I am currently on the train on my way to Florence (Firenze!), Italy! I am also currently nursing a wound that I got from trying to push my bag under my seat with my feet. Apparently, if you slide your ankle , against the air grill thing on the side of the wall (I know you now I have no idea what I’m talking about), it will slice your ankle like a razor. Yummy. I also can’t get out a band-aid because if I unzip my suitcase, it might never get zipped again. Hrmph.
Anyways, Venice. Beautiful. When we arrived, we came out of the train station only to discover that we had to take a bus to our hotel, and not just any bus, but a WATERbus. We thought about taking a WATERtaxi, but settled on the waterbus instead (it was significantly cheaper). So, we hopped on the waterbus to the stop nearest our hotel and got a GREAT view of Venice. It really is beautiful. There are no cars, only boats, and lots of high-arched bridges (so that boats can get underneath). The buildings’ facades are very much what you would imagine – kindof old looking, but beautifully designed at the same time. Our hotel was hidden in the depths of Venice (it’s a labyrinth. Seriously.). We managed to find it, and checked- in around 8:30pm.
After checking-in, we ventured out to find somewhere to eat. We wandered for a long time before settling on a cheap little restaurant that served, you guessed it, Italian food! (Who would’ve known?!). I had chicken with tomato sauce and a salad with oil and vinegar. I thought my chicken came with pasta, but it was delicious anyways. After dinner we headed out wandering some more, stumbled upon the Per San Marco, and ate some gelato (delicious, by the way). Then, we discovered that we were totally and completely lost. We wandered for a long time down alleyways and roads, but it got us nowhere we recognized. Luckily, Alex has a GPS on his Blackberry (thank goodness for Blackberrys! [Blackberries?]). We used it to get us back to our hostel. Unfortunately, all of the roads are named nearly the same thing (Calle de San Zulian, Calla de San Zulian, Casa de San Julian, Campiello de San Julian, you get the point, etc.) and the directions were a little faulty. However, after about 30 minutes of exploring, we managed to make it back alive and in time for bed.
Wednesday turned out to be a relatively stressful day, so we decided to sleep in on Thursday morning so that we weren’t exhausted all day. Around 11 we got out of bed and got ready, getting us out into Venice around 12:30. We walked around looking for somewhere to eat, and found a cute little Italian restaurant right on the water. I had ravioli with tomato sauce, and strawberries with whipped cream for desert (I think they were soaked in a liquor like triple sec which made them extra sweet and tasty!). We went exploring/shopping around Venice for the remainder of the afternoon in the sunshine (it was about 70 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny! The nicest weather we’ve had abroad!). I managed to get some cute, colorful glass earrings and some souvenirs/gifts for friends. We also had gelato as a mid-afternoon snack (mint-chocolate chip, yum!). Have I mentioned that gelato is delicious yet?
After we finished shopping, we went out to dinner at another Italian restaurant (luckily, Italian food is my favorite kind of food). The food here was phenomenal. Alex and I decided to split two meals, and we settled on four-cheese pizza and meat lasagna. The pizza was really good, and the lasagna was really delicious. For dessert I got fruit salad with vanilla gelato. After dinner we headed down to Rialto Bridge to go for a gondola ride! It was right around sunset/dusk, so it was perfect timing. After paying far too much money, we hopped in the gondola and were off! It took us down the main waterway, and then off into the “back alley” waterways through the little streets, houses, and bridges. I discovered that many of the businesses had back doorways that led either to a dock or to a staircase that hung above the water so that patrons could tie their boats up outside and get into the building. Cute!
After the gondola ride, we wandered a little bit more, decided to have drinks at an outdoor restaurant in a square by our hotel, and then finally pack and head to sleep. I would mark Venice down as a success. It was nice and relaxing amidst all of the stress that we had experienced in getting there. And now, off to Florence we go!
(P.S. Since I know you were concerned, my ankle has finally stopped bleeding. Sortof…)
Friday, May 21, 2010
European Extravaganza Days 11-13: Zurich, Switzerland
We arrived in Zurich, Switzerland at 7:00pm on Monday evening. We jumped in a taxi only to have a disastrous taxi ride with a man who spoke little English, got us completely lost, and then continued driving us in circles for 40 minutes telling us that the address we wanted to get to didn’t exist, before finally driving us back to the train station and charging us an astronomical amount for it. Ugh. We then got into another taxi, made sure the driver knew where he was going, and arrived in a little less than 15 minutes. Hooray! Unfortunately, we were supposed to meet Ramon at our hotel at 8pm, and it was now close to 8:30pm. (I forgot to mention: Ramon was meeting us in Zurich! He is studying in Madrid for part of the summer, so he traveled between the end of the London semester and the beginning of the Madrid semester. He went to Belgium first to visit his sister who is studying there, and then met up with us in Zurich, which was nice. Yay!)
So, after finally arriving at the hotel, being told that Ramon had stopped by looking for us, and then getting all checked-in, we headed to our real hotel (in the satellite location). As we were walking down the street, someone called out “Alex!” and we found Ramon sitting outside of a café . He came with us to our hotel, where we dropped our bags and then headed out to dinner. (I swear we do more in these cities than eat.) We ate at a place called the Beerhall, where I had some spaghetti Bolognese and a pint of Swiss beer (which was pretty good). Afterwards, we headed back to our hotel because we were tired from our 9-hour train ride. Sleep is good. (We also had the comfiest bed in the world in Zurich. It was huge and fluffy and comfy. Aaaaah.)
Tuesday morning, we met Ramon outside our hotel at 11:15am. We went to Starbucks for coffee and breakfast, and then went to Banhoffstrauss, the main shopping street/district in Zurich. Alex and I were determined to get Swatches, so we searched for a Swatch outlet. We finally found one and each came home with one (or two, in my case) lovely Swatch watches – yay! (And I know you were wondering, so one of mine is brown leather straps with a light blue/brown watch head that is very classy-looking . The other is rainbow-striped plastic with a fun rainbow watch head and cool hand-written looking numbers. It’s super fun.) After Swatch shopping, we got lunch at a Pizzeria (where I FINALLY found some decent-tasting ranch dressing at the salad bar, and thus had a giant salad for lunch – I was practically licking the plate). We then headed to Zurich’s history museum, where it had many artifacts from ancient cultures, mostly of which were Chinese, Japanese, and African. We saw some really cool/scary African masks and sculptures, among many other things.
After the museum, it started to rain, so we caught the tram back to Banhoffstrausse to go to an observatory bar where you could see the whole city. Two (incredibly overpriced) bottles of (delicious) beer later, we headed back down to go to dinner. We searched for a long time for a place to eat before finally settling on an English pub. It was really nice because it was full of people who spoke English, and it had real pub food. We each ordered fish and chips, and although not as good as in London, it still hit the spot. It was also nice and comforting to be in the pub atmosphere again after being away from it for so long. I will really miss pubs when I go back to the US. After dinner we went out to a bar for a couple of hours because we weren’t ready for bed yet, and then we said our goodbyes to Ramon and headed back to our hotel to pack and go to sleep.
So, after finally arriving at the hotel, being told that Ramon had stopped by looking for us, and then getting all checked-in, we headed to our real hotel (in the satellite location). As we were walking down the street, someone called out “Alex!” and we found Ramon sitting outside of a café . He came with us to our hotel, where we dropped our bags and then headed out to dinner. (I swear we do more in these cities than eat.) We ate at a place called the Beerhall, where I had some spaghetti Bolognese and a pint of Swiss beer (which was pretty good). Afterwards, we headed back to our hotel because we were tired from our 9-hour train ride. Sleep is good. (We also had the comfiest bed in the world in Zurich. It was huge and fluffy and comfy. Aaaaah.)
Tuesday morning, we met Ramon outside our hotel at 11:15am. We went to Starbucks for coffee and breakfast, and then went to Banhoffstrauss, the main shopping street/district in Zurich. Alex and I were determined to get Swatches, so we searched for a Swatch outlet. We finally found one and each came home with one (or two, in my case) lovely Swatch watches – yay! (And I know you were wondering, so one of mine is brown leather straps with a light blue/brown watch head that is very classy-looking . The other is rainbow-striped plastic with a fun rainbow watch head and cool hand-written looking numbers. It’s super fun.) After Swatch shopping, we got lunch at a Pizzeria (where I FINALLY found some decent-tasting ranch dressing at the salad bar, and thus had a giant salad for lunch – I was practically licking the plate). We then headed to Zurich’s history museum, where it had many artifacts from ancient cultures, mostly of which were Chinese, Japanese, and African. We saw some really cool/scary African masks and sculptures, among many other things.
After the museum, it started to rain, so we caught the tram back to Banhoffstrausse to go to an observatory bar where you could see the whole city. Two (incredibly overpriced) bottles of (delicious) beer later, we headed back down to go to dinner. We searched for a long time for a place to eat before finally settling on an English pub. It was really nice because it was full of people who spoke English, and it had real pub food. We each ordered fish and chips, and although not as good as in London, it still hit the spot. It was also nice and comforting to be in the pub atmosphere again after being away from it for so long. I will really miss pubs when I go back to the US. After dinner we went out to a bar for a couple of hours because we weren’t ready for bed yet, and then we said our goodbyes to Ramon and headed back to our hotel to pack and go to sleep.
European Extravaganza Days 8-11: Berlin, Germany
Friday evening we arrived in Berlin. We took a taxi to our hostel, the Generator Hostel, which was really nice. We went out to dinner that night at an Italian restaurant near our hostel. Since we had arrived so late and wanted to do the tour in the morning, we decided to take it easy and watch a movie in the hostel’s lounge area instead of going out. Then, we headed to bed early (although we kept getting woken up as our six other hostel mates came in at all hours of the night.
Saturday morning we woke up, got ready, and ate breakfast just to discover that it was pouring rain and freezing outside. We had planned on going on a 3-hour walking tour that morning, but decided to wait it out and see if the afternoon cleared up and we could go on the tour in the afternoon. When it was still pouring rain and cold at 1pm (the time of the second tour), we decided to take it easy for the day because of the miserable weather (our hostel was far from the city center, so it would have taken about 30 minutes to get there in the rain). We did decide, however, to venture out a little bit in search of food. We asked a worker at the hostel for a recommendation of a stop on the S-Bahn (one of Berlin’s public transports) where we could get some good food. Despite his advice being terrible, we still managed to find a restaurant (he sent us to a place full of dollar stores and erotica… not really sure what he thought we were looking for when we said ‘food’). After dinner we went back to the hostel, watched another movie, and went to bed early again in hopes that the next day the weather would be nicer.
Our wish was granted on Sunday when it finally stopped raining. The weather was still chilly (mid-40s), but we ventured out to the main square of Berlin to meet up with the free tour. The tour began at the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin. We then got to see a number of important sites, including the bunker where Hitler shot himself (now a parking lot), some remnants of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie (an American Army checkpoint during the separation of East and West Berlin),German Parliament, the site of the Nazi book burnings, ex-Nazi and Soviet Union headquarters, and a Jewish Holocaust memorial. Each of these sites had so much history, and it was especially interesting how the history tied in to the history of the rest of the world, and especially the rest of Europe.
Once we finished the tour, Alex and I headed towards Potsdamer Platz, a main shopping and entertainment district in Berlin. We had decided that we wanted to see the Blue Man Group in Berlin, and Potsdamer Platz was the location of the theatre and ticket office. Amazingly, we managed to secure second-row center seats (at a student-discount price!!) an hour and a half before the show. We quickly grabbed dinner at a German restaurant (surprisingly, Germany restaurants are hard to come by in Berlin) before heading to the show.
As a preface, I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I agreed to see the Blue Man Group. Apparently Alex did. When we arrived in the theatre, there were rain ponchos on the backs of our seats that we were instructed to put on. Only the first five rows had ponchos. This scared me a little bit, but in the end they turned out to be slightly unnecessary (mostly because we weren’t in the line of fire). The show was a mix of rhythmic/drumming and comedy. The Blue Men loved to make the audience uncomfortable, which included climbing over the seats, making awkward jokes, and picking people out of the audience and bringing them on stage. The whole show was very entertaining, and the men who perform in it are extremely talented. I had no idea that the show required so much talent before I saw it. I also must recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity (they perform in a number of locations around the United States ,as well as in Berlin and Tokyo.)
After we left the show, we decided to head back to the Brandenberg Gate in order to do some souvenir shopping and then eat. We ate at an Argentinian steakhouse and had the most rude waitress. She basically hated us for being American/speaking English, and was polite to every other table except ours. However, I have to be grateful that this hasn’t happened in any other places thus far, as I have heard that many people are particularly rude to Americans.
After dinner we headed back to our hostel, hung out for a bit, and then headed to bed. We packed up in the morning and caught the train to Zurich, Switzerland!
Saturday morning we woke up, got ready, and ate breakfast just to discover that it was pouring rain and freezing outside. We had planned on going on a 3-hour walking tour that morning, but decided to wait it out and see if the afternoon cleared up and we could go on the tour in the afternoon. When it was still pouring rain and cold at 1pm (the time of the second tour), we decided to take it easy for the day because of the miserable weather (our hostel was far from the city center, so it would have taken about 30 minutes to get there in the rain). We did decide, however, to venture out a little bit in search of food. We asked a worker at the hostel for a recommendation of a stop on the S-Bahn (one of Berlin’s public transports) where we could get some good food. Despite his advice being terrible, we still managed to find a restaurant (he sent us to a place full of dollar stores and erotica… not really sure what he thought we were looking for when we said ‘food’). After dinner we went back to the hostel, watched another movie, and went to bed early again in hopes that the next day the weather would be nicer.
Our wish was granted on Sunday when it finally stopped raining. The weather was still chilly (mid-40s), but we ventured out to the main square of Berlin to meet up with the free tour. The tour began at the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin. We then got to see a number of important sites, including the bunker where Hitler shot himself (now a parking lot), some remnants of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie (an American Army checkpoint during the separation of East and West Berlin),German Parliament, the site of the Nazi book burnings, ex-Nazi and Soviet Union headquarters, and a Jewish Holocaust memorial. Each of these sites had so much history, and it was especially interesting how the history tied in to the history of the rest of the world, and especially the rest of Europe.
Once we finished the tour, Alex and I headed towards Potsdamer Platz, a main shopping and entertainment district in Berlin. We had decided that we wanted to see the Blue Man Group in Berlin, and Potsdamer Platz was the location of the theatre and ticket office. Amazingly, we managed to secure second-row center seats (at a student-discount price!!) an hour and a half before the show. We quickly grabbed dinner at a German restaurant (surprisingly, Germany restaurants are hard to come by in Berlin) before heading to the show.
As a preface, I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I agreed to see the Blue Man Group. Apparently Alex did. When we arrived in the theatre, there were rain ponchos on the backs of our seats that we were instructed to put on. Only the first five rows had ponchos. This scared me a little bit, but in the end they turned out to be slightly unnecessary (mostly because we weren’t in the line of fire). The show was a mix of rhythmic/drumming and comedy. The Blue Men loved to make the audience uncomfortable, which included climbing over the seats, making awkward jokes, and picking people out of the audience and bringing them on stage. The whole show was very entertaining, and the men who perform in it are extremely talented. I had no idea that the show required so much talent before I saw it. I also must recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity (they perform in a number of locations around the United States ,as well as in Berlin and Tokyo.)
After we left the show, we decided to head back to the Brandenberg Gate in order to do some souvenir shopping and then eat. We ate at an Argentinian steakhouse and had the most rude waitress. She basically hated us for being American/speaking English, and was polite to every other table except ours. However, I have to be grateful that this hasn’t happened in any other places thus far, as I have heard that many people are particularly rude to Americans.
After dinner we headed back to our hostel, hung out for a bit, and then headed to bed. We packed up in the morning and caught the train to Zurich, Switzerland!
Friday, May 14, 2010
European Extravaganza Days 5-8: Prague, Czech Republic
Alex and I arrived in Prague Tuesday evening. We had originally booked a 12+ bed hostel room, but when we saw ours, we decided to upgrade to a double room. The room in our hostel had 20 beds, and there were another 20 beds in an adjacent room, all connected by a common kitchen and a door which led out to the main hallway. The beds had no privacy (most hostels have curtains you can pull around the bunks), and the room was gross. The double room was much better, and only cost us a small amount more per night. It was totally worth it.
After checking in at the hostel and getting our room squared away, we went out for dinner at a cute restaurant near our hostel. Then, we walked around for a little while before getting settled and going to bed. Although we didn't do much, I've learned that traveling takes a lot out of you, even if you are just sitting on a train all day.
Wednesday morning we woke up early to get ready, eat breakfast, and then catch a free tour that left from the Old Town Square at 11:00 am. We arrived to the tour just in time. We also managed to stumble upon another random festival, this time it was for the Czech police forces. They had a stage set up, a band, lots of informational tents, and even a herd of baton twirlers! There was also a helicopter that was flying around Prague with a mysterious suitcase-looking thing for most of the morning. It was really odd.
