November 2014: everyday albs

11.30.2014

Prague, Czech Republic

Earlier in November, I got to visit Prague along with the group I am studying abroad with. We only had two days in the city so we tried to see as much as we could. As soon as we got settled in our hotel, we went on a city tour where we got to see the Charles Bridge and walk around the markets. On our second day, we went on another city walk/tour with our awesome AIFS tour guide, Andreas. Although I am not the biggest Beatles fan, seeing the Lennon wall was really cool. There was an old man playing songs and people signing the wall. That day we walked 13 miles- yes. Although our visit was short, we got to see a lot and spend a good weekend in Prague.

xo, albs

11.22.2014

Budapest, Hungary

12 people, 6 bunk beds, and 3 days - equals a great weekend in Budapest. A big group of friends and I spent Halloween weekend in Budapest and it really was a blast. We walked all around the city, both the Buda and Pest side (divided by a river, weird?). Our first night there we walked over to the Parliament building, one of the must sees. After walking around at night, it is safe to say that Budapest is a city that looks its prettiest at night. Every building lights up, even the Chain Bridge that runs cross the river, connecting Buda and Pest. Their currency, the forint, had quite the exchange rate; one dollar = 260 forint... We went on a city bike tour, if you have no idea what this is (like me who was completely clueless), they look like this. So yeah, we looked like fools, 12 people riding a bike on the road at approx. 1 mph (if that). It was hilarious. We finished off our weekend at the thermal baths that were incredible and felt so so nice.

Wouldn't have been the same without these cool friends, thanks aifs.

The girls: Sarah, Stef, Swock, Sarah, Donna and I

Chain Bridge

modeling

Salzburg Squad

The boyyz

Parliament Building

Pretty Kathy

xo, albs

11.13.2014

Two Months Gone

Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam, and Budapest. I think October will go down as the best month…ever…like ever. I think I spent more time at the airport and on trains than I did in Salzburg in October and it was incredible. Needless to say, this month flew by.

Two Months Gone from Alba Quezada on Vimeo.

Before I left to come to Austria, my friend Kat wrote me three letters: one for when i got to Austria, one for my second month and a third one that says "almost time to come home to me YIPEEE". I remember looking at these and thinking to myself, woah, its gonna take forever to open these. HA nope. I opened my last letter last week and I may or may not have teared up a little.

Salzburg is home. It is crazy to think that this journey is coming to an end in just 32 short days. I am convinced that I will have to be dragged out of here kicking and screaming on to my flight back home. Ive gotten so used to living here. The people, the scenery, the language (or lack there of on my part...), the coffee/ pastries, running to get to the bus, drinking wine with meals, everything.

I was telling Rachael we should start writing a list of things we are going to miss when we get back home and when we began naming a few we both just sat there quietly, realizing we have only a short month left of this. My last 68 days across the Atlantic Ocean have been some of the best days of my twenty years. I'm not ready to leave yet, Salzburg.

With this said, here goes to the last 29 days left of my adventure abroad. Next time I write my
month-er post I will probably be crying over the keyboard (too dramatic?)

xo, albs

11.10.2014

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Amsterdam has always been on the top of my list of places to visit and I right about fell in love with the city when I stepped foot out of the train station. The canals are so quaint and every single side street has its own character. Our first day we got a little of rain but not even that could take away amsterdam's charm. We walked over to the Iamsterdam letters that are in front of the Amsterdam museum and afterwards we headed over to the Heineken "Experience". This basically was a tour of the Heineken Brewery and we got to do some beer testing at the end. That night we met up with my friend Donna's friend who lives in Amsterdam, Aris. We went to a Jazz club that played live music and where people were dressed up all fancy and dancing lots. It was a really fun night.

The next day was, according to Aris, "hangover saturday", the name due to the night before's events. We met up at noon after getting brunch and Aris gave us a tour of the city. We took the metro over to an area called Jordaan, this is where the working class lived in the 17th century. This area is now inhabited by artists, students and young entrepreneurs.

We walked around some more around the city and after having dinner at the rooftop of a mall, we went over to the red light district. It was very interesting to learn that up to this day there is still controversy between the church and this area. There is a kindergarden and a church right around the corner.

Jenever is very traditional Dutch drink so Aris took us to a cool bar called Wynandt Fockinck where we got our drink made and had an official "tasting". For dinner we had thai food- best place EVER. It was delicious. We ended the night at Cafe Hoppe where we met up with Aris' friends before going to Disco Dolly, a more "hipster" club.

I had a blast spending the weekend with these girls, and our tour-guide was fantastic.

I already cannot wait to come back.