Emilys Europe Extravaganza

After a five hour train ride we finally arrived in Vienna! It was around six thirty and we had to check in to (and find) our hostel. We ended up just eating dinner and going to bed. Good lord were we exhausted! Check out was at nine so we got up, checked out, and went sight seeing. Honestly, I just wanted to get home to Innsbruck. Two weeks is a really a long time to be traveling. But I learned so much on this trip it’s ridiculous. I have mastered every underground system, went to 221b baker street, got a tattoo in Dublin, reunited with saint marys girls, had a crazy interesting night in Edinburgh, saw dolphins, took pictures in front of the Eiffel tower, saw mona lisa, met some amazing people in Berlin, viewed the remains of the berlin wall, went to the biggest dance club in central Europe, and saw the music capital of the world. I guess you could say it was the best two weeks of my life. 

Now I’m on my last train ride, back to Innsbruck. Which has become my new home. I never thought I’d find somewhere other than saintmarys that I could call home, but I have and I’m just so in love with this city. Half way through my two week trip I just wanted to be back in Innsbruck.  Okay, enough of my love for this place. I have so many awesome stories from this trip, and even though i spent all my money and I’m going to be INSANELY broke for the next three months, it was so worth every euro, dollar, pound, and crown.

Prague is such an amazing city, I can’t even describe it. Everything is open until like 11pm and the city isn’t alive until two. Not only this, but the Czech republic is so beautiful. Our first day we just walked around and enjoyed the endless number of shops and at around 8 we went to our pub crawl. For the first hour there was unlimited shots of vodka and absinthe, beer, and wine. We went to our few bars and ended up at the biggest club in central Europe, it was 5 stories with a different theme to every floor. It was so awesome, I could go there every night if I could. Our second day we did all of our touristy stuff and we actually saw peacocks! I must have takes a hundred pictures of them. They even put up their feathers for us that night we has dinner on a boat and the food was just so delicious. And actually cheap! I paid for it because it was Katie’s birthday dinner after that we got ready to go out and ended up leaving at around 11:30 and went to the 5 story club until it closed at 5am. What a fun time in Prague we had!!

Berlin was just as I imagined it would be. Kind of dirty, everyone was very original, and graffiti everywhere. But this isn’t your everyday gang words, it’s the most interesting drawings ever and they had so much meaning. We learned the ins and out of the S and U bahns by the end of that trip like it was our job. Our first night we roamed around the city a little and went to bed. The next day we went to a few Easter markets and saw all of the touristy things we needed to see. The east side gallery was amazing! We headed back to our hostel, got ready for our pub crawl, and made dinner. We met some amazing people on this pub crawl! That night I heard some of the funniest stories ever and just had such a great night all around. So far this was the best night I’ve had. In the morning we left for our next journey-Prague.

We got into Paris and the woman who’s house we were staying at picked us up. We stayed in a remote part of Paris for the night and really enjoyed just relaxing in (finally) our own room. For the longest time we’ve been in rooms with over 16 people. In the morning she made us breakfast and we caught a train to the city. Paris was… Disappointing. It smelled, it was dirty, everything was far apart, the people were not that nice, and the public transportation was disappointing and hard to use. We saw everything there was to see in paris(Mona Lisa, Eiffel tower, etc) and by the end of the day we were just ready to leave Paris. At around 8 we got to the train station and caught our overnight train to Berlin. The girls in our car were nice Aussies who we made friends with. I actually slept really well on that train and will defiantly take an overnight train again!

In the morning we overslept and missed our bus to Inverness so we got breakfast and got the next bus. After a 5 hour bus ride we got to Inverness and it was… Quaint. We didn’t do much our first night because everything was closed by the time we got there. We walked around to find a little pub to go to but just couldn’t find one. The next day we woke up early and I bought some meds(I’m really sick from all the traveling ) we took a bus to this harbor and took a tour of loch ness and a castle. When we went back we got some chicago style pizza and took a really long walk. We ended up seeing dolphins and swans so it was totally worth it. We left in the morning to go back to Edinburgh to catch our plane to Paris. Scotland treated me well and I will definitely be coming back. Hopefully.

