The End.

Well hello!

As most of you already know - I am officially back in the Good Ole' US of A. I realize that I have slacked off my blog over the last couple of weeks. Let me just defend myself by saying that it was a crazy last couple of weeks for me. However, it was a great end to the semester. But - Let's back track just a little and I will tell you about Munich, Salzburg, and coming home.

Munich:

The weekend after Switzerland we - Amy, Val, & I - headed out to Munich, Germany on a day trip. We headed out early in the morning and caught our train. Once we got into Munich we tried to get our bearings...however - It was raining cats & dogs. It was the kind of rain that if you had to navigate a brand new country in it - you would not be able to see one foot in front of the other. So, we tried to get around for about 30 minutes - until we found a subway station. We needed a rest from the torrential downpour so we headed down into the underground.

The underground was incredible. It was not just a subway station - for certain. It was an entire underground community. Everyone was down there - hiding from the rain. It was like a city street...only under the city street. There was food stands, a food court, shops, etc... There were even entrances to the malls. So, we decided to hang out in this crazy underground world. We ate hot dogs and wandered around the mall area until we ended up back at the train station just as it was time for our train to head out. It was an awesome little trip - despite the awful rain.

Salzburg:

The last week in Vienna was a crazy time for us. With exams and packing, Allison and I needed a break. So, we decided to take our last trip of the semester to Salzburg, Austria. After a short train ride - complete with hot chocolate and pastries – we arrived the beautiful city of Salzburg. We walked around a bit – and got our bearings. We ended up going to the city center, where there was an awesome Christmas Market. We walked around for a bit, got some food, and just generally experienced Salzburg. We explored the catacombs in the mountainside, and watched ice skaters at Mozart Square. We just had a lovely day wandering around. Allison and I headed back to Vienna – after a great little day trip.


The trip home:

Winding down a school year is much different in Vienna. Instead of winding down – we winded up. The last few weeks were filled with last minute trips, errands, shopping, and places to see. In between all of that, we still had to study for our exams. For all of those out there who think that we didn’t study all semester – we sure made up for it on our exams. We studied for hours upon hours. To keep me awake I watched the German version of MTV for pretty much the entire day. In the end – the studying was worth it. We took our last exam on Tuesday and had a final farewell dinner that night at Venizia (our little Italian place down the street). After a final nighttime movie with Allison and Claire, we headed to bed. In the morning we woke up around 7, finished packing, and headed down to catch our bus to the airport.

Our flight to DC was about 11 hours. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be though. Denton and I watched several movies and dozed off every now and then. We flew over Greenland – which is really cool. We got into DC and immediately took out our cell phones so that we could call people. Customs was a breeze – and then we caught our plane to Charlotte. From Charlotte we had a short wait until we got our last flight home to Nashville. There were so many people waiting for us. It was great. I was really glad to be home.

Now that I have been home a couple of days – it has been interesting. I am still trying to acclimate to life here with all the people. However, I am really glad to be home for Christmas time. It has been great.

So, there you go: The Chronicles of my life in Vienna. I went as a Nashville girl having no world experience – and I came back as a Vienna girl with a world of knowledge. IT was amazing. I can’t wait to go back – or rather go somewhere else.

Love from back in Nashville.
Caitlin

Switzerland

Hey everyone!

So this weekend I traveled to the amazing country of Switzerland. Allison, Bintu, Claire and I headed out on Thursday night on a night train to Interlaken, Switzerland. We had to switch trains in Zurich and in Bern to get to Interlaken, though. We got in the town around 9:30 on Friday morning. As soon as we got off the train, we realized we were surrounded by the Alps! They were magnificent. The clouds covered the top, but you could see that the peaks had snow all over them. By that point, we were really hungry, so we headed off to find some food. We walked to the nearest cafe - Des Alps - and had the best breakfast ever. We finally got to have bacon and scrambled eggs. After we ate, we just sat and read coffee table books and had some hot chocolate until we were warmed back up. It was pretty cold up there in the Alps... Once we were full and warm, we headed outside. In the middle of the town is this park/field area. In the field there is a fenced in area that holds about 10 Swiss cows, complete with cow bells. It was so funny to see these cows just wandering around in the city square!

