Well, we got to Brussels yesterday after two 3-hour train rides (I'm telling you... this plane ride home is gonna be so easy after all this traveling!). We checked in, then hit the town!
We don't have much time here, so we went out exploring. We had the ever-so-nutritious dinner of French Fries, followed by Waffles. Yup, we're definitely in Belgium!
We explored the city for a while, making sure we saw some cool things. We went to the Atomium, which is designed like a big atom for the 1958 World Fair. In it are exhibitions about science and immigration. it seems really cool. It's a shame it was 10pm when we were there and it was closed.
This morning, the plan wasfor Pat and I to go back to the Atomium or for the boys and girls to split up: Boys to a comic strip museum thing and girls to the chocolate museum. Buuuut, the plans changed when Pat got sick overnight :-( He's really not feeling well at all. Dave lost interest in going to the comic book museum and Jen and I looked up the chocolate museum online and it looks SO boring. Instead, everyone is asleep. Including me. zzZZZzzz. Well, not really, obviously.
Later today we're getting on a train to Amsterdam, our last city in Europe! Let's hope Jen continues to get better, Pat starts getting better, and Dave and I stay healthy!!!!
Don't forget to check out the pics I posted. I was able to fit one more onto flickr, but that's my monthly limit. Grr.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Pictures and video!
Hey Everyone!! Here are a bunch of pictures. I'll label where they're all from. I'm also uploading some more to Flickr, so check those out! The video of the train at the bottom is funny :-)
Brussels: The Atomium "Welcome" sign. the guy I asked to take the picture only got part of the sign lol.
Brussels: The Atomium
Brussels: pretty view of the city
Munich: Dachau Concentration Camp
Neuschwanstein Castle
Neuschwanstein Castle: Mary's Bridge
Neuschwanstein Castle
Neuschwanstein Castle: Pat and I on Mary's Bridge
Neuschwanstein Castle: The view from Mary's Bridge!!!
Munich: The clock tower (the glockenspeil)
Munich: A place in the main square, Marienplatz... it made me miss my Saucy Sigmas!!!
Munich: TCNJ much??
Berlin: Jen's and my beer from the beer garden!! Obviously mixed with different flavors. Mine was raspberry! mmmm!
Berlin: Check out the TV tower to the right... the sun is reflecting off of it and... voila! The Pope's Revenge!
Berlin: The War Memorial - A mother holding her soldier son who died.
Berlin: Part of the Berlin Wall
Berlin: The Holocaust Memorial
Prague: The clock tower
This is the train right after Germany won the game on Sunday. Pat got REALLY into the celebration...
Brussels: The Atomium
Brussels: pretty view of the city
Munich: Dachau Concentration Camp
Neuschwanstein Castle
Neuschwanstein Castle: Mary's Bridge
Neuschwanstein Castle
Neuschwanstein Castle: Pat and I on Mary's Bridge
Neuschwanstein Castle: The view from Mary's Bridge!!!
Munich: The clock tower (the glockenspeil)
Munich: A place in the main square, Marienplatz... it made me miss my Saucy Sigmas!!!
Munich: TCNJ much??
Berlin: Jen's and my beer from the beer garden!! Obviously mixed with different flavors. Mine was raspberry! mmmm!
Berlin: Check out the TV tower to the right... the sun is reflecting off of it and... voila! The Pope's Revenge!
Berlin: The War Memorial - A mother holding her soldier son who died.
Berlin: Part of the Berlin Wall
Berlin: The Holocaust Memorial
Prague: The clock tower
This is the train right after Germany won the game on Sunday. Pat got REALLY into the celebration...
Monday, June 28, 2010
Last Day of Munich
Today, Jen and Dave went to the Dachau concentration camp in the morning with some hostel friends. They did the audio guide while they were there. Pat and I didn't go with them because 1, we wanted to sleep, and 2, we wanted to go with a tour guide.
So, we headed out later on and went on the New Europe tour to Dachau. Since being there I completely agree with what people have been telling us: Everyone should see a concentration camp at least once in their lives.
It was really upsetting being there. We saw where people got their welcome to the camp speech (when they were told that they were nothing and yelled at and cursed at). We saw the showers and the whole process of getting them situated at the camp, aka stealing all their belongings, the razors used, and a uniform they were given.
We learned about different forms of torture used at that camp in particular. We saw the barracks as well, but it was a recreation of them. All the original ones were burnt to the ground by the US soldiers when the camp was liberated and emptied.
There are 4 memorials there from the 4 major religions present by the prisoners: Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and Greek Orthodox.
The gas chamber and crematorium were still standing. The prisoners stopped the US soldiers from burning it to the ground so that people could learn about what happened there, learn from what happened, and to honor the memory of those who lost their lives in that way. If you wanna know more about that part, just ask me, but I'm not going to blog about it because it was pretty upsetting and I don't want any of you to get upset by the descriptions. Feel free to talk to me about it though.
On a lighter note, later in the day Pat and I met up with Sarah!!! We went out to dinner with her and had soooo much fun! Sarah, it was so good to see you!
Oh and apparently in Germany there's a fruit that's called: Sharon!! It's supposedly really sweet too! Quite fitting.... Just kidding! :-P there really is a fruit named that though!
Germany has been so much fun, but alas, tis time to move on. Off we go!!!
PS- Germany won their game on Sunday. Pat and I found this out on the train ride back from Dachau, when tooons of germans were heading to the city to celebrate. They were singing, cheering, and jumping: the whole train was shaking! I'll post the video I took. It was pretty funny!
