Budahate this place

- Rachel -

About to leave Budapest... and hate to say that after only a day here we want to run to the train! I can’t say that this is a fair review of Budapest because both Zach and I were in not the best moods when we arrived. First off, we were both feeling really tired both mentally and physically from traveling for the past few weeks and secondly, the train station we arrived at was a complete dump. Just a really bad first impression of Budapest. Our couch surfing host, Marcell, wasn’t going to be home until later so he suggested we keep our backpacks in the luggage lockers at the train station… we felt really unsettled about the whole situation being how run down it looked along with the type of people who were lingering around there. We ended up doing it anyways because we were NOT about to carry around our huge backpacks all day.

From there we went to McDonald’s to find wifi and plan out our day. We were further annoyed by having to pay for the bathroom, figure out a new currency, and try to order when the cashier had no idea what we were saying. Just really tipped me over the edge, more than Zach, let’s be honest he’s a pretty calm dude.... haha we make a well balanced pair. I felt better once I had some food in me though. We then went to the Buda Castle and at the top we still weren’t feeling like motivated tourists so we sat out butts down for a cup of gluhwein and hot chocolate instead (imagine that!). Probably my favorite part of the day ;) After motivating ourselves to see a little more sights we went to St. Stephen’s cathedral and then went to the Budapest ice skating rink, which is the main reason we actually went the Budapest! It was actually really fun! They blasted the Mariah Carey Christmas album as a couple hundred people skated around having a good time with friends and family! I guess it’s one of the biggest rinks in Europe for outdoor skating, so that’s cool!

After skating, we found a pizza place for dinner which was delicious! I was feeling extra hungry so Zach and I each got a pizza to ourselves! Haha my mind was definitely bigger than my stomach so Zach had to help me finish mine. The pizza that we've had so far had been so yummy! J Zach and I get pretty excited when it comes time to choose what we’re going to eat; there are just so many new things to try! After eating we were going to go to a thermal bath because Budapest is known for its thermal bath, but when we got there it was just closing :/. Meh.  Just bad luck, it closed at 8 instead of 10 that particular night. Worried about our bags all day long we decided to go back to the station and get them before we found our way to Marcell’s, which was a trip of its own. Marcell didn’t give us very good directions to his flat so it ended up taking us more than an hour to get there with our heavy bags plus Zach’s 15 pound plastic bag that had been accumulating presents as we go. Let’s just say we were extremely relieved to see Marcel’s face after an hour of wandering around. Thankfully he was a very nice guy and had a really nice place. We set our stuff down, he washed up some grapes for us and we chatted for a bit before heading to bed!

So yea, that was Budapest. Zach and I came to the conclusion that we would have liked Budapest a lot more on any other day except for the one we were there on. It was our crabby, wanna go home, I’m tired of traveling day. Hey, it was our first one so far so I’d say that we’ve been doing pretty good! Haha. Well, we are off to Prague now so that shall be grand! The train has a restaurant so I think Zach and I are gonna go and grab some lunch!

Peace and blessings,

- Rachel

Vienna

- Zach - 

Vienna was such a beautiful city! We had 5 days to spend here, and we definitely took advantage of them.

We arrived on Saturday the 21st at about 3 pm, so we had plenty of time to begin exploring the city. We didn't know much about the city, but our hostel was on one of the main drags and had a ton of shops and restaurants lining each side. So after we got situated in our room and everything we set off down the street. We discovered there was a flea market on Saturdays until 5 pm near a market known as the Naschmarkt so we veered off of the street towards there, but weren't very impressed. All of the vendors were beginning to pack up for the night, as the sun sets by 4:30 at this time of the year, but we just continued down to the famous Naschmarkt which is known for all of the different food in all of the shops. And wow, was it impressive; it had everything from watermelon (which I hadn't seen for a LONG time) and strawberries to different kinds of cheese to sheep heads. We picked up some chicken and peppers to cook up for dinner, and while we were eating, we met a few fellow travelers who invited us out with them later on in the night. They were from Canada and Australia and were traveling for MUCH longer than we were. One had been traveling for 5 months, another for 4 weeks, and another was only on week 2 of 6. Yikes. While I love traveling around Europe and everything, that amount of time would be tough to do. Although it might be easier when you don't have an entire semester's worth of clothes and 'stuff' to lug around. We went to a club called Chelsea, which played a lot of British punk-like music, so Rachel and I didn't recognize hardly any of the songs played. We left a bit early, but it was still a lot of fun!

