Goodbye Europe, HELLO TEXAS!

After my nice little nap I was able to squeeze in overnight, we then loaded the coaches to airport at 3am. It’s hard on your body to get up at be active at 3am after only sleeping like three hours. I heard a lot people mention that they didn’t feel good simply because of a weird sleeping schedule. We attempted to load all of the luggage onto the coaches, but these coaches were smaller and therefore about 25 whole bags wouldn’t fit in them. This caused us to have to wait nearly another hour on a trailer that would attach to the back of our coach. As soon as we finally left the hotel, I was fast asleep on the silent coach.

The drive to the Zurich airport wasn’t more than about 45 minutes so we arrived a little after 5am, when the airport check-in opened. It seems to me that European airports are quite inefficient when it comes to managing lines. Either that or we overwhelm them with 80 of us at one time, haha. When I tried to check my two bags, the lady working the check-in counter told me I had a special kind of ticket (different from everyone else’s) and that I would only be allowed to check one bag. After I began to tell her there is no way that could possibly be right and I started raising a slight fuss, Dr. Dan stepped in to save the day! He informed the lady that he is the travel agent responsible for this group’s booking, and that there is no way that my ticket could have that kind of restriction because it is an international flight. She still persisted and continued to argue with him, and then Dr. Dan informed her that we didn’t even book this flight in particular. I was re-booked by British Airways just last week to accommodate my former travel plans that were affected by the current BA strike. Then she began to understand and made a few more phone calls and allowed me to check my second duffel bag. I still had to pay a heavy bag fee of 50 Swiss Francs because one of my checked bags was 5 kilos over the max weight limit.

By this time it was nearly 6:10am, and boarding for our flight was supposed to close at 6:20am. I rushed myself through security, onto the tram, through the terminal, and to the gate only to discover that they hadn’t started boarding the plane at all. Turns out British Airways ended up delaying our flight by nearly 30 minutes because of the slow check-in procedures outside of security. Even after I checked my bag, there was still at least 15 people from our trip in line behind me waiting to check-in and get their boarding passes.

The plane finally took off for what was about a 1.5-2 hour flight to London. We landed and had to go through security again upon entering Terminal 5 at Heathrow. Once we were inside, it was AMAZING! Terminal 5 at Heathrow is by far the coolest airport I have ever been to! There are mini-Harrods, great shopping, and wonderful restaurants. Since it was only 9 am London time I wasn’t in the mood for heavy food, so I just grabbed a ready-made sandwich at Pret a Manger for old times sake. As tempting as it was, I only ate half while we were waiting for our flight, and saved the other half for what would prove to be a tasty meal during the 10-hour flight back to Houston. Our flight was delayed (again), this time due to the strike and the fact that they couldn’t scrounge up enough crew members to work our flight. (awesome... --sarcasm included).

I was so excited to finally take off and know that the next time we land I’ll be back in the great state of Texas. The flight was long, but not nearly as long as the flight to London seemed. The difference was that I slept nearly 4 hours on this flight and barely any on the first one. When we finally landed and the pilot said “Welcome to Houston,” I found it amusing how nearly our entire study abroad group applauded and cheered at what was simply a routine landing just because we were all so excited to be back in Texas. I couldn’t stop smiling when I was deplaning, but that smile faded fast however when we saw just how long the line at immigration was. After waiting for over 30 minutes in a sea of around 300 people, we were processed and I was able to get my luggage. After a quick run through at customs, I walked through the big double doors of IAH’s Terminal E and into Brad’s arms and I was home. I had a wonderful journey on this trip. I learned so much about culture, people, life, and myself. It’s an experience that I’m so very grateful for, but nothing beats home sweet home! ☺


oh ps: this is a picture from the plane's individual tv units that i took during the flight. In route to Houston, Europeans have no other description for humid houston than "HOT". haha, most all of us found a good amount of amusement out of that.

Last Day In Europe!

So strange. This morning was my last time to wake up and know I was going to be exploring a European city on this trip. Truthfully though, I’m very ready to come back home. This trip has been a wonderful life experience, but nothing beats lying in the arms of the one that I love simply just watching TV.

We didn’t even have to leave the hotel for our last two business meetings this morning. Bucherer Retail was first. Besides the room being exceptionally hot and stuffy, the presentation wasn’t half bad. I had already gone there to buy my Swiss Army knives yesterday, so I felt a little extra connection to the store. After a small break, Johnson & Johnson was next. That presentation however was exceptionally boring. I felt like the speaker was all over the place and it was hard to stay focused on him during his presentation.

After both presentations were finished, Dr. Mac and Dr. Dan had some last minute debriefing instructions for us before we were released for our last day in Europe. For lunch, a large group of study abroaders went across the Chapel Bridge to Mr. Pickwick’s Pub and had some pub food. I heard all the food there was good, so I was excited to get a really good cheeseburger. Unfortunately, there was some kind of weird sauce on my burger and the cheese had a weird kick to it. I barely ate half of my burger if that and didn’t order any fries to save money. I also haven’t ordered an alcoholic drink since France I think, solely for the reason of conserving money.

We left Mr. Pickwick’s Pub, took some pictures by the Chapel Bridge, watched the wild swans swim around, and then headed off to do some last minute errands around Lucerne before we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the dessert cruise. I bought an assortment of Swiss Chocolate at Bucherer while other people bought more Longchamp bags, more Swiss Army knives, and even a few nice Swiss watches.

One last thing on our to-do list in Lucerne was to walk to the giant lion monument carved into the side of a stone wall. It was so much larger and more detailed than I was envisioning it to be. We took a few pictures, and Callen, CJ, Kinsey, and I all tossed coins into the pond in front of the monument after we made wishes. I don’t really know if it was a ritual or not, but there were some coins in the bottom of the pond, so we figure why not?! Wishing on an ancient lion can’t hurt!

CJ, Kinsey, and I all walked back to the hotel to shower and get all done up for the final group event of the trip, the dessert dinner cruise on Lake Lucerne. Kinsey was wonderful and curled several of the girls hair (including mine). It looked fabulous! After weeks of not trying to get overly done up for a night out, it was nice to feel pretty and see how gorgeous everyone else looked as well!

