About two weeks ago I left Italy for the last time of the semester to do a little traveling before getting back home, and my first stop was Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Ljubljana is a fairly small European city known for it's bridges and dragons. While I was there I had a great time exploring its adorable downtown area with many shops that looked like they had come right from Pinterest or Etsy, which was dangerous for my wallet. I got to eat some delicious nachos with cheese, a wonderful burger, and a great dark beer brewed in Slovenia. It was a lovely city that even had its own castle on a hill and it was very different from all of the Italian cities I have spent the last few months visiting, which made it a rather refreshing experience. They had a great fresh market set up each morning where I bought tons of apricots and enjoyed the friendliness of all the locals talking with one another.
(Dragon Bridge, Ljubljana with Ljubljanski Grad, aka Ljubljana Castle, in the background)
During my third and final full day in Slovenia I left Ljubljana by bus to take a day trip up to a little town called Bled, made famous by its lake there, which contains one of the only islands Slovenia has. When I arrived there I rode in a little boat over to the island on which there is a small church, and we had some time to explore and grab a bit of cake which is famous in Bled as well.
(View of Lake Bled and Bled Island with two swans)
After getting back from the island I climbed up the cliff path on the north side of the lake to get to Blejski Grad (Bled Castle) where I had another spectacular view of the lake and the area all around it. There I was able to see where the first book in Slovenia was printed and enjoyed many walnut carvings as walnut trees are a huge resource in Slovenia.
(Above: Blejski Grad with the lake and island in the background)
That Wednesday the 18th I left Slovenia and headed to Vienna, Austria, which honestly felt like a fairly normal big city to me and therefore much less exciting that some other places I had been.
I did have a great sunny day to visit Schönbrunn Palace, the old imperial residence for summer months. Before I had my audio tour of the palace I got my first of a few massive pretzels, something somewhat commonplace for the Austrians and Germans. Coming from Wisconsin I probably would have enjoyed it a bit more with some beer cheese, but I;m not complaining because it was quite good.
Along with the pretzels, while in Austria I also got to have some great beer, cheese Spätzle, dumpling soup, potatoes, and a fantastic traditional dish with asparagus, ham, cheese, and hollandaise. It was a bit of a challenge ordering or finding food sometimes just because I speak absolutely no German, but I obviously managed to work it out and was eating well during my time there.
(To the left is me before eating my first giant pretzel out in front of Schönbrunn Palace)
After I was done with the palace I made my way back in the opposite direction toward the city center to go to the Vienna State Opera House, where they hold the Viennese Ball. This was one of my favorite parts about my time in Vienna because I went on a guided tour of the Opera house which taught me a lot about the opera there as well as the Viennese ball. We even got to go back stage on the tour and see behind the scenes of the set set ups and strikes that occur four times a day. It was very cool to not only be able to see all of it but learn more as well.
(The photos below are panoramas of Schönbrunn Palace and backstage at the Vienna Opera House.)
That Friday I took a train from Vienna to Salzburg, which I think may have been my favorite city on my little adventure before coming home. For those of you who don't know Salzburg is the setting for the popular story The Sound of Music, so many of it's inspirations and settings are big tourist attractions. When I got there the first place I visited was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birthplace, which was awesome to see. As the weather was turning from gloomy, cold and rainy to sunny and beautiful, I spent most of my afternoon exploring the quaint city streets. I ran into a small market, saw their cathedral and where the government heads Salzburg used to live, as well wandered over to St. Peter's church, the cemetery of which was used as the inspiration for the dramatic escape scenes of The Sound of Music. This was one of my favorite places in the city as I was amazed and surprised by how pretty it was. I went into the little catacombs there as well, where Nannerl, Mozart's sister, was burried.
(St. Peter's cemetery)
The next day I took the funicular up to Hohensalzburg, the castle of the city, where I got more spectacular views and learned a bit about the city's history. I wandered over to Nonnburg Abbey, where Maria (again, Sound of Music) was going to become a nun and the beginning scenes of the movie were filmed. On the other side of the river there is a beautiful path near another monastery that I spent some time in walking around and taking pictures. It was another gorgeous day outside, and I took to Mirabell Gardens, where the children and Maria sing Do Re Mi.
(View of southern Salzburg from the castle)
(Different view of Salzburg from across the river near Kapuzinerkloster monastery)
(Left: Standing in front of the gates to Nonnberg Abbey; Right: View of Mirabell Gardens)
When Sunday rolled around I left Austria and hit my last "offical" city in Munich. The first day I was there I spent it traveling to and visiting Schloss Neuschwanstein, which is a beautiful castle in southern Bavaria, very near another castle, Hohenschwangau. I spent the gorgeous day wandering around the grounds of each castle, soaking in sunshine and taking lots of photos. Going to visit Neuschwanstein had been on my list of places to go for quite some time. Numerous photos of it had popped up here and there, I already had a thimble of it given to me by my mom, and we had bought a little puzzle that had the castle on it without us realizing it was the same one as well. After I found out how far south in Germany it was, I was determined to go. I must say that after I made it there I did feel accomplished enough that it was time for me to head home.
