For the third ten day break, my mom was coming to visit! My brother and dad were supposed to come too, but my brother broke his foot really badly. With all of the walking we do, Europe was not an option.

My mom arrived in Prague Saturday afternoon after a long flight from Nashville including almost missing her flight in Amsterdam. She is a trooper. I greeted her at the Prague airport with some Indian food and a sign. We ubered back to my apartment for her to rest. She said she could either rest now and stay up later or she could explore now and go to bed early. I chose the first option so we could show her PoPo’s that night.

When she woke up, it was time to go get dinner. She and I left before Yurie and Natalie in hopes of showing her old town. We ended up just seeing Wincleses Square though. We went to Restaurant Tiskarne, which is a nice Czech restaurant to kick off her week. We ordered a cured cheese, pretzel, and sausage dish for the appetizer. For the main course, we ordered beef ribs, piglet knee, and veal meatballs. It was the first time any of us had piglet knee, but we all loved it. I know pig knuckle is a specialty in Prague, and I’m sad I hadn’t tried it sooner. After dinner, we took my mom to the infamous PoPo’s. PoPo’s is the bar we go to every night we go out. It is infamous for cheap drinks, and a drink called an AMF. An AMF is basically alcohol and blue liquid. We ordered one for my mom, but she took one sip and said she was done. She preferred to have a vodka soda instead. We showed her the caves of PoPo, and caught up. Natalie and Yurie knew my mom because we all had gone on Spring Break together. We didn’t stay out too late, because we were all tired.

Sunday morning, we woke up early to start our day of exploring. I showed Mom the metro stop at Krizikova, and we took off for our morning adventure. We stopped first at St. Cyril and Methadus Church. I hadn’t put this stop on our itinerary, but we passed it and I thought my mom would like to see it. She was really moved by the history behind this church in the middle of some street. I’m glad I was able to show it to her. After, we continued on to have breakfast at the Dancing House. The Dancing House architechture and view of the Vlatna river was a good first breakfast. It was a lowkey place, because of how little people were there but great food and view. They had my mom’s favorite coffee on the menu and she ordered an omelet. I got eggs and bacon with cheese for my breakfast. Our breakfast took longer than expected, so we didn’t have time to go to Petrin Tower. Instead, we went to the Franz Kampta rotating head statue. My mom has been dying to see this ever since I decided to study abroad in Prague. She loved the Christmas market nearby as well. Afterwards, we went back to my apartment to grab our stuff for the aiport. Next stop: Paris!

On the plane, the women who sat next to me was deathly ill. I did feel bad for her, but I was so scared I would catch whatever she was coughing all over the seats.

Once we landed in Paris, we took the train into the city. We tried to call and uber from the train station, but 3 different ubers cancelled on us. I still don’t know why it wouldn’t work. One even accepted and then drove right past us and cancelled. We decided to flag down a taxi instead. The taxi we got in was a Tesla, which was so exciting. I hadn’t even really seen Tesla’s in Europe, let alone had ridden in one yet in Europe.

We were staying at a boutique hotel called Duc de Saint Simon. Upon arrival, the front desk man greeted us right when we walked in. He said we were in room #1, which was the hotel’s suite. I loved this place already. It was so Parisian feeling with the drapery and atmosphere. After settling in, we went back to the front desk guy for dinner. He cracked us up using words like vulgar, and describing restaurants as circuses. He recommended a restaurant around the block. We were quite skeptical, because he might be receiving a kickback. Quickly, we realized that he wasn’t and this place was incredible. It was my favorite meal of the entire trip. We got a crab avocado appetizer, lobster spagetti, steak, green beans, and a chocolate souflee to share. The family next to us had a political debate their entire dinner, which was frustrating because they were getting heated with eachother. At dinner, I explained to mom our motto of “You can sleep in America.” It means you stay up late and wake up early while travelling in order to get the most out of your travels.

After dinner, we took a taxi to go look at the Eiffel tower. I was quite literally speechless when I first saw it. I was expecting the Eiffel tower to be smaller I think, because of how it looks in pictures. While there, we avoided scammers and saw a few Parisian rats before heading back to the hotel.

The next morning, we woke up and had omelletes in the hotel before walking to the Louvre. Once at the Louvre, we realized in order to avoid standing in an atrocious line we needed tickets. We instead walked toward the Champs Elysees, while admiring everything along the way. I finally got to see the skaters that I had been waiting for too. While heading towards the Arc de Triomph, we stopped in to L’Audree for some macaroons. My mom hadn’t head of L’Audree but she still loved them. We continued Champs Elysees to Arc De Triomf. We climbed all the steps up to the top. My mom and I got pretty dizzy on the staircase up, but it was worth it. The view showed all of Paris. I liked best how it looked like bike spokes sticking out. We explored the tomb of the unkown solider some before heading on.

Afterwards, we went into Cartier and decided to do some shopping before heading back. We shopped in Hermes, as well as a few other big stores. For our lunch and afternoon snack, my mom took me to Angelina’s. She is obsessed with Angelina’s and goes every time she comes to Paris. It has the best hot chocolate in the world. We waited in line for a table, and ordered some food first. I had a vegetable soup and croque monsieur, while Mom had a salmon salad. All of the regular food seemed fresh, which was shocking given the large number of people coming in and out of the huge restaurant. Finally, it was hot chocolate time. The hot chocolate is literally liquid gold. I didn’t even know anything that good existed. In our food coma, we rushed back in the rain to quickly change.

For dinner, we ate at the Moulin Rouge dinner show. It wasn’t the burlesque show yet, but just some singers performing while we ate. The food sounded really fancy and boujee, but it was below average. My mom was a good sport though that I accidentlly singed us up for it. The actual show was so good. The level of talent and practice that went into the show was clearly evident. There was one part with snakes, and we were literally right up next to the stage. I thought one might eat me. We became besties with the people we sat next to too. They’re cute young parents who were finally taking their honey moon.

After the show, we went to have a drink at the Georges V. This is the hotel my parents used to stay in when my dad had to come for work to Paris. It was literally the nicest hotel I’ve ever seen. When you walk through the lobby, you get bonsoir’d by everyone. My mom was tired of drinking, so she just had cheeseburgers and fries (lol). I ordered quite possibly the fanciest cocktail of my life. Everyone scurried everywhere.

My mom was a good sport, because we woke up early the next day too after stay up late at the Georges V.

We began our next day with another omelette for breakfast with the fire alarm going off. We hustled to the Musee D’Orsay first. This is my mom’s favorite museum in Paris. We were on a tight schedule, so once inside we only saw the highlights. We saw the main floor, which was the old train station. I enjoyed the pointalism pieces and Van Gough as well. I never thought I would actually see Van Gough works in real life. My mom loved the Rembrants.

After Musee D’Orsay, we strolled along the Seine towards the previous lock bridge. We passed some interesting art pieces along the way, which we didn’t know what they meant. We loved looking for locks all around the old lock bridge. Even though it isn’t there anymore, there were locks all around it. We kept walking to look at Notre Dame. My mom was really torn up about the fire that happened once we saw Notre Dame. She said it was much more emotional than she was expecting. I was not expecting to see as much of Notre Dame as we actually did. We continued on to go drown our sorrows by looking for queso at Chipotle. The Mexican place on the way had queso so we stopped, but it was not good. Sadly, the Chipotle didn’t have queso either so we continued on. We went back to the hotel to change next. After, we went to go get cheese fondue since Chipotle didn’t have queso. I had never had fondue before, but I really enjoyed it.

We got some berets afterwards just so we could take pictures on the eiffel tower with them. We loved joking around and typing “we we” with pictures of our berets instead of “oui oui.” With our berets, we shopped our way to the Luxemberg gardens. My mom had never been to the Luxemberg gardens, so it was fun to do something new with her.

Afterwards, we sped to the Eiffel tower but got there early. We ran next door to get some tea before continuing on. Once in the elevator to go up the Eiffel tower, I was immediately nervous and scared because of how rickety it felt. Once reaching the top, I was shocked by the comparison of heights chart. There were so many other structures just as tall that I didn’t realize. My favorite part of the Eiffel tower was taking the beret pictures with my mom, and looking for the red trees on Champs Elysees with her. It was so fun experiencing it for the first time with her too. Some people tried to speak French to us, we assume it was because we looked French with our berets.

After the Eiffel tower, we walked a little bit to see the Eiffel tower more before getting a taxi to dinner at Julianne’s. We had some shrimp with mayo, duck, ravioli, and a crepe for dinner. The food was good, but my favorite part was the comte that came in the ravioli. We analyzed how the restaurant industry is much different in the EU than America. In America, it is much more profit driven than in the EU. After, we strolled to the Grand Colbert to look at it before heading back to the hotel.

Our last morning we woke up to one final omelet. We rushed over to the Louvre to get in line for our tickets. There was a confusion with the tickets, so we had to stand in the long line. Once we made it inside, it was way worth it. The art pieces inside the Louvre were unreal. There was one artist named David who was one of my favorites, as well as seeing Napoleon’s apartment. We, of course, waited in line for the Mona Lisa as well. Sadly, this was our last stop on our Mother Daughter Parisian adventure.

We hustled back to the hotel to grab our things. I loved getting to travel with my mom, and I was so sad to see her go. It was the best way to end my travel abroad.

Florence began on Friday afternoon. Once we arrived, we took the train into the city center. Once there, we fought the torrential down pour and walked to our AirBnb. The owner of the AirBnb made it very clear that he really didn’t care about much except a 5-star rating. We didn’t mind this.

After settling in, we went off to find food. We decided to try Bar Yellow, which was recommended by fellow Praguian Bradley Murray. He claimed it was the best food of his life, so we decided it was a must try. We split some delicious house red wine, and a pizza with ham and mushrooms for the table. We also each got a pasta. Mine was a blush cream sauce with ham and mushrooms recommended by the waitress. The pasta, as we could tell, was made in the restaurant!

When we left the restaurant, we realized our umbrella had sadly been stolen. As we huddled under what umbrellas we had left, we went into the city center to see the Duomo. I was impressed by how little land the Duomo had. For this massive structure, it seemed to have really just been plopped in the middle of some buildings. It was still pouring so we continued on. We had our first stop at Massimo Leather, recommended by one of my friends who had studied abroad in Florence previously. Massimo greeted us, and introduced us to his sister and his warehouse guy. He was an impeccable sales man who let me charge my phone and play with his dog. It turned out that he remember my friend who had recommended him to us. He was also very proud to tell us about his student discount he offered. As one might have guessed, I spent too much money here. But hey, Florence is known for leather – so I had to.

