EUROTRIP.

sorry about not blogging about my travels for awhile. we've been laying low, just around ireland, waiting for our BIG trip that we start exactly one week from today! so my americana friends and i booked our flights to and from Munich and rail pass around Austria for our midterm "study" break at the end of october. let me just fill you in on my life right now:

october 30th (sunday), we leave dublin and get to munich, germany. we're going to spend a day in the city, touring the sights. what are the sights? well, glad you asked. i didn't really have a clue, either. (look, we're going for cheap here, okay.) so i googled the best places to go:

Marienplatz

• Hofbräuhaus beer hall, one of the beer halls used by the Nazi Party to declare policies and hold meetings. Here, Hitler held his first meeting and many others, gave numerous speeches, and came regularly to socialize (FUN FACT: Hitler did not drink, eat red meat, or smoke). not to mention Mozart was rumored to have written his opera Idomeneo after frequenting the beer hall. Not to mention JFK, Thomas Wolf and other famous people who have visited. Can't wait to get a beer stein! Souvenir!
• Marienplatz, Munich's largest public square, where the Neues Rathaus (New City Hall) dominates the square. its central clocktower features a splendid Glockenspiele with medieval knights hold a jousting tournament and the townspeople dance afterward holding the city's banner aloft. the bells chime and the figures dance at 11:00 Am and 5:00 Pm.
• Munich Residenz, the former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs. it's the largest city palace that's open to visitors. The first couple of buildings were built in 1385, and Maximilian I commissioned the entire West Wing and Court Garden to be built during his reign in the mid-1600s. the Winter Garden was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria. After the king’s death in 1897, the Winter Garden on the roof was dismantled because of water leaking from the ornamental lake through the ceiling of the rooms below. Later, courtyards were built and much renovation were done inside the building. Albert V the house jewels of the Wittelsbach are today on display in the treasury.



Inner hall of Munich Residenz

• Deutsches Museum, one of the world's largest science museums. I. love. museums.  

Belvedere Palace

after we're done in Munich, we're going to take a train to Salzburg, Austria and begin our week-long rail-jumping extravaganza all over the country. freaking out, i'm so excited! we'd originally planned on a week-long, three-country trip to Poland, Germany, and Switzerland. turns out it's wicked expensive, country rail passes didn't correspond, and the trip was not really feasible for anyone. so after having dinner (Liz cooked pasta, Becca made the zalad, Anne brought apple pies, and Cat brought the drinks, of course), we got our thinkin' caps on, our computers out, and got down to business. (to defeat the Huns). SO we decided on Austria (at first, I was a little bummed, because i really wanted to go to Switzerland, but Austria's a pretty ballin' substitute, and they have Alps, so I'm content). a rough overview of what all we need to see:

inmates in Mauthausen

• Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. Since the trip was supposed to be a tour to all the major historical events in central Europe (then condensed to Munich and Austria), we decided that we absolutely have to go to a concentration camp. By the summer of 1940, the Mauthausen-Gusen had become one of the largest labor camp complexes in German-controlled Europe, and its death toll, while mostly unknown, is figured to be between 200 and 400 thousand. whoa. i get chill bumps just thinking about it...

• Vienna, the capital of Austria and on the River Danube. It has the 3rd highest quality of living in European Union. People from Vienna are called Viennese. The major religion of the people is Christianity. The major language spoken in Vienna is German. Surprisingly the voting age in Austria is only 16 years old.Vienna is known worldwide as the city of music and is home to great music hall with excellent acoustics. 

Sound of Music filming - East Alps

• Salzburg, the fourth-largest city in Austria and located on the Northern edge of the Alps. Salzburg was capital of an independent principality until the Napoleonic Wars; it became part of Habsburg Austria at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. It is famous for mainly four things: its Baroque architecture and general prettiness; as the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; the world-class Salzburg Festival, a series of opera, concerts and theatre performances during the summer; and as the place where "The Sound of Music" was filmed. 

• Innsbruck, situated between the Alps

Salzburg Castle

• Bregenz, located on the eastern shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switzerland in the west and Germany in the northwest. The city is situated on a plateau falling in a series of terraces to the lake at the foot of Pfänder mountain. The first settlements date from 1500 BC. Celtic tribe named Brigantii is mentioned by Strabo as a sub-tribe in these region of the Alps.

•  Salzkammergut, a region in Austria. It is located near the Hallstätter See. allstatt is a village perched on the rim of Lake Hallstatt with salt mines that have been in operation since the iron age, 7000 years ago.

Hallstatt