We walked through the town for a little bit, stopping to get the occasional post-card or patch. We eventually ran across this flier that advertised trips to the waterfalls near Interlaken. We were intrigued, so we found the place and went to talk to the people. Well, it turned out that the same place did Vespa rentals for really cheap. So, we decided to rent two Vespas and ride around Interlaken for a while. I rode on Allison's bike, and Claire rode on Bintu's. I was too nervous to drive, and I didn't have my driver's license, so it fell on Allison to drive. It took us a while to get the hang of it, but eventually Allison and I got it. We sped around town for a while. Then we headed to the train station and waited to catch our train to Lauterbrunen. From there we took a cable car up to Murren. We went right up into the Alps on that cable car. It was kinda scary to see Interlaken fade into the valley as we rose higher in elevation.

Once we got to Murren we tried to find some food. Murren, however, was a ghost town. I am not even kidding - we saw one person out in the city - and all the lights were off in the town. It was only 7 at night. We eventually found a restaurant that was open. Apparently all of the town was there. It was like a scene from a movie when we walked in: four girls with backpacks enter the local watering hole - only to be starred at by the whole town (30 people) as the room becomes suddenly very quiet. We ordered the traditional cheese fondue and ate until we were full. Then we caught our bus down to Gimmelwald where our hostel was. Once we checked in, we hung out for a bit. We played cards and Scrabble until we were tired.

Saturday morning we woke up to the Alps. I mean, we looked out our room window and were surrounded by snowy mountains. Once we got up and going - we waited to catch our bus to Murren - where the food was. We ended up going to the same place we had gone to for dinner. We sat and ate and drank hot chocolate for a while.

Funny story: So, Bintu and I got really excited that this place had bacon. It was called "Swiss Air-Dried Bacon". So we decided to split and order of it - because it was rather expensive. So when our bacon came - we were shocked to see that is was still raw. They gave us raw - air-dried - bacon to eat. It was so gross. Lost in Translation at it's best right there.

After eating we decided to wander the town for a bit. We had thought that the ice rink would be open for us to ice skate- but it was closed and melted. We were there in low season- so most things were closed. We hung around and played in the snow for about 2 hours until we were freezing. We went back down to Gimmelwald and got our packs and then headed to the cable car station to go back to Interlaken. There, we ate a huge Chinese dinner and got on our train to Bern - then from Bern to Zurich - and then from Zurich home to Vienna.

It was such and amazing trip. Switzerland was by far the most beautiful place I have ever been. The mountains are amazing. We had so much fun just hanging around and playing the snow for a weekend. I would definitely go back there.

The Christmas Markets opened yesterday- so last night we all headed to the Rathaus. We got to see all the Christmas stuff (Think Gatlinburg except less cheesy). We had traditional Christmas food and cider and walked around for a bit. They are open until we leave- so we just did a little last night. There is actually an advent calendar in the windows of the Rathaus - so I can't wait for the first days of December - so we can see what comes out of the windows.

This week is just another school week here in Vienna. This weekend I am going to try and go to Germany- probably Berlin. Other than that, we are all just preparing to head on back to the States. I think the count is 15 days now. I can't wait to see everyone!

C

The Rest.

Hey all! So I have finally finished the rest of Fall Break! Enjoy!!

Our apartment in Barcelona was absolutely amazing. It was smaller, but perfect for the four girls. We had a bed, two pull out beds, a kitchen, bathroom, washing machine, and a terrace.


Sunday morning we woke up late and just hung out for a while, catching up on things we meant to do and resting. We ventured out into the city briefly to get train tickets, but other than that we simply relaxed. That night we made a stir-fry of sorts and ate up on the terrace. It was so nice to relax and just enjoy ourselves. Monday was exploration day in Barcelona. We took of in the morning and started walking around the city. We visited several of Gaudi’s famous buildings, including the Sagrata Familae Cathedral. The Cathedral was never finished, and is still under construction to this day. It is a magnificent though. It was built in a style that was to reflect natural structure and elements. I thought it was beautiful. After visiting the church, we went in search of the Barcelona Market. By the way, markets are my new favorite things. There are so many unique and interesting things you can find! I found an amazing collection of early 1900’s cameras that we still working. Unfortunately, they were in the upper 80-euro price range, and couldn’t afford one, but I will be on the look out now. We picked up a couple of fun trinkets in the market and enjoyed walking around. After our day of exploring, we headed back to our room for a bit and rested. We then attempted to find the beach. I say attempted, because in the process we, inevitably, ended up shopping. We did get as far as the Marina and Aquarium, but we quickly got sidetracked in a mall, which was equipped with, you guessed it, a H&M. We did see huge yachts in the bay though. HUGE yachts. After our little shopping rant, we headed back to the apartment and crashed.

