JRHS Writing BLOG

Monday, June 11, 2007

European Excursions

Budapest:

The first day of our trip was spent in the airport and then on an overnight flight from Boston to Frankfurt. By the time we arrived it was dawn, and few of us had gotten any sleep on the plane. We changed planes and then flew on to Budapest, Hungary, where we met our tour guide, Inka, and set off to the center of town, where we looked around and got something to eat. After picking up the other group at the airport a couple hours later, we had the option of going on a walking or tour or relaxing in the thermal baths at the Gellért hotel. I chose to go to the baths. It was probably the best thing that I could have done that night, after such a long day of traveling. There were three different thermal, mineral baths at the hotel, two of which were inside, the third was outside. The decorations inside the baths were beautiful. That is when I first understood that we were really in Europe!

The next morning we set off on a sightseeing tour of Budapest. On our tour we stopped at Hero’s Square, St. Stephen’s Basilica, and a nice overlook of the city on castle hill. It’s interesting to note that inside St. Stephen’s Basilica was a chapel called the Chapel of the Holy Right Hand, where the mummified hand of St. Stephen was encased as a holy relic. Later that day we drove to an old Serbian village outside of Budapest called St. Andrews. Here we walked around, looked in the stores, and went into a Marzipan Museum, where they had Marzipan sculptures, including the Ninja Turtles and Michael Jackson.
~Elizabeth


Vienna:

Vienna, Austria was our second destination. We traveled from Budapest to Vienna via bus. On the way to Vienna, we stopped in Eisenstadt to visit Schloss Esterhazy. It is a castle where Haydn worked. A tourist gave our group a tour of the place. It was very interesting to see all the rooms of the castle. It was not an extremely large place compared to other castles that we saw during the trip, but the elaborate decorations of the rooms were very impressive.

Right after we arrived in Vienna, the whole group went out again for a formal night. We first went to Stadt Park before dinner. It was a beautiful park, and people spent time there for a while. After dinner, we went back to the park. It was interesting because some boys played soccer with locals. Even though I didn’t participate in the game personally, it was exciting to see people getting along despite the difference in nationality and language. The concert that we attended that night was mainly performing Mozart. It was very interesting because the form of the performance was different than what I was used to. They did not only play the music, but the dancers performed at the same time, corresponding to the theme of the music.

The next day, we went on a walking tour. The place that amazed me the most was Schonbrunn palace. The size and the architecture of the place were splendid. Especially, the garden of the palace was beautiful. It seemed like it was so elaborately planned that there is no flaw at all. We didn’t have enough time to really go through all the parts of the palace in detail, but it was enough to feel the magnificence of it.
~Vivvy


Prague:

The next destination in our European travels was Prague, the Czech Republic. After trying from Vienna to Prague, we immediately hopped off the bus and began to walk through the city. After walking to the center, we had a chance to look around a bit, but most of our city exploration came the next day, which again began with a sightseeing tour. Our first stop was Prague Castle. It was big and beautiful, but unfortunately we couldn’t enter one of its central buildings, St. Vitus Cathedral. This was a disappointment, but we still were able to see it from the outside and see other parts of the castle, including the Golden Lane.

After seeing the castle, we walked down to the center of Prague (quite a long walk). After lunch we split into smaller groups to see different parts of the city. I chose to go back to the castle, hoping to be able to go into St. Vitus Cathedral. So a small group walked all the way back. We still weren’t able to go into the Cathedral, but we did get the chance to go into St. George’s Basilica, which is very old (dating back to the 10th century). After this second visit to the castle, the group again walked all the way back to Prague’s center (by this time my feet were yelling at me with each step). At this point, some of the group went to the park and others to the marionette show of Don Giovanni. I went to see the marionettes. Despite getting a little lost of the way there, we were able to see the marionette show of the Mozart opera original performed in Prague. Overall, Prague was probably my favorite city. It was absolutely beautiful, and rich in both history and culture.
~Elizabeth


Munich:

We left Prague, Czech Republic, and headed to Munich, Germany. Everyone was excited about the idea of being in Germany. The most memorable part of visiting Munich was when we went to Dachau Concentration Camp. I was always interested in the time of Nazi and Hitler, and I was slightly nervous and excited at the same time on the way to Dachau. We got an opportunity to watch a short documentary that shows what happened at Dachau Concentration Camp. Some of the scenes were quite shocking to me, and they made me think about what the nature of human beings were. Unlike other places, I wanted to look through the place by myself. Just by being at that place, I felt very calm and sad at the same time. It was hard to believe that quiet place was once a place of agony, sorrow, and hatred.
~Vivvy


Berlin:

Our final destination was Berlin, Germany. As soon as we arrived off the overnight train, we started our city tour. Unfortunately we had only one day to see Berlin, so it was barely a brief introduction to the city. One of the interesting things about Berlin is its architecture. Since nearly 75% of the city was destroyed in World War II, much of the architecture is fairly modern, and really quite incredible. It was amazing to see where the Berlin Wall stood, not too many years ago, and see first hand the places that we’ve only read about in text books. We also went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and the Reichstag. After taking an elevator to the top of the Reichstag, there is a great glass dome, which you can climb and it provides a beautiful view of the city.  After dinner, we went back to the hotel, where we spent our last night in Europe. Early the next morning, we flew home to Boston, with our only souvenirs, photographs, experiences, and memories left of our whirlwind central European tour.
~Elizabeth