A Time for Reflection and Relaxation

This past weekend has been the first weekend in 5 weeks that I have stayed in Florence. From all the chaos that has been surrounding me with traveling, work, and school, it was something I definitely needed. At first I was concerned because I would not only be spending this weekend but next weekend as well. What was I going to do?! If I'm already having a problem staying in for a weekend in FLORENCE FREAKING ITALY, then we're going to have some big problems when I get back to the states. Boredom to the max. I was thinking about this concept this past week and how although I didn't experience culture shock when coming here, I know for a fact that I will encounter reverse culture shock. What am I going to do every weekend (if I'm not working, which I probably will be)? Then some people came up with a couple ideas. Before, we never considered to find cheap flights and do day trips around the United States. I can't believe I'm already thinking about this trip ending (with 2ish more months ahead of me) but I am. Once this study abroad journey ends though, our thirst for travel doesn't need to. Keeping money on my mind, if I can do trips to different countries during the weekend, why can't I do that with different states or cities? This may be something I'm going to have to keep in mind for the future.

So on Thursday night I got to stay in Florence! I didn't have to, I got to! I went with some friends from my pensione (which is where we live. I don't know what it means, it's just what we call it) to dinner. It turned out to be a really nice evening, so it was nice getting to walk around the part of Florence that wasn't my typical route to school. We crossed the bridge across the river (beautiful, of course) and made our way to a nice, quiet plaza where we enjoyed dinner and talked mainly about our childhood. It was not only a new memory created, but nostalgia at the same time. Afterwards we got some gelato and strolled back home for a quiet weekend.

Oh yeah, random thought that included this week: On Tuesdays people in our program always go out because their classes are later (I don't usually because my first class is at 9 and I like sleep), but this past Tuesday I went out to a place that had a Beatles cover band. They were actually pretty good!

Back to my weekend...

On Friday I went with a group from my school on a pilgrimage to Assisi, where St. Francis came from. Although we did a bit of walking, the trip didn't feel chaotic because it was a journey for peace and reflection. I talked a lot with my friends, but the entire trip itself felt very quiet and calm. This was such a nice change from the crazy "go go go mode" that I'm always on during the weekends. I think what I loved most about Assisi was how green the grass was and just how beautiful and serene the city felt.

We had a couple questions on the bus ride there to reflect about. What I thought about most were two things: not letting jealousy or anger get in the way and to treat my body right. Two very different things, but both having to do with making myself a better person. 

The first thought has to do with considering other people's successes as my own failures. These do not and should not correlate, yet many people do. We grow up constantly comparing ourselves to others, and some of our parents may do the same. "Well, I bet ___ has a job. Why don't you?" It's the lingering thoughts that other people are succeeding that nag at our feelings of failure. Although this may motivate some people, it may feel like defeat to others. Sometimes it's best to take a step back, take a deep breath, and do your absolute best to focus on the best version of yourself that you would like to be.

This goes onto the other point that I was reflecting on. First, mind and soul, now body. We only have one of them, so why the hell do we treat them so poorly? As a possible addict of the internet (admitting is the first step haha), a sedentary lifestyle comes with that, and that is not good. Exercise, as strenuous and tiring as it may feel, is good for us. When we treat our bodies the way they should be treated, we feel a lot better. I know people who were on a "paelo" diet, which is essentially eating meats, fruit, vegetables, and non-processed food. As a result from this, she said that she physically felt a lot better. It's just something we need to all think about. 

On Saturday, I slept in because I haven't done that in AGES, and it was nice! I didn't really do anything that day, but for dinner I went out with a group of us from my pensione and that was a lot of fun, because it was kind of a group that I may not have hung out with had we not been living together, which is awesome! That's what I love about this program, is the fact that I have gotten to meet so many people that I may not have met otherwise. At dinner we had the idea of using the unicef app at dinner so we wouldn't be on our phones and we would be helping people in need! If you don't know what the app is, basically you go to a website where as long as you don't touch your phone, every 10 minutes donates a day of water to a person in need from a sponsor. It was really great because we all had our phones down and we all really engaged in conversation! 

Sunday was more or less a study day, but this weekend overall was so beneficial and I'm glad I stayed and I looked forward to next weekend. 