Tuesday was our last day in Barcelona. We got up early and hiked to Guell Park, which is Gaudi’s Park in Barcelona. I say hiked, because Barcelona is one of those cities built on a slant. For the most part, we were on slightly titled ground, but Guell Park’s climb felt like a real haul. However, the park was really cool. It was had several tiers, with beautiful mosaics on each level. After having our fill of the park, we headed back to the apartment to finish packing our things. Unfortunately, during the night it had rained, and Val and Amy’s laundry that was drying on the terrace had been soaked, so we had to make a pit stop at the laundry mat so they could dry their things. While that happened, Allison and I ventured into a little vintage store. If you know Allison, you know that this was where she loved to shop. She ended up with like 3 shirts in 15 minutes. I didn’t get anything, because I was waiting for Paris. After our laundry, we headed to the train station to put our stuff in lockers, for our train did not leave until 7:30 that night. After stowing our stuff, we were exhausted. The lack of sleep, combined with the 50+ packs (plus all the other bags we were toting around) just wiped us out. We went in search of food. Well, naturally, we ended up at the shopping district again. We got some excellent lunch, and went in search of churros. Now, you would think this would not be such an unusual venture, considering churros are an authentic food around Spain. WELL, there are no churros to be found, my friends. Seeing as how we had more time to burn, the girls decided we would go shopping again. We shopped until it was time to head to the train station. There, we had to catch a short commuter train to another station 3 hours from Barcelona where our Paris overnight would leave. Ok, so you know when you watch a movie and you see the train station where there are only 3 or 4 tracks and absolutely nothing busy going on? That was this station. The waiting area was not heated, and it was about 35 degrees outside, so we, and everyone else waiting for the train, wore pretty much everything we had with us. We had planned on getting dinner in the station, however, everything was closed. So for dinner, we had M&M’s and Buggles from the vending machine. Mmmm, nutritious and delicious. We then caught our train to Paris.

We got into Paris around 9 the next morning. We actually were staying about 30 minutes out side the city center in a little town called Epinay sur Sein. After navigating ourselves and our ridiculous amount of luggage to the town, we ended up having to follow a little, old French lady to our hotel. After thanking her in our horrible, broken French we tried to check into our hotel (which was the only hotel in the city…by the way). Even though we had told them we would be arriving around 9, and the said we could get into our apartment then, they told us upon arrival that we would not be able to check in until 2:30. This is just excellent because none of us had bothered trying to get ready to be in Paris, fashion capital of the world, until we had showered in our apartment. So, after locking our luggage in the handicapped bathroom, yeah, of the hotel, we headed out to find some lunch. Well, it ended up that there was no café or restaurant open in the city until lunch. This is the part of the story when the hungry girls begin to make crazy decisions. We hopped on the next train into Paris, still clad in our PJ’s, glasses, and lack of any showering. After getting off the train, we practically ran to find a café. We spotted one off in the distance and went towards it. As we were crossing the street to get to the door of the café, we suddenly stopped in our tracks and looked down the street. And there it was: The Eiffel Tower. Right there. Our street ran right up to the base of it. For the first time on our Paris trip, it hit us. We were in Paris!! After taking a minute to appreciate how blessed we were, we went into our café and ate. In case you wondered, they do serve French fries in France. I them…however, I think ours are better. Another thing about Paris, it is waaaay expensive. Our lunch cost around 20 euros, but it was way worth it. After stuffing ourselves, we still had a couple of hours to kill, so we explored. We saw the Eiffel Tower, up close and personal. It is amazing, absolutely amazing. Surprisingly, it was more of a brown, brassy color than I expected. I had always pictured a steel or dark metal structure, but it was not. After taking several dozen pictures we started wandering around. We walked for a bit, and ended up on the Champs d’Elyes right in front of the Arc de Triomphe. It was a cool thing to see as well. After that, we were all pretty worn out. We had seen several of the major sights of Paris…and really need showers. So we headed back to our lovely little town. The rest of the night we just settled in and hung out. We ate Ramen Noodles from the Hotel Vending Machine for dinner and watched movies.

