First of all
The red button above your head means stop. It stops the bus.
Germany
We left at one in the morning and took a bus to gatwick airport in London. Then we caught the plane to Munich!! Kirsten was super excited cause she found a magazine all about the hunger games at the airport!
Incredibly beautiful view watching the sunrise above the clouds. I have never ever seen anything like it. It was so magnificent that it was almost hard to watch cause I couldn't fully absorb it's beauty. It's nice to think that God lives in that environment all the time. Wow. The clouds were so fluffy and with so many colors! The trip could not have started off better.
Cameron getting interrogated on Germany and we got escorted through the airport. He tried to bribe the guy into pretending to tackle him in front of us but sadly that didn't work out. What a story that would have been!
Fart cap at cafe dachau. Yes there is a cafe at the concentration camp even though we were pretty sure there wouldn't be.
My dog will totally destroy your dog - Cam
Yeah probably But my dog will know more literature - Stacy
Honduras email with good news!
Grocery store with chocolate bananas and cheap German twix bars
Went to hofbrahaus beer hall and had great potato salad and bock wurst and ice cream and awful mineral sparkling water.
Friday
Made breakfast and packed lunches
Out to castle (schloss) Neuschwanstein
Uphill buns of steel
Picnic
Mary's bridge and lots of photos
Run back down to catch bus!
Went to gardens and walked around in the dark - sketch city
Marienplatz and ate at Biergarten -great food and pear strudel
Back to hostel and chilled
Caught train to Vienna
Vienna
Managed to get off train at right location even though we were all in different cars with strange language.
Wait outside hostel
Meet drunk and play kick the can
Sleep!!!
Market - scarves and lots of dried food and good chocolate
Shonbrunn place and wander around and take pictures
Opera house and ballet
Awesome random place to eat after getting lost! Huge pizza and baklava
Legs of iron, abs of bronze and buns of steel
Vienna boys choir
Starbucks
St Stephens cathedral
Crazy guy yelling in the metro - nothing more terrifying than someone yelling at you in a different language!
Out to Danube island. Swan encounter. Most jank kiddie play area I have ever seen.
Play and take pics in colorful bench things.
Bathroom adventure and creepy man voice on speaker in restroom.
Music and silence museum
Dinner at weinerwald restaurant
Back to hostel for chill time
Don't forget wombat free drinks!
Flash the world!
Bus to Praha - It is a miracle we have found all the necessary train stations and bus stops at the right times in a foreign country and language. Thank you lord.
Prague
Word of the day: interesting
Buildings in Prague are like a poetry anthology - Stacy
All so different and packed with so much intricacy and detail
Escorted out of bus station
Could not find here arrow on the map - need to practice with Waldo more
Walked to find apartments and found right place but no key and no one there. Looked like we would be homeless for a while. Went to the ibis hotel and called apartments and found the guy with the key! Apartment was posh! Jackson and I tricked the guys that it was jank and I was so proud I pulled it off! They had trailed us from in front? Interesting.
We were all so pumped that we found our place to stay that it took us a long time to fall asleep. Party til the AM!!
We slept in the next morning and then walked around old town square eating and souvenir shopping. Really sweet buildings and steeples in old town square. Ate a langrose for my first meal which is like a pizza with ketchup and cheese and garlic on it. A large version of a pizza lunch able. Surprisingly tasty. They also served hot wine kinda like Wassel- interesting.
Prague has more souvenir shops than anywhere else I have ever seen. And they had good gifts! Plus it felt like the money was monopoly money so it left my hands quickly! Things were oddly priced too. T shirts and paintings were like the same as a fancy meal.
Roamed around kind of on our way to the hall of mirrors but never got there.
Along the way we found: pee sculpture, a grocery store, the John Lennon wall, a huge hill and lots of incredible views overlooking the city. We committed to climbing and we went as far up as we could go. Cameron the wilderman slipped and got his bum all muddy going down part of the hill. We wont tell vance tho so he can keep his wilderman card. We stumbled upon a posh restaurant and ate while we overlooked the city lights at night. It even had a fire! We split a really great dessert between the four of us with pineapple ravioli and chocolate cake and creme brûlée. We walked back across charles bridge and saw the city and the castle in the distance all lit up at night. The boys went and did a ghost tour of the city after that and the girls had girls night! We had a second dessert and got massive crepes. Best one I have ever had! Chocolate and strawberry. Now that I think about it we could say that this trip centered around eating lots of chocolate! We devised the perfect plan to trick the guys into believing that we lost Kirsten. We got in place for operation stinker and waited for the guys to return. Sadly they didn't believe us with the Kirsten thing but they did believe that I had gotten bird poop in my hair and had to take a shower. At least part of what we thought was a brilliant plan was believable.
