Spring Break was amazing. Maggie and I were together for the 15 days of travel, navigating each new city. By the end of our few days in each city, we felt as though we could master their public transit system! In each of our cities, we were able to meet up with friends from USC or from WU (The school I am attending in Vienna). Below are a few stories form each city!
London:
Maggie and I arrived at an airport outside of London around 11PM and had to meet up with Nicole, Colleen, Spencer and Ali, all friends from USC. They had arrived earlier and were already checked into the hotel so Maggie and I just had to navigate the Tube and get there, before the Tube closed and the "Night Busses" started. We managed to make it to ONE stop away from our destination when the Tube closed. We found other exchange students that were waiting for the same night bus and they were really friendly and helped us find our way to our hotel. By the time we arrived in London it was after 2:30 AM and we had to be checked in at our Patty Wagon bus station at 6AM the next morning. Needless to say, Maggie and I were VERY proud of ourselves for finding our way to "The Green Man" hotel/pub and we were VERY tired the next day.
Dublin:
The Trip to Dublin was the only trip that I had planned prior to arriving in Vienna. Nicole and Spencer had done quite a bit of research and found the "Patty Wagon Tour." We payed a flat rate and had a bus take us to and from Dublin to London, hostel and excursions planned in Dublin. We got to see an awesome Irish Dancing Performance (Maggie was VERY excited and joined in with the dancing during the performance) and we were able to visit Glendelough (the countryside near Dublin where P.S. I Love You was filmed.) Glendelough was GORGEOUS. Absolutely breath taking. St. Patty's Day in Dublin was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. We got to see a lot of the city and enjoy the parade during the day. It rained daily while we were there. I wasn't expecting fabulous weather so the rain didn't bother me. It was fun being in a group of six in Dublin. It was so great seeing familiar faces from USC abroad, and we definitely will have stories to share when we get back.
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| Glendelough |
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| Before Dublin St. Patty's Day Parade! |
London:
After returning to London at 6AM, Maggie and I managed to make the most of our day in London and went to the London Eye and got to see London from afar. It was a beautiful day with clear skies, very surprising for London and we were happily surprised! We had a 10pm bus that would take us from London to Paris through the Chunnel. We were fascinated that our Bus drove onto a train car, which then went underwater through the Chunnel. We thought it was so cool!
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| London Eye! |
Paris:
After arriving at 7am in Paris, Maggie and I were officially zombies. We had spent the past two nights sleeping on busses, one from Dublin to London and then the other from London to Paris. We needed sleep. After some clear false-advertising, we were unable to stay at for first accomodation, and ended up at a hostel in the 18th district of Paris. It was a nice hostel, nothing spectacular but it got the job done. We had to sleep a couple of hours before we began to explore the city. We had a great time in Paris, although it was very cold.
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| On the Eiffel Tower! |
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| Paris, France |
Rome:
After Paris, we took a short flight to Rome. I had my first Ryan-Air experience, and I accidentally paid extra (you got me....) to have a reserved seat and because I was the ONLY one who was in the "reserved" area, I asked if Maggie could come sit by me. We were the only people in the first 5 rows of the plane. Rome was amazing. We rented an adorable apartment about 20 minutes outside the city center and got to experience a more laid back lifestyle than the hustle and bustle of the city. We met up with Lauren and Taylor in Rome, and part of Paris as well. They stayed in the apartment with us in Rome. We were able to go to the small supermarket....Supermarket should be used very loosely in this circumstance, as the place wasn't bigger than my bathroom at home. Two ladies worked behind glass refrigerated counters and you pointed to the things you wanted and they rang them up for you. We had the most fresh mozzarella, eggs, tomatoes and carrots I have ever tasted. Our first night at the apartment, we had tomatoes and cheese and crackers and a bottle of wine for dinner on the roof of our apartment overlooking the city and river. It was perfect. We were able to see some of the sites in Rome, but not all in the short time we were there.
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| Our first night on our apartment rooftop. Photocred: Maggie Schmidtke! |
My new mentality on traveling is this: see what you can see, but also enjoy your time there. If you are too concerned about making it to all the tourist attractions, you may miss some of your favorite parts of the city along the way.
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| Trevi Fountain |
Florence:
We took a short hour and a half train to Florence as our final destination during our trip. We spent three nights there and felt like we saw the entire city. Maggie and I cooked dinner the first night, and our last night there as well with Lauren. We rented a cute little apartment in Florence with an ACTUAL supermarket around the corner and we were able to cook come real food. On our last day in Florence I decided to break off from Maggie and Lauren and waited a hour and a half in line to see the David. I know that is a long line, but I had the time and I felt like it was a "Bucket-List" or "Once-In-A-Lifetime" thing to do. It is hard to explain the feeling I felt when I turned the corner in the museum and saw the David. It was like one of those cartoon movie moments where the background music is "Ahhhhhhh" and you see your "burried treasure" or something around the corner. It was breathtaking. Of course, there was no photography whatsoever so I was not able to take a picture of the masterpiece. But I would recommend taking the time to see the David should you find yourself in Florence. It was definitely worth the wait.
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| Maggie and me exploring the streets of Florence |
VIENNA!!!
We took a 9 hour night train back from Florence. Needless to say, it wasn't the most relaxing night sleep I have ever had. Maggie and I managed to be in a cabin with an older man who snored SO LOUDLY we could not sleep. We didn't want to be rude, but I have never heard someone snore so loudly in my entire life. We turned on and off the lights. Opened and closed the doors. Coughed. Played Spice Girls from my IPod (don't judge my taste in music) and finally another lady who was in the cabin with us, laughing at our attempts to make him stop snoring, woke him up and asked him in Italian to stop snoring. It worked. Sort of.
When we returned to Gasgasse, we said goodbye and that we would see each other in a minimum of 24 hours. I unpacked, did laundry, grocery shopped and showered. Twice. It was necessary. And then I went to bed early and slept for 14 hours straight.
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