Rome

Our travels to Rome started off on Thanksgiving Day at like 3 in the morning, because our flight left at 6:20, requiring us to take a few night busses to the airport. Olivia and I had the same flight as two of our classmates who were on their way to Athens, so that was exciting. Upon arrival at the Rome airport and after figuring out how to get to the city center, we headed towards the Spanish Steps. As we were trying to figure out the best way to get there, we also had to figure out the crosswalks, because some of the literally appeared as if you just walked and cars went around you - not what we were use to in Budapest nor in the states. After walking across a few times with a few Italians, we seemed to get a hang of it. When we arrived at the Spanish Steps, I was immediately impressed about the amount of police and military presence in the area. I felt very safe being there and this was common throughout all of Rome. Olivia and I then tried to eat a snack on the steps before quickly being told that we can't eat on the steps. Oops, our bad; but this makes perfect sense and I'm glad they don't let people eat, because it keeps the steps clean. We then wandered (or should I say ROMEd) our way towards Piazza del Popolo and Villa Borghese. The leaves in the Villa Borghese were huge, like as large as my face! Afterwards, we were hungry since we had such an early morning and smallish breakfast, so we headed for our first gelato of the weekend. We went to Gelatria La Romana as recommended by a high school & college friend studying abroad in Rome. This place was the best gelato we had all weekend, plus it only costed €2.00 and included dark chocolate in the cone. If we had stayed in Rome longer, I would have gone back.

After our gelato snack, we headed towards where we planned to have lunch. I know this order of food is a bit backgrounds, but it made sense in terms of the map. We stopped at Piazza Navona to take in the beauty before heading towards Campo de' Fiori for sandwiches at Forno Campo de' Fiori. I had read this place has some of the best Piazza Bianca sandwiches, and boy were they right. These sandwiches were delicious and not outrageously priced. Olivia and I got two sandwiches and rice ball to share. Again, if I was in Rome longer, I would have gone back. After lunch we saw the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain. Sadly the Trevi Fountain was blocked off for the day, so we didn't get to throw a coin in, but we decided we would come back another day if we had time. The amount of times I got asked if I wanted to buy a selfie stick throughout the day made me laugh. Here I am with a nice camera and these guys think I'm going to want to buy a selfie stick from them. Nice try, but nope. I'm glad I don't have to deal with people trying to sell things in Budapest all the time, because it got annoying real fast.

After sitting near Pantheon for a little bit, we decided to walk to our AirBnB even though we were a bit early. We hung out in the little square right next to our AirBnB until we checked in. After of course taking a nap, we grabbed some groceries and then grabbed dinner at a local cheap priced restaurant. I had a cheesy pasta and Olivia had lasagna. Very good. We then walked towards another recommended gelato place before walking by the river and sitting in some random square and talking for a while. Eventually we both decided we were super tired and should head off to bed before another long day tomorrow. (No, we did not have any turkey on Thanksgiving, but we did have sweat potatoes and pumpkin cheesecake Wednesday evening, does that count?).

Friday we spent basically all day at the Vatican. We had no intention of doing so, but it turned out that, and I'm slightly glad it did. The main reason why I wanted to visit Rome was to see the Vatican and it definitely deserved a day to itself. We departed our apartment at 8:00 AM in the rain; my thought as we left: "I don't want to carry a large umbrella around all day if it is just going to rain for a few hours this morning. We'll be fine with just our rain jackets." My thought after 15 minutes walking in the rain: "We should have brought the umbrella". We were soaking wet! After passing through all the sales people trying to get me to buy a group ticket or poncho,  we stood in line until the museum opened at 9. It was about 8:30 at this point and it was still raining and we were still very very wet. Luckily, the people standing behind us let us stand underneath their umbrellas with them. I don't think they spoke anything but Italian, but they were really friendly. So grateful for those friendly Italians. The rain stopped right around 9 and we were inside about 20 minutes later. Olivia and I spent the entire morning walking around the museum. My favorite part was probably some of the contemporary artwork. The Sistine chapel was cool, but it was also crowded with the guards giving reminders to be quiet and not take pictures like every two minutes. It took away from the beauty of it.

