A Hungarian Experience: Budapest

The next morning, Saturday May 21st, 2011 I knew I had to leave Salzburg, if I ever wanted to continue on with my trip. If I didn’t leave then, I probably would have just stayed there. I loved that city so much. Well I decided to commit and booked my hostel for that night in Budapest so I knew I would have to leave.

After breakfast, Eden and I went off to visit Mozart’s birthplace downtown and we did a little shopping, Eden did more shopping than I did. I think all I got were some of those delicious Mozart chocolate balls. Mozart’s house was cool, pretty much what you would suspect from someone’s birth house, small, cute neighborhood, etc. Outside the house, Eden and I danced the polka to a local band, and then carried on as if nothing had happened. We wandered the city some more and found ourselves inside the big cathedral in Salzburg. Finally, I looked at the time to realize I wouldn’t be making the train I had originally envisioned taking, so we sat at the hostel and waited for the next train. Eden and I took the same train as he was headed to Vienna, and the train to Budapest goes through Vienna to get there. He was lucky, he was only on the train for 3 hours, I was there for 6 hours.

I said goodbye to Eden, switched trains, and got on a janky train full of barking dogs and crying babies headed to Budapest. Fortunately, on the train I met Judith. Judith is a lady who is working in Vienna, but is originally from Budapest. She helped give me advice as to where I should go, how much money I should take out (as in Hungary they use the Hungarian Fronks, I think is what they’re called), explained what train station I should get off to get to my hostel, etc. All around super helpful.

Eventually, I found my way to my hostel, got checked in, and just crashed. I was in a 8-bed room full of old men and was frankly too tired to think about it, so just went right to sleep. The next morning, I got up and had breakfast. Then decided to go see the day. But first, I made the decision that I was going to return to Austria that night and stay in Vienna for a few days. Despite being there for only a few hours, Hungary was already quite confusing for me.  Also, I knew I had a friend back in Vienna that I could travel with, opposed to exploring a random country by myself. I knew I would have 2 whole weeks to do that later, why not hang out with others while I had the chance.

Once I booked my hostel in Vienna, I went exploring. Not knowing anything about Budapest made it a little difficult to know what I was looking for, but even still I found things to do. I left the hostel and just began to wander; I ended up at a giant synagogue. Having vaguely remembered Monsieur Piette telling me about synagogues in Budapest, I went. It was my first time ever-stepping foot inside a synagogue and it was not that different than a church. Men had to cover their heads and there were no crosses, but otherwise, they were pretty similar in structure. In the backyard of the Great Synagogue housed a symbolic memorial cemetery to the Jews who had been killed in the Second World War. Additionally, there a really cool weeping willow monument made from steel in the garden with names of Hungarian Jews who had been persecuted and killed.

Once, I left the Great Synagogue, I got a little lost, but somehow ended up at the other synagogue. This one was mostly ruins, but it was still cool to go inside and see the destruction caused by the war. I guess cool really isn’t the best choice of words, but it was enlightening and disheartening to see wreckage of what one can clearly tell used to be a magnificent place to worship.

From these synagogues, I went off in search of the opera house, but got sidetracked by a ice cream parlor. Since everything is so cheap in Hungary, 2 scoops of ice cream only cost .75-euro cents, something like 200 HUF! After sitting for a while, I forgot how nice it was not to be walking around frantically trying to find something when I had no idea what was in the city, and that’s when I decided to do a bus tour. First I walked through the Sunday market, and admired some cool art pieces, then I walked back to my hostel, where right outside a bus was picking people up for the tour.  The tour was brilliant because the city is quite large and split into two sections by the Danube River, Buda and Pest. The tour took us all over both sides and had an audio component for 16 languages. It was similar to the bus tour I did was Mom and Aunt Barb in Paris; it was a hop-on hop-off type deal.

The bus took us all over. We went to József Nádor tér, Erzsébet tér/Deák Ferenc tér, Andrássy út, and the Opera House. The Hungarian State Opera House (Hungarian: Magyar Állami operaház) is a neo-Reneissance opera house located in central Pest, (a part of Budapest) on Andrássy út. Although in size and capacity it is not among the grates, the beauty and the quality of acoustics the Budapest Opera house is considered to be amongst the first few opera houses in the world. Then, it went to Liszt Ferenc tér / Oktogon, and Heroes’ Square / City Park, which is Hungary’s biggest square, complete with historical statues and famous museums. Next to the drop off point was the Budapest Zoo, the Széchenyi Thermal Bath, the Gundel restaurant, and the Vajdahunyad Castle.

