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Since the bus left from Florence, we took a train and had dinner there before boarding the bus. was a 1 Causal, just going to Florence for dinner! It 2 hour overnight trip on Thursday February 19. We drove through the countryside of Slovenia, but it was too dark to see anything. We arrived in Budapest early Friday morning (February 20). After freshening up in our hotel, we were ready to sight-see on our walking tour! The architecture of Eastern European cities is vastly different from Western European cities. Budapest was stunning! On our walking tour, we passed The Grand Synagogue (Dohany Street Synagogue, a Jewish synagogue), the Hungarian Opera House located on Andr'assy 'ut (the Champs-Élysées of Hungary), St. Stephen's Basilica (Roman Catholic Church named after the first King of Hungary), Memorial for the Victims of the German Occupation, a Communism Memorial (Memorial to the Soviet Red Army), a statue of Ronald Reagan, and lastly, the Hungarian Parliament building. The Parliament building is situated right on the Danube River, and it was one of the most architecturally magnificent buildings I've ever seen. We walked along the Danube River to the "Buda" side of Budapest. Along the way, we passed metal shoes lining the river's retaining wall. The shoes were placed there in honor of those who were shot by soldiers during WWII and thrown into the Danube. It still doesn't feel real to be visiting places that experienced the violence of WWII firsthand. After crossing over the Chain Bridge into the "Buda" side of Budapest, we climbed up to Castle Hill. We saw the outside of Matthias Church, and then made our way to the edge of Fisherman's Bastion. The views from the top of this huge hill were incredible; I was able to see all of Budapest! We spent the rest of the day wandering the beautiful streets of Budapest, and ate traditional goulash for lunch and dinner. Let me tell you, Hungarian goulash is life changing!
The next day (Saturday, February 21), we got back on the bus to head to Vienna, Austria (about a 4 hour drive). I thought Budapest was beautiful, but Vienna was even more amazing! Naschmarkt is a food and clothing market that was right across the street from our hostel. I hadn't even visited the city center, and I already loved Vienna! We spent quite a bit of time there wandering all the stands. I got a Viennese pretzel, salami, and freshly squeezed fruit juice: delicious! Two friends and I decided to explore Vienna on our own, so we took off ready to explore. We saw a number of buildings including: Karlskirche (Baroque Church), Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera House), Albertina Square Statue, The Burggarten (a palace garden of the Hofburg), Kunsthistorisches (Museum of Natural History Vienna), Maria-Theresien-Platz (Plaza in front of History Museum), Hofburg Imperial Palace, Heldenplatz (Hofburg Neue Burg –a plaza in front), Burgtheater, and St. Stephen's Cathedral. When we got to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, we saw a giant ride that looked like the Space Needle. The ride was called the City Skyliner, and it took you 81 meters up for a 360 view of Vienna. We timed it perfectly! The sun had just set, so the sky was pastel hues of pink, purple, orange, and blue. Mozart was playing in the background, and we got a bird’s-eye view of Vienna at sunset. Wow! What a perfect moment! When we got back to the ground, we had pretty much run out of daylight. We got some Wiener Schnitzel for dinner (sadly, it wasn't authentic, but it was still good!) I wish we could have done more! It just means I'll have to come back!
We left Vienna the next morning (Sunday February 22), and headed to Salzburg, Austria (about a 3 1/2 hour drive). Unfortunately, it was foggy and raining when we arrived. Since we were only there 4 hours, we didn't get to do a lot. We mostly just wandered Mozart's hometown, and visited all the cute shops there. However, we couldn't leave without trying Austria's famous Sacher-Torte! The Sacher-Torte is a delicious chocolate cake made with apricot jam. The recipe was created 180 years ago, and it's only sold in Vienna and Salzburg. We grabbed a slice in Hotel Sacher where the original cake was sold. By the time we finished, it was time to board the bus and head back to Italy. We got to drive through a snow-covered Germany on our way back when there was still daylight which was neat to see. We convinced our trip leaders to drop us off in Bologna because we would be passing through on our way to Florence. It would save us time and money, especially since we'd be getting back to Florence after the trains stopped running.
