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Venice, Italy

Family arrives in Salzburg!

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Farewell Party & Packing

Phoebe, the Salzburg College director, arranged a farewell party for all the Fall 2010 Salzburg students.  First, we watched a music concert performed by those who are music majors; this included about 4 girls out of our 13 student class.
Following the concert we had a buffet style dinner with typical Austrian food.  There was goulash, meats, cheeses, breads, spread, etc. AND... a delicious cake!!!

Farewell Cake

Buffet dinner... this was before it was set-up completely.
The whole table was completely full with food!

As the semester comes to a close, I am faced once again with the challenge of packing. This is not something I enjoy and it looks like a tornado went through my room! I am still figuring out how to bring back all the souvenirs and Christmas presents I bought... thankfully my family is bringing an extra suitcase for me when they come to visit!  

It looks like a tornado went through... plus I still have my
whole closet to pack!

Getting there... I think someone is going to have to sit on
my suitcases so I can close them!

My host mom gave me a St. Nick bag of goodies!

Christkindlmarkt

I thought everyone in the United States was crazy about Christmas... but Austrians take it to a whole new level! Decorations were up all over Salzburg by early November (before Thanksgiving, when most Americans turn on lights and trees).  Recently, the Christkindlmarkt's opened as well! These are markets with hand made crafts, christmas decorations, food, traditional Austrian things for sale.  There are several all over town; there is even one up in the Castle!


First, my host family took me to Schloss Helbrunn, the summer palace of royalty.  Here Alexandra got to ride ponies, trains, and participate in childrens events.  I found a giraffe and elephant cookie cutter here, and ate Bosnas (traditional Austrian food).


In the Old Town there is a very large market which I also included pictures from.  I have been through the market two or three times and see new things all the time, it is so huge! One day walking to class I accidently found ANOTHER Christkindlmarkt in an beer garden--they are literally everywhere! (But so awesome.)

Kids tent with a fire for cooking sausage and s'mores!
Schloss Helbrunn

Alexandra riding her favorite pony.
Schloss Helbrunn.

The market I ran into on accident.

Hand made squirrel! In the main market in
the Old Town.

Lots of ornaments everywhere!

Traditional food... pretzles, beer, punsch, schnapps

yummmm!

Main market in the Old Town.

Really cool hand crafted clay decoration tent.

Winter Wonderland

Yesterday the snow fell all day, and to my delight it was still there today!  The sun was shining and it was a perfect day, so I decided to hike the Mönchsberg and take pictures of beautiful Salzburg.

Old Town & the castle

New Town meets Old Town

New Town

Salzburg College is basically directly below where I was standing taking these pictures as the building is built INTO the mountain; there are very similar views from classroom windows... Let's just say that I daydream a lot :-)