Winter in Salzburg pt. 1

Winter in Salzburg.
Christmas markets, ice skating, snow wrestling und EIN KRAMPUUUUUS!

Nicole, John H, John W, Chelsea, Grace and I went iceskating :)

 I was going to skate through John's legs, because I'm a gold-medal athlete

Clearly I owned the ice...

Chelsea and I made passersby stop their Christmas shopping and stare in awe--double axels, triple axels, quintuple axels, etc.

Skating was fun, although in the Altstadt the rink wasn't an ice rink but this synthetic plastic stuff, so it was slower and drier than your average skate (because I am such an experienced, ballin' blader I know what an 'average' skate is).

Winter in Salzburg smells awesome and makes you want to buy all the things.

ORNAMENTS 

Nicole and I met EIN KRAMPUS!!

Choir e'rry night--droppin' carols like it's hawt

Christmas lights--view of the Festung, Salzburg's 11th century fortress

Closed Christmas Markets!

Christmas lights on one of the bridges crossing the Salzach

Salzburg was definitely hard to leave, especially at the most wonderful time of the year, but I have made it home for Christmas :)

P.S All these pics are Wee-Nicole's!

Eee!

Oh Hij, San Francisco--I'd love to stay and eat this boarding pass, but I gots sum katz to see in Spokompton.

Peace

P.S. Why do all the travelers outside the gate to Spokane look so weird? ...Oh! duh.
P.P.S I look like a newborn fish in this picture

Is that Madonna?

December 30th, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Train to Munich, Flight to Amsterdam--lovely travelin'

...and LOOK who decided to do a weekend trip to Amsterdam! BLÖBE!!

Blobe cleared customs with only minor molestation (the baggage lad gave him an awkward 'pet'-down...it was awkward for everyone involved)

We made it :)

Rain, bikes, art, fun, quirk-factor, rivers, bridges, doughnuts, diversity, music, cafes...

Portland : America  ::  Amsterdam : Europe

Yes, the rumors are true--prostitution and an array of drugs are perfectly legal in Amsterdam. At first I thought it was kind of cool, the red light district (our hotelboat was a 5 minute walk from the center of the district)... An overtly-sexual, kichy vibe...but then I saw a man open a glass door, negotiate and go inside. It just became too real-and-duh, megan people utilize the legal prostitution in Amsterdam, and no, it did not sit well with me, so that sucked but MOVING ON!!

Dining room of our Hotel-boat

The Hotelboat we stayed on was by far my favorite rooming situation I've had in Europe. A little small, but so cozy! The owners were really nice and set out a big breakfast in the morning, the boat had a lot of character and I'M ON A BOAT

Narrow boat hallway 

Michelle, Blobe and I in our cabin

Condomerie-it's exactly what it sounds like

We checked out some cafes and quirky shops, had cigars and listened to music.


 The best part of our trip? CHEESE MUSEUM! Endless samples, about 30 (which, I guess isn't endless, but still...) Wasabi cheese, Gouda, Truffle Cheese, hard cheddar, Christmas-spice cheese, award-winning cheese...IT WAS SOOOOOO AMAZING

CHEESE, Grommit! Cheese!

Saw the Anne Frank house.

Holy Cannoli! Amsterdam Saturday Market

Cheese museum. I can't even...thank god I ain't vegan

Me, Nicole, Cassie, Michelle

Amsterdam was artsy and beautiful and the canals and bridges and bikes made me feel at home in portland, but a historic/slutty/old Portland...

Rain

Blurry red light district

Cassie's attempt to capture the full moon

Atlas...holds the world...like this...duh

COOL. TOWN.

Chelle: Is that Madonna?

Me: No, that's Tina Turner
...
Oh. Do you mean that one?
...yeah, that's Madonna
...
(hysterical laughing)
Why would you think Tina Turner was Madonna?
(hysterical laughing)

...

*Still thinking about this whole Tina Turner-Madonna-mix-up

"Of course you meant the one that looks like Madonna 4 feet to the right. Well, to the right if you're the wall. If you're the wall Madonna is four feet to the right of Tina Turner.
...
But in what situation would you ever be the wall?"

 

This conversation is certainly not funny. Nicole said Tina Turner looks like a vampire here. Halloween next year? Vampire-Tina Turner.

Alright

Amsterdam was fun

Finals begin Monday

Studying and dying and breathing exercises so I don't stress-to-death

Lame post, shhurry

Things

Kelsey decorated my room while I was in Amsterdam.

Goin' for a zen-don't-stress-about-finals-or-kill-one-of-the-40-people-you-live-with room

Blobe, meditating 

That's my Buddhy Sid

Ommmmmmmmmm

Look mOMMMMMM, I cleaned my room!

Back at UP the required Theology course, World Religions, is being replaced with an Introduction to Christian Doctrine or something. 

Reasons why this is not ridiculous:

-Biblical Traditions is a requirement, and this new course would be a better precursor (or pre-courser...ha)

Reasons why this is ridiculous:

-That class taught me SO much last year, and gave me such a greater appreciation for other faiths and cultures

-An understanding of other religions is critical to comprehending their culture, their literature, political and social motives...basically everything

-A culture's faith reflects what that society values--so much of this information is critical in shaping an accurate world-perspective, valuable in our globally-minded time

-Dropping a World Religions class in favor of Christian Doctrine? That can be seen by, well everyone, as small-minded, and typical of a Catholic school.

-Infinite more reasons

Gahh! So this has sparked some interesting conversation here in Salzburg amongst my friends and I, which led to more conversations about Eastern religions, which has led to Mikayla promising to teach me Tai Chi after break! yay! and now I have a zen room in which to meditate...aka listen to music and not sleep...

MY ROOM IS CLEAN AND CALM

It's snowing here in Salzburg and the Christmas markets are magic

Reading Under a Cruel Star--GAH Communism in Prague

Reading Alphabet vs. The Goddess--GAH really thorough and great thesis

Ready to see my friends and family for the Holidays!

Amsterdam post to come