Spring Break I: Munich, Lucerne, Prague

Well. Here it is. My insane trek across central Europe.

Im going to be honest with you. Blogging takes up a lot of time that I don't have.

I have a 10 page, an 8 page, and a 6 page research paper(s) due in the upcoming 3 weeks and that is where I am focusing my time right now.

So. I have decided I will sleep when I get to America. Until then, I'm making the most of my time here which means blogging becomes less of a priority. So I apologize in advance for any lacking this post seems to have about my crazy busy spring break!

So Spring break..... 5 cities. 5 countries. 11 days.

I think we bit off more than we could chew.

Our Magic Envelope. It contained ALL of our train tickets for Spring Break

Friday March 22

We started off spring break by taking a train from Florence to Bologna (We being Jenn, Katie, and I). We had a two hour layover in Bologna so we walked around and chilled in a park. The weather was gorgeous.

Me. In Bologna.

Boarding the train to Munich we were accompanied by around 40 to 60 german adolescents. They seemed to range from about 8th-10th grade. The majority of the girls were crying. And when I say crying I mean sobbing, outright weeping. Sadly, we thought it hilarious.

The 6 hour train ride wasn't too bad, except for the crying, loud, rambunctious German school children.

View from the Train. Somewhere between Italy and Germany.

We got bored

Jenn fell asleep.

MUNICH

We arrived in Munich that evening

and found our hotel. No wifi. But that's okay. We are in Munich. Who needs wifi right?

Wrong.

We wanted to find somewhere to eat so we snuck into a McDonalds and used their wifi for 5 minutes and found the restaurant we had been told to eat at.

Best. Night. Ever.

Hofbrauhaus is the most awesome restaurant ever. If you are in Munich, you have to eat here.

We befriended an old man who was the only english speaker at the table. Or at least he befriended us by inviting us to sit at his table. He owned that table and has been going there for drink for 40 years! The food was delicious. The atmosphere was insane! It was the most fun I've had in a long time!

At one point we had a couple from Austria at our table. A couple from England. Us three Americans. Two old German men in which only one can speak english. And our waiter was Italian! It was such a blend of cultures.

We got Haagen-Dazs on the way back to the hotel and called it a night.

Saturday March 23

We started the day by visiting Dachau.

With this there are many emotions and no words.

We got back to Munich and found some lunch. I had no idea what anything was so I just pointed and got some type of wieners and a pretzel!

For the rest of the FREEZING cold day we walked around Munich and looked at buildings.

Inside of a church

It was freezing.. to say the least

Outside of church

inside of above church

Look look... in my hair. It started to snow!

Sunday March 24

Katie and I left Jenn the next morning and headed to Zurich... While Jenn headed to Morocco.

Found a boar in Munich similar to the one in Florence. Had to touch its nose!

Clock tower with moving parts (during the day) 

So we got on an early train to Switzerland.

I don't know what this town was... But I want to live here someday.

 We got off the train in Zurich and decided to day trip to Lucerne instead of staying in Zurich all day. So we dawned our magical Eurail passes and got on an 85 euro train FOR FREE!!!

It has special powers

LUCERNE

First thing when we got to Lucerne... I mailed a letter. So to make this spring break more fun for me (I don't know how much Katie enjoyed it) I mailed a postcard from every city we visited to Will. It was a really fun adventure to figure out where to buy stamps and where to mail the card from in four different countries!

Mailing Will's postcard

The weather in Lucerne was absolutely fabulous. It was so warm! and it wasnt rainy or windy! We found yummy swiss chocolate and walked ALL around the adorable town. It was the most romantic place I've been. Everyone was holding hands. The lake was gorgeous. My heart loved it.

Lucerne

The original chevron

Church

Dying lion. He was magnificent

Lindt bunny cars. Can you tell Easter is around the corner?

We walked the city wall

walked into a church and watch a boys choir practice for about 45 minutes. They were absolutely phenomenal. Made me miss my time in high school choir.

Before we left on the train back to Zurich we went to a grocery store to stock up for our overnight train ride and we ate some Burger King.

We trained to Zurich. Sprinted to the overnight train. and sealed our fate for the LONGEST train ride ever. Also the hottest train ride ever. We decided that the reason they don't heat the apartments in Italy is because all of the heat is used on night trains in central Europe. I had my face smooshed against the window the last 2 hours of the train ride trying to keep cooled off.

started the overnight train off with a bang. watched Pride and Prejudice on Katies phone. For the win. And I also look terrified. Which I should be. I have two word for you. Night. Train.

Somewhere in Germany or Czech Republic. Snow!

