Back Home :)

Hello Everyone,

The day before I left Austria my grandma treated me to a day out in the town. We took a little boat ride across the Salzach river, took a tram up to the high fortress, walked around the old city a little big and had some food in a famous cafe and apple strudel near the fortress. Very nice. I really enjoyed the time I spent with my grandma. Just me and her. I miss her a lot right now.

Before her, I hadn't had a big hug all year. So she gave me a couple of big hugs. I really needed them. It's amazing what no hugs will do to a person.

I got back to California yesterday. I changed planes three times. And the sun never set the whole time so I didn't get a lot of rest. I changed planes in Madrid, Barajas airport. I had an hour and a half to connect. And I made it, but with no time to get anything to eat. I had to take two different shuttle busses, go through two different checkpoints, and stand in a huge line to check in. Claiming the luggage in Chicago was a friggin' nightmare.

And my flight from Chicago to San Franciso was delayed. I was happy to get off the plain, though.

And now I am back in California trying to get my life back together. I am really miserable to be honest, but I think things should look better. I hope, at least that they do. The jetlag isn't helping at all. I don't have a desire to eat, I don't have a job, car or even cellphone. I don't even know where to begin. 

Anyways, I better go look for a rental car so that I can take care of some important errands.

I will try to update as much as possible on my latest happenings. I will hopefully be more cheerful next time.

Ciao :) 

 

Last Entry From Europe

Hello Everyone,

The end of my travels in Europe has come. I will spend the rest of my time here with my grandma and then I will fly home back to the US early Tues morning.

My grandma is here and I have her all to myself for a couple of days so I am gonna let her spoil me rotten with a little trip to Salzburg and Austrian pastries ;)

So, for now I must say goodbye and I will pickup again once I am back in the USA and have internet access.

So, my travel adventures are over......... for now. Because I will be planning my next travels while I am in California. Like the rest of most of my family, I have a traveling spirit and I want to keep that going. I love the USA and am American as apple pie, but I also feel like I need to see how everyone else lives their lives because I feel that as Americans, we are sheltered from the rest of the world. The media does a good job with that.

In CA I will be writing about adjusting back into the swing of things in the USA after being away for a year and the plannings of my next trip. Here and there I will also be writing about drama I have now and then :).

So, thanks everyone for reading about my travel experiences. And just remember that they aren´t over for good.

Ciao, Auf Wierdersehen, Tchüss, Saludos, Adios........................

Yeah !! More Pictures

Hello Everyone,

Today I went to visit the oldest saltmine in the world, here in Austria. So beautiful. Then we walked around the peaceful town, Hallstadt.

I have taken so many photos here in Austria. However, AOL and the computer I am on are both so retarded that I am only able to download 8 photos. I can´t believe this. I have taken hundreds of photos in the past few days. And right now I can only choose 8.

Today I just posted the photos from my trip today and my stay in the alps with my grandma. I am gonna post a lot more photos when I figure out how to do it.

I don´t know if I am gonna be able to make another post before I leave, so this may or may not be goodbye for a short while until I am back in California with internet access.

Ciao :)

 

Some Ramblings...............

Hello Everyone,

First of all I want to thank everyone that has been leaving me comments. I always appreciate comments. It´s just too bad that I can´t directly resond to them here in my comment box. I could if I were back in the states, but AOL here in Europe absolutely sucks. So again, thanks everyone :)

I have been responding to e-mails. So for those of you that sent me e-mails, you know I appreciate them because I usually respond.

On another note, I slept in today. Felt really good. The weather sucks as usual so I am considering staying in today. Gotta start packing becaus I am gonna stay with my grandma on Sunday till I leave on Tuesday.

When I was at Mauthausen I bought the latest edition of the Diary of Anne Frank. I read it in middle school. But now I am reading it again.I really love that book. She was between 13-15 years old when she wrote that and she really was mature for her age. She writes about things that adults think their children don´t understand. I don´t think adults give children and tennagers enough credit sometimes.

One really sad thing is that she and her family didn´t make it out alive. As you read the book and realize that all their dreams of "living a peaceful like after the war" will never come true, it makes you wanna cry.

