Tuesday 7.9.2010

Got up, bid good-bye to my farmer friend and trekked to the new hostel. It was wonderful. Very clean, lots of people, a legitimate key for my room door, a locker in which to put my stuff, and a laundry room (forgot to mention the last one didn’t even have one of those!). And this one was only two Euros more per night. I should stop being such a cheapskate. I left my stuff there and went to go see Innsbruck. Walked around downtown for a while. I don’t think any super eventful happened. Innsbruck is a nice mountain town. I went up to this one neighbourhood on a hill and sat down in front of this church and ate some grocery store food. There was a very good view of the city below. It was nice.

Eventually went down and headed back to the hostel (they’d let me leave my big bag of clothing there but I couldn’t check in until after 15:00). At the hostel, I checked in, put my stuff in my room, and did laundry. Washing and drying clothes cost €3,30. This was actually not too bad, as doing laundry in some other hostels at which I’d stayed were like €5 or the equivalent in the local currency. Washing and drying clothes took a long time, so I bought Internet (again had to buy it but I got it for 24 hours, instead of like, half an hour at the last place). I worked on my paper for class and ate some food and talked to people on AIM. Joe Kelly and I discussed Flogging Molly. While I was working there a bunch of kids (they were native English speakers, not sure where from though, possibly a bunch of places) came in and started making dinner and listening loudly to some rather terrible music. I put in my earphones and cranked up Flogging Molly. Eventually though they turned off the music and offered me some of the pasta they’d made. I’d already eaten (I was eating mostly carrots. You really get a craving for fruit and vegetables in Europe, especially the German-speaking countries), but upon later reflection I realised I should have eaten the spaghetti anyway and tried to make friends with them, since they were English speakers and my age and probably going out later. Anyway, eventually they left and my laundry was finished. I’d gotten a good deal of work done on my paper. I decided to head out. Upon returning to my room I met a roommate, this guy from Spain. He didn’t speak English very well, but was fun to talk to. After folding my laundry I headed out. I decided to look for this castle that was on my map. I think it was called Schloß Ambras or something.

Anyway it turned out not to be a super great idea. It was already dark, and I had to walk through some slightly scary, empty side streets to get there. I got to see the less touristy part of Innsbruck though, I guess. At one point I noticed it was smelling more and more strongly of shit, but eventually I walked past the source: a barn that housed cows. God, it reeked. Anyway, that was something I wouldn’t have expected in Innsbruck. On the way up the hill upon which is the castle I met this Italian bus driver. He was trying to find this hotel, and driving up these tiny, steep streets up this mountain. We examined maps and I tried to help him find where he was going. He seemed nice though. Anyway, finally found the castle but it was of course closed. (Das Schloss war geschlossen! But it was like 10 or 11 by this time, so what did I expect?) After confirming there was nothing to do there, I headed back down and found this fence which offered a good view of the city. I sat down upon it and with some difficulty lit a cigar with matches. I went through quite a few matches. But finally succeeded. I then opened a bottle of dunkles Weißbier (with the bottle opener I got from Andechs, which says Andechs on it and has a quite nice wooden handle and cost like €1,95. It will make a nice addition to our apartment next year. I think Devin will be thrilled to open beer bottles with it). Smoking and drinking! Look what Europe’s done to me. Anyway I headed back down, went a bit of different way than I came up, but with the help of my trusty compass managed to find my way back to the hostel before midnight. Went to bed.

A notebook in a church in which people could write their prayers. It says: Dear God, I pray for you to help me! In the next week I have a lot of schoolwork and therefore I pray for you to help me. Every week I go once or twice to church and pray! If I don't go to church, then I pray in the evening in my bed. I hope and wish that you can help me! Thank you!