Then we went to Keleti Railway Station / Hungaria Hotel, the Astoria, in downtown Pest, near the National Museum and the Synagogue. Following that was the Chain Bridge / Funicular, found on the Buda side, at the Buda bridgehead, underneath the Castle Hill. Castle District / Dísz tér) On the Castle Hill, within walking distance from the Fishermen’s Bastion, Matthias Church, and the Buda Castle was after that. Citadel, which is the highest point of downtown Budapest, with breathtaking views of the city and its river followed. It stopped at Váci utca – Március 15. tér, and finally went to Parliament, which is Budapest’s most revered building in the government district.

Part way through the tour, I caught myself falling asleep, and I wasn’t prepared for that, so I got off the bus at the opera house stop and did a tour of it. The opera house in Budapest is smaller to the one in Vienna, but its inside is more elaborately made, its detailed with real gold, and the ceiling is painted with a picture of the gods. Also, there is a special seat in the back of the audience dead-center known as the king’s seat, and only royalty or presidents can sit there. The only person who has ever sat there without fitting that criteria is Madonna because she’s a diva and got her way when they were in Budapest filming Evita.

After the tour, I got back on the tour bus and got dropped off at the hostel. From the hostel, I picked up my bags, and went to the Keleti train station and was on a train back to Vienna in no time. Back at the Vienna train station, Eden was there waiting for me, and he helped me find my hostel for that night, since the hostel he was staying in claimed it was booked online. My hostel was at the end of the U4 line, in the boonies. It was in the back woods of Vienna, I don’t think it was even Vienna, I think it was some suburb of the city. Either way, we found my hostel. Despite it being so far away, it was nice because I ended up having a 4-person room to myself. This room even had its own bathroom and shower in it! Once I was all checked in, we went out for dinner discussing what we had done with our days apart. Eden hadn’t really done anything, and I told him all about Budapest. As it was getting late, he took the metro back to his hostel and we said goodnight.

The Hills Are Alive With the Sounds of Salzburg

The next morning, we all had breakfast together, and that is where I met Eden. Eden is such a joke; I love this man. He is a 33-year-old British actor, who doesn’t necessarily define himself as an actor. He does a lot of acting/ teaching work, more community based than anything.  He is a gem. So breakfast ends at 9:30am at the JUFA hostel, and Eden walks in at 9:20am and is astounded that almost all the food is gone already. He and Nauri had met the night before when he checked in, and since we were all traveling alone we decided why not go exploring together. Since Brenna had lived in Salzburg and still had friends here, she was off on her own, but the other 2 and I went off. Eden and I had plans to go see a show at the Marionette theatre downtown, so we started off by walking there first. On the way, we ended up at the Mirabell-Garden, where Maria and the children sing “Do-Rei-Mi.” We played/ wandered around there for a while before we found the theatre. Then Eden and I bought our tickets to see the Nutcracker that night. We walked over the bridge toward the hostel, passing by Mozart’s birthplace, a Sound of Music gallery place, found the main square where we ate ice cream and played the game, “guess the nationality.” By the time I looked at the time, I realized I needed to book it back to the hostel if I wanted to do the Sound of Music sights tour. So I quickly ran/ jogged back to the hostel just on time to have a van pick me up only to drop me back off downtown where I had just ran from. Oh well.

Once I got dropped off downtown, I got on a coach tour bus and we were off. First stop on the tour was the Pavilion where Lisle and Ralph sing, “I am 16 going on 17.” This was at Hellbourne. Here we also got to see the trees that the children and Maria hang from when Captain Von Trapp returns home with the Baroness. Next stop, was the lake where the children are seen canoeing in when they are reunited with Captain Von Trapp and the Baroness. This lake is not actually behind the site that they used for the Von Trapp house, that house is on the other side of the city. From the lake, we set out to the mountains and got to go summer tobogganing. Basically, we sat on this little carts and were tow-roped up the mountain, and then we got to racetrack down the hill. It was so much fun! The scariest part was going up backwards up the mountain. Since Nauri had already done the tour and Eden had never seen the movie, I was flying solo and ended up meeting this American family who were seeing all the famous battlefields in Europe. Somehow, we bonded and they ended the tour by the youngest guy (still not young, early 30s giving me his email address, lovely).

