I feel like Austria is one of those places that I really have never heard all that much about.  I mean, I knew it had its difficulties throughout the WWII era but I don’t really ever remember having heard of it as a place to travel to, a place you wanted to make sure to see on your trip to Europe, like Rome and Paris.  Over our one week break, after traveling through Poland and Germany, our group ended in Salzburg, Austria, home of The Sound of Music.  The train ride into the country was enough for me to wonder why haven’t people been talking about this place more! It is, by far, the most beautiful place that I have ever been to in my life.

In Salzburg, the Alps are surrounding you.  Walking out of the train station, in a beautiful 63 degree weather, the Alps greeted us with just barely snowcapped mountains in the distance.  It was the most beautiful, breath-taking sight that I had the luxury to view for the next two days.  Walking around Salzburg, we found cute shops and stores and immediately saw The Fortress that overlooked the entire city.  That was our first destination.  After dropping off our items at the hostel (and walking outside to a beautiful view of the Alps) we headed off to The Fortress.  Most of our excursions are just wandering and knowing that eventually we will get to where we want to end up.  That was much how our Fortress excursion went.  We kept walking around, and around, looking up at the great castle beside us, wondering just how to get up.

After a while we came to a market where several little booths were held.  A few booths had souvenirs and one had many different kinds of pretzels, from hazelnut covered pretzels to cream filled pretzels and apple filled pretzels.  We made a pack that after we climbed to The Fortress we would reward our trip with one of these delicious snacks, and delicious they were!  Eventually we did find out way to a very steep hill and many, many stairs leading up to The Fortress.  After a bit of a workout, especially in such wonderful weather, we made it to the top and found a free audio tour.  The tour led us to the highest point of The Fortress that overlooked the entire city of Salzburg.  It was the most beautiful sight.  There weren’t any buildings to obstruct your view and all you could see for miles in the clear blue skies were the mountains protruding up in the distance.

Being up there and overlooking the city, a sense of peace and serenity washed over me.  It was the most calming place I think I may have ever been to (it even beats relaxing on the beach).  The city below was filled with cute little buildings and shops, structured so much differently than they are back home.

Later that day we found that a lot of people were sitting in the grass along the river that ran through the city, so we decided to join them and find a spot to lay on.  We relaxed along the river, looking to the left and seeing the Alps in the distance, behind a bridge that crossed the river.  We could have stayed there all day in the perfect weather and clear blue skies, but there was more of Salzburg to see.

The next day we decided to take a Sound of Music Tour that led us to many of the places the film was made and even some of the locations that the real Maria and Captain Von Trapp were at, such as the place they were married.  We saw the houses that were used to film the outside of the Von Trapp house, the different gazebos used in the film (there were two), and even the church where Maria and the Captain got married in the film that was about an hour outside of Salzburg in Mondsee.  The drive through the mountains to Mondsee was unbelievable as well.  Pictures that we took really don’t even do the view justice.  We passed lakes of clear,  bright blue water that was clean enough to drink, and ventured through the mountains.  I really don’t know how to get across how much I absolutely loved driving through the mountains and all of the natural beauty that surrounded me those two days.

I honestly believe that Austria was my favorite place that I have been to so far in my life.  I wish that I could have stayed longer and honestly did not want to leave on Sunday morning.  I wish I could go back sometime during this trip, though I doubt I’ll be able to, but I can say for a fact that I will visit again one day in the future and highly recommend to anyone to go and visit there.  I didn’t get a chance to go to Vienna, but hear that it is absolutely gorgeous there as well, and look forward to a trip there in the future.

This past weekend when we went to Paris was only two days after Rachel had hurt her knee in volleyball.  Going to Paris we flew with Easy Jet and did not know when to ask for a wheelchair for her or how that worked but on the way home, we flew British Airways and asked right at the check in for a wheelchair for her.  After a bit of confusion (language barrier issues), we finally got a wheelchair.  What I didn’t know was that she was going to have someone else push her in the wheelchair through the airport.  I had been holding onto all of her important documents during the weekend (BritRail pass, passport, etc) so I made sure to stay with her at the airport and carried her crutches.

