Salzburg Weekend and MIT-Z

After 11 hours of travel (should have been 7), we finally made it to Salzburg on Friday night.  Seven hours on a bus, not fun.  Four hours of getting on and off buses and trains because of flooding, not fun.  Watching the sun set over the Austrian mountains? Yeah. That was awesome.  So finally the train stops in Salzburg and Sam, Nora (Sam’s girlfriend, visiting for the month!), and I head out to find Christina.  I handed her the six pack of beer that I’d brought from Heidelberg and told her it took all of our self-control not to start drinking it half way through our constantly delayed journey.

First on the list of things to do was PIZZA because PIZZA is good.  Ferdinand from Il Sole served us up three to-go and we took them back to the house and ate it all.  There was a mosquito in mine. Ate it anyway.  Nora and Sam went to bed soon after because it was already midnight or so, but Christina and I walked down into the Altstadt for a beer.  We settled in at Murphy’s Law and each ordered a Guinness and hung out for a good hour or two just catching up.  By the time we got up those stairs and into bed it was probably about 2 am.  Bed felt great. I loved bed. 

The next day we all ate breakfast in the Wintergarten, opened up the kitchen window and hoped that MIT-Z would come visit with us, and admired the beauty that is the Mönchsberg and the Markentenderschloßl.  I think Sam summarized it quite nicely when she said something along the lines of, WOW, WHAT THE HELL AJY? Exactly.  We headed to the grocery store next to pick up some supplies for the weekend, most of which was comprised of Stiegl.  Very important. Then once we got home, we got all geared up for the famous Salzburg Tour.  Though I’m biased in thinking that Kevin gives the best tour, Christina did a great job leading us around, explaining a bit of history and showing us the sights. Plus, within the first thirty minutes, we met a group of  older people walking around the Mönchsberg with bottles of Schnapps attached to long hiking sticks.  One guy started saying something to us, but all I could make of it was, here, take a drink of this schnapps.  There’s only one way to respond to that, so we all took a drink.  Then the catch came afterward, when he said we had to give him something back for it, anything we had on us.  It was then that I saw a tank top also hanging from his stick.  He wanted bras and underwear, but was satisfied when we threw a condom his way and I’m sure went on heckling other people for the rest of the day.  Worth it.  I would like to go on that tour of Salzburg.  We continued with ours.  Of course we had to stop for a few snacks along the way, one of which included Kaisersmarrn at The Golden Ente.  It had been a while, but was delicious as ever.  We came back from the city and enjoyed some Stiegl outside of the house with the sun shining down. Austria was really putting on a show for us.  Of course the next stop was more beer at the Augustiener Bräu, where the Biergarten was open and tons of people were enjoying the warm Saturday weather.  We ended up staying there until it closed and on our way out somehow started talking with two Austrian brothers, who were both strange and interesting to talk to, which lasted for a good two hours or so.  One was a music producer, the other a science teacher.  Either way, it was good practice for the German!  They headed on to a bar across the river and we headed along the river on the other side. We were supposed to meet one of Christina’s friends, but first got Käsekrainer from the Sausage Queen (pizza for the vegetarians) and then ate it and it was amazing. It had been over two years.  Still as good as I remember.  Then we met with the friend, but it ended up being kind of a bust of the night and so Sam, Nora and I headed up to the house for bed time.  The next day we planned to go to the Lake District to see some mountains and waters and perfection.  At about 10 am I got a text from Christina that said she’d only gotten home at 8 am…so we let her sleep for a while longer and left at a little after one for St. Gilgen. In my expert opinion, it wasn’t as cool as St. Wolfgangsee, but that’s like comparing Stiegl and Klosterhof Beer…they are both way better than annnnnnything else in the world.  So we sat down on a big blanket and ate some food and enjoyed the sunshine, mountains, and Austria once again.  Rough life.  We tried to go for a little boat ride onto the lake, but about 30 seconds after we pulled away from dock, a small rain storm blew through and we turned her back around and headed for cover.  Got gelato instead.  Walked around for a bit and then decided it was time to go home and make some dinner, which were calzones, which were amazing.  But still no MIT-Z.  A real storm came through Salzburg that night, thunder, lightning, everything! We watched it from the Wintergarten and I’m very convinced that there could have been no better place to wait out a storm.  Nora and Sam decided to go run around in the rain and they will probably have the sniffles now.  We were all tired from the day and concluded the night with a few rounds of Scattergories before sleeping once more. 