So, we headed out later on and went on the New Europe tour to Dachau. Since being there I completely agree with what people have been telling us: Everyone should see a concentration camp at least once in their lives.
It was really upsetting being there. We saw where people got their welcome to the camp speech (when they were told that they were nothing and yelled at and cursed at). We saw the showers and the whole process of getting them situated at the camp, aka stealing all their belongings, the razors used, and a uniform they were given.
We learned about different forms of torture used at that camp in particular. We saw the barracks as well, but it was a recreation of them. All the original ones were burnt to the ground by the US soldiers when the camp was liberated and emptied.
There are 4 memorials there from the 4 major religions present by the prisoners: Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and Greek Orthodox.
The gas chamber and crematorium were still standing. The prisoners stopped the US soldiers from burning it to the ground so that people could learn about what happened there, learn from what happened, and to honor the memory of those who lost their lives in that way. If you wanna know more about that part, just ask me, but I'm not going to blog about it because it was pretty upsetting and I don't want any of you to get upset by the descriptions. Feel free to talk to me about it though.
On a lighter note, later in the day Pat and I met up with Sarah!!! We went out to dinner with her and had soooo much fun! Sarah, it was so good to see you!
Oh and apparently in Germany there's a fruit that's called: Sharon!! It's supposedly really sweet too! Quite fitting.... Just kidding! :-P there really is a fruit named that though!
Germany has been so much fun, but alas, tis time to move on. Off we go!!!
PS- Germany won their game on Sunday. Pat and I found this out on the train ride back from Dachau, when tooons of germans were heading to the city to celebrate. They were singing, cheering, and jumping: the whole train was shaking! I'll post the video I took. It was pretty funny!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Munich Day 1 and 2 (tours, beers, and castles!)
We got off our overnight train and found our hostel. Ian (friend from the train) was just in the city til that night when he had a train to catch, so he tagged along with us!
The 5 of us put our bags in the luggage room and paid for the all-you-can-eat breakfast at the hostel. After some good grub we were off to our New Europe tour!!!
Now, this was my least favorite of our tours. The tour guide was just not up to par with the others we've had. But we saw some cool things, including:
-the glockenspeil
-the opera house
-the memorial to german resistance
-Frauenkirche
-new town hall
-old town hall
Its funny... Because of having to be rebuilt, the new town hall is older than the old town hall! Haha.
We also heard the legend of the devil's footprint and the origins of Oktoberfest. With that, we learned that the average resident of munich drinks 1.5 liters of beer per day. WOW.
So after the tour we went to a restraunt with the tour group. It was yummy foor for a low price with large portions. Our tour group really hit it off together! After that, we left tour guide Kevin to go back to the hofbrauhaus with most of our group. We had looots of fun all together. Ther was the 5 of us, Kathleen from Australia, and Emmett and Justine from Montreal.
The Hofbrauhaus is this awesome beer garden with a huge beer hall onside as well! We played 21, a scottish drinking game we picked up in Prague. It's so much fun whether or not you have alcohol! When Pat had to drink we'd all yell, "Hydrate!!!!"
Later on we went back to the hostel, checked in, and went for drinks/food with this same group. We really had a great time together!
The next day, pat and I were off to a New Europe tour that we paid for: Neuschwanstein Castle Tour. Now for those of you wondering, yes, this is the castle that Sleeping Beauty's castle was based off of! I can't believe I actually got to go there!
It was a 2 hour train ride there, but the countryside was pretty and every so often we'd pass a little German village :-)
When we got there we heard a lot about Ludwig II, who built this castle. He was very into fantasy worlds, which is why he built the castle, and many people felt he was insane. Others think he was just very forward thinking. To me it seemed like he was a really smart guy who had a great imagination. I liked his life story so much that I think I'm gonna read up some more on him. How he died exactly is still a mystery, too. There's lots of sketchy things that went down.
Anywho, we saw Hohenschwangau Castle, which was the weeked getaway castle that Ludwug grew up in. Swan Lake is right behind the castle and our tour guide told us the legend of the Swan King. Swans were Ludwigs favorite animal because of this!
We hiked the mountain to Mary's Bridge (Marienbrucke Bridge). This is the only thing in germany with the name Mary that is not named after the Virgin Mary... It was named for Ludwig's mother. He built this bridge to connect the two mountains near the top. It's been reinforced with steel so that it's save to go on, but it was still impressive that the wood from the 1800's is still there!
The view from the bridge was amazing. Mountains on one side, waterfall below us, and the castle followed by the valley on the other side. It was so pretty! And a really rewarding view for climbing the mountain lol.
We walked down another path for a minute and we were at my castle! I mean sleeping beauty's castle. Oh oops.... Ludwig's castle. It's so impressive on the outside!
We had a different tour guide for inside the castle (they don't let anyone but their own tour guides in). He was kind of a creepy guy! He was like half robot, half ghost. Strange.
We weren't allowed to take pictures on the inside (I still snuck a few). This place was INCREDIBLE!!! No wonder it took 4 carpenters 4 years to do the bedroom alone! No wonder Ludwig got himself into so much debt (the equivalent of 15,000 euros)! There was no detail left uncovered. He even had a secret doorway in his room. And a hallway that was a replica of a cave because of one of his favorite shows!
The castle has a very modern kitchen for it's time, running water, central heating (a system of stoves), one of the very first telephones (connected only to the post office), and a flushing toilet!! Its a shame that the guy only got to live there for 172 days before he died (...or was murdered..). I mean, I would live here in the servants quarters if I could!
Back to reality, we went back to munich. Well, that's not REALLY reality, now is it? Lol. We went out (the 4 of us and 2 girls from the hostel that jen and dave had met) to the hofbrauhaus to watch the game!!! USA versus Ghana. Jen and I bought flags to wear (everyone here shows team pride!!) And we were off! When I walked in I was carrying my flag in my hand and everyone yelled at me til I wore it!! It was the perfect place to watch the game. Everyone was so into it and we had so much fun! That is, until the US lost. Oh well. We'll get em in 4 years!
Oh on the way back to the hostel we stopped and saw this really funny guy playing guitar on the street. He stopped to speak to the crowd a bunch of times. He was so good that I stayed there about 10 minutes!
That was about all for that day! More munich to report about in the next post!
The 5 of us put our bags in the luggage room and paid for the all-you-can-eat breakfast at the hostel. After some good grub we were off to our New Europe tour!!!
Now, this was my least favorite of our tours. The tour guide was just not up to par with the others we've had. But we saw some cool things, including:
-the glockenspeil
-the opera house
-the memorial to german resistance
-Frauenkirche
-new town hall
-old town hall
Its funny... Because of having to be rebuilt, the new town hall is older than the old town hall! Haha.
We also heard the legend of the devil's footprint and the origins of Oktoberfest. With that, we learned that the average resident of munich drinks 1.5 liters of beer per day. WOW.
So after the tour we went to a restraunt with the tour group. It was yummy foor for a low price with large portions. Our tour group really hit it off together! After that, we left tour guide Kevin to go back to the hofbrauhaus with most of our group. We had looots of fun all together. Ther was the 5 of us, Kathleen from Australia, and Emmett and Justine from Montreal.
The Hofbrauhaus is this awesome beer garden with a huge beer hall onside as well! We played 21, a scottish drinking game we picked up in Prague. It's so much fun whether or not you have alcohol! When Pat had to drink we'd all yell, "Hydrate!!!!"
Later on we went back to the hostel, checked in, and went for drinks/food with this same group. We really had a great time together!
The next day, pat and I were off to a New Europe tour that we paid for: Neuschwanstein Castle Tour. Now for those of you wondering, yes, this is the castle that Sleeping Beauty's castle was based off of! I can't believe I actually got to go there!
It was a 2 hour train ride there, but the countryside was pretty and every so often we'd pass a little German village :-)
When we got there we heard a lot about Ludwig II, who built this castle. He was very into fantasy worlds, which is why he built the castle, and many people felt he was insane. Others think he was just very forward thinking. To me it seemed like he was a really smart guy who had a great imagination. I liked his life story so much that I think I'm gonna read up some more on him. How he died exactly is still a mystery, too. There's lots of sketchy things that went down.
Anywho, we saw Hohenschwangau Castle, which was the weeked getaway castle that Ludwug grew up in. Swan Lake is right behind the castle and our tour guide told us the legend of the Swan King. Swans were Ludwigs favorite animal because of this!
We hiked the mountain to Mary's Bridge (Marienbrucke Bridge). This is the only thing in germany with the name Mary that is not named after the Virgin Mary... It was named for Ludwig's mother. He built this bridge to connect the two mountains near the top. It's been reinforced with steel so that it's save to go on, but it was still impressive that the wood from the 1800's is still there!
The view from the bridge was amazing. Mountains on one side, waterfall below us, and the castle followed by the valley on the other side. It was so pretty! And a really rewarding view for climbing the mountain lol.
We walked down another path for a minute and we were at my castle! I mean sleeping beauty's castle. Oh oops.... Ludwig's castle. It's so impressive on the outside!
We had a different tour guide for inside the castle (they don't let anyone but their own tour guides in). He was kind of a creepy guy! He was like half robot, half ghost. Strange.
We weren't allowed to take pictures on the inside (I still snuck a few). This place was INCREDIBLE!!! No wonder it took 4 carpenters 4 years to do the bedroom alone! No wonder Ludwig got himself into so much debt (the equivalent of 15,000 euros)! There was no detail left uncovered. He even had a secret doorway in his room. And a hallway that was a replica of a cave because of one of his favorite shows!
The castle has a very modern kitchen for it's time, running water, central heating (a system of stoves), one of the very first telephones (connected only to the post office), and a flushing toilet!! Its a shame that the guy only got to live there for 172 days before he died (...or was murdered..). I mean, I would live here in the servants quarters if I could!
Back to reality, we went back to munich. Well, that's not REALLY reality, now is it? Lol. We went out (the 4 of us and 2 girls from the hostel that jen and dave had met) to the hofbrauhaus to watch the game!!! USA versus Ghana. Jen and I bought flags to wear (everyone here shows team pride!!) And we were off! When I walked in I was carrying my flag in my hand and everyone yelled at me til I wore it!! It was the perfect place to watch the game. Everyone was so into it and we had so much fun! That is, until the US lost. Oh well. We'll get em in 4 years!
Oh on the way back to the hostel we stopped and saw this really funny guy playing guitar on the street. He stopped to speak to the crowd a bunch of times. He was so good that I stayed there about 10 minutes!
That was about all for that day! More munich to report about in the next post!