After we went and got some pizza at Bonci Pizzarium, a highly recommended pizza place from the millions of blog posts I read about Rome. It was very tasty. Then we went back to the Vatican to go into St. Peter's Basilica, see the tombs below the Basilica, and to go up to the dome. The top was gorgeous and it was stunning to be able to get a view of the whole city. The main reason why we spent so long at the Basilica was because I wanted to attend mass there and our only option was the 5 PM one. Mass was probably my favorite part of the day. There was nothing super special about the Mass, but it was cool to think about how many masses take place in the Vatican every day and that I got to be apart of one. One thing that makes me sad though is this sense of religious value lost within the Basilica. The amount of people at Mass compared to the number of people taking pictures of the Basilica was sad in my opinion. There is so much more to the Basilica and all it's beauty than our ability to snap a photo of it. After Mass, we returned to our apartment to make dinner before heading out for some gelato.

On Saturday, we again were out the door around 8 in order to be one of the first at Palatine Hill when it opened at 8:30. The morning was beautiful and there were few people there, allowing Olivia and I to enjoy taking some fun photos.  We spent 3-4 hours exploring and taking pictures at Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. We then went out to grab some pizza and a calzone before heading back to the Colosseum. The Colosseum was cool to see, but very crowded. Afterwards we headed back to the Trevi Fountain, and luckily were able to sit down at the edge this time, allowing us to get our perfect Lizzie McGuire moment. :) We then meandered our way back to our apartment. I attended Mass at the local Basilica around the corner from us before Olivia and I enjoyed dinner together at our apartment and then our last gelato at a local store.

On Sunday, we got up way earlier than I like to wake-up at in order to catch a train and then a bus to the airport for our 8:30 flight. Unfortunately, the bus schedule is different on holidays/Sundays , so we had to get a taxi to the airport. We were both a little frustrated by this due to the extra cost, but at least thankful that it was an option, because walking was not. We arrived back into the city center of Budapest around 11. I did no homework this weekend, which I'm sure will stress me out later tonight due to the amount I have due tomorrow, but I enjoyed my Sunday with time to relax, catch up on sleep, skype with family and friends, and prepare for the week.

Overall, the weekend was full of photos (like 600+ that will be edited within the next two weeks), memories, and gelato. I hope to one day return to see the Pope and eat more Italian food, but in the mean time, I have 2.5 weeks left in Budapest and a day trip to Amsterdam the day before arriving back home in the States. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I can't wait to see everyone in about three short weeks. Happy Advent. :)

Berlin

This weekend was so needed and a great refresher before the last month of my time abroad. What made this weekend so fabulous was not Berlin, but rather being with two beautiful Bennies and my best friends, Molly and Meghan. Berlin was a cool city (and so large - it took like 30 minutes to get anywhere and everywhere by public transit), but I saw what I wanted to and have no desire to go back one day.

Friday I arrived at the airport around 11:30 and was greeted with a large hug from Molly. We adventured on a 40 minute train ride to get into the city with the hopes of finding some cheaper food. We found a cute little café with bagels and soup. I ordered a pumpkin soup and Molly ordered a bagel sandwich. After stopping at McDonalds and enjoying an Oreo sundae, we realized we still had an hour or so before Megs would get in. We decided instead of meeting her at the transit stop in Berlin as planned, we would surprise her at the airport. Best decision ever. Meghan was so surprised. Haha. After many hugs, we travelled onward to our AirBnB. We decided that what we all wanted that night was to cook our own dinner and spend some time together. We bought some groceries, ice cream bars, and a bottle of wine at the local grocery store and enjoyed a wonderful evening simply catching up with each other. It felt so natural and at times I forgot how long it had really been.

Saturday morning we woke up fairly early in order to see everything we wanted to see. We started the morning with eggs and cheese we bought at the grocery store, but they were way to cheesy (aka cheese with eggs) and were sort-of terrible. I still feel bad that I screwed up the eggs with too much cheese, but Molly and Megs were good sports about it. We spent the morning at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, a concentration camp for political prisoners about 45 minutes north of Berlin. This was my first time at a concentration camp and it was a very powerful experience. One thing that was the most impactful was finding out about all the violence that occurred even within the barracks, specifically the washroom and bunk room. We could have spent all day at the camp reading all the details and hearing every story, but instead we departed back into the city. It was definitely hard to walk out of there knowing that even though I was cold and hungry, I was able to walk out of the camp at the time I desired with a sandwich and apple in my bag and a warm train ride ahead. 

