For my entire life I have always been interested in Ireland and have wanted to visit there. My background is 75% Irish which is where the initial interest came from. I wanted to make it over there last time I was studying abroad but was unable to make it there. This time around I knew I wanted to go and I wanted to do it right. I was able to spend an entire week in Ireland bopping around to different cities from the North to the South. I did most of Ireland by myself which definitely had its ups and downs about it as traveling alone does. It was really cool to be somewhere that I had such a connection to and interest in by myself so that I could really pay attention to the way I was feeling and how I was absorbing the new places I was experiencing. I started out in Northern Ireland in Belfast, made my way down to Cork, and then ended the Irish travels in the infamous Dublin. The only place I did not get to go and will have to make it to in the future is Gallway.
I was nervous about going to Belfast because I was going to be alone and the last time I traveled alone on this trip, nothing turned out the way I had planned it. I remember waking up one morning in London after we had gone out the night before and had to check my e-mail to make sure I hadn't dreamed taht I booked my flight and hostel in Belfast. I was delighted to see that although I had had several drinks in me I booked my Belfast trip accurately and happened to pick one of the best hostels in the UK. I stayed at a hostel called Vagabonds and it had a similar homey and welcoming feeling to that at Jetpak Alternative in Berlin and to Carpe Noctem in Budapest. I was so thrilled to be staying at a place like this because it was easy to meet people by myself. Originally I had not planned to go to Belfast, but along the way I talked to several people who had been to Ireland already and talked about how great Belfast is and how there is loads of history packed into this city. I'm so glad that I decided to go. During my first night in Belfast, I discovered that I actually love Guinness. I previously believed that I don't like dark beers, let alone Guinness but I went to a pub recommended by the hostel for dinner and decided, When in Ireland...I better have a Guinness. I basically did not stop drinking Guinness from that night until I left Ireland. The next day I did a highly recommended Black taxi tour of Belfast. It's called the Black Taxi tour because during the "troubles" in Northern Ireland that spanned (officially) from 1969-1994 in West Belfast in the Catholic side of town they were not allowed to use busses, so Catholics that drove cabs would use their black taxi cabs as busses for the Catholic people in this neighborhood. It was so interesting learning about all of the conflict that has plagued this part of Ireland and the sacrifice and violence that the people have been coping with for so long. It was baffling to me to still see a "peace wall" up in a modern city. Over and over again, I would have conversations with Irish people talking about the conflict and they would all say in the end they have no idea what all of the fighting is for. Religion defines the people that live in Northern Ireland and the people living there can tell your religion just from looking at you. It was very interesting driving around in West Belfast because I could feel the turmoil that the city had endured. After the taxi tour I walked up to the Belfast castle which was a tiny little thing, but beautiful and from the gardens the view of Belfast was gorgeous. In the gardens there are several cat sculptures and statues because at the Belfast castle they believe it is the cat of good fortune and whoever visits the gardens will have good fortune as long as a cat remains in the gardens. I enjoyed a snack at the tavern inside the castle and had the most delicious Irish coffee I've ever tasted. I swear Ireland has the BEST signature beverages.
The next day I decided to go on a day trip tour up the Northern coast and to Giant's Causeway. The drive along the Northern coast was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I have never seen green look so good. It is SO green everywhere on the countryside in Ireland. It is true though that it rains all of the time. But it is strange because it doesn't rain all day it just rains for parts of the day. They truly have four seasons in one day in Ireland. During my day trip I saw - snow, rain, and sunshine. On this tour we rode a bus and our first stop was at the famous rope bridge called Carrick-a-Rede that is connecting two large cliffs. The views were stunning of the surrounding cliffs here and I could see Scotland from across the water as well. However, it was FREEZING cold, snowing, and windy on the walk down to the bridge. I had my face buried in my scarf. Before we actually got to Giant's Causeway we got to visit the oldest Whiskey distillery - Bushmills. Once we finally got to Giant's Causeway, somehow the clouds parted and it was sunny and beautiful outside. Giant's Causeway is a collection of basaltic rock columns on the water that was created from a historical volcanic eruption in this area of Ireland. The columns form what looks like steps and are shaped in column/rock like hills. It was an amazing sight to see. The most amazing part about seeing this was hiking up the "steps" and watching the waves crash against the front of the rock columns at my feet. Looking out into the endless sea and back at the columns and columns of rocks formations, I just laughed to myself at how gorgeous a sight it was and at how much in awe I was that I was there at this historical wonder in Northern Ireland.
After Belfast, I made my way all the way down to Cork that is on the Southern Coast of Ireland. The small town of Cork was bustling with Christmas spirit and Irish cheer. I took a day trip in Cork as well and got to kiss the Blarney stone at Blarney Castle. It is said that if you kiss the Blarney stone you get the gift of the gab for 7 years, so hopefully I acquired this gift. I had to hike to the top of the castle and at the top was a little old Irish man who holds you while you lay on your back and stretch your head down and kiss the blarney stone. Besides kissing the stone, I walked around the gardens which were glowing green, stunning, and pristine. There was a poison garden as well that contained poison plants that they used in the Harry Potter books. During this day trip we were taken to two very small coastal towns in Southern Ireland called Cobh and Kinsal. Both were very quaint and had little houses that were brightly colored all stacked one next to the other. I was happy to be able to see some small towns in Ireland because I had heard the charm of the Irish towns is lost a little bit in the bigger main cities that I was primarily visiting and it still is very much alive in all of the tiny towns.
Dublin was the last stop in Ireland and it was a blast. Dublin is a really cool city and there are people partying at all times of the day seven days a week. We went on a pub crawl our first night there and went to the pub that is in PS - I love you. I love the feel of pubs. There is more often than not, live traditional Irish music being played, everyone is laughing with their close friends and the lighting is dim and cozy. I also got to play beer pong again at one of the pubs and, of course, won! The next day we wandered around the city and it was so windy I thought I was going to be blown away but we trekked through and went to the famous old prison there called, Kilmainham. It was amazing seeing an ancient prison like you see in movies. It was also very interesting to learn about the history of the prison and how so many crucial Irish revolutionist leaders were imprisoned and some executed in the prison. It was cool to see famous names on plaques above the cells. It was also eerie looking inside at the dark cold cells and at the original graffiti that the prisoners wrote or drew themselves. On our last day we went to the Guinness brewery and the highlight of the tour was the Gravity bar at the very top. It is a beautiful 360 view of the city of Dublin with just glass windows all around. We ended up sitting with two British ladies who were celebrating one of their 60th birthdays. One of them lives in London and the other lives in Santa Barbara and said they have been best friends for years and have traveled together several times. Laura tapped me and said that is going to be like us in years to come :)
It was very sad hugging Laura goodbye on Wednesday night. It is crazy how close we have become and how much we both have shared and now know about each other. The length and amount of time that we spent together is more than I have done with anyone else. After I walked away from her it was really hard to fight back tears. As I walked away from her so many thoughts clouded my mind and I felt like I wasn't walking in my body, everything stood still because the realization of the fact that this life changing trip was over sunk in. So much was put into the planning and preparation for this trip and we have seen so much together. Sitting here now it feels like it was a dream, yet at the same time I can't imagine my life without having gone on this trip. It was one of those things that despite all of the things that went wrong on the trip, from before I left, throughout the entire trip, and then now as I'm reflecting back, I knew that I was doing the right thing. I knew that I was meant to travel instead of anything else in the world at that point in time. Each place we went to felt right and I felt like I was supposed to be there. It was a foreign feeling to me because normally there are always doubts about decisions and about our paths in life. I have no regrets about this trip and so while I miss being in Europe already so much, I also feel content. I know that it is time for the next chapter and I am excited to see what is ahead. As well, I have already thought through where my next trip is going to be to....and the one after that :)
I'm going to keep up this blog although of course it will drastically change because I am not longer traveling in foreign countries. However, there were things that I have wanted to reflect on about my trip that I wasn't really able to do given my limited internet and computer access. If you're interested then you can check back and read if you'd like and it will be at this same address! I hope that whoever out there has been reading this has enjoyed it and I appreciate that you have read about my rambling thoughts.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Art and expression at its finest
Berlin and Paris are probably two of the most alike and opposite cities at the same time. After several short trips we took two longer trips to Berlin for five days and then to Paris for five days. I have been to both of these cities before and enjoyed them both as much if not more than I did the first time. Both of these cities are full of history and celebrate art, beauty, and expression of thought. Berlin is known for its crazy and spontaneous activity happening everywhere at all times. We were going out one night and passed by the U bahn station that was filled with people dancing, drinking, and singing. We were heading back to the hostel that night and passed by the same station that was still partying the night away. In Paris you can walk on the Champs Elysee and find groups of dancers break dancing in unison or go to the steps of Sacre Coeur and listen to the beautiful voices of various performers. In both of these cities you will have incredible and unique experiences and see art and beauty in forms like you never have before.