Happy with our purchases, Yurie and I left to shop around some more until we found Lauren and Brady. They finished their shopping quicker so were just exploring. Once we found them, they said they had decided to go back to the AirBnb, because they didn’t feel well. After they left, Yurie and I went to get gelato at La Strega Nocciola (recommended by my friend too), but it was closed. So, we got some souineirs next door. While looking at the post cards, Yurie started yelling, “WHY DO THESE ALL SAY FIRENZE? WE’RE IN FLORENCE!!” I told her to be quiet, and we would figure it out. She quite literally was screaming the fact that we were tourists. It turned out that Florence is the more touristy/Americanized way to say Firenze. It is kinda like how we call Prague Praha.

After shopping, we bought some water by the duomo. I kept saying to Yurie, how crazy that we needed water, and the place we found was right by the Duomo. I never stop saying to Yurie, “Can you believe that we’re here.” She believes it and just laughs at this point.

We realized there was another La Strega Nocciola across the bridge, so we took off to go get some gelato. On our way, we ran across so many monuments and squares. We tried to look up the significance of most of them, but weren’t able to find stuff about everything. One of my favorite things we ran into was a tree exhibition, which was advertising for an art exhibit in a near by museum. It symbolized the tree of life. We also got to walk through a sculpture garden that was apart of Uffizi. We ran into some American adults who were travelling together who took our picture. I enjoyed running into other Americans and hearing their travel stories. As we continued on, I was so cold and didn’t bring any other warm clothes so I decided I needed to buy some. We went into Brandy Melville, but I didn’t see anything that I liked so we kept going. The bridge we had to cross for gelato was the Ponte Vecchio, which is the famous bridge in Florence. Almost every city we have gone has a bridge separating the city, so we often compare them. This bridge had so many shops lining it, that it was hard to even see the water. Yurie and I liked the window shopping of the jewelry on the bridge. All of the goods on this bridge were nice. We reached the gelato shop, and agreed that it had some unique flavors. I got a cinnamon one and a cream one. The Italian gelato movement lived on.

On our way back from gelato, we stopped into a grocery store. I always like to compare grocery stores in different countries. I think it reads into the different cultures. The Florence grocery store was like a Billa or Albert, yet the products were so much more fresh. The fresh pasta looked to die for too. After this stop, we ventured back across the bridge. I couldn’t bear the cold anymore, so I stopped in H&M and bought a sweater on our way to dinner. Yurie and I met back up with Brady and Lauren at a restaurant near our AirBnb. It was painfully average, so much so, that I don’t even know the name. I got a salad, which was pretty good. Yurie hated her pesto pasta. Lauren’s seafood pasta was just that seafood and noodles. Brady got the pesto too, but he liked it more than Yurie. The good thing about this restaurant was that we got to sign the walls afterwards, which we loved. We wrote Hokies and Gokies, but the waiter told us to stop. It was weird, because you’re supposed to write on the walls. He just only wanted names.

After dinner, Lauren and Brady got gelato and we all went back to the AirBnb. We bought tickets for our activities the next day, and tucked into bed.

Saturday morning came around early. We had to get moving, because we had an early time slot to climb the duomo. Yurie and I got ready early and went to La Menagerie, which was a coffee shop recommended by my friend. This coffee shop was so naturally decorated, which made you never want to leave. You could tell others felt that way, because it was the only coffee shop we passed that was busy. I got a bagel and cappachino, which I scarfed both of them down. Yurie’s avacado toast and matcha lattee took long to make, and we understood why when we saw the ginormous avocado toast. With food in hand, we booked back to the Duomo. We made it in line before it got too long, even though we had tickets. I feel like in Europe you have to buy tickets to things, but you still wait in line. While waiting, we befriended the two American couples behind us. One of which gave money to a gypsy, which made his wife mad. The next gypsy that came up was loudly told to SCRAM by the other guy. We laughed so hard at the word scram. Finally, we made it in the duomo to climb it. By the time we reached the first landing (not even halfway), we were dying. None of us were in shape to do this kind of walking. Finally, we made it to the first area. The first area allowed for a closeup look of the dome and the paintings. We were curious because of the paintings of people by the devil had the face removed, but only that one. Further, we climbed up to the very top on to the roof. The roof was stable, but I did not think the edges were as safe as they should have been.

From the roof, you could see Firenze’s country-side and the city life. It was a nice juxtaposition of the two. We whirled around the top taking pictures, before coming down. We walked around the Duomo area for a little bit, just admiring the grandness of the Duomo and the people watching. We watched a tourist get scammed out of a picture they had to pay for. After, we walked to go see the David. We realized that we had been on that street the night before, but hadn’t even realized we were by the museum where David was. The tickets for the David were a lot more lax than we have typically seen.

As we walked in, Yurie and I were both speechless. A rare moment for both of us. I imagine David to be human-sized, but he was really 17 feet tall. As we were standing there, I googled some facts about David. It turns out that he has stress fractures from how many tourists visit each year. The vibrations from the floor are damaging the statue. Other than David, which I enjoyed, I also liked the other statues in the museum. I particularly liked the others that Michelangelo had started to carve, but didn’t complete. It showed more of a step by step of how these magnificent creations are made from just one block of marble. After seeing the statue, Lauren and Brady wanted to go back to the hotel to rest. Yurie and I went to get food first. We looked in a few places, but none looked great so we went to the recommendations list and ended up at ZaZa’s. We were going to do splitsies, but for the first time different things looked good to us. I got veal meatballs, and a side salad. I have now grown to really enjoy meal after this trip, and I feel like veal is a popular dish around the EU.

Once we finished our late lunch, we strolled through the leather markets. We didn’t love the leather markets though. The salespeople were all way too pushy, and some were even racist to Yurie. I did buy a tshirt, but we kept walking quickly. We did go back to Massimo after to try and find keychains, but he didn’t have any. He told us he used to just give them away to people, because they’re not worth anything. He showed us where we should be able to find some so, which we did and were able to get some there.

Afterwards, we went back to the AirBnb to grab Lauren and Brady to head to dinner. We were going to Il Latini, which is where my parents ate on their honeymoon. They have such funny stories and fond memories of this restaurant that I have been hearing about for my entire life. There are only two seatings each night. We were at the 7:30 PM seating, and if you are late they will give it away. We got there early, and there were already people outside in the rain waiting. There was some confusion with our reservation, but we made it in!

As soon as we sat down, we decided to do the tasting menu. Right when we agreed, the dishes started flying out (like my mom said they would). Each dish we tried was unique and better than the last. By the time we got to the main courses, we were so full we could barely even eat them. We loved the atmosphere and the food. I wish that there were more restaurants like Il Latini. My mom secretly venmoed me for all four of our dinners. It made her so happy that we were there, and it made me so happy to be there. It felt like a little piece of home in Florence.

We stayed at dinner for hours, eating, and talking. After dinner, we walked back to our AirBnb and got ready to go out. The bar we started off at was a recommendation for an American study abroad bar. Sure enough, everyone there seemed to be studying abroad. We took a Virginia Tech shot, and found the Virginia Tech shirt on the ceiling! We went to Space Club after, before heading back home in the rain (shocking).

Sunday morning, we didn’t wake up particularly early. We got up with enough time to pack, grab food while walking, and take the train back to the airport. It was the slowest morning of my life.

Florence makes me happy to think back on. I loved all of the little things about Florence, and the small town feel it had. When I go back to Florence, I want to explore the country side more and hopefully it won’t rain the entire time I’m there.

Once we got to the bus station in Lisbon, we took an uber to the AirBnb. It was already late, because our bus had gotten delayed so we UberEats’d food to meet us there. I got Mexican food, but the others got pizza.

The host for the AirBnb met us at the appartment. He was with his wife and baby, who was the cutest nugget ever. I thought it was a little odd that he broke them both, because it was so late and past the baby’s bedtime for sure. He mentioned they were leaving the next day to travel around countries for a while. Despite a few oddities, he was nice and gave us some good recommendations. He also mentioned to us that while Lisbon is safe overall, the area we were in was not the greatest. He told us where the bad area ended, and we needed to be careful walking around. He specifically told us not to walk around with our phones in our hands. Apparently, people would just walk right up to you and grab your phone and run.

After the apartment and safety run down, we began to get ready to go out for Halloween. We all had bought wigs to wear out for a Halloween costume. That night we got to explore some of Lisbon’s infamous night life.

The next morning, we all slept in some. Soon, I wanted to get up and explore. Olivia and Tracey came with me to explore too. We conquered the metro passes, because the Lisbon metro was not one of the easier ones and went to TimeOut Market. I love all of the food markets we’ve visited, but TimeOut was easily one of my favorites. The food quality was great, and it was easy to navigate and relatively quick. It was jam-packed though, which speaks to how great it was. Tracey and I started off by splitting a charcuterie board of meat, cheese, and bread. She and I also split a steak sandwich. I had missed steak greatly, because I feel like it is harder to find red meats similar to the United States in Europe. Even the burgers I did get did not have the same consistency or texture as I am used to. I’m sure the ones in the EU are better for me, because they use less preservatives and chemicals. My next dish was some creamed spinach, which was not the best to be honest. Oh well – I can never seem to find vegetables. Instead of a dessert, I got some iced tea and cheese fries with their special sauce mayo. I have grown obsessed with mayo, and I don’t know why. I hated it before this semester, like literally DESPISED.

We walked around TimeOut market some more admiring the flower markets in the next hall. Also, there was a clothing, jewelry, and other local goods market next to TimeOut we went to. Olivia and I wanted to buy jewelry, so we ran to find an ATM. Neither of us ended up buying jewlrey, but I bought a new jacket for myself. It was a cute lighter-weight jacket, which is important for me because I always overheat.

5 minutes from TimeOut Market happened to be the pink street – so we walked there! The pink street is literally a pink street lined with bars and clubs. We didn’t go into any of them but enjoyed exploring the pink road, which made me feel like I was walking the Yellow Brick Road from the Wizard of Oz! We grabbed water, and went back to the AirBnb to meet up with the others.

They were still licking their wounds from the night before, and had ordered more UberEats. Olivia and Tracey wanted to nap, but I wanted to explore more. Lillian came with me to walk around. We started walking to a nearby neighborhood that we had heard was bustling. On our way, we popped into different shops we saw including an art gallery and a health food store. Despite passing stores likes these in the US, I never seem to walk in. However in Europe, I always explore and walk through them. When we arrived at the nieghborhood spot, it was bustling with some dinner spots. We didn’t need to get dinner though, because we were meeting up with the others for dinner. We strolled on to see the Cathedral of Lisbon. The cathedral had a massive stain glass circle on the front, that was beautiful at the dusk hour. There was a service going on, so we got to go inside. I liked standing in and observing the service as it was being done in Portugese. The atmosphere brought me to chills as we walked in to the dim lit church. There were catacombs beneath the church as well, but they were closed during the services.

