Tag Archives: Alps

Munich and snowboarding the Alps

I can officially leave Germany happily – not only have I fulfilled my goal of seeing the peaks of the Alps but I also RODE the peaks. This past weekend my roommate and I were originally looking to ski locally at a small mountain in the Black Forest. Upon texting our German friend, Matthias, he said, “actually I’m going to Munich this weekend and then heading south to Austria to ski the Alps, want to come?” YES!!

Taking the 6 hour car-ride to Munich, we arrived in the heart of Bavaria. Walking through the city, I loved how…GERMAN it was. One of the locals told us, that Bavaria is like the Texas of Germany and that whenever people think of Germany, they think of the Bavarian proud traditions of liederhosen, beer steins, and weisswurst. Sure enough there was tons of that! The locals greeted us with “Gruss Gott”, which I remember learning from my high school German class. It is equivalent to “Guten Tag” and is specific to the Bavarian region.

Where we stayed in Munich

Matthias is part of a German singing fraternity in Freiburg (very different from American fraternities and not affiliated with the Greek system). He has a sister singing fraternity located in Munich and after a quick call, they offered to house us for the weekend! Receiving our own room in the guesthouse of the home, we were so ecstatic for the great free housing. The brothers were extremely nice and cooked us an authentic Bavarian breakfast. Fresh weisswurst and soft pretzels with a delicious sweet mustard on the side – yummm. (Weisswurst literally means white sausage and was a spongier sausage that comes in a casing that you peel off once you cook them in water.) The brothers also showed us around all of Munich – we couldn’t have asked for better hosts.

The Alps

I love mountain range landscapes and I had been looking forward to the Alps for my entire trip. Clearest blue skies, breath-taking views, and peaceful massive mountains. I was in heaven. After waking at 4:30 AM to drive 3 hours to the Alps, I was re-awakened and revived by the crisp air and scenery. Being acclimated to the sub-freezing slopes of the American North-East, I was remarkably happy to find myself snowboarding without a ski mask and with 2 of my layers tied around my waist. I couldn’t help but exclaim “wow” every time I looked up at the mountains as I went down the slopes …hopefully no one heard me over the swooshing of the snow! Words just can’t do the whole experience justice…

Austrian Alps Austrian Alps me standing before the Austrian Alps

After an exhausting and action-packed weekend, this was one of my favorite trips so far. The Alps were peacefully breath taking. Plus, I fell in love with Bavaria – can’t wait to come back to Munich at the beginning of May.


Location: St Anton am Arlberg, Austria

It has begun!

     Here I am, in Vienna! It is hard to believe that it has already been two full weeks. So much has happened and yet somehow, it seems like I have done so little. It is quite a strange sensation. I just know that I have a LOT more to do and see and experience here.
     Okay, so what have I been up to these last two weeks? Well, firstly, I spent my initial weekend in Vienna in a tiny little town nestled up in the mountains, known as Mariazelle. There we (the IES group) received our several orientations, met with most of the head individuals in the program here in Vienna, became introduced to each other and managed to simultaneously extract a little sampling of Austrian culture from the town. It snowed the entire duration of our stay, adding a certain eerie or gothic feeling to the scene. The main attraction of this city, the founding of which has been traced back to approximately 1150 AD, is the Basilica in the town center. Nearly a million pilgrims per year are recorded visiting the site, making this one of the most visited holy sites in all of Europe.
     Aside from the Basilica, the town was very low key, locals going to the town ski spot a few minutes out, but otherwise, it was a very sleepy sort of town. I have not experiences quite this atmosphere before.
     After our weekend excursion and break in, we drove into Vienna and dispersed, by way of taxi, to our assigned housing. If you are ever in Vienna and can avoid it, do not use taxi. They are quite expensive (as I suspect is the case in most of the world, but have you ever paid in Euro?) This is a fact that I constantly overlook when buying anything here. The simple fact that the Euro –> US dollar is not equal. The items with low price tags are not necessarily good deals. The matter becomes further complicated by the measuring method here. Have you ever bought meat in grams? Or dekagrams? Or drinks in terms of Euro per liter?
     I digress. My first week consisted mainly of trying to figure out the public transportation system, which is heavily relied upon. It takes me 35 minutes (on a good day) to get to school. I walk 5 minutes to hop onto the Stra�enbahn 43. Ride that about 15 minutes then hop onto the U2 which is about a 5 minute walk to and another 5 minute ride. Then I walk another 5 minutes or so to get to the school in the first district (or ‘Bezirk’ as it is called here). The transportation system is quite extensive, as you can imagine, I have gotten lost several times. Many of those times resulting in very extended (originally short) trips across Vienna. 🙂 Good times.
     The most interesting event so far has been the Austrian ball (TU Ball) that I attended just this past Thursday night. It was unlike anything I have yet experienced. I will write more about this and post some videos (if I can figure out how) on here soon!