Thursday morning we hopped up bright and early to catch our train to the magnificent town of Brussels, Belgium. And, may I say, that traveling is so much easier when you don’t have a huge pack on your back. Our train ride was relatively short, and we got in to Brussels around 9ish. Our main focus in the early part of the day was finding WAFFELS. Again, this wouldn’t seem like such a daunting task considering it is kind of what Belgium is known for. Well, we searched for about and hour and half before we finally found the tourist center, and the infamous waffles. After deciding which lovely waffle place we would grace with our presence and growling stomachs, we settled into a lovely place. It was there that we ate the best meal of the trip. I had a Belgium waffle complete with homemade vanilla ice cream on top and a little pot of dark, pure chocolate sauce to pour over it. Add to that menu the most incredible hot chocolate you can imagine, and you would be in heaven. We ate until it was physically impossible to eat anymore. We then tried to find the city square and walk off some of the gross amount of calories we had consumed. The town square was so cool; it was literally a square with old, awesome looking buildings around. I loved it. Conveniently, the Chocolate Museum was located right off the square, and who were we to defy what was only natural in visiting the little museum. There we got to taste some of the pure chocolate, see cacao pods that were bigger than our heads, and have a lovely lady explain to us, in French and English how she makes the famous Belgium chocolate. Oh, she let us taste it, don’t you worry. After being chocolate-ed out, we needed to walk again. Remarkably, Amy and Val found some place to go shopping. They shopped for a while, and we then headed out to try and find the train station again. We ended up finding the famous statue of Brussels, which is a fountain of a small boy urinating. I realize this is very strange, but there is tale behind it.

The legend goes, that several centuries ago, some conspirators tried to blow up the castle in Brussels. This valiant little boy, saw the bomb intended to explode, and in a moment of genius, peed on the bomb to diffuse it. This is how this famous statue came to be. Now, the inhabitants of Brussels will make clothes for the little statue and leave them by the fountain as a tribute to the little boy. It is quite a hilarious story if you ask me. After seeing our little statue, we headed back and caught our train back to Paris. For dinner that night, we had French Baguettes (the best I have ever had) and pasta.

Friday morning was the official exploration day of Paris, and it was also Halloween. We started the morning off by visiting my most anticipated monument of my entire abroad experience, the Louvre. Now, I have been dreaming of seeing the artwork and the glass pyramid of the Louvre since probably Freshman Year in high school. It was the one thing that I needed to see on this semester. I was in awe when I first saw the massive expanse that was complex. The pyramid was a sight in itself. We entered the museum down through the glass chamber. We didn’t have to wait in too much of a line, because we got there 30 minutes before it opened, and it was a cold, rainy day. Once we got in and got tickets, we all set off on our journey. I started with the ancient Egyptian exhibit, and ended up getting lost in it and ended up in French painters. Some advice – if you are planning to take on the Louvre in under 2 hours…seriously look at the map. I was hopelessly lost in the Sully wing, trying to get to the Grand Gallery in the Denon Wing. After maneuvering through Egypt, I ended up in front of “Winged Victory” and got my bearings. I followed the cute little signs with the picture of the Mona Lisa on them until I ended up where I wanted to be. The Grand Gallery is like the jackpot of all art. The hall itself holds a huge amount of art, and then branching rooms of the hall hold even more. After seeing one of my top works – “Madonna on the Rocks” by Da Vinci, I wandered into a room and saw of the largest paintings, “The Wedding at Cana”. I was amazed by the detail and massiveness of the painting, that I failed to notice the huge crowd of people behind me. As I turned around, I realized that they were all looking at something. Low and Behold, there was the “Mona Lisa” on the wall. I probably stood there looking at the painting for a good 10 minutes. It is a weird feeling, finally seeing things that you have read and heard about for your entire life. It is a very surreal experience. After finally regaining myself, I wandered farther into the chamber and found the painting the Coldplay is using as their cover art/logo right now. It is a picture from the French Revolution, and it is awesome. After I had finished taking in all these works, and the others I have not mentioned, it was time to meet back with the other girls.

We had a nice lunch at Starbucks, yes there is one in the Louvre, and got to see the inverted pyramid, D.B. would be proud, we headed off into the city. We walked through the Tullieres, the garden outside the Lourve, up to the Champs d’Elyes again. There, Allison and I decided we needed a break for our poor feet. We sat down while Amy and Val went back to the Eiffel Tower to take pictures, because they had not been there during the day. Allison and I had a lovely break that included real French Éclairs and Café au Lait. Yum. We had agreed to meet at Notre Dame an hour later. I loved Notre Dame. Not only is the outside fadeout incredible, the inside is breathtaking. It was free to get in, so we hopped in line. The stained glass is just wonderful. I loved that Cathedral.
We wandered some more, trying to find the Church of St. Chapelle, but it was closed. The church is almost entirely made of Stained Glass, so I wish we could have found it when it was open. After seeing all the famous sights, we inevitably ended up shopping again. This time though, I finally found something I wanted to buy. I got this awesome black dress that is straight out of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and it was on sale. After this, we went back to our apartment to get ready for our Halloween out in Paris!