Outside of The Cathedral, Lillian and I saw a stand selling food and contemplated getting drinks before dinner. Our friends had cancelled where we wanted to go to dinner to try a place called BaoBao, which was one of the top 7 restaurants in Lisbon. While calculating directions, a man that drove one of the open air taxis came up to us. He asked if we needed help with directions, to which we responded no. Even though we said no, he kept talking to us. He invited his other friend (another taxi driver) to talk to us too. We ended up talking with them for a decent amount, and laughing so hard my stomach hurt. One of the guys kept making fun of BaoBao. He couldn’t understand why anyone would name a restaurant that. His favorite thing was to say, “Burn down BaoBao!!!” or to make up stories about what he would name the restaurant. Finally, Lillian and I ended the conversation to head to dinner, but we really thought he might come with us. He told us to lead him to BaoBao and began to skip along with us, but sadly he stayed behind.

On our way to BaoBao, we passed through the main Lisbon tourist area it seemed. The streets were lined with restaurant after restaurant with more seating than you typically see throughout Europe. All of the restaurants were empty too, and the hostesses were trying to hustle us into the restaurants. I did feel badly for them that they were having to fight for people to eat at their restaurants. I imagine that during peak season they are bustling with people. Our walk to dinner allowed us to explore the restaurant district and the shopping district, which we loved.

Once arriving at BaoBao, they told us there was at least an hour and a half wait. Despite some of the 10 of us being upset and hangry, we agreed to wait. We told the hostess that we didn’t need to sit together, that we could all split up into even 2 per table. We went accross the street for drinks and appetizers. The service was so painfully slow that we ended up leaving before being served. Lauren, Olivia, and I decided to walk to a cheap bar 5 minutes away to get drinks. On our way, we stumbled into a cool looking bar instead. It was decorated for Halloween, and had great music despite us being the only ones there. We grabbed a drink, and waited for the others to tell us to come back.

We had to book it back, and were walking up right when the hostess was saying she was giving away our table. We made it back at the exact perfect time, luckily. For dinner, we split dumplings. Yurie and I also split bao buns. We each ordered one and traded. I got two pork belly bao buns, and Yurie got the shrimp ones. Our obsession with bao buns is honestly too much. For my main meal, I got chicken curry. I had never had curry before, but for some reason was craving it. The curry was delectable. Despite the large orders, the wait stuff was accommodating with us paying separately (which is rare). By the time we finished dinner, it was pretty late and we were all exhausted from the night before and the day so we went back to bed.

Saturday morning, we woke up to pouring rain. We got ready and decided to make the most of the day anyways. On our way to Rossio Square, it was raining so bad that we stopped to buy umbrellas. These cheap umbrellas remarkably did the job. Rossio Square was not bustling, because of the rain so we continued on. Brady wanted to try the place next to BaoBao for breakfast, so we scurried there. The service once again took forever, but we still stayed. I got a cappuccino, yogurt, and toast with ham and cheese. We were all very impressed by how slow the service was, despite all of ordering toast and yogurt. The food was pretty good though, and the waitress was really sweet. We felt badly because she was trying so hard, and it was not her fault.

After breakfast, we wandered through the shopping district a little bit. Tracey, Lauren, and I broke off from the others. I looked it up and the Rua Augusta arch was closeby. We walked there, and bought tickets to go up. This view was one of my favorites of the 10-day break. From the top, you could see the grid like city and the ocean bordering the city. We had to quickly hustle down though, even though I could have stayed up there for hours.

We ubered to the docks de Santo Amaro for our HippoTrip. We loaded the HippoTrip and it began on land. It drove us by the Prace do Comercio, Praca Marques de Pombal, Jardim da Estrela, Museu da Eletricidade, and the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos. Our tour guide was wonderful with adding stories and fun facts to the tour. Legend has it that Lisbon is so hilly because of a Queen with a snake who fell in love, but her lover left her in the middle of the night. She hit her tail on the ground so hard that is caused the hills. If you look at the statue in Praca do Comercio, you can see the snakes at the feet of the horse. Also, because of the great earthquake, fires, and tsumani that occured in Lisbon all of the streets we purposefully short. You can see the end of end street, which allows for someone to be able to run away. (This is what the tour guide said). As part of the Hippotrip, our bus converted into a boat and drove right into the water. Once floating, we sailed past the monument of discoveries, Belem Tower, and Torre VTS. These were my favorite three monuments we saw. On the monument of discoveries, there is only one women. It is the main discoverers mother. Disappointing. We also got to see the bridge, which looks like the Golden Gate Bridge. Our tour guide explained to us that a lot of the buildings and museums along the water are built to emulate something else.

After our Hippotrip, we met up with Akash, Collin, Reed, and Kai at LXFactory. LXFactory is an old factory re-purposed into an area with shopping, restaurants and bars. We spent most of our time in the bar area catching up with the boys. The drinks they had were extremely fancy, so we pretended not to be the broke students we actually are. We also shopped around some, and Brady got his ears pierced (which he took out the next day – he decided he didn’t like them).

For dinner, we went to Taberna Portugesa which was a very authentic Portuguese place recommended by my friend who had studied abroad here. When we sat down at the table, there was cheese, bread, and olives on the table. We assumed they were free, because it was on every table. We learned later that was not the case. For dinner, Lillian and I split the boiled bread mix with vegetables and cod, and another typical dish with eggs and hash brown type foods. This honestly might have been my favorite restaurant, because of how authentic it was. I don’t think everyone liked it as much as I did though.

After dinner, we ubered back to the AirBnb. I recorded an interview for an exec position I was applying for, and then got ready to go out. That night we went out on the pink street with Reed. The dynamic of the pink street was unique, with drunk people everywhere and men selling pastries from large tuperwares for .5 Euro.

We stayed out a little too late, giving the fact that I was surfing at 9 am the next morning. With only about 3.5 hours of sleep, my alarm for surfing came pretty quickly.

I met my surf instructor at a hotel nearby, and he drove me to the beach shop. At the beach shop, the owner of the company came and they carried all the boards to the car. I was just chilling for a while watching the waves roll past. After the boards were loaded, we drove to the beach we would be surfing at. I really liked talking to the surf instructor hearing about his experience and life. He left Brazil after being stabbed and hospitalized for two weeks. He said it is too dangerous to leave your home compound there. His mom and daughter are still there. His daughter lives with his ex-wife though, and her new husband. He wanted to continue his education while still surfing which is how he found Lisbon. Kindly, he also stopped at a quick market to let me grab food. I hadn’t eaten anything yet, because I assumed the hotel would have food for me to buy.

Once arriving at the beach, I was given my wet suit to change into. The guy that gave me my wet suit was beautiful. I tried not to show how obsessed I was, but it turns out that Natalie and Yurie said everyone calls him Beautiful Boy. (Yurie and Natalie did surfing with the same instructor as me, but on a different day. I surfed by myself, because no one else in my group wanted too and it was really important to me that I do it.) After changing into the wet suit and carrying our boards to the beach, it was just me and one other surfer student with the instructor. As I was sitting there shaking from the cold thinking how stupid I was to get into the water if I was this cold on land, our instructer told me to stop acting so cold. I pulled it together, but was still freezing. He continued on to give directions on how to surf. He walked through the movements that started by laying on the board, downward dog, then jumping into the stance. In order to be a “surfer,” you had to ride a wave in this position for 9 seconds. He continued on to also describe all the safety risks and what not to do, I was shook. I didn’t really think about how dangerous surfing was. I was sitting in the freezing cold, not knowing anyone, and thinking this was so stupid. I don’t even know this man and I’m trusting him with my life. I also was more sleep deprieved than I should have been to be doing it, but I pushed on. I liked the other student with me too. He was friendly, and spoke some English.

The time came to get into the water and test it out. The other student literally caught the first wave without a hitch and it looked easy. I kinda wobbled on the first one, but quickly plummeted into the water. This surfing stuff was way harder than it looked. I tried again and again, and soon enough got my first wave. The adrenaline rush was crazy, and I realized I wasn’t even cold anymore. I was told that I could officially say I was a surfer because of the length of my ride! This surfing stuff was becoming fun. Right as I thought that, the instructer was pushing me out on my board and a giant wave came that knocked him down. He was steering my board, so I got knocked off too. I felt like I was in a movie trapped by a wave. Underwater, I couldn’t figure out which way was the surface. It felt like I was underwater for minutes and might drown, but somehow I ended up on the surface. I was so shooken up that I tried to ride another wave, but needed to sit on the shore for a little. After that, it was time to hit the water again. I picked surfing back up again pretty quickly. Ride after ride it never got old. I loved the rush of energy, and excitement every time I caught a wave. I didn’t expect it to be so tiring though. I can confidently say that surfing was the most challenging thing mentally and physically I have done in a long time. With that being said, it was one of my top 3 favorite things I have done all semester.

After my time in the water came to an end, I changed back into normal clothes. The owner helped me find some change, so I could give my instructer a tip. When I handed it to him, he was beside himself with gratitude. I was happy that he was so excited, because he really looked out for me in the water and was so patient. The owner of the company drove me back to the hotel. He shared some of his life story with me too.

After getting to the hotel, I ubered to meet the rest of the group at brunch. We ate at Zenith Brunch & Cocktail, which is a very famous brunch spot in Porto and Lisbon. I ordered a delicious egg, avocado toast with bacon, and cheese. The bloody mary’s were also quite a perk of the restaurant, but their fishy tap water (which we had to pay for) was not.

After brunch, we strolled back to the AirBnb passing some kind of tween concert. We packed up and took off to the airport. At the airport, we ate our last pastels sadly. We also ran into a new friend of Olivia’s who was picking up his mother – the coincidence was uncanny.

I loved Lisbon, and want to go ASAP to show my brother the surfing and explore more. We didn’t have enough time to see and explore everything, for example Sintra.

The best part of this weekend trip was being all together and the bears.

Even though it started Saturday morning, a few of the boys created a Bar Golf Prague version for Friday night. I was impressed by their dedication to the creation of it, but more so the turnout. It was so fun being all together exploring Prague together. For some reason, I had 6 friends all visiting Prague this weekend too, so they got to tag along for some of it!

Saturday morning, we rushed to the bus stop to meet the group! On the bus ride there, Yurie asked Andrea if Cesky Krumlov was in Prague…. seriously. Andrea was not amused in the slightest by this question, but Yurie was serious. We assured Yurie that it was not in Prague.

On the way, we made a pitstop at Mcdonald’s because we were early for the Cesky Krumlov bus stop. Everyone pilled into the McDonald’s, which caused the bus to reek of McDonald’s afterwards.

We continued onwards to Cesky Krumlov. Upon arrival, we went to the hotel to drop off our bags. It was too early for check-in, so we dropped them off and started off for a walking tour by Andrea. It was literally freezing though, so we were all pretty miserable. We explored the little town by seeing the main square and the large church with everything in between. After, we went to the castle to go up the tower. About half of the group went up, the other half decided to do some exploring themselves. I was in that group. We did stop and watch the bears outside the castle for a good 10 minutes. A fan favorite of the weekend. We wandered in a gingerbread and jam store. Next, Natalie and I went to an Italian place. I ordered some delicious carbanara. We were so hungry and cold that we literally inhaled the pasta. Content from our food (and in a food coma), we scurried back to the hotel for a nice nap. I didn’t get much sleep the night prior, and had been pretty sick so I slept for a while. Natalie woke me up when it was time for dinner. We thought we should try Czech food while in Cesky Krumlov.

