Since my first week in Salzburg, which was rather calm, I have been quite busy! Between school excursions and trips, I have seen and experienced so many new things.
As class excursions and activities, we have hiked up the Mönschberg to see the city from above, baked apple strudel with a retired chef, attended an organ concert in the Salzburg Dom, and visited the ORF Salzburg (Local public radio and television station)!
In addition to these activities and my first-weekend trip to Munich, I also visited Vienna as a school excursion, and then I had two days afterwards to explore it on my own. During other free weekends, I have been able to take personal trips to Prague, Budapest, and Bolzano- and each one was easily reachable by train or bus!
Spring break was even busier, and I was able to visit Cologne, Amsterdam, Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, Luxembourg, Verdun, and Landstuhl in just over a week! It was a packed schedule, but it was very easy to travel to each destination by train, and each inter-city trip between Cologne and Landstuhl took under 4 hours. I was impressed at how easy it was to travel to so many places without so much as renting a car!
In my opinion, the best thing about being in Europe is how many opportunities I have to travel to a new place, try a new food, go to a new museum, or see new things. I think it is very important to try new things, because it allows you to be more well rounded and more aware of other ways of thinking, and most importantly, it’s a lot of fun!
As a Cultural and Historic Preservation major, I particularly find a lot of value in getting to see so many historic buildings and sites, which are frequent throughout a europe if you know how to look for them. For example, I have seen historic buildings that display similar architectural styles to beloved Salve buildings such as Ochre Court, and I think is so cool to see these foreign inspirations that influenced our local architecture.
This semester has been incredibly rewarding, and I am very thankful I had the opportunity to study here. I definitely have many things I would still like to see in Europe, but this semester has allowed me to figure out where I would most like to return to, or where I may like to visit next!
Michael B is studying Cultural & Historic Preservation and Sociology & Anthropology, with a Global Studies minor, and is studying abroad at Salzburg College in Austria.
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