GREECE: A long time coming

It seems I took way too long to post about my last trip while having the trip of a lifetime in Europe.  After Rome we all went to Athens, Greece and then to Santorini, Greece.  This is the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most because it was the most relaxed we were going to get prior to going home.  We only spent one night and one full day in Athens, but it was good enough.  The first night our hostel gave us some suggestions for dinner and they had a discount, which for us college students is amazing.  This restaurant was within walking distance from our hostel and super cheap without the discount.  We all got an appetizer and an entree along with some wine and in total it was still under 40 euro. :)

The next day we went to the Parthenon and walked around Athens a bit with a tour guide Alex's dad set up for us.  He made our time in Athens great and he took us to an amazing restaurant that afternoon.  I had seen the Parthenon before, but it was great to see it again.  We ended up getting free tickets because the ticket office saw we were studying in Austria which is within the EU.  Thank goodness they didn't check to see we were exchange students because that free ticket was awesome.  After the restaurant we walked around a thrift shop area for awhile and then headed back to the hostel to retrieve our stuff.  That evening around 6pm we were leaving for Santorini via boat.  The tour guide made sure we got to the boat dock and made sure we got on the correct boat.  We were so lucky to have a guy that nice to show us around on his day off work.  He also ended up getting a job with the hostel we were staying at because the employee saw how great he was with us and wanted to see if he could do the same with other guests.  The boat to Santorini was about 6 hours and we stayed up for most of it.  They served food and we did not have assigned seating, so thank goodness we got their early and got 2 tables for the 6 of us.

Arriving in Santorini was amazing and stressful at the same time.  I forgot to charge my phone and forgot to double check where exactly we were staying.  So it took us about 20 minutes to find the guy to take us to our hostel in Santorini.  The driver seemed irritated because it took us so long to find him, but o well we did find him and everything worked out.  At first when we were driving to our hostel we were all a bit freaked out because he stopped at the end of a road and had another guy walk us to our hostel, but then once we saw where we were it was jaw dropping.  We were right at the ocean and everything was beautiful.  The hostel was perfect and other students were also staying there.  We each had enough room, bed wise and we were in heaven!! That night Carly, Jess, Brittany and I went out to get a drink.  Brittany and I were the only ones to get a drink, but we still stayed out enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery.  The next day we decided to go into the town Fira, as we were staying in Perissa.  Fira was only about 20 minutes bus ride away and was just amazing!  We all had a great time in town.  I spent way too much money in Santorini, but it was well worth it.  I got a lot of souvenirs there and had the best food I have had in awhile.  I miss Greece so much!!!

After going into town we came back to Perissa to go to the beach for a bit.  We ended up sitting under these cabanas that were owned by one of the restaurants.  The owner came up to us and said we either needed to pay 7 euro or eat, so I made a deal with him that we would come back for dinner if he let us stay.  We did end up ordering drinks that day and then we went to dinner later that evening.  The food was, of course, delicious and we had a great night.  He ended up giving us free ouzo and said we could use his cabanas the next day all day, so of course we took advantage of that.  We had lunch and some drinks while sitting on his cabanas the next day and soaked up the sun the entire day.  That evening we wanted to go back into Fira to have a nice dinner, which we did and we also wanted to see the sunset.  Seeing the sunset was probably one of the most magical things I've seen in a long time.  Greece was and will probably be my favorite place to visit.  I will keep going back years to come and will always remember our stay in June 2013.  I was very sad to leave the next day, but I was also incredibly happy to be going home 4 days after that; a bit bittersweet if you ask me.

This Euro trip was the best thing that ever happened to me and I suggest everyone do something like this.  It is life altering and a trip of a lifetime.

Roma

Once we arrived in Rome at 9am we needed to find where our apartment was located.  We took one bus, which was correct but we had no idea what stop to get off at.  Rome’s bus system is not as good as Innsbruck and they do not tell you what stop they are stopping at.  We ended up asking an Italian woman and we had passed our stop by only 1 stop, which was good we asked at that time.  Then once we got to the street we needed to turn down we did not know which way to go.  This friendly lady stopped because she knew we were lost and asked if we needed help and she pointed us in the correct direction.  It was so nice knowing people were willing to help us.  We weren’t able to get into the apartment until almost 12, but we got breakfast and hung out at a bar below the apartment until we got the keys to the apartment.

