my 22nd birthday(s)!

Part I

Date: Thursday, April 5th

Location: Salzburg, Austria

Why yes, this year I was lucky enough to get 2 birthday celebrations! I woke up on my birthday to lots of emails and messages from my family and friends in the states... a real treat!

Steph, Sydney, and I left the hostel that morning in search of a little breakfast on our way to the bus station because we were going to the Alps!  We grabbed delicious pastries and sandwiches to take with us for the day was we headed out on our adventure.  We rode a tram up to the 'top' of the Alps and headed out for the snow capped peaks!  We hiked around a bit and enjoyed the view and snow!

When we where exhausted with our hiking we made our way to the 'mountain top' cafe for a birthday pint and to enjoy the sandwiches we'd bought...

In the evening, when we'd caught back up with Frances, we got all dolled up and went out in search of my birthday wishes... cake, food, and wine!  And luckily we managed to find all three!

Great cake: champagne orange, cherry chocolate, and raspberry (don't worry... I shared!)

Great Austrian wine at the amazing little wine bar we found in town.

Part I of my birthday was pretty amazing, but Part II sure gave it a run for its money...

Part II

Date: Friday, April 13th

Location: Limerick, Ireland

After a wonderful birthday celebration with the girls in Salzburg I was informed that that wasn't all... I wasn't officially 22 until I'd had a homemade cake and celebrated with the boys (Paul and Sebastian) too.

So they made me a cake and came to my apartment for pizza and a few drinks!  It was one of those nights where you sit down with your friends and a cider at 7:30 and all the sudden it's 2am!  I have no idea where the night went... but I had an amazing time playing taboo (the boys bought it to improve their English), telling stories, and joking around! I'm more than luck to have made such good friends over here across the pond!

It was Paul's birthday in Ireland too... we were the only 22 year-olds!

This one had to go up because both the Germans are smiling with their teeth... this is unheard of!

Gotta love my Ireland family!

I am one amazingly lucky girl to have been given the opportunity to celebrate my birthday twice with such great people!

Thanks for all the birthday fun guys!!

easter break - salzburg.

Wednesday April 4th - Sunday April 8th
(Minus April 5th.... that get's its own post!)

Wednseday
Steph, Sydney, Frances, and I started our vacation in Salzburg on a beautifully sunny Wednesday afternoon! After arriving in town by train (with no stops!!) we settled into  our private hostel room, a true treat!  Overwhelmed by the sun and exhausted of sight seeing we opted to take it easy for a day... So of course we headed for a beer garden!

After a few pints and a little German-Chinese food we were set for the night and headed back to the hostel for some sleep!

Thursday

We'll get back to this one...

Friday

Friday was a big tourist day for us! Despite the mist on the morning we headed out with the intention of following the city walking tour we found in one of our maps.  We made it to the first 2 stops before we found ourselves in the middle of the Old City completely surrounded by churches, market squares, and a castle.  The map wasn't so necessary then, we just spent the morning and early afternoon exploring the city.  Here are a few of the pictures...

The very old and creepy graveyard behind St. Sebastian Church

I couldn't resist buying a giant pretzel... it's bigger than my face!

Cool candle/figurine shadows in the crypt of the church in the picture above (I don't know which of the 5 we went in that day!)

The view of Salzburg from the castle

It's a unicorn ring toss game!

On our way back to the hostel after our tourist morning we stopped for a treat... germknödel.  This was a dessert that Sebastian had recommended before we left him in Germany.  A germknödel is essentially a ball of yeast/dough covered in melted butter, sugared poppy seeds, and vanilla sauce.  It tastes about the way it sounds... nasty!  But it was a fun experience at least!

In the evening we visited a Belgian beer bar (random, I know) and spent a few hours having girl talk to conclude a great day!

Saturday
We headed out into the rain Saturday morning to finally hit the location I'd been waiting for... The Mirabell Gardens.  Even in the rain the gardens were beautiful, green, and blooming!

These little guys were all over the park!

If it were less rainy you'd be able to see the castle in the background.

We spent our last night in Austria enjoying a stereotypical Austrian meal and one last pint at a nice restaurant in the Old City... bacon wrapped, cheese-filled, sausages on a bed of fries!

Sunday - Easter
We woke up to a nice white surprise on Easter morning... snow! We braved the weather and went to mass at St. Sebastian church in town, a very interesting experience.

It wouldn't be enough to say that my Easter break was good.  I've been truly blessed with the experiences I was able to have and the people I was with during that week.  I can't imagine that I will forget any of it any time soon!

easter break - heidelberg.

So I'm clearly way behind on my blog posts... we'll see how much I can catch up while I'm procrastinating studying for exams!

