The crack was 90.

What did you do in Dublin? Drink. Guinness, Irish whiskey, all the things.

But Thea and I had an absolute blast. One of the best weekends of my life. It's safe to say that I'll be back to Ireland very soon.

We arrived in Dublin on Friday night, got checked into our Air Bnb, and headed out to find some food and a pint. We grabbed a late burger, and headed to The Temple Bar, which is an area in Dublin known for pubs. We found the Temple Bar, had a Guinness or two, and enjoyed live music, which is a Irish staple. Every pub in Dublin has live music. Swoon.

The Temple Bar. 

On Saturday morning, our only really full day in Dublin, we caught the free walking tour, and learned all about Dublin and Ireland's history, which was really interesting because if I'm honest I can't say that I knew so much about Ireland's past, except St. Patrick. So we walked around the city, seeing the Christ Church Cathedral, a beautiful cathedral in Dublin's city center, which was used as a brewery, distillery, and even a brothel in the Middle Ages, yikes. We also saw Trinity College, one of the world's most famous universities, the Irish government buildings, and many more sites.

Christ Church Cathedral.

Trinity College.

After our walking tour, we made our way to the Guinness Storehouse. We toured the store house, learned how to properly taste Guinness, and enjoyed a pint on the top floor of the storehouse, taking in the views of Dublin.

Our Guinness mustaches.

After the Guinness Storehouse, we heard for my personal fave, the Old Jameson Distillery. Jameson is my all time favorite, so to go through the old distillery, learn more about Irish whiskey, and enjoy a whiskey tasting had me in heaven. This was my favorite part of our weekend.

To finish up our day we had some delicious shepherd's pie at The Boar's Head, and then headed to a cool Irish pub we had read about, the Cobblestone. We planned on starting the night there and hopping around to other pubs, and let's just say we got there at 6:00 pm and left at 2:00 am. We had a blast that night. We met a ton of locals, Irish people are probably the most friendly and funniest people I've ever met. By last call and after about 10 Guinness's each, we drunkly headed back to our Air Bnb. I have to add that one of those 10 Guinness's may have come up in the street - why does this always happen when I'm with Thea?!? Don't worry though Mom, I'm sure Dublin has seen it before. Our Air Bnb host must have known when we led with "two Americans visiting Dublin for the weekend" because he left us a treat of two bananas and two bottles of water :) LIFESAVER

Cheers! 

We started of pretty rough on Sunday morning, but found our way to Sunday brunch, a full Irish breakfast, so delish. After brunch, we saw St. Patrick's Cathedral, Grafton Street, St. Stephan's Green, and stopped one last time by Trinity College. It was a weekend to remember in Dublin. We had an absolute blast and fell in love with Ireland. As the Irish say, the crack was 90.

One more view of the Liffey.

Trinity College.

Christ Church Cathedral.

St. Patrick's Cathedral. 

The entrance gate to St. Stephan's Green.

Pierogis and Żubrówka

I thought Salzburg was as good as it gets, and then Krakow happened. This one was a weekend for the books, in one of my new favorite cities.

My favorite picture from the weekend, lol

We took off for Krakow, which isn't too far from Olomouc on Friday morning, with our first stop being the Wieliczka Salt Mine. This salt mine is more than 100 meters underground and it is massive. We had a tour that lasted for about two hours that covered 1% of the mine. It has been around since the 13th century when salt was an extremely valuable resource. We got to travel to the many excavated chambers, learn about the mining process, and lick the walls made of salt, haha. The craziest part was that the mine holds many chapels and churches (where you can even get married) and has for a very long time. There are still events held in the salt mine but even in older times there were events and dances and masses held underground.

The beautiful church in the underground salt mine.

That night we had a delicious Polish dinner of Polish soup and pierogis. The food in Krakow knocked it out of the park and it was ridiculously cheap. Pierogis are little noodle dumplings stuffed with meat, mashed potatoes, or my favorite, sauerkraut. We enjoyed some good beers at dinner (an IPA finally!) and then headed for a legendary Krakow Pub Crawl. Our whole group went which was a blast, and we spent the night hopping from bar to bar. If you go to Krakow you just have to do the pub crawl. You get your $10 worth in the power hour itself and it some of the most fun I've had in an European city.

An IPA brewed in Krakow. I don't miss ranch dressing but I miss IPA's.

Pierogis :)

After little sleep the next day was a struggle, but we got to check out the Wawel Castle and spend the day wandering around the city. At the castle, we had a tour of the treasury and the armory. From the castle, we spent the day going into some of Poland's beautiful churches, checked out the town square, and enjoyed the markets which Krakow is known for. One thing that I noticed that was different about Poland was that when you went into a church people actually were reverent and prayed. There weren't groups of yelling tourists like in other cities. The churches were silent and people were always on their knees praying which I really liked to see. Poland is a very religious country though, so it makes a bit more sense than say what you see in the Czech Republic.

The church at the Wawel Castle.

The church were Pope John Paul II worshiped before he became pope. There was a plaque in the pew where he sat everyday.

The main square. 

St. Mary's Basilica in the Old Town Square. I loved the blue stars painted on the ceilings. 

