This will be my last post. This is a little sad for me because it is essentially the one "last" thing I've done that really means "this is the end". It also probably isn't helping that I'm listening to the new Coldplay album right now (You know how I know I'm gay?). So the bags are packed and sitting on my floor. Tonight we are going out for a few drinks and then saying our goodbyes (of course a kebap will officially end the night).
Its been a good one. I mean that very seriously. Thank you so much mom and dad for allowing me to do this for a semester. I owe you more than you know. It was good for me to get out of Champaign for a semester. But now I'm ready to get back home. I'm really gonna miss this place but its just been so long since I've had Papa Dels...
My final souvenir that I bought yesterday was an Austrian flag that I'll put up in my room. I feel connected to this country in a sense now, but as cool as it is over here, I can't imagine living in any other place but the United States of America. I'm gonna get a little patriotic for a minute here. This is due mostly cause I'm coming home, 4th of July is next week, and I miss home in general. Europe is cool, but I don't see how people say that America needs to be more like Europe. My program director loves it over here and he is always trying to tell me what Europe does that is so great. I gotta tell you I don't think it sounds that fantastic. Plus they don't even have ice or water fountains over here haha. Sure there are some perks in Europe that I like, but overall I think we do it right. I do wish we loved football (I guess I have to start calling it soccer now) as much as they do over here.
So ends another chapter in the life of Andrew Sweeney. Thanks for reading! I'll be home before the fireworks...
Prost!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
last class
I feel like these posts are getting less relevant each day. This weekend was more fanzone and taking care of logistical stuff before I peace outta here. Please forgive me if I'm ranting and not making sense but my mind is wandering tonight and I can't concentrate on my homework. I think Djavad is losing his mind by the way. He has been nose deep in a calc textbook all weekend and he will randomly turn on his Iranian music and dance around the room. Normally I would be uncomfortable with these actions but now I'm at the point where if he didn't do that I would be concerned. He leaves for Iran in late July so he's got his own bachelor pad after I leave next week.
I started my final class today. Its called Export Marketing Management. Its probably the most worthwhile class I've taken here so far and shouldn't be too bad. The teacher is from Greece and seems pretty cool.
I saw the movie "The Happening" tonight. I give it the official Andrew Sweeney thumbs down. I think Shyamalan is losing it like Djavad.
I've been in a perpetual state of stickiness these last two weeks. Europe doesn't believe in air conditioning. Among AC I'm also excited to get back to water fountains, food delivery, ice, the english language, cheeseburgers..... I could go all day.
To be fair I will miss a lot of things here so it will be a bittersweet departure, especially because I can start naming my "last" things like last night at Loco, last night at fanzone, last kebap....
Other than that it will be good to be back at home. Gotta go.
I started my final class today. Its called Export Marketing Management. Its probably the most worthwhile class I've taken here so far and shouldn't be too bad. The teacher is from Greece and seems pretty cool.
I saw the movie "The Happening" tonight. I give it the official Andrew Sweeney thumbs down. I think Shyamalan is losing it like Djavad.
I've been in a perpetual state of stickiness these last two weeks. Europe doesn't believe in air conditioning. Among AC I'm also excited to get back to water fountains, food delivery, ice, the english language, cheeseburgers..... I could go all day.
To be fair I will miss a lot of things here so it will be a bittersweet departure, especially because I can start naming my "last" things like last night at Loco, last night at fanzone, last kebap....
Other than that it will be good to be back at home. Gotta go.
Friday, June 20, 2008
unbelievable
I am in a less than happy mood tonight. I just cannot believe the game I just saw. Just when you think Turkey is going to be eliminated, they find a way. The car horns have been going off for twenty minutes and I don't think they will stop for another few hours. Someone told me today that there are 700,000 Turks living in Vienna and that they make up for 70% of Vienna's (or Austria's) immigrants. A lot of cars honking needless to say...
I'll be doing homework.
I'll be doing homework.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
European Top 5 Pt. 2
OK break time from homework.
3. BARCELONA
They kind of spoke Spanish here, but not really. The water was hardly drinkable. The public transportation there sucked. There was a beach but it was too cold to enjoy it (wow why is this even on the top 5?) Well, there was so much to do and a lot of really cool places we drank at. Amy's sister studied there last spring so we knew where we were going. We saw a fountain show, ventured through bustling market streets, ate paella and tapas, climbed a mountain, stormed a castle, saw the famous and unfinished Sagrada Familia, saw the Barcelona soccer team's gigantic Camp Nou stadium and so on and so forth. No museums. No tours. Just a lot of fun at our pace and our time. It was a good midway point in the spring break trip. I wanted to see more Spain and go to sunny Madrid but we spent too much time in France.
4. SALZBURG
I had to throw in something from good old Austria. Since Vienna is out of the running I choose Salzburg, the Disney World of Europe. Yes, I suffered the Sound of Music tour here. However, we had a really good group of people with us. There was a really cool fortress/castle thing was saw, that even had a torture chamber. The scenery was beautiful. The Augustiner Brauhaus was AWESOME and there I learned that "Ein muter Trunk Macht alte jung". Plus we saw the largest ice caves in the world. The trip lasted 5 days so we were able to take out time. All in all a very memorable trip.
5. BASKA
Sneaking in at the end of the Top 5 is the island town in Croatia. This was a fantastic trip. Our true Spring Break of 2008. A tiny town nestled at the southern tip of the island of Krk (possibly the largest island in the Adriatic, I'm not sure) was the perfect getaway from the stresses of one class a week. The sun was shining, the water was clear, and the sheep were roasting. It was peaceful and relaxing during the day, and then at night the party started. European rock bands, beer that tasted like it was from back home, and delicious lamb. I could have stayed there for another week, especially because of the exchange rate. I really need to stop thinking about these places because I'm getting a little melancholy that this semester is over.
Honorable Mentions:
Munich
Munich was fun because the town was basically founded on beer and that's really all you have to do there. I couldn't put two German cities in the top 5 because I wanted to spread it out and not show a bias towards Deutschland (even though there is one). The walking tour was guided by a newbie and he was terrible, so my experience is tainted a bit. I did get to reunite with old friends and I really enjoyed that.
Bratislava
Ok this one is mostly a joke but I went there three freaking times (not by choice) so the joke here is that I secretly love it. The poor city does get beat up on a lot (think the movies "Hostel" and "Eurotrip") Yes it is still getting itself together after the iron curtain went down, and yes, some of the buildings are falling apart, but hey, gotta love that exchange rate. Great food, great drinks, and a near-death experience I will never forget.
Graz
A very cool day trip to the capitol of Styria in Austria with one of my favorite museums and the best schnitzel I've ever had.
By principle I did not include anything about France but I did enjoy Nice and Paris. Not so much Avignon.
"Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy. Both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me."
-Michael Scott
3. BARCELONA
They kind of spoke Spanish here, but not really. The water was hardly drinkable. The public transportation there sucked. There was a beach but it was too cold to enjoy it (wow why is this even on the top 5?) Well, there was so much to do and a lot of really cool places we drank at. Amy's sister studied there last spring so we knew where we were going. We saw a fountain show, ventured through bustling market streets, ate paella and tapas, climbed a mountain, stormed a castle, saw the famous and unfinished Sagrada Familia, saw the Barcelona soccer team's gigantic Camp Nou stadium and so on and so forth. No museums. No tours. Just a lot of fun at our pace and our time. It was a good midway point in the spring break trip. I wanted to see more Spain and go to sunny Madrid but we spent too much time in France.
4. SALZBURG
I had to throw in something from good old Austria. Since Vienna is out of the running I choose Salzburg, the Disney World of Europe. Yes, I suffered the Sound of Music tour here. However, we had a really good group of people with us. There was a really cool fortress/castle thing was saw, that even had a torture chamber. The scenery was beautiful. The Augustiner Brauhaus was AWESOME and there I learned that "Ein muter Trunk Macht alte jung". Plus we saw the largest ice caves in the world. The trip lasted 5 days so we were able to take out time. All in all a very memorable trip.
5. BASKA
Sneaking in at the end of the Top 5 is the island town in Croatia. This was a fantastic trip. Our true Spring Break of 2008. A tiny town nestled at the southern tip of the island of Krk (possibly the largest island in the Adriatic, I'm not sure) was the perfect getaway from the stresses of one class a week. The sun was shining, the water was clear, and the sheep were roasting. It was peaceful and relaxing during the day, and then at night the party started. European rock bands, beer that tasted like it was from back home, and delicious lamb. I could have stayed there for another week, especially because of the exchange rate. I really need to stop thinking about these places because I'm getting a little melancholy that this semester is over.
Honorable Mentions:
Munich
Munich was fun because the town was basically founded on beer and that's really all you have to do there. I couldn't put two German cities in the top 5 because I wanted to spread it out and not show a bias towards Deutschland (even though there is one). The walking tour was guided by a newbie and he was terrible, so my experience is tainted a bit. I did get to reunite with old friends and I really enjoyed that.
Bratislava
Ok this one is mostly a joke but I went there three freaking times (not by choice) so the joke here is that I secretly love it. The poor city does get beat up on a lot (think the movies "Hostel" and "Eurotrip") Yes it is still getting itself together after the iron curtain went down, and yes, some of the buildings are falling apart, but hey, gotta love that exchange rate. Great food, great drinks, and a near-death experience I will never forget.
Graz
A very cool day trip to the capitol of Styria in Austria with one of my favorite museums and the best schnitzel I've ever had.
By principle I did not include anything about France but I did enjoy Nice and Paris. Not so much Avignon.
"Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy. Both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me."
-Michael Scott
European Top 5
OK so the semester if winding down and I'm sure everyone needs a break from me taking about EM 2008 so I will dedicate this post to my top 5 European cities. I've put much thought into this and have debated with people for countless hours about my choices. Excluded from this list is Vienna because I couldn't really allow it to compete with cities I've visited for only a couple of days. Plus I freaking live here and it holds a special place in my heart. While doing my power rankings I've deciding to use the following criteria that have no particular order or importance: sightseeing, public transportation, cost, amount of sweet stories I can tell people back home, knowledge/cultural experience gained, quality of food, quality of beer, and of course, nightlife.
1. BERLIN
Berlin was just....the best. I can't say enough about it. If I was doing a country ranking Germany would easily be up there. It could be that I just spent a lot of time there and saw old friends but that's not the case. I just love the German culture, and the people are uber friendly. I haven't slept in a more comfortable bed this entire semester than the ones in that hostel. I was so happy about it I almost went online and wrote a review. Basically the company that made that visit was called NewEurope. They do free walking tours (they only work on tips) and then they take you out at night on pub crawls. The tour was fantastic. The guy was hilarious. The pub crawl was one of the best nights out I've had here. I met the coolest people and had the most interesting conversations. The beer and brats were excellent. Ok I'll stop now. I've already talked about the city so you don't need to hear it again. One more final point I would like to make is that Berlin was near the end of my long two week spring break trip, so for me to be interested in anything by that time is saying something.