Our tour took us all over Prague to see many different things. We were able to see all of the sights in the Old Town Square, including an old astronomical clock that does a dance every hour, and a church with two steeples (one smaller and one larger) to represent Adam and Eve (the towers are also named after them). Something random that I learned while we were at the clock is that apparently there are only 366 names that you are allowed to name your children if you live in the Czech Republic. Each name has a day associated with it, and on your name day you are expected to take all of your friends out and treat them to drinks! After this, we walked farther into the city, where we saw a theatre where Mozart premiered many of his most famous works. Apparently he loved playing in Prague because he felt that the people appreciated his music. We also saw a statue of Franz Kaftka, a famous Jewish writer from Prague. It is a statue of him riding on a man with no body or head and just a suit. Apparently Kaftka dreamt this one night, and this is where the inspiration for the statue came from. This statue marked the entrance to the Jewish quarter, which is where we went next. We were able to see the oldest practicing synagogue in Europe, along with the exterior of a building that houses a memorial to the Holocaust. Inside the names of each and every Czech Jew that was killed are painted on the walls (over 84,000). They also have drawings on display that were created by children who lived in the concentration camps.
The tour ended at Charles Bridge, the most famous bridge in Prague. Alex and I crossed the bridge and headed to the John Lennon wall, an attraction that many of our friends had told us about. The John Lennon wall is basically a wall in the city that you are allowed to graffiti and it is a tribute to John Lennon's life and values. There is a giant peace sign painted on it that says IMAGINE along with a faux gravestone with Lennon's face on it, many Lennons hiding throughout the wall, as well as lots of Beatles' lyrics. You are able to sign the wall, which I did, and overall it was just a really cool place. After visiting that, we ate lunch in a cafe behind the wall where I had a delicious chicken caesar salad and some chocolate mousse. Yummy.
Once we finished up lunch, we walked along the river to a giant metronome that the city had built where a statue of Stalin had once stood when the city was controlled by Communism. The metronome supposedly represents the time that the city lost to Communism, but there are many different theories as to what it means (the creator never revealed its meaning). The metronome stands up on a hilltop which has a beautiful view of the city. Alex and I walked up to the top and just enjoyed the view (Prague is a beautiful city, especially from above). The top of the hill was also apparently the cool place to hang out for middle-school skaters, as there were tons of skateboarding and breakdancing (yes, breakdancing) kids hanging out up there. Totally random.
We left the hilltop to have some dinner before heading out to a pub crawl we had heard about during the day. We had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and then headed to the first pub. Alex and I decided to try absinthe, which turned out to just be really potent alcohol and doesn't make you hallucinate like the stories suggest (or maybe we just didn't drink enough to hallucinate. Who knows). We then headed out to a couple of bars with the crawl, but got bored and decided to go home early. Many of the other crawls that we had been on had over 100 people on them, but this one only had about 15 people, so it was just small and kindof awkward. Plus, most of the people were creepers. Fun times.
Thursday morning we slept in a little bit and went out to get breakfast instead of eating it at the hostel. We went to a delicious bagel shop and had bacon, egg, and cheese bagels. I haven't had a good bagel since I've been in the United States, so I was really excited about this. Unfortunately, my wisdom teeth began to give me a migraine, so we went back to the hostel for a bit so I could lie down, and a few hours later we managed to start exploring again. We started off by seeing the astronomical clock go off (totally overrated) and then headed across the river to Prague Castle. This required us walking through a different part of the city that we had been in before, and it was really quite beautiful. We also accidentally stumbled upon the Czech State building which had really pretty gardens. We decided to explore for a bit, and the garden was full of really funny statues. Alex and I decided to play the "imitate the statue" game and take pictures, and when we found the perfect statue, we had to try to balance the camera on self-timer. The statue was of a man standing triumphantly and an mean little dog standing beneath his legs growling menacingly. Alex was going to be the man and I was going to be the dog, and we set everything up, and everything seemed to go well, but my camera decided to not self-focus. So, we tried again, but we got kicked out of the garden by Czech police because it was closing. Epic fail. After this, we headed to the castle which was stunning. The castle had a mix between modern and medieval architecture (apparently it's a big joke in Prague that Czechs never like to finish their buildings, and they just continue to add to them indefinitely). We finished walking through the castle's grounds and then found a little vineyard in the side of the mountain that the castle stood on. There was a really nice view of Prague from here. It even rivaled the view from the Communist metronome. We sat and enjoyed the view for awhile before heading back down to the city center.
Once we got down the mountain, we went on a wild goose chase for this really cool museum/pub place that we had been told about. We got really lost and ended up trying to find a really cool brewery that we had been told about which ended up actually being a sketchy bar full of old, fat Czech men. So, we walked back towards our hostel and finally found somewhere to eat dinner (most of the restaurants were really packed) at a Mexican style restaurant. After dinner we headed back to the hostel, packed our suitcases as best we could, and tried to sleep as best we could (we had acquired some new hostel neighbors who were really loud and rude and were up for practically the whole night causing a ruckus. Ugh.)
Now I am (you guessed it!) on a train again on my way to Berlin, Germany. We will be there for three nights as well. Only an hour and a half left to go - I can't wait to arrive!
After checking in at the hostel and getting our room squared away, we went out for dinner at a cute restaurant near our hostel. Then, we walked around for a little while before getting settled and going to bed. Although we didn't do much, I've learned that traveling takes a lot out of you, even if you are just sitting on a train all day.
Wednesday morning we woke up early to get ready, eat breakfast, and then catch a free tour that left from the Old Town Square at 11:00 am. We arrived to the tour just in time. We also managed to stumble upon another random festival, this time it was for the Czech police forces. They had a stage set up, a band, lots of informational tents, and even a herd of baton twirlers! There was also a helicopter that was flying around Prague with a mysterious suitcase-looking thing for most of the morning. It was really odd.
Our tour took us all over Prague to see many different things. We were able to see all of the sights in the Old Town Square, including an old astronomical clock that does a dance every hour, and a church with two steeples (one smaller and one larger) to represent Adam and Eve (the towers are also named after them). Something random that I learned while we were at the clock is that apparently there are only 366 names that you are allowed to name your children if you live in the Czech Republic. Each name has a day associated with it, and on your name day you are expected to take all of your friends out and treat them to drinks! After this, we walked farther into the city, where we saw a theatre where Mozart premiered many of his most famous works. Apparently he loved playing in Prague because he felt that the people appreciated his music. We also saw a statue of Franz Kaftka, a famous Jewish writer from Prague. It is a statue of him riding on a man with no body or head and just a suit. Apparently Kaftka dreamt this one night, and this is where the inspiration for the statue came from. This statue marked the entrance to the Jewish quarter, which is where we went next. We were able to see the oldest practicing synagogue in Europe, along with the exterior of a building that houses a memorial to the Holocaust. Inside the names of each and every Czech Jew that was killed are painted on the walls (over 84,000). They also have drawings on display that were created by children who lived in the concentration camps.
The tour ended at Charles Bridge, the most famous bridge in Prague. Alex and I crossed the bridge and headed to the John Lennon wall, an attraction that many of our friends had told us about. The John Lennon wall is basically a wall in the city that you are allowed to graffiti and it is a tribute to John Lennon's life and values. There is a giant peace sign painted on it that says IMAGINE along with a faux gravestone with Lennon's face on it, many Lennons hiding throughout the wall, as well as lots of Beatles' lyrics. You are able to sign the wall, which I did, and overall it was just a really cool place. After visiting that, we ate lunch in a cafe behind the wall where I had a delicious chicken caesar salad and some chocolate mousse. Yummy.
Once we finished up lunch, we walked along the river to a giant metronome that the city had built where a statue of Stalin had once stood when the city was controlled by Communism. The metronome supposedly represents the time that the city lost to Communism, but there are many different theories as to what it means (the creator never revealed its meaning). The metronome stands up on a hilltop which has a beautiful view of the city. Alex and I walked up to the top and just enjoyed the view (Prague is a beautiful city, especially from above). The top of the hill was also apparently the cool place to hang out for middle-school skaters, as there were tons of skateboarding and breakdancing (yes, breakdancing) kids hanging out up there. Totally random.
We left the hilltop to have some dinner before heading out to a pub crawl we had heard about during the day. We had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and then headed to the first pub. Alex and I decided to try absinthe, which turned out to just be really potent alcohol and doesn't make you hallucinate like the stories suggest (or maybe we just didn't drink enough to hallucinate. Who knows). We then headed out to a couple of bars with the crawl, but got bored and decided to go home early. Many of the other crawls that we had been on had over 100 people on them, but this one only had about 15 people, so it was just small and kindof awkward. Plus, most of the people were creepers. Fun times.
Thursday morning we slept in a little bit and went out to get breakfast instead of eating it at the hostel. We went to a delicious bagel shop and had bacon, egg, and cheese bagels. I haven't had a good bagel since I've been in the United States, so I was really excited about this. Unfortunately, my wisdom teeth began to give me a migraine, so we went back to the hostel for a bit so I could lie down, and a few hours later we managed to start exploring again. We started off by seeing the astronomical clock go off (totally overrated) and then headed across the river to Prague Castle. This required us walking through a different part of the city that we had been in before, and it was really quite beautiful. We also accidentally stumbled upon the Czech State building which had really pretty gardens. We decided to explore for a bit, and the garden was full of really funny statues. Alex and I decided to play the "imitate the statue" game and take pictures, and when we found the perfect statue, we had to try to balance the camera on self-timer. The statue was of a man standing triumphantly and an mean little dog standing beneath his legs growling menacingly. Alex was going to be the man and I was going to be the dog, and we set everything up, and everything seemed to go well, but my camera decided to not self-focus. So, we tried again, but we got kicked out of the garden by Czech police because it was closing. Epic fail. After this, we headed to the castle which was stunning. The castle had a mix between modern and medieval architecture (apparently it's a big joke in Prague that Czechs never like to finish their buildings, and they just continue to add to them indefinitely). We finished walking through the castle's grounds and then found a little vineyard in the side of the mountain that the castle stood on. There was a really nice view of Prague from here. It even rivaled the view from the Communist metronome. We sat and enjoyed the view for awhile before heading back down to the city center.
Once we got down the mountain, we went on a wild goose chase for this really cool museum/pub place that we had been told about. We got really lost and ended up trying to find a really cool brewery that we had been told about which ended up actually being a sketchy bar full of old, fat Czech men. So, we walked back towards our hostel and finally found somewhere to eat dinner (most of the restaurants were really packed) at a Mexican style restaurant. After dinner we headed back to the hostel, packed our suitcases as best we could, and tried to sleep as best we could (we had acquired some new hostel neighbors who were really loud and rude and were up for practically the whole night causing a ruckus. Ugh.)
Now I am (you guessed it!) on a train again on my way to Berlin, Germany. We will be there for three nights as well. Only an hour and a half left to go - I can't wait to arrive!
European Extravaganza Days 3-5: Krakow, Poland & Auschwitz-Birkenau
We finally arrived in Krakow (spelled Cracow in Polish and pronounced "crack-ov") around 2:30pm. We caught a taxi to our hostel, where we were able to check-in right away. The hostel was really cute and only had about ten rooms, a little kitchen, and a reception desk. We had a double room to ourselves with our own bathroom, so that was nice. I've learned that I hate staying in large hostel rooms with other people because they are usually loud, smelly, and rude. Yuck.
After checking-in, we headed out to the town to grab something to eat. After searching for an ATM, we finally settled down at a place that served Polish cuisine. I had some cream of broccoli soup and small potato dumplings (not pierogies like I had expected, but little buttery delicious dumplings). It was yummy. We headed back to our hostel after lunch to take a nap, and then went out to dinner afterwards. We ate at a pizzeria and they had some of the best pizza that I've had since I've been abroad. I also got a traditional Polish desert (I can't remember what it was called) that the waitress recommended that tasted like delicious apple crisp with whipped cream and caramel sauce. Yum yum yum.
On Monday, we woke up early, ate breakfast, got ready, and headed out into the city of Krakow. We reached the Old Town, explored a bit, and then walked to the castle in Krakow. We explored the castle for a little while, sat on a bench and enjoyed the sunshine and the view of the river. (The river in Krakow is the same one that runs through Warsaw - crazy!). After that, we did a little bit of exploring and then ate lunch at a really cute restaurant that had a wood-burning oven that they used to cook all of their food. I had the best pierogies there, which had potatoes, cheese, and onions in them. We also got an appetizer (fried sheep's cheese with cranberry jelly) that we had seen on a lot of menus, but I didn't like it. It tasted/squeaked like I was eating a balloon, which I found to be really unpleasant. However, Alex liked it, but without the cranberries.
After lunch, we high-tailed it back to our hostel to catch the 3:30pm trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. We managed to make it in time. Also on our tour were two older couples, one from Northern Ireland, and one from Ireland. They talked to us quite a bit about a variety of things including politics and culture. We took a van there, and the drive was a little over an hour. We watched a movie about the history of Auschwitz on the way there. We were lucky enough to have our own English-speaking tour guide for the six of us who brought us through each of the buildings and was incredibly knowledgeable. I learned so much about the Holocaust and Auschwitz that I had never known before. Despite how depressing the whole tour was, it was very eye-opening and intersting. I'm so glad I went because it was an important part of history that deserves to be remembered. I cannot go in to detail here about many of the things that I learned, but overall the experience was one that I am sure I will remember forever. If you ever have the chance to visit there, I highly recommend it. It really changes your views on humanity.
We did not return from Auschwitz until about 9:30pm, so we got dinner at a little restaurant/bar close to our hostel. We went back to our hostel and went straight to bed so that we could be up early to pack and catch our train to Prague, Czech Republic, which is where I am right now. We currently have about five hours left, but we are lucky enough to (so far) have an entire compartment to ourselves (think "Hogwarts Express" if you are confused as to what I mean by compartment). The seats are also big and comfy. Woohoo! More to come once we reach Prague!!!! :)
After checking-in, we headed out to the town to grab something to eat. After searching for an ATM, we finally settled down at a place that served Polish cuisine. I had some cream of broccoli soup and small potato dumplings (not pierogies like I had expected, but little buttery delicious dumplings). It was yummy. We headed back to our hostel after lunch to take a nap, and then went out to dinner afterwards. We ate at a pizzeria and they had some of the best pizza that I've had since I've been abroad. I also got a traditional Polish desert (I can't remember what it was called) that the waitress recommended that tasted like delicious apple crisp with whipped cream and caramel sauce. Yum yum yum.
On Monday, we woke up early, ate breakfast, got ready, and headed out into the city of Krakow. We reached the Old Town, explored a bit, and then walked to the castle in Krakow. We explored the castle for a little while, sat on a bench and enjoyed the sunshine and the view of the river. (The river in Krakow is the same one that runs through Warsaw - crazy!). After that, we did a little bit of exploring and then ate lunch at a really cute restaurant that had a wood-burning oven that they used to cook all of their food. I had the best pierogies there, which had potatoes, cheese, and onions in them. We also got an appetizer (fried sheep's cheese with cranberry jelly) that we had seen on a lot of menus, but I didn't like it. It tasted/squeaked like I was eating a balloon, which I found to be really unpleasant. However, Alex liked it, but without the cranberries.
After lunch, we high-tailed it back to our hostel to catch the 3:30pm trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. We managed to make it in time. Also on our tour were two older couples, one from Northern Ireland, and one from Ireland. They talked to us quite a bit about a variety of things including politics and culture. We took a van there, and the drive was a little over an hour. We watched a movie about the history of Auschwitz on the way there. We were lucky enough to have our own English-speaking tour guide for the six of us who brought us through each of the buildings and was incredibly knowledgeable. I learned so much about the Holocaust and Auschwitz that I had never known before. Despite how depressing the whole tour was, it was very eye-opening and intersting. I'm so glad I went because it was an important part of history that deserves to be remembered. I cannot go in to detail here about many of the things that I learned, but overall the experience was one that I am sure I will remember forever. If you ever have the chance to visit there, I highly recommend it. It really changes your views on humanity.
We did not return from Auschwitz until about 9:30pm, so we got dinner at a little restaurant/bar close to our hostel. We went back to our hostel and went straight to bed so that we could be up early to pack and catch our train to Prague, Czech Republic, which is where I am right now. We currently have about five hours left, but we are lucky enough to (so far) have an entire compartment to ourselves (think "Hogwarts Express" if you are confused as to what I mean by compartment). The seats are also big and comfy. Woohoo! More to come once we reach Prague!!!! :)
Monday, May 10, 2010
European Extravaganza Days 1-3: Warsaw, Poland
Wwwwwwase3!
