Amsterdammit I want to go home!

I got up around 9:00am but it turned out it was only 8am. I forgot it was daylight savings time and forgot to switch my clock which was stupid. Sean, Dan, Kevin and I left to try and catch another walking tour but of course missed it again. Even when we gave ourselves more time to get there we missed it. We had all our luggage so we found a locker to put it in. Then we went to get our tickets for our train home. It was lucky that we got them in advance because Sean and Dan had some trouble getting theirs. It ended up being ok and we all got what we needed. Then we tried to look for Aimee and Chris who were going to be there too. We had planned to meet somewhere but they weren’t there when we got there. I was sad because it would have been a lot more fun to hang out with them. It would have given us something to actually do. The four of us then went to this thing called the Amsterdam Dungeon. It was apparently supposed to be in the top three things to do in Amsterdam. It looked like a haunted house and we figured it was Halloween so we gave it a shot. It was funny more than anything else. I don’t really even know how to explain it. Haha! But it ended with a little roller coaster ride indoors. It gave us something to do but in the end we just laughed at what happened. After that we basically wasted time until the train. We all wanted to just go back to Salzburg. We met up again with everyone at 7:45, got our luggage and headed to our platform. The train was really nice because we got a bed. I fell asleep right away and didn’t wake up until we reached Munich. It was great! It made the trip go by really fast. When we got to the Munich train station we had about an hour before our train for Salzburg left. Something really strange happened on the train back. Two men came around and checked our passports. They asked us where we were coming from and when someone said Amsterdam they asked to look through some people’s bags. We had travelled from Munich many times and never had our passports checked. I look at the whole situation as devine intervention because two of the guys were sweating bullets. They still had some stuff in their bags. I guess it was lucky they didn’t find it but I was kind of glad to see them so worried. That sounds terrible but they really didn’t need to bring it back with them. When we got to Salzburg Monday morning I was so happy! It was a great trip but it really is true that there is no place like home!

Another Day in Amsterdam

Amsterdam Canal

Saturday morning we slept in which felt amazing! We all agreed we needed sleep. There was a free walking tour we planned on going to but since it takes so long to get to the central station we missed it. We gave ourselves about an hour to get there and we still didn’t make it in time. We were all pretty bummed but we decided to try again tomorrow. We got lunch and then split up because Dan, Sean and I had no desire to go to more coffee shops. Especially after what happened the night before. We walked all around town and found a real bakery for something to eat and then headed toward the Heineken brewery. There was a long line and the tickets were more expensive than we thought so we decided not to go in. We pretty much spent the whole day just walking around which is a good way to see things but there just wasn’t much to do. After awhile we met back up with the rest of the group and went to Subway for dinner. No one had had Subway in a long time so it tasted really good! Then the group split up again. Dan, Sean, Kevin and I decided to just go to a bar and get a beer. The group split up a lot while we were in Amsterdam but it was alright because the two groups had different ideas of what they wanted to do in Amsterdam. It was definitely fine by me. We looked for this one particular bar which was said to have cheap drinks. It took us forever to find! We heard about it from a book Kate had but the map it had was totally wrong. We went one direction and when we asked someone where it was it was in the complete opposite direction. Anyway, we ended up finding it and we got a drink. It was nice just to sit and relax after a long day of walking. I had a lot of fun just talking and not having to deal with the smell of the coffee shops. Just a side note – the whole city of Amsterdam smells like weed! Yuck! When we finished our drinks we went to another bar and got Amstel beer. I actually really liked it! There are few beers I like but this was definitely one of them. It came in a really cool glass so we decided to walk out with them. Haha! It was the perfect souvenir. The night was a lot of fun but we all agreed that we were ready to go back to Salzburg.

Heading to Amsterdam

Kevin, Brady and I headed to the bus stop at 8:30am. The rest of the group had an earlier flight then us so they had already left. It took about 45 minutes to get to the airport. We checked in and everything went alright except for the fact that my bag weighed too much and I had to check it. It was only 20 Euro so it wasn’t too big of a deal. We got through security really fast and grabbed some breakfast. A restaurant in the airport actually had a real breakfast so we ate there. It tasted really good! Then we boarded the plane around 11:30. I slept the whole way which was really nice so it felt like a really short flight. We got to Amsterdam at 2:20pm. Once I got my bag we had to figure out how to get to our hotel. Luckily they had a kiosk where you could call the hotel directly. It turned out they have a free shuttle. When we got to the hotel everyone else was already there so it worked out well. The hotel looked really bad from the outside but the inside was pretty nice. I shared a room with Kate and the guys were paired up in three other rooms. We then all headed into town which took forever! We had to take the bus back to the airport and then get tickets for a 20 minute train to Amsterdam central. It was kind of a pain but we had no other choice. We walked around town a bit. The city is actually pretty neat with the buildings and canals. The group decided to go to a coffee shop where Kate and I split a piece of space cake. Interesting experience to say the least. Afterwards we found a pizza place for dinner. Then after dinner we headed over to the red light district. Absolute craziness! First of all there literally are red lights all over the place. Second, it is basically just a bunch of girls selling themselves in windows. It was a really strange thing to see. Then something happened which pretty much ruined Amsterdam for me. The guys wanted to go to another coffee shop so we found one which was right by one of the canals. It was incredibly smoky and I could not handle the smell so I went outside and Dan and Sean came outside with me. After awhile Brady and Jeremy came outside because they claimed they needed some fresh air. Brady started walking towards the canal and all of a sudden started falling forward. There was a light post about a foot away from the canal and he fell forward, his arm wrapped around the light post, he hit the ground and started shaking uncontrollably.  We all ran over to him to try to keep him from falling into the canal and he looked absolutely horrible. His face turned instantly yellow and he had the blankest stare on his face. It was so scary! Once he stopped shaking we tried moving him away from the water and over to the steps but before he got there he fell again and started shaking again. A guy from the coffee shop came out and gave him some sugar water. He said he sees it all the time and apparently smoking weed makes your blood sugar really low. He eventually stopped shaking and we got him to sit on the steps and drink a lot of water. Afterwards I was the one who couldn’t stop shaking. It was probably one of the scariest things ever. So many things were going through my head – what if he fell in the water? How are we going to get him to the hospital? We are in a different country, are they going to understand what happened? So many things all at once! It was a terrible feeling. It reminded me a lot of the time I saw Kristin wipe out on her skies. Just not knowing what happened is really frightening. After things calmed down a bit he seemed fine but had scratches down the side of his face from when he hit the ground. When he felt ok enough to get up and walk we went back to the hotel. It was our first night in Amsterdam and I had already seen enough.

How do 8 people all oversleep?

