Hallstatt... Finally!

Sorry it's taken me so long to get pics of Hallstatt up. Between a BIG German test and being sick as heck with I'm not sure what, It's been a crazy few days.

Anyway, as you know, I spent most of last Thursday in Hallstatt, Austria. It's a beautiful little down midway between Salzburg and Vienna, in the heart of Austria's Lake District.



The town's actually so small that it's train station isn't even in the town; it's on the other side of the lake and you need to take a ferry across (which is where I took that picture).



The town is also built literally right on the side of a mountain, which is why the buildings are stacked one on top of another like that.

For centuries, Hallstatt was central to Austria's economy because it was located next to a massive deposit of salt, which was the lifeblood of Austria's economy up until the 1800s. The salt mine, which is located in the mountain above Hallstatt, is still operational. However, enough of the salt has been removed that the mine - or at least the already-cleared parts of it - are open for tours. There's a hiking trail that takes you from the town up to the mine. Even though I was pretty sure the mine was closed, I decided to hike up anyway. Here are some pictures from the trail.











It took about an hour for me to hike up, and maybe another hour to hike back down. Unfortunately, that left me with another hour before the train I needed to catch arrived, so I wandered around the town and the lakeside for a while.







Little history lesson; Austria's Empress Elizabeth, better known as Sisi, loved swans. Since Hallstatt was among her favorite places to visit, the locals always made sure there were plenty of swans on the lake. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago, so I only saw a grand total of two swans on the entire lake.



Just before the ferry arrived to take me back to the train station, it stated to rain, so I put away the camera. It didn't really matter, though; I'd seen the town and had a great time, even if I was drop-dead exhausted from hiking up a bloody mountain! So I got back to Salzburg without incident, and went to Mauthausen the next day.

Anyhow, I'm leaving for Italy on Thursday morning. Four days in Florence, three days in Rome, and I'm going to try and do a day or two in Venice (if I can get anyone else to come with me; that's our free weekend). I'll try and get some pics of Mauthausen put up before I leave. If not, then at some point in the future; again, I'm not sure if, when, or where I'll have Internet access.

Until next time, peace.

-Raptor

Mauthausen

I decided to hike from the train station to the camp. Took about an hour, uphill most of the way. The area around the camp looks a lot like Lancaster County, only with mountains.

The first think you see when you enter the camp proper are about a dozen memorials. One from every country whose citizens were murdered in the camp. Pretty much every country in Europe lost people there, even British and, get this, Americans.

Anyway, they've rebuilt most of the barracks, and you could go inside one of them. They had it set up almost exactly like how it was set up back in the 1940s. The bunks, they're barely big enough for one kid, and two adults had to sleep in each one.

There was a museum set up in the basement in one of the buildings. Photos of the prisoners, reproductions of actual orders issued by the Germans and the SS, actual uniforms that the prisoners wore. To see those... my God. There's reading about it, but to see it for real... And then there was the gas chamber. I didn't see the sign saying what it was at first, but I knew right away as soon as I stepped inside. Walked out fast, then went around the corner, and found myself in the "Dissection Room." I got out of that building fast; I thought I was going to be sick.

Mauthausen actually wasn't a death camp; it was actually a labor camp. Prisoners were required to work at a quarry just outside camp. There's a staircase down into the quarry. 182 incredibly steep steps. And the prisoners had to go up and down them carrying heavy tools while living on starvation diets. They stumbled or tripped, and they were shot. If the fall didn't kill them first. When I was down there, and this is going to sound crazy, but I swear I could hear them. The screams and cries of the prisoners, the clank of tools on rock, the blast of dynamite blowing clear another section of the cliff, the shots of the German weapons executing helpless prisoners, the shouts and laughter of the SS guards. I was all alone down there, but I swear I heard all of that.

This is going to sound really crazy, and I swear I am not making this up, but when I climbed back up out of the quarry, I saw ghosts. A prisoner and an SS guard. The prisoner, I don't know if it was a man or woman (it looked like a walking skeleton), hand fallen down and was struggling to get back up. The Nazi drew his pistol, thumbed the hammer back, and shot the prisoner point-blank in the face. He put the pistol away, then he turned to look at me. My God, I don't know if he was even my age! He was so young! And he was smiling! Not that evil, predatory smile you see the bad-guys wearing in the movies, but a happy smile, like he'd just scored a goal in soccer or something. He'd just shot a human being, murdered him in cold blood, and he was happy about it. I'm glad I'd decided to save the quarry for last; I booked out of there fast after seeing that.

