did, but it was a bit expensive. I loved walking around Vienna.




We then went to Belvedere because Jessica wanted to see "The Kiss", a painting located in that museum. I was excited to go look at the paintings as well. It was decently cheap to get it and we spent a good amount of time there. :) I wish we could have taken pictures because there were several great views inside the museum and looking outside the museum as well.  The security was definitely high in the museum, so there was no way to take any pictures!  After the museum, we walked to the city center, through Stadtpark, to get to the U3, which was the subway we needed to take to get to the train station.  We were going to leave Vienna at 5:36, but that train was completely full, so we decided to get on the phone at 6:36.  We wanted to get a seat that had 4 seats and a table, but we then realized it didn't have much leg room, so Alex moved.  The train got completely full by the time we were leaving, so 2 random people sat next to Jess and I.  We were not expecting that and plus we were tired so we were like ahhh.  But they got off at the first stop, so we were able to get comfortable again.

Jess and I drank a beer prior to falling asleep on the train, so we both passed out!  Once we arrived in Innsbruck, around 11pm, Alex and I had to get the nightliner bus back to our place, which is about 15 minutes and then we had to walk about 20 minutes back to our place.  That was the worst walk at that time because I was extremely tired and not in the mood.




All in all, Vienna was amazing and I am glad we went.  We did not get to see all that we wanted to, but we will be going back at least 1 more time, especially since Alex and I are seeing Elton John there in June! :)

That is all for now, going to make some spaghetti with some friends. :)

Guten Abend!

Salt Mines and Salzburg!!

Awesome suits!!

On Wednesday March 6, 2013 we went with the other exchange students to Salzburg to go to the Salt Mines and to explore the city for a few hours!  The bus ride was about 2 1/2 hours and we left at 7:15am.  We got to the salt mines around 10am and we had to wait until 10:45 until our tour of the salt mines.  I looked around the gift shop for a bit and noticed that this place is where they make all the salt rocks you can buy that help with allergies.  I actually have one of these rocks in my room and I believe it has helped my allergies, it is also great decoration and gives off decent lighting!

Mini Train seat

For the tour of the salt mines we had to put on these funny outfits to cover our clothing.  I believe we did this to protect them from the salt?  No one really told us why we needed to put them on, but it was fun!!  On the tour of the salt mines we all get on this huge seat that takes us down into the mines (I will show a picture!) and then we walk from there!!!  It is quite dark, but amazing at the same time.  There were 2 slides we went down that were used by the miners when they needed to go down levels while mining.  The first slide was fun, but the second slide was even better!!  We got to try some of the water that was naturally coming from the mine and it was incredibly salty.  At the end of the tour we got a cute little bottle of salt lol.

Salzburg Cathedral

After the tour we took the bus into the city of Salzburg and had 4 hours to explore the city.  We first went to find food and we discovered a Bistro that ended up being delicious.  I got a flat break type of pizza with artichokes, mushrooms, cheese and onions on it!!  We also got this beer called Radler that has a sweet taste too it, almost like sprite at the bottom of it.  After eating, we went to a castle named Hohensalzburg Castle!  On the way we saw a humongous and beautiful church, Salzburg Cathedral, and a gold ball, Stephan Balkenhol "Sphaera", with a statue on top.  It was a hike to get up to, but this castle is incredible!!  There were also amazing views from the castle of Salzburg!!  I love the architecture here in Europe, it is nothing like America.

Bistro

After the castle we went to see where Mozart lived, but he did not have much time so we just took a picture of the outside.  We had to be back on the bus at 5pm to get back to Innsbruck.  We attempted to get a beer once we were back, but we were so tired that we just went back to our dorm and passed out. We were also leaving for Vienna, Austria the next day at 7:30 am, so we all needed our sleep.




Up next, Vienna!!!

Orientation at MCI, Management Center Innsbruck

On Monday March, 4, 2013 we started orientation at MCI!  We got to meet all of the exchange students and sat in a classroom to learn some basics about the university.  We sat in the classroom from 10-12 and then had lunch provided for us by MCI, which was wonderful!! After lunch, we went on a campus tour and had the option to go on the city tour.  We opted not to go on the city tour since we had already walked the entire city from Friday-Sunday.  On the tour we got to sign up for a discount card, we took a picture for our student ID and we saw where the library is located.  The view from the top story balcony is amazing!!!

After the orientation was over, Alex, Brittany, Jessica and I stayed at MCI because we have free WIFI!!  We were all able to talk to our parents and to our friends, which was amazing.  After that we went to get a phone to be able to contact each other, instead of having to rely on wifi spots and Facebook.  It is taking me back to 8th grade when I had my flip phone and have to type in ABC format.  I can't switch the ring tone or anything, but it gets the job done.  It is hard going from an iphone to this phone lol.  It took a lot longer to get the phone issue situated, so we then went straight to The Galway Bay Irish pub for a social our exchange leader put together.  They had a live band there from 7:30-10:30.  Alex and I stayed until about 10:20 and then we decided to go back to the dorm because we were extremely tired and did not want to miss the last bus at 10:39!!  If we were to miss that bus we would have to walk the long 20 minute walk back to our dorm!  We ended up getting a burger at Burger King while we waited on our second bus, which is very American, but it definitely hit the spot for both of us!  I got back to the dorm around 10:45 pm and was completely drained because we left our dorm at 9am that morning.