2. PRAGUE
Oh Eastern Bloc. I feel like I have betrayed Prague a little bit for not being number 1 because now that I'm writing my reasons down there's no way this guy deserves to be number 2. But, this is the real world and there are number 1's and number 2's. I would be the first to tell you. Just look at my trophy shelf. The trip to Prague was my first group trip out of Vienna besides ski week. I was at that time still really pumped about traveling. I was running around with my camera in one hand and a map in the other with my "Czech Me Out" t-shirt on. Just kidding. I do have that t-shirt but I was not wearing it. Oh, beginning of semester Andrew, there is so much I need to warn you about, and yet, I can't. Anyway, the Czech Republic has arguably the best beer in the world. The pilsner beer was invented in this country! Our famous Budweiser was stolen from this country! The sights in Prague were great. The famous castle was closed so I was a little bitter about that, but Prague had it all: sights, drinks, nightlife, and even Anti-American graffiti!
OK I've got my next two cities lined up but I haven't actually figured out which one I will throw in for number 5 so I'm actually going to do my homework now.
Prost!
1. BERLIN
Berlin was just....the best. I can't say enough about it. If I was doing a country ranking Germany would easily be up there. It could be that I just spent a lot of time there and saw old friends but that's not the case. I just love the German culture, and the people are uber friendly. I haven't slept in a more comfortable bed this entire semester than the ones in that hostel. I was so happy about it I almost went online and wrote a review. Basically the company that made that visit was called NewEurope. They do free walking tours (they only work on tips) and then they take you out at night on pub crawls. The tour was fantastic. The guy was hilarious. The pub crawl was one of the best nights out I've had here. I met the coolest people and had the most interesting conversations. The beer and brats were excellent. Ok I'll stop now. I've already talked about the city so you don't need to hear it again. One more final point I would like to make is that Berlin was near the end of my long two week spring break trip, so for me to be interested in anything by that time is saying something.
2. PRAGUE
Oh Eastern Bloc. I feel like I have betrayed Prague a little bit for not being number 1 because now that I'm writing my reasons down there's no way this guy deserves to be number 2. But, this is the real world and there are number 1's and number 2's. I would be the first to tell you. Just look at my trophy shelf. The trip to Prague was my first group trip out of Vienna besides ski week. I was at that time still really pumped about traveling. I was running around with my camera in one hand and a map in the other with my "Czech Me Out" t-shirt on. Just kidding. I do have that t-shirt but I was not wearing it. Oh, beginning of semester Andrew, there is so much I need to warn you about, and yet, I can't. Anyway, the Czech Republic has arguably the best beer in the world. The pilsner beer was invented in this country! Our famous Budweiser was stolen from this country! The sights in Prague were great. The famous castle was closed so I was a little bitter about that, but Prague had it all: sights, drinks, nightlife, and even Anti-American graffiti!
OK I've got my next two cities lined up but I haven't actually figured out which one I will throw in for number 5 so I'm actually going to do my homework now.
Prost!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Strategy Weekend
This last weekend I have been wrapping up my strategic management class. It was a lot of fun and only a little work so I'm real happy about that. We went to a tiny village called Nasswald (wet forest?) with a population of only 86 people. It was literally a one horse town. Seriously. There was a single horse standing around in the middle of the town. Anyway the hotel we stayed at had a big conference room that doubled as the presentation room and the viewing room for the soccer matches. We pretty much had the hotel to ourselves so they let us party until the wee hours of the morning. The bartender was even joining us. At around 1 am he came out with a full bottle of schnapps and turned up the music. The weekend was a success and he gave us all an "A" for basically showing up. I've got two more weeks of this vacation, I mean, semester. I have one more class to take that actually doesn't start for another week and only goes for 3 days. Those three days of export marketing management and I get to opt out of Accounting 301 for my Senior year. Booyah!
Tonight is do or die for Austria. I'll be in the Fanzone.
Prost!
Tonight is do or die for Austria. I'll be in the Fanzone.
Prost!
Friday, June 13, 2008
Immer Wieder Osterreich!
Hey it wasn't pretty, but we're still alive. I'm leaving for the weekend now goodbye.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
give me a jersey
I just read the latest euro 2008 diary entry of page 2 after posting and the Ottakringer Brewery is giving away a lifetime supply of beer to the first Austrian who scores in the tournament. Sign me up. I guess Patrick Bode was right: "If you drink enough Ottakringer, anything is possible."
tourney update and misc.
So I'm supposed to be working on my Strategic Management presentation for my weekend excursion right now so I need to make this relatively quick. I have been kicking myself for not having the foresight to pick other classes that ended earlier so I wouldn't have to choose between work and fun. I thought I was on vacation anyways...
I promise I won't talk about the games much because if you are watching them then you don't need me to tell you what happened and if you want commentary Page 2 of espn.com has a hilarious recap of the games in a daily diary. But this is my blog so these are my thoughts:
Romania has surprised everyone with their tenacity and bunker ball defense that even had enough courage to stand up to ribery's ugliness. I still say if Thierry Henry was in the game France would have put one away but that's just my own biases coming into play. Italy got whooped one of the best games so far of the tournament. The Dutch were outnumbered 3-1 in the Fanzone but that didn't stop them from going nuts. What else...oh yeah. The first half of the Sweden/Greece game I literally wanted to die. It was one of the most boring halves of soccer I've seen. Ryan Hoch pointed out to me that it looked like the Simpsons episode where they make fun of soccer and the players just pass it back and forth the whole time and not score. Spain looks like they are gonna be a tough team to beat as long as they don't choke. I found myself bewildered at this Spanish striker who wasn't Fernando Torres who was scoring all the goals (Who the hell is David Villa?). Portugal just soundly beat the Czech Republic in what I called the We don't want to play Germany in the Quarterfinals Bowl. The other game was pretty boring too. I was expecting more fights. Tonight I'm going to try to sneak away from this presentation and head to Fanzone for the Austria/Poland game tonight, because if Austria wins, that is where I want to be. They probably won't win, but I can still believe.
(at this point I realize that I broke my promise about talking about the games)
In other news I got an e-mail from my landlord telling me to remove the couch and pool from the front lawn. I knew about the couch but pool? Where the heck did we get a pool? How big is this pool? I have a bad feeling that my house on campus is starting to turn into a circus and that I'll have some surprises in store for me when I get back home.
After this weekend I will be 4 classes down and 1 to go with my online class that I'll be doing for the better part of the rest of my summer when I get to Champaign.
Have I mentioned that this weekend excursion destination is unknown? With Austria's tradition of having creepy molester people I'm a little wary of following this teacher guy anywhere...
If I don't report back by Monday send a search team.
cheers
I promise I won't talk about the games much because if you are watching them then you don't need me to tell you what happened and if you want commentary Page 2 of espn.com has a hilarious recap of the games in a daily diary. But this is my blog so these are my thoughts:
Romania has surprised everyone with their tenacity and bunker ball defense that even had enough courage to stand up to ribery's ugliness. I still say if Thierry Henry was in the game France would have put one away but that's just my own biases coming into play. Italy got whooped one of the best games so far of the tournament. The Dutch were outnumbered 3-1 in the Fanzone but that didn't stop them from going nuts. What else...oh yeah. The first half of the Sweden/Greece game I literally wanted to die. It was one of the most boring halves of soccer I've seen. Ryan Hoch pointed out to me that it looked like the Simpsons episode where they make fun of soccer and the players just pass it back and forth the whole time and not score. Spain looks like they are gonna be a tough team to beat as long as they don't choke. I found myself bewildered at this Spanish striker who wasn't Fernando Torres who was scoring all the goals (Who the hell is David Villa?). Portugal just soundly beat the Czech Republic in what I called the We don't want to play Germany in the Quarterfinals Bowl. The other game was pretty boring too. I was expecting more fights. Tonight I'm going to try to sneak away from this presentation and head to Fanzone for the Austria/Poland game tonight, because if Austria wins, that is where I want to be. They probably won't win, but I can still believe.
(at this point I realize that I broke my promise about talking about the games)
In other news I got an e-mail from my landlord telling me to remove the couch and pool from the front lawn. I knew about the couch but pool? Where the heck did we get a pool? How big is this pool? I have a bad feeling that my house on campus is starting to turn into a circus and that I'll have some surprises in store for me when I get back home.
After this weekend I will be 4 classes down and 1 to go with my online class that I'll be doing for the better part of the rest of my summer when I get to Champaign.
Have I mentioned that this weekend excursion destination is unknown? With Austria's tradition of having creepy molester people I'm a little wary of following this teacher guy anywhere...
If I don't report back by Monday send a search team.
cheers
Monday, June 9, 2008
fanzone
So as you know the tourney is underway and things are nuts. I've been at fanzone the last two days watching the games and as a result I feel incredibly fatigued and malnourished. As I type my right hand is shaking. However, I'm going to power through and tell you about all this fun. Picture 1 is, well, a lot of people. Just to the left outside of the shot is the entrance to fanzone. The first day wasn't this bad but day 2 was the Austrian game. A lot of energy. A lot of emotion. And a lot of Croats too. After getting through the very friendly pat-down we headed towards the Rathaus to watch the games on the main screen. Our spot was conveniently right next to the Carlsberg tent too! Anyways it was a disappointing game with the only goal being scored on a penalty kick in the 4th minute of the game and having to watch Austria desperately struggle to equalize to no avail for the other 86 minutes.
The atmosphere in there is great. Singing and chanting with everyone is a lot of fun, although I don't know what they are saying half the time. When the other team scores, you can expect cups of beer to get thrown towards the other fans, especially when it is scored off of a controversial call/no-call. I wanted to take a break from this craziness but a guy in my program who was born in Holland wants me to go with him to the Netherlands/Italy game. I agreed because 1) I give in too easily to this kind of stuff and 2) Its so much fun to see those dirty Italians go down (apologies to anyone who may be offended by that statement but you really just need to watch these videos).In other news I now have concrete evidence that Djavad has been siphoning my internet usage and was responsible for me not having internet for 5 days at the end of May. I've tried asking him why he switches the internet cords from one jack to another while I'm out of town but he insists the maids must have done it. It appears appeasement will not work with him, so I have to figure out a new method to stop him lest my internet gets sucked up for my remaining days here. More on those developments later.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Believe!
Nobody writing about this tournament has anything nice to say about poor Austria. I have tried to find some silver lining, but it is tough when you are ranked 101st in the world and aren't expected to even score a goal this month. But the players are singing a slightly different tune. My boy Erwin "Jimmy" Hoffer who plays for Rapid Vienna thinks they can shock the world. It's about time I found some flipping optimism. Anyways, for those that care, they play Sunday the 8th at 11 am central standard time, 6 pm my time against Croatia, who many consider to be the tournament's Darkhorse this year. The stage is set. Cue the music. Tap the kegs...
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
National Pride
Although there is much excitement leading up to this tournament, you will find many Austrians that are not as thrilled as you would expect
One of the locals I found myself talking to at a bar last month suggested that because Austria was so bad, they should drop out and sell their spot on eBay. I'm sure the English would be happy to pay. The reason why I'm bringing this up is because I have heard rumors all semester about a petition for Austria to drop out of the tournament because they do not actually belong in it. I have just found evidence that this petition exists.
The concert I went to last night at Shonbrunn was hosted by the Vienna Philharmonic btw.