The cruise was SO MUCH FUN! We had a private boat rented out just for our study abroad group. The first two rounds of drinks were free, so white wine was my beverage of choice! It was delicious! From the moment we all stepped onto the boat it was just a non-stop photo session. We sang the war hymn, whooped!, laughed, hugged, and just had a great night reflecting on all of the memories we made throughout the past month and the friends that will come back with us to A&M. The view of the shoreline was unmatched and the sunset in particular was sublime! I was sad to see such an amazing night end. It was tied with the Austrian dinner as being the most enjoyable evening activity that we did on the entire trip.




Sadly though, the night had to end. We walked back to the hotel at around 10:30pm, and having already packed my bags completely during the afternoon, I was able to go straight to bed by about 11 o’clock. I was one of the lucky few that actually was able to squeeze in a few hours of sleep before we had to load the coaches for the airport in the middle of the night. I set my alarm for 2:15am, so I could be downstairs at around 2:50am to board the coach. Naptime for me!

A Day In The Swiss Alps!

I have been looking forward to today’s activity for the entire trip! We were going to go up the Swiss Alps to the top of Mt. Titlus and do some fun activities in the snow… in the middle of June! SO fun! After much debate about who would ride with Gee on the coach and who would volunteer to take the train (slightly more expensive, yet I volunteered), we left this morning around 8:00am. It was about an hour’s train ride out to the town of Engelberg where we then walked for another 10-15 minutes to the Mt. Titlus base lift. We met up with the bus crew and got our group tickets from Gee. He secured us a great discount! Gee is the best!

We then started our journey up the mountain. Imagine: its nearly 80 degrees at the base of the mountain. Yet, in just a few short minutes, we would be walking, playing in, and touching snow! The series of 3 sets of lifts took nearly an hour to navigate, especially when factoring in the INSANE lines from all of the Indian and Chinese tour groups. Apparently, Mt. Titlus is actually quite the popular tourist attraction… unfortunately for us. Seriously, there was probably nearly 500 Indians and 300-400 Chinese people. The Chinese people weren’t too annoying except that they were just in the way a lot. The Indian people however were a different story entirely! I swear to you I have never been more riled up and angry at a particular culture in my entire life! In Indian culture, it is not normal to stand in a line for things… no, really, they don’t… at all. All day long, I got pushed around, shoved, and cut in front of by the entire Indian population on the mountain. I was FURIOUS! We finally had enough as a group and started getting verbally angry at the line cutters. When we have been waiting in line for 20-30 minutes, and someone waltzes all the way up to the front and weasels their way in (and then it happens over and over), it gets really old really fast. We started calling out the line cutters and telling them to get to the back of the line. They would act confused, then say, “Oh, well we’re going the same place so just let us go in front of you.” UMMMMMM…. NO! I DO NOT THINK SO. BACK OF THE LINE! We may have come off as rude American tourists today, but I didn’t even care anymore. We had had enough! Just because we are polite, courteous, and orderly doesn’t mean you can walk all over us. It doesn’t work like that. It is customary that when one travels, they adhere to the cultural norms of the place they are traveling to. In Westernized countries, that includes learning the kindergarten skill of standing in a line and waiting your own turn! Let’s just say after today, I have absolutely ZERO interest to travel to India and experience their culture. UGH! I’m still fuming about the whole situation!

Anyways, back to the journal entry. We rode another lift down to the glacier park, otherwise known as the playtime area. There was an option to go tubing or sled down a hill using many different snow toys and sleds. It was all so much fun, but so crowded once again. The snow was quite slushy considering the temperature was somewhere in the 40’s, so it managed to find its way up my jeans and into my shoes. By the time we left the mountain, my jeans and shoes were soaked. Good thing I won’t have to wear them much more on the trip!




After going back to the top, eating my lunch that I had packed from breakfast (and by doing so saved at least 20 Francs), Sydney, Laura, Laura, Brittany, and I headed the hour back down to the base of the mountain back to Engelberg. We caught the train and rode it back to Luzern. We got back around 4pm, changed clothes, and met back down in the lobby to head over to Bucherer and buy our Swiss Army knives! I was so excited to do this, because I had been looking forward to getting this gift for a good majority of the trip. I bought a Spartan Lite style Swiss Army knife for Brad and Super Tinker style knives for Dad and Grandpa. I also decided to get a small pink one just for me. It was only 16 Francs so I figured why not?! The best part… I was able to get all of them engraved with the names of each recipient for free! I’m really excited about giving this gift, and I hope all the guys really enjoy them!

After shopping, we headed back near the hotel and grabbed a slice of New York pizza for dinner. It was only 7 Francs! But then the coke that I bought was another 4 Francs. Ugh. Everything over here is ridiculously overpriced. I can’t wait to come back to the USA and buy a $1 Dr. Pepper from McDonalds or Sonic or wherever. This trip has really made me appreciate so many things that I took for granted back in America.

Dinner complete, a few of us girls hung out and talked and then we all parted way, showered, packed up our bags, and went to bed. Tomorrow morning we are having our last two business presentations (yay!) in the hotel conference room! We don’t even have to leave to go anywhere! One more full day in Europe!

4 Countries In One Day!

Today we left Munich in the morning and drove two hours to Fussen, Germany to Neuschwanstein, otherwise known as the castle of King Ludwig. This is actually the castle that Disney modeled its Sleeping Beauty castle after. I don’t think any of us were prepared for the hike that we had in store for us though. We parked at the base of a hill and had to walk up a very steep incline for nearly half an hour to even access the castle. It was HARD! I felt lame because older people were doing this as well, but didn’t seem to breathing as heavily as we were. Although, I’m pretty sure we were going at a much faster pace than recommended because we got to the top in only about 25 minutes when the map told us it should take 45.

The view was incredible! The German countryside with lakes and the German Alps in the background was breathtaking. I knew it would only be a tune up for Switzerland which I have heard to be one of the most beautiful countries in the world. We had time to kill once we got to the base of the castle, so we ate our packed lunches from the Holiday Inn breakfast (they did not appreciate us doing that by the way. They told us this morning that if they saw anymore of us doing that they would call the cops on us for stealing. I don’t know but I’m pretty sure the police in Munich have bigger problems to deal with like the massive “Free Gaza” rally that we saw on our bike ride yesterday. I’m just saying…).