I’m digressing again, sorry. After tobogganing, we saw the Moon Lake and the mountains where at the end of the film the Von Trapp family hikes through to get to freedom. What’s funny are these mountains are the mountains leading to Germany, not Switzerland like the movie portrays, and clearly the Von Trapps would not be fleeing Austria to go to Germany! We also passed by the real Von Trapp house, which today is a bed and breakfast and traditional Austrian clothing store.  Additionally, we passed by the Convent where Maria was, but you aren’t allowed to tour inside, so we just saw the outside; still impressive. Our final stop on the four-hour tour was the cathedral where Maria and Captain Von Trapp are married. After we saw that, we had a half hour break until we returned to Salzburg, so I tried some of the traditional Austrian chocolate cake. It was so delicious. It really hit the spot.

Next, we returned to Salzburg, and passed by the Red Bull Factory Headquarters. Luke, I thought of you! By now it had started to rain, so none of us were anxious to get off the bus by the time we got back to town. Since I was supposed to be meeting up with Eden to walk to the show, I braved the rain and took the city bus to our hostel. Quickly got changed and we were off. The marionette theatre did a superb job of the Nutcracker. Literally, there were times when I thought the puppets were real people! It was that good. There was a scene where they had baby-flying cupid shooting arrows at the lovers, and neither Eden nor I could figure out how they had accomplished such a cool trick.

After the show, we returned to the hostel. Now online the hostel claims that they show the Sound of Music each night at 8pm, so I was hoping to watch it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t playing so I thought we had missed it. Turns out, they only play it if people are interested, so Eden and I watched it. I was excited to see the sites I had seen earlier that day, and it was his first time seeing it ever.

Now keep in mind The Sound of Music isn’t a short film and we started after the puppet show, so by now it was one something in the morning, the film was over, and we went to sleep.

By now, its Friday, May 20^th, 2011 and I had originally planned on leaving Salzburg, but since I had made such lovely friends and had yet to finish seeing the city I stayed another night. Once again, Eden showed up late for breakfast and today we decided we were going to go see the trick fountain at Hellbourne. Nauri, Eden, and I set off and first did the Trick Fountain tour. The Trick fountains were set up by masons from Salzburg and Italy, the best craftsmen of their time, under the guidance of Santino Solari. The most famous features are the Neptunfountain by H. C. Asper, built in the early 17th century and the so-called Roman Theatre with a marble table with seats that are part of a hidden fountain. If the Prince Archbishop hosted a dinner in Hellbrunn Palace, nobody was supposed to get up from his or her seat as long as the Prince Archbishop was still seated - which explains why his chair is the only one not targeted by the fountain. The machinery underlying this mechanism is based on five automatic water pumps that are part of the original ensemble. They were supplemented with waterpower driven mechanical theatre between 1749 and 1752. This theatre of Hellbrunn contains 138 moving, wooden figures.

Pretty much, they are great fun and you get wet, more specifically you constantly get splashed and spayed with water. But its awesome, so go if you ever get the chance. Once we were all wet, we decided to sit in the sun for a while to dry off before we went into the Hellbourne Palace. Once we dried off, we went back to take pictures of the Pavillon from the film, then back to Hellbourne Palace. Inside the palace we got to hear about the nobles who lived there and their enjoyment in practical jokes. When we finished with the palace, Nauri left to meet up with a friend, so Eden and I climbed a mountain to get to the Folk Museum. It was cool, and had a lovely view of the city. What intrigued me the most was how many costumes and masks the museum housed, pretty swanky! Once we were already on top of the hill, we decided we might as well find the theatre up there, so we walked around for a while before we saw something that looked like s stone stage. We played on the stage envisioning shows we would like to put on there, then we went back down the other side of the mountain to realize that was in fact the theatre we had been looking for. Good for us! But now we were on the other side of the mountain and didn’t really know how to get back, so we kept asking people, who pointed us all over, but eventually we found our way back to the palace to the bus back to the hostel.

As it was our last night together in Salzburg, we decided to go out for traditional Austrian food at a place called the Augustiner Bar. Before the left the hostel, we met a girl named Grace, who was spending her summer nannying in Gratz, and was just in Salzburg for the next day. At the Augustiner, I had a sausage, a cheese dumpling in a chicken-type broth, a pretzel, and a home-brewed Augustiner beer. At this place, we met a group of guys from Germany who were studying music who we ended up hanging out with for the rest of the night.

When the Augustiner turned off their lights, we knew it was closing time, so we headed back toward downtown to Nauri’s favorite bar in Salzburg, the Irish Pub called Shamrocks.  Shamrocks was such a fun place. I had a creepy old man try to dance with me, then I had another creepy old man dance with me, and finally I had one of the German guys dance with me; finally someone my own age, opposed to all these older men! After Shamrocks, we walked back to the hostel and called it a night.

