Three weeks ago, we began planning our first trip. All the other times we’ve gone traveling, the planning was done by the school. We paid for it (though we like to pretend we didn’t have to, because it was in the “Austria Fees” at the beginning of the semester) and the school got everything together. Traveling, housing, food, etc. we had to plan it all. However, it ended up not working out. We were disappointed, but we weren’t about to give up on our chance at traveling abroad. So, we decided to head to Innsbruck. It’s a tiny town in Austria, and it’s basically smack in between Absam (ab-some) and Seefield (zay-field). To do this, we had to get up at 5am and get on a bus. The idea was to take the bus to Sheibbs (shibes), a town about ten minutes away by car, 40 minutes by bus, and 2 hours by foot. That was the plan.
The first thing that went wrong happened at 3am. We were all sound asleep, when suddenly there was a loud, obnoxious sound. Fire alarm. I woke up immediately (light sleeper, remember?) but I choose to deny reality for a few minutes, hoping it was a horrible mistake. Emily jumped out of bed and ran to peek into the hallway. Sure enough, people were leaving their rooms, fast. I was angry. Fire drills at 3am the night before everyone went on their first trip is just a dumb idea. We threw on some coats and shoes and headed outside. It was sleeting. Gross. We were all being bitter when the firetrucks showed up. Apparently it wasn’t a drill.
Before any of the maternal figures reading my blog freak out, let me say that it was fine. Some old wires in some remote part of the building sparked a little and the alarms went off. No biggie. The only bad thing was the weather and general lack of awake-ness. However, there were a few bright lights in this whole process.
First: Greg Sisco. Greg is a great man, and he rooms with our friend Matt. Matt reported to us that, upon hearing the alarm, Greg refused to get out of bed and groaned “I’d rather BURN.”. This is funny to people who know Greg, and hilarious to those of us who experienced the same feeling at 3am.
Second: Dan McNally. Dan McNally is a character. If I was forced to describe him in one sentence or less, I would say Peter Pan. He is a wonderful human being, with a true child-like heart. It is lovely. He made my exhausted, grumpy, cold, wet self a great deal more happy when, upon seeing the firetrucks, he started jumping up and down with a HUGE smile on his face, and ran around like a kid. So much happiness. (:
Finally: Matt Strickland. I don’t know Matt very well. He is one of the RA’s on campus here in Gaming. He’s a pretty big guy. Not in the over-weight sense, but in the “I play Rugby and could probably squeeze you to death with my bare hands.” sense. Anyways, Matt wasn’t planning on having a fire alarm go off at 3am, and Matt had been drinking. Not to the point of being drunk, obviously (don’t forget, it’s Franciscan…) but definitely to the point of hilarity. Now, I’ve seen a lot of people drink, and there are several different reactions to alcohol consumption. Some people get mad, some people get funny, and some people think they’re superman. Matt thought he was superman. He was RUNNING everywhere, bursting into rooms, pulling people out of bed, and loudly proclaiming that “THIS IS NOT A DRILL, GET OUT OF BED.”. He was bright red, and pouring sweat, despite the significant amount of freezing cold in the area. When the RD, Katie, came out and told us it was ok to go inside, she said “If your doors are locked, an RA will come around and let you back in.” to which Matt proudly announced “THE DOORS ARE UNLOCKED. EVERYSINGLEONEOFTHEM.”
These guys kept me happy. Good job amigos. (:
Ok. So, post-fire drill, we went back to bed. We had just enough time to fall back asleep before our alarms went off about an hour later. We threw on our coats, grabbed our bags, and headed out the door. Well, everyone else did. I was the last one out. That’s ok though. We got to the bus stop before our bus was supposed to. However, that didn’t do us much good. The bus never came.
This is the group that was trying to get to Budapest. They were supposed to be on the same bus as us. Yeah…
I told them to make their best “I woke up at 5am and my bus didn’t show up” faces…
Our Group (:
We got a little slap-happy standing in the cold that early.
Yay missing buses!
Nathan whipped out his Mac and played Swing music for us (:
We decided to wait for the next bus. We stood outside for an hour. Then, it drove past us. Literally. We watched the bus drive right past us. We freaked. It took us a little while to realize that there were TWO bus stops. They were within 500 feet of each other, but the second one (for the other side of the road) was just around the corner, out of sight. We ran back to the Kartause, and couple of our amazing staff members were kind enough to drive us to Sheibbs. There were two other groups with us, the one going to Budapest, and the one going to London. The one going to Budapest came later, and the one going to London made it to Sheibbs in time to catch their bus to the airport. Praise God! We had some time to kill before our train showed up, so we explored Sheibbs.
Not a bad place to be stranded for a few hours. (:
This is the church of St. Mary Magdalene. I love her so much! We had no idea there was a church named in her honor here. Such a surprise blessing. (:
The altar in St. Mary’s
We said a Rosary in this Church, giving our trip to Jesus through Mama’s heart, asking her to pray for us.
There was another Church not too far away from St. Mary’s. This is the statue out front. Pretty Mama ♥
Our Lady of Fatima ♥
We found a playground! So much fun.
Above: Mary and Storm jumping on the bridge
Below: When Mary landed her feet slipped out from under her and she ended up sitting directly on her butt. I missed the look of sheer horror that was on Storm’s face before he realized she was ok.
Chris took my camera to get pictures of us girls. He took liberties with it. ;)
Yeah. We’re cute.
