Last Night in Innsbruck (not brook)!

So we thought that our last night in Innsbruck would be relatively uneventful since most everyone has already left, but it turned out to be one of our cooler nights. Mat had mentioned this place that his brother had eaten that was called Senses (can't remember the German spelling, but that's the gist). It was basically right on our walk to school and we now wish we had taken all of our friends to it earlier. Mat had heard that it was all you could eat ribs and wings for 9 euro and you went on this sensory experience where they blindfolded you and took you through different rooms, where they would splash water on you, etc. We joked that maybe his friends were lying to us and we were going to show up, tell them we were ready to be blindfolded, and they would look at us like we were crazy. We didn't make reservations, but the owner was nice enough to set up the tour for us anyways while we had a few drinks. You start in this room where you take off your watches and put away your phones (light aspect) and then you go into a pitch black room. There is a tour guide in the room that can't see you, but can hear you, so you have to speak to him. The first "experience" is the woods, where you are walking along a path with brush. Mat was in the lead since we all know my anxiety was at an all time high before attempting any of this and Liz was in the back, since she falls all over everything in the light. The owner assured us there was nothing to be afraid of. Liz still clutched on to the tie of my shirt because she needed specific walking instructions. After the woods, we went into a "city" where there were stone walls and a bike parked along a wall. All of this was in complete darkness, you couldn't even see the outlines of the people right in front of you. After the city, we looked for a life jacket along one wall and we went onto a bridge (and pretty rocky), where there was a rope. Mat took the rope and was seated on a wooden boat named "Laura." Then Liz and I also got on the boat. The boat actually rocked, there was wind, and it felt like you were on the water. We joked that if all of our friends were there, they'd probably turn on the lights and everyone would have taken their shirts off for a "no-shirt party." Haha, also when he turned the boat on, Liz goes, "She's a motorboat!" and Mat responded she was too young for his liking, 30. After the boat stopped, we were led onto a beach where there was a beach bar (well we like to think so) and you stepped down through sand into a room. There was a table and three chairs. We all sat down and the waiter brought us beers. You have to keep in mind that all of this is being done in pitch-darkness, so it's pretty crazy that none of us have fallen down at this point or wigged. The waiter was really cool and although he couldn't understand total English, knew a lot of what we were saying. After about 20 minutes, Mat was too hungry and wanted to get the waiters attention. We've decide that Mat is a gentleman in the light, but a thug in the dark. The first thing he yelled was something like, "Can we get some food up in here?!" and Liz and I told us he was scaring us. The next thing he yelled was "Yo, Brotha" Haha the second time he yelled Yo, Brotha, the waiter replied, "Yo, Sista!" Before the food came out, we had a long talk about what it was like to be blind. We have a blind guy in our program and it's hard to imagine how he gets around in Europe, since it's hard enough doing it with sight. Liz also wonders how blind people dream when they can't put their thoughts into actual images. We finally decided we don't know enough about the blind, but I think their brain may just do it for them. Mat also teased that he'd really brought us into a "hostel" situation and that he'd probably run if they tried to go for us first and daddy SURE would have run. Haha. When the waiter brought us food, it turned out to be ribs, chicken wings, garlic bread, and corn on the cob...probably some of the messiest foods you could eat in the dark. ALSO with two dipping sauces, which Mat could never find, so we had to keep leading his hand to the sauce. Liz kept trying to hoard the sauces though, per usual. Mat and I were not that full when we left, but Liz was stuffed. She thinks it's because she is a ninja at eating riblets in the dark. We decided it's all you can eat because no one wants to eat that much in the dark. We also figured out that we eat just as much/as quickly in the dark as we do in the light. After dinner was over, we were led back into the restaurant and we figured out that our waiter that was leading us around in the dark was really blind! It was definitely something to think about. We also had to wash off because we had rib sauce all over our hands. At one point during the dinner, Liz told me to grab her hand to lead me to the sauce and I've never felt a greasier hand in my life. Our hands slipped apart when we tried to grasp. The owner of the restaurant was super nice and kept telling us how much he appreciated Americans. He's even throwing some send-off shindig for the undergrads. After dinner, we walked along the river into Old Town for gelato. It was weird seeing everything open so late because we've only been here on the weekdays when everything closes at like 8. Mat is heading back to Atlanta on Monday from Munich as well. We will be seeing him soon for Kings of Leon!

Frey Wille!

So, I'm not sure if I mentioned in previous posts Liz's new European obsession, but its Frey Wille. It's a jewelry store in Europe (and two locations in the US) that we've never seen before. Truth be told, we have been stalking it all over Europe. We first spotted it in Florence while walking home one night and then the next day had to look for it all over the city again. It's super hippie-chic; there is a different "theme" for each pattern, like Ode to Joy, Paradise Moonlight, etc. and is modeled after a different artist. We found the next store in Prague, where they told LIz the ring she wanted was $11,000! So, at that point, she reconciled the fact that she would never own that ring (but we think it was platinum and had diamonds around the band). Turns out, there was one in Innsbruck too, but every time we went by it, it was closed. Today, was our last exam though and we were feeling extra precarious, so we decided to go check out the store and to eat at Magic Kebab. We went in before we ate lunch and Liz made the decision to buy the ring, BUT then we had to mill around over lunch on whether she should get it big enough to fit her middle finger or not (which she did). It was much cheaper than $11,000 and just as cool as the other ring. Anyways, I'm not sure if I adequately explained how much Liz wanted this ring, but she got it and it was a great end to her extra-great vacation. I will be seeing if I can talk Gran-Gran into this crazy double ring and since she reads the blog, its a great way to start, right?

Tonight is our last night going out in Innsbruck. Our art exam went really well (we are pretty sure we over-studied), but Liz is mad at me because last night we were studying in our respective beds and she kept saying that she didn't know anything on our outline and I started reciting cases and page numbers. And since all we do in class is write notes back and forth and play online she thinks I've been reading art law under my covers at night while she is sleeping. She'll never know, but I won't lie, I can tell you some important facts about the importation/exportation of art if you want to send me a private message. Haha.

