austria!!!!!

sooo austria was amazing, it was a 4 day weekend and it was a blast to get to spend it there with a small group of kids that i dont normally hang out with. it was my first time to hang out with doug and katie, brian i had hung out with before, but it was lots of fun hanging out and just touring the country!

wednesday morning was valentines so the boys got up and got breakfast for all the girls from on the hoof and then we all ate, talked about our trips we were about to take and then they gave us all roses! it was nice and a good start to the day.. we had one class and then around 10am people started leaving to go to their destinations. some going to greece, spain, switzerland, paris, and then our group going to austria! we left around 1130ish and had a long morning of traveling. after switching buses and making it to london we got to the airport, after getting on the plane we had to switch planes once then had a safe flight into salzburg. we got in around 10 that night and that was probably the low point of the trip. it was so cold outside, it was raining, we had no idea where to go to find our hostel, everything closes early there so the hope of finding someone to ask was quickly overthrown and once we did find someone we most definitely didn't speak austrian/german. a little different from german but not by much. we finally found our hostel after making about a few circles around the city. it was tucked away in a shady little alley but once we found it things started looking up. we got to the hostel and were starving so we had pizza that they make there and it was really good. there was an italian guy there that asked me to come sit with him and told me he loved me haha and every time i saw him after he made kiss faces haha it was funny. after eating dinner and discussing our plans for the next day we headed up to bed

thursday was an exciting day! we (katie and i, the boys weren't interested so they went off on their own for the day and met us up for dinner) started out eating breakfast which was really good and then we got picked up from our hostel for the sound of music tour! we got to walk around a bunch of the locations that it was filmed and then we got to see a lot of the places that the real story took place, the real von trapp house things like that. toured all around the city and then we headed up to the mountains where the filmed the escape scene and were in the mountains and by then we were listening to the soundtrack and singing along.

mirabell gardens

in front of the one that the the von trapp kids were dancing around

its blurry, but i had to put it in because its a good scene in the movie

posing again

katie and i in front of the gazebo!!

us in front of the von trapp family house!! (not the actual one, just the one used for filming)

a better view

the church!!

there is a little town in the mountains, about 20 min outside salzburg and we ate lunch there at this cute little place and the butcher was talking to us all about where we are from and stuff then we were taking pictures and he wanted one with us, it was so fun.. after we went and got dessert and hung out in this little town!

please notice his beard!

yummm!

it was a real fancy place

so after that we went back into salzburg and took a charter bus to the salt mines! it was a interesting tour.. we walked around the inside of the mines and learned the history of how everything was used back when they still used it.. we got to slide down these slides that the miners used to move around faster so that was exciting. our tour guide was funny and he had to give the tour in german and english cause there was a good chunk of each in the groups so he would get confused a lot and then it was fun to hear him speak everything in german.. also, we got to wear these cool miner outfits over our coats and everything cause it was like cold in the mines and they wanted us to feel like miners

us in our outfits

cute huh?

katie was a little more excited about them

about to go down one of the slides!!!

just hop on and go!

going down the slide!!!

after the salt mines we went to this little place that the celts, early inhabitants of great britain, used to live and a little town that was set up like they would have had it! it was real cute and set up with fake people and everything then drove around and kinda saw the eagle's nest (hitler's retreat) but the clouds were low so it was hard to see





after a long day of walking around and tours we met up the boys for dinner at a place called the alter fuchs. it means the old fox and has great austrian food, which was recommended by our tour guide who told us about the butcher and dessert place, both of which we thoroughly enjoyed. we all got wiener schnitzel which was partly because we wanted to eat a typical austrian dish, and partly because we couldn't read the menu

brian and doug

the group!

so then after dinner katie and i were supposed to walk back to the hostel because we had planned on watching the sound of music after our exciting day in the hills!! buttt the boys went to look at the bus schedule for the next morning and katie and i decided the only thing we didnt get to see in salzburg was the fortress. its name is Festung Hohensalzburg (literally meaning "high salzburg fortress" in German) and is one of the largest medieval castles in europe. so we went up at night when it was closed and it was real creepy because nothing was up there, everything was closed and it used to be a prison. haha so that was fun and after we went back to the hostel to watch the sound of music!

the view from the top

the side of the fortress

me in the shadow of the spotlight

walking down the path with the fortress behind us

the view of the fortress from our hostel

friday we headed to hallstatt and enjoyed the day there... we got there around 2pm and just took pictures most of the afternoon.. it was fun and basically it was just a little little town that was on a lake and in the mountains and we just walked around and looked at it all. we did a little climbing and exploring and lots and lots of pictures

waiting for the bus to take us to the train station!