Natalie googled and found one with good reviews. It was off the beaten path, which kinda sused us out. It was a huge restaurant, but not very packed. I can only imagine what it looks like during the peak season. I ordered a beef broth soup to start for my throat, and wow was it good! We both ordered beef goulash for our main meal. It did not sit well for either of us. It was so cold outside, and we did not feel good so we decided to hunker down for a little bit. We finished our movie we had started earlier in the week. Finally, we trekked back to the hotel to change.

Everyone who was there (not everyone in the program went) was going to a local club. The club was lucky we found them, because it was pretty much only us. They served the buckets of alcohol and pretty much everyone got them to share. It was fun being all together. Natalie and I were devastated to find there was no UberEats in Cesky Krumlov.

The next morning we had to *Czech* out by 10. We packed up, and ate breakfast in the lobby until it was time to go. The group that had been in the castle tower the day prior went to go hike to a white church. Natalie and I set off to see the castle.

Once we got there, we watched the bears wrestle and play again for another 15 minutes before buying our tickets. The stairs up the tower were surprisingly not difficult. The view from the top was confusing. It feels like Cesky Krumlov is a little town in the middle of no where, but at the top you can see there is civilization right next door. The view was pretty of the little houses and shops, but we liked watching the bears from the top the best.

We climbed down and explored the gardens afterwards. The gardens had intricate designs throughout them and a revolving theater (shut down for the winter). We left the gardens and did a little shopping. I loved this all-natural apothecary store. We ran into the group outside the store, and went to lunch together. I got pizza and tea. The bartender Meredith communicated with on Google translate the night before was there, which was funny to watch unfold. We all hung out in the lunch place until it was time to leave.

I think it would have been cooler to go to Cesky Krumlov during a warmer weekend. I know it is busier then, but one of the main attractions is the river. The river activities seemed to be what would have been my favorite part of the weekend for sure.

Our second stop on the 10 day break was Porto.

Lillian and I arrived together and first, because we were on an earlier flight than the others. We took the train into the city center. After a little bit of a directional issue, we found our AirBnb and met the housekeeper. The AirBnB was a chic apartment that could be featured in a home magazine. It had a fern wall, and big doors that overlooked a grassy space outdoors.

After settling in, Lillian and I went and walked around to find a spot for dinner. We got pretty hungry, so stopped at one of the first places we saw. On our way, we saw what we thought was a carnival store and a cocktail party in an appliance store.

We shared calamari to start. The calamari was ok, but the sauce it came with was amazing. I still don’t really know what it was, or how to describe it. It could’ve been like a garlicy aioli, but also not really. I also got a side salad and a burger. They were both tasty, and the waiter was quite accommodating. After dinner, we got cappuccinos with cinnamon (of course). We went into a grocery store nearby afterwards to pick up wine. On our way back we decided to stop in the carnival store. However, the carnival store was actually a sardine store I kid you not. Apparently, sardines are HUGE in portugal. There’s a day in the summer where everyone grills sardines, drinks, and hits people with plastic bats. It has something to do with a king, I think. I can’t quite remember why they do this, because I was too focused on the details of the day. They had sardines in containers for each year since they opened. The containers had important details about each year, and people born. We spent too much time in the sardine store.

Afterwards, I rushed back home to have a phone call with a recruiter. Once that phone call was over, the others had arrived from Seville except Brady (he was taking an overnight bus, because he forgot to buy a plane ticket). That night we went out to a bar around the corner. We might some people celebrating a birthday. They supported our night out. Very kind. Afterwards, we trekked to McDonald’s. On the way, we got separated from Lillian and Olivia, but Lauren and I pushed on. At McDonald’s, we realized that both of our phones were on 1%. We knew how to get to the AirBnb, but the others had the key to get into our 5th floor AirBnb in the back of a building (we couldn’t knock on the door). We rushed back, and kept calling the people inside. They didn’t answer. Soon enough, our phones died. Right before mine died though, I sent Tracey’s number to a friend in America. I told him to keep calling until she answered. During this time, we asked people on the street to borrow their phones. The only number I knew other than my parents (was not going to call them in this situation) was my brother. I called and texted him off multiple strangers phones with Portugese phone numbers. Luckily, my friend reached Tracey who woke up Lillian to let us in. Lauren and I were a little frustrated by how it all played out, but more in a joking way.

The next morning everyone woke up and got ready slowly. I popped out of bed and went to grab breakfast. I zoomed to a cute breakfast place to find there was a fire going on (literally), so I went a few doors down. I got some eggs and bacon to go and brought it back to the AirBnb. At this point, everyone was ready and leaving the apartment. They were going to have breakfast while I did an interview, which was considerate of them.

I worked on my interview assessment, and then they came back with Brady once it was done. Brady’s overnight bus was a miserable experience so him, and the others decided to nap. I wanted to see Porto, so I went out in the rain to explore. I went to the church on the corner of our street first. It was called the Clérigos Church and Tower. I wanted to go in the tower, but they only took cash which I shockingly (not really) did not have. I still explored the exquisite church. Afterwards, I went and looked around flying tiger. I am obsessed with this store, and this city is where my obsession started. I kept going to a cute boutique behind the sardine store. Everything turned out to be outrageously expensive, so I mosied on. I went to the train station with the famous blue tile next. Even as I was walking to the train station, I passed gorgeous tile everywhere. I love the color blue that is focused on in most of the tiles too. The train station was busy with people moving quickly to their next location. I stood in the middle of the hussle bussle and admired the remarkable blue tiles, and an exhibit featured as well. The exhibit was about power, which made me think when I read it. However, I had to read it a few times. After the train station, I continued on to the Porto sign passing more statues and tile along the way. I tried to google some of the statues, but it was raining so I didn’t linger long. Once at the Porto sign, I spoke with my mom on the phone for a little prior to having a stranger take my picture. Soon enough, my adventuring had come to an end.

I scurried back to the AirBnb to get ready for our Porto wine tour. We walked there from our apartment, and the cobblestone streets were extra slick from the rain. We passed more tiles on our walk there as well. We walked across the massive bridge too. Once at Porto, we wandered around a museum about Port wine before starting the tour. Lauren knew a lot about Port wine from her boyfriend, so it was interesting hearing her facts too. Port wine is stronger than other wines, and comes in Tawny or Ruby. The tour was a little dull I thought, but I was also quite hangry so I couldn’t focus much. After the tour, we had a tasting of the different port wines. Lillian accidentlly bought a cheaper package, with less wine, and everyone made fun of her. She wanted more wine. Luckily, a large group left their tasting with basically all of their wine still there. Brady hoped over and brought the glasses to our table to finish. No wine left behind! We sat next to a guy travelling alone, who happened to be from NOVA and went to VT. He was a little bit older, so we think he could have just gotten divorced. Olivia really liked him.

After the Porto Wine experience, it was FINALLLLY and I mean FINALLY time for dinner. We ended up just going right next store, because we were hungry and it had good reviews. The manager/co-owner (I can’t remember) lived in the US for a number of years, so he was able to relate to us at first. By the end, he was a little creepy/weird. However, the food was divine. Lillian and I shared all of our food. We started out with a cheesy bread, moving on to a chorizio dish, and finishing up with a beef rib. It had a scary name for it, but that is what it tasted like. After dinner, Lauren and Brady went back to the AirBnb. However, the rest of us wanted to explore some. We decided to climb to the walking part of the bridge. By climb, I mean walk up a very very very steep hill that it felt like climbing. Once at the top, we were hoping for a good view. Instead, it was covered in fog, which made it cool in a different way. We walked across the bridge, and found the Cathedral of Porto. We continued on meadering, but also hoping to head back. I ended up recognizing where we were from my explorations earlier. We were right by the train station. I showed the rest of the group the famous tile inside. I liked that I had seen the train station earlier, because at night it was completely empty. It was a good juxtaposition to compare the two times. We went home and to bed after the train station.

Our last day in Porto, Lillian and I woke up early to get tickets to the Livaria Levro bookstore. It was famous because of the strong ties to J.K. Rowling being inspired to write Harry Potter. While in line, we discovered there was a seperate line for tickets so Lillian whizzed over there. Once inside, there was a windy, inside out staircase right in the middle. The bottom floor mainly had classics in multiple languages, but the upstairs had other books. I flipped through one about restaurants in every city in the world, and another about speak easy’s. The restaurants recommended in Nashville were not the ones I would have recommended to be honest. Afterwards, Lillian, Olivia, Tracey and I grabbed a quick breakfast at the same place I had been the morning before. Once again, the delicious eggs. I also thought they had good toast, which I put cheese on.

Afterwards, we went to go souvenir shopping. I got some persevered salmon for my Dad and goodies at Flying Tiger too. After souviner shopping, we went to the Santa Ilfonzo and the Cathedral. I went up the cathedral tower myself, because the others didn’t want to pay. The breathtaking part of both of these for me was the blue tiles once again. I think that is my favorite part of Porto.

Before heading back to grab our bags, we ran into a costume store to get wigs for Halloween that evening in Lisbon! We ran back to the AirBnb, got our bags, grabbed food to go, and scurried to the bus station. On to Lisbon!

Our second 10-day break started in wonderful Seville. It took a little bit of travel to get there though.

We left Saturday morning on the worst airline quite possibly ever, the scum of the Earth, the Ryan Air. I had to pay $60 to check my CARRY-ON backpack. It was worse for Lauren and Olivia who had already paid about $30 to carry on their bags and once they got to the gate were forced to pay $50 more to check them. The nerve of Ryan Air. We flew from Prague to Madrid. Once landing in Madrid, we had a few hour layover before our train. We ubered to the train station and walked to a lunch spot nearby. Tracey and I split a yummy cheese board with jam (I don’t like jam though). I also got a small plate of curry chicken. It was like a seasoned grilled chicken in curry flavor. Everyone else got sangria, but I’m not a huge fan of sangria. It’s too sweet for me. I ordered two glasses of red wine instead. The waiter warned me that it was quite strong, but I said it was ok. He was right. It made the train ride later on fly by though. After lunch, we scurried to the train station. I was in a different train car than the others, but it’s ok. I was really enjoying the people watching in my car. There was a bougee couple who fell asleep. A college age girl who spent the few hours just putting on makeup. There was also a really well behaved dog.

That was pretty much my first time on a train. I really enjoyed it, because we got to watch the hills roll past us. It was beautiful.

When we got there, we realized we needed to take the bus to our AirBnB. There were no ticket machines anywhere for the bus. I found some people who spoke broken English who explained you buy the tickets on the bus. We hopped on the bus to buy our tickets to come to the realization that they only took cash. We quickly hopped back off. We scrounged together all of the coins we had to pull together just enough.