We dropped off our stuff and then headed straight to the Vatican.  We got a cab there because we were not sure what bus to take and the cab was not that expensive.  In the end, though, we would have been able to walk from our apartment.  Right when we got out of the cab a man walked up to us asking if we wanted a tour of the Vatican.  At first, I was skeptical, but he was willing to give us a group discount and a student discount.  It ended up being 37 euro each for us to skip the line, have a guided tour, see the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica.  I was extremely happy for this because it was about 95 degrees outside and miserable.  The Sistine Chapel was amazing and breathtaking.  We were unable to take pictures inside and people were shhhhhhhing the entire time we were in there.  It was hard to take it all in at once; I could have stayed in there for hours.  After that we saw the Basilica and spent about an hour in there.  It was humungous and there was so much to see.  I took so many pictures inside it isn’t even funny.

After seeing the Vatican we went to get some lunch/dinner, which I called Linner.  We went to a real Italian restaurant and I finally got the Italian pizza I had been wanting.  It was an amazing meal!  We walked back to the apartment after that and saw a few more small sights.  We all chilled out for a bit and then we decided to go downstairs to that bar to get a few drinks.  We felt like we needed to give them our business since they were so nice for letting us use their Wi-Fi earlier that morning before they were even open.  We played cards and had a drink or two and then hit the hay pretty early because we were going to see the Colosseum right when it opened the next day at 8:30.

The Colosseum was amazing!  There were not as many people there because we got there right after it opened and it was not a weekend day, thank goodness.  Carly, Pella, Alex and I went there and Jess and Brittany went to get breakfast since they both had already been.  We spent about an hour in there trying to take it all in, but it doesn’t really hit you until later. 

After the Colosseum we went to catch the hop-on-hop-off bus we booked.  We wanted to use it as transportation around the city and we ended up doing the entire loop that took about 2 hours at first to see as much as we could.  We got off after the loop to get some lunch and then hopped back on to get to the Trevi Fountain.  We went to see the Fountain and then we headed back to our apartment to get ready for dinner and we wanted to rest before walking around at night.

We ate dinner at the bar downstairs from our apartment because their food looked amazing and it was decently priced.  After dinner we wanted to see Rome at night, so we went back to the Trevi Fountain and then went to see the Pantheon and the Spanish steps.  Walking around Rome at night was great!  We stumbled upon a market near the Tiber River right near our apartment in the Trastevere area.  I was in love with Rome and do want to return to see much more than the tourist sites.

The next day was our last day in Rome and we met up with our friend Stanley we met at MCI who goes to school in Canada.  We needed to say our goodbye’s to him because we would not be seeing him back in Innsbruck as he was traveling around Europe.  It was so sad to say goodbye to him, but we had a nice lunch and a great goodbye.  We went back to the apartment to pack our things after lunch and then we got a taxi to the airport to take off to Athens, Greece.

More to come on Greece!! J

Vienna and Elton John!!!

We left for Vienna on June 18 at 9am.  We were all pretty excited to go because we knew this trip was going to be amazing.  Alex, Jess, Brittany and I took a train to Vienna and once we got there we walked around for a bit and dropped off our stuff at Brittany’s friend Leslie’s house.  Alex and I were seeing Elton John that night, so we didn’t want to have all of our stuff on us.  Once it was time to go to the concert, Alex and I split up from Brittany and Jess to find where the concert was.  It was pretty easy to navigate and once we got there it was easy sailing.

Elton John was amazing!!  I had so much fun at that concert and am so happy I saw him live.  It was a bit weird at first because no one was standing up and having fun at the concert, besides me.  Then, at the very end, everyone stood up and started dancing.  I don’t know why they decided to do this when he only had five songs left to sing, but they did.  He sang all the songs I wanted to hear plus more and I will never regret going to that concert.  Our seats ended up being incredible, as well.  After the concert we met up with Brittany, Jess and Leslie at a “beach bar” near the Danube to have a drink and we went back to the apartment shortly after.

The next day in Vienna was fun.  Leslie drove us to this lake outside of Vienna and we had a nice lunch there.  It was a bit expensive, but the view was great and it was pretty good food.  We tried to go to this public pool afterwards because it was so hot outside, but it was extremely packed with a huge line, so we decided to go to her brother’s girlfriend’s house because she had a pool.  We hung out there for a bit until we needed to go back and get ready for our train to Rome at 7pm.