Berlin
Germany is great so far! Berlin was our first stop. We had a lot of fun there. America won a futbol game, germany won as well (the streets were CRAZY!), and italy lost! All good things! Haha. We had delicious meals and even more delicious strudel, too!!
We went on our favorite type of tour: the New Europe free walking tour! Our tour guide, Stephanie, was really awesome. She's an author from New Zealand living in Berlin because her book partially takes place there!
We saw lots of things on the Berlin tour, my favorites including:
- the holocaust memorial
- part of the berlin wall
- the area around checkpoint charlie
- museum island
- the old tv tower*
- the hotel that michael jackson was in when he dangled his baby off the balcony
*this went up by the communists right after they went around taking down every crucifix they could find. When the sun hits the tower though, it reflects off as a cross!!! It became known as the Pope's Revenge!
Berlin was really cool and I wish we had some more time to spend there. The stories we heard about the history of the city were amazing. It's so weird to think that the city was so different just 20 years ago. Berlin as it is now is younger than I am!
That night we took an overnight train to Munich. This was the worst of our overnighters. We had chairs... Not even couchettes. The chairs reclined at least, but it wasn't comfortable. We got very little sleep that night. The only plus about that train is that we met Ian from Michigan!
More to come about Munich later!
We went on our favorite type of tour: the New Europe free walking tour! Our tour guide, Stephanie, was really awesome. She's an author from New Zealand living in Berlin because her book partially takes place there!
We saw lots of things on the Berlin tour, my favorites including:
- the holocaust memorial
- part of the berlin wall
- the area around checkpoint charlie
- museum island
- the old tv tower*
- the hotel that michael jackson was in when he dangled his baby off the balcony
*this went up by the communists right after they went around taking down every crucifix they could find. When the sun hits the tower though, it reflects off as a cross!!! It became known as the Pope's Revenge!
Berlin was really cool and I wish we had some more time to spend there. The stories we heard about the history of the city were amazing. It's so weird to think that the city was so different just 20 years ago. Berlin as it is now is younger than I am!
That night we took an overnight train to Munich. This was the worst of our overnighters. We had chairs... Not even couchettes. The chairs reclined at least, but it wasn't comfortable. We got very little sleep that night. The only plus about that train is that we met Ian from Michigan!
More to come about Munich later!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Prague
So much to update you on yet again! Sorry I've been bad with blogging... I've been so busy and the trip is wearing me out at this point! I'm tired! Lol.
Ok so: Prague. Loooved Prague! Despite the fact trhat we didn't know even the teesiest bit of the language here, we had a blast. Even our hostel was awesome: Kudos, Sir Toby's!!!
We went to Old Town Square to meet up with our New Europe tour. We got so Czech history from tour guide Huw while there. Prague is really interesting because the arcitecture there is so varied: not much was destroyed by the world wars, so you've got your really old buildings right next to your fairly new buildings.
All of the movie Eurotrip was filmed in Prague because of this varied architecture. It was funny... The tour guide kept saying things like, "this is the louvre. Well, it was passed off as the louvre in the movie..." Haha.
We saw some cool things like the only theatre remaining that mozart performed in, the old new synagogue (according to legend, a golem apparently still lives in the attic), the cubism cafe, charles bridge, powder tower (used to store gun powder), and the old jewish quarter. In this last area we saw the cemetary, where the ground level is at least 10 feet higher than it should be: the Jewish people weren't alotted any more land, so they had to stack the graves. The ground is so uneven here. It was really sad.
On charles bridge there's this statue that you touch: right side for good luck, left side for bad (another version goes right side for love, left for kids... Haha).
We saw the clock tower in town go off. That was realllly cool. I mean, it didn't do much, but considering how old it is and how its the oldest working machine in the world, it was awesome! Maybe that's just the MST dork in me. Who knows haha.
That night Dave, Jen, and I went on a pub crawl. The next day it was off to germany!!!
Ok so: Prague. Loooved Prague! Despite the fact trhat we didn't know even the teesiest bit of the language here, we had a blast. Even our hostel was awesome: Kudos, Sir Toby's!!!
We went to Old Town Square to meet up with our New Europe tour. We got so Czech history from tour guide Huw while there. Prague is really interesting because the arcitecture there is so varied: not much was destroyed by the world wars, so you've got your really old buildings right next to your fairly new buildings.
All of the movie Eurotrip was filmed in Prague because of this varied architecture. It was funny... The tour guide kept saying things like, "this is the louvre. Well, it was passed off as the louvre in the movie..." Haha.
We saw some cool things like the only theatre remaining that mozart performed in, the old new synagogue (according to legend, a golem apparently still lives in the attic), the cubism cafe, charles bridge, powder tower (used to store gun powder), and the old jewish quarter. In this last area we saw the cemetary, where the ground level is at least 10 feet higher than it should be: the Jewish people weren't alotted any more land, so they had to stack the graves. The ground is so uneven here. It was really sad.
On charles bridge there's this statue that you touch: right side for good luck, left side for bad (another version goes right side for love, left for kids... Haha).
We saw the clock tower in town go off. That was realllly cool. I mean, it didn't do much, but considering how old it is and how its the oldest working machine in the world, it was awesome! Maybe that's just the MST dork in me. Who knows haha.
That night Dave, Jen, and I went on a pub crawl. The next day it was off to germany!!!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Video!!!! oh and more things we did, too...
Hey everyone!!! Here's a video we put together of a few of our adventures!
