I send out an apology to my readers for not writing. It has come to my attention that I am also in the Czech Republic to study and bring up my GPA,and so blogg writing must be placed on the back burnner so to speak. Ill try harder, but it's been a nice change from nyc to get more than 4 hours of sleep a night. I'll try my best!
Speaking of burning... I lit a wrapper on fire in the microwave last night. As in there was a flame I had to blow out. Just another day in the life of Samantha.
So last weekend we went on a double city/country trip. I'll just start at the beginning...
Destination 1: Bratislava, Slovakia. It might seem strange to you all in American to want to go to Slovakia/you might not have even known it existed. It does. And its a very nice town. Not much to see but for 24 hours its a nice relaxing destination. We got up and took an early morning bus... a nice short 4 hour trip and landed in the heart of Slovakia. After struggling to find our hostel, a common theme in every trip that we seem to not be able to fix, we were able to go and find somewhere to eat. Unfortunatly service in this country, and basically any country over here, is not too hot. It took forever to get both an order placed and then our food. The food was ok, but not for everyone( we had a problem with a fatty ham sandwich) but they did give me a huge glass of strawberry juice, my new favorite juice and America better adopt that idea before I get back. We then headed over to Staré Město... which there seems to be one in every city we go to (ok Praha, Krakov, and Bratislava) to check out the "sights". Basically we just walked around and took pictures because the buildings were beautiful. PLUS the weather was so nice, low 50s, and so it was more than enjoyable. The town was pretty dead, not that many people at all, but it was very enjoyable. We saw the castle, and walked across Nový Most which crosses the Danube river. For some reason I was really excited to see this river... maybe because of the waltz. We also went up in an observaion tower and had an amazing view of the entire city.
By this point it was around 5pm and we had seen everything. We did a little shopping and ended up at a really classy lounge and shared a couple bottles of wine and some really interesting nuts. A nice little bonding time. We then headed over to Slovak Pub which was reccomended by our hostel (Hostel Blues... beds=not so comfortable). The food and atmosphere was amazing and we had the best perogis (well not better than Poland but they were pretty good!) We were all petty tired so we went back to the Hostel and after an unfortunate curtain episode and some loud Americans late into the night, went to sleep.
In the morning we somehow woke up super early, and fixed that with a visit to Bagel and Coffee (and Story). I WAS SO EXCITED. I should mention they also had Bank and coffee-- aka a bank and coffee shop in one. America- Are you listening??? This is the best idea ever. SO i had a legit bagel and cream cheese which was so good, and of course coffee. Unfortunately Europe still has not caught on to brewed coffee... but its the thought that counts. We took some more touristy pictures and headed over to the bus station for our next destination. Overall it was a great 24 hours and the perfect amount of time to spend in Bratislava. Why go? Well can you say you have been to Slovakia? Plus it used to be a part of the country I am currently residing in, and with the huge emphasis on the past here, I think it was really interesting to see the "other" part of the former Czechoslovakia.
Wein. AKA Vienna Austria. No this is not where the Sound of Music took place, and no, the Alps are not in Vienna unfortunately. We took a really nice hour bus ride into Vienna, found our Hostel (even though the directions we finally looked up were driving directions and not very helpful) and began our next day of exploring. We honestly had no idea what to look at. We headed over to Stephanplatz, or the city center and figured we would just find something important.
Basically, old times square. Complete tourist trap. Tons of stores (including a claires) and all those street preformers. I was a little nervous, hoping that all of Vienna had not become this. There was a beautiful cathedral- St. Stephen's in the town center. I had a small map that had a couple outlines of bigger buildings, so we decided to see what they were. We found St. Peter's church, which was beautiful,Saw real Roman ruins at Michaelerplatz, and then hiked over to the other part of the city and found this HUGE buiding. Apparently, after 20 minutes, we found out it was the Imperial Palace. It was so beautiful. There was so much grass and trees in the courtyard and it was a nice change from snowy Prague. After that we saw so many buildings, Museums, and castles. Accidently walked into the Parliment building and saw the Athena statue out front. There was a great view from the front and the building was magnificent. We kept seeing new castles pop up in the horizion, and followed them to find even more. We saw the Rathaus castle, which is where the city council meets, and so many more. We also found this winter carnival which had an ice rink and and ice skating path around this huge plaza in front of a castle. We stayed for a while and got Krapfens- which are basially a fried donut filled with something. We also saw the University of Wein and just the many buildings and things around the city.
We tried to find somewhere for Wine, and ended up in a crppy diner with a cheap bottle of wine and horrible service. Left in a hurry and went to dinner at this place that was reccomended. the atmosphere was great, the waiters were great, and the food was good. Chicken Schnitzel which was pretty good here. Also- grapefruit beer... sounds disgusting but was actually amazing! We stayed there for about 4 hours and then decided to go back to the hostel. We stayed in a 9 person dorm because it was cheaper... and you could tell. Nasty sheets, and a 40 year old man. Also 1 shower and 1 toliet for 9 people. In the morning we couldn't leave fast enough. We went back to MuseumsQuartier to go to the Leopold museum to see the Artist Gustav Klimt who was as very important Austrian Painter and Egon Schiele, who was his protégé. The museum was really nice and I loved the artwork. Afterwards I made everyone go to see Mozart's house. In case you aren't aware I'm a big music nerd and Vienna is one of the prominate places of composition back in the day. So we saw Mozart's place of living, went inside St. Stephen's which was beautiful, and then had to leave Wein.
All in all I wish I could have stayed longer. THere is more to see in VIenna than I had originally thought. If I am to ever go back I would definitely bring a guide book. **Nerd Alert**I liked just being there because so much that I have learned in my music classes happened in that city, so It meant a lot to me that we went.
Overall it was a great weekend. If anything it was relaxing and the weather was amazing so it was perfect. But now I really need to work on midterm stuff.... I'll try to write tomorrow!
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