Sights and Sounds of Vienna

It is morning and we are getting ready to depart the beautiful city of Vienna, my favorite city thus far....very historical.....very rich in culture.....we visited museums, ate würstel, and shared some really fantastic times with our local hosts.

Time does not permit me to try to recall all of the German names for the various sites u see below....that, and the fact that it is morning and i am still a bit groggy.....so, i am just going to post a few pics here....the others in the pictures are our wonderful, hospitable hosts, Wouter and Isabella....they are awesome as!

Notes of Importance...so far

1. These countries have GREAT food. I don't think we'Ve had anything yet that we have not liked.
2. However, bread is eaten at EVERY meal. And for 2 of those it is the main course. One of our hosts said that the only diet that exists here is that you just cut out bread.
3. Counrty Mouse you will appreciate this one: The restrooms here have been far superior to any other counrty I have been in... including alot of public restooms in US. There are also some interesting restooms. There is one at the Vienna Opera House that starts playing this rush of opera music when you enter the stall. There was one co-ed one, with a couple of stalls and a common wash area. And my favorite, a public toilette, costing .50, that you paid to the bathroom attendant (a man) and he escorted you to your stall. weird.
4. Matt Moore, you would love it here, all they eat is meat, potatoes, and bread.
5. I can drink beer!!! here's the lowdown. I only like dark beers, and i think i prefer wheat beers (however i will have to do some more research...)
6. I really like Vienna, however it is the most difficult to navigate city I have ever been in! Subway system is very easy to figure out....streets are a bitch!
7. Couch surfing has proven to be the superior way to travel! (unless you don't enjoy cool people and great conversation, and learning, and laughing, and saving money.)
8. MV's threshold for hanging out with me is 4 days. :-)
9. If you want to go to Berlin from Vienna, book your train ticket several days in advance or else you will be going back to Munich...which is fine too!
10. I miss you guys!
CM

Ch. 3 Friends and Family

Sunday evening, Oct. 26, 2008 to Tues. afternoon, Oct. 28, 2008
Trostburg, Germany, Bavaria Region (and various local towns)

Sunday evening Mv and I met up with my dear friend, Ansgar. I met Ansgar when he was attending Purdue, and roommates with the lovely Sarah and Gabe Grant.

We took the train from Munich to Trostburg, where Ansgars family lives and stayed with them for the next 2 nights. Ansgar showed us all around the area around Trostburg. He took us to some really beautiful churches and monistaries. We had some great traditional Bavarian food. We took a ferryboat to and island on a local lake, Lake Chiemsee. It is the second largest lake in Germany. We had a really great time hanging out with him. Even though Ansgar himself hadn't really lived in Trostburg that long (because he'd been away at college), he was so knowledgable about the history of the area...and pretty much everything else he talked about. Ansgar is a cool dude. You would like him. He family was also really great, and very welcoming. When we arrived we sat down for a late sncak and visited with his dad, Joseph, his mom, Irmgardt (sp?), and his younger brother, Martin.
They were great. They made us feel right at home. They immediatly pulled out a selection of local beers for us to try (is anyone sensing a pattern here...). The Bohmanns reminded me so much of Gabe's family, espescially their beautiful house, and gorgeous yard and garden, as well as their conversation. Mrs. Bohmann has a great collection of art as well, which I particularly fancied. All in all it was a great Bavarian countryside experience, with a good friend. Denke Bohmanns!! It was good times!

Stuffed with great Bavarian food,
City Mouse

Freiburg - Black Forrest - Heidegger Hütte

Our couchsurfing hosts had a wall with paper that they used to express their art....cool, huh?....so since City Mouse is an artist, she painted a picture while I was out on the porch sharing a joint that had far more tobacco than anything else....below is a picture with our cool Freiburg host Stefan....also the Black Forrest and our hike to find Heidegger`s Hut - colorful, eh???....other than that, there are pics of the city.

Ch. 2 Never Again

Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008
Dachau Concentration Camp
Dachau, Germany, near Munich

Wow. There just are no words right now for this. The best I can come up with is 'haunting'. I have thought about this over and over, and there is jsut no way for me to describe this experience. I am going to give you the link to MV's blog. I think he captured it as eloquently as possible.

http://theosproject.blogspot.com/2008/10/dachau.html

There were a few main things that really affected me. 1.The torture the Nazis inflicted on the prisoners was beyond comprehension. Especially the human experiements, as well as a thing they called pole hanging. For punishment they would tie the prisoners wrists behind their backs, then hang them from thier wrists from a hook in the ceiling for several hours while they would beat them. 2. This place was huge. It was originally constructed to hold 6000 prisoners and ended up housing 40,000. There was not enough food, so people basically starved to death.
But what really captured my heart was the expression that these prisoners were able to survive with the solidarity and brotherly love of each other. They kept each other going. Even though it is hard for me to understand why one would want to.

