Hallo!
I am still alive, despite my lack of blogging. My extended absence has been due mostly to procrastination, but also to continued travels and a wee bit of class time. I'm down to less than a month left in Europe, and I can't believe how fast my time here has gone! It seems like only yesterday that I arrived at the Vienna airport, excited and exhausted, and now I am about to return to American soil with memories that will last a lifetime (and maybe a few new additions to my suitcases). Well, enough of my sentimental rambling about the swiftness of time. Let me tell you what I've been up to lately...
Czech-ing Out Prague
See what I did there? I can't resist a good pun. Anyways, awhile back, May 14th to 16th to be exact, I hopped on a bus to Prague, the capital of Austria's northern neighbor, the Czech Republic. I had heard great things about the city from a number of people and didn't want to miss out on an opportunity to visit while I'm living so close. I left on a Saturday morning, and after a five hour bus ride I arrived and met up with Stephanie and Tess, two other UF students studying in Vienna, who had gotten there the day before. After I checked into the hostel, we went out to explore the city for awhile before meeting up with a few other students from our dorm in Vienna for dinner and a pub crawl. I knew right away that I liked Prague. It had a medieval feel like Edinburgh, but was not as dark and spooky. I would call it "pastel medieval", more like the middle ages depicted in fairytales than historically accurate accounts of that time period. Have a look for yourself:
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| The Old Town Square |
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| Another view from the square |
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| Me on the Charles Bridge |
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| Under the bridge... no trolls! |
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| Prague's famous astronomical clock. It shows the position of the sun and moon, among other things, and is still working after over 600 years! |
On my first night we ate delicious traditional Czech food at a small restaurant on the Old Town Square, and I discovered something else I like about Prague: everything is quite cheap! I got a meal and a beer for around the equivalent of six euros! Later that night, a group of six of us visiting from Vienna went on a pub crawl. It was fun, but I think using the word "pub" was a misrepresentation of exactly what was entailed in the evening. I might have preferred sampling good Czech beer at cozy actual pubs, but instead we were hurried from club to club and given cheap drinks. And it was raining. All night.
The following day I set out on my own to go on a free walking tour of the city. Stephanie and Tess had been in Prague longer than I had and had already done it, but I had great experiences on my previous free walking tours and didn't want to miss the Prague edition. The tour was four hours long and as good the others I had been on. We saw most of the main sights of Prague and I learned a lot about the fascinating history of both Prague and the Czech Republic as a whole. After the tour I returned to the hostel to meet Stephanie and Tess, and we went out to dinner and called it an early night.
On Monday we ventured to the other side of the river and climbed the hill to the castle, which is in fact more like a city within a city. It contains a palace and a beautiful cathedral, along with a variety of smaller buildings and churches, and a great view of the entire city.
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| The other end of the Charles Bridge, heading towards the castle. |
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| The cathedral had about 10 of these beautiful stained glass windows on each side |
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| View of Prague's famed red tile roofs through the castle wall |
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| Me on castle hill, overlooking the city |
After visiting the castle, we made our way down the hill to the John Lennon Wall. This is basically a wall where graffiti is permitted, and it is constantly changing. It was bright and colorful and had an overall positive message about peace and love. I think my favorite message was, "Make coffee, not war".
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| Me at the John Lennon wall |
The rest of the night was spent eating, walking the cobbled streets and stopping in a few shops, and taking some night time pictures. At around 11:00 I headed back to the bus station and boarded a crowded overnight bus back to Vienna, and arrived as the sun was coming up at around 5:00 am. Needless to say I didn't sleep too well on the bus ride, and pretty much crashed as soon as I got back to my dorm.
Backpacking in the Swiss Alps
After only a couple days to recover back in Vienna, I hit the road, or rather the rails, again. On Wednesday night, May 18th, I left Vienna on an overnight train to Interlaken, Switzerland with six friends, a tent, and enough food for four days. We arrived in Interlaken, in the middle of the Swiss Alps, the next morning, and after stopping to pick up a few more groceries we headed up into the mountains. A train, bus and gondola ride later we were in Gimmelwald, a tiny alpine town I had dreamed about revisiting ever since I went there two years ago. We stopped to take a pre-hike (read clean) picture, bought some cheese and sausage from the local cheese shed, and were on our way (p.s. this part is going to include a LOT of pictures).
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| Our first "family photo" in Gimmelwald. From left: Siegfried, Bobby, Eric, Amanda, Me, Rob, Seth |
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| The road out of Gimmelwald. |
Our goal for the first afternoon was to camp somewhere around a small peak called Tanzbodeli. I had done this stretch of the hike on my previous visit to the area, and remembered it being very difficult. It was even more difficult with 40 pound packs on our backs. After about four hours of intense uphill hiking, we found a suitable camping site just below the peak, with a big enough flat spot for our tent, a water source, a small mountain hut, and an amazing view.