The four of us got all dressed up in our cute clothes (for once on the trip) and donned our masks we had gotten in Venice. We then headed to the Eiffel Tower to start. Until Christmas time, the Eiffel Tower is completely covered in blue lights. It is spectacular. All along our way, and at the tower, we had little kids shouting “Halloween!” at us, because we had our masks on. That made us feel better, that at least some one in France got that it was Halloween, and we went just crazy people in masks. We decided that we were going to go to the top of the tower, despite the fact that it was very cloudy, so you couldn’t actually see the top from the ground. On the ride up, Allison and Amy were completely having come-aparts, while Val and I were just excited. We went to the middle level first, where you can actually see out onto the city. It was beautiful all light up. There we met 3 guys from the Netherlands, who took a picture with us in our masks. We then caught a ride up to the very top of the tower. It is actually in two parts. The bottom of the top level is completely enclosed in glass, like an observation tower. Here there are little markers all the way around showing the distances to major world cities. We saw both of our homes on there – Wien and America! The next level up was more like a cage. It was open, but had caging around it, so you wouldn’t fall out. All you could see was blue fog, but it was still really cool. It is awesome to say I have been to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
After coming down, we decided to get some food. We had a nice dinner and headed back to the apartment to clean up and pack for the next day.
Saturday, we dropped our stuff off at the train station, and then caught a train to Versailles. Let me tell you first hand, that place is absolutely colossal. We took a tour of the grand palace, but did not have time to go into Marie Antoinette’s quarters. The Hall of Mirrors was probably my favorite room. Everything was either reflective or gilded. There was an exhibition going on in the palace, which I thought was ridiculous, but it was this show of these metallic objects like huge balloon animals and what not. I hated it. It drew attention away from the palace and looked completely out of place. Anyways. After we finished the Grand Palace, we headed out into the gardens. They are just spectacular. It would take forever to walk through them all. After wandering through them for a while, it got too cold for us, so we headed back to the station. We were starving by this point, so we went to the nearest restaurant, AKA the awesome huge Chinese Buffet. There was some sort of family gathering going on, but we just hung out and ate until we were full. We headed to the train station, but still had 2 hours to kill.

This is when we met our creeper. This girl came up and sat behind us on the benches and starting talk to us. See was from the states, but worked in Munich. She was a rather butch type girl and she carried her camera with her. She pulled some sort of alcoholic beverage out of her bag and started drinking; even though it was obvious she had already had enough. She then began taking pictures of us and encroaching on our personal space. She even sat on Val’s stuff. However, the weirdest part was her taking pictures of us. She kept at it, until I said we needed to go check the train times. We got all of our stuff, and made a run for it to the nearest hiding place. Once our train platform came up on the board, we ran and hid in our compartment. We heard her once or twice in the halls, but we locked our doors and tried to be safe. We ended up sleeping a car with a man and a woman from Germany, so we slept with all of our stuff by our feet. We changed trains in the morning in Munich, and got on our last leg home to Vienna!

Once I got home, I unpacked and watch High School Musical 3 with Al and waited until Mommy and Gary got to Wien! It was so great to see them. We had an awesome time seeing Vienna together. We got to see at Ballet, though I am not sure exactly what happened in it, other than a very long dream sequence involving about 50 ballerinas. We got to see the Van Gogh exhibit at the Albertina, as well as the Klimt exhibit at the Belvedere and then Schonbrunn. We also got to go see a real movie in theaters…in ENGLISH! It was so nice. We say Burn After Reading… which is absolutely hysterical if you like that type of humor…which we do. I was sad for them to go, but I am excited to get home and see everyone in 3 weeks!!

If you read all of this, congratulations! It was a novel to write. I had an amazing 10 days traveling, and could not have asked for a better trip. I think the count of days until I come home is around 25 now. I hope you are all well, I am doing great here. I am headed to Interlaken, Switzerland this weekend…and I may be skydiving…more to come on that thought. Vienna is finally getting colder, and the Christmas markets are opening this weekend! Christmas time is coming up quickly here, and it is marvelous. Starbucks has already put out their Christmas cups, so you know it is coming. This past weekend, Claire and I stayed home to recuperate from break, and we spent a majority of our time listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies – so I will definitely be in the Christmas spirit when I get home! I am going to go study for my German test now. I love and miss you all!!

