"There's no place like Europe."

I failed to post about Scandinavia at the beginning of March..oops! In Stockholm, Sweden, we walked around Old Town and just did a lot of sightseeing. In Norway, we went to a couple museums, and went on ferry rides! They are both spots I definitely want to visit again at some point. I'll skip the details and settle for pictures since I have five more countries to write about!

Stockholm, Sweden

Oslo, Norway

This past week we traveled to five different countries. First, I will write a little bit about the bus that took us to all these places. We had a tour guide who so kindly took us on tours of all the cities and talked to us on the bus about who knows what else because..it was all in Russian. That was fun for like a minute. Then it got real annoying, haha. Our tour guide talked for literally HOURS at a time on the bus, and we came up with more than few ways to get rid of that horrid microphone that he unnecessarily yelled into the whole time. Most of our funny stories from this trip took place on the bus. It was quite the adventure. 

On Sunday, we arrived in Budapest. We went to the spas after some sightseeing, and it was so nice. The famous bathhouse is basically just a few giant hot tubs. After a 20-hour bus ride and a very long day, that was just what we needed to ease our crankiness. There were also some saunas and ice baths which we lasted about 34 seconds in before we ran back to the hot tubs. That night, we went on a boat tour, and it was absolutely beautiful! 

Thermal Baths

Boat Tour

Monday we were in Vienna, Austria. It was really green and so so pretty! There were a lot of blossom trees beach cruisers, and horse carriages everywhere. We went sightseeing and saw some really pretty gardens and buildings. We loved wandering through the streets finding our way around. Later on, we stumbled upon a cute little park at which we spent a while playing cards and eating snacks until it was time to go back to the bus. It was lovely. This was one of my favorite cities! 

Tuesday and Thursday we were in Prague, Czech Republic! On Tuesday, we went to Charle's bridge and to the astronomical clock and walked around spotting things we wanted to see and do when we were back on Thursday. When we went back, we made sure to try some pastries worth the trip for just that, found a cute cafe to drink tea at, and then a few of us went to the national library. This was one of my very favorite parts of the whole trip! Oh, this library was absolutely beautiful. Its ladders, second story balcony, and millions of timeless books reminded me of the library in Beauty and the Beast. Sadly, we couldn't go further than a small flimsy fence barely in the doorway, but I've plotted more than one way to go back and walk those halls and climb the ladders. After a slightly heart-wrenching parting, we left the library and kept climbing the stairs to the top, which did not disappoint!

 

Prague brought out the inner child of us all with these huge bubbles! 

On Wednesday, we drove to Dresden, Germany. We parked at this cute little park with a pond. There was a bridge going over the pond that led to a few castles and cathedrals! It was beautiful. We tagged along on the tour and then went inside for a while. It rained, which always makes for a perfect day in my book. :) We walked in the rainstorm to a courtyard and I loved every minute of it. Then we found directions to a wall that plays music when it rains so we walked to that! It wasn’t raining by the time we got there, but it was so cool. It looked like something straight out of Dr. Suess! This city was particularly one on my favorites for walking around. It was also very green here, and the buildings (though I don't know what they were because of the whole Russian tour thing..) were impeccable. 

Friday was Poland. Auschwitz. Though it was indescribably difficult, I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to go and learn about the Holocaust in a very different way than ever before, and for the way the things I saw and felt there changed my life forever. It truly was far too heavy to put into words.

There is something about traveling that you just can't get any way other than actually traveling. My months in Ukraine and traveling Europe have got me hooked. Hooked on experiences. Hooked on learning. Hooked on searching. Hooked on living in the moment. Hooked on elsewhere.