The group in front of the Guinness factory

What an interesting morning we had! Our whole group overslept and woke up 15 minutes before we were supposed to catch our bus to Dublin. Some of us were pretty much packed so we threw on some clothes and headed to the bus in hopes of catching it. That didn’t work. We were five minutes late and the bus left without us. Luckily they let us catch the 10:15 bus without having to pay again. So we waited in the coach station for an hour. As I was waiting I realized I had left my iPod in the room. So I had to run back and grab it. It wasn’t fun being so rushed but everything turned out alright. We got on the bus and made it to Dublin three hours later. We walked a bit of a ways to our hostel which was a nice hostel. It was called the Four Courts hostel and we all got a room together with our own bathroom. After we dropped off our stuff we headed to the Guinness factory which was so much fun! The factory was a lot bigger than I thought and it looked really cool. At the end we each got a free pint of Guinness which was great! Funny story – at one point I went to the bathroom and when I came back the man at the bar got on the microphone and said “There is a girl here who forgot to tell us it was her 21^st birthday. And that girl’s name is Nickie!” Kevin had told him it was my birthday and it was so funny! Of course I just started cracking up and once people realized it was my “birthday” they all started clapping. Of course my face turned bright red too. He gave me another pint of Guinness and throughout the time we were there people just kept giving us there tickets for more beer. A ton of people came up and wished me a Happy Birthday and gave me their ticket. It was great! And so funny! We ended up getting 18 free pints between the 7 of us. It was so much fun!

First of the many free Guinness!

After the factory we did some souvenir shopping. There was a free BBQ for those staying at our hostel but I didn’t go because I really wanted to shower. Looks kind of go out the window on long trips like this so I was in desperate need of a shower. Everyone else who went said the BBQ was kind of lame anyways. That night everyone took it pretty easy and hung out at the hostel for a bit. Some of us wanted to go out so Dan, Sean, Jeremy and I went to find a good bar. We went to the Brazen Head which is the oldest bar in Ireland. It is from 1198. There was practically no one there so we left and tried to find another place. The second place we went to had live music which was cool but the place was packed. There was no room for us so we left. Finding another bar was kind of a bust so we headed back to the hostel. We ended up playing pool, foosball, and darts at the hostel. It was actually a lot of fun. We went to bed pretty early because we definitely didn’t want to risk missing our bus to the airport in the morning! It was really sad having to leave Ireland. I really enjoyed my time there!

I Can Sleep When I'm Dead

This morning I got up and got ready and went down to the reception desk to figure out our day. It was about 9:00am when I went to go check and the guy at the desk said the bus left for the Aran Islands at 9:30am. Everyone else was still sleeping so I went back upstairs to see who would want to go and people were not really excited about getting up after being up so late the night before. I definitely didn't want to sleep the day away so we headed to the bed. It ended up being Kate, Jake, Brady, Kevin and me that went and I am so glad we did! It was absolutely beautiful! We caught the bus at the last minute and it was an hour bus ride to the ferry. We then got on the ferry and headed to the island. The ferry ride was a lot of fun because we went to the back of the boat and the waves were huge! It was fun but cold. When we got to the island we grabbed a sandwich for lunch and then took a van tour around the island. We were thinking about getting bikes but it started to rain. The van tour only cost 10 Euro and it took us to the fort which was on these really tall cliffs. It was amazing! I had heard that people have blown off the cliffs before but we were pretty safe. I of course had to look over the edge but we crawled and held on to the rocks. It was so cool and I am so glad that I went. We spent about an hour and a half at the cliffs and then got back in the van. Our guide showed us some other things like a really old church which was neat. The island was just gorgeous all around because you could see water on all sides and luckily the weather cleared up right when we got to the cliffs. It was perfect! After the tour we had about 2 hours before the ferry left so we went in some stores and then sat in a bar for awhile. It was really cold at that point so it felt nice to be inside. The ferry ride back was absolutely nuts! It was so very rocky and at some points it was a little scary but in the end everything was fine. We got back to our hostel around 7:00pm. It was a long day but a lot of fun! We got some dinner and then just hung out in the room for awhile. We then headed to The Quays again for a drink. They had a really good band there so it was fun to dance and sing to the songs. It was nice that they actually played songs we knew. We had to get everything cleaned up in our room and leave early in the morning so we took it easy.

Gotta Love Galway!

Cliffs of Moher

We all started the day off at about 9:00am and had breakfast. The free breakfast which was included in our hostel was a piece of jelly toast. It was alright but it was madness in the kitchen when everyone was trying to make toast with just two toasters. Afterwards we went to the reception desk to buy our tickets for the Cliffs of Moher tour. We decided to take the tour that took up the full day since we didn’t have anything else planned. We walked to the coach station and boarded the bus. It was a big coach bus and it was pretty full. It took us to a lot of other places like an old castle and an old church. The tour was SO much fun! We had a crazy bus driver named Desmond who was hilarious. He kept cracking jokes the whole time and it was amazing. We stopped at multiple places to take pictures which was great. The countryside of Ireland is absolutely beautiful! It is just what people picture with the green fields and rocks. It is so strange because there are just limestone walls all over the place. I do not know how they got there or why there are so many of them. We eventually made it to the Cliffs of Moher and we got an hour and a half to be up there. There was a wall and sign that said “Please do not go beyond this point”. Well, we definitely did not listen to that. We followed the path to the top of one of the cliffs and it was great! It had amazing views and I am really glad we went. It was a little windy which freaked me out but otherwise the path was pretty wide so we were ok. We were really lucky because it was rainy the whole day but once we got to the cliffs the sky opened up. It was perfect! I couldn’t have asked for it to be any better. The tour ended at about 6:30pm which was a little later than expected but that was ok. The tour was definitely worth it and I am so glad we did it. After we got back we were all pretty tired so I relaxed a little bit, showered and got some dinner. When we were all rested up we ran into the guys in the room next door to us and they were a lot of fun. We hung out in there room for a bit and had a drink. They were from Dublin and it was fun talking to them. They were going to Club K so we went along. We all danced and it was great! It was crazy because the club was really crowded and it was a Tuesday night. After awhile people kind of went their own way and we met up later at the hostel. I was really tired so I went to bed at about 2:30am. I didn’t really sleep though because everyone was coming back at different times throughout the night. It wasn’t a big deal but it was a little crazy! Overall it was an amazing day seeing Ireland and meeting some locals!



