2 countries, 2 days #HogsAbroad in Spain

Y’all. This trip! I was SO eager to get through the week and hop on my flight. Jess and I booked this trip at the very beginning of the semester and it was finally here! Vienna was at the top of both of our lists so of course we had to work it in.

A few weeks ago a Jess had the crazy idea of doing Vienna in a day and then heading to Prague for a day trip. Prague was also at the top of my list and flights from Madrid to Prague and vice versa are ridiculously expensive so I said let’s do it. We had already booked the hostel and flight home so we knew that we would have to come back to Vienna the second night. Everyone told us we were crazy, and we knew we were crazy, but we we’re going to do it anyway. I consulted with my friend Madeline who is studying abroad in Prague this semester and she made us feel confident that we could see the highlights in one day. So we booked our train tickets. Two countries in two days, no problem, just a severe lack of sleep.

As soon as we landed in Vienna we hit the ground running, well after a quick pit stop at the hostel to freshen up a bit and put our bags down. (side note: we stayed at a Wombats Hostel and I HIGHLY recommend them if you’re ever in Europe! This is my second time staying at one of their five locations and are seriously the best!) Right across from our hostel was this adorable market with endless restaurants, gift shops, and tea shops. It smelled so incredible. We honestly could have spent the whole day there. Luckily, it was in our direct path to the cathedral so we had to walk through it.

Our mission was the city center and St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Holy heck with every step we were in love. We passed a beautiful white and gold art museum, the Opera House, (we were 3 minutes late for the tour and weren’t even allowed entrance into the building. sad.) and just an abundance of beautifully unique and decorated buildings with gilded facades and glorious iron balconies. Ultimately, Jess and I felt that it was a mixture of Belgium and Germany. Though I have never been to Belgium, I took Jess’ word for it.

This cathedral. Might be in my tops. First off, the tile roof – are you kidding me? The juxtaposition with the gothic elements of the building is just beautiful and so intriguing. I want to know the history behind it. And then inside we were met with the most wonderful surprise: an art installation. The piece was entitled “Sky Full of Stones” and it was magical. I love that the Catholic church allowed for a contemporary art piece to occupy its vault during the Lenten Season. Yes, it obscured the view of the altar but its okay because St. Stephen’s participates in the tradition of covering the altar in a cloth during Lent as well, to be revealed on Easter. I could go on and on about this piece, but I’ll save if for my art friends. In short: I’m obsessed, well done Peter Baldinger.

After I pulled myself out of the church (I could’ve stayed in there all day) we headed to the palace to see none other than Gustav Klimt and his famous piece “The Kiss.” It was everything I dreamed of and more. Pictures honestly don’t do it justice. But of course, I’ll upload one. And another Klimt, just for good measure. After perusing through the galleries we were both completely exhausted and starving.

After dinner and desert we wandered, got snacks and headed back to the hostel for some rest before our day trip to Prague. I think I maybe got three hours of asleep, worried we would oversleep and miss our train. Of course we didn’t and after what felt like forever we arrived in Prague. Luckily, my friend Madeline is studying in Prague this semester so she sent me an incredible itinerary of things to do and places to eat. Sadly, she went to Vienna the day we went to Prague so we couldn’t meet up.

We followed Madeline’s plan as close as possible and saw a majority of the sites in our short six-hour span. The town center is amazing and the guy constantly blowing bubbles added to the magic. We started church hopping and wandering into any building that was open and free. We also found the Russian nestling doll store Haley found three years ago. I made Jess go in and we were immediately greeted with “Where are you from? What team do you like?” Love this place. If John’s wasn’t already gifted a set by Haley I would’ve bought one.

Eventually we made our way to the Charles Bridge where I think every person in the Czech Republic was standing. We practically had to push our way through the bridge to get to the other side and then hiked up to the castle. The castle was very confusing and we had no clue where to buy tickets so we mainly just wandered around and went in every side door with a free entrance that we could. We did find the most beautiful stained glass though. That and the view made the hike totally worth it.

By this point we were again tired and hungry. We headed to Madeline’s favorite restaurant and boy it did NOT disappoint. Pilsner and Goulash, you can’t go wrong. Though we were stuffed we made room for the dessert we’d been seeing all around town: trdelník (yes that’s spelled correctly)

Take aways from the weekend: I’m in love. That being in Austria gave me a sense of familiarity since it is a German speaking nation, while Czech is totally new territory for me. I’m glad I’m pushing outside of my comfort zone and experiencing new places and languages. I am so incredibly fortunate that English is my first language since it is spoken nearly everywhere. Regardless, I am beyond desperate to return to both. There are so many museums, small exhibits, and tiny treasures I want to go back and explore. Also Prague is CHEAP so live it up. Also, warning: you have to pay to pee in Prague.

Also, Jess and I are the most compatible travel partners. We got hungry at the same time, need to rest at the same time, had an itinerary but didn’t mind veering to seek out something cool that caught our eye, loved taking pictures (follow @worldwidewalton on Instagram for some shots from the weekend!), and were willing to sacrifice sleep for experience. I am so happy Jess and I have become so close over the semester. I cannot wait for our upcoming Budapest and Warsaw trip!

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Senior Darci Walton is spending the spring 2019 term in Spain with through our U of A Exchange program at Universidad Nebrija, Madrid.

Read more from Darci at https://worldwidewalton.home.blog/

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Interested in becoming a HogsAbroad Social Media Ambassador like Darci? Contact Katie at ksabo@uark.edu.