In Berlin, we were lucky enough to have a similar hostel experience to that of Budapest. We walk into the hostel at 10am after traveling for 15 hours from Bruge on 5 different sketchy trains spending three hours from 1am to 4am in some random city in Germany, and we are greeted with the hilarious and quirky Julian. We had told the hostel that one of us would be arriving the night before around midnight. This did not work out as the train that I was going to catch was full but we were unable to notify the hostel of this. So Julian at 10am tells us how he didn't get to sleep last night because of our tardiness and how he thought I was lost wandering around Berlin somewhere and that we should have contacted them somehow. Let's just say, we weren't off to the greatest start at Jetpak Alternative hostel. After a little sleep and some shopping around we arrived back at the hostel to a room full of all of the guests playing cards and sipping on beers. We were greeted warmly and instantly fit in with the Jetpak crew. We had the most fun hostel room that we have had yet on this trip. It was full of six hilarious Australian boys and then Laura and I. One was a spastic, friendly, Doug loving, architecture pursuing mate from Sydney. His name is Sean and he has the most unique accent and funniest expressions. He would march around our room drunk searching for his sleeping pants and get worked up when "chaos" was occurring in our room. One was like a real life version of Crocodile Dundee who would wear the shortest little rugby shorts and come home from a night out snapping ugly photos of all of us yelling "Oi!". Each one of the roommates was a necessary and great addition to the best Jetpak hostel room. We spent our last day walking around in a group of ten of us to a delicious coffee shop that had the most amazing cheesecake that I have ever tasted. It melted in my mouth. After, we all went to the East Side Gallery which is a long wall full of painting after painting by different artists. It was amazing seeing so much street art in Berlin which is all very thought provoking. Some of the themes of the paintings at this gallery were love, war, religion, sexuality, travel, and many many more. I wish that I was artistically talented in any way because it is so amazing seeing someone express themselves in this way. I couldn't understand every piece of art that I saw and I wanted so badly to talk to the person who created it just to know what was going on in their mind. On our first day in Berlin we went on an Alternative walking tour which took us to a bunch of areas in Berlin that have amazing street art and famous graffiti works. We also went to Tacheles which is a massive and famous artist squat in this massive building and piece of land. We learned that it used to be bustling with tons of people and artists and there used to be a beach bar in the back, a cinema, live music, bars all at this spot. In March or April the city of Berlin decided to take it over and tear it down. There are several artist groups working together to try to save the building and preserve it. I feel so lucky to have seen this building still as an authentic artist squat and to walk around in the building and feel how much the building has been through and how much has happened there. I hope by some miracle they are able to beat the city in their actions to tear it down. On the walking tour we learned about several groups of graffiti artists that place their "logos" all over the city. There is one called 1Up after the Super Mario game. It was funny to see the 1Up all over Berlin after doing this walking tour. I would have never noticed that it was all over the place unless I had done this tour. It was cool to see a city this way instead of doing the basic walking tour to the famous sites. I felt like I really got to experience the character of Berlin through this walking tour.
I learned everything there is to know about the Holocaust time period and the Nazi Germany occupation in Europe in Berlin. There is so much information about this time period in Berlin. It is all over the city and thoroughly depicted in several exhibits and museums all over. We went to the Holocaust memorial that is just rows and rows of blocks of stone and marble that are different heights. This was the second time that I have been to this memorial and it took on a completely different meaning the second time around. It is crazy how much of a difference 5-7 years in age makes. The last time I went to Berlin I was in high school and did not absorb the city in the same way at all. We went to the museum that is at the Holocaust memorial and it is so dense and moving. It first walks through the history of this time period, and then there is a dark room with real letters and poems and excerpts from diaries projected on the floor from the Jews during this time period. Reading the fear and confusion that was running through the minds of all of these people was so horrible. I almost cried reading these letters. Then there is an even darker room that just projects name after name on the wall with dates for the length of their life. Then there is a short excerpt about the life of these people and what they know to have happened to them. I read in that room that it would take six years, seven months, and twenty seven days to read all of the names and brief life stories of all of the known deceased Jews from the Holocaust. Every time we would go to exhibits or museums like this I would leave so angry about how out of hand that time period in history got to be. I'm glad they have so much thorough information about the time period and the happenings of this so that people are aware and so that something like this never happens again.
Overall, Berlin is one of the most unique places that I have been. It is different in its beauty in that I didn't walk around and think that the architecture was amazing and beautiful but it is one of the best places to go to see art everywhere. There are galleries everywhere, there are amazing art exhibits, and tons of museums as well. We also met some of the most fun and hilarious people in Berlin and had such a blast at the hostel. It was difficult to leave Berlin and our goodbye was very sad. But it was also great because we have kept in touch with several of the people that we met. We ended up staying with our friend Sean at his Aunt's apartment in Paris and we are meeting up with two of the other guys in London.
Being back in Paris was such a weird feeling. It truly felt like home. It was so strange walking around and knowing that I had been there several times before for one reason or another. There were so many random places, streets, metro stops that I recognized and I couldn't remember why I had been there before or why I remembered those little details. The beauty of Paris that you see by just walking around and looking at the buildings NEVER gets old for me. Even after traveling to so many amazing cities, I think I would still say that Paris is the most beautiful. It was so fun staying with Sean and his family. His Aunt Isabel was the cutest lady and made us a delicious home cooked meal the first night that we got there. She was trying to get me to speak french with her as much as possible which was really fun getting to use my french again, although I'm pretty rusty. On our first day we went to the Pompidou. It was one of the few museums that I did not go to when I lived that and it is an amazing museum. There is SO much material in this museum. There are several large floors with different time periods and artistic themes. They were also featuring a few artists and we saw the exhibit of one of the featured artists who had painting style similar to Van Gogh. Again in art and paintings it is so interesting seeing the thought process of these people in their unique way. This artist was painting during a time when he had an awful eye injury and the paintings through "those eyes" were so significantly different than his previous ones that you could feel the pain that he was experiencing. On one of the modern art floors I saw a painting that intrigued me because it was just two solid colors on top of each other: red and black. It struck me initially because it actually reminded me of the cover of one of the CDs of a band that my good friends from Mercer Island were in. Then I read about the painting and loved the quote by the artist about this painting, "Color, in all its vibrancy, is the simple expression of a complex thought". The painting took on an entirely different and individual meaning for me after reading this and looking at it for a long period of time. I love how that happens when you look at artwork.
We also went back to Versailles palace on our second day. That palace always shocks me with how much it is drenched in gold. It is such a beautiful palace and has the most elaborate and pristine gardens. We got to celebrate Thanksgiving in Paris and it was the most perfect day. Laura and I went to the Christmas markets and I was like a little kid in a candy store. Paris' Christmas markets are white huts one after the other lined all the way along the Champs Elysee with a Ferris wheel at the very end. There is tons of delicious food and gifts and sparkly Christmas decorations. It was so much fun walking along the Champs Elysee shopping around at the cute little huts. It made me very excited to see my family over the holidays and truly got me in the Christmas spirit. We sipped on mulled wine and crepes and just strolled around and enjoyed the atmosphere. Then we were invited to my friend from high school, John O'meara's Thanksgiving feast that he was hosting at his beautiful apartment in Paris. It was so great to be able to enjoy a delicious traditional Thanksgiving meal with a familiar face. We hung out and caught up all night and got to meet his friends.
Our last day in Paris was my favorite because we did what is the best thing to do while in Paris - walk around. We picked a couple of things we wanted to see and started at the Eiffel Tower and walked through the gardens and took some pictures, then we walked to the Arc de Triomphe and went up to the top and enjoyed the stunning Parisian views. I love the way the streets all shoot out from the Arc de Triomphe and the way the buildings look spiraling out. After that we walked along the Champs Elysee and window shopped since we passed by one high end brand store after the other filled with beautiful belongings that we cannot afford. We walked inward toward the Opera and went into Galleries Lafayette which is decorated so elaborately for the holidays. It was so sad to leave Paris again. However, every time I leave Paris I always know that I will be back someday :)
After Paris we went two hours south to Lyon to visit friends that we met in Budapest. They are studying in Lyon and we decided after we met them to take a weekend trip to visit them! It was such a blast and really cool to see another city in France because we had not planned to travel around in France besides Paris initially. We had a delicious dinner cooked for us by our friend Harrison on our first night in Lyon and enjoyed a fun night out with all of our Lyonnian friends! The night started with Canadian flag temporary tattoos and ended with four of our friends taking a dip in the fountain. It was great to meet up with friends from this trip and it makes me know that they will be friends that I will stay in touch with after this trip ends.
