Cinque Terre, Italy

View from our hotel balcony

After the 10 day break it was time to come back to the Villa and start the BIT section of the semester. This is exciting for me because now that we are done with finance I can start focusing on my double major classes in BIT and Management. BIT is also a lot less lecture intensive than Finance and more focused on interaction and group work. This is a relief from being in class 8 to 10 hours a day and it is nice to learn about something I might work with in the future. After what seemed like a quick week, we got on a train for Cinque Terre, Italy. Cinque Terre is Italian for the "Five Lands" and is made up of 5 villages on the coast of Northwestern Italy. We figured this would be one of the last weekends to get to the beach before it got too cold so we took advantage of being only a 4 hour train ride away. Matt's family had been to one of the villages, Monterosso al mare, before so we decided to stay there at the hotel where he knew the owner.

The group in the beach at Monterosso al mare

Monterosso was a perfect home base for the weekend because it is the only sand beach of the five and it has a strip of everything in the town right on the beach. It was easy to get around because everything was concentrated in a small area. It also has Old Town Monterosso if you walk a little ways back from the water. From the moment we got off the train we ended up having one of the best weekends yet. The weather was perfect and you got the feeling of being at beach town where everyone was just trying to relax. All this coupled with the fact that you are constantly looking out to the Mediterranean Sea with Mountain shooting straight up from the water makes it a pretty decent place to just hangout for a couple days. When we got to the hotel, Signore Poggi, the hotel owner was very helpful with telling us all we needed to know. He told us about a boat tour for only 8 euro that would take us all the way down to the 5th village with amazing views from the water. He also reserved a table for us at a famous Monterosso seafood restaurant called Belvedere for Saturday night. That ended up being one of the best seafood experiences I have ever had, but more on that later. After checking in and getting ourselves settled, we went down to hangout at the beach. We got a perfect spot close to the water with seemingly no one around and where just able to relax and take in the scenery. There was a couple from California sitting behind us and we talked to them for a while. They told us about how they always come to Monterosso and everyone is so friendly and it is a nice little known place to get to a beach. After a while we asked her to take a group picture of us and she ended up making a photo shoot out of it, with pyramids and all kinds of different group poses. After a couple minutes it seemed like all the local Italians were stopping on the boardwalk watching and laughing 'with' us. It was all in good fun and we ended up making another couple friends in the process.

View from the boat

After the beach we went back in to clean up and planned on going to a different restaurant recommended by Signore Poggi. Most of the group was just hungry and wanted something quick but Cody and I were determined to get some authentic Monterosso food so we went to find the restaurant. It ended up being a little out of our college student budget so we ended up having a very 'manly' dinner by sharing 3 courses right on the water in the moonlight. Regardless of what that sounds like it was one of the best dinners I have ever had. Cinque Terre is famous for it's pesto and our first course was hand-rolled noodles with pesto and it was some of the best pasta I ever had. After that we got a a steak that was so juicy with peppers and other vegetables on the side. And yes we even shared a dessert, tiramisu. At the end of dinner I had one of the few negative interactions with foreigners that I have had so far on this trip. There was a Canadian couple sitting next to us who came up out of no where and started saying how we were being loud and giving America a bad reputation, and that we should be ashamed. We looked around at this OUTDOOR restaurant and noticed no one else seemed bothered at all, our waiter even came up to us after to say he had no problems. I said some things that I will keep out of my blog to them and they ended up switching tables and looked very angry for the rest of our meal. After we finished our meal we went up to sort of 'apologize' but more let them know that we finished our meal in peace and had no problems with the restaurant or anyone else around us. All in all it was one of the best meals I had ever had.

Manarola

The next morning we woke up and walked around Monterosso for a little bit before taking another one of Signore Poggi's tips. We took a boat from Monterosso that goes along the coast past all 5 towns before dropping you off at the last one. This was a great way to do Cinque Terre because you are able to see the beautiful views from the water before walking through and seeing it up close. Each of the 5 towns has the same basic idea of cool looking houses concentrated around a port nestled in the mountains. Once you are able to walk around you can start to notice the differences between each town. My favorite one was the second one we stopped at, Manarola. The first thing you notice are a bunch of bright colored small houses built on the mountains over looking the water. It also had vineyards lining some of the hills that faced the water. We walked around here for almost 2 hours just seeing the sights and enjoying the atmosphere of this quiet town. After hitting all of the towns we made it back to Monterosso in time for our highly anticipated seafood dinner.

