A lot has happened in the last two weeks! Where to I begin?
The first trip began in Portugal, Lisbon specifically, when the boys decided they wanted to experience the Casino the night we go there. We ended up sort of stranded at the end…
But the next day we toured our hearts away starting with the tower of Belem, which was definitely pretty cool! There, I got to try Portuguese pastries, as well as walk across to see the most beautiful monastery of Jeronimo. It has the most beautiful entry ways, and I loved knowing that we studied all the architecture in class. Next, we walked by the Ponte 25 de abril, which was a huge bridge that divided the two zones of Lisbon. We spent the second half of the day touring the side of town on which we were staying at. Alfama was cool because we got to see the charm of the yellow trams, and the colorful tiles on houses, as well as the Se cathedral. Then we saw the Igreja de Graca, the Castle of St. Jorge, and the Arco de Rua Augusta. Many of these destinations were easily accessible and quick to find. The weirdest experience was the random sardine stores. When we were too tired to see more, we returned home to the Airbnb which was on a literal hill and in the middle of a barrio (for the lack of a better term). It was the most impossible thing to find, and not accessible by cars… good times. The inside was nice though. After a while we decided to go to the famous lift in the center, which took us about 100000 hills to walk to, which sort of reminded me of Italy, but a hillier version. We found out that by that time it was closed. The next day we left, having seen many things in Lisbon.
The following week, after 3 days of school, we had time off and I made my way to Budapest, Hungary. We left on Wednesday and got there late that night. Surprisingly the only things open were Subway and McDonald’s. The next day, we began touring with the Basilica Szent Istvan, and made our way towards the Duna river. After, we passed by the parliament building and got to walk along the river. The best experience/ part of Budapest was the overall view.
After crossing the bridge, we went to the Buda Castle and the Matthias church. The Hungarian Parliament building was probably the best thing we saw, along with ore churches on the way to find the metro. After finding the metro, which comes in really handy, we made our way to Hero’s Square and stumbled upon another castle. That night it was Thanksgiving, so we decided to do a traditional Hungarian buffet! The next day it was time to head to Vienna.
It only took about 2.5 hours to get there, which gave us a lot of time to explore some of the close sites. We began with the Stephansplatz cathedral and made our way down through the city center, which happened to be lit up like a Christmas tree. Everything had Christmas lights and the atmosphere was unbelievably charming. The next morning the real fun began. Vienna had the most to see of all places because of its rich history. Not only was Vienna a rich city, it had rich history in architecture and the amount of palaces which we encountered. The first thing we saw was the Belvedere Palace and it was definitely my favorite. I had never seen anything so grand in my life! After, we used the metro to save time and went to Karlzplatz and Karls Kirche. The coolest thing about Vienna was that every palace and historical building had a small village of traditional food stands with Goulash and little gift shops.
I bought some nice soaps! After that we went up and saw Votive church, the university, the most festive Rathaus platz, the parliament, the museums quarter around Maria Theresien platz and later on the Heldenplatz and Hofburg. The problem with going to Hungary and Vienna was that it got dark around 4pm, therefore we didn’t have much daylight to work with. After it got dark we made our way to the Schloss Schonbrunn Palace and ended the night there. Viense food was definitely better than Budapest, and the famous Schnitzel was wonderful! I enjoyed the luxurious and antique feel which the city brought, and I am definitely thankful I got to see so much beautiful history
Next week I am off to London and Mallorca!