Honestly, I think that Mauthausen or Dachau or Auschwitz are places that everyone needs to see. It's horrifying, I know, but only by seeing it firsthand can one truly appreciate what happened there. Simply reading about it or watching a video isn't enough.

I'll post pics tomorrow; right now I don't want to think about it anymore. I'm gonna go and watch something on iTunes or work on my novle or something; I don't think I'll sleep much tonight. Pics and write-up of Hallstatt will go up tomorrow, pics of Mauthausen... eventually.

Finally Got My Weekend Figured Out

We've got Thusday off, so I'll be spending that day in Hallstatt, which is in the Lake District outside Salzburg. Then Friday will be spent in Mauthausen, visiting the Concentration Camp there. That's gonna be a sobering experience, I can already feel it.

Both trips are going to be day-trips only, so I'll be back in Salzburg at night. Which means I'll hopefully have pictures and descriptions up rather quickly. If not (If I get lazy again), then Saturday or Sunday at the latest.

Until then, peace.

-Raptor.

Oh, and VisitNormandy people, it's not that my price expectations were unreasonable; the study abroad program only provides us with a per-diem of 28 Euros for lodging. So even the 42 Euro place was far more expensive than I could afford.

Normandy Is Out

So I just checked a few websites for hotels in the Normandy area. Holy crap. Cheapest place I found was 42 Euros a night, and that one had a bunch of absolutely horrible reviews written about it. Mean price for hotels in that region seems to be between 60-80 Euros per night per person. And, having learned the hard way that day-trips to Normandy from Paris are an impossibility, it looks like a trip to Normandy is out of the question.

Stupid Socialist Frenchies.

A Week's Travels, Part 3: Amsterdam & Home

Well, this is getting old. I've got wireless again, though for how long is anyone's guess, so I'm going to try and get pics of Amsterdam up while I've got a chance.

Wendesday afternoon was pretty quiet. We got lost on the way to the hostel (why they keep giving me the map I honestly can't figure out!) and wound up walking for a few blocks through the red-light district. It was... interesting. Let's just put it that way. No pictures; my camera was still in my backpack, and either way, the girls apparently really don't like it when people take their pictures. Walked around the city a bit, just to get our bearings, but that was about it.

Thursday we took the walking tour. Interesting, but there really wasn't much to see. Not many pictures, either; the streets are so narrow that it's nigh impossible to get a decent shot. I'll post what I have, though.











After the tour, we went to the Anne Frank Museum (top picture). It was an incredibly moving, incredibly sobering experience. The museum is located in the same building that Anne Frank and her family hid in, and part of the tour includes the famous Secret Annex. Honestly, words fail me in describing the place. If you are ever in Amsterdam, this is one place you must go.

Later that night, Sam and Dreama did the Red-Light District Tour. I passed. Honestly, I saw enough of it in the daylight.

Friday was an adventure in and of itself. Our original schedule was to take an ICE high-speed train from Amsterdam to Frankfurt Airport, another ICE from Frankfurt Airport to Munich Central Station, and then a standard EuroCity train from Munich Central to Salzburg. Well, our first ICE developed a technical problem about 2/3 of the way for Frankfurt Airport and dumped us off in a city we weren't even scheduled to stop in. There was a half-hour wait for the next train, which turned out to be the same ICE we were scheduled to pick up in Frankfurt. Unfortunately, the train was filled to begin with, and another half a trainload of people got on along with us. So I go to ride in the aisle for 40 minutes until we got to Frankfurt and our reservations became effective and we got seats. Trust me, standing up in an aisle jam-packed with luggage at 300 kph (186 mph) is an experience.

So, anyway, even after we got to Frankfurt, the train still was overbooked, so we had people riding in the aisle all the way to Munich. Thank God we had seats; it was a four-hour train ride. Then, we get to Munich Central, only to find out that our EuroCity doesn't start in Munich Central, it starts in Munich West, and we had to take a local train to get there. So we take the local train, which dumps us out onto a platform where another train is waiting for us. Only the displays indicate that this train doesn't go to Salzburg. We stand there puzzled for a few minutes until I notice that the display lists the mystery train's number as the same train number we're scheduled to be on. No sooner do I notice this than the train's doors close and it starts to pull away. We chase after it, but to no avail. We ask a woman in a uniform on the platform if that train was going to Salzburg, she looks at us like we're crazy and says "of course." Fortunately, she tells us that there's another train leaving for Salzburg, and it was leaving in 15 minutes from the same platform.

