Kallee’s & Julia’s rendition of our fabulous European trip… need we say more?
Day 1( flight from Boston to Budapest)-We left Candia at 12 on Monday the 23 of April. In great anticipation, we ran forward toward our excellent, adventurous journey! Full of love and the pursuit of happiness we finally arrived in Budapest, 3 million hours later. We had to eat immediately because the food on the plane was barely tolerable. A few incidences of diarhhea were even reported by the students, to the dismay of the adoring faculty. Just kidding.
On March 24, after an excessively long plane excursion, we arrived in the charming city of Budapest. The first person we met there was our beautiful, German tour guide, Inka. She was delightful. Following the introduction of the Hungarian language and culture we set off to tour the city. First, we went to the city square to shop and enjoy some local delicacies. We must not forget to mention our devoted bus driver, Pavel. He was from the Czech Republic. This day was tad overwhelming as we settled into the new schedule and the European air.
Later in the day, we were given the opportunity to bathe in a genuine, pure, mineral bath. This was educational as well as relaxing. We were able to interact with some of the natives even though we didn’t understand anyone. The baths were beautiful and meant for “cleansing.” After that, we returned to the hotel and ate dinner. Our tired group then went to bed and rested to begin another exciting day in the morning.
The next day, we started off to the city center with our Hungarian tour guide, Edina. She brought us to a statue park that stood for the liberty of Hungary. It consisted of many influencial patrons of historical Hungarian culture. It was interesting to learn about a country that has a civilization that is far older than that of the United States of America. In the second half of that day, our group traveled to St. Andrews. This was an immigrant trade town. Here we toured a interesting museum that exhibited Marzipan creations. Marzipan is a form of candy made of almonds. After this, we had time to shop and enjoy the culture of this village!
The next day we set off for Vienna, Austria. On the drive to Vienna we stopped in a little town where we visited a palace previously owned by the Hapsburgs. This was a wonderful experience and it was fascintating to get a taste of how extravagantly the Austrian aristocracy lived. At this schloss Estgahase Franz Joseph Haydn was commissioned to be the music master of the palace for many years. He composed and directed much music here. We wanted to be princesses at that moment, alas we have no royal blood. We must continue to dwell among the Bourgesoise.
The next adventure we embarked on arriving in Vienna was to journey back in time to a concert put on by Mozart and Strauss themselves! We were delighted when our tour guide informed us that this was a black tie event and anyone underdressed would be thrown in the gutters with the dogs of Wienerschnitzel( AKA dogs of wrath). Fortuntately, we were blessed with the ability to look good and we took the task upon ourselves to make everyone look decent. Our efforts were very successful and no one in our party was denied entrance. We enjoyed this performance immensely, especially because there was some live opera and dancing. Our favorite part was the very handsome male vocalist. He was like a modern day Prince Charming. This time we wished even more to be princesses. At least we looked like them! After the show was over we felt extremely grateful to have been given the opportunity to listen to music in Europe’s City of Music! Vienna is world renowned to this day as one of the largest and most productive musical centers in Europe. To be able to actually experience and participate in this event was particularly gratifying.
The next day we went off to see the sights of Vienna. Our first stop was the absolutely beautiful palace, Schonbrun. This was also previously owned by the Hapsburgs and was the favorite palace of the famous empress, Maria Teresa. The grounds and building itself were breathtaking. We thoroughly enjoyed this particular part of our tour. The gardens had mazes which we wanted to get lost in, but we ran out of time, which was rather disappointing.
The next step of our journey was the long bus ride to the Czech Republic. They were very cordial to us and allowed us to view the one and only “Sound of Music.” Wonderful. After we sang our hearts out of Vienna, we arrived in Prague, aka Praha.
Prague was beautiful… everything you’ve heard about and more. We don’t lie. It was really a fabulous experience. We thoroughly enjoyed walking through the city center. There was a really neat statue of John Hus in the square but much to our dismay it was under construction. :’-( The next day we went to Castle Hill and saw the beautiful architecture. We had many valuable, educational experiences such as: the changing of the guard, street musicians, and a tour of a castle. There were a lot of sweet, old fashioned cars in Prague and also many horse drawn carriages. We, again, felt like princesses… even though we never indulged in a ride.
We then traveled north to Deutschland. First stop: Munchen. This was a great city! We, once again, became familiar with our surroundings and walked through the city center. Here we saw the Glockenspiel, a DKP rally (aka German Communist Party), a crazy concert, and the Haufbrau Haus. Then, to top it off, our entire group went back to the hotel via: the subway system. We only lost one. Too bad. 
Now, on a more serious note… We were given the opportunity to visit the site of the concentration camp at Dachau. Here, we watched a video explaining the events that occurred there during WWII. We also walked through the premises and visited the various memorials. This was really hard for all of us to see. It brought up many emotions within our group and we were able to share with each other in a debrief gathering later that night.
Our next big adventure was taking an overnight train from Munich to Berlin. This was soooo much fun… we roomed together! (Kallee and Julia that is…if you forgot already… silly.) We succeeded in not being pick pocketed during our journey. Guess what helped a lot… no really, guess. Ok, we’ll tell you… there were sweet, cool safes next to our beds. They only cost one euro and we were reimbursed. We just had to keep our keys close to us at all times. Ok, so anyway, it was good. We slept. The nice train men brought us breakfast in the morning, aka… croissants and tea/kaffee.
When we arrived in Berlin, we were immediately whisked off to a tour of the city. Let us tell you about our fabulous tour guide, Vivian. Like Inka, (our super cool EF tour guide) she was beautiful and witty. She made our tour tolerable… even when our feet hurt and our eyes were sagging due to sleep depravation. Personally (from Kallee’s point of view): I loved Berlin… it was sweet. It had new architecture. One poor man invented the BMW headquarters building there in the 80’s and it got totally bad reviews, so he killed himself. If he only knew that I totally adored it, now 20+ years later maybe that wouldn’t have happened. From Julia’s point of view: I totally loved the Berlin Wall. I thought it was absolutely amazing to see what I had read about in history books all my life. I loved seeing the graffiti and the messages people wrote on the wall because that, to me, was more like what the Germans represent and how they felt during the Communist oppression.
We also went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. This was really cool, we learned about the many ways people were smuggled over the border during the reign of the USSR. We then had the opportunity to go to an underground mall and get lunch and do some last minute shopping. We liked this part of Berlin a lot! Shopping = Fun.
Yupp. Well that about sums it up. We’re sure we forgot to mention a million other awesome things. Please excuse us for that. We hope you enjoyed your stay with us on K & J Airlines. Please do not neglect to remove your safety belt and remember that the small, white, feathered pillows are not complimentary. Leave them alone.
So long, Farewell, Aud Vidersehn, Adieu, to you and you and you and you and you!
Goooood Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeee…
Goood Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye…
Goood BYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYE!