Why I'm so Obsessed with Scotland

Marykate & I doing our standard "LOOK AT THIS BEAUTIFUL THING WE FOUND" pose after hiking Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. Its a thing. Europe has been blessed with this pose many times. 

I recently started watching Outlander and WOW it is a great show!! The knitwear is freaking fantastic, and its main character Claire is a strong independent woman trying to navigate the craziness of 18th century Scotland after being kind of sucked through a time warp stone thing from her life in the post-WWII UK. Its brilliant, I swear.

Aaaand its also currently giving me my fix of the beautiful Scottish countryside & the wonderful Scottish people & their accents. I've been totally enamored with Scotland and its culture ever since I went on a trip there when I was 14 years old, and I was so happy to find out that the magic was still there when I visited with my friend Marykate a few weeks ago.

We decided to visit Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, for the first weekend of Spring Break. We flew in to London on Thursday night & then took a train from London to Edinburgh early Friday morning.

Me being a totally excited goon while riding the London Underground. I know they call it the tube because seriously IT IS SO TUBEY & WEIRD LOOKING & also wonderful.

We took the tube to Kings Cross & boarded our train from there AKA we took a train from Kings Cross in London up to Scotland AKA we were basically going to Hogwarts. Yep, like I said: totally magical. And yes, I was excitedly freaking out the entire time.

Our train car was ridiculously warm for the 4+ ride but it was made a little better by the fact that we kept whizzing past bucketloads of sheep & yaks (highland cows, but I call them yaks) & all other wonderful fibery goodness. I was especially excited to see all of my wooly friends because I WAS ON MY WAY TO A YARN FESTIVAL. I'm 100% serious. Those things exist. And the best ones are in Scotland.

I obviously wasn't going to make Marykate go to the yarn festival with me because I knew I would spend too much time there, so once we got to Edinburgh we split up for the afternoon for some solo exploring. I hopped on a double decker bus (which is normal public transportation - so fun!) & traveled about 25 minutes through the hilly city to the Edinburgh Corn Exchange, which is basically the old meeting hall/marketplace that is now used for all sorts of event and concerts.

The fact that one of the biggest yarn festivals in the world happened to fall on the first weekend of my Spring Break is what I like to call a beautiful gift from above. The Corn Exchange was a huge place, & it was all filled with yarn & yarn lovers from all over the world. I got a little emotional and honestly a little freaked out because I wanted to touch all the yarn & make friends with everyone there & it was honestly just really overwhelming at times. This was my first yarn festival, after all. But I forced myself to slow down & just embrace the chaos of people & fiber everywhere.

There over 100 vendors at this thing. 100 booths that looked just as enticing as this one! Also, notice the younger looking girl in the back left of this photo. I swear, I was not the youngest person there!

It was so crowded. It was amazing. I had never seen so many knitters in one place - & a lot of them people I'm a little obsessed with from stalking their Instagram accounts or blogs! It was like if the biggest Packers fan in the world was all of the sudden in the same place as every single player on the team - both the current team and the all stars from past teams (did I say that right?). IT WAS THAT BIG OF A DEAL.

I walked away with some good stuff - a few skeins of sock yarn, bulky yarn for my blanket (which is going great, by the way), some lovely undyed aran weight yarn, and one skein of Blend No. 1, an unbelievably perfect undyed blend of yarn with fiber from 3 different sheep so it has this magical sort of heathered grey look to it. Blend No. 1 is made by Ysolda Teague, a young Scottish woman who makes a living creating knitting patterns & yarns & teaching classes & she's amazing & her blog is one of my favorite things ever & I want to be her a little bit. I spent ages trying to figure out what I wanted to make out of this perfect yarn, & I finally started on a pair of simple fingerless gloves that show the simplistic brilliance of her yarn.

A selection of yarn I got from the Edinburgh Yarn Festival in Scotland. 

There wasn't a huge selection of bulky yarn - sock and worsted weight were more popular - but WOW I found an amazing vendor that had just what I was looking for. Mrs. Moon is UK based company that focuses on making ethically sourced yarn, which I honestly hadn't even thought that much about until I had a lovely conversation with one of the founders. I get most of my yarn from companies that I am very familiar with and read up on, not mass produced labels, so I know where they source their fiber and I don't think ethical sourcing is much of an issue, but I know the textile industry is crawling with nasty business. Mrs. Moon sources most of their fiber from Australia, which I thought was really interesting. Their line of "plump" yarns (pictured below) is 80% superfine merino wool & 20% baby alpaca (the perfect blend). And honestly, I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful color palette of yarn. And all of their colorways are named after desserts! I chose the one on the middle shelf in the second to left column in the photo below - its called Rhubarb crumble.

Responsibly sourced, eco-friendly, squishy, & delicious yarn in the most perfect colors from Mrs. Moon.

I think I only spent about 3 hours at the yarn festival, which really wasn't that long because there was so much to see. I was pretty shy and kept to myself for most of the time, but I did meet a lot of lovely people & I'm so glad that my first yarn festival experience was a positive one.

Marykate & I met up later in the afternoon & checked into our hostel (one of the BEST hostels I've stayed in - I highly recommend Castle Rock Hostel if anyone is headed to Edinburgh!) to rest before grabbing some dinner & exploring a bit at night. Our hostel was just a staircase down from the Edinburgh Castle, so it was the perfect location. Everyone who worked at the hostel was so friendly and helpful, which was really the norm during our entire stay. Scottish people are seriously the best.

It was kind of gloomy the first day, but we still had a great view from our hostel!

We found dinner at a wonderful place that I can't remember the name of, but I do remember I got salmon & it was delicious. We then hopped across the street to a bar our waitress recommended & I tried whisky & I HATED IT. But we were able to see a local band play in a local pub & we met two very nice girls who were traveling as well so that was fun.

We didn't stay out too late because we jam packed our Saturday with activities. First, we started at The Elephant Cafe - a must stop for anyone whose life was altered by the Harry Potter series (AKA everyone).

The one downfall of The Elephant House is that it advertises that it is "The Birthplace of Harry Potter" in the font "Jokerman". Its honestly a disgrace.

J.K. Rowling wrote most of the first few Harry Potter books at The Elephant House Cafe, and I completely understand why it worked for her. Its a cozy place with good food, and it has an amazing view out the back window that I'm pretty sure anyone would find inspiring.

The Edinburgh Castle is peeking through the left side of the window.

Aside from advertising themselves as "The Birthplace of Harry Potter", allowing their bathrooms to be completely vandalized with scribbles of people writing their thank you's to J.K. Rowling, and having a small bulletin board that included some newspaper clippings about Rowling's connection to their cafe, I loved that The Elephant House still stayed true to themselves. There were, as the name suggests, a lot of elephants, and not a lot of Potter paraphernalia. I appreciated that.

Yum!

We filled up on "The Elephant House Breakfast" and then set off towards Arthur's Seat for nice morning hike. Hiking Arthur's Seat was a must-do on every article we read and was recommended by everyone we talked to, so we knew we had to do it. I think we went at the perfect time - we started our hike around 10 AM if I remember correctly. It wasn't too crowded and it was a nice temperature.

Arthur's Seat is pretty much a steady incline most of the way, with a few fun rocky climbing parts, and there are a lot of different routes you can take up & down. I didn't take too many pictures because I was too busy huffing and puffing. I swear, everyone was. Its a quick hike but its not like it takes no effort. We made it up there in about 45 minutes (we were very proud of ourselves) & were greeted with an astounding view of the city below.

I was so happy that my eyes didn't really open at all.

All the panting was 100% worth it. We could see the city, the surrounding little suburbs, and the connection to the North Sea. People were just sitting up at the top chatting and hanging out. A lot of people were tourists, but you could definitely pick out the locals who hiked up with their dogs or had their walking sticks. And there were a lot of old people hiking much faster than us! This one old man looked like he had all his paces memorized - he didn't miss a beat even when he was walking over a rock sticking into the trail or switching from flat to steep and rugged terrain. He clearly had it down to a science.

We made our way down after a little bit, then wandered back into the city to get some tea & regroup before spending the rest of the day wandering around the city before we had to catch our train back in the afternoon.

I still can't get over how cute this teacup is.

We didn't have a whole lot of time in Edinburgh, but it was time well spent. I was reminded of how kind the Scottish people are, how beautiful the land is, and how much I absolutely love it there. Edinburgh is one of those cities that feels small enough to be cozy and big enough to be bustling all at once. The people are active, they serve good food with a lot of different options, and honestly they seem genuinely happy. I could see myself living there and loving it.