It was interesting training through the country side (which was mainly Germany) especially during the early morning. I just kept expecting to see soldiers running across fields or walking through the forest looking for something. My mind was stuck in World War II. But the country is absolutely beautiful.

...... 15 hours later.....................



 PRAGUE

Monday March 25

Yep. 15 hours on the night train. We made it to prague successfully and found our hotel.

look how awesome it was!

Then we went straight to the zoo!! We figured out the public transportation all by ourselves. We felt so accomplished!

Honey Badger don't care

At the zoo we ate some super cheap super yummy soup. and bought oreos from a vending machine. Which was a BIG deal! OREOS!!!!! but sad day. There were no Giraffes at the Prague zoo which, as you should know about me, are my favorite animals.

First night in Prague we decided to eat at a fun swanky Thai food restaurant. It was really yummy!

We took it really lazy because we were both wiped out from the night train.

Tuesday March 26

after our breakfast, which was included at the hotel. Winning again. we found this cute little bookstore/cafe to get warmed up in. As it was also FREEZING in Prague. Literally every day I wore thermal running tights under my jeans. Long socks. Leg warmers. Boots. And 4 layers on the top of my body. Long sleeve under shirt. Long sleeve over shirt. zip up hooded jacket. Leather jacket. a scarf. and as you will soon see. Ear muffs. I gave in. I had to have decent ear protection from the wind.

CINNAMON ROLL!!! Had 3 of these in 2 days. Shouldve bought more.

 We went on a free walking tour of the city. And being college students we didn't pay when he asked our huge group for tips. So it was legitimately free and we were able to sneak away because of the large size of the group. Awesome!

Church Organ

soup and BAGEL!!!! Finally a bagel. Not that great but hey.. its a bagel and they don't have those here. Can't wait to get home and eat at Bagel Place. If you are from Amarillo you know!

Spanish Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Prague

The Jewish Quarter in Prague is totally intact. Hitler made an agreement not to bomb Prague during WWII. He wanted to preserve the Jewish Quarter and turn it into a museum so that when the Jewish race was wiped out he could have a museum for the no longer existing peoples. That gave us all the heebie jeebies.

Jewish Cemetary

 On our tour a girl asked the guide what some statues were on a building. He had just explained the ones above those and she asked about the lower ones. He turns around and looks back at the group and goes... "Uh, Saints..." okay cool. Thanks for clarifying!

Astronomical clock. This thing is so legit

Safe to say Katie and I were frozen to the bone after our free 3 hour walking tour. We headed back to the hotel. Found a place for supper and went to bed.

Wednesday March 27

Our last day in Prague :(

We checked out of our nice hotel and into a kind of sketch hostel right next to the train station. We had a 4am train to catch the next morning.

We bought cinnamon rolls. I found my earmuffs to keep my ears muffed and we walked to the castle side of the city and toured the castle.

Charles Bridge

The stained glass windows in the cathedral inside the castle were incredible

Cathedral

no way anyone is attacking my castle

Inside the castle area

 We got hot chocolate to warm up and made our way back to the old town part of the city.

chicken skewer. yum.

And we climbed the astronomical clock tower! Got some pretty phenomenal (and extremely cold) views of the city.

Then, thanks to my mom and dad. We went on an adventure down the river to find these dancing buildings. Which are a tribute to Fred and Ginger. Arent they cool?!

So. Once again we found a place to eat and.... Then we blew all of our left over money!!! It was awesome. We didn't have enough money to change so we just went shopping. I got a cute new scarf!

We caught a train at 4 am the next morning and headed to Budapest... Which is continued in the second part of my spring break blog.


If you want more details/info about spring break, because, let's be honest, this post is struggle bussing. You can visit my roommate's blog HERE and Czeck out more about our insane spring break!

Cinque Terre

This weekend I took a day trip to Cinque Terre. But before that I think it's catch up time on Paris' life abroad.

Classes. I have no motivation. I just want to travel and eat chocolate. Basically I have a lot of research papers due in a couple of weeks and I haven't started on any of them. So, if you want to be praying for me, pray for motivation! I've also decided that my Italian final come May is going to be the death of me. I know for a fact that my reasoning will be, "I will never use this again in 2 days, why do I need to learn it?"... We'll see how that goes!

Roommates. Still awesome!!! Have so much fun with those crazy girls! God is good.

Italy. I'm ready for America again. I like it on the weekends when I travel, but during the week... there are more and more tourists every day and they are really annoying.

My mind is in this weird phase where half of me thinks I'm going home in the next two weeks and I have to so much to do. But then I get over it because the other half is thinking that I still have a really long time till I get back to America and I freak out wanting to be in an efficient english speaking country and then I calm myself down by thinking I'll be home in a few weeks and then.... well.. it's a vicious cycle.

