Travels

So Vienna is really cool. I feel like I'm finally getting used to it and becoming more familiar with where to go, what to see and do, where to buy stuff, etc. But just when I get used to it, I leave to go travel for a week.

So today I'm in Geneva, Switzerland for a night. Yesterday we were in Innsbruck, which is in western Austria. The Alps are amazing, and traveling by train allowed us to see so much. Speaking of traveling by train, it's quite an experience. It's my understanding that trains aren't really used for transport too much in many parts of the U.S. It was pretty cheap for us to get around, and our tickets enable us to spend as much time as we want in each of the stops within a month. We had a really successful conversation in German with an old Austrian lady on the train, but some parts were a bit fuzzy. She said something about her nephew being a puppeteer, a black man in a church, and a golden roof (which we later found was an actual place in Innsbruck).

In the hostel in Innsbruck, one of the people in our room was an older man from Iran. He works in the hotel industry and has seen many parts of the world and speaks about 4 or 5 languages. He was really cool to talk to. But another older man that was in our room masturbated in the middle of the night, right next to David.

Innsbruck was beautiful. It felt like an older, European version of Boulder. It's a whole lot less busy and stressful than Vienna, that's for sure, and the mountains are huge, jagged, and very close. We ended up in kind of a tourist-trap restaurant. They refused to serve tap water, even beside another drink. I ate pretzels that were already set on the table, and when I got the check I was asked how many I ate, and then charged for them. Other than that, it was really pleasant. I found a really cool place that would be great for a proposal.

It's on a bridge over the river in Innsbruck. Pretty sweet.

Right when we hit Zurich, the language turned into an even split between French and German. Here in Geneva, the language is all French. I did not know this. Apparently some bits of southern Switzerland also has Italian as an official language. That kind of explains the historical neutrality of the Swiss. Things are also stupid expensive. To my right is a burger stand where burgers sell for 6 Swiss Francs, which is about $6. I'm glad we're only staying one day.

Tomorrow we're off to Chamonix, where we're going to see Mont Blanc, the highest peak in western Europe. After that is Milan, where we're meeting up with some fellow DU students studying there. This weekend we're heading to Munich for Oktoberfest. More to come after this week of fun stuff.