In May of 2010, I backpacked through Europe with my wonderful friend Agatha as a celebration of our undergraduate graduations from Georgia Tech. While I did not keep a blog during the trip, I would like to begin this blog by sharing some of our stories. We left the States on a flight to Zurich without a planned flight home and a loose idea of what we wanted to see.
Zurich, Switzerland:
Ag and I landed in Zurich and were met in the airport by a great friend of mine Jeff Vogeli. Jeff showed us around Zurich that day, i bought lots of Swiss chocolate, and we went to Jeff's family's home where Ag and I stayed for a few nights.
Bern, Switzerland:
A lovely day trip to the capital of Switzerland, the city of bears! Warm and sunny weather during the day, beautiful river winding it's way around the city.
Lucerne, Switzerland:
Rainy and cold, but Ag and I braved the weather with our spiffy ponchos. We looked so great that we even got laughed at by a little boy. We saw the sleeping lion and explored the castle where we were fascinated by the bell tower.
St. Gallen, Switzerland:
We visited Jeff at his university and stayed at his flat for the night. Jeff cooked us a fantastic dinner that we shared with his flat mates friends.
Munich, Germany:
Ag and I spent one day in Munich, arriving on the morning train and leaving on the midnight train. We stored our bags at the train station and saw several churches, ate lunch at the Augustiner (beer, brats with lots of mustard, kraut, and big pretzels), and spent the evening at the crazy fun Haufbrauhaus for more and more beer, good times, and making friends. We stumbled our way to the train station a bit before midnight, complete with a stop to get ice cream along the way!
Lublijana, Slovenia:
Ag and I spent time in Slovenia visiting Vida, a fellow swimmer on the Georgia Tech team. We stayed with her at her family's farm, saw beautiful mountain scenery and waterfalls, and went to mass at the Catholic Church on their property (yes, mass was in Slovenian, so cool).
Bled, Slovenia:
One of our favorite places! A gorgeous village nestled in snow-capped mountains and surrounding a clear blue lake with an island in the middle topped by a beautiful stone church. We hiked outside of Bled to Vintgar Gorge that was carved by ice cold crystal blue water!
Zagreb, Croatia:
Spent some time in this capital city of Croatia, then caught a bus to Plitvice Lakes National Park (another favorite of the trip). Plitvice is a large, multiple-elevation lake that is connected by waterfall after waterfall. The foot path winds along and across the lakes that change in color depending on the current mineral content. The tall waterfall at the end of the hike was spectacular!
Split, Croatia:
We took a train down to southern Croatia to the beach town of Split. It's a quaint city with lots of character, built inside the walls of Diocletian's palace, which served as this Ancient Roman's summer getaway. We passed the days at the rock beach, swam in the Aegean Sea, and ate amazing sea food!
Budapest, Hungary:
My favorite city of the trip, mainly because I felt a sense of belonging from the time I first set foot in the city. These people looked like my family members! We took a walking tour, learning about the churches, castles, and bridges, and then passed the afternoon at a Hungarian Bath House. It was heaven with so many therapeutic pools of varying temperatures. Glad we saved this stop for the end of the trip when we were sore and tired from all of our walking. We ate Hungarian Gulash every night with paprika, yum!
Prague, Czech Republic:
I felt a sense of belonging here as well. It was neat to hear my last name pronounced in it's original tongue. Here we explored the city and churches, went on a bar crawl and to the famous five-story dance club, and bought crystal vases as souvenirs. I bid Ag farewell from Prague, as I returned to the US to start my summer internship with Accenture while she stayed to visit her grandmother in Poland and meet up with fellow GT swimmer Kelsey in Spain.
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