We made it to Salzburg in seemingly no time at all. We found a place to park the car and started exploring. Travis had already been here before so I was a lot more excited about the whole thing. There were a lot of things I hadn’t seen before. Even the little gift/souvenir shops caught my eye.
One of the first ones we went into had a bunch of what I guess you could call “conversation pieces”. The walls were lined with Steins, huge mugs, glass dolls, and …..medieval weaponry. Ever since I was a child I have wanted to have a sword. Something about a sword to me is just incredibly cool. The Samurai for the most part shunned guns in lieu of the sword, so if that’s not proof enough that Sword > Gun in cool factor, then I don’t know what is. So most of the swords were like 300 Euro. There was no way I could afford that at this point , and I didn’t really want to deal with carrying a sword around Salzburg and then getting it through customs at the airport. When one of our group in Japan tried to bring back wooden swords on our trip last year he had a lot of trouble. Anyway, I decided that this just wasn’t the right juncture in my life to purchase one of those lovely pieces of weaponry, and opted to get a Stein instead, of which there were many varieties to choose. I was torn between a Salzburg Stein with a nice painting of the castle and surrounding area of the city, and one with the crest and flag of Austria. I ended up choosing the Austria Stein because I liked the color scheme better, and the emblem is really cool. My third option was a Harley Davidson Stein, which I thought was hilarious, but it cost 150 Euro(because of it’s massive size). My Austria Stein cost me 50 Euro and I was and still am very happy with the purchase. I am not sure if you’re actually supposed to drink out of these or just use them as decoration, but I paid 50 Euros for a big cup, and by god I am going to use it. I am drinking out of it right now. It really is nice. I especially like engraved metal top that opens and closes with an elbow joint.
Anyway, before I even ended up buying my Stein we had seen pretty much all the important sites in the main area of town. Mozart’s Geburtshaus(Birth House) was cool to see, but we didn’t go in because we just didn’t have time to wait in the line. We found it quite comical that right next to Mozart’s Geburtshaus was a “Nordsee”, which is basically a fast food restaurant that is like Chick-Fil-A except instead of almost everything being chicken, almost everything is fish.
We got hungry and decided we were going to eat before we left. As we were looking for something to eat I noticed what looked to me like an old married couple, but there was a twist. They were speaking Japanese---Because they were Japanese. Now, I know it is ridiculous to believe that any white person could ever possibly speak Japanese(not really, but most people think this way), and Travis was no different than most people in this regard. He simply didn’t believe me when I told him that I am pretty good at Japanese, and have a trophy to prove it. So I took this opportunity to defend my honor. I asked the couple a couple of questions(in the most polite way I know how), and told them to have a good time. They seemed startled at first, but smiled when I told them to have fun. Travis conceded afterwards.
We ate a tiny little restaurant on the side of one of the busier streets. We had to wait a couple minutes to get a table, but we got one. The old waitress came out and asked us what we wanted to drink. Travis got his usual Apfel Chorle(I think I spelled it right….but it’s basically carbonated apple juice), and I got a water. Now, if you haven’t been to Germany before you might think oh okay, he got water, whatever, but here you have to pay for it---Even if it is tap water. It’s not like the states where you are basically required by law to provide water. Now, people that know me know that I drink a lot of water, which makes being here a big pain in the butt sometimes. You order water and they charge you 2 Euros and come out with a tiny bottle of carbonated water(Germans don’t typically drink normal water, if you order water here and don’t specify, it’s carbonated). So yeah, I try to drink as much water as I can before I leave my dorm now. Anyway, I don’t remember what Travis ordered, but I ordered the Wiener Schnitzel---And they gave me a HUGE schnitzel, basically the size of a large dinner plate. Now here is some trivia for you. Wiener Schnitzel is not made from wieners(i.e. hot dogs), the Wiener preceding Schnitzel just notes that the Schnitzel is in the style that originated out of Wien, or Vienna in English.
After we ate dinner it was time for dessert. And what better place to get dessert than at the famous Sacher Hotel. We walked over to the hotel and went inside one of the many doors to the places associated with it. It was sort of a gift shop completely dedicated to Sacher chocolate(apparently it’s pretty special stuff). Anyway, this wasn’t what we were looking for, and Travis knew(he’s been here before), and asked the smiling shopkeeper “Haben sie ein Café…..oder etwas??” which basically translates into “Do you have a café or something?”, we had a good laugh about it after we went outside and around the corner, heeding the directions of the shopkeeper.
