Back to Traveling- A trip to London and Wales

Charlotte and I planned this trip while we were still on our backpacking trip, and for some reason I didn’t think it would happen, but it did. Chloe (our friend who went backpacking with us) goes to school in Swansea Wales this semester, and we were very excited about getting to visit her and see her school. We found a super cheap ticket on RyanAir and were on our way to the UK.

I have never been so glad to be somewhere where I understood the language. It was so nice to be able to understand announcements on public transportation, and be able to ask anyone for help… ahhh English. To get to Wales we took a bus from Vienna to Bratislava, a plane from Bratislava to the London Stransden airport, a bus to Victoria London, and finally a bus to Swansea. Yes, it was a very long day. Swansea was so cool. There is an actual campus there with dorms and everything, something I had almost forgotten about here in Vienna. We went to a dance club that played the BEST MUSIC ever; the last song of the night was Lion King’s I Just Can’t Wait To Be King!!!! And Chloe introduced us to cheesy chips and gravy (fries with cheese and gravy on them). It may sound gross but it was delicious. While in Swansea we also found a Primart, which has amazing deals on clothes. I may have bought a few things... yah…haha.

Chloe didn’t get to come to London with us, but her friend Zach did. On Friday we left Swansea, took a train to Cartiff, and then took a bus to London. (This trip was marked by a million different types of transportation). London was amazing! The first night we were there we walked around Picadilly Circus, which is basically like Times Square. We did the New Europe free walking tour the next day, and we had the funniest tour guide ever. He was just what I pictured when I thought of crazy Brit.

We went through the National Gallery, which was awesome. I love it when I see art pieces that I know, like Van Gough’s sunflowers. We walked by Parliament, saw Big Ben (which is actually the name of the bell inside the clock, the clock is called the Clock Tower), went to a church service in Westminster Abby, walked through St. Paul’s, visited the Globe, and last but not least… ATE MEXICAN FOOD AT THE TEXAS EMBASSY! Oh I took phone booth and red double deck bus pictures too… see my Facebook, they should be up soon.

The Texas Embassy restaurant is in the place where the actual Texas Embassy was when Texas was a republic. It was a little pricy, but the food was worth it. I hadn’t had Mexican food, or cheddar cheese for that matter, since I had been in Europe.

London was amazing; it was kind of an expensive trip, but I am so glad that I went. Getting home was an adventure too. Our flight left at 6:30 in the morning, so we decided to sleep in the airport… not sketchy at all. Anyway, so we took a bus to the airport, spent the night, left at 8 (our flight was delayed because of computer problems), bussed back from Bratislava to Vienna, and I made it back in time for the final two hours of my German class.

Easter Break 2010- The end- Bern

Chloe left us in Paris, and went back to Wales. Charlotte and I made a one day/night stop in Bern on our way home, because we had two days left on our EuroRail, and couldn’t go through Germany to get home because it wasn’t on our pass… sorry long story, anyway, we spent the night in Bern.

I think by the time we were in Bern we were both just ready to get back to Vienna, ready to sleep in our own bed, ready to sleep for a week straight. We did see the Einstien house in Bern. Did you know he divorced his wife/mother of three children (one of which was given up for adoption) to marry his first cousin? His house was really cool, we even saw one of his report cards from high-school.

Before we left Switzerland we loaded up on chocolate, and then got on the longest train ride of my life. I was so excited to see Vienna and my little room when we finally made it back. The trip was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I am so thankful that I got to do it. I made memories and friends that I will always cherish.

Easter Break 2010- Paris

Paris was the last major city we visited on our trip, and it was a wonderful end to a great trip. Getting back into France was difficult, because the strike was still going on. We had to leave a day later than we had originally planned, and had to wait in a lot of lines to get a train ticket, and in the end all we had to do was go get on a train and buy the ticket on it. The train wasn’t even halfway full; I think they were losing more business than anything during this strike.

We finally arrived in Paris around dinnertime, just in time to walk to see the Eiffel tower lit up. It was an amazing! Seeing the tower for the first time was somewhat surreal to me; I couldn’t believe that I was actually in Paris.

While we were in Paris we did a free walking tour with a company called New Europe. They are awesome (I also did their tour in London). We decided to go with the cute tour guide, Tyler, and he was one of the most awkward people I have ever met. He told the oddest jokes, and never missed a chance to use a creepy pun, but we all got a good laugh out of it. We walked by the Louve, Notre Dam, The Eiffel Tower, and a bunch of statues (don’t laugh I can’t remember them all). I did learn that when statues of a person riding a horse has one leg up in the front and one in the back it means they were killed or assassinated. When the front two legs are up it means they were killed in battle, and when all four legs are down they died of natural causes. Oh, and according to Tyler, if both back legs are up they died by being thrown of a horse (insert awkward laughter here).

