Vienna, Budapest, Prague and a rest!

After Salzburg we left for Vienna which was amazing! Our first day there we were given a tour of the city by Dr. Schnabel which was very entertaining! Not only was the information helpful but thanks to to his historical outfit, we got to see a lot of confused passer bys which was hilarious. Seeing the city was amazing because I never realized how much history occurred in Vienna that I had no idea about! Emporers and empires that created museums, schools and hospitals. Or even censoring some statues along the way. We went to see Freud's house, saw a string quartet concert, and we even went to a mad house turned disease museum with some really cool cadavers. The time there was a whirlwind of learning and exploring but my favorite parts were going to the museum of natural history and the gigantic library!  I loved the museum because there were 3 giant rooms just of birds! Which I love! And there were some really interesting looking ones too. Not only were there birds but also multiple rooms for mammals and my favorite of that was the whale room because I had never seen whale skeletons. The library was also one of my favorites because it was so gigantic. It reminded me of that scene in Beauty and the Beast where the beast gives belle that gigantic library and I can say that I had the same feeling walking into this place. The walls were lined with books reaching as far back as the 15th century, some even farther. There were swirly staircases, giant globes and even a secret reading room.

After Vienna, Callie and I left for Budapest, which has been my second favorite city next to Salzburg. First, getting there was a hassle because we walked all the way to our hostel next to sketchy buildings and then carry our luggage up 3 flights of stairs. So after that we realize that there was an elevator and that our actual living space was about 3 blocks back from where we walked from. But it was all worth it because we went to a natural fed spring which was the most relaxed I have been during this trip. However, there were too many fat old men wearing speedos for my taste. Either way, it was amazingly relaxing. The next day we traveled around the city and rode the metro which looked like it was out of the 1920s, wooden and shaky and scary. We visited the St.Stephen Basilica which was utterly beautiful, and actually built pretty recently compared to most of the churches we had seen. We then got ice cream that was shaped into a rose! And they had raspberry flavor! We then went to the parliment building, across the bridge and took a tour around the palace turned art museam. It was a full day and we still didn't see everything. So we have a reason to go back. The food was incredible!! That evening I had a skewer with roasted onion, spicy sausage and chicken over scalloped potatoes. I also had a budapest mule with my meal that was delicious. That night we actually went to a concert and thanks to the concert we say in Vienna we had appropriate clothing! This concert was my favorite because 1) it was at the St. Stephen Basilica and 2) it had 2 organs, a trumpeter and a mezzo-soprano. I truly had no idea how many different Ave Marias there were. The acoustics were amazing in this place! Afterwards we went to an outdoor club in the middle of an open park and I had a drink called a Violetta which was super pretty.

Finally, we left for Prague, which was a very long train ride. Prague has so far been my least favorite city, mostly because it was so crowded and the servers at restaurants were not kind. However, the fast food people were extremely kind! I didn't get to see much because I got there late but even so I had fun with the group. That night we went to what was the "best club in europe" with 5 floors, each with a different type of music. It was fun for awhile but it got very crowded after awhile and we left. Overall, Prague was underwhelming but still pretty. It did make me miss Bonn alot more however! 

I was so happy to be back in Bonn today after traveling for over a week. And now we are off to Hannover and Nordeney tomorrow! I can't wait for the sea and the massages!