Vienna

Vienna was a nice little trip, and the hostel was really cool as well! We stayed right next to the Naschmarkt, which is a really big area full of outdoor restaurants and food vendors. 

One of the days we went to the Stephen's cathedral downtown and went up the tower.

And we also went to the museums area.  Vienna is well know for it's museums that have been around for many many years. I went to the natural history museum which actually had an exhibit with plasticized real dead bodies. They were most often times striped of skin to show muscle and various internal parts of the body. It was actually super interesting and I was less uncomfortable with it than I thought I would be.

This is the picture of the museum.

The next day we went out to the palace, which was awesome! The palace, gardens, and fountains were really cool.

I think we walked around for probably a good 3 hours, so it was pretty big and really awesome!

We then walked around the city some more to see some of the other sites. And that night we found out about a free open air music festival with a bunch of different stages and bands.  So we enjoyed some beer by the canal.

My friends from school (back from left: Lisa, Kate, Sam, and Logan and in the front is a guy named Leighton from Australia that we have been randomly meeting up with since Köln.)

After the beer we danced!

And then danced some more!

Now we are off to Munich so I can hopefully break in my lederhosen! I feel it's only fitting that it is done there!

Leipzig and Prague

So we made it to Leipzig! I was actually quite glad we went to Leipzig.  I didn't really know anything about the city so I wasn't super excited, but it turned out to be a great time!  Leipzig was actually home to Bach for many years and is where he conducted a boys choir.  So we were lucky enough to be in Leipzig during the time they have their annual Bachfest!

So this was the plaza in the middle of town that they set up for free concerts.  They also had concerts at other places around the city as well but most of those you had to pay for, and were actually pretty expensive. The first concert we went to was with an orchestra and a high school aged choir.

One of the days we went out to Europe's biggest memorial. It's huge, and I think has to do with a battle that happened with Napoleon.

Then that night we went to another free concert in the plaza. It was awesome! I think the name of the band was Aufgang.  They are two pianists and a drummer who do techno and funk music with classical music.  I don't really know for sure if they do remixes of Bach or not, but either way it was sweet! Look them up!

So I did promise beer when I first started this blog, and I kind of forgot about it. But as promised some beers that I sampled while in Leipzig!

All quite tasty!

The next day we traveled to Prague. I went to Prague last summer and it was awesome then, so I was excited to go back!  Prague is a great historic city and has loads of the old buildings still around. 

It is also home to a quite large castle, but isn't quite the typical type you would think of.

So that's the castle with a cathedral in the center up on top of the hill. I took the picture from the Charles Bridge which dates back to either the 1200s or 1400s I think.

And here is a view of the skyline from up on the castle hill.

We are now heading over to Vienna to continue with our travels!

Berlin, Stockholm, and an Italian wedding!

I have since finished my last week in Berlin, been to Stockholm, and an Italian wedding!

One of the last things I did while in Berlin was visit the zoo there! I always enjoy the zoo!

I then traveled up to Sweden to visit a friend! I took a few pictures of the city from an over look place.

Stockholm was a lot of fun! I also felt like I fit right in with all the blonde haired people! Pretty much everybody there spoke English, even more so than Germany. In fact it almost seemed like they would take offense if you thought they didn't speak English. This was quite the opposite of Germany.

One of the days we took a ferry ride to the royal palace and had a picnic in the park behind it.

Another day we celebrated the Swedish national day! It was quite fun to meet some new people and eat some Swedish food!

There are meatballs, sausages, different kinds of herring including pickled (yumm!), and a concoction of hard boiled eggs with a mayo, fish egg goop on top (pretty good stuff). I unfortunately don't have a picture of my friend Sandra who I stayed with, but I hope to be getting one from off her camera.

Next I traveled to Italy! The Italians I met were really great people, though not many spoke English so it was difficult to speak with them. Also, apparently I was all the rage at the wedding I went to.  The Italian women seem to really like tall blonde people! The only down side was that I never knew they were talking about me because of the language barrier... Bummer

This was the small B & B I stayed at, which had a pretty awesome view as seen below!

This was the church that the wedding took place. It was probably the fastest wedding I've ever seen, couldn't have been more than 15 minutes. I assume it was basically "Do you take him/Do you take her? Yes? OK sweet, kiss, now lets eat and drink wine!"

So that's what we did at the reception! I think I ate more food that day than I ever have in my life! We had appetizers before the meal, then 2 courses of 2 plates of food each, and a full plate of desert!

The food was great, and all of it washed down with wine and more wine!

I should include a picture of the happy couple.

They were very very kind to me, both for inviting me to the wedding, and letting me experience Italy. I really didn't know how to thank them enough for the experience I had.

After the wedding weekend I traveled to Köln to meet up with some friends from school. Köln is home to the very famous Köln Dom.

We climbed to the viewing spot taking a totally of 509 steps.. It was exhausting, but quite worth it!

We are now headed to Leipzig for more fun and adventure! So, until next time!