The title of our second day should be: "Hey, here's another Christmas market!" For travelers in Vienna, there is a sort of 'ring' to walk through within the city in which you will come across most of the major sights in the city. So we figured we could start there. I'm honestly not sure how far we got due to distractions. And by distractions I mean CHRISTMAS MARKETS! We stumbled across either three or four different Christmas markets, and of course explored each of them. It would be really cool if cities in the U.S. did things like that. I mean I can't say for certain that cities don't, but I don't know of any people who take a Saturday to go down to Minneapolis-St. Paul to go to a Christmas market. They feel so festive! Gluhwein and hot chocolate became a bit of a tradition for Rachel and I at each market. They're usually pretty cheap and it'll warm you right up after being out in the cold all day. 

The markets in Vienna use real mugs too! You end up paying about 5 euro for a hot chocolate or gluhwein (hot mulled wine), but 3 of it is a deposit for the mug. We ended up keeping the mug twice haha. One is in the shape of a boot, and they both have the name of the market that we bought them at, so we figured they were pretty cool souvenirs for us. We realized that we had, so far, spent all of our time searching for gifts for our family, and hadn't bought much for ourselves at all! So we ended up treating ourselves a little bit while in Vienna. Of course while in Europe, you get pretty used to using the metro systems, and the Viennese metro system was 'essentially' free :) meaning it just wasn't very well monitored. But also in the station near our hostel, there was a 24 hour shop called U3 which had MOUNTAIN DEW! That's been one of the things I have craved on many occasions while over here in Europe. And this was the first place I found it where it wasn't crazy expensive. So I bought 4 :) One thing I also learned while in Vienna... Rachel has a passion for gummies. I think we went through 4 bags of them haha. I'm a little worried for her.... 

The next day we essentially wandered around again. We saw more of the statues, monuments, and museums throughout the rest of the 'ring', took a nap, and ate at a really good Viennese restaurant. I had wienerschnitzl and Rachel had a beef goulash. YUM! The restaurant was in a giant cellar that had been built in the 1300's! It was really a cool atmosphere, and the food was equally as impressive. Both of us nearly finished our gift shopping too that day, I had two of my grandparents left and Rachel had her grandmother left as well. But the good part was that we knew what we were going to get for them :)

For Christmas Eve, we spent the day on a train. Exciting right? Not just any train though. It was a train from Vienna to the city of Klagenfurt, and is known for being one of the most scenic routes in all of Europe. I think we ended up on the less impressive side of the train, but the views were really impressive. It was nice to be able to just relax and sit on our butts for an entire day. We played some cards (mostly golf), plus we have been attempting to watch the entire Harry Potter series, as Rachel hasn't seen them all -_- (I think it's crazy that she hasn't seen them, it's the movie series of our generation!) And the reason I say attempting is that someone is unbelievably good at falling asleep when a movie is put in front of her, sometimes within two minutes of the movie! No joke, it's literally unbelievable. But yeah it was a relaxing day, nothing too exciting and not a typical Christmas Eve, but it was still a very good day.

Christmas day was more eventful than Christmas eve. We started the day by ice skating at a public skating rink for a couple hours which was really fun! I hadn't skated for about two years so it was definitely interesting for a while at the start, but we both got better as we made our laps around the rink. After ice skating, we headed back to the hostel for a change of clothes and then headed to an English movie theater to see The Butler, which was an awesome movie. Rachel stayed awake so it must have been good! It is about a black man who escaped from his slave owner and eventually became a butler at the White House and lived through either 6 or 7 presidencies from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan. I highly recommend the movie to anyone. After the movie we ate at a really good Italian restaurant (can you tell I have loved the food here?) that had a modern vibe to it and was very reasonably priced. The day before, we had bought tickets to an orchestra concert at the Golden Hall, a concert hall that had seen the likes of Mozart and Von Strausse. It was definitely interesting, and outside the boundaries of both Rachel and I. We weren't even sure if we were going to be let in, well if I would be let in, because we didn't really have much for classy clothing. But once we got there we realized that we were totally fine. It was a combination of the orchestra and five different opera singers that was put together in a very comical manner. It was all in German but they were definitely making us laugh! I wish it would have been in English, but it was very cool to go to something like that in a different language. The concert hall was crazy too, so decorative and marble everywhere! Very cool. We had pretty good seats too.

We were originally going to have to move to a different hostel for the night of the 26th as the hostel we were at was booked on the 26th, but we decided to cancel our room and head to Budapest for a day! We have heard a lot of good things about Budapest so hopefully the 8 euro cancellation charge to my credit card is worth it haha!

I think both of us are almost ready to come home. Maybe it's because we have realized that our journey is almost coming to an end with only a few stops left, but we have talked more and more about being home. I even made a list of things I want to eat when I get home. Topping that list is Panchero's and Marnanteli's! I wouldn't say we are excited to come home, but I think it's safe to say that we are getting closer to being ready

Rachel is taking care of the post for Budapest. Should be interesting haaaaaaaaa......

