The Hills are alive...
So my last unofficial weekend of traveling was upon, even though I didn’t know it. Florence was beginning to set up the streets to be decked out in Christmas lights. My friends were talking about their plans for Thanksgiving whether or not they would be at the Thanksgiving dinner our program, ISA, planned at the local American restaurant, Hard Rock Café. (These Europeans love their Hard Rock) However, I would spend my Thanksgiving a little differently this year as I was abroad and away from my family. Instead of a huge feast to eat, I had slices of bread and Nutella as my meal; and instead of being on the couch watching the Macy’s Day Parade or the National Dog Show, I was on a 12 hour bus ride to Budapest, Hungary. Three cities, three days may seem over adventurous but how else am I supposed to travel my heart out??
One of the local student travel agencies had a trip that would visit the beautiful cities of Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg. Now it wasn’t ideal to be stuck with a thousand, or it seemed, American students but I tried to make the most of it the best I could (actually it wasn’t ideal at all). We departed Florence Santa Maria Novella train station and we were off through the night to be woken up in the “Paris of Eastern Europe.” After arriving, we were whisked off to our hotel in the cold, brisk morning air and had about an hour to freshen up in the hotel. Following that hour, we walked to the city, to be greeted by the Central Market where we indulged on Hungarian delicacies like goulash, mulled wine, and sausage. The only thing that we struggled with was the use of currency, Forints, because I no idea how much it was worth in respect to the Euro.
The daylight hours quickly flew by in Budapest, as we walked through the local Christmas Markets in high anticipation for the Thermal baths we would visit and the all you can eat buffet that followed. Regardless of being outside in the freezing cold, Budapest is well known for their thermal baths that are natural hot springs from under the ground in which people come and enjoy the hot water even in the winter and that is what he did. I put on my European swimsuit (trunks) and scurried into the hot water that was waiting for me outside. Following the thermal baths, we went to a local buffet, in which, for 6000 forints=20 euros, we could have all you can eat and all you can drink everything. Naturally, being away from home stuck in Italy with Italian food, all day-every day, this was heaven because they had sushi, Hungarian dishes, a grill station which was graced by BBQ chicken, shark, African catfish for those who felt adventurous. From here our night either concluded early or got the full Hungarian experience by going to the local bars and pubs.
The Thermal Bath we went to
We had an early departure to Vienna in the morning, feeling the drowsy take over but managed to be in a somewhat orderly fashion. Again, we were greeted by the cold, brisk Austrian morning and rushed to the warm of our hostel for the day. We started out with a walking tour of the city center. Vienna has been on the most beautiful cities that I’ve visited so far which made me fall in love with it. Then we were off to the Christmas markets settled underneath the shadow of the Parliament Building.
These Christmas markets had absolutely everything from traditional German foods like giant pretzels, hot cider to bratwurst and also had random trinkets for great stocking stuffers. My intentions for this trip was to buy all my Christmas gifts for my family and friends here; but once I saw how crowded the markets were and how cold it was, I quickly changed my mind and kept telling myself that Italian gifts are just as nice (just don’t except any Gucci from me). The remaining of the evening was open to whatever we wanted so a nice Austrian dinner, so naturally Wiener schnitzel was a good choice. Apparently a Wiener schnitzel was a type of meat breaded and fried and not a hot dog! I learn something new every day it seems like.
Our night ended early and we were off to an early start to Salzburg, Austria; the last stop on our Central European expedition. Salzburg is known for the location for where Sound of Music was filmed. Seeing as I’ve never seen the movie ever, I still thought it would be a good chance to see a place where famous people stood. Although, we did watch the entire movie on the bus ride to Salzburg; in which I tried my absolute hardest to stay awake through but seeing as it was 8 am I had every right to fall back asleep. Though the parts I did see, I absolutely loved the movie and was even more excited to go on the tour.
The steps "Do Re Mi" was filmed on
Our tour guide was probably one of the best guides that I’ve had while being abroad. I’ve been on a lot of tours and all have their pros and cons. However, this was still was the best seeing as we took a bus to everywhere we went since Sound of Music was recorded in and around Salzburg. Throughout the tour, I also had the chance to nibble and inhale the apple strudel, chocolate-dipped pretzel previous plus sing along with the songs from the movie. So in all, I got a tour with treats and karaoke. Overall, it was a great tour.
These have been the busiest and most exhausting three days that I’ve had in a while. It may be equivalent to my days back at home when I have school, work, and dance. However, you never really know how tired you are until you are done traveling. So it’ll be interesting to see how tired I’ll be when I’m back home. This weekend was also one of the best, I met a lot of people and got annoyed by a lot of people at the same time and saw so many amazing and extravagant cities all in one weekend. What more could I ask for?
The effect would be better if I was actually good at ballet
But ya…that’s my life.