Day 18- June 5

 (Olympic ski jump from when Innsbruck hosted the Winter Olympics in the '60s and '70s)

I didn't take many pictures today since we were driving and in meeting for the majority of the daylight hours. Sorry they're not more exciting. :)

Also, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my sweet parents! Love you!! :) :)

note: this is not their typical look :)

          Today we traveled from Verona, Italy to Innsbruck, Austria.  This was one of our shorter drives, so we were only on the road for about four or five hours.  After one driver rest stop, a lunch break, and hitting some end-of-the-weekend traffic, we made it to Innsbruck.  Before going to our hotel, we stopped at a pretty church to look around and take pictures.  We finally made it to our hotel a little before 4 pm. 

Right away we had our Austria orientation meeting with student presentations, a professional visit from the marketing manager of the Innsbruck Tourism Board, and an opportunity to sign up to participate in various outdoor activities in Innsbruck.  I signed up to go white water rafting on Tuesday, and I’ll probably go biking or walking around the city tomorrow with some people from our group.  Austria is a very beautiful country; the mountains remind me of Colorado so I sometimes forget that I’m halfway around the world.

            After our meeting we ventured out to find a place to eat dinner.  I have discovered that the worst part about moving from city to city so often is that have to continue to figure out good but inexpensive places to eat.  It seems that as soon as we get to know a particular city, we are on the road again to somewhere new.  We finally did find a place to eat tonight.  It was a bit difficult since today is Sunday and not many restaurants stayed open late.  I was about to settle for McDonalds when we came across a small restaurant that was open- our food turned out to be really good! I’ll definitely be eating there again before we leave Innsbruck.

            After dinner we actually did go to McDonalds for some ice cream and to use their wireless internet.  My McFlurry was delicious and it was nice to be able to communicate with people and post on my blog again after being away from the internet in Verona.

            Now I’m back in my hotel room which, I just found out, thankfully does have wireless internet through a service I purchased before coming to Europe.  Hopefully I will continue to be able to access the internet so I can stay in touch with everyone through this blog!