Salzburg

And now for the Sound of Music portion of the trip - Salzburg! Salzburg was small but very lively. We had a lecture in the University law building and took a tour of their historic law library (with beautiful maps and frescos hidden under the walls that had only been uncovered in the last 10 years), then we had the afternoon free. Laura and I went to lunch at a biergarten - we had the Austrian specialty "Tafelspitz" - boiled beef with creamed spinach. I know it sounds cafeteria-esque, but it was delicious - really tender and topped with some sort of hollandaise sauce. Yum.

I went off on my own to see Mozart's birthplace, the “historical significance” thing I was most looking forward to in Salzburg (I'm not a big Sound of Music fan). The house was a museum, and I saw some great stuff, like Mozart's first violin and the piano he wrote the Magic Flute on - it was so satisfying just to stand were he once did (cheesy, yes, but this is like the Mecca of classical music). I hung out there for quite a while (I mean, they were playing Mozart - I could have hung out there all day). I will say this, there was one exhibit that creeped me out – the displays of Mozart’s hair. Actual pieces of the man’s hair. Well, there was a disclaimer that they might not all be his, which made it even stranger. Like they were purchased on Ebay or something. The museum closed at 5 and they kicked me out at 5:30, so I just wandered around the city until the bus left at 8. I walked along the river then I think I saw almost all of the public squares through town (they had all these great farmers' markets and flower vendors) and the main churches. Salzburg was great for a casual stroll – mostly flat with only the occasional hill and street performer. I walked through the Mirabel gardens (like a smaller version of the flower park in Paris) and just really enjoyed the feel of the city. It was a bit chilly and overcast, but it wasn’t raining or painfully cold, so all things considered, okay weather. A very satisfying little day trip.

BUDAPEST!

The SAIICA clan went to Budapest as a segway from national to international law - we went to the Hungarian Arbitration Court and the head woman (Eva, an avid swimmer) spoke about how the former communism in the county affected their movement among European countries toward arbitration. She's one of the top five arbitrators in the world (or at least that’s the word on the street), so it was really cool to hear her speak in the beautiful, old court room (gold gilding everywhere). The downside is that we had to wear suits on the six hour bus ride to Budapest, and it was 90 degrees when we got there. BUT -after the lecture we checked in at our hostel (a group of ten of us girls all booked one together), and the fun began.

We had an AMAZING dinner at this little cafe on a square that marks the end of the main commercial drag through Budapest (the Vaci Utca) - I had chicken and pepper stew, and the other girls had goulash and short ribs - it was all SOOOOOOOOOO good!

That night we went on a boat tour - Budapest is one of those places that looks absolutely magical at night - the biggest and most impressive landmarks are on the river, and although they looked great during the day, I'm just so happy that we did the night tour (I only wish that my camera had a night setting - the pictures didn't come out so great). Each landmark was more surreal than the next. Then the girls working on the boat took us to a club, so we walked (like, way too far) to the old Jewish section of town and went to a rooftop dance club (with breathtaking views). We had a ball dancing all night, especially doing the limbo with some girl's crutches. We left the club to start the long walk home, and now for Tales from Seedy Restaurants ...

On the way home from the club, Laura, Jessica, Diane, Steve and myself were walking back when we saw a gyro stand and Diane wanted to stop. Laura and I had sworn off street meat under advice of our Budepest travel guide, so we waited while she got one and Jessica went inside to find a bathroom. I decided that a bathroom break wouldn't be such a bad idea, so I went in and headed to the only doorway inside, which lead upstairs. The girl at the counter started saying something Hungarian, and because I figured it was a "bathroom for customers only" kind of thing, I just said I was looking for my friend and went up the back stairs. At a landing there was a doorway, and I found myself staring into the kitchen - and at giant, hairy, topless Hungarian man with a giant knife in his hand, standing over a cutting board of food - and two other topless Hungarian men working in the other part of the kitchen. The best part is that they were all wearing an aprons - no shirts, but aprons. Yeah. So I try to keep moving but the big guy sees me, starts yelling something and strides to the door, knife in hand. My cue to leave. I turn to go back down and I'm faced with the girl from the counter, so now I'm trapped on the stairs between two angry, yelling Hungarians (one of whom is topless and knife-wielding), flight or fight sets in, I rush past the girl and book it out of there. So I get outside and tell everyone to get moving, and tell them all what happened. And the gyro gets eaten anyway. Sigh.

The next morning Laura and I had lunch at another patio cafe with great food (I had spinach crepes with turkey cutlets in a creamy cheese sauce) that sat right off the basilica square (which was right by our hostel), then we went to the public baths. Of course, the public baths are so famous and it's a once in a lifetime experience, so we went to the most famous ones at the fabulous Gellert. The thermal baths are drawn from natural hot springs and have a uniquely high mineral content - locals believe they are therapeutic to a medicinal degree. Basically, besides the water being different, it's like a giant public pool complex (the one we went to even had a wave pool, which was hysterical amongst all the old statues and marble). AND - there are massages! I had a relaxing aromatherapy massage, and it was that afternoon that I started thinking that I could live in Budapest :-)

We walked up along the river to change at the hostel, because we had tickets to the opera that night. Each ticket was 400 forint, or 2 American dollars. Yes, two dollars. The government subsidizes the arts so it was super cheap. I should mention now that everything was pretty cheap - not ridiculous, but still a very good exchange rate (200+ forint for a dollar). Each nice restaurant dinner we had was less than $20 each with wine and shared dessert - and these were amazing meals. The opera house is also one of the greatest sights in the city, and the only way to see the inside is to go to an opera or take a tour, which costs about 4 times what the opera does.