I know I'm not alone in my love of Scotland - almost all of my friends who have visited absolutely rave about it as well. My Dad went a few years ago and I know he loved it also! Honestly, it's hard not to! I think everyone should visit if they get the opportunity. I know I'll be back as many times as possible! But for now, I'll just keep watching Outlander & knitting away while dreaming of living in the Scottish Highlands with my dreamy Scottish husband & my flock of sheep (sorry I keep threatening to move places, Mom. I REALLY LIKE IT HERE.).

Let's Talk About Food

Manner (the makers of the delicious Manner wafers that I live off of) coffee + the Salzburg fortress

It's no secret that if the world was split into categories of people who eat to live and people who live to eat, I would be in the latter. Food is EVERYTHING. Unfortunately, I've had a bit of a stomach bug this past week so while I'm living off of bananas and simple foods, I've been looking back at all the unbelievably delicious nourishment I've had all over Europe.

I get very passionate about my food. You have been warned.

Vienna Nourishment

Fruit smoothie bowl topped with granola, goji berries, bananas, kiwis, & coconut

It is a well known fact that I go to The Juice Factory on Marco d'Aviano-Gasse basically every single day. It's less than 2 blocks from me, & their freaking delicious juices & coffee & food (such as the smoothie bowl pictured above) makes my soul happy.

I've never been a regular at a food place before, but at The Juice Factory I definitely am. My friends make fun of me because there are a few people who work there who greet me like an old friend when I come in, but I love it because I'm FINALLY meeting some Austrians. The other day, I had a conversation with one of the guys who works there about where I'm from, & he (surprisingly) had heard of Iowa because he knew we have the first caucus! He also really did not understand the idea of a corn dog or Chicago style pizza which I thought was hysterical.

Hamburger with bacon (REAL BACON!) + rosemary hash browns

My friends & I went to a restaurant called "Said the Butcher to the Cow" which is known for their burgers, gin, & cheesecake. I just went for the burger & it DID NOT disappoint. Of course I got bacon on it - & I hadn't had good, hearty bacon for months. This really hit the spot.

Cherry pie + shepherd's pie + spinach & potato hand pies + s'mores pie + cookies

Rosie turned 20! This was last month but it's fine that I'm posting this late because we celebrated then. As her birthday was on pi day (3/14), we threw her a surprise party complete with all sorts of pies. I made a s'mores pie for the occasion & it was GOOD. Baking here is kind of a mess because I have absolutely no supplies or measuring cups, so I just use a mug to measure and try to keep everything proportional and make pans out of aluminum foil.

The s'mores pie was a mix of a bunch of recipes and a little bit of guesswork. I crumbled up some biscuity cookies (that were shaped like Peanuts characters which was all sorts of fun) and added sugar and melted butter, then pressed it into my aluminum foil pan to use as the crust. I then made a delicious brownie recipe that is somewhere on Pinterest (& probably the best brownies I've ever made), & put the batter on top of the cookie butter crust & baked it for awhile. It didn't occur to me that I wouldn't be able to find marshmallows in Austria, so I ended up making my own out of a gelatin, sugar, water, & vanilla. I then melted those on top of the pie. It was kind of a miracle that it turned out at all, but I will definitely be tinkering with that recipe for many years to come!

Sachertorte + schlag

You can't come to Vienna without getting the famous sachertorte from Hotel Sacher. I've been eating this cake my whole life because my Grandma makes a mean sachertorte, but I've been deeply upset to hear that a lot of my friends here aren't a fan of this delicious cake. It's 2 layers of very rich chocolate cake, held together by apricot marmalade, & coated in an outer layer of chocolate. It's best served with whipped cream, & I am obsessed with it.

Hotel Sacher claims to be the inventor of sachertorte (as would make sense), but there's actually been a legal battle between them & Cafe Demel (which is a few blocks away). It makes me laugh that there's such a debate over the origins of a cake, but I'm really not surprised because it's so freaking delicious. Mom & I went here while she visited & we had a bit of a spiritual cake experience.

Vegan (!!!) dark chocolate, apricot, & raspberry gelato

CAN WE JUST TALK ABOUT HOW GREAT IT IS TO BE LACTOSE INTOLERANT IN VIENNA?! There are a ton of lactose free options, but also tons of vegan desserts which is great for me because it does the trick as well. And I never thought I would say this, but vegan gelato is BETTER THAN REGULAR ICE CREAM. I am 100% serious.

