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.

Daily living here in Austria

It has been about 2 weeks since Venice and all I have been doing is hanging out and going to school.  It is incredibly nice not having a job and being able to relax on the days I don't have school as well. :)  Last week one of my classes was changed to a different day, so I only had class last Monday and then again this Monday!!  During that week I went to a lake called Baggersee and caught on my TV shows. I also went out and had some fun on the town with my new friends over here in Austria! :)

Baggersee

This week school has been very intense.  I had class Monday and Tuesday with a presentation due on Monday for a class that was ending.  Then Wednesday was a holiday, so everything in the city was closed down and I worked on a paper that had a max of 10 pages to write; I wrote almost 8 pages. :)  I have been very productive this week.  Then on Thursday and Friday I had class ALL DAY (9-4:30) and I had class from 9-12:15 today, A SATURDAY!  Who does that?  I finally got a burger on Tuesday as well!  We went to a place called Flo Joe's, which has an assortment of food which reminded me of America.  The decor was also very interesting as well, I should have taken a picture.  I have been waiting since we were in Amsterdam to get another burger.  Did this burger live up to my expectations from America and Amsterdam?  No, but it was still pretty good!! The only reason it did not live up to my expectations, though, is because it was 12.50 euro!  

Jessica and I joined a gym not too long ago because we really needed to get into shape and her foot was hurt and my knees and ankles were hurting when I ran outside!  We have been very good about going to the gym and doing cardio along with lifting weights!  She has been great teaching me about what to do for each muscles in our legs and arms, plus our chest and back. :)  We always do 30 minutes of cardio and then switch off on days for legs and arms!!  I have been feeling so much better about myself!  On Wednesday we even did a 2 a day because we had enough time to do so!

Yesterday we had class all day and then there was a tram party we wanted to attend, so we did not go to the gym, instead we ate at a Greek restaurant before the party.  This tram party was INTENSE and for sure not my scene.  It was a cool concept, but there was way too many people.  So the concept was to put glowing lights and music on some of the trams here in Innsbruck and pack everyone into them to do a bar crawl of sorts.  The tram was incredibly hot and I couldn't breath and people were all over the place.  I understand though because it was free and you go to 6 places, so that's 6 free drinks!  I got two of the free drinks and headed home because we had class at 9am, which I think is totally ridiculous.

Today I went to class and then to the gym with Jess.  I did about 45 minutes of cardio and then we did arms.  After that we shopped for Mexican food for tomorrow, CINDO DE MAYO!!!  We are having a party with a whole bunch of international students and I am making mini mexican pizzas.  They were supposed to be healthy but the grocery stores here are horrible!  I could not find low fat anything (it is all in German though) and there was no refried beans!  Also, no whole wheat tortillas?  AHHHH  I have been getting by prior to now, but I am missing Publix incredibly!!  Tomorrow will be fun no matter what! I got grapefruit juice and tequila to make grapefruit margaritas!  I also found "cheese dip", a sort of queso lol and they had taco seasoning!

More updates after Cinco de Mayo.  Also, Poland on Wednesday, so updates on that as well.

<3