- Zach

A much needed city break in Hallstatt Village

-Rachel-

We arrived to Obertraun, the little village on the other side of lake Hallstatt, yesterday evening at about 6pm. The train dropped us off, and it felt like we were in the boonies.. probably because that's exactly where we were. The train station consisted of a little platform with an information booth and that's about it. Within 5 minutes we were at Haus Alpenrose, which is where we are staying. The village was completely dark and if it weren't for the information guy who told us that our hostel was on top of a bakery we would have never found it because there was no lit "Haus Alpenrose" sign or anything. We basically just opened the door and hoped we were in the right place. No reception desk, nothing. A man finally came out and showed us to our room, we later found out that we were the only guests staying there, being that it's off season and most people visit Hallstatt in the summer. Doesn't stop us Minnesotans :)

We woke up the next morning and the first thing that I did was go and look out the window. We were surrounded by mountains covered in snow. (big sigh). As much as I love the cities, being surrounded by nature sure did feel nice. After we were all ready for the day the first thing we did, since I always need my breakfast, was check out the bakery downstairs. We ended up getting a peach strudel-type pastry with coffee! Yum. Obertraun is one of those small towns that has one bakery, one supermarket, and about three restaurants, all family-owned of course. All of the houses are like big cottages/lodges. Just cute and cozy. We spent the day in Hallstatt which is the main village on the other side of the lake. We walked the quiet streets, enjoyed the views, carved our names in a cute wooden house on top of one of the hiking trails and ate lunch at the only place we could find open! We were definitely there on the tourist off season! haha. I'm actually really liking traveling in the Winter though. Just a cool vibe with all of the snow and holiday events and such. 

So, that night we went to the local pizzeria in Obertraun. We walked past the sign earlier and saw bowling pins on it, so we were wondering if they maybe, hopefully would have a bowling lane or two inside!? It looked like an extremely small place from the outside so we thought that maybe it was just for looks. Anyways, we got to the pizzeria and there was a group of what looked like "regulars" drinking beer and sharing some pizzas, which I might add are handmade daily. It reminded me of down town Parker's Prairie where my cabin is. It was a good feeling. So Zach and I shared a pizza with a beer and then we spotted the two bowling lanes! It was 2 euro for every 10 minutes and what you had to do was put your 2 euro in a slot which activated the lane. The balls were about half the size of a regular bowling ball with only 2 finger holes instead of three. Apart from that there was a string over the lane to make sure that you threw the ball under, to prevent the ball from bouncing and the score board was a chalk board. So we got a kick out of that and played for a while next to a group of old guys.

This morning we were going to take the cable car up one of the mountains to a famous look-out point called the 5-fingers, but we had bad luck as it was foggy all morning. :/ So now we are on our way to Vienna for some more hustle and bustle city life!! We will be spending 5 nights there, so it will be nice to set down our stuff and stay put for CHRISTMAS! Ah! It hasn’t really felt like Christmas to us yet being that we are always on the move! But the Christmas markets in Vienna are supposed to be wonderful so I'm sure that will get us in the mood!

Until next time,

- Rachel

A night out in Salzburg

- Zach -

Our host, Michel, considers himself a bit of a party animal and promised to show us a good time in Salzburg while we were there. We were more than happy to hear that, but curious as well. I mean we kind of thought of Salzburg as a quiet city, not to mention it was a Wednesday... But hey, why not go for it right? After dinner with our new Pakistani friends, we headed onto the bus (which, it seems in Austria isn't really monitored much, as we have been essentially hopping on and off as we please both in Salzburg and Vienna) and into town to a club called Republic. Michel told us this was basically an end of the year bash for all of the students in Salzburg, which made us excited for the possibilities of what it might be like. 

Holy Salzburg were we impressed.

Easily a solid thousand students showed up ready to dance their faces off, which seems to be a typical symptom of a student who has just finished their final exams. HA! The club had a pair of DJs, one older guy and one young guy (who was way better), who took turns playing different mash ups of popular music for a huge crowd of crazy college kids. 

Here are a couple pictures of the club, Michel is the blond guy in the group photo. Such a crazy, random, and totally unexpected experience all around for Salzburg. I guess that's what can happen when you couch surf!

Our next stop is Hallstatt, a tiny little town famous for it's terraced buildings that is situated between the Alps about an hour south of Salzburg. There is actually a replica of the entire city in China!

- Zach

Salzburger

- Rachel -

Just left Salzburg and off to the small village of Hallstatt, also in Austria! When we arrived to Salzburg a few days ago our couch surfing host Michel met us at the bus stop and helped us get to his dorm building where we found that the size of his room was about half the size of a dorm room at Concordia.. and that we would be sleeping on the floor with one pillow and one sleeping bag... but we made it work haha. We were just thankful that he agreed to host us!