This stuff is from Eis (which literally means "ice cream"), a place that always has a ridiculously long line out the door. My friends and I didn't understand the appeal... but then we tried it & it all makes sense.

English breakfast tea + vegan chocolate banana cupcake + vegan kaiserschmarrn

You may be thinking: WHY ALL THE VEGAN FOOD, MEGAN? Because seriously it tastes good okay. I'm not lying. Marykate & I stumbled upon a lovely little bakery that advertises themselves as "gourmet raw food production". Sounds weird, I know. But I didn't question the vegan no bake cupcake, I just went for it, & BOY am I glad I did! Marykate's kaisershmarrn (basically ripped up pancakes with plum jam & powdered sugar, another Austrian specialty) was also delicious.

Ginger beer

If anyone is a ginger beer fan, try to find Herbal Moscow and prepare to have your life changed. I first had it in Amsterdam, where it was served with lemon and mint, but I've also been able to find it in Vienna and it is SO GOOD.

Homemade citrus ginger tea

I've never had freshly made tea before until coming to Austria & it is SO GOOD.

Skiing Nourishment

Grilled sausage + fries + Radler (1/2 beer, half fruit juice - usually citrus or grapefruit)

My mom told me that I would have the best meal of my life while skiing in the mountains of Europe. I didn't believe her. She was right, as usual.

Maybe it was because I was just so tired and hungry and I was in a ridiculously beautiful Austrian mountain range, but this stuff was GOOD. The fries were perfectly crispy, the sausage was delicious, & the Radler was unbelievably refreshing. I would go back to that mountain just for the food!

Scotland Nourishment

Scotland has my soul. Marykate & I were only in Edinburgh for 1.5 days & 1 night but that was enough to reaffirm my eternal love for this country. And the delicious food certainly helped on that front...

"The Elephant House" breakfast: eggs, sausage, back bacon, grilled tomato, & bread

The Elephant House cafe in Edinburgh is the place where J.K. Rowling wrote most of the first few Harry Potter books. So, naturally, we had to go. The food was delicious - it was basically just all the good parts of a traditional English breakfast & none of the bad parts (like beans. Who wants beans for breakfast?). We ate here just before hiking up Arthur's Seat, & the breakfast gave us plenty of energy!

Darjeeling tea + carrot cake + lentil soup

This little tea place made me very happy. They had a cute table full of desserts, lots of tea to choose from, & some other delicious "real food" options as well. We shared our little 4 person table with a middle aged couple, who were very sweet. This was where I tired darjeeling tea for the first time & I loved it! It was a lovely discovery. I really wanted to abduct the adorable teacup & teapot our stuff was served in.

English Nourishment

You may be thinking - ewww, English food is gross, they have nothing but fish & chips. WRONG. Find a cute little cafe somewhere & I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

Layer 1: pancake. Layer 2: back bacon. Layer 3: pancake .... (you get the point - it was heaven) + raspberry apple blueberry mango smoothie.

I don't even have words. This was too perfect. Brighton wins at food.

Mojitea (I KNOW WHAT)

This tea was probably the best iced tea I've ever had & I kick myself every day for not buying a giant tin of it from Bluebird Tea Co. in Brighton. Luckily, they ship all over the world so if you don't want to be sad like me click here & buy it & have your life changed.

Tomato + spinach baked eggs

Brighton really killed it with the food. We were only there for a day trip but we certainly got the most out of it! If you've never had baked eggs, I highly suggest you go throw some marinara sauce + veggies in a little oven safe pan, crack some eggs on top, bake it for awhile, & be happy.

White chocolate raspberry cake + citrus mint tea

I tried to be really English & get a lot of tea in the UK. It was a good decision. Also, this cake was so fresh & delicious - & also very reasonable for this cafe being right around the corner from Kings Cross in London!

Irish Nourishment

I ate a lot of Italian food in Ireland, I'm not quite sure why, but I also had some GREAT food from little cafes.

Turkey, pickled gherkins, chipotle mayo, crushed tortilla, & guacamole ciabatta sandwich + blackberry & sage lemonade

I ate at this place because it was called The Woolen Mills & I was secretly hoping they also sold yarn. They didn't. But their food (& especially that AMAZING lemonade) made up for the slight disappointment.