Other than that, we've been doing lots of stuff! Let's start with Florence:
On Friday morning we arrived in Florence. It was a really fun day of exploring. We went to the Duomo, which was really impressive on the outside, but honestly seemed kind of blah on the inside. I think they built the outside then got tired and gave up :-P The Medici's tomb was really impressive (Donatello was there as well!). The Tomb held tons of relics, including something of St. Peter's (too small to tell what it was and I don't read Italian, so I don't know!!), and even St. Matthew's finger!!! Eek! We saw the David, which was SO awesome. All the detail was just amazing. Way to go, Michelangelo... good work on that one! We had lunch at this really cool little cafe there (all inclusive for just 8 euro!) and it was delicious! We made dinner back at the hostel, and it turned out really good, once again!!!
Saturday morning we headed out to Venice!! Quote of the day from an American southern woman: "You wanna take a ride on the gondohhhlahh?" HAHAHA. Oh boy. No wonder people here love Americans...
We basically spent the day just exploring. The city was just SO cool with how it was just surrounded by water! They say that the city is sinking and now I see why... It flooded, but not from rain water or water coming off the waterways: The water came up from the ground! It was INSANE! Our feet were soaked the rest of the day because at some points there was just no way around it!
Later in the day Pat and i took a ride on a GonDOHlaaahhhh (we couldn't just say gondola anymore!). The ride way SO much fun!! It was really neat to see the city from that point of view!
That night we took an overnight train to Vienna. I got verrrrry little sleep this time. We didn't splurge for the beds. We had couchettes and 6 people in the room. it was so cramped!
In Vienna, we went to the Palace. We didn't actually go in, but we explored the gardens. The gardens had a Labyrinth. Now, I can't even tell you how much fun we had there! Watch the video... you'll see!!
Later on we split up. Dave and Jen headed to the Freud Museum. Pat and i went to St. Stephen's Cathedral and explored the city a bit. I really liked Vienna. It was a medium-sized city in my book and it had a great feel to it!
Later on in Vienna, we checked into the hostel and napped! i got to videochat with my whole family (yay!) and we got our much needed rest from the minimal sleep of the night before.
Now, i was slightly disappointed that I did not get to run through a field in Austria singing about how the hills are alive... but, I'll get over it, I suppose!
The next day we were off to Prague!!!! Most the day was spent traveling, which stunk, but oh well!! There's a really cool pub in our hostel and a band played there last night. Prague looks like it's gonna be awesome!!!!
Other than that, we've been doing lots of stuff! Let's start with Florence:
On Friday morning we arrived in Florence. It was a really fun day of exploring. We went to the Duomo, which was really impressive on the outside, but honestly seemed kind of blah on the inside. I think they built the outside then got tired and gave up :-P The Medici's tomb was really impressive (Donatello was there as well!). The Tomb held tons of relics, including something of St. Peter's (too small to tell what it was and I don't read Italian, so I don't know!!), and even St. Matthew's finger!!! Eek! We saw the David, which was SO awesome. All the detail was just amazing. Way to go, Michelangelo... good work on that one! We had lunch at this really cool little cafe there (all inclusive for just 8 euro!) and it was delicious! We made dinner back at the hostel, and it turned out really good, once again!!!
Saturday morning we headed out to Venice!! Quote of the day from an American southern woman: "You wanna take a ride on the gondohhhlahh?" HAHAHA. Oh boy. No wonder people here love Americans...
We basically spent the day just exploring. The city was just SO cool with how it was just surrounded by water! They say that the city is sinking and now I see why... It flooded, but not from rain water or water coming off the waterways: The water came up from the ground! It was INSANE! Our feet were soaked the rest of the day because at some points there was just no way around it!
Later in the day Pat and i took a ride on a GonDOHlaaahhhh (we couldn't just say gondola anymore!). The ride way SO much fun!! It was really neat to see the city from that point of view!
That night we took an overnight train to Vienna. I got verrrrry little sleep this time. We didn't splurge for the beds. We had couchettes and 6 people in the room. it was so cramped!
In Vienna, we went to the Palace. We didn't actually go in, but we explored the gardens. The gardens had a Labyrinth. Now, I can't even tell you how much fun we had there! Watch the video... you'll see!!
Later on we split up. Dave and Jen headed to the Freud Museum. Pat and i went to St. Stephen's Cathedral and explored the city a bit. I really liked Vienna. It was a medium-sized city in my book and it had a great feel to it!
Later on in Vienna, we checked into the hostel and napped! i got to videochat with my whole family (yay!) and we got our much needed rest from the minimal sleep of the night before.
Now, i was slightly disappointed that I did not get to run through a field in Austria singing about how the hills are alive... but, I'll get over it, I suppose!
The next day we were off to Prague!!!! Most the day was spent traveling, which stunk, but oh well!! There's a really cool pub in our hostel and a band played there last night. Prague looks like it's gonna be awesome!!!!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Pictures
So here are some more pictures for y'all! Enjoy!
The Labyrinth!
Pat and I are moving into that house in the background... yes it may have been the palace of Austria's former royalty, but we decided to live there anyway!
Hangin' in the palace gardens in Austria.
Venice!
Riding the Gondola!
Biker Bird. Duuuuude.
Feeding the birdies in Venice.
Venice!!
The David... from behind!!!
Inside the Duomo. My dress had spaghetti straps and I needed to cover my shoulders. So obviously this is the solution they came up with!
The Duomo. Amazing on the outside! So intricate!
This "statue" in Florence freaked me out!
