Austria: Vienna & Salzburg
This past weekend I travelled to Vienna and Salzburg with one of my best friends from highschool, Mary. Mary is studying in France so we decided to meet in Austria, in honor of our love for Sound of Music! This country is even more beautiful then I could imagine, although veryyyy cold!! The first night we were together, Thursday night, we wandered around the old town of Vienna and found an authentic Austrian restaurant to have dinner at. The owner was very friendly and wanted to show us a good Austrian meal. We had wiener schnitzel and another beef dish. They were both very tasty, although not the healthiest. This turns out to be how most of the food was there. The next morning we went to a famous hotel, which is famous for their sachertort. Although I do not like chocolate I knew I had to give it a try!
We saw some of the main sites of Vienna including St. Stephen’s cathedral and we went for a ride on the famous ferris wheel there, the Wiener Riesenrad (named after me of course).
After spending the day touring in Vienna we took a quick train ride in the evening to Salzburg. Upon our arrival, we checked into our hotel and set out for the old town at around 9 PM. Let’s just say, there is definitely not a very young population there, because the town was dead at 9 PM, including most of the restaurants. We found a cute little restaurant to eat at although, it was not as tasty as the prior night’s meal.
The next day we toured around the city, relaxed at cafes, and did some shopping. One of the coolest parts was seeing the two house that Motzart lived in.
That evening we went to a nice restaurant where they served us dinner and there was a concert performing Motzart.
The following day we took a “Sound of Music” Tour, where we visited all of the sites where the movie was filmed. It was a very foggy day out, unfortunately, so it was difficult to see some of the sites.
All in all, this was a fabulous weekend of site seeing and seeing beautiful scenery and spending time with an old friend!
Rome, Florence & Budapest
This past week I traveled to Italy and Hungary with two of my friends Elyse and Kelly. Although we were moving around a lot to a few different cities, everything went very smoothly and we had an AMAZING time! Our first stop was Italy (Rome and Florence). Although I had been there before, you can never go to Italy too many times! We arrived late Monday night in Rome where we checked into our hostel. Although the hostel was nice and we had our own room, when we arrived it was late and the lady at the hostel wasn’t answering the door! Finally, somebody staying there came and luckily we followed him in! The next day we basically saw everything in Rome! We started at the colosseum, went to the Vatican, the trevi fountain, the Pantheon, and the Spanish Steps. As we walked toward the Vatican we heard a loud voice over a speaker. Surprise! It was the pope! It was pretty cool to see the pope in person, especially since we were not expecting to see him!
Wednesday morning we woke up early to take the train to Florence for the day and night. Florence is one of my favorite cities. I love how small, yet gorgeous it is and you can walk everywhere. We went into the Duomo, went to the Accadamia and saw the famous David statue, went to the Ponte Veccio, and of course spent awhile in the leather market! We had a fun dinner at a restaurant and then went to see Hannah, Jill, & Amanda’s apartment in Florence! It was fun to see our fellow DGs!
Thursday we flew to Budapest, Hungary. From the second we got onto the plane, the language barrier was an issue, although that did not stop us from having an amazing time in this gorgeous city. Budapest is a city located on the Danube river. On one side of the river is Buda and on the other side Pest. This is a wonderful city to walk around and explore. Everywhere you go there are more castles or beautiful buildings.
Here is a picture of us in front of Buda castle. This castle is obviously located on the Buda side of the river up on the hill. From the top it overlooks both the Buda side and the river and Pest side.
This is a view of the parliament from the Buda castle. It was super foggy out so the pictures did not turn out very well, but the building is amazing.
Overall, we had a wonderful week traveling, but it does feel good to be back in Sevilla….for a few short days! On Thursday I will be heading off to Austria with my highschool friend Mary!! I am so excited!!
Lisbon & Mom’s visit!!
Last weekend I finally got to meet up with and see my mom! I met her in Lisbon, Portugal where we spent the weekend, then she came back to Sevilla for the week. I had a wonderful time with her, as usual! Lisbon was a very beautiful city, kind of like San Francisco…VERY hilly. There are many cute little areas with different shops and cafes. The first day we went to San Jorge Castle, which is a beautiful castle up in a hill overlooking the river and the city. The picture below is a picture of us overlooking the city at San Jorge Castle. 
We also explored the Belem area where the Jeronimos Monastery is and Torre del Belem are located. This is a beautiful area and the Monastery is one of the biggest I have ever seen! This is a picture of the inside:
The following day we took a tour to a city about an hour away called Sintra. There is a BEAUTIFUL castle here that we toured. It is hard to get a picture of the whole thing when you are there, but it is colorful and has many intricate designs everywhere. 
On Sunday we came back to Sevilla. Unfortunately I had midterms so it was a little stressful, but we had a lot of fun walking around beautiful Sevilla and we even found a few good restaurants to eat at (rare for Sevilla)! I was sad to see my mom go, but now the rest of the family is coming in less than a month!
Lagos, Portugal
Lagos, Portugal is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. A program in Sevilla, Discover Sevilla, planned a trip to Lagos for the weekend with many fun activities. After arriving at our hotel on Friday, which is located right on the beach, we explored the beach, and then went on a Sangria Sailboat Cruise. The weather was perfect and it was such a beautiful day to take on the water. We sailed around Lagos and then we divided into groups and got in a smaller boat that took us in and out of the grottos. The grottos are sort of like caves that are formed by the large rocks around the island. That night we walked into the town, which was a very cute little town and had Thai food. This meal was the best meal I have had since I have been in Spain.
On Saturday we took a bus to Ponte de Piedade to see the cliffs. These cliffs are the upper part of the grottos we had boated through the previous day. We then took the bus to Meia Praia Beach, where we spent the day. Bailey and I bought rafts from our little friend Pedro and spent the day floating around in the ocean…very relaxing! That night we had another delicious dinner at Nah Nah Bah. This is a very laid back restaurant with amazing food. After talking to the waitress I found out that everybody that works there are people traveling around from Australia, USA, London, etc. and they are just working there for a few weeks before they continue traveling on. That night we went to a sketchy little place with the whole program called Joe’s Garage and had a fun time dancing to American music!
Oktoberfest
A couple weekends ago I went to Munich, Germany to celebrate Oktoberfest with all the chicas (AKA my sorority friends)! The weekend WAS so much fun, but not long enough! Elyse and I left Sevilla Thursday afternoon after a delayed flight and ended up missing our connecting flight from Madrid to Munich, but just seconds. Although we were quiet frustrated, we got rebooked onto a later flight and after that flight was delayed we were finally on our way to Munich. We got in late and went right to bed so we could wake up early and see all of our friends that came together from Italy, France, Prague, and other places around Europe. We had planned to wake up at 6 AM to find a good tent, but of course we did not end up leaving the hotel until 9 AM! Oh well, because we still went to the tent we wanted to and even got a table for all 15 of us to sit together! The HB house (what the tent is called) was filled with many enthused Oktoberfest goers and we had a wonderful day, until we were kicked out at 3 PM! Luckily, we were tired from the morning festivities, so we went back to the hotel and took naps then went out for a great Italian dinner. The next day (already our last!) was similar to the previous day, except we went to a new tent (I have no idea how to spell or say the name). This tent had more Germans, so it was fun to meet some people that are regulars at Oktoberfest. This tent was very fun and afterwards we went on some rides and went through some funhouses around the fair. It was a GREAT weekend, but not enough time to see all of my DG friends!!