Anyways, after we took a lot of pictures and hiked even further to a bridge suspended over a canyon for the best view of Neuschwanstein, it was time for our scheduled tour time. The tour was relatively short to others we had experienced on this trip (only about 30 minutes), but it was still nice to see the inside of this famed castle. King Ludwig was an interesting man with his obsession over Richard Wagner and Swan Lake. What is even stranger though is the circumstances regarding his death. It’s still one of Bavaria’s (the region in Germany) biggest unsolved cases.

It was surprisingly hot even at the top of the hill the castle is perched upon, so I grabbed some ice cream for the walk down to our waiting coach. It completely hit the spot… cold and refreshing! After waiting for about another hour for people to finish up their visits, we finally were able to depart Fussen for Lucerne (Luzern), Switzerland.

On the way, we drove through a small sliver of Austria and then we entered Liechtenstein, a sovereign country in its own right but a principality of Switzerland. We stopped here for about half an hour so we could add another country to our checklist for this trip. I bought 2 postcards and perused the Swiss Army Knife collection available. There are so many choices to pick from, and I want to get individual kinds for Brad, my dad, and my grandpa. I was also able to get money exchanged from both Euros and Pounds which we aren’t using anymore. As of Liechtenstein, we have officially changed over to the Swiss Franc for the remainder of the trip!

Then we entered Switzerland! It had been a beautiful day and drive thus far, but Switzerland was the icing on the cake. Driving through the Swiss Alps, with the jagged rock faces and staggered cliffs, it was absolutely breathtaking at some points! I didn’t sleep during this part of the bus ride like I normally tend to do. I was simply staring at the window and snapping pictures when I had a good opportunity.

We arrived in Lucerne a little later than on our planned schedule at about 7:30pm. We quickly checked into the Best Western Hotel Flora that is situated right on the lake/river that splits the town in two basically. From what I have seen of the city so far, it looks so cute! I can’t wait to do a little bit of exploring Monday after our business presentations are finished. After we had our presentations and orientation meeting for Lucerne, we quickly raced across the street to get to the Burger King before it closed at 10. We got there at 9:50! It was a late dinner, but the worst part was the price. My combo meal that I ordered (which would be the size equivalent of a medium/regular combo in the States) was 12.50 Swiss Francs! OH MY GOD! ☹ We were warned that this was the most expensive stop on the trip, and they weren’t kidding! Thank goodness we’re only here about two days, or I wouldn’t have any money left to spend (I don’t really even at this point, but that’s beside the point, haha).

After skyping with my family and showering, I headed off to bed. Tomorrow morning is going to come extremely early, seeing as I have to meet downstairs in the lobby at 7:30 to catch a train to Engleberg. We are going to Mt. Titlus tomorrow to see the sights and play in the snow! I’ve been looking forward to this all trip so hopefully it lives up to my expectations!

BMW Welt & Munich Bike Tour

After battling a madhouse in the breakfast room this morning, we set off via the S-bahn and then the U-bahn until we made it to BMW Welt (BMW World in English) for our tour of their facility. It was kind of interesting since both Brad and his dad have BMW’s, so I felt like I had more of a personal connection to this brand of car, as opposed to Audi. I really love the BMW brand as well, so I think I found the tour to be a lot more fascinating than many other people in my group. We saw their delivery center where customers can come to pick up their BMW’s they have ordered. The atmosphere at BMW Welt for a customer is supposed to make their car buying experience unforgettable, and I completely agree that it would. I can only dream that one day I’ll have enough money to 1) buy a BMW, and 2) have it delivered to BMW Welt!


After the tour, we felt a little crunched for time so we decided not to venture into the BMW Museum. We had heard from others that it wasn’t that impressive, so I didn’t feel too bummed about missing it. After all, I had completed the one thing I had come to BMW Welt to do… get Brad a present. So instead, we caught the S-bahn back to our hotel, changed clothes for the bike tour, and CJ, Laura, and I set off for some souvenir shopping beforehand. Once again, I was insanely successful (not so good on the bank account though, haha). Somehow I also got suckered into going to ANOTHER H&M, and I bought stuff there as well!
Then it was time to meet for our bike tour around Munich with Mike’s Bike Tours. I didn’t have the opportunity to go on the Fat Tire Bike Tour in Paris because that was the morning that I unsuccessfully attempted to get into the French Open, so I was intrigued to see what a bike tour was like. While we were waiting for it to start, you’ll never believe who I ran into!... Jamie Hemmi from SAIL! It was so random! Apparently her A&M finance study abroad group that is studying in France was on vacation for a weekend in Munich. They just so happened to have booked a bike tour with Mike’s on the same afternoon! I got to talk to her for a bit which was very nice.

When the bike tour started I was optimistic that it was going to be fun, but I soon came to realize that our tour guide was a complete and total jerk. He was very rude to many people on our tour, and almost everything that came out of his mouth somehow was either dirty or vulgar. He thought that we as college students would enjoy his drug, sex, and alcohol humor, but most of us were not amused in the least. It was just way too over the top and way too constant. An occasional joke here and there would have been fine, but when every single museum and statue relates to sleeping with women or drugs, it gets old really fast. I’m not the kind of person to say anything about it though, at least not until after the tour is over, but apparently someone complained to a chaperone halfway through the tour and word got back to Will, our guide. He was pissed off and didn’t try to hide it from us either. He gave us the most sorry excuse for an apology I have ever heard in my entire life. It was obvious that he felt that he was the victim, that we were being unfair to him, and that we were all prudes and needed to lighten up. After that, my judgment of him was final, and he would definitely not be getting a tip from me at the conclusion of the tour. He continued to make condescending remarks directed towards how prude and easily offended we were, which only further hurt the situation. The bike tour was nice simply because we got to see many parts of Munich that I would not have seen otherwise, but my experience overall was not a good one. Maybe next year they should switch back to Lenny’s Bike Tours because I can’t imagine their guides could be worse than this guy.


After the bike tour, CJ, Laura, and I came back to the hotel and just took it easy. I showered, journaled, and packed because in the morning we leave bright and early for King Ludwig’s Castle (the Disney Castle) and then we arrive in Lucerne, our last destination! We go home 3 days from tomorrow! AH!!!

Dachau Concentration Camp & Hofbrauhaus... again.

