With finals ending
about a week before my flight home, and enough funds for one last hoorah, a
last minute, three day trip to Germany and Austria was scrapped together.
As most of our friends still had finals or had already flown
home, it was just me and Erin on this adventure.
We had an early flight from Dublin on Wednesday morning. A
big group of us went out on Tuesday night and then Erin, Brendan, and I pulled
an all-nighter until our 5:15 bus from Galway to the airport. We boarded the
plane and landed in Memmingen, Germany at around noon. The weather was sunny
and hot (72 degrees, doggy) when we stepped off the plane, certainly a welcomed
sensation. We took about an hour and a half bus to Munich and were checked in
and ready to explore by around 3:00.
The first stop in Germany was the Augustiner Keller beer
garden. We each got huge steins of German beer mixed with lemonade and shared a
compulsory pretzel. After leaving the beer garden we headed into the central
part of town called Marienplatz. This is the most famous part of the city and
it was full of activity. En route to the Marienplatz, we stopped in to check
out some of the famous German cathedrals in Munich.
For dinner, we ate at traditional German restaurant with
outdoor seating. We covered all of the basics when you think if German cuisine.
Sausages (numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6), Saurkraut, Potato Salad, Dumplings, pretzels. The sun
was still out after dinner and the weather was beautiful so we headed towards
the world famous English Gardens on the other side of the city. These gardens
are bigger than Central Park, and on this particular evening more stunning than
anything NYC has to offer. One of the main attractions in the gardens was the
surfers. One of the rivers that runs through the gardens creates a permanent
surfing wave that Germans in wetsuits, revel in that image, shred all day long,
very similar to those things on cruise ships.
Dinner at the Bratwirstherzl
English Gardens
English Gardens, currently serving as my computer background
After it got dark in the gardens we walked back through the
town and got some ice cream and then crashed in the hostel after not sleeping
the night before.
We woke up the next morning and took a train to the Dachau
(pronounced Dock How) Concentration Camp on the outskirts on Munich. This was
without a doubt the most challenging place I have ever visited. It is one thing
to watch documentaries or study these atrocities in school, but an entirely
different experience to walk the same grounds where so many people suffered. Dachau was one of the first concentration camps
built immediately following WW1, and it served as the model for all that were
to follow. The camp was eventually liberated by US Soldiers in the Summer of
1945. At one point there were over 30,000 prisoners in the camp living in 28
barracks, each of which were each designed to house 100. Do the math.
Entrance Gate
Read 'em and weep
"May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1333-1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defense of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow men"
Barracks
Barracks
The most shocking part of the grounds was a building called
Barrack X, which was the crematorium. Housed inside Barrack X was a gas chamber
which although it was reported as never used, the likelihood is that some
experimentation was done there. Walking on through the camp was just a somber
reminder of an extremely dark past, which in reality wasn't all too long
ago.And although it was a completely
gorgeous morning, I felt an overwhelming sense of utterly senseless violence and suffering as I walked along those
grounds.The Dachau concentration camp
is certainly a memory that I won’t easily forget.
After the concentration camp, we trained back to the center
of Munich. Thursday and Friday were both laborer days in the German state of
Bavaria where Munich is located, so a lot of shops and even the famous food
markets were all closed. We found a beer garden near the center of the city and
enjoyed some ice cold beers and sausages (7,8). After lunch it was back to the English Gardens
where for 5 euro we rented paddle boats and cruised around the massive lake in
the center of the gardens.
English Gardens Day 2
There is one giant beer garden that looks out onto
the lake, so another drink/pretzel there was obviously necessary.
One of the biggest attractions in Munich is the Hofbrahaus
beer hall. It is very similar to the beer tents during Munich’s famous fall and
Spring festivals, and they serve food and play traditional music all day. We
stopped here on Thursday night. We sat down next to two young German guys who
had evidently been drinking during their entire day off. We ordered dinner
(sausages, of course (9,10,11,12,13)) and chatted with these guys throughout
the entire meal. Their English was decent enough to hold a conversation,
although most of the evenings bonding arose out of them forcing us to chug beer
and us watching them take shots of pear brandy. Side note, the rumors are absolutely true: the beer in Germany really is much better than anything I’ve had in my life. Unbelievably refreshing.