Before even getting into the dorm building we ran into two of Michel’s Pakistani friends who were leaving the dinner party. Right off the bat they were so open and friendly, shaking our hands, asking us questions, and then finally asking us if we would like for them to cook us a traditional Pakistani meal for the following night at their apartment! We were blown away at how generous they were, being that we had just met them 5 minutes earlier. We hesitantly said that would be great, shocked at the invitation and didn’t really know if they were serious or not.

That night he was hosting an international dinner for some of his friends so we went and joined everyone in the kitchen. Everyone was so friendly and I ended up meeting two people from SPAIN! I was so excited! They gave me some Don Simon (cheap popular spanish sangria). Beautiful :). Apart from them it's only right that I mention the gal we met from Ukraine. She had an over-the-top personality and was SO curious about our personal lives and just life in general in the U.S. She literally spent over an hour asking us questions and then started writing our answers down. When she asked about food I told her Sloppy Joes are a must! Pretty solid suggestion I’d say. She asked if she could order that at Mc Donald’s... lol.

So the night was rough, neither Zach nor I got a good night's sleep, but thankfully we had booked a hostel for the next night because Michel was originally planning to go back home to Germany. That day we got lunch right away and we were SO relieved to see normal prices after coming from Zurich! We got Subway and man, was a 5 euro foot long a treat. We started our day out by going into old town and going to see the Salzburg Fortress! Besides the fact that castles are just sweet in general, the view from the top was great! More snow covered Alps were awaiting our i-phone cameras to snap a crazy amount of pictures. I have never seen so many beautiful sights in my life! No words can truly describe the sights Zach and I have seen during this journey.

During our day I had been sending messages to Michel to see if we were really going to have that dinner and also if we would like to join him to go to a student party that night! We were like "why not"?

After the castle we had to give in to our cravings and get some Starbucks!! It was delicious if you were wondering. I had an orange mocha and Zach had the gingerbread latte.

We then went to meet Michel to go to the guys' house because they actually were cooking us a dinner! Wow. So when we got into their apartment the kitchen was filled with a delicious smell of spices and chicken! We all stood around the kitchen as they prepared the meal as we chatted and they taught me a few Pakistan phrases! The meal of rice and chicken with some hot seasonings was awesome! Both Zach and I had two servings!

It's amazing how friendly fellow travelers can be! That night we also ended up going to that student party that I mentioned earlier, which will be in the next post :)

- Rachel

Plan B: Zurich?

-Zach-

When Rachel and I were originally planning our trek through Europe, we were originally going to go from Paris to Munich to Salzburg, but when we couldn't find any couch surfers in Munich we just substituted a couple letters and went to Zurich instead! (Z for the M and r for the n for those of you wondering) Our initial decision to skip Switzerland was purely based on financial reasons, as Switzerland is very well-known for being a tad pricy, and wow was it ever expensive. It ended up being part of our entertainment in our two days in Zurich as the Swiss Franc to the U.S. dollar is very similar which made it easy; here are a few examples of some prices:

 - 24 hour metro pass: 13.30 (not bad)
 - 20 oz. Coca Cola: 5.00 (minimum, we saw it as high as 22.00!)
 - 12 oz coffee at Starbucks: 7.90 -_-
 - 6 inch Veggie Delite at Subway: 8.50

So essentially..... we were about as frugal as can be, but it got to a point where there was no point in trying anymore. We did pretty good though I think, Rachel budgeted her trip and she ended up under her total for Paris as well as Zurich so not too shabby.

We arrived to Zurich at about 10:00 pm so our first night consisted of getting to Phillip's flat and falling into bed. The next day we started off by walking around the city, stopping at the Grossmünster and Fraumünster Churches, walking through the narrow streets of the Old Town district, and eating at a famous place in Zurich called the Sternen Grille. It is known for being "cheap", and for two bratwursts, fries, and a Coke we paid 25 Francs, which actually is very good for Zurich. The bratwursts were awesome too! Lake Zurich is also very picturesque as well, so we spent a little time walking beside the lake on our way to one of the coolest things I think both Rachel and I have ever done.

The highlight of Zurich was definitely a thermal bath that our Couchsurfer host recommended that we do. It is on the rooftop of an old brewery that has been turned into a hotel. Hands down one of the coolest things I've ever done. It was about 30 bucks for as much time as you wanted to spend between the rooftop bath or the baths inside that are a bit hotter than the rooftop bath. The baths had full body jets and lookout points to view the beautiful city of Zurich. Obviously, picture taking isn't allowed once you're inside, so if you want to see pictures of the place here is the link: http://www.thermalbad-zuerich.ch/index.asp?chglang=en&kat=home and yes it is as good as the pictures look. We sat up there for a little over 2 hours until our pruny fingers couldn't handle it any more! The relaxation was definitely needed after a packed 3 days in Paris, so the rest was very much needed. Once we were all rested we figured we could go and enjoy a little bit more of Zurich!