Haha. I’m currently on the train from Warsaw to Krakow, and I accidentally dropped Alex’s computer, caught it with my legs, and typed that. Success.
Anyways, yesterday marked day 2 of my European Extravaganza. We left London on Friday morning SUPER early (flight departed 6:36 am), which required us leaving our flats at 3:30 am. Boo. We made it to Warsaw around ten, caught a cab to our hotel, tried to check-in early but were denied, and then had lunch. We went to a place called ‘Polski Pub’ that served us a set-menu lunch. It was absolutely delicious. It was mango (or orange? Or Tang?) juice, some kind of tasty vegetable soup, bright yellow rice, salad, and fish cooked really weirdly (but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t delicious). It reminded me a lot of a home-cooked dinner, which was nice. It was also super cheap, costing only 14pln (3.3 pln= $1, so basically divide any pln price by 3 for the dollar value – woo!).
After lunch we got some coffee at this really adorable café next to our hotel that was called greencoffee. There were comfy couches everywhere and people hanging out. The only thing that sucked was that the guy that served us basically hated us. Not sure if this was because we only spoke English or because we were American or just because he was in a bad mood, but he was incredibly unfriendly. Boo.
After getting coffee, we checked into our hotel, took a much-needed 5-hour long nap (finals week + departing at 3am can leave you pretttyyy tired), and then went out to dinner. We ate at a restaurant next to our hotel that served Polish food, but had an English menu (and English-speaking wait staff). I had some kind of chicken in a tomato-based sauce, wrapped in a potato pancake, and topped with a mushroom sauce and mushrooms. It also came with cabbage and sauerkraut (as does everything thus far in Poland). It was really good, but really rich in flavor, so I couldn’t finish it all. I also tried a Polish beer (spelled something like Tzgzchi….) and it was really good and came in a funny-shaped little mug. Weeeee!
On Saturday we woke up early for breakfast in the hotel, then we got ready and set out to explore Warsaw. Our cab driver on the way to the hotel told us that we had to see the Old Town, so that is where we headed first. It was about a 30-minute walk from our hotel, but we were able to enjoy some sights on the way, including St. Anne’s church, which has a beautiful view of the city from it’s viewing platform. The really cool thing about Warsaw is that it was mostly destroyed in World War II when it was occupied by Nazi Germany. They rebuilt it afterwards (mostly between the 50s and the 80s), but they did so according to the architecture that had existed in the pre-war years. Therefore, it looks like an old city, but renovated. It was really cute and beautiful.
One thing that surprised us was that we managed to stumble upon a festival while we walked to the Old Town. We couldn’t quite figure out what it was, as all of the signs were in Polish, but we do know that it had something to do with celebrating Poland and their connection with the European Union. Everyone was wearing blue and gold (EU colors) and there were lots of tents, live music, and other random things (people riding giant bikes, stilt walkers, etc.). We sat outside to enjoy this for awhile and just watch everything happen. Then we ate lunch at a restaurant called the Sphinx which was Egyptian-themed and had good food. Wo0t.
We eventually managed to reach the Old Town, which was really cute and exactly how you would picture a little Polish town. It had cobblestone sidewalks, narrow streets, outdoor cafes, and town squares. From there, we headed towards Pawiak, an old Gestapo jail. When Warsaw was occupied by the Nazis, there was a huge Jewish ghetto (somewhere in the vicinity of 200 acres, though I can’t remember the exact figure). Many of these Jews died of starvation in the ghettos, and those that weren’t were sent off to a concentration camp to be murdered. Those who fought against the Nazis were sent to Pawiak prison to be killed. The prison itself was destroyed in WWII by bombs, but part of its outer walls still remain along with one section that has been turned into a museum. We arrived after the museum had closed, but we were still able to view the memorials and the exterior of the complex. Near the Pawiak prison was also a marker that showed where the original walls of the ghetto existed from 1940-1943.
Once we finished at the Prison, we were exhausted from a long day of exploring, and we headed back to our hotel to relax for a little bit before dinner. When we got there, I decided to call down to Reception to request another pillow, which resulted in my getting into a language-barrier filled conversation with the cleaning lady who only knew Polish. Lots of shouting and gesturing ensued, before she finally figured out that I wanted an entire pillow, and not just a pillowcase. Oy vey. It’s amazing what a difference language makes. (Another example: whenever I ordered water the server would ask me “do you want glass?” to which I would respond “no, that’s okay.” When they returned with a bottled of water and a glass, I was always confused, but didn’t really care, because I had kindof wanted a glass anyways. As it turns out (and I finally figured out after the fifth or so restaurant), they were asking me if I wanted gas, as in, if I wanted still or sparkling water. Whoops.)
After relaxing, figuring out our itinerary for Sunday (when our trains leave, when we had to leave the hotel, how to get to the station, etc.) we went out for dinner at a Pierrogeria near our hotel. Alex had the mixed meat pierogies and I had cheddar, broccoli, and mozzarella with tomato sauce to dip in. I must say, I love pierogies, but the pierogies here make me love them even more. Yum.
And now, I am sitting on a train on the way to Krakow, the second stop on our journey. We will be there for two nights, and hopefully will be able to get to see some of the city, as well as the remains of Auschwitz concentration camp.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
London: The Conclusion
So, my final weeks in London have been crazy hectic and I haven't been able to post.
For the next 21 days, I'm traveling around Europe and probably won't have Internet access. Then I will probably mass-blog when I return to the United States on May 29th. So you have that to look forward to!
Also, here is a rough itinerary in case you want to follow my journeys:
5/7-5/9: Warsaw, Poland
5/9-5/11: Krakow, Poland
5/11-5/14: Prague, Czech Republic
5/14-5/17: Berlin, Germany
5/17-5/19: Zurich, Switzerland
5/19-5/2l: Venice, Italy
5/21-5/24: Florence, Italy
5/24-5/27: Rome, Italy
5/27-5/28: London, UK
5/28: NYC, USA!
5/29: HOME AT LAST!!!!! :) :) :)
I will miss London terribly and can't begin to express what an amazing semester that I've had here. I will miss this city more than I can even imagine right now.
So, this is goodbye.
Goodbye London!!
For the next 21 days, I'm traveling around Europe and probably won't have Internet access. Then I will probably mass-blog when I return to the United States on May 29th. So you have that to look forward to!
Also, here is a rough itinerary in case you want to follow my journeys:
5/7-5/9: Warsaw, Poland
5/9-5/11: Krakow, Poland
5/11-5/14: Prague, Czech Republic
5/14-5/17: Berlin, Germany
5/17-5/19: Zurich, Switzerland
5/19-5/2l: Venice, Italy
5/21-5/24: Florence, Italy
5/24-5/27: Rome, Italy
5/27-5/28: London, UK
5/28: NYC, USA!
5/29: HOME AT LAST!!!!! :) :) :)
I will miss London terribly and can't begin to express what an amazing semester that I've had here. I will miss this city more than I can even imagine right now.
So, this is goodbye.
Goodbye London!!
Monday, April 26, 2010
London Day 91 (continued) & 92: THE LION KINGGGG!!!!
Wednesday night, Claire, Chrsitine, Ramon, and Alex treated me to seeing the Lion King in the West End for my birthday present. It was AMAZING. I had already seen the Lion King off-broadway at Shea's theatre in Buffalo, NY, but this was just spectacular. Because the show I had seen was a traveling production, the sets could not be as elaborate as the ones used in London. Overall, it is still the best musical that I have ever seen, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!!
After the Lion King, I returned home to work on a paper that was due the following morning, since I am a procrastinator and didn't have it done. I worked until late into the night, went to bed for a few hours, and then woke up early Thursday morning to complete it. At least that is one paper completed. Unfortunately, I still have two 12-page papers, two 5-page papers, a group presentation, a take-home test, and a final exam due. The next two weeks are going to be incredibly stressful...
After my class on Thursday, I met up with Claire and Christine for lunch in Russell Square Garden. It was a beautiful day, and luckily this time no pidgeons attacked me (no, seriously, last time I ate there a pidgeon flew over my head, hit me with its wings, and then landed in my water glass and started splashing around. Needless to say, I'm no longer a fan of pidgeons...) We chatted for about an hour before they both headed to class, and I headed back to my flat for a bit before work.
After work I lounged around my flat, and then made the boys dinner. I have invented what I like to call "salsa chicken" which is exactly what it sounds like, chicken breasts baked with salsa and cheese on top. I dip mine in sour cream. Delicious.
After dinner I was planning on staying in for the night, packing, doing laundry, and going to bed early before I departed for Dorset, but my friends had other plans. After about an hour of persuasion, I got on some nice-looking clothes and headed downtown to O'Neill's with them. I ended up having a much more fun time than I anticipated. Luckily, we only stayed for a few hours before heading home, so I still had enough time to get some sleep before an early 8:30am departure.
After the Lion King, I returned home to work on a paper that was due the following morning, since I am a procrastinator and didn't have it done. I worked until late into the night, went to bed for a few hours, and then woke up early Thursday morning to complete it. At least that is one paper completed. Unfortunately, I still have two 12-page papers, two 5-page papers, a group presentation, a take-home test, and a final exam due. The next two weeks are going to be incredibly stressful...
After my class on Thursday, I met up with Claire and Christine for lunch in Russell Square Garden. It was a beautiful day, and luckily this time no pidgeons attacked me (no, seriously, last time I ate there a pidgeon flew over my head, hit me with its wings, and then landed in my water glass and started splashing around. Needless to say, I'm no longer a fan of pidgeons...) We chatted for about an hour before they both headed to class, and I headed back to my flat for a bit before work.
After work I lounged around my flat, and then made the boys dinner. I have invented what I like to call "salsa chicken" which is exactly what it sounds like, chicken breasts baked with salsa and cheese on top. I dip mine in sour cream. Delicious.
After dinner I was planning on staying in for the night, packing, doing laundry, and going to bed early before I departed for Dorset, but my friends had other plans. After about an hour of persuasion, I got on some nice-looking clothes and headed downtown to O'Neill's with them. I ended up having a much more fun time than I anticipated. Luckily, we only stayed for a few hours before heading home, so I still had enough time to get some sleep before an early 8:30am departure.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
London Day 91: Mixed Feelings
Right now I am procrastinating writing one of my final papers (as usual). However, I'm finding myself more distracted than usual when I try to concentrate. This is due to the fact that I have much more on my mind than the typical finals stress. The semester is coming to a close, which means that I will soon be leaving London.
For the past week or so, I've had bittersweet feelings about returning home. I miss my friends and family terribly, but I love London so much and the new friends that I've made here. I also love the lifestyle here, which is so much different than the lifestyle in Syracuse, NY.
It is a weird realization to think that I haven't seen my dad, sister, or cat Lizzie in over 100 days. Luckily Mom was able to come visit me, but that was only briefly, and it has still been almost two months since then.
I am someone that thrives on my family and friends being around me at all times. Not having that support system here was at first scary, but now isn't so scary anymore. I've formed a new support system of friends and roommates here, and it's worked out very well. I can finally say that I've lived away from home, and I have survived it much better than I could have anticipated.
With all of this, I am actually a little bit afraid to return to the United States. I'm afraid that everything will be different, or that I will be different. Actually, I'm positive that I am different. I'm afraid that adjusting to living under my parents' roof will be more of a challenge than ever. I'm afraid that I will have changed in ways that will make me significantly different from my friends. Or, even worse, they will have changed to be different than me. I'm basically really afraid of not fitting in in Syracuse/Liverpool anymore.
I know that going home is going to be one of the more difficult things that I'm going to have to deal with. (Probably only second to coming to London, or going to college.) The anticipation is killing me, and only time will tell what the outcome is. Luckily, I know that no matter how much I've changed, my amazing friends and family will love me. Despite all of this, though, change is still an inevitably scary part of life, and I'm beginning to believe that I will never be able to fully accept dealing with it.
For the past week or so, I've had bittersweet feelings about returning home. I miss my friends and family terribly, but I love London so much and the new friends that I've made here. I also love the lifestyle here, which is so much different than the lifestyle in Syracuse, NY.
It is a weird realization to think that I haven't seen my dad, sister, or cat Lizzie in over 100 days. Luckily Mom was able to come visit me, but that was only briefly, and it has still been almost two months since then.
I am someone that thrives on my family and friends being around me at all times. Not having that support system here was at first scary, but now isn't so scary anymore. I've formed a new support system of friends and roommates here, and it's worked out very well. I can finally say that I've lived away from home, and I have survived it much better than I could have anticipated.
With all of this, I am actually a little bit afraid to return to the United States. I'm afraid that everything will be different, or that I will be different. Actually, I'm positive that I am different. I'm afraid that adjusting to living under my parents' roof will be more of a challenge than ever. I'm afraid that I will have changed in ways that will make me significantly different from my friends. Or, even worse, they will have changed to be different than me. I'm basically really afraid of not fitting in in Syracuse/Liverpool anymore.
I know that going home is going to be one of the more difficult things that I'm going to have to deal with. (Probably only second to coming to London, or going to college.) The anticipation is killing me, and only time will tell what the outcome is. Luckily, I know that no matter how much I've changed, my amazing friends and family will love me. Despite all of this, though, change is still an inevitably scary part of life, and I'm beginning to believe that I will never be able to fully accept dealing with it.
Monday, April 19, 2010
London Days 96-98: Spring is in the Air!
//Edit: I suck at counting. London Days #86-88...
Despite being unable to go to Istanbul, I tried to make the best of my weekend. Many other people had been scheduled to visit other parts of Europe, so everyone was feeling the disappointment of missing trips.
Friday I spent most of the day taking advantage of the "extra time" that I had by sleeping in. This is something I very rarely get to do (and even more rarely let myself do), so it was quite a treat.
Friday night Christine's flat was hosting a "Beer Olympics" because they had been scheduled to attend Beerfest in Munich this weekend. Alex and I were team Scotland, but we chose to be spectators rather than participants because neither of us were really in the mood to drink. It was a fun night anyways, though, as lots of socializing took place before everyone headed out to a club for the night (I decided to go to bed instead, as a rugby jersey isn't appropriate attire for a dance club).
Saturday I lounged around in the morning before going to a late breakfast/early lunch with Alex at a restaurant called the Forum Cafe near the British Museum. My roommates always rave about its Traditional English Breakfast and bagels served all day, so we decided to try it out. Alex got the English Breakfast, which he claims was really good, and I got a bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese, and some hash browns, which were also delicious. Afterwards, we grabbed some ice cream at Baskin Robbins and sat in the sun outside of the British Museum for a few hours enjoying the afternoon. After we left, we both worked on some homework for a bit before going to Wagamama (an Asian noodle place) for dinner with Ramon.
After dinner we hurriedly got ready to go to The Ministry of Sound, a world-renowned club in London. It is allegedly the best club in London and the sixth-best club in the world! It has its own record label, and always has world-famous DJs hosting. Luckily, they have a student discount, so we decided we would try it out. The club was really cool with a bunch of different rooms, all with a different bar and a different soundtrack. It had crazy lights, disco balls, fog machines, and light-up ceilings to complete the feel of a real dance club. The only negative to the club, however, was the bass. The bass beat on all of the songs resonated so loudly that it made the hair on your arms shake (think of the guy sitting next to you at the stop light whose bass makes your car shake...). Unfortunately for me, heavy bass like this makes my heart palpitate, so I had to sit in one of the "chiller" rooms for awhile, before finally deciding to leave because there was no point being at a world-renowned club and sitting in a room in the corner. I did get a chance to do a little bit of dancing and see the whole club, though, so it wasn't a complete loss. Alex came with me and we braved our first successful night bus journey (hooray!) and made it home relatively smoothly (you never know where the night buses are going to stop). Overall? Successful night.
We spent Sunday morning recovering from the club the night before, because although we left "early," it was still pretty late in the night. Alex and I met up for lunch and went to Giraffe in the Brunswick Shopping Centre. Neither of us travel down towards Russell Square very often, so we decided that eating lunch down there might be a nice change. We sat at an outdoor table in order to fully appreciate the sun. Afterwards, we had "Afternoon Tea in the Park"! There is a place near my flat that offers Afternoon Tea in the Park every day from 12-7. You just call ahead and let them know that you're coming, and they prepare a picnic basket complete with tea, biscuits, pastries, cupcakes, scones, and even a blanket! This way, you can take the basket to your favorite park, sit in the sunshine, and enjoy some afternoon tea. We decided to sit in Bloomsbury Square, a park near our flats, for about an hour. It was really enjoyable (and also well-priced), so I'm sure that we'll be doing it again some day soon :)
Despite being unable to go to Istanbul, I tried to make the best of my weekend. Many other people had been scheduled to visit other parts of Europe, so everyone was feeling the disappointment of missing trips.
