Another Week in Austria

So the past week I've been in Upper Austria staying with Dani's family. You probably have never heard of Upper Austria, and you probably don't really know anything about it... Basically I've been visiting and seeing lots of lakes and mountains. That's pretty much what Upper Austria consists of (at least my experience with it).

What else... I've eaten a bit more Austrian cuisine

--sausages, knödel, a pork barbecue type thing (not really like southern bbq). I've also had a fair amount of Almdudler which is an Austrian soda... kind of like lemonade with herbs... a mix of iced tea and lemonade... I don't quite know, but it's good.

Yesterday I went on a day trip to Salzburg. That was pretty nice. It's the second real city I've seen in Austria. It's not really that big--especially for its reputation--but it's nice. The city is surrounded by some mountains with castles and churches and whatnot on some of them. It has some pretty parks and what I assume were some sorts of palaces. Mostly, it's famous for being Mozart's hometown. Both the house where Mozart was born as well as another house he grew up in are "museums." I didn't feel either of them were worth the € 7 entry fee though. It was a nice little city though. I'm glad I got to see it. I'm not sure I'd go back just because I don't know what else there would really be to do there, but I wouldn't be against returning. I'd suggest visiting if you're ever somewhere in Austria or Germany not too far from it.

So the last trip for this post is one I took today. I visited the Mauthausen concentration camp about an hour away from here. It's the only concentration camp I've visited, so I don't quite know how it compares in terms of the experience and everything. I do know, though, that it was one of the bigger labor camps. I'm glad I got to see it. It was basically a self-guided tour, but they did give these little audio things you could carry around to learn more about certain areas. I'm not sure it was as moving or as powerful as I'd expected, but I do think it's an important thing to experience.

Here We Go

So, to sum up the next 15 or so months of my life... I am currently in Vienna, Austria for the summer visiting my girlfriend. I'll also be doing a bit of traveling around Austria and the rest of Europe while I am here. In September, I'm going to start a Master's program in economics at University College London in the UK, and that will last for 12 months. I figured a good way to help me remember my time here as well as stay somewhat connected with people back home would be to keep a blog, so that's where we are now.

I'm going to try to update this pretty often,

and I'll also try to include a fair amount of pictures. However, they might be a bit delayed until I get this from back home.

Anyway, I guess I'll give a bit of a recap of the past week. I left the USA for Austria (via London Heathrow) on July 3... Unfortunately I had to miss the 4th of July. Granted, it's not the first time that's happened. I've spent the past few days visiting lots of parks, castles, and old buildings. I've already eaten a few kebabs and sausages, and I'm sure there are many more to come. Tonight Dani's parents are picking us up, and we'll be visiting Upper Austria for the next week. I've been informed that there is some sort of beer tent thing going on tomorrow night in the small village where I'll be, and I will almost certainly be tested by the locals in my American drinking ability... I guess we'll see how that goes. Anyway, I'm going to figure out something to do today. There should be more of these to come soon.