Probably the most beautiful city I have ever been to. It all began when I decided to do a blind booking trip (40 euro round trip flight to a random destination? why not!) with my friends Olivia and Adam. Our hostel was really well situated and filled with interesting people. Many were Australian. There was a ridiculous amount of Australians. The first night we were there the bartender was a Kiwi named Harlan who was dead set on getting us to try these drink concoctions he had thought up for Halloween. I did a shot called a Brain Hemorrhage - video below of it being made
It was delicious! Who knew a brain hemorrhage could be so tasty! It was something mixed with Bailey's and grenadine, which sounds gross but was not!
Anyway, on to the city itself. It is the most fantastic, inspiring mix of old and new. You can walk around and see a modern bookstore beside a building that Mozart would have walked by. I don't think I'll ever get over how cool that is. That's probably what I love the most about Vienna, the fact that there is so much history to it and you are directly connected to that history through these beautiful buildings. We walked around pretty much the entire city the first full day we were there. We saw both Parliaments. The national parliament had statues of people punching horses. We decided this was some strange Austrian tradition and have decided not to judge.
Saturday we took a day trip to Bratislava in Slovakia because why not! It was only an hour by bus. Fun fact: Bratislava and Vienna are the two closest capitals in the world. Nifty, eh? Bratislava was also a really pretty city. I had never been to an Eastern European city before so this was an experience. I wish we could have spent more time there. Apparently there was some kind of film festival going on but I didn't see anything about it while we were there!
Sunday we were kind of wearing out and it was a grey day so Olivia and I visited Schobrunn palace (Significance) which I think would've been worth taking the tour of, but we were too cheap and too wiped.
All in all, I love Vienna. It has been my favourite city I've visited thus far. Hands down.
Essen:
My exact (slightly censored) response when I saw the last IUSP trip would be to Essen, Germany... "What the hell is in Essen?!"
I still kind of think that... although it's connection to WWII is kind of cool. It was the place where a lot of German artillery was made so the Allies bombed the entire area pretty heavily. Really only the Synagogue survived, which is interesting in itself. I had very little interest in Essen past the fact that it was the last time the IUSP family would be taken on a trip together. They really have become like family to me. We ended up going into a mine which was kind of cool, but I realized that I would never EVER make it as a miner. Ever. I really am not a fan of the idea of being buried alive. Not a fan.
I also got two fantastic new pairs of shoes but that is neither here nor there.
We couldn't really sample the night life because of how far the hostel was from town (like a 20 minute bus ride) so we improvised. I did learn a new game which I am definitely making happen back home. It's like a combination of charades and Taboo. There are three rounds and it's too complicated to explain in a blog, but when you see me at home and you're interested I'll explain it.
London:
Score: London Transportation System: 5 vs. Us: 0 (us being Maria, Olivia, Chelsea, Holly and myself)
The London Transportation system kicked our asses from the minute we landed but I still love this city. We had a monster of a time trying to get to our hostel and eventually broke down and just paid for a cab. The driver was really nice and understanding so that helped. Actually, every transportation related person we talked to was incredibly helpful and accommodating!
Friday: Spent the day seeing all the touristy sights. London Bridge. Tower of London. The London Eye. St. Paul's. Westminster Abbey. Trafalgar Square. The National Gallery. Big Ben and Parliament. Buckingham Palace. If ever you go to London (which everyone should!) just buy a day pass for zones 1 and 2 for like 5 pounds and you are good to go. We definitely made excellent use of our passes and they more than paid for themselves within the first couple hours.
Saturday: Did the nerdy, Harry Potter tour :D Well, we started out by having a dude dressed as a zombie approach us and try to get us to take this tour (which we weren't really interested in) but he did recommend a FANTASTIC place to get breakfast! It was called My Tea Shop and it was just off the London Bridge station. That was the best 5 pounds I spent. It was a traditional English breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, mushrooms and beans. It kept us going for literally 7 hours. Back to the Potter! We went to the places where they filmed The Leaky Cauldron, Diagon Alley (which was all Christmas-y!), King's Cross Station and Platform 9 and three quarters. We also went to the Globe theatre, which made me extremely happy even if it wasn't Potter related. That night we went to Harrods and played with THE coolest Iron Man style computer table I have ever seen. Then we hopped on a double decker bus (unfortunately it wasn't purple :( ) and eventually found the BFI IMAX and saw the 7th Harry Potter movie. How cool! And I actually really enjoyed the movie! We missed our stop on the way back to the hostel, so the incredibly nice bus drivers stopped at the lights and told us exactly how to get back. Thank you London Transportation Staff!
Anyway, Sunday was the disaster day. We were supposed to fly out at noon. We got to the airport at 11:30 and our check-in desk had closed 10 minutes before that. We had no choice but to wait for the next flight at 7 am the next morning. I have to say, for the most part, we handled the 20 hour wait pretty well. There was a good grocery store just by where we set ourselves up. We bought colouring books and crayons. I had cards. We amused ourselves, got through it and got home by 2:30-3 Monday afternoon! It was a long trip, but without a doubt worth it.
Ok, I need to sleep. I have to get up early and do school-related things. Stupid school getting in the way of what's really important over here...Pictures later.
Coming up: Nürnberg for Germany's largest Weinnachtsmarkt! Then the Frankfurt vs. Mainz soccer game. Should be a pretty epic weekend.
Oh by the by... Katie'll be here in about a week. NO BIG DEAL! Countdown to RAGETOUR '10 = 7 DAYS
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