The train was late. And it was about 35 degrees out. And it was raining. Hard. And when the train finally arrived, it had to wait another 20 minutes before it could leave. And it wasn't an intercity train; it was a regional, which meant it stopped in every single town between Munich West and Salzburg.

Long story short, we were scheduled to get into Salzburg at just after 8:00 PM, and we got in just before 10:30. We were so exhausted, we sprung for a cab back to Haus Wartenberg.



So, that's the end of my adventures from last week. I'm still pretty beat, so I'm taking this weekend off. So no new updates for a while. No idea what I'm gonna do next weekend. It's an extended weekend, no class on Thursday., so I've got an extra full day. I guess I'll try to organize a trip to Normandy or something. I'll be sure to plan and book everything in advance this time. Well, whatever I plan, I'll be sure to keep you all posted.

Until then, peace.

-Raptor.

PS. Feel free to leave comments when you read. I like to know who's visiting the blog.

This is Getting Old

Well, wireless is down again, so I'm stuck using this Mac again, which means no pictures of Amsterdam until it comes back up. This is getting real old real fast.

Peace.

-Raptor

A Week's Travels, Part 2: Paris

Okay, I've got wireless back now. Turns out it's been on for a while, but I only found out about it now. What are you willing to bet it came back right after I posted tat it had gone down?

Anyway, back on topic...

We got into Paris late Sunday morning. No, that's not right; we got into Gare De l'Est just about 10:00 PM, but we spent the next two hours wandering hopelessly lost around a Metro station, and then on the streets of Paris because the directions our Hotel gave us were crap (go to this Metro station and walk 300 meters. In which bloody direction?) So we didn't get to our hotel until after Midnight on Sunday.

Sunday was kind of a boring day. Samantha has a friend who lives in Paris, so she went to hang with her while Dreama and I wandered the streets for a while. Eventually, we made our way to the Arc de Triopmhe, then met up with Sam at the Eiffel Tower.





Honestly, I have to say that the Arc was quite underwhelming. It's much smaller (10%-15%) than I'd expected. The Eiffel Tower was nice, about what I though, and I must say I was somewhat impressed by it.

Monday we did the Free Walking tour of Paris. That was interesting. While we never made it back to either the Arc or the Tower (though we did get glimpses of both), we saw pretty much everything else there was to see in Paris, including Notre Dame, the Paris Opera House (of Phantom of the Opera fame), the Louvre, and a whole bunch of other places that I really can't remember. Sorry (it has been a week, after all!)

Well, anyway, here are some pics of everything.











After the walking tour, we went back to the Louvre and went inside for a little while. Found both the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.





I'm almost ashamed to say this, but neither work of art impressed me much. No, that's a lie; the Venus is quite magnificent. The Mona Lisa, on the other hand... it's... it's just... tiny. I mean real tiny, like smaller-than-your-average-portrait small. Honestly, it wouldn't look out of place hanging on my living room wall back home (and that's saying something).

So, anyway, getting myself back on topic before I go of on a pointless rant about art...

Tues, we tried to get to Normandy Beach. I say tried, because we made it as far as this little nowhere town called Bayeux, about 4.5 miles due south of Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery, before everything fell apart. According to our guidebook, you could either hire a special taxi service or take a tour bus once you get to the train station. First thing we saw after getting off the train was a sign for a taxi service. We call the number, and they say they'll be right there. Half-hour later, no-show. We call back, and they tell us that they're not running the taxis any more that day. So I run across the street to the tour bus station (it's just after 1:00 by this point), and ask if there's room on their 1:15 tour. Guy at the counter says the bus just left, and it was the last tour of the day. Even though it wasn't scheduled to leave for another 15 minutes. So all we could do was wait for the next train back to Paris.

Does the word "heartbroken" mean anything to you?

We were able to salvage some of the day; I got to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. That was pretty spectacular.



Wednesday, we left for Amsterdam. I'll do a quick post on that in a little bit.

Until then, peace.

