Europe Notes and Thoughts

Well, we've left the European continent behind and have drifted over the Mediterranean to Dar Es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania.  Here we are prepping for the beginning of our Global Volunteers based service trip in the little village of Pommern.  But before we get more into that, we wanted to share some last thoughts on Europe.

-Trains:  Especially after flying yesterday, we're really going to miss trains.  We used a rail pass and it was super efficient.  Several times we would over think train travel because "it-can't-be-this-easy" only to ask a train staff employee and find that it was in-fact that easy.

Miss you trains!  Kinda hate you planes!

-Cultures:  It's amazing how many different cultures are smashed into such a small place like Europe.  Crossing borders is incredibly easy because of the EU's agreements but just across any given border the culture changes quickly.  We wonder how countries maintain their independent cultures with no-real-border control and identical currency.  Not sure how, but they do.

-Food:  Was all good. We did have some really great authentic (we hope) meals in most countries.  And we'll miss things like kasekrainer, prosciutto sandwiches (in abundance), honey cream, chocolate croissants, Ritter Chocolate, schnitzel and especially marzipan.

Shannon getting her fancy dinner on in Mayrhofen, Austria.

-Pedestrian Cities:  Who could imagine that people would actually want to walk around their cities not just drive through them?!  Brilliant!

-Cost:  Europe ain't cheap.

...and Austria since we didn't say anything before.

-Sorta German, Sorta Italian:  We thought Austria, as a German speaking country, would be fairly close to German culture.  And it did seem that way at times (especially food-wise) but they definitely have a hint of Italian slow-life culture.  In some ways this maybe the best of both worlds?  A bit of German precision and a bit of Italian romance.

-Skiing is a big deal in Austria.  They care about World-Cup races and ski year round.  Very cool.

-The beer isn't as good (sorry guys) as their neighbors in Germany and the Czech Republic.

-Vienna itself is a really cool city with a lot of really nice pedestrian areas, it served us very well as a base-camp for Eastern European (and skiing) adventures.

This is a statue of Manatee we saw in Europe.  Bizarre and super random.  That's all!