katie and brian on the train!

doug and i on the train

in hallstatt waiting on the ferry!

it was gorgeous!!!

eating lunch at a little shop

walking around the town, we found a trail and halfway up this is the view

a view from the top!

katie and brian with the alps in the background!

brian and i.. we found this waterfall tucked away!



lost in thought

eating pizza at this little diner! it was really gooood!

waiting for the ferry!

sat we headed to graz and got there the late afternoon as well.. the ride there was on the train it was long but gorgeous, just a long morning of reading, listening to music and enjoying god's beautiful country. there wasn't much to do in graz but it was fun, we just went to the market and walked around shopping. we grabbed dinner at a place that was probably the worst thing i had eaten since i got here and that was no fun. but we went back to the hostel and watched people on the rock climbing wall and just hung out watching them and chattin

we climbed the stairs behind us and were able to see the top of graz

graz!

graz with a beautiful sunset

walking around, we stopped to watch him for a while

hanging around the hostel

the boys the next morning at breakfast

rise and shine!

the next morning was sunday and we were headed back to oxford. although it was a really fun trip i was ready to be back where people spoke english and i could get food that i knew what i was eating. so that was my first trip that we planned by ourselves with many more to come! love and miss you all!

week/weekend in london part 2

soo thursday was exciting.. we were supposed to have classes until noon, and then a coach was coming to pick us all up to go to london for the day as a field trip i guess...buttttttt much to our surprise we wake up and it was SNOWING! haha it was beautiful!! so we wake up and decide who needs class? debate on going as we are getting dressed to play in the snow.. and decide to go, so we sit in our 9am class as it continues to snow and we only had one more class so we decide just to go cause we are good students. haha but we got to class and our teacher was like just go play in the snow, have fun, your only kids once, if your inside im kicking you out. its a beautiful day... so we all got excited and went to change and get our cameras and headed to the meadow which is a huge open field and its about a 10 min walk away from the house.. sooo after the snowball fight and a few snow angels in front of the house we walk to the meadow.. of course having a snowball fight on the way over there.. haha you would think we had never seen snow before. but here it was so thick and i really had never seen anything like it. so we play and make a snowman with some of the local kids and just goof off and then we had to come back and get ready to head to london.


our house!!

sarah and i in front of the casa

trevor and i excited about the snow!!!!

meiko!

kate... we are walking to the meadow

walking and throwing snowballs


the beautiful meadow!!!!!

the snowman!

roomies!!!!


trying to make snow angels but also trying not to move cause the ground was so cold and we were getting soaked. so you might have to use your imagination a little on this one :o)

we came back dried off, changed clothes, and then headed to london. once we got there we were dropped off in front of the british library and we went inside and got to see the magna carta, the Gutenberg bible, Shakespeare's first folio, Alice and wonderland draft and first book, some really cool stuff. so we walked around there for a couple hours and hung out.. then we drove around in the charter bus and the guy that was driving took us around several places in london and it was about a one hour tour, we saw the london bridge, the globe theatre, downtown london, st pauls cathedral, and a lot of other stuff.

we then got dropped off to spend about 2 hours to eat and walk around and do whatever before the play started so elise, sarah, trevor and i decided to go eat a normal meal with normal food and not just pubs and stuff. so we went to a place called smollensky's and it was really nice. we all got normal food but i just haven't had veggies a whole lot cause im cooking on my own and eat a lot of bread and cereal and easy stuff. haha so i just got the most amazing chicken caesar salad and a bowl creamed spinach. it was delicious. we had a nice dinner and then had about half an hour to spare before the show started so we just got some coffee and walked around for a little bit then headed to the theatre early cause it was so cold outside.


trev and sarah at smollensky's

elise and i about to eat amazing fooood

the play started at 7pm, it was good. long, really long, but good. we saw Shakespeare's antony and cleopatra starring patrick stewart and harriet walter's. they did a good job but i got bored. it was hard to follow all of it and it was just real long but it was good to go see.. mimi barnard even had a hard time paying attention to it all and staying engaged she said. the playhouse was beautiful. there were a lot of people there and they were all dressed up.. it was cute. we finally got out at 10:30ish and met back on the bus and headed back to oxford. it was a long day, but a really good one. the rest of the weekend was devoted to hanging out, shopping, and writing papers and doing stuff for class before our big travel break coming up on wednesday!