It is hard to understand how something like this could have happened. But as the memorial states insife the camp, NEVER AGAIN.


In memory of all who had suffered there,
CM

Das essen - Sampling some local bavarian cuisine

The food has been gut thus far.

Together with our friend Ansgar, we ate at a beautiful restaurant overlooking Germany's second largest lakes. In the background were the Alps. What a view! Das ist gut!

City Mouse ordered a pumpkin soup (temporarily satisfying here recent pumpkin fetish) and I had a Bavarian Mushroom soup. Both were excellent. Very flavorful. My soup was served with a large dumpling.

For our main courses, City Mouse had a turkey dish and I had a sampling of assorted meats. We washed it all down with a local Bavarian beer (bier). Unfortunately, we had no time for dessert, b/c we had to get going...the daylight was burning away and we had yet to catch the boat out to a little island on the lake. But this resaurant (with a rather pricey bill!) was traditional Bavarian food--and well worth it!

We sampled another traditional Bavarian restaurant. The meat we ate was Braten, with Semmelknödel (a breaded dumpling), Kartoffelknödel (potato), and of course a local German beer from the local brewery (Wochinger Urtrunk). Once again, no dessert--had to rush to the train station to catch the next ride to Vienna!
MV

Ch. 1 Footnotes

After we left Freiberg Saturday evening we took the train to Munich (4.5 hrs) where we were met by our next host, Florian. Since we arrived at 11:30pm we did not get to spend too much time with him, but we did get to sit and visit with him that night. Florian is a 3rd year med student in Munich. He lives in a huge house with his brother. He is very tall. He is very cute. MV suspects I am up to something, only choosing cute guys to host us, so I owe him a cute girl. We will see about that. Anyway, Florian was a great guy. I enjoyed our conversations with him. He drew us a map and gave us some good suggestions on what to see and where to eat. I wish we could have spent more time with him.

Ultimatly we never quite made it to Munich (city center). The closest we got was underground. We ended up spending most of the day at Dachau. I am sad I missed Munich. I guess I will just have to come back.
CM

Ch. 1 Climb Every Mountain

Friday, Oct. 24 - Saturday, Oct. 25, 2008
Freiberg, Germany and the Black Forrest

Well we arived successfully in one piece. The flight was great. Meadow Vole (MV) was smart and slept while City Mouse (CM) was excitable and watched Indian movies the whole time and paid for it later. We arrived in Frankfort at about 7:45 am and hopped on a train to Freiberg which is located in southwest Germany (almost to the borders of France and Switzerland) in the Black Forrest. We were starving once we got off the train in Freiberg so we walked a bit until we found a deli/bakery. Freiberg is nice. It is a college town. And it seems to be quite progressive in terms of environmental awareness and attitude, compared to the US...come to think of it ALL of Germany so far has blown me away with how integrated being environmentally concious is. Note to the US: YOU REALLY HAVE TO STEP IT UP. All the trash bins are separated into 4 parts for different kinds of of recycling. EVERYONE rides bikes and the towns and cities seem to be very well planned around that. Everybody recycles. It's very refreshing.

After lunch we called our host, Stefan, and he met at the train station and we walked back to his place. (For those of you who don't know, MV and I are CouchSurfing through our trip. For more information go to www.couchsurfing.com and learn all about it. It is an amazing organization!) We ended up dropping off our bags at Stefan's place and roaming the city. Stefan gave us some suggestions of wheat to see so we set out on our day's journey. Here's the basic breakdown: He suggested a local mountain to climb, called Schlossberg..I think...(I have trouble remembering). And also because MV and I have vowed to "eat our way through Germany" MV was on the hunt for some good bratwurst. Stefan suggested a place, and friends, can I say that we spent 4 freaking hours walking around looking for sausage. Do you think we could find any?!?! NO. On top of that I got us completely lost and we walked about 30 minutes in the completely wrong direction. After that MV was self appointed as the Prime Minister of Directional Information. I am not allowed to have any more input. After we had given up on the "Great Sausage Hunt", we settled again for yet another delicious soft pretzel and a variety of pasteries. Germans sure do like their carbs! Finally we headded off to climb the mountain, because there you are able to look out over Freiberg as well as see the Alps. First, we couldn't find the path. MV said it was one way, I found another, so we went with my path. So we started to climb up this very steep and narrow plath deep in the woods. OH MY SOUL, I was quite unprepared on how it was going to be to climb to the top of this mountain (which I'm sure is just a large hill, but for my purposes it is a FREAKING HUGE MOUNTAIN). Finally, I sent MV ahead because I figured my fate was to die of exhaustion on the side of this mountain. Eventually we made it to a landing where I stopped to enjoy the beautiful sunset over the city, and MV climbed higher up to the top of a tower on the peak. As I was on the landing and woman walked by me pushing a baby stroller! So I followed after her a bit. And guess what I found....A FREAKING ELEVATOR! Again, Prime Miniter of Directions has no business taking my advice. I clearly have no idea how to function properly.