Apart from the walking tour, the three of us climbed to the second level of the Eiffel tower. I don’t know how many steps it was, but lets just say I didn’t feel bad about stuffing my face later that day. We went inside Notre Dam. We walked through the Arc de Triumph, and did a lot of walking around the city. We didn’t go into the Louve because we ran out of time, but I’m just putting it on my list of things to do on my next trip there.

One of my favorite things about Paris was the food. I think I gained 10 pounds while I was there, but I climbed the Eiffell tower and walked everywhere, so it evens out right? In the Latin Quarter (or the LQ as Tyler called it) there is an awesome Crepe stand, where I had not one but two nutella and bannanna crepes while in Paris. The same lady was always working, and it was an art watching her cook for a full line of people. We had the best flaffell pita from the Jewish Quarter. And our hostel had free breakfast, so we ate well there too.

Paris was absolutely on of my favorite cities, and I can’t wait to go back someday!

Easter Break 2010- Nice

Getting to Nice, France was when our traveling problems started. We went to the train station and got on a train from Florence to Milan, which is where we were supposed to catch a train into Nice. The train system in France went on strike for the 3^rd time this year… yes this year, and it’s only April… while we were traveling. Eventually we got on a train to Nice but it wasn’t until the end of the day, and we made it into France by the early evening. In Nice, we stayed at a hostel called the Pink Lady, and it lived up to its name. A little lady dressed in all pink who didn’t speak any English showed us to our room and gave us our key.

The beach in Nice was absolutely gorgeous! We went for a hike; ok it was more like a walk, up to the top of a hill that overlooked all of Nice. We spent a couple of hours just sitting at the top of the climb overlooking the beach and playing cards (the deck of cards we bought in Venice which is officially almost destroyed now).

Fun things that happened in Nice: we met a couple of guys from Texas in our hostel. They went to UT, but we didn’t hold that against them. He knew one of my friends Andrew Frimprong, which reminds me, I need to tell Andrew about that. We also met a very interesting man from the Czech Republic. Our first encounter with him was when we went back to our room at 8:30 p.m. to cook dinner and he was lying in bed trying to sleep. He then told us that we were fat because we were eating after 6, and then he got out of bed to introduce himself and he was just wearing a Speedo and t-shirt… AWKWARD. We referred to him as creepy Czech man.

Easter Break 2010- Geneva

Geneva was one of my favorite places. The lake was gorgeous, the view of the Alps was breathtaking, and the UN tour was amazing!

To get from Nice to Geneva, we had to make a side trip to Milan. We only thought we were done with Italy. We didn’t see anything in Milan though, we just made it there in time to get to a creepy hostel to sleep, and then woke up to go back to the train station. We made it to Geneva in the afternoon just in time to miss the tour of CERN. Chloe is an engineering major, and really wanted to see CERN, a big scientific study location of anti-matter or something like that in Geneva. (I apologize to anyone who actually knows what CERN is; science is not my favorite subject). So we found our hostel and a grocery store and then passed out for the day.

While in Geneva we went to the UN and took a tour of the building. We had the best tour guide EVER. We took a picture with him in the end and we were supposed to find him on Facebook, but I think we lost his e-mail. He liked to make fun of our Texas accents; he said “ya’ll” a lot. Obviously being a tour guide there was just his side job, normally he worked in some legal department at the UN. Fun fact, his roommate works at CERN, we had a good laugh at how smart their apartment must feel. Here are some cool facts I learned on the tour of the UN:

1. There are 192 member states and 2 honorary members, the Vadican- because it chooses not to be an active member, and Palestine, because it doesn’t have set borders.
2. The 6 official languages of the UN are English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, and French.
3. There are about 10 peacocks that live on the grounds. Meetings have had to been stopped because of the loud obnoxious mating calls.
4. The UN headquarters in NY are the official political headquarters while the Geneva headquarters mainly focuses on human rights.
5. All other branches of the UN (other than NY and Geneva) are just operational branches, including one in Vienna.
6. A bunch of other historical facts that I won’t bore you with, or out myself for not already knowing them.

Like I said before, Lake Geneva is beautiful. A couple of different times, we just ate our lunch while sitting on a bench by the lake. One evening we walked around it and went out to a lighthouse. There are swans nesting on the side of it. I don’t know that I have ever seen a swan this close before, they are rumored to get violent if you annoy them.

