Monday, June 17, 2013

WOW! Vienna is BEAUTIFUL! Auf wiedersehen, danke, prost!

The past few days I have done nothing but be a complete tourist in the beautiful city that I have called home for the past 4 months.
It is peak tourist season and the rose buds are in FULL bloom!
Only pictures can (try) to describe the beauty.

View from the mountain just on the outside of Vienna!

View the OTHER direction.. what a difference.

Viewing tower.

Volksgarden park, with the rose bushes in FULL bloom

Great place for wedding pictures!

Fountains! 
ROSES!

Yes I could hang out here ALL DAY!

LOVE 

Karlsplatz

Belvedere!

Belvedere Gardens 

So many fountians!

Fountains!

One of my lasts meals in Vienna,
Delicious milka bar thanks to a great roommate.
Yummy Radler beer
And of course a bratwurst!




And to continue on Today I went to Schoenbrunn Palace for the last time :(
And I finally went to the Zoo, which is the worlds OLDEST zoo, it was so cool!

Oldest zoo!

Monkey!

Cheetah! 

TIGER!

Elephant!

BABY giraffe 

PANDA!

KOALA!




 And Finally after all this excitement I took some Final pictures at the beautiful palace, and the grounds that surround it.



ROSES!

I have this same picture in the same place for the 3 seasons I was in Vienna! 

Just smelling the roses!

Schoenbrunn
Can't believe I called this place my home!
Beautiful Palace grounds.

Giving Vienna one last final BIG hug goodbye!


WOW! I can't believe the semester is over. I have met so many incredible people, traveled so much more then I ever would have expected, and had the time of my life! I am so grateful for everyone that supported me on this adventure! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I can't wait until the next big (or small) adventure. 
Danke, Prost, Auf Wiedersehen, das ist alles.


Friday, June 14, 2013

Leaning on the leaning tower (with everyone else)

Wednesday morning we took a bus to Pisa to check out the ever famous leaning tower of Pisa! So cool, but not much else to see or do.

We arrived and stuggled to find our hostel it took over an hour, included going into a hotel, the train station, a fish market, a backers, and the nicest old guy on his bike. After finally finding our hostel in the middle of a random neighborhood in Pisa we were greeted by the hostel worker on his mo pad. At least the hostel was nice. We only had two other girls in our room and never saw anyone else. We dropped our stuff off and headed out. Off to the tower, which was about a 40 min walk away... So naturally we made some stops first was lunch. This time I got ghonnci with 4 cheese on it and Erin got salmon penne. We celebrated the last day of our travels with a drink at lunch.
Lunchh!
Classic picture

Just leaning on the leaning tower



Wait there is more to pisa?!


After becoming refueled we headed for the tower, passing all the tourist shops and many many cloths stores, we decided they probably do good business because after seeing the tower there isn't much else to do in Pisa.

We laid on the grass in front of the tower for over an hour watching lots and lots of creative leaning tower pictures. It was nice to just relax and sit on actual grass. There were some very cute families to watch having fun and we just worked on our tan. Of course we took the the typical pictures as well.

Erin's classic tourist picture.
Such a beautiful day!
After we headed back I search of terimusu,and wow was that hard to find in Italy! But we found it and it was delicious, then it was dinner time so we used the trick we learned in Florence and went into a restaurant that served pizza and ordered a pizza to go. We split one and ate it in the plaza near the train station. It was fun to watch the locals along with many tourists.

Afterwards we headed back to our hostel and the goal for the night was to pack efficiently enough to carry on our luggage.that was a task on is own because we had both purchased some stuff in Florence. But we did it. And then it was bed time.

Erin flow out of Pisa airport this morning and I am on a bus back to Florence because I fly out of the Florence airport, back to Vienna for the last time.

Well now I am on the train into Vienna from the Vienna airport. And I got lucky today. First of all because I thought I would have to pay for luggage at the airport and secondly because I didn't think I was cruelly going to make it to the airport.

When I got on the bus to the airport I asked the guy at the station if the bus was definitely going to Florence airport and he said no because there is something wrong with the bus. Oh no I I still got on the bus because at least it would take me to the city center of Florence. There I could find a bus or train. But I wasn't sure how much time I would really have.

Once in Florence I asked once more about the airport and gave the bus guy my ticket that said I purchased from Pisa airport to Florence airport and he said... Ok get on and I got a solo ride on a couch bus to the Florence airport. :) safe to say I got lucky.

Tuscany bike/wine tour

Tuesday we decided to do a bike tour through the Tuscan hills. I found the company online and they had great reviews, so we were both really excited. We met at the bike tour shop at 10 am and were excited to see people around the same age if now a little older then us on the tour, we didn't know what to expect. And the guides were fairly young as well.

We paid for the tour and hoped in the van with 4 other people. (2 vans total). Off to the castle where the wine tour part of the day starts. We took a short tour through the wine ceilers and saw where it is stored for sometimes over 200 years. We got to go to the top of the castle and take some great pictures of the Tuscan winery and hilly landscape. Everyone on the tour was so nice and it was great to talk to other tourist and see where they have been and planning to go.

Castle
Large barrel of wine!



View from the top!
Just chilling under the Tuscan sun!
After getting our pictures we headed down the castle steps to the courtyard where glasses of red wine were waiting for us. Along with bread with olive oil from the vineyard on it. Yumm! And we haven't even started biking yet.



Wine please!
Olddd wine!


Really old "aged" winee!

Such a nice presentation!

My bikes name was Elvis! haha

Erin and her bike



After some time we went to get our bikes and have some road safety lessons. And we were on our way! The ride was going to be a total of 13 miles so not too challenging of a day with a lunch stop in the middle. We rode thought the hilly beautiful Tuscan landscape for about a half hour before arriving at a small restaurant for lunch. We had the option of three different kinds of pasta, with lots of wine, salad and bread. And even some dessert... Then it was time to hop back on the bikes, with a full stomach. Haha it was awesome. Except for the hill at the end that only the guys in the group actually made it to the top without stopping or opting to hop in the van. Even I didn't want to do the whole thing.

Beautiful wine vineyard
Once at the top we were able to get back on our bike for the remainder of the ride back to the castle. Once back at the cattle we grabbed our belongings and jumped back in the van back to Florence we go. We had such an amazing time and met the nicest people!

The group we traveled with
We all had so much fun!

We headed back to the hostel to change and rest for a bit before heading out to watch the sunset o over the river. Unfortuneltly it was a little cloudy but it was still beautiful and Erin and I found fun! We walked all the way to the top of the park and sat for a while waiting for the sun to set. Then took lots of jumping pictures the people around us were probably annoyed but we were having fun.
Beautiful Florence

I'm ready for my close up

Such a cute entrence way

Erin posing 

Too excited for life right now!

I'm ready.. are you?!

JUMP!

GO!

So beautiful!




After the sunset we headed back down into the city to find some gelato and a bridge to sit on.

Great end to a great day.