Today I went to a museum called the Haus der Musik. The history stuff about the various composers was boring but they had a couple floors of interactive stuff where you could play around with different sounds (real and imaginary), test your hearing threshold, create new sounds with multiple sounds layered together in the right way, and finally make your own music onto a cd. Fun while learning!
my euphoria is limited because I have to start lesson 2 of my online class and my head is playing tricks on me because I could have sworn I just caught a hint of BBQ in the air....
auf wiedersehen.
One of the locals I found myself talking to at a bar last month suggested that because Austria was so bad, they should drop out and sell their spot on eBay. I'm sure the English would be happy to pay. The reason why I'm bringing this up is because I have heard rumors all semester about a petition for Austria to drop out of the tournament because they do not actually belong in it. I have just found evidence that this petition exists.
The concert I went to last night at Shonbrunn was hosted by the Vienna Philharmonic btw.
Today I went to a museum called the Haus der Musik. The history stuff about the various composers was boring but they had a couple floors of interactive stuff where you could play around with different sounds (real and imaginary), test your hearing threshold, create new sounds with multiple sounds layered together in the right way, and finally make your own music onto a cd. Fun while learning!
my euphoria is limited because I have to start lesson 2 of my online class and my head is playing tricks on me because I could have sworn I just caught a hint of BBQ in the air....
auf wiedersehen.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
"Das ist genug" und Sommernachtskonzert
Yesterday I wrapped up yet another class here. It was my German "for beginners" class and will transfer back as 4 credit hours to the U of I so that's a plus. I spent a total of 3 hours doing work outside of the class, which is approximately the same amount of beers I drank during class time. For our last day we handed in our take-home final in class and then all of us (including the teacher) went to get drinks across the street. Her whole "philosophy" is that language should be a fun learning experience and that it is important that we simply put in an "effort" and have a good time learning the German language. Translation: I will give you all an A. She was a lot of fun and we spent the better part of the 3 hour class time sitting around and telling stories of our travels and perspectives on things and whatnot.
Tonight is Austria's annual "gift" to the EU. It is a summer outdoor concert by Austria's most famous orchestra (the name escapes me) being performed at the lovely Shonbrunn palace. It just got done pouring rain so we'll see if it actually happens. The annual performance is done in honor of Austria entering the EU in 1995. Whenever a country enters this organization, it gives a gift. Austria's is this summer concert. I've been feeling guilty about being in Vienna all this time and not going to a concert so after tonight I can sleep easier.
The tournament starts this weekend and people are already filling this city up. I hate the tourist surge but I also like it because I can look at the them with disdain as I no longer feel like I am one anymore. Someone actually told me that they read a Europe travel guide that was updated for the summer and it basically tells people not to come to Austria because of all the people that will be here. The large crowds will not discourage me from going to Fanzone whenever I can. To get an idea of where the party is at I'll post a link. You can count on me being here at least whenever Austria plays, but most likely if there is any free time or a big game on.
Tonight is Austria's annual "gift" to the EU. It is a summer outdoor concert by Austria's most famous orchestra (the name escapes me) being performed at the lovely Shonbrunn palace. It just got done pouring rain so we'll see if it actually happens. The annual performance is done in honor of Austria entering the EU in 1995. Whenever a country enters this organization, it gives a gift. Austria's is this summer concert. I've been feeling guilty about being in Vienna all this time and not going to a concert so after tonight I can sleep easier.
The tournament starts this weekend and people are already filling this city up. I hate the tourist surge but I also like it because I can look at the them with disdain as I no longer feel like I am one anymore. Someone actually told me that they read a Europe travel guide that was updated for the summer and it basically tells people not to come to Austria because of all the people that will be here. The large crowds will not discourage me from going to Fanzone whenever I can. To get an idea of where the party is at I'll post a link. You can count on me being here at least whenever Austria plays, but most likely if there is any free time or a big game on.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Salzburg and Croatia
First of all, I resent the fact that I am lazy and do not post enough. And apparently I need to start capitalizing certain beginnings of sentences and other proper nouns because I am getting heat from my viewers. All I'm saying is that sometimes I am too lazy to reach over for the shift key. I'm not training for the Olympics here people.
Last month about 15 of us went to Salzburg for the holiday weekend. It seemed to me to be more of an "Austrian" city than Vienna is but that's also because Vienna is just simply a big city and its tough to have any sort of identity or connection with the surrounding country. However, Salzburg was way too much like the Disneyworld of Europe. There were families everwhere and an ATM's as plentiful as Starbuck's. The town was also really expensive to boot.
Pictured here is the fortress that was built around the 12th century called Festung Hohensalzburg. It housed religious officials and in general protected the city. "Salz" means salt in German. Here there were extensive salt mines. Back in the day salt was considered gold so Salzburg thrived as a result. This fortress is the largest fortification in Europe, and the second most visited site in Austria. For Sound of Music fans if you look in the bottom corner of the picture you can see the hedge tunnel where the Von Trapp kids and Maria frolicked and sang the "Do, a deer, a female deer" song thing. They also danced around the fountain in the picture.
The Stiegl brewery was closed until June, so we weren't able to see that. Basically I got tricked into coming to this place. However, the Augustiner Brauhaus was open, and we spent many hours there. It opened at 3 p.m. with a crowd waiting outside to drink the delicious amber beer in the large beer halls. We went back the next night for Nate's birthday and we got the whole place to sing "Happy Birthday". It was pretty fun. In case you were dying to know, the answer is yes, I went on the Sound of Music tour.
For the first part I thought I was going to die, but then a miracle happened: they started selling beer on the tour bus. Things were looking up for the most part, especially when we started heading out of the city and took in the breathtaking views of the countryside. The whole time they played songs from the movie and I did my best to endure. Rumor has it that I have been caught on tape singing a part of a song, but I deny it until I see some real evidence. The third day we went to the largest ice caves in the world. It was a strenuous trip to the top but the ice caves were really cool (and below freezing cold) and we got to see views like this one:
Overall the trip to Salzburg was fun. The fortress, Augustiner Brauhaus, and ice caves were worth it, but I can't say the same for that tour...
Croatia was a nice change of pace from our normal travels. I would consider it my real "spring break" part of the semester. We were on an island called Krk in a beach town called Baska (pronounced "Kirk" and "Bashka") The water was crystal clear and the beaches were smooth pebble. There was also a nice tiki hut bar right next to us. While we were there a festival was going on called the "Black Sheep Festival". It was essentially the one party they have all year so we lucked out.
2-3 live bands were there and all night they had sheep cooking on a skewer. So we got to eat lamb, drink their bad beer, and listen to european rock bands all night next to the ocean. I had just made a comment to myself that I did not like their beer when I heard Megan say "this tastes like beer back home," and then my worst suspicions became a reality and I found another item of reverse culture shock I will have to endure. On a side note I have no idea why there is a Black Sheep Festival, and if I find anything on the internet I'll let you know.
Traveling is pretty much over for me. I have another class I am finishing up on Monday. It was supposed to be a German final but our teacher decided to give us a take home final to turn in on Monday and then she was going to go out with all of us and drink (I love this University). I have two more classes I need to finish and an online class I need to start getting serious about. Plus, the Euro Cup is drawing ever closer and I can hardly control my excitement.
People went and saw Indiana Jones 4 last night. It was pretty much the entertaining experience I expected it to be. Spielberg also did a good job of staying true to the old movies. That's all for now.
cheers.
Last month about 15 of us went to Salzburg for the holiday weekend. It seemed to me to be more of an "Austrian" city than Vienna is but that's also because Vienna is just simply a big city and its tough to have any sort of identity or connection with the surrounding country. However, Salzburg was way too much like the Disneyworld of Europe. There were families everwhere and an ATM's as plentiful as Starbuck's. The town was also really expensive to boot.
Pictured here is the fortress that was built around the 12th century called Festung Hohensalzburg. It housed religious officials and in general protected the city. "Salz" means salt in German. Here there were extensive salt mines. Back in the day salt was considered gold so Salzburg thrived as a result. This fortress is the largest fortification in Europe, and the second most visited site in Austria. For Sound of Music fans if you look in the bottom corner of the picture you can see the hedge tunnel where the Von Trapp kids and Maria frolicked and sang the "Do, a deer, a female deer" song thing. They also danced around the fountain in the picture.The Stiegl brewery was closed until June, so we weren't able to see that. Basically I got tricked into coming to this place. However, the Augustiner Brauhaus was open, and we spent many hours there. It opened at 3 p.m. with a crowd waiting outside to drink the delicious amber beer in the large beer halls. We went back the next night for Nate's birthday and we got the whole place to sing "Happy Birthday". It was pretty fun. In case you were dying to know, the answer is yes, I went on the Sound of Music tour.
For the first part I thought I was going to die, but then a miracle happened: they started selling beer on the tour bus. Things were looking up for the most part, especially when we started heading out of the city and took in the breathtaking views of the countryside. The whole time they played songs from the movie and I did my best to endure. Rumor has it that I have been caught on tape singing a part of a song, but I deny it until I see some real evidence. The third day we went to the largest ice caves in the world. It was a strenuous trip to the top but the ice caves were really cool (and below freezing cold) and we got to see views like this one:
Overall the trip to Salzburg was fun. The fortress, Augustiner Brauhaus, and ice caves were worth it, but I can't say the same for that tour...Croatia was a nice change of pace from our normal travels. I would consider it my real "spring break" part of the semester. We were on an island called Krk in a beach town called Baska (pronounced "Kirk" and "Bashka") The water was crystal clear and the beaches were smooth pebble. There was also a nice tiki hut bar right next to us. While we were there a festival was going on called the "Black Sheep Festival". It was essentially the one party they have all year so we lucked out.
2-3 live bands were there and all night they had sheep cooking on a skewer. So we got to eat lamb, drink their bad beer, and listen to european rock bands all night next to the ocean. I had just made a comment to myself that I did not like their beer when I heard Megan say "this tastes like beer back home," and then my worst suspicions became a reality and I found another item of reverse culture shock I will have to endure. On a side note I have no idea why there is a Black Sheep Festival, and if I find anything on the internet I'll let you know.
Traveling is pretty much over for me. I have another class I am finishing up on Monday. It was supposed to be a German final but our teacher decided to give us a take home final to turn in on Monday and then she was going to go out with all of us and drink (I love this University). I have two more classes I need to finish and an online class I need to start getting serious about. Plus, the Euro Cup is drawing ever closer and I can hardly control my excitement.
People went and saw Indiana Jones 4 last night. It was pretty much the entertaining experience I expected it to be. Spielberg also did a good job of staying true to the old movies. That's all for now.
cheers.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Vienna
Due to popular demand (Sweeney's mom likes how I capitalize letters), we're having another Bode guest blog.
A recap of the week in Vienna...
Sunday- Sweeney's friend on the program had his last night in Vienna, so almost the whole group went out to this club called Flex. Of course, it was Sunday night and no one was there. It was good fun though... because there were no bathrooms, a few guys peed in the Danube, which was hilarious. Of course, we get back in around 3.30 with the knowledge that we had a long Monday ahead of us.