While going through the airport, we were able to skip every line imaginable.  The woman opened up the line and we just strolled on past and through security and customs like it was nothing.  Once we were at our terminal and about to board, another woman came up to wheel Rachel out to the plane.  We thought that it would just be through the little walkway to the plane, however, passengers had to board the plane from the tarmac so instead, we went through the back ways where all of the employees were and into a metal box (I really can’t think of a different way to describe it).  We had no idea what was really going on until we started lowering down onto the ground.  Well, actually, onto a truck.  A man then drove us across the runways to where our plane was, which was incredibly awesome.  The box then lifted us back up and we boarded the plane from the front door.  This was one of the most exciting parts of the weekend.  We were like little kids, laughing goofy the entire time we were in this truck.  When we boarded the plane, we realized that they waited to board everyone else until we were safely on board, which was even more hilarious to us because our flight then left 15 minutes late.

The flight itself was great too.  The British Airways flight attendants were very happy and nice.  We received complimentary apple juice and cookies which added to our happy child-like behavior as we excitedly looked out the window during takeoff.

Once we reached Heathrow, there was a man with a wheelchair waiting for us right outside the plane.  He then took us right past the line at customs, which was awesome because the actual line was quite long, and we strolled on.  Since Heathrow is so big, we had to take a train to even get to where the arrivals and customs were, which the man happily took us through.  He even brought us right where the Heathrow Express train that we needed to take into London would pick us up.  Talk about door to door service.  It was one of the funniest moments of our time here, especially since Rachel had been walking around Paris all weekend.  Now, don’t get me wrong, she really did need the wheelchair.  Since we had walked so much her knee was getting stiff and swollen and those airports are huge.  We just felt like celebrities as we didn’t have to wait in any lines and everyone was extra nice and helpful.  If you are ever traveling injured, make sure to let the airline know because they will make sure you get the royal treatment.

Since we’ve been here, I don’t think that many of us, if any, and definitely not myself, have experienced any sense of “culture shock”.  This past weekend however, seven of us went to Paris and Versailles in France and definitely experienced culture shock at its finest.  This weekend was the first time that any of us had gone to a country that did not have English as its primary language.  We actually decided to go to the place where many people refused to speak English and had a group making sure people did not speak it, making it much more difficult to navigate around the city.

Something we have been very good at taking advantage of are the free tours that are offered in many countries.  We did one in Edinburgh, Dublin and now Paris as well.  These tours give a great layout of the city, touching on many of the main places, allowing us to be able to later navigate ourselves around.  Our tour guide also gave us a lot of helpful hints like which museums would be free to us and where are good photo taking opportunities.  He also knew a lot of random facts about the city that were very interesting to know.  Such as if there is a statue of someone on a horse and the horses’ front left hoof is up and back right hoof is up it means that the person riding the horse died of unnatural causes.  Whereas if both of the front hooves are raised it means the person died heroically in battle.

On the tour we started at St. Michael’s Cathedral, went past Notre Dame to The Louvre where we saw the “invisible” pyramids and the very UNimpressive Mona Lisa, then the hugely symmetrical garden outside the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe which is at the end of the most famous street in Paris, the Champs Elysees, and surrounded by the most dangerous round-a-bout, and of course, The Eiffel Tower.  We learned more fun facts along the way, such as the faces carved in The Pont Neuf bridge is from a very drunken night King Louis XIV had with his closest friends.  He had an artist draw all of the faces of his friends towards the end of the night and when he saw them the next morning, he thought it would be a fun idea to have all of the faces carved along the bridge forever.  Many of the faces are quite a sight to see and are very hilarious.  Our tour guide referred to them as the first Facebook tagged pictures.

Since we did the tour on Friday, we were able to get ourselves orientated with the town from the beginning.  After seeing the Arc de Triomphe, we took a rickshaw to the Eiffel Tower, going around the crazy dangerous round-a-bout along the way that has a car crash once every seventeen minutes.  Once at the Eiffel Tower, it was a sight to see.  We went up to the top the next night and, of course, it was snowing.  As cold as it was, it was awesome to see and be at the very top of the tower, 281m in the air.  Though we couldn’t see too far in the distance because of the whiteness, it was still definitely worth it.

