So, it's been a busy week, and tomorrow I am off to England and Ireland. The group I am going with will have a laptop with them, so I will try to put some updates up when I can.
Hope everything is well over there.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Spring Update
Well…
it has certainly been a while.
Springtime has come to Gaming. It is still a little chilly, but the sun is out, and I saw some flowers growing on the path to the town today. :-)
So, where have I been so far?
-Vienna, but you already know about that. :-)
-Salzburg/Munich: a three-day trip, and a good starting experience.
-Innsbruck/Seefield/Absam: a trip with friends to see some of the miracles in Austria.
-Bratislava / Prague (Czech Republic / Slovakia): a mixed trip, with its own joys and complications. Was pretty good overall, and dealt with some of my heritage.
-Poland: a good trip that dealt a lot with the past of Europe and the Church, and some of my heritage.
-Rome/Assisi: (10-Day) An amazing ten-day, and the longest trip to date.
What am I planning to do?
-Ten-Day: We all get kicked out of the Kartause in a couple of weeks to go on our own 10-Day trips. I am planning to go with three other people to see England (I think London and Liverpool) and then Ireland (not sure where, yet).
-France: I would like to visit Paris, to see Notre Dame (and the Crown of Thorns), the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower. Ideally, I am planning this during the Triduum, since the Crown of Thorns is exposed on Fridays during Lent.
-Budapest: I may visit Budapest, even though I know little about what I can see there. I will be researching!
-Gaming: Yes, I still have to explore where I am living. :-P The weekends when I could have explored Gaming, I spent studying for exams (the first time) or doing nothing- which was nice, admittedly (the second time). I have explored the town, and it’s not like we didn’t get a tour of it. However, I still have yet to:
-Go to Urs (the local pub, reportedly with good pizza).
-Explore Book Mountain / the Waterfall. Each requires something like 3 hours, and lots of walking / climbing. I expect to take many awesome photos. (I plan on going up Book Mountain sometime this week, in the morning.)
-Assisi: The one bummer about Assisi is that we didn’t get to see the tomb of St. Francis (the place was under renovation, and won’t be open again until after our ten-day trip). I might like to go back, just to see the tomb when it is open to the public again.
-Switzerland: I’ve heard that there are amazing trails and such here. However, I have also heard that it is expensive, so I will be taking that into account.
-???: I will be looking out for other places I may go on my free time… but really, there’s not that much time left. (We were informed yesterday that we have 18 class days left! O_o) I will be lucky to make it to all of the above places.
And, finally…
-Rome Super Trip: We will be going back to Rome briefly in order to attend the official Beatification of Pope John Paul II. :-) This will most definitely be the last thing I will be doing, since it takes place on the last weekend in Gaming, during final exams. (Unless I take a spontaneous trip on a non-exam day, which is highly unlikely.)
I see there are still some goals I have not accomplished, such as the Kochkäse (I can’t find that stuff anywhere! :-( ) Hopefully I will achieve them in the month and a halfish I have left.
My goal for this week is to get a post up every day. I have been very bad about keeping this up-to-date. I am sorry. :-( I can’t even guarantee that I will have all of the posts done by the time I fly back to Ohio, but I will do my best.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
A Week At The Kartause (24/1/11–27/1/11)
Monday (24/1/11)
Usually, we eat in the Mensa, which is okay. But we all receive eight vouchers at the beginning of the semester to be used at the Kartause’s big restaurant- the “Kartausen Keller”. We can choose to go during lunch (which, I have heard, is a wildcard), or to go during dinner (where there is European pizza :-) ). There is a limit of 15 people for lunch and for dinner on any given day, so demand is high sometimes.
This night, I chose to get the Pizza Capricosa at the Kartausen Keller.
It is a very clean and nice restaurant. The service and the waiters are excellent. The pizza was fantastic. It had ham, bacon, grilled chicken, and (surprise!) mushrooms, amongst other things. :-D
Two things to note: The pizza was not pre-cut. I was fine with it; it was actually a fun challenge to cut it up and eat it. :-)
The other thing: there is not much sauce on the pizza. It is customary to have ketchup on your pizza here. I decided to try it out- and it went amazingly well with the pizza! :-)
Tuesday (25/1/11)
Some random pics. Some person named Patience (who I do not know… or remember :-( ) had a birthday, so that’s what the snowman is all about.
And this is the day I got reminded of who redesigned the Carthusian church: Walter Hildebrand.
Wednesday (26/1/11)
Top left: The St. Francis fountain is covered in snow. Snow is everywhere. Yay, snow.
Top right: the view from our window. It is an awesome view! There is also a deck here that we (luckily enough) are allowed to go on. Maybe I’ll go out more when it gets warmer.
Last three: We had some kind of a party… I can’t remember what for. Note the chocolate Austrian cookies, especially, and the Almdydler ginger ale (it has honey or something in it, and is very good! It is very well-known.)
Thursday (27/1/11)
I was very exhausted this morning, as I had just suffered through another main campus night class (which translates to 12-2:45 a.m. for me). Maybe that’s why I wanted to take another photo of the fountain, when I clearly had one already. Or maybe I was excited about the snow. Who knows. :-)
Coming up: Salzburg / Munich trip
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Vienna: Lessons on Pictures (22/1/11)
Vienna was pretty awesome. It has been so long, though, that I am going to have to look at the itinerary to remember most of what happened…
Some general pictures of the city. (I included the McDonald’s one just for Dad… a better photo will be coming soon! :-) ) The palace, I believe, is one of the Habsburg palaces… the Habsburgs were a prominent royal family in Austria.
