Austria weekend

This last weekend was spent in Innsbruck, Austria. It was so beautiful and snowy! I loved it there. On Thursday we left in the middle of the afternoon, and had about a 6.5 hour bus ride to our youth hostel. On the way we watched two movies; Inside Man and Children of Men. Both were pretty good; Children of Men was pretty freaky! We stopped along the way to get some dinner at a rest stop, and by the time I got to the hostel I was pretty exhausted and decided to take it easy for the rest of the evening.

The next morning I got up and got ready and had a quick Breakfast downstairs at the hostel. I had a roll with cheese and some cereal. It was pretty good! And then all of us that were going to the mountain loaded onto the buses around 8:30 AM and from there we took off to the ski rental place. I was in the first group who signed up for rental equipment, so I was one of the first people that got my stuff. I rented basic boots, skis, and poles for originally two days.




After I got my equipment, Cierra and I decided to go to a little bakery that was close by to the rental equipment shop. I got one of the best chocolate croissants I have ever eaten, and a ham, cheese, and tomato sandwich. As soon as everyone got their equipment, it was about 45 minutes from the shop. Once we got to the mountains, I was so excited to go on my first run! The snow was pretty good in parts- but also pretty icy in others. Overall the ski conditions were good because it wasn't snowing and it wasn't too windy at all. The only bummer thing was that my boots ended up being way too tight and I didn't realize it at the shop and I ended up getting pretty bad bruises on my shins just hours after I got there. For that reason, I kinda took it easy for the second half of the afternoon. Some friends and I hung out at the ski lodge and got a beer and played apples to apples. I had never played before, but it was super fun! I ended up winning :) After skiing, I was super tired and I ended up just going out to dinner with Cierra, and a bunch of the people that she skied with for the day. We went to this local restaurant near our hostel and I decided to branch out and get a dish that I would normally not get... it was chopped dumplings with grilled eggs and garlic and other veggies. It was yummy! It had a lot of good flavor- and it kind of reminded me of a Breakfast burrito haha.

Because I was pretty tired and my shins were in no condition for skiing the next day, I decided to take it easy the second day and Emma and I went on a little adventure and found the famous Ambras castle. It took us awhile to get there; we had to first go on a bus, and then transfer on a train and then the hostel receptionist said it was a short 2 minute walk from the train stop... but we had no idea which direction to go because we didn't have a clear map so we kind of just wandered around for awhile, and got directions from another hotel. We finally made it and it was worth it! The castle wasn't what I was expecting, but Ferdinand made it way back in the day and it was pretty medieval. In the castle there were lots of old medieval warfare things, as well as antlers, a blow fish (in the arts and curiosities section), and lots of paintings. Overall it was a good experience. We had a nice lunch at the castle's restaurant. We got the typical dish of Weinersnitzel (sp for sure) and it was delicious.

Emma and I had quite the adventure trying to get back to our hostel; it closes from 1-5 so we made an unsuccessful attempt of trying to get into it around 1:30. From there, we went back into what we thought was "town" but we weren't sure... I think it ended up just being a random residential stop we got off of, but we asked where a cafe was and we got some deserts to split and some hot chocolate that was to die for! It was then that I looked into my purse and realized that the key for the hotel had two keys; I thought maybe was one for the hostel when it was on "off hours?" so we took the bus back and made another unsuccessful attempt of trying to get into the hostel. I even climbed over a fence to try to stick my key in some of the doors... haha I felt like such a dork. But anyways, just before we were about to give up again, we saw that the baggage door was open (this had a lot of our snow equipment) and then we found a keypad where we could enter in the code for the day. We knew there was a place to enter in a code to get in, but the first time around, we couldn't find it! They never told us where it was... haha. So after a few attempts I managed to open the door and we were very happy. Both of us were pretty sick with a cold (I woke up that morning with a lot of congestion and a sore throat and head ache :( ) so we were glad we could relax and hang out until the rest of the group came back. The Gonzaga group either went skiing for the day or they went to the men's downhill skiing race. I really wanted to go to that too, but we would've been outside for 5 hours and I had a pretty bad cold so I thought it would be better to do something low key. I definitely don't regret it, but the people that went said it was a lot of fun! Well, the rest of the afternoon was spent watching 27 dresses, even though I fell asleep half way through it. After it was over, I took another small nap, talked to Chris on the phone, and then got ready for dinner.

Yesterday's dinner was one of my favorite memories of the weekend; Peter (one of the travel coordinators) is from Innsbruck, so he hooked us up with a great restaurant and local German dancers/singers. They were amazing! They did a lot of cool stunts and had great beat and rhythm. I was very impressed. For dinner we had a pancake strip soup (sounds strange but it was very good), Weinersnitzel again, and an apple strudel for desert. I actually ended up liking the Weinersnitzel I had at lunch better, but it was still great!

Well that pretty much concludes my memories of Austria- this morning we left around 10 am and had another 6.5 hour bus ride with a lunch break on the way. We watched "Stand by Me" which was a very funny movie. I had never seen it!

I hope you enjoyed this entry along with the pictures!

Ps! It less than a week until Chris comes to visit! I couldn't be more stoked! :)

Ciao!

