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Leaving the city of dreaming spires was hard, but more about that later. This post is to inform you that I will be continuing to back post things from travels/trinity term. Scroll down and see what you see!

Eurotrip Part III: Venezia, throwing money off a yacht.

We boarded the train in the evening, ready for a long night with minimal shut eye. The bunks were pretty funny. It wasn't actually possible to sit up in the train car, so we had to lie down. Here's Lexi settling in to read to me from Rick Steves.

Later in the night, two German guys joined our train car. They were really funny. In German, Venice is pronounced Venitch. One guy also told us it was good to be with a friend and leave your woman for a couple days. We knew he meant "wife" but it was still funny. It was also pretty strange that I never saw their faces. From the bottom bunk, I could really only see up to their stomachs.

After a fitful night of creaking train sleep, we arrived in Venice. The sun was shining, the water was blue and after the gray skies of Vienna, we were in Heaven.



My girls in the sunshine: Alexis, Erin, Lexi, and Grace

Rick Steves informed us a good introduction to Vienna is to take the boat bus from the train station to San Marco.

This picture courtesy of Lexi Calcado.

Rialto Bridge.

Gondolas! We didn't go in one--too expensive, but they were fun to watch.



Palace on the water.

We got off the water boat at San Marco, the famous cathedral with interesting Islamic influence evident in the dome style.



It was under a little construction. They were probably hoping to get it done before tourist season is in full swing. That's a lot of tourists for it not being tourist season, you say? Indeed. Welcome to Venice.

There are my girlies in Piazza San Marco.

Other highlights of Venice:

Pizza faces!

Alleyways!


Shopping!

Canal stink! (This picture idea was conceived by Lexi Calcado)

Italian food! At one place they tried to convince us that service was not included and we should tip. You have to be savvy here if you don't want to be ripped off. Fortunately, Oxford students are capable of figuring out that "servicio" probably means service.

Bridge of Sighs. In order to walk on it, you have to go in this museum. This bridge afforded a convict's last view of Venice before imprisonmnet. We have a copy in Oxford:


Ani and I are making a wish under it. Mine came true. We'll get to Ani and Kaija's visit later though.

Our one and only night in Venice, Mike Yohai met us for a pub crawl.


Yohai, and the ladies ready to drink on every bridge...


Pub crawl group picture: priceless. Thanks, Lexi.

The next day we went to Murano:

Beautiful.


Murano is famous for glass-blowing. We saw a demonstration.

Then we found a playground.



We never wanted to leave...

Notes on Visiting Venezia

Venice is beautiful. It will make you feel like throwing money of a yacht just because you can (except we couldn't because we're poor college students). The city is small. Rick Steves encouraged us to get lost and we did. You can't get too far on an island so you can always find your way back to somewhere you recognize. Eat and shop a lot but look out for rip-offs. Venice is and always has been the world's greatest tourist trap, and the people who live and work here know it and will take advantage of you if you let them. Don't expect to escape the "touristy" areas of Venice, because you are looking for the authentic Venetians. Embrace the fact that authentic Venice IS touristy and it's sinking so you better enjoy it while it lasts. Snap lots of pictures, all of them will come out beautiful.

At the end of the day, Venice wore us out and we were ready to see Florence.

Eurotrip Part II: Vienna

This is the view from our hostel way up on a hill. It was a pretty grey day but people were still out throwing sticks for dogs etc. Thanks to Alex for this hostel rec. Although way out of town, we never would have seen this view otherwise. Vienna is much bigger than I expected.


After dropping our stuff and taking long-overdue showers, Grace and I headed down into town to grab a snack and meet Lexi, Alexis and Erin at the train station. We found a farmer's market outside the metro stop.


We invested in some delightful Viennese pastries.

With full bellies and a sugar high to compensate for jet lag, Grace and I met Lexi, Alexis and Erin at the train station. We had a lovely girly birthday dinner down the hill from the hostel for Lexi's belated birthday.

Aww, this birthday girl is happy with her schnitzel.

The next day, we had a FULL day of site-seeing.

Palace:




The chapel part was free so we went in there:


There was a sleepy cherubim:

Dawww.

Downtown Vienna looks like Minas Tirith--lots of white stone. We wandered around the city center window shopping and finally stopped for coffee to wait out the rain so we could do the Rick Steves walking tour.





Grace and I stopped in to see these very dead Hapsburgs:


They're pretty much all there. It's intense. Then we met back up with Erin, Alexis and Lexi for more cake! Linzer torte is the classic Austrian delight but I preferred this strawberry thing.

After that we went on the walking tour! Here's Lexi reading to us about this plague monument.

Did you see Leopold's massive underbite? We can't even begin to imitate it...

We also saw more beautiful churches. Seriously some of the most beautiful churches I have ever been in.


And finally...guess what this is!


If you guessed Opera House, you're right! Next stop: Venice. . .via night train.

Eurotrip Part I: Visiting Anja, Getting Grace

April 7 (That's right, over a month ago) I left for my great European adventure ultimately landing me back at Oxford for Trinity term. I was supposed to meet Grace in the airport but her flight got canceled. Luckily, by the wonders of facebook, she managed to communicate this to Anja who called me at the airport and told me how to get to her. We spent the afternoon in the park with her brother and her dogs.




I was pretty exhausted after all the traveling, so after this we headed back to Anja's to fuel up on feta cheese and homemade jam and bread. Delicious!

After dinner we finally got Grace, but our time as a trio was shortlived. Grace and I were destined for a 8am flight to Vienna so Anja's dad graciously drove us to the train station at 4:30am before the tube was running so we could get to the airport in time.

The train station was shut:


Luckily, there was another entrance which was open. Phew!

At the airport, the lights were purple! It was bewildering. Also because it was 4:30am.


Next stop, Vienna!