Who's Crying Now...Europe/Me and Liz

I hope everyone gets the Journey reference in the title. But we really are sad & believe that all this rain is because Europe is crying over Thomas, who left tonight to go to Paris, so he can spend a few days there then fly home to Texas. Of course, in pure daddy-like fashion, half of his clothes were in the wash an hour before he was supposed to catch his train and his room was in disarray. We tried to help in his packing, but found it more fun to play itunes and watch him pack (but we did fold a few things). Ryan and Wilson came in after their exam dtp, so they decided to try out the absinthe myth, since Thomas can't take it back to the US. Violetta (the crazy-looking wife of the owner) gave them a cup of sugar, which they then put on a spoon, poured absinthe over, and lit on fire. It's probably never a good idea to light things on fire inside a hotel room. It's probably a worse idea to let it burn IN the cup and then put your lips to it, but nonetheless, they did all of the above. So far, I haven't seen any of them running around the halls, screaming about imaginary things attacking them, so I'm going to say it doesn't work. But since Thomas isn't here, you never know WHAT he's doing on that train. After Liz and I cried over Thomas leaving (and yes, we did cry), we went to our favorite little Italian place down the street. We decided the only thing that would make us feel better is a Tortellini Mafioso. We also ordered our favorite Caprese appetizer because we were really feeling down and it was the best one we had yet in Europe! So then we realized we didn't even need Thomas to have fun! (hahah just kidding, I know he'll read this and he hates when we say our favorite night out was one when he was sick). But really, dinner was really good and for awhile, we reminisced over Thomas like he might be dead, but we are glad he isn't. Funny story-on the way home I saw this little yellow coin-looking thing on the ground and finally stopped to yell, "What is this!?" because I've seen them all over Europe. Liz laughed out loud for awhile and then told me she wasn't going to tell me since I was so bothered by this mystery, but she broke down of course. Turns out, there is a coffee machine at the university and it dispenses a little cup and this little yellow coin and when you are done drinking your coffee you put the cup and the coin back in and get 10 cents back. I have so many problems with this, one being that all of these little plastic coins they dispense and I find all over Europe are just as bad for the environment as a wasted plastic cup. Another is that this machine probably doesn't even properly wash these cups and people are sharing germs. We'll be glad to get back to the US where not everyone is so green. Liz is acting like she's going to put them under my pillow so I really will freak out. I told her she could find some in the laundry room and she told me not to act like she didn't have tons of them in her purse...coffee addict. Back to Daddy, since this post was for him. We really will miss you-and already do, giant and ryan came in the room to joke about daddy leaving his girls. We then asked Ryan why he hadn't looked at our pics on facebook to see what we were like back in the states and the answer was because he was no daddy and he told us to stop acting like daddy wasn't only looking at his self. Which is true, but we hope he doesn't skip this blog, since he only reads blogs about himself and may not catch that this one is only about him. But seriously, we are glad to have met such a good friend on our trip. Who knew goodbyes were so hard. That might be all she wrote friends.

Winding Down Europe

So we are in our last week in Europe and all too sad about this. However, we have also become weary of all the traveling and going out, so it will be nice to see our family/friends and get back into our daily routines. We're also excited about our new house/roommates this year and ready for school to start (well not TOO ready). BUT, that being said, we are going to miss all of our Texas friends and plan on visiting them this year for either a Texas game or for Oktoberfest. We've tried to make it clear that they aren't going to get rid of us this easily!

Last night, we went to the closing dinner. It's appropriate that it was at the same place we ate on our first night here. They have Augustiner beer, which Tom-Tom told us was the best beer you'll ever have, but it just tasted like beer to us... maybe we aren't that classy, I mean we do bring pink wine to our teacher's shindigs. It was nice though-they had the whole room upstairs set up for us and the dinner was good. We had salad, wiener schnitzel, fries, and gelato. Reamey, the guy in charge of the program, said a few words and we assured him that we would spread the good word about the program (since that's how we heard about it in the first place; from guys who did it last year). The lady in charge of housing (and I do say lady with some exaggeration) was giving out drink tickets and we're pretty sure she was giving the teachers/students mass quantities because at one point there were like 10 random beers sitting on the table. We aren't sure how she still keeps her job because we always see her out partying and late-nighting with the students. Other than that, it was a relatively uneventful dinner. I hate that I missed seeing Liz fall down the stairs, but she hurt her arm, so I can't laugh anymore. One of our teachers just walked by and didn't even offer to help her up. I wouldn't typically laugh at this (but maybe I would) but it's funny because Liz literally trips like 10 times a day. We aren't sure if it is the altitude or what, but I've also been so clumsy in Europe. Our windows open out into our room and I've hit my head on the window itself 3 times. Once, I was pretty sure I was concussed because it took me like 5 minutes to stop reeling. After dinner, we headed to the hofgarten, our MOST favorite spot in Innsbruck. Liz and Tom-Tom decided that if Innsbruck was one of the random places we had traveled on the weekend, they would have loved it, but we just don't know that much about it because we are here for classes during the week and traveling every weekend. The hofgarten was as happening as it always is on a Tuesday night. We chatted/danced and then came home. Tonight, we are going back for the ribs since Ryan owes us dinner-they are the BEST ribs you will ever eat and they will be on the top ten list of things we will miss about Europe.

Rome-Guest Blog!

Well, I’m back for guest blog number two mostly because I might not make it through Lawyering Abroad without some sort of distraction, but also because there are adventures in Rome to fill you in on. Mal’s Rome blog pretty much covers our view of the Vatican and our first day in Rome as well as our first night bar crawling all over Rome. One funny anecdote not mentioned previously occurred during the first night. At about 4 am I awoke to Katie, disoriented and frantic, saying “there are not doors in this room! I will just have to pee right here.” Apparently she could not find the door to the bathroom and had decided there was no place to go, but by the window on a pile of Mal and I’s clothing. Luckily, I woke up just in time and scrambled to the door to the bathroom and opened it for her, but the next day we had to tease her about it because she was so disoriented the night before. Anyway, after a hairy day at Vatican City and a lunch of lean cuisine-esk lasanga on our first day, I decided that we needed to have a day where we made peace with Rome by seeing all the sites and eating delicious Italian food at every stop. Again, Mal was re-charging and probably semi-scared of me all amped up on Cappucino and Frommer’s, so Thomas, Katie and I departed alone. We began by heading to Piazza Bernini. En route to the Piazza, my sandal broke. This has happened to me on a previous Euro trip as well, so by now I am an expert at dragging my foot with a sandal barely attached all over the cobble stone streets. Thomas was more bothered about my shoe than me and he kept insisting that I stop and buy sandals, but when I’m touring a city nothing stands in my way and I refused to stop because who wants to spend time looking for sandals when you’re in Rome. So I hobbled on. Piazza Bernini was beautiful and we loved the fountain. From there we ate lunch at Colique Emille, a Frommer’s recommendation, that was reviewed by the NY times and rated as “about the best pasta in Rome.” It was small family owned restaurant tucked down a back alley, and although I can’t quite say it was the best pasta I’ve ever had, it was homemade and delicious and a huge step up from the lunch debacle the previous day. After lunch, we headed to the Spanish steps and shopped along Via Sistina. After promising “el mundo” to his girlfriend, Thomas was on a mission to find her a sun dress because he had already told her he bought her one. Luckily for him, we found a cute boutique where he was able to find a dress and also the owners, probably thinking I looked semi-homeless, super glued my broken sandal for me. After this we made our way to Trevi Fountain, my favorite spot in Rome. We already had our wishes pre- planned and I made a wish for Mal and myself, and tried to do it at the same time as Katie, but she forgot her wish when it came time to make it. By this time, we were really having a great time and felt as if Rome was apologizing for our first day there. We then proceeded to the Pantheon, which was amazing in that it was built without modern conveniences like a crane. Our final stop was Piazza Navona where we had planned to eat a second, late lunch at Osteria Gallo, a famous Italian restaurant there. On our way to the restaurant I tripped, for the 100th time that day, and my super glued shoe again came undone, so I was back hobbling around town. We were unable to eat at the Osteria because they were closed, so we settled for a beer and olives at a café outside near Piazza Navona. At this point we had traversed most of the city on foot and were hot and tired, and starting to miss Mal so we headed back (in a cab) to our hotel. Once reunited and sufficiently happy with Rome in general, we headed to Trimani wine bar, which Mal described in her Rome blog. We may never stop laughing about Thomas getting his meal in a martini glass. The next morning we departed Rome and made it back to Innsbruck just in time to hop back in our much beloved beds after another solid weekend trip.

Canyoning-Guest Blog!

Hello everyone! There have been many requests, ok well just one, for me to write a guest blog. There’s not a whole lot I can add to Mal’s hilarious description of our time abroad, but here it goes. Last Wednesday a group of us went canyoning over the valley in the town of Otzal. It was one of the few times on this trip that Mal and I have spent time apart, but Mal was on her particular European re-charge cycle and, after our rafting excursion in Switzerland, I was feeling ultra outdoorsy and adventurous. We departed Innsbruck around 3 pm for Otzal, which was about 30 minutes away. Getting the tickets was a little tricky because, not only are we all not accustomed to using public transportation in our normal lives, but we also do not understand German to read the ticket machine. However, with the combined brainpower of five law students and an electrical engineering grad, we managed to figure out how to work the machine in about 10 minutes. When we arrived in Otzal, we were a bit late because the train stopped so many times, but the company was nice enough to come pick us up and transport us to the camp’s base. From there we were taken on a golf cart to put on our gear which included a full wetsuit, with a hood, booties, shoes, a helmet and a harness. Per usual the girls were ready faster than the guys, which our tour guides thought was pretty funny as they proceeded to tease the guys that it looked like they were drinking too much beer over here. After we were suited up, we drove 20 minutes to begin canyoning. If there is one thing I’ve learned from my outdoor adventures abroad it is that there are no rules. In America, anytime I’ve been on a guided outdoor adventure, it’s been fun, but I’ve never felt anything other than totally safe with the guides in control. Europe is just a whole other story. For one canyoning is pretty extreme on its own. It involves climbing through the canyon along the river, repelling down waterfalls, jumping off the canyon into pools below and sliding down rockslides and waterfalls. I think the moment I realized that we could actually get hurt was when I went to slide down a waterfall, clearly not something I’ve ever done or know how to do, and my arms were too short to get in the right position at which point I got pushed by the current down the waterfall standing up instead of tucked in a nice, little ball as I was supposed to. Despite that blunder, we all made it out relatively unscathed and all feeling very extreme for basically scaling a canyon in freezing water. After we finished canyoning, we all headed back to the base to change out of our wetsuits and leave. While washing our wetsuits, our friend Thomas put his wet, cold wetsuit against my back and, in retaliation, the guide helped me hose Thomas down. We then headed to the local burger joint for huge burgers and fries and beers. In true Eurotrip fashion, 2 people were also iced. We returned to Innsbruck at about 730 and met up with Mal and everyone else. I was glad to still be in one piece and, upon careful reflection, I have decided that I am retiring from sliding down waterfalls because one can only be so extreme!

"It's easy to be mad at the Vatican"-Thomas

Our last weekend trip was to Rome (well except when we head back to Munich to fly out). We stayed at the Santa Prassede, also known as the little love nest. We like to call it this especially because Thomas and his sister stayed in one of these rooms too and they are ultra-small, dark, and couply looking and it amuses us. The air conditioning even worked. It was in a pretty central spot and you can traverse all of Rome on foot from here (well except to Vatican City). When we were booking somewhere to stay, all of the places looked pretty grotsky and the reviews were bad. However, we decided the people reviewing them were older and should have been staying at nicer hotels in general and that's probably why they didn't like it. I don't think we've been unhappy with any place we've stayed in Europe, other than the hostel where the Asians lotioned up for long periods of time.

We took the night train to Rome and got in at 9 am. It was too early to check in, so we changed in the bathroom of the hotel and went out to tour the city. As I'm sure I've made clear by now, I hate mass transportation and trains are no exception, but I have to say all-in-all the night train wasn't horrible. We had a sleeper car and it was just Thomas, Katie, Liz, and me, so no random euro-trash. I also slept and didn't feel sick, so I think that has something to do with it. When we were booking the tickets, the lady at the desk kept saying something about Katie having to come back with Thomas to set it all up, but then she told him she could do it without her and we thought we were set. But, per usual, Europe (and especially the Italians) have a way of messing with us and when the ticket-checker came around to collect the tickets, she pointed out that we didn't have a ticket for Katie on the way to Rome, only on the way home. Thomas had paid for it, but she had only printed him out the return ticket. There is nothing worse than being thrown off a train before you reach your destination. I have an inkling it could be even worse on a night train because you never know what creeps are lurking in Bologna (which, by the way, Bologna is supposed to be a 22-year old in a 770-year old's body according to MTV Europe-but we'll never know because we just like hating it). I've been wanting to yell at someone in Europe for awhile. Not like random people, but someone in charge of something having to do with who runs this show; Liz never lets me though. BUT she had already decided that at this point, if they were going to throw Katie off, I could definitely yell. So when she took our Eurail passes (apparently they do that to everyone though) I asked her for her name (a classic American move) and tried to explain to her that this wasn't going to fly. We've decided that the problem in Europe is that there is no supervisor you can complain to. In America, you can always ask for someone's name and number and can complain to someone above them, but it just doesn't work that way in Europe. Anyways, long story short, we woke up in the morning, Katie was still on the train, Thomas didn't have to buy another ticket and we were all good...but it is still the point of the matter.

Day 1: Our first stop in Rome was the Santa Maria Maggiore, a huge church near our hotel. Our tour of the Vatican wasn't till 2:30, so we decided to look around and then head over there by cab. We then went to the Colosseum. Thomas's camera died and I left mine in Innsbruck, but Liz got a ton of pictures of the Colosseum. It was cool seeing how they had half of the floor missing so you could see the tunnels under the floor where they kept the lions (and people-but Frommers says the myth about Christians being fed to the lions here is unfounded.) Then we headed to Vatican city. We had awhile before the tour, so we looked for a place to grab lunch. People stand outside of their restaurants and solicit you with deals like "10 Euro for Lasagna, salad, gelato, and a drink." DON'T let them work you like we did if you find yourself also in this same situation one day. Liz couldn't even finish hers because it was so awful. But to me it tasted like a lean cuisine, which I don't really mind, so I was good. We decided to try somewhere else so Liz could get something better to eat, so we stopped at this little place that had pizzas, salads, snacks, etc. Other than the bathroom being really gross, it was all good until the bill came. For four beers and one TINY pizza, it was 45 Euros. Thats like 55 USD-WHAT the heck. This was a low point in our day. We'd all decided that we hated Rome and would never come back (especially Thomas). But it gets worse...so then we went to the "tour" we had booked for the Vatican. Turns out you pay 40 Euros just to get you past the lines outside and the tour guide doesn't even give you an actual tour; he bounces as soon as you're inside AND to top it all off, there wasn't even a line to skip! If I'm being honest, we were all not impressed with the Vatican/Sistine Chapel/St. Peter's Basilica. But I do get how if you were Italian or Catholic, or even just had a huge interest in religion, it could be moving. Thomas, on the other hand, thinks its a tourist trap and is permanently mad at the Vatican. I'm glad we got to see it though because how often can you say you've been there? Don't worry, Rome gets better. We went to this local eatery around the corner from our hotel for dinner. It was a hole in the wall, but the food was good and the conversation was "over the top fun" (as Thomas once described a movie, haha). At one point during our dinner, Thomas said something sweet to Katie and we almost all cried. He's claiming he didn't almost cry, but he definitely did too. After that, we met the bar crawl at the Spanish Steps and headed to the first stop. The leader of the bar crawl said this was the first time in 3 years that it had rained during a pub crawl, so we are convinced that we bring the rain, since this happened in Prague too. There was lots of free beer and pizza and they took us to this club on the river where there were two swimming pools and an outside DJ. Since Frommers doesn't do his job at telling us about the night life, I would recommend going on the bar crawls in Europe, only because you get to see different bars and otherwise, you never know where people will be hanging out

Day 2: Liz will have to update you on what the group did today, because I did my own thing. It's part of my specific Europe-weary re-charge cycle. I checked out the Pantheon, walked to pick up our bar crawl t-shirts, walked into this huge building that Americans refer to as the "cake" because it looks like a wedding cake, and then sat down at a cafe to eat spaghetti and finish reading my book. I can only tour so much before I'm tired of it, but I really enjoyed just hanging out. I also really like people watching and Europe is the ultimate place to do this. Liz promised she would make a wish in the Trevi fountain for me. Liz was talking to her mom today and her mom said that 40 years ago, she was also making a wish in the Trevi fountain and had talked yesterday with the girl that went with her, so we are hoping that will be us in 40 years. We all met back up at like 5, took naps, and then went to try this wine bar, Trimani wine bar, that Frommers recommended. It was supposed to be a hip bistro-style restaurant that had 30 different wines you could choose from and you could pick certain ones to go with your meal. We started off ordering a plate of cheese, which wasn't so bad. We accidently also ordered a fig desert, thinking it was an appetizer that wasn't bad either. The wine was also good, so it wasn't a total fail. The girls all ordered pasta, but we are convinced our parents could have made it better. My favorite part of the night is when Thomas ordered "salmon with avocado" thinking he was going to get like a filet of salmon with slices of avocado. However, he got a martini glass filled with avocado paste and tiny shredded pieces of salmon on top. He tried to act like he liked it, but I think I laughed for like a good 15 minutes just looking at it. It looked like fancy feast. We were all really tired at this point, so we had a slumber party and tried to find MTV on TV before settling on Jurassic Park and going to bed.