We are now in London and have been here since Monday! The craziest thing is that we are staying with someone that we met over the summer in San Diego while he was traveling around the US and Mexico. He happened to stop our friend Steph while she was running to ask her where to go out in San Diego, which ended up with him and his friends hanging out at my summer house in San Diego. Laura and him have kept in touch and we have been tripping around London with him since we got here. We've spent a lot of time in London just walking around the different neighborhoods. We walked around the first day and saw all of the main sites. Westminster Abby and the Parliment building with Big Ben never cease to amaze me. The architecture of those buildings are so beautiful. We have also met up with two of our other friends from school Jason Cope and Adam Vanni who are both living in London. It has been so great to see familiar faces and to see the kind of life they are living here. We'll be here until Wednesday and then I am going to Belfast and am so so excited to finally get to go to Ireland!! I have been dying to visit Ireland for my entire life. We are going to try to rent a car which could be interesting with the whole driving on the other side of the road and the opposite driver seat.
In Berlin, we were lucky enough to have a similar hostel experience to that of Budapest. We walk into the hostel at 10am after traveling for 15 hours from Bruge on 5 different sketchy trains spending three hours from 1am to 4am in some random city in Germany, and we are greeted with the hilarious and quirky Julian. We had told the hostel that one of us would be arriving the night before around midnight. This did not work out as the train that I was going to catch was full but we were unable to notify the hostel of this. So Julian at 10am tells us how he didn't get to sleep last night because of our tardiness and how he thought I was lost wandering around Berlin somewhere and that we should have contacted them somehow. Let's just say, we weren't off to the greatest start at Jetpak Alternative hostel. After a little sleep and some shopping around we arrived back at the hostel to a room full of all of the guests playing cards and sipping on beers. We were greeted warmly and instantly fit in with the Jetpak crew. We had the most fun hostel room that we have had yet on this trip. It was full of six hilarious Australian boys and then Laura and I. One was a spastic, friendly, Doug loving, architecture pursuing mate from Sydney. His name is Sean and he has the most unique accent and funniest expressions. He would march around our room drunk searching for his sleeping pants and get worked up when "chaos" was occurring in our room. One was like a real life version of Crocodile Dundee who would wear the shortest little rugby shorts and come home from a night out snapping ugly photos of all of us yelling "Oi!". Each one of the roommates was a necessary and great addition to the best Jetpak hostel room. We spent our last day walking around in a group of ten of us to a delicious coffee shop that had the most amazing cheesecake that I have ever tasted. It melted in my mouth. After, we all went to the East Side Gallery which is a long wall full of painting after painting by different artists. It was amazing seeing so much street art in Berlin which is all very thought provoking. Some of the themes of the paintings at this gallery were love, war, religion, sexuality, travel, and many many more. I wish that I was artistically talented in any way because it is so amazing seeing someone express themselves in this way. I couldn't understand every piece of art that I saw and I wanted so badly to talk to the person who created it just to know what was going on in their mind. On our first day in Berlin we went on an Alternative walking tour which took us to a bunch of areas in Berlin that have amazing street art and famous graffiti works. We also went to Tacheles which is a massive and famous artist squat in this massive building and piece of land. We learned that it used to be bustling with tons of people and artists and there used to be a beach bar in the back, a cinema, live music, bars all at this spot. In March or April the city of Berlin decided to take it over and tear it down. There are several artist groups working together to try to save the building and preserve it. I feel so lucky to have seen this building still as an authentic artist squat and to walk around in the building and feel how much the building has been through and how much has happened there. I hope by some miracle they are able to beat the city in their actions to tear it down. On the walking tour we learned about several groups of graffiti artists that place their "logos" all over the city. There is one called 1Up after the Super Mario game. It was funny to see the 1Up all over Berlin after doing this walking tour. I would have never noticed that it was all over the place unless I had done this tour. It was cool to see a city this way instead of doing the basic walking tour to the famous sites. I felt like I really got to experience the character of Berlin through this walking tour.
I learned everything there is to know about the Holocaust time period and the Nazi Germany occupation in Europe in Berlin. There is so much information about this time period in Berlin. It is all over the city and thoroughly depicted in several exhibits and museums all over. We went to the Holocaust memorial that is just rows and rows of blocks of stone and marble that are different heights. This was the second time that I have been to this memorial and it took on a completely different meaning the second time around. It is crazy how much of a difference 5-7 years in age makes. The last time I went to Berlin I was in high school and did not absorb the city in the same way at all. We went to the museum that is at the Holocaust memorial and it is so dense and moving. It first walks through the history of this time period, and then there is a dark room with real letters and poems and excerpts from diaries projected on the floor from the Jews during this time period. Reading the fear and confusion that was running through the minds of all of these people was so horrible. I almost cried reading these letters. Then there is an even darker room that just projects name after name on the wall with dates for the length of their life. Then there is a short excerpt about the life of these people and what they know to have happened to them. I read in that room that it would take six years, seven months, and twenty seven days to read all of the names and brief life stories of all of the known deceased Jews from the Holocaust. Every time we would go to exhibits or museums like this I would leave so angry about how out of hand that time period in history got to be. I'm glad they have so much thorough information about the time period and the happenings of this so that people are aware and so that something like this never happens again.
Overall, Berlin is one of the most unique places that I have been. It is different in its beauty in that I didn't walk around and think that the architecture was amazing and beautiful but it is one of the best places to go to see art everywhere. There are galleries everywhere, there are amazing art exhibits, and tons of museums as well. We also met some of the most fun and hilarious people in Berlin and had such a blast at the hostel. It was difficult to leave Berlin and our goodbye was very sad. But it was also great because we have kept in touch with several of the people that we met. We ended up staying with our friend Sean at his Aunt's apartment in Paris and we are meeting up with two of the other guys in London.
Being back in Paris was such a weird feeling. It truly felt like home. It was so strange walking around and knowing that I had been there several times before for one reason or another. There were so many random places, streets, metro stops that I recognized and I couldn't remember why I had been there before or why I remembered those little details. The beauty of Paris that you see by just walking around and looking at the buildings NEVER gets old for me. Even after traveling to so many amazing cities, I think I would still say that Paris is the most beautiful. It was so fun staying with Sean and his family. His Aunt Isabel was the cutest lady and made us a delicious home cooked meal the first night that we got there. She was trying to get me to speak french with her as much as possible which was really fun getting to use my french again, although I'm pretty rusty. On our first day we went to the Pompidou. It was one of the few museums that I did not go to when I lived that and it is an amazing museum. There is SO much material in this museum. There are several large floors with different time periods and artistic themes. They were also featuring a few artists and we saw the exhibit of one of the featured artists who had painting style similar to Van Gogh. Again in art and paintings it is so interesting seeing the thought process of these people in their unique way. This artist was painting during a time when he had an awful eye injury and the paintings through "those eyes" were so significantly different than his previous ones that you could feel the pain that he was experiencing. On one of the modern art floors I saw a painting that intrigued me because it was just two solid colors on top of each other: red and black. It struck me initially because it actually reminded me of the cover of one of the CDs of a band that my good friends from Mercer Island were in. Then I read about the painting and loved the quote by the artist about this painting, "Color, in all its vibrancy, is the simple expression of a complex thought". The painting took on an entirely different and individual meaning for me after reading this and looking at it for a long period of time. I love how that happens when you look at artwork.
We also went back to Versailles palace on our second day. That palace always shocks me with how much it is drenched in gold. It is such a beautiful palace and has the most elaborate and pristine gardens. We got to celebrate Thanksgiving in Paris and it was the most perfect day. Laura and I went to the Christmas markets and I was like a little kid in a candy store. Paris' Christmas markets are white huts one after the other lined all the way along the Champs Elysee with a Ferris wheel at the very end. There is tons of delicious food and gifts and sparkly Christmas decorations. It was so much fun walking along the Champs Elysee shopping around at the cute little huts. It made me very excited to see my family over the holidays and truly got me in the Christmas spirit. We sipped on mulled wine and crepes and just strolled around and enjoyed the atmosphere. Then we were invited to my friend from high school, John O'meara's Thanksgiving feast that he was hosting at his beautiful apartment in Paris. It was so great to be able to enjoy a delicious traditional Thanksgiving meal with a familiar face. We hung out and caught up all night and got to meet his friends.
Our last day in Paris was my favorite because we did what is the best thing to do while in Paris - walk around. We picked a couple of things we wanted to see and started at the Eiffel Tower and walked through the gardens and took some pictures, then we walked to the Arc de Triomphe and went up to the top and enjoyed the stunning Parisian views. I love the way the streets all shoot out from the Arc de Triomphe and the way the buildings look spiraling out. After that we walked along the Champs Elysee and window shopped since we passed by one high end brand store after the other filled with beautiful belongings that we cannot afford. We walked inward toward the Opera and went into Galleries Lafayette which is decorated so elaborately for the holidays. It was so sad to leave Paris again. However, every time I leave Paris I always know that I will be back someday :)
After Paris we went two hours south to Lyon to visit friends that we met in Budapest. They are studying in Lyon and we decided after we met them to take a weekend trip to visit them! It was such a blast and really cool to see another city in France because we had not planned to travel around in France besides Paris initially. We had a delicious dinner cooked for us by our friend Harrison on our first night in Lyon and enjoyed a fun night out with all of our Lyonnian friends! The night started with Canadian flag temporary tattoos and ended with four of our friends taking a dip in the fountain. It was great to meet up with friends from this trip and it makes me know that they will be friends that I will stay in touch with after this trip ends.
