Sunday June 3, 2007
Nighttime, I’m not near a clock

Wow, what a weekend!!! I’m completely worn out, and what I really want to do is go hop into bed, however I know that if I don’t write everything out now it will never get done! Ah! What do for all my loyal blog readers!

Ok, so I left early Friday morning. I, of course, was on Elaine time, and was exactly one time with a few minutes to spare. Well I go downstairs, knock on the other’s door just to find nobody was awake yet. So that was some last minute stress, this was definitely NOT a Sedenberg family vacation, but luckily when I gave us the overestimate on time to walk to the train station (the underground U-bahn didn’t run that early) so we made it there still on time.

So we get on the train, and frankly it was kind of confusing. They just assume you know what to do, so we found our way to the second class car and find four seats facing each other. All they told us was sit somewhere that isn’t reserved, well as soon as we sit, these Austrian people come and start pointing at our seats and talking German, so we assumed those were assigned. Later once we figured everything out, those people were just being asses taking advantage that we didn’t know what we were doing. Well never fear, jokes on them. We scrabbled to find other seats, but everything was full, so we wondered into the part of the train that’s in compartments (like you see on the movies, such as Harry Potter) and after asking many questions found one that was empty, meaning we got our own compartment all the way to Innsbruck! The views were amazing but the ride was long. Neat experience to say the least.

Also, lesson from the train: people travel with very weird, and often comical things on trains. There were these Turkish guys going up and down the isles with about 20 cases of luggage at the same time we were scrambling to find seats, so that made things a bit interesting, and on the way back there was this guy carrying a bunch of Ikea bags and about 10 PBC pipes. Can you say odd?

This trip was packed with the plenty of “travel stories” and very adventurous since all we had truly planned was our ticket back and place to stay. So we found a map of the city, and went and had lunch. Ordering from a German menu = not cool. I ended up with something that was not good at all and really oily, but I knew it was my main meal so I had to eat it, well that didn’t feel so great in a few hours….read on.

So Innsbruck, which is in Western Austria at the base of the Alps, has gorgeous views and a very quant town centre along with a long history with the Imperial family. We had our luggage, although I packed just that one bag and my tiny backpack, so we were able to put them in lockers at the Hofburg the palace getaway in Innsbruck (not to be confused with the Hofburg palace in Vienna). We looked around there, and saw portraits of Empress Maria Theresa and her 16 children, which includes Marie Antoinette, and much more historically relevant artifacts, although the museum wasn’t as put together as the ones in Vienna understandably.

After that it was time to go check into our hostel. We google mapped it, and it said it was only about 1.5 miles, which isn’t too bad considering what we walk everyday, so we had decided to walk it in the day time. I must point out, we never got lost, but the 1.5 google miles was laughable. We walked, we walked, we turned, we walked, it started drizzling, we pulled out umbrellas, we walked faster, it started pouring raining, we walked farther, and then we tried to find a cab, but of course there weren’t any. Even though it was Alpine rain, it was rain just the same. So when we FINALLY got to the point where we were supposed to find the hostel, none of the buildings matched the picture on the internet. So we must have looked tired and turned around, because this absolute wonderful couple rolled down there windows at the stop light, still in the rain mind you, and started talking in English and pointed to the building we needed. Thank God.

We checked in, and basically it was like a really economical hotel room. It was our own private room with two bunk beds and our own bathroom across the hall. All four of us were so tired and wet we literally collapsed on our beds and all promptly fell asleep! Throw in there the fact that lunch was not feeling so good for me and that we had walked so far so I had a moment of “what the heck am I doing here, what was I thinking” but a nap was exactly what I needed. Well we woke up around dinner time, we all finally felt better, and this time took the short cab ride back into town and had dinner at a bar and had a grand old time. Day finished.

Next morning I became the wake up Nazi to get everyone up. Ironic since we were in Austria. Moving on. The hostel had a decent breakfast with rolls, cereals, and jam, and there are interesting people who stay there to say the least. So we figured out the public transportation system for the whole city, and took a bus to Watten, which is just outside Innsbruck, and where the Swarovski Kristallwelten, or Crystal Worlds, Museum is located. Talk about your bling bling. To get into the museum you go through this giant face in a moss hill, and the inside has a bunch of modern exhibits of art done with the crystals or dazzling light arrays done with computers etc. to put you in awe. Overall cool. Luckily since it was rainy and cloudy it was less crowded, however that meant we couldn’t go up into the Alps at all on Saturday.

After that we picked up sandwiches and ate by some pigeons in front of St. James church. After that, since lunch was more economical, we went to a strudel place we had literally smelled the night before, and I had apple strudel and café au lait. Can I say, heaven on earth? Their strudel was different, but equally good. I love it I love it I love it! It was so good we went back today and got some to go before getting on the train.

After that we got on a bus and went to another Renaissance Palace owned by the Habsburgs, Schloss Ambras. This was up in the hills and had beautiful grounds! We counted at least 8 brides getting their pictures taken out there. So they had some really interesting collections of armor, and “curiosities” including the painting of the historical figure Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for Braum Stoker’s Dracula. Walking outside we heard this screeching cry, that kind of sounded like a really upset cat, and low and behold it was several peacocks! They were a royal bird, and they just let them roam free. They made an obnoxious sound, but were very pretty, duh.

After that we had dinner, followed by gelato, and then we got a few local bars from our waitress to go hang out it. Well Gilbert, one of the guys we were with, needed and ATM so he went in one of the suggested bars asking for one, but they thought he was asking for money and were like “we aren’t giving you money.” Well finally he figured it out and went. Well later we went in the bar, and the others started walking straight back, and I noticed immediately and was like “um guys, this is definitely a gay bar.” They all looked at me, flushed a thousand shades of red because none of them noticed, and then we all went outside and laughed that Gilbert had gone inside “asking for money.”

This morning we got up and climbed to the top of the Alps. Ok, so we took a gondola up there, but we went all the way to the top. It was gorgeous, and we saw a herd of sheep go by that were grazing up on the mountain, and up at the peak we were above the clouds. Talk about invigorating, and also we were up there in patches of about 1 foot of snow. We met a really nice Australian couple up there and talked with them awhile.

One last comment, we were back in the center of town about ready to head for the train station when all of a sudden we here someone say “Hey Horns, where ya from?” and we turn around and there were two older American couples, one in a burnt orange polo who saw someone’s Longhorn shirt! They were a bunch of UT alum on vacation in Austria, so we talked for a bit before we split ways. What a perfect way to end.

*Elaine
PS: I'm really tired. If I had any grammatical mistakes, you'll have to pardon me.