Once on the next bus, it was packed. We were literally like sardines. Its remarkable how population public transportation is in Europe. In Nashville, we only have buses for public transportation. Given I have never rode them, they do not traverse the city well and never seem that busy. I accidentally fell on someone with my backpack on while riding the bus. Brady caught me a little bit, and I said “I’m sorry” in my best broken Spanish from 5th grade that I could. An elderly lady was watching our debacle of me falling, Brady hitting someone with his backpack, and our constant laughing and she was quite amused by us.

We arrived to our AirBnb and talked for a little bit with our host. She had her son and husband bring us a little welcome present of some red wine and these little cork looking crackers. The cork looking crackers were so bland, but weirdly enough almost every restaurant in Seville gave them to us. We enjoyed speaking to her, and we thought she did too. We later learned she did not. She posted on our airbnb review there was communication issues with us? Huh? Rude.

It was decently late so we decided to get ready and head out for the night. We got some wine at a local market. I thought this creepy guy was following us, so we quickly scurried back to our AirBnb. I got pork rinds for the first time all semester at the market, which was exhilarating for me. Our night began at the bar beneath our AirBnb. Once again, I tried my broken spanish. Lillian used her good Spanish (she was almost fluent) to tell the bartenders that I was muy stupido, which became my favorite Spanish phrase for the rest of Spain. The bartenders were amused, especially because they had no idea what I had been trying to say. Soon later, they ended up being quite rude to Brady so we left.

We tried to go to another club to find there was a strict dress code. This was the first time we really experienced dress codes so strict. We found a different place around the corner we stayed out for a while. I became buddies with the bouncer before leaving. After this, Olivia refused to continue walking unless she got a treat so we got her gelato. After, Lauren and I decided since Olivia got a treat we deserved one too. So, we stopped at Burger King! Lauren followed my guidance and tried the jalepino-cheese nuggets burger kings have in the EU. She was as obsessed with them as I am. While eating, Lauren accidently squirted ketchup ALL OVER Brady. He got really really upset and mad, because he thought she did it on purpose. You can only imagine the events that followed. Olivia was confused by the scene as well, so her input in the fight did not go well either. After, Olivia and Tracey went home. Lillian and I took Brady’s pants to the girls one-stall bathroom to clean the ketchup for him. Well, Lillian and I forgot to lock the door. So, a poor bystander had to open the door to see Brady in his boxers and Lillian and I holding them under the hand dryer. We yelled “OCCUPODO” and locked the door.

We continued on our adventure afterwards. We met some people on our adventure after as well. Once arriving at the final club of the night, there was another dress code and none of us could get in so we went home.

The next morning we slept in a little bit. After waking up, we wandered our way to breakfast. We saw the coolest square trees. I wondered how they were kept so pristine, because it seemed like a government building. For breakfast, I ordered a bao bun (obvi) and what I thought was scrambled eggs and ham. It was not. It was a skillet with thin potatoes, Iberian type ham, and fried eggs. Despite my love for scrambled eggs, I cannot stand fried eggs. So, I just called it a day with my bao bun. Also, I ordered cinnamon for my cappuccino. The waiter gave everyone cinnamon on theirs. I felt badly, but they didn’t care. I was surprised he added it to everyone’s. I’m not sure why it happened still to this day. Afterwards, we wandered by some street performers and trinket shops to the Royal Alcazar. We wanted to see if we could buy tickets in person, because they were sold out online. We ended up passing the cathedral on the way, which we had already bought tickets for the next day to see. The Alcazar man said we would have to wait in the ginormous line tomorrow morning for the tickets.

We continued on to the the Plaza de Espana. We passed a flamenco street dancer and other monuments along the way. There was so much to discover. Every time we passed one, I would pull up google maps and tell everyone what they were. Seville seemed like a fairy tale village. There weren’t many cars, but horse and carriage. Everyone seemed so content too.

Upon arrival at the Plaza, we realized there was a month long festival going on. It was called the Festival de las Naciones from September 27 to November 3rd. We entered the Plaza and were all amazed by the beauty of it. The intricate tiles lining every aspect of this plaza were nothing like I have ever seen. There were seating areas dedicated to each city in Spain. No one seems to build anything of this grandeur size and beauty anymore it feels like because of how expensive it must be. There were some bands performing for flamenco dancers too. Also, there was a little pond running through it where one could rent row boats. Lauren, Olivia, and Brady rented one. They said it was impossible to row. While exploring, one of my friends from high school responded to my snapchat story and she was at the international food festival nearby. We were going there next too!

The international food festival was huge. It had more than just food too, but markets from countries all over the world with products of the according country. We all wandered around and tried foods and looked at goods from each. I saw my friend Franny Ford and we caught up! She was on a week break too, and heading to Morocco next. I was so jealous, because I wanted to go to Morocco so badly.

After bopping around the festival, we went back to our airbnb to quickly change. We ubered to the soccer game afterwards. I overshared with the uber driver about my excema, but he found it funny. We were a few minutes late, so we missed the opening. There was a slight issue with scanning our tickets, but it worked out. Once we got to our seats, we realized they had been taken. It was frustrating trying to figure out where to sit. The issue was that there were not other seats for the people to move to, for some reason. Looking around the stadium, pretty much every seat was taken. We didn’t realize it at the time but SevilleFC was ranked #1. The energy and intensity in the stadium was similar to Hockey Stanley Cup games. We had to separate some with where we sat, but Olivia and I sat together. We kept yelling Vamanos and Allez-Y (which is French), and cracking up at ourselves. SevilleFC ended up winning!! I loved the game and it quickly became a favorite memory of mine.

Afterwards, we walked to a tapas spot for dinner. I ordered croquettes and a filet dish. The beef dish was sorta a tartar, which I didn’t realize. These were some of my favorite tapas that I had all of Spain. As we were finishing up, one of the lemons from the tree above us SMASHED on to the table. I screamed like I had seen a ghost, and the others jumped back as well. Very quickly, the waiters came running to see what was wrong. The guitar player trying to get money from us and the waiters died laughing once they realized the commotion.

We paid for our tapas and quickly walked to our flamenco show. The flamenco show was not what I was expecting. It was quite formal, and they performed for us. I thought we might be able to take a whirl at dancing, but not the case. The dancers were so talented. They were all much older than you would have assumed too. I imagine they have been doing this style of dancing since they were infants with the type of energy, passion, and focus they had. Olivia was so focused and baby clapping the entire time that the band was giggling at her and communicating with me about her.

When we left, Olivia and I flemenco danced all the way back to the AirBnB afterwards.

The next morning, Olivia and I woke up super early to get in line for the Alcazar tickets. We got there at least 30 minutes before it opened, but still there was a long line. By the time the rest of the group arrived, we had realized if we waited in line we would miss the cathedral. A man was walking up and down the line offering a tour and entry right then if you did the tour. We decided we would risk it and try it. He said he only took cash, so we went to an ATM and got money. The tour ended up being worth our money. The Royal Alcazar was a castle type building in olden days. We got to hear cool facts about Christopher Columbus’s remains (in The Cathedral), GOT, and others. The gardens were the most beautiful part, I thought. Brady and I went through the garden maze only to realize there was a direct path to the middle the entire time.

We ran from Alcazar to The Cathedral for our tickets there. The Cathedral was the largest one to date I have seen on the inside. There were so many side chapels. I liked how The Cathedral was still having services. I feel like most of the churches and cathedrals I have seen this semester are just for looks, but this one actually stayed in use. There was a shrine for Christopher Columbus’s remains as well. However, we had heard earlier it was only about 30 grams of his knee bones. Connected to the Cathedral was La Giralda, a bell tower above the city. To get to the top, there were ramps in stead of stairs. It was still difficult, but I felt that it was easier than stairs. As soon as we arrived on the top, the bell started going crazy. As you predicted, I jumped and screamed. It’s ok though, the bell was so loud you couldn’t hear my scream (possibly because everyone’s ears were ringing too). Lillian and I peered out every side of the tower before making our way down the ramps. It was a breathtaking view of the city, and we could name some of the landmarks we saw too. I liked looking at the bells and the arches on the roof of The Cathedral the best.

We met back up at a restaurant nearby for lunch. It was tapas again, where I got octopus and croquettes. Not the best tapas I have had, but not all are great. After lunch, we rested for a little bit at the AirBnb before going to the Triana District. We explored the Triana District a little bit before going to our paella class. The paella class was in a market, but the market was closed.

We began by prepping our sangria, because it is supposed to sit for a while. Our chef told us about the history of paella, beginning in Valencia. He told us what is actually paella and sangria vs. what people sell now as it. For example, you are not supposed to use squishy vegetables like peppers in paella (the paella I had in Barcelona had peppers, so it was not authentic). Also, paella traditionally had rabbit and chicken. We only had chicken in ours. He taught us how to make the stock, and cut the bones off the chicken. When he let us debone some chickens, I happily declined and stepped outside because I was quite nauseous. When measuring how much chicken, vegetables, and stock per person and total you use the pain itself to tell. When putting the rice in, you put it in a line down the middle. It is important to smooth it out. This tells you the exact amount you need. When paella is done cooking, you can hold it up at an 180 degrees and it won’t spill AT ALL. While our paella finished, we made gazpacho. Apparently, it gets unbearably hot in the summer in Seville, and people chug the gazpacho. They gave us the cork crackers again (I didn’t mention it in the other places in the blog, but we literally got them everywhere we ate). We did devour them this time though because we were starved. However, the sous-chef laughed, because it was for our gazpacho (we ate it before the gazpacho). We devoured all of the other food too. The adults in our class did not finish theirs, so we got their leftovers – whoops. I would recommend that class to anyone. Our instructor is moving to Australia though to start a bakery with his wife using no refined sugar.

We strolled back over the river after the class to a bar. We hung out here and relaxed before heading back to the AirBnb. The bartender at that bar liked my Spanish better than any of the other bartenders.

The next and final morning in Seville, Lillian and I woke up and grabbed some breakfast at a bakery. I had some real scrambled eggs here, which were legit (unlike the nasty eggs the day before).

Lillian and I continued on to what I kept calling the space structure for some reason. It was really called “las setas de sevilla.” In all honesty, I just googled that because I still call it the space thing. Anyways, it was a remarkable structure. My favorite part of it was the fact that it looks like wood, but really it seemed to be steal. The structure also seemed to separate the city from a more touristy part and a more run down local area. Lillian and I discussed how sad it was that this part of the city existed unknown. If we hadn’t looked in that direction off of the space thing, then I wouldn’t have seen it either.

After the space thing, we collected our free post cards and headed to the airport. We ubered with Nattie and Caroline who were also in Seville.

When we landed in Amsterdam, we quickly realized how massive the airport was. We finally made our way to the train area and took it two stops to our hotel/hostel. I’m still not sure whether it was a hostel or hotel. All six of us were in the same room with no one else though, which was nice. The room was extremely clean and comfortable also.