We are now in London and have been here since Monday! The craziest thing is that we are staying with someone that we met over the summer in San Diego while he was traveling around the US and Mexico. He happened to stop our friend Steph while she was running to ask her where to go out in San Diego, which ended up with him and his friends hanging out at my summer house in San Diego. Laura and him have kept in touch and we have been tripping around London with him since we got here. We've spent a lot of time in London just walking around the different neighborhoods. We walked around the first day and saw all of the main sites. Westminster Abby and the Parliment building with Big Ben never cease to amaze me. The architecture of those buildings are so beautiful. We have also met up with two of our other friends from school Jason Cope and Adam Vanni who are both living in London. It has been so great to see familiar faces and to see the kind of life they are living here. We'll be here until Wednesday and then I am going to Belfast and am so so excited to finally get to go to Ireland!! I have been dying to visit Ireland for my entire life. We are going to try to rent a car which could be interesting with the whole driving on the other side of the road and the opposite driver seat.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Just a Quickie: a series of 2 day trips!
The first time that I went abroad and lived and studied in Paris, for the most part we were only able to make weekend trips to different countries. I loved that every weekend we were traveling to a different country but I think that we only were able to make two trips for more than two or three days. After starting this trip I have seen how significantly different it feels to have visited and experienced a city for five or seven days versus two. For the past two weeks I have been on a series of two day trips and have been amazed at the amount of cities that I have been to in such a short period of time. Although, it is hard to truly get oriented with a city, switching from city to city is thrilling and exciting. I feel like I am constantly walking around with my head spinning around on my neck trying to see everything and anything I can in the time that I am given in a new place. After my birthday in Prague we went to Vienna for 2 days, back to Budapest for 3 days, I went to Interlaken, Switzerland for 2 days, Amsterdam for 2 days, Brussels/Gent in Belgium for a night to see the I love Techno festival, Bruges for 2 days, and finally now I am posted in Berlin for at least 5 days.
Vienna:
It was interesting going from Budapest --> Prague and then to Vienna because Vienna has a completely different feel than the first two cities. Vienna is pristine, crawling with classical music history, and a very pretty city. I have been blessed on my travels so far to have gotten that excited and exhilarating feeling just from setting foot in a new city in almost every single city that I have been to on this trip. I did not feel this same way in Vienna, although I believe it has a lot to offer. I think that it is a place that you need to really dedicate your time to experiencing the kind of music that was created there in the past in addition to the surface level sightseeing.
We spent our first day walking around The Ring which contains the main part of the city and most of the exciting things to see. Vienna has a lot of beautiful parks and one of the most amazing things about coming here was seeing the colors of Fall. There were so many rows and rows of trees lining the city streets forming arches of yellow, orange, and red leaves. At the end of this day we went to Grinzing which is 30 minutes outside of the city and contains streets full of wine taverns. We spent a few hours hopping from tavern to tavern trying their home-made wines. It was such a blast to just try different types of wines in cozy taverns with locals. Each tavern had a different feel to it and was wooden and homey inside.
Our second day in Vienna we went to the Schonbrunn palace. It was massive from the outside but somewhat understated with it's yellow coloring and green shutters but it blew me away when we walked through it. One of the best parts about this palace tour is that for the base student price you were able to get an audio guide with it. This was really helpful to bring life to all of the rooms and to make you feel like you were watching the history happen. It was really amazing when we came to one of the rooms that they held events and parties in because the audio guide explained that the six year old Mozart played his first performance in that very room. I remember getting the chills thinking about that occurring right where I was standing and what that moment meant for him at that point in history. The gardens and backyard of the palace were of course perfectly groomed and beautiful again with the fall colors lighting up the yard. The trees were so perfectly trimmed at the top that it looked as if they formed a wall, all of them so closely fit next to each other without a space in between them. We went to the zoo in the back of the palace grounds after the palace tour. It was so fun to see all of the animals and feel like a little kid again, running across the window chasing the jaguar trying to get a better look. I hadn't been to a zoo in a really long time and I was really happy that we decided to go because it was a spontaneous decision and the zoo is said to be the oldest zoo in the world. We spent several hours there and it was a really fun time.
Budapest...round 2!
After leaving Budapest the first time, all three of us felt unsatisfied and extremely sad to leave the hostel and the city. We were planning to go to Salzberg and then Berlin our first night in Vienna and then suddenly on our second day it came out that Laura and Presley were going to go back to Budapest instead. I did not know how I felt about returning to Budapest because I didn't want to have to cope with leaving everyone again and potentially getting sucked in again. I also had the thought that I am over here for another month and I want to see as many places as I can! I had decided that I was going to go to Salzberg. By the end of the evening I could not suppress the feeling that I had had all day about wanting to join my friends in returning to Budapest. I literally told Laura I would go with her to the train station and would decide once we got to the platform. We got to the train station and I didn't stop following her and as we were walking up the steps to the train to Budapest I said, "Welp, it looks like I'm going to Budapest!". I'm very very glad that we all ended up going back. We were welcomed with open arms into our old hostel and even though they had no open beds for us, they made room for us in the staff room. We fell right back into our Carpe routine and had a blast. We all left Budapest feeling much more satisfied and feeling so glad that we decided to go back and see our friends and favorite city. One of the days we hiked up to the Citadel which was a painfully long hike that we all thought would never end but had such an amazing view of Budapest. We made the hike while the sun was setting and made it to the top when it had just set and the city buildings were starting to light up. It was stunning, especially since it was in a city that we all felt such a connection to and comfort with. We have made several hikes up towers, and up hills to see stunning city views of almost every city we've been to. It was a different feeling looking out over a city that you have experienced so much in and have actually spent a significant amount of time in. The hike and beautiful panoramic sight took on such a different and reflective meaning.
Interlaken:
After three days in Budapest I decided that I wanted to take a trip to Interlaken because I have never been to Switzerland and heard the most amazing things from some of my best friends from San Diego about the Canyon jumping experience they had there while studying abroad two years ago. I've never truly traveled somewhere new 100% alone without either being with at least one other person or knowing that I would be meeting at least one other person at my final destination. I was both excited and nervous about this.
Interlaken was one of the most breathtaking places I have ever been. It was so serene and I felt like it was a town straight out of a movie. I would compare it to a tiny ski town like Banff in Canada would hold but to a much more fairy tale like degree. The hostel that I stayed at was like a cozy ski lodge, the town took about thirty minutes to walk through, and there were beautiful mountains surrounding me on every side. I tried to sign up to do the Canyon jumping which is what I came to Interlaken for but I was the only one to sign up and they needed at least 5 to go. I did paragliding instead which of course was unbelievable. I had the most hilarious pilot, Fabi, and was stunned by the outstanding views that I was able to see from the top of where we took off and were able to see while soaring through the air. I was shocked by how normal and easy it felt just hanging off of a parachute and having to perfectly fit through the gap in the fog hanging over the tiny town of Interlaken. It was such a cool experience and unlike anything I've ever done and it made me want to paraglide where ever I can in the future. They dropped me off by one of the lakes in Interlaken and I took a two hour walk along the lake and river leading into the city. It was a beautiful day and so peaceful strolling and enjoying the beauty around me with no agenda and no time constraints.
Switzerland was also the first place that I learned how hard traveling can be without a means of communication and without knowing a single person. On my train out of Interlaken to Basel, Switzerland my backpack got stolen from the baggage storage shelf directly to the right of my seat. For some reason I had a bad feeling about the train in general, partially because I was traveling alone, but I remember thinking to myself that I should just set my backpack at my feet or next to me. I reassured myself that it would be fine since both of my bags were just directly to my right across the aisle. At about our second or third stop, everyone started filtering out, people started filtering in, I looked up from my book and my backpack was just gone. I did a double take and stood up and searched around my seat. I looked out all of the windows but couldn't jump off of the train because we were about to continue on and my stop wasn't for another hour. I walked through about two or three cars over and did not find it anywhere. I was so upset that I was shaking and fighting back tears. I couldn't believe that it was just gone, right in front of me someone had taken it. When I reached my stop, naturally I decided that the only solution was to go get a glass of wine..or two. I wished so much that I could call someone, namely my mom, to vent about what had just happened. I don't know if I've ever been in a situation like that, completely alone, without any means to reach a loved one to just talk. However, I always try to look at the bright side of situations. Luckily I had been traveling with two bags, and therefore only lost half of my clothes. I had my passport, all of my credit cards/debit cards, forms of identification, eurail pass, the most essential and irreplaceable things. Most importantly Doug, my stuffed dog/pillow that I've been carrying around was safely seated by my side as well. It really sucked getting my backpack stolen especially since it was a graduation gift as well but I do feel fortunate to be safe and to still have at least half of my belongings.