Monday-At 9 am, we had a brewery tour at Ottakringer, Vienna's favorite cheap beer. The tour was fun and highly informative, we found out that the term "Bloss so" basically means "shut up and drink your beer". On the tour, we were able to sample various hops, and at the end, we got to sample all the different types of beer they make. We ended up drinking about a liter of beer at 10.30 am... which was awesome. They also gave us free pretzels.
Tuesday-We're pretending Tuesday didn't happen because Andrew failed to entertain me on Tuesday. I did some sight seeing and saw another freaking church. For an area thats so crazy, Europe sure as a lot of freaking churches. Thats all they do, drink and build stuff.
Wednesday-Andrew made up for his poor showing on Tuesday by providing a bash. We went to his favorite bar, Billabong, for the Champion's League final. We had asked about reservations for a table the day before, and were laughed at because it had been booked for 2 weeks prior. So, we decided to go early at 4.30 and post up at the bar to guarantee seats. We were the only two people at the bar other than those who work there, so we decided to start buying pitchers. At the end of happy hour, we asked the waiter for 4 pitchers and he stared at us like we were crazy. The fact is, pitchers were half price and there was no way I was paying full price when I had been there at happy hour. Also, there was a dog just hanging out at the bar, walking behind the counter among other things... and people wonder why the plague swept through this area. Anyways, the bar got packed before the game started, and we watched the whole thing. It had a pretty good atmosphere, lots of cheering and what not. We were there with one other guy who is a Man United fan (the team that won), so he was chanting and singing with other fans. Afterwards, we made the trek the Vienna's most infamous bar, Loco, for victory tequila shots with orange... an Austrian tradition. The club was packed for karaoke, and the Man United fan we were with started singing his own words along to the songs. Two of my favorites included "I'm sooo excited, for Man Uniiiited" and "if you wanna blow a game, in the worst way... who ya gonna call? JOHN TERRY" to the tune of ghostbusters (John Terry missed a penalty for Chelsea to lose: this scene approximates what happened at billabong when that occurred. I did not cheer.)
Thursday- Originally, we decided that we were going to go to Bratislava, but waking up with after effects from Wednesday's celebration coupled with the fact it was sunny out for the first time this week prevented us (apparently, you have to go when its rainy to get the full experience). We planned on doing laundry, but the washing machine broke like everything else in this place. Instead, we went to the Illini Inn of Vienna, One Euro Pub. I was able to enjoy its cheap drinks, picnic table seats, no sinks in the bathroom, and ridiculous amounts of smoke. My eyes hurt when I went to bed from the smoke. But hey, its cheap and I'm in college.
Friday- We went to Bratislava. Unluckily, it was sunny out and it looked like a real city... the castle was even slightly majestic. However, we did find many broken/trashy things to laugh at from the eastern bloc, which was the point of the trip. It took us 30 minutes to walk basically the entirety of the city. In fact, the best part of the trip was the meal, which was about the only real tasting stuff I've had here. Bratislava did manage to tire us out, so we came back and refueled with a nap and a doner kebap. Sweeney has been in Europe long enough to tell the difference between kebap stands, someone needs to airlift him some real food. Does Papa Del's deliver to Europe? We went out to a club named Glifsdlaf (some stupid Italian name). It was pretty cool, though, they paid hot girls to dance on the bar, basically as eurotrash as possible. We ended up chanting ILL-INI at the bar for no apparent reason. Overall, a good night out.
Saturday- We went and got gelato and ran into people from Danville because I was wearing an Illinois shirt. I've decided that Illini nation is the Free Masons of American colleges, they're everywhere and you can bring them out of hiding with an orange shirt. Sweeney says that he's seen one in every city he's been to (not people in his program, of course).
Overall, its been a great trip to Europe, however there is a lot of stuff that I did not like or that weirds me out (it's been sort of a running joke now). We decided that I would be remiss to not make a list on the blog of things that I don't like in Europe:
-Dogs in public places, especially restaurants and subways
-No waterfountains (paying for water, wtf?)
-The way people walk. They walk so slowly on sidewalks, however when they walk up escalators so you have to get out of there way. There are two lanes on the escalator, walking and standing. If you're going to hurry everywhere, fine, walk up the escalator, but don't pass me on the escalator then slow me down on the sidewalk.
-Europeans are so lazy. Thursday was randomly a holiday in Austria and nothing was open. We couldn't buy beer. Bastards.
-It seems like nothing here works. It took them so long to fix the internet and stuff just stays broken.
-A restaurant experience takes 3 hours.
-Their idea of an American-style pizza includes: corn, peppers, and ham
-They don't understand buying in bulk: we had to purchase two smaller bottles of vodka to save money.
-They get mad at you when you try to break the 50 euro note because the ATMs don't give you 20's.
-Coins
-European intersections, especially their walk signs. It doesn't make any sense. There was a train going through Bratislava's main plaza and we almost got hit by it.
-Gypsies, they're always trying to trick you into giving them money. In America we call them "lawyers".
-Techno... the popular song here is "Put your hands up for Detroit". ummmmm...
To be fair, there are some things I like about Europe:
-beer
-kebap
Anyways, I'm leaving Sweeney now, so you probably won't get any more blog entries because he's really lazy. My next trip to Europe will probably be to England because I'm sick of trying to read gobbily gook languages when I'm going around
A recap of the week in Vienna...
Sunday- Sweeney's friend on the program had his last night in Vienna, so almost the whole group went out to this club called Flex. Of course, it was Sunday night and no one was there. It was good fun though... because there were no bathrooms, a few guys peed in the Danube, which was hilarious. Of course, we get back in around 3.30 with the knowledge that we had a long Monday ahead of us.
Monday-At 9 am, we had a brewery tour at Ottakringer, Vienna's favorite cheap beer. The tour was fun and highly informative, we found out that the term "Bloss so" basically means "shut up and drink your beer". On the tour, we were able to sample various hops, and at the end, we got to sample all the different types of beer they make. We ended up drinking about a liter of beer at 10.30 am... which was awesome. They also gave us free pretzels.
Tuesday-We're pretending Tuesday didn't happen because Andrew failed to entertain me on Tuesday. I did some sight seeing and saw another freaking church. For an area thats so crazy, Europe sure as a lot of freaking churches. Thats all they do, drink and build stuff.
Wednesday-Andrew made up for his poor showing on Tuesday by providing a bash. We went to his favorite bar, Billabong, for the Champion's League final. We had asked about reservations for a table the day before, and were laughed at because it had been booked for 2 weeks prior. So, we decided to go early at 4.30 and post up at the bar to guarantee seats. We were the only two people at the bar other than those who work there, so we decided to start buying pitchers. At the end of happy hour, we asked the waiter for 4 pitchers and he stared at us like we were crazy. The fact is, pitchers were half price and there was no way I was paying full price when I had been there at happy hour. Also, there was a dog just hanging out at the bar, walking behind the counter among other things... and people wonder why the plague swept through this area. Anyways, the bar got packed before the game started, and we watched the whole thing. It had a pretty good atmosphere, lots of cheering and what not. We were there with one other guy who is a Man United fan (the team that won), so he was chanting and singing with other fans. Afterwards, we made the trek the Vienna's most infamous bar, Loco, for victory tequila shots with orange... an Austrian tradition. The club was packed for karaoke, and the Man United fan we were with started singing his own words along to the songs. Two of my favorites included "I'm sooo excited, for Man Uniiiited" and "if you wanna blow a game, in the worst way... who ya gonna call? JOHN TERRY" to the tune of ghostbusters (John Terry missed a penalty for Chelsea to lose: this scene approximates what happened at billabong when that occurred. I did not cheer.)
Thursday- Originally, we decided that we were going to go to Bratislava, but waking up with after effects from Wednesday's celebration coupled with the fact it was sunny out for the first time this week prevented us (apparently, you have to go when its rainy to get the full experience). We planned on doing laundry, but the washing machine broke like everything else in this place. Instead, we went to the Illini Inn of Vienna, One Euro Pub. I was able to enjoy its cheap drinks, picnic table seats, no sinks in the bathroom, and ridiculous amounts of smoke. My eyes hurt when I went to bed from the smoke. But hey, its cheap and I'm in college.
Friday- We went to Bratislava. Unluckily, it was sunny out and it looked like a real city... the castle was even slightly majestic. However, we did find many broken/trashy things to laugh at from the eastern bloc, which was the point of the trip. It took us 30 minutes to walk basically the entirety of the city. In fact, the best part of the trip was the meal, which was about the only real tasting stuff I've had here. Bratislava did manage to tire us out, so we came back and refueled with a nap and a doner kebap. Sweeney has been in Europe long enough to tell the difference between kebap stands, someone needs to airlift him some real food. Does Papa Del's deliver to Europe? We went out to a club named Glifsdlaf (some stupid Italian name). It was pretty cool, though, they paid hot girls to dance on the bar, basically as eurotrash as possible. We ended up chanting ILL-INI at the bar for no apparent reason. Overall, a good night out.
Saturday- We went and got gelato and ran into people from Danville because I was wearing an Illinois shirt. I've decided that Illini nation is the Free Masons of American colleges, they're everywhere and you can bring them out of hiding with an orange shirt. Sweeney says that he's seen one in every city he's been to (not people in his program, of course).
Overall, its been a great trip to Europe, however there is a lot of stuff that I did not like or that weirds me out (it's been sort of a running joke now). We decided that I would be remiss to not make a list on the blog of things that I don't like in Europe:
-Dogs in public places, especially restaurants and subways
-No waterfountains (paying for water, wtf?)
-The way people walk. They walk so slowly on sidewalks, however when they walk up escalators so you have to get out of there way. There are two lanes on the escalator, walking and standing. If you're going to hurry everywhere, fine, walk up the escalator, but don't pass me on the escalator then slow me down on the sidewalk.
-Europeans are so lazy. Thursday was randomly a holiday in Austria and nothing was open. We couldn't buy beer. Bastards.
-It seems like nothing here works. It took them so long to fix the internet and stuff just stays broken.
-A restaurant experience takes 3 hours.
-Their idea of an American-style pizza includes: corn, peppers, and ham
-They don't understand buying in bulk: we had to purchase two smaller bottles of vodka to save money.
-They get mad at you when you try to break the 50 euro note because the ATMs don't give you 20's.
-Coins
-European intersections, especially their walk signs. It doesn't make any sense. There was a train going through Bratislava's main plaza and we almost got hit by it.
-Gypsies, they're always trying to trick you into giving them money. In America we call them "lawyers".
-Techno... the popular song here is "Put your hands up for Detroit". ummmmm...
To be fair, there are some things I like about Europe:
-beer
-kebap
Anyways, I'm leaving Sweeney now, so you probably won't get any more blog entries because he's really lazy. My next trip to Europe will probably be to England because I'm sick of trying to read gobbily gook languages when I'm going around
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayern
Because Sweeney is a lazy, lazy boy, I'm (Bode) going to blog about Munich before he talks about his trips to Croatia and Salzburg.