After that we walked back to Stefan's flat where he put together a dinner party for us with his flatmates and some friends. Can I just say right now that this was one of the greatest experiences I have had with people. Stefan and his roomates were so kind and generous! He is from Germany, and lives with two girls, Alicia, from Poland, and Elnaz, from Iran. They were so wonderful to us. Also there were some of their friends, Christoph and Jon (pronounced Yon), and Benjamin, all German. We had the most fantastic time with all of them. the cooked us a shrim scampie pasta dish, with salad and really delicious beets. The also got a sample of some local beers for us to try. We sat around the kitchen table for hours visiting and learning about each other.


It was really spectacular. The said that they were so impressed with us. That we seemed so much more open minded than they thought Americans were. They told us that they thing we are more European than American. They asked us alot about politics. Apparently the US presidential race is heavily covered over here. They also had this cool wall covered in paper for people to make artwork, so I did a little painting for them. And Stefan was so great. He spent the day getting us the information and train schdules we needed for our adventure the nest day. None of it would have happened without his gracious help. So raise your glasses and toast to my friends, Stefan, Alicia, Elnaz, Christoph, Jon, and Benjamin. Is it possible to love people you only know for a short time and are so sad to leave? Yes it is.

Saturday we got up and headed out on an adventure that MV was the mastermind behind.... you see MV is interested in the writings of German philosopher, Martin Heidegger. Apparently the house he did some of his more prolific writings is located deep in the hills of the Black Forrest. And friends, we ste out ot find that hut. I will make this short. We took a bus from Freiberg to Trodtnauberg (sp?). We got off. We walks to the Information center to get a map, (apparently Heidegger's Hut is not a big tourist draw). and we started out. First we climbed up this huge hill, then we climbed this other huge, steep hill. Then we climbed up some more hills. Then I lost all feeling in the lower half of my body. After that we climbed up this really steep mountainside. Then we climbed up another steep road going up this mountain. At this point I am pretty sure that I am going to die here on this mountain side, so I started making out my will. However my brain got numb and I stopped being able to think. Finally we reached a path with some indication of his hut. so we alked along this mountain top dirt road (at an incline, of course) till we found a dirt path leading into the woods. Fortuantly this path goes straight down. We come to shat we think is an electic fence. We find out it is not. We open the gate and walk through. We climb straight down this steep hill ot another "non-electric" electric fence that said something resembling PRIVATE. I opened the freaking thing and went on through, because lets face it...when did a DO NOT ENTER sign ever stop me? Finally we arrived at this little boarded up house, way up on the mountain top overlooking this gorgeous valley below and off into the distance you could see the Alps. We sat in the grass, nest to the hut, busted out some fruit that we bought at the market in the town, and a pretzel we had gotten at a bakery that morning and had lunch. It was not Cliffs of Mohr, but stunning none the less. I have to say I was pretty proud of myself. Mostly for not dying.

After that we caught the bus (the wrong bus) and eventually made it back to Freiberg, picked up our bags and headed off to Munich. Black Forrest, I bid you farewell. You were lovely, but your shining star was definitly the night we spent with Stefan and gang.

City Mouse (aka "I have blisters on every one of my toes" Mouse)

Mouse and Vole have arrived! I have lots to tell you but we have a train to catch to munich so stay tuned.....

Friends, it's that time again.... time for adventuresome red-headed mice everywhere to jump the pond to the magical land we call Europe. Specifically Germany and Austria. Alas, Country Mouse will not be joining City Mouse (CM) for this journey (for she will be joing her zimmer-mice in the land we call Kentucky.) But have no fear, we have a new traveling companion along for this wanderlust installment. May I introduce to you my dear friend, Jon.

Jon is a great guy. Jon is a smart guy. An intellectual some might say. (did I spell that right?)... anyhoo... Jon writes a great blog, check it out, it will make you smarter: http://theosproject.blogspot.com/

In keeping with the "rodent theme" of this travel blog I needed to assign Jon an alias. He requested to be the Dirty Rat, but it just doesn't suit him. As is often the case, NPR came to my rescue. I heard an interesting clip on what is know as the Meadow Vole. (Here is the link, in case you want to follow my reasoning: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94194990) . Good stuff, that NPR. SO, from this point forward Jon is no longer know as Jon, only as the Meadow Vole (MV).

It is now 1am. we are leaving in 9.5 hours and counting...both City Mouse and Meadow Vole have yet to start packing...and someone, (cough, aaron) thought it would be a good idea to do tequila shots tonight. I hope MV is in better shape than me right now.

So with that, I say Auf Wiedersehen. See you on the other side of the world....City Mouse