April 13th, 2010 - Tuesday

Today was April 13th, and it is the official end to our spring break. I have really enjoyed traveling around; however, it is nice to be back in Vienna. We really didn’t do much today, we all got back and are really tired. So, most of us spent our day in bed catching on sleep. Mike and I just returned from Paris, a sixteen hour train ride back. We took a night train, and it was not so good. We had beds, but I found it too, too small.

Kunj Shah

April 12th, 2010 - Monday

blog to be posted by Christina Gallo

April 11th, 2010 - Sunday

Today is the end of spring break and all the traveling we did over the past 2 weeks.

It is a travel day for everyone to meet back in Vienna. I had to check out of my hostel by 10:30, so I decided I would catch the 10:00 train back to Vienna. The full train ride plus layover was about 13 hours. I first took the train from Amsterdam to Frankfurt. I was only there an hour, so I didn’t really get to see any of the city--from other people that went there is wasn’t much to go see any ways.

After that I had the long straight shot back to Vienna. I slept for most of it because the train wasn’t very crowded, so I just took up the 2 seats and lounged out. Besides sleeping I read my history of math book for our report. The book is on the mathematician Euler, and it contains a lot of formulas. Some of the stuff I can’t follow, because it is more advanced calculus than I have ever done, but I am still able to get through most of the book.

I finally arrived back in Vienna at 11 at night. When I finally go back to the school I went straight into my room and crashed on the bed because I was so tired from the past weeks of traveling.

Ryan Stipetic

Last Day

Spring break was awesome. Saturday was the last day and a very busy one. Waking up in Brugge, Belgium; eating lunch in Brussels, Belgium; and falling asleep in Frankfurt, Germany.

Brugge was a fairy tale and ended on a high note. Fresh Belgian waffles, a climb up the belfry tower, and last minute shopping in various chocolate shops and hole-in-the-wall places.

The train ride from Brugge to Brussels was about an hour, and once off the train, the difference between Brugge and Brussels was uncanny. Brussels was a busy city, fuming with antiquity. There was a "march of the dead," as it appeared, with thousands of people dressed as zombies crowding the streets. It was a different kind of experience. Brussels was a short stay and after taking in everything in the city, it was on to Frankfurt.

Arrival in Frankfurt was after dinner sometime. Fortunately, the Frankfurt hostel was only 100 meters from the central station; unfortunately, it was also situated at the beginning of Frankfurt's red light district. Compared to Belgium, Frankfurt seemed to be a whole new experience in itself. The people at the hostel were easy to talk to, and it helped ease the intimidation of the city.

From Frankfurt, it was back to Vienna, where a familiar bed and private shower were welcomed with open, dirty arms.

April 9th, 2010 - Friday

Friday morning was my last morning in Paris. Even though I’ve been there for the last three days, I wanted to stay longer because I feel there is so much more to see. If I had more time, I would have spent more time at the Louvre, and also at Notre Dame. These two places were so crowded that it was nearly impossible to properly explore them.

Looking back, I think Spring break in Paris was a great choice. The trees are in bloom. The weather is just perfect to walk around. I think it is definitely one my favorite places in Europe. The hostel I stayed at was not in the center of town, thus not in touristic area. I liked it very much, especially because I got to get a sense of the real Paris with everyday people instead of being crowded by souvenir shops at every corner. However, if you don’t know French, it could be a pain to try to communicate with the locals. Fortunately, Mae and Cristina had me to translate and speak for them when they needed it. Overall, it felt nice to finally be after five years in a French-speaking country. I have missed that.

One thing I noticed about the city itself is that it is very diverse, population-wise. There, for the first time, I talked to a French-speaking Asian (that was cool). The city can easily be explored using the subway or ‘métro’. Like most main cities I’ve been to, for example Berlin, the subway system is easy to understand and follow. The French food is great. Their regular coffee, bread, dessert and croquet-monsieur (type of sandwich) are a must try if someone goes to France. In almost every corner, there is a pastry or ‘Pâtisserie’. They all look so good, smell so good, and are very inviting. My favorite one was right down the street from the hostel; I took some pictures of it. I tried one of their baguette sandwiches, dessert, and croissant. They were delicious!!

Overall, the French were very nice to us. I remember when we were looking for our hostel, some English-speaking people going to the same place were looking at a map, and a French cyclist stopped and asked them if they needed help. Even in a non-touristic area, the locals were telling us welcome or ‘Bienvenue’.

Merci!!

PHOTOS by Murielle

When in Rome...

What an eventful day Thursday was. Bobby and I parted ways from our fellow bro's after a couple awesome days in Munich, Germany. Mike and Kunj were headed to Paris, and we were off to Rome! The train ride from Munich to Rome was one of the highlights of this trip so far. I have never seen such beautiful scenery--passing through the Swiss Alps, with jaw-dropping views everywhere you looked. We finally got to Rome after a hefty train ride, only to find out some crappy news when we got to our Rome hostel: we were a day early for our booking and there was no vacancy in the hostel. Just a simple miscommunication, stuff happens (edited version of a term I'm sure we can all figure out). The people at the hostel here were nice enough to let us use the lobby and make a booking at another hostel on the internet. We made a booking and hauled our luggage back across the city to the other hostel. I must say it started out as the sketchiest hostel I have ever checked into. The reception room was one little table with a binder with all the information for the bookings in it. Turns out, we were not actually sleeping in this sketchy looking building. Our room was across the street in what turned out to be a very nice building. We were finally settled into our room by 11:30, just in time to enjoy a delicious meal at an Italian restaurant across the street before they closed at midnight. We knew this restaurant had to be good because in the back corner of the restaurant appeared to be a scene straight out of the Godfather. It looked as if a "meeting of the four fathers" was going down. Bobby enjoyed some pasta, while I feasted on a four cheese pizza. After that we walked around the city for a little bit, trying to enjoy as much of Rome as possible. We were obviously exhausted though, so we headed back to our room and got a much needed good sleep. Can't wait to experience more of Rome over the next three days! This has truly been the spring break of a lifetime!

Peace & love.

by Matt Lennon

April 7th, 2010 - Wednesday

Today Ally, Christina, Sam, Katie and I were in Frankfurt, Germany. We had arrived yesterday afternoon after a long, packed train ride, during which we had to stand (the whole five hours), but it turned out to be even longer because the trains were delayed. Anyways, we stayed at a very nice place; it was a cross between a hotel and a hostel. When we got upstairs we found out that we had a roommate, but she was barely there. Instead of going out to explore, we all just crashed knowing we had the whole next day to explore.

When we woke up the next morning we all showered and tried to plan out what we were going to see. Originally we were going to go to the Birkenstock factory to get some new shoes; but after failing to find the subways and not wanting to walk for an hour, we thought we would just explore the city. Now don't get me wrong--Frankfurt is BEAUTIFUL, very clean, with some amazing skyscrapers. But it was probably one of the quietest and most boring cities I have ever been to. It seemed to be very business oriented. We sat in a park for a while and then continued our adventures into the early afternoon. By that time Ally had started not to feel so well, so we headed back to the hotel and waited for our taxi to come and get us to go to the airport.

Around five the taxi came and took us there. Little did we know that Frankfurt airport was one of the biggest airports in Europe. We made it through check in and security, and we were well on our way to Ireland for spring break! After our short flight we finally made it to Dublin, and if you ask anyone who went through the passport check, the Ireland stamp is by far all of our favorites. We hopped on a bus right after and it brought us to our hostel, where we all crashed for the night.

by Chrissy Billingsley