Salzburg-Munich

hallo!!!
greetings from austria. as you may have noticed, we have our pictures up from our most recent journey which was to the great austrian city of salzburg and the german city of munich. we left early last friday to a youth hostel in salzburg where we stayed until sunday. on saturday we did a day trip from salzburg to munich. but first things first. the bus ride out was fairly typical, nothing too exciting other than the gorgeous austrian countryside to look at. as we drew near to salzburg however, the bus pulled into a little stop and we were informed that we could walk down the road and see the house where the sound of music was filmed! as we walked around the pond we caught sight of the back of the magnificent building. we soon found out that they only used that location to film the scenes behind the von trapps house, but it was still pretty damn cool. i actually jumped in the pond just so i could say that i fell in the same pond as julie andrews...well not really, but i wanted to. so then we got back on the bus and headed off to salzburg and the youth hostel. the youth hostel was much nicer than we had expected, it really was like a small hotel with rooms that held up to 8 people. it wasnt too bad at all. i actually thought the beds were more comfortable than the ones here at the kartause. anyways, we didnt stay there long and set off on our tour around salzburg. salzburg is actually the main city in the sound of music, as it is the town that the von trapps lived in. the scene where maria and the children are running around town is filmed in salzburg. so we did the usual tour of churches and historically significant locations. probly the coolest story was about a medieval ruler, archbishop wolf. he held religious and political power, and was a bit of a tyrant. he was very prideful and pompous. on one occasion (and we have many pictures that show these things) he had water channeled down from a mountain stream for him and his horses. the structure was many miles long. if any peasant was caught drinking from this water, they were punished with death. needless to say, the people did not like him very much. but the really cool story goes as follows. wolf was an extremely prideful man and lived in an enormous cathedral-palace in the middle of salzburg (we actually had mass there on sunday). on the outside of his palace, above his main balcany he had a huge golden crown crafted which he placed there, held by two angels. the people of salzburg were not happy at all with this. in retaliation, they commissioned a statue of mary to be build and placed in the main square which his balcony overlooked. the significance of this spot is that as one walks down the main walkway to the square and the cathedral, the two angels lower the crown upon mary's head. it was an incredibly powerful experience to hear that story and experience it as we walked down the path. so that was the coolest part of our tour. our tour ended with lunch and in our free time we just checked out a bunch of different shops. that night we went to an old beerhall called the augustiner. it was a mediveal monastery which is now a brewery. we had cold beer served to us in ceramic, 1 liter mugs. we actually had to get our own mugs, rinse them out in a fountain, and slide them down this counter to a guy sitting by a huge wooden keg. he then filled them and slid them back to us, foam overflowing the sides. it was pretty much the coolest thing ive ever taken part of. and i can honestly say that that beer was the smoothest drink i have ever had. not just the best beer but easily the best drink ive ever tasted. it was amazing. i had a liter of beer, a cuban cigar, and hot roast chicken. catherine was holding the kalpakgians baby, so we were both happy. we sat with the kalpakgians and fr. dave, so we had good food, good drink, and good company. one of the best experiences of my life. we closed the night with a "mozart" concert which was just four old guys playing a mozart tune im assuming, but it was pretty cool.
the next day we set off for munich. munich was more of a tourist city so it was much busier and crazier. we did the typical tour of cathedrals and saw a cathedral which can hold 20,000 people. yeah it was huge. we ended the tour at the world-renowned hofbrauhause, the most famous beerhall in the world. it was pretty cool, more just the feel of the place. the beer wasnt as good as the augustiner's in my opinion and i liked the augustiner better, but thats just my opinion. the augustiner just felt like a medieval dream to me. anyways after lunch we walked around munich looking at various stores and ended the day going to the science museum in munich, which we were told was the best science museum in the world. we got in for free because we got there an hour before we closed. we werent overly impressed, it was mostly older technologies, at least what we saw, but we did see a cool lightning show. we only got an hour in there, but it was fun. then we headed back to the bus' and left for salzburg. saturday night we just walked around salzburg admiring how beautiful the city was at night. it was all lit up and quite a sight.
the next morning we went to mass in the cathedral of archbishop wolfe. it was really neat but hard to follow as usual because it was in german. after mass we had lunch again and spent the last hour or two walking through street markets and checking out different stands. it was fun and a relaxing way to end the weekend. we then walked back to the bus' and left for the kartause.

salzburg was an amazing trip and one in which we had a lot of fun. i bought one of the 1 liter mugs from the augustiner, with words on it (the mugs we drank from there were plain), for only 6.10 euro. so im really happy i did. overall it was a great experience. last night catherine and i watched the sound of music and it was incredible to see that movie again and see the places that we walked through and spent the weekend in. i highly recommend that you look through our pictures from salzburg-munich, salzburg specifically, and then watch the sound of music and see the same places from the pictures. it was an awesome trip and great experience that we will not soon forget. this coming weekend we're off to medugorje. we leave tomorrow night and will be driving through the night. we will be sure to take lots of pictures and get them up for you all to enjoy! until next time!!!

