the hills are alive

The ride to Salzburg was a treat in itself. We took the scenic route through the Alps and stopped to take some pictures at a lake nestled in the mountains. Driving on the autobahn was also really cool. Being able to drive nearly 160 mph and still see cars on your right fly by you as if your standing still was a cool experience. We arrived at our hotel and sat down to have some lunch outside and took in the scenery. Salzburg is the location where the majority of the movie “The Sound of Music” was filmed and the reasons are obvious. Packed into a small valley surrounded by mountains, Salzburg is treat to the eyes. We only have a night here so we decided to get right to seeing the city and headed to the old quarter. We hiked up a HUGE hill to a fortress that looks over the entire city, the hike was brutal as it felt like the path was so steep that I was going to fall backwards down the hill. After meandering around and having a few beers we headed out for dinner. We ate a café on the street and then headed to the city center to check out the night life in Salzburg. On our way, we met a random guy from Germany and a couple from Austria that we mingled with and decided to go together to have some drinks. What a night. For those of you who don’t know, Jagermeister is made in Austria and it is served in the bars in mini shot bottles. Apparently the “correct” way to take a shot of Jager is to put the cap of the bottle on your nose, put the bottle in your mouth and then cock your head back and take the shot. Well after about 15 shots of jager and buckets of beer we retreated back to the hotel, which by the way I stole a really cool clay beer stein from, and headed to bed, we are headed to Munich tomorrow…

the city of spies

After going in circles around the city for what seemed like days, we finally arrived at our hotel in Vienna. Our hotel accommodations were incredible. Apparently numerous diplomats, artists, and composers have stayed here. Our hotel room in particular was a reserved room for a famous Austrian composer whos name I cant remember right now, but the room is 2 floors, 2 bathrooms and includes a balcony as well. Not only that but we are right in the heart of the city next to the St. Stephens church with one of the biggest pedestrian roads in the city. We spent the day just walking around the pedestrian side streets and enjoying the city life. That night we ate dinner at a world class oriental restaurant and had some of the best food in my life, the curry I got was so spicey the waitress had to go into the kitchen and get me a glass a milk because I thought I was going to burst in flames. The Austrian wine we had was unique. It was a blend of 3 different types of grapes used to make 3 different types of wines and I had never tasted anything like it before. We got to bed somewhat early which was a nice change of pace considering I had been up till at least 5am 3 nights in a row with very little sleep.

We woke up the next morning finally rested and ready to go. We booked a private tour of the city for 2 hours. The tour was extremely informative and I was engaged the whole time. The city of Vienna itself is very clean, next to Madrid I thought that it was the cleanest city I had traveled to yet. The city itself was beautiful, a majority of the architecture was in the style known as Art Noveu and it stands out. All of the buildings seemed whitewashed with tall pillars towering in every direction; the facades of the buildings are ornately decorated with heads, leaves, and intricate designs. The city design really reminded me of Paris in the style of architecture and colors used throughout the city. One thing that really caught my eye was the public housing project here in Vienna. A famous Austrian artist and architect named Hundertwasser designed these apartment complexes in Vienna and around the world that are just jaw dropping. The architecture is strikingly similar to that of Gaudi but with a twist, all of his architecture incorporates nature. There really is no way to explain it without seeing pictures because it is like nothing ive ever seen before, definitely one of the coolest monuments ive seen in Europe and I highly recommend that you look it up on Google or Wikipedia, the name of the projects is called the Hundertwasserhaus, you wont be disappointed. That evening we went to a restaurant recommended by the reception and it was fabulous, I have yet to be disappointed by a meal thus far with my family, we have gotten very lucky with our choices of restaurants. After enjoying some traditional Austrian sausages and fondue we headed to a bar for a few drinks and then headed to bed. The next morning we packed everything up into our station wagon and hopped on the Autobahn towards Salzburg, once again driving in the city was impossible and the journey took about 2 hours longer than it should of, but once we got out of the city and into the Austrian countryside the ride was awesome. more on that later….