The beach in Capri! So clear, but no sand!
Ya know... just your normal everyday view...
A gorgeous walkway in Capri... I was in heaven!
Capri! Such a beautiful day!!
Pompeii... this was an actual person at the time of the eruption, just frozen in time...
The Trevi Fountain... We're now assured a trip back to Rome!
The entrance to the Colosseum. Grand Hall at Yankee Stadium, anyone??
The Labyrinth!
Pat and I are moving into that house in the background... yes it may have been the palace of Austria's former royalty, but we decided to live there anyway!
Hangin' in the palace gardens in Austria.
Venice!
Riding the Gondola!
Biker Bird. Duuuuude.
Feeding the birdies in Venice.
Venice!!
The David... from behind!!!
Inside the Duomo. My dress had spaghetti straps and I needed to cover my shoulders. So obviously this is the solution they came up with!
The Duomo. Amazing on the outside! So intricate!
This "statue" in Florence freaked me out!
The beach in Capri! So clear, but no sand!
Ya know... just your normal everyday view...
A gorgeous walkway in Capri... I was in heaven!
Capri! Such a beautiful day!!
Pompeii... this was an actual person at the time of the eruption, just frozen in time...
The Trevi Fountain... We're now assured a trip back to Rome!
The entrance to the Colosseum. Grand Hall at Yankee Stadium, anyone??
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Naples/Pompeii/Capri
Ok, Naples stinks. No, literally, there is garbage everywhere!!! But, we're really only staying here at night, and our hostel is nice and we've met lots of cool people. We've had yummy food as well!
When we got into Naples on Wednesday, we locked our bags up at the train station and headed straight to Pompeii! It was about a half hour train ride and it was WONDERFUL! Yes, it was hot out, but it was so amazing to see all the ruins and Mt. Vesuvius right there. We saw all this old art work on the walls in the houses, the old tile flooring, sooo many vases, and even people that were literally frozen in time. After about 2 hours there, the houses seemed repetitve, though. I wish i had spent the money on the audio tour... It was well worth the trip there, though.
On the way back to Naples, Pat and I sat across from an Aussie couple who were SO nice! It turns out that girl was reading the same book I am: Eat, Pray, Love (which i'm not sure who I'm making read it first when i return, Mom or Michelle....). In it this Pizzaria in Naples is recommended and the 4 of us spent the train ride trying to figure out where it could be (yay knowing the name and google maps!).
Quick side story: When we first got on the train in Pompeii there was a HUGE grasshopper. When I say huge, i mean small-rodent sized. Like, bigger than a hampster, probably illegal to kill lol 9not that you could without a shotgun, anyway). Everyone in our part of the train was freaking out when it hopped, then laughing at each other and ourselves. And when I say Hopped, its more like it had some sort of anti-gravity device on. Anywho, the Australian man is the one that finally caught it and set it free out the window of the train. The world may not have the crocodile hunter anymore, but I think I've found the next best thing: The Hopper Hunter!!!!!!!!!!
Ok so after a long walk to the hostel, we relaxed a bit then went out in search of Pizzaria del Michele. It was a bit of a walk (closer to the train station than the hostel), plus we had a wait, buttttt here's my review: The dough was the best to me... it was thin, but not crispy... delicious. The pizza itself was way too greasy. I really enjoyed it though!
Today was Capri. One word: AMAZING! It was an hour long boat ride from Naples and the dock was around the corner from our hostel! the weather was perfect and Capri was beautiful. Words cant even describe it. I neeeeed to post ppictures, because some of the views we had were simply breathtaking!
The beach there was weird... the water was so unbelievably clear, but the beach itself was rocks!! noot pebbles... rocks! I'm all about the feeling of the sand beneath my toes, so that part wasn't my favorite, but the clear water made up for it!
Tonight's dinner was at a different Restaurant and I had spaghetti. Not the best ever, but oh well! It was still yummy!
Back at the hostel we made friends with some great new people! It's been a really REALLY great day!
When we got into Naples on Wednesday, we locked our bags up at the train station and headed straight to Pompeii! It was about a half hour train ride and it was WONDERFUL! Yes, it was hot out, but it was so amazing to see all the ruins and Mt. Vesuvius right there. We saw all this old art work on the walls in the houses, the old tile flooring, sooo many vases, and even people that were literally frozen in time. After about 2 hours there, the houses seemed repetitve, though. I wish i had spent the money on the audio tour... It was well worth the trip there, though.
On the way back to Naples, Pat and I sat across from an Aussie couple who were SO nice! It turns out that girl was reading the same book I am: Eat, Pray, Love (which i'm not sure who I'm making read it first when i return, Mom or Michelle....). In it this Pizzaria in Naples is recommended and the 4 of us spent the train ride trying to figure out where it could be (yay knowing the name and google maps!).
Quick side story: When we first got on the train in Pompeii there was a HUGE grasshopper. When I say huge, i mean small-rodent sized. Like, bigger than a hampster, probably illegal to kill lol 9not that you could without a shotgun, anyway). Everyone in our part of the train was freaking out when it hopped, then laughing at each other and ourselves. And when I say Hopped, its more like it had some sort of anti-gravity device on. Anywho, the Australian man is the one that finally caught it and set it free out the window of the train. The world may not have the crocodile hunter anymore, but I think I've found the next best thing: The Hopper Hunter!!!!!!!!!!