-Raptor

Stupid Wireless!

Okay, so, first off, I apologize for not getting Paris and Amsterdam pictures up yet. Had two tests this week, and studying for them took priority. Now that it's the weekend (yay), I planned on putting those pics up. Unfortunately, Haus Wartenberg's wireless is acting up (again), so I can't get online via my laptop. Instead, I'm using one of HW's desktops (and it's stupid Euro-spec keyboard) right now. No idea when wireless is going to be fixed, but once it is I'll get Paris and Amsterdam up straightaway.

Until then, peace.

-Raptor

A Week's Travels, Part 1: Lucerne and Interlaken, Switzerland

We left early (as in 12:45 AM) last Friday morning for Lucerne, Switzerland, on an overnight train. Never, ever doing that again. Four people (the three of us plus one other woman) trying to sleep in a compartment that can sort-of-comfortably sleep three is not an experience I care to repeat any time soon. Anyway, we got to Interlaken at about eight in the morning, checked into our hostel, and then promptly all went back to sleep and didn't get up until after noon.

Lucerne was pretty enough, but since most of the city's attractions are actually outside the city, and thus require a dedicated day-trip, and we were only there for one night, we didn't actually do all that much. One thing we did do was check out the Glacier Gardens, which is an area that was carved out by glaciers thousands of years ago. It's really quite something to see.





At the top of the Gardens, which is really the side of a small mountain, there's a rickety old observation tower where you can get a great view of the city.



Also, just below the Garden there is a monument to a group of Swiss Mercenaries who fought on the side of King Louis XVI during the French Revolution and were sent to the guillotine by the victorious revolutionaries.



Aside from that, though, there really wasn't much to do in Lucerne, like I said, so we just mainly hung out near Lake Lucerne and the Reuss River.





One funny story from our time in Lucerne: the three of us (Samantha, Dreama, and myself) were waiting for the light to change so we could cross the street when a brand-new Ferrari (F430 Scuderia Spider 16M, if you're really interested) turns the corner and roars past us. Me being me, I stare after it with my mouth hanging open. Sam and Dreama just roll their eyes and say "Dude, come on, it's just a car." To which I respond "It's not just a car, it's a Ferrari." They repeat themselves. "It's just a car." "It's a Ferrari." "It's a car." "It's a Ferrari." So we go back and forth like that for a minute, and the whole time there's this little old man standing on the sidewalk with us. All of the sudden he turns around and gives us a stern glare. I figure he's about to yell at us for being rude Americans when he starts wagging his finger at us. Then he starts to talk. "Is a Ferrari," he firmly declares in the thickest Italian accent I've ever heard.

So, the next day, Saturday, we took a train to Interlaken. Only spent a few hours there before our train to Paris left (actually the train that took us to the TGV that took us to Paris). Oddly enough, even though we were only there for five hours, I think it was my favorite spot in the whole trip, probably because it was so beautiful.









One interesting bit of trivia about Interlaken; they filmed a good portion of the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service near the town. The hotel that features prominently in the film, Piz Gloria, can actually be seen from the town square on a clear day. BTW, if you've never heard of the movie, it's the only one where George Lazenby played 007. If you haven't seen it, rent it. Despite the no-name actor in the lead role, it's actually one of my favorite Bond films.

So, after spending too few hours in Interlaken, it was off to Paris, which will be featured in my next post. So look for Part 2 of my write-up coming soon!

Also, the Toblerone bars in Switzerland are absolutely huge!



That one weighs 400 grams (the ones you can find in the states only weigh 100, for comparison), but they come even bigger; 750 grams are also common, and if you look hard, you can find bars that weigh a whopping 4.5 kilograms! Unfortunately, while I did see a few of those huge bars, I couldn't afford one; they cost upwards of 25 Swiss Francs (one SF is just about equal to one US Dollar).

So, anyway, look for my write-up on Paris soon (probably tomorrow). Until then, peace.

-Raptor

Back from All Over

Well, over the last week, I've been to two different cities in Switzerland, Paris, and Amsterdam. Got back in at 10:00 local time last night, and I'm tired.

I had, for the most part, a pretty good time, though I'm still sad that Normandy fell through (long story). I'll put up some pics and do a full write-up either later today or tomorrow, Monday at the latest. For now, It's just good to be home. Thanks for all your prayers as we traveled all over Europe.