Love - C

Venice and Cinque Terre

Hey everyone! So I think I am going to write about Fall Break in segments. So, here are the first two days or so of my break. It is from Venice to Cinque Terre and then getting to Barcelona.

So Thursday was the first day of our spectacular Fall Break. After school we hoped on the train to Venice and started our adventure. On the train we met an awesome Aussie named Pip. She had been traveling since April, and was headed to Venice for 4 days. Once we got the Venice, we quickly found our hostel and got settled in. Pip was supposed to be in a different hostel, but it was really hard to get to, so she ended up staying in our room with us. We each had our own beds, which was great. We also had our own bathroom…but it wasn’t much bigger than a very small broom closet. It was impossible to wash your face without getting water all over the floor.

The owner/manager of the hostel was named Uncle George. Oh man, was he a character. We are pretty sure he had a crush on me, because he kept telling me I was beautiful and had a pretty smile. Anyways, he treated us like his own grandkids. It was so nice. He told us exactly where to eat dinner, and then this morning, he personally took us to breakfast and tried to pay for our Cappuccino and Croissants, but we wouldn’t let him. He also hoped on the train with us to the mainland of Venice, just to make sure we wouldn’t get lost. He was great, a little eccentric, but great.

Once we got into Venice Friday morning, we were amazed at how great our weather was. It was perfect. We started walking to try and find St. Mark’s Square. Pip stayed with us the whole day too. The way we chose to go was not the traditional tourist way to the square, and so we got to see a lot of the real city. It was wonderful. We stopped in couple of shops along the way and picked up a few presents, but didn’t get anything for ourselves. We wandered a bit more and found this amazing little store full of vintage Beatles gear. Allison and I of course had to go in it. It was fantastic, but expensive.

As we were wondering we were talking about our trip, and realized that Halloween falls on a day we were in Paris. Saddened by the fact that we would not be home to Trick or Treat, we tried to think of a way to have fun that day. About that time, we passed a Carnival poster. For those who don’t know what Carnival is, it is this amazing celebration in Venice around the middle of February (also the time of my birthday). During Carnival people dress up in these AMAZING masks. There were so many exquisite masks in Venice. They really were works of art. So this inspired us, and we decided we were going to get masks (cheaper ones…not the 300E ones we saw), dress up, and wear them around Paris on Halloween night. So just be prepared for the pictures. After finding our masks, we really had to get to the square.

St. Marks’ Square is so fun. We saw the famous pigeons there. We even got them to land on our arms and take pictures. It was so fun. Pip didn’t want one on her, and Amy was scared, but I had like 2 on me at a time. They were so fun. We saw the Basilica and the Clock in the square. Then we wandered over the Grand Canal to check it out. Here is where the hilarious part of the day comes in.

So, I decide that I want a picture of me and my Chaco’s in the water of the Canal. So I step down onto one of the steps there that lead right down on the water. and I go to take the next step, which doesn’t have algae on it. However, this step is deceptively slippery. As soon as my foot hits the step, I slip and start sliding down all the stairs right into the water. The third step is completely submerged in water and algae, and that is where I land. During this whole thing, I chucked my purse up to the top of the steps, so thankfully nothing got wet…except for me. I got soaked. Also, all of the tourists in the square like turned and watched and laughed. It was awesome. So I was soaked the rest of the day. I got kinda scraped up in the process but it was funny.

After that whole ordeal, we decided that no Venice trip was complete without a gondola ride. We bargained with a ship owner, and finally got a good price. The tour was awesome. He took us through all the little back canals and let us see Venice from the water. It was amazing. I took so many pictures. After that, it was time to head to the train station and head to Cinque Terre. We grabbed a panini and said goodbye to Pip and hopped the train to our next adventure.


For day two of our Adventure, we headed to the little town of Cinque Terre, Italy. If you have never heard of Cinque Terre, I wouldn’t be surprised. However, it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We got in around 8 on Friday night. After negotiating the confusing bus system, our driver dropped us off somewhere near our hostel. We decided that it would probably be better to eat and then find our hostel, so we headed to the nearest restaurant. There we met another study abroad group from Ohio that was staying in our hostel. Kyle, one of the guys, told us some great stuff about Cinque Terre for the next day. They were based in Rome, and had only been going for about a week. So we gave them tips on how to survive Europe in general. We all ate pasta and watched some ridiculous Italian game show until we were stuffed. Then we all headed back to our hostel and settled in for the night.