Pomegranate tea

I was very tired during my afternoon in Dublin, so I popped into a little tea shop to read a book and relax. I had no idea what tea to get so I just told the woman to make me whatever was her favorite & goodness gracious she has good taste.

The book I was reading is a very cool collection of fairy tales put together by Angela Carter. She searched all over the world for the oldest and least tampered with fairy tales, and the result is so intriguing. I bought the book because I was so pulled in by the introduction. She talks about how so many of the fairy tales that are in popular culture feature weak or flat female leads, whereas these stories (many of them the origin stories of popular tales like Cinderella or Snow White) show strong, dynamic, clever, resourceful women. She points out that people didn't just make up these strong female characters - these centuries old stories portray women as they were known in their specific cultures. I love learning about cultures that lift up women instead of putting them down or pitting them against one another. It's been a great read so far!

Salzburg Nourishment

Hazelnut & almond pretzel

I was in Salzburg over Easter weekend, so I was lucky enough to catch some of the Easter markets. My favorite part of these markets are the pretzels. They're huge, have all the best flavors, & are basically just happiness twisted up & waiting to be devoured.

An Austrian herbal soft drink - kind of a mix of ginger beer & lemonade

I went on the Sound of Music tour, & the tour guide called this stuff "yodel juice". I had to try it just for that. It's not too sweet, not too sour - just right!

Innsbruck Nourishment

Vegan (duh) lemon gelato + parents

I got this gelato as we were walking to the train after spending a short weekend in Innsbruck. I don't know why, but it was just a very happy moment. Probably because of these goons.

Faith While Abroad: Finding Silence & Community

Salzburg, Austria

I had one of the most fulfilling spiritual experiences of my life in St. Peter's church in Salzburg a few weeks ago. It was Holy Saturday, I was homesick, it was cloudy and gloomy outside, and I was tired - so I went into this church, sat down, and pulled out my knitting needles.

I went on silent retreat at Loyola last year, and while there I had this remarkable prayer experience where I started spiritually connecting to Jesus through our hands. It sounds bizarre, I know. But I was reading the book Jesus: A Pilgrimmage by Father James Martin, S.J. (SO good, don't let the 500 pages scare you) which gives a pretty strong picture of the humanity of Jesus. I had struggled to connect to Jesus before, but as I found myself reading about his upbringing and his occupation as carpenter, I thought something crazy: Jesus & I aren't all that different.

Did I just commit blasphemy? Maybe. But this realization started me on a path of imaginative prayer, something very common in Ignatian Spirituality. You see, I always kind of saw Jesus as this distant figure - maybe overly philosophical, too old to be my friend, too young to be a father figure, too male to bond with woman-to-woman, too holy to really care about me (sorry for being so picky, Jesus) - I couldn't find any way to relate to him. But finally, I got it: Jesus is creative. I mean, he made up the parables to teach people in ways they would understand - and some of the parables are even funny if you learn the historical context. He also spent most of his life as a carpenter, using his hands to create something new and beautiful from raw materials. Kind of like knitting...

I started picturing myself sitting on a nice wooden bench (that Jesus made, naturally) knitting, while Jesus was working on some new carpentry project a few feet away. Sometimes we talk, sometimes we just sit there.

It's now my favorite way to pray. After a lifetime of working so hard to connect to Jesus, I've finally just stopped trying and have presented myself as I am, and accepted Jesus for who he is. I can sit on that bench for hours, voicing all of my problems, talking about my hopes and dreams, or just simply being.

I let myself slip into this state of peace while in Salzburg, and it was bliss. I was working on a cabled hat for a dear friend back home, praying for her and her family, and just hanging out with Jesus. It was the end of my Spring Break, and I was traveling alone, and I was physically and emotionally exhausted - but sitting and knitting in silence in this church gave me life. I felt recharged and reconnected to my faith and myself.

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It's kind of fascinating to be in Europe, a place that has so much religious history and still standing traditions rooted in Christianity, yet the people are almost remarkably unreligious. Sure, people (mostly tourists) are visiting the big churches, but Masses are far from packed. Although I probably shouldn't be making such hasty generalizations (but not really so hasty, check out the interesting graph in this article), as I've barely been to Mass this semester.