The second day of orientation was today, March 5, 2013, and it was about the online system, which I had already figured out.  So I did not listen one bit and stared at the mountains the entire time.  We also were facebooking and texting each other! haha.  After the lecture, we had a time slot to come back to get our classes situated.  A lot of exchange students had overlapping courses, so they had to drop and class and then add others.  I was looking into the German course, but it would be hard to travel and take that class at the same time, so I decided to keep my schedule the way it is.  The one bad thing about my schedule is that I am separated from everyone else I know.  I believe they did the class schedule based on your last name and mine is way off from the others, so I am not happy about that.  The one good this is that we can still study together for the exams! :)

After getting our classes situated we went with our buddy to set up our bank account, get our bus pass and get the train discount ticket.  It will take awhile for our bank account to be set up because of the huge volume of exchange students.  Next Monday I will go sign the contract for the bank and then during that week I will have to get my mom to go to Wells Fargo to wire the money to my account.  It will then take another week to get my bank card. :(  The bus pass was the most expensive thing I have had to buy here for school; it was 124,90 euro.  The bus pass was not expensive at all, but we had to pay 5 euro just to get a picture of the pass; that ticked me off!!

We were all starving by the time we were finished getting everything sorted, so we stopped at a place called Theresien Brau.  We thought they were having happy hour, but when we got there we saw it was only from 3-5 pm and it was 6:15. :(  We split a pitcher of the beer (which they only have 1 of at this bar) and each got a meal.  I got the Schinkenrahmspatzln, which is dumplings with ham and a creme sauce.  It was very delicious but very dense and I could not finish it.  After that, we all went our seperate ways and I will be headed to bed in about 30 minutes.









Tomorrow all the exchange students head to Salzburg bright and early at 7am, so I have to get up at 5:30am.  I have extremely excited for the trip, but not to get up that early.

Gute nacht, ya'll.

First few days in Innsbruck

So we arrived in Innsbruck, Austria around 9:30 am on March 1, 2013!  Like I said in my last post I immediately fell in love with it!!!  Our buddy Drenusha picked us up at the train station, along with the 5th person studying with us, Jessica.  The first thing we did was drop Pella off at her dorm and then we went to Alex and Brittany's dorm, along with mine.  Alex and Brittany are in the same building and I am right next to them, but we are part of the same complex!!  When I walked into my room I was pleasantly surprised on the size of the room!!  Right when you walk in there is a bathroom on the right, which is small and only has your necessities!  The shower is most definitely made for 1 person, if that! lol.  My bed is also right when you walk in the door, but it is not so bad.  Then the rest of the room is shaped like an L, so I do not have to look straight at my roommate when I wake up in the morning.

When I first walked in my roommate was not there.  I unpacked a little bit, and then Brittany, Alex, Jessica and I went across the street to get some lunch while we waited on Drenusha to pick up the two girls from Hong Kong who she is also a buddy for.  At around 12 we met up with them and took the bus to IKEA to get everything we need for our room.  I needed sheets, a duvet cover, hangers, cups, plates, etc.  I did not realize how much I needed until I went into IKEA, good thing it is cheap there!  After that we went back to the dorm, then Brittany, Alex and I went to the grocery store to get shampoo and some small things.  We ended up grabbing some pizza at Papa's Pizzeria right down the street from us.  We learned quickly that the service was pretty bad there, but the food was good.  We probably won't return because it was a bit expensive and when we go to the mall or grocery store they have sandwiches for 1-2 euro!!  BROKE COLLEGE STUDENT LIFE!  That night we decided to try out the Galway Bay Irish pub and got a few beers.  We quickly started to feel tired and we went home pretty early, but not early enough for the bus system.  We got there just about 30 minutes late for the train that takes us straight to our dorm.  So we had to take the N2 bus which takes about 1-1.5 miles from our dorm and it took us about 20 minutes to walk from the bus stop.  That was quite annoying and it will probably happen more than 1 time a week, which stinks.