The next morning we woke up and got ready around 6. After checking out we caught the bus into Cinque Terre, or more specifically Riomaggorie. We dropped our stuff at the train station and headed off to explore the coastline. The view is incredible. The entirety of Cinque Terre is carved into the sides of mountains. The sea below is turquoise and rocks form the cliffs of the beach. There is no sand, but rather rocks. Because it is carved into the mountain, it is all steps. You either go up or down; there is no level ground. So we got quite a work out. The houses reminded me of what I had seen from pictures of Santorini, but these houses were brightly colored. In Riomaggorie, there is this rock pile that juts out into the water that you can clamber over to get a good view of the village. We hung out on the rocks for a while and then headed back into the village. There we got the most delicious strawberries I have ever had. We walked around the main part of town (which consisted of about 500 feet of street) and the walked to the train station to catch the train to another little village. We ended up going to Montorolla, which is the last of the 5 little villages on the strip. There we ate lunch and walked a bit on the beach. After that it was time for us to catch our train to La Spezia. From La Spezia we took a train to Milan. From the Milan station we had to take a taxi for and hour and half to the Milan airport. There we had to catch our RyanAir flight to Barcelona. The thing about RyanAir is that it is a little bit shady. We didn’t assigned seats; it was just a free for all. Luckily, we got the first row on the plane. Our flight was only about an hour, as opposed to the 31 hours train ride we would have had to take otherwise. Once we landed in Barcelona we had to take an hour bus ride into the actual city center where our apartment was. Then we had to take yet another taxi to our apartment.

Forth Coming

For all those who follow this, I just wanted to let you know that I am safely back in Vienna. Fall Break was amazing, and I am in the middle of writing a blog about it. So far I am on page 3 of the blog...and I am only on day 3, so be prepared for a novel. It should be published sometime today or tomorrow, so just check back soon!

Love and miss you all!
4 weeks until I am back in the USA.

Whirlwind of Fall Break

Well hey.

We have gotten our Fall Break Plans finalized, finally. We are sticking with the schedule I put in my last blog. It is going to be a really awesome week. I have been planning and researching Paris a lot today. The Louvre is going to be amazing. We also decided we were going to fight with baguettes in front of the Eiffel Tower...like in Passport to Paris.

This week, however, is crazy. We are all trying to get packed for break. We also have to pack up our rooms and move out of the hotel rooms we are in while we are gone. So it is like packing up to come home again. I also need to do some laundry and I have two quizzes tomorrow. So today is kind of jam-packed.

Anyways, I am taking my computer for sure on the trip, and we have WiFi in our apartments, so I should be able to update everyone as it goes. Pictures and stories to come!

Love, C

The Netherlands

Hello from Vienna!

Life is good over here. This week is going to be really hectic, because we are leaving for Fall Break on Thursday. This past weekend though, we had a nice trip to the Netherlands, more specifically, Holland.

Thursday after class, we caught a train to Amsterdam. We changed trains in Munich, though. Munich's Train Station is awesome. We had Subway for dinner and then just hung out for a while. There ended up being an English Bookstore in the Station, which was awesome, because I got Brisngr (the 3rd Eragon Book), which I had been wanting. It is a beast of a book, though. After dinner we caught our night train to Amsterdam. We had these funny little seats called "Sleeperettes". They are like little Space Ship seats that lean back. On the train we ran into a kid who was with the Freed-Hardeman group. It was nice to talk to someone from home!

We woke up on Friday in Amsterdam. After stowing our luggage in the train lockers, we headed out to explore the city. Amsterdam is a really beautiful city, despite its seedy reputation. There are so many little canals and bridges in the streets that it reminded me of Venice. The trees on the streets were all changing colors too, and that reminded me of home.

Funny Antidote of the Trip: While we were taking pictures of the canals, we realized that someone was waving at us from across the street. Curious, we looked a little closer at the individual. It then suddenly dawned on Amy and I that this person was a woman...a "woman of the night". She was waving to us to come over her. We then realized that we were, in fact, in the infamous Red Light District of Amsterdam. We promptly turned around and walked back the way we came…away from harm.

After leaving the RLD, we headed to find some breakfast. We settled on this cute little place by the train station. There is where the most enjoyable part of our experience in Holland began: The Food. There we had the most amazing Pancakes covered in Whipped Cream and Strawberries. Oh my, it was amazing.