We met a girl named Natalia in our hostel who was there for 2 weeks interning at the UN. She is a translator, she spoke English, Russina, French, and Spanish I think. She was officially translating English to Russian. She was super sweet and smart, and I decided that she should marry my friend Justin Bauman (who is studying in Russia right now), but I didn’t get her full name or anything, so… sorry Justin.

I LOVED Geneva. I would really like to go back there in the summer time. Our tour guide said it was amazing then. Visiting made me really excited to go back to Switzerland with my family in July.

Easter Break 2010- Florence

The trip from Rome to Florence was eventful. We got to the train station with 3 minutes to spare before our train left, the only problem was that we couldn’t find it, so we ran… and running with a 65L backpack is not fun. Not fun at all. We missed our train and got on another one that left 30 minutes later, so it really wasn’t that big of a deal. Oh yes, let me tell you why we missed the train. There was free breakfast at our hostel, and in an effort to save money on food the rest of the day, we stuffed our faces and threw food into bags to take with us. Hoarding free breakfast was a skill that we perfected by the end of the trip, but that is another story. Anyway, back to the traveling. We went from Rome to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower, which I thought was a little disappointing. It was exactly like the pictures look. The weather was rainy and cold on the day we went, and so all we did was walk to the tower and then turn around and walk back to the train station. The pictures we took were very unimpressive too; sorry Mom, I didn’t take any pushing it over pictures. Then we got on another train to Florence and were there by dinnertime. But we didn’t have to buy dinner because we still had free breakfast food left over, yum.

Checking into our hotel was a little scary because somehow our reservation was lost, and there weren’t any 3-person rooms anywhere because it was Easter Sunday. Did I mention the hotel clerk didn’t speak English? Well she didn’t, but she was so sweet, and eventually put us in a 2-person room for a discounted price (we just squeezed on the bed).

My favorite thing that we saw in Florence was the Dome of the Florence Cathedral. It is a double dome, and it was a 1 hour wait in line and over 500 stairs to the top. The view was gorgeous, you could see for miles and miles (or kilometers and kilometers). I also saw The David while in Florence. It was surprisingly larger than I thought it was. It was absolutely amazing; you could see the veins in his arms! I got yelled at for taking a picture of him so you better appreciate it!

It is hard to say what was my favorite place in Italy, because they were all so different. I got to see so much in Rome, but I loved the laid-back schedule and atmosphere in Florence. Florence was our last Italian city, or so we thought, so we got our fill of Pasta and gelato, and headed to Nice!

Easter Break 2010- Rome

The first night we got to Rome we didn’t have much time to see a lot, but we did have time for Charlotte to get a fine on public transportation. They take validating tickets seriously. Here is what happened: we had to take the underground and a bus to get to our hostel, and we bought 1 hour tickets and validated them before getting on the underground. When we were headed to the bus, Charlotte realized that she had dropped her ticket and bought a new one. When we got on the bus she didn’t know that she had to validate it, and we were on the only bus with people checking for tickets. The guy was a complete jerk, took her passport, and made us get off the bus. We tried really hard to talk our way out of it, (there might have been a few tears threatening to come out) but in the end Charlotte paid 50 Euros, and we all learned a lesson… transportation guys are jerks. We did walk to the Vatican that night. It was Easter weekend, so they were setting up for a big service. This is kind of sad, but one of the fist things that came to mind was Angels and Demons.

The next morning we went really early to get in line for the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. The line was an hour and a half long, but totally worth it. We met a pair of girls later on the trip that said the next day the wait was 5 hours! The inside of the museum was very interesting; the Catholic Church collects A LOT of things. A LOT. There were tons of statues and paintings. The Sistine Chapel shocked me; it was smaller than I imagined it, but the artwork was amazing. I can’t believe one man did that.

After the Vatican we started walking towards the Coliseum; which left me speechless. I don’t know that my mind has comprehended yet; that has been there for thousands of years, and I saw it. We didn’t get there in time to go in that day, they were closing early for some reason, and so we walked to the Trevie Fountain. It was one of my favorite sites in Rome, well that is hard to say because everything was amazing. Tradition has it that you are supposed to throw two coins into the fountain: the first to ensure your return to Rome and the second to grant a wish. And no I won’t tell you what I wished for, but I think it’s pretty much a sure thing that at some point in my life I will return to Rome.