On Friday night, we went on a beerhall/beergarden tour of Munich, a city that is known for its expansive and numerous establishments. Our tour guide, Troy, was a very cool Australian guy who told us some great stories. We learned that Munich was originally a cluster of monastaries (Munchen means the monks... the region Bayern, Bavaria in English, means "by the", so Bayern Munchen means by the monks). Medieval monks were famous for their brewing exploits, so the city was basically founded on beer itself. Its specialty, wheat beer, was invented in the middle ages because the peasents weren't able to eat during Lent. Because of a loophole in the bible, they sat around all day and drank beer instead of eating food. However, they found that they became too skinny only drinking regular beer and were starting to get too drunk. Thus, they began making beer out of wheat in order to sustain themselves. At each different hall, he would tell us a different fun fact about the history of beer and the beer gardens. First, we went to Augustiner beer garden, which is the largest inner city beer garden and the third largest beer garden in the world, holding 5,000 people at its capacity. We also were able to tour Lowenbrau beer garden and brewery. Finally, our tour ended at Augstiner Keller, an indoor beer hall. When the tour was over, we took celebratory jaeger shots outside.
Saturday was a significant day for Munich because the biggest soccer team in Germany, Bayern Munich, had their last home game of the season. Bayern had already secured the Bundesliga championship, so it was a huge party for all of Bayern's fans throughout the day. We walked through Munich to the city hall in order to go on a free tour of the city. Bayern fans were EVERYWHERE walking through the city and singing and partying all night long. Once we were at the city hall, we found our tour guide and took the tour of Munich. Big Mistake. It turns out that we ended up with the worst tour guide of all time... guess you get what you paid for. The stories he told were very boring due to his inability to be entertaining. We still learned a few fun facts about Munich. It was, as the other tour guide said, basically founded on beer. It didn't really start growing until Henry the Lion was given the region by the Holy Roman Emporer as a gift for his loyalty. Naturally, he rode down to Munich and celebrated this gift by getting hammered and burning down another ruler's bridge. He built a second bridge by Munich, and the town started to grow... so Munich's rise is partially attributed to a drunk deciding to destroy a bridge.
After our root canal of a tour, we headed back to the hostel to recharge our batteries. We happened upon two brits watching soccer in the bar, so we decided to buy some beer and keep them company. Afterwards, we went to the most famous beerhall in the world, the Hoffbrauhaus. It was basically the disneyland of beerhalls: full of tourists and highly overrated. We couldn't even get a table, so we decided to go find another place to drink until we were Bayern fans. As we were walking to another beerhall, we happened upon this small hole in the wall bar (comparable to the Illini Inn) and decided to go in. It was filled to the brim with older local Bayern fans drinking and singing victory songs. Naturally, we decided to stop in and stay a while. There was this one guy who started talking to us who was wearing a Cologne jersey and kept requesting Cologne's song (the only words we could remember were "Viva Colognia"). The whole bar would sing the song at the top of their lungs with this guy. It was an incredible experience.
As we were walking home, we passed by the town hall again, where an official party for the Bayern team was. It was an absolute wasteland with glass and beer and pretzel pieces all over the place. Since we had been around singing fans all day, we had picked up a Bayern chant or two, so we started leading chants with fans.
On Friday night, we went on a beerhall/beergarden tour of Munich, a city that is known for its expansive and numerous establishments. Our tour guide, Troy, was a very cool Australian guy who told us some great stories. We learned that Munich was originally a cluster of monastaries (Munchen means the monks... the region Bayern, Bavaria in English, means "by the", so Bayern Munchen means by the monks). Medieval monks were famous for their brewing exploits, so the city was basically founded on beer itself. Its specialty, wheat beer, was invented in the middle ages because the peasents weren't able to eat during Lent. Because of a loophole in the bible, they sat around all day and drank beer instead of eating food. However, they found that they became too skinny only drinking regular beer and were starting to get too drunk. Thus, they began making beer out of wheat in order to sustain themselves. At each different hall, he would tell us a different fun fact about the history of beer and the beer gardens. First, we went to Augustiner beer garden, which is the largest inner city beer garden and the third largest beer garden in the world, holding 5,000 people at its capacity. We also were able to tour Lowenbrau beer garden and brewery. Finally, our tour ended at Augstiner Keller, an indoor beer hall. When the tour was over, we took celebratory jaeger shots outside.
Saturday was a significant day for Munich because the biggest soccer team in Germany, Bayern Munich, had their last home game of the season. Bayern had already secured the Bundesliga championship, so it was a huge party for all of Bayern's fans throughout the day. We walked through Munich to the city hall in order to go on a free tour of the city. Bayern fans were EVERYWHERE walking through the city and singing and partying all night long. Once we were at the city hall, we found our tour guide and took the tour of Munich. Big Mistake. It turns out that we ended up with the worst tour guide of all time... guess you get what you paid for. The stories he told were very boring due to his inability to be entertaining. We still learned a few fun facts about Munich. It was, as the other tour guide said, basically founded on beer. It didn't really start growing until Henry the Lion was given the region by the Holy Roman Emporer as a gift for his loyalty. Naturally, he rode down to Munich and celebrated this gift by getting hammered and burning down another ruler's bridge. He built a second bridge by Munich, and the town started to grow... so Munich's rise is partially attributed to a drunk deciding to destroy a bridge.
After our root canal of a tour, we headed back to the hostel to recharge our batteries. We happened upon two brits watching soccer in the bar, so we decided to buy some beer and keep them company. Afterwards, we went to the most famous beerhall in the world, the Hoffbrauhaus. It was basically the disneyland of beerhalls: full of tourists and highly overrated. We couldn't even get a table, so we decided to go find another place to drink until we were Bayern fans. As we were walking to another beerhall, we happened upon this small hole in the wall bar (comparable to the Illini Inn) and decided to go in. It was filled to the brim with older local Bayern fans drinking and singing victory songs. Naturally, we decided to stop in and stay a while. There was this one guy who started talking to us who was wearing a Cologne jersey and kept requesting Cologne's song (the only words we could remember were "Viva Colognia"). The whole bar would sing the song at the top of their lungs with this guy. It was an incredible experience.
As we were walking home, we passed by the town hall again, where an official party for the Bayern team was. It was an absolute wasteland with glass and beer and pretzel pieces all over the place. Since we had been around singing fans all day, we had picked up a Bayern chant or two, so we started leading chants with fans.
broken internet
ive been back from munich for a few days but the internet is still broken. its supposed to be fixed today but we'll see. when i can ill let you know about salzburg and croatia. bode is here for the week so expect a guest post about munich coming soon.
cheers
cheers
Thursday, May 8, 2008
off the radar
ive been away from the computer for a while and im leaving it again for the weekend. next stop is croatian beaches for 5 days. the sun is shining there and shark attacks are low.
i saw iron man the other night and i thought i was actually kinda good, so if you were on the fence go ahead and see it i dont think you'll be disappointed.
im two classes down and 3 to go, with a german final in a few weeks. meine deutsche is still schlect but thats what happens when you only have class once a week for german.
another piece of good news the tournament is now less than one month away.
tonight is amys 21st so tiki bar at the university and then off to the diskothek
p.s. ive been listening to Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks a lot in the past few weeks. they are gonna play at lollapalooza this year. the album is called "Real Emotional Trash". sorry if you try it and hate it but i liked it.
stay classy
i saw iron man the other night and i thought i was actually kinda good, so if you were on the fence go ahead and see it i dont think you'll be disappointed.
im two classes down and 3 to go, with a german final in a few weeks. meine deutsche is still schlect but thats what happens when you only have class once a week for german.
another piece of good news the tournament is now less than one month away.
tonight is amys 21st so tiki bar at the university and then off to the diskothek
p.s. ive been listening to Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks a lot in the past few weeks. they are gonna play at lollapalooza this year. the album is called "Real Emotional Trash". sorry if you try it and hate it but i liked it.
stay classy
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
world spotlight
i just love how the only two stories to come out of austria since ive been here are the serbian riots in vienna and the incest family thats all over the news now. this place can get preeetty crazy.
i heard Wendy's is opening back up in Champaign so that made my day.
ive been reading up on Salzburg and i found out the beer gardens there are amazing, so ive gotten a little more excited since i thought all i was going to see was mozart's house and the sound of music tour.
i forgot to tell the story of the only person to die on the eiffel tower. the guy was a tailor from austria and was convinced he made a suit that could fly. can you guess if he survived his demonstration? the official autopsy report indicated that he suffered from a heart attack before he hit the ground. i guess he died before he could effectively use his flying suit.
tonight is yet another 21 birthday celebration but before that im going to kriterium to watch the champions league game.
cheers.
i heard Wendy's is opening back up in Champaign so that made my day.
ive been reading up on Salzburg and i found out the beer gardens there are amazing, so ive gotten a little more excited since i thought all i was going to see was mozart's house and the sound of music tour.
i forgot to tell the story of the only person to die on the eiffel tower. the guy was a tailor from austria and was convinced he made a suit that could fly. can you guess if he survived his demonstration? the official autopsy report indicated that he suffered from a heart attack before he hit the ground. i guess he died before he could effectively use his flying suit.
tonight is yet another 21 birthday celebration but before that im going to kriterium to watch the champions league game.
cheers.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Berlin and Paris
Besides Vienna Berlin is probably my favorite city with Prague and Barcelona trailing behind. What did it for me was the free walking tour, the beer, and the hostel. The hostels in Berlin are regulated by the government so they were really nice and had the most comfortable beds I had slept in since I left home. We had two days in Berlin and one of the days we checked out the East Side Gallery which had the largest section of the remains of the Berlin Wall. We heard the night life was great so we tried to go out but got lost (again) and ended up at this gothic-like club that looked like a cross between an opium den and a vampire hideout. We left about 2 minutes later. The next day we did a free walking tour where the guides only work for tips. They took us around all the sights including more Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, Hitler's Bunker, Holocaust Memorial, etc. Hitler's Bunker was pretty funny; it was essentially covered up by a place where you take your dogs out to crap. There is however a small sign that tells you what you are actually standing on. I felt that it was an appropriately for a fascist leader to die because around the bunker was old communist housing (the bunker is in East Berlin), the Holocaust Memorial, and a gay bar across the street. This walking tour company also does pub crawls at night. They usually go 5 nights a week but they said because its Berlin they go all 7 nights. Since we struck out the night before we entrusted the night to them, and they came through for us big. We went to 6 bars and clubs with about 50 other people through the night and had a blast. We stayed out until the wee hours of the morning and managed to get a couple of hours of sleep before our train to Frankfurt. At the last club I befriended a guy from Dublin and we took tequila shots all night (WITH LIMES!!). I forgot to mention my camera had died by this point so no pictures for this post. Frankfurt was more of a layover because we were only staying for a night. Remember when I said my dorm was in the Vienna red light district? I kind of exaggerated. I live near the red light district. But Frankfurt's hostel....was definitely IN the red light district. Our hostel was above an adult video store. We had a nice last dinner and drank the local apfelwein (apple wine) and called it a night and returned back home the next day.
I thought Paris was going to be overrated but it was actually pretty cool. The Louvre was HUGE. You can spend days in there. For those of you who are were wondering no I was not allowed to check and see if Mary Magdeline's sarcophagus was buried underneath the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa but I was shocked at how small it was. We took the free walking tour from the same company but opted out of the pub crawl because we met friends there who took us out. The guy staying there named Jake made me try this beer that actually is 12 percent alcohol by volume called Amsterdam Maximator. Jake likes to describe the taste as "drinking a bottle of SKOL vodka and pissing it out into a can". I'll leave it at that. Of course we went up to the Eiffel Tower. We went at night and it was absolutely freezing. Its a good thing I brought my jacket on this trip.