The rest of the night was very relaxing as we walked through a few Christmas markets on our way back to the train station to catch our bus, including a Christmas market in which an elementary school choir sings Christmas carols! But that's not all, they sing carols on a stage that is shaped like a Christmas tree, with their costumes and hats acting as the ornaments decorating the tree. I mean all of the songs were in German, but it was still a cool and unique thing that was very festive. We also indulged in some of the local hot drinks at this market. A couple that we met on the train to Zurich recommended a few things for us to try, and one of them was Jagertee. While neither Rachel or I had any idea what it was, I was excited to try it if it had Jagermeister in it :) Only problem was, it tasted nothing like Jagermeister. It honestly tasted like spicy nail polish remover that burned the top of your mouth... not good. I had two sips and left it and had a few sips of Rachel's Gluhwein instead. I still cringe at the taste of the Jagertee. YUCK!

The next day we got up early and climbed a 900 meter mountain peak that overlooks the city. We read about it in a little "Guide to Zurich" we picked up in the train station, which made the climb sound moderately easy. While the icy path didn't help, it was definitely more difficult than moderately easy! It was nice that there were rocks mixed in with the ice for us to get a decent grip, but neither of us had the proper shoes to be climbing up icy paths. After about 30 minutes of slipping and falling our way up the Uetliberg, we finally reached the peak. And let me tell you, the view was breathtaking. Coming from Minnesota, I've never seen anything close to a mountain range, so to have a view of the city on one side and then a view of the Alps on the other was magnificent. Pictures don't do it justice, as I have come to learn about a lot of things. While the cameras on the Iphone are very good, sometimes I wish I would have brought a nice camera to better capture the moment. It's just crazy to realize that, "Holy shit, we're staring at the Swiss Alps right now." Just amazing.

With our next three stops being near the Alps, I know this won't be our last view of them. I think while we are in Vienna we are planning on getting on a train early in the morning just to ride it and enjoy the views. It is a famous rail that is known for being a scenic route, so that should be really cool too.

Our next stop is Salzburg, Austria. Thankfully we are going back to dealing with Euros (never thought I'd say that). Rachel's already been to Salzburg with her mother earlier in the summer when they traveled a bit before her semester began, so hopefully she remembers enough to lead us around a bit. Doubtful though ;)

Over and out

- Zach

So Long Eiffel Tower and Hello Swiss Chocolate! :)

-Rachel-

Hello all. At the moment Zach and I are on a train headed towards Zurich, Switzerland...we hope anyways. We didn’t actually see a sign that said Zurich so who knows where we'll end up ;). We've got our travel backpacks all loaded up, some mystery cheese from the lovely market in Versailles, and a fresh baguette from a little French bakery. We're ready to rock and roll! It's gonna be a great train ride. But I'm going to back up a bit though because yesterday was another great day in Paris. Did I mention that I LOVE Paris? Such a charming place.

So, yesterday we headed out from Yoann's at about 9:00 am to the famous Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) Basilica. It's a beautiful white structure at a high point overlooking the entire city. Truly an amazing view. We strolled through the Christmas market that surrounded the basilica, literally I think there is one in every part of the city, I bought a cute hat, and then we went to sit on the steps and eat our supermarket sammies. We just so happened to choose the best possible time and place to eat our lunch because we got to see probably one of the best street performers that exists! But really. I'm not sure how to even explain how cool it was, but basically it was this guy, with an 8 pack, who started off by standing next to a light post juggling a soccer ball, doing all sorts of balancing tricks, then proceeding to climb this light post, still balancing the ball, he gets to the top and holds himself up with two hands while juggling the soccer ball at the top of the post... It was jaw dropping. Zach and I couldn't believe it! Here's a picture with him! Crazy.

We then headed to Notre Dame, which was awesome as well. Zach and I decided that it's kind of a creepy and at the same time  a really mysterious looking place, with the black stain-glass windows, dark towers, and gargoyles. even more so being that it was right next to the river.. Which leads us to the lover's lock bridge! Yes, we carved our names on a red lock and locked up our love right there on the bridge :) haha. There are literally thousands of locks on that bridge. Such a special thing to see all of the love that has made its way to Paris.

Our final stop for the night was climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower! Being the cheap college students that we are we decided to pay 3.50 euro to walk up the 695 steps instead of the 13 euro charge to take the lift up. Were our butts hurting by the time we made it up? Yup. Was it worth it? Totally. Overlooking the whole city of Paris with all the lights was stunning and romantic. Still can't stop saying to Zach that "I can't believe we're actually doing this." But here we are doing it and what an amazing journey it's already been and we've only just begun. Oh, and after we had dinner which was made up of wine, beer and CHEESE! hahah I'm getting Zach hooked and I absolutely love it.

