Harry Potter's platform from the books!!! and finally to LONDON!!!!!!!!!
lots of coffee!!!! on the ferry
white cliffs of Dover
leaving France on the ferry
what do you do on a 20 hr bus ride...play M.A.S.H.!!!
taking a stretching break below at McDonalds
on the bus
Bus station in Prague
Burger King in Prague waiting for the bus
true backpackers...I lived out of this bag for a month...that's pretty impressive and kinda gross
train station in Vienna
tired after our long day (below) and (above) celebrating the fact that we might actually get to go home!!!
creepy clown
Ferris wheel
cathedral in the middle of the cemetery
Mozart's memorial is between the two
cemetery
hostel
back at the festival for dinner
this little area in the park reminded me of the Jungle Book...not sure why
looking back at the palace and city
a really old fountain...not too clean either
Anaconda
Giant Panda below and Giant Ant-Eater above
below is some Baroque architecture and above are the Hippos...actually some of the most dangerous animals in the worlds believe it or not
not sure what this is below but it was really cute
so the polar bear water didn't look so good...no wonder they didn't want to swim
honestly the largest bats I've ever seen and there was nothing keeping them from flying at us either no nets or anything
Kyle wouldn't stop playing on the playground haha
the Maze
the Gloriette
Schonbrohn Palace
Albertina below...not sure of its significance though
National Opera House
Below is Nauschmarket and above is the succession building
In front of the Museum's Quarter and this random thing was there...weird I know
lunch at the festival
Natural History Museum
Austrian festival
Burg Theater
Parliament
Imperial Palace
Mozart's home
St. Stephen's Cathedral
Bugles anyone?
United Nations building below and above was a tower in the city
From Prague we took the train early Wednesday, April 14 and traveled to Vienna. Again, it was raining when we arrived so after checking into our hostel we took the metro to city center...Stephansplatz...and looked around for a little while. We ate dinner at a pizza place, ate gelato at a cafe and then headed in for the night hoping for a better day on Thursday. Indeed it was a better day on Thursday, and so we took a walk around the city center area. We began by visiting St. Stephen's cathedral in Stephansplatz area then walking a bit further to see Mozart's home. We continued to walk and saw the Imperial Palace, Parliament, and the Museum Quarter. The Imperial Palace was huge, and although we didn't go inside it looked quite elegant from what we could see. The Parliament building was the grandest building I saw the entire trip. It was absolutely beautiful and pretty gigantic. The Museum Quarter is an area with the Natural History Museum on one side, a National Art Museum on the other and then another building full of various museums inside. Kaitlyn, Kyle, and Megan went into the art museum while I ventured into the Natural History Museum. Yet again, I was not disappointed. Their collection was really great with a variety of organisms both large and small. They also had a section on evolution and global warming including stuff about Darwin. It was a pretty impressive museum and again one of the best I've seen. Once we finished in the museums we met up again and ran into an Austrian festival being held in one of the parks and had lunch there. We each had a bratwurst which was delicious and then tried a dessert too! They had booths set up and a traditional Austrian band there...it was really quite nice! After lunch we continued our walk and went to the Succession building, National Opera House, and Nauschmarket. We paid for a tour of the National Opera House which was quite an impressive building. The tour was well worth it and even allowed us to go backstage as they were setting up for a ballet that night. The Nauschmarket is a market on the street that goes on for about a half mile give or take and has all kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, restaurants, and even flea-market type shops. Of course it started raining by the end of our walk which was our key to head in for the night. Friday was a disappointing day in which we spent the entire day rescheduling our flight which was canceled for Saturday due to the volcanic ash. We did however manage to make it to the Nauschmarket where we had lunch(kebab doners) and picked up dinner (fresh hummus, tortillas and vegetables) to take back to the hostel with us. As we were supposed to leave on Saturday we suddenly had at least three more days on our hands to explore the city since we rescheduled our flight for Tuesday. Saturday we spent in a different part of the city at Schonbrohn Palace and zoo. The palace was so gorgeous and the property surrounding it was too! It was by far my favorite day! The palace grounds has a park linked to it which leads right to the zoo. We paid to go into the palace which turned out to be really good and interesting. We also went into a maze on the outside of the palace and also on the top of the hill opposite the palace was the Gloriette. The zoo was a Baroque style zoo and is the oldest zoo in the world. We lucked out on this day for sure...the weather was perfect and all of the animals were really active! We saw two polar bears...close to jumping in the water...at least seven seals all swimming and getting in and out of the water...three tigers, one whom jumped on another one trying to get it stirred up...hippos swimming...a giant panda eating...elephants really really close to us also eating...and giraffes, at least four, walking around and which were also really close compared to at home. The zoo was pretty much like a typical zoo but arranged all very close together which made it easy to see everything. Also, the view from the Gloriette of the city was really great and we got a clear view of everything! The flowers were so beautiful in the park by the palace, and there were two fountains that were so unique. So, after we left Schonbrohn area we went back to the Austrian festival to have dinner where we tried some pasta dish and then another dish with potato and meat in it. I'm not sure what either were called as they were in German, but I do know that they were really good! Exhausted after a full day we went back to the hostel where we played card games before going to bed. Sunday was a day of rest for us. The only thing we did was McDonald's for lunch and grabbed groceries for dinner. We decided to make the most of our last day in Vienna however so on Monday we explored yet another part of the city. We went to the cemetery on the outside of town where there is a memorial to Mozart, and then Beethoven, Strauss, Shubert, and Brahm are all buried. The cemetery was huge and really old. The headstones were gigantic and really quite extravagant. All of the famous composers were buried next to each other which made it easy to find them. There was also a church in the middle of the cemetery that was really very pretty as well. After the cemetery we went to an amusement park which had a very old Ferris wheel that is in many of the postcards and pictures. It was also a nice area of the city with a park near it and not only the Ferris wheel but also an entire amusement park with games and rides. We were too broke by this point to ride or play anything so we just walked around instead and ate gelato. Again, it started to rain and so we made our way back to the hostel. Tuesday morning we woke to find out that our flight had once again been canceled and spent the day rerouting our trip home. Tired of waiting to see whether our flights would be canceled again, we decided to take a 5 hr train to Prague, where we would catch a 20 hr bus to London and finally another 7 hr train to Aberdeen. While this wasn't exactly the most ideal way to get home it certainly got us there! We even got to take a ferry from Calais to Dover and saw the white cliffs of Dover.
Well, it was a long trip altogether with an unexpected extra week of traveling. It was definitely the trip of a lifetime though! I saw so many sites that were absolutely incredible! I hope you all enjoyed the update of my Easter break and if you have any questions or comments either post them on here or send me an e-mail!