On Saturday morning, we did a tour of Versailles. Since it was so cold, we toured the palace instead of the gardens but afterwards went and ventured through the gardens.  They were quite beautiful there and the whole estate is incredibly huge.  I can only imagine how breathtaking it would be to see in the summer when all of the fountains were flowing and gardens were blooming.  Next time I head to Paris, it will have to be in the summer.  The trip was still great though because we were able to see everything and learn about all of the King Louis’ and their history as well as the history of the palace and its expansion throughout the years of the kings.

Norte Dame is another place that I would highly recommend to anyone to go and visit.  We saw it many times on our way to and from our hostel, but on Sunday morning we went to a mass at Notre Dame and saw the beautiful stain glass windows all around.  The mass was in French so we couldn’t understand too much of the homily but since it was a Catholic mass, I could follow most of what was happening.

The language barrier was very difficult at times, though having a bigger group of us did help because we could try to decipher what was written or being said.  One of the hardest parts of the language barrier for me, personally, was when it came to ordering food.  Most of the places had menus only in French, and the French did not like it when Americans wanted them to translate things for them, so trying to figure out what to eat was a bit of a project at times.  A lot of places that were more fast food like did have pictures up in the windows which allowed us to at least see what we would be getting and try to figure out what might be on it.  At one cafe we stopped at for lunch after our tour, Zach was trying to ask for the check and instead ordered a 8.50 euro dessert.  That just goes to show how difficult the language barrier can be.  One of the most successful places we found to eat was at a little crepes shop just down the road from our hostel.  Crepes in France are significantly better than anywhere else in the world.  There are all kinds, from sweet Nutella crepes to savory egg, bacon and cheese creeps, as well as crepes with lettuce, tomatoes, eggplant, onions and other toppings we still couldn’t exactly translate.  But everyone was delicious.  Nothing else can compare.

While in Paris, we really did not interact much with the French.  At one point when we needed to ask where a street was located, we spelled it out on a phone, knowing we could never pronounce it correctly, and showed it to a bartender.  He pointed in one direction and then a man sitting at the bar told us the bartender was lying and pointed in the opposite direction.  I suppose we couldn’t be too upset though because I know plenty of people back home who like to mess with those who are lost.  We did finally find our way, but being lost in Paris at night in the cold is never really all that fun.

There was one other instance in which the language barrier really threw us for a loop.  We were on a bus heading from the Eiffel Tower to The Louvre when all of the sudden, the bus driver stopped and announced something to everyone in French.  At that stop, half of the people got off the bus and the other half stayed on.  We exchanged confused looks with each other but had no clue what to do.  I went up to a woman who seemed to be translating for another woman and the bus driver.  After a quick word with the woman, we learned that there was a street that was closed, so the bus would not be making all of the necessary stops, meaning we needed to get off as quickly as possible because we were now going in the wrong direction.  From the stop we hopped off at, we used the maps on the bus stops to figure out where which way we needed to walk.  We would stop at each bus stop, checking to make sure that we were going the right way. Once we hit the river, we were golden.  Anytime you are lost in Paris, just make sure to make it to the river because from there you can find anything.

This weekend was such a blast and better than I ever expected it to be.  I was never really all that excited to go to Paris.  I knew they hated Americans and never really saw the thrill in the Eiffel Tower.  However, after this past weekend, I can honestly say I have fallen in love with the city.  It was so amazing, and though I am glad to be back where English is spoken, I will miss it and do want to go back again one day.

Living in the Ctre, we are on our own for all of our meals except for our Wednesday night common meal.  Eating peanut butter and Nutella is delicious, but does get old pretty quickly, especially when that’s our go to food for weekend trips. So lately, I have been experimenting with new recipes to try out.

This weekend we did a few day trips around England, but we mostly stayed in Cambridge, so it was a great weekend to try out some new ideas.  On Sunday I decided to season and bake a chicken breast, season some mushrooms, and when the chicken was done, cover it in mushrooms and shredded cheese, and put it back in the oven, just long enough to melt the cheese.  Meanwhile, I also made fettuccini noodles and put them in a pan with oil, garlic, mushrooms, cheddar and parmesan cheeses.  Once everything was completed, I took a bite into a meal that made me more proud of myself than I have ever been.