Day 3: Our traveling day was relatively uneventful. We had a slow start-per usual when Daddy is around, but we made all of our trains. We realized that Thomas didn't have an extra day on his Eurail pass, so he spent most of his time dodging the ticket-checkers. He's convinced himself he is a ninja, but we aren't fooled. We came back just in time to hit up club Karwendel and Bar 7 for Katie's last night in town. We already miss her and want her to move to North Carolina to live with us!

We're heading to Munich on either Friday or Saturday and then flying out on Monday-reallyyy do not want to leave, but I think we convinced Thomas to come to Munich with us before he goes to London to fly home. He knows he won't have more fun than with us at the Hoffbrauhaus

Lantern Hike!

So the lantern hike was like a few weeks ago, but it was still so fun that I have to update on it. We took a bus to Igles, the same town where the lake is. From there, we got to carry lanterns up the mountain. Liz and I decided that we definitely have to get back into kickboxing because we were struggling up that mountain. It was a straight incline to the top. It took about 30 minutes to the top (or where we were going). At the top, there was a bar/restaurant with a great view. We didn’t bring our cameras because we didn’t want to carry them, so I stole these pictures from John. Liz and I had beers and popsicles and then they made us all go upstairs into a tiny room. The owner of the place played the guitar and one of his friends played the accordion. Apparently this place is known for its schnapps, so everyone was ordering rounds of those. One of our teachers really likes his schnapps. We decided he is kind of a creep, not in a I’m going to Vandersloot you kind of way, but in a I stick my tongue out when I’m yodeling and look like a creep kind of way. It was fun though because they did different skits and played songs. For one skit, Valerie (a girl in our program) and I had to pretend that we knew the words to the “song of Innsbruck” and sing/yodel with them. Liz tried to tell me my "boyfriend" (the 50 year old accordion player) looked like my dad. I think it was the mustache, but don't worry Dad, I told her you were much better looking than this guy. Liz had to pretend like she was doing some sort of wedding dance with Wilson. All in all, a good time. The way down was much more fun than the way up. Liz and I sang songs from John's Ipod. One girl also ate it on the way down, but as much as Liz and I like to laugh at people falling down, it sounded like it really hurt. You can evaluate from the pictures pretty much all of the above.

Praha, ra-ha-ha

The title of the blog is in reference to Prague, aka Praha, and the ra-ha-ha is a shout out to Alec, since he loves Lady Gags (and we didn't want him to feel left out). Prague is our favorite city in Europe thus far. We were instantly happy with it as soon as we stepped off the train. Liz, Tom-Tom, Travis and I caught a train out of Innsbruck around 12 on Thursday and pulled into Prague around 9 at night. Our first mission was to find the hotel because Thomas's sister, Katie, was meeting him there. We refer to Katie as little/better Lane, but she's really fun and cool and reminds us a lot of Thomas (since they are siblings and all). We stayed at Residence Bologna, which was in the center of all the action. It was a block down from the 5 story club (a fejj favorite), right by the bridge you cross to get to the castle, and only a few streets down from the main square. It even had air conditioning. Although if I'm being honest, I'll admit it hardly worked. BUT the beds were super comfortable and it was the first real hotel we stayed in since being in Europe (other than the Karwendel, our home base). Prague is the cheapest city on earth, so that is why we chose to go with a hotel instead of a hostel-you pretty much pay the same for both. It was also nice being in a cheap city after Italy and Switzerland were so expensive. Because we all spend so much time together and get bored, we like to play this game where if one person sees something they like (say in the window of the store), the other person has to say "Yes, I like that, BUT I like this better...and points out something else," unless they really do like it, then they can just say so. We also like to name what foods we are going to get before we eat. Liz and I also just like to talk about food in general. Anyways, when we all had to name our cities in the order we liked them most, everyone picked Prague. So now you know it is not just my biased opinion. Prague is the Vegas of Europe.

Our first night, we grabbed dinner this little restaurant called Pizza Colosseum. Don't let the name fool you though, it was very good. Everything was closed by the time we were trying to sit down for dinner, so it was quick. We then went back to the hotel and went to sleep because everyone was tired from the train rides. Side Note: we were on train miserable again, but it wasn't as bad because we had our own cars we could lay down in. The next morning we went to check out the astronomical clock that is on the side of the old city town hall. It's huge and always surrounded by tons of tourists. While we were there, we had this random girl come up to us and say, "Wow you girls are hard to catch up with!" We thought we were about to be robbed, but she just wanted to invite us to a bar crawl, which if you read on, we did go on. This girl had come to Prague to teach English, met a guy, and stayed to open a bar with him. Crazy. Another favorite saying of the trip is that when this all blows over, we are going to get an apartment with our Texas friends that is half way between Texas and NC, haha. Anyways, after this, we just walked around the square and some shops. Liz wanted to buy something furry (she loves fur), but I vetoed that. But don't worry, she snuck back in to Zara later and came out with some good picks. We then went back to the hotel to take showers and nap. Tom-Tom had bought some Absinthe, so he wanted to try that out. I think the most we discovered about it is that it tastes gross and no, it does not make you hallucinate. That store clerk worked him. We met up with three more of Thomas's friends for dinner and then we went on the bar crawl. It met at the Drunken Monkey and progressed from there. However, I can't really tell you where because 1. all of Europe is hard to navigate and 2. it was raining SO hard. But we did have a lot of fun when we weren't complaining about being so wet. A lot of people from our program were on the same bar crawl, so it was fun to hang out with them all. In the morning, Liz and I went to eat at Bohemian Bagels-something Frommers, Liz's European bible, told her to do and it was so good. I had chicken salad, which is rare in Europe. Liz and I decided that she could write the day/touristy part of Europe and I would write the nightlife part of it AND we would both write the food section, since that part is always in accord. We then went to the Castle, which was really cool. We wanted to walk inside, but there was a special visitor, so we couldn't. We took pics with the guard though and of the outside. We found Tom-Tom, Katie, and their friends there, so then we went to get cappuccinos/beers and go home for naps again. On our way back across the bridge, we went to the John Lennon peace wall. I got a small print of the wall to frame when I get home. That night, Liz and I decided to do our own roommate-dinner at the hotel and surprisingly, it was one of the best meals we've had in Europe. We had caprese (we pronounce it Ka-pre-see for fun) to start, Liz had beef in a mushroom sauce, I had chicken and asparagus in a wince sauce, and tiramisu for desert. All for like 30 bucks. It was a great meal. Then we went to the five story dance club. We had many recommendations for this place, but also had heard it was for pre-teens, so we weren't sure. Well even though there were SOME pre-teens, we had a great time. I mean, it is Bieber Fever all over the world. The first level was a radio-hits floor, the second was like techno/dance, the third was called "black music" (yea...), and the fourth level was a chill level. I'm missing a floor, but you can google it if you want to see pictures. There were go-go dancers, games in between the floors, crazy lit up dance floors, multiple dj's, etc. We did a lot of dancing, all the way till about 4 am, then we caught two hours of sleep before we took a cab to the train station to hop on the 7 am train. We had a few friends that "played through," but they didn't make their trains! Today wasn't bad, we were all pretty tired and glad to see the Karwendel...as we are every weekend when we return. Another week of classes, I'll be updating later on the efficiency of the European E.R.'s.