We quickly settled in, and headed out for the night. It was already getting late. We went to explore the new and vulgar parts of Amsterdam. We saw coffee shops and truffle shops before grabbing dinner. We went to a delicious burger place, but sadly none of us were that hungry. Eric and Dustin met up with us at dinner for the rest of the night.

After dinner we all wandered around the red light district for a little. However, it made us all so sad. These women were getting objectified for their careers. They probably never would have a real relationship, and thought of sex as work. It really hurt us.

We went into a PUG?, but it turned out to be a place where you could smoke inside. We were grossed out, and left as soon as we arrived. Instead, we went next store to a hotel and hung out in their lobby. It had cool artwork and lights, so we just chilled there for a while. There wasn’t much of a nightlife in the area where we were just weed, which we didn’t want. It was fun to just hang out though.

Before heading home, we stopped at an Irish pub. Lauren and Brady ordered a tequila sunrise. I was dying for a chamomile tea. Our waiter made fun of me as remarked that I had a different vibe going on. My tea came with a biscoff cookie called Lotus. Yurie freaked out and asked for more cookies from the waiter.

After we finished up, we called an Uber back to the Meineger (the hotel/hostel). On the drive back, a biker SLAMMED into the back of our uber. She kept riding too, and was very clearly intoxicated. The uber driver screamed at her, “DUMB BITCH!!!” It prompted a really interesting conversation between all of us about drinking and riding bikes, which was something none of us had thought about.

The next morning we woke up early and got ready. We grabbed Starbucks for breakfast, and headed to Heineken. We started out by doing the Heineken experience. I enjoyed it, despite not being a huge fan of beer. However, the people who had been to Guinness in Dublin said that was better. There was a pouring contest based off how much foam you let in, and I won! I poured it the best! I got a cute Heineken pin. The experience tour was in the old factory, which was interesting. There wasn’t too much information about the history though. I thought they could have elaborated.

We had signed up for a combo ticket which included the Heineken experience, canal tours, and the ADAM lookout. After the Heineken experience, we jumped on a boat right out front. As we floated along, our canal tour guide explained different things we passed. There were old bars and concert venues. She said how people buy the boat slips along the canal. I hadn’t thought of that before, but was amused hearing all of the details. The canal tour ended at ADAM. Once at the top of ADAM, there was a great view of the surrounding Amsterdam area. The rest of the group was too cold to stay, but Yurie and I waited back. We wanted to do the giant swing. The swings were the tallest in the world. I called myself a broke bitch to the ticket attendant, who got the biggest kick out of that. As we were waiting in line, I saw a girl I went to high school with getting in line as well. She got in line behind us, and we caught up about our semesters.

As we got closer to the front of the line, I started freaking out. I am afraid of heights, and this was a large height approaching. As soon as Yurie and I sat on the swing and were locked in, I started screaming out of pure fear. Yurie was screaming out of pure joy. The swings didn’t last long though. After a few more photo ops, we wandered back down and took the 100 ft elevator back to the bottom. 

At this point, it was just Yurie and I. Everyone else went back to nap. We took the water boat taxi across the river. There were literally cars on it! It is remarkable that it was free as well. We strolled to lunch recommended by some of my family friends. We passed more bikes than I’ve ever seen in my life parked outside the metro station. I bet it is so good for the environment that people bike so much. I wonder why the EU is so much more conscious about the environment, as opposed to us at home. 

The lunch spot was very locally. We realized this not just by the makeup of the crowd, but also the fact that Yurie and the waitress got into a disagreement pretty quickly. It was not a big deal, but she was extremely rude to Yurie. We split some dutch meatballs, which were good but too hot. I burned my mouth worse than I’ve ever done before. There was a weird but kinda good consistency in the middle of it. I got a club sandwich too, which was literally a loaf of bread with a few pieces of meat it felt like. Ugh. 

We headed back to the hotel/hostel afterwards. Everyone else was napping, but I sat in the hallway. I talked on the phone with someone who had interviewed already for a position I was interviewing for. He and I spoke for close to an hour and a half. I had my interview on Monday following our trip. 

When everyone woke up, we quickly got ready and headed to the lobby. Dustin and Eric met up with us in the lobby. We pregamed, and quite possibly drank the place dry of tequila.

We went to the Martin Garrix concert. It turns out he was from Amsterdam, so there were so many welcome home signs. It was sweet how excited everyone was. Coming from Nashville, we have artists from Nash come back all the time. However, no one really makes a big deal out of it. 

When we walked in, we tried to get some alcohol. There was none. This was the first red flag. Apparently, it was because it was an all ages concert? Bizarre. That doesn’t happen in the US.

As we made our way up to the front of the crowd, we were taken back. There were so many middle school aged children and their parents. One mom even shoved Brady, so aggressively and for basically no reason. Once we were in the front, we just mainly tried to focus on Martin Garrix. He is literally I.N.C.R.E.D.I.B.L.E. Not to be dramatic or anything, but…. I’m in love with him. He put on such a good show, and his music is amazing. We bought some t shirts after the show and then went back to the hotel.

Lauren and I woke up super early the next day to get in the queue for tickets to Anne Frank huis. We woke some of the others up to help us too. We had all of our phones and computers out. Luckily, Lauren got the tickets for us at 12:15. 

We got ready and grabbed Starbucks for breakfast again. We tried to take the metro again, but the 48 hour passes we bought were a rip. They are called the 48-hour ones, but since we used them for the first time on Friday night (literally 10 pm) that was Day 1. Day 2 was Saturday. So, we ended up ubering to Anne Frank huis. 

Once we were there, we got audio guides. The house starts in a museum. The audio guide and museum was done really well I thought. I have read Anne Frank’s diary, but it was when I was younger. The museum was in the factory that was connected to where Anne and her family hid. Each room spoke about history, but also something to do with what the room was. The museum leads into the secret annex, where Anne, her family, and others hid. The actual bookcase that hid the door was still there, and we used the same entrance that they used to get their supplies. All of the furniture was removed when the Gestapo discovered Anne and her family. However, the pictures Anne put up in her room, and other aspects were still the exact same. Anne’s father had brought her collection of magazines to the Secret Annex before they got them. I got chills reading that aspect of her father. As we continued through the Secret Annex, we saw the attic where Anne liked to see the birds from. The bathroom was only able to be used during the night, because once the day hit everyone in the Secret Annex had to go to the living room. This was so the workers in the factory below didn’t discover them. After the Secret Annex, there were some short films about Anne, and the others that hid in the Secret Annex. A few aspects that resonated with me extra were the following… First of all, Anne’s father (who survived and published her diary) said at the time they didn’t realize that Anne had so many thoughts and feelings. She didn’t share them outloud with her family. In another video, it had a bunch of quotes from different famous people about Anne Frank’s story. One thing that was mentioned was that there were so many families hiding in similar conditions to Anne’s, but we only know of Anne’s because of her diary. This made me think. It really put into perspective the number of how many people were hiding in fear for their lives. There was also a book of all the names of the people taken by the Gestapo. 

I bought a postcard in the giftshop that showed an ariel view of the neighborhood, with the warehouse and attic where Anne hid highlighted. This represented to me how in any of the other buildings there could have been the same hiding and fear as well. 

When we left Anne Frank huis, we took pictures around the canals. We wandered in and out of flower stores, and other trinket shops. My favorite place we visited was the cheese meuseum. We got to taste so so many different cheeses. It was jaw dropping how expensive some of them were. We also stopped for a lunch. Yurie and I shared a thai salad and truffle pasta (I don’t like truffle – I don’t know why I agreed to that dish).

Afterwards, we went to find the best apple pie in Amsterdam (recommended by my family friends). The first place we went to was sold out, but it turned out that I misread the email. That place wasn’t the right one. We found the right place, Winkel 43, and quickly could tell this was it. It was overflowing with people in every knoock and cranny, not to mention the large amount of people outside. Everyone had PIE too! We sat at the bar and all ordered apple pie with whipped cream. The whipped cream was probably my favorite part. It came out of a machine that looked like it was making orange juice. We talked to the owner too. He said it was his grandmother’s recipe. 

After our apple pie adventure, we went to the flower market. We had heard there was a floating market on the water. However, it turns out that it has been gone for a while. Instead, there were a bunch of tulip stores on the canal. They were all beautiful to look at. It was soon time to go back to the hotel/hostel. We walked a little bit away to get a cheaper uber. We walked through some really cool neighborhoods and streets on our way.

The airport had a looooong security line leaving us to stress, but it all worked out. We made it! There were a bunch of other Praguians with us on our flight too. It worked well for ubers once we made it to Prague.

Milan was a dream.

I should have known this trip was going to be a good one based on our airport experience prior to leaving Prague. Yurie and I found the Paul chocolate samples. To say we raided them, would be an understatement. It was the beginning of a great relationship between the chocolate samples and Yurie and I eating all of them.

By the time we landed in Milan and got to our AirBnb, it was on the later end of the night. Nattie and Tracey were starved and wanted to stay in our neighborhood. However, being as Yurie and I are, we decided to explore Milan. One of my good friends from highschool is studying abroad in Milan this semester (sadly was out of town for the weekend), but sent me a list longer than the Turner Qdoba line at lunchtime about what to do, eat, shop, etc. Yurie and I decided to try out one of the restaurants she recommended called Volemese Bene. It sounded and looked good, but as we walked to the restaurant we became skeptical. It was away from the main area on a dark street. As soon as we walked in though, all of our reservations were removed. This was clearly a hidden, local gem that was swarming with people eager to enjoy the good food.

Yurie is my favorite person to eat meals with, because we always do splitsy and try new thing. To start, we ordered a bottle of red wine recommended by our waiter. She also brought us bread, which we devoured thinking it was free. Our next dish was the best prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella I’ve ever had to date. Our main courses were meat and pasta. The meat was a meal dish with eggplant parmesean (we think) and mashed potatoe like sides. The pasty was giant penne noodles with ham in a creamy sauce. Everything was amazing. During our meal, loud Italian music played and during the chorus everyone in the entire restaurant would SCREAM out the lyrics. Yurie and I tried to fit in some by swinging our glasses, but I have a feeling we stood out still. Also, they made a huge deal out of birthdays. The first few birthdays seemed real, but by the fourth or fifth it was clear that everyone wanted to be celebrated for the scene the restaurant made. After a delectable dinner in a true Italian atmosphere, Yurie and I decided to explore the area.

We stumbled upon the Wine Week Festival going on. The street had so many people on it that we could barely even walk through. Yurie grabbed some gelato as we continued to explore. We found so many cool shops and buildings, like a Tesla store. There were giant fountain pools in the middle as well. By the time we were done exploring, we realized that we had wandered too far away so we backtracked some. Part of why we did this too was that the ubers were insanely expensive. We figured if we went to the other side of the wine week that it would be better. So, we trekked to the other side. The ubers had gone down by a few Euros, but it was still close to 50 Euros for about a 13 minute drive. After walking even further, I suggested we pop into a restaurant bar and ask them to call us a taxi. I figured the taxis would most likely be cheaper.