Octopus!!!

When we arrived at the restaurant there was a table reserved for us right on the edge of the patio with a perfect view of the water. Signore Poggi even ordered for us and there were 3 huge empty bowls sitting down the middle of the table. We ordered a few bottles of Cinque Terre white wine made in nearby Italy and waited to see what was in store for us. The waiter brought out a huge pot and said our main course was going to be soup. He dumped out what looked like a brownish broth with a few tomatoes in  it and said 'enjoy' before walking away. We all kind of looked at each other surprised, but were still optimistic considering what we had heard about this restaurant. Maybe it was a really really really good tasting broth?? After walking away for about two steps, the waiter stopped, turned around, and said oops, looks like theres still a little bit more in here. Then we were in heaven, piles of mussels, clams, huge shrimp they called prawns, and a lobster tail filled up the bowl. The last thing to come out of the pot was a full octopus, head, tentacles and all ready to eat on top of everything! Once you got past the texture, it kinda tasted like chicken. This served with amazing warm bread with pesto on it, made this the best seafood meal I have ever had.

After sunrise on the way to the train station

Cinque Terre is so great because there are 5 completely different towns so close by that are centered around the beach and amazing seafood. The only negative from the weekend is that the 5 towns are connected by awesome hiking trails that we were not able to do because of bad weather conditions. I guess that just means I am going to have to go back soon!

Dachau and Munich, Germany

Shopping trip in Dachau

The last leg of our trip was just a short train ride away in Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest. This is something I have been talking about for almost a year and it was finally here. Since we had such a big group, we were able to get a house in Dachau about 30 minutes outside of the center of Munich. Kind of like when I stayed with my coach in Prague, this was cool to be somewhere away from the big city and experience some of the non-touristy culture. Our house ended up being kind of in the middle of no where and really tested our resourcefulness and everything we have learned as travelers through Europe. Our original plan was to walk to a local grocery store to get food for the weekend since we had a kitchen to cook in. Once we realized we were in the middle of nowhere we had to figure something else out. Luckily Alice speaks fluent German and was able to talk to our neighbor to find out where the nearest grocery store was. As we were getting ready to walk 4 km, he came out and offered to drive Alice, Cody, and I to the store for 5 euros. This was very nice and a great experience because we got to ride through the rolling hills of Dachau and the man was really helpful in helping us shop at a grocery store in Germany. We filled the entire cart with supplies for spaghetti, sandwiches, and breakfast foods for the entire weekend. Then he took us to a store nearby to get Augustiner Brau beer in spirit of Oktoberfest. After about an hour and over 200 euros we were stocked for the weekend. We ended up paying our neighbor 20 euros and a few beers for his troubles.

The shopping adventure was just the beginning of the excitement at our place in Dachau. The doorknob to the kitchen was broken and had fallen out a few times as we were unloading all the groceries. Every time we were able to just put it back in without any issue so we didn't think it would be a problem. When we had dinner that night, all 12 of us were in the kitchen having a family dinner in a kitchen that probably was not meant for 12 people at a time. Someone bumped the door stop and the door shut with the knob falling out to the outside of the door. There was no way to open the door from the inside with the knob and metal rod sitting just inches away on the other side. This wouldn't be too bad except that the kitchen was on the second floor and Matt informed us he was planning on taking a bath and the tub was running. After about 45 minutes of arguing and coming really close to us trying to kick the door down, Matt was able to climb down to the first floor and in to an open window to let us out. The floor of the kitchen and bathroom was made of stone tiles so there was ultimately no damage from the flood. It ended up being just another fun adventure to add to the trip!