Ok so after a long walk to the hostel, we relaxed a bit then went out in search of Pizzaria del Michele. It was a bit of a walk (closer to the train station than the hostel), plus we had a wait, buttttt here's my review: The dough was the best to me... it was thin, but not crispy... delicious. The pizza itself was way too greasy. I really enjoyed it though!
Today was Capri. One word: AMAZING! It was an hour long boat ride from Naples and the dock was around the corner from our hostel! the weather was perfect and Capri was beautiful. Words cant even describe it. I neeeeed to post ppictures, because some of the views we had were simply breathtaking!
The beach there was weird... the water was so unbelievably clear, but the beach itself was rocks!! noot pebbles... rocks! I'm all about the feeling of the sand beneath my toes, so that part wasn't my favorite, but the clear water made up for it!
Tonight's dinner was at a different Restaurant and I had spaghetti. Not the best ever, but oh well! It was still yummy!
Back at the hostel we made friends with some great new people! It's been a really REALLY great day!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Rome
Waking up in interlaken was kind of disappointing. We didn't get to go zorbing because not enough people signed up to go... They apparently needed the full amount of slots filled?? I'm so bummed though: I was waiting 2 years to do this!!! :-(
It was raining there so we didn't get to do anything that morning. We decided to skip out on Zurich altogether. It just made the most sense with heading to Rome later that day.
So, we started heading the Rome. We got there after another 6ish hour train ride. We took the metro to our hostel and walked there. Oh, boy. The area was so sketchy. The hostel was in an apartment building. We had to buzz in there, but that was the ONLY security. The office and the hostel room were on different floors of the building. They didn't even give us a room key! No security lockers.. Nothing. They made us pay for that night in advance and they told us they'd bring the change up to us when they got it. They never brought it. Pat had to fight with the guy at the desk to get it (and he either didn't speak english or pretended not to so he could keep the money... Either way he did NOT know math or how to make change).
Anyway, this place was SO sketchy. We didn't feel the least bit safe. It was so bad that we sent an SOS out to the parents. My phone wasn't working at that time and my parents were woooonderful and booked us into the sheraton in town (yay for email).
We got outta that dirty grimy un-safe hostel ASAP. The sheraton was a Godsend. Especially after the hostels we've been staying in, I felt like royalty! It was sooo clean and sparkly and we had a private room... Awesome! Best part was that ot was for THREE nights!!! Yes more expensive then a hostel, but safety is more important than that.
So that night, after everything that went down, we only had time to sleep lol. The next day Pat, Dave, and I went out to Vatican City. We waited on line for an hour and a half to get into the vatican museum, which isn't so bad. The only tough part was the heat, but the gelato really helped with that!
There, we saw lots of cool things, including the sistine chapel! We went to St. Peter's Basillica as well! It was soooo gorgeous!!! I'm fairly certain that no church will ever impress me ever again. It was really cool because I got to go into adoration there for a bit! Pat and I climbed to the top of the basillica: wayyy up the dome! We paid a few euro to take an elevator half way up..the view of the basillica from this point was breathtaking. Then we just had to climb the 320 remaining steps (eek). It was cool though: my knee was feeling good and towards the top you actually had to slant your body to the curve of the dome in order to fit up the stairway!! The view from up there was AMAZING! Looking down into the gardens of the vatican, I just kept thinking of the youth group hibachi joke. Gotta love it!
We went back to the hotel room and picked up Jen then went out to this little place to eat that she knew of. There was this cute sqare near there that was pretty busy. I had really yummy pasta and pizza (pat and I each ordered one and split them). We then had some (more) gelati. Pat confessed to me that he's having an affair... With strawberry gelato. And I am quite okay with that :-P we walked around a bit along the water. It was like a boardwalk: lots of little shops and games!
Needless to say, my knee was not doing so well at this point: 320 steps up, 320 down, and lots of standing/walking. Even with napping the next morning due to the rain, it wasn't so great. I didn't rest it much on Tuesday: but that's ok because we saw the Colesseum, the Pantheon, spanish steps, the roman forum, and the trevi fountain! My favorite were the Colesseum and the fountain. We each threw coins into the fountain over our shoulders to ensure a quick return to rome! (According to legend, 1 coin means a quick return, 2 coins means a new love and 3 means a marriage or divorce)
We went to dinner at this delicious place and I had spaghetti. It wasn't campbles, but it was Mmm mmm good!
After dinner we had more gelati (we're addicted). Then it was back to the hotel!
Monday night pat and I washed a buncha clothes in the tub to hold us over til we found a laundramat. They were hanging up overnight, pat took the hairdryer to them in the morning to help the drying process along and I finished the job last night! Yay clean clothes! I'm officially out of those nifty little laundry sheets though, so I'm glad that both jen and pat have them too.
The hotel was wonderful not only for space, privacy, and cleanliness: we got free water (complimentary, not just to compliment the room), we had fluffy towels, and we stuffed our faces so much at the buffet breakfasts that we never had to eat/pay for lunch! The ONLY bad side was that it was far away from the heart of the city and we had much longer travel times (even the metro was a 10 minute walk). We wound up taking a few cabs, which is pretty expensive. The hotel offered a shuttle, but you had to pay 3 euro per person to take it. The public busses took a very long time as well.
Today we checked out and took a cab to the train station. I think he took us on a scenic route (ugh. More money). It took sooo long, too. We were afraid we wouldn't make the train. When we finally got there, there was a HUGE line for tickets. The 3 of them waited on line as I checked out the ticket machines. This was the very first time that machines offered an option for eurail pass holders!!! We quickly got our reservation and hopped on the train.