So Cinque Terre was absolutely beautiful. I hung out with Will in Arezzo beforehand. We made pancakes, true American style, and I got my haircut by his hairdresser lady. Another hairstylist who doesn't speak English. But it's my favorite cut so far! As Will so delicately puts it, "she sculpts your head!!"... and it's true!

Chillin' at the park after my haircut. What a beautiful, warm, sunny day!

I FINALLY got to watch Will play soccer. It took 9 months but dang it I saw him play. He made a goal and had at least 3 shots on goal! Watch out, the world might end soon. I think the universe just never wanted my to see him play, but maybe that curse is broken now! So proud of him showing up the Italians!

Will is in the purple. Sporting the Fiorentina jersey I got him! Like a boss!

Cinque Terre. It was so cute. I kept looking up and just thinking.. ITS SO CUTE!!! It was perfect and fabulous and breathtaking. Cinque means 5 in Italian and Terre is earth. So Cinque Terre literally means 5 earths and is made up of 5 coastal villages.

One of the towns in Cinque Terre. I honestly don't remember which one.

We (Will, 3 of my roommates, and I) went with Florence for Fun which is a travel agency. So we paid our euros a while ago. Met at the train station super early in the morning, or should I say waited at the train station, and took a 2 hour bus ride to the Cinque Terre.. or at least as close as the roads would allow us to get. 

We walked to the first town, Riomaggiore, with 100 of our best friends....

Will and I wanted to ditch the annoying Americans and do our own thing but we could never figure out what was going on or what our pre-paid trip included, also the guide wouldn't explain much to us. 

But, like always, Will had the greatest attitude and kept telling me.."Hey! Today is going to be great!!" and it was! We made the most of it. We were able to enjoy ourselves amongst the throngs of numerous other study abroad students.

We were told that all of the hiking paths connecting the 5 towns were closed, but when we arrived our guide learned that one was open. So, we trained to the second town, Manarola... 

In Manarola we had time to eat lunch. We ate some bread. It was good! Then we waited on the group...

and trained to the third, Corniglia. 

Outside Corniglia.

Finally we got to hike. We hiked the trail between Corniglia and Vernazza (the fourth town).

during our hour and a half hike

We were really smart and prepared and brought snackage with us for the day. Our favorite, apples and peanut butter! Everyone on the hike was jealous when we pulled out those bad boys!

End of the hike in Vernazza!

InVernazza about to catch the train.

The hike was perfect. I'm not much for hiking (just ask my family about the 8 hour hike in Hawaii), although being in Europe and walking EVERYWHERE has conditioned my legs to be able to walk farther and longer. The hour and a half it took us to complete the hike was the perfect amount of time for my legs to get tired but for me not to hate the hike itself!! 

After the beautiful hike we caught the train to the 5th town, Monterosso al Mare. Where, obviously, we laid on the beach for the remainder of the two hours of the trip. Then we waited on the group to take the train back to the bus, but this time we had gelato to accompany us!!

Beach time

Beach selfie with my man!

We were very proud of ourselves (we being mainly Will) that we were in the sun all day and didn't get super burned! Or really sunburned at all for that matter. 

We trained back to La Spezia, the last town before entering the Cinque Terre, and waited for our bus back to Florence. And we waited and waited. Thankfully the bus made it back to Florence in time for Will to catch a train back to Arezzo. Thank goodness it wasn't the last train out either because that train is long and slow and he would've been home really really late for his monday morning classes.

All in all. Florence for Fun was a lot of waiting... in a big group of college aged students from America with the few parents and rando adults. Not really my style. I LOVED Cinque Terre, but will not ever be taking a Florence for Fun, or any other travel agency, sponsored trip again. I am very confident in my travel abilities, even before traveling this semester, and can't wait for my next self planned trip. Self planned meaning Will or Katie planning it and me tagging along. I really haven't planned hardly anything this semester. Don't know how I've managed to do that. 

I was able to enjoy spring weather in Arezzo this weekend and warm weather on the beach in Cinque Terre, but today in Florence it felt like full out summer. It was so hot and I was sweating most of the day. I definitely got over heated as hardly any buildings have air conditioning. I miss the colder weather, but am excited to get some sun on my skin! All day in Cinque Terre I was surprised to see my arms. I've forgotten what my arms and legs look like since they have been covered all semester with layers upon layers.

Now with the warm weather comes the multitude of tourists! I can not wait for this upcoming weekend. I'm going deep into the heart of Tuscany! Which brings the promise of small towns and less tourists. I'm sure our API group will stick out like a sore thumb!