Let me just start off by saying that these 10 days were probably 10 of the best of my life. The people that I traveled with were absolutely amazing and I think we laughed more than we slept. There was not 5 minutes that went by that someone didn’t crack a joke! Its an odd feeling knowing that you are experiencing something so indescribably wonderful. We left Thursday night and arrived in Berlin at 7 in the morning. The over night train was yet again an experience.. The ride was so bumpy but we all just turned up the volume on our ipods and jammed to the music while we attempted to sleep. Luckily our hostel was only a 5 minute walk from the train station. We got to the hostel and they were so confused why we were there so early even though we had put down on our reservation that we would be arriving at 7 am. Anyways we dropped our stuff off, went and got breakfast and then went on the tour of Berlin. The walking tour of Berlin was so awesome just because of how many historically significant monuments are in Berlin. We’ve learned about the things such as the Berlin wall for years and it was just really cool to actually be starring at it. I found it hysterical when our tour guide was saying how most people usually envision the wall to be much bigger- more on the scale of the great wall of china. I did not picture it to be like the great wall, but I did think that it would have been much bigger! There was this one girl on our tour who absolutely hated America and kept making all these sly remarks at us. It was so rude and obnoxious! The tour was so long and it got really cold by the end of it. We had to stop in a few stores on the walk home to warm up. That night we went to this club that had all of the best American music from the late 90’s and early 00’s. It was so much fun because a group of like 25 of us went out and it was just such a blast from the past with that music!
The next day was designated to doing and seeing things that we did not do on the tour. Oddly enough, the food that all of us miss the most from home is Mexican. Shelley found this Mexican place that was supposed to be good so we decided to check it out for lunch. We were all so excited to be having something other than Italian or German plus the Mexican was great! We went to the area of the berlin wall that was painted by famous artists and it was so cool! There were so many different designs, words, pictures and colors that it just consumed all of your attention. From there our plan was to go to the Potsdam square so we got on the metro thinking we knew where we were going…. Well after about a 20 min metro ride that started in the city, went to the city outskirts and then the sight of the high way and lots of trees was when we realized that we were not going
where we intended… We were going to the town of Potsdam not the square in the middle of Berlin…. It was just so funny!! Our next stop was Prague. I have come to love traveling by train! We had little harry potter cabins in our trainI had heard so many wonderful things about Prague, but I did not know if it could live up to my expectations. We arrive at the apartment that we all rented and it was beautiful!! It was such a nice change of pace to the hostel-living that we had been doing. We had a huge common room, little kitchen, two bathrooms for the 6 of us and then 3 bedrooms! All for 7 euro a night… unbelievable! We
were right in the middle of Old Town which was also a huge plus. That night we walked around for a little walk to get food at this authentic Czech restaurant which everyone’s dishes with meat in them looks amazing and my vegetarian risotto was subpar to say the least, but oh well! We had an early night to get up early for our walking tour in the morning. 
I thought seeing the little bit of the city that I saw in the night time was amazing, but it did not compare seeing the beauty in the day time! It was really interesting to learn about some history of the Czech Republic and Prague. We got to see all of these stunningly gorgeous buildings and we learned about how Prague has a variety of different architectural styles throughout the city. My favorite was the Charles Bridge. It was has been seen in many movies, such as the most recent mission impossible movie! Our tour guide was telling us how so many movies have been filmed in Prague but in the movie they claim that they are in Paris or some other famous European city. In the middle of our tour, they took us to get lunch at this bagel shop. Not only has everyone been deprived of any kind of bagel but these were NYC style bagel. Everyone was so excited, it was hysterical. At the end of the tour our guide suggested that we go to this bar where the taps are on the table and you get to pour yourself as much or as little beer as you want. We went there later and it was a great time! There was a big screen in the bar that showed you where you table stood compared to the other tables in the bar and to other bars around Europe!
The next day we went over the bridge to the other half of Prague. We went up to the castle which was stunning! The views from up on the hill that the castle was on had the most breath-taking views of Prague! We also went to visit the Lennon wall. It was so cool to see a little piece of music history and see the love for the Beatles that everyone has.
Our next stop was Vienna. I met up and stayed with two of my friends from University of Vermont and it was so much fun to catch up with them! We didn’t get to Vienna til later in the afternoon so once I met up with Anna and Maddie, we just got dinner with a few other kids from UVM. It was a refreshing break seeing people other than the 43 other tech students that I am with 24/7! It was really interesting to see how Anna and Maddie’s study abroad program was set up because they were living in apartment-like dorms but their roommates were people from all around the world and they also have classes with locals and other study abroad kids. Their class schedule was also one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen; one week they would have one class on Tuesday for 8 hours, but that was all the class they had for the week, so needless to say they have a lot of free time on their hands! They also started class the week that I visited them and go until the end of June! After a great dinner, we just chatted and caught up! In the morning, I went and met up with the rest of my group and guess what? It was snowing outside. We scurried around and tried to see a few things such as the palace and opera house but the weather got the best of the southerns that I was with. My friends from Vermont were like oh its just a little snow, we can still see the ground while everyone from the south were acting as though it was a huge blizzard! Quite humorous… We decided to catch an earlier train and off to Budapest we went…
We get to Budapest and around the train station was a little sketchy to say the least…and also it was super crowded!! We were all so excited to get to Budapest because I found this AMAZING hotel for so cheap for us to stay in. Well we get to the hotel and it was even better than we expected. We check in, get up to our room and we were in heaven. Not only did the man at the front desk greet me by saying my last name correctly, we walk into the room and across the TV it says ‘Welcome to the Boscolo Hotel, Ms. Schmadel’. There was also a letter personalized to me, welcoming me to the hotel. This five star hotel was about a million steps above the hostels we have been staying in. We had huge, comfortable beds and the shower was spectacular. We were all ecstatic to be living like queens for the next 2 nights! After a wonderful night sleep, we woke up and walked around for a bit and then found this awesome Mexican restaurant. Although the food and paying the bill took forever, it was a great meal! We set off to find the famous Turkish baths to relax in. We were in the location that we were told that they were in…but we didn’t see them. We walked around this hugggeee building looking for them and after doing a full 360, we realized that they were in the middle of this building haha. The baths were so soothing, it felt like it had healing water! That night was when we were celebrating our friends birthday! We all went out to dinner at a place with an unlimited food and drink menu, and it was shockingly great food! The beer tasted worse than the cheapest beer in America but the wine was good! That night, just by chance, I met a person from Summit and one who had cousins that lived in Chester! It’s a common revelation that I’ve had while studying abroad: the world is too small!
For our final day in Budapest, we decided to take advantage of the spa in our hotel. Included in the price of the room was access to many spa amenities. We got to go in this heavenly steam room and sauna as well as lay in these chair/bed things that were the most comfortable thing I have ever sat in. Unfortunately after a long day of relaxation, we had to get ready to go catch our over night train. We grabbed a bite to eat, went to the food store and got snacks for our 16 hour journey home and it was off to the train station.
We get aboard our train and it was the grossest train that we’ve been on yet. Not only did we have to wait until 10 for the conductor to fold down the middle bed so we could all finally lay down, the cabins were tiny! We made the best of it though and when we get to Zurich, we get on our train to Lugano but find out that we’ll have to change trains because part of the tracks got covered by a land slide. Well… it was not just one change of train but a change of a train to another to a bus back to a train and finally we were back in Lugano!
Now, this blog post can not even grasp just how amazing these 10 days were. But, I will definitely remember them for the rest of my life!