Once we got ready and packed up all our stuff we decided to go get some dinner before our train.  That was a good idea because we were hungry and it was good food, but a horrible idea because it made us RUSH to the train station.  Rush isn’t exactly the correct word, WE GOT LOST!  We took once tram, the U6, and then changed to the U4 thinking that was correct, but NO!  We ended up having to take the U4 back to the stop to get back on the U6 to RUN OUR BUTTS OFF to make the train.  I think the Lord was looking after us because the train was 10 minutes late and we made it on time.  I was having a panic attack and almost threw up.  Jess and I stayed in one compartment and Brittany and Alex in another.  The people Jess and I met were from Germany and China.  All four of them were great and shared their liquor with us and we had a fabulous ride to Rome.  We left at 7pm and arrived in Rome at 9am.

Rome stories to come next. J

Update after Prague :)

Since returning from Prague I have had to buckle down and study for exams.  Starting in June I had 4 paper to write and three exams to study for.  Within those papers and exams I also had six days of class.  So, to say the least, June was an extremely hectic month for me. 

I had to say goodbye to one of my good friends here too, Sam, who left really early in June.  It was so sad to say goodbye, but she was excited to go home and she will still be in North America, so not too far away from me. 

Since June was jam packed with schoolwork it was a decently boring month and I hardly did anything.  I did go out a few times for going away parties.  I also went shopping for souvenirs from Innsbruck because I did not have anything from there besides my own pictures.

After my last exam on June 14 I had to get ready for our trip we were taking for 8 days to Vienna, Rome and Greece!  That trip was the one I had been looking forward to the entire time I have been in Europe.  We left on June 18 for Vienna and more to come on that trip in the next post.

Welcome to Prague!!!

The trip to Prague was probably about the most ridiculous adventure I have been on!  Where to begin?.... I woke up at 3:45 am because our train was at 5:02 and was getting us to Linz around 8:06.  Well we had an unexpected stop, of course, that put us back by 10 minutes.  This 10 minutes put a lot of stress on the 5 of us traveling because our bus to Prague from Linz was leaving at 8:20am, about 4 minutes after we got off the train.  We all sprinted to the bus area, which ended up being the incorrect place and we missed out bus.  So we then talked to the westbus girl, WHO WAS NO WHERE TO BE SEEN WHEN WE NEEDED HER, and the next bus was not until 4pm.  There was NO WAY I was waiting to leave Linz for 8 hours, not happening.  So we looked into alternative ways to get to Prague and there was a train leaving at 11 am that was 32 euro.  We decided to pay for this train ticket and waited two hours until the train was leaving.

We then got onto this train and were less stressed (well I was the only one really stressed) and it was pretty smooth.  There were some odd stops, though, in the middle of no where and people were getting off to walk across tracks--very odd.  Then, all of a sudden, a guy comes down the hall saying, "move to bus" and waving his arms.  So, everyone had to get off the train and onto buses.  I was now in complete shock mode and just laughing because it was so crazy!  There were about 4 buses that took us to another train station (which we had no idea where we were going until we arrived) and we got onto another train hoping it was to Prague.  A few hours later we did arrive in Prague and the rest was just AMAZING!

When we got to Prague we had about a 15 minute walk to our hostel, Prague Square Hostel.  The hostel was great because it was in the city center and very nice inside.  We got there and I did not realize we had to pay with Czech cash, so I had to go exchange the cash I had with me in euro (which wasn't enough for our stay) and go to the ATM to get out even more cash for the rest of the stay and spending money.  After that glitch we got settled into our room and went to dinner.  Brittany's friend from South Carolina happened to be in Prague and one of his professors lived there for a bit and recommend us a really good Italian/Pasta restaurant.  We got so lucky going there because you usually  need a reservation (which we did not know), but someone had cancelled so we were able to sit down!!!  I got an amazing lasagna dish and some wine!  After dinner we went to this belgian chocolate place we had seen on the way to dinner to get some goodies for dessert!  It was some of the best chocolate I've had.  The rest of the evening we spent walking around the city and it was BEAUTIFUL!  Prague is more gorgeous at night than during the day!  We went to see the The Charles Bridge and on the way we saw the St. Vitus Cathedral, the Prague Astronomical Clock and the Prague Castle (from afar).  Walking around the first night was the best time I've had in awhile.  We then went to find a bar called Hemingway Bar, but it seemed a bit too classy for us and a lot of us were extremely tired, so we went back to the hostel to go to sleep.