Sure, I could make excuses - it's in German, I don't understand anything, I'm traveling a lot of the weekends... Please. I guarantee I could look up an English Mass in a heartbeat, but for some reason I just haven't.

I'm not proud of this. I feel pretty weird about it. But it's not like I've had a faithless semester. I've had the same ups and downs that I have all the time, because study abroad is real life. And real life is sometimes pretty spectacular, and sometimes honestly pretty sucky.

I've had a tough, emotional week, and it's made me think a lot - about what my life has been here, about what I'm proud of and what I wish I would have done differently, about the most powerful, awe-inspiring experiences I've had while abroad and also the most frustrating ones... truly I've been a bit of a mess. But it's been good to let myself wallow a little bit and evaluate where I'm at.

Unsurprisingly, it was while watching a video that was part of this years' John Courtney Murray Forum - an annual event put on by the Catholic Studies minors at Loyola that is near and dear to my heart - that I got a bit of peace during this stressful time (check it out here if you're interested - I highly recommend it!).

This year's forum focused on being Catholic & Millennial. It was a massive topic that I am positive was explored to its fullest because the people that worked on the forum are some of the coolest, smartest, most inspiring people I know. This video is a compilation of interviews with campus students and staff all talking about what it means to be a Catholic millennial. At the end of this video, the always lovely Lauren Schwer gives some advice to the busy young Catholics of the world: "Find silence".

And then, of course, she sent me an email while I was writing this post packed with all kinds of needed goodness. Typical Lauren Schwer psychic telepathy wonderfulness.

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Like my life lately (always), this post has been a little bit all over the place, but it boils down to this: finding silence anywhere is hard. Finding silence abroad is particularly difficult. I'm guilty as ever of overprogramming myself - trying to cram in too many weekend trips, freaking out about class scheduling and graduating on time back home, and thinking I have to handle all of this on my own.

But it's times like this when I pick up my knitting needles and go back to that bench, in search of a little silence, peace, and quality time with my pal Jesus. Maybe it's weird, but it works for me. And isn't that the beauty of faith? The uniqueness of your own experience, balanced with the wonderful connectedness to other people of faith - a connection that I have felt across the ocean as I watched the Catholic Studies minors kill it at the forum, as I have received messages of love and support from my friends and family back home, and as I have formed fast friendships with girls from all different faiths (many who, of course, attend other Jesuit schools) here in Vienna.

And, because it's so great (& remarkably relevant), I want to end with a Papa Francesco quote Lauren sent me today:

"There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easer. I realize of course that joy is not expressed the same way at all times of life, especially at moments of great difficulty. Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved."

The Good Kind of Overwhelmed

Probably the most accurate summary of the past few weeks of my life. A Manner wafer + the gorgeous Austrian Alps.

You know when you do so much living & then all of the sudden it's March & midterms & you have a pile of laundry & a whole lot of awesome & beautiful experiences that you've collected but you also feel like you could sleep for approximately 4 years? That's where I'm at.

Before I left, there were some mandatory pre-study abroad sessions that Loyola hosted. They told us some practical stuff like how to get our classes to transfer, and also warned us about the study abroad graph. It looks a little something like this:

From talking to other people abroad, a lot if other schools showed this graph as well. Everyone is afraid of "the plunge". We all know it's coming in one way or another, so sometimes we end a bad day with: "Well, maybe I'm heading into that drop they warned us about".

I think I've definitely been through my fair share of days where I dipped lower on the graph - experiencing things like getting overwhelmed at my internship, getting sick, or missing people back home. But luckily, I think I've got a pretty good balance of "OH MY GOD THIS PLACE IS AMAZING LIFE IS PERFECT I'M GONNA EAT SOME CHOCOLATE" and the reality checks of "this is still real life and there are real issues that I need to take care of". I think the reason I have this balance is because of 2 very important things:

1 Self Care

• I CANNOT stress this enough. I think it's really important while abroad to take time to be alone, relax, and reflect. It's easy to get caught up in wanting to do and see everything and making sure you don't miss out on a fun night with friends or traveling to a new place, but honestly I think taking time for yourself is the key to a great overall experience. Allowing myself the time to journal or go to a cafe by myself and knit and read has helped me recharge and take care of my mental state.