Train Miz., Venice, Florence

On Thursday, Liz, Aaron, Thomas and I took the night train to Venice aka Train Miserable. We thought it wouldn't be too bad. Although all the sleepers were taken, we thought we would get one of the nice trains that have seats in a set of four and then we could stretch out. So, we had a few drinks on the roof of the Karvendal and then went into town for dinner. That is the exact opposite of what happened. We had this old train that had little compartments of six seats and it was PACKED. There were people standing in the between cars, sleeping in the halls, and you basically couldn't move. In our little compartment, we had this euro-trash guy with one earring and a sequin shirt (which Liz spied in his bag). He blew up his little neck pillow, stretched out, and wouldn't let us put the window down because "it hurt his shoulder." It was stifling hot in this little car. It finally got to the point that when we he went to put the window up again I told him that it was really hot, there were 5 other people in the car, and that was going to be it because it wasn't going back up. At this point, I was ready for a showdown. He told me we could trade seats, which was definitely o.k. with me (he'd already made me move out of his seat once anyways). This guy put his feet on Liz's seat and when Thomas woke up, he had his head basically in his lap...ridic. I will NEVER take a night train again if I don't have a sleeper car. When we got to Venice, I'd had a total of an hour of sleep all night and was feeling really sick. My motion sickness patch doesn't kick in with 400 people on a small train I've decided. So I really can't tell you much about Venice. I slept at the train station and in a park with the group when they were done looking through a museum. You guys will have to ask Liz what she thinks about it..but my guess is, it's dirty. I did eat a peach by the water, so I know what that looks like.

On to Florence. We stayed in Venice only till 2:30. We were originally staying only till 1:30, but Logan (another guy in our program) was supposed to meet us there and he didn't wake up for his train, so he was willy-nilly traveling around Europe. That would have stressed us out because it is hard to meet up with people who don't have phones. The train to Florence was a couple of hours and we were kicked off once. We didn't realize you had to reserve seats (because a lot of trains you don't) and we were one stop away when the guy kicked us off in Bologna, which we hate. They decided it was the Detroit of Europe. We did, however, meet a cool family on the train from Canada who told us to eat at Quattro Leoni, which was amazing! The mom was really pretty and Thomas asked her where they were from. When she said "Vancouver Island," with a totally straight face, Thomas asked, "Oh, Cougar Island, where is that?" ...Freudian slip? We all thought it was hilarious and couldn't help laughing. When we arrived in Florence we checked into our hostel, Archi Rossi. We really liked the hostel. Liz, Thomas and I had a triple that didn't have air (like the other boys) but it was nice not to stay in a room with randoms. The hostel itself was artsy and had writing all over the walls. We were playing on signing it "family band-sweet little lies," but forgot. Liz, Thomas, Dex and I have been singing all over Europe (usually Little Lies by Fleetwood Mac), so we've decided to be a traveling family band. We're open to new suggestions for songs. We are usually shh'd on buses, in lines, etc. While I'm on that subject, we've also decided that Americans are just SO much louder than Europeans. Like the first night in Florence, we were so tired that we just went out to dinner and then came back to go to bed so we could tour around the city the next day. There were a group of Europeans on the rooftop terrace playing the guitar and singing songs. Liz and I could have been louder than them just by ourselves and with an ipod speaker. They sang quietly and if anyone was too loud, they would quiet each other. We've never tried that at a party. Also, our next night, we went out to dinner with Dex, Brandon, Aaron, Logan (who finally made it!), and Thomas and we were the loudest people in the restaurant. We had a few liters of wine and it became hard to hear when one person started talking over another person. We were given the MEANEST looks. Europeans talk one at a time and when one person is talking, they all listen to that one person. So then we tried to all be quiet for 10 minutes to see what the real noise level of the restaurant was, but it only lasted for like 10 seconds before Liz started to feel awkward and talk again. Anyways, back tracking, we checked out the Uffizi and the Duomo (but didn't make it inside because the line was too long). Liz got up at 6 am to get in line for tickets at the Uffizi...such a great tourister. We also walked through the street vendors and the boys bought leather gifts for themselves, girlfriends, moms, etc. That night is when we went to Quattro Leoni for dinner. I had the best pasta dish; it was in a white sauce and had something sweet in the middle. We also had an appetizer of little chicken and onion fried things. The food was great in Italy. We all really loved the gelato. After dinner, we went to two Irish pubs and then to a club called Twice. We saw a band playing outside so we danced to it a little and then tried to all fit into a photo machine, but that obviously didn't work. It was our second time going to clubs in Europe and it was about the same-hot, sweaty, tons of people in a small space. We stayed there till like 2 am and then headed back to the hostel. When we got back, the door was locked and we had to bang on it to get in. When we checked in, we made sure there wasn't a curfew (because some do have curfews) and he assured us there wasn't, but had the guy not been cleaning the downstairs, I think we may have had to sleep on the streets. We've had a constant debate going on whether there was a bidet in the bathroom or whether it was a urinal. We finally decided it was not a bidet. However, it is a great feet washing tool because the streets of Italy are SO dirty. Don't worry, it was clean when we used it to wash our feet.

