Easter Break -- Part 2

Holy smokes... Where to begin!!  I've finally arrived back to Swansea and have been settling back in, enjoying my time to relax before we have to get back into the swing of things. 

The second half of our Easter break was wonderful, just as the first was.  We started the second half with the overnight train ride from Krakow to Vienna, Austria.  From there we traveled by train to Salzburg, Austria, and again traveled by train to Prague, Czech Republic.  From Prague we flew into Paris, and then took trains back through London and finally Swansea.

Upon our arrival to Vienna, we found our hostel and dropped off our bags.  Check in time was not for a few hours, so we walked to the main shopping street and explored for a few hours.  When we finally checked in to the hostel, we immediately took naps because the sleep on that train was absolutely terrible!  That night we got ready and found some traditional Austrian food at a little cafe.  Then we figured out the underground system to find our way to a couple different cathedrals!  It was fun to see them at night.  The next day we got up and took a tour of the Schönbrunn Palace.  They offered the head set so you listen along as you walk through and soak in all the history!  It was great!  After that, we toured the grounds of the Belvedere Palace.  It was such a beautiful place.  Our final stop before we left was at the Hundertwasser House.  It is a crazy apartment building, unlike anything I'd ever seen!  The colors and shape of the building was just unbelievable!

Salzburg was another great city.  It was smaller than Vienna, which is kind of nice after dealing with the underground train system. The first full day we were in Salzburg we were able to enjoy a Sound of Music tour!  Many scenes from the film were shot in Salzburg, so we were able to see where the classic Von Trapp family lived.  The tour included Mirabell Gardens, Leopoldskron Castle, Hellbrunn Castle, Nonnberg Abbey, St. Gilgen and Lake Wolfgang, and Mondsee Cathedral.  We were also encouraged to sing along with the music in the tour bus as we drove along on the journey!  It was really fun to be in the exact places the musical was filmed and hear the songs.  It was such a great time!  After the sound of music tour we explored the rest of the city, including the castle in Salzburg.  By the time we got there, it was dark out, so we kind of felt like we were intruding on some sacred grounds!  It was so fun to explore and just see what was around the next corner!  We obviously couldn't get inside of the castle, but we were allowed to explore and see the views from the top.  It was a great night!

The trip to Prague the next day was also exciting.  We got checked into our hostel and laid low until dinner time.  We had a nice traditional Czech meal at a little restaurant down the road.  The next day we got up early to go on a walking tour.  It was really cold out that day, and after seeing the astronomical clock and a few other things, we decided to sit in the warm bagel shop with a bowl of soup and cup of coffee to thaw out!  We ate at the world famous Bohemia Bagel shop, and really, the bagels were delicious!  After we warmed up we decided to go to the market that was going on in Old Town Square.  It was very similar to the one we experienced in Poland for Easter.  All of the hand crafted items and paintings were so fun to look at!  And of course, we had to try all of the traditional food.  They made these pastry type things with cinnamon and sugar on the outside that were to die for.  I also had a potato pancake for the first time!  The next day we went out to do some sight seeing of our own.  We went to the Prague Castle first thing, and the views from the top were amazing!  There was also a cathedral inside that we got to tour.  After the castle we saw the John Lennon wall and Charles Bridge.  Both were absolutely amazing sights!  It was a great time in Prague!

The next day we flew from Prague to Paris, France!  I'm sure everyone's heard that Paris is a smelly city.... Well it's not a lie!  The underground was the worst.  It literally smelled so bad, and around every corner or in every new train station was a new stench that was terrible, and if not it was probably worse.  We were also impressed with the large number of officers with machine guns in their hands just casually strolling through the streets and the underground.  Thank goodness we bought passes!  The first day in Paris, Natalie and I started at Notre Dame Cathedral.  There was free admission due to the 850th year anniversary in 2013.  After the cathedral, we went to Luxembourg Palace and explored the gardens.  We made final stop at the Pantheon before heading towards the Eiffel Tower.  We bought nutella and banana crepes and found a cozy bench to chit chat and relax next to the lit up tower.  It was phenomenal!  We even got lucky enough to happen to look at the clock at 11:11 and make a wish while the light show was going on!  Doesn't really get much better.  The second day in Paris we went to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, but for some reason the entire thing was closed.  That was really disappointing, but I guess it just calls for a trip back some day!  After that we took a boat bridge tour to see all of the famous bridges throughout Paris.  Our final stop was again at the Eiffel Tower, except this time we went up to the top!  It was AMAZING!  I had sooo much fun.  What made it even better was that it was rainy and extremely windy, so there wasn't really a line.  I don't know why I wasn't scared at all, because at the top you could definitely feel the tower swaying just slightly.  Maybe it was my imagination, but I was just on cloud nine that I got to be at the top of the Eiffel Tower.  It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I'm so glad I did it!  Natalie has some pictures of me fighting the wind and rain at the very top.  I'll be sure to share those eventually. 

And finally, we are back to Swansea.  It's been great to relax, but I feel like I should be doing something.  We've been going non stop for the last three weeks and now I can finally catch up on sleep and relax.  I have so many memories, and so many pictures, I couldn't have asked for a better vacation!  I hope the family is ready for some great souvenirs from all over Europe!  With only two weeks left of classes before finals start, I'll be home before we know it!  One last thing!  I cannot wait for Hannah Hurlbert and her mum to visit Emily and I in May!  It will be great to see some familiar faces! 


Ciao for now!

Vienna, Austria

Schönbrunn Palace

Belvedere Palace

Hundertwasser House

The Sound of Music.  This was where the scenes of the back of the Von Trapp home were filmed.

"I am sixteen, going on seventeen"

"I've got confidence"

Astronomical clock, Prague

Market in Prague

Charles Bridge

John Lennon Wall

Notre Dame Cathedral

Inside the Notre Dame Cathedral.  The stained glass windows were absolutely beautiful.