Friday I spent most of the day taking advantage of the "extra time" that I had by sleeping in. This is something I very rarely get to do (and even more rarely let myself do), so it was quite a treat.
Friday night Christine's flat was hosting a "Beer Olympics" because they had been scheduled to attend Beerfest in Munich this weekend. Alex and I were team Scotland, but we chose to be spectators rather than participants because neither of us were really in the mood to drink. It was a fun night anyways, though, as lots of socializing took place before everyone headed out to a club for the night (I decided to go to bed instead, as a rugby jersey isn't appropriate attire for a dance club).
Saturday I lounged around in the morning before going to a late breakfast/early lunch with Alex at a restaurant called the Forum Cafe near the British Museum. My roommates always rave about its Traditional English Breakfast and bagels served all day, so we decided to try it out. Alex got the English Breakfast, which he claims was really good, and I got a bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese, and some hash browns, which were also delicious. Afterwards, we grabbed some ice cream at Baskin Robbins and sat in the sun outside of the British Museum for a few hours enjoying the afternoon. After we left, we both worked on some homework for a bit before going to Wagamama (an Asian noodle place) for dinner with Ramon.
After dinner we hurriedly got ready to go to The Ministry of Sound, a world-renowned club in London. It is allegedly the best club in London and the sixth-best club in the world! It has its own record label, and always has world-famous DJs hosting. Luckily, they have a student discount, so we decided we would try it out. The club was really cool with a bunch of different rooms, all with a different bar and a different soundtrack. It had crazy lights, disco balls, fog machines, and light-up ceilings to complete the feel of a real dance club. The only negative to the club, however, was the bass. The bass beat on all of the songs resonated so loudly that it made the hair on your arms shake (think of the guy sitting next to you at the stop light whose bass makes your car shake...). Unfortunately for me, heavy bass like this makes my heart palpitate, so I had to sit in one of the "chiller" rooms for awhile, before finally deciding to leave because there was no point being at a world-renowned club and sitting in a room in the corner. I did get a chance to do a little bit of dancing and see the whole club, though, so it wasn't a complete loss. Alex came with me and we braved our first successful night bus journey (hooray!) and made it home relatively smoothly (you never know where the night buses are going to stop). Overall? Successful night.
We spent Sunday morning recovering from the club the night before, because although we left "early," it was still pretty late in the night. Alex and I met up for lunch and went to Giraffe in the Brunswick Shopping Centre. Neither of us travel down towards Russell Square very often, so we decided that eating lunch down there might be a nice change. We sat at an outdoor table in order to fully appreciate the sun. Afterwards, we had "Afternoon Tea in the Park"! There is a place near my flat that offers Afternoon Tea in the Park every day from 12-7. You just call ahead and let them know that you're coming, and they prepare a picnic basket complete with tea, biscuits, pastries, cupcakes, scones, and even a blanket! This way, you can take the basket to your favorite park, sit in the sunshine, and enjoy some afternoon tea. We decided to sit in Bloomsbury Square, a park near our flats, for about an hour. It was really enjoyable (and also well-priced), so I'm sure that we'll be doing it again some day soon :)
London Day 95: Istanbul (or not?)
//Edit: Actually Day Number 85...
Thursday I was supposed to go to Istanbul for the weekend. Unfortunately, a volcano in Iceland had other plans for us. Here is a news article about the situation currently, in case you don't keep up on the news (I know I don't!). At the bottom is also a video that I found quite amusing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/18/volcano-iceland-airports-passengers
Thursday I was supposed to go to Istanbul for the weekend. Unfortunately, a volcano in Iceland had other plans for us. Here is a news article about the situation currently, in case you don't keep up on the news (I know I don't!). At the bottom is also a video that I found quite amusing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/18/volcano-iceland-airports-passengers
London Day 93: St. Paul's Cathedral
//Edit: Actually London Day 83. Whoops!
On Tuesdays I get out of class at 1:40pm, which leaves my afternoons free. Usually I meet up with either Christine or Alex and explore a part of London that I have yet to see (or perhaps a part that we want to re-visit). Last Tuesday, April 13, Alex and I decided to go visit St. Paul's Cathedral.
I have been to St. Paul's many times, and the area surrounding it is probably one of my favorite parts of London. Despite all the times that I have visited the area, I have yet to be able to go into the actual Cathedral and walk to the top. The view from the top of St. Paul's is recognized as one of the best views of the city (some say better than the London Eye). Its view is also copyrighted by the Queen, so no one is allowed to build anything that obstructs the view. Therefore, it is one of the only 360-degree views of London.
The cathedral itself was much more beautiful that I had anticipated. In general, I'm not a big fan of cathedrals, and I find them to be dark and dreary. St. Paul's, on the other hand, is bright and beatiful inside. There are gold accents on many of the paintings that line the ceilings, as well as windows that let in a lot of light.
You are able to climb up to three different levels of the Cathedral. The first is the domed ceiling, in which a gallery is located where you can see down into the main Cathedral floor. The dome is also known as the Whispering Gallery because it is constructed so perfectly that the acoustics allow you to whisper at one side of the dome, and someone on the other side can hear what you have said. The second level is located outside the Whispering Gallery. The third is located at the top of the dome, and is also the highest view. You have to walk up a number of spiraled staircases in order to reach the top, but it is totally worth it. The view is outstanding, and we were lucky enough to climb to the top on a day with really nice weather.
Afterwards, we climbed back down and crossed the Millenium Bridge to the Tate Modern. We went up to the seventh floor cafe and had some coffee while we enjoyed my second-favorite view of the city. The cafe at the Tate Modern has huge glass windows so that you are able to see St. Paul's Cathedral, the Thames, and the surrounding landscape perfectly. I always like to go around sunset, because the colors are really beautiful.
All I can say is that I am so excited Spring has finally reached London, because the nice weather makes it an even better place to be living!
On Tuesdays I get out of class at 1:40pm, which leaves my afternoons free. Usually I meet up with either Christine or Alex and explore a part of London that I have yet to see (or perhaps a part that we want to re-visit). Last Tuesday, April 13, Alex and I decided to go visit St. Paul's Cathedral.
I have been to St. Paul's many times, and the area surrounding it is probably one of my favorite parts of London. Despite all the times that I have visited the area, I have yet to be able to go into the actual Cathedral and walk to the top. The view from the top of St. Paul's is recognized as one of the best views of the city (some say better than the London Eye). Its view is also copyrighted by the Queen, so no one is allowed to build anything that obstructs the view. Therefore, it is one of the only 360-degree views of London.
The cathedral itself was much more beautiful that I had anticipated. In general, I'm not a big fan of cathedrals, and I find them to be dark and dreary. St. Paul's, on the other hand, is bright and beatiful inside. There are gold accents on many of the paintings that line the ceilings, as well as windows that let in a lot of light.
You are able to climb up to three different levels of the Cathedral. The first is the domed ceiling, in which a gallery is located where you can see down into the main Cathedral floor. The dome is also known as the Whispering Gallery because it is constructed so perfectly that the acoustics allow you to whisper at one side of the dome, and someone on the other side can hear what you have said. The second level is located outside the Whispering Gallery. The third is located at the top of the dome, and is also the highest view. You have to walk up a number of spiraled staircases in order to reach the top, but it is totally worth it. The view is outstanding, and we were lucky enough to climb to the top on a day with really nice weather.
Afterwards, we climbed back down and crossed the Millenium Bridge to the Tate Modern. We went up to the seventh floor cafe and had some coffee while we enjoyed my second-favorite view of the city. The cafe at the Tate Modern has huge glass windows so that you are able to see St. Paul's Cathedral, the Thames, and the surrounding landscape perfectly. I always like to go around sunset, because the colors are really beautiful.
All I can say is that I am so excited Spring has finally reached London, because the nice weather makes it an even better place to be living!
Paris, France Day 3: Le Louvre
Sunday morning we woke up just in time to be checked out of our hostel by 11:00am. We hurried to Le Louvre, one of the last two things on our to-do list for Paris. Unfortunately, we were in a hurry while in Le Louvre, so we only got to see a small part of it. Of course, we made a point to see the Mona Lisa (totally overrated), but we also saw Venus de Milo and many other works. Most of what we saw was Ancient Greek/Roman statues, and Renaissance artwork. What amazed me the most, however, was how beautiful the architecture of the actual building was. Most of the ceilings were painted with gold accents and masterpieces painted on to the ceilings.
After seeing Le Louvre, we hurried down to the Eiffel Tower in hopes of riding all the way to the top. Unfortunately, however, we didn't have enough time to do so without missing our flight home. Instead, we got some crepes (banana and nutella... yum!) and sat next to the Seine and under the Eiffel Tower to enjoy them. It was a beautiful Spring day, so even though we were unable to go up to the top, enjoying the weather and the view from the bottom was enough in itself.
After eating, we hopped on the Metro to get back to our hostel. We grabbed our bags, hopped back on the Metro to the train station. When we arrived at the train station, however, we encountered some problems. The ticket machines only accepted coins and credit cards, and our balance was €17. We obviously didn't have €17 in coins, so we tried using our credit cards (four total between the two of us), and NONE of them would work. We were already running a little bit late for the airport (we were planning to meet Claire there 2.5 hours before our flight), so this wasn't good. We stepped out of line and went to the Information/Help desk to purchase tickets with cash, except that in France it seems to be perfectly acceptable to just leave the desk whenever you feel like it (we encountered this same problem several times throughout the weekend), so there wasn't an attendant there. We tried our credit cards one more time before finally leaving the train station, buying a candy bar, requesting that all our change be in coins, and then hurrying back down to buy our train tickets. Crisis averted. Almost...
We hurried down to the train tracks where our train was supposed to be departing only to find that there was caution tape across the tracks. A sign written only in French (no English translation) explained that this track was closed, and that the train had been re-routed to another track. Good thing I can read French. Unfortunately for us, the track that the train had been re-routed to was at the far end of the train station, so we were hurrying to reach it before it left. We managed to get on it, but not until 4:00pm, the time we were already supposed to BE at the airport. We called Claire and told her to check-in without us. The train was only supposed to take 30 minutes, but it turns out we got on the non-express train, which stopped at every station between where we were and the airport. So, instead of taking 30 minutes, it took 50 minutes. We arrived at the airport at 4:50, checking-in with AirFrance at 5:00, with just 30 minutes to spare before boarding for our flight began. Luckily Passport Control and Security didn't take too long, so we were even able to grab a quick lunch and some souvenirs before arriving at the gate just in time to board. Overall, it was a hectic afternoon, but it worked out well in the end.
We arrived back in London just a few minutes after we left Paris (due to the time zone change, we only lost about 15 minutes of time!), and finally got back to our flats around 7:45.
Looking back, Paris was definitely the best city that I have visited thus far. I'm not sure if it was just because the weather was so nice, but I think it was just a beautiful city. I had heard terrible things about the Parisians, but with the exception of our taxi driver, we encountered no real problems. I think that Paris is a city that I could definitely see myself living in some day, even if just for a short amount of time.
After seeing Le Louvre, we hurried down to the Eiffel Tower in hopes of riding all the way to the top. Unfortunately, however, we didn't have enough time to do so without missing our flight home. Instead, we got some crepes (banana and nutella... yum!) and sat next to the Seine and under the Eiffel Tower to enjoy them. It was a beautiful Spring day, so even though we were unable to go up to the top, enjoying the weather and the view from the bottom was enough in itself.
After eating, we hopped on the Metro to get back to our hostel. We grabbed our bags, hopped back on the Metro to the train station. When we arrived at the train station, however, we encountered some problems. The ticket machines only accepted coins and credit cards, and our balance was €17. We obviously didn't have €17 in coins, so we tried using our credit cards (four total between the two of us), and NONE of them would work. We were already running a little bit late for the airport (we were planning to meet Claire there 2.5 hours before our flight), so this wasn't good. We stepped out of line and went to the Information/Help desk to purchase tickets with cash, except that in France it seems to be perfectly acceptable to just leave the desk whenever you feel like it (we encountered this same problem several times throughout the weekend), so there wasn't an attendant there. We tried our credit cards one more time before finally leaving the train station, buying a candy bar, requesting that all our change be in coins, and then hurrying back down to buy our train tickets. Crisis averted. Almost...
We hurried down to the train tracks where our train was supposed to be departing only to find that there was caution tape across the tracks. A sign written only in French (no English translation) explained that this track was closed, and that the train had been re-routed to another track. Good thing I can read French. Unfortunately for us, the track that the train had been re-routed to was at the far end of the train station, so we were hurrying to reach it before it left. We managed to get on it, but not until 4:00pm, the time we were already supposed to BE at the airport. We called Claire and told her to check-in without us. The train was only supposed to take 30 minutes, but it turns out we got on the non-express train, which stopped at every station between where we were and the airport. So, instead of taking 30 minutes, it took 50 minutes. We arrived at the airport at 4:50, checking-in with AirFrance at 5:00, with just 30 minutes to spare before boarding for our flight began. Luckily Passport Control and Security didn't take too long, so we were even able to grab a quick lunch and some souvenirs before arriving at the gate just in time to board. Overall, it was a hectic afternoon, but it worked out well in the end.
We arrived back in London just a few minutes after we left Paris (due to the time zone change, we only lost about 15 minutes of time!), and finally got back to our flats around 7:45.
Looking back, Paris was definitely the best city that I have visited thus far. I'm not sure if it was just because the weather was so nice, but I think it was just a beautiful city. I had heard terrible things about the Parisians, but with the exception of our taxi driver, we encountered no real problems. I think that Paris is a city that I could definitely see myself living in some day, even if just for a short amount of time.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Paris, France Day 2: City Tours
Saturday morning we woke up bright and early in order to catch a free tour through Paris. We had made friends with one of our German hostel-mates Robert, (we were in a 10-bed dorm), and he joined us for the first half of the day.
We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hostel's restaurant (yes, there was a restaurant in our hostel), before taking the Metro to Saint-Michel Square to meet up with the tour group. The tour covered TONS of different places all over Paris and was 3.5 hours long. We saw Le Fontaine de Saint-Michel, the Latin Quarter, Le Cathedrale de Notre-Dame, the French Courts of Justice, French Parliament, Le Seine, the "Lock Bridge", Le Louvre, Le Champs-Elysee, L'Obelisque, Le Tour Eiffel, L'Arc de Triomphe, La Grande Palais, et La Petite Palais. (Sorry for jumping from French to English) It was intense, but also very informative.
My favorite place on the tour was definitely the "lock bridge" (I can't remember its official name) because of the story behind it. Basically, there is a bridge over the Seine that has walls/railings made out of a material similar to chain-link. All over the fence there are locks hanging. Apparently, in Paris it is traditional for a group of friends to buy wine at the grocery store and sit next to the Seine on warm evenings instead of going to bars (there isn't an open-container law in Paris - you can carry alcohol anywhere!). So, sometimes couples do this as well. The tradition of the locks on the bridge stems off of this wine-drinking tradition. Basically, if you are a couple and are in love, you can go to the store and buy a lock and a bottle of wine. Then, you sit on the bridge, share the wine, and confess your love for one another. You write a small note on the lock (usually "Je t'aime", which translates to "I love you"), lock it on the bridge, and throw the key into the river, thus "locking" your love in Paris. HOW ROMANTIC! I am determined to do this some day...
After the tour, we grabbed lunch at a pub, and then Robert had to leave us to register for the Paris Marathon (side note: the Paris Marathon was taking place Sunday, which was a cool thing to experience. Wee!), so Alex and I decided to re-visit Le Cathedrale de Notre-Dame so that we could go inside. I was especially excited about this, because when I took AP French in high school, we did an entire unit on La Cathedrale de Notre-Dame and Notre-Dame de Paris (a novel and musical based on the cathedral). The interior was every bit as beautiful as it had been potrayed, and the stained glass windows were simply amazing. We were able to walk around the inside, however, the upstairs was closed when we went. This meant that I wasn't able to get up-close-and-personal with the gargoyles, however, I did get to see them from a few stories down.
After Notre-Dame, we headed to Paris' Red Light District for another tour. This tour brought us all around the Montmarte area in Paris. The first stop on our tour was the Moulin Rouge, which was not quite as ritzy and glamorous as it was portrayed in the movie. It was, however, still a cabaret house, and was also ridiculously expensive. We then were able to see La Moulin de la Galette (the last remaining windmill in Paris), the only vineyard in Paris, a cabaret/restaurant where Pablo Picasso used to frequent (and pay for his meals with his paintings rather than with money), the Red Light District, and Le Sacre-Coeur. The view from Le Sacre-Coeur was absolutely stunning, as it is located at the highest natural point of Paris (second highest only to the Eiffel Tower). Something interesting about the building as well is that parts of it were stark-white, while others were so dirty they were black. Our tour guide informed us that this is because of the stone used to build Le Sacre-Coeur. It is a self-cleansing stone because whenever it rains, calcium is released, thus producing a white color. Since the rain does not reach certain areas of the building, these areas are contrasted with the black color, which gives the building a sort of unreal depth which I found to be very pretty.