Being on your own really forces you to learn how to fend for yourself.  You have to go shopping to get the ingredients you need and make sure you always have food, but keeping in mind that unlike back home, food goes bad much more quickly here.  They do not use as many preservatives in their foods like we do so we end up going grocery shopping more or less every week.

Luckily for us, we have a variety of places we can shop at.  We can go to Aldi, Tesco which is the equivalent to Walmart at home, Sansbury which is like any other grocery store, and the market.  The market has all kinds of different fruits, vegetables and breads.  Another great meal that I have discovered and am in love with is getting ciabatta bread from the market, then putting fresh mozzarella cheese, pesto, tomatoes and avocados.  It is an amazingly delicious sandwich that is pretty healthy as well.

Its fun to learn to make new recipes from online and from other people in the house.  Though we all came from Valpo, we all have different techniques and ways we learned to cook certain foods, and some of us, didn’t even know how to cook at all before we came, so being here and having to was really a huge change.  Of course a few of us knew that Mac n’ Cheese wasn’t available and brought it with us for an quick and easy dinner, a couple boxes and Kraft doesn’t last long.  Living in the Centre has been a great transition to get me ready to live on my own next year and now I have a new great new recipes to bring back to the States with me in three months.

So as I’ve probably mentioned before, every Wednesday night two people from the group make an appetizer, main entree, side, dessert and drink for everyone with the budget of £70.  This week, it was my turn with Caiti.  On Monday, instead of cleaning the house, we went to Tesco to buy the ingredients we would need to cook with on Wednesday.  We decided to mix things up a bit and made our common meal have a murder mystery theme to it.  So we went online and bought a 1920’s gangster themed murder mystery.  We started an hour earlier than we usually do because we were not sure how long it would last (common meal normally starts at 6:30 with appetizers, dinner at 7 and we are cleaning up by 7:30-7:45).

We gave everyone their characters and their character’s information by Saturday night so they would have enough time to go and get a proper outfit for the evening.  My character was Lucy Legiano, wife of the New York mob boss, Charlie Legiano, and a New York mobster myself.  Over the weekend, I went to a thrift store and bought a blazer for only £10 and then headed to the market to buy a fedora.  Some characters were in other mobs such as Atlantic City and Chicago’s and some of the girls were flappers.  Because there is only one guy in our group, a few people had to be men, but it seemed to work out very well.

We decided to make bread with oil and parmesan for an appetizer, homemade Confetti Mac n’ Cheese with carrots, peas and chicken for the main meal with salad, and a chocolate éclair cake for dessert, with gin and tonic or gin and juice for drinks (very 1920’s).  We started cooking around 4 and were just finished with everything in time by 5:30.  We made two and a half bags of shells, cut up four full carrots, a bag of peas, six chicken breasts, three bags of salad, and six long rolls of bread for the appetizer as well as a lot of cheese and it made for more than enough food plus leftovers.

As we entered the main common room at 5:30, everyone was dressed in 1920’s attire.  It was exciting to see everyone get their characters and really be into the game.  We had a total of three rounds throughout the evening. The first round was during appetizers.  We each received a clue that gave us information to share with the group as well as information to keep to ourselves to know.  After the second round (after dinner), Zach’s character was shot and killed and it was up to everyone to tell their alibis and figure out for themselves who they believed killed him.  He was able to participate throughout the rest of the game, though he could no longer talk, he was a ghost.  Throughout each of the rounds certain people would go out of the room with another and tell them a private piece of information that no one else would know.  This caused great curiosity throughout the group and by the end, everyone had different thoughts and opinions about who killed him due to what they knew.

In the end, we did finally find out who the killer was and told each other all of the secrets we had learned that others were dying to know about.  It turned out to be a lot of fun and a great night.  The food turned out to be delicious as well, which was very exciting.  Common meal is always one of the best nights of the week because depending on how much people have spent the previous weekend, they might not have that much food lying around the house, so common meal might be the only real main meal for the week.  The leftovers are always a great thing to have to snack on as well throughout the remainder of the week.