Roll call square at the Dachau Concentration Camp

The next day we woke up early to go tour the Concentration camp at Dachau. This was the type of thing that is incredibly dreary and depressing, but very powerful. There were monuments and memorials that did an excellent job of honoring victims and giving you a good feel of what they went through. Some things that stuck out to me where the size and style of the barracks where people had to live, the size of the roll call square, the crematorium, and the surrounding fence and 'no man's land'. The barracks were built with bunk beds that were designed to fit 180 prisoners but ended up getting crammed to fit almost 400. The roll call square was a huge open area at the beginning of the prison that would hold 40-50,000 prisoners. They would be called to roll call to be counted every morning and night and would some times have to stand there for hours or be punished for no reason. The crematorium is such a horrible thing to even think about, and the more I read/heard about it while I was in Dachau made it even worse. Finally, the fence around the whole prison and the gate at the opening gives you the feeling of how the prisoners felt closed in during their time there. All these terrible facts put together make you wonder how people could ever let something terrible like this happen.

Munich City Center

On a lighter note, after leaving Dachau we went in to Munich for the rest of the day to get a feeling of the city before Oktoberfest. The city was incredibly crowded because opening day was the next day, but it was still cool to walk around for a couple hours and explore. The main square was my favorite part where there is a huge clock tower and all kinds of amazing buildings surrounding the plaza. The highlight of the day was meeting a few Bavarian locals who gave us the lowdown on Oktoberfest and plenty of tips on how to make the most of it. After walking around the city we called it a night fairly early after an event free spaghetti dinner where we kept the door open the whole time.

The morning of Oktoberfest was one of the most exciting of the trip so far. We woke up at 5 am to get ready for our 6am van ride. We cooked up all the leftover pasta and made bacon and egg sandwiches to bring with us. All the guys got dressed in our hats from Austria and German suspenders from Berlin. We definitely looked like tourists but it was all part of the experience to have fun with it. Martin the cab driver picked us up in his big van at 6am sharp and we were ready to roll. He knew we were headed to Oktoberfest and even though he did not speak english he tried to get us pumped up by blasting some interesting European pop music on the ride to the train station.

7 am outside of the Augustiner tent with our ponchos
and Oktoberfest gear

We got on our train and were planted in front of the Augustiner Brau tent at 7:00 am. Even though it was raining and we still had 2 hours to wait, it was a great experience and everyone had lots of fun just getting excited for the day. The guys we met the day before were exactly right and the line started to fill up soon after we arrived. They said go to Augustiner because it is the best beer and most authentic experience without as many tourists. As the 9 am open time got closer we started getting pushed closer and closer together until the mad rush that happened as they let people get tables. It is very important to get a table in the tents because that is the only way they will serve you. We met up with some other friends also so our group ended up being about 20. The doors opened at 9 and just like our local friends said it was packed at 9:03. Luckily we were able to snag two tables right in the middle of it all and next to the band. Now the real waiting started. Because it was opening day, they didn't serve the first beer until after the parade and the mayor tapped the first keg at 12 noon. We ate a lot of Bavarian pretzels and did a lot of sitting around. All the waiting was so worth it as 12 o clock got closer. There were all kinds of people from all over the world and everyone was there to have a good time and party with some of the best beer in the world. Another piece of advice that really helped us was to always tip the waiter. We had been tipping on our pretzels as we were waiting and we had our first round of beers sitting on the table at 12:03. We considered this quite the feet with all the tables around us that were still waiting.  That is when the real fun began.

Inside the Augustiner Tent

The waiters were very impressive with their ability to carry these huge liter mugs like it was nothing. Our guy brought all 10 at once with them stacked on top of each other in a huge circle. I am not exaggerating when I say Augustiner is the best beer I have ever had. It was so smooth and easy to drink and I found myself cruising through the liters without even realizing it. The tents at Oktoberfest are able to fit 5,000 people so there were so many opportunities to mingle with locals and other people from around the world. I had a few long conversations with some Bavarians that were about my age right at the table next to us and said our friend was exactly right about Augustiner being the best tent to go for the authentic experience. One of the highlights of Oktoberfest is when a guy stands on top of his table until everyone is watching and cheering and he chugs his beer in front of 5,000 people cheering him on. After about 5 hours of the Augustiner tent a few friends and I went out to check out the rest of the festival. We went on 3 roller coasters and the huge swings that rise up and give you a view of all of Munich, including all the tents of Oktoberfest. Thinking back on it, my favorite thing about Oktoberfest was the fact that people from all different cultures and places in the world all come together and get along for the cause of having a good time. Especially in contrast with what I thought about in Dachau, it makes you wonder why there is so much hate in the world when it is so easily possible to get along.