Today, we got up at 7 am to make the train at 9 am. It was relatively uneventful, except that you are supposed to write in the day that you are traveling and then they will stamp it. The ticket checker was a jerk and because we didn't write in the day, he took our passes until we payed him 50 euros (but originally he wanted 50 each!) It is in writing that you have to put down the day, but we decided as Americans, it is only necessary that you first try to scam the system to see if you can get away with it as punishment for not having a more official system. I mean really, having us pencil in the date!? There should be a stamper for that or something. We made it back around 4 and took naps. We then got up to go have dinner in the bottom of our hotel. We saw all of the boys that had stayed in town for the weekend. We thought Ryan was going to give us a hug, but nope...he iced us coming in the door, so in the name of the game, we drank them. But don't worry, Wilson got him back when he creeped through the window with an ice. We are planning big things for Ryan this week. More on the lantern hike later & more pictures when I'm not so exhausted.

Lazying around Innsbruck

We've realized that some of our best times are just hanging out around the Karwendel (hotel) and in Innsbruck. This week we've just gone to classes and hung out. We had a speaker yesterday on hate speech and how it's dealt with on an international level. He's a judge in Austria; but I had a pretty hard time understanding his accent most of the time. Without air conditioning, it's like 1000 degrees in the classrooms. Liz and I decided we are going to have to get Europe to want more for themselves, like ice! You can't even buy it at the grocery store.

Last night, about ten of us went to the Hofgarten. I told you we really liked it. We also had ribs again. They have a Tuesday special 6 of any type of drink for 10 Euros, so I think it will probably be a regular thing for the group. Thomas taught us our new favorite game. Basically, one person thinks of a word and gives you the first letter. Everyone else playing gets to ask a question, like if it starts with C, "Is it something you can drink?" Then the person whose word it is has to say.."No, its not a coke." If they can't think of what it is, the people in the group that know it have to say it at the same time. Then the person whose word it is has to give you another letter. It sounds silly, but it really is fun. The Hofgarten turns into a club at night, so we danced and people iced other people and it was pretty much like every other night. Then we went to Safari again and the boys played pool. Liz and I decided to go home because we always like to get in bed and chat late night.

Tonight, we are going on a lantern hike. Not quite sure what that entails, but I've been told it involves walking up a mountain at night and at the top is food, drink, and music. We're also going to reserve our sleeper cars for our trip to Italy this weekend. All of the guys are coming!

Out of Interlaken, into Zurich, and back to Innsbruck

Lake Lan in Innsbruck

When we almost missed getting back on the trolley because we were looking for icecream!

Lake Zurich

Trolley around Zurich


After rafting, we were pretty tired. When we finished, the guides had cheese, bread, and beer waiting for us, so we hung out with them for awhile. Then we showered and went into town and ate a place called Cafe de Paris. It was excellent. We aren't sure if what we had was a typical Swiss dinner, but it was roast beef, tartar sauce, and the salad that seems to come with every meal there; it was also excellent. For desert, we had this thing called berry waffl'n (we're on deserts hard right now, but are about to quit because we don't want to come back from Europe beastly). After dinner, we stopped by the bonfire and the Guinness tent, but we were so exhausted we just went to bed. We had met like 10 guys earlier that went to law school in the US that said to try the club across the street, but it just wasn't in us. We got back to the room and there is this backpacker who smelled worse than any human being ever. He wanted to chat for hours (we think because he was backpacking alone and lonely), but we also didn't feel like doing that, so we just tried to pretend we were asleep. By this point, we had decided it was time to get away from our grotsky roommates and go to Zurich the next morning.

The next morning we grabbed pastries for breakfast from our favorite little spot down the street and took the bus to this hostel out in the middle of no where to sea kayak. They only had one though, so then we took another bus to the center of town where I thought the lake was (but wasn't), so at this point we just decided to get on the train. We took about a 5 hour train ride to Zurich and then hopped on the trolley that took us on a guided tour around the city. We figured this was our best bet since we didn't have a ton of time to spend there. We learned a few interesting facts on the tour; like, Zurich is where FIFA is headquartered, only 6% of people actually own homes in Zurich (the rest rent), it generates a fifth of all of Switzerland's money, and the stock exchange is world famous there. One of the guys we met on the trolly was in Switzerland for business and had graduated from UVA. He looked to be about our age and we were semi-jealous of his sweet job. They invited us to join them on the boat tour, but we were afraid of missing the 8:40 back to Innsbruck, so we just headed back to the station. We ate dinner at another little pizzeria. We really could write a book on all of the pizza we have eaten in Europe. Then we took the 5 hour train ride back to Innsbruck. We got in at 2 am, took a taxi back to our place, and slept. It was SO nice to finally be in our own room again. Innsbruck is starting to feel like home.

Today, we woke up at like 10 am. That was also nice since we have been trying to get up at 8 am to see stuff everyday or make it to class. We then traversed the city and tried to figure out the bus system to make it to Lake Lan. It's pretty confusing when you don't normally take buses on a day to day basis. When we finally made it to the lake, we were so happy we went. There were tons of people out there and we layed out on the dock. We also ate popsicles and went swimming. We've decide we will take all our new friends back there when they return from their weekend vacations.

As one of the people we've met along the way said, "You're on holiday, you can do whatever you want" and that is exactly how we feel.

Everyone dip your head!

