** By Mirjam **
From the moment Lucia arrived, I got the feeling that we would get along swimmingly and over the course of her stay I saw this initial assumption confirmed on many occasions.
Lucia is truly a wonderful person, filled with genuine interest in the language and culture of Germany and Austria. Throughout this week, we did a lot of things, we visited Innsbruck and Munich, drove up to Salzburg and explored the fortress of Kufstein, and I made many beautiful memories.
On the first day after Lucia’s arrival, we couldn’t venture too far from home for a few reasons, so we decided to take a walk into a gorge called “Gießenbachklamm”. Then we ate lunch at a restaurant and made some rough plans for the rest of the week.
The next day, on Monday, we made a trip to Innsbruck and visited the Hofkirche (Court Church, also known colloquially as Schwarzmanderkirche) as well as the Tirol Panorama on Bergisel, where a panoramic painting depicting one of the battles of Bergisel is exhibited.
Our trip to Munich on Tuesday was both long and eventful. We first went to see Deutsches Museum, then made a stop at the Karl Valentin Museum, a small museum in a tower with a café and a nice view of the city. After this, we went to see the Old Pinakothek and decided that we would take the next day off from exploring as we came to realize that a full week of rapid fire culture-touring wouldn’t do much good for any of us.
After our break on the day before, we decided that on Thursday, we would finally visit the fortress of Kufstein and the city itself. We also went swimming and had dinner with Priska, another Servas member living in the area.
On Friday we travelled to Salzburg, on the one hand to visit the city and on the other hand to meet up with a friend of Lucia, who then showed us around for a bit.
On Saturday, the day of departure, we took a short hike up Kranzhorn, and we returned just in time to pack up and drive to the train station in Kufstein.
This week was truly amazing, and I once more learned new things about my own country and what it looks like from another perspective. I was sad to see Lucia go, but I hope that we can remain in contact and will eventually see each other again.
Mirjam, August 2020