My parents will be in Germany a month from today! I'm so excited to see them, but at the same time I can't believe how fast my time here is coming to an end. Even though I won't be home until August 22nd(ish), I'm leaving Jena to go to Berlin with Luca and his parents on July 23rd. And then he leaves Berlin on the 25th. I don't want to say my goodbyes yet =/

Enough with the bittersweet stuff, though. Today was our first of two days in Innsbruck. We got to the Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof a little after noon today. We didn't really know where our hostel was, so we went to the Tourist Information Center first. I'm pretty sure the guy working there loved us, or at least Austin, because he gave us a city map for free that the guy before us had paid 1 euro for =]

Our hostel didn't look like too far of a walk, and it would take us through the Altstadt and along the river so we decided to trek it by foot instead of looking for the bus. I'm glad we walked because it gave us a good first look at the city, but man was I hot when we got to the hostel. Not that I'm complaining about the weather (the whole sunny even though it was supposed to rain all weekend thing again), but my next trip to Europe will include an investment in a proper backpacking bag. Hauling around an oversized duffel bag is a sweat producing pain in the butt.

This hostel is quite different from the one in Salzburg. It appears to be run out of a family's home, so we had to ring the bell to get to the reception. There's no lockers or free WiFi or optional breakfast here, but our roommates are nice and friendly and often times that's even more important. One guy is Canadian and he is on a rock climbing tour of Europe and the other guy is from South Korea, but he went to Kindergarten in Munich, middle school in New Zealand, high school in Seattle, and now studies at UCLA. I never really did figure out why he moved so often...

Austin and I were starving after our hike with luggage, so the four of us decided to go out together for a bite to eat. We found an Italian restaurant with outdoor seating that looked good and wasn't too expensive, and they had Radler (40% beer, 60% limonade), which was what was high on my priority list. The pizza was good, but the knife they gave me was pretty crappy and it took FOREVER for me to cut it. I'm not joking, I was probably eating for about and hour and attempting to cut through the crust 75% of that time. But it was tasty nevertheless =]

After lunch Austin and I split off to explore the city a bit. We saw the Goldenes Dachl, which was constructed for Emperor Maximilian I to serve as a royal box where he could sit in state and enjoy tournaments in the square below, and just looked around the city a little bit. Unfortunately the Rick Steves' guidebook didn't include Innsbruck, but it's a smaller town in comparison to Salzburg and we were content just walking around and stumbling across things on our own. Plus a friend of mine studied in Innsbruck last year and sent me a list of things to do and restaurants and pubs to check out. Without even searching for them, we ran into quite a few of the things on the list, which was good to know for later that night.

After seeing the cathedral, Altstadt, etc. we headed back to the hostel. We had heard about this Innsbruck Card for 29 euro that included a bunch of touristy but interesting points of interests, including a ride on the Nordkette Bahn that takes you up to the top of the Hafelekar and admission to Swarovski Kristallwelt. The guy at the tourist information center at the train station had told us that we could get it for free with our stay at the hostel. Well, the hostel didn't have the card... either he didn't know what he was talking about or the hostel lied about it on their website, we weren't really sure who to trust... Anyway we wanted to take the earliest ride up to Hafelekar. Originally we were planning on hiking up to Hafelekar and then hiking for a few hours along the ridge, but google weather was forecasting thunderstorms all day, with an increasing chance in the afternoon, so we figured it would make more sense to just take the bahn/cable car and get up to the top as soon as possible. Unfortunately the tourist information center was already closed by the time we found out that we couldn't obtain the card at the hostel, so we would have to wait until the tourist information center opened at 9 the next morning to buy the card. In the mean time, I was crossing my fingers and toes for good weather. Hiking in the Alps was the thing I was most looking forward to about this trip, and it sure would be a bummer if it didn't work out. =/

Our roommates returned a short while later, and the four of us decided to go check out Limmerick's Irish Pub, one of my friend's recommended places. It was a great recommendation; they had Strongbow on tap and started playing "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" as soon as we sat down. Haha... totally made of me think of the move at the 1000 during a 2K test piece, so I had to email Diane about it =] None of us had eaten dinner yet, so after Limerick's we went and grabbed a quick bite. The guy from Canada had read about a bar built into a cave or something along those lines in his guidebook that he wanted to check out, so we decided to head there next. He told us it was on a side street off of the river, so we headed in the direction of the river and then turned on the first side street. He couldn't find it and the book didn't provide an address, just a simple map with some indicators on it, but I asked if could take a shot. And I had us in there in five minutes =] I know there is the stereotype "girls suck at directions," but I normally have a pretty good sense of direction. Except for when I'm running, that doesn't count.

They had Strongbow on tap at this place, too, and the one at the Irish Pub had really hit the spot so I couldn't resist getting the same thing. We sat around and talked a bit, mainly about politics after we saw a cover of what would probably be the equivalent of Time Magazine. It had a photo-shopped picture of Obama and Merkel in the scene of Titanic when Jack asks Rose, "Do you trust me?" It was pretty comical and led to an interesting debate of American politics. I haven't gotten sick of hearing what foreigners think about American culture and politics. Even Canadians are flabbergasted by the amount we spend on tuition. To be honest, we should be, too...

I don't know if anyone else was tired, but I probably could have fallen asleep at the table without trying, so we headed back to the hostel. (Hopefully) a big day for hiking tomorrow, although I'm not terribly optimistic that it will actually not storm at all this weekend when it was forecasted to do so on every day...