Amsterdam:
After the tumultuous ride from Interlaken to Amsterdam, I was so ready to see my two lovely travel partners: Laura and Presley and to be in Amsterdam. I knew that seeing them would make me feel instantly better and that Amsterdam is such a lively and fun city, that it would be the perfect place to visit after something like that. I had been to Amsterdam for a weekend before while I was studying abroad in Paris two years ago. Both Laura and I had but we loved it so much the first time around that we both without question knew we wanted to go back. Amsterdam is such a beautiful city, with cobblestone streets everywhere, twisting and turning alley ways in every direction, and canals running through the city. There is so much happening all around in the city, and you see such a diverse group of people roaming the streets. We went to the Van Gogh museum and it was unbelievable. I already knew that I loved Van Gogh's work but I had never seen it so concentrated before. The museum was set up very well in that it thoroughly explained each room, what time period it was, what was going on in Van Gogh's life, and who/what was inspiring him. I liked that they placed the artwork of people that inspired him next to the artwork of Van Gogh himself. It was interesting to see the similarities and how those people affected Van Gogh's work. All throughout the museum were amazing quotes by Van Gogh expressing his desire to capture emotion in his art. I could see how strongly emotional he was as a person just through the brush strokes in each of his paintings. He painted some of the most simple things but could make the sky look sad for example. He was able to make paintings come to life, and could make you focus on the simplest of objects just from the coloring and emphasis of the brush strokes.
Another thing that we did in Amsterdam was the Heineken museum. It was much more that I had expected it to be. It was very elaborate with history, interactive videos and displays of how the beer is made. It was a really fun experience and as they called it, it truly was the full "Heineken Experience". It was fun being in an atmosphere where everyone that worked there was genuinely excited about their job and about the product.
Belgium: Brussels, Gent, and Bruges
In Prague Laura had heard from her friend, living about two hours north of Amsterdam, about a techno festival that was happening in Gent, Belgium. It was called I love Techno and had tons of different electronic bands/DJs. We had been researching different music festivals going on in Europe but hadn't found one that would work out with where we were going to be. We were supposed to be meeting up with Laura's friend around the date of when the festival was so we all three were up for going to this festival. We met her friends and drove up from Vlissengen in the Netherlands and went to Brussels where we enjoyed the beer and the company of Laura's friend's friends. The majority of the people we have met while traveling have been Australians and I have not met a single one that I have disliked. They are some of the nicest, most genuine, hilarious, and fun people I've met in my life. Specifically the ones that we drove up with to the festival and hung out with were so welcoming and fun to be around. We hadn't planned on going to Brussels so I was excited when I found out that we would be spending the afternoon there, staying the night there, and taking a tram to the festival in Gent. The festival was crazy. It was in a massive warehouse with about five or more different rooms of music being played by different people. Each was deemed a different color room, shining Green, Red, Yellow lights depending on while color room it was. It was a really fun experience and I'm glad we got to do something like that while traveling.
After the festival we had planned to go back to Vlissengen to where Laura's friend is living but Presley and I decided to go to Bruges since I had heard good things about this city as well. Also, my friend Zach was there and Bruges was only an hour train ride away from Brussels. Bruges was such a quaint little city. You could walk from corner to corner in about 20-30 minutes. The beer was delicious, the fries were equally delicious, shopping was great, and we heard "In Bruges" movie references all around us. Bruges was a mellow two days just leisurely walking around the city, hiking up the clock tower, and enjoying great company.
It was a whirlwind of two weeks but also a great two weeks and very exciting. I got to see so many fabulous and beautiful places and had a blast as well. It was sad on Tuesday because Presley had to leave us to go back home :( We feel really weird not having her around and miss her terribly already! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone, and that I will be home in less than a month now. I just booked my flight home to the US, and cannot even fathom what it will be like to leave this lifestyle. I have had the most amazing time so far, it has been the best decision I've ever made.
Vienna:
It was interesting going from Budapest --> Prague and then to Vienna because Vienna has a completely different feel than the first two cities. Vienna is pristine, crawling with classical music history, and a very pretty city. I have been blessed on my travels so far to have gotten that excited and exhilarating feeling just from setting foot in a new city in almost every single city that I have been to on this trip. I did not feel this same way in Vienna, although I believe it has a lot to offer. I think that it is a place that you need to really dedicate your time to experiencing the kind of music that was created there in the past in addition to the surface level sightseeing.
We spent our first day walking around The Ring which contains the main part of the city and most of the exciting things to see. Vienna has a lot of beautiful parks and one of the most amazing things about coming here was seeing the colors of Fall. There were so many rows and rows of trees lining the city streets forming arches of yellow, orange, and red leaves. At the end of this day we went to Grinzing which is 30 minutes outside of the city and contains streets full of wine taverns. We spent a few hours hopping from tavern to tavern trying their home-made wines. It was such a blast to just try different types of wines in cozy taverns with locals. Each tavern had a different feel to it and was wooden and homey inside.
Our second day in Vienna we went to the Schonbrunn palace. It was massive from the outside but somewhat understated with it's yellow coloring and green shutters but it blew me away when we walked through it. One of the best parts about this palace tour is that for the base student price you were able to get an audio guide with it. This was really helpful to bring life to all of the rooms and to make you feel like you were watching the history happen. It was really amazing when we came to one of the rooms that they held events and parties in because the audio guide explained that the six year old Mozart played his first performance in that very room. I remember getting the chills thinking about that occurring right where I was standing and what that moment meant for him at that point in history. The gardens and backyard of the palace were of course perfectly groomed and beautiful again with the fall colors lighting up the yard. The trees were so perfectly trimmed at the top that it looked as if they formed a wall, all of them so closely fit next to each other without a space in between them. We went to the zoo in the back of the palace grounds after the palace tour. It was so fun to see all of the animals and feel like a little kid again, running across the window chasing the jaguar trying to get a better look. I hadn't been to a zoo in a really long time and I was really happy that we decided to go because it was a spontaneous decision and the zoo is said to be the oldest zoo in the world. We spent several hours there and it was a really fun time.
Budapest...round 2!
After leaving Budapest the first time, all three of us felt unsatisfied and extremely sad to leave the hostel and the city. We were planning to go to Salzberg and then Berlin our first night in Vienna and then suddenly on our second day it came out that Laura and Presley were going to go back to Budapest instead. I did not know how I felt about returning to Budapest because I didn't want to have to cope with leaving everyone again and potentially getting sucked in again. I also had the thought that I am over here for another month and I want to see as many places as I can! I had decided that I was going to go to Salzberg. By the end of the evening I could not suppress the feeling that I had had all day about wanting to join my friends in returning to Budapest. I literally told Laura I would go with her to the train station and would decide once we got to the platform. We got to the train station and I didn't stop following her and as we were walking up the steps to the train to Budapest I said, "Welp, it looks like I'm going to Budapest!". I'm very very glad that we all ended up going back. We were welcomed with open arms into our old hostel and even though they had no open beds for us, they made room for us in the staff room. We fell right back into our Carpe routine and had a blast. We all left Budapest feeling much more satisfied and feeling so glad that we decided to go back and see our friends and favorite city. One of the days we hiked up to the Citadel which was a painfully long hike that we all thought would never end but had such an amazing view of Budapest. We made the hike while the sun was setting and made it to the top when it had just set and the city buildings were starting to light up. It was stunning, especially since it was in a city that we all felt such a connection to and comfort with. We have made several hikes up towers, and up hills to see stunning city views of almost every city we've been to. It was a different feeling looking out over a city that you have experienced so much in and have actually spent a significant amount of time in. The hike and beautiful panoramic sight took on such a different and reflective meaning.
Interlaken:
After three days in Budapest I decided that I wanted to take a trip to Interlaken because I have never been to Switzerland and heard the most amazing things from some of my best friends from San Diego about the Canyon jumping experience they had there while studying abroad two years ago. I've never truly traveled somewhere new 100% alone without either being with at least one other person or knowing that I would be meeting at least one other person at my final destination. I was both excited and nervous about this.
Interlaken was one of the most breathtaking places I have ever been. It was so serene and I felt like it was a town straight out of a movie. I would compare it to a tiny ski town like Banff in Canada would hold but to a much more fairy tale like degree. The hostel that I stayed at was like a cozy ski lodge, the town took about thirty minutes to walk through, and there were beautiful mountains surrounding me on every side. I tried to sign up to do the Canyon jumping which is what I came to Interlaken for but I was the only one to sign up and they needed at least 5 to go. I did paragliding instead which of course was unbelievable. I had the most hilarious pilot, Fabi, and was stunned by the outstanding views that I was able to see from the top of where we took off and were able to see while soaring through the air. I was shocked by how normal and easy it felt just hanging off of a parachute and having to perfectly fit through the gap in the fog hanging over the tiny town of Interlaken. It was such a cool experience and unlike anything I've ever done and it made me want to paraglide where ever I can in the future. They dropped me off by one of the lakes in Interlaken and I took a two hour walk along the lake and river leading into the city. It was a beautiful day and so peaceful strolling and enjoying the beauty around me with no agenda and no time constraints.