We entered the café and it was probably one of the fanciest places I had ever walked into for service. Ornately decorated rooms full of ornately decorated people from all over the world. I resisted the urge to talk to more Japanese people. Needless to say, Travis and I were a little underdressed, but nobody seemed to care. We sat down in the smoking section because that was the only area with seats. Nobody was smoking. We had a menu but only used it to choose a special coffee, because Travis already assured me that the Sacher Torte is what I wanted. And he was right. We ordered two pieces of Sacher Torte. 4 Euros is a little steep for a piece of cake, but according to the menu, this cake recipe has been around for 175+ years and is enjoyed by the most famous of the famous and almost 400,000 slices are exported every year. The recipe of the original Sacher Torte is exclusive to the Sacher Hotel. There are three of these hotels throughout Austria. The walls of the area where we sat were lined with photos of famous people that had stayed at the hotel, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they too had eaten Sacher Torte.
Our coffee and cake came to us and was presented fantastically. It was a perfect slice of cake with a huge scoop of heavy whipped cream sitting tantalizingly on the side. My coffee, which came with the usual cream and sugar also came with a small, but tall, shot class of cherry liqour to mix in. I mixed my coffee, which was delicious and started to eat the cake. It was absolutely delicious. The top and back side of the slice was a layer of thick, somewhat firm, Sacher Chocolate. There was a coin shaped piece of chocolate on the broad side of the top of the piece, which was the Sacher Seal--It isn’t an original Sacher Torte without the seal afterall--and the meat of the cake was two layers of chocoalte cake with a fruity filling between the two layers. It was a much more complex flavor then the typical sugar overload of everyday cakes. Sacher Torte is quite distinct, and I highly recommend it.
After we finished our Torte we decided to head to Rauris. We went back to the garage, paid for our parking, and hit the road.
TBContinued!
Bis bald,
Beau
P.S. Sorry about the lack of pictures. Most of them are on Travis' laptop b/c my tiny netbook simply doesn't have enough space for them all. Will try to post some tomorrow after class!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Long Weekend Part 2
Posting early, but only briefly. Homework etc. going on, and it is a little walk to get to internet.
We arrived at the hotel, but didn’t want to pay for parking unless we knew we for sure that we could stay there. So I took Travis’ laptop and placed it gently on the dashboard and got out of the car. I went into the hotel and asked in German if they had any double rooms. Sure enough they did, and I told them I would be right back. I went out and gave Travis a thumbs up. He drove to the gate, got a ticket for parking, and parked. We got our bags out of the car and went into the hotel. The woman at the desk recognized me and gave me the form to fill out to rent a room for the night. I filled out the form and we got our key. Before I went up I used the small computer available for guests to use the internet. A disgruntled line quickly formed behind me, so I only got to answer a couple of emails before we went up to the room.
We settled into the room and then headed down to the bar. We had some drinks and talked for about an hour or so. The other bar stools were occupied by a group of black people(the first I had actually seen on my trip so far. I guess they’re rare in Germany.) They weren’t speaking English or German so we did not really say anything to them.. We actually drank quite a bit. The beer was really good and I had two very large glasses. Travis opted for mixed drinks, and I could not describe his drunkenness to you because he is quite composed with or without drink. I,, on the other hand, was feeling pretty good, and went to bed soon after we got back up to the room.
We woke up later than anticipated, around 9:30. We showered, packed our stuff and checked out of the hotel. They gave us a big coin to put into the machine at the gate to get out. We loaded up the car and plotted a course to Salzburg, the famous birthplace of the famous Mozart.
2BContinued.
Tschüss,
Beau
We arrived at the hotel, but didn’t want to pay for parking unless we knew we for sure that we could stay there. So I took Travis’ laptop and placed it gently on the dashboard and got out of the car. I went into the hotel and asked in German if they had any double rooms. Sure enough they did, and I told them I would be right back. I went out and gave Travis a thumbs up. He drove to the gate, got a ticket for parking, and parked. We got our bags out of the car and went into the hotel. The woman at the desk recognized me and gave me the form to fill out to rent a room for the night. I filled out the form and we got our key. Before I went up I used the small computer available for guests to use the internet. A disgruntled line quickly formed behind me, so I only got to answer a couple of emails before we went up to the room.
We settled into the room and then headed down to the bar. We had some drinks and talked for about an hour or so. The other bar stools were occupied by a group of black people(the first I had actually seen on my trip so far. I guess they’re rare in Germany.) They weren’t speaking English or German so we did not really say anything to them.. We actually drank quite a bit. The beer was really good and I had two very large glasses. Travis opted for mixed drinks, and I could not describe his drunkenness to you because he is quite composed with or without drink. I,, on the other hand, was feeling pretty good, and went to bed soon after we got back up to the room.
