Now that I’m about to be back in Ireland in 15 days I
suppose I could write about some of my travels which my Ireland travels bookend.
I shall summarize each of my weekend trips in this much
belated post…
Vienna!
Our first trip of the semester was
to the capital city of Austria: Vienna! It was a beautiful city and we were
lucky to have the university guide us in a tour of the city. We were able to see
historical buildings, churches, and even had the opportunity to dine and shop
around the city. We had Mass in a beautiful church before our tour and after
the tour we ate authentic schnitzel, of course, and drank wine and beer in an Austrian
restaurant. After our Austrian meal we were free to do as we pleased. 
One of the funniest things I saw
while I was in Vienna was this random white tee-shirt rager that was held in
the streets. There was simply a gathering of Europeans on party buses drinking
and dancing in the streets of Vienna…Apparently some of the Franciscan students joined in the insanity. Honestly it was so weird and pretty funny. Since it was a day trip we headed back to the buses shortly
after dinner time and made our way to the Kartause.
Salzburg, Austria and
Munich, Germany!
Of course the Fall semesters of
this program are notorious for enjoying a good time so that evening we ate half
chickens and drank beer at the Augustiner. Although I enjoy Austrian beer, I was not a huge fan of the
beer at the Augustiner but that probably makes one of us… After dinner we all
made our ways to the clubs to dance and enjoy a little drink. That evening
that I learned how much Franciscan men look out for the Franciscan ladies, as
I saw a few of my friends threaten to fight any Austrian guy who so much as lustfully
looked at one of the girls. Thanks men. Haha!
After wandering around the beautiful city we all headed to
the Hofer House and ate German food and drank more beer. After dinner I hit up
Starbucks for some American sized coffee and then made my way to the buses to journey back to the Kartause – back to the beer I do like.
Croatia!
My first free weekend I decided to
travel to a country I honestly never heard of before: Croatia. A massive amount of
students decided to take the opportunity to catch some sun while it was still
hot and we all headed to the beaches of Croatia Thursday evening after
classes got out.
I personally traveled with about 10 other girls, which I had
just made friends with in the first three or so weeks of the semester. I will
not lie, this was one of those travel weekends when you learn a lot about
yourself and others. Traveling in countries where English is not the native
language with a bunch of tired females isn’t the easiest and you certainly
learn how to love people according to their needs and personality. And how to
be patient with trains and buses and Europeans and your travel buddies. Not to
mention you learn that its not wise to travel in a massive group either. Nonetheless the weekend
was enjoyable and I established some of my greatest friendships of the semester.
We were able to stay in a beautiful
apartment in the middle of Split, Croatia and we rented cars so it wasn’t hard to get around. The country was interesting looking. The city was
not all that nice, it was kind of ghetto if you ask me, but the beach was beautiful. The Adriatic sea is beautiful
and clear and the sand is rocky. The sea is surrounded by massive white, rock
mountains.
Some of the greatest memories from
the weekend were when I learned I am a pretty incredible parallel parker. I
squeezed our rental car with a single inch to spare between two other
cars on a tiny Croatian street one night. But the
funniest moments from the weekend is when my friend Mary, tired from a long
stressful day of traveling and trying to figure out plans for the weekend,
handed our friend Katy some toothpaste to brush her teeth. A few minutes after
Mary has generously handed Katy the hygienic paste, we heard a cry of disgust
followed by panicked spitting. Suddenly the apartment tore up in laughter when
Katy realized she had brushed her teeth with Bikini Zone! Poor Katy…
Then we went to Poland…
but I’ll save that for its own post!
Until next time! God bless <3
food for thought - “Dear God,
I am so afraid to open my clenched fists!
Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to?
Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands?
Please help me to gradually open my hands
and to discover that I am not what I own,
but what you want to give me.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen
p.s. i did not have time to edit this post so sorry it's not written well...
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