The seats are harry potter-esque: they're little cabins with sliding doors. There's 6 seats per room. I have a VERY large italian man next to me who has begun to snore. I think it might be time to dig out the ipod lol.
One more note: my sneakers are amazing. I know one of my earlier posts before I left recommended the Princeton Running Store to everyone, but I HIGHLY suggest that place now! Buy shoes there. They're foot/knee/leg/life savers ;-)
Pictures to come when we have free wifi again and I'm not typing on my phone!
It was raining there so we didn't get to do anything that morning. We decided to skip out on Zurich altogether. It just made the most sense with heading to Rome later that day.
So, we started heading the Rome. We got there after another 6ish hour train ride. We took the metro to our hostel and walked there. Oh, boy. The area was so sketchy. The hostel was in an apartment building. We had to buzz in there, but that was the ONLY security. The office and the hostel room were on different floors of the building. They didn't even give us a room key! No security lockers.. Nothing. They made us pay for that night in advance and they told us they'd bring the change up to us when they got it. They never brought it. Pat had to fight with the guy at the desk to get it (and he either didn't speak english or pretended not to so he could keep the money... Either way he did NOT know math or how to make change).
Anyway, this place was SO sketchy. We didn't feel the least bit safe. It was so bad that we sent an SOS out to the parents. My phone wasn't working at that time and my parents were woooonderful and booked us into the sheraton in town (yay for email).
We got outta that dirty grimy un-safe hostel ASAP. The sheraton was a Godsend. Especially after the hostels we've been staying in, I felt like royalty! It was sooo clean and sparkly and we had a private room... Awesome! Best part was that ot was for THREE nights!!! Yes more expensive then a hostel, but safety is more important than that.
So that night, after everything that went down, we only had time to sleep lol. The next day Pat, Dave, and I went out to Vatican City. We waited on line for an hour and a half to get into the vatican museum, which isn't so bad. The only tough part was the heat, but the gelato really helped with that!
There, we saw lots of cool things, including the sistine chapel! We went to St. Peter's Basillica as well! It was soooo gorgeous!!! I'm fairly certain that no church will ever impress me ever again. It was really cool because I got to go into adoration there for a bit! Pat and I climbed to the top of the basillica: wayyy up the dome! We paid a few euro to take an elevator half way up..the view of the basillica from this point was breathtaking. Then we just had to climb the 320 remaining steps (eek). It was cool though: my knee was feeling good and towards the top you actually had to slant your body to the curve of the dome in order to fit up the stairway!! The view from up there was AMAZING! Looking down into the gardens of the vatican, I just kept thinking of the youth group hibachi joke. Gotta love it!
We went back to the hotel room and picked up Jen then went out to this little place to eat that she knew of. There was this cute sqare near there that was pretty busy. I had really yummy pasta and pizza (pat and I each ordered one and split them). We then had some (more) gelati. Pat confessed to me that he's having an affair... With strawberry gelato. And I am quite okay with that :-P we walked around a bit along the water. It was like a boardwalk: lots of little shops and games!
Needless to say, my knee was not doing so well at this point: 320 steps up, 320 down, and lots of standing/walking. Even with napping the next morning due to the rain, it wasn't so great. I didn't rest it much on Tuesday: but that's ok because we saw the Colesseum, the Pantheon, spanish steps, the roman forum, and the trevi fountain! My favorite were the Colesseum and the fountain. We each threw coins into the fountain over our shoulders to ensure a quick return to rome! (According to legend, 1 coin means a quick return, 2 coins means a new love and 3 means a marriage or divorce)
We went to dinner at this delicious place and I had spaghetti. It wasn't campbles, but it was Mmm mmm good!
After dinner we had more gelati (we're addicted). Then it was back to the hotel!
Monday night pat and I washed a buncha clothes in the tub to hold us over til we found a laundramat. They were hanging up overnight, pat took the hairdryer to them in the morning to help the drying process along and I finished the job last night! Yay clean clothes! I'm officially out of those nifty little laundry sheets though, so I'm glad that both jen and pat have them too.
The hotel was wonderful not only for space, privacy, and cleanliness: we got free water (complimentary, not just to compliment the room), we had fluffy towels, and we stuffed our faces so much at the buffet breakfasts that we never had to eat/pay for lunch! The ONLY bad side was that it was far away from the heart of the city and we had much longer travel times (even the metro was a 10 minute walk). We wound up taking a few cabs, which is pretty expensive. The hotel offered a shuttle, but you had to pay 3 euro per person to take it. The public busses took a very long time as well.
Today we checked out and took a cab to the train station. I think he took us on a scenic route (ugh. More money). It took sooo long, too. We were afraid we wouldn't make the train. When we finally got there, there was a HUGE line for tickets. The 3 of them waited on line as I checked out the ticket machines. This was the very first time that machines offered an option for eurail pass holders!!! We quickly got our reservation and hopped on the train.
The seats are harry potter-esque: they're little cabins with sliding doors. There's 6 seats per room. I have a VERY large italian man next to me who has begun to snore. I think it might be time to dig out the ipod lol.
One more note: my sneakers are amazing. I know one of my earlier posts before I left recommended the Princeton Running Store to everyone, but I HIGHLY suggest that place now! Buy shoes there. They're foot/knee/leg/life savers ;-)
Pictures to come when we have free wifi again and I'm not typing on my phone!
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