Monday, April 2nd - Tuesday, April 3rd

Monday

ok... epic fail!  On Monday Steph, Syd, Frances, and I took the train from Munich to Heidelberg where Sebastian was going to meet us after a quick stop at home.  We had everything planned out... we pre-bought tickets and checked the schedule twice.  But who knew that 2 tracks would break at the Stuttgart station!?  This technical difficulty caused out 2 stop, 5 hour train trip to become a 5 stop, 10 hour train trip!  It was exhausting and stole half a day from our Heidelberg plans!!  But hey... what's traveling like a cheap college student without those crazy experiences!?

We finally got to Heidelberg at about 7pm, just in time to eat dinner with Sebastian and fall asleep... completely exhausted from the day of trains!

Tuesday

We spent the day exploring the city... Our first stop was the Heidelberg castle.  It had a pretty impressive exterior, but we didn't get to go in.  The view from the castle hill was amazing!

Dear family, Challenge: next years Christmas puzzle!? Who accepts?

As you can tell, the sky was perfectly blue!  The day was beautiful... I even managed to get a little sunburned while we ate lunch at a cafe in town!

We spent most of the afternoon walking through the city, shopping, and enjoying the sun.  There's not much to tell, but here are a few pictures:

At lunch we had some confusion when we ordered... The waiter didn't have great English (and Sebastian was no help!) and when he told us the lunch special we thought he said it was a goat cheese and bacon sandwich (yum).  Turns out it was really just an entire block of fried goat cheese with veggies!?  It was so good.. but a little overwhelming!

We had to leave Heidelberg that evening to get back to Munich for the night.  It wasn't a very long stay, but we had a beautiful and relaxing day!

Here's one of the many trains we took during our Bavarian excursion!

Next stop... Austria!

easter break - munich.

Friday, March 30th - Sunday, April 1st

My Easter break (Spring break to all you Americans!) started with a stop in Munich, Germany.  Sydney, Steph, and I flew from Dublin to Munich where we met a strange assortment of people at our hostel on Friday night... Sydney's cousin Frances (She lives in Spain and teaches English in a middle school there) and Sebastian (one of my German friends from UL) with his brother, Benedikt, and their friends Mischa and Stefan.

Friday

Our first stop in town clearly had to be somewhere with a good beer selection! Our group of 8 hit the streets in search of the perfect place.  Munich was beautiful in the dark... all the old buildings looked magical when they were lit up for the night!  We enjoyed dinner, beer, and slightly awkward, bilingual, conversation with our new friends! I have to give the German boys major credit thought... although they all continuously apologized for their 'poor english' they were great!  After a little while everyone was finally comfortable enough to talk and get to know one another!

Saturday

We got up bright and early to make our way to the train station to head to Schloss Neuschwanstein (New Swan Palace).  

My first view of the Alps from the train!

The palace, nestled in the Alps, was commissioned by the certifiably insane Ludwig II of Bavaria in the 19th Century.  He died before it's completion and the palace was turned into a museum six months later.  The interior of the castle (I couldn't take picture) was terrible!  The man loved swans and they were everywhere to prove it... in framed paintings, carvings, murals, even a life-size porcelain swan humidifier!  The outside of the castle, sadly under restoration during my visit, was the inspiration for the Disney castle. Although the castle wasn't spectacular, we spent an amazingly, sunny, beautiful day enjoying radlers (beer and lemonade) at the beer gardens around the castle!

Stefan and me at the beer garden down the hill from the castle.

Mischa, Benedikt, and an oblivious Sydney!

The view of the Bavarian countryside from the castle hilltop.

The non-Disney side of the castle (the part not covered in scaffolding)

The view from the back side of the castle. Look... short sleeves!

When we'd seen what there was to see at Neuschwanstein we caught a train back to Munich for a quick dinner and some much needed sleep!

Sunday

In the morning Sydney and I caught up with a tour guide at the train station who brought us and a group of other international college students on a guided tour of the Dachau concentration camp museum and memorial.  We spent the morning in the camp looking at old photos, watching a movie, and trying to understand, at least slightly, what went on inside the walls of this horrifying place.  The camp museum has been constructed by actual survivors which really make it a powerful place to see. It was an amazingly emotional experience... the strength that the surviving prisoners have shown in order to tell their storied and remember those that were lost was unbelievable.  I'm glad to have had the experience to see their nightmares and feel their triumph.

"To honor the dead. To warn the living" 

 -the memorial erected by the survivors-

In the afternoon, when Syd and I got back to Munich, we wandered to town in search of the English gardens and stumbled on some pretty impressive buildings...

When we reached the English gardens we enjoyed the sun, with a ton of other people, and made our way to the Chinese Pagoda...

We finished Sunday off with a few drinks in the bar right in our hostel (dad... that brings out the worst in people even more than a wedding reception in the hotel you're staying in!) and enjoyed out last (real) night in Munich and our real last night with Bene, Mischa, and Stefan!

Sydney, Frances, and me in the hostel bar