My weekend began Friday, a day where I got maybe four hours of sleep...and not for lack of trying. It continued with me, Jake, and two CYPA's doing a rat race with our middle schoolers. Of course my team missed the bus, walked forever to the train station. Then the train station we were at wasn't running that day, so we had to go to the next one. When we finally got downtown--two hours later--we had the kids figure out the first clue. It was a musem, and a pretty cool one at that. The kids really enjoyed it, so we wandered around there for awhile, then went to eat lunch. (We kind of quite the rat race, becuase we were already loosing so bad, and the kids were having a blast learning about all of the different exibits it didnt' really matter anymore.) After lunch we put our feet in a fountain, got ice cream, got reemed by the other team becuase we lost the rat race, and played on some horses that rocked back and forth (We did that for a very long time..and they were very fun :0 ) Following that we went home, which was a few train rides, and a decent walk away. It left me exausted. Soon after we got back, I got to go home which I was very excited about. I was going to pack, go downtown to get my Eurorail validated, and then sleep from 8pm to 3am.--we were taking a taxi to the train staion at 3:30. So I went home, packed, and went to the train staion, and on the way home found out there was a change of plans. Instead of leaving at 3:30am we were all leaving at 9pm, getting on the 11pm train to Salzburg and arriving at 3:30am. There went my plans to sleep. And I was traveling with nine other people, so there was no way that was going to change. So I manned up, got my stuff done, and was ready to go at nine as planned.
We made it downtown, but barley. Most of the people decided that since they never check your train ticket it would be OK to not have it stamped. Big mistake, as this was the first time in two weeks of taking the local trains that we were actually stopped by six S Bahn workers in bright yellow vests. When they saw that seven Americans didn't have their tickets stamped they took them off the train, so they could pay a fine. The remaing three of us remained on the train, and went to the haupenhoff...panicked breifly, and then saw them on the next train five minutes later. After we had all collected ourselves we made our way up to the train platform we were leaving from.
The train ride itself was pretty uneventful. We sat with seven people in one compartment, and three in another. The compartment I was in (with the seven) spent the five hours drinknig Beck's (though I didn't have one), telling stories, and being loud. Oh and sleeping intermittently, though it is pretty difficult to get comfortable in a crammed compartment. I of course did not sleep at all. We arrived in Salzburg at 3:30am as planned, and all sleepily wandered to the train waiting room so we could sleep. We had four hours to kill before anything was open, and now I was more than exausted. Of course the room was a bright, sterile room, with uniformed metal chairs. The kind that make it nearly impossible to get comforatble. So I knew it was pretty much in vain that I tired to sleep...though I tried none-the-less. I probably slept a broken hour, the best of which was on the floor. That ended though when the S Bahn security men told us we weren't allowed. So those of us on the floor, once again went back to the chairs. Some of the group was able to sleep some, though they were always moving around. After we were kicked off the floor I remained awake, and bored since only two hours had passed since our arrival.
At six the troops were ralled to walk around the city a little, and get our blood flowing. Of course it was raining, everyone was grumpy, and just wanted to go back to the room we were temperarily calling home. So back we went for an hour. Then it was up for breakfast and off for the day. First we went to our hostel to drop off our bags and sign up for tours. Some of the group did a tour of ice caves, while the rest of us did the Sound of Music tour. It was actually pretty cool, and you got to see a lot of the city. They took us around to several places where the movie was fillmed, and it was very beautiful. They told us about some of the buildings that were simply historic landmarks of the city. We got to see this small, pretty town, where the wedding scene was filmed, and another place with a beautiful veiw of the Alps. After the tour my group walked around the city, and explored some mentioned places during the tour. We went to the garden where they did the Do-Ray-Mi song for the Sound of Music, and Mozart's house and birthplace (two seperate places.) We also went to this fortress at the top of a mountain, and took a cool little tram up there. It was cool musem with a lot of history. By now everyone was really tired, and had done a lot of walking around the city. Plus the ice cave tour was almost over, so we tried to find out what they were doing. When we finally got ahold of them..which took about an hour...they were napping. So we made our way back to the hostel to join them. Of course we only got to nap for about forty mintues becuase they planned on going out at eight. It was a soild nap, but it only managed to curb my tiredness a little, and then it was back to being to the move again. We took a bus back downtown, and walked to a beer place. A bunch of the group drank, while a small group of us once again abstained. We were just too tired to drink. By the time that placed closed, at 11pm, I was way passed ready for bed. But instead of heading back, we walked to this Irish Pub across town. It crowed, loud, and had a bad band playing. Though it probably would have been fun in any other cercomstance I was just too tired to care, and soon after arriving Kari and I grabbed a taxi home--which I got and paid for myself! I more or less collapsed into bed and was instanly asleep.
The next morning Kari and I awoke to an empty room. The others were already downstairs eating breakfast we figured, so we dressed quickly to join them. We then checked out, and all headed back to the train station. We all took a train to Munich, where most of the group stayed to hang out for the rest of the afternoon. However, Kari and I took a train back to Stuttgart, to relax and recharge after a busy weekend. Which, despite, the overwellming tiredness, was a great weekend!
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