During a typical week in the life of a student studying abroad in Cambridge, my week always starts on a Monday. Granted, my schedule is a bit different from the rest of the students in the house due to the fact that I am neither taking Art nor Global Health meaning I do not actually have any classes on Mondays or Wednesdays. However, every Monday we have to clean the house. Each week we are assigned a different room in the house to clean, or are assigned to make common meal, which means we do not clean that week but go shopping with Nola at Tesco instead. Common meal is a group meal that two people will make each for the entire group. It consists of an appetizer, drink, main meal and a vegetable as well as dessert. So far people have made enchiladas, chicken pot pie stew over biscuits, spaghetti and meatballs, breakfast for dinner and sloppy joes. Common meal is a great time that brings everyone together and allows us as students to have a nice meal at least once a week.

Mondays are usually a good day to recover from a weekend of traveling or do any last minute homework or reading that may have been forgotten while gone all weekend. For food, we are on our own to cook and wash any dishes we make. Tuesdays start off with Theology at 9 in the morning, followed by History. Unlike what many people are used to when they have class, we have class on the top floor of our house and our professors come to us. We also rarely have homework in these classes but will have a paper or exam at midterm and final times. They are all British professors from different universities in town. At 11:45am, History ends and Professor Murphy will drive Rachel and myself across town to Anglia Ruskin University so we will make our 12pm Contemporary Fiction class.

Class at Anglia is much different from class in the house. Where our History and Theology class are both lecture based, Contemporary Fiction is a discussion based class. CF also allows us to interact with British students and hear their thoughts and opinions during discussions which often are different from our own. We do have homework for CF, however. Each week, we are responsible for reading a novel as well as secondary readings, such as different articles that relate to the novel or ideas of the novel. The novels that we have read thus far have been quite different from any book I would have chosen myself, but have brought about very interesting and rewarding conversation and caused me to think about things differently than I would have otherwise.

As of last week, we found a great church with an awesome worship service and bible study that is held at night on Tuesday. If any night, Tuesday nights are usually the nights that we will go out to the pubs or clubs if we choose to. I personally, don’t have any classes or anything I will need to be up for on Wednesday until our house meeting that is usually a noon, so it works out nicely. Though, most nights we stay in we stay up until the wee hours of the morning bonding anyways.

Wednesdays we are really able to do whatever we like after our group meeting is over with. It’s a good day to make sure to get out of the house and go down to the market in town and go shopping. Common meal starts with appetizers at 6:30pm and usually goes until 7:30-8pm depending on how long we converse and eat. After, we usually change into comfier clothes and hang out, watch a movie, or play games. Another popular activity is to plan trips for weekends to come. It may sound easy and fun, but can get very stressful. Looking up flights, hostels and calling to book train reservations can become very overwhelming at times.

Thursday after morning classes are weekend begins. Promptly after classes, we are usually packed and ready to hop on a train and travel to different towns or countries depending on the week. We’ve taken the train to Manchester or Edinburgh, or to London to head to the airport and fly to Dublin or Paris. Each weekend we usually find somewhere new to explore. We will usually always return on Sundays, depending where we are going to. The weekends are the best, exploring new countries and cultures. Seeing places that you usually only see in photos on Google. Next weekend we are heading to Paris and I’m sure seeing the Eiffel Tower will be a completely unreal experience as well.

London is so magnificent, you can’t go just once.  So last weekend (Jan 31-Feb 2) a few of us ventured down to London once more with the plan of seeing the Harry Potter Studio Tour, going on the London Eye and seeing Shakespeare’s Globe in mind.  Thursday we headed off into London and hung out a bit, got settled into our hostel and wandered around, seeing the wonderful nightlife sights.  Friday was our day in Hogwarts.  Now, writing about that day alone would be like a five page essay.  It was so unbelievably amazing that anyone who is a Harry Potter fan should make their way to London and to the tour one day in their life.

