28th
Oh the places I have been…
Its been two weeks since my last update, sorry for the negligence! Last week was our 2nd free travel opportunity. We spent two nights each in Venice, Salzburg, and Munich. Each city was beautiful in its own right.
Logan and I planned the trip a few weeks in advance, so when Blake and Naomi jumped in at the last minute, we didn’t make too many revisions. We stayed in the hostels we had booked for ourselves even though they were full by the time the other two joined. Splitting up at night made the week a little less stressful. By the end of the week we were still frustrated however. We were able to see many great things and appreciate the beauty around us, but I wouldn’t say the week was “fun.” It felt like another obligatory group project.
Enough complaining. Venice was incredible! We spent a very full day walking throughout the city. The grand canal was, well… grand! We saw hundreds of gondolas and thousands of pidgeons. The hotel Logan and I shared was ritzy compared to the places we’d been before. We got a private room just outside of the city, and a shuttle service took us in and out of Venice. The employees at the front desk gave us a map and detailed instructions on what was worth seeing, where to get the best food, and where to go shopping. Our room came decorated in Venetian tapestry and a glass chandelier!
Salzburg was my favorite. We took a day train to the city, and the ride was beautiful. We rode through snow covered mountains with dusted pine trees and aspens. I thought about Nell, my grandmother the entire time, because it looked like something she would have painted. Quaint little towns held their own in the deep valleys. We arrived around 4:30, but it was already getting dark so we decided to split up at the train station to find our respective hostels. We stayed in a perfect little bed and breakfast. The place was called the Haus Christine, and Christine herself picked us up from the train station, free of charge! Her place was a beautiful cottage on the side of a hill, and our room had a balcony overlooking the breathtaking scenery. Our beds came with fluffly down douve comforters, and it was hard not to be happy in the comfortably decorated room. Breakfast was free and good, with rolls and homemade jam. In town, we went to a modern art museum to fulfill a class requirement and it turned out to be great! The exhibit was really interactive and we had a good time playing with instead of interpreting the art. We also went to the fortress atop the highest point.
Munich was an entirely different experience. The city was nothing like I expected. This whole semester all I’ve heard about Germany is how immaculate and pristine it is, and how organized they are. We arrived to a filthy city, full of tourists - which would make any place seem chaotic. It was bitter cold, but without the beautiful snow. We still walked everywhere. At the end of the first day we had seen a few gardens, a couple of churches, and the one and only glockenspiel. The four of us stayed in the same hostel, and it was the worst hostel experience yet. Our first red flag was the name of the joint - Jaeger’s Hostel. We stayed in a 4 bed dorm room, so at least there weren’t strangers in our room. There was one toilet and one shower stall for the entire floor, and it was of questionable sanitation. The no curfew policy coupled with the bar downstairs kept the noise (and fear) levels up throughout the night. Our first night in Munich Naomi, Logan and I decided to try to go to bed early, fearing lice and bed mites the entire time. Blake went downstairs to use the internet. About an hour after we turned the lights out we woke up to a terrible banging on our door and shouting in german-accented English. Hearts pounding, I was strategizing how to get to my knife, Logan was thinking the same about her mace. About that time, the knob turned, the door flung open, and the light flipped on - and in walks Ashley McFadden, an obnoxiously southern girl in our program. We wanted to kill her. Their free travel group booked the same hostel as us, and saw Blake in the lobby when they walked in. He told them what room we were in, and Ashley figured it would be funny to give us heart attacks. We could have killed her - After that stunt, she just waltzed in and made herself at home telling us all about her week. We were kinda mad at Blake too, since he had come upstairs to get his computer and not locked the door on his way out. I guess we were lucky that the only person who tried to get in was Ashley.
We spent the next day touring Dauchau Concentration Camp and Memorial. It was a perfect day to be there, the weather was bleak, grey and cold. It was overwhelming to actually be standing on the scene of one of the cruelest chapters in history. We realized much later that it was Thanksgiving in the States, which added a whole new dimension to the experience.
The train back to Florence was 8 hours long, but once again the ride was beautiful as we went through the Alps. We were ecsatic to be back at the villa. We dropped our packs and jumped in the shower before even eating.