We also saw the Arc de Triumph which is the finish line for the Tour de France. It is also the memorial to the soldiers who fought for France and even has a tomb of the unknown soldier. At the base of the arch is the eternal flame, which has never gone out...except once. On the walking tour the guide told us that when France won the World Cup in 1998 they were celebrating around the arch and some drunk mexican pissed it out. oops. So there was this huge international crisis between Mexico and France and the Mexican Ambassador had to come over and take part in the re-lighting ceremony. Oh and btw the culprit is banned from ever returning to France. The last day we saw the Notre Dame and the Palace of Versailles. From then I've sworn off traveling to gigantic cities because frankly I'm getting tired of the whole tourist thing. And also the metro line sucked in Paris.
I'm heading to Salzburg for the weekend with about 12 people. We are going to check out the Stiegl Brewery and do the Sound of Music Tour (great). The hostel apparently plays the movie on a loop constantly so I should have a good grip on the songs while we are frolicking in the hills (sigh).
For those of you who want a funny story a guy on our program got a letter from the police yesterday saying he was due in court next week for property damage. The problem is he doesn't remember damaging any property nor does he remember talking to the police. There were witnesses of him talking to about 10 cops (and no he wasn't looking for Chipitos). Now would be a good time to start learning to EU Laws...
I just realized that people are actually commenting on this blog thing. That made me happy to see people actually read this thing. Keep it up.
the end.
I thought Paris was going to be overrated but it was actually pretty cool. The Louvre was HUGE. You can spend days in there. For those of you who are were wondering no I was not allowed to check and see if Mary Magdeline's sarcophagus was buried underneath the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa but I was shocked at how small it was. We took the free walking tour from the same company but opted out of the pub crawl because we met friends there who took us out. The guy staying there named Jake made me try this beer that actually is 12 percent alcohol by volume called Amsterdam Maximator. Jake likes to describe the taste as "drinking a bottle of SKOL vodka and pissing it out into a can". I'll leave it at that. Of course we went up to the Eiffel Tower. We went at night and it was absolutely freezing. Its a good thing I brought my jacket on this trip.
We also saw the Arc de Triumph which is the finish line for the Tour de France. It is also the memorial to the soldiers who fought for France and even has a tomb of the unknown soldier. At the base of the arch is the eternal flame, which has never gone out...except once. On the walking tour the guide told us that when France won the World Cup in 1998 they were celebrating around the arch and some drunk mexican pissed it out. oops. So there was this huge international crisis between Mexico and France and the Mexican Ambassador had to come over and take part in the re-lighting ceremony. Oh and btw the culprit is banned from ever returning to France. The last day we saw the Notre Dame and the Palace of Versailles. From then I've sworn off traveling to gigantic cities because frankly I'm getting tired of the whole tourist thing. And also the metro line sucked in Paris.I'm heading to Salzburg for the weekend with about 12 people. We are going to check out the Stiegl Brewery and do the Sound of Music Tour (great). The hostel apparently plays the movie on a loop constantly so I should have a good grip on the songs while we are frolicking in the hills (sigh).
For those of you who want a funny story a guy on our program got a letter from the police yesterday saying he was due in court next week for property damage. The problem is he doesn't remember damaging any property nor does he remember talking to the police. There were witnesses of him talking to about 10 cops (and no he wasn't looking for Chipitos). Now would be a good time to start learning to EU Laws...
I just realized that people are actually commenting on this blog thing. That made me happy to see people actually read this thing. Keep it up.
the end.
Monday, April 21, 2008
ok fine...
enough is enough. i just got back from soccer and dan and i walked a mile across the river in the pouring rain so im soaking wet and not caving into peer pressure to go out tonight. so im spending the night with you...
im going to tarentino this a little bit and jump around in time so bear with me. we got back from paris the other day. i was a little tired so i decided not to head out and have some me time and watch a movie or something. a quiet little saturday night. about 5 minutes into the movie amy storms into the room, closes my dvd player, rips the covers off my bed, and shoves a beer in my face "GET OUT OF BED THE RATHAUS HAS BEEN TURNED INTO A CLUB TONIGHT" soooo next thing i know im downstairs with that same beer in my hand heading out. it was really cool though, they turned town hall into a club and pulled out all the stops including loud sound system, giant bar, professional dancers, and my favorite, ten euro cover for guys. now, im taking a class called gender, diversity, and the workplace, and i believe this classifies as gender discrimination. tell me im wrong.
so the next day was rapid vienna's last home game and like i said before if they won the game they won the league. ten minutes into the game rapid was winning 2-0. the place was bonkers. nobody was sitting and the stadium was blaring the white stripes "seven nation army". my ever-growing knowledge of the german language enabled me to do the chants after rapid scored. since i know my P's and Q's, and can count to 100, i was set:
(in english)
announcer guy: Rapid!
crowd: 2
announcer guy: Altach
crowd: 0
announcer guy: Thank You!
crowd: You're Welcome!!
i couldnt have been happier. perfect weather, a half liter cup of ottakringer in my hand, some suprisingly good soccer, and a giant celebration after the victory (final score 3-0). it honestly rivaled an afternoon at Wrigley Field. We got to storm the field afterwards and celebrate with the team as they were awarded medals for winning the cup. utter bliss.
back in time (Wayne's World doo-doo-do doo-doo-do doo-doo-do) to about a month ago: Spring Break Part 2!!!
so we wake up in Avignon, France, and to be honest cannot wait to get out of there. Arriving at the train station we find out theres a train strike in France and we cant get to Barcelona. shoot me. fortunately something worked out and we transferred about two times and got there. out of woods right? of course not. we get into barca at about midnight and call the hostel for more specific directions. turns out this hostel has a nice little program going on. they let people stay there for free if they man the desk and answer telephones. thats all fine and dandy until one of them doesnt know how in the world to get us there!!
idiot at the desk: Where are you?
us smart people: We're next to Port Olympico.
moron: What's that?
THE HOSTEL IS 2 BLOCKS FROM PORT OLYMPICO! 1.5 hours later we are in bed, very angry but happy to not be in france.
so we hit up the hot spots: Sagrada Familia (did you know the flippin thing isn't even finished yet?) Montjuic Castle, Las Ramblas, Gaudi Park, etc. Las Ramblas is the main street with performers and vendors and really creepy statues.
look at that monster peering over that guys shoulder at me. oh yeah i almost forgot. in an attempt to subdue me with happiness so that they could shop later, the girls took me to the Barcelona soccer stadium Camp Nou. although i am not a Barcelona fan, it was really cool to see.
the stadium was massive. but anyways the plan worked and i was in high spirits. moving on, the nightlife was pretty sweet.
its a spanish tradition to basically go all night and then sleep in afternoon. i believe they call it "siesta". the institutionalization of the nap is fine by me. unfortunately we had things to do so that was out. one of the places we tried to get to was called "chipitos" which in Catalan i think means "shots" or "spirits". So we were lost naturally and i attempted to use my spanish powers on some police officers but im sure all they heard was "where are shots". you can imagine their confusion and general concern for my well-being after hearing that. needless to say we got really really lost that night and couldnt find anywhere to go, until, lo and behold, another irish pub!! they never fail me. another night we went to a sweet fountain show, but before we went we had to kick off the night right with some champagne.
farther down will be a pick of the fountain show but im having editing difficulties. i think it was raining at the end of the night so we had to take a cab and the driver couldnt speak english. yay. so once again my spanglish of "rights" "lefts" and "stops" eventually got us home. next stop was Amsterdam. Once again a cool city but we ended up seeing the things i had already seen when i was here in my youth like Anne Frank House and Van Gogh Museum. by the way, why arent any of the famous van gogh's in the van gogh museum? they had the bedroom one and the sunflower one. but, we did walk through something i was not allowed to see last time: the Red Light District. im gonna be honest with you, i thought it was going to be a little more...subtle.
so only one day later we were headed to berlin, but i will have to take a break because berlin was my favorite city and if i started now i would sound like a 10 year old explaining pokemon to his parents. if i forgot anything ill throw it in another time. i will leave berlin and frankfurt for the final segment of my quick spring break wrap up hopefully tomorrow but i gotta be honest this is tiring.
im going to tarentino this a little bit and jump around in time so bear with me. we got back from paris the other day. i was a little tired so i decided not to head out and have some me time and watch a movie or something. a quiet little saturday night. about 5 minutes into the movie amy storms into the room, closes my dvd player, rips the covers off my bed, and shoves a beer in my face "GET OUT OF BED THE RATHAUS HAS BEEN TURNED INTO A CLUB TONIGHT" soooo next thing i know im downstairs with that same beer in my hand heading out. it was really cool though, they turned town hall into a club and pulled out all the stops including loud sound system, giant bar, professional dancers, and my favorite, ten euro cover for guys. now, im taking a class called gender, diversity, and the workplace, and i believe this classifies as gender discrimination. tell me im wrong.
so the next day was rapid vienna's last home game and like i said before if they won the game they won the league. ten minutes into the game rapid was winning 2-0. the place was bonkers. nobody was sitting and the stadium was blaring the white stripes "seven nation army". my ever-growing knowledge of the german language enabled me to do the chants after rapid scored. since i know my P's and Q's, and can count to 100, i was set:
(in english)
announcer guy: Rapid!
crowd: 2
announcer guy: Altach
crowd: 0
announcer guy: Thank You!
crowd: You're Welcome!!
i couldnt have been happier. perfect weather, a half liter cup of ottakringer in my hand, some suprisingly good soccer, and a giant celebration after the victory (final score 3-0). it honestly rivaled an afternoon at Wrigley Field. We got to storm the field afterwards and celebrate with the team as they were awarded medals for winning the cup. utter bliss.
back in time (Wayne's World doo-doo-do doo-doo-do doo-doo-do) to about a month ago: Spring Break Part 2!!!
so we wake up in Avignon, France, and to be honest cannot wait to get out of there. Arriving at the train station we find out theres a train strike in France and we cant get to Barcelona. shoot me. fortunately something worked out and we transferred about two times and got there. out of woods right? of course not. we get into barca at about midnight and call the hostel for more specific directions. turns out this hostel has a nice little program going on. they let people stay there for free if they man the desk and answer telephones. thats all fine and dandy until one of them doesnt know how in the world to get us there!!
idiot at the desk: Where are you?
us smart people: We're next to Port Olympico.
moron: What's that?
