My First Trip to Western Europe: Germany-Czech-Austria
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Although I titled the post “my first trip to western Europe,” this was more like my first time in Europe as a whole. I went to Bulgaria once for a math competition in 2013, but I didn’t get to travel that much, so it sort of didn’t count. This time I only went with my mom and dad because my brother was busy with school work. It was very overwhelming when we were choosing where to go in Europe since all of the programs looked good! Anyway, we ended up going to the one that went to one of the places that we wanted to go to the most, Hallstatt, a peaceful and gorgeous tiny village in Austria.
Germany
There were three countries that we went to: Germany, Czech, and Austria. We landed and left off in Germany, so I want to talk about this country first. Although we didn’t get to travel much in Germany due to the interest of time, we did go to some famous towns in Frankfurt, namely, Romerberg, Bamberg, and Nuremberg. Bamberg (the bottom left pic) is the old town (more precisely, the town that was renovated to look old), while Nuremberg does look pretty naturally old (top right). In Frankfurt, we all went to the train station that is a model for our Thai national train station (Hau Lam Phong). Lastly, the one on the bottom right is Romerberg or the Romer square. We could see a lot of couple locks hanging, just like the Seoul Tower in South Korea.
Another important and magical spot we went to was the Neuschwanstein castle! The castle is the model for the original Disney princess castle. It was incredible even we looked at it from afar. We rode a horse carriage to the top and walk for a little bit to the castle. The inside of the castle was also pretty, but one side of them was under construction, so it wasn’t as completely satisfactory. However, I heard that not many people could see the castle when it wasn’t under construction. The place itself is very old and needs to be fixed all the time. No need to be salty!
Czech
That was pretty much it for Germany. I wish we could go to other towns in the future. Now, let me bring you all to Czech, which is quite underrated, in my opinion. Although Czech does not sound as familiar as Germany to Thai people, several places in Czech impressed us. The first town that we went to was Karlovy vary, a famous spa town! Its hot springs are full of minerals, and some of the springs are for drinking! We did taste the skeptically drinkable spring for a bit, and it was a little salty and didn’t taste clean at all. Anyway, that might be how it was supposed to be. The town was overall charming, and we also bought a cute tiny kettle that is not useful.
One of the good things about going on a trip with a tour guide was trying many kinds of European cuisines. When we were in Germany, we had German sausage, while, in Czech, we got to try Bohemian-style roasted duck! The taste of both dishes was not the best, but at least we could say that we had tried them before. We went to downtown Prague for a bit as well. Charles bridge was where we spent most of the time because it was so pretty and we could see many important places from the bridge. I wish we could have more time to explore Prague, but we were quite in a rush to get to Cesky Krumlov in the afternoon.
We arrived at Cesky Krumlov in the afternoon as expected. The town’s signature was every house in the city has an orange roof which you could observe from the tower. The view was amazing, and the atmosphere was charming. We wander around for hours, going from shops to shops and buying many postcards, magnets, and other cute souvenirs.
Austria
The last country that we went to was Austria. We started from downtown Vienna, and I could tell right away that my mom was in love with the city. All the architecture and sculptures in Vienna were so perfect. We went to Hofburg Castle and enjoyed the history of this country (although we don’t remember any of them now). Several street performers acted like sculptures standing/sitting still along the street. We also got some ice cream while we were downtown. My mom’s motto was that when in Europe, get as much gelato as you want. We don’t care about calories intake while we travel!
Finally, we got to the place that we had longed to go, Hallstatt. The site had become popular through some TV shows, and, all of a sudden, tourists worldwide dream about going to this place. It was breathtaking but also quite touristy. I couldn’t imagine what the site would be like without all the tourists. Still, the beauty of the town was so unreal. We spotted lots of swans in the crystal clear lake: Hallstatt was such a dreamy place!
In this family trip, we visited several famous places in northern Vietnam, namely, Sapa, Hanoi, and Ninh Binh. For some people, the more they see the world, the less impressive some places appear to them. We also did not find this part of Vietnam outstanding from all the places we have been together, yet it was still charming and gave us vacation vibes. I’d recommend those who like natures to visit Ninh Binh; Sapa is also beautiful, but it seems have some construction going on at the top of Fansipan mountain.
After having to postpone the Visa appointment for a year due to the pandemic situation, my parents have now got their first ever US Visa! A month right after they received their passports, now with the US Visa attached to, they flew from Thailand to the US to visit me in Illinois. To be more accurate, WE flew together from Thailand to Chicago, though on different flights. Our itinerary was to visit Chicago, Washington DC, NYC, and, of course, my beloved corn field city, Champaign.
The spring semester ended on May 12, marking the end of my first year as a Ph.D. student at UIUC. To celebrate the hard work, I invited my boyfriend to come visit me in Champaign. But since Champaign has nothing much to do, we also planned a short trip to Chicago and also Florida! Poy had never been to Disney World before, so we tried so hard to make it happen despite the price of Disney world’s tickets. Poy flew from England to Chicago, so our first short trip happened in Chicago! It was my second time in Chicago, so I tried to visit different places than the last time I went to in January.
I usually don’t travel over spring breaks as they are quite short and most schools in the US have spring breaks around the same time, so everywhere is just crowded. However, this break was special because I went to visit my boyfriend in England! We hadn’t seen each other for a while (aka 8 months at least), so I didn’t hesitate to go there when I had a chance. Though I had been to many countries in Europe, I had never visited England. I went there for 5 days not including the flight time, but I felt like I got a very rich British experience thanks to Poy.