Summer 2011: Euro Trip

This summer was a significant one not just for me (graduating from college), but also for my mom, who celebrated 30 years working at the church in June. Yes, she was 6 years old when she started, thank you very much. ;) So to celebrate our dual major life milestones, we decided to take a trip. A big trip. A really big trip. I don't really remember how we decided on our destinations, but I do know that Mom had been to Salzburg years ago and loved it, and several people had recommended Prague, and so a trip was born! I couldn't possibly cover our entire trip in one blog, so I will just hit the highlights of each destination, and of course include a few pictures (since I think we took a few thousand, that shouldn't be a big problem).

First, the cast of characters: Mom and Ricky, Moppy and Poppy, Sean and "Uncle" Eric, Amber and me. We were neither a small nor inconspicuous travel group. But travelling with some of my favorite people was lots of fun.

Destination Number One: Prague, Czech Republic

I had never really considered Prague a "must-visit" place. But several friends (both mine and Mom's) had been and said it was really beautiful. And now that I've been there, I totally agree. There are tons of old buildings that look like they came out of fairy tales:And an amazing castle on top of a hill:


And, my personal favorite, we got to see the home where Antonin Dvorak lived AND his viola!!! That was cool. But alas, no photos were allowed, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
Prague was definitely different (language, money, food) from the rest of the places we visited. And Czech is not a language you just pick up in a few days. But I really liked it and am glad we went.

Day trip from Prague: Dresden, Germany

While planning our trip, we realized we would have an extra day in Prague. So we started looking at day trips we could take using our rail passes, and Dresden won out. We hopped a train and in a few hours were in Dresden! The interesting thing about Dresden is that it was pretty much completely destroyed by bombing in WWII. But they have rebuilt, and it is a beautiful and modern city! The big church, Frauenkirche, was restored and is gorgeous:

Hey, who are those cute kids? ;)

We also went to an art museum to get our culture on, and that was very cool. Dresden has a beautiful walkway along the river, and it was nice to just stroll along (Well, at least until we decided to try to make an earlier train back and had to RACE back to the train station. I seriously thought I was going to die. But we made it. Hooray.)

View from the riverside.

Destination Number Two: Vienna, Austria

Vienna is a HUGE, bustling city. We only had a few days there, but I still think we were able to get everything in that we wanted to see. Our first day we saw the Vienna Boy's Choir perform. They were incredible, and oh so cute. The next morning we visited Schönbrunn Palace, home to the Hapsburg monarchs and a seriously gorgeous place. The inside tour was nice, but honestly the grounds of this place were so much more impressive.

I mean, come on. People actually got to LIVE here?!?

We took a tour of the Vienna opera house, which is also BEAUTIFUL, and then Mom, Amber, and I went back to get standing-room only tickets for super duper cheap-4 Euro each! And the seats were amazing. We felt extremely cultured, and also fancy.

But my very favorite part of Vienna was the ZOO! Now, you might be saying, Jennifer, you can go to a zoo in just about any city you visit; why on earth would you take time out in one of the most famous European cities to visit a zoo??? I'll tell you why: Pandas. Pandas are my favorite animal on earth, and only a few zoos in the world have them. When I found out that there were pandas in Vienna, there was no doubt we were going. It was absolutely a life dream fulfilled. The pandas didn't do much, and actually spent most of their time with their backs to us, but they were still adorable and it was so much fun.

Me with the pandas! (Well, kind of.)

Destination Number Three: Salzburg, Austria

When I complained to Mom that we had such little time in Vienna, she told me that once I saw Salzburg, I would understand why we needed more time there. As usual, she was right. Salzburg was hands down my favorite place we visited. The setting in the foothills of the Alps and the amazing architecture was beautiful, and the whole being the setting of The Sound of Music thing didn't hurt, either.

We of course took the Sound of Music tour, although honestly so many of the places that were used in the movie are inaccessible because they are privately owned or, you know, a monastery. But my favorite part was going to Mondsee and seeing the wedding church. Mondsee is this adorable little Alpine town, complete with colorfully painted buildings, and it is home to the church where they filmed the wedding scene. Only, when you watch the Sound of Music, I bet you never notice that the church is PINK!

