Well our trip began on Tuesday April 13th as we packed up from Olomouc and departed on a bus to Vienna, Austria...a mere three hour drive away. The bus ride was about as thrilling as a Twilight book (I hate Twilight, for your information) and last what felt like an entire day. We arrived in Vienna to our hostel, the HappyHostel, located conveniently a couple of blocks away from a strip club. Anyways, we rolled into town around 1 in the afternoon and proceeded to find our rooms and get ready for an afternoon of touring. We walked and walked and walked until we reached the city square where we saw the museums we would be visiting the next day. The rest of the afternoon seems like a blur as nothing really caught my attention. That night, a bunch of students went out to the bar, but I stayed in on the free internet, printing off my boarding passes for the next week or so. Without knowing where everyone went, I walked to get a quick dinner in the steady rain and walked back to my room, which felt like it was in the ghetto. In order to get to our room one would need to walk through this creepy passageway between two walls and then cross through a darkened courtyard with no feel of any lights. Not to mention it took you forever to unlock the door, looking over your shoulder with every creek. I spent the rest of the night in my room listening to music and reading part of my Rick Reilly book. The next day we went to the treasury and to the Mozart museum, which was located in his apartment that he lived in. The treasury was cool. It was filled with ancient artifacts, including the spear that is believe to have killed Jesus Christ, a piece of wood from the cross, and one of the spike used to put him on the cross. While this could all be debated, it was pretty cool just to see this stuff. The Mozart museum was a snoozefest, but what else did you expect? The rest of the time in Vienna was spent going to shops, eating, and hanging out with the group before retiring to bed. The next day we would be taking a bus seven hours to Venice, Italy.
That next morning, after getting my laundry done, we all hopped on the bus at 7:30 a.m. for our trip to Venice. The first half of our trip took us through beautiful countryside and through the Alps...or what I believe to be the Alps. Regardless, the scenery was breathtaking combining the green of the grass, the blue skies, and the towering mounds of rock behind them. Throw in a small town with a lake and that same background and you have a postcard my friends. Anyways, the bus ride was extremely loooooooooong, which is why during our stop I decided to get a liter of orange juice and some vodka and turn this boring ass ride into a party. Needless to say I went through my liter of screwdrivers in four hours, but it wasn't enough to do anything. Some other people on the bus bought an orange soda called Slam, plus a liquid known as gropa (spelling?) which is made of distilled grapes. So essentially, it was wine. I have never been a wine guy and I never will be after tasting this. I kept drinking it because the bottle was being passed around, but not without a grimace each time the liquid cleared my tastebuds. We arrived in Venice close to night time, but boy was it beautiful. The city is intersected thousands of times by canals and the only way to navigate is with boats or gondolas, there were no cars. We walked from the train station to the hostel and settled in. At 5 p.m. we met to walk to the square at San Marco before dispersing to have dinner and navigate our way back. Our dinner consisted of pasta, strawberry wine, and ice cream and of course, most people stopped on their way back for a few adult beverages. Our hostel had a weird rule about closing at 1 a.m. This meant that if you were at the bar, saw it was 1 a.m. and got to the door at 1:01, the door would be locked and you would be forced to sleep outside somewhere. Needless to say, I was in early and asleep by 1:30. The next day, our final in Venice, we went to a couple of museums that I don't really remember because I didn't pay close enough attention. We did visit the museum that houses the original Da Vinci "Balanced Man" drawing, but the museum said it was "too delicate for the public", whatever the hell that means. That night we went on a gondola ride and it was beautiful, right before it started pouring on us. From there, we all got dinner at various locations before ending up in our hostel before the 1 a.m. curfew. The next day was the official start of our Spring break and I was excited. I had my flight ticket printed off for Venice to Rome and we were all ready to start our amazing vacation.
Little did we know, something had just happened thousands of miles away that would alter our Spring break forever.
More to come after I get back from going to see Clash of the Titans...stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment