Hello people who still read my blog!!
Sorry for basically neglecting this, but I promise, it is not by choice. My laptop currently does not work so I am trying to just live without it for the next 30 days until I am home in the greatest country ever. aka the United States, obviously. So I have to use the school computers, but I can´t put pictures up. But in case you want to still hear about my travels, I will update, and if you want to see pictures, you can always go on Facebook to see what pictures I am tagged in by other people.
Last week I went to Zurich, Switzerland, Salzburg, Austria, and Munich, Germany with my roommate slash sorority sister Lindsay. It was so much fun!!
We flew to Zurich early Friday morning and came home late Thursday night, even later because our plane was delayed. But on the walk to the bus stop at 6am was the only time I have ever been scared in Granada. We walk around all the time late and night and the place is filled with people. At 6am in Chicago, people would be on their way to school or work or at the local Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks. Here, everyone is Spain is just getting home or going to sleep. Legit, the only people we saw were those coming home from being out or people at the bus stop like us. But the scariest part of our trip, thank God, was walking from our house to the bus stop by the Cathedral.
In Zurich we went to the zoo and walked around the city. It was so clean and everyone spoke English!! And people were worried about us...haha. The zoo was really cool but I feel like Brookfield is bigger. We got to see lions and tigers and bears (oh my) and lots of other cool animals. We stayed at a Holiday Inn and got British TV!!
We took a train to Salzburg, Austria made famous by The Sound of Music. Going to Salzburg and doing the Sound of Music Tour was one of the reasons I wanted to study abroad in Europe and it was one of the top 2 places (that and Ireland) that I absolutely needed to see in Europe. The city of Salzburg was also clean and fairly easy to navigate with a map we got at the train station, if you could call it a station. Our hotel was nice and our room was huge. Unfortunately, we just got German TV, but we did get to see NCIS and Glee and Grey´s Anatomy.
The Tour was on Monday and it was one of the best days ever. We got on this bus with Maria and the children painted on it and our guide´s name was Kristin. She showed us a bunch of locations where they filmed the movie!! We saw the back of the house where the kids and Maria fell in the lake, the front of the house where she rang the doorbell, the street she drove down in the bus singing I Have Confidence, the Abbey where they shot the outside locations, the scenic mountains from the start of the movie, the gazebo where they sang Sixteen Going on Seventeen, the bridge they ran across for Do Re Mi, the church Maria and the Captain get married in during the movie, and Mirabell Gardens, where they sang Do Re Mi, which is apparently the most translated song in the world. It was so much fun and I can´t wait to show you all pictures. We also learned so much about the filming and production of the movie, the actors, and the real story of the von Trapps.
We left Salzburg and took an early 2 hour train to Munich, Germany. From there we took another train to Meisbach, also in Germany, where Lindsay´s family own a beer brewery. A guy named Robert gave us a private tour and took us around and showed us how their beer is made. It was really interesting and at the end we got free Tshirts and Lindsay got glasses for her family.
Then we went back to Munich, but there wasn´t much to do, and we went to sleep pretty early. The next morning we woke up super early and went back to the train station. We got on a train for Fussen, Germany with a tour group. We got to see 2 castles, Neuschwanstein and another one that starts with an H that I don´t know how to spell or pronounce. Neuschwanstein was Disney´s inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty castle!! It was so pretty and we even got to go inside the castle. The outside was much prettier, which was good because no pictures were allowed inside. We were wearing dresses and boots, because what else would you wear to go see a castle, and the walk back was over rocks and steps and a shaky bridge through trees and over a river. But we made it back okay and took the train back to Munich.
We told the people at the train station that we needed to be back in Zurich at 7:30am the next morning to catch a flight at 10. We didn´t care how long it took or how many times we would have to transfer since we had Eurail passes. We got on a train back to Salzburg and then took an overnight train to Zurich, arriving at 7:20am. The overnight train was definitely an experience!! We shared a tiny room with a family of 4. The beds were stacked 3 high on each side and we dumped our suitcases in the tiny space between the beds. It was really nice though and we got breakfast in the morning.
We flew from Zurich to Barcelona, and then we had about 8 hours until our flight to Granada. We decided to go explore the city of Barcelona!! It was super pretty and the first thing we did was get Starbucks. Then we walked down this famous shopping street called La Rambla and made it to the beach called Barceloneta. It was so pretty!! Then we walked back, walked around the Plaça Catalunya, and then got on our plane back to Granada.
All in all, it was an amazing vacation and I had so much fun!! Plus it was so great being just me and Lindsay because we got to prove how responsible we really are. We gained a lot of confidence and it really shows how much I have grown these past 4 months. There is no way I could have done this last year; normally family vacations require me doing absolutely nothing but showing up and looking pretty. :) But as fun as Europe is, I can´t wait to come home to the beautiful United States of America where everything is perfect and I know people and people speak English and walk at a normal pace and people aren´t super late for everything and the streets are crowded at 6am and teachers give you rubrics for projects and water is free and everything is clean. I miss you all so much and I can´t wait to be home!!
Happy Easter!! See you in 30 days!! <3
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