The next morning, Monday, Sam and Nora had to leave and I had some meetings with people at the Universität Salzburg.  Nora leaves Germany the day before I get back from Sweden, so that was the last time we’d see each other! It was a good weekend to end on, especially considering that before she’d come to Germany she didn’t like beer, but after one drink of Stiegl, she concluded that she liked it.  Success! I’ve never heard of that not happening. 

So I went off into town for my meetings, got some information, walked around a bit, and then started my hike back up to the house.  I sat for a while and did some homework that afternoon and Christina came into my room at one point and brought me a snack tray!  Just like my mommy used to back when I was younger. It was actually the best part of my day I would say.  So great.  Once I had accomplished a bit of work, we went to the Stiegl Brewery and sat down for dinner and, yep, you got it, some beers.  I have consumed a lot of that this weekend, but the walking cancels it out, if I remember correctly.  Christina left her number on one of the coasters for the waiter and it was probably the funniest thing ever.  Can’t wait for him to call.  We came home and relaxed with a card game and then I realized it was 10 pm and I still had some preparing to do for the rest of my week!

On Sunday I got word from my grandparents that we had some relatives in Sweden that would be willing to meet with me and show me around a bit during my trip! So I spent the next few hours contacting them and trying to figure out a new plan.  Originally I was just going to stay in Stockholm for the week, but after all the help and contact information from my grandma, I was able to coordinate with relatives and am now going to be visiting three cities in Sweden! I’ll start with two nights in Stockholm and then travel to Karlstad by train with a somehow cousin, Mathias, who will show me around, introduce me to family, and possibly take me up to the farm that my great-great-grandfather grew up on! Mathias’ parents live there now.  Then on Sunday I think I will take a train down to Göteborg and meet with another cousin type relative named Erica, who I just heard from today and she sounds really nice and excited about meeting me.  Overall, I am super excited about my trip now, it’s going to be the most amazing experience ever!  Hopefully I can impress them with my amazing Swedish skills…as long as I just run away after saying hello, my name, and where I’m from.  Because after that it starts to get a little complicated.  No, luckily they all speak very good English, so that’s great.  Anyway, I’m still in the process of figuring it all out, but it’s looking good so far.

Finally I got to bed at about 2 am and had to wake up at 6 this morning to catch a ride to Munich, where I am staying for the night before flying to Sweden.  Whew, that was a rough morning, but I met a really nice girl who studies in Salzburg and again, good German practice.  The best part of the weekend came when Christina knocked on my door at about 6:15 am though and as I sat exhausted on my bed, trying to get my boots on, in she comes with a MIT-Z.  She literally waited for the last second to show up!  I was determined to see her all weekend and afraid I wouldn’t, but she really came through in the end! There she was, in my arms, just loving the scratches, it was like 2010 all over again and I didn’t want to have to leave.  I’d say seeing her was a good omen for the future.  What a cat.  Oh also MIT-Z is a boy and his real name is Gepetto, but she will always be MIT-Z to me.

So here I am sitting in Munich, outside a university building, bells ringing, fountain spewing water, sun shining.  I guess summer finally decided to show up in Germany.  In about an hour I will meet the girl I am staying with tonight.  Her name is Katja, and she’s hosting me as a Couchsurfer.  She’s going to show me around Munich a little bit today and I’m excited to see it all from a local’s perspective.  Hopefully she doesn’t mind super red eyes and all over the place hair….I’m sleepy.  Tommorrow morning at about 7 am I’ll hop on a bus to the airport, then a plane to Sweden, then a bus to Stockholm.  So excited! I’m already not looking forward to going back to real life in Heidelberg after this trip, but once I return, I’ll only have just over a month of this whole shebang left, and you know what they say: you only live.  YOL.  Yeah I think that’s what they say.  I’m signing off now to go and do that, and when I return, I’m sure I’ll have wayyyyyy too many things to write about from my lovely trip to the motherland.  Here I come Swedeeeeennnn!

PS. I’m currently sitting in Katja’s house.  We met up at one and walked around Munich a bit and then came to her house.  So far so good.  She’s very nice and pretty calm so I’m enjoying it.  I do have some pictures to upload, but I will have to add them sometime later because I think we’re about to eat dinner!