Adventures in Eastern Europe

Budapest, Hungary

After spending 12 hours in a bus with 35 other students, we finally made it to Budapest! Fun Fact: Budapest is divided into two cities by the Danube River. I'm sure you can guess what those cities were called. We spent most of our time on the Pest side of the river. During our first evening in Budapest, the owners of the apartment we were staying at wanted to take us out and show us their favorite places to go. We ended up going to this bar/hookah lounge that was pretty cool! There was a bunch of graffiti and murals on the walls. The weirdest thing was leaving the bar and you had to be quiet. We got in trouble by the bouncer for laughing and talking too loud as we left the bar. Definitely nothing compared to the Wheel or Hawk in Lawrence! I was surprised to see how many non-Hungarians we saw there. We didn't see many out at night. The entire trip I was surprise how many travelers we ran into from different countries. There were a lot of British, French and Australians traveling throughout Europe.

                                     

                                             Chain Bridge that crosses over Danube River. 

                                     

                                           The Danube River divides Buda and Pest.

On Sunday morning, we made breakfast together in the apartment and then explored the city. We stopped by the world's 2nd largest Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter, the Basilica and Opera House. We had the chance to go inside the Basilica and let me tell you it was B-E-A-UTIFUL! The entire ceiling was painted with gold accents and the stain glass windows were stunning. I was surprised to hear that they began to build the Basilica in 1850 and finished in 1903. The structure seemed a lot older than what it's actual age was. Unfortunately we weren't able to go inside the Synagogue or Opera House because they were closed, but I did get some great pictures of it though!

Outside the Basilica.

The Alter.

Ceiling in the Center of the Church. 

The Opera House.

 We ended our last night in Budapest at the Hungarian baths followed by a traditional Hungarian dinner. The baths were quite an experience! It was like a massive hot tub with tons of steam. I couldn't see 3 feet in front of me in the outdoor pool. The entire area smelled like sulfur. All the pools had different types of minerals and temperatures too. We spent most of our time next to the waterfall. It was prime people watching needless to say. For dinner, I tried duck for the first time! I was a little skeptical at first, but it ended up being delicious! I am still dreaming about this meal and it has been over a week later! We also tried "pork coins" and those were yummy as well. It tasted like fried pork!

The Szechenyi Baths.

Vienna, Austria

On Monday afternoon we arrived to Vienna. After checking into the hostel, we walked across the street to the local market. Right when we walked outside, it started snowing a bunch. I felt like I was walking through a blizzard and I promise I'm not being dramatic when I say this. Anyways the first half of the market was ran by a bunch of Indians. They were selling hats, bracelets, sweaters, hot wine and dried fruit. The guys selling hot wine and dried fruit were literally yelling, singing and dancing at us to come buy something from them. It was pretty entertaining! After we ate lunch in the market, we wondered over to a coffee shop and had a Brazilian Espresso. The owners were fun to talk to about how they make all the different kinds of drinks. The got a kick out of us asking for milk and sugar with our drinks. They said that "Austrians drink their coffee straight." That night we started out at the hostel bar and went to a show it this bar called Flex. Not only did the DJ mix tracks, but he also played the trombone. Can't say that I have ever seen that before! 

The Market.

The Vienna Opera House.

DJ at Flex who played the trombone.

On Tuesday morning, four of use got up early, so we could see the whole city! I think I have seen enough palaces to say the least! Our first stop of the day was the Schonnbrunn Palace. The palace was ENORMOUS! We didn't want to spend all day on a tour, so we walked around the courtyard and moved onto our next sight. Then we made our way over to the Kariskirche Church, which was right next to The Technical University of Vienna. Both places were in this park, which was soo pretty! There were also these painted and decorated porte potties on display as an art exhibit. For the rest of the morning we wondered around the city and finally came across the Belvedere Palace and Gardens. Right before we went into the gardens, this Greek man approached us and offered us free wine from his restaurant. (So basically we got sucked into a tourist trap that led us to his restaurant across the street.) As we walked into the restaurant, we recognized more CIMBA students who also got sucked into this trap. The lunch ended up being really good and I even tried wiener schnitzel, which was really good! It was similar to a lightly fried chicken with lemon juice drizzled over it. After lunch, we walked across the street and saw the Belvedere Palace and Gardens. Even though the gardens weren't as lush or green as they would be in the summer time, the gardens were still beautiful! 

In front of the Schonnbrunn Palace.

Kariskirche Church. 

Porte Potty Art. 

With George outside of his restaurant.

Belvedere Palace.

Belvedere Gardens.

After the gardens and navigating ourselves back into the downtown area, we decided we wanted to see one more palace. (As if we hadn't seen enough!) We walked into the Hofburg Palace and we noticed there was so much to see inside, so we decided to do an audio tour for all the exhibits they were showing. I don't think I have ever seen so much gold in my life. Every where you looked there was something gold on display. There were gold plates, silverware, candelabras, washing bins and the list goes on and on. There was also gold painted on all of the ceilings! We also got to walk through the "royal apartments," which were like bedrooms, conference rooms and lounges. Side Note: I got caught twice by the museum guards when I was taking pictures inside exhibits. Apparently you can't take pictures inside the royal apartments. That didn't stop me from taking pictures though! :) 

Golden Center Pieces and Candelabras.

Plates.

Smaller Dining Hall/ Conference Room.

Lounge.

Outside Hofburg Palace.

