Innsbruck, Austria - Day 25 - 26

entrance to tram going to Nordpark
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I'm at the Best Western hostel in Innsbruck writing this. Can I just say how much i loveeee hotels? haha i never realized how much i love being pampered and just living normally (unlike living in hostels...although hostels have their perks too - u get to meet people, u get to pay less and really stretch your budget).

I've uploaded most or all the pix that i want to upload to this point. there are sooo many more photos but its just not possible to upload everything!! (my photo sizes are huge and internet connection keeps dissing me!) so take a look back at some of the other links...and i will update the blog part as much as i can. :)

view of innsbruck from nordpark
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i think i miss home a bit...the other day in Athens i met a guy from Vancouver/Kamloops and he mentioned Tim Hortons...so all day i was thinking about Tims...i think i ended up buying a frappe somewhere but it wasnt the same. I also miss watching regular tv. any time i have a tv in my hotel room i would watch anything! ive been watching a lot of CNN so im up-to-date with news around the world (although not so much Canada...but in Asia and the US), BBC just cuz its another english channel and whatever else on tv. the other night i watched spiderman in Italian hahaha! that was interesting. oh and they also have Flintstones and Doremon (in chinese "Ding Dong")...that was weird.  Can somebody update me on:

altstadt (old town)
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- The Hills - whats going on?

- who won Dancing with the Stars?

- who won American Idol?

- whats going on with Greys?

swarovski...the disneyland for my mom
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i cant remember all my tv line ups...can u tell i REALLY miss tv? :P

i will blog more when i have time....ciao! :)

.....

Its so hard to backtrack because I really don’t remember what I did. Good thing I write every night in my notebook that Estie gave me. :)

dinner
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The train ride from Venice to Innsbruck was ok…except for the fact that I didn’t make reservations for us. From Venice to Verona we found seats but it was from Verona to Innsbruck that we had to jump around to find seats. I guess the way the train system work is that some trains require reservations (for your seat) while some don’t. This one didn’t…so I didn’t bother making reservations and saved 4 euros a piece. But the train was pretty packed so we ended up hanging out by the seats in the hallway…fun, huh? We met this Austrian lady and she was telling us how she loved living in HK and how she almost moved there permanently. She thought my mom is Japanese and couldn’t even guess what I am haha

view from hotel room
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We stayed at the Innsbruck Neue Post Best Western Hotel...great location (close to train station and to old town) and our window view was so amazing. Well I guess the whole city is pretty amazing in terms of views. The snowy mountains are so close to the city and u can see them at every angle. I’ve never seen something so magical (even though snow is not my friend!)

We spent most of our time in Altstadt (old town) and there were tons to see. So many cute cafes, small shops, shoes galore (oh ya…there are many many many many many shoe stores in all of Europe…who is buying all these shoes?) The weather was nice the first day so we decided to do all the outdoor things first. We hit the tram to see Nordpark up in the Tyrolean Alps. I learned about the tram from some magazine I read back home. I have several magazine subscriptions back home and some of them are about traveling. I may have seen it in there…basically it’s the tram station I was interested in. Each of the 4 stations were designed by Zaha Hadid. I wasn’t really a fan of her work until recently…she does some amazing things! Anyway, we were so in awe with the new tram system…everything was designed to perfection…from the entrance to the tram, to the railing and bike racks. Pretty amazing! We then went up to Nordpark which is 2,256m high. OMG! The ride up was scary…well for me anyway, I’m afraid of heights. We got up there and there was actually snow on the ground and the temperature may have been around 10 degrees or less. I wore capris that day…haha! There was 1 photo of me sitting on the edge looking down to Innsbruck. My mom kept telling me, “just smile and don’t look so scared!” haha…I should post up that photo…I looked pretty nervous hehe

mmm Beef!
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As usual, we dined in the touristy area and had some local food. I remember Austrian is really good from my previous trip to Vienna and I still remember what to order. We had the traditional type of broiled beef which its probably more like a broiled beef brisket and it comes with veggies. And we had weiner schnitzel…what else, right? :)

Innsbruck is an easy city to get around probably because its small and very contained. We saw all the major sites in a small amount of time, like Helblinghaus (a corner house in old town), Kaiserliche Hofburg (which is a small holiday palace for the Hofburgs…but not as grand as the one in Vienna), and Goldenes Dachl (a house in old town where we ate).

my proseco with lemon ice cream
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Then the moment we’ve (I mean my mom) been waiting for…Swarovski Kristallwelten!!! My mom decided to join me on part of my travels is because of Swarovski! Its like Disneyland for women! Hahaha! We jumped on a bus that takes us to Swarovski which is just little outside of Innsbruck. We saw the fountain, went inside to see the museum (which isn’t much…they have crystal works for Keith Harring, Salvador Dali and some pretty cool crystal installation that looks like a jellyfish). Then at the end of all that, a HUGE shop full of shiney, tiny weeny crystals (and some pretty big crystals too but must be expensive!). I think I was more attracted to the design of the showroom because they used crystals to make several chandeliers that were pretty neat. I bought my mom some crystals for her birthday and mother’s day and she was happy! :)

me in aldstadt
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Innsbruck is more about skiing and hiking. I bet a lot of people visit during winter…which I would come back for but unfortunately I don’t ski. I really liked the city…it’s a bit small, though. I guess good food and quaint town can never go wrong!