Austria

By the time we reached Vienna, we had kind of hit the slump of traveling for over a week, and were pretty tired. It was a little overwhelming because there seemed like there was a lot we could do, but we had a hard time deciding on anything, and only had two nights there. After checking into the hostel and stashing our stuff in the dorm room, where we later met girls from Finland, Germany, and two adorable sisters from Korea, we went to find something to eat.  It was one of those times when really nothing looked appealing for some reason, and we walked for what seemed like forever. Eventually we found something, and were much happier with food in our stomachs.

We spent our one full day in Vienna going to a Museum of Music (mainly to get out of the heat for awhile, it was HOT that day), seeing St. Stephen’s church and climbing over 300 steps to see the view from one of the towers, and then going out to Shonbrunn Palace in the afternoon and touring some of the rooms and seeing the beautiful gardens (for some reason we went to a ton of gardens/parks throughout the trip). In the evening we went to a restaurant in the center of the Museumsquartier area, which was really good. It wasn’t particularly Austrian, but it was a cool place and the people watching was fun.

Salzburg was quaint, sometimes bordering on cheesy, but it was a pretty and slow-paced town, which was perfect for this point of the trip. The first night we walked around by the river, and it was pretty to see the different buildings at night. Some of the highlights of the rest of our time in Salzburg:

Seeing some of the “Sound of Music” sights. Both us being fans of the movie, we wanted to see some of the sights from the movie, but didn’t want to really do the official Sound of Music tour. We did do a basic Salzburg city bus tour, though, and at one of the stops we saw a palace on the map and asked the bus driver what it was. He said it was what they used as the front entrance of the Von Trapp house in the movie, and it wasn’t too far of a walk to get there. So Erin and I hiked down this dusty road and eventually found it. Nothing too exciting, but the hunt was more memorable than if a tour had taken us directly there!

Trying to do a load of laundry with all the settings in German...

 Two different kinds of strudel:

Apple

Goat Cheese and Spinach

We went to an art exhibit called “Alpen”, which I really liked. It has all different styles of art that centered around the general theme of the nearby Alps, and how they have changed over time.

The view of Salzburg from an old fortress we sort of stumbled upon:

And some other lovely sights:

Munich Highlights

On our last morning in Prague, we made it to the train station, got our Eurail passes stamped and activated, and found our train to Munich. I have realized that I love train travel. I love how they are very reliable and pretty much always on time. I love the ease of just being able to hop on board without the hassle of security and things that flights have. I love seeing the countryside and different sights pass by the window. I love how the little snack cart always comes by even though we never bought anything from it, because each time I think of Harry Potter and hear “Anything from the trolley?” in my head. So yes, I enjoyed our various train trips, even though a few were more stressful than others.

When we made it to Munich, we had a little difficulty locating our hostel, but eventually found it. The hostel in Munich was probably my favorite of the trip. It just had a really fun atmosphere and was pretty well located. That first night in Munich we walked a really long ways, just seeing what sort of things we would want to check out during the next three days. There was a bar on the main floor of the hostel that was pretty busy when we got back, so we stopped for “one beer” and thought we wouldn’t stay very long since we were pretty tired. Well, at 3 am we were still there, and it had been a lot of fun. I had thought that there would have been mostly American students staying there, but most of the people we met were from Australia, and we talked to some guys from Holland too. When I first started talking to the guy from Holland, I thought he had said he was from Ireland. So I was all excited and was talking about how I was going to be living there this semester, and he couldn’t believe it. I thought he seemed a little too surprised, and then sort of confused when I talked about where I was going to be, which is when I realized he had said Holland and not Ireland.  But it was very fun talking with people from all over the world and hearing about where they had traveled so far and where they were headed next.

The next night as Erin and I were headed out to find something for dinner, we had a “small world” moment as we were waiting to cross the street. The girls standing right in front of us looked really familiar, and we realized they were our friends from St. Ben’s. We probably made sort of a scene on that street corner because we were so excited we had just run into each other. We joined them for dinner, realized they were staying in the place right next door to us, and we ended up spending most of the next two days seeing Munich with them.

Some of the highlights:

The free walking tour we took, which was very informational.

Trying some German beer.

The HUGE, lovely park.

Our day trip to the Dachau concentration camp Memorial was very informative, disturbing, and pretty depressing, but definitely and memorable and worthwhile way to spend a day.

Some other various photos:

(Yes, they are surfing in the middle of a city park!)

Prague Photos

(Note: This was written on August 31st) 

As I begin to write this, I am at the airport in Rome waiting for my flight to Dublin! This is my first time flying alone, but so far everything has gone smoothly.  I’m not really sure where to start since so much has happened in the last two and a half weeks, but I will try to fill you in on the highlights. I will probably break it all up into a series of posts, so stay tuned!

I wrote a little already about our time in Prague, which we really enjoyed. Here are some more photos from the first few days of our trip, which seems like a really long time ago now!

       

            

 

Don't worry, I'm alive!

My mother has informed me via email that my lack of blogging has caused multiple relatives to express concern that I have been held against my will in Prague since August 19th. Fortunately, that is not the case, I have just not had access to a computer and there has been sporadic internet access, plus I have been busy having an amazing time! But for an update, Erin and I are in beautiful cinque terre right now, and will be heading to Rome tomorrow where I will be for two nights before finally arriving in Ireland. We have been having so much fun, and things could not have gone more smoothly so far. We are meeting up with erin's parents in Rome, and they have my laptop, so soon I will have many photos and stories to share of our travels so far. Until then, know that all is well here, as I hope it is with all of you too!

Prague

It's been a few days since we've been in Prague, but I finally have some photos to share! 

We really enjoyed our time there. Some of the highlights include getting asked for directions multiple times (so we must have somehow looked like we knew what we were doing!), trying different foods, seeing amazing views of the city from Prague Castle, stopping to talk to a really nice older woman for awhile who gave us recommendations of things to see, and just wandering around the city. Considering our only mishaps were a lost ticket for our castle tour, being on a bus when it broke down, getting separated for a brief time on the subway, and Erin almost taking a tumble down an escalator, I think we did pretty well for our first stop on our trip.

Today is our last day in Munich, so I will hopefully be back tomorrow with a recap of our time here!

Munich

No luck so far with uploading pictures to the blog, so that may unfortunately have to wait until I receive my laptop at the end of August, but I will keep trying!

Yesterday was our first experience with the train, and we successfully made it to Munich. We talked to a really nice young couple from Boston who were sitting near us for part of the way. The six hour ride went by pretty quickly. When we arrived it was a gorgeous evenng to walk around and explore on our first night here. Erin and i agree that it is some of the best people-watching ever here. We love seeing all of the well-dressed people riding bikes to work or wherever they may be going. We spent the majority of today relaxing in the English Gardens, an enormous park (again, people-watching central!) The weather has been beautiful.

I hope all is well at home, and good luck especially to the many Bennies and Johnnies departing this week for their own adventures abroad!

Hello!

Hello from Prague! Things have been a little rainy, but wonderful, so far. Check back tomorrow for an update with pictures, once we figure out how to load some onto Erin's iPad!