Yep. They did some really clever editing for the movie.

One of my other favorite things in Salzburg was when we went up the cable car to the top of Untersberg mountain. This was when I really felt like we were "up in the mountains", and for this flatland southeast Texas girl, that was definitely a new experience. You could see for miles and there was even still some snow! It was absolutely incredible.
















We also took a couple of day trips out of Salzburg, visiting the salt mines and the Werfen ice cave, which was ah-mazing, but the climb to get up there nearly did us all in. It was worth it, though. The ice has created all these amazing formations and it is completely beautiful.

Destination Number Four: Munich, Germany

Now, technically it is true that Munich was our fourth city. As in, we rode the train into Munich, stayed at a hotel in Munich, and all of our tours left from Munich. But if you were to ask me what I saw while in Munich, the answer would be...the street between the train station and our hotel. We didn't spend any time in the city itself. But our day trips were totally worth it. The first day we went to Dachau concentration camp. While it obviously wasn't the most fun thing we did, it was definitely moving and sobering to see where such horrible things happened.

Our other trip out of Munich was to two of King Ludwig's famous fairy tale castles. King Ludwig was a slightly crazy German monarch who built these enormous and elaborate castles in the mountains of Germany. First we saw Linderhoff castle, which was smaller but still beautiful. Then we stopped in Oberammergau, the city where they do the famous Passion play every 10 years. It was a lovely little town. Then on to the piece de resistance, the famous Neuschwanstein castle. They say that Walt Disney based Cinderella's castle on Neuschwanstein, and when you see it you can tell that's true:


It is simply amazing. And the beauty doesn't stop outside. We took a tour inside and the rooms are so ornate and gorgeous. And if that wasn't enough, every room has a view of the surrounding mountains and lakes. King Ludwig may have been crazy, but he knew how to build a castle.

The castles trip was our last day in Europe. In 2 weeks we saw some amazing things that I will never forget. It was the best graduation trip ever!

Summer 2011: Graduation

So. It has been awhile. My inner bad blogger came out to play, and also, life happened. So before grad school really kicks into high gear, I am going to write a bunch of little posts about all the fun, interesting, or life-altering stuff that happened this summer. Let's start with the event that marked the end of the school year and my career at Baylor: graduation.

My graduation ceremony started at 9 AM, so first thing in the morning I put on my cap and gown and headed to the Ferrell Center.


What's that you say? You are a Baylor fan and don't think that picture was taken at the Ferrell Center? Well, you're right. This is one of the grad pictures my friends and I took a few days before, and it is indeed in front of Pat Neff. I know my mother took pictures on the morning of graduation, but I cannot find them. So sue me, and use your imagination.

As for the actual graduation ceremony, well, it was long. And we, as University Scholars, were the last group of undergrads to walk the stage. And my rule-following tendency was in rare form, to the point that I followed a rule that didn't even actually exist and didn't bring my cell phone or purse to graduation. Apparently, judging from every other graduate in the arena, having a cell phone was not, in fact, against the rules. So everyone else was facebooking and tweeting and texting, while I just sat there. Like I said, it was long. But finally, they got all the way through the alphabet and it was our turn! I didn't trip or fall on the stage, and I even remembered to turn and smile at the camera when I was up on the big screen. I shook Ken Starr's hand and got the big green tube that I had worked, bled, and sweat for the past four years to earn. It was a good moment.

After the ceremony, I met my family at the car. We made that plan to avoid the hordes of people who would be running around after the ceremony, and it actually worked pretty well. Here are the pictures we took then.


















My cousin Amber came down, and while it would have been super sweet if she came just to see me graduate, in fact she was going with us to Europe the next day (more on that to come). At any rate, it was fun to have her there.

Basically as soon as these pictures were taken, we packed in our cars and hit the road to Houston. We all ate lunch at Perry's, which was so yummy and very fancy! Then we went home and packed, because the next day we were off to Europe!

It definitely didn't hit me then that Baylor was really over. That didn't come until much later in the summer, when I finally moved out of the Waco apartment. My four years at Baylor were possibly the best of my life, and I will cherish them forever. But now I'm on to bigger and better things, I suppose! Coming up next: European adventure 2011.