Switzerland was also the first place that I learned how hard traveling can be without a means of communication and without knowing a single person. On my train out of Interlaken to Basel, Switzerland my backpack got stolen from the baggage storage shelf directly to the right of my seat. For some reason I had a bad feeling about the train in general, partially because I was traveling alone, but I remember thinking to myself that I should just set my backpack at my feet or next to me. I reassured myself that it would be fine since both of my bags were just directly to my right across the aisle. At about our second or third stop, everyone started filtering out, people started filtering in, I looked up from my book and my backpack was just gone. I did a double take and stood up and searched around my seat. I looked out all of the windows but couldn't jump off of the train because we were about to continue on and my stop wasn't for another hour. I walked through about two or three cars over and did not find it anywhere. I was so upset that I was shaking and fighting back tears. I couldn't believe that it was just gone, right in front of me someone had taken it. When I reached my stop, naturally I decided that the only solution was to go get a glass of wine..or two. I wished so much that I could call someone, namely my mom, to vent about what had just happened. I don't know if I've ever been in a situation like that, completely alone, without any means to reach a loved one to just talk. However, I always try to look at the bright side of situations. Luckily I had been traveling with two bags, and therefore only lost half of my clothes. I had my passport, all of my credit cards/debit cards, forms of identification, eurail pass, the most essential and irreplaceable things. Most importantly Doug, my stuffed dog/pillow that I've been carrying around was safely seated by my side as well. It really sucked getting my backpack stolen especially since it was a graduation gift as well but I do feel fortunate to be safe and to still have at least half of my belongings.
Amsterdam:
After the tumultuous ride from Interlaken to Amsterdam, I was so ready to see my two lovely travel partners: Laura and Presley and to be in Amsterdam. I knew that seeing them would make me feel instantly better and that Amsterdam is such a lively and fun city, that it would be the perfect place to visit after something like that. I had been to Amsterdam for a weekend before while I was studying abroad in Paris two years ago. Both Laura and I had but we loved it so much the first time around that we both without question knew we wanted to go back. Amsterdam is such a beautiful city, with cobblestone streets everywhere, twisting and turning alley ways in every direction, and canals running through the city. There is so much happening all around in the city, and you see such a diverse group of people roaming the streets. We went to the Van Gogh museum and it was unbelievable. I already knew that I loved Van Gogh's work but I had never seen it so concentrated before. The museum was set up very well in that it thoroughly explained each room, what time period it was, what was going on in Van Gogh's life, and who/what was inspiring him. I liked that they placed the artwork of people that inspired him next to the artwork of Van Gogh himself. It was interesting to see the similarities and how those people affected Van Gogh's work. All throughout the museum were amazing quotes by Van Gogh expressing his desire to capture emotion in his art. I could see how strongly emotional he was as a person just through the brush strokes in each of his paintings. He painted some of the most simple things but could make the sky look sad for example. He was able to make paintings come to life, and could make you focus on the simplest of objects just from the coloring and emphasis of the brush strokes.
Another thing that we did in Amsterdam was the Heineken museum. It was much more that I had expected it to be. It was very elaborate with history, interactive videos and displays of how the beer is made. It was a really fun experience and as they called it, it truly was the full "Heineken Experience". It was fun being in an atmosphere where everyone that worked there was genuinely excited about their job and about the product.
Belgium: Brussels, Gent, and Bruges
In Prague Laura had heard from her friend, living about two hours north of Amsterdam, about a techno festival that was happening in Gent, Belgium. It was called I love Techno and had tons of different electronic bands/DJs. We had been researching different music festivals going on in Europe but hadn't found one that would work out with where we were going to be. We were supposed to be meeting up with Laura's friend around the date of when the festival was so we all three were up for going to this festival. We met her friends and drove up from Vlissengen in the Netherlands and went to Brussels where we enjoyed the beer and the company of Laura's friend's friends. The majority of the people we have met while traveling have been Australians and I have not met a single one that I have disliked. They are some of the nicest, most genuine, hilarious, and fun people I've met in my life. Specifically the ones that we drove up with to the festival and hung out with were so welcoming and fun to be around. We hadn't planned on going to Brussels so I was excited when I found out that we would be spending the afternoon there, staying the night there, and taking a tram to the festival in Gent. The festival was crazy. It was in a massive warehouse with about five or more different rooms of music being played by different people. Each was deemed a different color room, shining Green, Red, Yellow lights depending on while color room it was. It was a really fun experience and I'm glad we got to do something like that while traveling.
After the festival we had planned to go back to Vlissengen to where Laura's friend is living but Presley and I decided to go to Bruges since I had heard good things about this city as well. Also, my friend Zach was there and Bruges was only an hour train ride away from Brussels. Bruges was such a quaint little city. You could walk from corner to corner in about 20-30 minutes. The beer was delicious, the fries were equally delicious, shopping was great, and we heard "In Bruges" movie references all around us. Bruges was a mellow two days just leisurely walking around the city, hiking up the clock tower, and enjoying great company.
It was a whirlwind of two weeks but also a great two weeks and very exciting. I got to see so many fabulous and beautiful places and had a blast as well. It was sad on Tuesday because Presley had to leave us to go back home :( We feel really weird not having her around and miss her terribly already! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone, and that I will be home in less than a month now. I just booked my flight home to the US, and cannot even fathom what it will be like to leave this lifestyle. I have had the most amazing time so far, it has been the best decision I've ever made.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Praha: all you need is beer and sausage!
Prague is a gorgeous, charming, and fun city. It is a combination of two of my favorite places. If Budapest and Florence had a baby I believe it would be something like Prague. Prague was one of the top cities that I wanted to visit during my travels so I was thrilled when we planned to come to Prague for my birthday!
It was really hard to leave Budapest and our Carpe family but Prague was probably the best place to go to after having such an amazing experience in a prior city. My wonderfully generous mother booked us the cutest and quaintest hotel in Prague for my birthday to give us a luxurious break from the hostel lifestyle. I had two packages waiting for me from my mom and grandma which made me feel a little better about missing all of my friends and family on my birthday.
I was lucky to have a Prague nightlife guide sent to me from my dear friend David who had studied abroad in Prague. So we knew right away that the place to be on Friday nights is Lucerna that has an 80s/90s music themed night. We danced away the night to some of our middle school favorites and celebrated at midnight with (of course) Jager shots.
On our first day in Prague we decided to try out one of the infamous beer gardens that is up on a hill and overlooks the city. We picked up our kiwi friend, Marc, who we met in Ios who happened to be in Prague for the weekend. We made the trek to the beer garden that turned out to be closed and under renovation for the winter season. We made the best of it and had a couple of beers and enjoyed the gorgeous view of Prague. That night we had the most delicious dinner at a Bar, lounge, and club that was so perfectly decorated and had the best environment we could have sat there all night. And of course we celebrated my birthday with at least 3 bottles of champagne that night at the 5 story club each floor having a different genre of music.
Prague was the perfect city to explore by just wandering around. It is a manageable size and therefore we were able to see several of the famous sites by just walking around for a day. It is a bustling city with tons of travelers and tourists who all want to see the beauty of Prague. The Lennon wall was one of the coolest things that I have ever seen. I love how a cluster of art on top of each other can still look so beautiful and how each part of it can be so impactful. This was one of my favorite parts of the wall that I saw. "Ideas are inspiring but inflexible. Fight for people, people change the world." It is a discrete and small portion of the wall but I think the message is memorable and important.
It was really hard to leave Budapest and our Carpe family but Prague was probably the best place to go to after having such an amazing experience in a prior city. My wonderfully generous mother booked us the cutest and quaintest hotel in Prague for my birthday to give us a luxurious break from the hostel lifestyle. I had two packages waiting for me from my mom and grandma which made me feel a little better about missing all of my friends and family on my birthday.
I was lucky to have a Prague nightlife guide sent to me from my dear friend David who had studied abroad in Prague. So we knew right away that the place to be on Friday nights is Lucerna that has an 80s/90s music themed night. We danced away the night to some of our middle school favorites and celebrated at midnight with (of course) Jager shots.
On our first day in Prague we decided to try out one of the infamous beer gardens that is up on a hill and overlooks the city. We picked up our kiwi friend, Marc, who we met in Ios who happened to be in Prague for the weekend. We made the trek to the beer garden that turned out to be closed and under renovation for the winter season. We made the best of it and had a couple of beers and enjoyed the gorgeous view of Prague. That night we had the most delicious dinner at a Bar, lounge, and club that was so perfectly decorated and had the best environment we could have sat there all night. And of course we celebrated my birthday with at least 3 bottles of champagne that night at the 5 story club each floor having a different genre of music.
