Today was our first day of class.  We had breakfast on the terrace overlooking the Blue Mosque and then spent the first class introducing ourselves and talking about our preconceptions of Turkey, Islam, and Muslims, and how those perceptions since our arrival.

After class we went on a wonderful private boat tour and had the chance to observe the architecture and landscape of the European and Asian sides of Istanbul at the same time.  It was so cool!

Our guide knew the history of almost every building along the Bosporous.  Here are some pictures!

So, I have, without fail, managed to get the time wrong for almost every tour I’ve tried to do.  Haha but that’s not a problem!!  Sometimes I get there early

Yesterday I did another New Europe free walking tour.  I will never cease to be amazed at how great these tours are.  I’ve been recommending them to everyone.  All of my guides have been extremely knowledgeable and nice and just genuinely love the cities they’re working in.

My guide, Michael, was great, and an Irishman!  Although those qualities usually go hand-in-hand.  The tour ended up being almost four hours, but it was so interesting that I didn’t even notice.  I got to see all of the “old” buildings (Munich was heavily bombed during WWII and most of the buildings you see now are concrete reconstructions of what the city looked like before the war) and Michael pointed out a bunch of really interesting memorials that I otherwise wouldn’t have even noticed.  I can’t get over how great the tour was.

I also did New Europe’s Beer Challenge last night!  No, it’s not what you’re thinking.  It was nothing like Beer Fest.  We went around to a bunch of different beer gardens and the beer museum and learned a lot about the history of beer in Munich, and we sampled all of the different kinds of beer brewed in Munich.  Everyone there was just there to have a good time, unlike pubcrawls where most people just want to get sloppy and embarrassingly drunk.  The challenge part of the Beer Challenge was actually to be the most knowledgeable person there.  I didn’t win, obviously, but I met some really great people, including some kilt-wearing Scotsmen and a Gaelic-speaking Irishman from Tipperary.

I’d like to apologize for the lack of photos lately.  The internet here takes freaking forever and a half, but I think I’m going to set aside some time tonight to upload my pictures from Salzburg and what I’ve seen so far in Munich.

Also, I’m thinking about reformatting the layout of my blog.  My posts are getting wayyy too long for the front page.  Expect changes in the near future!

Salzburg has been kind of a bust.

Yesterday, I went on two tours: one to the Bavarian salt mines, and one Sound of Music tour.  At the salt mines, my guide only spoke German, and he kept forgetting to hit the start buttons for the audio tours.

Now, the disappointment surround the Sound of Music tour could have been my fault.  I did prep myself by listening to the soundtrack on repeat for an entire day before I went.  But, I did a bus tour with about seventy other people on a coach bus.  Most of the things we saw were just drive-bys, and they were mostly on the left side of the bus.  I was sitting on the right side.

Today I decided to cancel my last night in Salzburg (tomorrow) and just go to Munich a day early.  There isn’t a whole lot to do here.  I saw everything there is to see in about one afternoon.  And I had time to get a kebob.

My Salzburg map is practically life-size.  It doesn’t take more than fifteen minutes to walk anywhere.  I went to the castle, the abbey, the glockenspiel, and one other place that I can’t think of right now.  Those were mostly busts, too.  I’ll write about that tomorrow, and I’ll post some pictures.  Right now I need to finish packing and go to bed.

Today, I was sitting on the bank of the Salzach River journaling, and I saw an old man whip out his junk and pee into the river.  It’s time to leave Salzburg.

Good night!