So this morning was our last half day in Paris and we took a train to the city of Versailles to visit the royal palace where King Luis XIV lived there in 1682. We got to see the hall of mirrors, Marie Antoinette’s room, the King's room, royal dining room and a lot more. Everything was so extravagant! I really would love to go back in time and see what life in the palace would be like. Seems like a completely different world. Besides the palace are the Palace Gardens which are ENORMOUS! We would have spent all day there if we didn’t have to catch a train.  There were so many beautiful trees, statues, fountains, paths, ponds, benches, and people running and taking advantage of the beautiful outdoors. It’s just more the reason to plan another Europe trip :) You can never see it all. We finished by going to the market and buying that cheese and bread I mentioned! So addicting!

Bye Yoann! Thanks for having us!

So that was Paris! Now Zach and I are going to play some golf (card game) to try and make this 4 hour train ride go quick! But hey, the sun is setting as we depart Paris and it's not a bad view :) In Zurich we will be staying with a young guy named Philipp! This couch surfing gig really is a genius idea. 

Hasta mañana! (miss you Spain)

Rachel :)

Postcard From Paris

- Zach -

Studying sucks. There, I said it. Everyone thinks it anyways, especially during finals. AndWOW am I glad to be done with finals this semester, which could possibly be for what lies ahead in my final three weeks in Europe. I finished my last exam on Wednesday and spent the rest of the day saying my goodbyes to all of the people I've met in Ireland this semester :'( Shout out to DUNARAS VILLAGE!!! In the evening we went out to the King's Head pub for one final Guinness, and wouldn't you know it the final song I heard the band perform was Galway Girl and it rained on the way home. I think Ireland was saying goodbye to me as well as me saying goodbye to Ireland. So I packed and that was that (Lindsay, see you at Mick's for you to pay up on our bet!) :) Took my final flight on RyanAir too, and I am perfectly okay with that.

Story doesn't end there though; while it's the end of my experience in Ireland it is the start of a totally new adventure for Rachel and I as we start our journey off with a bang in Paris! We are Couchsurfing with an awesome dude named Yoann (pronounced Johan with a silent 'h') that Rachel already stayed with along with her two friends when they visited Paris in October. We got here late Thursday night and he brought us to a little ridge five minutes from his house so we could see the light show of the Eiffel Tower. What a nice host!

Today was our first full day here in Paris and wow is it breathtaking. Being able to see it for the first time from the window of the Metro train was even amazing, so you can imagine what walking up to it and standing beneath it feels like. It's just a huge beautiful thing. I don't even know how to properly describe something like that. It's one of those things that you just keep looking at. It doesn't change but you just keep looking at it, even when we were walking away both Rachel and I would glance back at it every so often. It is also totally different from the daytime to the night time. During the day it is like a copperish color, but at night it is lit up by hundreds of lights that give it a golden glow. It's really cool to see the difference between the two. I think between the two of us we got a solid fifty pictures of it, and that's on top of the ones Rachel already had from her previous visit. Here's the difference in color:

If you're wondering, the tower had a tribute to Nelson Mandela on the tower, it said his name and the years in which he lived. It's great that they do things like this for such an important person for the world.

We spent the rest of the day viewing the Arc de Triomphe and walking through the Champs-Elysees Street, which is the famous shopping area of Paris which houses stores such as Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, yeah you get my point lots of stores that cost lots of money. We can window shop though can't we? So we walked down through that street and through a Christmas market that is at the bottom side of the street which was great. Shop after shop of anything from handmade soap to gluhwein (which Rachel loves). I must say I am really excited to shop through all of the Christmas markets we will see in other cities like Vienna and Prague. They are just really cool to walk through whether you have any intention of buying something or not.

We then went and headed to eat some CHEESE! The other part I (and especially Rachel) am excited for. One of the things that you can order here at a restaurant is just a cheese platter in which they will serve a platter of various types of cheese with unlimited bread. So yes, of course we made a meal out of cheese and bread with a banana/nutella crepe for dessert. It's so much more enjoyable eating cheese when you don't have a mom yelling at you to stop eating all the damn cheese in the fridge! :) Hi mom.

It is after dessert where our story, of course, gets interesting. We almost headed back to Yoanns after a full 11 hours of doing Paris, but we decided to head back to the Eiffel Tower for a few more pictures, not that we needed them. After the photo op we headed down into the Metro to a station we hadn't been to yet, and may or may not have gotten on the wrong train... meaning we did. So by the time we finally got turned around and back to the station we were supposed to be at... they closed the entire line that we were supposed to be on to get back to Yoanns. -_- So we finally got it figured out that we could navigate back by taking a few connecting trains, and two hours later we walked in his front door to a smiling Yoann wondering where in the world we were haha. But all is well and it made for a good experience, so it's all good. This was only day one, and as interesting as today turned out, I can't wait for the rest of the journey. Just got an email from our hostel in Prague about a New Year's party that they host for us... so yeah this is going to be a fun ride.