2 Explore Every Day

• Do I spend entire afternoons watching Austrian Netflix in my bed? Yes. Do I do that every day? Absolutely not. Staying in and hermiting can be nice and is definitely necessary at times, but keeping a constant mindset of curiosity and discovery allows each day to be an adventure. Something even as small as going for a walk in a new neighborhood can yield to the discovery of a new favorite cafe or the best chocolate croissant in all of Vienna (I'm still on a quest for that - although I haven't had a bad one yet). This is important everywhere - not just abroad. Everyday life is an adventure if you make it one.

That being said, here are 5 of my favorite adventures I've been on in the past few weeks. I'm falling more and more in love with this city, country, and continent with each new sight or bite of sachertorte, and I'm excited to share it all!

Mom & Erin's Visit (+ Hallstatt & Bratislava)

Is the Lynch family really together if we don't take a ridiculous selfie?

LOOK! FAMILIAR FACES! I really like these people and I'm glad I got to show them around my favorite country even though I got so stressed out about wanting them to like it that I cried one night at dinner (sorry). We spent a weekend in Hallstatt, then came back to Vienna for the week and took a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia.

Hallstatt, Austria

Hallstatt is a magical little town nestled on a lake that backs up to a mountain and it's probably Heaven. The Chinese actually love Hallstatt so much that they recreated it (brick by brick - it's pretty amazing) in their own country. I completely understand the obsession because it's GORGEOUS.

It was the off season so not a lot of things were closed and it was sometimes even hard to find a place for dinner, but we had a great time exploring neature and hiking up the mountain.

Awesome selfie courtesy of the GoPro.

On our way down from hiking the mountain. WE DID IT.

There were also random cats everywhere which was amazing & I even saw some alpacas and yaks and it was just magical. And I got yak yarn for 14 euro?!!? It was a beautiful experience. Erin spotted some yarn in a window of a garage and there was an arrow pointing up some steps to a little building full of yarn & we rang a doorbell & at first no one was there so we left & came back later & then a woman appeared from her house and opened the shop for us and it was AMAZING.

VERY excited about the Hallstatt cats. I miss Melman.

We then spent a few days in Vienna eating delicious food, shopping, wandering around, climbing Stephansdom, going to the Manner store, hitting some museums, and buying a plant for my apartment - all necessary Vienna experiences.

The Albertina's famous rabbit. Erin loves art!!!

We also took a day trip to Bratislava, which is only about an hour train ride from Vienna. I loved it there! It's a cool peak into Eastern Europe and it kind of felt like a mix of Vienna and Berlin to me. It's small - definitely walkable - and quite cheap.

We climbed up to the Bratislava castle, tried some beer from a local brewery, got AMAZING Italian food, had an adventure taking a cab to a yarn store, and got some delicious cookies at a really cute bakery/cafe.

The Bratislava castle that overlooks the entire city.

This is quintessential Bratislava - wall ruins that have probably been around for 1000 years + old traditional houses + a church steeple + a highway + steely buildings in the back.

I just liked these doors.

Tea at the lovely little cafe where Mom & I got delicious cookies. I love these colors!

I really really loved having Mom & Erin here, & I'm glad Erin was able to cram in a visit during her Spring Break! I wasn't really experiencing homesickness, but having them both visit made me miss my Dad - so I'm very excited for my Mom & Dad to come at the end of this month!

Ski Trip to Radstadt

Every single view in the Alps is unbelievably gorgeous.

After Mom and Erin left, I hopped on a bus & went back basically to a place a few mountains over from Hallstatt to ski for the weekend with other IES students. It was an amazing experience but also EXHAUSTING!

I've been skiing since I was a kid & although I certainly wouldn't consider myself an expert, I can get down the mountain without falling & I'm never really all that sore - but this was a different kind of skiing. Normally I kind of just go straight down the mountain because I like to go fast, but I couldn't do that here. I had to weave back and forth through fairly thick powder or slush at some points (it was so warm on Saturday! I skied in just my Patagonia!) so my legs got an INTENSE workout! I've never been so sore in my entire life. My body was mad at me. But I love skiing and the trip was full of awesome people so, extreme soreness overlooked, it was a win.

My friend Mary Kate & I celebrating the INCREDIBLE view from the top of the mountain!

Seriously. WOW.