Prague was the perfect city to explore by just wandering around. It is a manageable size and therefore we were able to see several of the famous sites by just walking around for a day. It is a bustling city with tons of travelers and tourists who all want to see the beauty of Prague. The Lennon wall was one of the coolest things that I have ever seen. I love how a cluster of art on top of each other can still look so beautiful and how each part of it can be so impactful. This was one of my favorite parts of the wall that I saw. "Ideas are inspiring but inflexible. Fight for people, people change the world." It is a discrete and small portion of the wall but I think the message is memorable and important.
Our hotel was right at one of the ends of the Charles Bridge and I was so happy about this because while the bridge is such a site to see during the day walking amongst a sea of people and seeing all of the vendors and performers it is even more beautiful late at night walking over it when there is not another person in site. Another stunning view of the city was from the castle. It was amazing walking around the castle grounds just imagining what it was like back in the day with royalty wandering around their home. We also spent a full day walking around the Jewish quarter of Prague which was very dense walking into synagogue after synagogue learning about the Jewish heritage and the oppression that the Jews have overcome. The cemetary was unbelievable with thousands of deceased buried one on top of another and tombstones in every direction that you look bent in every which direction. Leading up to the cemetary was a building with walls filled with all of the names of those buried in the cemetary. It was truly one of the most impactful things that I have seen while traveling.
My favorite thing that we did in Prague was our microbrewery tour. We found a list of four of the most highly recommended breweries to visit in Prague, marked them on our map and went from one to the other trying their signature beers and having goulash and sausage to accompagny. I tried plum, chocolate, and banana flavored beers. The banana flavored beer was my favorite and I could have drank it all day. All of these breweries were packed with people from the time of 3pm onward with locals and tourists. It was a blast experiencing this unique aspect of Prague.
I could have spent much more time in Prague and hope to get the chance to visit there again!
Saturday, November 5, 2011
"You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave"
I always knew that Budapest was on our agenda of places to go and I was completely indifferent on that decision. I didn't know anything about the city and hadn't really heard anything good or bad about it. So once again Budapest was a place that not only was I pleasantly surprised about but it has become one of my favorite places that I have gone to on this trip so far.
The quote at the top of this page is what is written above the doorway at the hostel that we stayed at, Carpe Noctem "Seize the night". We were recommended to stay here by some friends that we met in Rome who raved about it. This hostel is the most amazing place that I have ever stayed and ever been to before. The people that run the hostel and the people that I met here were some of the most amazing, unique, interesting, and fun people that I have ever met. The hostel was in a tall building and we had to hike up about 5 or 6 flights of stairs to get to the hostel which was a flat with 4 rooms - one room for 6 people, two for 8 people, and a staff room. Very intimate setting. Music was always playing in the common room, no one hibernated in their rooms, group dinners every night made by the staff, and planned nights out every night! The hostel fosters a family feel making us feel right at home and making friendships that I know will last. We planned to stay for 4 nights, then it was 5, and then we extended another 4 for a total of 9 nights in Budapest at this wonderful hostel. We left for one week and then decided to come back again. We currently are back in Budapest because we missed all of the people and this amazing city.
When we first got to Budapest I was thrilled because I knew that we would be meeting up with a friend from San Diego - Zach who I worked with at Sushi on the Rock. We have both been traveling for a month or so and have been trying to meet up somewhere but plans just weren't matching up. Budapest worked out accidentally for us to get together and we had the best time. Zach was one of the girls for the four days he was here. Walked around with us, dealt with our girl talk, and saw the Budapest sights with us as well. It was great to see a familiar face while being away from home.
On our second day in Budapest we decided to go caving which is crawling and squeezing through underground caves of Budapest. It was the most amazing experience. I normally don't like to do things that push my comfort zone and am somewhat of a scaredy cat, not even enjoying roller coasters and always being the one holding peoples shoes and belongings as they cliff jump at the Gorge in Washington. This wasn't a major risk taking activity but I was nervous to do it. We had the most hilarious Hungarian tour guide who constantly was motivating us and was trying to crack jokes in english that would not have been funny if he wasn't Hungarian. Our entire group bonded and laughed and had the best time the entire caving trip. We had to maneouver our bodies in the weirdest of ways to get through some of the tight spots and wore full on jump suites and helmets with headlights on them. I must admit I felt pretty cool in that getup.
Two of the other things that we did in Budapest were the Terror Museum and the World Press photo exhibition. Both of them were very moving and very memorable. The Terror Museum walked us through the history of Hungary under Nazi Germany occupation, suppression, internment, etc. It consisted of three floors of artistic, thorough, and thoughtful combinations of historical presentations of this period of time in Hungary. The basement of the museum consisted of the execution rooms and the types of torture tactics that they used back during that time period. It was very eerie and difficult to take in but also very moving. The muesum was good about having handouts explaining the succession of events and what each room was portraying. The combination of videos, artistic presentations of material, music, and informative handouts was perfectly executed. This made the museum interesting through and through. The world press exhibit was unbelieveable. This is the compilation of photos of the winners from the world press contest. The photos are equally beautiful and horrifying. Some of the pictures were hard to look at with how much pain and turmoil they captured but it was amazing to see photos from all over the world. It made me stop and think really hard about my life and how lucky I am. It also made me have perspective on the types of things that I sometimes forget happens in other countries. Some of the things in these photos were disease, natural disastor, wildlife, competition, war, crime, and many many more. I've never seen so much emotion portrayed through simply a picture. I feel very lucky that they happened to have this exhibition here in Budapest while we were here.
Budapest has been a place that it has just been enjoyable to walk around, shop around, and just take in the beautiful architecture surrounding you. The train station right by our hostel and one of the bridges were designed by the same man who designed the eiffel tower. We were able to see the beautiful sights along the Danube river at night on our booze cruise with our hostel. The buildings were all lite up and glowing and the boat sold bottles of champagne so everyone was popping bottles of champagne while enjoying the breathtaking views around us.
Our hostel truly made our experience here. The night life has been the most fun I have experienced in any city. We've had a booze cruise, a pub crawl of ruin bars that are abandon buildings that they decided to turn into bars, a reverse pub crawl of the same bars in reverse order, themed night when everyone dresses up in ridiculous costumes just because, open mic night (the best night), and Jager trains where you become a member of the club if you do 10 Jager bombs in an hour and a half. It doesn't matter what night of the week it is because the Carpe Noctem staff insists that every night is "an epic night" and you definitely cannot miss any night. One of the places we went to had tunnels leading you to different dance floor rooms with different music and one night we stumbled upon the room that was playing Hungarian music and everyone was huddled in groups chanting and jumping up and down. We knew none of the Hungarian words but we just acted like we did and tried our best to blend it yelling random words that we hoped sounded like what they were saying.
Our Carpe family tried their best to get us to stay for my birthday but since they wanted to celebrate with me they decided to have a Buda-birthday bash on our last night, the Thursday before my birthday. We went to the ballet at the Opera house which was such a beautiful ballet and I was amazed at the dancers and the story line and then danced the night away at a bar called Instant.
Budapest has become one of my favorite spots that I've been to on this trip and it is beyond my ability to put into words what is so special about this place. Part of it is the amazing hostel we stayed at and are staying at again for a few days but there is just something about Budapest - the people, the night life, the architecture, and so much more. All of the staff that work here came to Budapest at one point planning to stay for 5 days or so and some never left after setting foot in the hostel and some left and came back indefinitely. You get sucked in to Budapest in the best way possible. After Budapest we went to Prague, Vienna, and now we are back in Budapest for a few days. I think I will go off to Switzerland for 2 days and then to Amsterdam!
Stay tuned to hear about Prague and Vienna, it will be sooner than later :)
The quote at the top of this page is what is written above the doorway at the hostel that we stayed at, Carpe Noctem "Seize the night". We were recommended to stay here by some friends that we met in Rome who raved about it. This hostel is the most amazing place that I have ever stayed and ever been to before. The people that run the hostel and the people that I met here were some of the most amazing, unique, interesting, and fun people that I have ever met. The hostel was in a tall building and we had to hike up about 5 or 6 flights of stairs to get to the hostel which was a flat with 4 rooms - one room for 6 people, two for 8 people, and a staff room. Very intimate setting. Music was always playing in the common room, no one hibernated in their rooms, group dinners every night made by the staff, and planned nights out every night! The hostel fosters a family feel making us feel right at home and making friendships that I know will last. We planned to stay for 4 nights, then it was 5, and then we extended another 4 for a total of 9 nights in Budapest at this wonderful hostel. We left for one week and then decided to come back again. We currently are back in Budapest because we missed all of the people and this amazing city.
When we first got to Budapest I was thrilled because I knew that we would be meeting up with a friend from San Diego - Zach who I worked with at Sushi on the Rock. We have both been traveling for a month or so and have been trying to meet up somewhere but plans just weren't matching up. Budapest worked out accidentally for us to get together and we had the best time. Zach was one of the girls for the four days he was here. Walked around with us, dealt with our girl talk, and saw the Budapest sights with us as well. It was great to see a familiar face while being away from home.
