If I got one chance in life to hop in a time machine and go back to any moment in my life, I just might choose my most recent adventure.

 

From the nearly 40 hours spent on buses, the two and a half hour walk from our hostel to the city center in Vienna and the least interesting tour guide ever in Budapest (no offense sir) to dancing on boat tops, creating our own narrated tours and Sam giving up her “6 years a vegetarian” title to try the infamous kasekrainers… I would repeat it all.

 

Let me recap the trip for you:

 

After about a week of discussion and failed attempts to book a trip, I finally bought tickets to go to Prague, Budapest and Vienna for my 9 day break from school.

 

At first I felt absolute panic thinking about the 16 hour bus ride but that soon faded when I realized I would be in the best company I could imagine for the entire trip. Add my three sweet treasures of girl friends, Laura and Sam and Judith, with my one over the top easygoing guy friend, Victor, and you get a perfect combination of traveling companions.

To start off our February break the Flixbus that was supposed to take us from Groningen to Amsterdam was two hours late to picking us up.. I’ll save you the details of the depth of frustration we experienced and get to the point. We ended up missing our connection to Prague but were able to jump on another bus that, by the grace of God, left just one hour later than our original transport.

 

After nearly 24 hours of travel we finally set foot in the historically rich city of Prague in the Czech Republic. Considering the five of us were all exhausted we decided to treat ourselves to the comforting goodness of traditional Czech food before calling it a night. Mind you, we had to prepare ourselves for the following day where we had to cram in as many touristy activities as we possibly could before heading off to Budapest.

 

If you ever get the chance to go to Prague, please do. There is a reason Mozart loved that city more than his home in Austria and why Mick Jagger paid for the stage lights that make the infamous Prague Castle glow through the night.

 

 

If you don’t want to act like a kid again and pop bubbles in the city center or surround yourself with gothic architecture, don’t go. If you don’t want to enter the Church of St. Nicholas and be overcome with awe of creation and feel like you just got a glimpse at what heaven may be like, again.. don’t go. Oh and lastly, if you don’t want to make your way up a small hill to see a landscape that looks more like a Van Gough painting than reality, then don’t go.

 

 

 

In short, Prague is one of the most visually and spiritually alluring places ever.

 

The next morning we were off to Budapest… with an ironic layover in Vienna (the final destination on our trip). As we were boarding the bus in Vienna, I heard this group of guys chatting in some strange language that I couldn’t figure out. Turns out it was English. Little did we know we were going to run into these four lads everywhere we went and they would be a big part of what made our trip more unforgettable than we could have imagined ourselves.

 

Our first night in the city, notable for nightlife, we went on the Budapest Boat Party. I felt like a Kardashian dancing around on the rooftop, sipping wine and being able to look out over the water
and see illusory images of castles, churches, and bridges. And if you haven’t guessed already, that group of guys just so happened to be there too.

 

 

 

The following day we scrambled to find a swimsuit for Judith so we could do the one activity that was at the top of our “Must Do in Budapest” list: go to a thermal bath. Once us girls made it to the Gallert bath we almost bet money the boys would be there (but they went to another bath across the city..). We spent hours just talking about anything and enjoying one another’s company in the warmth of the numerous bathes, with the occasional polar plunge into the ice bath.

 

Even though our slow daytime activities nearly drained us of all energy we were determined to make our way to the pub crawl, where we not so coincidentally ran into the English guys. Matt, Matthew, Andy and Greg.

 

It’s crazy enough to meet one person and feel like you’ve known them for your whole life, but even more farfetched that the eight of us would so instantly be connected. Life usually doesn’t work like that.

 

The successful night ended in us all planning to go to a pub together the following evening but life had its own plan for us.

 

As Sam, Laura, Judith and I waited for our free walking tour to begin I caught a glimpse of four familiar faces. There they were, again. Our new friends decided to join us for our tour.

Just moments into the tour, however, we realized we were about to embark on one of the world’s most boring historical walks ever and decided to split from the group to make up our own guided tour. Best decision we could have made. We sang and we chatted. We saw churches and a castle and learned about one another. Then we ended our day in one of the infamous ruin pubs to soak up every last minute we had in the town together before we would have to split ways the following day.

 

Before checking out the local thrift stores and indoor market places, the girls and I met up with the boys one last time. We said “see you later” because “goodbye” just didn’t seem fitting for friends we felt we’d known for years.

 

Then that was it. We were off to Vienna, the last stop on our trip.

 

While we only had two days to soak in all that the city of sacher tortes, Mozart, art and history had to offer, I couldn’t help but reminisce over the bounty of irreplaceable times we had the days prior. I was also convinced we were going to run into the lads again, because like I said, they were everywhere.

Luckily the bitter taste the guided tour left in my mouth in Budapest was replaced by the sweetness of an elderly man who grew up in the city of Vienna. He loved his job and his home and made sure everyone in the group fell a little in love with everything the city had to offer too. He shared stories of the Nazi takeover and legends of the royal family. He must have known my love language too because he stole my heart when he pointed out a cozy café where famous artists used to waste away their days as art students, just sipping coffee and paying for their consumption with pieces of their work. It was one of the simplest places we saw on our trip, but in my book it is one of the 7 wonders of the world.

 

Following the tour I did what any tourist would do in Vienna.. I stuffed my face with schnitzel and gawked at the beauty of St. Stephen’s Cathedral before heading off to the opera.

In the final hours leading up to our 20 hour bus ride home my four companions and I walked along the river, where locals gather to create art and play music. We pointed out the highs and lows of our trip and all agreed we wouldn’t have wanted to change a single thing about the week we’d spent together. We were all at peace, knowing these memories would last a lifetime.