this is family business

So the trip is winding down and Im headed to Prague to meet my family and nanny of years before. I flew into Prague late Friday afternoon and headed to my nanny’s condo to meet her and my family whom I hadn’t seen in nearly 3 months. The homecoming was wonderful as we ate dinner and caught up. Emma my nanny and her husband Kieran wanted to go out that night for drinks so my brother and I decided to join them. To make a long story short we stayed out till nearly 6am going from club to club and slept in until about 2pm and missed an entire city in the city. For the remainder of the day we decided just to meander through the narrow streets of Prague and just shop and sightsee for a bit. That evening we had dinner on the river which ended up being one of the best meals I had in Europe to date, it was some Czech duck I think, its been a while. Once again we decided to go out and it was a late night again, I swear this city never sleeps, as a bunch of the clubs here are open 24 hours a day.

I am writing this nearly a month after having come home so things are a bit hazey, but I promised everyone (mom) that I would finish it so im gunna finish it. Prague turned out to be one of my favorite cities in Europe. The beauty of untouched architecture, the vibe of the city, the shopping, the food, and the beer are all unparalleled. Prague is one of the few historic cities in Europe that weren’t bombed out during any of the world wars and it shows, everything here is beyond old. In addition to all this, it is also one of the cheaper cities. Granted I was with my parents, the exchange rate and general prices of things here in Prague are way cheaper than a vast majority of the other cities I have visited in western Europe. Just being on the streets of Prague was an experience in itself, you cant help but to gaze over the river at buildings and monuments that are thousands of years old and just be awestruck. Being in the Czech Republic has jumpstarted my interest in eastern Europe, and I hope that I have the opportunity in the future to make a trip to the hidden gems scattered throughout eastern Europe; Slovenia, Poland, Croatia, Serbia, Lithuania etc etc. Monday morning my dad I got a taxi to the airport to pick up our rental car. Oh my god what an experience that was driving back into Prague. To begin with, the Czech language is extremely confusing, they use a different character set than us and all of their words seem like they are 20 letters long with all consonants. It took about double the time to get back including going the wrong way on some one way streets, and this seemed to be the common theme for the rest of our journeys via car. Oh well, we hopped in our station wagon and headed into Austria to the capitol city of Vienna, the city of spies.

p.s. some things i forgot....we went to a bar named The Beer Factory that had a very unique idea. All of the tables have beer taps at the table with a computer, and posted all over the bar are big tvs displaying the scoreboard of the tables. It keeps track of the beer your drank and then puts you up on the scoreboard with the rest of the bar, a very fun concept. We also took a tour of prague on a speedboat through the river which was a blast ripping down the river going 40mph and taking in the sights.

odds and ends

ok ok ok SO IM DOING IT IM REALLY FINISHING THIS BLOG....after Switzerland i arrived back in london for my last week of classes. The last week was pretty uneventful except for one thing, the Great Britain Beer Festival. My buddy james and I headed to this monster of an event and it turned out to be one of the most memorable experiences London. there was literally thousands upon thousands of beers from not only all over the UK but all over the world. It cost 10 pounds to get in and you paid 3 pounds for your pint glass. from there you were free to go to any of the various brewers and get either a 1/4 pint, a 1/2 pint or a full pint of beer. the beers were incredible. not only that but they had other various stands that appealed to drunk patrons as well. there was about 5 or 6 hat stands, solely for the purpose of selling "funny hats" for people to wear. i myself picked up a giant balloon hat that was about 4 feet tall. They had henna tattoo stations, pub gear stations, and t shirt stations. they also had pub games and pub food, i was in heaven. we stayed for like 4 hours and hopped on the tube back to kings cross to go out for the evening, i decided to bring my balloon hat along which got mixed responses, some loved it, others thought it was obnoxious. by the way sorry this is written so shitty, i am trying to get this portion done with so i can get to the other cities that i want to write about. My overall experience with London was mixed. I enjoyed being in a big city but at the same time felt very overwhelmed by the sheer size of London. With the exchange rate being what it is this place is just so expensive that it is depressing, the cheapest beer you'll find in town is a 3 pound pint which still is the equivalent to a 6 dollar beer in the states. I dont think i'll be returned to London but it was a great experience none the less. ok ok ok....onward and upward, im going to meet my family in prague and i am elated as i have not seen any of them in nearly 3 months...