I really enjoyed the markets in Krakow. They had beautiful silver jewelry and Polish pottery (my fave), and great food. I eventually made my way to the vintage markets in the Jewish Quarter and of course spent all my money on records, but hey, I got The Beatles Greatest Hits for a total of like $8. I really liked the Jewish Quarter, which was where we stayed as well. The streets were brimming with cool bars and clubs, restaurants with all types of foods, and cool shops. It was definitely the "cool" area of Krakow.

A few of us went out that last night in Krakow and had a great time. Krakow will make people that hate vodka, love vodka (that's me). They are known for this vodka called Żubrówka, which has a little herb flavor but it's really good. Thad made sure I was drinking it and bringing him a bottle home. We stayed out late but had a wonderful last night in Poland. They even played music with words! Hahaha, techno is getting old.

On our last day, we packed up and headed to Schindler's factory on the outskirts of town. Many people know of the factory and the story of Oskar Schindler because of the movie Schindler's List. Oksar Schindler was a German Nazi that owned a ceramic, and eventually ammunition, factory where he first employed Jews to work, and eventually protected them from being transported to concentration camps. He had many connections and was able to save 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. The factory is now a museum and we had a great guide that led us through the exhibition. He had some great things to say and in some ways put a new way to think about the atrocities that happened during the Holocaust. He expressed the Holocaust in words and ideas that I hadn't really heard before and I really enjoyed that aspect of the tour. During our time in Krakow and Auschwitz, I could tell that Poland was hit especially hard by Nazi Germany. Many of the death camps were established in Poland and Poland had the largest number of Jews killed. You could just get the feeling that things were especially terrible in Poland. Even non-Jewish Polish men were forced into labor for Nazi Germany, they believed Poles to be an inferior race.

One of the last rooms at the end of the tour. It was bright and signified the end of the war. There were various diary writings and testimonies written.

We returned to Olomouc earlier today and looking back on this weekend, I definitely had my fair share of fun in Krakow but I also learned a lot, especially today at Schindler's factory. Krakow was one of those cities that made me want to stay and it definitely got added to that list of favorite places. The food, people, culture, and beautiful city just made for a perfect 10/10 weekend.

A few of my favorite things.

This past weekend Taylor, Hana, and I headed to Salzburg, Austria. I absolutely fell in love with Salzburg. It was a gorgeous, clean city with incredible views. It was like a way more fun Vienna. I could see myself living in Salzburg. The city itself is known for being the the home of Mozart, the Sound of Music, and some of the most beautiful men if you ask me, lol.

The beautiful views from the Salzburg Fortress.

Unfortunately, our train was delayed getting to Salzburg, but we ended up making it in and heading straight for the bars, haha. We had some recommendations of some places to go from some girls that we met who were studying in Salzburg. We checked out a couple clubs, an Irish pub and had a really great night, ready to take on the city in the morning. We stayed out way too late but we rallied. We stopped for a good breakfast with apple strudel of course and spent the morning wandering around the cute Salzburg streets lined with shops, and then headed for the fortress.

Admiring Salzburg

Many many Easter eggs at a holiday shop in Salzburg.

The cathedral in Salzburg.

Heading up to the fortress.

Views from top were incredible.

Overlooking the city. I loved how it was built into the cliff on the left.

Us and Salzburg's claim to fame, Mozart.

No trip complete without a sausage.

The Mirabell Gardens with the fortress in the background.

The Salzburg fortress was beautiful, and definitely the look out point for the city and the surrounding country side. We enjoyed a tour of the fortress, which was used to store salt, hence the name Salzburg. And eventually made our way up one of the towers with the most wonderful view. After the fortress, we walked around the city, seeing some of Salzburg's very beautiful churches. We wandered around the Mirabell gardens, where the Sound of Music was filmed. Our noses definitely led us the right direction to a wine festival where we tasted different wines, had a glass or a bottle, and tried some great Austrian desserts. We took our wine into the gardens and enjoyed the sunlight and the wine.

Enjoying some Austrian wine.

Wine in the Mirabell Gardens.

With every intention of finding some dinner, we wound up at the Augustiner Brauhaus. One of the most famous beer gardens. We found the beautiful outdoor garden, grabbed our liter mugs (the guy insisted on the liter mug), filled them up, and found a spot to sit. We had great beers and great conversation, and right before what was supposed our last beer, a young group of Austrian farmers joined our table. Between the obvious language barrier and the fact that everyone was drinking liter beers, we had the most fun just talking between all of us and laughing. They sang us Austrian songs and bought us beers until the place closed. We arrived at about 3:00 pm and intended on staying a few hours, but closed the place down around midnight. It was one of the best experiences I've had in Europe so far. It was an evening that I'll never forget.

Enjoying our liter beers :)

The Augustiner Bauhaus beer garden.

Nice Austrian farmers that kept our table this full.

The next day we were struggling, but we sought out the best Sunday brunch in Salzburg and recouped. We sent Hana on her train to Brno, and relaxed a little before taking our tour of the city. It was rainy, and also May 1, which is pretty much labor day in Europe. A lot of places were closed but we had a chill day listening to Rick Steves give us the history of Salzburg on a walking tour. We discovered some beautiful churches and saw the Sound of Music sights, which was really fun. We had a delicious dinner and made it back to our hostel, and ended up watching the sound of music in the lobby. We had an early train to catch in the morning so we called the weekend in Salzburg, it was one of my favorites yet. I've been listening to a lot of Julie Andrews since, haha.

A beautiful cemetery in the city.

St. Peter's church.

Some delicious spatzle to end the trip!