Rafting was quite the experience. When we showed up for our trip at 4 PM we were expecting an American type deal where everyone is lined up, explained the rules, then we get on the bus. Well, we waited around for about 30 minutes after we were supposed to start and all the guides looked as if they were still at some party that never stopped. We got a little worried when they were all snuffing something up their noses, especially some guy who looked like he needed a 3 day nap. But they promised it was just tobacco and totally safe (told you Europe knew nothing about cancer). They even offered us some, but we respectfully declined. We had to wear wet suits, wet shoes, wet jackets, and life jackets to go on this river. You may have assumed that by now we knew what we were getting into, but nope... So we get on a bus and take a 20 minute train ride to the top of one of the mountains. We get out, make sure all of our gear is on, and then we have to run practice drills in the boat. There were a few Vandersloot guides, but our guide was great. Most of them were from New Zealand; typical, those guys are so outdoorsy. We got onto the river and the first place we put the boat in, (by the way, WE had to put the boat in down this rocky cliff) we hit a huge rapid. Liz and I somehow ended up in the front of the boat. This is where all the major paddling is done and we weren't sure we could handle it. About this time Liz was looking scared, but don't worry I assured her I was an excellent rafter. The Switzerland level 3 rapid is about a level 5 in the US. I have blisters on my hand and we were both exhausted to get down the river. We ended up being glad we were in the front because the rest of our boat was from India, did not speak one word of English, and couldn't understood the guide's orders. At one point, we looked back when he yelled row forward and most of our boat was sitting down in the boat not doing anything at all. We are lucky we made it out alive. The guide told us that we could jump out to float if we thought we were competent swimmers. So of course, I did. Maybe I'm not as talented as I thought because as soon as those 6 degree waves started to hit me in the face, I felt like I couldn't breathe. But I made it through and Liz jumped out too. We then floated into the lake and took the bus back to the Funny Farm. Now we are going to shower and hit up the hot spots!

Hofgarten! and more

Ryan's failed attempt at Icing

Manny's Grilled Cheese!

Haha Liz's sweet new do

Thomas!

Hofgarten view



The Hofgarten is one of our favorite new spots in Innsbruck. It reminds us of a bigger and better Selwyn Pub in Charlotte. Thomas, a guy in our program, invited us one night (guy with beard above) and we already plan on returning on Tuesday. They had screens set up for the Germany/Spain game and it was slam packed. They have these huge electric umbrellas that go up and cover the entire outside area. The food there was tasty. Liz and I shared ribs (which by the way is the best meal we've had on this trip and it was so cheap, like 9 euro). The boys were all decked out in their jerseys and smoking cigars (because we've decided a few of them have European complexes and now think they are Euro). The girls just wore the colors of their favorite team and since Liz and I are bandwagon fans, we pulled for Germany. We picked Germany because we like to scream "Deutscheland". But now Liz is saying Switzerland is her favorite spot, so she's a traitor. Most Austrians don't like Germany we've heard because Germany treats them like we treat Canada. I don't care though, those Germans are the happiest people I've ever met. After the game was over and everyone got over the fact that they were going to have to travel so far to Spain to be in a country where a team was playing, we went inside the Hofgarten to dance. They had a DJ playing American music and they played all of our requests. There were about 15 of us there from our program. It turns out that "icing" your friends is just as cool in Europe and everyone plays with this Euro version of Smirnoff Ice (see Ryan trying to Ice me above, but me blocking him!) Liz got iced by this guy we like to call "giant" because he is so tall. After that, we all went to Bar 7 in taxi cabs, but the cabs were all black meredes benz's, so we felt semi-important. Bar 7 is what Kyle, who went to this program last year, reccomended and everyone loves it. Manny, the owner, plays American music and serves the best grilled cheeses all night long. It's also where the undergrads like to hang out, so we can pretend we are still in college. From there, we went home, but it takes at least an hour to get everyone to settle down and not running and talking in the halls, so that is why Switzerland is a resort! People love to crawl out of their windows since all the windows are wide open because there is no air conditioning. Our friend Ryan walked across the roof to invite us to dinner, but we were sleeping and he said we were lucky we were "vanderslooted" with our windows wide open, haha. "Vandersloot" is now a common word around here.

Interlaken, Switzerland

Liz and I took the train from Innsbruck to Zurich to Interlaken yesterday. It was about six and a half hours, but well worth it. We love eating at the train stations and every one we've been to thus far has good food. I had some sort of crazy meat and cheese sandwich with olives and Liz had an assortment of cheese, olives, and meats on a stick. We also ate a pastry with a cream filling. From the station, we walked to the hostel (about 15 minutes) and got to see most of Interlaken Ost. It's a sleepy little town. Compared to Munich, it is a REALLY sleepy town. It's almost like coming to a resort after how crazy everyone is during the week, so we're really enjoying being here.

The Funnny Farm is a hippie retreat. You can find families here with small children and the children are naked and the parents wear hippie loose clothes. They don't seem like they shower much, but we're ok with that. We are staying a room with 8 beds and four of them are occupied by guys, which we've also decided we won't do again. Three of them are Asian tourists who take way too long in the bathroom and lotion up for extended periods of time. We really want our own room, but are doing our best to conserve money. However, the hotel itself is really cool. It has a nice lounge area, a great outdoor bar/restaurant, a nightclub and a pool (which is rare in Europe). There is the biggest dog we've ever seen walking around the hotel named Spietz and we love her.

Today, we walked to Interlaken West. This is the first real day we've been up at 8 AM hitting the pavement, so we feel pretty good about ourselves. There are little shops and places to eat, but everything here is ridiculously expensive. If you want any dish that has meat in it, it'll probably be about 40 dollars. We hear all of Switzerland is like that though. Now the US dollar is the same as the dollar here, so we can at least figure out how much we are actually spending. Liz bought Euro tennis shoes (since I told her to pack some and she refused, but now we figured out we will need them for the Lantern Hike on Tuesday). They are white and gold, so she'll be so stylish for our hike. Sorry everyone, ya'll won't be getting trinkets from Switz.

We are going rafting in a little while and I'm pretty sure we have to wear wet suits, so we'll be getting some interesting photos from this trip. Tomorrow is sea kayaking and from there we are considering going back to Zurich for a night or even just for lunch on our wait out Sunday. Most of our friends wont be coming back till Monday since they took trips to Spain and Germany for the World Cup. They were planning on running with the bulls and sleeping on park benches, so we vetoed that. But we are hoping to take our trip to Italy or Prague with them. Tuesday we are all re-uniting at the Hofgarten for live music.

Pictures to follow when we return to Innsbruck! And if my spelling is really bad, blame these crazy Euro keyboards.