swiss cheeze

So I flew into Zurich real early, because I wanted as many days as possible to do activities. From Zurich I hopped on a train to Bern and switched there to grab the train the Interlaken. All in all the journey took just under 2 hours. So arrived around 11am in Interlaken and the train ride was simply awesome. You thread through the mountains and end up encircling one of the lakes which has the most amazing hue of blue due to the glacier runoffs that fill it. After hopping off the train I set off to find my hostel, which is listed as one of “Europe’s most famous hostels”. I got a little side tracked on the way there and ended up signing up to do some bungee jumping later in the day, my weekend had begun. I had a little time to explore the hostel before my excursion and I was completely blown away. This hostel is the oldest hostel in Switzerland, over 60 years old, and is built like a traditional swiss chalet. It had a full general store in it, a grocery store, a couple tv movie rooms, a beer garden and restaurant, along with a full nightclub underneath in the basement. By and far this place was the best hostel ive had the pleasure of staying it yet in Europe, its called Balmers Herberge by the way. So after eating some swiss sausages, the van for the bungee jump came and picked me up. On the way there I found out that there was two options, both the same price. You could either do the canyon swing or the bungee jump. Both involved free falling for 270 feet but the canyon swing swung you through the canyon going something like 40mph. I asked the driver what he thought the better activity was and he told me that in all honesty, the kids that had done both had all told him that they liked the canyon swing better, so I heeded his advice. Upon arriving I was greeted with some gorgeous scenery. We were high up in the swiss alps, surrounded by snow capped peaks and rolling green meadows with littered with houses that looked like something out of a fairy tale. The jump was hands down without a doubt, probably one of the most memorable experiences ill ever have in my life. Nothing could ever explain how I felt when I jumped off that platform and fell straight down 270 feet, the only thing I cold compare it to would be when you have a nightmare and you feel like your falling off a building. I swung through the canyon going what felt like 100mph with my feet only about 30 feet above the water. Upon finally reaching solid ground, I once again took in the raw scenery that is the swiss alps and remised on how i wanted to kick it up a notch and go skydiving, unfortunately that would have to wait as it cost nearly $400 to go skydiving in the alps, I’d rather pay 150 in the states and get the same experience minus the mountain scenery. After heading back to the hostel I showered up and headed out to the beer garden to meet some people as I was all by my lonesome. After mingling a bit in the beer garden I headed down below into the night club. The hostel really had a great set up with a nightclub like that, full dj set up deep underground so it could stay open later than most bars in the area, after drinking what seemed like a swimming pools worth of beer, I retired to bed.

I woke up at around 11am, and was surrounded by people in red and white clothes. It was swiss day, Switzerland’s independence day. Because it was swiss day I decided not to do any major activities as I did not want to miss the days festivities. I decided to go for a hike and got some information from the hostel on some good trails to hike. The weather was great and my goal was to get lost in the woods, and I succeeded. After hiking for a few hours I stumbled upon a high ropes park. I haven’t done one of these things since about 5^th grade in summer camp, and this place had five different courses. I came into this thing deathly afraid of heights, and left with a whole new level of confidence. I did all five courses and even the beginner one was pretty challenging. The most advanced courses took a high level of strength and coordination and after about 3 hours of being 70 feet up in the air I was ready to head back. When I arrived back there was pandemonium. It was about 4:30 and people were everywhere drinking beer. They had a GIANT pan set up making traditional swiss rosti (hashbrowns), sausages, and ribs. I went up and changed and came back down and met a group of about 15 kids from the University of Florida, and we organized a giant game of flip cup. This was probably one of the largest games of flip cup I had ever played with nearly 40 people competing. After playing for what seemed to be an eternity, everyone ran down the road about 400 yards to the site where they launched the fireworks, and what a show it was. the swiss really know how to do a proper fireworks show. They lasted for about 45 minutes and then the after party had begun back at the hostel. The scene was crazy in the club and I ended up staying out till about 3am.

