Vienna.

We didn't have much time in Vienna, unfortunately :( I really love Vienna, and had a lot of fun when I came here 2 years ago. Since the sun goes down at 4:30 now, we just had hardly any day light to see the palaces and all of the pretty sights. We ended up arriving already after dark, so we grabbed some dinner at a mexican shop which was super delicious and had really great guacamole! Then we all showered and just settled into the hostel and had a good night's rest. We had our own room for the 7 of us, and our own bathroom so it was SO great! I slept so dang good in that hostel.

The next morning, we started off by going to the Schonbrunn palace, a ways outside of the city center.

The Schonbrunn palace itself was nice, but I just really loved the grounds in the back! The trees were very yellow and there was a nice hill to climb up with ponds and pretty structures all around. We had a lot of fun just throwing leaves and climbing up the hillside.

After Schonbrunn, we headed back into the center to see the cathedrals and palaces. I also snagged one two Kasekrainer sausages because they are so yummy.

St. Stephen's Cathedral. 

Hofburg Palace

The Rathaus (town hall)

Even though we didn't have much time, I had a really great time in Vienna! If you'd like to watch my Vienna video, click here.

Prague.

WOO WEE! This was over a month ago. Let's see how well I can remember :)
Our first day in Prague didn't start out so well. There was a bit of a communication error when Madison typed in the name of our hostel on her navigation. Turns out there are 2 different "Arpacay hostels" but we wanted the "Arpacay backpacker's hostel" and I didn't know there were two options, so I just confirmed it was the first one without checking. Oops! So as we were heading along, I kept thinking "we should be hitting the bridge by now and crossing it. It's only supposed to take 45 minutes to walk there." Well an hour later I asked her if I could check the navigation, and we were indeed, heading the wrong way. My backpack was so heavy and Saffron & I were about to keel over at that point. We finally made it to the hostel after about an hour and a half and I was exhausted. Luckily the day was just starting, so we were able to rest for a bit. We had breakfast at the hostel which was quite positively delicious with a lot of different breads, cheeses and yogurts with many different granolas to choose from.
We started out by having a Trdelnik next door. Trdelnik's are these spiral cinnamon cylindrical snacks that they sometimes stuff with cream, strawberries, or chocolate. They are quite lovely. We walked up to the palace on the hill and watched the soldiers march and the switching of the guards.

Afterward, went to the Gingerbread museum. They had a lot of adorable little gingerbread treats. I bought a little gingerbread lady but realized at that moment, that I don't really like gingerbread that much. So I had one bite and let my friends finish it. We then headed down to the John Lennon wall. I love it there.

Katie's piece. She's a super great artist! 

We then had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant called Neb.o which was SO GOOD! I got beef pad thai of course. And this Raspberry lemonade :) 

The next day, we just wandered a lot. We played dress up and got some vintage photos taken.

We found this sculpture. Apparently, some art students from the university made this. It's 2 men peeing on top of a pond that is shaped like the Czech Republic. Sort of ironic. Bahahah!

The beautiful Charles Bridge! 

St. Vitus cathedral. A lot of people think this is the Prague castle, but it is not. The castle isn't as impressive, if you ask me. 

Playing with swans.

After we explored all day, we had dinner at this Vegan restaurant. It was called LoVeg. It was so good! I've only had Vegan food a few times in my life, at Courtney's house since her mom is Vegan! I got a coconut curry that was TO DIE FOR. I'm not kidding. Saffron got a quesadilla that was made with cashew cheese! I didn't even know there was such a thing. So cool. Back at the hostel, I decided to venture down to the common room to write on the guest wall. Surprisingly, I found my note that I had written when I stayed there 2 years ago! That was super cool to see.

Prague was super lovely and will always be one of my most favourite cities in Europe!

If you'd like to watch my video of Prague, please click here. It's super happy and fun!

Frankfurt.

Frankfurt was the first stop on our 9 day vacation. To be honest, Frankfurt is a bit too Metropolitan for me. I don't prefer it over Prague or Krakow or any of those more preserved cities, but unfortunately, the majority of Frankfurt was blown to smithereens during WWII. All of their Old Town is rebuilt except for this one building:

The one and only original building left in Frankfurt's Old Town.

