super duper late eurotrip post!

12/08/2026

SO I know I said I'll be more active during the summer... hear me out... Ever since I got back from travelling I immediately was thrown into my summer internship (which I begged for lol) and since then had just been living the 9-6 life with no life left in me by the time i get home, and definitely no energy to rack my brains over coding.

I may write another post about my life as a capitalist corporate slave another time, but this post is about something I promised I'll talk about in my last post -- my summer trip to the Czech Republic and Austria!

By early July my parents had flew to the UK to attend my sister's graduation. Right after that we hopped onto a flight straight to Prague. As many of you may know, European short-haul flights usually have pretty strict luggage limits. And I, as someone who never throw away things, unfortunately, just moved out of my accommodation and had a bunch of stuff. So my parents were forced to conduct a brutal cleanse of my luggage... which hurts to watch.

We stopped by four locations total during this week-long trip: Prague, Český Krumlov, Salzburg, and Vienna, in that order.

At our first stop, Prague, I was met with probably more cathedral than I had ever seen in my life (little did I know at the time that this trip is going to be PLAGUED with cathedrals). The streetviews and architectures are honestly awesome. Maybe it's because the city centre is a tourism hotspot, but there's very little blocky modern buildings (iykyk) and the whole place just looked like its transported from the past (until you look closer and realise how many marijuana and vape shops there are lol).

Obviously, as a history student, I can't forget Prague as the prime defenestration hotspot. Super happy to get to see that window in person, felt like meeting a celebrity fr.

Our next main stop is Český Krumlov, a town that felt straight out of a fairytale. I kind of mentally catalogged this place as a good retirment spot until I realise its fairy-tale like appeal (and its economy being mainly driven by tourism) meant there's relatively little convinience infrastructure to support day to day life. As someone who had always prefer to live in cities and always want to be at most 5 minutes away from a tesco (or equivalent), I probably can't survive.

But is it also a good place to get away from a fast-paced city life once in a while? absolutely.

On our way from Český Krumlov to Salzburg, we also made a short stop at this beautiful lake-side town. The resident here don't really like tourists so we were asked to keep our voice down, which is super valid. But I also made the mistake of casually telling my sister (who is known for having very cursed laughs) a joke, after which a demonic sound erupts (aka she bursed out laughing)... I'm sorry fellow residents.

Soon after we arrived at Salzburg and immediately upon arrival we went and devoured a table of Chinese food (it's that point in the Eurotrip fr). The next day we also went and had the (allegedly very famous) Austria, Desserts, European Cuisine, Germany, Recipes, Vegetarian, Western Europe Salzburger Nockerl, which is a Souffle-like dessert that's apparently very famous. I have to say, maybe because I had too high an expectation, it's kind of mid. But it's also really fun to eat its SO FLUFFY..

we also met this very distinguished gentleman

And at last, we arrive at Vienna, which is also our longest stay of the trip. Our first stop is the Schönbrunn, which we get to go inside and get a tour of. I really enjoyed it because 1. it's gorgeous and 2. I somehow really really love observing interior desings. Though, I didn't mention this earlier but at this point we've seen and gone into more cathedrals and palaces and castles than I could count, so in some way I was also getting a bit of aesthetic fatigue lolol

And, obviously, how can we forget the ultimate, the original, SACHERTORTE? My mum and my sister said they didn't like it (it has a little bit of sour/fruity note rather than being fully chocolate) but i personally really like it. Also I feel liek Austrians just love desserts in general cuz wdym a full coffee sundae is what the call a 'Viennese Latte' like its the most standard drink??

That night, we had the (allegedly) very famous Viennese beef soup for dinner. It's honestly really good; the soup is flavourful, the meat is tender, there's even bone marrow and all... but do I also think I can get a similar quality beef soup at a Taiwanese beef noodle soup place with a fraction of the price..? (yes, maybe)

The next day we took a break from looking at castles/palace/cathedral adjacent (cuz atp my whole family have aesthetic fatigue) and went so some shopping districts instead. I don't have any picture of this but we went into the main Swarovski store (the HQ, one may say), and lowkey i got blinded cause everything in threre are so shiny lol

To be honest we visited a lot more spots (castle/palace/cathedral adjacent) that would be too long to discuss in depth here, but I'm just gonna say if you're a fan of architecture or art history, you're going to love this trip.

We flew back to London and then back to Taiwan.. except it's not really that simple since our flight from London to Taiwan got cancelled because of typhoon so we have a 2 days layover. By the time we landed in Taiwan it was literally the afternoon before my internship starts... I guess that's an effective (if not hardcore) way to fix jetlag.