Originally I was going to wait to write this one, but I am procrastinating studying for my BIT exam so I figured I may as well think about good times!  Last weekend we made our way to Munich, Germany for none other than the notorious Oktoberfest.  What a weekend. We took a bus on Friday after class and arrived in Germany in time to shop for our dirndls, a surprisingly difficult experience, and explore the town a little. We turned in early that night to prepare for our 5 am wake up call to get in line for the big event.  Saturday morning we all got dressed in our dirdls and lederhosens and made our way to the lines.  After waiting for three hours, they opened the gates and a stampeed immediately followed.  My friends and I were holding hands so we would not get lost and one of my friends got absolutely decked by a police man while another got trampled in the stampeed- survival of the fittest I suppose.  Once we made it in the tent, the fun times began.  We stayed for a while and also rode some of the rides that were outside the tents before making our way back to our hostel for a nice rest.  The next day we woke up and made our way to Dachau concentration camp memorial. I felt very grateful for the opportunity to see it first hand and be able to read stories from the camp.  We then headed back on our bus to Prague, having completed another great weekend away.

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BARCELONA: An interesting feature about my study abroad program is that we are given 10-day breaks throughout our time in Prague and we decided to use our first to travel to Barcelona, Spain and Lisbon, Portugal.  Our stay in Barcelona was roughly four days which was great because it gave us a significant amount of time to explore the city.  We stayed right near La Sagrada Familia, a beautiful cathedral that is still being developed.  During our stay here, we spent a lot of time walking around the city and exploring local markets and shops. Some of the special experiences we planned were going in La Sagrada Familia and the Park de Guell.  We also managed to find fun in the nightlife of Barcelona (Tell Todd I did not need to use any of his “helpful” phrases), despite the fact that its customary to stay out from 2 am until 5 am!

LISBON: Our next excursion was to Lisbon, Portugal.  Here, we found ourselves wanting to relax and explore the beach towns around the area.  For three of the days we were there, we bounced around on the trains and spent time on some nice sandy beaches.  Unfortunately for me,  the beach towns did not accept card and I had no Euros so I had no towel which led to some pretty uncomfortable, sandy train trips home.  (Study abroad life is so difficult.)  We also roamed the Lisbon and Sintra areas, seeing castles and riding in Tuk Tuks!

My dad was invited to participate in a conference in Scotland during my time in Prague and we decided to plan a trip to Wengen, Switzerland! It is hard to describe my experience here as it was the most incredible place I have ever been, and I am almost convinced my life peaked.  The town itself could only be accessed by train and is literally situated on the side of the mountain.  Our first trip was to the Jungfrau region where we made our way to the Top of Europe, as the sign so modestly proclaimed.  At this point the views were incredible.  We walked out onto the ice and could see all around the beautiful area and into the surrounding countries.  We then took a further hike about 40 minutes on the snow and ice to another viewpoint that was much less crowded and again took my breath away.  After our time in the region, we took the train back down to another town about three miles above Wengen where we were lucky enough to have witnessed the Jungfrau Marathon finish!  The community at the finish line was incredible; filled with people from all over the world and live music completing the atmosphere of happiness and accomplishment.  My dad and I decided to hike the rest of the way down the mountain after feeling like narps (non-athletic regular people) who did not run 26 miles on a mountain.  This trek down was my favorite part of the trip as it was absolutely stunning.  We walked through fields of cows with their bells ringing and felt completely overcome by the beauty of nature.   The next day we traveled to the area of Brienz, Switzerland to have a relaxing day before parting ways to travel home.  In this town there were surprisingly no tourists and we found a public swimming dock where we enjoyed swimming in the glacial lake and resting in the sun. The calming end to a perfect weekend.

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SALZBURG: The following weekend my friends and I decided to take a turn out of major cities and go to Austria.  Our first stop was the lovely town of Salzburg which we made our home base for the weekend.  Here we explored the city and went on the Sound of Music tour! I was hesitant to book due to the high cost but was extremely happy I ended up attending.  Our tour guide had the whole group singing and dancing through the hills of Austria.  I now consider myself an expert yodeler!

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HALLSTATT: The purpose of our traveling to Hallstatt was purely for the hiking opportunity and views of the incredible lakes and mountains of the region. In our planning for the trip, we did not consider the possibility of poor weather and were surprised to find that rain and cold temperatures could sneak up on young, ill prepared, college students.  Despite the somewhat uncomfortable conditions, we managed to find an awesome hike that led up to the Skywalk.  We saw only clouds when we did finally reach the top, but nonetheless enjoyed the experience.

For my first full weekend of travel, a group of friends and I made our way to Hungary for an experience in Budapest.  During our time here, we primarily explored the zone of Pest. Because it was our first trip, we were not fully prepared to explore the city and left out most of Buda.  My favorite parts of this excursion were the Baths of Budapest and seeing the Parliament building.

Warning: Informal, somewhat sarcastic, college-student-abroad writing style is used. 🙂

Hi to my friends at Evolent! I am sure you all will be shocked to hear this, but I am really enjoying my time abroad in Prague.  At this point I am 40 days into the program, have completed two courses, and been in five other countries in Europe.  I thought I’d type up a short summary on my time here as I know you all are very busy people.