Skiing for the first time!

For Fall break I was trying to plan some sort of big trip, but in the end I didn't plan anything because I ran out of time. And that's when Paul saved the day by inviting me to go and visit his parents with him and Joelle. There was also talk of skiing, but we weren't sure about the weather. The first day we just relaxed and went to the ruins of this old castle near his house. It was really neat to see because nothing like that exists in the United States. He said that he used to play around it when he was a kid, which would have been awesome.

The next day we went skiing. It took us about 2 hours to drive there, and I slept in the car both ways because I was so tired. The night before, Joelle was given and early Christmas present of skis and boots by Paul's parents, but I had to rent them. After putting on the boots, the first thing that I learned was that skiing hurts. Really hurts! For the first half of the day I could barely walk, and I kept having to take breaks to take of the boots and let my feet rest. Paul had taken me and Joelle to a beginner slope where we didn't have to pay for a lift ticket, while his parents went on the regular slopes.

When we met for lunch, I went back to the store to see if I could trade boots, but they told me that all boots would feel the same. (Not really true.) I was also told that because I wasn't wearing ski socks, it would hurt much more. This was VERY true. They conveniently sold me a pair of socks for 25 euros, and the second half of the day was much better.

The next day we headed into Graz and saw some pretty cool sights. Check out the pictures below! Or go here to see bigger pictures.

Halloween cookies

Austrian's don't really celebrate Halloween like we do in the United States, but the holiday is growing in popularity. Joelle had the idea to make sugar cookies and then decorate them as a way to spread the Halloween cheer. The first batch came out slightly crispy, and but the next batch was perfect. Here are some photos:


Here are the second batch of cookies...yummy!!


Joelle and Paul decorating them.


Ta-da!

Three countries in three hours

In case you haven't studied a map of Austria recently, Innsbruck is in the western part of Austria that is situated between Italy, Switzerland, and Germany (see Google Maps). Today we took a field trip to a convent that's listed as a UNSECO World Heritage site because of frescoes in the church that were painted in the 800s--around when Charlemagne was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

On the way to convent, we first crossed into Switzerland so that we could see an ancient Roman toll booth that was built to charge merchants coming through the Reschen Pass (see map).


(The toll booth is kind of hard to see, but it's a square building on the other side of the covered bridge that crosses the river.)

Then we crossed into Italy and drove until a spot along the Lago di Resia where you can see a church steeple sticking out of the water. It's there because the valley was flooded when a dam was built between the two world wars, and flooded several villages. There's a small parking lot, and a spot where they explain what happened.



Next, we drove into Switzerland where we finally arrived at the convent. It was pretty inside and out, and I bought some raspberry liqueur made by the nuns in the gift shop.



On the way home we stopped in Glorenza (see map) for a coffee, which was neat because it's a walled medieval town, and the smallest officially incorporated town in South Tirol.



All the pictures can be seen here!

That's it for now! Tchuess!

First snow!

We woke up on Saturday morning to a winter wonderland, and have not stopped playing the song "Let It Snow" ever since.

The real thinkok.com

OK, so just to make things complicated, I've got thinok.com running again, and I will be updating that blog this year while I'm in Innsbruck studying. So hop on over and check it out!

Chau!

Back again!

Well I’m back to Europe again after a short break in the United States. So far I have had no problems this time—knock on plastic—I don’t think there’s any wood on the airplane. I did have a small incident with my luggage in New Orleans. My bag weighed 77 lbs., and it’s not supposed to weigh over 50 lbs without an extra fee. I knew it was heavy, but I didn’t know it was that heavy. So I asked for a box to put stuff in. It was nice that they had one, and that it didn’t cost me anything, but it still will never make sense to me why you can’t put all the weight in one checked item. You would think it would be easier for them to handle.

At the Oslo airport, I met up with Espen before he flew back to where he’s working. The luggage took forever to come out, so we didn’t have too much time to talk. Then I took a train to Sandefjord, where I stayed one night at his mom’s house. That night, I went to visit Bjorn Simen who I also lived/traveled with in Argentina. He had invited some friends over to play poker. The buy in was about $30 USD or more, so I decided not to play. I got back home around midnight, and didn’t get to sleep for another hour. I set my alarm for 9 AM, but I didn’t get out of bed until 10. Then I checked my flight times, and I needed to be at the airport at 11—luckily the airport’s just 10 minutes away. I was really worried that I would be charged a lot for having two bags plus my snowboard bag, but they didn’t charge me anything.

Well I would have asked for my money back, because one of my bags didn’t arrive in Munich—the only one that I really needed, of course. But everything ended up alright because it probably wouldn’t have fit in the car anyway. It was nice because as soon as I left the baggage area, Joelle and Paul were waiting for me with a beer—warm, because my plane was late coming in. Once we got in the car, they said we were going to Oktoberfest in Munich, and then we were going to drive to Innsbruck.

Oktoberfest was pretty incredible. It’s like Mardi Gras except the official purpose is to drink beer. They have about 15 or more huge tents owned by the breweries that serve beer in one liter glasses, and then they have an amusement park about the size of a Six Flags—big roller coasters and all—that is just temporarily put up for the festival.

We didn’t stay too late, but vowed to come back next weekend by train and with more friends.
Oh yeah, and school. On Monday we started the paperwork for residency visas and such, but classes don’t start until next week. I’ll get some pictures up soon!

Tchuss!

Back again!

Well I’m back to Europe again after a short break in the United States. So far I have had no problems this time—knock on plastic—I don’t think there’s any wood on the airplane. I did have a small incident with my luggage in New Orleans. My bag weighed 77 lbs., and it’s not supposed to weigh over 50 lbs without an extra fee. I knew it was heavy, but I didn’t know it was that heavy. So I asked for a box to put stuff in. It was nice that they had one, and that it didn’t cost me anything, but it still will never make sense to me why you can’t put all the weight in one checked item. You would think it would be easier for them to handle.

At the Oslo airport, I met up with Espen before he flew back to where he’s working. The luggage took forever to come out, so we didn’t have too much time to talk. Then I took a train to Sandefjord, where I stayed one night at his mom’s house. That night, I went to visit Bjorn Simen who I also lived/traveled with in Argentina. He had invited some friends over to play poker. The buy in was about $30 USD or more, so I decided not to play. I got back home around midnight, and didn’t get to sleep for another hour. I set my alarm for 9 AM, but I didn’t get out of bed until 10. Then I checked my flight times, and I needed to be at the airport at 11—luckily the airport’s just 10 minutes away. I was really worried that I would be charged a lot for having two bags plus my snowboard bag, but they didn’t charge me anything.

Well I would have asked for my money back, because one of my bags didn’t arrive in Munich—the only one that I really needed, of course. But everything ended up alright because it probably wouldn’t have fit in the car anyway. It was nice because as soon as I left the baggage area, Joelle and Paul were waiting for me with a beer—warm, because my plane was late coming in. Once we got in the car, they said we were going to Oktoberfest in Munich, and then we were going to drive to Innsbruck.

Oktoberfest was pretty incredible. It’s like Mardi Gras except the official purpose is to drink beer. They have about 15 or more huge tents owned by the breweries that serve beer in one liter glasses, and then they have an amusement park about the size of a Six Flags—big roller coasters and all—that is just temporarily put up for the festival.

We didn’t stay too late, but vowed to come back next weekend by train and with more friends.
Oh yeah, and school. On Monday we started the paperwork for residency visas and such, but classes don’t start until next week. I’ll get some pictures up soon!

Tchuss!

Hei Norway...

I've started a new blog about my Norwegian adventures here at http://heinorway.blogspot.com/

Let's see where this goes...