Internship at Radio Afrika

I'm doing an internship while in Vienna, and it's been an incredibly fruitful and challenging experience so far. The organization I'm working with is Radio Afrika, a information and communication platform catering to Africans and people interested in Africa who are living in Austria. Radio Afrika has a radio station, TV program, and magazine. They also coordinate several projects, one of the current ones focusing on the refugee crisis.

I've been helping to design their magazine and some other things like invites for events. Designing the magazine is difficult because it's in German or French and about Africa, and I'm from Cedar Rapids, Iowa and I feel like I'm entirely unqualified to do any of this. However, the people I work with are great and every day I go in to work I feel more and more comfortable and competent. I'm excited to have this indispensable experience!

Screen Printing

So, you may be wondering - am I actually going to school here? YES. AND MY CLASSES ARE THE BOMB.COM (mostly) - especially my screen printing class. I have it every Friday, and I spend about 5 hours in a textile studio with 4 other IES students developing ideas and sketches, creating screens, and (only recently) printing.

I love being creative and working with my hands so this is right up my alley. It's quite the process to create a screen, so I've only been able to develop some ideas and put them on one screen and do a test print. In the next few weeks, I'll start working on actual projects like greeting cards, garments, and more!

Screens are made by covering a screen with light sensitive pigment, arranging black and white designs that have been copied onto transparent paper onto the screen, exposing the screen in a dark room, removing the transparent papers, and then power washing the screen so that the spots where black was drawn onto the paper will lose the pigment. Then to print, you use a squeegee to pull paint back and forth over the screen. It's kind of ridiculous process to try to explain without a bunch pictures, so I'll try to take some more another time.

Here are some of my sketches copied onto transparent paper.

These are some of those same patterned designs that I test printed onto some fabric.

The cool thing about screen printing is that you can layer everything in different colors and metallic paint or paint that puffs up or throw glitter on there or basically do a lot of crazy wonderful things. I'm excited to layer these textures all over everything. I've also been working on some designs to make greeting cards, and I put two of them on the same screen as these textures.

One of my designs I'm intending to use for a greeting card. Aww!

Another little design for cards.

Screen printing is so unique and I'm so excited to get the opportunity to try it out. I'll post more updates once I actually start making things!

Hannah in Vienna!

This beautiful soul standing in front of Schloss Schönbrunn.

It's so wonderful to see people from home and this particular person lights up my life. Hannah Hostetler, one of my good friends from Loyola, is studying abroad in Rome. After going on a Spring Break trip to Eastern Europe (which looked AMAZING) she came to Vienna and we got to hang out for a few days.

We went to an Easter market and did some sight seeing, but mostly just wandered around and ate some good food.

Pretzels from the Easter Market were so good that I got emotional. Mine was basically a raised sugared donut twisted into a pretzel. I REALLY MISS DONUTS!

They're starting to plant flowers! Finally! A floral Treble Clef at the Hofburg Palace.

We went to a cool (but crowded) bar with my friends and hung out in the basement where there was a foosball table, a photo booth, and also bathrooms.

The photobooth was 2 euros worth of fun but we really struggled to get into the frame. Typical!

I love love love showing people Vienna, mainly because I love it and I want everyone else to love it too. Thank you Hannah for coming to visit!!!

What now?

Midterms! I already turned in a paper for my Arts & Nations class (which I wrote about the Icelandic lopapeysa sweater and it's connection to Icelandic nationalism - it was amazing) and took my German midterm, and I have an Intercultural Communication midterm on Thursday. Until then, it's laundry, interning, and preparing for my Spring Break trip!

I'll be hitting London and Edinburgh with my friend Mary Kate, then traveling solo to Dublin, Galway, and the Aran Islands. I am SO FREAKING EXCITED!!!! I went to the UK when I was 14, and it was honestly magical. It was my first time to Europe and my first big trip without my family (I went with a group called People to People), and I truly felt like I fit in in the UK more than any place I'd ever been before. I wasn't planning on going back, but then I found out there was a yarn festival in Edinburgh the first week of my Spring Break and everything kind of fell into place.

I'm pretty excited about life right now. I'm about halfway through my time here, and I am so grateful for every moment Vienna has given me. I feel so at home and so happy with the person that I am here. I CANNOT WAIT to head to the UK later this week. I'm praying for a Queen sighting.