Look! A Castle

The next morning I got up and at breakfast. At breakfast I made friends with another woman from Australia, this was a woman in her 50s who was traveling for 7 weeks. She was adorable, in a feisty way. She was traveling by herself and clearly just wanted to talk, so I just listened as she told me her life story. I really do love meeting new people and I don’t know why but people love to tell me their life stories, so its win-win!

When I finished talking to the Aussie, I set off to the train station to catch a train leaving Cologne to go to Mannheim to end up in Heidelberg. The girl in my room from the night before had recommended it to me and it sounded cool, so I said, “why not?” and went. I arrived in Mannheim and took the train to Heidelberg the first time, but got off at the stop too early. Thinking that was all Heidelberg had to offer (fields) I went back to Mannheim. I asked the people at the information desk, and told me I had simply gotten off too early, so I got back on the train to Heidelberg and got off at the correct stop. Then I stored my luggage a locker at the train station and went off to explore.

There is a castle in Heidelberg, so I took the public bus to the area closest to the castle, then hiked a mountain to get the castle itself. It is a beautiful place. Today, it is mostly ruins, but you can still see how beautiful it must have been in its former glory. Doing what I always do, I randomly joined a group of Asain tourists who looked like they knew what they were looking at and ended up in the castle gardens; absolutely stunning!

Once I figured I had seen all there was to the castle, I hiked back down the hill, and toured a little bit of the city. I walked around the market, entered City Hall, found a church, walked across the bridge, which is the start of the Philosopher’s trail, and looked at the time to realize if I didn’t leave soon I was going to miss my train to Salzburg, Austria where I had booked my hostel for that night. I took the bus back to the train depot, collected my luggage and hopped on the train back to Mannheim. By the time I got there I had missed my train, but luckily the train pass I have is open ended, so it doesn’t matter what time I take a train. I went to information to ask fastest way to get to Salzburg only to find out I had to go back to Heidelberg and take a direct train from there….WahWah. Oh well. I guess I just really love going to-and-from Heidelberg from Mannheim.

Train ride to Salzburg was uneventful; I rolled into the city around 10:30pm and took a bus to my hostel. It was funny because I was walking around with this slip of paper with directions and an address to my hostel, and went to this large light up building asking them where my hostel was and they were like “Are you Janice?” They had been waiting for me since 6pm when I had originally said I’d be checking in, and this large building was, in fact, my hostel! JUFA hostel in Salzburg is by far, the best hostel I have ever stayed in. I knew I was going to like Salzburg, even before I got there for it’s the setting for the Sound of Music, but I had no idea just how much I was going to like it. The hostel was super nice with its friendly staff, large rooms, free WIFI, free breakfast, overall wonderful. I got checked into another 8 all female room, but again there were only 2 other girls in the room. One was a girl who had spent the year studying abroad in Salzburg and was now back to say her goodbyes before she left to return to the US (Brenna), and the other was a girl who was traveling Europe for 2 months and had already visited Salzburg, but had fallen in love with it (Nauri). Once I got acquainted with them, I went upstairs sent out some emails, and went to sleep.

You'd Think The Locals Would Smell Better

Tuesday, May 17^th I got up early and showered. Then, I went downstairs and ate breakfast. Went back upstairs to make sure everything was packed and sent out my final updates/ emails to loved ones letting them know what the situation was; where I was going, that I was still safe, etc.  When I went downstairs with all my stuff (my backpack, my black duffel, and my purse, I was leaving my rolling suitcase with the Piette’s), they were all tears. Being the food pusher that she is, Madame Piette made me 4 sandwiches so I wouldn’t go hungry on the train. Then, we said our farewells. Despite the fact that I will be back in their house in June, they will be doing some jet setting of their own in the Canary Islands, so unless they come visit the US or I return to Beligium this would be the last time that I saw them for a while. They were so cute. They kept asking me if I had everything. Monsieur Piette kept reminding me to keep my passport and money in my front pocket, and Madame Piette kept trying to find more food to leave me with. Just as they were telling me to keep safe, I clumsily fell out the door landing on the pavement outside their house, giving them a lot of faith in my solo travels. Once I got back up, we all just laughed, hugged, and parted ways. I will never forget the Piette’s and their crazy, odd habits.