Note the “tabak” stores in the background. “Tabak” is tobacco, or cigarettes, and small side shops (usually called “Tabak Traffic”) have been in most of the locations I have visited thus far.
This is the Albertina. It is a circlular section in Vienna behind the Opera House, and it was here that we got dropped off to go to Mass. Later, we would come back here to get picked up.
Mozart is very, very big around here. Or his chocolates are, at least. :-)
Here is the altar of the church we attended for Mass (the Kapuzinerkloster). One thing I have found about Europe thus far: there are many little churches scattered about everywhere you go, and almost all of them are very ornate.
To the right are some pamphlets in various languages. I don’t know why I took a picture of them; it’s not like you can read them. :-)
Similar to the chapels, there are many statues in the cities of Europe. This one was just outside of our Church. I am not sure who he is… Bummer.
Next came the school-sponsored tour of Vienna:
This is the Opera House nearby the Albertina. I should go see an opera sometime… the tickets are cheap for stand-ins.
The Hotel Sacher. This is important, but I cannot remember why. :-) Ennh. It looks cool, right?
There were many horse-drawn vehicles going around on our tour of Vienna.
A random store in Vienna, and another building which I cannot remember the significance of… I should post sooner than, what, four weeks after the fact? :-)
A walking zone guy… with an Austrian hat! There are slightly varying signs in different places around Europe.
The front of the church we went to. Again, note the ornate artwork.
A statue. I’m pretty sure this is a Habsburg…
PIDGEON! Bert would love Europe; they are everywhere!
A street shot. Not sure what a Dorotheum is.
The Habsburg palace… or one of them, anyways… I believe this is the Winter Palace. They also had a Summer Palace… I think.
I remember that it is here that they kept the hearts of the Habsburgs. Yes, when they were buried, their hearts were removed and kept separate. Very interesting. (I guess it is appropriate that I am posting this around Valentine’s Day, then, eh?)
In the right picture, you can catch a glimpse of Maros (pronounce: Ma-rosh) wearing an Austrian hat. He was the tour guide for our group, and he also happens to be my boss for videoconferencing.
A Habsburg church, built into the palace nearby.
Note the Habsburg statues walking into the tomb…
There seems to be a focus on death (and the importance of life) in Europe, or at least, in Austria. In Metaphysics, I have learned that death is essential to understanding life, ironically, and what lies beyond it…
I assume you will get towed here…
Can’t remember what this is… another palace? The statues in the left picture are of Hercules, fighting monsters.
A church dedicated to St. Michael. (I really wish I could remember more details.)
The ruins of an old Roman city. Imagine Chicago or New York with an ancient ruins section in the middle!
Another sundial picture, similar to the one at the Kartause!
This is an important place. Hitler spoke here when he decided to invade Austria. John Paul II spoke here
Europe seems to be abundant with street performers, especially “living statues”. This guy was boogying out.
This is a Habsburg crown… I think?
And again, with the pigeons…
Another awesome-looking church.
I’m wishing I would have gotten a closer shot of the details of this monument… but I remember what it is about! It was built in thanksgiving for the end of the plague. Note the very unusual picture of the king acknowledging God here.
Another street performer, balancing glasses on her nose and playing something… I think it was “Mary Had a Little Lamb”.
An amazing looking church, St. Stephan’s, that we would visit after lunch.
So many pictures… and it is only lunchtime! Our basic tour ended, and we had Weiner Schnitzel and a nice pastry at the Augustiner Keller. I also had some red wine.
After lunch, I went with some friends for some free time in Vienna.
St. Stephan’s Cathedral, and some of the awesome things inside of it. It was here I began to learn that flash does not always make pictures better, as evidenced by the last photo.
My pictures get better on my later trips. I avoid flash when I don’t need it.
A salesman who wanted to sells us opera tickets. (Sadly, it was set to start after the buses left.) And, more pigeons. Yes, you needed to see more pigeons- don’t deny it!
Right now, it is ball season in Austria, a time of fancy dancing and music before Lent hits. Austrians, by tradition, do not listen to music or dance during Lent, so ball season is a big deal. Here, you can see some ball decorations in the store window.
The National Treasury, containing many artifacts and holy relics of significance. In these pictures, you can see papal garments, priestly garments, and royal garments.
And this is the point where my camera died.
It had lasted on almost no battery for so long, that I should have been grateful to get what I did get as far as pictures were concerned. But I was really bummed. Inside this treasury were things such as: a very enormous emerald, one of the nails that pierced Jesus, a piece of the true cross, royal paintings emphasizing death…
The last thing on the agenda was a trip to the Café Griendsteidl (the picture was taken earlier). This café’s claim to fame is that it was the place where Bambi was written. :-)
Here I chose to get a Mozarttorte (“Mozart cake”). It was a chocolate cake with a white chocolate coin on the top “engraved” with Mozart’s face! Again, Mozart is big here… or his desserts are, one of the two. :-) I wish I could have gotten a picture of the cake. I kept trying, but my camera would shut off the moment it started up.
So, that was my trip to Vienna. It was a good experience, and helped teach me the finer points of taking pictures, namely, that a) Flash doesn’t always work, and b) keep the camera battery well charged. :-)
In the process of making this post, though, I learned something else about my pictures: while they are nice, they a) cannot convey to you the full experience, no matter how I try, and b) are only as good as my memory of what they represent. But I suppose that is up to perspective. If I wanted to remember that I saw so-and-so’s crown, then maybe I missed out (I really don’t remember what some of these pictures are of). But if I wanted to remember the experience I had and all of the good things I got to see, then I didn’t miss out at all. :-)
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