This morning we left the hotel after breakfast for Dachau Concentration Camp. Today was a somber day visiting the first concentration camp that was a part of the Holocaust. It was sort of a surreal experience. Thus far on the trip, we have been experiencing history that happened so long ago that its almost hard to comprehend. Roman ruins in Nice built Before Christ, buildings in built in the 1200’s, etc. This most horrendous disaster happened only about 70 years ago. That’s so recent compared to everything else we’ve seen. It was hard to see pictures of the dead and know that each of the tens of thousands that died at Dachau had a family and loved ones. I can’t imagine something like that happening to me or to someone I love. It’s just unimaginable and completely unforgivable. The fact that it was raining made the experience all the more depressing. I am very glad I got the experience of visiting a place so important in recent history though.



Because of the rain, we were not able to go on our bike tour around Munich today, like was planned on the schedule. It is being postponed until tomorrow afternoon after we visit BMW Welt. Instead, we are given a free afternoon to explore Munich. That would be fine normally, but today is a local holiday and most all stores are closed. ☹ Instead a large group of us hung out in the lobby for a while before heading over to the Hofbrauhaus. I don’t like beer at all, so the place isn’t nearly as interesting to me as it is to other people. I tried to have fun there, but I was fighting a losing battle. Everyone was getting more and more drunk, and I was taking on the role of very sober person who is annoyed by the all the noise.

Finally Laura, CJ , and I went to get dinner at Burger King. It was a nice break from everything, even if it was typical American fast food. Quick and simple is all I needed though! Then we headed back to the hotel. We were all feeling pretty chill and low-key, so we decided to make the most out of our free time and work on some of our other assignments for our trip’s final book such as the cultural differences, likes and dislikes, and interviews. It was nice to just have a quiet, relaxing time in the hotel lobby with close friends who I really enjoy spending time with. The trip is fun, but I’m getting to the point where I am increasingly homesick and can’t wait to be back in College Station, with my boyfriend, and with my family. Only 4 more days from tomorrow!

Audi Manufacturing Plant & Arrive In Munich

Once again this morning we packed up the coaches and headed off for a new destination. However, today was different because we were to be dressed in business casual dress for our Audi manufacturing plant tour on the way to Munich. Somehow we completely overestimated on time and got to Audi and Ingolstadt a full 2 hours before our tour. That gave us plenty of time to eat lunch, look around their gift shop, and just relax.

Then it was time for the tour. We actually were able to walk through the entire production facility to where we could see all of the main steps that a car goes through when being made. The Ingolstadt plant is more like a city within itself employing more than 33,000 workers that produced an average of 2,300 cars per day! It was amazing to walk through the facility and see how far technology has progressed these days. Robots were doing nearly all of the work of assembling and manufacturing parts for the car. To me who had never seen such a thing before, it looked like something straight out of the Iron Man or Transformers movies. Audi is so efficient, so precise, and so automated. It’s crazy how that can achieve that mix and make it successful. I feel like I have a deeper appreciation for my own car now. Sometimes I think we as consumers forget that everything we buy goes through a unique and timely creation process before it seemingly magically appears on store shelves. I have come to appreciate that hard work during the Riedel and Audi visits recently.

After we left Ingolstadt, we drove about another hour until we arrived in Munich. Here we are staying in a Holiday Inn again, similar to our accommodations in London. It’s probably been my least favorite chain of the hotels thus far (Marriott and Hilton are in the lead). The rooms are small and there is no safe. I suppose I shouldn’t complain much though considered we could be staying in hostels and really roughing it the European way, haha.

Once we had a rather long segment of presentations for Munich, Dachau Concentration Camp, BMW Welt, and King Ludwig’s Castle we set off via the S-bahn (subway system in Munich) to find something to eat for a late dinner. We strolled on through the rain and stumbled across this cute little restaurant off a side street near Marionplatz, the city’s center. I had wonderful weinerschintzel and sautéed potatoes there! It was a giant portion as well, so large in fact that I only ate about half! It wasn’t overly expensive either, only 9,50 Euros.

After dinner, we walked a few blocks over to the Hofbrauhaus, one of the world’s most famous beer halls. The place was HUGE! So much bigger than I would ever have imagined it to be! All of the many tables downstairs were jam-packed so we wandered upstairs where there was almost no one. A band was playing German folk tunes, so we sat down listened, and ordered up a round of liters (yes, a WHOLE liter, that’s what they serve over here). Laura and I, although we don’t like beer, ordered up a Rattler which is a mix of lemonade and beer just so we could say we’ve had a beer from the Hofbrauhaus in Germany. I had just a few sips before I was finished. It wasn’t that bad in all honesty, however beer just isn’t my cup of tea. We also managed to get our interview done and out of the way while we were there as well. We interviewed on the senior members of the band that was playing on stage. It was a fun time!


We didn’t stay there too long, and we headed back to the S-bahn which took us straight back into the basement of our hotel. Isn’t that nice?! I showered, journaled, and settled into bed. Tomorrow, we tour Dachau Concentration Camp in the morning and then will most likely have a free afternoon to explore Munich due to our bike tour being pushed to Friday because of rainy weather.

Riedel Glass & Swarovski Crystal

Today was going to be another day filled with business visits. This morning the green group left at 9:10am to drive about an hour to Riedel: The Wine Glass Company. I didn’t know what to expect from Riedel because I knew nothing about it. It turned out to be very cool and interesting! We were given a small explanation of how they go about making their glasses with molds and shaping them based upon which wine you plan on drinking with them.

We then were able to walk through their factory where they actually produce the blown glasses. It was mesmerizing to watch! The workers would get a molten glass mix from the furnace, bring it to another guy who would begin shaping it while it cooled off slightly. Then while the glass was still rubbery, they would place it into the mold and blow through a long tube that would blow the glass to fill the mold. After the glass had cooled more, they would cut off the top of the glass and then slow burn it with a flame to make it just as smooth as the rest of the glass. Then the master on the floor would add the stem and base to each glass. Every time the glasses turned out perfectly! It’s amazing the level of efficiency that they have created there, especially when all of the glasses are individually hand-made.


After seeing the process in action, we walked through a really trippy exhibit in which we learned about how the different glass shapes and sizes drink wine differently. Apparently white wines are best drunk though a slimmer glass. More bold wines (reds) require a more bulbous glass that allows the nose to smell all of the flavors of the wine before you drink it. We then went into the Riedel store. Seeing as I do love wine, I was tempted to buy at least something there, but I refrained simply because I wasn’t sure how I would successfully get wine glasses back to the United States unharmed. Lots of people did buy things however, and best of luck to them! The boxes are huge so we shall see how they manage it.

