Passau, Germany and a bit of Austria

it's amazing how even when the rhone express (the tram that gets me to the airport) isn't striking, it still gets affected by the greves. apparently when protesters decide to gather on the tracks, the tram isn't going to run them over - who woulda thunk it? for me, though, this meant getting to to the airport on time took a little more effort than anticipated, including going in circles, taking  an excessive amount of buses/metros, and feeling like i was participating in the amazing race as i ran from one type of public transportation to the next trying to get to a different place the rhone express would stop. it was during these sprints that i was really happy that i had packed light and was only carrying a backpack and a purse.. because more than that could have been a problem. luckily i made it though, because if this germany trip got messed up, i would not have been a happy camper.

my flights were short, and the best part was that they gave us chocolate! take that u.s. airlines that only provide peanuts or pretzels. then without too much trouble i managed to find the bus and train that joanna had mentioned me taking, and eventually i made it to passau! even got to see a cool sunset as my flight into munich landed:

i spent a lot of time the first couple days wandering around the city by myself since joanna and markus both had to work. for this reason, i love that passau is small because i am able to wander about the city freely without fear of getting lost. if the city were larger, i would really wish that i spoke some german so that when i inevitably got lost, i could ask someone for directions. but in passau, it was never an issue. the main city is in between two rivers, the inn and the danube, and i don't have a problem telling them apart. they come together at a point, and usually, there is a very distinct line because the rivers are different colors where they merge. not gonna lie, i was a little disappointed when that line wasn't there this time. but this town is pretty cute with cobble stoned roads in the city center, and practically countryside if you look across either river. so when i got tired of walking all over the city, it seemed like an excellent idea to sit on one of the many benches facing out to the river, and just enjoying being in germany! i love europe :)

cobblestone roads

beautiful view when i was sitting on a bench facing the Inn

an interesting touch also, which i think i enjoyed more than joanna did, was the graffitit i found. some of it i found rather enlightening:

some of it a little less so:

joanna teaches at the university in passau, and since one of her classes is in english i decided to tag along for the day and head to class. i figured since all of my classes had been canceled the week before, i might as well! i mean, i figured if i wasn't getting my classes in france, i might as well try one in germany. it was fun because it took no effort to understand everything - yknow.. because it wasn't in french... we discussed stereotypes of different european countries. it was interesting for me, though i didn't know very many compared the to the europeans. it was funny too when the students realized i wasn't german. and then realized i didn't even speak german. one kid even asked what i was even doing there.. i just pointed out that knew the professor, no big deal. i'm pretty cool right?
another thing i found interesting about the university were the toilets. yes, i said it. the toilets. in case i haven't mentioned this about lyon, many public toilets (including those at the university) are seriously lacking in the toilet seat department (supposedly for sanitary reasons), so of course when i noticed that passau didn't have this same problem, i was pretty excited. (don't judge, anybody (well the girls at least) in lyon with me would be excited too! hahaha)

while taking this picture, i realized i really needed to learn how to turn the sound off of my new camera...

and it turns out that this was an excellent week to visit passau because the weather was amazing (mostly sunny, a little cold, but let's be real here, it's germany in october..). which meant it was perfect for wandering around the city, as well as going on a couple hikes!
for the first "hike", joanna and i walked along the ilz river since i'm not sure that i saw it the last two times i was in passau. and i must say, i think it's my favorite, with the inn as a close second. the beauty of the ilz though, is that it doesn't have the city right next to it, so it's pretty peaceful, especially when you choose a day when not many people are visiting it!

the next day, markus joined us, and we headed off to austria for a significantly longer hike. after a few outfit changes, as well as shoe changes, and checking the map to figure out exactly where we were going, we finally headed off. i might also add, passau is so close to the german-austrian border, that we didn't even have to get in a car to do our austria hike (and on the way back, i didn't even realize when we were back in germany).

it was interesting for me to get to see the fields and foresty areas up close that i always see from planes. as well as to see how i could get from a crowded (in as far as all the buildings are close together) city, to countryside in 20 minutes flat. by foot. loove it.

i have to say though, i think my favorite part of the hike was the playground we stopped at before turning around and heading back. and by turning around i mean taking a different route back. but it was really cool. different parts of it represented different parts of the human body. just a few:

toes - little seats

spine - with springs underneath to jump on

face - the mouth part spins.. ours at home usually have something to hold on to

it had swings too! which, as some of you might know, i love swings. and so i was pretty excited about that.

on our way back, we headed to a watch tower. which joanna insisted we climb. which had a million steps.. i wish i had actually remembered to count. but in the end, the ridiculous amount of steps was definitely worth the energy it took to climb them becauseeeeee, from the top, was an amazing view! which included being able to see germany, austria, AND the czech republic. no big deal, just seeing three different countries while standing in one place, all in a day's work. so i guess this was my other favorite part :)

germany - now imagine having a view like this in all directions, and you'll start to get the idea

i also renewed my love of cows during this hike, though didn't entirely appreciate how much austria smelled like them.

now, because halloween was just around the corner, joanna and i came to the conclusion it was necessary to get pumpkins and carve them. we were a little afraid we wouldn't be able to find any acceptable pumpkins, but alas, we did, and halloween was saved.. or something like that. they took forever to carve because we wanted them to be glowy which meant making them thinner.. though i'm not entirely sure it worked for mine. but they did turn out rather nice :)

joanna's

mine

plus, we took advantage of the massive amounts of pumpkin junk we took out and made pumpkin soup for dinner the day i left! and we baked the seeds like my family does, and i must say they came out rather nicely. they needed salt of course, but they were the perfect color, not burnt at all!

though this was the extent of my halloween because i had an early flight back to lyon the next morning. joanna took me back to the train station, where we found a lovely group of people heading the same direction which made it possible for me to get a ticket for 4 euros instead of 20! cool system right? where you can have up to 5 people use the same ticket. it's great. i then headed to my hotel, which took a little longer to walk to than i had hoped because i couldn't find the pedestrian path that would have been a little shorter than the route cars have to take. but no big deal, i found it at least! and i was rewarded because my room was a lot nicer than i would have anticipated, even including a private bathroom which i hadn't expected!

that pillow was really comfy - i wanted to take it with me, but i didn't think the hotel owners would really appreciate that...

what i couldn't believe though, was that i was going to bed at 10:30 on halloween. ridiculous right? but i was planning on waking up a bit past 4 the next morning since i needed to catch a bus back at the train station that would take me to the airport at 5:25. turns out i was super early for that though since i found the pedestrian path, but hey, at least i wasn't worried about missing my flight!

and i have to say, when i got back to lyon, and i knew what to do (where to go, what tram to get on, etc.) it felt pretty good. especially considering when i first arrived i had no idea what to do, where exactly i was going, and had to sit and take a moment to get myself together and be willing to start asking for help - in french, while jetlagged, and without my luggage. but this time, i just took off for the rhone express again, knew exactly what to ask for, where to get off, and how to get home. and the best part? the greves appear to be over! which meant it didn't take any extra effort to figure out what might get me home :)