Fun in Innsbruck

So the highlight of our trip so far has been our time in Innsbruck, hanging out with my friends (or sisters, depending on whom I am talking to) Katharina and Ann. After an absolutely horrendous day of travel, combining bus, airport shuttle, train, and damn near any other mode of transport you can think of, excluding rowboat of course, we finally arrived at the Innsbruck train station just before midnight. Luckily, Ann and Katharina were waiting there with open arms, although I was secretly hoping for some sausages too, as I was really starving. Ty and I had grabbed a fabulous bratwurst and Bavarian beer in the Munich train station while waiting for our connecting train, just like good Germans do. However, I immediately knew that I needed a second sausage, but the train had already taken off and I was left with hoping for a sausage greeting in Innsbruck. Seeing Ann and Katharina though was so great and we immediately fell back into our old selves, although Ann has definitely become wittier since I last saw her. Ty and I enjoyed exchanging little wordy jabs back and forth with both Katharina and Ann our entire time in Innsbruck, adding a lot of humor and laughter to our Innsbruck days.
We stayed in a cozy little hostel called the Glockenhaus. I really didn’t know what that meant, but after a full night of church bells ringing right outside our window, Katharina explained that “Glockenhaus” meant “bell house” and it all made perfect sense. Ty and I thoroughly enjoyed our floral duvets and wanted to bring them home with us, but they were a little bulky and wouldn’t pack down very easily, and since those grouches at the budget airlines around here are just looking for an excuse to hurl extra charges at us, we figured we wouldn’t give them that satisfaction.
Innsbruck is the fourth city that has hosted the Winter Olympics that I have visited. It is a charming city with big mountains surrounding it and cobblestone streets running through its interior. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t show us the most beautiful sides of Innsbruck while we were there, but the rain made sure we stayed clean and that we had our raincoats with us at all times. However, it is a small city that is walkable and bikeable, two of my most important characteristics of cities I like.
During our stay in Innsbruck, we were able to attend a theology class with Ann, which I thought was extremely interesting. A lecture about evolution, intelligent design, and the Catholic idea of creation sparked my motivation to chime in and maybe stir some things up, but cooler heads prevailed and I was relegated to my courtside seat. We were also able to take a gondola up one of the mountains above Innsbruck, but with our luck, the weather was terrible and we might as well have been up in the snowy Himalayas rather than the mountains above Innsbruck in the spring. It was still amazing though and reignited my passion for getting outdoors and climbing as high as possible when I get back to SLC.
One really interesting thing for me in Innsbruck was this statue of Jesus on the cross that was on one of the main bridges in the city. Unlike other crucifix statues, this one was unique in one special way—this Jesus looked like a Native American to me! I really don’t know how to describe this, but he just did! The facial features, the slightly braided hair, Jesus was Native American all the way, probably from the Nez Perce tribe if I had to guess. He was also completely naked, something you also don’t see in an everyday Jesus. In any case, as soon as I started to refer to this statue as the “Native American Jesus,” I was reminded of the song “My Own Personal Jesus,” started pounding my feet with the beat, and then found myself sounding the beat and singing that song with my own words every time we passed within the vicinity of this statue. It was something that I really enjoyed, and I think Ty and Ann did too, but Katharina wanted to strangle me, especially when I proceeded to dance around the statue singing and whooping about. I thought it was incredibly funny.
Ty and I kept the mood light as we were constantly showing off our mastery of the German language by announcing every word we saw, everywhere, with the kind of accent and gusto that you can never achieve with Rosetta Stone. We had several compliments about our German, but none of them were nice. We were pretty sure that they were just jealous and wondered how we had learned so much so quickly. However, when we finally encountered a word with 22 letters in it (the whole English alphabet only has 26 letters!), we had finally met our match. It was quite fun, and even Katharina, our fellow German friend, was laughing deep down inside, although she was reluctant to show it. From now on, my friends in Innsbruck will know me as “The Kaiser.”
Another interesting day brought us through a neighborhood near the train station, and a drunk lady, who we later referred to as “the squatter,” spreading her cheeks between two cars and going the bathroom right in front of us as we were walking down the sidewalk. Needless to say, we double-checked every parking space after that before proceeding with our cheery walks through Innsbruck, just to make sure we weren’t about to come up on anything unexpected. The Squatter seemed to be lurking around every corner.
Innsbruck had a variety of characters who impacted our lives for a few minutes in one way or another. Besides the Squatter, we also ran into a man we dubbed “Armageddon” or “Apocalypse” because of the fact that he was ranting in German, or Austrian, or whatever, that the end of the world was at hand. The fact that we were speedily walking away from him on the opposite side of the bridge did not stop him from pursuing us for a few blocks before chasing after the next victim. Maybe he finally hooked up with the Squatter. They could have been a match made in, well, someplace. The walks through Innsbruck at night were always interesting, completely safe, but full of surprises.
A night of hanging out and baking cookies occupied our last few hours in Innsbruck. The normal banter back and forth between the guys and girls continued in the kitchen, up to the point that when it came time to say goodbye, we weren’t quite sure what to do. The jokes and laughter the last few days had finally ceased, and it was a feeling that I definitely didn’t like, but that had to come. Our time in Innsbruck was amazing and just what I had hoped for. Although the weather was a little ugly at times, the time spent with friends there was very uplifting and particularly special for me.
Ty grabbed a flight back to the U.S. the next day, putting an end to this European trip for him. However, I have a feeling that he’ll be back, and if I am lucky, maybe I can join him again. I decided to travel up to Freiburg, Germany with Katharina. There should be many more great times to come, but Innsbruck will definitely be a highlight of this trip.