Eiffel Tower at night

Eiffel Tower in the light!

Easter Break – Part I

The long and highly anticipated Easter break is well underway! I am currently on an overnight train ride from Krakow, Poland to Vienna, Austria  The European tour has been nothing but amazing thus far!!

Easter break started for my friends Natalie, Emily, Sam and myself last Sunday, the 24^th of March.  We flew into Venice, Italy from the UK to start our three week long adventure.  Upon arrival, we checked into our hotel located outside of the city.  We had to pull an all nighter because of a very early flight, so we decided to rest up before dinner.  The restaurant connected to our hotel was really nice, with traditional Italian food!  We all tried interesting kinds of pizza, the names of which I don’t remember (Italian language barrier), and enjoyed every last bite of it!  We had an early night so we could get up and enjoy the next day. 

The next couple of days were filled with the typical tourist activities.  Due to terrible instructions from the front desk of the hotel (or possibly the language barrier again), we spent about an hour too long trying to figure out the bus system to get to the island.  When we finally arrived we set out to explore the city and the shops.  I forgot to mention that it was pouring down rain.  At one point, the sidewalks turned to ice and it was snowing!  It was not the ideal weather for a vacation, but it didn’t matter.  Those of you who have been to Venice know that the streets are lined with shops filled with decorative masks used in the festival in February.  It’s a week long festival there.  Just think, we only missed it by a few weeks!

Aside from looking at all the souvenirs in the shops and spending plenty of Euros, we did the traditional sight seeing.  Anyone who knows me really well could tell you all about my secret love of bridges.  One of my favorite bridges, which happens to be on a poster hanging in my room at school, is the Bridge of Sighs located in Venice, Italy.  Needless to say, I almost started to tear up when we stumbled upon it.  It was an absolutely perfect day!!

On the 27^th of March, we took a flight from Venice to Rome, Italy.  Thanks to some of Sam’s friends from school in the states who were studying abroad in Rome, we were able to stay with them in their apartment at no cost!  

The weather in Rome was much warmer than Venice.  We didn’t even need jackets some of the time.  While we were there we toured the Colosseum, the ruins, the Sistine Chapel, the Spanish Steps, Vatican City, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and many other things.  On the last day we were there, Easter Sunday, Emily and Sam had early flights to meet up with other friends and family, so Natalie and I decided to go to church.  We went to mass in one of the cathedrals right in the heart of Rome!  We had one final Italian meal and then packed our stuff to head to the airport ourselves. 

Italy was a great experience!!  I can truthfully say I won’t be craving pizza, pasta, or gelato for quite some time!  Next up was Krakow, Poland. 

We left Rome knowing that the weather was about to change drastically.  We went from 50 or 60 degree weather to icy roads and snow falling from the sky in Krakow!  Both Natalie and I were so excited to finally see real snow!  Being in Swansea for the winter is nothing like a winter in Iowa.  We hadn’t seen snow since the first week we arrived in Swansea. 

Check in to our hostel went very smoothly.  After we settled in we decided to go to an old Jewish square to find some dinner.  As it was Easter Sunday, nothing was really open.  We found an American/Mexican food restaurant around one corner and decided that was our only option.  If you put that together, our Easter in Europe was filled with spaghetti and burritos!  Not ideal, but you gotta do what you gotta do!!

The next day we took a tour of Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps.  They are only about one hours drive from Krakow, and for a good price we were allotted a guided tour of both places lasting approximately four hours.  We were given headphones, and our tour guide had a microphone.  When the two were programed to the same channel we could hear her voice through our headset.   She was a native Polish woman and she gave an excellent tour!  As you can probably imagine, the experience was incredible.  There aren’t really words to describe what it was like.  It was so surreal; I had goose bumps every step of the way.  The history, the stories, the photos, the barracks, the fences, the watchtowers, the wall of death… I couldn’t believe I was seeing it with my own eyes.  It was a great learning experience in many aspects.

After the tours, we arrived back in Krakow at around dinnertime.  I don’t know how Natalie and I were so lucky, but with Easter being the day before, there was a cute little market with traditional Polish food, Polish jewelry, and other little trinkets right in the main city square.  We of course wanted to try everything!  We tried potato and cheese dumplings, strawberry dumplings, and sweet cheese dumplings.  I tried some fried cheese with cranberry sauce while Natalie had some Polish sausage.  I even had some chocolate covered kiwi!  I highly recommend this snack.  Some might even go as far as saying it’s a healthy snack!  Later that night we situated ourselves in a place called Harris Jazz Piano Bar to enjoy some live jazz music.  It was another perfect day!

Today we started by touring Wawel Castle and cathedral.  It was kind of a hodge podge day, as we didn’t have any booked tours.  We went to the university near old town and got into the library and museum.  We also just wandered the streets taking in the sights of Krakow.  Both of us absolutely loved the short amount of time we had in Poland and can’t wait to go back some day. The people were great, the city was great, the food was great, and it all came at a nice price! 

As I mentioned earlier, Natalie and I are on the way to Vienna, Austria!  We are meeting back up with Sam to tour Austria and the Czech Republic.  Austria and the Czech are other countries that none of us have been too and we are very excited!  We will see how it compares to Poland!  I’m looking forward to updating all of you again after we arrive back to Swansea in less than two weeks!  Happy Easter!! 

The four of us on a gondola boat ride.  From R to L: Me, Sam Gosper, Emily Freund, Natalie Northup

The Bridge of Sighs <3

The Colosseum

Trevi Fountain

Wawel Castle in Krakow, Poland

Market in Krakow

Famous entry to Birkenau Concentration Camp

Wooden Barracks