Spring Break II: Budapest, Vienna

Now here goes the second post of my spring break. Figured I should break up 10 days of traveling into two different posts. Make it easier on everyone.

Let's see.. where did I leave off...


Thursday March 28

Sketchy hostel. 4am train.

The second hostel we stayed at in Budapest was the most scared I felt the whole time of spring break. When we got there to check in the men took us into our room but we didn't realize it was our room until they asked us if we were okay with it. So we went all day/night knowing those two men could come back into the hostel apartment whenever they wanted.

Also, going to the train station at 3:30am is pretty sketch as well. There are some crazies that hang out there. But we made it on our train. We trained to Vienna and got on another train to Budapest.

Katie asleep on the first train

For our train to Budapest we didn't need a reservation. We could just get on. So we did. And there was zero seating availability. So we sat in between the trains next to the bathrooms. It was rather glamorous.

I actually enjoyed it despite the look on my face

BUDAPEST

So first thing out of the train station we hopped on the metro to get to the hostel. My dad gave me some money for Budapest. Not much. But when I tried to use it to buy my subway ticket... well. It's not their currency anymore. Thanks dad.

Pretty building when we got off the metro

So we found the hostel and got our room. But our room was a few blocks away with zero wifi connection. Once again our hostel doesn't have wifi. Thanks central Europe. It's really hard to find places to eat and where things are when you don't have internet access.

One of the lessons we learned on spring break. Hostel websites lie to you when they say every room has wifi. and that they also have a dryer and a microwave. I think they combined extras of all their rooms together and said that every single room had them.. lies. all lies. 

We went to the House of Terror Museum. It was one of my favorite museums I've ever been to. How they utilized the existing space was phenomenal. But, it was also extremely creepy. Concentration camps are sad. The Terror Museum was scary. As we toured the basement dungeons I started freaking out and fearing I too would be locked away down there. 

For dinner we had BURGERS!!! They were SO GOOD! 

Homemade strawberry lemonade! it was fabulous

My yummy burger with cheddar cheese. I don't think y'all realize that Europe doesn't have cheddar cheese. This was fantastic.

We called it a night after we went to Starbucks for some wifi.

Friday March 29

Friday... it rained. And rained and rained and and rained all the day long. And we walked. And walked and walked and walked. 

We toured St. Stephen's Basilica

St. Stephens Basilica

Inside of the dome in St. Stephens Basilica

We walked by Parliament

Parliament

We found the "Shoes of the Danube"

"Shoes of the Danube" memorial

Me. In Budapest.

We walked to the Buda side of the city

Parliament from the Buda side

We walked up the big hill and looked at the castle

Castle

Walked through the Fisherman's Bastion

Fisherman's Bastion

Fisherman's Bastion

View of Budapest

Tried to get into this pretty church but it was having Good Friday mass.

Red Church. I don't know the name

My favorite statue 

We warmed up and dried off in an awesomely huge bookstore. It has a cafe on the third floor which is called something to the extent of The Paris Cafe. So we warmed up in my cafe. Got a yummy piece of cake to calm our tummies before finding supper. And met a couple from the U.S. who told us what we should do in Vienna since they had just come from there.

Isn't it pretty?

Yummm... English Tea.

So our second night in Budapest looked exactly the same as the first night. We went to the burger place again. And got us some burgers! Yes. It was that good! Then we got wifi at Starbucks again and went to sleep.

The one thing about our apartment that was cool was that it was on the 1/2 floor. I took a picture to prove it...

1/2 floor. Who knew that existed?

Saturday March 30

We caught our train back to Vienna at 9!!! We actually got to kind of sleep in! It was awesome! And we had seats on this train!! Which was even more exciting! The day started off pretty good! We were also on our way to meet Katie's parents in Vienna!!

PARENTS!!!!

We were beside ourselves at the thought of not having to plan what we were doing or figure out where to go next or... blah blah blah.

After our 3 hour train in which I watched Les Miserables for the first time (!!!!!) It was incredible. We arrived in...

VIENNA

We got off the train to Vienna and it took us a while to orient ourselves as to which way the main train station was from our platform. Then we found the subway. We are super pros at navigating international metros!

Katie couldn't figure out which subway to take so we had to look up our hotel and figure out which line it was. For this she had to turn on her data and well.. it took a while.

Finally we went down into the metro to catch our line.

As we were walking down the metro platform this arm reaches out in front of me and grabs my shoulder.

I froze.

And a billion thoughts ran through my mind.
1. I'm about the be robbed
B. Someone is trying to kidnap me
4. I can't speak German what am I going to do
5. Why isn't Katie turning around to see if I'm still behind her, because I wasn't

The hand grabs my shoulder and turns me around....