That next morning I had to wake up bright and early to go canyoning. Now I had never even heard of canyoning before I went to Interlaken and once I saw what it was I had to do it. You start out by rappelling down a 200 foot wall into this canyon wearing full wetsuits, helmets, and protective life vests. Upon entering the canyon you are met with a fast flowing river with multiple obstacles. The first course of action was about a 15 foot jump into a shallow pool below and you had to be very accurate otherwise you’d either hit the side of the rocks or hit the bottom. The water was FREEZING as it was glacier runoff but the wetsuits did an amazing job of keeping us warm. The canyon presents various elements including a 30 foot jump, FAST naturally formed water slides from the smooth rock, zip lining, and climbing. Once again the scenery of the Jungfrau region was breathtaking, and it was an experience in itself just being there. Unfortunately I couldn’t take any pictures because there was no way to bring my camera into the canyon. After the hour long trek back through the switchback mountain passes I was exhausted and took a little nap before doing the usual routine of the beer garden then metro bar. I had planned on going to bed early but that plan changed quickly when I met a kid from Ireland who ended up buying me beers for the rest of the night.

My last and final day in Switzerland. I had booked a tour to go ice climbing on the nearby Stein glacier and had to wake up at around 7:30am. The weather was looking to be gorgeous as I marched towards the climbing shop to get fitted with my ice axes, crampons, and some warm gear. The drive was just over an hour and like all drives in switerzland, the journey was a treat in itself. When we reached the base of the mountain we then headed on a 30 minute hike to the glacier base where we proceeded to put on our spiked crampons and rope up to each other in the even that one of us fell into a crevasse hopefully the other 4 wouldn’t fall in as well. The heat was intense but the higher up we got the better the cold air felt. This was the first activity that I honestly felt like I could die or be seriously injured. There were some points where we were walking on ice that was no wider than my feet with 150 foot crevasses on either side of me, and the only thing that was keeping me from falling in was 4 other people who probably would have fallen in with me had I taken a plunge. We reached the climb point and set up shop and ate a light lunch. The ice climbing was a surreal experience. You drop down into these 100 foot crevasses and are surrounded by nothing but sheer blue ice. The mountain guide we were with set up 5 or 6 routes for us to do and the harder ones were HARD. Some of them included overhangs that you were literally almost upside down while you were climbing up. After about 4 hours of climbing we made the dangerous trek back to the mountain base and headed for home. I was wiped out and ready to go to bed and it was only 6:00. I decided to read for a little bit and ended up getting to bed early as I had to wake up at the crack of down to catch a train back to Zurich for my flight.

Switzerland as a whole ended up being one of my favorite places in Europe. If I had to live anywhere in the united states it would be Colorado, and the picturesque backdrops provided by the swiss alps really reminded me of the rockies. Interlaken would without a doubt be my favorite place in Europe but there is a bit of a bias, the amount of money I spent on activities was astonishing and I feel that had I not of done these activities, Interlaken would have not nearly be as much fun. Switzerland is definitely a place that I will be returning to as I fell in love with the alps. Ok now im in my last week in London, so a few tidbits then off to meet the fam in Prague…..

