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Published: February 10th 2008
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-City One: VENICE, Italy
We went to Venice for Carnivale which is basically the equivalent of Mardi Gras in the states. There are tons of people, costumes, drinking, music, partying- it’s crazy. But when we arrived there it was night time on Friday night and the lights on the water and all over the city were so beautiful. The streets were lined with vendors all selling these amazing masks with so much detail and so many colors. People were dressed up in all sorts of costumes that people say take them a year or more to create. On Saturday we walked around (it was raining all weekend but still fun) and we went to San Marco Square to feed the pigeons which was so fun! I felt like the pigeon lady from the movie Home Alone. After the pigeons all over us we decided to go into Basilica del Redentore which was a beautiful church that we looked around in for a little bit. Then we headed over to the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) which for many years held the Chief magistrate of Venice. The palace was gorgeous and we also walked through the prisoners cellars and crossed
the Ponte dei Sospiri (the Bridge of Sighs) which got its name from the sighs of prisoners as they walked across the bridge to the execution area. The cellars were small and cold and the bridge of sighs was quite eerie.
Later that day we headed back to San Marco and went towards the water and got our faces painted by one of the artists that lined the street. It only took him about 10 minutes to do and it only cost about 5 euro. It’s a much less expensive option than buying a hand-crafted mask. Once we left the square we headed to the Rialto Bridge because people had begun to gather around the water to watch a gondola race which was supposed to take place that afternoon, but because of the rainy weather the race was cancelled.
The next day we took a water taxi to the Murano Island which is home to the glass making industry in Venice. We got to watch two demonstrations of the glass making process which was really neat. We spent most of the day there walking around and looking into all the glass shops and then hopped on our first
overnight train from Venice to Vienna. We had a small 6 room sleeping car, which was VERY crowded, but it worked out fine.
-City Two: VIENNA, Austria
We arrived in Vienna at about 8am on Monday morning. We checked into our hostel and then did a little touring around the city. There is so much to do in Vienna but we didn’t have much time so maybe someday I will be able to go back to see the rest. But, we knew the one thing we really wanted to do while we were there was to see the opera, so we went to get tickets for Tosca (which was playing that night) and found out of course that they were all sold out. Our teacher had told us about the cheap 3 Euro priced “standing room only” section and so we decided we would wait in line 2 hours prior to get standing room for the play. So we left and went to try the famous Sacher tort from the Sacher Hotel itself (it is a piece of chocolate cake with some sort of fruity type tort inside, which was good but
a little too dry for my taste). So later that night we ended up getting into the opera for standing room (front row center- almost better seats than the people who paid big money to watch) and we had a great time. It was a 3 hour play so standing got a little hard on the knees and feet but the play was beautiful and since it was in Italian they had a small translation box attached to the spot in front that you could use to read and follow along. It was a very cool experience.
The next day, we woke up early so we could make it to the Spanish Riding School for morning exercises to see the Lipizzaner horses in action. The Spanish Riding School is the worlds oldest riding school, and it is beautiful inside. After that we went to look at Parliament, grabbed lunch and had to hop on a train to Budapest.
-City Three: Budapest, Hungary
We stayed in the Pest side of Budapest which looking back may have been a mistake because we think there was a lot more to see in Buda than
in Pest, but it was still fun. We used Budapest as sort of a relaxation break as opposed to a heavy sightseeing city. Just looking out the window of our hostel was beautiful. Everything in the city is so amazing architecturally and historical. On the first day we visited the Jewish memorial which was a weeping willow tree with names of Hungarian Jews who were killed during the Holocaust which was really sad, but beautiful and powerful. We left there and had a traditional Hungarian meal at this small restaurant near the memorial. But my favorite part of the trip to Budapest came the next day when we went to the hot thermal baths. We spent half a day there just relaxing and floating in the outdoor hot bath which felt like being in a really big hot tub. It was so much fun, and a new experience. There was a train strike in Budapest so we couldn’t get a train out of the city so we had to take a bus back to Vienna and then take a train from Vienna to Prague. It was stressful and somewhat a bummer that we had to devote a whole day to
traveling but it all worked out and we were really glad to make it out of Budapest.
City Four: Prague, Czech Republic
When we got to the train station in Prague we were a little worried because we got there a little before midnight and it was a very ‘sketchy’ station considering it is the capital of Czech (so much unlike the rest of Prague), but once we got out from there and up to the street our minds changed very quickly. The city was gorgeous at night and there is sooo much to do in Prague. Since it was so late we all just settled in and went to bed so we could be well rested for the morning. When we got up we went straight to Old Town square and watched the Astronomical Clock go off at 11 am which was really cool. Then we went up into the clock and had a great view of the city. We left Old Town and headed to the Jewish Quarter and went to look at the Jewish Cemetery which is the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe. After leaving the Jewish Quarter
we headed to the Charles Bridge which was so cool because it was lined with artists and musicians and statues. We spent probably an hour just browsing around the bridge and then we headed to see the Lennon Wall which is a spray painted wall in honor of the Beatle’s singer John Lennon who was such an inspiration to the people of Prague for his anti-war beliefs. I’m sure at one time the paint was very clear and detailed but today it has become some what of a mess because people have painted over most of the original art; but it is still a very neat wall. Later that day we bought tickets to see “Aspects of Alice” (Alice in Wonderland) at the black light theatre. What a cool show that was. It was done all in black lights and it was kind of like an illusion show but it was really interesting and a once in a lifetime experience, because there is nothing like this in the states. The next day we woke up to head over to the Prague Castle to see St. Vitus Cathedral and the Barbie Museum (which holds the original Barbie), but when we got
there the whole place was closed and we asked why and the police told us they wanted a new president so they were having elections and therefore none of the public was allowed in to the castle that day, which was a huge bummer because we were all really looking forward to it. So, instead we just had a nice long lunch and continued walking around the city until we had to catch our overnight train at 5pm back here to Lugano.
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