Now a billion new thoughts are running through my mind
a billion and one. My attacker looks like Will
a billion and two. No... It can't be Will
a billion and three. My mind is coping with this by putting the face of someone I trust on my attackers real identity
a billion and fou.......

"Hey Paris!"

I started crying.

There was Will. In the metro in Vienna. His handsome smiling face there to surprise me at the end of a long spring break.

Will and Jordan had been planning since monday to surprise me in Vienna and Katie had known the whole time. I still can't believe it.

I just hugged Will and cried. I couldn't stand up my legs were shaking so bad. I had been so terrified that something bad was about to happen and then couldn't put him in that place mentally.

So. Once I calmed down all 4 of us caught the metro to Katie and I's hotel.

And her parents were there!!! YAY!!! Safe to say Will, Jordan and I all ABSOLUTELY LOVED Katie's parents. And since they hadn't seen Katie since December we gave them some time to be a family.

The guys and I went to the zoo!

Beautiful park and green house on our way to the zoo

If you are every asking yourself, "self, would I rather go to the Prague zoo or the Vienna zoo?" Go to the Vienna zoo! It was phenomenal! And also mainly indoors. The Prague zoo was really spread out and everything was outside in the freezing cold. Maybe better for the summer months.

I finally got to hang out with my giraffes!

The three of us left the zoo and got pizza and gelato for lunch/dinner since we hadn't eaten all day. Then we went back to Will and Jordan's hostel. They were in an 8 person mixed dorm hostel room and the other 6 people were these girls from Switzerland. So we went out with them on Saturday night because when else will you be in Vienna and have swiss peeps to hang with?!


Sunday March 31
Happy Easter
Buona Pascua! (In Italian)

I went with Katie and her parents to the Hapsburg Palace early Sunday morning. Who knew on Easter Sunday Vienna would be filled to the brim with tourists?! Will and Jordan were going to meet us there but Europe had daylight savings and they didn't realize it.. oops. They probably needed to sleep in anyways.. College boys.

While we waited for our entrance time at the Palace we went through the Easter Market they had outside the palace. We got some baked goods. Mine was a poppyseed bread. But who knew when she said poppyseed she meant the entire bread was filled with straight poppyseed. Good thing I wasn't taking a drug test. I would've failed and all for a grossly filled poppyseed snack.

Katie and I bought really pretty mugs and we got some warm tea to thaw us out before heading into the palace.

Ceiling of one of the rooms in the palace.

The palace was beautiful and packed with people. But entirely worth it! We also got there at the perfect time that morning because it just kept getting busier and busier as the day went on.

Will and Jordan met us at the Opera and we all took a guided tour through it. It was really interesting and come on. Its the Opera in Vienna! Doesn't get much more legit than that.

After we went to lunch we found the home of the Saucher Torte

I think it was divided half and half of if we liked it or not. Katie, her mom, and I did not really like the famous torte.

Then, as if we hadn't had enough to eat, Will, Jordan, and I went for ice cream

And this is the one picture Will and I got in Vienna

We met back up with Katie and her parents for the string quartet. Will and Jordan found other ways to spend their time while we enjoyed an up close and personal show.

They played Mozart and Haydn and it was absolutely FABULOUS! We were in the second row. The cellist was playing a cello from the 1500's!! They did a lot of tuning and it was so fun to see them interact with each other while they were playing. 

We met back up with Will and Jordan and tried to find the restaurant where our reservation was for dinner. We couldn't find it. And we had zero options at 9 on Easter Sunday. We finally found a place to eat and had a good dinner in Vienna.

Will and Jordan were leaving super early the next morning so I said bye to them after dinner and Katie and I went to bed.

Monday April 1

Wait.... ITS ALREADY APRIL?! Where did the time go?

Our last day of spring break and it was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL outside. It wasn't raining. It wasn't cold. It wasn't windy. It was fabulous.

We climbed the tour of St. Stephen's church. Which offered a fabulous view of the city.

We went to a butterfly garden

It was a beautiful spring day to end our spring break.

We flew Vienna to Milan which was a short flight. Praise the Lord. Katie's parents said bye to us in Milan to go to Lake Como and Katie and I caught a train back to Florence. We even made it onto the train that left an hour earlier than we had originally planned. Yes. 

The mug I got in Vienna. Isn't it the cutest thing ever?

Proof of our insane schedule and train rides. Can not thank my parents enough for the Eurail pass. 

All in all, our spring break was completely insane. A lot of trains. Not a lot of sleep. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Neither of us regret planning that much into our 10 days. 

It was a spring break of a lifetime. 

{If you want to hear more about our spring break you can find it HERE on Katie's blog!}