Prague, Czech Republic
 On our way from Vienna to Prague, we ran into a snow storm. Originally the bus ride was supposed to take 5 hours. After being in a stand still for 2 hours in a tiny czech town and driving at a snail's pace for another 3 hours, our bus ride ended up being 12 hours long. During our first night in town, we went to this bar that some locals suggested us going to. As you entered the bar, you walked down a couple flights of stairs, so the entire bar was underground and looked like we were in a cave. It was pretty cool! Elizabeth and I were unfamiliar with the local beers, so we looked at the menu and picked a random beer. The bar tender gave us our drinks in these massive glasses and we had no idea what to do with all this beer. Luckily we had a few friends with us that could help us out! The next morning Molly and I got up early and explored the city on our own. The only thing we had on our agenda was to meet other girls at the St. Charles Bridge later that afternoon. The entire morning we wondered around and saw churches, monuments and cool stores. We even got to split an omelette and have hot chocolate coffee at The Old Czech Restaurant!

Elizabeth and I with our big czech beer.

Main Street in Prague.

One of the churches we walked into. 

That afternoon, Molly and I finally made it over to the St. Charles Bridge. (Which was swamped with tourists.) Along the bridge there were statues of religious figures and events. There was one statue crowds of people were huddling around trying to rub and take pictures of. I don't know why people were so fascinated by it, but Molly and I didn't want to stay and get caught up with the crowds. We met up with a few more of our friends at this cafe across the bridge and wondered around that side of town. We came across a lot random stores. There were a bunch of souvenir shops, a tai foot massage center, ghost museum, and glass shop. We walked into one store and half of it was a photography studio. We decided to get dressed up in costume that looked like we live in the 1900's and took a "old time" picture. That was probably the best impulse buy of the entire trip! After our photo shoot, we walked up this huge hill and found ourselves in front of the Prague Castle. This castle complex had the best view of Prague! It overlooked the entire town. Inside the castle complex, there was St. Vitus Cathedral and it was enormous!! We were bummed that we weren't able to go inside because it was locked, but it was still pretty to see from the outside. 

View from St. Charles Bridge. 

Our "old time" picture. 

View from the Prague Castle. 

Prague Castle.  

St. Vitus Cathedral inside the castle complex. 

Munich, Germany

On Friday late afternoon, we arrived to our last stop of the trip, Munich. After checking into our hostel, we had coffee and ate pizza by a near by restaurant. I know coffee and pizza are a weird combination, but you can see how tired we all were from traveling throughout the week. The entire city was decorated with flags, streamers and banners for fasching, which is Germany's version of Mardi Gras. The local were describing fasching to us as April Fool's and Halloween in one day. As we got on the metro to go to the city center, we ran into this women who was painted green and dressed as a witch. Throughout the night we saw people dresses as cows, fairies, cowboys, burritos, Michael Jackson and a nurse. The locals were telling us how people dress up as what ever they want to and how the crazier and weirder it was, the better. That night we wondering around the city center and came across an English pub called Kennedy's. The pub was packed with people and everyone was drinking only beer. Hello culture shock! Welcome to Germany! The funniest part of the night was listening to the band play Sweet Home Alabama. Of all songs to sing in all the places in the world, the British band chose to play an American song in an a pub in Germany. After we finished our drinks at the pub, we moved on to a club called Neuraum. Apparently it is the biggest club in Germany and I wouldn't doubt that it isn't. The coolest part about this club were the lights. The lights and colors were synced with the music. 

Some decorations for Fasching.

Sarah and the witch we ran into on the metro. 

Me and Sarah enjoying beer at Kennedy's. 

Club Neuraum.

 The next day, we went to Dachau Concentration Camp, which was about an hour outside of Munich. We got an actual tour because wanted to learn about the history of the camp rather walking around with an audio tour. The camp was originally a munitions factory. On March 22, 1953 Hitler took control of this factory and converted it into a camp. At first, the camp held prisoners who were transferring to other jail locations. We also learned about the different types of sub-camps. Interesting Fact: The Quandt family, who owns BMW,  controlled a sub concentration camp called Allach which was south of Dachau. Throughout the tour we learned about the work, living conditions and history of this camp. It was interesting to see how progressively more crowded this camp became within the 1933-1945 time frame. When the camp had shut down, there had be a total of 206,206 prisoners who had gone through this camp. There were also around 30,000 people imprisoned at Dachau that year when the camp was liberated. This camp also did experiments and other types of testing on prisoners. Our guide mentioned that a lot of the experiments involved altitude and the affects it had on people. We were able to walk through the barracks and see the different types of living conditions the prisoners had and the individual jail cells "special prisoners" were contained in. My least favorite part of the tour was walking through the crematorium and gas chambers. While the camp was running, the officers would call the chambers "showers" and ask prisoners to take one periodically. Little did the prisoners know that these were more than just showers. I will spare you the details, but walking through the chambers was one of the most chilling experiences I have ever had. On a brighter note, I'm so glad that I went to the camp and it is something I will always remember. 

The camp entrance.  

The barracks and main work field. 

Road that led to barracks.  

Sculpture inside the camp.  

Crematorium. 

On Sunday morning, we ate lunch at one of the "beer gardens" or beer halls and decided to walk around the downtown area before we headed back home to good ole' Paderno del Grappa. As we walked out of the metro station, we saw tons of decorations for fasching. It's like it happened over night! Every where you looked there were stages set up for bands to play music on. There were also food and drink stands that lined the roads. The people walking around were also dressed up in crazy outfits, so we all felt a little out of place. One of the booths sold costumes and face paint. We decided to paint our faces and spray our hair with colored hair spray in order to "blend in" a little more. So for the last fews hours we had in Munich, we cruised through the streets listening to the bands playing and trying food at some of the booths. As cheesy as this sounds, it was a great way to end a great week long trip! The funny thing was getting on the bus back to Paderno. Other students looked at us as if we were aliens since they were in shock with our blue/pink/purple/silver hair. It took me 3 showers to get all of the blue hair spray completely washed out! 

Me and Molly with our colored hair. 

Some of the local costumes and booths. 

More fasching decorations.

Street Performer.