We were supposed to drive back to the hotel, have time to change into business formal, eat lunch, and then leave for Swarovski at 2pm. Riedel went longer than expected however, so we ate on the road… again. Another AutoGrill rest stop. Woohoo! (sarcasm). We then got to Swarovski and had our marketing presentation first. It was interesting and afterwards we got free cokes (that’s a big deal over here!). Then we were taken on a small tour of Swarovski’s private museum that is not open to the general public. They had a lot of unique, cool stuff there, such as a chandelier from a James Bond movie, dresses made especially for celebrities, and huge crystals.

After that, we were bused over to Swarovski World, where they have a massive underground exhibit showing off everything that their crystals can do. There was a crystalline wall that runs like a backbone through the building that was something that 42 meters long by 11 meters tall! It was so pretty. By far my favorite part of the exhibit though was the crystal dome room. It was amazing! It was like you were inside the crystals of a kaleidoscope. If you stood directly in the center, your voice was magnified, almost like you were using a microphone. I will never forget that room.


After we walked through the exhibit and took pictures, we made our way to the gift shop. I didn’t buy anything however since I bought a lot yesterday at the Swarovski in Innsbruck. We waited around for a bit while some people made purchases, and then we loaded up the coaches and drove back to Innsbruck.
I just ate my dinner in my hotel room because I had packed an entire lunch that I had let at the hotel in hopes of eating it when we were supposed to come back between company visits. It’s getting to the point in the trip where any money saved might be useful at the end. I ended up just staying in, completely repacking my bag, showering, and going to bed early. I don’t sleep well on the buses, so I figured it best to get as much sleep as possible during the night. Tomorrow morning, we wake up early, load the coaches, and head off for our visit at the Audi manufacturing plant. Then we keep driving and end up in Munich for 3 nights!

Discovering Austrian Culture

Because of the weather forecast was better for outdoor activities on Sunday rather than on Monday, Dr. Mac decided it be best if we pushed our orientation meeting and group presentations for Innsbruck back until today (Monday morning) at 9am. This insured the most time possible to get our extreme sports in on Sunday. After breakfast, we walked over to the conference room and heard the presentations from Riedel Glass, Swarovski Crystal, and Audi Manufacturing. Each of the groups did a good job at being creative while also staying informative at the same time.

After our meeting was over, a group of us walked towards the Swarovski store in old town Innsbruck. On the way there, we passed by this little gelato place that looked amazing. Even though it was about 10:30am, we just had to have some! It was so cheap as well! One scoop was only 1,10 Euro!! That’s even cheaper than some places in the States! The flavor that I ordered was called ‘Manner.’ Apparently, it’s a mixture of hazelnut and chocolate with pieces of a cookie that is authentically Austrian. IT WAS DELICIOUS! I don’t even know if I can express just how much I loved this ice cream. If it were back in the States, Manner would be all that I would ever by. Laura and I loved it so much we ended up going back there and getting another scoop later in the day!

After our amazing ice cream, we happened to run into a store which sold .55 Euro cokes! This day was just getting better and better! We finally found the Swarovski store that we were searching for. We had heard that there were better prices here than at the Swarovski World store that we will visit tomorrow during our company presentation. Also, Mrs. Mac gave us all a gift certificate for a free gift with any purchase there. It’s a little pin for a lapel. It’s not much, but its free and I definitely love anything free on this trip! Everything in the store was cheaper than I was expecting for the most part! This turned out to be a good and bad thing. It was good because I was able to buy more things than I was expecting, but bad as well because I spent way more money on multiple cheaper items, haha. I bought a few things for myself and a few gifts as well. I definitely made a significant dent in my amount spent on European purchases! But at least some good news is that I get 19 Euros back from the Customs agents because of taxes. Woo!

After we dropped off our purchases back in our hotel room (I put mine in the safe!) and ate my Ziploc baggy lunch I had made at breakfast, we walked (and then HIKED) up to the top of the ski jump that was used in the 1964 and 1976 Olympics. We had the observation deck to ourselves for the most part, and it gave us a great view of the city. Granted the weather wasn’t superb, just rainy and cloudy like it has been every other day that we’ve been in Innsbruck, but we still managed to see the mountains in the distance. I had been up to the top of another Olympic ski jump before in Calgary, but it was still nice to see this city from a whole different perspective.



Laura and I then broke off on our own and walked around town for a bit. We were just casually shopping for souvenirs. I managed to find a t-shirt for myself that says Austria that I really like! Laura and I seem to have the same taste in stuff like that because that is about the 3rd or 4th thing that we have bought exactly identical on this trip so far! It was starting to rain more and our feet were tired of walking, so we decided to come back to the hotel at about 4:30 to rest up until dinner at 7. I ended up taking an hour nap, and it couldn’t have been more amazing! That was the first nap I’ve had during the day (besides on the bus) so far on this trip. I know my body is getting worn down and people are starting to get sick, so I’m trying to get as much sleep as possible on this last leg of the trip. Getting sick is the absolute last thing I want right now being so far away from home (knock on wood).
Our whole study abroad group left at 7pm from the hotel lobby and drove about 20 minutes to a nearby Austrian village for our traditional festive Austrian dinner. It was SO MUCH FUN! The food was amazing! We had a garlic cream soup for our appetizer, and I loved it! It tasted just like garlic bread in my mouth! For my entrée I chose the schnitzel and spritzed a little lemon juice on top to pull out the flavor of the pork. It was delectable! I would have it again in a heartbeat. The dessert was apple strudel with vanilla ice cream. YUMMY!
The best part of the night however was our entertainment that came and played traditional Austrian music that we learned dances to! I got chosen to dance in the Grand March which is performed at most all Austrian weddings. It was fun but so exhausting! I was out of breath by the end of the song. We danced, yodeled, sang, clapped, laughed, and had a great time.