- Zach

Study week in Galway!

- Rachel -

So for the past week, I've been lying on my butt here in Galway while Zach's been hitting the books to get ready for his finals! (he only has one left today!) The first few days I was kind of feeling a bit meloncholy having just left Spain and such. It was just weird and I definitely needed this time to process it, so I literally didnt leave his apartment for 3 days and watched a whole lot of Pretty Little Liars, drank a lot of hot chocolate, and read my spanish book! haha.

On the Sunday we got back we had Thanksgiving dinner with all of his friends! Everyone made a dish to share and let me tell you, we had everything you'd expect to see at a dinner table in the states! We had green bean casserole, turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, apple pie and on top of that a German friend of Zach's made German meatballs and two Spanish girls brought a Spanish dish called tortilla, which i love :) But yea we definitely had a great thanksgiving dinner!

Zach and I were told we were in charge of the ham, which we had no clue how to prepare... so we went to the store and only could find a raw ham because there are no precooked ones here in Ireland apparently, and went home and Googled how to cook the bad boy. It was a pretty funny process I must say. We actually ended up skyping my mom lol and we showed her our ham and the pan and she gave us a few pointers. Thanks mom :) So we shoved the ham in the oven and let him cook! While it was cooking, we decided we should probably make a glaze too... so we threw brown sugar, maple syrup, apple juice, honey, and cinnamon into a pan and hoped for the best.

We had zero expectations for the end result being that 1) neither one of us had ever cooked a ham in our lives 2) we didn't have a thermometer to know when it was done and 3) We had no mom in sight to guide us
so three hours passed and we decided it either had to be done or dried out.. so we took it out, poked a knife through it to see if it was hot all the way through and poured our glaze over it. We sliced it up, looked and each other with apprehension, and said screw it as we took a bite to see how well we fared. And damn was that ham good! We both just started laughing because we were expecting the worst, but it was a hit and everyone loved it! So yea, we will be for sure making that again! Here is Zach's dinner plate after he tasted it.

Finally on Thursday I decided I should probably get out of the apartment and get some fresh air, besides going to Dunnes, the local supermarket. My friend Becky Martens from high school is studying in Limerick and told me she would be coming to Galway to do some Christmas shopping so I agreed to meet her in town! We spent the day looking at ornaments, I bought new boots, Becky bought a beautiful nativity set handmade in Ireland for her mom, and we also perused through the christmas market and just talked about our abroad experiences. Downtown Galway is the picture perfect place when you think about what Ireland should be like. Cobblestone streets, welcoming pubs, claddah ring store, and street singers playing traditional irish music for everyone to hear. I can't help but feel like im in the movie P.S I Love You everytime im walking around. It's so heart warming and welcoming, definitley puts you in the holiday spirit. I have been so lucky to have had the chance to see so many familiar faces while I've been abroad. It has for sure made my trip that much more amazing than it already would have been :) So Thursday was the day I decided to stop being sad about Spain and to get back in the exploring mood!

Satuday we had an ugly sweater party at Zach's apartment! It was really fun! We played cards and had drinks before we went out to a club called Carbon! So if you know me you know I LOVE TO DANCE, so this whole club thing is totally my scene haha ;) We danced a lot and then Zach and I headed home cause someone had one too many.. (not pointing fingers lol) Im only gonna say one thing about this and thats that on the walk home, around a good amount of people, Zach decides to scream SANTA! like he saw santa or something... take note that we watched the movie Elf the night before haha. But yea it was hilarious and I think we both enjoyed it.

I've been spendng my remaining days looking for places to Couchsurf, planning our travels, blogging and making cookies and banana bread! It has been a good week in Galway :) But now the travel bug is baack and I'm ready to go!

Rachel

Getaway trip to Toledo :)

- Rachel -

While we were in Madrid I decided to book Zach and I a ticket to the historic city of Toledo, which used to be the capital of Spain. On the way to the city we had our first snow sighting!! It had snowed that morning! We would have never guessed that our first Europe snow would be in Spain of all places haha but hey I guess anything is possible!

When we got to Toledo we were right away blown away by the character and charm that the city inhabited. It was like you were inside a castle with winding roads and old buildings going every which way. It felt a little Aladdin-like actually with its Arabic influence. The place we stayed looked like a medieval castle, it was so beautiful and rustic! So Zach and I spent the day taking our time and exploring the city at a slow and enjoyable pace, night and day compared to the atmosphere in Madrid! It was a nice getaway from the big city that's for sure! We enjoyed each others company while taking a ton of pictures and talking about who knows what. This picture was one of my favorites of me and Zach being goofy with this fake soldier dude haha.

