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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 :-) 

Thanksgiving in Austria

I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving time... December is just around the corner :)


Salzburg College had arranged for a local Austrian restaurant to cook our group a traditional American Thanksgiving lunch! It was complete with pumpkin soup, mashed potatoes & gravy, corn, peas, carrots, cranberry sauce, stuffing and a HUGE turkey! The food was delicious and it was a great time.

Probably the largest meal I've eaten in Europe, haha.

The damage :)

Leftovers

Apple Strudel!

Christmas Cookies!

I was very excited to find out that my host mom bakes all through November, creating several different kinds of christmas cookies just like my mom and aunt do at home every year! Except Austrian cookies are very different from the sweet cookies we usually make at home... They are made with nuts, eggs as glazing instead of frosting, and natural ingredients of course.  We started by making home made marmalade (Jam) with home grown blackberries, then made lots of different treats!

Making home made marmalade! (Blackberry jam)

Making cookie bars, with fresh jam.

Then it was covered in lots of ground, fresh nuts.

We made one apricot and one raspberry. Then cooked them,
cut into little triangles and heated up chocolate.

The white and dark chocolate was sprinkled over
the whole thing!

Cookies originating from Lintz!

Filled with home made jam, of course.
And sprinkled with powdered sugar!

Cocoanut balls... It took me forever to roll them all out!

Hand-rolled balls in cocoanut! 

All done! We ran out of little cup holders
so I had to put the rest in the box without them :)

Gingerbread cut out cookies!

Decorated with different nuts and fruits, glazed in egg

Gingerbread covered in dark chocolate.

And decorated with nuts, fruit and sprinkles!

Alexandra, my 6 year old host sister, helped me decorate
them all :)

PRAHA (Prague, Czech Republic)

Even though we arrived in Prague at night, the city was lit and beautiful.  The hostel was only a 10 minute walk from the train station, and was the best hostel I have stayed at so far--it was clean, had a great location, and the wifi actually worked.  

Our full day in Prague was spent spontaneously exploring the city without a map.  Prague is also among the most beautiful places I have seen; they love bright colors and unique art.  The entire town glows a golden color from the sun, especially at dusk.  The main river was also beautiful, and I found some great art pieces on the bridge from small independent stands selling authentic art.  We also walked up to the castle fortress, which is the largest in the world! Overall, my time in Prague was not long enough and I loved every second of this city!

Part of the castle 

Beautiful Praha!

Hot chocolate on the castle :)

Boat cruise tour at dusk

On the boat cruise

Atomic clock

Weird puppets that are everywhere!!!

Me, Allie, Sydney

Castle fortress in the background

local currency

Inside the castle church

View from the castle