That night was our last night to eat at a sit down restaurant in Italy (my budget wouldn’t have made it eating out every day). We had pasta, and I couldn’t decide if I wanted cream sauce or meat sauce on my tortellini, so I asked the waiter If I could have a mix, and he said no. Then when he brought our plates he had split my order in two, so I could have both sauces. It was the sweetest thing ever. Oh and of course we got gelato again that night. I decided the walking cancelled out all the extra calories, and WHO CARES about calories… IT’S REAL GELATO!!!

The next day was full as well. We went to the Roman ruins, the Coliseum, and the Pantheon. The Roman ruins were beautiful. And we decided that we traveled during the perfect season, because the weather was gorgeous, it wasn’t too warm, it was perfect! The inside of the Coliseum was almost eerie. I had a hard time dealing with the thought that thousands of people were okay with people fighting animals or even other people to the death. By the time we got to the Pantheon I was exhausted, but I’m glad I saw it. Oh, I forgot to mention that our hostel in Rome was on the beach, that morning we went down to the beach took pictures; it was so fun, if it wasn’t Rome and we didn’t have so much to see, a day at the beach would have been wonderful.

That was it for Rome. It is one of the places that I really can’t believe I got to see, and I’m so thankful for the opportunity to do so. The history behind it, the atmosphere, it was all very incredible.

Easter Break 2010- Venice

Day 1 was the first and only problem-free travel day. Our train left at 8:30 from the stop right across from my housing, convenient I know. I didn’t sleep much (at all) the night before. I was too excited, and I had to do laundry, and I kept repacking my backpack. It turned out I packed very efficiently; the only thing I didn’t wear was my bathing suit. My housing has free breakfast, so I grabbed a sandwich and ran to meet Chloe and Charlotte at the train station.

Background information/introductions- Charlotte is my friend from A&M who is also studying in Vienna. Chloe and Charlotte went to high school together, and she is studying in Wales this semester and also got a 3 week Easter Break. Chloe and Charlotte were the navigators of the trip; I am slightly directionally challenged. But I had a watch! So I kept us on time, that’s an important job right?

The train ride was around 5 hours; thank goodness I needed time to nap. When I wasn’t sleeping the scenery was gorgeous. The mountains and countryside here are breathtaking. We had to switch to a bus at some small town in Italy, and we thought we were going to miss it, but we didn’t (looking back now, we were way too worried about that), and were dropped off in Venice. We were only a short 10-minute train ride away from our final destination. When we got into Venice we bought a map and headed to our hotel… or so we thought. Venice was a little bit hard to navigate in because there weren’t street signs on every street, and when there were there was no guarantee that it would be on the map. But one nice thing about Italy, was that if we looked the slightest bit lost someone would offer to help us; even this one old man who didn’t let the fact that he didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Italian stop him from trying to point us in the right direction. We found our hotel; we had a 3 person private room that night, and it was so nice! We went to find food. Italian pizza and wine, nothing is better. Then we went to bed, it was an exhaustingly wonderful first day.

The next day we saw St. Mark’s Basilica; it was beautiful. Then we just walked around the city; the canals really make it gorgeous. We stared longingly wishing someone would pay 80 Euro for us to go on a gondola ride; I thought about trying to flirt my way on to one, but chickened out. That afternoon we had our first real gelato experience, and I think we had gelato everyday in Italy after that. That night we bought a deck of cards (best purchase of the trip… they were a little steep at 6 Euro), and just hung out and played cards in Venice. It felt absolutely surreal that I was actually there. Hearing all of the Italian made me wish I were learning it instead of German (that’s not going well, by the way).

The next morning we went to the train station with hopes of getting on a 10 o’clock train to Rome. We waited in line to get reservations and were informed that there were no open spots until the 2 o’clock train. Awesome. It turned out well though, we sat outside in the beautiful weather playing cards, and then in a few short hours we were on our way to Rome.

Easter Break 2010 in a Paragraph

The WU knows how to do Easter Break; students got 3 weeks off from school. I think I might e-mail Dr. Loftin (the Texas A&M president) and suggest it. Anywho, during the 3 weeks I traveled with my friends Charlotte and Chloe. I would like to point out that I lived out of a 65L traveler's backpack for those 3 weeks, and learned I can pack light and wear the same 2 pairs of shoes for 20 days after all. We started out in Italy, going to Venice, Rome, and Florence. Then we went to Nice in southern France, next was Geneva, Switzerland. Then we went back to France to Paris, and we finished in Bern, Switzerland. Our trip was plagued with travel delays because of a train strike in France, but honestly the “bumps in the road” made for the best memories. I’m planning on blogging by city about my trip, so stay tuned! Oh yes, I put up all my pictures on Facebook, so go look at them!