So we went out last night even though we had to be up at 4am to catch a bus for the airport. It was actually really fun and we met some great people. At four we got up, left the hostel, and made our way to the airport. We had possibly the most delicious sausage in the world at the Dublin airport, who’d a thunk it?! We were so god awfully tired after only getting an hour of sleep that we passed out the second we got on the plane, and also on the bus into the city of Edinburgh. We found our  Hostel after a bit of searching. We met some interesting (to say the least) Spanish boys in our room. They were very generous and nice but they were completely drunk when we got there at 6. They were so hilarious. Later, we met them at the bar downstairs and they bought us drinks and we stayed there until 1 and went to some other place called the brass monkey. I’m going to leave out the rest of the details of this night— but be assured we had a great unforgettable night. 

Well, the only class I have this week is German. My life is a joke! Monday night Erin and I went out and didn’t get back until 6am… We had a lot of fun though :) We met some great people and went to an awesome concert. I don’t have anything to do Thursday-Monday, I might take a little trip some where but who knows? Erin’s going to Paris this weekend; what’s a girl to do without her wingwoman? It’ll be fine, I’ll find something to do I’m in Europe for god’s sake!

Today katie made us all pancakes and it felt like being home for a baby minute :)

I’m just wondering when I will feel homesick… I’ve been in Europe for exactly one month now and I don’t have the slightest bit of homesickness. That kind of scares me.

My life has been pretty event filled and I haven’t had a chance to update this. I am going onto my third week of school, and I couldn’t be happier. Here, you have to be openminded and not stressed out about not knowing what classes you will be taking until you actually get here. But all in all these are the classes i’m taking:

German (A class that is SIX and a half hours a WEEK)- This class has been my challenge, and I can tell it will continue to be. I have found some pretty cool people to help me out in that class so it’s been getting better. One of the girls is an American and is actually married and living here, which confused me because I thought she was about 20 years old. Actually, she is 32 whoops! Speaking of this class, I should be doing the homework right now but the night is young :)

Modern Austria- This class is taught by Rolf Steininger which is a pretty big deal around here, because he is a famous Austrian Historian (http://www.rolfsteininger.at/) Check his website out if you don’t believe me! This class seems like we just do one project and that’s about all of the work we will be doing. We are going to Salzburg for a weekend excursion to check out Mauthausen, which will be super super interesting!! His sense of humor is very warm and enjoying I think i’m going to love this class!

Survey of the Arts- Honestly, this is my least favorite class. We sit in a room with the professor and he just lectures about art (or nuclear power plant tangents) for one and a half hours. This last week we had it for three hours because he will be in Germany the next few weeks, but on the upside we won’t have class for over a month. HOLLA.

Geology of the Tirolean Alps- This class is very interesting, but it’s 9am on friday morning so I can’t say that any of us are awake enough to care. I am very much looking forward to the field trips up to the mountains in June!

I did have a class called “intercultural communications” but my adviser made me drop it because I had too many credits for Saint Marys -_- wah!

The people that I am here with are so amazing. I know I’ve said this before but I really enjoy the people in my program. Mostly, the saint mary’s girls. We have this kind of connection that you can only get with girls from smick, and I just love it. Erin has become one of my very good friends in such a short amount of time, but I love it! I feel like I can be myself around her and have the most fun I could imagine.

Nightlife. We go out almost every day, and although it can be expensive it is SO worth it because this is the only time we really get to meet austrians and other people outside of our program and classes. I’ve already met some really great people. Although there is a bar for every kind of person (clubs, hipster bars, pubs, etc) we have found our home at Limericks the Irish Pub in old town. All of the people there are very warm hearted and nice to be around for the most part. I just can’t stress enough how much I love the people here. Also, Austrian men are SO beautiful. God. If one of them got on one knee right now i’d probably say yes (ACTUALLY one of them did ask me to marry him last night hahaha)