The next day we woke up around 8:30 am and started getting ready for the day! It was awesome that the hostel had free breakfast and coffee for us because that saved us some money.  Since we were so close to everything, we knew we could get a good amount of site seeing in that day!  We walked to the Old Town Square and saw a few of the things we had seen a night time the day before and also climbed the tower in the center to see all of Prague.  It was worth paying to walk up the tower because it was a beautiful view.  We then walked by the Jewish area of town, which was worth going to see.  We saw a group of people on segways and one girl busted her butt, that was exciting lol.  We then walked to see the Charles Bridge again, which was so different during the day.  There were so many artists out, musicians playing and street performers.  We stopped to listen to a guy playing music on crystal glasses and also to hear some men playing some old time music ;).  We then went to find the Lennon Wall, which was incredible to see! There was so much graffiti on it from people all over the world.  There was an American flag painted o there, so of course us Americans posed in front of it!  After that we had the best Czech food and it was all because of a sign saying, "Real Czech food 20km" lol.  I got the stroganoff, which was different from what I'm used to, but delicious.

After the Lennon Wall we walked to see the Dancing House, which is also called Fred and Ginger.  It is the Nationale-Nederlanden building in Prague.  It was a great site to see, but nothing more to it than looking.  We then started walking back to the city center to meet up with Brittany and her friend.  The rest of the day we spent looking around and we got a coffee at a local restaurant.  We sat outside under blankets and heaters because it was incredibly cold outside.  We ended up eating dinner at a restaurant in a hotel called U Prince.  It was decently good food for a good price and then we went back to the belgian chocolate place and I got a waffle dessert that was the best dessert I have ever had! NO JOKE! It was miniature waffles with melted dark and milk chocolate poured on top!  SO AMAZING!  We ended up going back to the hostel because we were tired after that and relaxed for a bit.  A few people went out that night and it made the lag the next day, but I chose to wake up early the next day to see as much I could prior to leaving.

Then comes our last day and of course it would be raining the entire day!  We woke up and got breakfast and stalked up on the free sandwiches for lunch or for the train ride home and then headed out.  We went in a different direction than we usually did and we stumbled upon a great market!  I bought some amazing souvenirs there at a great price!  We then headed back to the same place we had coffee the day before to warm ourselves because it was freezing outside.  I got a hot chocolate because it looked amazing from the day prior.  This hot chocolate was thick instead of watered down and it tasted great!  Alex and I also shared a pizza because we were getting hungry again.  We then split off into three groups and did our own thing.  Sam, Alex, Jess and I went to see some other things and then we got lunch.  We found a nice place hidden on one of the streets that had some good prices.  Jess and Sam got their own meal and Alex and I shared again and we all got the club sandwich because it looked so good.  Jess and I also got 2 glasses of wine and had a grand ole time talking!  We then killed time at the hostel by watching a movie prior to leaving for the train station.  The weather was horrible, so I did not feel so bad for staying inside.

Prague was by far one of my favorite cities in Europe!  I will for sure go back and I recommend anyone traveling through Europe to visit Prague!

Now it's time to buckle down on school work and then we go to ROME AND GREECE!! :)

POLAND

On May 8, 2013 Carly, Jess and I took off for Poland around 4:00 pm.  We were all so excited for this trip because it was a MUST DO on our things to see AND it was a girls trip!!!  Jess and I hadn't traveled with Alex yet and he's our navigator, so it was a bit scary, but it was amazing!  The train to Vienna was the most relaxing train ride I've had and we were just at ease the entire trip!  Once we arrived in Vienna we had about 2 hours to wait for our night train to get us to Krakow, which we were nervous to see what our "beds" were going to look like.  The train came a bit early, so we got on as soon as it arrived and saw our compartment.  There were 6 miniature beds in one little room, but it wasn't so bad.  We were a bit afraid when we first saw the train because it was not the nicest one we've been on, but it ended up being decent.  Two older ladies ended up being in our compartment, but they were very friendly and we ended up running into them later on our trip.  The night train was awesome because we could lay down and rest the entire way instead of trying to fall asleep sitting up!  About 30 minutes into our ride, though, we came to a ha
lt and stayed for about an hour for "police reasons".  The two ladies in our compartment said the translation from German to English was very incorrect, so who knows what was going on.  Throughout the night I would wake and see we were at a halt again, for who knows how long and what for.  We ended up arriving in Krakow around 7am and had the entire day to EXPLORE!

The first thing we did was go to our hostel, GlobArt, which ended up being super cute and very clean!  I would recommend staying at this hostel to anyone going to Krakow.  The room was not quite ready, but they allowed us to store our luggage in a locked room and we were able to use the restroom to clean up a bit.  We also purchased the 5 zloty breakfast and our tickets from Auschwitz for the next day.  After finishing breakfast, we went to walk around a bit and exchange our euro into zloty for our future purchases.  We found a few local shops with some cute clothes and jewelry in them.  We just took in the beautiful day and explored the city!  The weather ended up being gorgeous and around 75 degree F or higher with sunny skies.  I believe we were very lucky.  All three of us fell in love with this city.