Heart Molly drew in the execution trench 

Memorial at the concentration camp

After arriving back in the city center, we first stopped at the Berlin Wall Memorial for a short bit before heading to the East Gallery Wall. Some of the artwork on the wall was very inspiring and peaceful and other artwork was just fun. We then headed towards the Holocaust Memorial. This Memorial seemed quite large with 2,000 blocks of all different sizes, but yet the size seemed too small compared to the number of people who lost their life in the Holocaust. The blocks were meant to first appear as if there was a systematic order to it, but really the order was just confusing. Quite symbolic. We then headed towards our last must see of Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate. After taking many pictures in the rain at the gate, we headed towards the Mall of Berlin. Molly wanted to find a large purse (she found a very cute pink one, the perfect color for Molly) and Meghan needed a belt. We ate at the food court in the Mall, figuring it would be easier and cheaper. After dinner, we headed towards the WinterWelt at Potsdamer Platz. There we had a pretzel and mulled wine (in adorable cups we got to keep) before enjoying a wonderful fun ride on the Toboggan Slide. The three of us were able to slide down together and it was the perfect way to end our Saturday evening. We headed back to our apartment around 8:30 PM and enjoyed the rest of the evening together - of course, making fun and goofy videos. 

Sunday morning, we had a much better breakfast with eggs (no cheese this time) and little pizza bites we hadn't eaten yet. Our last time together was spent at Mass, a perfect ending to the weekend if you ask me. Meghan had a much earlier flight than Molly and I, so Meghan headed back to the airport after Mass while Molly and I headed off to the Olympic Stadium. The Olympic Stadium was incredible and I was so glad that Molly had really wanted to go. This was the stadium that Jesse Owens had run at in his first Olympics, so it was awe-striking to be in such a historical place. We realized at one point that we had walked exactly where Hitler had also walked at the beginning of the games. That was a bit of a scary moment to realize. Molly and I eventually headed back towards the city center for lunch. We found a really good Asian place and were surprised by the amount of food we got (we realized we totally could have split one). After wondering around a near-by park, we headed off to the airport a bit early to catch our flights back to our respectful countries.

As I write this on the plane ride home, I can't help but smile about all the fun memories I will forever have in Berlin with my two best friends. It was a weekend that gave me energy to finish the next month strong. Berlin was a city that was full of historical monuments. I got this feeling throughout every special location within Berlin that we must never forget the past. Whether the past was the Holocaust or the Wall or something else completely, Berlin and the world will forever be impacted by those events. This aspect made the trip to Berlin much more impactful than I could have imagined.

To Molly and Meghan, thanks so much for this weekend. It will truly be one I will never forget. You reminded me that even though this semester I don't fully feel apart of a community with my program, I have a community back at home that will always love and support me no matter where I am located. Thanks for the refreshing weekend and I look forward to seeing both of you in a month's time. In the meanwhile, I hope both of you enjoy the time you have left abroad and have safe travels home. I'll see ya in the USA soon! <3

Vienna!

Steps of Schönbrunn palace

With too early of a wake-up call, Haley and I departed for Vienna on Saturday at 7:40 AM. It is only a short 2.5 hour train ride (and I say short because I'm used to the 6-8 hour train rides) before we had arrived in Vienna. Ian (unfortunately his travel buddy had fallen sick), Haley, and I headed off to Schönbrunn Palace. The fall colors in the park around the Palace were gorgeous and the view at the top of the hill was stunning. 

We then meandered our way over to Pizzera Mafiosi where we met up with Olivia, Steffi, and Rose who had taken a later train. We ordered three pizzas to share between the six of us and not only where they delicious, they were cheap! We all had a good sized lunch for €2 each!! It was incredible! 

After checking into our AirBnB, we took the metro into the main area of the city, wondered around, took some pictures (of course!), and saw the Hundertwasser House, Stadtpark, Burggarten, and the Austrian National Library.

Hundertwasser House

National Library

Stradtpark

Finally, we ate dinner at a place Ian had found, 1516 Brewing Company. I had a sausage with a delicious soft pretzel. The pretzel was not like the soft pretzels we have in the US - it was more like our pretzel buns, but still so much better.