We stopped in the next place we saw. The bartender directed another employee to call us a taxi, and without skipping a beat he asked us if we liked tequila. Of course we do, we told him. He gave us free tequila shots and had us take them with a large group of people celebrating their friends 29th birthday. I misheard them and thought they said 21st and exploded with joy for the person. They all grumbled and said how young 21 was. Yurie and I were not amused by them. We met another guy at the bar who we began talking to. He told us that ubers are way more expensive and slower in Milan, because of regulations that make the cars wait in a lot outside the city. Soon our taxi arrived, the bartender and man at the bar kissed my hand as we left. That was weird.

The next morning we woke up and went into the town center. As we exited the metro, we were speechless. The metro exited right at the duomo, where you could start to see the marble before you even exited. We wandered around the plaza in front of the duomo taking pictures. It hadn’t gotten too busy yet luckily. As I was taking pictures some guy came up to me and tried to give me pasta to take pictures with the pigeons. I knew it was a scam, so I said no and walked away. He said it wasn’t like that, and that it was free. He insisted multiple times that it was free. Finally, I told him I didn’t have any money. He promised it was ok. So, he gave me the pasta to take pictures with the pigeons. He gave some to Yurie too. After we were done, he insisted on 25 Euros. Yurie and I were both ticked, but also literally did not have any money. He said he took American dollars, but we didn’t have any of that either. I have him three euro coins and he buzzed off. We were annoyed, but knew that the duomo was known for persistent scammers. It was crazy to us how prevalent the scams were.

We went back to taking pictures. I met a group of girls studying in Spain while taking pictures. One knew some of my friends from Furman – the small world continues. After, we explored through the Galleria. It was this open air mall type area. The ceiling was a work of art itself though. All of the restaurants were too expensive so we went around the corner to Luini. Luini is famous for panzerottis. Yurie and I got two: the hot salami and mozzarella and the mixed berries and custard. The salami one was the best.

Next, we went to go into a museum by the Duomo but saw the Louis Vuitton time capsule. We had no idea what it was, but explored inside anyways. We got to see Louis Vuitton products being made, past, present, and future LV products, and a cool TV room about LV. My favorite part was the clothes that had been designed. We also got free post cards!

We finally found the museum, and to our luck for one day only it was free! We looked at the art a little bit, but that was not our priority. I had read about a cool view of the duomo from the top, so we rushed up there. On our way down, Yurie and I got ushered to a new exhibit. We found the new exhibit to be quite interesting. Unfortunately, Nattie and Tracey didn’t find it and were waiting for us outside.

We continued on to the stabucks reserve. It was buzzing with people, and there was a wait to get inside. It was remarkable to see the coffee beans being roasted in the middle. I got a cappachino, which was pretty good.

It was time for lunch after this. We wandered to a pizza place called Piz, with a long wait. However, they greeted us with a welcome slice of pizza. We loved it. While waiting, we shopped around in stores nearby. When we were seated, Yurie and I decided to split one white pizza and one margarita (cheese). After we finished, the waiter came up with shots for all of us. We happily took them, and then they wanted a picture with us and all of the staff. It was so much fun, but we were so confused why they wanted it. We had never experienced anything like this before with staff wanting pictures together. After lunch, we shopped in Pull and Bear and Zara and a few other stores before meeting back at the Duomo. It had gotten a lot more crowded since the morning. We all went to go to a thrift store next, but we didn’t love it. We got separated from each other so Yurie and I got gelato before continuing shopping. We went in every and any store. Stradarvarius was one of our favorites. Also, Yurie got such a good deal at the Urban Outfitters.

We zoomed home to get ready for our evening afterwards. We went to a cool roof top pool bar and restaurant called Ceresio 7. It was insanely expensive, shown by the fact we got free chips and olives. Nothing is free in Europe. There was a couple getting super handsy really close to us, so we didn’t linger here long.

For dinner, we were all hungry so just went to a place in the main square. I didn’t mind it, and enjoyed the wine that Yurie and I split. No one else really liked it though. We had a meat pasta and Milanese risotto, but they were really tiny. Tracey left after dinner to go home, but Yurie, Nattie, and I went out to the Space Club. It was huge with mazes of different rooms.

Sunday, we were pretty exhausted. We slept later than we typically do. For lunch, we had Miscusi. It was a customizable pasta place. The wait was close to an hour, but they gave us free welcome champagne and the tastiest bread. Yurie and I, as always, did splitsies. We had burrata, which is an all time favorite of mine. We also had two creamy pastas. One had ham and the other spicy pork. We ate waaaay toooo much, but worth it.

We tried to go to The Last Supper after, but tickets were sold out for TWO WEEKS. Defeated, we got some gelato one last time to make ourselves feel better. Yurie dropped her phone and almost her gelato. We ate it under a beautiful art piece creation by the metro.

To conclude our weekend, we explored the canals of Navigili. Yurie and I wandered in and out of the shops, art galleries, and music stores. We also lit a candle in a church lining the canals. There were little carts selling items along the canals too. Yurie bought a cute star ring, but they were all too small for me. We tried to get matching ones. Sadly, it was time to head back and pack up for the airport. We had a restaurant call us a taxi.

In the airport, Yurie and I got bao buns and a bowl from Wagamama. We pushed it too close, because we had to SPRINT to our gate. We were full out sweating and the last few people let on the plane. We have officially become too casual with airport time.

Weekend ?? () – Munich, Germany

We woke up early morning Friday to take a 7 am bus to Munich for Oktoberfest. While grabbing Burger King before the bus, we realized that unfortunately Lauren had forgotten her passport. This meant she couldn’t get on the bus with us. Luckily, she was able to catch the bus that was only an hour after ours.

The bus ride seemed to fly by, because I had my own seat and slept most of the way. However, while we were getting off the bus I noticed a familiar face. A girl from the grade above me in high school was on our bus as well. It turns out she was studying abroad in Prague for the semester as well.

After we got to Munich, we went to a beer garden across the street to wait for Lauren to arrive. We quickly ordered beer and what we all presumed were sausage. My dish turned out to be unknown, still. Brady had a few guesses, but it honestly makes me feel better to leave in unsaid, based on the gross nature. It didn’t taste horrible, but I also would never ever eat it again. Everyone around us was dressed in their dirndls and lederhosen. We all quickly became excited about the weekend ahead of us just from the costumes and energy surrounding us. After Lauren arrived, we ubered to the AirBnB. Our host was the best host to date. She allowed us to add two other people, and accommodated all of us. At this point, it was only Lauren, Olivia, Brady, and me. The rest of our group was going to get to Munich much later, because they were taking flights. We decided it would be best to figure out the metro system to Oktoberfest, so we would be prepared the next morning (it would be too early too think). On our way to the metro, we stopped at a coffee shop nearby. I grabbed some coffee, but more importantly a salami sandwich. The first of four that I would eat over the weekend, and yes from the same coffee shop. After deciphering our route to Oktoberfest, Lauren, Brady, and Olivia went to find their outfits for the next day. I broke off to meet up with some of my high schools friends in town for the day.

They only had one day in Munich, so they were at the fair grounds already. As I walked into the Oktoberfest grounds, my mouth dropped opened. I was not expecting all of the rides, people, and food. It was way more organized and dare I might say a “thing” than I was expecting. I had heard Friday was more of the “family day,” and less crowded. It was still difficult to find my friends nonetheless. After finding them, we quickly got to catch up and hang out for a little bit. One of their friends with them was not being the most friendly to passing strangers, so we quickly diverted to outside of the fairgrounds. It made me so happy to see them, because it felt like a piece of home in Munich, Germany. I loved being abroad, but still missed my Nashville community. They brought the community with them. Sadly, they had to leave sooner than we all would have liked. They were heading straight to Innisbruck for the rest of the weekend, because they couldn’t find housing in Munich. We said our goodbyes, and I headed off to find the rest of my group.

At this point, it was nearing time for dinner. We decided to head to the original Haufbraus House for dinner that night. We texted the other Prague people who were in town for Oktoberfest, and rallied a large group to meet for dinner. On our way to dinner, we explored and saw a few monuments around Munich. I enjoyed walking around the Marienplatz the best. Once we got to dinner, the original Haufbraus house was jam packed with long lines out the door. Once we made it inside, we realized why so many people wanted to get in. There was food flying everywhere and a band playing. It was very obvious that everyone was gearing up for the big day on Saturday. Those arriving from the airport came to meet us as well. We had a great meal to kick off the Oktoberfest weekend of sausages, beef soup, pretzels, and beer. There were no complaints from anyone about the food or beer. After we ate, we decided it would be best to head back. We had a very early morning the next day.

After only 4 hours of sleep, our day started prompting at 5:30 am on Saturday morning. With 8 of us in the AirBnB and only one bathroom, we were a little cramped getting ready but made it work. Everyone put on their drindls as the excitment grew. Yurie put on her pajamas though, because she was going to buy her drindl after Oktoberfest opened. On our way to the metro, we stopped by the neighborhood coffee shop again. Another cappachino and salami sandwich, don’t mind if I do!

We had mapped out which tent we wanted to go to, and decided we should go to the back gate to line up. We grew concerned when we arrived, because there were only about 7 other people in line. We knew we were there early, but we heard that we should have gotten there even earlier. It turns out that everyone was just at the main entrance. Half of our group waited in line as Shiv, Natalie, and I went to go find a bathroom. We walked what felt like a year (15-20 minutes) to find a bathroom. There were no bathrooms close by to the Oktoberfest grounds. We also looked for umbrellas/ponchos and airplane bottles. It was supposed to rain all day, and we didn’t want to drink beer all day. The only thing we found was the bathroom. Natalie and I split off, because Shiv and Yurie went to find drindls. Soon after, Natalie and I received a text that they thought we might get let in soon. We sprinted all the way back to the fairgrounds. Our group was the very front of the line. By that point, the line had wrapped around blocks down.

Minutes before 9, everyone began antsy. The cop holding the line back advised us not to run, because we could get hurt. However, when the clock struck 9, the entire line erupted and sprinted into the fairgrounds. Even though I was at the front of the line, people quickly were sprinting past me. I was determined not to give up. I wanted to get to our tent and reserve us a table. We were going to the Schotten-Hamel tent, which is known for people our age. Despite being past in the beginning, those sprinters started to drop like flies. I kept pushing forward. Soon enough, I was back to the front of the pack. I passed the rest of our group, but once Yurie saw me pass her she picked the pace back up. I am not a runner, but the determination for a table kept me going.