Miss New Buda

I've realized that I am absolutely terrible at starting blog posts, and I'm probably going to have to get better at some point but I'm just going to jump in on this one! Swiss airlines is so boss. They serve chocolate on (almost) every flight, and the chocolate is way better than what you're going to get in the United States. Fact. 

We landed in Budapest around night time, and luckily our school itineraries had a map and multiple ways of transportation to get to the hotel. Trying to be economically conscious and learn the typical ways of transportation, we decided to do the cheapest way, bus...and then the underground. Surprisingly, we were able to navigate our way just perfectly fine (with only maybe just a couple bumps along the way) and we were pros in no time! 

Once we arrived to where our hotel was we looked at the AMAZING view that Budapest had provided us. We couldn't imagine if the city was this mesmerizing at night, how much of a great time we would have during the day! The pictures that I took in no way do it justice, but here is one so you can generally get an idea:

For dinner we went into this English pub that had both Hungarian dishes and English dishes, but being in Hungary we decided to try the Hungarian food. I went with goulash (yummy!) and a couple of my friends tried Wiener Schnitzel. Overall it was a good, cheap meal! 

Another thing we could not possibly prepare ourselves for: the hotel. but specifically....the hotel breakfast. *cue in angels singing*

I wish I had taken a picture of the breakfast area because it was so freaking extensive! There was cereal, fruit, yogurt, pancakes, biscuits, omelets, pastries, bacon, sausage and so much more. There were multiple choices for EVERYTHING! 

The hotel also had probably the best towels I've ever felt when it came to shower towels. It was as if God himself had made them. So soft. So magical. 

Hesitating, as we could have eaten all day at the breakfast bar, we walked outside (where it was extremely windy) and took a tour around the Pest side of Budapest. I actually didn't know that there were two sides...Buda and Pest! It was a great tour, but a little hazy as I didn't know much of the history coming into Budapest so it was hard to retain. We visited a Jewish temple, the "tree of life", and a jewish museum. After our tour we ended at a church and a couple of friends and I walked and walked and walked all the way up to the top. The view, of course, was gorgeous. 

It was lunch time and although we were in a place with different food, we decided that we were craving Thai food. Best decision of the trip, in my opinion. We entered this place that was cheap, but it seemed really popular. I can't even describe to you how good that pad Thai was. I honestly just wish I was eating right now so I could be experiencing culinary excellence (typical of this blog to maybe possibly be exaggerated).

After that out of body experience, we met with the school group again to go to the Terror Museum. At first when I heard the title of this museum, I for some reason thought it was going to be like a scary movie type museum. Not exactly scary movies, but just scary things. Well, the museum was a bit scary, but for a different reason. Hungary had been affected by World War II, and so at this museum were things in relation to that. Throughout the museum there were many videos of people talking about their experiences. Although I didn't really, truly understand, just seeing their faces so distraught and sad was enough to make anyone feel their pain. 

For dinner, we, once again, went to the English pub and then headed back to the hotel to just simply hang out and talk and share each other's favorite songs, it was a really nice, relaxing evening. 

The next morning some of us woke up early (like 5 am early) to visit the Thermal baths. While everyone else went to go swimming (which now I regret I didn't do) I went to take pictures. That worked out fine though because since everyone else was wet, they needed someone to take their pictures! Once we were done with that, we went to our haven of the Hotel Breakfast and then took a much needed, but not nearly long enough nap. 

Apparently, at the hotel, you could order special pillows such as a Vitamin E pillow, a pillow for your back, or a pillow with horse hair. I didn't try any of these, but a couple of my friends did and they claimed they slept like a baby. So I guess if you have a chance, try it out!

Our next venture was another tour around Budapest. We visited the market, which I guess was famous for its pickles, and then we visited the Buda side of Budapest. This is said to be the nicer side, and I could see that because we went to a CASTLE! My fav. Can't get enough of those. 

I was still exhausted from the early morning tour, so I took another nap, but, thinking ahead, I set my alarm to a couple minutes before the sun was setting and I woke up just in time to enjoy the breathtaking view and of course...take some pictures! The image loader is making the colors all funky for the picture I wanted to upload, but again, you can see it better here. 