I'm sure the sign is just a suggestion



Trains, Planes and Automobiles

After finding out the Vikings lost to the Packers, (yes, I got up for the game but was so tired I went back to sleep after the first quarter) we woke up and packed up our stuff. We checked out of our hostel at 10:00am. Jake for some reason wanted to see the Lion Monument again even though it was pouring out. So we took a long way to the train station and saw the lion. It was kind of a pain dragging all of our luggage around especially since everything was getting really wet. We then made our way to the train station. Our train didn’t leave until 12:10pm so we had some time to kill. We got lunch and sat at some tables outside the café for about an hour. We went to the platform a little early and luckily our train was already sitting there so we got on board. I was happy because sitting in the train station was freezing! The train took us right to the Zurich Airport. The ride was about an hour so that wasn’t too bad. The airport was a lot bigger than I expected and the set up is really strange. There were to Check-in places and they were all spread apart. Of course the one we were supposed to go to was the last one we checked. When we got to the check-out counter no one was there to help us. It was the weirdest thing! We asked someone where we should go and he said “Come back in about 5 to 10 minutes and someone should be there”. I just couldn’t believe that they would all just leave at the same time. Well about 15 minutes later people came and we got to check in. Check in went well but of course my bag was too heavy! Why does this always happen to me? So I moved some things around and luckily the guy who helped us was really nice because it came to 11.4 kg when it was supposed to be 10 kg. It was also really nice because all four of us got seats next to each other. After that we followed the signs to our gate and it took us all over. We went through a passport thing which I wasn’t expecting and then we had to take a subway thing to our gate. It seemed really weird because we had been there so long and still hadn’t gone through security. After the subway ride we went through security. I absolutely hate going through security because all it is is a mad rush but everything went fine and we all go through without any problems. Then we headed to the gate and had about a 40 minute wait before we started boarding. I was glad my luggage fit in the over-head compartment because I didn’t want to have to check it and it is a rather large bag. A really funny thing happened on the plane. I fell asleep for a little bit and when I woke up it was 5:30. This worried me because our bus was supposed to leave at 6:15. So I told the guys and we were all getting worried and we thought it was weird because it didn’t even seem like the plane was on its way down yet. So Kevin went and asked one of the flight attendants and she said “We are going to land around 5:15pm.” There was a time change!!! I laughed so hard when we found that out! We were all really relieved. We landed at 5:05pm and going through customs was a breeze. We found Kate and Jeremy right away which was good and then we stopped to get a sandwich for dinner. It was nice we found Kate and Jeremy right away because they knew where the bus was and everything. We all got on the bus without any problems. The bus ride was about 3 hours and I pretty much slept the whole time. We got to the tourist center and headed to the hostel. We got a little twisted but found it without a problem. The hostel is nice and the lady at the desk was really helpful. Our group is pretty big with all eight of us but it all worked out well. We all paid and got our room keys and headed to the room. It was pretty much a maze trying to get to our room. So many hallways and stairs. It is so confusing! After we all got settled we went out to a bar right across the street. It was a really cool place called The Quay. It was really neat and had live music. I had my first real Irish Guinness! It was pretty tasty! Afterwards we went back to the hostel to try and plan out what to do tomorrow.  

Rain, Rain Go Away!

Hofkirche

We got kind of a slow start this morning but it ended up being ok because it was absolutely pouring when we woke up. We were all really sad because we planned on going up the big mountain which is called Mt. Pilatus. We took our time hoping it would clear up and made breakfast. The rain was not picking up so we decided against going up the mountain and tried to think of something else we could do. There was not much to do that wasn’t outside besides a museum but no one was really interested in going to that. After a while we just decided we had to go out and do something. We braved the rain and went to the Hofkirche which is a church. It was really pretty! I love going to churches (as you know!) and they had a really pretty cemetery. We walked down a couple roads we hadn’t been down and went in some souvenir shops. I bought a Switzerland and Luzern pin to add to my collection! I am really excited to put them on my backpack. It made me realize I have been to five different countries already on the trip which is just crazy! I am so lucky! After walking around a while we went and got some lunch at the same place we went to yesterday. It is generally cheap food so we went there again. Normally I wouldn’t worry so much about the price of something but it is crazy how expensive things are. A slice of Pizza was 7 francs which is about 8 U.S dollars. That is crazy! We all decided it was a good thing we weren’t spending our whole week in Switzerland because we would be broke! Although I would love to stay longer I don’t think anyone could afford it! The rain stopped for a little bit after lunch but we were out of ideas of things to do. We headed back to the hostel and it started to pour. :’( It is frustrating having the rain stopping you from doing something but it wouldn’t have been all that enjoyable. We contemplated still going up the mountain but we knew we wouldn’t be able to see much and it would be cold.  The boys took a nap and I started writing my blog. Then at 5:30 I left and went to church at the Hofkirche. It was a really nice mass and I think I actually understood it. It was very interesting because a woman gave the homily. I don’t know who she was but I know she was saying something about discrimination towards women. I wish I could have understood all of what she was saying. It was still pretty rainy out so we watched a movie and made hot dogs for dinner. This day was a little pathetic but it didn’t help that a lot of things were closed. On Sundays it is really difficult to find things that are open. It was still a lot of fun spending another day in this beautiful city. We have a big travelling day tomorrow so hopefully everything will go well! I am excited to get to Ireland!

Brady, Jake, Me and Kevin

Falling in Love with Luzern!

Dying Lion Monument

We woke up this morning at about 9:00am, made a really good breakfast of bacon and eggs and went exploring! Our plan for the day was to just do a self-guided walking tour which turned out to be really nice! The first stop was to the Dying Lion of Luzern monument. It was only a block away from our hostel so we went there first. It is a giant lion that is carved into a rock face. It is pretty cool because it is really detailed and it is crazy to think about how they created it. Apparently it was a memorial of the Swiss people who died in some battle back in the 1700’s. There is water around it and a lot of trees which was pretty. All of the leaves on the trees are changing so it is gorgeous. Then we walked to the Musegg Wall which goes along the northern part of the town. We walked around the wall and went into the towers. There are a total of nine towers but you can only go in three of them. Going in the towers gave really cool views of the city. I took a lot of pictures and we just kind of took our time. We walked some of the roads and went in a few stores. Afterwards we went to a place to get pizza for lunch. It was really good pizza. After walking around town all day we headed back to the hostel to take a little rest. As we were doing that the weather began to clear up so we thought we should go back out. There was blue sky and everything looked amazing! The sun started to set and it was the perfect time to take pictures! It was gorgeous! The pictures I took do not give it justice but they still are pretty! We walked across the two old bridges in town. One is called the Chapel Bridge and I forgot the name of the other one. They are pretty much the same. There are pictures on the ceiling of the bridge and there is a tower thing connected to it. When it started to get darker we went back to the hostel and made dinner. It was really fun all cooking together! We made pasta which crème sauce and frankfurters. We all made it together with music blaring and everything. It was fun and it actually tasted good!

Then we decided to go out and we went to a bar just down the road which was called Mindblowers. They had good music playing and we just hung out there. Then later that night Kevin, Jake and I went to go find the bar they went to the night before but we never found it. It was getting late so we just decided to go back to the hostel and go to bed. It was a fun day exploring the city and the whole time I couldn’t believe how beautiful everything is!

Chapel Bridge

Snow high, snow low – off to Switzerland we go!

