**Updated 3/5/11**
Hi Everyone!!
Hi Everyone!!
I am so sorry I haven't updated this in a while. Time really does fly! I've been super busy with class, planning trips (which takes way too much time btw), spending time with Josefina (my Senora), and applying for jobs and scholarships. I will have been in Granada less than 10 days this entire month; I guess you can call me a world traveler!!! I am so blessed to have the opportunity to travel this much and am thankful for all of these experiences. I am having an AMAZING time seeing everything. However, it has definitely been exhausting, much different than family vacations. I am now used to living out of a backpack, smelling like dirt, and only eating bread, nutella, and pasta for multiple days in a row. But hey, it's all worth it. So in order to share all of the info I'm going to do a type of list blog. So sorry if this post is super random. I'm going to post the top/favorite 3-5 things (not in any order) of the trips I have taken!
Sevilla, Spain
1. Plaza de Espana
2. New Friends
3. Walking Tour
4. Random Parade
5. First Mass
Paris, France
1. Trip with my BFFs
2. Our Hosts
3. Chocolate Crepes
4. Eiffel Tower
5. Versailles
Semana Blanca
Germany: Munich, Dachau, Fussen
Austria: Salzburg, Innsbruck
Czech Republic: Prague
1. In general
I had so much fun on this trip and a major part of it is because I went with such great people. I went on this 10-day excursion with McKenna, Kelsey, and Esteban. McKenna, Kelsey, and I always find ways to laugh at ourselves and everything around us and Esteban was a perfect compliment because he is so funny, 24/7. We made fun of ourselves a lot because we are such typical tourists at times but it was great. We had lots of time on the trains and busses to talk about life and discuss things like politics and relationships. Even if we stayed in a few nights, we made the best of it and played games or just talked and laughed. Some of my favorite funny moments include
a) saying “we are in Gearhhhmany” in a terrible German accent
b) singing songs no matter where we were (the gaston song in a beer hall)
c) jokes about our terrible diet of bread, nutella, and pasta
d) poor Esteban having to deal with us girls in the morning
e) themed days: middle finger day, illegal things day, love eachother day, love the crap out of Prague day, etc.
f) the game ‘things’ in Prague and Bratislava – everyone writes a response to a category and someone has to pick who wrote which response
g) Sleepy McKenna and Sleeping Esteban
Germany
Dachau Concentration Camp
We got into Munich early on the first Thursday of our break so we couldn’t check into our hostel right away, but that didn’t stop us. We wanted to start the adventures right away so we decided to take an afternoon trip to the Dachau Concentration camp. Not the happiest way to start out our trip but we were all very interested in seeing the camp and learning more history behind the awful events that occurred there. This afternoon was very difficult. We learn about the Holocaust in school and watch movies about it and hear stories from our parents but there is no way that anyone can understand what these people went through. I do not understand how this event ever happened, and how the nazi mindset is even possible. I can’t stand it when people aren’t treated with respect and these people were not even treated like people. It was very upsetting. I learned a lot though. In Dachau there were a lot of other groups (in addition to the Jewish people) who were kept in the camp, such as priests, criminals, anti-nazi politicians, ‘anti-socials’, homosexuals, etc. Basically anyone who was different or misunderstood. They worked very hard every day and suffered terrible conditions and terrible treatment. We walked through the barracks where hundreds of people crammed in to sleep, and saw the places where they would line up for roll call. The camp itself has been restored since it is now a memorial but they have kept it very plain, and very similar to how it looked when it was a functioning concentration camp. I posted a few pictures on facebook of some memorials in the camp but have others showing more aspects of the camp. It was very surreal walking through this place and thinking that the history actually occurred. In my mind I couldn’t stop thinking that “this is not fair!” This experience was another example that this world is very broken, but as individuals we do have the ability to change it, even in the littlest ways. There were good stories about people in the camp coming together to develop strategies of survival or opposition. This was an emotionally draining day, but I am very glad I went. I think that everyone should visit a place like this because it really puts things in perspectives and makes you think and makes you have the highest respect for the unthinkable things people have gone through. I won’t elaborate anymore since this is going to be a long blog anyway, but I def. have more thoughts about this day and if anyone wants to hear more or see more pictures, let me know!!