We woke up later than anticipated, around 9:30. We showered, packed our stuff and checked out of the hotel. They gave us a big coin to put into the machine at the gate to get out. We loaded up the car and plotted a course to Salzburg, the famous birthplace of the famous Mozart.
2BContinued.
Tschüss,
Beau
Long Weekend Part 1
Hey Everyone,
I had an awesome weekend. It was our first of two free weekends, and since Monday was a holiday here the weekend was extended an extra day. Travis and I took this opportunity to do what any sane person would: Rent a car and drive to Austria!
We went to the car rental place here in Weimar early last week to make a reservation for this trip. They couldn’t tel.l us what kind of car we were going to get until the day we left. Luckily, we ended up with a decent black Audi A3. The downside to this is that it was a Diesel. A lot of cars here in Europe are Diesels, it is kind of weird.
Anyway, after class on Friday we rushed to get the car and then some clothes for the trip from our dorm. We then hit the road. But much to our dismay we also hit some Stau, and by Stau, I mean Traffic. It was a long weekend and everyone and their grandmother’s pet goose was on the Autobahn it seemed. In the beginning we waited out traffic jams, but we quickly learned to utilize our GPS.(A computer program on Travis’ laptop not a standard in car GPS. It had a usb dongle which connected to satelites. It was really cool. Since I have never learned to drive a standard I navigated.).
We used the GPS to plot alternate courses around places with traffic. We were gods of the road. Until we needed somewhere to stay that is.
The traffic left us tired after the first day, and we didn’t have it in us to make it all the way down to Salzburg(not our final destination, but all the places we wanted to go were within an hour of there).
We stopped in Regensburg. It was actually a really cool city. There was a river and a huge church that looked really cool. We scoured the town for the cheapest hotel possible. We didn’t have any internet access so we had to go by what we saw. First place we walked into was a pretty nice looking hotel that we probably didn’t want to pay for. Anyway, they didn’t have any double rooms free, and we weren’t privy to bed sharing.
The second place we walked up to had “Gasthouse” in big letters on the front. As we were about to ring the bell outside the door a man dressed in a black casual suit that looked like a fat Stephen Segall approached us and asked something along the lines of “Can I help you?” in German. Now, Travis is pretty good at German. He has his grammar down pretty well, but for some reason, when he tried to speak with this man, the most broken sentence came out. He basically tried to ask if the man had any rooms available, but he managed to use Du(informal you) and Sie(formal you) in the same sentence. I don’t even remember exactly what he said, but I’ll never forget Stephen Segall’s fat German brother’s answer: A scoffing “Nein”. We had been taking turns doing the talking throughout the trip, and I thought for a brief moment that maybe I should try to convince the man that we wouldn’t be a bother, but it was too late really. Such a “Nein” was so staggering to us that before we knew it he was already in the door.
We went back to the car discouraged, but not for long. Our third companion--GPS! Came to the rescue. Travis had stayed in this place before, Regensburg. But he couldn’t remember which hotel he had stayed in. We searched the city on the GPS and eventually found it. We plotted a course and made it to the hotel. It wasn’t particularly cheap, but it was a place, and we were tired.
This is already quite a long post! There is a lot more to tell, but my week is going to be pretty boring with classes/homework. So I will finish the tale in a post tomorrow.
Tschüss!
Beau
I had an awesome weekend. It was our first of two free weekends, and since Monday was a holiday here the weekend was extended an extra day. Travis and I took this opportunity to do what any sane person would: Rent a car and drive to Austria!
We went to the car rental place here in Weimar early last week to make a reservation for this trip. They couldn’t tel.l us what kind of car we were going to get until the day we left. Luckily, we ended up with a decent black Audi A3. The downside to this is that it was a Diesel. A lot of cars here in Europe are Diesels, it is kind of weird.
Anyway, after class on Friday we rushed to get the car and then some clothes for the trip from our dorm. We then hit the road. But much to our dismay we also hit some Stau, and by Stau, I mean Traffic. It was a long weekend and everyone and their grandmother’s pet goose was on the Autobahn it seemed. In the beginning we waited out traffic jams, but we quickly learned to utilize our GPS.(A computer program on Travis’ laptop not a standard in car GPS. It had a usb dongle which connected to satelites. It was really cool. Since I have never learned to drive a standard I navigated.).
