Thursday, October 22, 2015

Vienna Weekend!

Last weekend the weekend of the 16th, 17th, and 18th (and plus Friday), all the exchange students in Austria traveled to Vienna!! On the first night we went to the Vienna Opera House and watched an opera, it was a very cool, but really hard to understand. ( It was in German). All of us got dressed up and looked amazing for the opera!


Here I (far right) am with friends before we head off to the opera. From left to right we have Maria from Arkansas, Kennedy from Canada, Jade from Canada and me, from Colorado. 


After the opera, that lasted about three hours we headed to a nearby Chinese restaurant .And also I should tell you that exchange students from Hungry also joined us for this weekend! All in all I believe we were 130 students walking the streets of Vienna.




At the Chinese restaurant! Hayden, the boy in the middle is one of the exchange students from Hungry!


Saturday! This was a super cool day and Rotary took us all sorts of places. 


Let the day begin! This is one of the super cool buildings surrounding the town center or the old city.


Some of the North Americans posing in front of a cool statue. There are exchangers from Austria and the ones living in Hungry. And also a couple of Canadian photo bombers.


Statue of Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, outside of Parliament. 


Getting ready to explore Parliament house!


Playing a complicated game where you have to untangle everyone, while waiting for our tour through Parliament. 



Parliament staircase


One of the great rooms in the parliament building 


If you look closely you can see that the last two columns are a different shade. This is because they were replaced from being destroyed by war. A bomb was dropped into that corner destroying them. Though the pillars came from the same block of marble, as time wears on the color changed.


The old room where Parliament used to vote and make decisions. It is no longer in use, and there is a net stretched across the ceiling in case anything falls!


Actual Parliament room. 


All the flags from the provinces of Austria.


Athena with the sun shining this time!

After exploring the Parliament house we headed through the city for lunch and then to Stephans Platz. In Stephan Platz there is a Vienna's largest church! And then from there we headed to Schön Brunn, a castle just outside of Vienna.



Votiv Kirche, from a distance


Cool Horse statue


The library 


The church!


Inside is wow!


Looking back at the Church


A golden eagle flying high!


The castle!!! Unfortunately you are not allowed to take photos inside otherwise....


Shopping


The hats had faces!


Vienna streets!!


Little bit of culture, this was a shop I learned about in Spanish class last year and now I get to see it in person.


Night life


Amusement park in Vienna at night


Go karting 


All the horses lined up for carriage rides


Spanish Riding School sign. The Spanish riding school is a world known riding school for Lipizzaner horses and they perform all sorts of cool things!!


Proof I was there and did not take the photo off Google 


Part of the stables


Leaving and my good friend stole my luggage. She didn't get to far from laughing!!


This was an amazing weekend and next weekend I am traveling to Prag, Dresden and Berlin!! Cant wait!

Thanks



Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Pilsen, Czech Republic

On the weekend of the 10th and 11th, my hosting Rotary club invited me to go to Pilsen, Czech Republic, the parallel club of Bad Ischl, only in Czech. It was one of the coolest experiences ever!! First the food in Czech is way different from the States and Austria. Here are a couple of photos!



Meat with dumplings. The white stuff is whipped cream!

Duck!!

Good Desert thing!


The food there was really good, just like here in Austria. On Saturday got to tour Pilsen a little and also got to go to the Pilsen Urquell Brewery. More pictures, because its easier than explaining!


A Harley that runs on beer


All were hand carved!


Bottle Making


A lot of beer


Brewery and I


More beer bottles






A looot of beer


I didn't know how big beer barrels were


Chillin in a Beer barrel

3rd largest Synagogue in the world


Church in the town center!


With my friends


A big bell



Under the city on a underground tour!! Underneath the city is a giant cellar, a network of them. The entire cellar is about 14km long!!


Still underground!!


I love these face things!



Imagine the time it took to paint a ceiling like this


Wow!


Czech


I love the streets here and the old buildings.

 
With Rotary.

This was an amazing experience and I am sooo lucky to be able to do this! I can't wait for the next Rotary Weekend