Our last part of the school trip included a cooking class, the thing I was looking forward to the most! My group's task was to make meatloaf and a cream pea sauce thing. The first step was to cut the onions and then cook them in oil for a bit. Well, we messed up on the very first step. Classic. We cut the onions! Buttttt we forgot to cook them in oil! Woops! The head chef later tried our pea sauce thing (still don't know what it was, also I have to add that I was not part of the making of said thing) and made a bad face. I think that's when our group felt a BIT defeated and our chef supervisor decided to just take over. I think that was probably best for everyone. Of course, I later managed to burn my hand from boiling soup when I was ladling it out, and that kinda ended the dinner for me. This was over a week ago and one of my fingers is looking pretty grody, but we carry on! 

It's odd to think that I've been in Europe for almost 2 months and I've already visited 6 countries (including Italy). The time is going by insanely fast and I need it to slow down! I want to appreciate every bit of this experience that I have and be able to document it at the same time so I don't forget anything. My worst fear (which I'm afraid may come true) is that I'll arrive home in an instant and be gone from all of this. It will still be something that I have done, but it would be just that....done. 

On a happy note, I've still got a couple trips left and I'm excited for those! :)

A Very Harry Potter Weekend

My trip to London has probably been my most chaotic and dysfunctional trip yet! It hadn’t even started and my friends and I were already a hot mess. Firstly, getting onto the bus was a bit harder than we thought. We knew we were pressing for time because the busses come every however many minutes, so we scrambled to get our tickets and realized we didn’t actually know where the bus picked us up from. As we ran outside with only minutes to spare, my friend decided to step onto the street where a bus was just inches away from doing what it did to Regina George!

After that mess, it turned out that we missed the bus by only seconds (great), but this really nice person who worked at the stop walkie-talkied the driver and had him come get us (BLESS). We were then on our way to the Pisa airport! 

The airport itself was a true breeze; you didn't even need to take off your shoes. After we got through security, we had plenty of time to relax before our plane started to board. However, a couple of our other friends on the same flight had a class that ended later, and they didn't show up until we were boarding! This would only be the first time out of many that we would get to things just barely in time in London. 

We took RyanAir for the first time, wondering why the flights were so cheap! It didn't take us very long to figure that one out....the entire plane ride the flight attendants would announce promotions, and I mean the entire plane ride. Every time the flight attendant spoke, I took out my headphones thinking it was something important. Nope. Just a promotion of Lady Gaga's new CD among other things. You know she didn't do that well if RyanAir is promoting it....just sayinggg. 

Once we flew into London I could not contain my excitement! I had been waiting so many years to come to this city with such a great history of culture....not to mention, I would be going on the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour the next day. 

When we reached our hostel, we were greeted by a very friendly woman. The entrance of the hostel was a cute, humble looking bar, which we didn't get drinks from, but the atmosphere was quite nice. We climbed up the stairs and went into our rooms to find out that (clearly...) our rooms were co-ed. The stink was unbelievable! However, there was a bathroom that was separate from our room, so we didn't have a problem changing there. The hostel itself was pretty great, the staff was incredibly friendly and it seemed to be in good condition (aside from one of the showers didn't drain all the way, so I took a shower in a puddle...blehh). Unfortunately, we were roomed with a creepy Romanian man who kept hitting on my friends. He was fairly harmless, but it was just really annoying. No problem though! We only had to be in the hostel when we slept, so we were out early by morning on our way to venture the wonderful city of London....which was freezing. 

We learned quickly that Oyster cards were the way to go when it came to transportation in London, however it took a couple dirty looks until we finally got it right. I asked a woman what an Oyster card provided and she just flat out didn't understand my question, as if I could be so stupid as to not know what an Oyster card was. We had been planning on getting one eventually, but we just wanted to make our way to Kings Cross station first, and we decided that we would figure the card out later and just pay this once for the bus. Apparently, that was stupidly American of us to do. We decided to pay with our coins to get on the bus and one woman basically condescendingly asked if we were really paying to go to Kings Cross without an Oyster card, and we were pretty much the laughing stock of the bus. Being a little annoyed, I said that we CLEARLY weren't from here, so I asked what the best option was for us to do, which had of course, been the Oyster card. I just felt like if we obviously weren't from the area, it probably would have been helpful to try and help rather than be condescending. It worked out anyways, this was just a bit of a rant. 

We eventually made our way to Kings Cross station where we visited....you guessed it! Platform 9 3/4! My friends and I took pictures there and I bought a wand for my little cousin, and a mug and ticket for myself. It was magical!