After checking the number one tourist attraction off the
list, we still had a lot of night left so we went back to the garden where we
ate lunch and hung out in there until they kicked us out. As you may have guessed,
we ate more sausages (14,15). The weather on our last night in Germany was some
of the best I’ve felt in Europe, and it got me very excited form some warm
Northeast weather when I get back home. The walk back to the 4You Hostel that
evening was rich with street performers and watching a big ‘ol black girl sing
Adele covers and Killing Me Softly and at a public piano in the middle of the
city as confused Germans looked on, dumbfounded that so much sass could come
from one person.
Lunch
Dinner, at the same spot as lunch
SAUSAGE
We woke up on Friday morning and took an 8:48 train to
Salzburg, Austria. Salzburg is made famous from The Sound of Music and as the
hometown of Mozart, and it was only about two hours via train to Austria.Salzburg is a relatively small city so one
day definitely proved to be enough.
Despite the rain, we were able to essentially see the entire
city in one day. We started by walking down a scenic trail along the elevated
park that overlooks the city. Every stop provided a better view of the city
than the next. We took an elevator down from atop the cliffs at the Modern Art museum
to the street level for 2 euro (nothing is free in Europe!) and then strolled
through Salzburg.
Aerial View of Salzburg, Austria. Mind the rain...
Some of the highlights in Salzburg included the Getreidegasse, which is Salzburg’s main shopping street, the Residenzplatz, Domplatz, and Mozartplatz. The three aforementioned Platz’s form the main square in the center of the city. The star of the city is the Dom Cathedral.Despite all of the beautiful churches and Cathedrals that I have seen in Ireland and across Europe, the Dom in Salzburg will emerge as my favorite. The artwork on the ceiling was beautiful and it is deceptively large on the inside. Certainly the most memorable for me. Amidst all of the tourist attractions, Erin and I managed to find an Austrian food market and get a couple, yes you guessed it, sausages (16,17,18).
Domplatz
Residenzplatz
Getreidegasse
Interior of the DOM
Mozartplatz
After seeing most of the city sights in around four hours, we decided to head up to the Hohensalzburg Castle which dominates the city no matter where you are looking. You need to take a trolley car up to the fort and the best views of Salzburg and the surrounding area were achieved from here. The castle itself was fascinating, and construction had begun back in 810. The price of a trolley ride up included an audio guide which was a great way to learn about the history of Salzburg and the castle’s function over time. The tour took us through the dungeon and torture chamber, then to the lavish rooms where princes and dukes lived over the years.
View From Atop the Fort
Our last night of the trip was one of the best I have had abroad. We went to the Augustiner Brewery which is an old Augustinian Church that has been turned into a beer and food hall. The Augustinians still run the show and they brew their own beer inside the renovated church.
This is how the place works: After you buy a ticket, you pick out a mug from the wall and wash it out in a baptismal fountain.Yes.You then walk into a small corner room and give your ticket and cleaned mug to a nice Austrian man who pours cold beer out of an massive oak barrel. Easily the coolest beer drinking experience I have had. Dad, Uncle Steve, you guys would have LOVED this!! It was amazing to be drinking a huge litre of home-made beer in the same mess halls where monks and friars had lived and prayed hundreds of years ago. It was kind of weird see crucifixes and religious symbolism in every direction, but this beer was so delicious that I found the courage to enjoy it. They had all kinds of food vendors scattered around the rooms and we ate cheese stuffed sausages (19) and a mystery meat that remains the best thing I ate during the entire trip.
MEAT
Stop
After the Augustiner closed at 11, we went to another small
bar around the corner. We watched a group of guys playing darts for a while. It
didn’t take long after inviting Erin to join in their game and after we got
talking to them before they were buying us free drinks. Austrians are by far
the nicest people I’ve encountered. We finished our final night in a massive
dance club, somehow avoiding to pay the 23 euro cover charge. A great night and
a great way to end the trip.
I can guarantee that we were the first and only American study abroad students to ever step foot inside this place
Casually crashing an Austrian rave
The next day we woke up and checked out, then headed back
into town one last time before catching a bus to the airport. On the way into
town, we walked through the Mirabell Gardens outside of a Palace of some sorts.
These gardens are world famous, and I will let the pictures do all of the
talking. Besides the flowers, the people in the garden were just as spectacular.
Personal favorite attraction from the garden, these two
View of Salzburg from the Gardens. See the fort? Look at IT!
We went back to the food market from the day before for one
last final sausage stop (20,21). We drank massive sodas from BK and shared some
BK fries. Normally, that triple threat combo would satisfy the requirements for
the “perfect lunch,” but throw in an Austrian music festival in the background,
and Austria became an even harder place to leave.
This last minute trip proved to be my favorite one that I
have taken so far. Two of us managed to consume 21 sausages of various shapes and
sizes, and I probably drank more beer in three days than the previous three
weeks combined. Everything just seemed to work out in our favor and both of
this cities themselves were absolutely incredible.
I have ONE day left in Galway. I certainly have mixed emotions. Galway is incredible and it'll be tough to leave this place but the prospect of seeing the family and AMERICA but mostly the FAMILY is getting me ready to fly home on Thursday. Tears of sadness or happiness? World will never know... And then I'm back home for
what is shaping up to be the busiest three weeks of my life to date. I cannot
wait to get back to the US, but I will try and enjoy my final
moments in Ireland as best as I can!
This final leg of my Spring Break Eurotrip was Barcelona. Up until this point, I had been travelling with a big group, but on Thursday morning Erin and I boarded a flight to Barcelona El Prat. Just the two of us.
We arrived in Spain at around 4, and it was a little bit rainy but definitely warm! We checked in, and started to walk around the city. I was surprised that Barcelona was such a big, bustling city. I guess I had expected it to be a lot more tropical or rural.
Heeding the advice of Barcelona's number one criminal, Amanda Escobar, we ate dinner at Rosa Negra, a good mexican place. The food was amazing and after not eating much the day before in Venice, guacamole never tasted so good. After dinner we checked out the beach and the Port Olimpic area. We ordered a pitcher of sangria and drank it outside near the water. First day in Spain was relaxing and just what I needed.
The next day we woke up and checked into Hostel One Pareleo, where we would be staying for the next two nights. This hostel recieved a 98% approval rating on hostelworld, and I immediately saw why. They gave us free breakfast and treated us like kings when we showed up. This place also cooked dinners at night and encouraged all of the guests to drink and party together. They were definitely very nice, but the entire operation had this cult-like vibe to it. Very tough to explain, I think I finally witnessed what too nice can be like.
After getting bombarded by compliments and city information, we took the metro to Catalunya to meet my friend Arturo who is studying abroad in Barcelona. He took us to the Barcelona store to buy soccer tickets, us the food market, and then we all ate lunch together. After lunch, Arturo took us up to Montjuic, which is a huge hill that overlooks the city. We got some amazing views of Barcelona from up there, and I realized just how massive the city really is. On the walk down, we saw the 1992 Olympic stadium and caught a cool water show that happens every night.
Olympic Stadium
Magic Fountain, somehow not as impressive in the pouring rain
Top of Montjuic
After parting ways with Arturo we went back to the hostel and were fed a surprisingly good meal with all of our new hostel friends, namely two absolute country bumpkins from Kentucky. A Villanova friend John Veise invited us to go out to the clubs with him, but those of you know anything about John Veise can understand why we were in no form to hit the town with Veise after a week and a half of straight travel.
We woke up the next day with big plans to see a lot of the classic Barcelona tourist sights, after a much needed Starbucks breakfast. We started at the Cathedral, and moved on to see some of the Gaudi structures. Gaudi is an artist and architect whose presence is felt all over the city. His most famous work is La Sagrada Familia, which is a MASSIVE and elaborate church which is set to finish in 2026.
Gaudi
Gaudi
Sagrada Familia, still very much under construction
We sat in the park surrounding the Sagrada Familia and drank a pint of Estrella Damm, Barcelona's most popular beer. The sun was out and it was awesome to just sit there and marvel at such an intricate and weird building. We then went to a restaurant that the hostel recommended for some delicous real, home made paella.
After our late lunch we returned to the hostel, grabbed some jackets, grabbed a drink at the Dow Jones Bar, and took the metro to Camp Nou to watch FC Barcelona take on Mallorca. The Dow Jones bar is a bar where drink prices rise and fall as people buy them, Thomas would have loved this idea. This was absolutely the highlight of Spain for me. It was a perfect, literally PERFECT, night for a soccer game and Barcelona scored 5 goals. During the halftime we ate sausages on really amazing baguettes for only 3 euro. Everything worked out for us that night, and we even managed to grab a seat on the long metro ride home. Win.
Nosebleeds
The next morning we checked out of the cult zone hostel and decided to head to the beach, as it was a gorgeous, 65 and sunny day. We stopped at Burger King for a morning soda and went to the beach. We sat on the beach and sat in the sand, soaking in the sun and the palm trees. I took a few pictures, and then OUT OF NOWHERE this seedy Arab man came and kneeled right next to me in the sand. He had a plastic garbage bag and started taking drugs out of it and showing us, asking if we wanted "weed or hashish, weed or hashish"? We said no about 5 times and he wouldn't leave. Then he started inching closer to us and finally I put my hands up and literally shooed the man (the fucker, I'm sorry) away. About 5 seconds after he left I realized that my Droid cell phone was gone, and by the time I turned around to pursue him he was lost in the crowds.
I was LIVID. We had been so careful and aware of pickpockets the entire time in Spain, and everywhere else for that matter. Of course the one time I finally relax and unwind on the beach this sort of thing happens. I was just so flustered and caught off guard y this man that I didn't think to hold onto all of my belongings. We left the beach and went back to the hostel to grab all of our stuff. After I called home I calmed down a lot, and thank God that I had Erin there to distract me and calm my nerves so that I didn't punch myself in the face again (Thomas, Scott).
Better a phone than a passport or a wallet, I always say!!
If there was one thing in the world to make me feel even slightly better after the phone horror of 2013, we absolutely found it. Escobar proved herself again by suggesting Bo De B for lunch. This was literally a window near the beach where they make some of the best sandwiches I've ever had. It's freshly grilled chicken on awesome bread with 4 magical sauces and basically every fresh veggie you can imagine. Suddenly I was feeling better.
Bo De B patatas bravas
What phone?
After a life saving lunch, we took the metro up to Park Guell, which is Gaudi's famous park on top of a hill that overlooks the entire city. This was a very strange, yet fascinating park. I can't say if I got it. Or if there is even anything to get, but I'll let you decide.
Great views of Barcelona, nonetheless
That night we went to a tapas restaurant called Caramba. This was a tripadvisor suggestion and it worked out so well. I ordered a much needed mojito and we shared 4 insane tapas. Sausage, fries with eggs and chorizo, egg omelette, cream cheese with apples and jam. Stop.
We met up with friends from Galway at Caramba and then went out together, the 6 of us. We went to Chupitos which is a fun shot bar, and then Dow Jones Bar again because our friends hadn't been yet. WHAT?! You didn't go to Opium and rage your face off??!!!?!?!? You did it ALL WRONG, dude. Relax, guys.
Can you believe that we had yet another day in Barcelona? Not bad, eh?
Our final day was an absolute "treat yoself day." Since we had done everyting that we wanted in Barcelona, we just frimmed around this beautiful city and went where the wind took us. Some of you may cringe when you hear this day's itinerary, but here goes nothing.....
(PLEASE WATCH. And please watch this show)
Ate the "World's Best Sandwich" according to a New York Times food critic. Basically a ham sandwich, but it was pretty awesome.
Went to a Subway and ate cookies/drank sodas.
Went to a Burger King and drank more sodas.
Ate gelato and on some important building.
Bought churros and dipped them in chocolate.
Walked to the beach.
Walked to a movie theatre in Port Olimpic and watched The Croods, starring Nick Cage. Actually a great movie, go see it. Eh, maybe not.
Went out to dinner and ordered 4 tapas, drank some champagne.
Were still hungry so walked to yet another tapas restaurant called Tapa Tapa and ordered 4 more tapas.
Went to sleep.
TREAT YO SELF.
The next day we woke up early, caught an Aerobus back to the airport, and flew back to Ireland. It was tough to adjust to the rain and cold back in Ireland, although honestly it never felt so good.
The past 13 days that I have spent an entire Sunday describing were without a doubt the best of my abroad experience, and life?, yes life, to date. I saw so many amazing things and experienced three distinct cultures, all with some of my favorite people. It was certainly very tiring, and there were a few speed bumps along the way, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Spain was the perfect way to end this trip and it was certainly one of my favorite places.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my Spring Break, and if you made it through all of these posts I thank you so much. I may have gone into too much detail, although I'm sure Mom you're thinking not nearly enough.
If I still had my phone I could have added a lot more pictures, so I'll admit that I borrowed most of these from Erin and Jacqueline Selter's facebook.
It is great to be back in Galway and I forgot how much I love this town and Ireland as a whole. The next few weeks will be insanely busy studying for finals, but I am definitely eager for the challenge.
So that's it, you'll hear from me after Springfest on the 26th, which will be my final trip.