We then found the "cloth hall", which is really called Sukiennice.  This is in a square called Rynek Glowny.  This place had everything you could dream about buying in Poland.  There were tons of things carved from wood, including jewlery boxes and little gadgets.  Also, there was a ton of made from amber, or look alike amber.  Included in this mecca of greatness was traditionally Polish crystal glasses, which is something my grandmother has and I would love passed down to me. ;)  Thanks Grandma!!  I wish I had bought my own set, but it would be a bit hard getting it back to America.  There were tons of little shot glasses made with this real crystal and wine glasses.  I am regretting terribly that I did not buy any of this. :( Although, I did get a few souvenirs for myself and possibly for some of my loved ones.

After exploring the Sukiennice we went to see the Wawel Castle and saw Saints Peter and Paul Church.  It was beautiful inside the church and quite small, but amazing.  We also walked through a magnificent park that had the greenest of green trees I've ever seen and it was peaceful.  We then started walking towards Schindlers Factory and did not realize how far it was.  It was a hike, but we made it there, after getting lost a few times and it was nice to see!  I now need to see the movie Schindlers' List lol.  After this we went to the mall, Galeria Krakowska, which was the first "real mall" I've seen since being in Europe.  I bought a pair of shoes I've been wanting for awhile!! They also had a Starbucks, which is not in Innsbruck, so we happened to get it twice while in Krakow. ;)  Also, they have these amazing sandwiches in Krakow called zapiekanka.  This is a HUGE piece of bread with whatever topping you like.  It's almost like an open faced pizza on a baguette.  I got mine with mushrooms, cheese and ketchup.  Yes, ketchup of all things and it was not bad!! But then again I love ketchup. :)

The next day we went to Auschwitz and Birkenau.  It was a beautiful drive through the country and it reminded me of home a bit.  It felt very nice to see the difference between the city and the country in Krakow; I enjoyed in immensely.  Once we got close to Auschwitz I became quite nervous.  I did not think I would feel that way, but my stomach turned a bit.  The tour was crowded, but it was ok because we did not have to stay in the rooms very long.  It was extremely hard to see this place and to know exactly what went on in there.  There was one room in particular that almost made me throw up and it was the one with all the hair that was shaven off the victims in Auschwitz.  I had to leave the room immediately after walking in as I was about to faint.  There were so many pictures of how deprived these people were and it was heart breaking!  It never really sinks in until you see stuff like this in person and then you are like HOLY COW!  All of them were braver than I know I could ever be, especially the ones that survived that horror.  Carly, Jess and I snuck away from the group to get a picture in front of the entrance sign, which ended up being a good thing because we did not need to spend more than 20 seconds in the gas chambers.  If I had been in there any longer I would have had a panic attack.  I can't believe how humans can treat other people like this, it's unbelievable.

Birenau was even worse.  There were not as many buildings or pictures, but it is where they built the train tracks into the camp to make it easier to kill them.  It is sickening to think that they wanted to make it "easier to get rid of human beings".  They had houses they kept the victims in and toilet areas where they had minimal time to do their business and get out and it was only 2 times a day.  Imagine only being able to use the restroom two times in a day, it's terrifying.  We also were able to see one of the women's housing buildings and it was heart breaking as well.  There were 2 beds, like bunk beds that they had to sleep on.  It is hard to go into detail about how these women had to live.  The house was horribly congested and very hot, so imagine that in the dead of summer.  Also, in the winter, it was colder inside than it was outside.  My heart ached for them!

We were very tired on the way home, but we were humbled by our experience and tried to create a great evening from our long day.  We went to a Polish-Italian restaurant where we got pasta, a potato soup and a salad.  You can probably guess what I got, PASTA!  We then walked around for about a half hour looking for this chocolate restaurant that ended up disappointing us. :(  It was alright though.

The next day we woke up to get an early start.  We wanted to go back to this small store we found the first day to buy some things and also wanted to go back to Sukiennice.  We then sat at the coffee house until it was about time to leave to go home.  I wish I had one day longer or even more to explore the rest of the city!  I will most likely come back here and would love to learn Polish one day.

This trip was my favorite so far and I loved the girls I was with!! We will be life long friends. ;)  Our train ride from Poland was a bit long and we got in about 4am that Sunday morning.  Oh the life of a broke college student.