Once I arrived at the tent, I got my ID checked, and then claimed three tables for us. The way to claim the tables was to stand on them until your group got there. The rest of our group soon filed in. Quickly, we ordered beers to start off the day. We danced on the table and met other people our age for hours. Other people from Prague joined us from other tent as well. My favorite part of the morning was when the band came on. I was so amazed that all of the German college age students knew every word to the songs the band played. I asked some of them how everyone knew the words. it turned out that they learned them in school growing up. That was the first time that I realized how prominent Oktoberfest was for the German community. As the morning went on and more pretzels were eaten, we all managed to get separated. We were separated because we were kicked out of Schlottenhamel for our dancing on the table repeatedly, might I add. After, I met up with Katie B and Meredith for a little bit. Next, Colin and I decided it was time to ride the rides.

Overall, I spent more money on rides than beer the entire weekend. The rides were huge and maybe not the best idea after drinking so much beer. Collin and I rode every roller coaster and upside down ride there was. I also got to meet up with my roommate from last year Tara. It was so much fun to bop around Octoberfest with her. I also ran into a girl I knew from growing up in Charlotte The whole day flew by with only a few mishaps to note. The first being Yurie and Natalie we’re not in the right mindset to keep track of their belongings, so they left their purses and jackets in the original tent. Yurie also got lost for a good period of the day, sadly. As the day continued the weather dropped faster and faster. It soon was unbearably cold, and every tent needed a reservation to come in. We decided it was time to go back to the AirBnb for the day. I grabbed another salami sandwich on our way back. Overall, Saturday was one of the best days. Tens of thousands of people all screaming with joy, and dancing. Everyone seemed so happy and to be enjoying themselves. Oktoberfest Day 2 was a success. After, we napped and ate McDonalds before going to bed for the night. As we ate our Mcdonald’s we gathered our the table in our AirBnb reliving the funny memories from the day.

Sunday morning began not as early, but still in our drindls. This time though, we had our travel backpacks strapped on our backs. I was craving Mexican, and our group obliged. There was a Mexican place around the corner. It turned out to be in a bowling alley, and the entire place was bumping with people. The food took years, but was delicious when it came out. After, we marched to the metro and to Oktoberfest to check our bags. We used Sunday to explore more of the tents. I was amazed by the wide range of individuals attending Oktoberfest. There were babies, toddlers, kids, tweens, teens, college age kids, young adults, adults, and elderly people. Not everyone, obviously, was drinking beer. Some of the people not of age were there just for the commradarity and pretzels/chicken. The family food tent was interesting to explore to see the different crowd. After meeting up with other Prague people, we went to the HB tent. The HB tent is known for being home to United States study abroad kids during Oktoberfest. We settled in, and the entertainment from the crowd began. We watched this one man one touch at least 5 of the giant beers. I waited for him to throw up, but it never happened. A boy in our group decided he would try it too. He did throw up though. A bummer.

Soon, it was time to grab our stuff and head to the bus station. I went with Katie B, Katie O, and Bethany. Their stuff was at the train station, which worked perfectly because the train station had lots of food options. I ran into a girl from the VT Lugano program there too! I didn’t eat much, because my stomach did not feel great.

We ate and then went to the bus station around the block. Our bus ended up getting delayed, but we didn’t mind just resting. To me, I learned that I enjoyed bus travel. It did help that I got my own seat both ways. This weekend turned out to be the final straw with my stomach problems. On Monday, I went to the international doctor. That was an experience on its own…..

Once we got to Santorini, we took a bus to our AirBnB. We settled in and got ready for dinner. As we walked to dinner, we ran into all of the donkeys retiring for the evening. What a sight! As we walked to dinner, the sun began to set. We sat right on the water for dinner. Good thing the view was phenomenal, because the food was not. I had ordered a salad, but it tasted like it had been made the day before. Everyone else enjoyed their food though, which I was glad about. I still cannot get over the sunset from that first night. It was breathtaking to watch it from Fira, as the sun fell behind the islands in view. After dinner, we explored Fira and the shops it had to offer.

The next day we woke up and grabbed breakfast. Tracey went with me to find eggs and bacon – she knows how important eggs and bacon are to me! I also got another freddo cappuccino. After breakfast, we tried to rent ATVs. The shop we went to was really strict though, and they wouldn’t let us. We decided to get buggys instead! I ended up being more thankful to have the buggy, because of how much driving we did. Yurie and I shared the polaris, and took off for the day. We decided to beach hop for the day. The sun on my face, while driving the buggy along the coast was a feeling I will cherish forever. It felt unreal to be in Santorini as a student with some of my best friends. Yurie made fun of me for how much I talked about how unreal it was.

We started our first beach trip at the black rock beach, called Kamari. We got to chill out at a beach club right on the ocean. We were supposed to spend 10 Euros to be there, so we all got a cocktail. While at black rock beach, we swam, tanned, and explored. Kai and I decided to walk around the town area too. All of the restaurant owners tried so hard to get us to eat at their restaurants. You could tell it quickly becoming off-season. After the Black Rock Beach, we went to the Red Beach. At this point, I was getting quite burned. I had not realized how strong the sun would be in Santorini. We stopped at a snack shop before heading to the beach, and I got sunscreen too.

In order to get to Red Beach, we had to climb the side of some mountains along a path. The view down to the beach from the hike was like a hidden gem. This beach was very populated, but it still felt like a hidden gem to us.

After Red Beach, we rushed back to the AirBnb. We wanted to get ready and then go to Oia for the sunset and dinner. We were staying in Fira, which was the more younger area. Oia was the wealthier spot of Santorini. The Oia sunset was phenomenal again. Each sunset was still just as chilling, I could never get tired of this paradise. After sunset, we wandered around to get dinner. Tracey and I bebopped too much at dinner. We ended up being such a hoot to the waiters, because she was supporting my indecisiveness about what to have for dinner. I tried grilled hallomami for the first time at dinner. After dinner, we explored Oia more. I fell in LOVE with a ring there. Unfortunately, the ring cost enough to pay for the rest of my college tuition, so it was outside of my price range for sure.

At the end of the night, we went back to Fira, but got to see the Milky Way above us on the way. I don’t know if I liked winding the coast during the day or night better.

The next morning, we got more buggys and went back to Oia. We wanted to see the iconic bells and white houses during the day. We took pictures against the white houses with blue roofs, as one does in Santorini. After pictures, we went to Armeni Bay. To get to the swimming area and cliff jumping spot, we had to park at the top of the hill and walk down to the harbor area. Once past the harbor, we quite literally walked through the restaurants and along a path to get to the water spot. It felt out of movie, when we were sunbathing, swimming, and exploring this water hole. We ran into some other tourists we met that morning too! After swimming, we laid on the rocks and tanned before getting food. We walked into the restaurant area for a quick lunch. Again, the food was quite pricey being in Oia. We did not mind how good the shrimp and feta were though!

We hurried back to the AirBnB after, because it was the time for Santo Winery! The winery had one of the best views I had seen. We got to try six different wines and a cheese plate. We learned that when something breaks you yell “Opa!” It is the cheers version of when something breaks. We have continued to yell this, but no where else has appreciated it as much as at Santo. We 100% did not fit into the demographic at Santo, being 9 young college kids just bopping around at this reservation-required winery. We soaked up every minute of it!

After Santo, we decided to explore the night life more. We found a bar with a “happy hour,” it was not really though. We still bought drinks.. shocking. We all danced for a decent amount of time all together. After this, we headed to the infamous Two Brothers Bar. This was our main priority. They have head shots, where you buy a shot and then they hit you in the head with a bat. I had been dying to try it, even though I’m not sure why. I convinced Tracey and Yurie to do it too. Turns out, I was the guinea pig for the bartender. In the videos, you can clearly see that he hit my head way harder. Oh well. ** We have since come to find out that the shots are actually free, we just looked gullible I guess.** After getting hit in the head with a bat, we all danced for so long together before heading out to one more spot. After our night ended, we got crepes and Mexican food before the AirBnB.

Our final day in Santorini had come, but it was still one packed with adventure. Yurie and I went to return our buggy. However, when we turned it on, it said we were out of gas. This did not make sense, because we were about 95% full the night before. We coasted on fumes to the buggy shop to tell them something was wrong with the buggys. They shared with us that the gasoline had been stolen, and we had to fill it up all the way. Hmmmmm. Pretty unfortunate, but we did not let it ruin our day. We ran to McDonald’s for a quick (and cheap after how much the stolen gas cost) breakfast before being picked up. Who picked us up? The boat drivers!! We were going on a boat tour for the day.

The boat was pretty large, but it was only: Natalie, Yurie, Shiv, Akash and I along with a couple, a family, and a man. We became friends very quickly with all of them. We started off our morning sailing to the volcano. We layed out tanning, while being welcomed with welcome snacks and wine. As we sailed along, one of the crew members told us stories about the islands we were passing.

We stopped at the active volcano first, and got to swim to the edge of it. We were told not to climb on it though, because we would cut ourselves badly. The water around the volcano was a hot spring with gold looking mineral flakes floating.

After exploring the volcano, we went back to the boat and got rinsed off. Yurie freaked out when we got sprayed off, which we all found funny given we were just in water. They had to rinse us off, because of the minerals and sulfer in the water. It was such a nice feeling getting a warm towel handed right to me as I got on the boat.

We continued to lay out, watching the horizon as we went to our next stop. We stopped next for lunch and snorkeling. The lunch was all prepared on board, and it was extremely elaborate. We snorkeled before lunch though. The schools of fish were numerous and seemed to be swallowing our boat almost. We took a break for lunch on the deck, before swimming more. We ended up swimming with the Australian family and becoming good friends with them. We played all kinds of games with the kids, like cannibal contests.

After swimming for a while, we continued on past the white rocks and went to Red Beach. We swam more with the kids at Red Beach too, for about 45 minutes. We played star too, but the little girl just kept asking, “Why’d you jump?” and giggling. It was so innocent and cute! After taking sail back to the dock, because our 6 hour boat day with incredible food, unlimited drinks, good company, and plenty of sun had almost come to an end. We got one more snack of fresh local melon before reaching the dock.

We all fell asleep in the van ride back to our AirBnB – just one of those days!

We rested for a little bit, and then got ready for our final dinner. Before dinner, we got a drink and watched the last sunset. Still, it was just as incredible as before. For dinner, we sat on the roof of a restaurant overlooking the ocean, well most of us. Kai and Caroline had their own date night, but we could watch them from where we were HAH whoops. I ordered what the waitor recommended, which was a carbanora. I enjoyed it, because it had more flavor than normal.

After dinner, we bought a few more presents and other items from the shops before going back to pack. We had to pack ahead of time, because we needed to leave for the airport at 6:45 AM.

Even though it was painfully early, it was a good conclusion to the trip to watch the sunrise. It felt like a good parallel that we had been watching the sunset every night, and the last day we got to watch the sunrise.

The Santorini airport was so small that you could blink and miss it, but we made it on time.

We flew to Athens, and had a layover before making it back to Praha. The best first 10-day break. WOW.