Week 4: A European Adventure, Part 2 (the part where I accidentally go to Poland)

5 February

Approaching Innsbruck

Laura and I woke up early on Thursday morning to catch our Innsbruck train.  The drive through Austria exposed me to industrial and countryside scenes of Austria, which I had not seen closely before.  The countryside became progressively more gorgeous as we approached Innsbruck.  Laura and I couldn´t help but take picture after picture as the mountains began to grow around the train.  We spent the late afternoon and evening orienting ourselves to Innsbruck and eating a nice dinner at a pizza place, since it took extra time to find my accidentally lost suitcase.  The situation nearly gave me a heart attack and I was never so happy to see my little Wal-mart carry-on!

Fighting mountain goats at the Alpenzoo

6 February

We spent Friday basking in the incredible glory of the Alps and exploring the comparison of modern Innsbruck ski culture and centuries-old Austrian culture.  The morning began with a visit to the Alpenzoo, where we saw a variety of different alpine animals in their natural habitat.  The mountain goats and sheep were definitely the cutest!  We headed over to Hall in Tirol in the afternoon, where we wanted to see the Burg Hasegg castle and coin mint.  We unfortunately found out that the mint is closed during the winter time, even though our travel brochure indicated no such closing.  Despite this disappointment, exploring Hall in Tirol became a beautiful adventure, when we stumbled upon an incredible church called the Josefkirche.  The church sharply contrasted against the more simplistic churches I saw in Bratislava, since nearly every square inch of the walls and ceiling were covered with paintings or gold sculptures.  Displays within various parts of the walls and altars contained skulls of famous saints and influential townspeople - more than slightly disturbing in my opinion!

Josefkirche in Hall in Tirol

After the Josefkirche, we enjoyed a traditional Austrian lunch at the Goldener Löwe restaurant, where I ate far, far more cheese than I should have!  Laura and I headed back to Innsbruck after lunch and searched around for a café, so I could conduct an interview for a student organization back home.  In the evening, we had another crazy adventure trying to find a cable car to take us up into the mountains.  Our brochure and several people gave us directions to a train station to the cable car, but it was closed!  We eventually took a taxi up to the station and rode a cable car to a lookout point on the mountain.  Our searching paid off as we gazed up into the beauty of the cold Innsbruck night, the mountains extending far behind and before us into the valley.  I laid for a few minutes in the cold snow, completely at peace and in utter awe of the giant expanse of mountain, night sky, and stars above me.  I shut my eyes for a few moments, embedding the scene into my mind and swearing never to forget it.

7 February

On Saturday, I headed to Poland and to Prague!  Wait...Poland and Prague in the same day?  How did I pull that off?  So the story goes something like this.  Laura and I took a night train from Innsbruck to Prague, so we could spend more time there.  After switching trains in Vienna, we supposedly started heading toward Prague.  I thought we might need to switch trains again, but wasn´t really sure.  Our train kept going and going, with us expecting it to arrive in Prague a little after noon.  The conductors also kept confirming and confirming our tickets.  Then, a third conductor came along and told us we had traveled 30 minutes into Poland!

Laura and I did not know what to do, especially since the conductor basically spoke very little English, German, or Spanish (the languages we knew between the two of us).  Completely at a loss, the conductor kindly got a man who could translate between Polish and English for us.  We found out that we failed to transfer trains in Breclav, Czech Republic and needed to return to the border.  At first, the conductor said we would need to go all the way to one station and then get a train back into the Czech Republic.  Fortunately, he found an international train at a closer station which we could take back.  He told us at one point in the middle of the countryside that Laura and I needed to get off the train immediately!  We both thought he literally meant in the Polish countryside (probably due to our nerves).  He actually meant that we needed to get off at the next station in Tychy, Poland.  So we scurried off the train at the station and waited for the train headed to Prague, hoping that we would not remain stranded in the middle of Poland.  The train fortunately arrived 20 minutes later and we arrived 5 hours later than intended in Prague.

Lenin Wall in Prague

After getting off at the train station in Prague, we decided to walk to our hostel on the other side of the Danube.  We were initially creeped out upon leaving the train station, since it seemed that two men followed us.  We stopped at a hotel and circled around a couple streets, so we could continue safely into Old Town Prague.  The streets in Old Town Prague wind in every direction, taking unexpected angles and turns.  My rolling suitcase and backpack made the trek to our hostel somewhat strenuous, so I found difficulty remaining patient as we navigated through the city.  I was overjoyed to see the Charles Bridge greeting us after reaching the Danube, since that meant our hostel was close!  We finally arived at our hostel after getting our daily exercise climbing the hill in front of it.  Exhausted, we freed ourselves of our luggage and downed a
delicious Italian dinner across the street, then went to explore Old Town Prague more thoroughly.