We used the GPS to plot alternate courses around places with traffic. We were gods of the road. Until we needed somewhere to stay that is.
The traffic left us tired after the first day, and we didn’t have it in us to make it all the way down to Salzburg(not our final destination, but all the places we wanted to go were within an hour of there).
We stopped in Regensburg. It was actually a really cool city. There was a river and a huge church that looked really cool. We scoured the town for the cheapest hotel possible. We didn’t have any internet access so we had to go by what we saw. First place we walked into was a pretty nice looking hotel that we probably didn’t want to pay for. Anyway, they didn’t have any double rooms free, and we weren’t privy to bed sharing.
The second place we walked up to had “Gasthouse” in big letters on the front. As we were about to ring the bell outside the door a man dressed in a black casual suit that looked like a fat Stephen Segall approached us and asked something along the lines of “Can I help you?” in German. Now, Travis is pretty good at German. He has his grammar down pretty well, but for some reason, when he tried to speak with this man, the most broken sentence came out. He basically tried to ask if the man had any rooms available, but he managed to use Du(informal you) and Sie(formal you) in the same sentence. I don’t even remember exactly what he said, but I’ll never forget Stephen Segall’s fat German brother’s answer: A scoffing “Nein”. We had been taking turns doing the talking throughout the trip, and I thought for a brief moment that maybe I should try to convince the man that we wouldn’t be a bother, but it was too late really. Such a “Nein” was so staggering to us that before we knew it he was already in the door.
We went back to the car discouraged, but not for long. Our third companion--GPS! Came to the rescue. Travis had stayed in this place before, Regensburg. But he couldn’t remember which hotel he had stayed in. We searched the city on the GPS and eventually found it. We plotted a course and made it to the hotel. It wasn’t particularly cheap, but it was a place, and we were tired.
This is already quite a long post! There is a lot more to tell, but my week is going to be pretty boring with classes/homework. So I will finish the tale in a post tomorrow.
Tschüss!
Beau
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Classes and a Tour
Classes started yesterday, and so far they're going pretty well. My German class has more than one student(I originally thought it was just going to be me and the teacher), and I already feel like my German is improving--I actually have to use it here.
The CF class started with a brief overview of German history prior to the rise of Germany as a nation, and today we started to talk about Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther". I'm enjoying the book so far, but haven't gotten to read much because I had a lot of German homework.
Yesterday we took a walking tour of the city with a man named Dieter as our guide. He was German, but spoke fluent english with a heavy British accent. He was really into the tour and asking about Dallas. My favorite part of the tour was the big park situated around the Ilm river. I'll be spending a lot more time there during the rest of the trip, and pictures will come soon. I'd describe it to you all myself, but despite my interest in language, I wouldn't say that I am a great writer. And reading Goethe make's me feel like I shouldn't really try. It's kind of hard to beat. So I'll just let the old saying speak for me and write volumes by posting pictures on the internet.
I am a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of history that is all packed into this small city. Hitler's youth was started here, and I walk by his favorite hotel daily. But also here are the homes of great writers Goethe and Schiller, and legends of the music world like Bach and Wagner. Both the best and the worst of human nature existed here in Weimar.
In the interest of not overstaying my welcome in my favorite cafe(It's called Frischback), I'll end the post.
Tschüss,
Beau
The CF class started with a brief overview of German history prior to the rise of Germany as a nation, and today we started to talk about Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther". I'm enjoying the book so far, but haven't gotten to read much because I had a lot of German homework.
Yesterday we took a walking tour of the city with a man named Dieter as our guide. He was German, but spoke fluent english with a heavy British accent. He was really into the tour and asking about Dallas. My favorite part of the tour was the big park situated around the Ilm river. I'll be spending a lot more time there during the rest of the trip, and pictures will come soon. I'd describe it to you all myself, but despite my interest in language, I wouldn't say that I am a great writer. And reading Goethe make's me feel like I shouldn't really try. It's kind of hard to beat. So I'll just let the old saying speak for me and write volumes by posting pictures on the internet.
I am a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of history that is all packed into this small city. Hitler's youth was started here, and I walk by his favorite hotel daily. But also here are the homes of great writers Goethe and Schiller, and legends of the music world like Bach and Wagner. Both the best and the worst of human nature existed here in Weimar.
In the interest of not overstaying my welcome in my favorite cafe(It's called Frischback), I'll end the post.
