Adventures in scotland

Friday morning we woke up and the sky was grey, we decided to stay around Bridge of Allan and Stirling (the next neighboring town), and where she goes to university.
First we had some tea, made some breakfast and took our time getting ready to brave the weather.
We walked around Amy's campus which we absolutely beautiful for about an hour. There is a lake in the middle of the campus full of swans and little black ducks. It was sprinkling the whole time and there were little natts everywhere. Some other cool things on her campus included an indoor swimming pool, a golf course, and a castle.

Swans!

View from campus

Monument in the background

After we took the bus into Stirling, we walked to the castle (yes another castle), walked around town and found a cute cafe for lunch. After we went to the mall because it was just too miserable to be sightseeing outside. I tried some ironbru which is really popular form of soda in the UK, and got a dress at Primark.

Church in Stirling

Beautiful grave yard

Feel like I am living on trains

We decided to head back early and take a nap before heading out for the night. After some rest we made pasta for dinner, and went to the local brewery in town for some home brew cider and a game of dominos. After the brewery we heeded back into Stirling to go to the night club called dusk. We showed up and were just about the only people there and not many people ever really showed up. But it was still fun!

Saturday we took the train into Edinburgh, where Amy toured me around, and shared the knowledge that she had with me. We just wondered around. We walked to the castle, admired the mountain (that we talked about climbing but had ran out of time), walked around a grave yard, and went to the national museum of Scotland. At the museum we played in the child section, and loved admiring the different animals.

Edinburgh

Found an empty square

Bag Pipes, how Scottish, hahah

Lions!

Museum 

Coffee shop where harry potter was written on napkins...

After the museum we went to dinner at a little pub that Amy had been to once before and I got the steak and ale tip. It was tasty but a little salty. After we found our way back to the train station in the cold and grabbed some ice cream for later. Again we chatted until midnight and just had so much fun reminiscing.

Amy had to work this morning so I found my way to the train station and am currently on my way to Edinburg to catch a train to Newcastle.

Time to get me some fish and chips

Today I start my 9 day adventure though the UK, I packed up my things, obviously more then I needed for 9 days cause I haven't learned the definition of "packing light" and was off. First a bus to Bratislava, then a plane to Edinburgh, then a bus to the city center and finally a train out to Bridge of Allan where I met Amy, who I will be staying with :)

Ready to GO!

What they actually stamped my passport!?!

After getting off the plane it was so nice to hear everyone speaking English! I remember buying my airport bus ticket to the city and saying to the ticket seller it's so nice to hear English!
The UK are very strict with who enter there territory, I actually got my passport stamped 2 times in one day. I was pretty excited about that.

After arriving at Amy's a family friend from years past that is working on her masters here. We walked to her apartment has some girl bonding and went to dinner. We ate dinner at a really cute diner just about 5 minutes away from where she lives and we split two meals, the traditional fish and chip, and something called haggis, which is some form of sheep, liver, kidney, heart.., or something like that. It was delicious non the less.

Fish and chips!

Afterwards we heeded to the grocery store to grab some breakfast food and wine. We went back to her apartment and had some wine and chocolate and just chatted the night away.

Weekend in Krakow Poland!

This weekend I went with about 100 other students from Vienna to Krakow, Poland for a packed weekend full of sightseeing, laughter, and history.

We got on the bus at 6:00 a.m. on Thursday morning and were off. Little did I know how long the bus ride really was...

We stopped about 5 times on the way to the brewery, just about every hour we made a stop and this created an unnecessarily long trip. We arrived at the Tyskie Brewery around 2 for a tour. I enjoyed the tour but, once you see once brewery I feel like you have seen them all.

Yumm

Cute truck 

entrance to the brewery 

We arrived in Krakow about 6:30 and were ready for dinner, so we dropped out stuff at the hostel and headed to Chata for dinner. We had preordered dinner so the first night I had Bigos, then pork chops, and finally pierogies :)

Friday we had breakfast at Gospoda Koko (we ate here ever morning), then we had a sight seeing tour of the city. We walked around beautiful parks and checked out the Historic center, and cathedral.

Cool ceiling

Friends chillin on the bench

All the girls infront of the dragon

Lauren and I

Such a beautiful day

Jumping picture

After the walking tour we had a little bit of free time before heading to the Wieliczka salt mine. We drove just over an hour to get to the mine, when we got there we took a tour of 20 chamber, an extraordinary chaple, and saw lots of salt, but not before walking down 380 steps...

Afterwards we ate dinner in the restaurant, which was pretty cool to think we were around 300 meters below ground.

Salt Mine

SALT

Church 300 meters below ground

Water tunnel

Dinner time

Friday night I decided to stay in so on Saturday I could wake up early and head to the market. Krakow is the 3rd cheapest city in Europe so of course I had to do some shopping :)
I got some breakfast at a coffee shop and went straight for the jeweler. Unfortunately the shoe stores weren't open yet and we had to be back at the hostel at 10 to leave for Auschwitz.

Castle

Breakfast of champs

Market

Being artsy

Saturday during the day we went on a tour of Auschwitz death camp in Oswiecim. All I can say is, wow... I can't believe that this much terror is in the world. Such a scary, and shocking eye opener. We are lucky to live in the time that we do. Most of us kept our sunglasses on the entire tour to hid the tears and emotions shed underneath.

Camp

People came from EVERYWHERE

So Sad

Glasses the people brought with them

Memorial

After arriving back in Krakow, we ate dinner and prepared for a night out! We played games in a hostel down the street from ours that had a pool table and a bar. We laughed and danced until we left for the club. It was really fun to be with everyone from vienna in another country. We just had a great time, ended up dancing until around 4 a.m. in the morning.

Kathleen and I ready for a night on the town

Late night Pierogies in Poland

Sunday we woke up had breakfast and headed back to vienna. Lauren and I didn't want the breakfast they provided so we struggled to find a grocery store that was open on a sunday morning, but finally succeeded and loaded up on snacks for the ride home, making it back to vienna in record time... 8 hours! haha easy for me to say I am sick of sitting.

What a great weekend it was, and I am truly looking forward to my next adventure to the UK on thursday.

Beautiful day for exploring, and picture taking

Monday and Tuesday were full of class and group projects. Boring..
So today I got up fairly early and just explored Vienna and all its beauty!

First was breakfast on the patio with Claudia (Megan's pet flower, I am babysitting while she is in Germany).  Then it was off to the city center to tour around the gardens and room the streets. I found some unique shops and a ended up taking a nap in volksgarden. I think I might have gotten some color today. Such a great day here in Vienna.

Meet Claudia

Happy its sunny

Apparently I didn't get the lilac memo

My room with the beautiful sunshine

Waiting for the tram

Too early for others to be out

Except for birds 

Rathaus

Parliment

Garden infront of Mozart statue

Mozart basking in the sun

Yummy delicious salad for lunch

Just a sign I came across 

And for dinner
Broccolli, potato, cheese, and garlic fritters

Tomorrow I leave for Krakow, Poland with the Buddy network. So lots of international students will be travelling together. We will visit the Tyskie brewery, have a city tour, check out a salt mine. and visit Auschwitz.

Will post pictures once I return to Vienna.