Train ride to Switzerland

Our week long trip has begun! Brady, Kevin, Jake and I left for the train station at 9:15am. The bus was running really slowly but luckily we made it with about 10 minutes to spare so it was fine. We got on the train and got our seats. The train was a railjet so it was really nice and a faster train. I have gotten to really like riding on trains because it is such a good way to see the country. It was a beautiful ride! At one point all of the ground was covered in snow! It was so cool! And it made me really excited for it to snow. So beautiful! At one point this couple came by and started talking to us. I am pretty sure it was German but I had NO idea what they were saying. I am guessing it was Switzerland dialect but I could not pick up one word which was strange. I thought they were saying we were in their seats but it did say it was free. I don’t know. It was a weird situation but everything was fine in the end. We had to switch trains in Zurich and then had an hour train ride to Luzern. The whole trip took about 6 hours. As soon as we got to the train station we went and bought train tickets for our way back to Zurich on Monday. It was funny because the guy I talked to to get the tickets instantly spoke English to me when I asked a question in German. That has happened to me a lot actually. Like when I went shopping yesterday. (Yes, I actually went shopping! And I was successful!) I figure it is better to try German and then English than to not try at all. It is kind of funny though. 



Luzern

Then we headed out to find our hostel. I don’t know if this was bad or not but we went to a really nice hotel and asked for a map. It was really nice because they gave us two – one map of the city and a map of things to go see. After that we found our hostel without any problems at all. The hostel is called the Lion Lodge and it is really nice. We got upgraded to a four person room instead of us four in a six person room so that was nice. And we did not have to pay for the upgrade. The weird thing was that they did not accept credit cards which was kind of a pain. We didn’t have enough cash on us so they said we could pay tomorrow. After we got settled in we walked around town to try and find some place to eat. The city at night looked absolutely beautiful! There are mountains in every direction and are covered in snow. It is gorgeous! Also the buildings that were all lit up were cool too. There is a lake right in the middle of the town which just makes everything so picturesque with the lake, mountains, bridges and buildings. It is hard to describe but it is wonderful! We found a place to eat near our hostel but the prices were so expensive. We kept walking and actually asked two girls where we could find cheap food. They kind of laughed at us and said McDonalds was probably our best bet. Haha! They were really nice and told us our German was good so that is always nice! We ended up going back to the first place we saw which was called California. They had burgers there and we all were craving one since it has been so long since we have had a burger. The burgers were good but it ended up being about a $20 meal which is hard. After dinner we walked around the town a little longer and we decided to go to a grocery store and buy food instead of going out for every meal. Our hostel has a kitchen we can use which is really nice. We bought eggs and bacon for breakfast and some bread and peanut butter for lunches. It is just simple stuff but we thought it would save us some money. Then we went back to the hostel and just relaxed in the lounge they have. They have free wireless so I got to Skype with Mom which was so nice! We weren’t doing anything so I was glad I got to talk to her! Kevin and Jake decided to go out with some guys they met but Brady and I were too tired so we went to bed. It was a long day and it was already midnight so we decided against it. I am already in love with Luzern after being here for a couple hours and I can’t wait to see how it looks during the day!

Hectic Week

Monday was a super long day! I had an extra art class which meant I was in class from 9am until 4:30pm with only an hour break in between. It was alright but I was extremely tired afterwards. At 6pm the group I will be travelling with next week got together to book everything. We got most of it booked which was nice to actually have something set in stone. We probably waited a little too long but everything worked out. After the meeting I got to Skype with Mom, Dad and Lud which was really nice! We talked for about 2 hours which was good because we had a lot to catch up on. It made my night that I got to talk to them! The conversation went until about 12am and I still had homework to do. Oops! It didn’t take me very long and I was in bed by 1am which wasn’t too bad.

Tuesday was not the best day. Everything just kept getting worse as the day went on. I had class at 9am which was fine but when I went back to my room I decided to look at flights for our trip and the flight I found which was really cheap was no longer available. So that was too bad. Then I had to talk to Lisa about my paper I wrote for her class and that just made me angry! I did really poorly on the paper and her reasoning for it was stupid. She kept saying how she didn’t agree with what I said in my paper which is dumb because that is completely irrelevant. It doesn’t matter whether she agrees or not. So now I have to redo my paper and it was just not good. Ahh! Afterwards I just went back to my room and took a nap and tried to just forget about everything. Then on top of it all I had to go to another 3 hour art class. It wasn’t so bad but it was just boring. After class we went and got dinner at Haci’s and then I went back to my room and studied for my three midterms. Matthew came over to study which helped a lot. I studied until about 12:00am then went to bed.

Today was a very busy day and I am really glad I am done with everything. I started with my Philosophy final at 9am which was pretty difficult. There were things on the test we never talked about in class which I thought was kind of unfair. Then I had an art final at 11am which was ok. Then the last one was German which I think went pretty well. It was not too difficult. After I was done with the German midterm, Brady, Jake and I went to the train station to get our tickets for our trip. Then later we finished up all of our plans. Everything is finally set and I am so excited! I have a lot of packing and stuff left to do but other than that I am ready to go. I don’t know if I said what the plans are before but here it is: I leave for Luzern, Switzerland on Friday with Brady, Jake and Kevin. Then from Switzerland we are flying to Ireland and meeting up with Kate, Jeremy, Dan and Sean. We will spend 3 nights in Galway and one in Dublin. Then we will spend 2 nights in Amsterdam (I know, really random!). It should be a lot of fun! Hopefully everything will go smoothly and hopefully I can keep up with my blog!

Weekend in Vienna

Vienna at night

Thursday morning I got all of my things packed up and we headed to the train station around 3pm. The train ride was about three hours long which wasn’t too bad. I watched a movie with Matthew so the time went by pretty fast. We got to Vienna and went straight to our hostel. It was called the Wombat hostel and it was really nice. All of the girls were in a room together and then the guys were split between two rooms. After we dropped off our stuff at the hostel we went and got dinner as a group at a Turkish restaurant. The food was actually a lot better than I expected. I had a Beyti Kebab which was basically little wraps of lamb, lettuce, tomato and sauce. It was really good! After dinner we walked around the city for a little bit. It was cool to see all of the buildings lit up. It was really beautiful at night. When we got back to the hostel we decided to hang out in the bar that was attached to the hostel for a little bit. We played some foosball which was fun because Megan P and Jeremy played against Aimee and me and when we were playing two guys came over and asked to play the winner. Well, Aimee and I won so we played these two guys from Hungary. We ended up beating them, twice! It was a lot of fun and it is always good meeting other people from different countries. Most of us then headed to bed around 12am.