Travel.Katie and I have booked all of our flights, train tickets, and hostels for our European extravaganza. here’s how it’s going to happen: First, we’re taking a train to Salzburg to catch a flight to London. We will stay in London for two nights and fly to Dublin to see my smicks that I miss so dearly (I CAN’T WAIT!!!) It’s also exciting going back to the home land of my family. After Ireland, we’re heading to Scottland for two nights (or three, I don’t actually remember). We are taking a flight to Paris after that and staying for two nights. I hope my dream comes true and I find a boy to kiss under the Eiffel Tower ;). Anyhoo, after that we bought a Eurail Pass and we are taking an overnight trip to Berlin and staying for two days. Then we’re heading over to Prague, which is supposed to be the place we HAVE to visit when we go to Europe. Plus, it will be katies birthday when we are there :) :)!!! It’s going to be amazing. Then, we are taking a train to Vienna and staying for another two nights. Then it’s home sweet home and back to Innsbruck. This two week journey will be the death of my sanity (and bank account) but I keep telling myself it will be worth it. People say that Travel in Europe is so cheap butdon’t believe thembecause they are filthy liars. That all cost me about $1,100 and that’s not counting food, drinks, stickers(dont hate), etc when I am over there. Time to be frugal with my money!!!!

All in all I am having the time of my life and wouldn’t have picked any other saint mary’s study abroad program if I had the chance and someone paid me. I’m so in love with everyone that made this trip possible.

Love,

Emily

Wednesday night was my first night going out (went with Erin) and boy was that a night to remember (or not) we started off in my room, we drank a bottle of wine that was only one euro and 15% alcohol. We decided that we were only going to go out for a few beers and head back because we had to be up really early for orientation. We went to a bar called Moustashe, which was really nice! It was pretty hipster and chill, they played some pretty sweet jams. After a few large beers we headed to the Irish Pub, because we thought we just had to check it out. There, we ordered our drinks (I had my first Guinness!) and headed up to the top floor and sat down to chat. We were laughing pretty loudly and this boy came by and jokingly told us to, “be quiet and come sit with three handsome boys”, so we did. They were in a funk band and were pretty neat. For about two hours we talked to them, while they ordered us more and more drinks. We were getting pretty tired so we told them we were going to leave, so they said they’d walk us back. They somehow convinced us to go to this other bar that I don’t remember the name to, and we had very expensive, delicious beers. After about an hour we told them we HAD to get back it was like 2am at this point. They walked us back and somehow (again) convinced us to go to another bar that was right outside our dorm, so we stayed there a few hours and had many more drinks. I honestly don’t remember coming home, but that’s besides the point. All in all, it was an interesting first night out.

The boys here are…. so beautiful. They have this swagger about them that is so hard to describe . I don’t understand how boys can all be so nice AND pretty. They aren’t afraid to wear what they want, and I think that’s amazing. Europe is just such an amazing place to live. The people are nicer, less judging, more original, and so generous. 

We’re going out tonight, so i’ll post about it tomorrow.

Today reminded me a lot of my life at home not only a few day’s ago (except I didn’t wake up at 7am then). I sat around with my aunt and did absolutely nothing, and it was great. Who goes to Germany and sits in the house and watches Chicago and plays scrabble all day? me. and it was awesome. It’s so weird that i’m getting ready for bed right now and all of my friends back home are not even half way through their day. This time difference is mind humping me a tad bit, but I time traveled and you’re jealous. Get over it.

I’m casually going to France tomorrow.

Yesterday aunt kay and I went to Heidlesburg to check out the castle and meet up with her friend Cindy, who was adorable and so nice. On the 1 and a half hour trek we stopped by one castle ruins which had a skeleton in it (so awesome). With my luck, my camera died midway through our first castle… so I ended up using aunt kay’s camera for the rest of the day. We had lunch in this amazing little place that was decorated with the coolest LED lights. I had pizza with spinach, cheese, garlic, and deliciousness. mmmmmm, so freaking good. We had a homemade waffle with raspberries for dessert and it was hot and to die for. We walked along the fusganger zone (walking district, no cars aloud) and shopped for about two hours. I, of course, didn’t buy anything because i’m attempting to be frugal with my money. I honestly haven’t spent a dollar yet, thanks to the amazing generosity of my aunt and uncle. We were going to head to the main castle, but the lift was closed so we decided to just head back. On the way home we stopped at a military base where we got some things that I needed, boy was it awesome to be on “American” soil and speak English to people. It was a little taste of home. We took the Autobahn home (THERE’S NO SPEED LIMIT) and it was awesome. The second I got home I took a two hour nap, ate dinner, and went back to sleep. I actually got 9 hours of sleep last night… success