award winning brick structure 

cutest thing ever 

Time is running out

Our time here is running out so I am becoming a tourist again. The last few days I have been joining the tourists and trying to make sure that I see everything that Rick Steves says to see. I have added in a few that interest me... Rick Steves doesnt know everything! This tunnel won an award for best brick structure... it's some engineering magic. And I went back to see the owls...their just so darn cute!

Me holding the LARGEST owl in the WORLD!

Eva holding Juliet 

Holding some Endangered animals - June 8th

Eva and I got the chance to hold some really cool owl's at the Prague castle today. Eva held the barn owl, and I the Eagle owl. The owl I held was the largest in the world, well not the largest of its kind. Technically the females are larger, but this particular type is the largest of the owls. He actually only weighed 3.5 lbs.

trying to stay cool with ice pops  

Goofin around at Fisherman's Bastion 

Budapest

May 27-29 Andy, James and I went to Budapest. We showed up at the train sation after a long unairconditioned train ride and emediatly found a place to stay, we stayed in a flat owned by a man and his wife. It was nice to not even have to look for a place and expecially end up with an incredibly cheap and nice place. Things were starting out well. The next day we planned on taking a three hour walking tour and ended up taking an open air bus tour that was longer and cheaper and no walking, which was nice seeing as how HOT it was there. The trip was fun but unfortuatly it was the end of my travels with Andy. She left from Budapest and James and I took the train back home.

Andy and me at the Fisherman's Bastion 

Thursday 26th was our last time together as Erasmus students. ISC got us a boat and we went down the river through Prague. It was a heaven and hell theme, so there were lots of fun costumes. We all had a good time, but we are glad its not quite over yet. But its getting sad to have to say goodbye to those that are already leaving.

View from Neuschwanstein Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle. Its hard to see but all the little specs at the top of the pic are para- gliders

James, Andy, and Molly all dressed in black

Waving to the Bridge walkers who are all jelious their not on the boat with us!

Drew, Abi, Will, and Molly

Abi and James in front of the Parlement in Budapest 

Expert Bikers

Now expert city bikers Andy and I ride through the streets of Munich with ease. We make our rounds through the city, of course stopping off at the Hofbrauhaus, Munich’s famous beer hall. We decide that we should cut the next day a little short so that we can stop off at the Neuschwanstein Castle on our way back to Prague. If you think this castle looks familiar then you are right, it was the inspiration for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle. It was absolutely amazing, the castle and landscape surrounding it was the most beautiful I have seen in all of my castle viewing days here in Europe. Then after seeing the castle we had back for Prague.

enjoying a large! beer at the famous Hofbrahhaus in Munich 

here we are in the blackforest (~scary~) 

Largest Fountain in Europe (not much to it, but it sure is high) 

The Biggest Fountain in Europe

Geneva has the largest fountain in all of Europe!
Our last stop with mom was here in Geneva, she flew out on the 23rd, we were sad to see her go, but excited to get out of expensive Switzerland. Andy and I continued on to venture into the Black Forest. It wasn’t as black as we were expecting, but it was cool. We stayed in the town of Freiburg, which was a cool little town, where we also rented bikes, this time slightly less high tech but without signs so it made us feel like locals. This is obviously my new favorite way to tour. Next stop Munchen.

Interlaken

Next stop… Interlaken, Switzerland. We stopped here in the town of extreme sports and decided why not do some white water rafting. The Swiss alps were beautiful and we went floatin down them. We even got to jump into the water, yes if was cold.

Having fun with a tripod 

Whitewater rafting in Interlaken 

Bikin it through Salzburg 

Austria

The hills are alive! Our first stop Salzburg, Austria. We rented bikes (the best way, to see any city) and went through the streets of Salzburg, going along the river was beautiful. We also got to see an army band competition (czech band was in attendance), and the largest chess board in Europe (at least from what I've seen).

Castle in Salzburg 

Beautiful coundryside on our way to Austria 

Road Trip!

Mom and Andy came into town and we went on a road trip. Seeing how I had not been in a car for several months this excites me tremendously! We stayed a few days in Praha, showing them my home of the last few months, then picked up our car (skoda, Czech made) and took off for Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. The countryside was amazing, after several hours of wondering and discussing what we thought the fields of yellow could be, mom decided to stop and ask some random woman on the side of the road, who obviously knew no English. We also stopped to check out an array of gnomes sold by and Asian man in he middle of nowhere. Unfortunately we walked away with out a gnome, most were a little scandalously clad.

Jeanie and Molly, Jeanie's last night in Central Europe...She'll be back in Kansas City on the third of June. 

View of Hungary's Parliament, the third largest in the world, and the Danube from The Castle 

Thilo, our friend from Germany, Dalyn, Jeanie, Molly at the top of Gellert Hill 

The Danube and a view of Pest, our hostel is in the top left corner. (hi mom, see your name on the center building)