Group at St. Charles Church

Friday morning we all got up and had breakfast at 7:30am which was a little too early for all of us. We were pretty tired even though we did not do much the day before. At 8:45 we met up with Robert Mevissen who graduated from St. John’s and was living in Vienna on a Fulbright Scholarship. He took us around the city and we walked everywhere! He actually knew a lot about the city and he was a lot of fun. We saw a lot of cool buildings and the only one we actually went into was St. Charles Church. We had to pay to get in but it was beautiful! They had an elevator and stairs which brought you all the way up to the very top of the dome. The stairs actually really freaked me out because it is basically scaffolding which goes really far up and would shake with every step. It was cool though because you could see all the paintings a lot better. It was just kind of weird because the stairs and elevator in the middle of the building kind of ruins the look but at the same time it is cool you can go up there. After that we went to a café for lunch which was called Café Ramund. It was a really cute café but it took forever to get our food. There was only two women working – one in the kitchen and one serving. There was also confusion with ordering the food and it was kind of a mess. After about an hour and a half of waiting we got our food and it was really good. I got baked schnitzel with cheese on top and potatoes. It was delicious! Then we said goodbye to Robert and headed out on our own. We went to the Hundertwasserhaus which is an apartment building that some artist designed. It has no straight lines at all. It was pretty crazy looking. You can’t go in it because people actually live there but we saw it from the outside. It was pretty strange actually but cool to see. Then we took the street cars to Bellevedere which is a big place where royalty would stay. We did not go inside but we spent about an hour walking through the gardens which was nice. It was not as pretty because they are starting to take out the flowers and water from the fountains because it is getting cold. It was actually really cold this weekend. When we got back to the hostel we went to the bar again for happy hour. They had 1 Euro beers then at 8pm they gave away free beer until the keg was empty. It was kind of crazy. We met two people from London, Andy and Rachel, who were really nice. It was fun talking to them. The group then wanted to go out to a place so Andy and Rachel came with us. We didn’t really know where to go but we found a couple places that were not all that great. There weren’t very many bars just more like clubs which were kind of snooty. It was fun but not the right atmosphere. A few of us went back around 12:30am and went to bed.

Schonbrunn Castle

Saturday we had a lot of free time. We woke up again at 7:30am to have breakfast. I felt so bad because the girls in my room said they heard me sleep talking again! Ugh! It is so embarrassing and I feel really bad for waking them up. They of course said it was no problem but it still is a little embarrassing. After breakfast we met up to go to Schonbrunn Palace. The Palace was really cool to see! We took an audio tour of the place and it was beautiful. After the tour we were on our own and Aimee and I walked through the gardens and took pictures. The gardens were huge! We seriously spent about 2 hours just walking around. Later we met up with some other people and we went to the café in the gardens. After we had seen everything we got Kebab for lunch and went to the Art History museum. We were told we had to go for our art class (which we found out we really didn’t) and it was actually really cool! The building was beautiful and I enjoyed seeing it. Aimee and I left the art museum and decided to go back to the hostel. We were both pretty tired but couldn’t resist stopping at the cute ice cream shop on the way home. It was delicious! A group of people were at the hostel just relaxing so we decided to plan some more for our week break. We didn’t really get much done but it was alright. At night Aimee and I went to the Pizza Palace down the road to get dinner. After dinner we had to go back and get dressed nicely because we were going to a concert at the Kursalon. I don’t know if it would really be called a concert but it was an orchestra playing Mozart songs and every once in awhile people would come out and dance or sing. It was actually pretty entertaining. At one point, the crowd started clapping along to the song. I of course got the giggles because it was supposed to be a nice performance and here everything is clapping to the beat. It was pretty funny. After the concert we went back to the hostel bar and had a drink then went straight to bed.

Sunday was an interesting day. We had the whole day free to do whatever we wanted. My director told us that the Vienna Boys Choir would be singing at a mass in the morning so Chris P, Jen and I decided to go. We had to get up really early in order to get a seat. We left the hostel at 7:30am and the mass started at 9:15am. We got there with plenty of time to spare and when we got there someone was selling tickets for 19 Euro but she said standing was free so we decided just to stand. When we actually got to the entrance another man said there were other seats available for a cheaper price. We decided it would be worth it to pay 5 Euro and get to sit down. It was weird having to pay for a mass but I guess since the choir was there it was a bigger deal. We had to walk up a bunch of stairs and down a bunch of hallways until we got to our seats and once we did I cracked up laughing! We ended up being in a tiny side room that was connected to the church and had a window overlooking the church. It was like a crying room and the best (or maybe worst) part was we watched to whole mass on TV! It was ridiculous and we just couldn’t help but laugh. My friend Chris leaned over to me at one point and said “Nickie, we woke up really early to sit in a tiny room and watch TV. And the worst part is we paid for it!”. It was the funniest thing! So the mass went on and we watched it on the two little screens. It was an interesting mass because some things were said in German, Latin, and English and then some were just said in German and some just Latin. It was kind of crazy. Then during the middle of the mass another thing happened where I just could not stop laughing. Chris again leaned over to tell me that the little old woman sitting behind us was using binoculars to watch the TV! So crazy! I just could not hold back (as many of you know). Anyway, the choir sounded really great and it was worth seeing but man was it an experience! I will probably remember our seats over the choir but those kind of stories are always good. Haha! After church we went to a bakery and got some food. All the little bakeries around Austria are so cute and it is just something we don’t have at home pretty much at all and they are all over in Austria. We then walked around town for a little bit but it was raining so it wasn’t that enjoyable. Then at noon we met up with the rest of the group and got lunch at a restaurant called the Centimeter. People had gone there before and wanted to go again because they give you such huge portions of food. Most people share and that’s what I did. Matthew and I split Cordon Bleu which made for a cheap meal and it was definitely enough food. It was actually really good. Then we went back to the hostel to check out and get to the train station. We go to the station really early but we got on the train anyways. The six of us in our compartment watched How to Train a Dragon so that helped pass the time. I fell asleep for the last hour of the trip because I was so tired! I was happy to be back in Salzburg and was not looking forward to all the homework I had. I had to write a paper and read for art so it was not really a good night. I wouldn’t say Vienna is my favorite city but I was glad that I got a chance to go there and I had a really fun weekend!

P.S - Pictures to come! Image downloader was down

The "Study" in Study Abroad is Just to Make it Look Like We're Studying

This week flew by! I only had to go to three classes this entire week which was so nice. We all realized this week that we do absolutely no studying. We do what we need to but honestly it is nothing compared to being on campus. Monday was just a day to catch up after a busy weekend. I had one class and the other one was cancelled so in the afternoon almost our whole group went and played a game of football. It was a lot of fun! It was so nice outside and a great day for it. Then on Tuesday I just had one class in the morning. It was my class with my director and she freaked out because we were late. It was not our fault though because there was a ton of traffic which is wierd because that never happens. She told us that we have to plan for those things which was kind of ridiculous. After class we were all joking saying "Well, we should stay inside because there might be a tornado. We have to plan for it!" Haha! Probably not the best thing to do but she totally overreacted! Then Tuesday night we went to an opera put on by the students at the Mozarteum. It was called Entfuhrung aus dem Serail. No idea what that means but we ended up leaving at intermission. We honestly thought it was over but apparently it wasn't. It was really good but operas are difficult to understand in English so an opera in German was just too much. Afterwards we just went back to our rooms and relaxed. I probably should have done some homework but I didn't feel like it. ; )   Then on Wednesday I only had to go to my morning class. My German class was cancelled which was nice but it is my favorite class so it would have been nice to have the other one cancelled. Oh well. So since we had the afternoon free we decided to start planning our week long break. It is going to take a lot of work and we probably should have started it a long time ago but it should be fine. The plan it looks like is 6 of us are going to Switzerland for about 4 days then going to Ireland for about 5 days and we are meeting up with two other people in Ireland then we are going to Amsterdam for 2 days and meeting up with another 2 people from our group. It will take a lot of planning but I am really excited! It is crazy that that is next week already! We have to get going! haha! We didn't get as much planning done as we would have liked because some people sat with us who arent going with us and they kept distracting people but anyway, it was fine I guess. Now I am getting all packed and we are heading to Vienna this afternoon! Our whole group is going and it should be a lot of fun! I hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Prague: Czech!