Regardless of the lack of atmosphere, we still had a grand ol' time in Frankfurt. We ate at one of my favourite European restaurants called Vapiano. The pizza pasta & salad bar that I love so much. I had Carbonara pasta which was made to exquisite taste :) Very creamy, cheesy and Bacon-y. 

After lunch, Saffron, Katie & I went back to the hostel to shower and nap. We had left on our flight that morning at 3AM to head to the airport. I didn't sleep a wink that night. I ended up staying up all night with Saffron talking in our kitchen. So a nap was much needed. After we napped, we went out to the Old Town square. 

Their Old Town buildings are very charming. They remind me of what I might see if I were to be sucked into the "Beauty & the Beast" cartoon :) Saffron & I climbed up to the DOM cathedral to check out the view. 

It was quite misty, so it looked really magical from up there. My camera doesn't take very nice photos at dusk but it sure was beautiful. 

We found a fun little jazz band performing for these people on a boat cruise, and the band was playing the King Louie jam from The Jungle Book. It was so fun! 

Before we headed back, we stopped and listened to this street performer in the square. He had a piano that can fold up into a suitcase that he carries around. It was so interesting. The night was misty and cold and he was filling up the square with this soft, beautiful piano music. I wish I could explain it to you. He played "River flows in you" which really, is like the most beautiful song ever written. It was so magical, that I just sobbed right there listening to him. 

We headed back to the hostel and got a free pasta dinner! Free food is always a plus at a hostel!

The next morning we also got a free breakfast, and I was able to make a grilled cheese on their panini press. Boy, do I miss Grilled Cheeses. We weren't sure what we would do with our second day in Frankfurt since we already felt like we had seen everything on the first day. And also, with the time change, it was now getting dark at 4:30 PM. We decided to join this free alternative walking tour. I learned a lot of interesting things on this walking tour. Apparently during WWII, American soldiers couldn't afford to pay prostitutes, so they would offer them tobacco and gum. They didn't have tobacco or gum in Germany until then! Also, we got to see one of the most popular Brothels in Frankfurt. Outside, obviously. This brothel brings in 5 Million dollars per year. So crazy! It was such a strange feeling seeing how all of that is legal there. And also, drugs are legal. We saw people shooting up Heroin in the street right before our eyes. They even have these places called "Safe Consumer Houses" that are quite a new thing in Frankfurt. It is a place where drug users can go to get fresh, clean needles to shoot up their Heroin. It is their way of trying to keep people from getting AIDS by using dirty needles. It's just so nuts to me!! They also offer them therapy and rehabilitation if they'd like it. In a weird way, I think it's almost a good idea. I mean, if you can't stop people from using drugs, at least offer to help them keep it clean, I guess.
Our tour guide showed us a lot of cool things. He then offered to show us somewhere to eat after the tour. We found a place in the square and ended up joining a Canadian couple from the tour. They were so hilarious and lovely and they were on their honeymoon. It was a really great dinner and I just really loved the Canadian couple!

The Frankfurt marathon was in town!

There were 7 or 8 Spider mans hiding around the city.

If you'd like to see my little video I made of Frankfurt, go here.

Next stop, Prague!

November.

Cue, Zooey Deschanel's Christmas album.
Ahhhh. I love the approaching holidays. There really is nothing better. Even though I won't have any money for gifts (sorry family and friends. All you'll be getting from me this year is chocolate. Hard, right?) I can't wait until the giant Christmas tree gets put up in Cathedral Square. It is so magical, especially when it starts snowing.
We found a delicious milkshake place in town a few weeks ago. It's called Pink Milkshake.

My chocolate banana milkshake and the bouquet of flowers that I found laying on a wall.

Any milkshake I have tried here in Europe has just been milk with flavor. No thickness. No actual shake form. But this....this changes things. This milkshake was perfect. 