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| Amanda and Rob preparing dinner |
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| The view from our first campsite. |
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| Family photo number 2 at our first campsite |
We got the tent set up and a fire started, then made tinfoil dinners with chicken and potatoes. After eating our fill, we sat around the fire talking and roasting marshmallows until after dark. I may or may not have eaten six marshmallows. They were delicious.
On the second morning we ate oatmeal and toast with peanut butter for breakfast, packed up camp, and set off to hike the rest of the way up to the peak and continue down the other side. The hike to the summit was again steep and difficult, but the view from the top made it all worthwhile.
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| Me at the top of Tanzbodeli |
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| One of many amazing views of the surrounding mountains. |
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| The girls at the top. Believe it or not, this only took two takes. |
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| Top of Tanzbodeli family photo |
We spent quite a bit of time at the summit before hiking down a little ways and stopping for lunch. After lunch, the hike was mostly flat or downhill until we reached a river, then the trail started climbing up again to a glacial lake. We made it up to the "lake" (more like a small pool) later that afternoon, and as the sun was still shining most of us decided to take the plunge. The water was freezing, but the experience was overall refreshing and worth it.
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| Bobby was the first to take the plunge |
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| Me diving into the icy depths. |
After drying off from our swim, we went back down to the main trail and stopped to set up camp at a grassy area near a small waterfall we had spotted on the way up. This was a perfect campsite, and once we got our tent set up it looked like it belonged in an outdoor store catalog.
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| Me near our campsite on night 2 |
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| Night 2 campsite |
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| Bobby and Eric by the fire |
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| Night two was cigar night... that's what Amanda and I get for going backpacking with 5 boys |
Dinner on night two was delicious jambalaya with sausage, red and green peppers, onions, and tomatoes, followed by the remainder of our marshmallows and a variety of chocolate. The next morning we had breakfast and packed up, then Rob and Siegfried left to hike out because they had to be back in Vienna a day earlier than the rest of us.
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| The last photo before Rob and Siegfried left. |
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| My pack all ready to go |
The remaining five of us started the day with a fairly steep downhill hike to the valley floor. We walked along the valley for awhile, stopping by a river for lunch, and then things got more interesting. Our goal for the day was to reach a huge waterfall we had been able to see since day two. There didn't appear to be any trail to it on the map, but it looked easy enough to get to. At this time, I would like to warn you, in case you didn't know, that things are rarely as easy as they look. To make a long story short, we ended up hiking up a very steep grassy hill, then through a forest to a cliff that jutted out in front of the waterfall. There was a slightly sketchy river crossing involved as well, but I won't get into that. While we didn't quite reach the base of the waterfall as we had hoped we would, we still got to a point with a great view.
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| Our goal: so close, yet so far away. |
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| Still on the trail through friendly flowered valleys at this point. |
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| On the cliff in front of the falls. |
After stopping for a few photos, we decided to make our way back down toward the valley and find a place to camp. This also turned out to be harder than it seemed. We found a creek and started to follow it down, knowing that it eventually joined the river below, but encountered a problem when the creek turned into a series of waterfalls, a.k.a. cliffs. Eventually, we made our way down through a heavily wooded area (read lots of branches to hold onto so we didn't slide down the very steep hill). We found a great campsite next to a creek, from which we could still hear the rushing waterfall in the distance. It was an adventurous day to say the least, and we were all happy to get the tent set up and relax around the fire with some pesto pasta for dinner.
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| Setting up at our final campsite |
We had a little bit of a delayed start the next day due to some rain in the morning that made us not want to leave the tent, but it cleared off long enough for us to make breakfast and pack up camp. We only had a couple hours hike out to the town of Murren, where we would catch a bus and then a train to get back to Interlaken. About half an hour into the hike it started to rain, and by the time we reached Murren we were all soaked.
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| On the way out, just before the rain came. |
We made our way back down to Interlaken and went to Hooter's for some food and a celebratory pitcher of beer before getting on a train back to Vienna that evening. Yes, there is a Hooter's in Interlaken. No, I did not buy a shirt. We got back to Vienna the next morning, and I took a much needed shower before going back to sleep for a few hours. It was a great trip with great friends, and an experience that I don't think any of us will forget any time soon.
Well, this post has already gotten quite long. I also spent a weekend in Krakow, Poland recently, but I think I'll save that for my next post. Right now I need to finish packing and doing laundry, as I am heading to Croatia in the morning for six days of camping and exploring lakes and islands. Don't worry Mom, whitewater rafting isn't that dangerous!
Until next time....
Kaitlin