Time for another really long blog post about my amazing weekend in Prague! Before I do that I have to go back to last Wednesday when we went to our director’s house for dinner. We all got there around 6 and hung out in their living room. I was surprised their place could hold us all because it is just an apartment but it was a lot bigger than I thought. Then we had dinner and it was absolutely amazing! It was so nice to have a home cooked meal. We had turkey schnitzel, cooked vegetables and mashed potatoes! It was soo good! Then we had cake and ice cream for dessert. It was so nice of them to do that for us and we all appreciated not having to cook noodles anymore. It was a very nice night!

Then on Thursday I packed all of my last minute things and we headed out around 12:45. Some people had class until 12:00 so we waited until they got all of their things and headed to the train station. Our group was Kevin, Aimee, Brady, Jake, Kolby, Dan, Sean and me. We had to get to the train station a little early because the night before I noticed that the tickets had the wrong date on them. We got there and everything was fine. It did not take any time at all to fix the date. So we got to the platform and were off to Prague! We had to switch trains in Linz and man it was close! We had two minutes to get to the next train and we were definitely booking it down the platform. Luckily we made it! We got on the train which was our longest leg. The train was about one hour to Linz. The train went for about three hours and then someone came around to each compartment and said we had to get on another train. We stopped in some Czech town in who knows where. It was the tiniest train station. We got on a really rickety train. We then had another two hours before we got to Prague. As we were going, all of a sudden every light in the train went out and the train slowly came to a stop. It was the freakiest thing! We have no idea why it did that. We were sitting in pitch black for a good ten minutes. I was happy to finally get off the sketchy train and ready to find our hostel. We got to the train station and exchanged some money. It was ridiculous because they charged me 16%. After that I just withdrew money from the ATM. Next task was to find our hostel. I was a little nervous about finding it because we had an hour to get there and it was dark out. Luckily, we talked to a lady who gave us a map which was really helpful because the other maps they had you had to pay for. I had written down directions from the train station to our hostel so that along with the map really helped. We didn’t have any problems finding it which made me relax. Now that we know the streets better it probably wasn’t the fastest way but atleast we got there! We checked in to the hostel and at first I have to say it looked pretty sketchy. The guy at the desk was really rude and the place where you entered the building looked like a dark alley. Once we got up to our room it was fine. The room was actually really nice. We had a room with ten beds and there were 8 of us. The first night we had two old men in our room which was weird but luckily they weren’t there the whole weekend. That night we ended up going to the bar which was connected to our hostel. It was actually right down our hall. We had a beer and played foosball which was fun! We did a little tournament which I lost of course but it was still really fun. We then went back to our room and went to bed since we were all so tired from traveling.



Group at the Pub Crawl



Then on Friday we got up at 9am and got breakfast at the hostel. It was nice that it is included in the price. I mean it wasn’t the greatest but it was fine. We got ready and then went on a free walking tour of Prague. The tour met at our hostel which was really nice. We then met another group of people and went on the tour. Our guide was really cool! He knew a lot about Prague and was really animated so it was great! He showed us a lot of the sites in Prague. We didn’t go in anything but he showed us things like the Astronomical Clock (which is really nothing…haha), Charles Bridge and the Prague Castle. The tour was actually a lot better than I thought it would be. I thought because it was a free one it would be really short or something but it was awesome! The weather was great too so it was a perfect way to see the city. The only problem was right before the tour started my camera didn’t work. I was so mad! It kept saying “Card Error” and wouldn’t take pictures. Luckily, Brady let me take pictures with his camera. When the tour was over, the guide told us about the Prague Pub Crawl and we all decided to do it so we went and registered. After the tour we got lunch at a little restaurant right next to our hostel called Fasty’s. Then the group went back to the hostel to take a little nap but I decided to go and try and find a new memory card for my camera. I could not be in Prague a whole weekend without a camera. Luckily Kevin and Sean wanted to go to the mall too. We found a memory card and it worked so I was happy! We walked around the mall a bit but it was crazy because every store was really expensive. We went back to the hostel and got ready for the Pub Crawl. We all put on our free tshirts and we all looked awesome! We met up with Megan B. and Megan P who were in Prague too but they went with Megan P’s mom. We headed to the first bar at 8:00pm. It was the Pub Crawl bar where they gave you free drinks for the first hour. It was kind of crazy because they gave free beer, wine, vodka and absinthe. I only had a beer but the other people were drinking all of it. Then after an hour we went to another bar and started dancing. They didn’t have the free drinks but they gave you a shot as you walked in. There were about 30 people who were apart of the Pub Crawl and we talked to some of them. They all knew we were Americans. It was really weird because I

Old Town Square

noticed that the four of us girls were almost the only girls. There were so many guys which I thought was really strange. We danced for the whole hour and then went to another bar. We kept dancing which was a lot of fun! We went to one other bar and then the last place we went to was called Karlovy Lazne which is the biggest club in central Europe. We got VIP entrance which was nice because some other guys we were talking to from Australia said they waited in line for an hour. The club had five different levels. We went to the oldies room which was awesome because they played the classics. We didn’t stay at that place for very long because people in our group were getting a little too drunk. Then we headed back to our hostel which was kind of a mess because people were not listening which was frustrating. I got us back to the hostel and almost everyone went right to bed. We got in bed around 3:30am so it was a long night but it was a lot of fun! Some things got a little out of hand but overall everything was ok.