Best Morning Ever

I'm writing to you from the halls at the WU. I have a class that starts in 10 minutes; it's my last class for the week. That's right, I'm done on Tuesday, be jealous.

Anyway, this morning was just wonderful. I woke up before my alarm went off, which is really weird for me. It was 7 am here so it was midnight on Texas time. I thought that Mark was probably still awake, so I talked to him for a little while. Then I got ready for school and went down early for breakfast. Background: at my housing there is free breakfast; most mornings I just run in grab a role and run to the subway. This morning I had time to sit and enjoy breakfast and I realized that I could totally pack a sandwich for lunch and no one would notice. In-fact, I watched a guy pack his bag with 3 sandwiches and no one said anything. So I had toast with jelly and butter, some cheese and bread, yogurt and granola, and then packed a sandwich for lunch. So I've eaten like a fatty and haven't spent a cent. It's so exciting! Then, I was walking to the subway and someone was handing out free chocolate (with a promo postcard), FREE CHOCOLATE!!! And to top it off it is a beautiful day outside! Oh, and the class I just finished doesn't meet again until May 18th.

I just reread all of this and none of it sounds amazing, so I guess I just woke up on the right side of the bed.

Around the world in 80 days… or 3 weeks, it’s whatev

European schools know how to do Spring Break, or Easter Break, as they refer to it here. My last day of class before the break is Tuesday, March 23rd, and my first class after the break is Monday, April 19th. That is a 3 week break! And we’ve just been in class 2 weeks! When I’m still going to class in June and everyone back home is done, I might complain, but I’m in Austria!!! SO WHO CARES!!!

During my break I will be backpacking with Charlotte (a friend from A&M who is also in Wien) and Chloe (Charlotte’s friend who is studying in Wales this semester). We leave in the morning, Tuesday March 30th, for Italy, Swizterland, and finish in Paris. I’ll be home at the latest on Sunday, April 18th. Expect a blog update about it.

Fun Discoveries:

1. People here take dogs everywhere.

2. One peed in the road in front of me.

3. Everyone here knows how to rock the scarf... the warm kind not the fashion kind.

4. People take dogs everywhere.

5. I don't understand German.... at all.

6. SKYPE DOESN'T WORK IN MCDONALDS!!!

7. Oh, I found free Internet in McDonalds.

8. McDonald's here is expensive... 7 Euro a meal= about 9$

9. It's still gross here.

10. McCafe's are like Starbucks

11. There are a lot of families and people pushing strollers here. I think I'm just not used to seeing so many babies because I live in a College town.

12. I just watched a little one year old kid run into a glass wall at McCafe (where I'm bumming free Internet). He bounced right off and kept going.
13. It's warmer now and people still know how to rock the scarf.
14. It's almost 60 outside and people are still wearing heavy coats.
15. I found dog poop outside my building

And I'm here...

After 2 months of packing (let’s be honest I did that the morning of my flight), multiple good-bye parties, a handful of tearful days, and a day-long flight, I finally made it to Vienna. I couldn’t believe it, in fact I still can’t believe it and I’ve been here 3 weeks.

The flight really wasn’t bad; no one sat next to me so I was able to lay down and sleep the whole time. I was a little creeped out when the guy in the row next to me took his shoes off and put on complementary socks, apparently this is normal on long flights? But I was asleep before I can remember reaching full altitude, so it obviously didn’t bother me that much. I woke up in time to see the sun rising as we were landing in London, but my seat was right by a plane wing so the pictures didn’t turn out very good. Heathrow was an experience; I had a 3-hour layover there on my way to Vienna. It was 7 in the morning, and I just found my terminal and slept for a little longer before boarding the next plane, which was completely packed. When I got to Vienna I just went through customs (it was a joke really), went and got my luggage and then followed the crowd out hoping that this is where I was supposed to be picked up. It was!!! And I think I could have strangled her I hugged her so tight.

That afternoon/night I got settled into my housing, got a crash course on the Vienna public transportation system, I think I ate…?, and then I settled in for my first night in Austria. The first few days were a little rough; I had to figure out how to get a phone, where to find Internet (my housing didn’t get it until the first of March… so I spent a lot of time in McCafe), what I should eat (not McDonalds), and how to find my way home (yes my sense of direction is still horrible), but somehow I survived.

So, I am here, I am home for the next 4 months!