We met up with the Budapest group, and we all made it onto our train.
As soon as we sat on the train Mary asked Storm for a tissue.They moved so simultaneously it was hilarious. This picture was what happened when Mary realized why I was taking a picture and she laughed at their ridiculousness.
We went from Sheibbs to Pochlarn (poke-larn) where we met a very nice man working at the ticket counter. He helped us get our Vorteils (vore-tiles) cards. Basically, they make traveling in Austria super-cheap. We didn’t catch the man’s name, but we named him Gustav. He was missing the top half of one of his thumbs. We prayed for him while we waited for our train. He was great (:
The slow train from Pochlarn to Sanct Pӧlten (san-polten). This took us about 20 minutes – ish. Then we caught a fast train that took us back past Pochlarn in half that time, and then continued at that rapid pace all the way to Innsbruck.
Chris shared his Milka (chocolate. I've been told it's better than Hershey's, and it's super cheap) and earned himself a position of much love within our group. Not that he wasn't loved anyways, but Milka always helps.
The view from the train to Sanct Pӧlten :
We started out being separated on the train from Sanct Pӧlten to Innsbruck, but as people got of we managed to get seats next to each other again. Here are pics:
Storm is an awesome guy. He committed himself to staying awake during all of the time we spent travelling. Buses, trains, etc. He wanted to make sure that nothing bad would happen to any of us (stuff gets stolen all the time while people sleep). To accomplish this goal, he drank a Red Bull. At one point we looked over and he was twitching. We poked a little fun, to which he responded, “I’m not wired! I just can’t close my eyes!”
In honor of that moment, we have dubbed this the Red Bull face. It is a deranged look (see above) that can only be made “under the influence” of Red Bull.
Storm and Mary were sitting in front of me for four hours. I made it my hobby to catch their weird moments. Storm made an odd face in the picture above, and when Mary saw it, she made the “Why is my boyfriend so weird???” face, to which Storm faked a sad face. See below.
Emily and I decided that Storm and Mary aren’t the only ones cool enough to have pictures together.
Chris enjoyed the view. Check it out. Awesome.
The window was dirty, but I got some cool pics anyways.
INNSBRUCK!!!!
They told me this was important and I took a picture. It’s the Triumphal Arch of Maria Theresia.
This was outside a bar called the Ouroboros. Apparently it’s a mythical creature that eats itself. Interesting thing to name your establishment after…
We emotionally prepped ourselves for a grungy hostel, but it was pretty sweet. Massive props to Storm, Mary, and Emily who planned this dealio. Pics:
I left the red in Storm’s eyes. It was appropriate for the facial expression.
That night in the hostel was one of the most fun things I’ve ever had in my life. It was cool, because we all had to consciously make the choice to be happy. I was super, super tired and a tad grumpy. Emily was pretty tired too, and Mary had just found out that her dad was in the hospital (he’s ok). However, God gave us the grace to be happy. We got out my Bible and looked up the Mass readings that we missed that day because we were traveling. We prayed with them, and talked about them. Then we prayed the prayer for spiritual communion. I love that prayer. Here’s a copy:
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You.
Then we played a game that had us laughing so hard we were crying. I literally fell out of my chair. It was amazing. Then we went to bed. Oh! I forgot to mention. Things actually worked out so that the boys got a room separate from ours. Bonus! I mean, obviously, we could make it work, but it’s so much better when we can just have our own space.
The next morning I got up to take a shower. It took me about fifteen minutes to figure out the water, but I got it. Unfortunately Mary wasn’t as lucky. She offered it up for the end to abortion and souls in Purgatory. Haha. So Catholic…
We packed up and went down stairs for breakfast. We grabbed some semmels (zimels) for lunch and headed out.
The walk from the hostel to the bus station was a quick one, but it was beautiful. We were in the heart of the Alps!!! Ahhhh!!!
I saw the sun rise on the Alps. So blessed.
We caught a bus and headed to…
Absom! We made it!!!
Here’s the story of Absam. From seeing it, I can tell you that it doesn’t look extraordinary. However, when you think about the fact that this image appeared in 1797, you realize that the likelihood that they would have had the technology to make the image out of the material necessary to make it disappear under water is pretty small. In any case, as with the other relics, it’s definitely worth respecting.
This is a war memorial that was outside the church.
Beautiful altar. Beautiful Tabernacle.
This was to the right of the altar. The little gray rectangle in the middle of all the gold is the miraculous image.
A little bit closer…
And a little bit closer…
The image. Beautiful mother. ♥
The ceilings in these churches are always incredible.
The Coronation of Our Lady as Queen of Heaven and Earth
For years, every time there was a miraculous healing, the family of the person healed would make some kind of offering of gratitude in honor of Our Lady. Many people had paintings done of themselves before the miracle, so that everyone who saw it would know what Jesus did for them when His Mama asked Him to.
The altar in the chapel.
The left wall of the Chapel.
More gifts given as signs of gratitude and reminders of the power of Mama’s intercession
Above and below were from the outside of the little chapel.
The Eucharist is in the middle of that heart. It’s a Tabernacle. Sweet Jesus.♥
The view:
There was a cemetery near the church. It might seem odd that there is a crucifix in the middle, but I don’t think so. On that Cross, death was conquered. What else is there to think of when the world would tell you to mourn?
Part two is on the way!!!!