The group on Charles Bridge

We got a pretty late start Saturday morning. I got up and ready and we headed out at about 12:00. It was a little later than I had hoped but people were moving pretty slowly. We walked around town and went back to some places we saw on the tour that we didn’t get to really see. We got some lunch first and we kind of split up. The boys wanted a big lunch but Aimee and I weren’t that hungry. So we went to a Kebab place and did a little shopping afterwards. We went to all the souvenir shops and this really cool store with crystal. We saw crystal everywhere so it must be a famous thing in Prague. We met up with the boys an hour later and headed to Charles Bridge. I don’t know how a bridge can be so popular but there were SO many people on it. The bridge had vendors and everything. There were people playing music so it was cool but I don’t understand how it became so popular. After walking across the bridge we split up again. Some of the guys were really tired and not feeling well (I wonder why…) so they went back to the hostel. I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to go take a nap on such a beautiful day in such a beautiful city. So Aimee, Brady, Kevin, Jake and I went to the other side of the bridge to see how it was. We stopped at a little café and got hot chocolate which was really good! It was nice just sitting outside and enjoying the sights. Then we went to St. Nicholas Tower and decided to pay to go to the top and I am so glad we did! It had the most amazing view of the city! Absolutely gorgeous! It was weird because when we were up there we saw a protest going on. We asked a lady about what they were protesting about and she didn’t really give us an answer. Well, we soon figured out why when the protestors started shouting “USA go away!”. I didn’t like it at all. I all of a sudden got a really sick feeling in my stomach. I know people are unhappy with the US but I have never really seen it displayed like that. We came down from the tower and slowly made our way to our hostel. The sun was setting and everything looked beautiful. Then we went back to the hostel to get the rest of the guys and tried to figure out something for dinner. Kevin’s roommate is from Prague and he suggested a restaurant that was in the mall. It was a Lebanese restaurant and everyone said they wanted to try it. So we went there and it was weird eating in a mall. The food I had was not very good. It said chicken sandwich but it had this really strange creamy stuff. It was not my favorite. Megan B. and Megan P. met us again but they didn’t eat with us. After dinner Aimee, Megan P. and me split up from the guys and went back to the hostel. We just sat and talked until the boys got back which was really nice. I was pretty tired at that point so it was nice to just relax. When the guys got back we went to the bar at our hostel again. The beer there was pretty cheap and they had music so it was fun. We played a card game and then went to bed pretty early.

On Sunday we checked out of our hostel at 10:00am. I went to check our train time and found that we would have to change trains three times and take a bus so we decided to take the earlier train. Everyone was fine with it because we wouldn’t have been able to see much more in the extra hour or so anyways. So we headed to the train station and got on our train at 11:16. After being on the train for about 2 hours, we found out that they cancelled a leg of our train. We had to get off in some tiny Czech town and get on a bus. It was the craziest thing. I never thought I would be taking a bus around the Czech Republic. It took about 20 minutes to get to the train station we were supposed to stop at. Once we got there we found the train to Linz and got on. Everything went well after that. We had a connection in Linz and we luckily had more time than on the way to Prague. The train we took from Linz to Salzburg was really nice! It was a faster train which was nice but we couldn’t find seats next to each other. Aimee and I found a seat across the aisle so that was nice. Even though we all had a great weekend it was so nice to get back to Salzburg. We got in at about 6:00 which was nice because it gave us time to unpack and relax. This weekend was so great and for it being the first weekend we travelled by ourselves I would say it was a definite success!   

View from St. Nicholas Tower

Gearing up for Prague!

Well, I finally got all the homework done and it feels great! I didn't think I was going to get through for a minute there but it ended up being ok. I ended up not having to do my Philosophy presentation on Monday which was kind of upsetting but oh well. Now i'm prepared for next class. Monday afternoon was spent finishing my paper for our Senior Seminar class. It was a little rough! I am so out of practice with writing papers but I think it was alright. Everyone booked it to their rooms after class to finish their papers because at night there was a party for the students at our dorms. One of the buildings here has a bar in it and they had drinks for 1 Euro. It was our "carrot" (as Mom would say) to getting our papers done. I cranked it out pretty fast and we all headed to the bar around 10pm. It was fun to see everyone but we didn't really get to talk to anyone we hadn't met already. It was a little crowded in there but it was fun. It felt like another awkward college thing they put on to get people to mix but it doesnt really work. haha! Katie was complaining that I don't put enough funny stories in my blog so here goes -

There was a pool table there and some people were playing. Of course I wanted to play to show off my skills. Ha! Apparently I am a little rusty! A guy in my group was playing with his roommate against some other guys and he went somewhere quick so I said I would shoot for him. Well, that was a mistake! I get up there and totally sink the other teams ball. Yeah! I about laughed until I cried. Ego was totally shot! Haha! It was really funny and no one cared but man! I am going to have to go there and practice before next time. It was terrible! : P After that I booked it out of there (haha not really) and our group went to another building to hang out. We just sat around and talked. We were all so happy to be done with our papers that we had to celebrate. We use any excuse we possibly can.

Then this morning we had our class and we had to give a little presentation about what we wrote in our papers. Of course we didn't get to me so I was totally prepared for no reason. Another thing which made us mad is that our Philosophy class got cancelled for Wednesday but of course our director is making us meet to talk about program stuff. She just doesn't give us a break! She said we need to talk about the hightened warnings that are for Europe whch I guess is good but we already have about 5 emails about it so it will probably just be repeated. Anyway, after class I went back to my room and got some stuff done. I only had one class so it was not a big deal. Then at 2:30pm the group that is going to Prague this weekend went to the train station to buy our tickets! I am so excited! It is going to be really fun because the group that is going are all really easy going people so we shouldn't have any problems. It is going to be Aimee, Kevin, Jake, Sean, Brady, Dan, Kolby and me. We havent booked our hostel yet but we are still figuring out our plans. We are leaving Thursday at 2pm and then will come back on Sunday. It should be a lot of fun! This is our first travel weekend not as a whole group so we'll see how it goes.

Tonight we are going to another bar and possibly a place that has salsa dancing which should be interesting. I don't know if we are going there for sure but we'll see. Tomorrow we have two classes and then it is the weekend! Tomorrow night we are all invited to our director's house for dinner so that should be nice too. Then off to Prague! I will make sure to bring a notebook with so I don't forget to blog about anything!!

Homework? What is that?

This was the first week I have actually felt like I was in school. I guess after being here for a month already that is pretty good. We have had a lot of homework this week and when I say a lot it is probably nothing. Haha! Just compared to the past couple weeks it has been a lot. We had to write a paper about the Oberammergau play and man was that tough. It’s like I forgot how to write one! Not good! This whole week has been kind of rainy so it actually hasn’t been that big of a deal. If it was sunny and we had all that homework I probably wouldn’t get any of it done. The beginning of the week was pretty slow but on Wednesday night a big group of us went out. We went to Augustiner Brau. It is a really fun atmosphere but I don’t like their beer there and that is all they have. We hung out there for a bit and then went to Murphy’s Law. We always go there and it is nice but it’s kind of boring. It is not a good bar if you want to be in a big group. I got a Rum & Coke there and it was great! I think it is my new drink of choice. Haha! After hanging out there for a bit we went home generally early.