Our next stop was the British Museum, which held a lot of cultural history in it, it was cool! Sorry, didn't have much to say on this one...

Now, for the most exciting, yet stressful part of our trip: the Harry Potter Studio Tour

We had been running a bit low on time, and knowing we needed to give ourselves as much time as possible (since we hadn't figured out the transportation system just yet), we started to power walk to Kings Cross station. It was just our luck that the line we needed to take had been closed at Kings Cross, so we were then directed toward a different tube station. Again, we were power walking, but that was just not cutting it for me...we had to do the unthinkable....we had to run. So I started running chanting on my friends like some sort of army officer "LET'S GO LADIES", looking like complete fools running through the streets of London. Thank God I had somehow (probably divine intervention) convinced myself to run because when we reached the station we only had three minutes until our train was departing! Again, we booked it through the station like lunatics! With approximately thirty seconds to spare (not to mention we were now truly hot, sweaty messes) we made it on the train (tube? idk)! We then started to look at what we had to do from there, it said the studio was about a 15 minutes walk (lies) and so we were discussing our plans when a nice lady overheard us and told us there was a bus right outside of the station that would take us to the studio. God bless. Once we got onto the bus we realized that walking would have legitimately impossible. We went on so many roads and even went on a highway, I'm not entirely sure what we were thinking. With triumphant music playing (in our heads) we entered the building that we had been waiting a very long time for: The Warner Brothers Studio. I'm not kidding when I say that I almost started crying. Don't even get me started when the first thing we saw was the staircase. Ugh, emotions. Before the actual start of the tour we were put into a room where we watched a video about the growth of Harry Potter, there were tears. 

Now, I've already done my fair share of picture sharing for the tour, so you can access those on my picture blog here. 

The first place we entered was the Great Hall.

 My sister had gone before, so I knew we were going to encounter this, but I had imagined feeling more like a student at Hogwarts than how I actually felt, which was a fan stepping onto the ground of what was a big part of her childhood. We got to see the sets, big props, and a glimpse as to how they used masks and animatronics for the movies. It was so. cool. There was also a portion of the tour with a green screen area where we could appear as if we were riding the blue flying car and another one where we could appear as if we were riding a broom, it was so fun! All of my childhood dreams were coming true! One of the things I was most excited for, and did not disappoint, was tasting butterbeer! It didn't have alcohol in it (I'll have to attempt to make a recipe at home) but it was soooo good! I don't like whip cream, but whatever cream froth they had on top of it was amazing!

 After the tour we went into the gift shop where I purchased yet another mug. This one I was obsessed with from the beginning as it was a Marauders Map mug! I could not turn that down. It was such a crazy, yet perfect day :)

Part of the reason why I decided to go to London was not only to experience the behind the scenes of Harry Potter, but my dad was also in town on business. However, being in a different country made it quite difficult to get ahold of him. Luckily, my hostel and his hotel had wifi so we were able to rely on that for the time being. I texted him and told him to meet me at the Victoria and Albert Museum at 10:30 and hoped that he would get the text and be able to make it because I wouldn't be able to see any texts once I left the hostel. When we got to the museum (which was awesome by the way), there was a little bit of internet, but inconveniently Viber didn't work for some reason. I spent maybe an hour or more wandering around part of the bottom floor of the museum looking for my dad, while he was on the other side of the bottom floor, until finally he decided to venture over to my side and finally found me! Unfortunately we were only able to spend half a day together, but it was still really nice getting to see him and share a little bit of what I had experienced on my European journey so far. We stayed in the museum for a little bit, and then made our way to Kings Cross so we could buy my little cousin another gift, which was a ticket for Platform 9 3/4. After that, we headed towards Buckingham Palace. At this point, the weather started to get really crappy (both heavy wind and rain), so we only stayed briefly, and got on the tube (which I had mastered at this point....hell yeah) to go towards the other big points such as the London tower (which was closed :( ). Impulsively, we decided to hop onto one of those tour boats that took us along the river to show us the London Eye and the tower that held Big Ben, and (to my surprise and enjoyment), an all guys school which Daniel Radcliffe himself had attended! Wanting to get closer to the sites, my dad and I got off of the boat and attempted to take pictures, however the weather was just so terrible that we left and decided to spend the rest of the evening in Piccadilly Square. We found a nice, really cool looking restaurant, and just spent the rest of the evening at dinner. The atmosphere felt very modern vintage (as cheesy as that sounds, I feel it's pretty accurate), and I think my favorite part of the meal was the lemon meringue dish, which wasn't pie but it was more like a custard delight of heavenly glory (may or may not be exaggerating...who knows, maybe it was just THAT good...it was). 

