Last Stop, Vienna!

The last city that we visited on our travels was Vienna. Sadly, we were only here for a day, but we all loved it.

My first stop was Schönbrunn Palace. I loved it last time I was there and I wanted to go back and see it in the Spring when everything would be alive. It ended up being the perfect day for that.


The outside of the palace.

I decided not to go in again and instead headed straight for the gardens. They were beautiful at this time of year.


Instead of going up one of the paths that was in the direct sunlight (it was pretty warm out), I found a little path to go up through the trees.

There were squirrels everywhere! It made me think of Grandpa and how he would have been itching to get rid of them all.


Finally made it up to the structure at the top. At this time of year it's used as a cafe.

The view back down to the palace.

Another squirrel. There was even one that ran right up to me and just looked at me for a while. Funny little guys.


They had carriage rides going through the gardens.

Weird duck-like bird.


After walking around all morning I got a nice chocolate milkshake to cool down.

At lunch both Jenna and I tried lemonade beer. It wasn't bad but I dont think that I'd ever order it again.

Schnitzel!

Crazy building in the city centre that was essentially a bunch of mirrors. Pretty cool.

Pistachio gelato!

Shopping street in the city centre.

Museum somewhere in the museums quarter.

Another big shopping street next to the museums quarter. This street eventually turns into the one that Amanda and I stayed on when we were here in December.


This is a cool old building across the street from our hostel.

The entrance to our hostel. Actually, it wasn't really a hostel. It was someone's apartment that they rent out as a hostel. It was super nice. We had a tv and computer in our room and use of a full kitchen. Very cool.


Again, it's too bad that we were only there for a day, but it was definitely a good day to be there. Even though we loved it we were still fairly eager to get back to Cork and our own beds.

So, that's the end of my travels. Now I'm just hanging around Cork, studying for the most part. Not too exciting.

Sadly, I found out today that my friend isn't coming to visit in May. She found out from her job that if she took that much time off they wouldn't let her come back, or something like that. So, her dad got the tickets refunded and hopefully she's going to come down to see me in Santa Barbara over the summer at some point instead. We'll see. Part of me is slightly relieved because it would have been hectic having someone visiting in the middle of finals and packing, but mostly I'm sad that I wont get to show off where I live to anyone while I'm here. Also, it looks like I wont get to go up to Belfast or Galway since almost everyone I know went with their family/friends who visited them and I had planned to do it with Britt. I'll have to see if I can convince someone to go to at least Galway. Again, we'll have to see how that works out.

On that disappointing note, I have to get back to studying. I just finished my Irish work and now I have to type it all up and send it to my teacher. At least tomorrow I'll get a proper study break when we have Laura's birthday party!