Castles-Hiking (Fussen)
Our second day in Munich, we took a day trip to Fussen, Germany where there are two famous/touristy castles! I had definitely been looking forward to this day, especially because supposedly the Disney Castle was modeled after the Neschwanstein castle, and I’m such a girl (like a 12 year old girl lol) and just love that! First, pre-story: We went to the supermarket to buy food to have a picnic once we got to the castles so we were shopping around for the basics: Bread, Nutella, Jam, Fruit, Cookies and then went to check out. Our train was leaving at 9:50 and we had asked Esteban what time it was and he said around 9:30 I think, so we thought we had time. Well we get to the checkout place and I’m the first one to check out, I then realize why this place was so cheap (but also this is a trend in Europe)… they don’t give out bags for groceries. So I yell to the others about this fact and throw my food into my little backpack my parents gave me for Christmas which I luckily brought. Then we realize that Esteban’s watch was like 20 minutes late!!! So we begin SPRINTING to the train station (which is a gooood 5 minute walk), me with my backpack (full of bread and glass jars of condiments) but the others just holding the food in there hands. So we had a few food injuries as McKenna was running and an apple would fall, or when Esteban dropped an entire baguette and it slid across the train station floor, whatever though-we saved it! Then to top it off, I felt like I was going to pass out- running in the morning with having no breakfast and wearing tons of winter layers is a recipe for disaster, so I was moving kind of slow and we got closer to the train I started walking. Then Esteban hops on the train and desparately yells “BREANNE” (like a movie moment) because he thought the train was leaving, luckily it wasn’t and I hopped on the train but then it whizzed off with us on it about 2 minutes later.
Continued - Castles-Hiking (Fussen)
So we managed to get on the train, almost thought we got our $40 pocketed by the train conductor man we needed to buy tickets from but luckily he came back with our change… another stupid tourist moment, (one of many!). We hiked up to see the two famous castles in Fussen -
Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. Took our ‘girly’ pictures… thanks Esteban! And then we wanted to keep hiking because we saw all of the beautiful mountains around us and we saw a awesome adventorous looking bridge in the distance. Well it happened to be “do illegal stuff” day… at the beginning of the trip we had just jokingly started theming our days. Well if you know me at all, you know I like rules, and I like to follow them because I am weird like that. So this day wasn’t my favorite but it ended up being SO much fun. We hopped the fence that closed off the hiking paths (because it was winter/icy/snowy etc) because we saw others doing it and it seemed safe and started hiking up the mountain. We found the bridge and had a mini photo shoot and some song and dance time on it and then continued to go up to find a picnic spot. The views were AMAZING, it is just so unreal to be in such a beautiful place and just in nature. I take it for granted, these trips have really shown me how much I love being outside and exploring. So we got to the top of some peak and enjoyed ourselves and the views. Ah it was such a wonderful moment. We had a wonderful lunch of nutella, bread, and cookies. We finished our beautiful time on the top of the mountain and turned back towards Fussen to catch the bus. Hiking down the mountain was a little scarier but a little more fun… and I wore a DRESS, yeah that’s right, I keep it classy even when on a mountainside! This was definitely one of my favorite days of the whole break.
Beer Hall (Munich)
At the end of our first day (we had traveled from Malaga to Munich just that morning) we were SO HUNGRY for a real meal. So we had asked our hostel to point us in the direction of some authentic German food. We were told to go to the Hofbrauhaus- Augustiner Braustuben which is a beer hall. A beer hall in Germany is like a lodge type pub restaurant with long tables and benches and waiters and waitresses dressed up in authentic older German clothing. Well us Americans got stuck in a back corner by the bathroom and had to wait for the only waiter who spoke English, but it was DEFINITELY worth the wait. He realized how hungry we were (we were getting delirious by this time) and rushed to get us pretzels with cheese and giant beers!! We were very very happy customers. The pretzels were amazing and my first beer EVER was actually pretty good! Then we ordered our very german meals which were so delicious. Kels and I got the brewmaster’s special which consisted of 4 or 5 little meats in a skillet with mushroom sauce, it was amazing. Not sure what I was eating but that’s kind of the theme here in Europe and I’m okay with it as long as it’s tasty! We finished all that we could (it was a huge meal) and then our lovely waiter insisted we have something else ( I was under the impression it was a mini dessert) but it turned out to be shots, so we took shots of some German liquid. So 20 euro later we were extremely satisfied and full from a perfect Authentic German dinner.
