Study Abroad- England: Austria and Munich

I know it's been awhile since I wrote in this, so I'm going to try to briefly sum up the rest of my Eurotrip so I can keep my blog up- to- date.

Vienna:

We were in Vienna for two days. We arrived on a friday afternoon via bus. We being Courtney, Adam and myself. We hustled to the apartment we had rented for the two days, which was near city centre. The ticket machine was so dumb and was giving our cards problems. KEEP CASH ON YOU. We hauled ass with our luggage to the apartment because we were running late for "meeting the person with the keys", which was dumb, because the keys were in a code box thing outside the door and we had to call them for the code. The apartment was beautiful. It looked weird from the outside but so spacious and modern on the inside. There was a washer/ dryer and a huge bed and a huge couch. Obviously, there was a kitchen too, which was nice. The three of us just relaxed until we decided to explore the area nearby. We went for a walk and ended up eating at an Australian restaurant, because we were starving and there was nothing else around. We explored the mall which was connected to the train station, because we weren't dead set on taking a metro into town being so tired. Gabby and Julia ended up joining us at night and we all stayed up chatting for a bit before getting some rest for the next day.

Since none of us knew anything about Vienna, and we couldn't find a hop on/ hop off bus option, we decided to just roam around and explore the city. We saw the main square and St. Stephen's Cathedral. We ate at an Italian Restaurant near the cathedral and enjoyed the view. We then walked through the alleys and got lost until we started trekking to some of the sites. For the life of me, I could not tell you the names of any of the places we saw- which is probably why Vienna wasn't really on the top cities we went to. There were a ton of pretty sites and palaces and gardens, but I don't know the meaning of any of them. We decided to start taking pictures of us imitating statues.. People thought we were weird. We stopped in a park to sit down for a few minutes and catch our breath. Afterwards, we went to a famous palace that was literally ginormous. According to google, I'm going to say the name of it was "Schoenbrunn Palace". After the Schoenbrunn Palace, we rushed to the metro, because it was going to rain like crazy in about .5 seconds. The metro was so full and Courtney and I were squished in between a million people and little kids bringing their damn bicycles or scooters. We went back to the mall to pick up some food stuff from the grocery store and for me to get a new suitcase, since mine was kind of broken. Courtney and I just relaxed at night, while Gabby, Julia, and Adam went to this carnival thing and then met up with two other exchange students. Courtney and I were literally exhausted from the first two weeks of traveling. The next morning, we had to pack quickly and head to Salzburg for the second bit of Austria.

Salzburg

Salzburg was dead on Sunday.. granted it was Easter Sunday. I finished watching the Sound of Music on the train ride to Salzburg, because I mean it's the main location of the movie. We (Courtney, Adam and I) walked around Salzburg City Centre and went to the Mirabell Palace/ Gardens. That's where "Do Re Me" was filmed in the movie. It was so much fun to frolic around there. We went back to the hostel before it got dark outside and just hung out in the lobby (or well Courtney and I did) to just catch up on things since there wasn't much open/ to do. Monday we decided to take the Sound of Music Tour, which was definitely a waste of 40 Euro. It was cool to see the lake that Maria and the children fell into on the boat in the movie/ the back patio of the house that was used on location, the gazebo and the church used in the movie for Maria and the Captain to get married in. We also saw a beautiful view from the mountains. But we just drove by the front of the house (at a distance) where Maria finishes the "I Have Confidence" song, the Abbey used not only in the movie, but also in real life (at a very far distance) and a couple of other things. The tour guide definitely was getting annoyed with me because I knew everything she was saying, if not more, about the movie as well as the true story. After the tour, we went back to the Mirabell Palace and then walked around and saw one of Mozart's houses in Salzburg, as well as the hotel that the adult actors in the Sound of Music stayed in while filming on location. We walked around and saw a statue of Mozart and the fountain where Maria is at during the "I Have Confidence" song. We crossed the bridge that the children and Maria crossed right before "Do Re Me". We walked around a lot and only headed back to the hostel around dinnertime. I did my laundry, which took 4 hours. Annndd I met a few random people which was nice. Some were from Singapore or America and one was from Canada. It's amazing who you can meet while you're waiting for laundry to be done.

Munich

Munich was our last stop before our final stretch in Italy. I've been to Munich before, and to be quite honest, wasn't expecting much, but it was amazing! One of the best times of the trip. On Tuesday, we arrived relatively early in the morning- like 11 ish. We went to the hostel to drop off our bags and headed to Hofbrahaus to get some lunch. It was WAY less crowded for lunch than it was when I went with my dad last year for dinner. The waiter was definitely rude and just blah. But I got a vegetarian dish (thankfully they offered vegetarian options) and the large beer. I had to ask Adam to help me finish it. Too much beer. Anyway, after the Hobfrahaus, we walked around a bit and headed back to the hostel to check in and figure out the rest of our game plan. Adam and I decided to go on a " Free Beer Tour" which ended up being a Free Beer Garden Crawl. We went to three beer gardens and hung out with a bunch of new friends. All the Americans kinda clung together- surprise, surprise. But we had a great time and got to meet amazing people. At the last beer garden, Adam, these two girls we met- Cathy and Ruby, and I left early to go to the hostel bar where everyone else was going to go at the end of the tour anyway. Cathy and I stayed at the bar until everyone got back and hung out with everyone else for awhile.

The next morning, I had to wake up early to go on Mike's Bike Tour. I definitely struggled on the bike because it was the weirdest bike I've ever ridden. It was a small group, so it was nice to not feel so far behind the group, since I usually was at the back of the line. We went all around Munich city centre and stopped at the Chinese tower beer garden in the middle of the Englischer Garten. After the bike tour ended, I went back to the hostel to relax for a half an hour (Courtney and Adam went on a free walking tour instead), and I went back into the city centre and went back to my favorite places shown on the bike tour so I could take proper pictures, Then I climbed up like 200+ stairs of this tower to see a 360 panorama view of Munich. It was breathtaking. It was also frightening to climb up and down the tower. After that, I strolled back to the hostel and ended up running into one of the friends I had made the night before. We decided to meet at the Wom-bar (the bar in the hostel) to hang out later with some other friends. It became another night of fun with my new friends I'd made in the hostel. Cathy and I went to grab food and then hung out with a few other people in the Wom-bar. I met a lot of new friends that night as well and two of them ended up going on the Dachau Tour the next day with Courtney, Adam and myself.

The last day in Munich was spent at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. Well at least the beginning part started off there. Our tour guide was amazing. We learned so much on that tour. It was definitely somber.. After our tour there, we headed back to city centre Munich and went back to the Englischer Garten (we being Courtney, Adam, Dave, Dan and myself). Dave and Dan were the two friends I had made the night before. We hung out in town afterwards and then went back to the hostel. I hung out with Dave and Dan in the wom-bar and was their "wingwoman". I'm sure if they were to read this, I'd probably be scolded for writing it. Anyway, they're cool people and it was a fun last night before heading to Italy the next morning. We hung out with the two other people who were on the Dachau tour with the 5 of us. We tried to venture outwards, but ended up heading home early anyway. Munich was such a fun time and I feel like I saw so much in three days. They were the most tiring days, because I was exploring all day and hanging out with new friends at night, but it was so worth it.

OH, and we also saw Australians surfing in Munich. That is all.