ze motherland

so im back, last time i was in northern ireland and this time im doin the republic. I arrived in dublin early saturday morning and headed to my hostel. the hostel was right in central dublin, a block off of o'connel street which is the main strip of downtown dublin. after dropping off my luggage i ventured out to try and find a pub to grab some food and a guinness. now keep in mind when i tell you this that it is about 9:45 morning, i step inside a pub and it is PACKED with drunk people. this is unbeleivable, its not even 10am yet and the pubs are packed. i had my first guinness and it literally tasted like gold. since going to dublin, guinness has been my drink of choice everywhere else afterwards. after eating i set out to explore the town as usual. the shopping here is awesome. stores everywhere lined with irish trinkets, i literally wanted to purchase the whole store. not only that but the clothes shopping was fantastic as well, i did a lot of damage to my wallet in dublin lets just say that. after shopping for a good 4 hours i went back to the hostel to check in. on the wall there was an advertisement for a backpackers pubcrawl and i decided it would be fun to try. the meeting point was on the steps of historical trinity college which is a really cool area and i was greeted by about 50 people in the street drinking. Now i started to introduce myself to some people and more than one person was form michigan. not only that but they were from michigan state. so i started to delve deeper and to my surprise there was at least 30 kids there from michigan state from various parts of europe, all randomly came to the same pub crawl. There were kids from Brussels, Oxford, Cambridge, Trinty, and even some kids that lived in the same dorm as me in London. the barcrawl was a blast, we went to bars around the temple bar district and ended up at a nightclub.

the next day i set out to go see the guinness storehouse factory to go on the brewery tour. this place was really well thought out. 6 floors, all surrounding a glass atrium that forms the worlds largest guinness glass. guinness put a lot of effort into this thing and it feels more like a museum than anything. everything is very engaging and the exhibits were fantastic. and at the end of it i got to learn how to pull my own pint of guinness from the tap. they had a gravity bar as well which was one the 6th floor completely enclosed in glass with panoramic views of the city. i got back to the hostel and met some kids that were actually from michigan state and were staying at my hostel. i went out with them and we went out to see some traditional irish dancing at a pub not too far from the hostel. the dancing was actually a lot cooler than i thought it'd be they more their feet soooooooo fast. oh yea and i forgot. earlier that day i was walking around the trinity college area, and what did i stumble upon but a pub called DOYLES!!! the had my family crest on a flag waving high above the pub and inside there was tons of doyle memorbelia, jerseys, pictures, and coats of arms.

so i woke up early on monday and headed to the train station to catch a ride to the west coast in a little medievil city known as galway. little did i know that i was going during the world famous galway races, which happens to be one of the biggest horse races in europe. this small town of 80,000 has an influx of 60,000 people due to the races. because of this the city was madness. due to a city ordinance, during the week of the races the pubs that normally are required to close at midnight, are allowed to stay open till 2am. i went on a pub crawl with my hostel, and we went form bar to bar around the city and then ended with a few night clubs. it is incredible how many bars and nightclubs here are in this little city. the main eire square is just a circle of ridiculous night clubs and posh bars. i met a lot of people from a lot of different places and ended up stumbling home at around 3:30.

i had planned to do a tour of the cliffs of moher that morning but the tour went till around 6pm and i needed o get to the airport and the bus schedules just didint work out. i was pretty bummed out but i decided that i was going to get at least a little sight seeing under my belt and i decided to do a walking tour. the group was small just me and two other girls but the guy knew his history and i really enjoyed listening to him and learning about the city, as it has a ton of history being on the strategic irish west coast. i spent the rest of the day just meandering around the little shops and watching some street preformers. i hitched a ride to the airport and headed back to london.

i had a BLAST in ireland. the people were awesome, i cant tell you how many people embraced me just for my family name. the food was good, just like englands, and the shopping was great as well. before going to ireland i despised the taste ot guinness, but now i reckon its my favorite beer ive had yet so far and it continues to be my staple at pubs in london. i really dont know how i am going to go back to the states and drink american beer, even the imports taste like shit. i really want to come back to ireland. i would love to go to some of the smaller villages and do some more exploring on the west coast, connemara in particular. When i get home i will be 6 weeks away from obtaining my irish citizenship so i can then apply for my EU passport. it will be a wonderful feeling to be a dual citizen and have the ability to live and work anywhere in the EU, which i have decided is my plan of action after school is over. if any of you out there have grandparents born in ireland and would like some more information on obtaining your irish citizenship, fire me an e-mail, ireland has really lax immigration laws and its a great way to get your EU passport and avoid the hassle of trying to get work visas if you want to live and work abroad.