Tschüss,
Beau
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Made it to Weimar
I finally got into Weimar yesterday at about 12:45 p.m. German time. The flight flew by very fast, but the train ride seemed to last forever. The train system was easy enough to handle and I got out at Weimar Main Station after changing trains a couple of times at Frankfurt Main and Fulda.
One of our tutors, Bea, met me at the station and showed me to my dorm. A bed, a table, a desk, a fridge, some shelves, and a closet to put my clothes in. Don't really need much more than that. I share a bathroom with some other people living in the dorm. I've only met one, Ahmed from Pakistan. The other SMU students are scattered throughout the same dormitory.
After going across the street to get a big bottle of water I drank a bit and then crashed on the bed. I woke up to Bea knocking on my door at about 6:20. She took me and the other students that had already arrived to the grocery store. Our kitchen at the dorm was not open yet so nobody was really sure what to buy. I bought water, milk, cheese, some tuna, a bag of bread, and a couple of sweets I had never tried before.
After I got back I went back to sleep and woke up today at around 7:30, but I wasn't really feeling very well so I didn't get up and going until about 10. I showered, and searched the town on foot(weimar is a small city) for a cafe with internet. I haphazardly ran into Travis, who happened to be doing the same thing I was. We walked through the town while he checked his Ipod touch periodically for signals.
After a few false hopes, we got a signal from Frischback-Haus, a nice little cafe on Schillerstrasse. I am still waiting on my aid money so I am pretty broke. I ordered water(water is not free in germany like it is in the states.) Travis got coffee and Apfelkuchen.
And that's where I am now writing this entry. It's a lovely day outside. It's sunny, but actually pretty cool outside. I think I am going to get up soon and explore some more.
Bis bald,
Beau
One of our tutors, Bea, met me at the station and showed me to my dorm. A bed, a table, a desk, a fridge, some shelves, and a closet to put my clothes in. Don't really need much more than that. I share a bathroom with some other people living in the dorm. I've only met one, Ahmed from Pakistan. The other SMU students are scattered throughout the same dormitory.
After going across the street to get a big bottle of water I drank a bit and then crashed on the bed. I woke up to Bea knocking on my door at about 6:20. She took me and the other students that had already arrived to the grocery store. Our kitchen at the dorm was not open yet so nobody was really sure what to buy. I bought water, milk, cheese, some tuna, a bag of bread, and a couple of sweets I had never tried before.
After I got back I went back to sleep and woke up today at around 7:30, but I wasn't really feeling very well so I didn't get up and going until about 10. I showered, and searched the town on foot(weimar is a small city) for a cafe with internet. I haphazardly ran into Travis, who happened to be doing the same thing I was. We walked through the town while he checked his Ipod touch periodically for signals.
After a few false hopes, we got a signal from Frischback-Haus, a nice little cafe on Schillerstrasse. I am still waiting on my aid money so I am pretty broke. I ordered water(water is not free in germany like it is in the states.) Travis got coffee and Apfelkuchen.
And that's where I am now writing this entry. It's a lovely day outside. It's sunny, but actually pretty cool outside. I think I am going to get up soon and explore some more.
Bis bald,
Beau
Friday, May 1, 2009
Introduction
I'll keep simple things simple.
Name: Beau Edison
My birth name is actually Robert like my dad. But things got confusing (apparently), and I don't ever remember being called anything but "Beau". And so, that is my name for all non-bureaucratic purposes.
Age: 22
Sex: Male--In case you can't tell by my name.
Occupation: Student at SMU
Major: Markets and Culture
Minor: Japanese
Minor: German
Fun Facts: I am also the president of SMU's Video Games Club.
I won the Texas State Japanese Speech Competition(College Division) earlier this year
I work at the FLTTC at SMU
I'm going to use this blog to record my thoughts and experiences during my 5 week trip to Weimar, Germany. So if you're interested read on. I'll probably make a post or two before I go so stay tuned!
Name: Beau Edison
My birth name is actually Robert like my dad. But things got confusing (apparently), and I don't ever remember being called anything but "Beau". And so, that is my name for all non-bureaucratic purposes.
Age: 22
Sex: Male--In case you can't tell by my name.
Occupation: Student at SMU
Major: Markets and Culture
Minor: Japanese
Minor: German
Fun Facts: I am also the president of SMU's Video Games Club.
I won the Texas State Japanese Speech Competition(College Division) earlier this year
I work at the FLTTC at SMU
I'm going to use this blog to record my thoughts and experiences during my 5 week trip to Weimar, Germany. So if you're interested read on. I'll probably make a post or two before I go so stay tuned!
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