I then took the metro, where my MOBIB had finally run out so I had to buy a ticket, to Arts Loi/ Kunst Wet (and giggled like a 13 year old boy like I always do), and transferred, arriving at Gare de Midi. There I hopped on a train to Cologne. The train ride was fine. I met a girl from Taiwan who was also using a eurail train pass, so we chatted for a while about where to visit, where we’ve visited, and where we were going to visit. Before I knew it, it was 12:25pm and I was in Cologne, so I said best of luck to the girl, and went off in search of my hostel called the Black Sheep hostel.

It was a nice enough hostel, I was in an 8 bed female room, but I lucked out and only had 2 other girls in the room, not 7. I dropped off my bags, and decided to go exploring, first stop was the Dom Cathedral. Apparently, Cologne is known for two things among Europeans: this great Dom Cathedral and a great gay scene. I only noted the Dom.

Apparently, it took 600 years to complete the Dom. It was originally established to be the home of the relics of the Three Magi. Once I finished admiring both the inside and outside of the church, I went to the tourist office to ask what they suggest I should see. The office was quite unhelpful, so I just sat there for while looking at the map trying to decide what looked like fun. I walked around the Dom and ended up outside the Ludwig Museum and the Roman/ German Museum. Then decided to follow some elderly people in a pack who looked like they knew where they were going, and ended up at St. Martin’s. From there, I followed another couple of old people and ended up following the Rhine River. I followed it back to the Dom. Silly me, getting lost in Cologne. Well, from there I went to St. Angnes church, St. Ursula church, and I’m pretty sure another church. I also ended up at City Hall. Since I neither speak nor read German, I got thoroughly confused at times. I do know that I ended up at the Cologne City Museum, where I learned a little about Cologne’s history.

After the museum, I sat on a bench and called my parents just to let them know I was ok and all was well. When I got off the phone, I went back to the tourist information and inquired what shows were playing that night. The man at the desk tried to help me, but since he wasn’t a big theatre goer himself, it posed as a problem. I decided I would just walk to the opera house and see what was up. Good thing I did because students can purchase any ticket they want an hour before the show for only 6 euros. So, I bought a ticket to see the opera “Mamma Mafia” in the 5^th row back, dead center.

“Mamma Mafia” was a weird show. It was about the history of the mafia, but for part of the opera it was mostly silent with the men acting out and teaching the audience all the secreat movements and hand gestures that the mafia gives to one another to kill someone, and the second act was full of the men wearing Nixon masks and dancing in their boxers around the “Mamma” figure who was dressed in a black leotard with a tutu in the colors of the Italian flag. Very odd! To be fair, it probably would have made more sense if I spoke German, but since I don’t, I was, for the most part, confused.

Once the opera had finished I walked back to the Dom, passed by the 1477 Cologne Perfume store, and took the underground back to my hostel. There I met the two girls who were staying in my room. One was from Austraila and was spending 2 months just exploring Germany, and the other was from Indonesia and was traveling Europe for 2 weeks. The girl from Australia was much more outgoing and told me all sorts of cool places to visit and we just chatted. She was so nice! Eventually, I was so tired from having traveled from Brussels and walking all day, I just conked out and fell asleep.

So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good night

Ok so here’s the deal, on Monday, May 16^th, 2011 both my roommates Cayla and Jiemin left. Since I still had to get my life together, aka plan out where I wanted to go I stayed another night at the Piette’s. Monday was a melancholic day; it was dreary outside, slightly raining, still warmish with a freezing cold rain. Madame Piette drove us to the airport to drop off Jiemin, which was so cute! I cried when we parted ways. Then, we got back to the Piette’s, Cayla grabbed her stuff, and she and I took the metro to Gare de Midi, where we parted ways. She was going to travel to London for a few days with a friend from VeCo (that’s what we call Vesalius College, the school I attended in Brussels), and then she was going to Paris to travel with her Mom and sister. Precious!

Needless to say, having to say goodbyes has not been my favorite thing to do this past year, and yet I have somehow managed to have to say goodbye to everyone. The goodbyes started first in May, when I had to say goodbye to friends from Beloit who I wouldn’t be seeing until senior year. Then in August, I had to say goodbye to my family and friends from home. Next in January when I had to say farewell to Magic Kingdom and all the new friends I had made there. And now it was May 2011 and I was saying goodbye to Belgium friends.  The good thing about this year is I have met so many new people! I can honestly say I have a friend in every single one of the fifty states, and I have friends sprinkled all over Europe.  Pretty cool!

But I digress from what I was beginning to tell the story of.  So I said my goodbyes to the last of my friends abroad, stayed inside packing, and pretended to plan out my trip. By the end of the day, I had finally decided on a starting point for my travels: Cologne, Germany.