The opera turned out to be really weird - it was a "modern" interpretation of Xerxes (A Handel opera) - which means that although the music was the same, the costumes and dancing were, well, strange Hungarian hip-hop. Very bizarre. But the singing was amazing, especially the male soprano (a rarity), and the orchestra pit was out of this world.

After the opera we had a late dinner at Matyas near the Erzebet Bridge. Matyas is a Budapest landmark, and there was live traditional Hungarian folk music - very entertaining - and again, fantastic food.

We met back up with the bulk of the group at a floating pub on the river, then moved up to the Marriott on the river, which was very swanky. It started to get chilly outside and our waiter brought all the girls blankets! The professors were walking by so they stopped and hung out - it was just a great end to a perfect day.

Sunday I went off on my own and took the train out to Hero square, which was built to commemorate the 1000 year anniversary of the country's "modern" formation - yeah, super old city. This was pretty much Budapest's version of Central Park - there was another huge public bath out there, a park, museums, and a massive open square with huge statutes and monuments. Laura and I had made reservations for the one thing my guidebook said you had to splurge on - a fabulous brunch (they love brunch there). So, we made reservations at the nicest one in the city, the Gellert (where we had gone to the baths) - and braced ourselves for what we thought would be a very expensive experience.

The terrace we sat on overlooked the Danube, and we were treated like absolute royalty. There are no words to describe how amazing the food was. It was buffet style, and we went back for seconds and thirds so that we could try everything (beef bourguignon, lamb, dumplings, asparagus soup, various salads). Then, there was desert, not to mention champagne. It was heaven. So we have to get going so we can make the bus back to Linz, and we get the bill - it was less than $25 each! The best deal of ALL TIME!

The bus ride back we all gushed and gushed about how much we loved Budapest. It had a definite New York vibe with so much going on, but it also felt like Paris because every square inch of the city was occupied by a beautiful structure. Absolutely loved it, definitely going back.

Passau, Germany

Yes, I've been the opposite of a blogger, writing pieces of intended blogs in Word and then never posting them. Genius. In an attempt to catch up a bit - here's some backtrack!

Last Wednesday (this was like 3 weeks ago) we took a day trip to Passau, Germany (about 1.5 hours away) just over the Austrian border on the Danube. We had a lecture in the morning from a very interesting German professor about the DIS (the German arbitration code), then the day to explore. The St. Stephan's cathedral was incredible - it has the world's second-largest pipe organ, and the ceiling paintings were breathtaking. We stopped at a cafe on the Danube for lunch, which was very relaxing, and our food was great - Laura and Eric had wienerschitzel and I had the strogonoff, which was some of the best food I've ever had (it came with potato pancakes - yum!). It was much more heavy on the bell peppers and sour cream than I'm used to, and it's still up there as one of the best meals of the trip (I am obsessed with the food over here - I had no idea what I've been missing!). I guess we just got lucky because we were STARVING when we got off the bus and stop at the first place we saw with a patio, and jackpot!

We spent the rest of the day walking around the main part of the city and the area down by the river. The city had some great public squares (like most of Europe), but the banks by the river were green and had beautiful statutes and parks, and I preferred hanging out down there to hiking around the stone buildings. But there was a main street running through town with cafes and shops, which the bulk of our group wandered along, eating gelato, until it was back to the Raabheim in Linz to read for class the next day.

Not dead, just swamped

This is just a little note that I haven't abandoned my blog, I'm just trying to finish up the law review competition. We went to Passau, Germany and Budapest this past week, and both were great (Budapest was AMAZING). BUT, I really can't do a proper write-up about them until I bang out this paper. So I promise - lots of pictures and stories by Thursday. In the meantime, some highlights to look forward to:

The best strogonoff ever

The world's second largest organ

Hairy Hungarian chefs, and why they think that an apron is more important than a shirt

Public baths

Why Budapest is propbably my new favorite place on Earth

PS - The picture posted is of the opera house in Budapest, where we saw an "interesting" production of Xerxes.

Foot in Mouth

So of course I was completely confused and wrong about where the heck we were and what kind of place Linz is. In the sleep-deprived stupor of the first two days here, I honestly believed that we were staying the heart of Linz – and Linz was totally lame. BUT, it turns out that we’re in a suburb (thank God), and Linz does indeed have more than a BP and a gay bar.