Closing thought: I have only been here two weeks, but already I feel that I am being stretched as an individual. I have begun broadening horizons in ways I had not imagined. I am excited, but also nervous anticipating how I may continue to grow personally and in what ways I may come to better understand of myself and the world I live in. (and yes, I realize how cliche this sounds, but it is the real McCoy. Ask me sometime where this saying came from if interested)


Location: Vienna, Austria

Our Neutral Friend to the North

After leaving my parents in Rome last weekend, they continued their travels throughout Italy by visiting Pompeii, Naples, and Venice before coming to Milan on Thursday. I showed them around Milan for two days before we left for our next destination, Switzerland. Venturing north into the country famous for mountains, chocolate, cheese, cuckoo clocks, and bank accounts, we had an awesome time and I found the Swiss landscape to be the most incredible that I have ever seen.

Swiss 048.JPGOn Friday evening, we took a train from the Milano Centrale station to Luzerne, a small city located in central Switzerland. The biggest attraction in Luzerne is Mount Pilatus. This mountain is the highest accessible peak in the region and features breathtaking views of the the city and it’s nearby lake. Mount Pilatus features the world’s steepest cog railway and also still serves as a military fortification in case of an attack on Switzerland (the gun emplacements are located just below the tourist viewing gallery). On Saturday, we awoke early and were checked out of our hotel before 8:30 a.m. so that we could reach the summit before the afternoon weather came in and made it impossible to see anything from the top of the peak. Since it is still in the winter in the Alps, the cog railway was not open, so we took a gondola ride up to the top (about 50 francs/person). Although this relatively short ride is pretty expensive, the view was absolutely incredible!

Swiss 085.JPGAfter spending approximately 1.5 hours at the summit, and having listened to a rendition of “Amaing Grace” on the alp-horn, we came down to eat lunch in the city.

Swiss 046.JPGAfter lunch, we visited the second most famous attraction in Luzerne, the “Dying Lion Monument.”  The Swiss have a long, proud history of neutrality, but they also have a storied tradition of sending mercenaries and hired protection across the world, the most famous of which serve the Pope in Vatican City. During the 17th and 18th centuries, a faction of the Swiss Officers and guards were charged with the protection of the French royal family. In 1791, the famed French monarch Louis XVI was forced to flee from his Palace at Versailles to the Tuileries Palace in Paris due to French insurgents during the French Revolution. He was then forced to flee again and ordered his protective guards to stand down and return to their barracks, but this message failed to reach the unit. These brave soldiers fought to nearly the last man and those who were not killed in the resistance were quickly executed by way of the guillotine. Known as the “Lions of Luzerne,” these soldiers are commemorated with this stunning statue carved into a rock face located within Luzerne. Above the statue is an inscription that reads, “Helvetiorum Fedei ac Virtuti,” meaning “To the Loyalty and Bravery of the Swiss.” Of all of the monuments, paintings, and sculptures that I have seen in Europe, this one was the most moving as it was the only one that truly was able to capture emotion and empathy into the work.

Swiss 124.JPGOn Saturday night, we left Luzerne to head to Wengen, a small mountain village located in the southern portion of the country near Interlaken. In order to reach this town, we had to take a train to Interlaken and then take a cog railway up to Wengen. Located within the heart of the Alps, this small village is a very popular spot to stay for skiers. However, our attraction to this place was it’s close vicinity to three of the most famous peaks in the Swiss Alps, the Eiger, the Monch, and the Jungfrau. From Wengen, there is a unique opportunity to take the Jungfrau expressway up to the highest railway station in Europe, the so-called “Top of Europe,” that is located about midway up the Jungfrau. Due to it’s absurdly high cost (about 165 francs/person!) we decided to just take the train to the Kleine Scheidegg station, which is located at the base of the Eiger.

The Eiger is one of the most famous rock climbing destinations in the entire world due to its treacherous and challenging Eiger Nordwand (or Eiger North Wall). Here is a clip showcasing this famed rock face:

At the base of this mountain, I was completely in awe of the beauty of the mountains in front of me and couldn’t believe that I was standing in front of three of the most famous peaks in the world. For anyone traveling to Switzerland, this is a must-see! We stayed at this station for about 2.5 hours while we walked around small surrounding trails and ate lunch, then headed down. We got back to our hotel in Wengen, grabbed our luggage and left. I headed back to Milan while my parents headed to Zurich to catch their flight home the following day.

Swiss 159.JPGIt was great seeing my parents over the past 10 days and we had a lot of fun throughout Italy and Switzerland!


Location: Luzerne, Switzerland