But this book has taught so many people a lesson. I wonder if this powerful message would have gotten across just as well if she were still alive ? I think that the fact that her story was so sad, and that she didn´t even survive after the war makes people think twice. I think she is a very strong voice for all of the victims that are no longer able to tell their story because they were killed.

And what about the voice for the living ? Luckily we still have holocaust survivors that talk about their experiences and write books. And the fact that they survived is a source of hope for many and a strong reminder of what happens when people excercise hatred.

I really can identify with her thoughts as a girl growing up. I think it´s comforting to read her book. I can identify with most of her opinions and almost everything that she says. I have always wanted to go and visit her hiding place. I didn´t make it this time, but I really want to go back next year. Really, really bad.

I tell my parents that I want to go to Amsterdam and they automatically think about the Red Light District, the drugs, the marijuana, the sex shops................ But No. How can I get them to understand that the only thing I really, really want to see is the Anne Frank House ?? That and the Van Gogh museum, the canals, the wind mills................ I had a marketing teacher that was from Holland and I think he once wore clogs to class. I swear I gotta plan another trip back to Europe.

I also bought a summer dress yesterday very, very cheap from the Czech Republick and I didn´t think it would fit, nor look good, due to the fact that I am short and dresses never fit properly around the waist area. It was an impulse buy and the woman there kept shoving the dress in my hand and lowering the price. So I took it without even trying it on. But it fit, and looked good. So I am happy. Just gotta find an excuse to wear it.

Anyways this should be enough for now. I´ll try to write again before the weekend. I won´t be able to write after tommorow because I will be with my grandma ( who doesn´t use e-mail).

So, if I don´t get a chance to write tommorow, I shall be saying hello to y´all in the good ole USA.

Ciao.

I went to the Czech Republic !!!!!!

Hello Everyone,

Today I took a little day trip to the Czech republic. I went to Budweis, where Budweiser originated. I won´t go into any details, but I am sure that most of you know that there are 2 different beers with the same name, Budweiser, and there was a long legal debate over the whole thing. Anyways, this is where both beers originated.

The train ride was about 2-3 hours long, and the whole thing costed about 35 Euros round trip. I was happy just to get out of Austria for a day. I even got my passport stamped. I am sick of seeing the plain old EU stamp. And today I got a Czech stamp. Anyways, traveling there was like going back in time 50 years. After I got off the train I noticed the change. For starters, I had to change my money. Even though the Czech Republic joined the EU last year, you can bet it´ll take a while for changes to be seen.

The language was also completely foreign to me. I couldn´t understand one single word of Czech. I wouldn´t even know how to pronounce the words with all the accents. Luckily some people spoke German. 

The buildings. Don´t even get me started. Everything is old and falling apart. In Austria everything is clean, orderly and repainted. And with a trainride of 2 hours, buildings are falling apart. The CR used to be a communist country up until 13 years ago. It is so obvious.

Everything is so much cheaper there. I bought some really cute clothes.

Everything closes at around 7pm. Then after that I feel like the whole city shut down. No one was really on the streets after that. It was wierd. I was looking for a place to eat, but I gave up in the end. I couldn´t even understand the menus and I didn´t have the energy to a.) find a waiter that spoke english b.)listen to all the explanations. Plus I didn´t have enough money for a restaurant because I spent it all on clothes. So......I ended up going to McDonalds instead.

I didn´t see much. But I did see the Black Leather Tower (if I am correct with the name) I also visited a couple of cathedrals and did a lot of walking around. I took lots of pictures. As usual, the weather was crappy today. Very cloudy and cold. But I did the best I could with what I had.

I was happy to go back to Austria to cleanliness and orderliness. I had a nice afternoon. I really felt like I went back in time to the postwar era. Haha. The US is so modern and new and fast paced. This country is slower paced with a strong culture. I wouldn´t mind coming back for a vacation. I did a little daydreaming there and imagined myself staying for the summer. However, I couldn´t imagine living there longer. I think I would get bored and fed up.

I am thinking about joining the Peace Corps. There are 71 different countries to chose from and I am heavily thinking about going somewhere in Eastern Europe. And visiting the CR today makes me consider it even more.

My mother´s side is all in Austria (close to the Eastern Block). And my great grandparents on my dad´s side were Russians (in the Eastern block). I feel like it is part of family history one way or another. I don´t know what I will do. It´s all up in the air.

Ciao.