Saturday we saw actual Linz via a bus tour, which took us up to the Postlingberg, a church high on a hill that overlooks all of Linz – very beautiful, post-card pictures galore. It was a bit chilly, and I thought that the one sweater I had brought with me might have to be worn every day and result in outrageous laundry expenses or a drought in friendships because of smelliness. However, our tour guide expressed deep disappointment in the weather, giving us hope that it wouldn’t always be so London-esque. We continued the tour on foot after descending the hill (we passed some sort of tower that warrants a later visit, as well as the botanical gardens). Major stop on the tour: basically, where the people of Linz kidnapped Mozart. The tour guide was so proud that when Mozart stopped in town once, the guy he stayed with had published in the paper that Mozart would be playing a new symphony in Linz – in four days. Instead of fleeing, he stayed and wrote the Linz Symphony in three days, and the show went on – thanks for toughing it out, Mozart.

That night the whole group went for a sponsored dinner of authentic Austrian fair, and while it was all very good, the most entertainment came from the crazy marathon runners at the bar, and arguing with each other about whether one mystery item in the family-style platter was dumplings or meat. Various suggestions (brains, testicles, etc) resulted in us choosing blissful ignorance and savoring the tasty bread-based dumplings. (I’m 90% sure it wasn’t meat…)

That night, downtown Linz got a big old helping of American revelry. Everyone had a blast dancing it out at club Walker, though the area we conquered maybe wasn’t so much meant to be a dance floor. Sunday was mostly reading day, and Laura and I went to see the Mariendom – an absolutely gigantic cathedral in town. Also, Dean Sobelson somehow made it on to one of the stained glass windows – and is in a coat and tie. Turns out that window is only a few years old, which explains why there were men dressed like Wyatt Earp around the saints and bishops – though how Dean Sobelson made it up there I guess I’ll never know.

Classes have so far been … hmmm …. dry. Very dry. But we start working on an actual arbitration role-play Thursday, so things should pick up. And - the weather has been much better this week - warmer, and sunny occationally. Tomorrow we take a day trip to Passau, Germany – but first, tonight we have a mandatory happy hour. Yeah. Linz is awesome.

The Long and Winding Road

Well, it took what felt like a year, but we made it to Linz! And yeah, I was a little suspicious when I couldn't find any travel guides for the place, but I really didn't expect the area to be Florida suburb meets Great Plains. Funny how you come to expect great bridges and monuments to great art when you travel abroad, but we're just in a normal town. That is, until you realize that you honestly can't communicate because the restaurants aren't geared towards tourists. But all that confusion began long before arriving in Linz.

Today's great mistakes in communication:

We flew Lufthansa for both legs of our flight. On the way to Frankfurt, a waiter offerred me some wine to go with my dinner. I replied, "half a glass, please." He looked at me like I has two heads, then proceeded to read me the entire contents of the wine label. Apparently, he thought I was asking about the details of the wine vintage ... of the wine being served on an airplane.

Then, in Linz, we were starving and unfamiliar with the surrounding area, so we just walked until we found the first building with the word "restaurant" in it. After a painful attempt at ordering food (we asked what they, the waiter replied "toast or baguette." At a loss, I ordered a baguette - turnes out it was more like pizza, and actually pretty tasty. A friend asked for a light. Then later, again. I asked the waiter how to say lighter so we didn't have to keep miming it to him, and as he clutched the lighter to his chest, he spat in broken English, "NO - it's my last one!" So now I'm apparently trying to con the guy out of his beloved lighter. Also, this bar looks like a real collection of locals - a bunch of sweaty, liquored-up dudes. We joke that they haven't seen a woman in here in years. Turns out we were right - because it's a gay bar. Professor Lanier was kind enough to fill us in when we explained our strange lunch experience to him later.

Under-Exposure

So the semester has mercifully come to an end, and the long wait for results begins - thank goodness for this 'little' distraction coming up. Since Thursday I've spent almost every waking minute making lists, packing, or thinking about what a poor job of making lists and packing I'm doing. This year has definitely honed my panic-under-pressure skills.

My trip to REI yesterday was particularly disturbing - I was surrounded by scores of granola types scoping out tents and environment-friendly toilet paper. I, the impostor who would never equate bathing in a lake with a vacation, was shopping for a sleep-sack to keep the scary European bugs that will undoubtedly be in our beds off of me (thanks, Deana, for planting that image in my head). Luckily, I happened to be wearing my Birkenstocks and blended in enough to prevent a yuppie effigy incident. However, I must take issue with the price of what is really a glorified sheet folded in half and sewn up the side - $65?!?! Really? Of all the times for my sewing machine to be broken .... Well, I bought it just so I wouldn't have to run back in a panic before Thursday because of some dream where Euro-bugs wearing sunglasses inside and too-tight t-shirts dance away the night under my covers to house music from 3 years ago. Still, I resent the purchase and will probably return it - updates on this fascinating topic will follow along with the Lifetime movie at 11.

T-minus 4 days!

In the beginning, there was procrastination ...

I just wanted to set a little place up for me to keep my family and friends posted about the upcoming trip to Europe (and I am totally ripping this idea off from my sister, Callie). As soon as exams are over it will be all fun and wienerschnitzels!