The bus pulled off at a gas station about 20 minutes outside of central Bologna. The bus literally dropped us off and left us the second we got all our bags out of storage - we hadn't even gone inside the gas station yet! Just to explain the situation: the gas station was dimly lit with maybe 3 cars and 5 trucks parked there. The inside of the building looked kind of dark, and I was worried they were closed! I went inside to find, thankfully, they were still open (at least for a little while). The workers were cleaning up, so I suspected they were closing soon. A reminder: no one spoke English. I had to use what Italian I had to explain to the man behind the desk that we needed to call a taxi to take us to Bologna train station. He thought we had already called the taxi, so he instructed a local man to show me where the taxi picks people up. The 6 of us started following this middle-aged Italian man through a relatively dark parking lot. He started leading us to a pitch black, gravel parking lot across the street that was fenced in. We were being cautious of the entire situation because this man didn't speak English, and we weren't about to follow him into a dark, fenced-in parking lot. We explained to him we still needed to call a taxi, and asked if he would call the number we had. He obliged, and I made sure to watch that he really dialed the correct number. He successfully asked for 2 taxis, told us they would be here in 15 minutes, and promptly left us alone in the empty parking lot. We waited for what seemed like eternity before we saw headlights in the creepy fenced in parking lot across the street as the local pointed to earlier. After cautiously making sure it was a taxi, we loaded up, and made it safely back to our dorm before midnight.
1 weekend...2 countries...3 cities! I went on a planned trip through Florence for Fun with five girls from my program in Bologna.
The next day (Saturday, February 21), we got back on the bus to head to Vienna, Austria (about a 4 hour drive). I thought Budapest was beautiful, but Vienna was even more amazing! Naschmarkt is a food and clothing market that was right across the street from our hostel. I hadn't even visited the city center, and I already loved Vienna! We spent quite a bit of time there wandering all the stands. I got a Viennese pretzel, salami, and freshly squeezed fruit juice: delicious! Two friends and I decided to explore Vienna on our own, so we took off ready to explore. We saw a number of buildings including: Karlskirche (Baroque Church), Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera House), Albertina Square Statue, The Burggarten (a palace garden of the Hofburg), Kunsthistorisches (Museum of Natural History Vienna), Maria-Theresien-Platz (Plaza in front of History Museum), Hofburg Imperial Palace, Heldenplatz (Hofburg Neue Burg –a plaza in front), Burgtheater, and St. Stephen's Cathedral. When we got to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, we saw a giant ride that looked like the Space Needle. The ride was called the City Skyliner, and it took you 81 meters up for a 360 view of Vienna. We timed it perfectly! The sun had just set, so the sky was pastel hues of pink, purple, orange, and blue. Mozart was playing in the background, and we got a bird’s-eye view of Vienna at sunset. Wow! What a perfect moment! When we got back to the ground, we had pretty much run out of daylight. We got some Wiener Schnitzel for dinner (sadly, it wasn't authentic, but it was still good!) I wish we could have done more! It just means I'll have to come back!
We left Vienna the next morning (Sunday February 22), and headed to Salzburg, Austria (about a 3 1/2 hour drive). Unfortunately, it was foggy and raining when we arrived. Since we were only there 4 hours, we didn't get to do a lot. We mostly just wandered Mozart's hometown, and visited all the cute shops there. However, we couldn't leave without trying Austria's famous Sacher-Torte! The Sacher-Torte is a delicious chocolate cake made with apricot jam. The recipe was created 180 years ago, and it's only sold in Vienna and Salzburg. We grabbed a slice in Hotel Sacher where the original cake was sold. By the time we finished, it was time to board the bus and head back to Italy. We got to drive through a snow-covered Germany on our way back when there was still daylight which was neat to see. We convinced our trip leaders to drop us off in Bologna because we would be passing through on our way to Florence. It would save us time and money, especially since we'd be getting back to Florence after the trains stopped running.
The bus pulled off at a gas station about 20 minutes outside of central Bologna. The bus literally dropped us off and left us the second we got all our bags out of storage - we hadn't even gone inside the gas station yet! Just to explain the situation: the gas station was dimly lit with maybe 3 cars and 5 trucks parked there. The inside of the building looked kind of dark, and I was worried they were closed! I went inside to find, thankfully, they were still open (at least for a little while). The workers were cleaning up, so I suspected they were closing soon. A reminder: no one spoke English. I had to use what Italian I had to explain to the man behind the desk that we needed to call a taxi to take us to Bologna train station. He thought we had already called the taxi, so he instructed a local man to show me where the taxi picks people up. The 6 of us started following this middle-aged Italian man through a relatively dark parking lot. He started leading us to a pitch black, gravel parking lot across the street that was fenced in. We were being cautious of the entire situation because this man didn't speak English, and we weren't about to follow him into a dark, fenced-in parking lot. We explained to him we still needed to call a taxi, and asked if he would call the number we had. He obliged, and I made sure to watch that he really dialed the correct number. He successfully asked for 2 taxis, told us they would be here in 15 minutes, and promptly left us alone in the empty parking lot. We waited for what seemed like eternity before we saw headlights in the creepy fenced in parking lot across the street as the local pointed to earlier. After cautiously making sure it was a taxi, we loaded up, and made it safely back to our dorm before midnight.