After dinner and dancing were over, we went out for a short lantern hike through the countryside. It was lightly raining, but that didn’t dampen our spirits. We had such a great night so far that nothing was going to spoil it. As we were driving back to the hotel, I began to realize how much fun I had tonight. I think it’s safe to say that tonight was my favorite night of the trip thus far. That’s saying a lot because of the cities that we have already visited such as London, Paris, and Nice. I was already loving Innsbruck so much because of the scenery and the laid back small town atmosphere, but now I was in love with the Austrian culture as well. It’s too bad we have don’t have much free time left here in Innsbruck, because tomorrow we have business visits all day. Night!

Canyoning In The Austrian Alps!

I think I really am going to love this last leg of the trip. It’s going to have so much more of a slower pace in the countries of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. The mountains and the scenery really make just simply staring our your window enjoyable. This morning we woke up whenever we pleased. Since I had become so accustomed to waking up early however, I was awake by about 8:30am. Still though, I got a solid 8 hours of sleep or so which is wonderful for this trip! We went downstairs to the breakfast at 9am, and I was surprised that a bunch of people from our group were already down there as well. The breakfast was probably the best one of the trip so far. They even had Cocoa Pops!

After breakfast a group of about 6 of us set off to explore Innsbruck. We walked fairly fair, just observing the town on a quiet Sunday morning. In Innsbruck, most shops are closed on Sunday so not a lot was open. We did walk to the Olympic Park where the Winter Olympic Games were held in 1964 and 1976. It was raining for the first half of our walk, but the sun began to appear through the clouds by the time we had walked to the Olympic area. We also saw the tall ski jump, but didn’t go to the top because we weren’t sure if we had time. We walked back into the heart of town and ate at about the only restaurant that we saw open, a little pizzeria right around the corner from our hotel. It was good, but nothing to overly brag about.


One thing that I’m really loving about Austria however, is that everything is SO MUCH CHEAPER than in London or France. Water is not more than 2 Euros normally here, when compared to 3-3,50 Euro for water in London or anywhere in France. Food here is also cheap, only around 5-6 Euros for an average meal when it seems like we were paying 10-12 Euros a meal in France. I have also discovered a new candy that I’m addicted to. It’s called Kinder Buenos and it’s amazing! It’s a wafer covered with chocolate filled with a nutella type substance in the middle!

Anyways, after lunch we came back and got ready to go canyoning! Canyoning is where you dress in a wetsuit and have a harness attached to you. You repel, slide down, and jump off waterfalls and rock faces in canyons located up in the mountains. I was a little nervous because apparently canyoning is illegal in the United States, but I was more excited than anything! We met downstairs in the lobby at 2pm and left about 30 minutes later. Turns out that there were 50 of us going on this excursion! That’s 2/3 of the entire study abroad group! It was about a 45 minute bus ride to the Wiggi Rafting business site, and once we got there it probably took us another 30 to get fully suited up and back on the bus. Then we traveled another 30 minutes up very windy (and SMALL!) mountain roads up to the canyon. We passed a sign that said 1,500 meters, but I bet the canyon started at about 2,000 meters up. That’s around 6,000 feet high in the mountains.

When we pulled up to the site, the instructors pointed to a bridge with a river running below it and said, “that’s how we’re going to enter the canyon.” I was like, “excuse me?!?!” The bridge was probably a good 50 feet above the river below it! We were lowered off the bridge and repelled down to the FRIGID water below. The guides also said that today the water was around 45 degrees Fahrenheit! We were in thermal wetsuits, but that still doesn’t help too much when your feet are constantly being submerged in nearly freezing water. I was a little terrified of being lowered down into the canyon by rope, but quickly decided I wanted to go near the front our subgroup, because I didn’t want to stand there just freaking myself out about it for longer than was necessary. It wasn’t that bad. Actually, it was pretty fun!

We then carefully stepped through the rushing water onto rocks and the riverbed until we reached our first obstacle; a jump off a waterfall that was about 4 meters high (or around 12 ft). We were supposed to cannonball into the freezing water below and then swim to the shore. UHHHH WHAT?! Once again, I made myself go near the front of my group because I figure I’m here, and I’m doing this so it’s now or never! The water was so cold it literally took all the air out of my lungs when I hit it. Being submerged under the rushing water was a little terrifying though. Your body starts panicking and going into the survival mindset… which is basically summed up as “get me the heck above the water!” I wasn’t too terribly cold up until this point, but after that jump, it was all over. My hands started going numb with my feet shortly to follow.

As it turns out the first of our 3 jumps we had to make was the highest, so they were a little easier from there on out. However, we had some other very high rock faces that we had to repel off of into the water below. For some reason, I wasn’t very good at repelling down, and normally lost my balance and swung into the rock face. That REALLY hurts when your fingers are cold because everything hurts worse in the cold for some reason.

Towards the end of the canyoning session, one of our last obstacles was a slide. I was slightly nervous about the slide because we hadn’t encountered one yet. I was getting fairly comfortable with the jumps, but there is always a fear of the unknown. The guide said that the slide was “long, but nice,” whatever that meant. He was wrong. The slide was neither long nor nice in my opinion. They didn’t tell us that at the end of the waterfall slide (which the ride lasted all of about 4 seconds) that there was a 10 foot drop into the churning water below. I didn’t see this until about half a second before my body flew off the ledge into the icy water. I don’t even remember if I took a breath. All I do remember is panicking underwater, opening my eyes and only seeing the greenish tint of the water all around me, and trying to find my way to the surface. I felt like I was under that water for ages, although I know it couldn’t have been more than 5 seconds. What I would give to see my face when I popped up from underwater. I must have had a look of shear fear and panic on my face. The slide was definitely the one part of the whole experience that I would not like to repeat again.

By this point of the nearly 2.5 hours that we were in the canyon, my feet had gone completely numb. I could even tell when I was walking on the ground or when my feet were submerged in the water anymore. They simply had no feeling! Laura said, “Now I know how the people on the Titanic felt!”

The experience was a great one and one that I’m so glad I had the opportunity to participate in. I took away so much from today’s adventure in the canyon. I was able to sort of conquer some fears of my own regarding doing risky things. I just have to trust in my body and trust in the instructors that they will keep us safe. By entering the canyon with the mindset of, “I’m here, and I’m doing this, so I might as well do it right,” I was able to be a little more at ease with some of the scary things that we did. But even more than that, canyoning was a great study abroad bonding experience for our whole group. When someone seemed hesitant to go off a jump or repel off a rock face, people were always at the bottom shouting encouraging things. It really made it feel like we were all one unit and all supportive of one another; something that I have to admit I haven’t really felt thus far on this trip. Everyone was able to put aside personality and clique differences to just immerse themselves in this amazing experience and take it for all that it was worth.