We ended up leaving the tour early and missing the last few stops because the sun was beginning to set, and we wanted to have time to change into nice clothes and go out to dinner. After returning to the hostel and changing, we ended up going out to a restaurant called Le Jaures for dinner. A woman at our hostel recommended it if we wanted some good traditional French cuisine. We split a casque of Merlot, an appetizer of escargots, and then I had scallops Provencale and Alex had a steak. The food was fabulous and also not too expensive, which was nice.
After dinner, we caught the Metro to the Eiffel Tower so that we could hopefully ride to the top, but unfortunately by that time the elevators had already closed. Instead, we found a cute park that was situated next to the Eiffel Tower, and sat there for awhile until the light show. (There is a light show on the Eiffel Tower every hour on the hour after dark.) The light show was pretty overrated, as they just had a crazy amount of white lightbulbs flashing at an unnecessarily fast speed for ten minutes (it was an epileptic seizure waiting to happen), but it was still nice to be able to see, especially since it was so nice out.
Since it had taken us so long to get to the Eiffel Tower (much of Paris' metro requires you needing to take very round-about routes in order to get places), it was 1:00am by the time we saw the light show. So, after hanging out for a little while afterwards, we had to run the the metro, and after getting lost, didn't get there until about 1:30am. Since our trip required two line changes, we ended up not making it home because the Metro closed at 2:00am. Therefore, we were stuck trying to flag down a Taxi outside the giant traffic circle surrounding L'Arc de Triomphe. After about 40-minutes of trying to hail a taxi, we were finally successful. Unfortunately, our cab driver was not the nicest Parisian that we encountered (to say the least), and he ended up doing everything in his power to make us feel uncomfortable/to charge us as much as possible for the ride. In the end, the fare ended up being an arm and a leg, but we made it home safely after a long and exhausting day.
We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hostel's restaurant (yes, there was a restaurant in our hostel), before taking the Metro to Saint-Michel Square to meet up with the tour group. The tour covered TONS of different places all over Paris and was 3.5 hours long. We saw Le Fontaine de Saint-Michel, the Latin Quarter, Le Cathedrale de Notre-Dame, the French Courts of Justice, French Parliament, Le Seine, the "Lock Bridge", Le Louvre, Le Champs-Elysee, L'Obelisque, Le Tour Eiffel, L'Arc de Triomphe, La Grande Palais, et La Petite Palais. (Sorry for jumping from French to English) It was intense, but also very informative.
My favorite place on the tour was definitely the "lock bridge" (I can't remember its official name) because of the story behind it. Basically, there is a bridge over the Seine that has walls/railings made out of a material similar to chain-link. All over the fence there are locks hanging. Apparently, in Paris it is traditional for a group of friends to buy wine at the grocery store and sit next to the Seine on warm evenings instead of going to bars (there isn't an open-container law in Paris - you can carry alcohol anywhere!). So, sometimes couples do this as well. The tradition of the locks on the bridge stems off of this wine-drinking tradition. Basically, if you are a couple and are in love, you can go to the store and buy a lock and a bottle of wine. Then, you sit on the bridge, share the wine, and confess your love for one another. You write a small note on the lock (usually "Je t'aime", which translates to "I love you"), lock it on the bridge, and throw the key into the river, thus "locking" your love in Paris. HOW ROMANTIC! I am determined to do this some day...
After the tour, we grabbed lunch at a pub, and then Robert had to leave us to register for the Paris Marathon (side note: the Paris Marathon was taking place Sunday, which was a cool thing to experience. Wee!), so Alex and I decided to re-visit Le Cathedrale de Notre-Dame so that we could go inside. I was especially excited about this, because when I took AP French in high school, we did an entire unit on La Cathedrale de Notre-Dame and Notre-Dame de Paris (a novel and musical based on the cathedral). The interior was every bit as beautiful as it had been potrayed, and the stained glass windows were simply amazing. We were able to walk around the inside, however, the upstairs was closed when we went. This meant that I wasn't able to get up-close-and-personal with the gargoyles, however, I did get to see them from a few stories down.
After Notre-Dame, we headed to Paris' Red Light District for another tour. This tour brought us all around the Montmarte area in Paris. The first stop on our tour was the Moulin Rouge, which was not quite as ritzy and glamorous as it was portrayed in the movie. It was, however, still a cabaret house, and was also ridiculously expensive. We then were able to see La Moulin de la Galette (the last remaining windmill in Paris), the only vineyard in Paris, a cabaret/restaurant where Pablo Picasso used to frequent (and pay for his meals with his paintings rather than with money), the Red Light District, and Le Sacre-Coeur. The view from Le Sacre-Coeur was absolutely stunning, as it is located at the highest natural point of Paris (second highest only to the Eiffel Tower). Something interesting about the building as well is that parts of it were stark-white, while others were so dirty they were black. Our tour guide informed us that this is because of the stone used to build Le Sacre-Coeur. It is a self-cleansing stone because whenever it rains, calcium is released, thus producing a white color. Since the rain does not reach certain areas of the building, these areas are contrasted with the black color, which gives the building a sort of unreal depth which I found to be very pretty.
We ended up leaving the tour early and missing the last few stops because the sun was beginning to set, and we wanted to have time to change into nice clothes and go out to dinner. After returning to the hostel and changing, we ended up going out to a restaurant called Le Jaures for dinner. A woman at our hostel recommended it if we wanted some good traditional French cuisine. We split a casque of Merlot, an appetizer of escargots, and then I had scallops Provencale and Alex had a steak. The food was fabulous and also not too expensive, which was nice.
After dinner, we caught the Metro to the Eiffel Tower so that we could hopefully ride to the top, but unfortunately by that time the elevators had already closed. Instead, we found a cute park that was situated next to the Eiffel Tower, and sat there for awhile until the light show. (There is a light show on the Eiffel Tower every hour on the hour after dark.) The light show was pretty overrated, as they just had a crazy amount of white lightbulbs flashing at an unnecessarily fast speed for ten minutes (it was an epileptic seizure waiting to happen), but it was still nice to be able to see, especially since it was so nice out.
Since it had taken us so long to get to the Eiffel Tower (much of Paris' metro requires you needing to take very round-about routes in order to get places), it was 1:00am by the time we saw the light show. So, after hanging out for a little while afterwards, we had to run the the metro, and after getting lost, didn't get there until about 1:30am. Since our trip required two line changes, we ended up not making it home because the Metro closed at 2:00am. Therefore, we were stuck trying to flag down a Taxi outside the giant traffic circle surrounding L'Arc de Triomphe. After about 40-minutes of trying to hail a taxi, we were finally successful. Unfortunately, our cab driver was not the nicest Parisian that we encountered (to say the least), and he ended up doing everything in his power to make us feel uncomfortable/to charge us as much as possible for the ride. In the end, the fare ended up being an arm and a leg, but we made it home safely after a long and exhausting day.
Paris, France Day 1: Le Champs-Elysee
I have had two life goals for a very long time:
1. See a tornado
2. Go to Paris
(Honorable Mention #3: See Billy Joel in concert)
I can now say that I have successfully completed number two, and it was just as amazing an experience as I ever could have imagined. (I have also completed Honorable Mention #3... but that is another story in itself...) The weather in Paris was perfect; it was mid-60s (Fahrenheit) and sunny all weekend.
Alex, Claire, and I caught a taxi to the airport at 3:30 am on Friday morning. Our flight departed at 7:20, which got us to Paris a little after 9:00 am. After getting Claire on a bus to where her friend lived, Alex and I hopped on the train to our hostel. We arrived around 11:00 and were told that we couldn't check-in yet, so we decided to walk along the Seine toward the Champs-Elysee. Once we realized the walk would probably take an hour or two, we grabbed lunch at a little cafe (where the server didn't speak any English, so I got to bust out my French!), and then hopped on the Metro to Le Louvre.
We arrived at Le Louvre, descended into the Pyramid, got our admission tickets, and then decided that we wanted to wait and go a different day because it was so beautiful out (luckily, we were given free admission since we were students studying in London, so it wasn't a big deal). Random Fact: The architect who designed the Pyramid at Le Louvre also designed the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications building at Syracuse University (where I go to school!)
So anyways, when we came out of Le Louvre, we decided to walk down the Champs-Elysee to L'Arc de Triomphe. This was also a farther walk than we expected, but it was enjoyable because of the scenery. We first walked through Le Louvre's grounds to an arch created by Napoleon. Then, we walked through some gardens and fountains that were really beautiful. Something that they do in Paris is that in these little parks they have chairs that are available for the public to use. They look like chairs you would have on your porch, and you are able to pick them up and move them to wherever you would like to sit. So, there were people sitting, reading, writing, drawing, and enjoying the sunshine all over this portion of the walk. We then reached the halfway point of the Champs-Elysee, where the Obelisque (Obelisk) is located. We continued walking into the shopping district on the Champs-Elysee, where we saw many designer stores including the original Louis-Vuitton store! Finally, after about an hour of walking, we reached L'Arc de Triomphe. It sat in the middle of a major traffic circle, which required an underground tunnel in order to "cross". We climbed to the top in order to enjoy a beautiful view of the Champs-Elysees and the surrounding areas of Paris. This is also when we had our first views of the Eiffel Tower.
After climbing back down L'Arc de Triomphe, we headed in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. It took us about 20-30 minutes to get there, and by the time we arrived, we were starving. We admired its beauty for a little while before finding a nearby restaurant to eat at. We were originally planning on going up the Eiffel Tower once it got dark, however, by the time we finished eating the sun hadn't even set yet, and we were both exhausted from pulling an all-nighter the night before. So, we decided to retire early so that we could have a full day of sight-seeing on Saturday.
1. See a tornado
2. Go to Paris
(Honorable Mention #3: See Billy Joel in concert)
I can now say that I have successfully completed number two, and it was just as amazing an experience as I ever could have imagined. (I have also completed Honorable Mention #3... but that is another story in itself...) The weather in Paris was perfect; it was mid-60s (Fahrenheit) and sunny all weekend.
Alex, Claire, and I caught a taxi to the airport at 3:30 am on Friday morning. Our flight departed at 7:20, which got us to Paris a little after 9:00 am. After getting Claire on a bus to where her friend lived, Alex and I hopped on the train to our hostel. We arrived around 11:00 and were told that we couldn't check-in yet, so we decided to walk along the Seine toward the Champs-Elysee. Once we realized the walk would probably take an hour or two, we grabbed lunch at a little cafe (where the server didn't speak any English, so I got to bust out my French!), and then hopped on the Metro to Le Louvre.
We arrived at Le Louvre, descended into the Pyramid, got our admission tickets, and then decided that we wanted to wait and go a different day because it was so beautiful out (luckily, we were given free admission since we were students studying in London, so it wasn't a big deal). Random Fact: The architect who designed the Pyramid at Le Louvre also designed the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications building at Syracuse University (where I go to school!)
So anyways, when we came out of Le Louvre, we decided to walk down the Champs-Elysee to L'Arc de Triomphe. This was also a farther walk than we expected, but it was enjoyable because of the scenery. We first walked through Le Louvre's grounds to an arch created by Napoleon. Then, we walked through some gardens and fountains that were really beautiful. Something that they do in Paris is that in these little parks they have chairs that are available for the public to use. They look like chairs you would have on your porch, and you are able to pick them up and move them to wherever you would like to sit. So, there were people sitting, reading, writing, drawing, and enjoying the sunshine all over this portion of the walk. We then reached the halfway point of the Champs-Elysee, where the Obelisque (Obelisk) is located. We continued walking into the shopping district on the Champs-Elysee, where we saw many designer stores including the original Louis-Vuitton store! Finally, after about an hour of walking, we reached L'Arc de Triomphe. It sat in the middle of a major traffic circle, which required an underground tunnel in order to "cross". We climbed to the top in order to enjoy a beautiful view of the Champs-Elysees and the surrounding areas of Paris. This is also when we had our first views of the Eiffel Tower.
After climbing back down L'Arc de Triomphe, we headed in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. It took us about 20-30 minutes to get there, and by the time we arrived, we were starving. We admired its beauty for a little while before finding a nearby restaurant to eat at. We were originally planning on going up the Eiffel Tower once it got dark, however, by the time we finished eating the sun hadn't even set yet, and we were both exhausted from pulling an all-nighter the night before. So, we decided to retire early so that we could have a full day of sight-seeing on Saturday.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
London Day 39: Claire's 21st Birthday!
Here is another incredibly out-of-order post that I've been meaning to get around to writing. So... flashback to February 26th!
February 26th was the date of Claire's 21st birthday! Woohoo! In honor of it, she wanted to have a zoo-themed day, so we did! We started off by going to the London Zoo in the morning and seeing tons of cute animals. All my favorites were there including giraffes, meerkats, penguins, tigers, and lions (missing, unfortunately, were Boston Terriers). The zoo was really big and also wasn't very busy, so we had a chance to really explore everything. It was set up by regions of the world, and had special exhibits for some animals such as the gorillas. We also made a point to visit the children's section of the zoo, where you could climb into these tunnels and pop your head into the exhibits:
After the zoo, we headed back to our flats to get the boys and get ready for dinner. We also gave Claire her birthday presents: 21 tulips (her favorite flower) and tickets to see Wicked!! Yayy for presents!! At 6:00pm, we went out to a restaurant called 'Giraffe' by Russell Square tube. It was really delicious. Afterwards, we headed back to Claire's to pregame while we waited for everyone else that was going out with us. We had bought jungle masks at the zoo, so we put those one while we pregamed. I was a giraffe, Claire a zebra, Christine a lion, Alex an elephant, and Ramon a monkey. Yeehaw! While we waited we played a cute game that Christine came up with called '21 Questions'. Basically, a tradition in the United States when you turn 21 is to take 21 shots, however, this is incredibly dangerous/no fun. So, '21 Questions' is a take on this that makes it more fun and more safe. Basically, you put 21 shots on the table, and you ask the birthday person 21 questions, some which they know the answers to, and some which they don't. Any question they get right, they get to give away a shot to someone else in the room. Any question that they get wrong, they have to take. This way, you're keeping with the 21 shot theme, however, one person isn't taking all 21 of the shots. There were lots of people there at the time, too, so we each only ended up taking 2-3 each, which was perfect.
After everyone arrived, we headed out to the club we were going to for the night: TigerTiger (do you see the recurring zoo theme?). All of the floors had different themes, and we spent most of our time on the '80's floor' which was really fun, and in the basement where they were playing popular dance music with strobe lights, fog machines, etc. Personally, I liked the 80's room the best because it was well-lit and everyone was more focused on having a good time than dancing, but that's just me.
A few hours later we left the club and Christine and I had a sleepover at Claire's as the epic end to her 21st birthday. Overall, I would call it a success!
February 26th was the date of Claire's 21st birthday! Woohoo! In honor of it, she wanted to have a zoo-themed day, so we did! We started off by going to the London Zoo in the morning and seeing tons of cute animals. All my favorites were there including giraffes, meerkats, penguins, tigers, and lions (missing, unfortunately, were Boston Terriers). The zoo was really big and also wasn't very busy, so we had a chance to really explore everything. It was set up by regions of the world, and had special exhibits for some animals such as the gorillas. We also made a point to visit the children's section of the zoo, where you could climb into these tunnels and pop your head into the exhibits:
After the zoo, we headed back to our flats to get the boys and get ready for dinner. We also gave Claire her birthday presents: 21 tulips (her favorite flower) and tickets to see Wicked!! Yayy for presents!! At 6:00pm, we went out to a restaurant called 'Giraffe' by Russell Square tube. It was really delicious. Afterwards, we headed back to Claire's to pregame while we waited for everyone else that was going out with us. We had bought jungle masks at the zoo, so we put those one while we pregamed. I was a giraffe, Claire a zebra, Christine a lion, Alex an elephant, and Ramon a monkey. Yeehaw! While we waited we played a cute game that Christine came up with called '21 Questions'. Basically, a tradition in the United States when you turn 21 is to take 21 shots, however, this is incredibly dangerous/no fun. So, '21 Questions' is a take on this that makes it more fun and more safe. Basically, you put 21 shots on the table, and you ask the birthday person 21 questions, some which they know the answers to, and some which they don't. Any question they get right, they get to give away a shot to someone else in the room. Any question that they get wrong, they have to take. This way, you're keeping with the 21 shot theme, however, one person isn't taking all 21 of the shots. There were lots of people there at the time, too, so we each only ended up taking 2-3 each, which was perfect.