(Schloss Neuschwanstein)
(View from Hohenschwangau with Neuschwanstein way up in the left corner and the town below)
One of my favorite parts of the day, despite having seen this castle, was spending a little while relaxing by the side of this gorgeous lake, just taking in the fresh air. I sat here with this wonderful view shown below for quite a while before heading back to Munich and grabbing some dinner.
The next day, drastically different in weather unfortunately, I mostly spent traveling a little ways north to Dachau, where there is one of the first concentration camps ever built in Germany for WWII. It was a very cold and dreary day that soon started to rain on me, which was fitting for the atmosphere of the important but depressing camp. Unfortunately I had come down with a head cold over the previous 24 hours so the rain did keep me wanting to stay in the buildings and make my visit short, but it was still a very good one.
One of the biggest things that stuck with me about the camp, that I had not known before, was that aside from being one of the first labor camps, it was the only camp to have functioned throughout all twelve years of Nazi rule, which is impressive in a rather sad way.
(Prisoner's entrance into Dachau's camp, saying what translates to "Work will make you free")
I spent a little time that night exploring the city center of Munich, but unfortunately there was fairly heavy rain, winds, and temperatures in the low 50's, so I didn't stay out very long.
The next day I left Munich and rode to Zurich, where I basically just spent my evening repacking all of my bags so that they were acceptable for airline regulations and preparing myself for one last long day of traveling back home to the US.
At this point I could not have been more excited to get home, and I was very ready to be there. Though it was obviously a long day, traveling back from Europe went pretty smoothly. I flew from Zurich into Philly where I went through customs without any problems thankfully, and from there I had another short flight to Chicago, where I was greeted by my father, boyfriend, and some heavy thunderstorms. Even though the storms caused a few hiccups with timing and whatnot and that we still had to drive back up to Wisconsin, I could not have been happier to be back, and to know that my bags came through alright.
I was actually quite awake through the majority of the day and didn't crash much until about 10pm our time here, which was pretty good considering that's five in the morning in Florence. My sleep schedule is still a little messed up but all things considered the transition has gone pretty well. I have gotten most of my stuff unpacked (but unfortunately not yet put away technically) and it has felt like Christmas opening up some little unknown wrapped objects that I bought months ago. I ended up buying something like 45 thimbles on this massive adventure, of which I only regret buying a couple.
I went on my first boat ride of the season the day after I got back and the day after that I pinned down my job for the summer, doing some graphic design work and floor work for a little art studio here in Delafield. I think it's going to be a great summer.
(My first boat ride of the season on my wonderful Nagawicka Lake)
I definitely am going to miss Florence, I already do really, but I have missed a lot of things at home too that I am thrilled to be getting back to. My family kind of laughs at me because for weeks I have been raving about how excited I am to get back to having "my bagel" in the morning for breakfast, which, I have to tell you, has been fantastic. It's funny because while I was gone I subconsciously learned the sounds of mopeds and street sweepers, which took over for leaf blowers and lawn mowers, and jet skis, but I am glad to be back to those as well. I am so happy I live in an area where not everyone under the sun smokes all the time, and that people are friendly and outgoing and actually speak my language. I am also grateful I don't live in an overly touristy area because I am so sick of the big crowds of self stick-carrying people. The authentic Italian food and gorgeous city setting are going to be the first things I really want to go back to, but I am lucky enough to live in a little paradise of my own and have a mother that is phenomenal at cooking.
Traveling for so long with this experience of studying abroad has taught me a ridiculous amount, outside of my actual classes, in which I learned even more. Many people have already asked me what my favorite place was or where I would want to go back to again some day. Those are tough questions because I visited so many places, but from a gut feeling I would have to immediately say I would go back to Florence, of course. It is just unlike so many other places, and it's funny because any European I ever talked to were in awe and instant envy whenever I told them that's where I was studying. It's as if they literally all know how wonderful it is, and I couldn't agree more.
I would still like to see some more of southern Italy, in some of the less touristy areas, as I didn't get to the toe or heel or the country, and I would go back to Croatia in a heartbeat as well. I thought Split and Krka National Park where incredible and I have heard wonderful things about other places in the country as well. I got the feeling that was one of those underestimated places to travel, and I am very grateful I had the opportunity to do so. I was also happy to have been able to visit the gorgeous country of Slovenia, another place that not many think to travel. I can't say Tuscany isn't beautiful, but driving through Slovenia showed me that it definitely has some competition.
I don't know that I will ever be able to or want to travel abroad for that long at one time again in my life, but I can imagine that urge to travel will be back fairly soon for me. For now though, I am so happy to be home safe and sound, with way to many thimbles and a whole lot of olive oil. I am ready to have a fantastic summer after such an amazing experience of studying abroad in one of the most beautiful places in the world, Firenze, Italia. I am so thankful for everyone who helped make the experience such a great one, and for everyone who supported my goal of studying abroad. I'm quite fortunate to have had the opportunity to do so, but even more so to have such great people in my life. If there is one thing I learned from doing solo traveling, it is that the number of people I have and love in my life is high, and that being gone makes life a little less exciting, even when traveling to such amazing places. I couldn't be more grateful to have you all, so thank you, and I hope you have a phenomenal summer!
Love, abbie