The second day, March 2, 2013, I woke up around 10:40 am.  I met up with Brittany and Alex to explore Innsbruck a little.  We also met up with Jessica at the train station to go to a store to see about getting wifi in our rooms.  We ended up going to the mall and then back to IKEA because I needed more hangers, a lamp, some containers because I do not have drawers and a few other things.  That night we went to The Galway Bay Irish pub around 6:30 and started drinking guinness.  We also got some fried chicken and frites (fries).  We then went to the social our buddy, Drenusha, put on for all the exchange students at a bar called Stradt Cafe.  We met a ton of exchange students, along with some other random people.  It was a great time!  At about midnight we went back to Galway Bay and had one more beer.  It was super crowded so I stayed seated most of the time there.  When 1am came around I was more than ready to go home, but we waited until 2 to leave to get to the bus station.  We walked all the way to the train station for our bus because that is the only place we knew for sure the N2 bus was coming.  We ended up getting on the wrong bus and went around all of Innsbruck for about an hour.  We then had to walk the 20 minutes to our dorm, so I got to bed around 4am.  I was super excited by that time! (ha)

I woke up at 1pm on March 3, 2013!  I wasn't happy about it, but hey I went to bed at 4am.  After showering I met up with Brittany and Alex downstairs to go meet Jessica at a place called the Golden Roof.  We were going to map out the bus to get to our campus, MCI III, but we realized on Sunday's the buses only run every so often.  Also, EVERYTHING is closed on Sunday's in Innsbruck, well just about.  We ended up walking around the city for a few hours and then went to the only grocery store open, which was at the train station.  When then decided we did not feel like cooking, so we looked around for an open cafe and found one called Uni Snacks.  It is a small place and doesn't look like it would be very good, but the food was phenomenal!!  Brittany, Alex and I got wiener schnitzel and Jessica got a vegetarian wrap.  We got a ton of food for a pretty cheap price, around 6 euro!  After that we took a look at Jessica's dorm and then called it a night!

The first two days in Innsbruck were incredibly busy, but I loved every minute of it! :)

MUNICH!!!

It has been way too long since I blogged!!  Since I arrived in Munich I only could use wifi on one object, so I chose to use it on my phone to contact my family and friends. :)

We arrived in Munich around 1pm on February 27, 2013.  We took a cab to the hotel and unpacked what we could.  Alex, Brittany and I were starving, so we decided to walk to a plaza called Marienplatz, where there is a lot of shopping and restaurants.  We looked at a few menus and decided on this one place called Hacker-Pschorr.  We went inside this very small restaurant and everyone just looked at us weird, and there was no where to sit down :(.  So we decided to sit outside instead which was a horrible idea.  I got a coffee and it did not warm me at all.  I could not even take off my gloves to eat my food.  No more outside eating for us!!!  The food I ordered was pretty good, I got the Original Munchner WeiBwurst, which is a white sausage with sweet mustard and a pretzel!!  I liked the sausage, but after awhile the texture wasn't so pleasant because it was boiled.  In the end, I had  the sweet mustard in my hair, on my ear muffs and on my gloves :( very unattractive!  After dinner, we went back to the hotel and relaxed!  While relaxing I decided to look up customs on Germany and I read that it is very common for you to seat yourself at most restaurants and a waiter will come up to you.  Now I know why all the people in Hacker-Pschorr were looking at us weirdly.

The next day in Munich was great!  We slept until 10:40am, which was not planned, but hey we were jet lagged!! We got up and walked to the train station to go to the BMW museum and OlympiaPark.  We paid 10.60 euro for a train ticket and no one even looked at it!!!  The BMW museum was awesome.  There were planes, cars, motorcycles, scooters, race cars and much more!  I love to see the old cars from the 50's, they are my favorite.  After the BMW museum we went to OlympiaPark and went up the Olympia Tower, which is just like going up the eiffel tower.  We were able to see so much for up there; all of OlympiaPark, and almost the rest of Munich!!!  We then explored the rest of the park including the Olympic Stadium!  We paid 3 euro to get into the stadium and it was well worth it!! Who else can say they went into the Olympic Stadium in Munich!?!

 After OlympiaPark, we went back to Marienplatz and showed Pella around there.  We saw the Hard Rock Hotel, the Orlando Haus (which was really cool) and then we ate at Hackerhaus where we all split 2 different kinds of brats and had a beer!!  We also got the apple strudel for dessert!!!

Hackerhaus was amazing because you felt like you were getting the entire German experience.  There were a bunch of wooden tables around the place (it was huge) and everyone can sit together!!  We were next to completely random people and were loving it!  I got a half liter of beer, but Alex and Brittany got a liter!  There were also a few people from Asia sitting near us who were socializing with a bunch of German gentleman raising a ruckus!  It was very interesting to watch.  The German music was wonderful to listen to and you could tell everyone was having a great time.

The down side about Munich is that it was very dreary when we were there.  I wish there could have been some sun so I would have enjoyed it a bit more.

We took the train from Munich to Innsbruck around 7:30 am on March 1, 2013 and when we crossed the border into Austria you could tell a difference.  The sun was out and it was just beautiful.  When we arrived in Innsbruck we were already falling in love with the city!


Next to come is my first and second day in Innsbruck, Austria!! :)