Vienna, Austria (not Australia) waits for you! - and Venice

We are over halfway done with this incredible experience and I am still so shocked I am able to call what I am doing here in Europe "school".

This last couple of weeks have involved traveling to three different countries, 2 of which were for, again, "school". Spring break had followed our field trip adventures, so , it had undoubtedly been an eventful few days.

Our first destination was Vienna, Austria. I have found that expecting nothing special from a place you have little knowledge about before traveling to, always makes for a fantastic outcome. After arriving to Vienna we checked in to our hostel and not long after, Jan had guided us through the beautiful city to give us an idea of where we were and what we were going to see the very next day. Even just taking the brisk stroll that we did, the entire group was just gawking at how classy it felt there. Like, super classy vibes - "we don't have to worry about getting our purses stolen, they aren't even designer." - a comment that my friends and I joked about while seeing the men in
suits, the women in designer clothing, the horse carriages and extravagant buildings...then all of us - bus lagged in our Birkenstocks and flannels. It was the classiest place I had been to thus far... (other than the boat in Budapest). We had the evening to ourselves after the short tour, so we decided to grab some dinner and a beer - the usual. We relaxed that night as we knew the next day was going to be
a busy one - we needed our rest to learn stuff. To be good, scholarly, students. Also, the stores closed at 7 p.m. and shopping wasn't an option. Lol.

Day 2 in Vienna consisted of attending a museum together, then a museum of personal choice. The first museum was s one we had no knowledge of before entering..once we entered and Jan briefly explained the significance...we were all like kids in a candy store - wide eyed and basically in heaven. The Austrian royalty had been kicked out of their country for being too powerful and were forced to leave their belongings behind. There are no words to describe how surreal seeing the weapons, cloaks, jewels, etc., was.



We, then were free to attend the museum of choice. We could choose between art galleries and a natural museum. I had chosen the modern art gallery, and I was in for a treat. This place was a very bold place to be. It had 5 floors and each one of them had something that would
probably make the average person uncomfortable, or just confused. I had visited 3 floors in the time we had. The first floor had mostly paintings and drawings - mostly abstract. This was what I was expecting. However, the second and third floors included very graphic photographs that displayed violence and sexual conduct. I am very open and not affected by things like that, but I will say it was one of the weirder things I have seen in my life - hands down.

The rest of the weekend in Vienna was so relaxing. The city is not know for their night life, and as much I have loved going out in the most beautiful cities in Europe - I really enjoyed being able to relax and night time after long days of touring the city. Vienna had the best shopping I had seen in Europe thus far and us girls had taken advantage of that as we made sure to visit Louis Vuiton, Chanel, Michael Kors, you name it we were there - with no money to spend on anything but food, of course.

Back to the night life, in Budapest - Hannah, Lily and I had met the American boys who were on their spring break and studied in Vienna. They had mentioned to us that Vienna's night life is nothing rave about and that all of the student pretty much go to the same place. We had sort of forgotten about that, decided to check out the night life anyway, ended up in a bar where most of the college students had seemed to be, said "wouldn't it be funny if we saw the guys from our hostel here?" and five minutes later we found one of the guys that stayed there with us....what a small world!!!

Vienna had been so good to us, however we were all so ready to finally see ITALY! A long bus ride, yet again, but it was well, well worth it. Our stop was Venice, a place where I have nothing but good things about. This was one place where I knew would be beautiful and I knew I would not be disappointed. I have always dreamed of going to Italy, eating their pasta - drinking their wine and enjoying the view. I was so happy we got to do just that.

The field trip portion of Venice had included visiting cathedrals and learning about where the government had gathered as well as seeing castles - I will never get bored of the beautiful buildings we are able to see in Europe along with learning the history behind everything. The one thing I will never get over is the amount of time and effort the people had put into each place back then. they truly wanted to cover the Earth with places that were thought out and appreciated. Compared to the modern architecture in America, I love seeing the work of people many, many years ago.

The free time we had in Venice was also extremely important because I finally got to eat the best pasta in the world!! We had eaten at fancy restaurants - thinking that it was going to be the best of the best but Lily had a friend back home that messaged her and recommended a place that we were planning on eating, my friend ( a few hours later) had messaged me and recommended the same exact place! Dal Moros. A hole in the wall place with to go pasta. We had finished our day of touring the city and decided to go and find this hidden pasta place to see what the hype was about. I dont have a picture but I got Cacio a pep pasta with gnocchi potato noodles and man was it the best meal of my life. Us girls sat by the grand canal, ate the best pasta we had ever had in Europe, and talked about life. It was honestly perfect.
It was so good we went back again the next morning.

The rest of our free time also included a gondola ride (which was stunning and so cool) as well as just wandering the city. That's our favorite thing to do - wandering. We love stumbling upon places that we would never have thought to see.

breathtaking views of Venice, Italy 

Our spring break had started in Venice and we were not ready to leave. The weather was warm and the boats rather than cars everywhere made for such a fun and foreign environment. leaving Venice was difficult but Spring break for a week was not something I was complaining
about!

Adventures on Spring break are coming soon!! (Rome and Barcelona!)

Until next time, Cau!