I chose Cologne purely because it was only a 2-hour train ride, I knew various other friends who had visited it and liked it, and the hostels there seemed pretty cheap. I didn’t choose it because I knew anything about it, no, I chose it because others had talked about it.

So Monday night, I had my last dinner with the Piette’s, some sort of chicken dish. I love the Piette’s more than anything, but Madame Piette is a food pusher. She loves to cook, but hates the thought of having leftovers. Now, it seems as though she had forgotten that Jiemin and Cayla had already left for she made the same amount of food for 5 people, but for only 3 of us. Once I had finished my first plate and was feeling quite full, I take a sip of water to realize she is putting more food on my plate saying, “Eat. Eat.” What a lady!

After dinner, I went back upstairs had a brief freak out about my month of adventure. I kept wishing I was just going home like everyone else, not going traveling by myself for an entire month, but my mother and the Crescent Club convinced me I had committed to this adventurous plan last year, and I was on the home stretch there was no point in turning back now. Of course, they were right, but at the time, I was such a mess. I didn’t have a plan. This was the first time I had no plan whatsoever. Generally I have some idea of what I’m going to do, but this time nope. I knew I was going to Berlin to meet with Alissa and EuroDisney with Hilary, but that was it, otherwise it was just me. So I put on my matching Belgium t-shirt my roommates and I all have, and I watched an episode of Grey’s and said, “Well it’s happening. I’m leaving tomorrow for Cologne and I’ll just go from there,” and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing!

A Month of Adventures!

[I just want to preface this by apologizing for not yet updating you on the rest of Spring Break 2011 and the end of my Brussels semester, but since I remember this now, I will update this. Then go back once I am updated with today.]

It all began last July when I was planning out my Year of Adventure. I was trying to decide when I should buy my return ticket from Belgium, when various family and friends persuaded me that I should take some time after my semester abroad ended to travel the continent known at Europe. Needless to say, it didn’t take long to convince me that an extra month traveling would be the best way for me to spend my days.  And so, last July I booked my return ticket to the US for June 14^th.

In my semester abroad (my Erasmus year as its called in Europe) I did a lot of traveling; both around the continent and in Belgium. Just to give you a recap of some of the places that I visited, in case you haven’t been following my blog from the very start, or if I still haven’t gotten around yet to posting some of these travels):

• Brussels, Belgium (well, obviously I traveled and got to know the city, its where I lived for the past 5 months)
• Antwerp, Belgium (with my roommates, Cayla and Jiemin, and Elana and Alison) 
• Liege, Belgium (with Annie, Ari, Danis, and Jackie)
• Trier, Germany (with my ART class)
• Bruges, Belgium (with my ART class)
• Antwerp, Belgium (yep went there twice, this time with my ART class)
• Amsterdam, Netherlands (I went by myself to meet up with the lovely Katherine Francis)
• Paris, France (with my lovely Mother and Aunt Barb)
• Brighton, United Kingdom (with Stacy)
• Oslo, Norway (with Elisa)
• Paris, France (with my ART class)
• Brussels, Belgium (its listed twice because this is when Alisa and Gaffey came to visit, and exploring the city with them was a trip in it of itself. This is also during the same time that Mom and Aunt Barb were here too!)
• Venice, Italy (with Christy, Kelly, Katie, and Maisah for Spring Break)
• Cinque Terre, Italy (with Christy, Kelly, Katie, and Maisah for Spring Break)
• Rome, Italy (with Christy, Kelly, Katie, and Maisah for Spring Break, there we also met up with Elisa and Casey)
• Athens, Greece (with Christy, Kelly, and Katie for Spring Break, there we met up with Maddy)
• Aegina, Greece (with Christy, Kelly, and Katie for Spring Break)
• Amsterdam, Netherlands (with my ART class)
• Waterloo, Belgium (with Meaghan and Casey)
• Ostend, Belgium (with Cayla and Jiemin)

 What a semester! Now, I’m off on a month long journey of traveling.

Traveling Europe

So I realize that I haven't finished spring break or the rest of Beligum yet, but I will! Promise!
For the moment though, I just wanted to let you all know that I am leaving Brussels today off for a month of adventure returning to the US in mid June.

I am starting off my trip in Cologne, Germany, and from there taking it day by day. I know I'll be in Berlin and EuroDisney for part of the trip!

Hope your having a magical day and wish me luck!
Here I go!
Janice