Then Haley and I headed off to an A Capella concert. We had found that Voice Mania, an international a capella festival, was happening in Vienna in November, so Haley and I bought tickets prior to coming to Vienna. The show included three different a capella groups. The first was an Austrian female group, and they had a mix of pop and Austrian folk songs. They were very talented. The second group performed classical music (and one musical theater song) in a fun way with a pianist. Yes, with someone playing piano. They were all definitely excellent singers, but we were so confused on why this was included in an a capella concert. The evening ended with a Swedish group that did a combo of jazz, disco, and pop songs. This was my favorite group, and their best song was their last one, I Got a Feeling by the Black Eye Peas. It was the perfect way to end the show. One cultural thing I learned from this performance was that in Austria (or maybe just Vienna) after the group finishes, if the audience claps enough, they come back on and do another song. However, it felt more like the formatting was traditional and the group comes back regardless of how long the audience claps. I don't fully understand the reason behind it, but it's kind-of fun. The performance lasted for about 3 hours, and by the end of it Haley and I were ready for a good night's rest. So we headed back to the apartment to do just that.

The next morning I woke up early enough in order to do some exploring before attending Mass at the cathedral. Sunday ended up being a very rainy day, making it difficult to fully enjoy the city to the max, but we did the best we could and spent some time experiencing the large café culture in Vienna instead of being outside as much. First, I walked around in the beautiful brisk morning air and saw Volksgarten, the Parliament, and Rathausplatz (which was unfortunately being set up for the Christmas Market). Then I found a cute little café with decent prices, so I escaped the drizzle outside for a bit and enjoyed a cappuccino and an apple strudel (since Vienna is known for them!). The apple strudel was flaky and fresh, so it was a great addition to the morning. Finally I took some pictures of the beautiful St. Peter's church before heading to Mass at St. Stephan's cathedral.

Rathausplatz

Crosswalk Stoplight in Vienna!

I had arrived at the 10:15 Mass about 20 minutes early, but figured I could go in early and sit in awe over the beauty of the inside. I'm sure glad that I was there early because there were tons of people there already. I was lucky to get a good seat.  Mass was good but very long. There was a full choir and orchestra that did the music, and while they were excellent, sometimes I thought it was a little too much and almost taking away from Mass. I ended up leaving after communion at 12:00 (yes, a hour and 45 minutes after Mass started) because I had made plans to meet up with Rose and Haley.

I found Rose and Haley and we went to the Hofburg Palace and finally wondered to a café we found on Haley's phone. There I had a delicious chicken sandwich with egg, cucumbers, and chipotle mayo with a side of potatoes wedges. We stayed there quite a while in order to avoid the rain. Eventually Rose left to catch her earlier train back and Haley and I left shortly after. 

We walked towards one of the parks and found the digits of pie on a mirror in the subway station. The math majors in us freaked out a little. We then went to Café Sacher - a tourist café known for the famous Viennese Sacher Cake! We figured it was worth the extra cost to say we did one of those tourist things. The cake was very good, a little dry to my tasting, but still good. Lastly, Haley and I walked to the Belvedere Palace where we ran into Olivia and Steffi. We weren't there long before heading to the train station early to again get out of the rain. 

Overall, it was a great trip, and I came back with lots of memories, a decent amount of pictures (more can be seen on Facebook when I hopefully upload them in the coming days), and very wet shoes. :)

Fall Break: Croatia

Friday

• We took the afternoon train to Zagreb and arrived around 9:00 PM. We connected to the city wide Wi-Fi (yes, Zagreb has city wide Wi-Fi) and then headed off to our accommodations for the evening. We were suppose to stay at a place for two in the city center but a water pipe broke or something so we got switched to a larger place about a 30 minute walk from the center. While the location was not as ideal, the place had lots of character! 

• After arrival, we each had a small bowl of cereal before heading to bed. We got little sleep due to the loud trams on the street.

Saturday

Zagreb is tiny (with lots of people) and we basically did it all in a day. 

• I started my morning by going to mass at the cathedral. I then took some pictures while I waited for Olivia to arrive.

• We explored the Dolac market for a little bit before heading up to Mirogoj Cemetery.

• The bus driver was super friendly and even smiled at us when we bought our tickets - I don't think I've even seen a bus driver in Budapest smile. 

• We took a multitude of pictures at the cemetery before returning back to the city center. Note: these bus drivers do have change unlike the ones in Budapest.

• We walked around Zagreb, explored some streets, and some parks. We saw St. Mark's Church, the Stone Gate, and the Lotrščak Tower before eating a yummy cheese dish for lunch at La Struk. After lunch, we wandered around the parks.

• I've determined that Croatians must be obsessed with shoes because the amount of shoe stores in Zagreb is crazy! Also, in Zagreb there are mainly old buildings that you would see in Budapest and Prague, but then you get the new modern buildings that you would expect in a US city. Not what I anticipated at all!