Once we finally made it out of the canyon and got back to the base camp, it was nearly 7:30. We didn’t get back to the city of Innsbruck until around 8:30pm and without showering we headed straight to Theresien Brau (the restaurant we ate at the night before) and ordered food. We were absolutely starving combined with exhaustion which meant a cranky Amanda. But no worries, I ordered the Rump Steak (a study abroad favorite for this restaurant), and it didn’t disappoint! It was downright amazing! Probably the best thing I have eaten on the trip thus far! I don’t even like green beans, but I thought these tasted amazing and completely cleared my entire plate.

Now, sitting back in my room reflecting on the events from earlier today, I realize that today has quite possibly been the best and most rewarding day of my study abroad trip thus far. I couldn’t be more proud of myself and how I handled today!

Oh, and one little side note: today my little sister graduated from high school and I had to miss it ☹. I did get to skype with her and the entire extended family afterwards and was able to tell her how excited and proud of her I was! Congratulations, Courtney!

Longest Travel Day of the Entire Trip! :(

6:00am came very early. I made sure to pack everything ready to go last night before I went to bed, so I wouldn’t be stressed or rushed this morning. Caitlin and I went downstairs at 6:30, loaded our bags onto the bus, and went to eat our last set of breakfast leftovers! Haha. At around 7:30, we left Nice and set a course for Innsbruck, Austria. I took a Dramamine with breakfast in hopes of crashing once I got on the coach, but for some reason I wasn’t able to get comfortable enough to fall asleep. I even had a whole two seats on the coach to myself. That’s a big deal to everyone on the coach! I will only get it once on this trip. Fortunately for me, I got the two seats on the longest coach ride of the trip.

Our course took us directly though northern Italy, and we stopped there a few times for rest breaks. So I can now add Italy to my country checklist, although it doesn’t totally count, and I really want to go back to Italy someday in the future.
Once we entered into Austria a few minutes before arriving in Innsbruck, the countryside somehow became dramatically more grand and beautiful. We were driving in between giant mountains complete with steep cliffs, giant rock faces, and greenery everywhere you turned. The weather wasn’t ideal exactly, seeing as there was low hanging clouds and a rain/mist mix, but it still didn’t make the scenery any less lovely.
We arrived at our hotel in Innsbruck. We’re staying at the Hilton, and it is SO NICE! For the first time on this trip, we have FULL SIZE beds! We also have a shower… WITH a shower curtain! Our hotel in Nice had nothing, no glass, door, or curtain. We headed up to our room, changed and went down to the conference room for our presentation from the Innsbruck Tourism Board. We also had the chance to sign up for our extreme sports activities we plan to do tomorrow. I’m going to go canyoning! AHHH!! I’m super excited!... But also SUPER nervous! I didn’t know this until after I signed up, but apparently canyoning is illegal in the United States. Don’t worry though, Mom and Dad, the company here is great, and kids on our trip have been doing this for years! Other people are paragliding, bungee jumping (from the second highest bungee in the WORLD!), white-water rafting, etc. It should definitely be a good time, so tomorrow’s journal entry should be good!
After our meeting, we headed over to a local restaurant and bar for some authentic German/Austrian food. I even had a sip of the beer (which I normally HATE) but it was actually not that bad. I don’t know if I could have drank an entire glass, but everyone else did because we all got a coupon for a free beer from there! I had some German sausage, sauerkraut, and grilled potatoes! It was DELICIOUS! Quite possibly the best meal that I have had thus far on the trip. It’s on par with the pasta dish I got at ASK in London.

After dinner, Laura and I came back to the hotel (it was already past 11pm) and journaled and went to bed. Tomorrow is going be a fun and exciting day!

Last Day On The French Riviera

This morning we had a business presentation with a local university in Nice, EDHEC. EDHEC is a French business school that is located on the street across from the beach. We learned yesterday that it is currently one of the top 5 business school programs in France. The presentation was rather long though, and I was having to fight my body from going to sleep. I was on the front row though, so I made myself pay very close attention. I’ve discovered the easiest and best way to stay awake during boring presentations is just to simply take a TON of notes. Afterwards, since I am a part of the Nice/Monaco presentation team, we took a picture with our speakers and presented them with certificates and a very nice pen in recognition of them taking time out of their day to speak to our group.

The meeting with the business school didn’t take up too much of our time though, which was fortunate because this was our last day in Nice. Jay, Taylor, Kinsey, Caitlin, CJ, and I changed and went to go try this restaurant on the beach, Lido Plage, that was recommended by kids who went on last year’s trip. The food was good, but not marvelous. I think I’ve had better on this trip so far. The view, however, was unparalleled. We were practically one of the only groups of customers in the restaurant because of the cloudy weather and had the sound of the ocean waves rolling up on the rocks to relax us during our lunch.

We attempted to lay out on the beach after lunch, but the clouds soon turned into a steady sprinkle and then into rain. We went back inside, showered, and just hung out in our rooms for about 3 hours. As luck would have it, as soon as I got out of the shower and was all cleaned up from the beach, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Go figure! The same group of us, except Laura came instead of CJ, set off for dinner in Old Town Nice. We decided on the Buffalo Grill (again, so typical us. Everyone wants to find the most American food possible, and it never is as good as home). The food was sub-par honestly. My grilled chicken breast lacked flavor was really tough. It probably didn’t help my appetite that I had just had a scoop of dark chocolate gelato from Julian’s snack stand right before we walked to dinner though, haha. While we’re sitting in the restaurant it starts pouring again, so we wait to leave until it stops (though apparently that’s rude to do over here, because the waitress told us to get up and leave before we had even finished our last drinks after our meal because she had customers waiting—well, no tip for her).


Some people wanted to walk around and find a pub or a bar to go drink in, so I followed the group. Honestly though, drinks are SO EXPENSIVE over here and I would much rather just spend my money on souvenirs for myself and people back home that I love. At least wine is cheap-ish, because that’s all I’m really interested in drinking anyways. Sometimes though, a beer can be around 7 Euros. That’s nearly $11 in American money! Waste of money! Well anyways, apparently there was some big soccer game going on tonight that had all the bars and pubs packed. Since it had started raining on us AGAIN, we just decided to head back to the hotel. I repacked my bag for our departure in the morning for Austria. Tomorrow we have the longest coach travel day of the trip… somewhere between 10-11 hours before we get to Innsbruck. That is a lot of time to sleep and be bored!