After 10 days, 5 cities, 3 countries and countless stories and experiences it was time to head back to the villa and everyone was more than ready. The longer we spend here the more and more Riva feels like home. It is always so great to get back to the slow moving friendly town where we feel comfortable to live. Daniella is always there to help us with anything and Luigi and Guytano always put amazing food on the table. The past 10 days gave me some of the best conversations, sites, and overall times that I have ever had in my life and Oktoberfest was a perfect conclusion to another chapter in my adventure through Europe.

Salzburg, Austria

After leaving Prague we headed south for Salzburg, Austria. I had been excited to get to Austria ever since I decided to study abroad because my Grandparents always told me that was their favorite place in the world to visit. Even though we were only there for a short visit, I was not disappointed.

Market section of the festival

Missing the train from Prague only set us back about an hour and we were in Salzburg by dinner time. We all ate at the hostel and being in Austria, I ordered my first Wiener Schnitzel. Not at all what I expected. I was expecting some kind of hot dog with sauerkraut or something like that. It ended up being really good and very similar to a thin shake and bake pork that my mom makes at home. When we were eating dinner we heard a guy playing guitar and singing right outside the hostel. He sounded pretty good so we went outside to check it out and it ended up being the same guy that was playing at our hostel in Nice, France! He had told us he was just going around Europe hanging out and playing music, but it was unbelievable to meet up at 2 different hostels in 2 completely different cities in Europe. Things like this are what continue to make talking to people from around the world my favorite part of this trip. Our hostel was decorated everywhere with Sound of Music posters and facts and is famous for playing the movie every single day at 10am since it came out. That's everyday for over 50 years!

View of the Salzach River

The next morning we woke up early to get a head start walking around the city. One of my first impressions of Salzburg was how nice and friendly the people are. We were at an intersection looking for an ATM and without even asking 2 different people came up and offered us help and directed us where we needed to go. Little things like that go a long way when you are in a foreign country that speaks a different language. We happened to be in Salzburg right in time for a festival that was set up all over the city. Because of this we decided to just walk around with no plans and see everything we could before our 4:30 train. There was all kinds of booth's set up with foods, drinks, and arts. As we walked through I tried the most amazing pesto and pepperoni spread on fresh bread. Once again everyone there was no nice and eager to talk to us about what they were selling. We also tried some Kombucha called Carpe Diem. They had cranberry, classic, and quitte. We got a really good deal and ended up buying a few bottles to have for the day. Quitte was my favorite partly because it was an interesting fruit I had never heard of. As we walked through the markets we made our way over to a bridge that crossed the Salzach River. We stopped there for a while to take pictures of the market and old town Salzburg that laid ahead.

Hohensalzburg Castle

On our way to Old Town Salzburg we passed all kinds of shops dedicated to Mozart, as Salzburg was his hometown. We wanted to see the Hohensalzburg Castle so we continued to head into Old Town and toward it. This must have been the central location for the festival because there were all kinds of carnival rides and booths set up for people to enjoy. Before we got to the castle we stopped to check out the Salzburg Cathedral. It was unbelievable to see the detail and sheer size of this building, considering how long ago it was built. Originally built in the first millennium, the Salzburg Cathedral has been damaged and rebuilt a few times over the year, which gives it unique history. We spent a lot of time in the Cathedral because it has so much to offer and is even nice to just sit there and reflect while you check out the detailed walls and high ceilings. After leaving the cathedral we made our way up to the top of the hill. We passed a local street vendor and all the guys bought hats that we decided would be perfect for our upcoming trip to Oktoberfest.

View from top of the Castle

The last stop in Salzburg was the top of the hill to see the Hohensalzburg Castle. This was amazing for two reasons. The castle itself was a major fortress that was cool to walk around in and see, but also being at the top gave us the best views in Salzburg. Being at the top of the castle made me realize why my grandparents love Salzburg so much. It was one of the most amazing views I have seen so far in Europe. I could see mountains, historical buildings, and the Salzach River running through.

All the guys with our Oktoberfest hats

On the way down through the festival we stopped for lunch and I had the best chocolate covered fruit I can remember. It had banana, strawberry, apple, grapes, and pineapple and I went back for seconds. It was a great way to top of the day in Salzburg while we headed for the train station.