After everyone arrived, we headed out to the club we were going to for the night: TigerTiger (do you see the recurring zoo theme?). All of the floors had different themes, and we spent most of our time on the '80's floor' which was really fun, and in the basement where they were playing popular dance music with strobe lights, fog machines, etc. Personally, I liked the 80's room the best because it was well-lit and everyone was more focused on having a good time than dancing, but that's just me.
A few hours later we left the club and Christine and I had a sleepover at Claire's as the epic end to her 21st birthday. Overall, I would call it a success!
Amsterdam Days 3&4: Van Gogh, Anne Frank, and the Red Light District
Sunday morning Claire and Christine went to church (it was Easter Sunday), while Ramon, Alex, and I decided to sleep in a little bit later. After we woke up, we headed to the Van Gogh museum.
I really liked the Van Gogh museum because I really like Van Gogh. Along with his works, they also had a lot of works by other artists that influenced him. One of these artists was Paul Gaugin, another French Impressionist painter who had a traveling exhibit in the basement of the museum. These artists were particularly of interest to me because I did an intensive unit on French Impressionism (l'Impressionisme) in my AP French class in high school. My favorite painting in the museum was a portrait that Gaugin painted of Van Gogh. I thought it was humorous. The background of it is that Gaugin painted Van Gogh painting the sunflowers, but the painting shows Van Gogh literally painting on some sunflowers. Apparently Gaugin was making a statement about the fact that other artists of the time believed that Van Gogh could not paint from memory, and since he was painting sunflowers in the winter, he must not have been creating a painting of sunflowers, but literally painting them. (I hope that made sense...)
After the museum, we wandered around the canals for a bit because it wasn't raining. (This weekend was particularly rainy and cold, which is why we spent a great deal of time in our hotel instead of sitting outside in a square or exploring). We then went back to the hotel room to get ready for the second of our pub crawls, this time through the Red Light District. We tried to convince the other girls to come, but they wanted to stay in, so Ramon, Alex, and I headed down to Dam Square for the beginning of the crawl.
We caught the pub crawl and managed to follow it to the first two pubs, however, we missed it when it left for the third pub. We decided to walk around for a little while trying to find it, before deciding to just explore the Red Light District ourselves. The Amsterdam Red Light District is a crazy place because prostitution, as well as marijuana, are legal (In order to get the full effect of the area, I recommend searching 'Red Light District Amsterdam' on Google Images). Therefore, the Red Light District was full of sex shops, sex shows, drug shops, and prostitutes. It is called the Red Light District because of, well, the red lights. Most of the shops have red neon lights in their storefronts depicting the names of their shops or services that they offer. The prostitutes aren't what you would expect, however. Instead of wandering the streets and soliciting themselves, they are all behind glass doors with red lights above them, which illuminate the girls. They stand in lingerie and try to get men to come into their room for their services. When a room is taken, a curtain is used to cover the glass door so that you cannot see what is going on inside. The sketchier the alleyway, the more risque the prostitutes. Needless to say, it was quite an interesting experience.
Monday morning we woke ourselves up early in order to catch the free tour that was being offered. Unfortunately, however, when we arrived they told us that the tour was full. This was really disappointing, but we decided to do some exploring ourselves instead. We brought Claire and Christine to the Red Light District (drastically different during the day, but still prostitutes in the windows). After wandering around there for awhile, Claire and Christine wanted to go to another art museum, but the boys and I wanted to continue to wander. We walked around the canals, got lunch (Wok to Walk, of course), and then headed back to the hotel room to eat, pack, and relax. The girls came back after awhile as well, and we ended up playing some cards in the room.
Monday night we had reservations to tour the Anne Frank house. I think that this was by far the most interesting thing that I did while in Amsterdam. Although many people don't realize it, Anne Frank was in Amsterdam while she hid out with her family. They now have the house on display as a memorium to Anne and her family, along with the many others, who died during the Holocaust. It was really interesting to see the rooms that the families stayed in, the back passageway to get to the attic, and the way that it felt. There were quotes from her diary on the walls, translated from Dutch into English. They also tried to make the atmosphere simliar to that of what it was like for the families, for example, they covered the windows with thick, black curtains so that it felt gloomy and dark. It is hard to describe what the house was like, but it really moved me and was eye-opening to see it in real life. I think it is an important piece of history, and I plan to re-read Anne Frank's diary this summer when I return home.
After the Anne Frank House, we got poffertjes (again) at the Pancake Corner (again) before heading back to the hotel room to sleep for a few hours and finish packing. At 3:30am we had to catch a taxi to the airport. We were back in London by 7:15am, just in time to be given a hard time at customs/immigration and only be able to take a 30-minute power-nap before class. Hoorah, hoorah.
Overall, it was a successful and fun weekend. I highly recommend Amsterdam, especially if you are looking for good night life. Woo!
I really liked the Van Gogh museum because I really like Van Gogh. Along with his works, they also had a lot of works by other artists that influenced him. One of these artists was Paul Gaugin, another French Impressionist painter who had a traveling exhibit in the basement of the museum. These artists were particularly of interest to me because I did an intensive unit on French Impressionism (l'Impressionisme) in my AP French class in high school. My favorite painting in the museum was a portrait that Gaugin painted of Van Gogh. I thought it was humorous. The background of it is that Gaugin painted Van Gogh painting the sunflowers, but the painting shows Van Gogh literally painting on some sunflowers. Apparently Gaugin was making a statement about the fact that other artists of the time believed that Van Gogh could not paint from memory, and since he was painting sunflowers in the winter, he must not have been creating a painting of sunflowers, but literally painting them. (I hope that made sense...)
After the museum, we wandered around the canals for a bit because it wasn't raining. (This weekend was particularly rainy and cold, which is why we spent a great deal of time in our hotel instead of sitting outside in a square or exploring). We then went back to the hotel room to get ready for the second of our pub crawls, this time through the Red Light District. We tried to convince the other girls to come, but they wanted to stay in, so Ramon, Alex, and I headed down to Dam Square for the beginning of the crawl.
We caught the pub crawl and managed to follow it to the first two pubs, however, we missed it when it left for the third pub. We decided to walk around for a little while trying to find it, before deciding to just explore the Red Light District ourselves. The Amsterdam Red Light District is a crazy place because prostitution, as well as marijuana, are legal (In order to get the full effect of the area, I recommend searching 'Red Light District Amsterdam' on Google Images). Therefore, the Red Light District was full of sex shops, sex shows, drug shops, and prostitutes. It is called the Red Light District because of, well, the red lights. Most of the shops have red neon lights in their storefronts depicting the names of their shops or services that they offer. The prostitutes aren't what you would expect, however. Instead of wandering the streets and soliciting themselves, they are all behind glass doors with red lights above them, which illuminate the girls. They stand in lingerie and try to get men to come into their room for their services. When a room is taken, a curtain is used to cover the glass door so that you cannot see what is going on inside. The sketchier the alleyway, the more risque the prostitutes. Needless to say, it was quite an interesting experience.
Monday morning we woke ourselves up early in order to catch the free tour that was being offered. Unfortunately, however, when we arrived they told us that the tour was full. This was really disappointing, but we decided to do some exploring ourselves instead. We brought Claire and Christine to the Red Light District (drastically different during the day, but still prostitutes in the windows). After wandering around there for awhile, Claire and Christine wanted to go to another art museum, but the boys and I wanted to continue to wander. We walked around the canals, got lunch (Wok to Walk, of course), and then headed back to the hotel room to eat, pack, and relax. The girls came back after awhile as well, and we ended up playing some cards in the room.
Monday night we had reservations to tour the Anne Frank house. I think that this was by far the most interesting thing that I did while in Amsterdam. Although many people don't realize it, Anne Frank was in Amsterdam while she hid out with her family. They now have the house on display as a memorium to Anne and her family, along with the many others, who died during the Holocaust. It was really interesting to see the rooms that the families stayed in, the back passageway to get to the attic, and the way that it felt. There were quotes from her diary on the walls, translated from Dutch into English. They also tried to make the atmosphere simliar to that of what it was like for the families, for example, they covered the windows with thick, black curtains so that it felt gloomy and dark. It is hard to describe what the house was like, but it really moved me and was eye-opening to see it in real life. I think it is an important piece of history, and I plan to re-read Anne Frank's diary this summer when I return home.
After the Anne Frank House, we got poffertjes (again) at the Pancake Corner (again) before heading back to the hotel room to sleep for a few hours and finish packing. At 3:30am we had to catch a taxi to the airport. We were back in London by 7:15am, just in time to be given a hard time at customs/immigration and only be able to take a 30-minute power-nap before class. Hoorah, hoorah.
Overall, it was a successful and fun weekend. I highly recommend Amsterdam, especially if you are looking for good night life. Woo!
Amsterdam Days 1&2: Leidseplein, Pancakes, and Heineken
Easter weekend my friends and I decided to make the trek over to Amsterdam, Holland, in the Netherlands. Christine, Claire, Alex, Ramon, and I caught a bus to a train to the airport at 3:28 am on Friday. Our flight took off at 7:25, and we arrived in Amsterdam around 9:30.
After landing, I realized that there were no directions to our hotel on the hotel confirmation. Therefore, we had a small fiasco when we were trying to buy train tickets, tram tickets, etc., especially because most of the signs were written in Dutch. Finally, after a train ride and a tram ride (oh yea, and leaving Alex behind at one point), we managed to make it to our hotel. All of the hostels in Amsterdam were either sketchy or expensive, so we decided to use some of my dad's hotel points to reserve a room at the Hilton for the four nights that we would be there. We ended up with a room with one King-size bed for five people. Needless to say, some people ended upon the floor each night, but I think it worked out well nonetheless.
By the time we arrived at the hotel, we were all starving, so we asked the concierge where the best place to get food would be. He pointed us in the direction of the Leidseplein, which is the entertainment district in Amsterdam (not to be confused with the Red Light District). Here there are lots of places to eat, drink, and shop. We ended up eating at an Irish pub that served a variety of foods (for example, I got Thai food). Afterwards we were all pretty exhausted from pulling a near all-nighter, so we decided to take a nap before going out. After our nap we got ready and headed back to the Leidseplein for a pub crawl that we had hear about when we were there earlier. It was really, really fun! It brought us to 6 different bars/clubs throughout the Leidseplein (the boys & I only lasted through 5)and we got lots of free drinks (mostly Jagermeister shots and half-pints of Heineken or Grolsch - all native to the Netherlands) and a free t-shirt! Oh yes, and I can't forget that we discovered the downfall of the entire weekend on our way home: Wok to Walk. It is a fast-food Chinese restaurant that is absolutely delicious, however, I think we ate 50% of our meals there over the course of the weekend (the other 50% were probably poffertjes at Pancake Corner). Not one of our better choices...
Anyways, the following morning (Saturday), we woke up early to head over to the Heineken Brouwery. But, before we went there, we had to have Wok to Walk for lunch (see, there's a pattern developing already...). The Heineken Brouwery was really fun, and took up a larger chunk of our day than I had anticipated. The whole thing was very interactive, which made it really, really fun. You got to see the actual beer being brewed, help brew some beer yourself, sit in these really weird chairs to watch old commercials, pose for pictures with old advertisements, create-your-own Heineken commercial/video, bottle your own beer, and finally, you got to "brew yourself". This consisted of a little motion-simulator-esque ride where you stood up and they pretended that you were the beer being brewed, so you got to move through the giant copper things, be heated up, be stirred, be bottled, be transported, etc. It was pretty cool. It all ended at a bar where you could redeem your ticket for a free pint of Heineken (which, I must add, is a thousand times more delicious in Amsterdam than it is in the States). The ceiling there was made completely out of Henieken bottles, and all the tables had virtual coasters that detected the bottom of your glass and created a coaster underneath that moved when you moved your glass. COOL!
After the Heineken Brouwery, we went back to the Leidseplein and I had poffertjes for lunch at the Pancake Corner. Now, for a description: poffertjes are basically really delicious little pancakes (about the size of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup) that you can get topped with whipped cream, ice cream, and fruit (yes, please!) They also had really delicious syrup there that tasted more like caramel than maple syrup, which made the poffertjes that much more delightful. It is possible that over the course of the weekend I ate my weight in poffertjes. Oops.
That evening we were all pretty exhausted, so we just stayed at Pancake Corner for drinks because they have a special on Jagermeister shots. However, we realized that none of us were very enthusiastic about drinking, so we just headed back to the hotel for an early night.
After landing, I realized that there were no directions to our hotel on the hotel confirmation. Therefore, we had a small fiasco when we were trying to buy train tickets, tram tickets, etc., especially because most of the signs were written in Dutch. Finally, after a train ride and a tram ride (oh yea, and leaving Alex behind at one point), we managed to make it to our hotel. All of the hostels in Amsterdam were either sketchy or expensive, so we decided to use some of my dad's hotel points to reserve a room at the Hilton for the four nights that we would be there. We ended up with a room with one King-size bed for five people. Needless to say, some people ended upon the floor each night, but I think it worked out well nonetheless.
By the time we arrived at the hotel, we were all starving, so we asked the concierge where the best place to get food would be. He pointed us in the direction of the Leidseplein, which is the entertainment district in Amsterdam (not to be confused with the Red Light District). Here there are lots of places to eat, drink, and shop. We ended up eating at an Irish pub that served a variety of foods (for example, I got Thai food). Afterwards we were all pretty exhausted from pulling a near all-nighter, so we decided to take a nap before going out. After our nap we got ready and headed back to the Leidseplein for a pub crawl that we had hear about when we were there earlier. It was really, really fun! It brought us to 6 different bars/clubs throughout the Leidseplein (the boys & I only lasted through 5)and we got lots of free drinks (mostly Jagermeister shots and half-pints of Heineken or Grolsch - all native to the Netherlands) and a free t-shirt! Oh yes, and I can't forget that we discovered the downfall of the entire weekend on our way home: Wok to Walk. It is a fast-food Chinese restaurant that is absolutely delicious, however, I think we ate 50% of our meals there over the course of the weekend (the other 50% were probably poffertjes at Pancake Corner). Not one of our better choices...
Anyways, the following morning (Saturday), we woke up early to head over to the Heineken Brouwery. But, before we went there, we had to have Wok to Walk for lunch (see, there's a pattern developing already...). The Heineken Brouwery was really fun, and took up a larger chunk of our day than I had anticipated. The whole thing was very interactive, which made it really, really fun. You got to see the actual beer being brewed, help brew some beer yourself, sit in these really weird chairs to watch old commercials, pose for pictures with old advertisements, create-your-own Heineken commercial/video, bottle your own beer, and finally, you got to "brew yourself". This consisted of a little motion-simulator-esque ride where you stood up and they pretended that you were the beer being brewed, so you got to move through the giant copper things, be heated up, be stirred, be bottled, be transported, etc. It was pretty cool. It all ended at a bar where you could redeem your ticket for a free pint of Heineken (which, I must add, is a thousand times more delicious in Amsterdam than it is in the States). The ceiling there was made completely out of Henieken bottles, and all the tables had virtual coasters that detected the bottom of your glass and created a coaster underneath that moved when you moved your glass. COOL!
After the Heineken Brouwery, we went back to the Leidseplein and I had poffertjes for lunch at the Pancake Corner. Now, for a description: poffertjes are basically really delicious little pancakes (about the size of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup) that you can get topped with whipped cream, ice cream, and fruit (yes, please!) They also had really delicious syrup there that tasted more like caramel than maple syrup, which made the poffertjes that much more delightful. It is possible that over the course of the weekend I ate my weight in poffertjes. Oops.
That evening we were all pretty exhausted, so we just stayed at Pancake Corner for drinks because they have a special on Jagermeister shots. However, we realized that none of us were very enthusiastic about drinking, so we just headed back to the hotel for an early night.
Monday, March 29, 2010
London Days 44-49: MOM VISITS!! ♥
Wednesday, March 3rd, MOM CAME TO VISIT! (This an extremely overdue and out-of-order post. My bad.)
After I got out of class I ran to her hotel to give her a big hug! :) Then we explored the Russell Square area by my flat/her hotel for a little bit, and settled down for a late pub lunch. Afterwards, I brought her back to my flat, and then we grabbed a quick dinner at a cafe. We parted ways, got dressed, and then met up around 7:00 to go see Wicked (!!) with Claire, Christine, Alex, Alex's mom, Alex's sister, and Alex's sister's boyfriend for Claire's birthday. It was quite a collaboration of people to say the least. It was all of our first times seeing the musical, and it was absolutely fantatsic! I only knew a small sliver of the story line, and the bigger storyline was really mind-blowing. I highly recommend seeing it wherever you can!
