My Week on the Road

The past week has flown by due to the amount of traveling we have done. I am struggling to remember exactly what we did each day because every day brings something new and exciting.Germany won the World Cup last week, which was incredible to see first hand while cheering along with the fans. Unfortunately this meant that we didn't get home until 1 am and had to get up at 3 for our flight to Vienna. This made for a very long first day in a new city, but it was worth the tiredness to learn about the history of such a cultural city. During the next three days there we saw several medically relevant museums, saw a string quartet play, learned about the medical education in Austria, and made countless memories with the group.

After leaving Vienna, a group of seven of us set off for a weekend of traveling and exploring. We first took a train to Salzburg where we spent time walking around the old town center. The next day we went on a Sound of Music tour and a Bavarian Salt mine tour. Seeing the different locations of where the Sound of Music was filmed was very interesting to me and had some beautiful views in the mountains. On our bus ride to the salt mines, we had a crazy bus driver who was flying through the twists and turns on the mountains. Thankfully, we made it safely to the mine where we ended up with a Germany speaking tour group and had to use audio guides to follow along. I will remember a lot more this time than just the slides that I remember when I came with my parents 10 years ago. Salzburg was a beautiful city to be able to explore, one of my favorite cities I have seen so far! It was a little touristy but the views were incredible and well worth the trip.

Then came one of the most exciting days yet, paragliding in the Austrian Alps!  We took a  train to Innsbruck where we met with our paragliding guide who took us straight up a mountain near the city. Soaring through the air over the alps was an experience I will never forget. The ride was comfortable smooth apart from a spiral the instructor performed. The view from the top of the mountain left me wanting to stay so much longer, but unfortunately we did not have enough time to stay. So we were off to Munich after being in Innsbruck for only 6 hours.

Munich was a big city, with people coming and going from all over the world. Even though we were only there for 24 hours, I enjoyed every minute of it! We made it to the city early enough to do shopping on Saturday afternoon, which was a relief to us, since most shops are closed on Sundays in Europe. One of the girls on the trip, Angelica, turned twenty one at midnight so we all helped to celebrate her birthday that night! The next morning we went on a bike tour through Munich which was  a great was to see the city with limited time. Englisch Park was one of the stops on the tour that made me want to stay in Munich forever. It was a giant park double the size of Central Park with man made rivers and everyone comes to swim and play sports and just be with friends. I wish that we had more places like this in Texas!

Traveling with the same seven people all weekend was a great experience for me, but there were times when we just needed a break from one another. When running on 5 hours of sleep it is hard to remain positive at all times in all types of situations. I tried my best to be someone who everyone wanted to be around even during stressful situations. You will have to ask the others in my group if I was successful in this though.