Hi Matt,
I've seen your message already yesterday, but had to check things first. I myself am in the situation waiting to move into a very nice, but totally inexpensive living, a big villa rental for two single persons only with a huge garden owned by an old German couple taking a rent of only U$ 200.- per month. Depending, if the one of the girls, who is living there now, will master her final exam at the end of this semester, I can move over in summer or not. If I can, there is plenty of room and no problem to host a traveler. In the meanwhile I'm staying in a still harmonic but nevertheless slightly overcrowded living community, just having my own room as my three mates too (two girls, a boy), but in total with all friends and girlfriends, sharing in at a more or less regular base, we are more people and pets (two cats) than rooms.
Therefore I had to make some phone calls first, just to be sure, that I will be able to offer an adequate accommodation for some days in summer. And luckily I'm able. A friend of mine will be travelling himself at this time, so his small but single unit, will be available then, depending, which month Shelly will be travelling herself. Another, I've been just told during my last coffee-brake, will stay alone during summer with several rooms left. So no problem at all and what ever might be happen, as past taught, some accommodation had been always found, especially when EMA (estimated month of arrival) had been announced in advance.
Anyway, it would be a great pleasure for me to show Shelley around, as I ever was very excellent hosted in US as well as outside US too, and as I like to meet interested foreigners to show them my home country and what's going on in my corner of the globe and how we are doing. (If an US-citizen hosts an Non-US-citizen outside US is that offshore hosting ?? I was that once in Canada by a guy from Buffalo and we had great time while canoeing two weeks through the woods :-). However, we can do some sightseeing in the old part of the city, meeting some people at the campus or friends and join some events in town. Oh wait a minute, the New Orleans College kits of Notre Dame will be over here the whole summer again, as our University has a partnership with them, and they are doing a lot of great activities too, having a lot of parties and fun. Just as Shelley likes. We also can join some local friends and hike up in the mountains, which are starting just at the center of town or doing some sailing at a lake nearby or going to the Italian part of Tyrol for some western horse tracking too. But anyway, I think that is to find out, when Shelley is over here :-)
Oh yes, Matt, my city and country. As probably still known by old Marsupials of eon4ever- and NoJava-times, I'm located at Innsbruck, Tyrol in Austria, right in the center of the Alps in the Heart of Europe (Local Advertising Proposition (LAP??)), as any other location in Europe of course is always right in her Heart as well, but we are special.
My e-mail address is either
m.f.g.@usa.net or more directly Axel.Santo-Passo@uibk.ac.at
Please just handle these over to Shelley. However her tour might be planed, either as a general overview roaming from Hammerfest over Warsaw and Edinburgh to Marrakech and Istanbul (Germans are great doing that way) or more detailed meeting only view countries but with some off road places as well. Anyway maybe I can be of some help too or give some advise, as I did that kind of travelling for some years by my own. And if her track is leading through Innsbruck, that would be great and I'm quite sure, she will enjoy our little place too.
Anyway, travelling in Europe especially for youngsters is very easy, as even more than a lot of the European kits themselves are travelling. Mostly by a train-ticket called "Interrail" which last for a month. This is only available by Europeans starting at an age of 15 up to 26, but as I know, Americans are travelling by "Europass", as I think it's called, which is valued for two month. So millions of backbagers are on their trail through Europe forming casually parties on a short term base, as they travel on exploring what's coming next. Therefore trains are quite a little overcrowded by them in summer, but natives are very friendly, open minded and helpful to them all over Europe. Each town, let's say above 25000 inhabitants, has one or more Youth Hostels, as they count that as one of the better PR-Strategy, they can do finding a strong resonance within their population. In that way, there should be no problem at all to get along without any reservation in advance. On the other hand youngsters are gathering at special places to sleep, when Youth Hostels are totally full, like at the Main Hall of the Railway-station in Venice, where only small gangways are left to lead through hundreds of sleeping backs, fully accepted by the nearby police-station. Any serious troubles or bad minds in general with or about these "Interrail-trampers", as we call them, has never been heard till now and this wheel has been turning now for more than let's say twenty-five to thirty years.
I'm telling you that in an open form at the board, so if anyone maybe of Shelley's relatives might be afraid of letting her move alone will see, that there is no danger in doing so, as she will be constantly joined by other young fellows, but it's a real great experience to do so and an excellent opportunity to learn about other countries, its culture and its people and that's the way, as it's seen by the natives too.
Please, tell Shelley, Innsbruck is looking forward to welcome her and will be prepared to be one of her base-stations on her trip, whenever she likes to join us over here. Concerning other cities of Austria like Salzburg and Vienna, we will see, when planes comes to be more concrete.
Best regards
m.f.g.
Xanthos
PS: okay, okay another over thousand words post
Yes, I know ...