WakeUpInEurope: Innsbruck, Absam and Seefeld

I officially got back from my first trip that wasn't directed by the school last night. The trip was fantastic, despite having some definite bumps in the beginning. The day of our journey started at about 3 AM when the Kartause's fire alarm unexpectedly went off, stranding almost all of the students out in the cold and rainy courtyard in front of the building. We were stuck outside for about a half of an hour as we watched Gaming's fire department arrive, strap on gas masks, and go inside. They found that the cause of the alarm was merely a hot wire rubbing up against a piece of Styrofoam. It wasn't exactly a pleasant start to the day, but it could have been worse. After the all-clear I went back to bed for a short while.

The day began again at 5:30 AM. I got up and got ready to meet the rest of my group for the bus at 6. So far so good, everyone was awake, everything was packed and we were ready by 6 for the bus, so we walked to the bus station. After about ten minutes of waiting at the bus station, people started to question whether or not our bus was even coming. After about an hour, we were content that neither the first nor second bus were coming. I was starting to get reasonably frustrated, when another student (from a different traveling group) discovered that there are actually two bus stops in Gaming labeled "Marktplatz," and we had been at the wrong one. At this point we decided to head back to the Kartause and try to find a way to Scheibbs, the nearest train station. Fortunately for us, one of our friends was already on the case, and had found everyone rides with the director of the Austrian program and my boss Maros.

By the time we got to Scheibbs we had missed our train, but it was okay. We had a couple of hours to kill before the next one, so we decided to walk around the town.

Scheibbs has a river running through it, so Mary and I decided to get a picture on the bridge.

A statue in the town square I think...

Scheibbs' church.

A statue in front of the church.

A war memorial in front of the church.

The altar in the church (we visit most of the churches that we see). Also, after our visit here we went to a tiny shopping complex. I didn't take any pictures of it for some reason...

After shopping, we found a playground, and decided to hang out and get a few pictures in the last couple of minutes before the train.

Mary and I on another bridge...

Closeup on the bridge. We also took a few pictures jumping up and down on the bridge, but none of the ones on my camera turned out, so check facebook later.

After all of this, we got on the train and proceeded towards Innsbruck. The actual journey to Innsbruck was a bit confusing due to train transfers. We basically had to take a slow train way out of our way in order to get on a fast train to Innsbruck. If we hadn't done that, we wouldn't have gotten there until 10 or 11 PM rather than 6.

It was already dark when we got to Innsbruck and almost everything was closed, so we got some pizza and headed for the hostel. The hostel was actually really good. Credit goes entirely to Mary for picking it, but it is called the Garni-Technikerhaus, and I highly recommend it for any future students who may wish to visit the Innsbruck area. After check-in, we started planning out what we were going to do the next day. Part of that planning involved finding the bus stop, so a few of us ventured out to the marktplatz to try and find it.

Me in front of the Triumphpforte (the Triumphal Arch).

Some modern art in the marktplatz.

Innsbruck at night.

After we found the bus station, we headed back to the hostel, hung out, played a few games and went to bed.

The next day we woke up, got breakfast, and hopped on the bus to Absam. The Absam Kirche is a chapel which was dedicated to Mary after and image of her appeared on a window pane in the 1790s. Sadly, it is a long story and I don't really know all of the details. What I do know is that the window pane is on display in the church, and that it has undergone tests to show its validity. Anyways, we also discovered the coolest adoration chapel that I have ever seen.

Absam Kirche.

The Altar in Absam Kirche.

The altar where the window pane is housed.

A close-up of the miraculous image.

This was a side chapel dedicated to the people who experienced miraculous healing at the church. All of the pictures on the walls are of people who have been healed in Absam.

The Eucharistic Chapel. The heart is the tabernacle, and if you look closely, you can see the Eucharist in a small monstrance dead center.

Absam's cemetery.

I know this post is starting to get long, but I only have two more places to talk about, Seefeld and Innsbruck (again). Anyway, we hopped on a train to Seefeld shortly after returning from Absam. I think it was one of the coolest places that I have ever visited. It was just a nice little quiet town, with a Eucharistic miracle that we miraculously got to see.

They actually do cool things with the snow here.

The Church with the miracle, I think it was St. Oswald's.

Another cool snow sculpture.

The altar where the miracle occurred. A basic version of the story is this, a knight walked up to the altar during Communion and demanded the biggest host. The priest gave it to him, at which point his hands stuck to the altar and his feet began to sink into the ground (solid rock). The priest to the Eucharist back from the night, and it (the Host) began to bleed. The knight was then released, and lived a virtuous life thereafter.

This is a grate covering the hole where the knight sank into the ground.

It is hard to tell from the picture, but this is one of the knight's hand-prints on the altar. When he sank into the ground, his hands also sunk into the altar.

As you may have realized, I don't have any pictures of the actual Host involved in the miracle. That is because we couldn't find it. As it turns out it wasn't on display. One of my friends however, managed to find someone who could fix that for us. Basically she went over to the friars' apartments and found one who could show us the Eucharist. He gave us a private Benediction with the miracle on the altar, which was incredible. I don't have any pictures, but I can try to describe it. Basically the Host was hidden behind a wall panel in a safe of some sort, so we never would have been able to see or even find it without the help of the priest. It was housed in a small glass cylinder that was decorated with gold. The Host itself was still stained a reddish brownish color, it was definitely blood. It was a once in lifetime experience.