Southern Tuscany weekend

Southern Tuscany was absolutely gorgeous. I have never been to a prettier part of the world-- seriously! Although there was not much to do in this area, it was more than made up by the beautiful vineyards, the countryside, and the architecture.

We left for Southern Tuscany on the buses around 7:45 in the morning on Friday and the ride was about two hours (A lot less than past weekends). We first stopped at Montalcino, which is a small medieval town. It is known for their Brunello Wine. Once we got off the buses, Peter (one of my travel coordinators) led a group of us to a nearby historical castle (See picture above of me and Lillian in front of the monument). We then looked around for a cheap place to get something small for lunch. Me and Lillian stumbled across this little cafe which served sandwiches, coffee, and pastries. We ended up getting a caprese sandwich which consists of tomato, mozzarella, olive oil, and spinach on foccacia bread. It was so yummy!

We were there a little over an hour so we just looked around at the open-air market and local stores or bottegas as they call them in Italian. Once we all loaded unto the buses we were off to Sant'Antimo for a 1.5 walk, which led to a gorgeous Romanesque Church. This hike was mainly downhill the entire way and it first started off on a rocky path and then it narrowed down to a steep rocky terrain. I ended up getting quite a workout going on a downhill hike. I was actually very sore the next day! Quite the surprise... once the hike was over we visited the old church which had amazing architectural columns on the inside. There is a picture of the Romanesque church below.

We got onto the buses again and headed to Bagno Vignoni, which was the home of a small medieval spa that had hot springs. It costed quite a bit to get into the hotel-- 14 euro! But this included a lovely swim cap (see picture below of me and Lillian) that was required to wear inside the springs. I am still in awe of how the springs are continuously hot (like a sauna) all year long. How does it stay so hot all year?? haha. Apparently in the winter the hot springs steam all over. I think the hot water comes from underneath the earth or something scientific like that. Anyways, it was pretty cool and it was very relaxing. It smelled a bit like sulfer but it wasn't too bad.

We were at the springs for about 2.5 hours and then we finally headed to our hotel at Vescovado di Murlo. The town we drove into was extremely small-- there was only one bar in the entire town! It was almost refreshing though that there wasn't a huge night life; it allowed our group to finally relax and enjoy the nature surrounding us. We relaxed for about an hour and then our hotel provided dinner for us. It was alright-- we had pasta with meat sauce and then pork slices with gravy and green beans. The pasta was good but I am not a fan of pork so I was still pretty hungry after dinner. For desert we had ice cream cones. (kinda random-- reminded me of american icecream "drumsticks".) After dinner me and a few friends met at the one bar in the town and socialized for awhile and then me, Lillian, and my friend Elliot explored the town and my friend accidently fell in a construction site (see picture of her struggle below haha) She's OK-- don't worry! It was really funny at the time.

We had a curfew at our hotel for 11:30 so we made sure to get back by then. This is not your typical "hotel". The hotel was apparently opened just for our group because this is not a typical time of year that tourists visit. I'm not sure why-- Fall is so pretty in Southern Tuscany! The next morning we had breakfast at our hotel as well. It wasn't really a very satisfying Breakfast though-- it was just a croissant and yucky coffee. I really miss American breakfasts. We are talking your typical bacon and eggs, and omelets! Oh yes, and of course pancakes and syrup. I am not much of a Breakfast person, but I sure do miss my dad's eggs in the morning! (or the cog's omelets back in Spokanistan) Once we all got on the bus and headed to the vineyard where we were having our wine tasting. Peter suggested for us to where comfortable shoes, so it probably wasn't the best idea that I wore my cute new flip flops, but I ended up being OK (Hopefully the tendinitis foot doesn't come back!). It was quite the schlep up the mountain to the vineyard but it was definitely worth it. This place was phenomenal! We tried three types of wine: a white, a red, and a reserve red. I am not much of a wine drinker yet, but these were pretty good. I ended up buying the white and the red for my parents so we can share them when they come up here on the 31st.

After the tour and tasting at the vineyard, we stopped at the smallest town I have ever seen, Murlo. Basically we walked around an Etruscan museum for like half an hour and then walking around the town literally took less than 5 minutes. The town did not have any stores, or restaurants... just a museum and cute little houses and a great view of Southern Tuscany vineyards. The last thing we did as a group is visit Pienza, which is a Renaissance town of Pope Pius II. We were given a ridiculous amount of time at this location-- almost 5 hours! Me and Lillian basically just went shopping crazy and had a bite to eat at another local cafe. The town was quaint and had another great viewpoint of the countryside, but we were exhausted from walking around for that long. After Pienza we had dinner at our hotel again which was friend pork, french fries, and some red-sauce pasta. It was alright-- I am not always a fan of the planned dinners but at least I dont have to pay any extra out of my pocket.

That night I just hung out at the hotel (because there is literally nothing to do except go to that bar) and just chatted with some friends. The next morning I had Breakfast, and as a group we made one final top at San Galgano where we visited the abandoned Cistercian Abbey and the Chapel of Monte Sipei with the sword in the stone. Now don't get too excited-- the stone is one of five that claims to be the "real one". There is a picture of the abbey below.

That pretty much concludes my weekend in a nutshell. Sorry the entry was so long- its hard to write one post about an entire weekend that was full of things that I saw and did!

Ciao raggazzi!