Maximilian's tomb
The view from the "State Tower"
Armor from knights in the Palace Museum
An extremely ornate ballroom inside the palace.I had a nice two hour train ride to the city of Innsbruck. Earlier in the year I purchased a ticket called a "vorteils card." This card gives you half price on ALL train tickets THROUGHOUT Austria... for only 20Euros. So by the end of the trip I probably saved almost 100Euros in train tickets, so if you plan on using the railways in Austria, its a must have. Anyway, I got to Innsbruck at around 6:30. The train station was very crowded but I found a map and located the street my hostel was on... the only problem was that it was around 2 miles outside the city... dang. So after a nice little walk I arrived at the hostel, it was about 8, and after checking in I headed up to my room. There were two people already there, and man and woman. By the way, some of the dorms were co-ed. Anyway, the man was a business man from Portugal who had just gotten a job in Innsbruck and was looking for an apartment. (Apparently it is quite common for people looking for apartments to stay in hostels) The other was a dancer from Croatia who had just auditioned for the local troupe of dancers and was also looking for an apartment. We were also joined later by a grad student studying Pharmacy at one of the local Universities. When I entered the room I realized that they were not talking in German, or English, but rather Spanish!! And later, our other roommate was also fluent in Spanish! We had a man from Portugal, a woman from Croatia, and two students; one from the USA and one from Germany, together in a youth hostel in Innsbruck, Austria, and the only language we had in common was Spanish... This blew my mind, probably one of the coolest things that happened on the trip. The Portuguese man and the Croatian woman were pooling resources and eating dinner together, and asked me to join. It was delicious!! And what an interesting cultural exchange! We talked for hours back in the room, and although I was a little rusty the Spanish came rushing back after about 20 minutes. Eventually I passed out. The next morning I was up and checked out of the hostel by 9. I had planned out which museums and sites I would hit when, trying to make my plan the most efficient that I could. What I was really dissapointed to find out was that 3 of the biggest museums were closed on Monday's, this was a phenomenon I had not anticipated when first planning when to be in Innsbruck. But there was still TONS to do. It was a day visiting museums, going to Palaces, and just enjoying the absolutely beautiful city. I stopped in a cultural museum filled with artifacts of the people of Tyrol (a province in Austria), climbed a 300 meter tower to get views of the city, saw numerous landmarks, and even saw the site where Maximilian I was supposed to be buried (he wasn't however.) My favorite stop was quite a hike tho. There was a bus going to the palace... for 5 euros, but being who I am I decided that the price was too high and it didn't look far on the map... so I walked. It was absolutely beautiful! Innsbruck in in a valley wedged between two mountain ranges, who were both completely covered with snow, and looking spectacular! Well it turns out it was a 2 hour walk through streets, fields, woods... and yes, I can now say that I have crossed an 8 lane highway. If you have ever played Frogger, then you understand... except I was the frog, and the cars and trucks were going 60... anway. The Palace was spectacular!! An amazing museum, with hundreds of pieces of armor, battle equipment, and guns... some dating back to the 1500's! There was also a "rare collection" which was quite impressive, and many halls inside the palace that were extremely ornately decorated. Well, it was getting dark on the way back, and so I decided to pay the 5 euro and get a direct bus to the train station. This was an absolutely beautiful city, and I wish I had planned another day or two to fully enjoy it. I headed out at around 8:30... straight to Munich. At around 11 I arrived at Munich, and this was going to be a long night. For ease, and to save money, I decided that I would sleep in the train station, and head out in the morning. My flight was at 9:30 from Memmigan airport. So I "slept" and read in the train station until my 4:30 train to Memmigan. I arrived there around 5... little did I know, there was no direct but route to the "airport" (I will explain that later), until 8am. I was pretty frustrated. I met up with an Londoner named Ben who was on a trip. He had lost his passport and had to pay for a new one, which means he had been stuck in Germany for an extra 5 days. He had 4 euros in his pocket and he offered to split a cab. It was a quick cab ride, maybe 15 minutes, and then we arrived at this "airport" It was basically one of those buildings advertised that can go up in a week. It was small, and the security was seriously lacking at best. There was one small bar, and a few vending machines. Apparently this was how Ryan Air saved money, small airports with nothing in them. The plane was also FULL of advertising, they offered a menu that you could order from, and bathrooms cost .50 Euro. But after all that, at around 12:30, I arrived in Alicante, Spain!
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