Last week, a few of us met up with Luiza. She has a very small car so I could only bring along Katie & Saffron. We had just planned to go get Kebabs and then watch a movie, but she asked if we wanted to go on a night drive to Trakai (the castle town 20 minutes out of Vilnius.) I thought it sounded super great! We got our kebabs, which were very good but as usual, made my stomach churn. If you don't know what a European kebab is, it is nothing like a Shish-Kebab that we know of in the states. It's basically a wrap. It comes in like a flatbread with meat, vegetables and lots of garlic sauce. They're tasty but for some reason, I always feel sick after eating them. We went to Trakai and walked around the castle for a bit. It was so quiet and peaceful. We were only there for about 20 minutes. When we were about to head back, Luiza asked me if I wanted to drive us back?!? umm..YES PLEASE. I was kind of nervous because I don't understand any of the street signs, but her car was automatic so at least I wouldn't have to worry about that. She explained to me all of the signs and everything and it was smooth sailing all the way back to Vilnius. It felt SO good to drive again. I loved it :) 

This weekend, we went to Kaunas to surprise Cynthia (the head teacher there) for her birthday! We hopped on one of the 3 buses that were leaving at 10:30 Saturday morning, and we happened to pick the wrong one. First off, it was 8,70 Euros! Last time, it was only like 2,70. So that was a little weird. I should have seen this as a sign to get the hell off that bus. Anyway, we paid and sat down. The ride to Kaunas is only supposed to be an hour and fifteen minutes. Well, I noticed that we were stopping at these little bus stops along the way about every 5 minutes. They were just random stops out in the middle of the forest. I thought that was a little strange. Anyway, long story short, 3 hours later we arrive in Kaunas. Our surprise plan didn't really work out due to timing, but Cynthia was still surprised that we came! I love the Kaunas girls. They are all so so sweet and hilarious and so fun to be around. We made turkey and cheese melts with avocado, which were so yummy and we had cake, apple pancakes made by Saffron and coffee! We just sat and talked for hours about our vacations we went on and about school and everything. They are the best :) And their apartment is so cozy and nice. Much nicer than ours. After it got dark (at 4:30 PM, mind you) we went into town. Their city center is super small. We got donuts at The Donut Lab which were exquisite, and then we went to our favorite store, Tiger. It's like a dollar store on drugs. Everything they have there is very quirky and fun. They have all sorts of fun crafts and science projects, home goods, everything. I want to buy all the things when I go there. We talked about planning a trip to Latvia with them at the end of November so I'm super excited about that! 

From left to right:

Saffron, Cynthia, Morgan, me, Rebecca, Katie & Emily. Kaunas has one more gal, Clarissa, but she went home due to a death in the family :( I miss her! She is such a sweetheart!

Sunday, we wanted to go on a forest adventure. I have been craving to be out in the woods. I wanted to just bundle up and pack a little picnic and just head into the woods that are in the middle of town. I wanted to take fun photos, explore and then try to navigate our way back by using our bus knowledge. I just thought it would be fun to get a bit lost :) 

but it rained :( so we didn't do it. Hopefully soon though. I ended up doing a little shopping instead and eating at my favorite Vapiano pizza pasta and salad bar. Nom. 

I definitely have an unhealthy obsession with Pizza Express. It's the little pizza joint right down the street from our apartment. It makes it even worse that it's just so conveniently placed down the street. Their pizzas are super cheap (4 euros for a personal pizza, but really it's big I can hardly finish it.) They are super thin. My favorite is the Neapolio with Salami or the Havaju with chicken and pineapple. The pizza itself would be nothing without the sauce they serve it with, though. It's like a creamy garlic sauce. It's so so delicious. You just smother you pizza in it and go right to Heaven. Pizza bliss. I will surely miss it.

Oh by the way, I have 36 days left here. Unbelievable. 

Spooky on Halloween

We had our Halloween parties at school the week before we left for our vacation. Our Elementary classes had their own little parties where they watched Halloween films, had treats, and costume contests. Our Beginning and Basic Reading students went around to each teacher for 20 minutes and did a Halloween activity with them and also got to make trick or treat bags and get candy at each rotation! We didn't have much time or resources for decorations but we did well with what we had. I was also a little stressed that week because Jared, our director from Utah, was coming that Thursday for his mid-semester visit. I believe that all went well, though. Annie did musical chairs, McCall did sensory booths where they had to stick their hands inside a box to feel the witches eyeballs and the brains and what not. Katie & Saffron did face painting, Madison did the photo booth and Rebecca did Halloween bingo! It was really fun and the kids had darling costumes :)