I have never been good at puns. They are a source of humor that vastly escapes me. However, I have a couple that I will save for the end of this post. If you follow me on Instagram (@ekpattz_) then you will have already read them, and so I apologize for forcing you to read them again.

---

One thing about exchange is that you get the wonderful opportunity to spend a lot of money without the opportunity to make any money. And while its awesome, you have to be mindful of what you’re doing.

So, I decided that I should maybe do some more smaller day trips within Austria to save some money, and fully enjoy the country that I now live in.

And that is what led me to travel to Melk, Austria, home of one of the most amazing Abbeys I have ever seen. But we’ll get to that later.

We got to Melk around noon: we could have gotten there earlier but it would have cost more and the journey would have taken an extra hour than the later train. So we arrived and headed straight to the Abbey, the biggest (and essentially only) attraction in the small town.

I would just like to say that this is one of the few places I have ever been that I was truly amazed by. I stood in the Chapel of the Abbey in utter awe. The grand hall was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It was a wonderful afternoon – I took SO MANY PICTURES. Eventually I told my friends that they had to start leaving so I would be pressured to leave as well. I think I could have stayed and taken pictures in the Abbey for hours.

So here are SOME of the pictures I took – I’ll break them up a little by area/room.

This is the outside wall and gate of the Abbey. Along the street on the way to the Abbey there are gold-colored stones that lead the way to the Abbey.

Past the outer gate is an inner courtyard with 2 small buildings on either side of the courtyard. 1 is where you buy tickets, and the other has a gift shop and small exhibition that you can go see.

 

On the other side of this courtyard is a gate/opening into the next courtyard.

This main courtyard is MASSIVE. There’s so much room for activities! It was so beautiful and open!

Off to one side was a small display about the more religious history of the Abbey. Unfortunately it was all in German, and I have no idea what any of it was. But as with everywhere else I’ve been, they have a book where people can sign. I make it a habit of always signing the books – just in case anyone ever goes through and reads those, its cool that I’m a part of that.

The architecture of the interior is very detailed and beautiful. The whole thing is so big – its amazing that they took such care for the whole thing, regardless of the sheer size!

Inside parts of the Abbey was a large museum.

 

It also was very visually remarkable. One of my favorite pictures is this one:

I took it in one of the rooms of the museum. The walls were covered in mirrors and all the artifacts were displayed in complete glass cases. Everything was reflecting and sparkling and light and bright and I really liked it!

One of the major rooms inside the Abbey is this grand ballroom-type room. I can’t remember what it is actually called, but it was also very striking.

That fresco was AMAZING. It took up the whole ceiling. It was so big and open and had so many large windows with so much natural light. It was really awe inspiring to stand in there.

The doors led outside to the front(?) of the Abbey where there was a terrace and a beautiful view of the town and river.

Pretty, right?

On the other side of the terrace is the Library. You aren’t allowed to take pictures inside, and there is a lady standing inside watching people as they walk around.

If we have learned anything from my time in Slovakia, I like to take pictures where I’m not allowed to in order to spite the people who say I can’t.

I got 3 sneaky pictures of the library – 1 of them is blurry though..

The library is pretty impressive, and my pictures definitely don’t do it justice. However, in the gift shop there was a a large picture you could buy that was a photograph of the library.

So I took a picture of that picture. Because I’m resourceful.

The library led to the Chapel of the Abbey. This is another one that took my breath away.

Sorry for the overload of pictures. I just couldn’t get enough of the place. All the gold and fresco details was really amazing. And the size of the place!! It’s enormous!

The whole Abbey was amazing. I just loved every minute of it. I just soaked it all in, I loved it so.

We also went to the other exhibition in the first courtyard, and climbed a tower to get a view of the gardens and the city again. I got a stamp because I’m cool.

---

After the Abbey we hurried to the train station because we wanted to take the train/bus to the castle about 10 minutes away.

The problem was that the times the bus was running was only 3 times a day. The last bus we could take was at 3:50, arriving at the castle as 4:00. The last bus back to Melk was at 4:20, meaning that we would have less than 20 minutes at the castle. It sucks because the other 2 buses happened earlier in the day before we arrived in the town, meaning that this was the only bus we could have taken anyways. 20 minutes was not nearly enough time to see the castle, and we decided it wasn’t worth spending the money on the bus to rush around quickly taking pictures before hoping on the bus back again. So we walked around the old town, took some pictures, and got some ice cream – seemed fitting to do so in Melk haha.

We also went into the town’s church.

 

---

After ice cream we had a decision to make. It was still a little early, so we thought maybe we would stop at one of the small towns on the way back to Steyr. The problem is that any place worth going would take around 1,5 hours to get to, and by the time we would get there it would be really close to 6pm. Everything closes around 6, and on saturdays (like today) some things would close even earlier. So we decided it wasn’t worth it again because we wouldn’t be able to do anything in another town anyways.

So we headed back to Steyr, ran to the grocery store with 10 minutes to spare before closing, bought some junk food, and had a movie night instead. It was actually really nice – its the first real “social” thing I’ve done. Traveling in a group is different – this was just hanging out with some friends. And it was really nice.

I did fall asleep at the end of the movie though…. my bad.

---

Well, it’s a good thing I’m not lactose intolerant, since I spent the day in Melk. It was legen-dairy.

Please don’t hate me.

See you next time!!

emma.k