This weekend was definitely one of the most fun I have been on during this whole world wind semester. It was also the weekend with one of the most prominent language barriers, but that didn't stop us from having an amazing time.
My roommate and I landed in Vienna and spent the last half of the day exploring. We drove around on a hop-on-hop-off bus (touristy as hell, I know, but so worth it) seeing basically the entire city of Vienna within hours. We ended the first day in front of a castle's Christmas market drinking much needed hot chocolate (heiße schokolade, if you will) from decorative mugs as we all but froze to death waiting for the last bus to come and take us back to our Airbnb. Worth it. The next day, we put our feet to work and walked the entire length of the city that we had mapped out the day before from the comfort of the bus. We legged it nearly 400 steps up to the top of the turret in St. Stephen's Cathedral, then all the way back down for a guided tour of the catacombs. Terrifying. We then went on a super old, super cool Ferris wheel and ate the best fries known to mankind before going to our final stop: biggest Christmas market in Vienna. I almost died a couple times ice skating but the view of city hall lit up with Christmas lights brought me back. All and all, Vienna was the Paris of near-eastern Europe. Magnificient.
The next day, after a particularly nasty Uber ride, we hopped on another bus that took us all the way through the Czech Republic and dropped us off in Prague. To say that Prague looks like something out of a fairytale would be an understatement. The sky is sliced not by skyscrapers but by Gothic towers and cathedral spires. The skyline looks like something from Cinderella or the darker parts of Sleeping Beauty. I was enamored. In Prague, we decided that unplanned wandering was the best way to go. We stumbled through a least four different Christmas markets, across the Charles Bridge, through the Prague Castle, and the stunning St. Vitus Cathedral. I think we did a pretty good job of seeing everything. We had help from a lot of thick, sweet, dark hot chocolate. A theme.
Overall, this weekend was jam packed with beautiful architecture and doughy, sugar crusted chimney cakes. A success in any book.