Thursday was a pretty productive day which was good. I got a good part of my paper done and then a group of us decided we wanted to get out and do something. Kate, Aimee, Megan B., Brady and I all went to Leopold’s castle again which is the Sound of Music house. Some people hadn’t seen it so we took them there. It has really nice walking paths around the lake so I didn’t mind going back a second time. After that we walked to the Nonnberg Abbey which was apparently in the Sound of Music but I didn’t recognize it. Supposedly it is the Abbey where the nuns sing “How to Solve a Problem Like Maria”. It was cool to see and I got to mark off one more thing on my self-guided tour. We continued walking and went to the St. Peter’s cemetery. It is so cool there! I had been there before but we saw they have these catacombs. You have to pay 1 Euro to go in but it was worth it. I don’t really know what they are but Aimee and I decided to go. We climbed all of these stairs and they had different altars basically. I don’t really know what they were but we got some good views of Salzburg anyways. Afterwards we got Kebap for dinner. I haven’t said anything about Kebap yet but everyone eats it. It is basically a Gyro but with really good bread instead of a pita. It is really good but I don’t get it nearly as much as some of the guys here. They go to one specific place and they all have punch cards! It is kind of crazy really. When we got back to the dorms I did some more work on my paper and then relaxed. The group decided not to go anywhere that night so we all just hung out in one of the common areas. It was fun because we met some new people. We met two guys from Maine and Washington D.C then two girls who were actually from Austria. The boys were a little strange but nice and one of the girls, Julia, was so nice! I talked to her a lot which was fun. I think our group is a little scary at first because we don’t hold back anything around anyone.  I guess it is good but it is kind of a strong first impression. Haha! People are always amazed at how many there are of us here and we are always in such a big group. When I was talking to Julia I realized just how small our world is. I was wearing a St. John’s University sweatshirt and she told me that she has friends who went to St. John’s prep school for a year. Her high school has an exchange program with the prep school and her friends said they just love Minnesota. It was so crazy! Once she told me that I introduced her to Sean who actually went to St. John’s prep and they knew some of the same people. Such a small world! Overall it was a fun night getting to know new people and just hanging out.

Aimee and Me

Friday we had our class cancelled so we could finish our paper which was really nice. We had to submit atleast half of it by 12:00 and once that was over we set out for something new to do. Our group had plans to go to the Salzburg Zoo which is supposed to be really neat but since it was rainy we decided against it. It stopped raining by the afternoon but we thought it would just be better to go on a nice day. In the afternoon Aimee, Megan P., Kevin, Brady and me decided to do some shopping. We went to one store which has really cheap clothes but I didn’t really find anything. I found a cute button up shirt but that was about it. It is actually pretty good for me because usually I walk out with nothing. Haha! At night we had a really nice group dinner and concert at the fortress. It was really great! We all got dressed up and went to dinner. The dinner was a four course meal and it was delicious. It was really fancy food and it tasted so amazing! After that we went to the concert which was a Mozart symphony. I actually really enjoyed it. I didn’t think it was my thing but it was really good. The players were so talented and it wasn’t too long which is good. The only real problem with those things is that they are drawn out but this was actually perfect timing. The views from the fortress at night were absolutely gorgeous! The whole city was lit up and unfortunately my camera could not capture it but it was beautiful! We got done with the concert at 10pm and of course the night was still young so a group of us went to a bar called Flip. I persuaded them to try a new bar because I was just so sick of Murphy’s and the good thing was that everyone loved it! They had really good music playing and it was a fun atmosphere. They had reasonably priced drinks which is always a plus. I had a Choco Colada and a Captain Hook and they were both so good! Everything I have picked out at bars has been really tasty! J We got back to the dorms around 1 and went to bed. It was a really fun night!

One of the farm houses

Saturday was an interesting day that is for sure. We had a group tour planned for a farm museum. Yup, a farm museum! We were all really confused as to why she would plan such a thing. I have never heard those two words put together before. Let’s just say no one was too excited. We took a bus to the outskirts of Salzburg which was beautiful. There were mountains all around and it was amazing. When we got the farm museum, (ha! I laugh every time I say it) we got a guided tour. The farm houses were cool because they are different from ours but I just have to say the tour was really boring. We just didn’t really care about it so no one really listened. It would have been better just to walk around the place because it was actually really pretty. They had pretty gardens and walking trails which would have been more fun to see. We got lunch as a group and then headed back to the dorms for some down time.  At night the group made plans to go to this place called the Half Moon club to go dancing. We got to the place and they didn’t open until 10 so we went to Flip again and got a drink. There were some people who didn’t come with us the night before and everyone said they liked it. It is a fun bar. Then at 10 we went to the other place and the guys in our group got stopped at the door because they weren’t wearing the right clothes. It was the strangest thing! The guy standing there said all the girls were fine but the guys needed nicer shirts and no white shoes so we didn’t go in. It just made me mad because we were a group of about 8 people and they just lost that business and also I really wanted to dance! Haha! We then went to another bar called O’Malley’s but it was really crowded so we just decided to go back home. It was a pretty fun night but there was some more drama which was not fun to deal with. I hate drama more than anything and apparently it is unavoidable with this group. Haha! At least I am not involved in it! When I got back to my room I got to skype with everyone at the cabin but unfortunately my roommate was sleeping already so only they could talk and I typed. It was rather hilarious! At times I would laugh but I had to remind myself to stop.  I loved it even though we couldn’t talk for that long. Hopefully I will get another chance soon!

View from Eagle Nest

Sunday was probably one of the best days we have had yet! The weather was absolutely perfect and the sun was shining! We headed to Hitler’s Eagle Nest around 10am. The bus picked us up right at our dorms which was nice. We didn’t know the ride to the place was part of the tour and our director got mad at us for talking during it. It was not good but whatever. It was a beautiful bus ride. Completely surrounded by mountains and everything was so clear! There was not a cloud in the sky so you could see everything. So beautiful! We got a little ways up the mountain and then we had to get on another bus then take an elevator to the very top. I have been to the Eagle Nest before but this time was so much better. When I went in high school it was a really cloudy and foggy day so you couldn’t see the beautiful scenery. Being on top of the mountain was absolutely gorgeous. The pictures do not give it justice but I don’t think I have seen anything so breath-taking. There were mountains all around and you could see for miles. There was a lake right between the mountains and some mountains with snow on them. It was neat because we could see the fortress in Salzburg from the very top. The house itself is not very cool but going up there for the view is definitely worth it. It is basically a restaurant now. We got kind of rushed out of there by our tour guide which was too bad but I could have spent the whole day up there. Once we got down we went and looked at the museum that is there. I didn’t see that when I was there last so it was interesting. It was all about WWII which always fascinates me. There also was a bunker there that we got to see. Overall the day was really nice and we could not have asked for better weather! It’s funny because when I went to the Eagle Nest in high school I never thought in a million years that I would be back there. It made me realize just how lucky I am! (There, I will end on a nice note this time instead of a ‘screaming’ one!)