Prague, Czech Republic
For three days, I explored the city of Prague in Czech Republic for the second time in my life. During my first trip to Prague, I was with my high school's choir and we were able to sing in beautiful cathedrals all over Europe for 10 days. This time around I was able to explore the city even further, although my trip was much shorter. I went with three other girls from my study abroad program: Darcy, Hannah and Steph. We saw many monuments from the astronomical clock to the John Lennon wall. Most of the sites we saw this time, I have already seen. But that's okay because it backs up why I love this city so much.
While crossing the Charles Bridge, you are pushed into a whole different scene. Vendors everywhere selling eccentric art pieces or jewelry.
The Pertin Lookout Tower is Prague's "Eiffel Tower". It was quite a hike to get up there but the view was absolutely breath taking. We rode up a cable car to the top of the mountain and explored up top.
Nightlife was quite fun as well! My friends and I met some pretty cool people from the U.K. and the Netherlands!
Zurich, Switzerland
Monday morning I flew quite early to meet up with my brother who graciously decided to take time off to spend the rest of spring break with me!
It was quite rainy that day, raining on and off the whole time. We continued to explore the city and realized how expensive everything was. I spent $25 on a salad! Thank goodness I enjoyed it or else there would have been some problems.
We hit all the major sites in Zurich such as St. Peter's Church, Grossmunster and Fraumunster.
We settled in with a cup of coffee and a early night.
Interlaken, Switzerland
Tuesday was a very impulse day. We decided the night before to book train tickets to Interlaken because I've seen so many breath taking pictures from friends that I just had to go!
The day for cloudy for most of the day, but luckily there was about an hour of sun where we quickly snapped cool pictures down by Lake Brienz. Eric and I walked 27,000 steps that day just for some pretty amazing pictures. Dedication!
We picked up some Swiss chocolate and headed back to Zurich.
Lucerne, Switzerland
Lucerne was my favorite day in Switzerland. We took a guided tour through the city of Lucerne and took a cable car all the way to the top of Mt. Titlis. The views were absolutely unreal. The Swiss Alps are mind blowing and incredibly beautiful. At the bottom, everything was clear and a tad bit cold. As we took cable cars up and up the mountain, it became more cloudy. By the top of the mountain we couldn't see much below us, but it was still pretty cool. We explored through a Glacier cave, took a tube ride down a mountain and braved the extremely cold weather to the look out bridge.
Walking to the look out bridge was the absolute struggle. You couldn't see five feet in front of you and the wind was whipping so hard, my face felt like it was being pelted off by snow. Thank goodness for hot chocolate and heated buildings. I'm sure if I was out there for five more minutes, I would have gotten frostbite.
Paris, France
Oh, how wonderful Paris was. I wish we had even more time in Paris.
The first day, Eric and I went to the Louvre and Arc de Triomphe. We bought skip the lines for both and unfortunately I think we choose the wrong days the buy them. Besides there not being much of a line for either monument, the Louvre workers were on strike therefore no one was checking tickets and as long as you got through security you could explore the whole museum for free! You know I got a picture of the Mona Lisa. Of course! Surprisingly there wasn't as big of a mob of people as I thought there would be to see Mona.
I almost got dizzy from the amount of spiral steps we had to take to get to the top of the arc. Once we got to the top, we had a great view of the entire city and a cool view of the Eiffel Tower in the distance.
At night, I met up with one of my sorority sister, Meghan Boccella, to catch up!
The second day, we had a guided tour through the Versailles and skip the line for the Eiffel Tower.Just like the Louvre, you could spend hours or even the entire day in Versailles. There is so much to see in the museum and the art work...impressive to say the least!
We trekked to the Eiffel Tower where our skip the line tickets worked this time. We were taken to the second floor which was great, but we wanted the top! Six euros and a cable car later, we made it to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I won't forget this day. It's an even better view of the city than the Arc. Although looking out of the Eiffel Tower might just be another look out place, when you stand in front of the Eiffel Tower you are kind of in awe. You see pictures about it, you hear people rave about how beautiful it is and when you actually get to see it for your own eyes it is so different. It is just truly incredible how lucky I am to be able to have the opportunity to see such a monument. I couldn't get enough.
So we can back to the tower at night to watch it sparkle. Every hour on the hour for five minutes, starting at 6 p.m., it sparkles. You won't be able to get it out of your mind. So beautiful!
Our last day of our trip we explore the Notre Dame and took a river cruise down the Seine River. I was happy we had a guided tour of Notre Dame because I did not much about the history behind it. Our tour guide was very helpful! Such an impressive church and amazing glass work.
I can't forget the lock bridge! Before our river tour, we headed to the famous bridge to add our own lock!
We soaked up the sun as we traveled an hour down the Seine River before we headed back to Zurich for one last night before our travels home.
This spring break is the icing on top to a great semester. Not only do I get to spend an entire semester abroad in Athens, Greece, but I am able to travel to other countries I won't be able to see ever again.
I'm extremely thankful to have such an amazing brother to explore the world with. And I would do it again in a heart beat. Love you bro!
Where will my next adventure be?