THE HOSTEL IS 2 BLOCKS FROM PORT OLYMPICO! 1.5 hours later we are in bed, very angry but happy to not be in france.
so we hit up the hot spots: Sagrada Familia (did you know the flippin thing isn't even finished yet?) Montjuic Castle, Las Ramblas, Gaudi Park, etc. Las Ramblas is the main street with performers and vendors and really creepy statues.
look at that monster peering over that guys shoulder at me. oh yeah i almost forgot. in an attempt to subdue me with happiness so that they could shop later, the girls took me to the Barcelona soccer stadium Camp Nou. although i am not a Barcelona fan, it was really cool to see.the stadium was massive. but anyways the plan worked and i was in high spirits. moving on, the nightlife was pretty sweet.
its a spanish tradition to basically go all night and then sleep in afternoon. i believe they call it "siesta". the institutionalization of the nap is fine by me. unfortunately we had things to do so that was out. one of the places we tried to get to was called "chipitos" which in Catalan i think means "shots" or "spirits". So we were lost naturally and i attempted to use my spanish powers on some police officers but im sure all they heard was "where are shots". you can imagine their confusion and general concern for my well-being after hearing that. needless to say we got really really lost that night and couldnt find anywhere to go, until, lo and behold, another irish pub!! they never fail me. another night we went to a sweet fountain show, but before we went we had to kick off the night right with some champagne.
farther down will be a pick of the fountain show but im having editing difficulties. i think it was raining at the end of the night so we had to take a cab and the driver couldnt speak english. yay. so once again my spanglish of "rights" "lefts" and "stops" eventually got us home. next stop was Amsterdam. Once again a cool city but we ended up seeing the things i had already seen when i was here in my youth like Anne Frank House and Van Gogh Museum. by the way, why arent any of the famous van gogh's in the van gogh museum? they had the bedroom one and the sunflower one. but, we did walk through something i was not allowed to see last time: the Red Light District. im gonna be honest with you, i thought it was going to be a little more...subtle.
so only one day later we were headed to berlin, but i will have to take a break because berlin was my favorite city and if i started now i would sound like a 10 year old explaining pokemon to his parents. if i forgot anything ill throw it in another time. i will leave berlin and frankfurt for the final segment of my quick spring break wrap up hopefully tomorrow but i gotta be honest this is tiring.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
lazy
so really sorry that i haven't been up to speed on the blogging. i did just get back from paris which was cool but i was limping around the city the whole time cause of my almost broken foot that i hurt while playing pick up with some turks on the Donau Insel. ill talk more on that later. i also have to write a self-reflection paper on gender and diversity and how it has affected me in the workplace. that should be interesting. what im getting at is once again im putting off the spring break and now the paris post because i have to read 60 pages and do the paper. and im also not getting that done quickly because today is RAPID VIENNA'S LAST HOME GAME!!! most of the program is going and i checked out the table and if rapid wins this afternoon they win the austrian bundesliga and a spot in the champions league tourney (if you are totally confused at this point don't worry about it). so needless to say a win today and the place will be going nuts. get excited for sub-par professional austrian league soccer whooooo!!!
bye
bye
Friday, April 11, 2008
nice little friday
went to graz. climbed castle hill. saw the clock tower and the old armory. had some schnitzel and gelato. another 21st birthday bash tonight. all in all a good day.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Graz
sorry for not finishing the spring break post. its coming. i actually did school work today. im taking a day trip to Graz, Austria (home of the Governator) tomorrow. its supposed to be a pretty cool town. i will end the recap of spring break this weekend.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
back from break
Hello everyone. After 53 hours of train-riding, 10 hours of layover, and learning how to say "do you speak english?" in about 5 different languages, I am back in Vienna. I never thought I would be so happy to see my local kebap vendor, the easy-to-use metro system, and even djavad. My trip was incredible. I saw so many cool things and met the most interesting fellow travelers. There is honestly too much to say so I'll try to hit the highlights without boring you too badly...
Easter Sunday I train it for about 19 hours to Nice, France. I'll say now I was a skeptic of France but I was pleasantly suprised:
Don't be fooled, it wasn't that warm. And did I mention I didn't bring a coat? Setback number 1 for the trip. There wasn't much to see in Nice, but it was a really cool beach town city. I don't know if you can tell but those beaches aren't sandy. Because there wasn't a whole lot to do except "take it all in" it didn't take long for the girls to find the stores...
So I dealt with that for a bit (I found a bar). A thing I like to do is sample the local/country beers wherever I go. So I went up to the bartender and asked, "Can I try a French beer?" The guy literally laughed at me and said, "French beer? There is no such thing as French beer." And he hands me this disgusting beer that actually is brewed in France called Pellforth. Look it up. That was the end of that.
Since there really wasn't anything else to do we took a 3 euro bus trip to Monte Carlo, Monaco. Some fun facts about Monte Carlo: its the second smallest sovereign nation in the world behind the Vatican, its home to one of the most prestigious annual formula 1 races, and it is essentially where the rich and beautiful come to play. Along the harbor lay million dollar yachts and well-dressed attractive people strolling about. It also has the famous Monte Carlo casino. Unfortunately I was wearing my sandals that day and was denied access into the casino. Setback number 2. I mean c'mon, how cool would it have been to say you've gambled at the Monte Carlo casino (sigh).
So we leave Nice and head for another French city called Avignon. Some fun facts about Avignon: Nothing. I was told this place was chosen because another place was all booked up. It turned out to be a more relaxing time in France because of the lack of sights and I am always down for not moving a lot. There was however a very large "Palace of the Popes" that we did not go in because of the cost but shoved our cameras through the holes in the wooden door and snapped some blind pictures. How's that for Europe on a Shoestring?
The older part of the city itself was pretty cool because it is walled in with ramparts and whatnot. It had a famous port thingy on the river that ran outside of the city but it looked more to me like a bridge that wasn't finished. I will not show you this picture because you might look and it and begin to not be jealous of my spring break trip. I want to point out now that I did not book this vacation. There wasn't even a lot to do at night. We did however find an Irish pub, which we spent approximately quadruple the amount of time there than the time we spent snapping pictures. We left the pub in waves but were too preoccupied with "fun" that nobody cared to think about "responsibility". Nobody knew who had the only key to the hotel. And worst of all, the hotel decided to actually lock the doors after a certain time. So me and Anna being the last wave from the pub showed up with no idea what to do. And to complete the perfect storm of bad things that can happen to you in a crappy french town, nobody was answering their phone. My next move was to go around to the back and try to get anybodies attention via the back window that I was "bonjouring" out of in a Beauty and Beast-like fashion only hours ago. The only thing I found that I could throw was an empty McDonald's cup lying on the street. So I began to throw...
That is the cup, with the straw in the lower left-hand corner. I am putting this picture up because I wanted you to know I did not make this up. But by putting this up and by posting today you know that I eventually got upstairs and am still alive.
There's more to the story but I want to move on to other exciting places like Barcelona and Berlin. I'm getting hungry though so I'm taking a break. I may post later today or if I go to Loco (it is Wednesday after all) I will do it tomorrow. peace.
Easter Sunday I train it for about 19 hours to Nice, France. I'll say now I was a skeptic of France but I was pleasantly suprised:
Don't be fooled, it wasn't that warm. And did I mention I didn't bring a coat? Setback number 1 for the trip. There wasn't much to see in Nice, but it was a really cool beach town city. I don't know if you can tell but those beaches aren't sandy. Because there wasn't a whole lot to do except "take it all in" it didn't take long for the girls to find the stores...
So I dealt with that for a bit (I found a bar). A thing I like to do is sample the local/country beers wherever I go. So I went up to the bartender and asked, "Can I try a French beer?" The guy literally laughed at me and said, "French beer? There is no such thing as French beer." And he hands me this disgusting beer that actually is brewed in France called Pellforth. Look it up. That was the end of that.Since there really wasn't anything else to do we took a 3 euro bus trip to Monte Carlo, Monaco. Some fun facts about Monte Carlo: its the second smallest sovereign nation in the world behind the Vatican, its home to one of the most prestigious annual formula 1 races, and it is essentially where the rich and beautiful come to play. Along the harbor lay million dollar yachts and well-dressed attractive people strolling about. It also has the famous Monte Carlo casino. Unfortunately I was wearing my sandals that day and was denied access into the casino. Setback number 2. I mean c'mon, how cool would it have been to say you've gambled at the Monte Carlo casino (sigh).
So we leave Nice and head for another French city called Avignon. Some fun facts about Avignon: Nothing. I was told this place was chosen because another place was all booked up. It turned out to be a more relaxing time in France because of the lack of sights and I am always down for not moving a lot. There was however a very large "Palace of the Popes" that we did not go in because of the cost but shoved our cameras through the holes in the wooden door and snapped some blind pictures. How's that for Europe on a Shoestring?
The older part of the city itself was pretty cool because it is walled in with ramparts and whatnot. It had a famous port thingy on the river that ran outside of the city but it looked more to me like a bridge that wasn't finished. I will not show you this picture because you might look and it and begin to not be jealous of my spring break trip. I want to point out now that I did not book this vacation. There wasn't even a lot to do at night. We did however find an Irish pub, which we spent approximately quadruple the amount of time there than the time we spent snapping pictures. We left the pub in waves but were too preoccupied with "fun" that nobody cared to think about "responsibility". Nobody knew who had the only key to the hotel. And worst of all, the hotel decided to actually lock the doors after a certain time. So me and Anna being the last wave from the pub showed up with no idea what to do. And to complete the perfect storm of bad things that can happen to you in a crappy french town, nobody was answering their phone. My next move was to go around to the back and try to get anybodies attention via the back window that I was "bonjouring" out of in a Beauty and Beast-like fashion only hours ago. The only thing I found that I could throw was an empty McDonald's cup lying on the street. So I began to throw...
That is the cup, with the straw in the lower left-hand corner. I am putting this picture up because I wanted you to know I did not make this up. But by putting this up and by posting today you know that I eventually got upstairs and am still alive.
There's more to the story but I want to move on to other exciting places like Barcelona and Berlin. I'm getting hungry though so I'm taking a break. I may post later today or if I go to Loco (it is Wednesday after all) I will do it tomorrow. peace.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
there ARE kangaroos in austria
my family visited me this week. i would classify it as basically a semi-tour of vienna followed by a mega tour of european beer drinking. we also got to see bratislava and i took them to the same two places i went last time i was in bratislava: the crappy castle and the awesome restaurant. we had the famous zlaty bazant slovakian beer. unfortunately they did not get the same "bratislava" experience i did in the sense that i had to run away from falling debris the moment i arrived in the city, but they got the idea when i sort of reenacted it. i took jake out to LOCO on wednesday night an we met up with some other friends who were still in town. much to his disgust i made him take the tequila shot with a slice of orange and told him to "think of my pain every wednesday at 6 pm your time". in hindsight the tequila may have been a bad move because i later saw jake become a little overly-patriotic about his own country to some of the locals. i later learned that some "locals" actually turned out to be american as well. we stayed out after public transportation ended and tried to find the night bus but failed miserably and ended up walking 3 km back to haus erasmus (reminiscent of walking home to the north pole last semester). at one point in the night i had given up hope and thought we were wandering around aimlessly in vienna so i finally shoved jake into a cab and by some divine miracle remembered the street address of my dorm. the cab drove a block, turned, drove another block, and dropped us off at the front door. i just wasted 5 euro.
the best part about the trip (besides seeing the fam of course) was this australian bar called Billabong. the parents had been there while jake and i were at LOCO and suggested it. as soon as we walked in we saw 3 screens of NCAA basketball that was to be on all night. thats all the reason i needed. ive fallen in love with this bar for the following reasons:
cheers.
