I apologize for neglecting this blog the past few weeks. While most colleges in the US are finishing up with final exams, I just had my 10 day spring break! Spring break was spent with my two WashU friends, Stephen and Joe, along with one of their friends from home.
The first 5 days of break were spent in Cyprus because, as you may or may not know, Turkey claims the northern part of Cyprus as their own and, as a result, it is incredibly cheap to fly from Turkey to Northern Cyprus. This is, of course, a result of the fact that Turkey is the ONLY country to fly directly to Northern Cyprus... We spent 1 day in Northern Cyprus before crossing over to the south which is a more developed area. While the border crossing was extremely easy (although it did cause some stress in the planning of the trip), there were remnants of a time when the border was one of the most highly militarized borders in the world. It was an interesting 10 minutes as one minute you are with people speaking Turkish and using the Turkish Lira and as soon as you hand someone your passport and walk about 50 meters, signs are in Greek and you are back to the Euro.
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| The Border of Northern Cyprus and Cyprus |
We spent time in two towns in Cyprus. The first was Ayia Napa, which apparently is a fairly large "party town" in the summer. Luckily we were there just at the start of the season meaning that the beaches weren't crowded and the streets were quite pleasant to walk around. We had two wonderful days at the beach, although I wouldn't have minded if the temperature was a few degrees warmer.
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| Ayia Napa Beach |
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| The Guys |
Cyprus was also one of the first places that I traveled to where being an American tourist was uncommon. Because there are so many "beachy" islands closer to the U.S., it makes sense that people wouldn't travel all the way to Cyprus. However, it does appear to be a major summer destination for the English as many of the restaurant owners and shop keepers were British.
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| Traditional English Breakfast... In Cyprus |
After spending two days in Ayia Napa, we took the bus about an hour and a half to a city called Limassol. Limassol is a fairly large, year round city and we spent a day and a half walking along the beach, through markets, and down to the historic castle. We also stayed in an incredibly cheap but awesome hostel/hotel that had a kitchen and living room so we made dinner both nights and sat out on our balcony with a view of the water. Who knew that three boys would be so into making dinner?
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| Old Town of Limassol |
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| Limassol |
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| Dinner |
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| Boys in the Kitchen |
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| Airplane View of Cyprus |
After another semi-stressful will-they-let-us-out-of-the-European-side-of-cyprus-with-a-turkish-visa-moment, we were on our way to Budapest! The beauty of the city hit me from the moment that we exited the subway into town. Huge tree-lined streets, flowers blooming on every storefront, and beautiful buildings greeted us. (We also stayed in an awesome hostel which is always a plus!)
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| Tree-lined Avenues |
We had two and a half days in Budapest and spent them walking around the city. After being in a city as large as Istanbul where an hour on a bus is considered "close", it was wonderful to stroll from site to site and avoid public transportation altogether. Highlights of Budpest included a twilight boat cruise on the Danube, a day spent exploring the Buda Castle, visiting the 3rd coolest bar in the world, visiting the Terror Museum (the head quarters of the Hungarian Nazis and later the Soviets), and picnicking each day in Budapest's incredible parks.
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| Sunset on the Danube |
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| View of Buda Castle from our Boat Cruise on the Danube |
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| Fisherman's Bastion |
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| Terror Museum |
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Budapest Baths
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| Picnic Spot |
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| Hungarian Goulash |
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Our time in Budapest was too short for my liking. It is definitely one of my favorite European cities and I don't think we could have asked for a more beautiful few days to visit.
The last day and a half of our trip were spent in Vienna. Before going someone described the city to me as "one impressive white building next to another impressive white building next to another impressive white building" and that description couldn't hold more true.
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| Impressive White Building #1 |
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| Impressive Building #2 |
In the intercity we enjoyed wandering the streets, taking a tour of parliment, eating chocolcate torte at a suposedly famous spot known as the Hotel Sacher Cafer, eating at the coolest market I have visited to date, some more sitting in parks, seeing half of a show at the Vienna opera, and climbing up an old airraid tower.
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| Parliament Building |
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| Fountain Chilling |
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Dessert from the Famous Hotel Sacher
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Outside of the main city center we did visit the Schonbrunn palace, former summer home to the Habsurg family. Going on the guided tour made me realize it has been quite some time since I have taken world history. The fact that one of the boys who I traveled with is a history major was quite helpful in filling in the gaping holes in my scant memories of the time period.
It is fun to travel with people whom you haven't traveled with before because you can pick up fun, new traditions to take with you when you travel in the future. Most vacations I spend eating every meal in a restaurant because I want to try the local cuisine. While this is an obvious must when traveling to another country, I learned how much fun it can be to buy a couple of loafs of bread, cheese, meat and a bottle of wine and spend time in the beautiful city parks that dot every city in Europe. Definitely something that I will keep in mind in the future!
I am lucky to have had incredible experiences throughout this semester and this trip was no exception. Great weather, great food, great experiences, and great company!
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| The Crew |
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