Its been five days since I arrived in Innsbruck, and I must say it is beautiful! It seems you have a view of the Alps no matter where you are in the city. I was one of the first from my school to make it to the Haus Panorama (my home for the next six wks), the director greeted me as I arrived. I told him my name, and what school I was with, and immediately he had a key in his hand and he lead me a very short distance to my flat. I paid an additional fee so I can have a room with no roommates, and I must say that money was well spent. I open my door, and enter my "sitting room," and am immediately drowned by the sun streaming through the large window. I have a small table, and a large storage area. At the end of the sitting room, I open another door and turn left, entering what I would call my "hall way." In my hallway is a floor to ceiling wardrobe, (it would receive praise from almost any woman) and right off my hallway is the bathroom. Small, but it does the job. The water in the shower runs super hot, so I will not complain. In the hallway is another piece of furniture, a place I could sit to put my shoes on if I needed to, and then the 3rd and final door.
I was very happy to see what was behind door number three. A large L-shaped desk, two chairs, a small tv all on one side of the room. Opposite the desk is a bed that feels smaller than a twin. (I have not rolled over in the middle of the night and ended up on the floor...YET) The best thing about my room is that it came equipped with a two burner stove, a mini fridge, and a sink to was dishes. I was able to unpack everything and get settled in rather quickly. The rooms do not have a/c but the windows open very wide, and so far there has been a nice breeze everyday.
The group flight finally arrived and for the second time ever I got to meet/interact with all the people from my school on this program. I will quickly admit I felt a little out of place. Not because of the age difference, but because it seemed everyone already knew everyone, and their cliques were already formed.
"This will be a long six weeks," I thought to myself.
The first night in Innsbruck was very laid back, we had a group "welcome to Austria" type dinner, where some traditional Weiner Schnitzel, and I must say it was alot better than the fried pork chops my mother makes! (JUST KIDDING MOM)
Dinner was followed up with a few beers, and an early bed time because I was still recovering from my last night in Germany.
Sunday morning there was an orientation meeting where we learned more about the area we were in, and we even took the city bus to the school so our professors were sure we won't have any trouble getting to or from class. My first impression as I started to walk toward the old city center was one of amazement. I have said it before, but I will say it again, I grew up in Florida, historical buildings in Port St. Lucie are from the 1940s if you are lucky, while some of these buildings that I am looking at were originally built in the 1700s, or before. I think my favorite thing to have seen so far is Golden Roof.
The Golden Roof was built by Archduke Friedrick IV, in the early 15th Century. It was constructed to serve as a royal box where Emperor Maximilian could sit and enjoy various tournaments in the square below. The roof tiles are not solid gold, but copper, that has had gold "fired" onto it, a old process, similar to Gold plating used today. I have not gotten to see many sites so far, but I have found a beer garden. It is called the Hofgarten. It is located directly inside a park, a few mins away from the old city center. They serve excellent tasting, ice cold beer! I was expecting to have one or two beers, and call it a night, but as I was outside smoking, I struck up some conversation with two gentleman. It turned out they were Law School students from St. Mary's University of Law, in Texas. They too had come to Europe early to travel before school started, so we compared stories. Paris vs. Hamburg, Munich vs. London, I can only hope they walked away with some traveling ideas like I did. Regardless of story telling, I was soon invited to join the rest of their group. I have never really been big on "card drinking games" like asshole, or circle of death, I was always more of a beer pong kind of guy. With that being said, would there be any need to play "asshole" while drinking some amazing bavarian style beer, in a beer garden in Austria? I did not think it was needed, but sure enough the mini deck of cards was spread across the table, with one young girl passed out in her seat, another barely walking, I could only wonder what the Austrian waiter was thinking of this situation. As it became apparent half of their group would die from alcohol poisoning if they continued to another bar, the SM group split, and I continued on with a few of my new friends.
After the Hofgarten closed we went to a small irish bar. Upon walking in I knew that was my kind of place. Flogging Molly was playing as the door opened, and smoke billowed out. Now this is my kind of place. Needless to say I felt right at home at the Irish Bar, (it is called Limerick Bill's) and ended up staying there the rest of the night. At 12:01 am, on July 4th, I witnessed the entire bar break out into song. Most of the bar was filled with Americans so naturally the Star Spangled Banner was sung to start the 4th of July Celebration. At around 2:15 am, the bar started closing down. I wish I could have gotten video as all of these college kids, most of who where more intoxicated than a group of soldiers at a open-bar wedding, stumbled out of the bar. You could not tell who was the supporter, and who the supportee was as they stumbled down the cobble stone streets of the old city. I was walking myself, to the end to the old city, where the taxi's gather, and I could not help but laugh as I came upon a fountain area, where three men (they appeared to be Frat brothers) who based on their t-shirts were from University of Georgia, sat I could best describe as utter misery. Frat boy # 1 sat, leaned forward, hands holding his head up as he puked between his legs, frat boy # 2 sat there, mumbling something that was inaudible, and there was frat boy # 3, obviously the most sober of them all, laughing at his "brothers," calling them pussies, and taking pictures that no doubt would be used in the future for embarrassment or blackmail. I can only imagine the three of them would be fistbumping before the night is over.
With all the excitement dying down, I caught a cab back to my flat. I laid in bed playing the nights events back in my head. It was alot of fun, and I met some great people. Some my conclusion after my first night out in Innsbruck-
I am going to enjoy living in Austria til August 9th
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