the best part about the trip (besides seeing the fam of course) was this australian bar called Billabong. the parents had been there while jake and i were at LOCO and suggested it. as soon as we walked in we saw 3 screens of NCAA basketball that was to be on all night. thats all the reason i needed. ive fallen in love with this bar for the following reasons:
- they speak english
- 2 euro pitchers during happy hour
- they show all the basketball and soccer games
- they play (what i consider) great music
- they asked me to play on their bar cricket team
cheers.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
do you believe in miracles?
i think there is a little bit of magic left in this illinois team. i can hardly contain my excitement today. ill be huddled around the computer at 9 oclock austria time watching the score updates.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
...
nothing much going on. had some authentic gelato tonight. the last time i had gelato was last summer. it made me actually miss custard cup. everyone who has spring break plans have fun and be safe. if you're reading this chances are i miss you and cant wait to hear from you.
cheers
cheers
small world
i woke up this morning and just realized that at LOCO last night i talked to a brazilian who played soccer for urbana high school.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
spring break
spring break is pretty much figured out. we have a grand total of 3 weeks to try to get into as much trouble as possible around the continent. the first week ill stay in vienna while the rest of my group is in italy. im fine with missing italy for multiple reasons. the reason im staying is cause my family will be here for 5 days. we'll be in vienna mostly but my dad wants to head east to somewhere like budapest. my brother is coming too. we're gonna rock this city.
the next two weeks is a clock-wise tour of western europe starting with two mediterranean french cities. i forget the second one but the first is Nice. Paris will be missed but we are planning to do that at another time. Next we are heading to Barcelona. it wont be so much 'spain' but more 'catalonia' but im really really really excited for barce. then its a flight to amsterdam. this wasnt my choise seeing as ive been here before but you cant win em all. the final cities are berlin and frankfurt. berlin should be really fun too, and i dont see myself getting much sleep there.
other possible destinations outside of austria include paris, munich, and some countries out east including hungary and croatia, but not the ukraine. ukraine is weak.
im making some progress on my german. im at the point now where i can ask a couple questions, but i still cant interpret the answers. so that really gets me nowhere. i really confuse the locals by creating the illusion that i am able to speak their language.
i learned the ever famous pick-up line "hey, whats your major" the other day, so now i can successfully pick up austrians at the clubs.
Was ist dein Hauptfach?
the next two weeks is a clock-wise tour of western europe starting with two mediterranean french cities. i forget the second one but the first is Nice. Paris will be missed but we are planning to do that at another time. Next we are heading to Barcelona. it wont be so much 'spain' but more 'catalonia' but im really really really excited for barce. then its a flight to amsterdam. this wasnt my choise seeing as ive been here before but you cant win em all. the final cities are berlin and frankfurt. berlin should be really fun too, and i dont see myself getting much sleep there.
other possible destinations outside of austria include paris, munich, and some countries out east including hungary and croatia, but not the ukraine. ukraine is weak.
im making some progress on my german. im at the point now where i can ask a couple questions, but i still cant interpret the answers. so that really gets me nowhere. i really confuse the locals by creating the illusion that i am able to speak their language.
i learned the ever famous pick-up line "hey, whats your major" the other day, so now i can successfully pick up austrians at the clubs.
Was ist dein Hauptfach?
Sunday, March 9, 2008
some culture
went to an art museum tonight. the admission was free for some reason so that was a plus. some rich family bought up all of these monets and picassos and put them on display for the world to see so that was pretty cool. ive come to realize i have a huge problem with what i think is called "modern expressionism" type art. other art i can look at and see it took a lot of time and skill to create, but this new art just kills me. i found myself literally staring at a black background with two parallel vertical straight white lines stretching from the top to the bottom. what is that? oh btw the name of the "art" was "untitled". of course.
somebody send me some el toro asap. dont forget the cheese dip.
somebody send me some el toro asap. dont forget the cheese dip.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Return of Schnitzel and the Plague
so today marks the 7th time djavad has been sick since ive been living with him, and when he gets sick he really gets sick. im talking deathly ill sick. i've come to call it The Plague. i usually stay out of the room or take a double dose of vitamins to defend it. unfortunately it got me today, and gave me a bit of a cold. so i missed my day trip to Graz, Austria and got to spend the day with my suffering roomy. im trying to think of a new name for room 606. i was thinking either 'sick bay' or 'the deathly hallows'.
On the other hand, the game last night was a lot of fun. it wasnt the game so much that was exciting but the extracurricular activities of the fans next to us. we sat in the section next to the opposing fans section. their part was fenced off but that didnt stop them from throwing flares onto the field and firecrackers and non-alcoholic beer at the group of people i was with. we werent even wearing the home teams colors (i for one was wearing neutral austrian red). we were just the closest people on the upper deck for them to hit. Once the home team Rapid Wein went up 2-1 with ten minutes left the amount of thrown firecrackers intensified, and i eventually became more obsessed with making sure one didnt land on me than on who won. by the end of the match police in full riot gear surrounded the other fans to make sure fights didnt break out. all in all it was a pretty good night.
Amy's dad is flying into Vienna for the night so we are going out to Centimeter, a popular restaurant in the city. i will probly have some more schnitzel, since thats all they serve in Austria. i have had so much schnitzel in the past month and a half and i am soooo sick of it. its not even that good. its just fried meat. thats all it is. i dont understand why its so popular here. here, you can be the judge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schnitzel
at least the beer is good here...
On the other hand, the game last night was a lot of fun. it wasnt the game so much that was exciting but the extracurricular activities of the fans next to us. we sat in the section next to the opposing fans section. their part was fenced off but that didnt stop them from throwing flares onto the field and firecrackers and non-alcoholic beer at the group of people i was with. we werent even wearing the home teams colors (i for one was wearing neutral austrian red). we were just the closest people on the upper deck for them to hit. Once the home team Rapid Wein went up 2-1 with ten minutes left the amount of thrown firecrackers intensified, and i eventually became more obsessed with making sure one didnt land on me than on who won. by the end of the match police in full riot gear surrounded the other fans to make sure fights didnt break out. all in all it was a pretty good night.
Amy's dad is flying into Vienna for the night so we are going out to Centimeter, a popular restaurant in the city. i will probly have some more schnitzel, since thats all they serve in Austria. i have had so much schnitzel in the past month and a half and i am soooo sick of it. its not even that good. its just fried meat. thats all it is. i dont understand why its so popular here. here, you can be the judge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schnitzel
at least the beer is good here...
Friday, March 7, 2008
zlaty error
I apologize for misleading you on the alcohol content on the Slovakian beer. In my defense the bottle did have a percentage sign after the number 12 but it did not mean amount of alcohol in the beer. Your questions will be answered here: http://www.fgslovakia.com/2007/9/23/slovak-beer
Tonight should be fun. We are going to see a club soccer game. The local team, Rapid Wien, is playing the club team from Graz, Austria. Rapid Wien is in first place in the Austrian Bundesliga, and Graz is in 4th or 5th. Then afterwards its a 21st birthday celebration.
cheers
Tonight should be fun. We are going to see a club soccer game. The local team, Rapid Wien, is playing the club team from Graz, Austria. Rapid Wien is in first place in the Austrian Bundesliga, and Graz is in 4th or 5th. Then afterwards its a 21st birthday celebration.
cheers
Thursday, March 6, 2008
djavad!
I wanted to dedicate an entire post to my roommate Djavad Rahimi because I could write pages and pages about this guy. He is a 23-year old 100 pound Iranian studying Math and German at the Wirtschaftuniversitat, and he is a character to say the least. I don’t even know where to begin. I will start by easing your fears that he loves
Bratislava: gotta love that exchange rate!
A few of us crossed the iron curtain into
p.s. I changed the settings so that anyone can comment on posts. I don’t know who is reading this but if you are out there feel free to talk back
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
I'm back
I’m back from the Middle Ages and now have the internet. And no I was not downloading porn. Djavad would disapprove. Its been about two weeks so I have no idea where to begin.
I’ll just knock off
But I live in
Monday, February 18, 2008
das internet ist kaput
i have been rate limited on the internet. probably cause ive downloaded too many episodes of 'lost'. i wont be around for a while :( . we went and saw 'there will be blood' last night. good movie. that is all.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Ski Week
Hello anyone. I say anyone because I have no idea who is even going to read this, but I thought it would be a good idea to make one in case people wanted to check to see whether or not I was still alive. Its been three weeks and I still don't start class for another week and a half. So for the last month its been skiing and looking at old European buildings and drinking. Thats pretty much it.
The ski week was incredible. I won't get into much detail about it because it I will just go on and on about how much fun I had and then I might get some hateful comments. Our hotel was literally on top of a mountain and there was a string of towns down a the bottom. You could ski down the mountain, and take lifts up the other side of the valley and ski everywhere. To get supplies (more vodka) you literally had to ski into town with a backpack, walk with you ski boots into the store, load up, and take a series of chutes and ladders to get back to the hotel. The whole trip takes about 2 and a half hours. If I remember correctly when it was my turn to go I was hauling 7 liters of vodka/chaser back up to the hotel. It sucked but it was a price we were willing to pay. I mean, we didn't know each other that well so the solution for that was to just drink and then get to know each other!
So our week consisted of waking up at 8, skiing all day, and drinking all night with 3 meals in between. There is a form of skiing happy hour I believe is called "apre shei" witch is a french/german word that means "after ski"; you pretty much hang out when the lifts close, drink scnapps, and watch the sunset over the mountains. The picture above shows just that.
Oh yeah something else: I almost died. I remember the most common piece of advice I got before I left was "don't die". This would be a typical conversation leading up to my departure:
Friend: Oh you're going to Austria for a semester. Sweet man....don't die.
Me: Uh, OK. Don't you mean "have fun"?
Friend: Oh yeah, that too. But seriously man...don't die.
So I started to take that to heart. But when I think "don't die" I think "don't get mugged in the Bermuda Triangle in Vienna like Kojich did (Oh by the way Bruce Murray brought up that story and told people he would rather they be home before 12. Obviously that won't happen but its amazing how Kojich's shenanigans and antics 2 years ago affect my fun in Vienna today). So anyways, back to my original story...
It was about day 2 or 3 of ski week where I hit some ice and just lost it. I had two options: Run into a guy I was skiing with and take him down the mountain with me or fall earlier and only take myself down the mountain with me. So being the nice guy that I am I sorta fell "on purpose" and prayed I would stop before falling "out of bounds" on the mountain. Well I'm here today so that means I did, but it was kinda close. My water bottle shot out of my pants and was never seen again (Those of you who are facebook friends with me can see Bode's lovely artwork of this happening). Anyways, it was a lot of fun but I had one close call. Thanks for the warning Dana...
Alright I'm sick of typing so I'm gonna go nurse my headache from last night. Next post's comments will involve Vienna, Prague, and my Iranian roommate Javad! In the meantime I leave you with a Dwight Schrute-ism:
"People say, 'oh, it’s dangerous to keep weapons in the home or the workplace'. Well I say, 'it’s better to be hurt by someone you know accidentally than by a stranger on purpose.'" - Dwight Schrute, Assistant to the Regional Manager
Peace
Friday, February 15, 2008
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