Perfumarie Fragonard & Monaco!

On our group itinerary for today, we were scheduled to set off on a 30 minute drive to Perfumarie Fragonard to see what their business of making perfumes is all about, and then head off on our very short drive to Monaco.

Perfumarie Fragonard was very cool! Once we got there, my group received a tour of the factory first, so we got to see how they manufacture all their products… from soaps to fragrances and body oils. I never knew so much went into the perfume making process and just how hard and rare it is to become “a nose” in the perfume industry. Currently, there are only an estimated 50 “noses” in the world! A “nose” goes to school for nearly 10 years just learning about essential oils, how to blend them, and making perfumes. During their first year of schooling alone, they have to memorize upwards of 1,000 different smells, and train their nose to identify that smell. Crazy! We got to smell many of the fragrances, and even went into the gift shop where I have to admit, I did some damage! Haha! Perfumarie Fragonard is based on the French Riviera and doesn’t do a lot of exporting of products. They don’t market their products to any other stores either, so the Perfumarie Fragonard factories are the only place to buy the perfume (besides their website, www.fragonard.com). I figured since I may never come back to this place again, I might as well buy some of the best and most uniquely made things in the world. So I got a few things for myself, and a few things for other people. I hope they like them!

Once we left the perfumeries, we drove through a bunch of twisty, windy roads up on the sides of mountains that overlook the Mediterranean until we got to Monaco. Monaco wasn’t what I expected however. I think I was expecting something a little more glamorous since it is the richest country in the world per capita. It’s also the second smallest, behind Vatican City. Don’t get me wrong, it was definitely nice.

When we got there, we first at lunch at a little café that a small group of us found. I had a margarita pizza, and it was AWESOME. I was SO hungry, because the breakfasts at this hotel are not good. I swear they give our group the leftovers of what the hotel staff would be too embarrassed to serve regular guests. Our croissants this morning were burnt to a crisp! I have come to expect a little more from French croissants than blackened bread.

Anyways, after lunch and an AMAZING dessert, our whole study abroad group toured the Palace of the Grimaldi family. It’s still currently Prince Albert’s residence so not a ton of the palace was open for viewing. In fact, I bet I was in and out of there in 20 minutes with an audio guide in hand. Then we went straight to the Jacque Cousteau Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium (biggest aquarium in Europe). The aquarium part was cool, but the museum was really short and quite uninteresting. We weren’t there too long either, which gave us way too much time to kill in the afternoon until we were scheduled to depart for the casino. A group of us sat in the gardens overlooking the Mediterranean and tried to fall asleep because we were all so exhausted.


Finally we departed for the casino as a large group. I was expecting the Monte Carlo Grand Casino to look a little more grand than it did when we walked up to it. It wasn’t nearly as big as I was made to believe. I couldn’t go inside really because it cost 10 Euros just to enter, so after my morning purchases… I figured it best to save my money a little.

I did however go into the casino next door to the Grand Casino. There was no entrance fee for that one, and the buy-ins were much lower. Just for fun I decided to try to play my first slot machine game ever, and it didn’t go so well, haha! I didn’t really understand the concept of the game, and I’m sure that was a main part of the problem. Unfortunately, within just 5 minutes, my 5 Euro buy-in was gone. That was all I was going to risk though. At least now I can say with certainty that I have gambled in Monaco! One guy from our trip played craps though, and won 855 Euros!!! That’s somewhere around $1,200 American dollars!! Lucky!

We drove back to Nice at around 8pm. I was feeling a little down today, just missing home and really missing Brad. Going to dinner with Laura, CJ, & Callen was really good for me though. It helped me realize that I’m not the only one who is feeling this way. Nice is sort of the hump to get over on the trip, because it’s all downhill from here! I was able to skype with my mom & sister and with Brad this evening before I turned in, so that made me day! I can go to bed a happy girl! Goodnight!

Beach Day on the French Riviera!

Today we had a complete free day to enjoy Nice. We took our time getting up this morning (that meant about 8:30am) and went down to the beach by about 10. We went to a local shop to buy straw mats to make the beach more comfortable. The beaches here in Nice are composed mainly of rocks and pebbles… not sand. It’s pretty much impossible to walk on the beach without shoes/flip flops of some kind. I tried and it’s killer on your feet! The mats actually helped a ton though with my comfort level while laying on the rocks! I also bought a Nice beach towel as a souvenir, and it came in handy as a beach pillow.

The water was so blue but soooo cold! I went in a few times, mainly to cool off from the hot sun which was beating down on us all day today. Actually quite a lot of our study abroad group made it out to the beach today that is located right in front of our hotel. I laid out there from about 10am to 3pm, or 5 hours. I got a little sun, but I was already relatively tan, so the sun didn’t affect me too much. It was so nice however just to lay on the beach, doze off and on, listen to music, and relax with friends. It was a much needed rest day from the hectic schedule that we had been enduring in Paris and London!


After we left the beach in the afternoon, we headed out to explore Nice a little more. We walked around and shopped some in Nice’s main shopping district. Nice is such a cute little town, because yes its touristy, but not overwhelmingly so. You still get to experience the small town feel of a southern French city. I bought a few things at Zara (a very popular store in European countries), and I also bought a present for Courtney which I hope she enjoys and is able to get a lot of use out of!

For dinner, Kinsey, Sam, Caitlin, Jay, Taylor, and myself all dressed up to go out have a nice meal together. We decided on this Italian place a few blocks over from our hotel, and it was great! I loved the penne pasta I got there, and the bottle of rose wine that Caitlin, Kinsey, and I split was delectable!


After dinner, we came back to the hotel, had a small journaling party with CJ and Laura added into our girl mix, and then went and hung out with a few people before I decided to call it a night. Tomorrow, we meet downstairs in the lobby at 8:45am to head to Perfumarie Fragonard to hear all about the perfume making process and try out some of their special scents. After that, we head into the principality of Monaco, and go visit the famous grand casino and Jacque Cousteau Oceanographic Museum. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, but a fun and interesting one! More later!