After stuffing ourselves with Pancakes, we headed to Dam Square to see what we could find. There was this sort of carnival going on in the square with lots of little rides and what not, however, we thought it was too cold to wait in line for them. We kept walking until we got to Anne Frank’s house. It was just a simple little typical house tucked in a street overlooking a canal. The museum was attached to it on the other side, and a massive line of people winded around the block. We decided, again, to not wait in the line, but instead go back to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. Amy and Kayce didn’t want to pay to get it, but Val and I did. So Val and I set off on an adventure.

When you go into the museum, you go up on this elevator and start a tour-like thing with some other people. At the beginning we got a brief history of Holland and Amsterdam. There was a life like set of a river and a boat and people in the town, all made of wax. After the history, we headed to the Pirates of the Caribbean exhibit. Now, Val and I should have realized that the signs up that said “Not suitable for children under 12” included us. The exhibit was like a haunted house of Pirates…complete with a hanging man and a barracks of a ship. In the barracks a man kept jumping out of the cages and scaring us. I screamed the entire time; it was awful.

After that, we headed upstairs to the rest of the museum. We saw Political Figures, Musicians, Scientists, Athletes and Movie Stars. Here are some of the highlights:

Elvis
Bob Marley
David Bowie
JFK
Winston Churchill
Anne Frank
Gandhi
Dali Lama
Nelson Mandela
Van Gogh
Bono
Spice Girls
Michael Jackson
Brad and Angelina
Justin Timberlake
Julia Roberts
Daniel Craig
Marilyn
Pierce Broslin
Beyonce
Spiderman

It was really cool to see, because the figures really did look life-like. It was kind of weird.

After the museum we walked around to the city gates and saw the old entrance to Amsterdam. We looked in a couple of shops and street markets there too. After grabbing some awesome lunch of tomato soup and apple pie, we headed to the train station to catch our train to Tilburg, where we were staying.

We stayed with Val’s aunt’s sister, Jassy (pronounced “Jazzy”). She was a character indeed. She had lived on St. Martin for most of her life, until 8 years ago when she moved to Holland. She had 3 children, but there were constantly people in and out. She was really awesome to stay with. She was an awesome cook and very hospitable. After getting situated there, she cooked us the most amazing dinner of rice, beef and potatoes, broccoli, chicken and pasta. It was amazing. After not having home-cooked food for almost a month and half, we were all craving a good meal. Well, we got it. It was fantastic. After stuffing ourselves, we are curled up upstairs, watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (which is awesome…go watch it), and fell asleep.
After sleeping in and getting ready for the day, we caught the bus to the train station to check on our train for the next day. After making sure we were ok, we headed back to the house, where we just hung around for a bit and then went to the grocery with Jassy. We had some awesome fries in the market with this great sauce. They are like this typical Dutch food…that worked great for me. We came back from the store and made tomato soup and grilled cheese. The rest of the night we just hung around and caught up on life.

Sunday we woke up at 3 and headed to the train station to catch our train from Tilburg to Amsterdam. Once we got to Amsterdam, we had like a two-hour wait until our train home left. We got some hot chocolate and waited for the next one. We got off at the stop that the ticket said to get off at. However, when it came time to get on the next train, we realized our ticket said to get on at Frankfurt Main…which was an hour and a half away. After talking to a nice man, we realized we could catch a train home but we would get there almost two hours later now. We really didn’t have a choice, so we hoped on. We had to change trains again, but eventually made it home around 10. So that was 19 hours of travel…it was great guys.

As is typical here, the day after we return from an adventure, we begin fervently planning the next one. Thursday afternoon beings our Fall Break. Amy, Val, Allison, and I are going together. We have a very ambitious, but highly awesome trip planned. I hope we can pull it off. If everything works out here is what will happen:

Thursday: Train/Night in Venice
Friday: Venice/Night Train to Cinque Terre
Saturday: Cinque Terre/Fly to Barcelona
Sunday: Barcelona
Monday: Barcelona
Tuesday: Barcelona/Night Train to Paris
Wednesday: Paris
Thursday: Paris (Maybe Daytrip to Versailles)
Friday: Day trip to Brussels, Belgium
Saturday: Paris/Night Train to Vienna

So there you go. I will have my computer on the trip, so hopefully I will get to update everyone as the trip/plans progress.

I hope everyone is well at home. I miss you all a lot. It is getting colder here, which reminds me of fall at home. Vienna is nice, but I miss Nashville in the fall. Anyways, time to go to homework. Movie Night tonight: The Illusionist. Appropriate, considering it was set in Vienna.

Love from Vienna, Holland, and soon to be most of Europe.