Then we wet out to a jazz club and listened to some incredible music in a great atmosphere. One of my favorite parts of Prague. They feel the music and it is evident in the joy and improv they play with.
After the jazz club we went back to our posh apartment and stayed up talking until three am. I crocheted half of Lindsay's scarf! I definitely think better when my hands are kept busy. Deep conversations and crocheting is where it's at.
On Tuesday :( our last day. We woke up and made breakfast in our wonderful kitchen! To make things even better we had eggs and toast and tea! I have come to the conclusion that eggs will be a part of my life til the day I die and I will always love them!
Then we traversed the city to Prague castle - we never once had to take the metro! Yay! - and bought a ticket to tour the whole area.
The windows in the st. Vincent's cathedral alone were worth the price of the ticket. They were painted mosaic and stained and the rose window was painted and one of the largest in central Europe. My mind was blown! Blog all about stained glass coming up soon! Pictures just cannot capture what we saw there and in the streets of Prague as a whole.
So next we got boondaggled because our ticket said we could go up into one of the cathedral towers but when we got there they make you buy another ticket fortune same price just for the tower! No way! What a crock. We had seen incredible views of the city the night before so we did not go for that. The rest of Prague castle was cool but not much compared to neuschwanstein castle. Nothing will beat that one for me!
We Happened to arrive at the right time to watch the changing of the guard in front of the castle and later found it was a pretty big deal. Very similar to the Ones outside of buckingham palace and others around Europe.
Then we walked back to the old town square to grab some food. It was so cool to have our apartment right by the gothic steeples that you can see from the whole city. I got a czech dessert roll kinda like a cinnamon roll except better! Then we toured the cathedral next to our house and lit a candle for Kait's mom. She is not forgotten and neither is Kait even though she went back home for a time. God be with her.
Chocolate museum here we come and we saw our good friend charlie again who gave us free hot chocolate coupons. He said he recognizes Americans by our friendly smiles and white teeth :) he ran to give me a hug when we left today. He spoke seven languages!! We saw how chocolate was made and got free samples. Jackson and Cameron showed me lil chocolate duckies thy had for Easter but I resisted buying them. So proud of myself! I took pics with them tho.
We walked around the town square one more time and someone told us about a restaurant on the second floor of a building overlooking the square. We went for it and never would have found it on or own. The best things that we do tend to come when we are not looking for them. I had soup and mashed potatoes :) and I was able to save every coin denomination to give to Michael for his money collection! I can't wait to show him and explain them all to him.
Then we said goodbye to the apartment and roamed the streets of Prague again looking for the office to return the key. It was quite an adventure finding the bus station and then the right bus out to the airport from there. Let's just say we are getting really good at looking for certain signs and navigating based on signs when there are language barriers. I think alot of chance is on our side too and we just roll with our gut feelings. Go team!! So proud!! Best teamwork I have experienced yet this semester and even times of confusion were so filled with joy.
Things we learned: how to make chocolate and how to traverse gigantic hills and how to commit to decisions to climb them.
Steven - always wants a travel buddy :)
Kirsten - where is she?? Lost??
Jackson - your bus is that way but we are going this way
Lisa - I told you not to do that while shaking her head and laughing when Jackson committed and slipped on the rock at Danube island.
Stacy - I have band aids :) put it in my backpack. Cameron hates everything stacy loves.
Megan - yeah you are! Tell me my hair is luscious!
Cameron - I don't wanna! ( complete with shoulder slouch) Par cor! I'm a wilderman!
Me - flash the world! With my sweet under fanny pack so no worries :)
Headed back to Oxford and ready to be home. I loved every minute of this travel break and I cannot believe it is already over. Thanks to the best group ever and to God for giving the world these beautiful places and for blessing us with the ability to experience them.
6 days, 3 cities, 2 castles, 1 jazz club and countless death threats between Kirsten and Jackson.
Extended version 5 beds and 4 cathedrals. Bam!
Chips from Ali's and chillin in the common room. Still on vacation.
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