• The rest of Saturday afternoon was AAAAAHHHHHHHHH and Sunday we enjoyed a wonderful day at Plitvice National Park.

• Okay, I suppose I can tell you about the chaos that occurred Saturday. It was very stressful for the following reasons:

1. While in Zagreb, we accidentally walked to the wrong bus station at first and added 20 minutes to our walking. We wanted to be there somewhat early because we have never taken busses like this before. Luckily, we had left early enough that the 20 extra minutes still gave us time to figure out what we were doing before catching our 2:30 bus.

2. Finally, at the bus station, we tried to figure out how we could buy return tickets back to Zagreb from Plitvice, but either we couldn't or no one understood us. Hence, we assumed we would be able to buy it on the bus Monday when we wanted to come back. 3. We then got on the bus to Plitvice, and after 2.5 hours (and a long story short), the driver didn't stop at the stop we had paid to get off at . . . By the time I finished talking to the bus driver, the next stop was 15 minutes away by bus and we were told to get off at the next stop and wait for a bus back! 

4. So we got off and waited at the bus stop that would take us back to our destination with no idea when or even if a bus was coming. I wanted to cry I was so stressed. Luckily, 40 minutes later and a $3.25 ticket, we were on our back to our destination

5. We checked in at the AirBnB, noticed that we had no refrigerator like expected, checked to make sure the supermarket that was 10 minutes away by walking was open with hope they would have non-refrigerated food we could eat for 2 breakfasts, a lunch, and a dinner, and headed off to the supermarket. Upon arrival at the supermarket, we found out the hours on Google were wrong and the market closed at 3 PM, not 8 PM. This required us to adjust our food schedule completely, but luckily we had enough food (aka peanut butter) to feed both of us for two breakfasts and a lunch.

• After a long stressful evening, we ate some good pizza at the only Bistro in town for dinner, went back to our AirBnB, and basically went to bed after a long day.

Sunday

• We spent the day at Plitvice National Park from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM. The park was absolutely stunning and my pictures do not even begin to show you how beautiful this place was. The water was incredibly clear and blue and the fall colors were so beautiful.  I had so much fun playing with my camera settings and playing around with how to make the shots of all the different waterfalls slightly different! This day made me fall in love with photography even more! See more pictures below!

• After 8 hours in the park and a short conversation with a guy at the bus ticket booth near entrance two about how to get back to Zagreb by bus, we walked the 20 minutes back to the Bistro near us, got pasta and a delicious salad with trout to go, and ate dinner back in our AirBnB.

• I talked with a friend from home for about an hour on FaceTime before heading to bed at 8:30 PM. Yes, 8:30 PM. I was exhausted and we had to get up early the next day!

Monday (Happy Halloween!) 

• We checked out of our AirBnB at 7:50 and waited at the bus stop for a bus to Zagreb. About 10 minutes in, I went to look something up on my phone and it wasn't in my pocket like I thought it was. I searched my backpack, couldn't find it, and determined it must be back in the room we stayed in. I sprinted back up to the AirBnB, asked for the key to the room, and luckily found my phone! Five minutes later I was back waiting at the bus stop with Olivia. I know God was at work here to make sure I realized I forgot my phone when I did. 

• The bus arrived at 8:30 AM as planned. We bought our tickets from the driver and headed back to Zagreb! We thankfully were able to receive a student discount, saving Olivia and I $3.75 each - making up for the extra cost on Saturday! 

• We arrived back in Zagreb around 11, bought some berries and apples at the market, met up with my roommate Jane, saw the national theater building, ate lunch, and then headed towards the train station. For lunch, we had waffles because the potato house ran out of potatoes . . . we thought that was quite funny.

• Finally, we watched a very pretty sunset on the train back to Budapest and arrived back around 9:15 PM safe and sound.

Overall, despite the few stressful times, I ate a lot of Peanut Butter, took an insane amount of pictures, and explored a wonderfully small city with a lot of people and a beautiful national park! I'd go back to Croatia in a heartbeat to explore all the other national parks and other cities in southern Croatia, but maybe next time I'll rent a car instead of taking the buses. 

The time has come to return to the abundant amount of homework to do before classes start again on Wednesday. I don't know when pictures will be up due to this amount of homework, but hopefully they will be within the next couple of weeks. My next travel plans are to Vienna for part of this coming weekend, so pray for safe travels again. :)