long time no post

wow sorry its taken so long guys, ive been doing a lot of traveling and am lazy as well. its been a while since i was in scotland but i will do my very best to give you an accurate depiction of my 4 days there.

we arrived via train on tuesday afternoon which by the way had WIFI ON THE TRAIN! that was my first experience with having wifi on a moving object so it was wonderful, its a shame the rail system in america sucks so bad, not only that but its almost looked at as a second class form of transport. we headed into town and onto the campus of the university. our accommodations were wonderful as usually, everything was brand new, we had our own own rooms including a sink in them as well. we headd back into town to peep the scene and grab a bite to eat. we came to this place in the center of town called "the tron" which would turn out to be our hangout spot for the rest of the trip. after getting a few pints and a burger we decided that tonight we would climb "arthurs seat" which is the highest point in edinburgh and it a huge hill/mountain that overlooks the entire city including stunning views of the sea as well. the actual hike took about 30-45 minutes and the views were awesome. we stayed up to watch the sunset and took in the scenery of the gorgeous scottish highlands. we then proceeded back down the giant mound and into town back to the tron to grab some drinks. the tron was huge, it has an upstairs area on the main level of the street, then downstairs has another HUGE bar area, and then goes downstairs again one more level where it has yet another bar and a dance floor.

the next day we went on a bus tour of edinburgh which sucked because the lady doing the commentary was 300 years old and would not shut up. she even liked to point out the location of the post office and various mcdonalds in edinburgh. so after listening to the old lady blabber for about an hour we hopped off the bus and headed into town. the town is gorgeous and the entire city itself is a UNSECO Heritage point. the streets are filled with touristy gift shops selling everything from kilts to scottish whiskey. we spent most of the day just wandering around the city and getting a feel for it. later that night we went back to the tron as it was the definite hotspot of the city. we stayed there till it closed at about 2 then headed to a rock club a few blocks away. for as old as this city is, the nightlife is awesome, lots of students and young people to meet here.

the next day we headed to loch ness. god damn this place is huge. i really only pictured loch ness as a small little inland lake but i was very very wrong. this loch is massive, nearly 25 miles long with its widest point nearly a mile wide. the scottish highlands are a treat for the eye. our final destination was Urquhart castle which is a castle built around the 6th century right on a point overlooking a big chunk of loch ness. the ruins were pretty cool but the scenery was even better. after exploring the ruins for a bit a group of us decided to jump into the loch ness. this may sound rather uneventful but let me tellyou, this water is about 48 degrees even in the summer and it was FUCKING FREEZING. after swimming around for a bit and trying to find nessie we hopped on a boat and took a cruise back through the loch to head home back to edinburgh. and once again later that night we went to the tron, but this time afterwards we went to a techno dance club which was wonderful as i was craving some house music.

the next day we had some classes and our only item on the itinerary was the royal museum of scotland. the museum was pretty cool, but after being here for nearly 3 monthes museums are starting to get a little old. theres only so many 800 yearold pieces of metal and stone that you can look at before you go crazy. and once again that night, we went to the tron go figure, but i cant complain as the tron is great with 3 levels cheap drinks and the entire bar is filled with students.

all in all i REALLY like edinburgh, its a shame i didnt get to stay for the 4 days of the weekend and next week but i had already planned mt trip to ireland and to me ireland was important because well, come on its the motherland baby. oh and hagis, which is oatmeal cooked in a sheeps stomach is disgusting. probably the first food of a culture that i really disliked, it was nothing special and tasted like dirt. ok off to dublin now....... CHEERS!