The moment you enter in, you are walking into the Great Hall at Hogwarts.  The tables, chairs, outfits, as well as the head table are all there for you to see.  From there on, you walk through the two huge stage buildings that hold all of the sets, props and outfits from all of the different movies.  Dumbledore’s office, the Gryffindor common room, Harry and Ron’s room, and even Hagrid’s Hut.  You can even learn all about how quidditch was filmed and the magic behind may of the props.  Surprisingly enough, some of the props really are magical, such as the sewing needles at the Wesley’s and their iron.  From the main stage, you walk outside where you can try some delicious butterbeer, something I would highly recommend, see the famous purple night bus from the third movie, see Privet Drive and the Hogwarts bridge that is featured in many of the movies but never actually mentioned in the books.

Forging on to the second stage is where the magic of the creatures is unveiled.  Masks of the goblins fill the shelves and, of course, Aragog from Chamber of Secrets is featured high above.  Seeing all of the different characters and how they come to life is such an amazing experience.  Diagon Alley is also in the second stage and walking down it really makes you feel as if you truly are in a magical world.  After going on the Harry Potter tour in London that shows you where different scenes had taken place and seeing Diagon Alley there, it was truly miraculous to see the real deal.  From Ollivander’s Wand shop to the Wesley’s Wizard Wheezes shop, they are all there.

My favorite room, by far, one that in itself makes going on the tour worth it, is the very last room.  In this room is where the real Hogwarts Castle is unveiled.  Hand created with every brick hand painted and even with lights wired through, is the actual castle used when filming the panning opening shots of the Hogwarts Castle.  It is real and it is there and it is an absolutely breathtaking event to see it.

The Harry Potter Studio Tour is definitely one of the highlights of London, but that was not the only place we visited on our journey.  Luckily, London is one of the easiest places you will be able to learn to get around in your life and there is always something to do!  My personal favorite place in London is Piccadilly Circus.  There is always something to do or see in Piccadilly Circus.  Need something to do on a Friday night?  We did, so where did we go, where else but Piccadilly Circus.  Here we were able to watch street performers of all kinds and pick up a comedy show for only £8.

Another place I would highly recommend going though on a Saturday morning would be Portobello Market.  Here are miles of stalls (as well as an all antique underground market with more than 40 stalls) where you can buy all different kinds of amazing antiques, fresh fruits and vegetables, clothes, fun little nick-nacks, signs, paintings, portraits and second use clothing, vintage style.  For us, the market was much too long to walk while we were there, but it was such an awesome place to experience.  There were so many people there from so many different places around the world as well.  I would love to go back one day and venture a bit farther through it now that I know what all there is.

From Portobello Market, we made our way to witness the amazing sights of The London Eye.  It may be a bit pricy at about £19 but it is worth every second of it.  You are able to go around for a half an hour and see everything from up in The Eye.  Big Ben and Parliament are so breathtaking from up high, when the entirety of it can be seen.  When we were there, we were lucky enough to have a sunny, mostly clear day.

After The Eye, we walked along the river, something else I highly promote doing due to all of the street performers.   Walking along you will come across tens of twenties of street performers from a guy playing a tuba that spit out fire, a man sitting on thin air, and Darth Vader talking to Captain Jack Sparrow.  Once you hit Millennium Bridge, The Globe is right there.  Going through The Globe you learn a lot about Shakespeare’s history and the history of The Globe itself and why it was constructed the way it was.  For those Shakespearian lovers, it would be worth your time to tour The Globe and the museum.

The Millennium Bridge, created for obvious reasons for its name, was first built very unstable and would sway with the wind.  Several people were actually killed when thrown into the water from the bridge, so the bridge was reconstructed and reopened and is now safe to walk across.  From the middle of the bridge, Tower Bridge can be seen, and straight ahead is St. Paul’s Cathedral.

My final suggestion, one that I am so happy I accidentally came across, was walking along the river at night.  From the opposite side of the river from The London Eye you can see it light up beautifully blue as well as see Big Ben and Parliament lit.  Pictures here are priceless.  Seeing London at night gives a totally different effect than during the day.  London is an amazing city with so many things to offer and so many sights to see.