Thursday morning I had class until noon, and then afterwards I took Mom out on a crazy sightseeing adventure. We got off of the tube at Charing Cross next to the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square. We walked from Trafalgar Square to Big Ben (past the London Eye), and then to Westminster Abbey. Then, we braved the walk to Buckingham Palace, stopping by the Royal Cavalry Museum on the way. While walking, I thought every building we were passing was Buckingham Palace, but it turns out it was (of course) the building farthest away from where we started. Go figure. After seeing Buckingham Palace, we walked towards Victoria Station and had some fish n' chips on the way in a pub called the 'Bag o' Nails'. As I am on a journey to find the best fish n' chips in London, this is definitely a finalist (along with a restaurant in Greenwich). It's slogan is that it has 'probably the best fish n' chips in London'; I would probably agree. That night I also brought her to Shakespeare's Head so that she could see one of the pubs that my friends and I congregate to on a regular basis. It was lovely.
On Friday, we took the tube to Kew to meet up with a school-sponsored field trip (free = yay!) to Kew Gardens. We started the afternoon off with a 30-minute tour of the gardens by one of SU's professors in London, and then were sent off to explore on our own. Unfortunately, I found the gardens to be relatively boring, and I was also very sick, so we only stayed for about an hour. We did manage to see two different green houses, though, including one from the 1800s that had a ton of tropical palm trees, and the Princess of Wales Conservatory that had nine different climate rooms, all with different plant species. After leaving, we went to a little Italian cafe for tea, and then headed back home so that I could rest for the evening. That night, we went out with some of my friends to another one of the local bars, this one called the White Hart, but not for very long because all of us were tired.
Saturday morning we went out to Pancake Cafe by the British Museum for Breakfast. Then, we met up with Alex, Ramon, and Ramon's friend Tania who was visiting at the British Museum. We stayed for a few hours, but were able to see Ancient Egypt, Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Rome, and Ancient Greece along with a little bit of Medieval British history. Ancient Egypt was by far my favorite exhibit. On the ground floor they had huge sculptures and pieces of tombs, and upstairs they had smaller artifacts and mummies. In the upstairs exhibit, they had mummified cats, canopic jars, tons of mummies, an unwrapped mummy (which was cool, but a little creepy), and Cleopatra's mummy! I have always been interested in Ancient Egyptian history, so this part of the museum was SO interesting to me. After the museum I went home and napped (I was sick all weekend while Mom was here, so I unfortunately spent a great deal of time napping). She had moved out of her hotel and into my flat by this time, so while I napped she went to the grocery store and made us all dinner, which was fantastic!
Sunday morning we did another big sightseeing day, but this time we visited my favorite part of London. We got off at St. Paul's and tried to visit the Cathedral, but it was closed to tourists since it was a day of worship. We walked across the Millenium Bridge to the Tate Modern, where we went up to the 7th floor cafe, which has a phenomenal view of St. Paul's and the Thames. Then we headed to the basement of the Tate, where we did the "box" exhibit, which I think I have mentioned before, but is just a giant box-shaped scupture that is pitch-black and you walk into until you are enveloped in darkness. Mom didn't like it very much, but it was really cool nonetheless. We then walked along the Thames past the Globe Theatre until we reached Borough Market, which was unfortunately closed. We then crossed the river on a different bridge, and walked along the opposite coast until we reached St. Paul's again to catch the Tube to Notting Hill. (We amazingly ran into Ramon and Tania while we were walking back to St. Paul's, which I couldn't believe happened in such a large city!) We caught the tube to Notting Hill, where I was planning on showing Mom the house with the blue door from the movie, along with the Portobello Market. Unfortunately, we sat down to grab some lunch, and all of the exhaustion that had been building up in my body hit me, and I absolutely had to go home to sleep. However, Mom was happy just to have gone to the Notting Hill Tube station, so she wasn't horribly disappointed.
That evening, Mom made meatloaf for my friends and I, and we had our last night together. I got some homework done after dinner, while Mom packed and got herself ready for departure. In the morning, I woke up early to get her to the Tube to Heathrow, where we said our goodbyes. Horribly, horribly bittersweet. I love being in London and beign on my own, but I really do miss her dearly. It was an awesome week, and I'm so glad that she got to see where I am living and what my life is like here! I will be home soon enough though, and then I will have an entire summer to spend with her and the rest of the family. :)
After I got out of class I ran to her hotel to give her a big hug! :) Then we explored the Russell Square area by my flat/her hotel for a little bit, and settled down for a late pub lunch. Afterwards, I brought her back to my flat, and then we grabbed a quick dinner at a cafe. We parted ways, got dressed, and then met up around 7:00 to go see Wicked (!!) with Claire, Christine, Alex, Alex's mom, Alex's sister, and Alex's sister's boyfriend for Claire's birthday. It was quite a collaboration of people to say the least. It was all of our first times seeing the musical, and it was absolutely fantatsic! I only knew a small sliver of the story line, and the bigger storyline was really mind-blowing. I highly recommend seeing it wherever you can!
Thursday morning I had class until noon, and then afterwards I took Mom out on a crazy sightseeing adventure. We got off of the tube at Charing Cross next to the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square. We walked from Trafalgar Square to Big Ben (past the London Eye), and then to Westminster Abbey. Then, we braved the walk to Buckingham Palace, stopping by the Royal Cavalry Museum on the way. While walking, I thought every building we were passing was Buckingham Palace, but it turns out it was (of course) the building farthest away from where we started. Go figure. After seeing Buckingham Palace, we walked towards Victoria Station and had some fish n' chips on the way in a pub called the 'Bag o' Nails'. As I am on a journey to find the best fish n' chips in London, this is definitely a finalist (along with a restaurant in Greenwich). It's slogan is that it has 'probably the best fish n' chips in London'; I would probably agree. That night I also brought her to Shakespeare's Head so that she could see one of the pubs that my friends and I congregate to on a regular basis. It was lovely.
On Friday, we took the tube to Kew to meet up with a school-sponsored field trip (free = yay!) to Kew Gardens. We started the afternoon off with a 30-minute tour of the gardens by one of SU's professors in London, and then were sent off to explore on our own. Unfortunately, I found the gardens to be relatively boring, and I was also very sick, so we only stayed for about an hour. We did manage to see two different green houses, though, including one from the 1800s that had a ton of tropical palm trees, and the Princess of Wales Conservatory that had nine different climate rooms, all with different plant species. After leaving, we went to a little Italian cafe for tea, and then headed back home so that I could rest for the evening. That night, we went out with some of my friends to another one of the local bars, this one called the White Hart, but not for very long because all of us were tired.
Saturday morning we went out to Pancake Cafe by the British Museum for Breakfast. Then, we met up with Alex, Ramon, and Ramon's friend Tania who was visiting at the British Museum. We stayed for a few hours, but were able to see Ancient Egypt, Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Rome, and Ancient Greece along with a little bit of Medieval British history. Ancient Egypt was by far my favorite exhibit. On the ground floor they had huge sculptures and pieces of tombs, and upstairs they had smaller artifacts and mummies. In the upstairs exhibit, they had mummified cats, canopic jars, tons of mummies, an unwrapped mummy (which was cool, but a little creepy), and Cleopatra's mummy! I have always been interested in Ancient Egyptian history, so this part of the museum was SO interesting to me. After the museum I went home and napped (I was sick all weekend while Mom was here, so I unfortunately spent a great deal of time napping). She had moved out of her hotel and into my flat by this time, so while I napped she went to the grocery store and made us all dinner, which was fantastic!
Sunday morning we did another big sightseeing day, but this time we visited my favorite part of London. We got off at St. Paul's and tried to visit the Cathedral, but it was closed to tourists since it was a day of worship. We walked across the Millenium Bridge to the Tate Modern, where we went up to the 7th floor cafe, which has a phenomenal view of St. Paul's and the Thames. Then we headed to the basement of the Tate, where we did the "box" exhibit, which I think I have mentioned before, but is just a giant box-shaped scupture that is pitch-black and you walk into until you are enveloped in darkness. Mom didn't like it very much, but it was really cool nonetheless. We then walked along the Thames past the Globe Theatre until we reached Borough Market, which was unfortunately closed. We then crossed the river on a different bridge, and walked along the opposite coast until we reached St. Paul's again to catch the Tube to Notting Hill. (We amazingly ran into Ramon and Tania while we were walking back to St. Paul's, which I couldn't believe happened in such a large city!) We caught the tube to Notting Hill, where I was planning on showing Mom the house with the blue door from the movie, along with the Portobello Market. Unfortunately, we sat down to grab some lunch, and all of the exhaustion that had been building up in my body hit me, and I absolutely had to go home to sleep. However, Mom was happy just to have gone to the Notting Hill Tube station, so she wasn't horribly disappointed.
That evening, Mom made meatloaf for my friends and I, and we had our last night together. I got some homework done after dinner, while Mom packed and got herself ready for departure. In the morning, I woke up early to get her to the Tube to Heathrow, where we said our goodbyes. Horribly, horribly bittersweet. I love being in London and beign on my own, but I really do miss her dearly. It was an awesome week, and I'm so glad that she got to see where I am living and what my life is like here! I will be home soon enough though, and then I will have an entire summer to spend with her and the rest of the family. :)
Spring Break Days 8&9: Back in Athens, Greece
Our last ferry ride was overnight from Kos to Athens, and was scheduled to take 12 hours. It only took 9. This messed up when we were supposed to check-in to our hostel, but luckily we had made friends there the first time, so they didn't mind us arriving early. Before falling asleep on the ferry, we talked, played cards for awhile (Kemps!), and read my new Cosmo magazine.
After unloading, taking the Metro to Monistiraki, and then arriving at our hostel, it was about 8:00 am. We hung out in the lobby for a little while before heading out for breakfast. After breakfast (and a little bit of shopping in the market) we headed back to the hostel to check-in to our rooms. This time, our reservations had us spread out all over the hostel, with two of us on the second floor, three of us on the third floor, and two of us on the fourth floor. After we (quickly) settled in, we all headed out to visit the Ancient Agora (market) in Athens. It wasn't my favorite site, however, it was still cool to see how the market had been laid out thousands of years ago. The market was set up with stones, so the foundations of different paths and stalls were still visible today. There were also some turtles (tortoises?) roaming around the ruins, along with the typical cats and dogs. We were also able to see the most well-preserved temple in Greece, which was located adjacent to the Agora. Afterwards, we went to a market for a little while where the boys looked at ancient coins, and then we headed back to the hostel. Some of the boys particpated in a wine tasting, while Alex, Claire, Christine, and I took the time to nap, shower, and relax. Post-naptime, Alex and I grabbed dinner and then met everyone up on the rooftop bar for happy hour. This happy hour was particularly "hopping", as it was completely packed and everyone was socializing with each other. I had originally planned on going clubbing with Christine and Claire, but was too exhausted from the week to have the energy to go. This was especially due to the fact that in Greece (or at least in Athens), you don't go out until at least 1:00 am, and you stay out until about 6:00 am. I love my sleep, so that is definitely not my scene.
The following morning (Sunday) we woke up, grabbed a few last-minute things, and then headed to the airport. Ramon and Dave F.'s flight didn't leave for another six or so hours, so they headed into Athens to see more of the sights that they had missed earlier in the week when they were in Italy. We arrived at the airport, got some duty-free stuff, grabbed some lunch, and then took the flight back to London. Arriving back in London was an awesome feeling, because it was just like arriving back home after a long trip. Although Greece was fantastic, it always feels good to be back at your home in your bed with your slippers on. <3
After unloading, taking the Metro to Monistiraki, and then arriving at our hostel, it was about 8:00 am. We hung out in the lobby for a little while before heading out for breakfast. After breakfast (and a little bit of shopping in the market) we headed back to the hostel to check-in to our rooms. This time, our reservations had us spread out all over the hostel, with two of us on the second floor, three of us on the third floor, and two of us on the fourth floor. After we (quickly) settled in, we all headed out to visit the Ancient Agora (market) in Athens. It wasn't my favorite site, however, it was still cool to see how the market had been laid out thousands of years ago. The market was set up with stones, so the foundations of different paths and stalls were still visible today. There were also some turtles (tortoises?) roaming around the ruins, along with the typical cats and dogs. We were also able to see the most well-preserved temple in Greece, which was located adjacent to the Agora. Afterwards, we went to a market for a little while where the boys looked at ancient coins, and then we headed back to the hostel. Some of the boys particpated in a wine tasting, while Alex, Claire, Christine, and I took the time to nap, shower, and relax. Post-naptime, Alex and I grabbed dinner and then met everyone up on the rooftop bar for happy hour. This happy hour was particularly "hopping", as it was completely packed and everyone was socializing with each other. I had originally planned on going clubbing with Christine and Claire, but was too exhausted from the week to have the energy to go. This was especially due to the fact that in Greece (or at least in Athens), you don't go out until at least 1:00 am, and you stay out until about 6:00 am. I love my sleep, so that is definitely not my scene.
The following morning (Sunday) we woke up, grabbed a few last-minute things, and then headed to the airport. Ramon and Dave F.'s flight didn't leave for another six or so hours, so they headed into Athens to see more of the sights that they had missed earlier in the week when they were in Italy. We arrived at the airport, got some duty-free stuff, grabbed some lunch, and then took the flight back to London. Arriving back in London was an awesome feeling, because it was just like arriving back home after a long trip. Although Greece was fantastic, it always feels good to be back at your home in your bed with your slippers on. <3
Spring Break Days 5,6,7: Kos, Greece
We arrived on the island of Kos at 4:15 am in a state of extreme lack of sleep. We braved the walk to our hostel along the coast, which wasn't all that bad as the sun was rising so the sky was a beautiful shade of reds, purples, and blues. We arrived at the hostel a little bit before 5, and when we got there, the door was locked. As we were attempting to figure out if it was the wrong entrance, a female voice from above shouts down what we want. We shouted back that we had a reservation, and a few minutes later a little old lady in a bathrobe comes to let us in. She also allowed us to go to our rooms right away, so we could get some sleep. As it turns out (as we would find out later), the hostel (which was actually more of a family-run hotel) was supposed to be closed for booking that particular weekend, but I think that we booked so far in advance that they didn't realize we had already made reservations.
So, quick notes about our hostel. When you walked in there was the lobby, then up the stairs was a living room (which belonged to the little old lady and her family) and then you walked up another flight in order to reach the rooms. So, every time we came or went, we had to walk through a living room of Greek people watching TV. We started calling the little old lady "grandma", and she gave us keys to let ourselves in at night and was always checking up to find out where we were going and when we'd be back. She gave us breakfast in the morning which consisted of a hard boiled egg, cheese, bread with butter and marmalade, orange juice, and tea/coffee. This was all served at her kitchen table, and freshly prepared by her. There was a middle-aged man there as well who frequently tried to make conversation with us, usually only to ask if we were cold (we were the only people on the island who found it appropriate to not be wearing scarves and winter jackets) and how we made our hotel reservation. Some other members of the family included another old woman who I think had alzheimer's because she kept trying to touch us and talk to us and grandma would shoo her away, and a little girl who was about one to two years old who was adorable and always staring at us during breakfast. I believe they all lived in the hotel.
So, Wednesday marked my 21st birthday (woo!!) so we started the day off sleeping in and then exploring Kos (which I think took all of 15 minutes). While discovering the area, we also discovered a few things about the culture. (1) It was not summer yet, so our sun dresses, flip flops, and sunglasses weren't appreciated by the locals. (2) It was windy. Really windy. I think that it might have been 15 degrees colder by the water. (3) This meant that it was impossible to sunbathe because you were so cold all the time. (4) Even if you are wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, people will still stop you on the street and ask you if you are cold. So weird.
Wednesday night we went out to dinner at a nice restaurant called H2O, where we got a lot of delicious and fancy foods, and then we went to a Western themed bar (Western as in American cowboys) for the duration of the night. Needless to say, we drank, we danced, we had a good time, and my birthday was a success. Everyone chipped in on gifts for me, which included a deck of cards with 500 pick-up lines on them, a book of drinking games, a pink sequined visor, a "Birthday Girl!" ribbon, a coaster, a British Cosmo magazine, ridiculous red sunglasses, and tickets to see the LION KING!! Hooray.
I am going to summarize the remainder of the things we did on Kos in one big paragraph rather than trying to do it by day. Kos basically was pretty boring, so we didn't do much while we were there. It consisted of a lot of sleeping, sitting, and relaxing, which was nice, but also got boring. Oh, and Dave F. and Ramon met up with us on the 18th early in the morning, so we had them to play with for our last two days. Yay!
Most of the shops and restaurants on Kos were closed for the season, but we did get some food at a couple of authentic Greek restaurants that was pretty good. New piece of knowledge I learned? Aubergine = eggplant. Good to know. We also explored some of the more 'historic' sites on Kos one of the days. We saw the exterior of the castle, saw Hippocrates' tree (not that exciting. I'm still not even sure who Hippocrates was), and just walked around the old parts of town. The rest of the group went to an old theatre the evening after my birthday, but as I was still recovering, I decided to take a nap instead. We spent one day just sitting in the sun in a cute little square drinking coffee and eating crepes (delicious). We finally left Kos on Friday night at 11:30 pm, and arrived in Athens about 9 hours later for our last two days of Spring Break.