-alden

Mariazell with Pope Benedict XVI

September 8th we left at 5:15 in the morning on our pilgrimage to Mariazell, only about an hour drive away. It rained. All. Day. We walked 4 km to the site, waited hours until he arrived, and celebrated Mass, in the rain. We only caught glimpses of the "popemobilia" as he drove by. Though we couldn't understand anything all day we could see and hear the enthusiasm of the Austrian people around us to have the Holy Father in their country. Children chanted his name, "Beeeenedicto!" We know that he was visiting to celebrate the 850th anniversary of the shrine and there was a big deal about an old statue, but other than that we're not really sure. We heard his address later that day in English but his main theme was to "Find Jesus." It was a really long and tiring day, but one worth remembering. Mariazell was beautiful, I'd like to see it again someday, without the rain.

Anyways, that's about it. The pictures are up so check them out! Salzburg and Munic should be up tomorrow, then we're finally caught up for the time being! In the meantime we're back to the daily grind of classes, homework, and rain. Until next time!

-catherine*

HOME

Guten Tag! Finally we've posted pictures of our home away from home, Gaming, Austria for all to see. Out of all the places that we have seen and traveled to so far, Gaming is crazy beautiful, it remains at the top of the list. Check out the pictures of the Kartause Monastery which is where we live, and there's some of the town as well, quaint and friendly. Living here is very different from the United States, from needing to seperate our trash into 6 different categories, to the language, to different forms and styles of courtesy and rudeness. It's just very different. But we are enjoying all aspects, trying to experience all realms of the culture. Austria is very welcoming but has its problems too. They have a dangerously low birth rate (excluding staff children, haha, I think there were 3 babies born recently, on of them an eastern rites priest who has a large family) and religion is a very touchy subject. Most of the population is Catholic by name and that is all, only about 3o% I think practice their faith and attend church. And there are no youth, seeing us in Mass is a special treat for them. But they have the best skiiers, maybe the best wine. There's so much to learn. Even simple things like trying to buy laundry detergent when the language is in German, is quite the experience. Haha... I think that's it for now, but again, enjoy the pictures. Mariazell pictures will be up by tonight probably and hopefully Salzburg and Munich. That's all for now! Auf vierdersain!

-cath*

Vienna

gruss got!
just wanted to let everyone know that we now have the pictures from our trip to vienna up. the trip was really cool, got to see a whole bunch of different style churches all over the city. we also saw a lot of historical places from WWII which i thought was really cool. i also got to see what i believe is the biggest cigar on earth. we have a picture of it up on our photo site, but the picture doesnt do it justice. this cigar was literally the size of a horses leg. it was simply amazing. we also walked through two very large gardens, one of which was restricted to royalty until a few decades ago. so all in all it was a very interesting and enjoyable trip. most of the pictures speak for themselves, and there are few pretty funny ones. we had some fun as youll see. and please leave us some feedback! getting the pictures from both our cameras, onto our computers, uploaded onto one website, transferred to another website, then edited, rearranged, and commented, all takes quite a bit of time and we are very eager to hear what everyone thinks of them. and we should have pictures up soon of the monastery we are living in so everyone has an idea of what we see each day. i hope you all are enjoying the pictures and we look forward to hearing from you all *hint, hint* no really, we are exhausted from pictures and i dont want to touch my camera for at least another few days. we have probably over 1000 pictures combined on both of our computers, just from the past couple weeks. its been great though. austria is an amazing country and the sites are breathtaking. the pictures really dont do them justice. anyways, we're off to lunch soon so ill end this here. i hope this entry finds you all in good health and good spirits. until next time!

-alden

The Danube Valley

So we've been spending alot of time on these pictures lately, Alden's comp is exhausted from, the hours of uploading, but we're getting used to it, and hope everyone is enjoying them. Last week, Monday whatever the date was, we had a school trip to the Danube Valley, we just got those pics up yesterday. It was a beautiful little valley known for its vineyards, and the river which used to be a major trade route. We spent the afternoon hiking up a mountainside of an Austrian castle ruin where Richard the Lionhearted was held captive, you'll see more on that in the pictures but it was a breathtaking view from the top. Then we headed to a neat Austrian restaurant, the building was huge and I forget the name of it but we had our first taste of an Austrian soup that is really common around here with its strips of pancake in the broth, it was really yummy for an Austrian food which tends to be a bit bland and tasteless, very basic. So anyways, we learned to say "thank you"in German: Danke!
The rest of last week consisted of more settling in and starting classes and all that, still alot to get used to but we're having a ball! That's about it, I turn it over to Alden now.
Enjoy the pics! Guten Tag!
-cath*