These last three weeks have been a complete whirlwind but I've made some of the best memories and have had amazing experiences!
My trip started off visiting my roommate Nikki and friend Katie in Edinburgh, Scotland which was so great! Nikki showed my friend Sarah and I all around Scotland including Arthurs Seat, Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile, Botanical gardens, the National Museum of Scotland and we even got to do a ghost tour in the evening which was so interesting! And of course we visited some really cool pubs such as Oz, Dropkick Murphy's and the Banshee. We were also able to eat at the Elephant House where J.K. Rowling wrote some of the Harry Potter books!
Sarah and I then continued onward to Manchester for a night before flying out to Barcelona the next day. Our hostel was cozy however far away from any kind of restaurant so we had to order in and settle for nan and fried rice for our dinner. We safely landed in Barcelona the next evening and met up with our other friends from our ISP program who we would be traveling with for the remainder of our trip. Barcelona was beautiful! We did a walking tour of the city, went to a fabulous tapas restaurant that serves daily three course menu specials, walked along the beach, strolled through La Grata Familia, explored the fresh food market, watched a Barcelona futbol match, and went on a pub crawl in the evening. I even tried to use a little of my Spanish (although I was somewhat intimidated to be honest!).
Next on the itinerary was Nice, France! We started off with a walking tour of the city which I thought was beautiful. It is a very diverse city in that it has a rock beach but is also quite mountainous. The food in Nice was also delicious- baguettes, wine and cheese, bagels, coffee, chocolate, and hazelnut gelato, pasta, tartar, and ratatouille! One night we went into the market in town and I ordered a delicious seafood pasta dish with mussels, clams, and shrimp with red wine- favorite meal of the trip! We even went wine tasting (a little outside the city but incredible views!), swam in the ocean, and went on another pub crawl!
We then traveled to Milan, Italy which was fun because I got a chance to see Merritt! Our train into Milan got in a little late so we decided to have an early dinner. We went to a place called Feel Good and quickly discovered the Italian way of dining- cocktails accompanied by a buffet of delicious food! We met Merritt at the Duomo and we all went for drinks at several restaurants/bars along a canal. I even tried a Negroni (traditional Italian cocktail!).
The following day we got up early to catch a train to Venice! We got in around 1 pm and had a lovely lunch at a restaurant right on the water. I had a great clam and mussel linguine dish. We also walked along the streets of Venice stopping periodically to get souvenirs (I got a Murano glass bracelet) and gelato until we ended up in St. Mark's Square. We then took a gondola tour through the canals of Venice and grabbed dinner before catching an overnight train to Vienna.
While the 11 hour overnight train was somewhat difficult to endure, we finally arrived in Vienna early in the morning. After storing our luggage at the hostel, we went to the Schonbrunn Palace close by and went to the Tiergarten Schonbrunn (Vienna Zoo) which I later found out is the oldest zoo in the world! The zoo was huge and a great way to spend our morning. After exploring the zoo and once we were able to check in, we relaxed a bit before some of us did a two hour evening walking tour of Vienna. The others decided to get standing room tickets at the famous Opera house called Wiener Staatsoper. The walking tour was great and our tour guide pointed out interesting historical facts such as the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is where Hitler was rejected from art school, Vienna holds the only statue in the world that is supported by two beams, and one night at the Opera for a box seat is 30,000 euros. Additionally, we observed the many incredible sculptures such as St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Hofburg Palace. After the tour, we met up with the others outside the Opera and went to dinner at an Italian Restaurant. The following day, all the girls on the trip decided to do a 15 mile bike and wine tasting tour that lasted from 9:30am -7pm. We took a train out for about an hour into the countryside and picked up our bikes. We then stopped at a small town and climbed the top of the mountain to see the ruins of a castle and to view the beautiful landscape around us. After doing this, we biked to an Austrian family's country home to have a traditional Viennese lunch (meat sausages with bacon, pork chop, potato salad, and bread rolls) as well as sample the local wines and walnut schnapps. We then quickly biked to our next wine tasting location which was a wine cellar on top of a small hill. In total, we had about 8 full glasses of wine so biking back about 7 miles was a little bit of struggle haha. Some (we were also with a couple) were more adventurous and even stopped on the way back to try apricot schnapps! We then headed back to our hostel and enjoyed a home cooked meal with everyone in celebration of our trip and our time spent together! :)
Cue Fresher's Week!! It's been crazy but I'm having an amazing time at Lonsdale College and my new flatmates here are awesome! I won't really get into details, but the events have been great and I'm excited to start my fall term here! Well that's all for now! I'll post later on about classes :)
xoxo
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