For dinner that night, which was thanksgiving, we had pizza and beer at a small restaurant in the city :) You would think we would have been sad about missing out on turkey but that pizza and beer really did hit the spot! Being that it was Thanksgiving and we both missed our families we went back to the place we were staying and skyped both of our families who were pretty excited to talk with us! It's been so crazy to tell everyone what we're up to and where we're heading next because it's seems so surreal! But don't get me wrong, there are still times when we both miss home for sure. When we skyped with my family, I was a bit sad to not be there, just seeing everyone made me want to teleport back and give everyone a big hug and talk about life, but at the same time I was in Toledo Spain with my wonderful boyfriend so all was well and dandy. Thanksgiving will be there for us next year when we're back :) Plus we were planning to celebrate with Zach and some of the his friends in his apartment complex back in Ireland on Sunday when we get back which should be fun.

When we got back to Madrid the next day Zach and I went to El Parque de Retiro, which is this humongous park will all sorts of paths, fountains, flowers, and statues to look at! We just walked around and then came across a pond where they were renting out boats for your man to row you on! Wooo! So of course I told Zach we had to do it haha so we got our little row boat and he paddled me around for an hour. Very romantic ;)




That night we went to a club in Madrid called Joy which was a blast! So usually the cover charge is 15 euro to get in but lucky enough we were standing in line and these two girls were like "tell the bouncer you're with Monce Rodriguez and the ladies will get in free." AWESOME! haha so we did just that and us girls got in free with a free glass of champagne to go with it :) Thanks Monce! haha. The club was cool, different levels, lounge seats, stage and pillar-like platforms for people to dance on haha. We spent the night dancing our butts off and then looking for Sasha who managed to sneak up on the VIP stage by herself... lol. Later in the night this guy was on stage and rocked out a crazy solo on his saxophone for a few songs.. He was mind blowing! He was so good! Then these burlesque looking women came out and were dancing in these large plastic cups throughout the club. They were wearing nipple tassels, thongs, and giant feather hats... interesting haha. But it was really fun and everyone had a good time, even Sasha who may or may not have fallen asleep on the dance floor while swaying side to side... hahaha

So that was Madrid! Thanks for hosting us Sash! So great to see you beautiful girl! Now we're in Galway, Ireland for Zach to take his finals before we continue our travels!

Over and out

Rachel

A chill couple of days in the big city of Madrid!

- Rachel -

Madrid, Madrid, Madrid... The days we spent in Madrid were extremely enjoyable. Not because of the city itself, more because of good company ( Zach and Sasha). Madrid is your typical big city with the hustle and bustle of working people and metro traffic. There are a lot of monuments, museums, and other sights to see if that’s what you're in to. And while Zach and I do take pleasure in these sights, wedecided to enjoy Madrid more as locals rather than tourists. A friend of mine from high school, Sasha, is currently studying in Madrid so thankfully she had room to host us and show us around during our time in the city.

Our first day we went next door for breakfast to a cute little cafe that Sasha recommended. Nowhere but Spain can you get a café con leche (coffee with milk) and a "tostada con jamón y tomate" (toast with ham and tomato) for 1.50 Euro!! Not to mention the .40 cent cañas (mini tap beer) everyday here as well! Like viva España! The rest of the day we spent meandering around las calles (streets) of Madrid walking through Plaza Mayor, watching the sunset at Palacio Real and sharing a plate of churros with delicious hot chocolate.

One of my favorite parts of the day was talking in Spanish with Sasha as we roamed the city and watching Zach get irritated because he didnt entirely understand.. lol. Oh the joys of knowing two languages ;)

Anyways, that night Sasha took us to a place called "El Tigre" which is a tapas bar. If you aren’t familiar with Spanish tapas they are basically appetizers that come in just about any type you can imagine. My favorite being Croquetas de patatas. This place was AMAZING! All you have to do is order a drink and you get plates on plates of tapas! Zach and I each got  one liter mojitos for 6 euro each and no shortage of rum ;) After you get your drink you are served a never ending array of tapas! :0 And don’t worry, no need to buy another drink because the tapas will just keep coming until you're LLENA (full)! The place is filled with people of all ages just looking to have a good time with friends and enjoy some good drinks and FREE TAPAS! A few of Sasha’s friends joined us at El Tigre, so we spent the night laughing and talking about who knows what in both Spanish and English. As bad as this sounds it was pretty funnny to watch Zach while we all spoke in Spanish.. he was a little lost haha but was a good sport about all of us switching languages every couple of minutes. For only taking two years of high school Spanish, he surprisingly picks up on a fair amount of the conversations, but still can't actually form a basic sentence HA. Like I told him...he should learn Spanish!! But yea it was a good day overall :)

Rachel