So, quick notes about our hostel. When you walked in there was the lobby, then up the stairs was a living room (which belonged to the little old lady and her family) and then you walked up another flight in order to reach the rooms. So, every time we came or went, we had to walk through a living room of Greek people watching TV. We started calling the little old lady "grandma", and she gave us keys to let ourselves in at night and was always checking up to find out where we were going and when we'd be back. She gave us breakfast in the morning which consisted of a hard boiled egg, cheese, bread with butter and marmalade, orange juice, and tea/coffee. This was all served at her kitchen table, and freshly prepared by her. There was a middle-aged man there as well who frequently tried to make conversation with us, usually only to ask if we were cold (we were the only people on the island who found it appropriate to not be wearing scarves and winter jackets) and how we made our hotel reservation. Some other members of the family included another old woman who I think had alzheimer's because she kept trying to touch us and talk to us and grandma would shoo her away, and a little girl who was about one to two years old who was adorable and always staring at us during breakfast. I believe they all lived in the hotel.
So, Wednesday marked my 21st birthday (woo!!) so we started the day off sleeping in and then exploring Kos (which I think took all of 15 minutes). While discovering the area, we also discovered a few things about the culture. (1) It was not summer yet, so our sun dresses, flip flops, and sunglasses weren't appreciated by the locals. (2) It was windy. Really windy. I think that it might have been 15 degrees colder by the water. (3) This meant that it was impossible to sunbathe because you were so cold all the time. (4) Even if you are wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, people will still stop you on the street and ask you if you are cold. So weird.
Wednesday night we went out to dinner at a nice restaurant called H2O, where we got a lot of delicious and fancy foods, and then we went to a Western themed bar (Western as in American cowboys) for the duration of the night. Needless to say, we drank, we danced, we had a good time, and my birthday was a success. Everyone chipped in on gifts for me, which included a deck of cards with 500 pick-up lines on them, a book of drinking games, a pink sequined visor, a "Birthday Girl!" ribbon, a coaster, a British Cosmo magazine, ridiculous red sunglasses, and tickets to see the LION KING!! Hooray.
I am going to summarize the remainder of the things we did on Kos in one big paragraph rather than trying to do it by day. Kos basically was pretty boring, so we didn't do much while we were there. It consisted of a lot of sleeping, sitting, and relaxing, which was nice, but also got boring. Oh, and Dave F. and Ramon met up with us on the 18th early in the morning, so we had them to play with for our last two days. Yay!
Most of the shops and restaurants on Kos were closed for the season, but we did get some food at a couple of authentic Greek restaurants that was pretty good. New piece of knowledge I learned? Aubergine = eggplant. Good to know. We also explored some of the more 'historic' sites on Kos one of the days. We saw the exterior of the castle, saw Hippocrates' tree (not that exciting. I'm still not even sure who Hippocrates was), and just walked around the old parts of town. The rest of the group went to an old theatre the evening after my birthday, but as I was still recovering, I decided to take a nap instead. We spent one day just sitting in the sun in a cute little square drinking coffee and eating crepes (delicious). We finally left Kos on Friday night at 11:30 pm, and arrived in Athens about 9 hours later for our last two days of Spring Break.
Spring Break Day 5: Santorini, Greece: ATVs
Tuesday we woke up early in order to grab breakfast and rent ATVs to tour the island. We got a quick breakfast at a pastry shop before heading back to the hostel where George had someone come pick us up to bring us to the rental shop. Claire didn't want to ATV, so Alex, Dave, and I all rented/drove the ATVs, and Christine rode on the back of Dave's. Because Santorini is such a small island, everything on the island was within a 25-minute radius of Fira.
After we got our bearings on the ATVs (I was notoriously known as the "grandma-driver" of the group, because I was a little bit more nervous than the boys), we headed to the black beach. The black beach is a coastal beach that has black sand because of all of the leftover volcanic ash. It was really beautiful, and there was a road that ran along the coast that we followed for a long time. We then headed up the archaelogical site on the island, only to find that it was under construction, so we decided to leave. Then we drove around for awhile with no particular direction, and ended up at the tallest point of the island, which had a spectacular view. It was a giant mountain that we kept driving up, and by the time we reached the top, you could tell the air was thinner. We were so high that I remember thinking that the houses/people/cars below us looked as far away as they do when you're taking off in an airplane. It was crazy.
After we headed down the mountain we grabbed some lunch at a restaurant in another town on the island (I'm not sure which town it was). I'm pretty sure this was also the town that the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants took place on, so I was pretty excited to be there. It was also home to Santorini's most picturesque/famous church that is on tons of postcards.
After lunch, we headed to the red beach, which is a beach made of red clay and rocks. We sat on the rocks for a little while and got our feet wet, but it unfortunately wasn't warm enough to really go swimming. We also met some girls there who were on spring break as well, and one of them was from Manlius, NY! (Another Syracuse suburb - about 15 minutes from my house!) It really is a small world.
We headed back to the hostel quickly to grab some sweatshirts and jackets, because the sun was going to set soon, and your arms get REALLY cold while you're ATVing. Our ATVs were pushing 60-70 k/h, which made my hands get especially cold. After stopping at the hostel, we high-tailed it to Oia, which is the part of the island that is known for its beautiful sunsets. It was all its reputation made it out to be, and we drove down by the port and sat on the roof of a little shop to watch the sunset. After the sunset, we off-roaded a little bit and then headed back to the ATV rental place to return the ATVs.
We headed out to dinner afterwards, and then caught the bus to the ferry just before midnight (My birthday!)
Overall, this was definitely my favorite day of my trip abroad thus far. I wish that I could explain the sheer beauty of the island, but it's impossible. It had beautiful beaches, beautiful mountains, beautiful towns, and vineyards. I am so glad that I chose to go ATVing, because without having done that, I would not have seen even a quarter of the beauty of the island. Santorini is truly a beautiful place, and I recommend it fully to anyone looking for somewhere to visit.
This map should depict everywhere we drove during the day (roughly) I had a difficult time remembering, but the blue dots/squares indicate places we stopped and the red lines indicate where we drove. Woo!
After we got our bearings on the ATVs (I was notoriously known as the "grandma-driver" of the group, because I was a little bit more nervous than the boys), we headed to the black beach. The black beach is a coastal beach that has black sand because of all of the leftover volcanic ash. It was really beautiful, and there was a road that ran along the coast that we followed for a long time. We then headed up the archaelogical site on the island, only to find that it was under construction, so we decided to leave. Then we drove around for awhile with no particular direction, and ended up at the tallest point of the island, which had a spectacular view. It was a giant mountain that we kept driving up, and by the time we reached the top, you could tell the air was thinner. We were so high that I remember thinking that the houses/people/cars below us looked as far away as they do when you're taking off in an airplane. It was crazy.
After we headed down the mountain we grabbed some lunch at a restaurant in another town on the island (I'm not sure which town it was). I'm pretty sure this was also the town that the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants took place on, so I was pretty excited to be there. It was also home to Santorini's most picturesque/famous church that is on tons of postcards.
After lunch, we headed to the red beach, which is a beach made of red clay and rocks. We sat on the rocks for a little while and got our feet wet, but it unfortunately wasn't warm enough to really go swimming. We also met some girls there who were on spring break as well, and one of them was from Manlius, NY! (Another Syracuse suburb - about 15 minutes from my house!) It really is a small world.
We headed back to the hostel quickly to grab some sweatshirts and jackets, because the sun was going to set soon, and your arms get REALLY cold while you're ATVing. Our ATVs were pushing 60-70 k/h, which made my hands get especially cold. After stopping at the hostel, we high-tailed it to Oia, which is the part of the island that is known for its beautiful sunsets. It was all its reputation made it out to be, and we drove down by the port and sat on the roof of a little shop to watch the sunset. After the sunset, we off-roaded a little bit and then headed back to the ATV rental place to return the ATVs.
We headed out to dinner afterwards, and then caught the bus to the ferry just before midnight (My birthday!)
Overall, this was definitely my favorite day of my trip abroad thus far. I wish that I could explain the sheer beauty of the island, but it's impossible. It had beautiful beaches, beautiful mountains, beautiful towns, and vineyards. I am so glad that I chose to go ATVing, because without having done that, I would not have seen even a quarter of the beauty of the island. Santorini is truly a beautiful place, and I recommend it fully to anyone looking for somewhere to visit.
This map should depict everywhere we drove during the day (roughly) I had a difficult time remembering, but the blue dots/squares indicate places we stopped and the red lines indicate where we drove. Woo!
Spring Break Days 3&4: Santorini, Greece: Jumping in the Mediterranean & Donkeys
Sunday marked Day 3 of our trip, and we departed at the crack of dawn (literally) to catch the metro to our ferry. We caught the metro at 5:30 am and the ferry at 7:25. The ferry ride went suprisingly well considering that it was eight hours long. The ferry was more like a cruise ship than a ferry, and it had a few cafes, a fast-food restaurant, a bar, a bunch of lounges, and some seats called "air seats" that looked like seats on an airplane. We started out on the deck, but soon realized it was going to be a cold and wet journey up there, so we moved down to the air seats so that we could get some sleep.
We arrived in Santorini around 3:30 pm, where George, our hostel owner, picked us up to drive us to the hostel. Our hostel was located in Fira, one of the small towns on Santorini. When we arrived at the hostel, George helped us become acquainted with the island by explaining to us where all of the good sights were and how to get there, along with suggesting different activities for us to do while we were there. Our rooms were gorgeous; they looked more like hotel rooms than hostel rooms. The girls had a room to ourselves, and the boys were next door, so we weren't crowded at all. It was lovely.
Sunday was a little bit rainy and overcast in Santorini, so we decided to do a little bit of exploring while it was still light out, but nothing crazy. We walked around Fira for a long time and enjoyed its seaside view. We then went out to dinner for some delicious Greek cuisine at a restaurant that George suggested to us. After dinner, we went out to an "Irish" bar for happy hour, hung around and danced for awhile, and then headed to bed.
Monday morning we woke up around 10 so that we could catch the ferry (which was actually more of a pirateship-esque type of boat) to the volcano in Santorini. The volcano is no longer attached to the island, but you can still see it from the island. We took the ferry there at 11 and walked around the hilly island until we foudn the volcano, which was smoking and releasing sulfur. I also found a TON of pumice stones that had been created by the volcano, and all of the sand on this island was black from the volcanic ash. We also hiked to the highest point of the island, where we had a beautiful view of one of the coasts of the Santorini mainland. After this, we headed back to the ferry. What we didn't realize, was that there was another stop on the trip. We seemed to be taking the long way back to Santorini, when the boat stopped, dropped an anchor, put a ladder in the water, and the driver told us that there was a hot springs about 50 meters away if we wanted to swim to it. So, on a whim, Christine, Alex, and I stripped down to our underwear, jumped in the Mediterranean, and swam to the hot springs. The water surrounding the boat was absolutely FREEZING, and it took a minute to catch our breath after jumping in, but we successfully made it to the "hot" springs (which were actually more of a luke-warm springs) where we treaded water to enjoy the moment before heading back to the ship. Once reaching the ship, we put all of our clothes back on, and proceeded to freeze from the wind once the ship started to sail back to the island.
Once we arrived back at the island, we realized we had to walk up the extremely windy and steep walkway that we had walked down to get to the port. However, there were two alternatives to walking: a high-speed gondola (not like the kinds in Venice, more like the kinds at ski mountains) orrrr.... DONKEYS!! Christine, Alex, and I decided to brave the donkeys, while Claire took the gondola up. Let me just say, the donkeys were an absolute riot. There was a crazy Greek man in charge who just kept shouting at everyone (including the donkeys). At first, he loaded Alex and Christine (along with a hefty majority of our group) on to donkeys, and then started running away with them up the mountain. I chased them up for awhile (taking pictures along the way) until we reached a second group of donkeys. The crazy Greek man must have hated me, because I was the last person he put on a donkey, and I ended up sharing with Christine. He also didn't let me climb up, instead he just grabbed me and hoisted me up behind her. I wish that I could fully describe the insanity of the situation, but it's nearly impossible without having been there. All I can say is, it was quite an experience.
We headed back to the hostel to shower and warm-up, and then we got Dave and went out to lunch. The rest of the crew walked around the island for a little bit, but I was absoutely exhausted, so I decided to take a nap back at the hostel until dinnertime. For dinner we went to another delicious Greek restaurant, this one better than the first night. I tried mousakka, a traditional Greek dish that combines potatoes, eggplant, beef, tomatoes, and cheese into an almost lasagna-like dish. It was pretty good, but was so flavorful that I had a difficult time finishing it. That was something I found in the majority of Greek dishes: they all contained feta cheese and were extremely rich in flavors. I also had some white wine that was made in Santorini, along with a free dessert provided by the restaurant owner (he also gave us another casque of wine!) After dinner, we went back to the same bar for happy hour, but hung out for much less time before heading back to the hostel.
We arrived in Santorini around 3:30 pm, where George, our hostel owner, picked us up to drive us to the hostel. Our hostel was located in Fira, one of the small towns on Santorini. When we arrived at the hostel, George helped us become acquainted with the island by explaining to us where all of the good sights were and how to get there, along with suggesting different activities for us to do while we were there. Our rooms were gorgeous; they looked more like hotel rooms than hostel rooms. The girls had a room to ourselves, and the boys were next door, so we weren't crowded at all. It was lovely.
Sunday was a little bit rainy and overcast in Santorini, so we decided to do a little bit of exploring while it was still light out, but nothing crazy. We walked around Fira for a long time and enjoyed its seaside view. We then went out to dinner for some delicious Greek cuisine at a restaurant that George suggested to us. After dinner, we went out to an "Irish" bar for happy hour, hung around and danced for awhile, and then headed to bed.
Monday morning we woke up around 10 so that we could catch the ferry (which was actually more of a pirateship-esque type of boat) to the volcano in Santorini. The volcano is no longer attached to the island, but you can still see it from the island. We took the ferry there at 11 and walked around the hilly island until we foudn the volcano, which was smoking and releasing sulfur. I also found a TON of pumice stones that had been created by the volcano, and all of the sand on this island was black from the volcanic ash. We also hiked to the highest point of the island, where we had a beautiful view of one of the coasts of the Santorini mainland. After this, we headed back to the ferry. What we didn't realize, was that there was another stop on the trip. We seemed to be taking the long way back to Santorini, when the boat stopped, dropped an anchor, put a ladder in the water, and the driver told us that there was a hot springs about 50 meters away if we wanted to swim to it. So, on a whim, Christine, Alex, and I stripped down to our underwear, jumped in the Mediterranean, and swam to the hot springs. The water surrounding the boat was absolutely FREEZING, and it took a minute to catch our breath after jumping in, but we successfully made it to the "hot" springs (which were actually more of a luke-warm springs) where we treaded water to enjoy the moment before heading back to the ship. Once reaching the ship, we put all of our clothes back on, and proceeded to freeze from the wind once the ship started to sail back to the island.
Once we arrived back at the island, we realized we had to walk up the extremely windy and steep walkway that we had walked down to get to the port. However, there were two alternatives to walking: a high-speed gondola (not like the kinds in Venice, more like the kinds at ski mountains) orrrr.... DONKEYS!! Christine, Alex, and I decided to brave the donkeys, while Claire took the gondola up. Let me just say, the donkeys were an absolute riot. There was a crazy Greek man in charge who just kept shouting at everyone (including the donkeys). At first, he loaded Alex and Christine (along with a hefty majority of our group) on to donkeys, and then started running away with them up the mountain. I chased them up for awhile (taking pictures along the way) until we reached a second group of donkeys. The crazy Greek man must have hated me, because I was the last person he put on a donkey, and I ended up sharing with Christine. He also didn't let me climb up, instead he just grabbed me and hoisted me up behind her. I wish that I could fully describe the insanity of the situation, but it's nearly impossible without having been there. All I can say is, it was quite an experience.
We headed back to the hostel to shower and warm-up, and then we got Dave and went out to lunch. The rest of the crew walked around the island for a little bit, but I was absoutely exhausted, so I decided to take a nap back at the hostel until dinnertime. For dinner we went to another delicious Greek restaurant, this one better than the first night. I tried mousakka, a traditional Greek dish that combines potatoes, eggplant, beef, tomatoes, and cheese into an almost lasagna-like dish. It was pretty good, but was so flavorful that I had a difficult time finishing it. That was something I found in the majority of Greek dishes: they all contained feta cheese and were extremely rich in flavors. I also had some white wine that was made in Santorini, along with a free dessert provided by the restaurant owner (he also gave us another casque of wine!) After dinner, we went back to the same bar for happy hour, but hung out for much less time before heading back to the hostel.
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