Madison Michelle

Madison Michelle

October 30, 2014

Florence, Italy


Well..I love Italy.  It is not shocking that I fell in love with this place, because I have always heard of Italy's beauty. But seriously this place is unreal.  

We only had one day to venture around Florence. So it was a jam packed day. Especially because it was a bit delayed because our bus driver ran into a sign at the convent we were staying at and broke it (picture below). It was crazy! The nuns did not know what to do. He basically tried to fit our huge bus in that little arch way...I do not really understand what he was thinking, cause there was no way we would fit through that arch. Once he hit the sign he held up all the traffic, it was a fiasco. It is kind of a thing where you had to be there to understand it. But let's just say the nuns were not too thrilled..


Anyway back to my adventures...A lot of people in our group were looking for leather jackets and bags, so the majority of the day was spent in the leather markets. I loved it! I was one of the people that was searching for a leather jacket, but I unfortunately was not successful. I could not find exactly what I was looking for because all of the ones I saw were very "biker-ish" and I wanted more of a sleek look. At least some people found what they were looking for! After the leather markets we visited the Piazza del Duomo to look around the octagonal Baptistry. After visiting the Baptistry we went for some more Italian pizza and we obviously still had some room for gelato afterwards. I remember that this place that we went was THE BEST gelato I had on this entire trip. At night we walked to the top of a hill so that we could see the city lights. It was amazing!


Ps. I AM APPLYING FOR ANOTHER STUDY ABROAD. When you travel the world once, you honestly cannot get enough!




This is the arch he tried to fit through..dummy.



October 27, 2014

Venice, Italy


Venice was absolutely perfect.  This trip in general was just too perfect.  Every site we went to was an absolute dream.  I was looking forward to going go Italy since we got our itinerary. 

The thing I was not prepared for was hauling my huge suitcase through the streets of Venice.  Not only did we have to drag our bags through the cobblestone, we had to lift them over the bridges, I obviously did not think this one through..  but honestly I have no complaints about Venice.

After checking into our hotel, the night was ours to explore the city.  One of the big things that were on our checklist was to find the perfect Italian pizza.  And we found it!  I still remember this night so vividly, I was with Rachel, Carly, Karli, Lyndi, and Taylor.  I think Venice is the place I really got to know these girls, and I loved every minute of it.  One of the highlights of traveling with random people was being able to sit down and learn so much about their lives.  After traveling around with this group I can honestly say that I have gained some of my very best friends from this trip.  Anyways, back to that night.. after the pizza we found it only fitting to go on a gondola ride.  The night was perfect for it!  So all six of us girls jumped in a gondola and explored canals of the city from the water, how romantic, right..?  After the gondola ride we all decided we NEEDED some gelato!  So that is exactly what we got!

The next day in Venice was amazing. We toured the city looking at all the different sights and exploring all the little shops.  After exploring the city we had to get to our business visit, which we were a little early for, so we find a little bridge to take a quick nap on.  Honestly, I still feel like that was one of the best naps of my life.  Traveling around you do not realize how exhausted you get because you are just always on the go and want to see everything that Europe has to offer! So this nap was much needed.  After this business visit we had went and had some pizza for dinner that was highly recommended by all of the locals.  Let me tell you, it was soo good! 

Venice was so good to us.  I am in love with this city. It was beautiful, the pictures honestly do not even do it justice.  It was so hard to leave.  I want to go back right now. 



October 20, 2014

Back to Germany..

I bought any Dr.Pepper I found.

On my trip I had really come to love Germany! All of the cities we traveled to were amazing. After we left Austria we traveled to three different cities in the span of 48 hours. The first stop we made was to Dachau Concentration Camp. This place was eye-opening. It was such an interesting learning experience for everyone in the group. Walking around the camp and seeing the prisoners sleeping, eating, and working arrangements was unreal. This experience was unlike any of our other venue visits, it was eye opening to see what went on to the prisoners during World War II. Dachau was very emotionally draining for everyone. But we had one more business visit stop to make that day.



The next stop for us was the BMW Plant.  This venue was seriously so awesome.  I am not even really into cars that much, but it was so cool to see the evolution of the BMW cars from the past to now.  I mean who wouldn't like to look at the Roles Royce limited edition? 






After touring around the plant we went to our hostel in Munich. Which was by far THE sketchiest place we stayed. I saw some things on the streets of Munich that I will not go into any detail about.. let's just say Munich in my mind was quite "dirty".

The next morning we woke up and went to the Neuschwanstein Castle in Garmisch. This castle is the castle that Walt Disney modeled the Cinderella castle after. It was absolutely beautiful, I wouldn't mind going back in the future!





After these crazy past 48 hours, we were able to take a break and we stayed in a nice American resort in Germany. The Edelweiss Lodge and Resort is owned by the U.S. Department of Defense, so everything in this resort was American! It was a nice break to be able to pay with American dollars, have American food and be able to understand everyone that spoke to me. I mean they even had Dr. Pepper on hand, so to say I was excited is a huge understatement. While staying at the resort we had a few venue visits lined up throughout the first day. One of the visits during that day we were able to go to the Partnach Gorge. Let's just say it was absolutely "gorge"ous! Seriously this hike was amazing, the whole time I just loved being able to look around and appreciate the beauty of this gorge. There is beauty all around us and we need to be able to take the time to recognize and appreciate it. We went on a lot of hikes on this study abroad and this hike was by far my favorite.






The next day at the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort was very low key, which was much needed for everyone in the group. We were able to relax and just enjoy the day without being stressed of having to be somewhere at a certain time. That night we had FHE where we went to a karaoke party at the resort. Let me tell you this karaoke part was wild..we have videos to prove it. I would definitely say our group was the hit of the karaoke show! A couple of us girls got together and sang "Say My Name" by Destiny's Child. The whole crowd was loving it. After finishing up with karaoke there was a firework show that we all went outside to enjoy.


All in all Edelweiss was good to us all.



October 10, 2014

Austria

Austria was B-E-A-U-TIFUL. Probably one of my favorite places we went on the trip(but let's be real, I say that about every place we went). But seriously, it was absolutely breathtaking. Everything in the city was so pretty and nice, including all of the people.


The first day in Austria, we went on a business visit to the Hallstatt Salt Mines. On our business visit we were able to explore inside the mountain and learn about the history of the mine. We went into the mountain, which was so fun. We had to put on these jumpsuits that we were required to wear throughout the whole tour. Someone in our group played a trick on all of us telling us we "had" to tuck in the top of the jumpsuit to our pants, so you can imagine how great we all looked..I have pictures below to prove it. During this tour we went down slides inside of the mountain to get from place to place. It was so fun! After the salt mine tour we went back to our hostel and watched "The Sound of Music" in the lobby to get us in the mood for our tour we were going to go on the next day.

The next morning we woke up and some of us went on the "Sound of Music" bus tour. My family grew up watching this movie ALL the time, so being able to get to go to the places where this movie was filmed was amazing. I loved being able to brag to my family about all of the sites I was able to see from the movie! The city of Salzburg is so pretty! The only issue that I had with this city was my allergies that decided to attack me on this part of the trip. While I was on the bus during the tour my allergies got the best of me, and I turned to Rachel and said, "I don't feel so good" in a really deep sick voice. And she looked at me and said yeah..you don't look so good. So yeah that kinda sucked. But I tried not to have it affect the trip! All in all Salzburg was amazing and it is definitely a place I would go back and visit in the future!








Lookin' fresh.





The aftermath of me "not feelin' so good"