Again, I had another perfect evening to a great trip! I'd love to visit London again when I'm not broke and when the weather is better, I think it's a fantastic city with much history and I'd really like to come back.  

The Hills are Alive in Austria

Two weekends ago, Jan 30- Feb 2, we made it to Austria! My friends and I were most intrigued by the Sound of Music tour, and I, of course, was dying to see the Neuschwanstein castle which influenced Disney World's Cinderella castle....typical Nicole. Just like Switzerland we took a bus to Austria on Thursday and got to our hotel at 5 in the morning! I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to function yet again on about 3 hours of sleep. On Friday morning we jumped on another bus to start our Sound of Music tour! There, we saw the house that was shot for the Von Trapp mansion in the movie

the famous gazebo for the "Sixteen going on Seventeen" song

 and the church that Maria and the captain were married in.

 At the city where the church was we had AMAZING apple strudel and mulled wine, which, for those who don't know, is warm wine with cinnamon spice mixed it.

 I'm still not quite accustomed to wine, so I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought. When we went into the church, I think my favorite part was seeing an actual skeleton on this throne at the altar.

 My favorite part of the tour was the view shown down below and when the bus played the songs for us to sing along to. It was nice having a whole bus of people just as enthusiastic to sing their hearts out to a classic musical.

Naturally, coming back from the tour I was exhausted and after I took a (not long enough in my opinion) nap, my friends and I walked down town and climbed a fort that overlooked the city of Salzburg. Luckily, we made it to the last part of the sunset, which made part of the sky blood orange.

Couldn't help myself! But anyways, here's a couple pictures of the amazing view:

Surprisingly, I wasn't dying when I reached the top, so after we got our pictures of the sunset, we were on our way back down and headed over to dinner! Since I was in Austria, I HAD to try Wiener Schnitzel. I didn't actually know what it looked like, so I was very surprised to see that it was essentially fried meet, however it was still very yummy, especially with the cranberry sauce!

 Aaaandd of course I went to bed immediately when I got back....but not after watching the first half of the Sound of Music (which was playing 24/7 at our hotel).

Saturday we went to the Neuschwanstein Castle, and I tried Bratwurst for the first time beforehand. Again, I wasn't sure what it was, so I was surprised to find out that it was pretty much a hot dog....but like way better (I'm not a big fan of hot dogs). Afterwards we made our trek up to the castle, which was awesome of course!

 There was an option to ride a carriage pulled by horses, but my values and ethics were definitely going against that option, so we stuck to being healthy and walking up the hill! I also found it a bit hypocritical of me that I was so concerned about not supporting carriages or Zoos, yet I am still not a vegetarian. I can't really justify that one. (Yes I can----Bacon is yummy).

We then left the castle and made our way to our next hotel in Innsbruck. The city was beautiful, and we were fortunate to walk around a great amount of it. For dinner, we decided that we wanted to go in a group of 8 and try to find a place to eat. Needless to say it was a lot harder than we expected. As the night went on we were getting more tired and hungrier, but eventually started to make our back to our hotel hoping we would find something closer. After at least a good hour an a half we stumbled upon a Greek place with a big table practically glowing and beckoning for us to sit in it. Our tired feet and empty stomachs were relieved when we finally sat down and were able to have a delicious Greek meal. Although it took a while to get there, it was worth it!

The next day was all to ourselves to explore the city of Innsbruck. A couple of my friends and I went around to the main sites closer to our hotel. This included a building with a golden roof (which had an incredibly boring museum inside), a beautiful cathedral, and the clock tower that we were able to climb up on. At first I was a bit hesitant, but the view was absolutely worth the climb up the stairs. We had a lot of time to kill, so we went into a panini place, and then went to a cafe to grab a bit of the famous cake, Sacher Torte and proceeded to talk for about an hour. It was a nice ending to relatively relaxing weekend.