Bam!

Well everyone, I have a lot to catch up on. These two weeks have been action-packed. I'll start with the oldest news:

Our Free Travel Weekend.


For my travelweekend, I went with Kristian and Kelly to Bratislava, capitol of Slovakia, Budapest, capitol of Hungary, and Schladming, a random mountain resort town.

Bratislava:

What I found most interesting about B. was the difference between that city and any other I have ever visited in Europe. I could definitely see the effects of communism and Soviet rule. The standard of living was lower. Most parts of the city were rather rundown. The inner city felt more like a ghost town than a bustling capitol city. It was very quiet.

Budapest:

I could also feel a difference in Budpest. Hungary was also under communist rule until 1989. We visited the House of Terror, a museum about the Nazi and Soviet occupation of Hungary. Some of the stories were truly terrifying. I can't imagine living through two such merciless and cruel regimes. Our stay overlapped with the Hungarian national holiday celebrating the 1956 Revolution. On October 23, 1956, Hungarians broke away from communist rule for 12 days in an attempt to establish a freer country. At the end of the 12 days, Soviet military came into Hungary and crushed the rebellion.

Budapest was an interesting and beautiful city. Its history is very closely intertwined with Austria's, so I was familiar with many historical figures common to both histories.

Schladming:

We chose to go here simply to grasp a different perspective of Austria--one that was outside of the large cities. Schladming is located in Steiermark, a southern province of Austria. It is a skiing town. When our hostess (we stayed at a really cheap, but really nice, bed and breakfast) met us at the train station, one of the first things she asked was if we had come for the skiing. I think my heart broke at that moment. Skiing? In October?! I was really sad that the only full day we were there was Sunday.

On Sunday, we took a bus up the mountain side to the base of Dachstein. That ride was the most pictureseque of my life. Large thick patches of forest lay on the mountainside. Seperating the forest was large bright green fields. Dairy cows, sheep (with lambs!), and sturdy horses grazed peacefully on the thick carpet of grass. Across the hills you could see large Hofs or Gasthause.

At the end of the bus line we took a gondola up to the peak of Dachstein to see the Dachtein glacier. The view was gorgeous. And there was a mini ski resort on the glacier. I just about died inside.