Austria
Innsbruck
Innsbruck was probably my favorite place we visited because of how naturally beautiful it was. It is a smaller city in Austria but very quaint and the people are very nice. We were supposed to stay with a person that Kelsey met through a couchsurfing connection (couchsurfing is a concept of staying with people when you are traveling, there is a website that explains everything if you are interested in learning more http://www.couchsurfing.org/) but that failed – long story – so we only got to spend a few hours here but we got a good little hiking trip in. We took a cable car up to Hungerburg where there are cute little touristy restaurants and lodges and great trails for hiking. We went up the trails (which were kind of muddy/snowy/slippery for a bit) and then saw some woods that looked like the forest from the twilight movies. Where Edward and Bella cheesily and awkwardly zoom around the forest up and down the trees. We had some fun reenacting twilight moments and blair witch project videos and continued up the mountain. We came upon a clearing on the mountain where we could see the city of Innsbruck. It was gorgeous and the sun was near setting so it created a beautiful orange color. We sat on the hill for a while soaking up the view and relaxing, and relaxing so much that Esteban fell asleep! Well we are mean and decided to play a prank on him. We tip-toed away from him and went behind some trees and the distance and I came back to him and started freaking out about how I had fallen asleep too and McKenna and Kelsey were gone and I had no idea what happened. Well Esteban didn’t even freak out but he said he believed me for like a minute, so that was kind of a success! We have a funny video to document the whole pranking process! We gallivanted back down the mountain in order to cut some time off of the journey, a very efficient way of traveling! These pictures do not do the place justice, Innsbruck is definitely a must-see!
Salzburg
Salt Mine
After a last minute decision to take a late night bus to Salzburg we piled in the hostel at 1:30am to finally get some sleep and prepare for our few days in Salzburg, Austria. The next day we bought some food to tie us over for the day (again consisting of mostly bread and condiments) and discussed what tours we wanted to go on. Sadly, tours in Salzburg are kind of pricey and since it was very cold outside we needed to pick a few tours to go on in order to see the sights, since we couldn’t enjoy being outside for long periods of time. The Sound of Music tour was too expensive for my student budget but I wish wish wish I could’ve seen everything, at least I’ve been to Salzburg and can recognize some things when I watch the movie in the future. So we decided on a tour of a Salt Mine – GREAT decision. We took a bus to a little town nearby and did the 2pm tour of Salz Welten. We had to put these ugly white suit things on in order to go down in the mine to protect our clothes, we all looked very bulky because we were still wearing our winter coats underneath. We looked more like ghostbusters than miners! It was a great tour and our tour guide was so nice – giving us all of the information in English and being very welcome towards us American tourists. We went down the slides that the miners used to use to go down further in the mine, learned about the history of salt mining in Salzburg – “Salt Castle”, and got a few salty souveineirs: mini salt shaker and salt rock! It was really neat and awesome to see some history of the main resources of Salzburg.
Valentine’s Day Walking Tour
On Valentine’s day, we went the cheap route and did our own walking tour – we had the hostel map and followed it around to all of the sites and explored by ourselves. We went through downtown Salzburg which is super cute and kind of posh (the nice stores). We saw Mozart’s house and place where he was born, we even bought some Mozart balls later – a specialty chocolate made in Austria! We went up a hill towards the fortress and discovered a type of team building jungle gym area. We spent about an hour here acting like children and running around trying out everything on the obstacle course. A very random but funny thing to do, a highlight of the day for sure! We saw many beautiful landmarks of Salzburg and headed back into town and us three girls got free yellow roses for Valentine’s day! It was a very sweet random act of kindness, I know I appreciated it. We went back to our hostel, made a great pasta lunch, took a nap and then went back out for a drink at a student bar in a cave and then returned early for our last night at our Salzburg hostel because we had a 5:30am train to catch. I loved my time in Salzburg but would love to return one day to go on the Sound of Music tour and see the hills and reenact the fun musical moments!
That is all for now but I will post my finishing comments about the end of our Semana Blanca in Vienna and Prague soon! I can’t wait to be caught up so I can tell you all about how much I love my time in Granada! I am finishing up the Semana Blanca posts but McKenna will post about our Ireland trip to visit Cass, it was amazing! I miss everyone so much and am so excited to see my parents and sister in 2 weeks! I am very happy here and hope that through this I can share a little bit of Europe with you J
Xoxo
Bre
Great memories! My sis and I went to Dachau also. Dark rainy day but seemed appropriate. We shoudl chat about it. Hard to explain those feelings. Thank you for sharing!
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