Welcome to the last week

I should probably be sleeping but oh well.

Today is the first day of my last week in Salzburg. It's a little sad, but when this program ends I have 3 weeks of amazing adventures through other parts of Europe...so it's not like I'll be bored. Plus it's really easy to leave somewhere when you know you'll be back a week later, even if just for a few days.

So last night was the celebration for Liz's 21st birthday. I didn't go though...I was soooo sick. I just went to bed. So they all stayed out and up till crazy hours of the night. So when I got up this morning after 10 hours of sleep, I was quite well rested while the rest of the were dragging. Unfortunate for them as today was a crazy day.

So we met Dr Howes at the bus stop at 11:15 and we took a nice little ride over the German-Austrian border to Berechtesgaden, which used to be under US Military control. It is a cute little town with a lot of mean hills to walk up. We went to lunch at a beer garden which Bowling Green paid for. I got these cheese dumpling things (which smelled bad but weren't actually all that bad tasting) with a salad and fries. Then we had to run to catch our bus up to the Eagle's nest which we missed anyway.

In the process of hurrying to catch our bus, we lost Dylan, who is like the one person here who doesn't have a cell phone. We while the rest of us went to the Information center to find out what else we could do in this town, Sarah and Jenn went to the main bus station to see if Dylan went there. Of course he did not. So while at the Information Center we learned that there was actually another bus we could catch, but it was in 15 minutes and we would have to hurry if we were going to catch it. So we called Sarah and Jenn and told them to wait for us at the bus station. We decided Dylan could find his own way home. While basically running towards the bus station, we found Dylan sitting on a bench by the cemetery we ran through. So he came along too. We just barely made the bus and we headed up the steep mountain roads to the Documentary center. Well we ran into a problem. One of the busses was off schedule and we met with them just in the narrowist and windiest parts of the road. So we had to direct all the traffic behind us around us and then back up down this really steep road...it was scary...so the bus went around us (just like 4 inches from us) and then we continued the ride up the mountain. When we got there, we explored the Documentary center and the underground bunkers that Hitler had built. Then I took lots of pictures of the amazing mountains we were surround by, and then we headed home. We got back around 6. I ate dinner and then uploaded more photos.

Then we headed into the city. Yesterday was the start of the festspiel-the big festival in Salzburg that includes hundreds of events such as orchestras and operas over a month long period. Every night at 9:15 there is an event on the big screen in the Kapitel Platz. They show highlights form past years. Tonight was last year's Romeo and Juliet opera performance. We went to watch it. It was really cool but also chilly so we left after intermission.

So that was my day. Tomorrow is another dreaded day of class and then we are celebrating Liz's actual birthday. We are going out to dinner all together to a local beer garden and then going back to Hotel Stein for drinks. Should be interesting.

Well that's all for now

Lots more pictures are up...

Sarah