it was dark, and we were rushed to take this picture.. but that's us in front of the playhouse

group shot before the show. in the front: trevor, me, briana, and courtney.. behind us being weird is laura, katie, kate, and brian

the professors: jackie(history), janine(bible), ron(global studies/history), mimi(english), wayne(family studies)

i will write more later before i leave, but if not i will write about my travel break when i get back on sunday! love you all!

weekend in london

sooo our weekend in london was a lot of fun... we left here friday morning at 830ish... we walked to the train station and got on the trains for london! it was fun, and a beautiful ride.. the trains are probably my favorite to ride..

once we got to london we split up into 4 groups and walked around the town of london.. our group got to go to downtown london where the market was and it was kinda scary but it wasnt too bad... we were supposed to explore and take pictures so after about an hour of it we got bored and went to a coffee shop until our time was up.

katie, me, and elise walking around the market

brian and i in front of a veggie stand!

kate and katie relaxing at the coffee shop!

now the real adventure beings, we met back up with all the group and got on the subways to find our hostels... so we get on the underground and head to where we think our hostel is.. we decided to get off at a stop, walk a couple streets and there will be our hostel! if only it were that easy.. haha no. there was a group of about 12 of us that were all staying in the same hostel and we walked around london for about an hour trying to find it. no such luck. we got to see a lot of nice stores, we were in the really nice part of london, it looked like where the parent trap was filmed but we came to that conclusion on our own. we never had luck so we ended up just carrying our backpacks all over london and had to take them to parliament until we were done to take another stab at trying to find our hostel.

elise and i in front of parliament

brie me and elise in front of westminster abbey

big ben and parliament at night

parliament was great... it was a tour of the inside of parliament.. unfortunately i dont have pictures because we weren't allowed to take any inside.. it was magnificent though. after we got done we went back to our hostel and trevor had already found it so he took us straight to it.. by the time we got to our hostel we were exhausted and hungry... so we walk around london trying to find some food that is good but not too expensive. so we are walking and all of our feet are killing us and we are dead tired, our backs were hurting cause we had been carrying our backpacks all day so we decide we will just go to the train station. there is cheap food in there and so we walk into the train station and get mcdonalds. hahaha ya it was quite pathetic. i hadn't had mcdonalds in a very long time cause i dont eat it in the states. so yes, our first meal was mcdonalds in london. it was delicious though. we decide to call it an early night since the next day was full of site seeing and our feet killed. so we just went back to the hostel. we ended up not going to sleep till about 1am but that is another story. it was a long night, and the next morning came earlyyyy.

our first london dinner

not really sure whats going on here..

after dinner we went to the local grocery store and saw this huge leg with hair and the hoof still on it.. it was the topic of discussion for longer then necessary. haha

me and trev in our beds at the hostel. a TINY room.

elise and teal

brie and brian

DAY 2:
the next morning we wake up and get ready to leave the hostel, check out is 10am and trevor had us waking up at 8am.. turns out he was the last one up and we walked downstairs to enjoy some coffee and bread before we embark on our big day.

elise trevor me brie and brian at breakfast.. haha the boys love pictures.

we leave the hostel and head to buckingham palace to watch the changing of the guards. it was saturday morning so there were a lot of people out and the streets were crowded. we saw the changing of the guards and it was cool but we were ready to do something else..(it took awhile for it to get started and it lasted kinda long)

buckingham palace

apparently they're a big deal..

me and brie in front of the palace!!

group shot in front of the statue for queen victoria

after buckingham palace we split up and head to museums... i went to the national art gallery and trafalgar square. trafalgar square is pretty, it has a bunch of statues and a fountain and you can see big ben from the front. we head to the national art gallery and it was beautiful, it housed paintings from Da Vinci, Rembrant, Monet, Van Gouh, Picasso and so many others!

lunch before the museum

at lunch

trafalgar square

big ben at dusk!! coming out of the museum, across trafalgar square, you could see big ben!

the national gallery
once we left we met back up with our group (me, brian, trevor, elise, brie and teal) and headed back to the bus station to head home to oxford. we grabbed some dinner and got on the buses for a 2 hr ride back.. once we got here, we were worn out and it was only 930 so we decided to watch harry potter and relax. it was a lot of fun and it was a good couple days seeing classic london.

for some reason it cuts out the right side of the pictures.. im gonna work on that later.. enjoy!