On our second day in Budapest we decided to go caving which is crawling and squeezing through underground caves of Budapest. It was the most amazing experience. I normally don't like to do things that push my comfort zone and am somewhat of a scaredy cat, not even enjoying roller coasters and always being the one holding peoples shoes and belongings as they cliff jump at the Gorge in Washington. This wasn't a major risk taking activity but I was nervous to do it. We had the most hilarious Hungarian tour guide who constantly was motivating us and was trying to crack jokes in english that would not have been funny if he wasn't Hungarian. Our entire group bonded and laughed and had the best time the entire caving trip. We had to maneouver our bodies in the weirdest of ways to get through some of the tight spots and wore full on jump suites and helmets with headlights on them. I must admit I felt pretty cool in that getup.
Two of the other things that we did in Budapest were the Terror Museum and the World Press photo exhibition. Both of them were very moving and very memorable. The Terror Museum walked us through the history of Hungary under Nazi Germany occupation, suppression, internment, etc. It consisted of three floors of artistic, thorough, and thoughtful combinations of historical presentations of this period of time in Hungary. The basement of the museum consisted of the execution rooms and the types of torture tactics that they used back during that time period. It was very eerie and difficult to take in but also very moving. The muesum was good about having handouts explaining the succession of events and what each room was portraying. The combination of videos, artistic presentations of material, music, and informative handouts was perfectly executed. This made the museum interesting through and through. The world press exhibit was unbelieveable. This is the compilation of photos of the winners from the world press contest. The photos are equally beautiful and horrifying. Some of the pictures were hard to look at with how much pain and turmoil they captured but it was amazing to see photos from all over the world. It made me stop and think really hard about my life and how lucky I am. It also made me have perspective on the types of things that I sometimes forget happens in other countries. Some of the things in these photos were disease, natural disastor, wildlife, competition, war, crime, and many many more. I've never seen so much emotion portrayed through simply a picture. I feel very lucky that they happened to have this exhibition here in Budapest while we were here.
Budapest has been a place that it has just been enjoyable to walk around, shop around, and just take in the beautiful architecture surrounding you. The train station right by our hostel and one of the bridges were designed by the same man who designed the eiffel tower. We were able to see the beautiful sights along the Danube river at night on our booze cruise with our hostel. The buildings were all lite up and glowing and the boat sold bottles of champagne so everyone was popping bottles of champagne while enjoying the breathtaking views around us.
Our hostel truly made our experience here. The night life has been the most fun I have experienced in any city. We've had a booze cruise, a pub crawl of ruin bars that are abandon buildings that they decided to turn into bars, a reverse pub crawl of the same bars in reverse order, themed night when everyone dresses up in ridiculous costumes just because, open mic night (the best night), and Jager trains where you become a member of the club if you do 10 Jager bombs in an hour and a half. It doesn't matter what night of the week it is because the Carpe Noctem staff insists that every night is "an epic night" and you definitely cannot miss any night. One of the places we went to had tunnels leading you to different dance floor rooms with different music and one night we stumbled upon the room that was playing Hungarian music and everyone was huddled in groups chanting and jumping up and down. We knew none of the Hungarian words but we just acted like we did and tried our best to blend it yelling random words that we hoped sounded like what they were saying.
Our Carpe family tried their best to get us to stay for my birthday but since they wanted to celebrate with me they decided to have a Buda-birthday bash on our last night, the Thursday before my birthday. We went to the ballet at the Opera house which was such a beautiful ballet and I was amazed at the dancers and the story line and then danced the night away at a bar called Instant.
Budapest has become one of my favorite spots that I've been to on this trip and it is beyond my ability to put into words what is so special about this place. Part of it is the amazing hostel we stayed at and are staying at again for a few days but there is just something about Budapest - the people, the night life, the architecture, and so much more. All of the staff that work here came to Budapest at one point planning to stay for 5 days or so and some never left after setting foot in the hostel and some left and came back indefinitely. You get sucked in to Budapest in the best way possible. After Budapest we went to Prague, Vienna, and now we are back in Budapest for a few days. I think I will go off to Switzerland for 2 days and then to Amsterdam!
Stay tuned to hear about Prague and Vienna, it will be sooner than later :)
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Tasting my way through Italy..
While we enjoyed island hopping in Greece, we were very ready to leave the pouring rain that drenched us in Athens 10 days ago. We were trekking around Athens trying to figure out how to make it to Croatia. After about the third look of confusion about our plans to go to Croatia and after we were thoroughly soaked to the bone from the rain we decided a plan B was in order.
We took 10 minutes in the computer room, had our lovely reception man write us a note in Greek so we could communicate properly and efficiently and were off to make the long trip to Bari, Italy!
Naples: After one 3 hour bus ride, one 15 hour ferry, and one 3 hour train ride we had made it to Napoli! The pizza capital of the world. We met an Austrailian girl on our bus ride who we called the "Buddha" cause she saved our travel lives. We would have missed our ferry and had no place to stay in Naples if we hadnt decided to follow our Buddha straight from the bus all the way to our lovely hostel.
Naples was a pleasant surprise. Not only did we have phenomenal pizza but the city was equally as enjoyable. After check in at the hostel one of the men at the front desk decided we couldn't just come to Naples for pizza (who knew?) and created a walking tour for us. It was amazing exploring the city through a native's eyes. We visited a castle that provided the most stunning panoramic view of Naples. The weather was perfect and the view was outstanding with water, mountains, and beautiful castles and architecture. We spent the rest of the day walking around, eating pizza, and stopped at one of the authentic "hang out" spots called piazza Bellini for a drink. We enjoyed a "hostel made" dinner with the most delicious mozzarella cheese I have ever tasted - it melted in my mouth. If you ever get to go to Naples the best pizzeria is Gianni and Gennys. You can enjoy 3 decadent pizza pies and one large Peroni for just 20 euros ;) Naples is truly a beautiful city, with lots of history, and of course delicious Italian food.
Pompei: Before heading up north, we made a stop at Pompeii the destroyed city from an earthquake and volcanic eruption. It was amazing seeing this elaborately preserved city down to the structure that belonged to the baker, a couple of ampitheatres and bathing rooms, and remnants of frozen victims in a protective position desperately trying to resist the boiling air and debris. It was amazing being able to walk around such a unique piece of history. Of course after our day trip we had our final meal at Gianni and Gennys before leaving Naples.
Rome: The theme of Rome was of course - "When in Rome...". Accounting for our cappuccino followed by espresso addiction, chocolate croissants, and our elaborate 4 course carb loaded meal we had for lunch. Our waitress actually said to us when she was clearing our plates "wow, you girls really like pasta!". Walking around Rome felt surreal. I couldn't fathom the fact that I was standing in front of the Colosseum and was walking around Vatican city. The Vatican museum was the highlight of the sights in Rome. The artwork was unbelievable. The massiveness, elaborate detail, and quantity of artwork was amazing. Being inside the sistene chapel was a cool experience being jammed in the room with so many people all in silence looking up and around the chapel at the beautiful and famous artwork around us. The purity of silence and no photography made the experience memorable. Our day in Rome was very unorganised and we just spent the day walking around stumbling upon incredible and famous sites. We walked around for 8 hours and somehow managed to accidentally see everything we wanted to see. That is my favorite way to get to know a city and explore it. We found a street market along a beautiful river and I found a ring that I liked but couldnt decide if I should buy it until the woman brought out the Tibetan meaning: it is the mantra of Avalokiteshavara which is the bodhisattva of compassion. It contains six syllables of a symbolic representation of purification of the six realms of existence! Om: purifies pride ma: purifies jealousy and lust for entertainment ni: purifies passion and desire pad: purifies ignorance and prejudice me: purifies poverty and possessiveness hum: purifies aggression and hatred. So I decided since I would become one step closer to a Buddha that I had to have it. I love finding little souvenirs along the way that have a special meaning. Our day in Rome ended with Peronis on the Spanish Steps!
Florence: Firenze! Talk about a city stealing your heart - Florence has successfully done this two separate times. It is the most charming, beautiful, and fun city I have been to. I was taken by it although I had already been here just 2 years ago. We were able to stay with friends- our lovely gphi juniors who are studying abroad there. It was so comforting seeing familiar faces for the first time in a few weeks. They had a beautiful and big apartment just steps away from Santa Croce. They showed us a fantastic night on the town starting at a classic favorite Kikuya where they have the amazing and deadly Dragoon beers with a deceivingly large amount of alcohol in them. Thank you girls so much for letting us stay: Chlois Mayonnais, g-little, nat and Mary b, Morgan, and ali krak!! Love you all! I loved being with them and hated realizing how old I felt that I was in their position 2 years ago as they discussed their thanksgiving gphi reunion and grinding for midterms. We had some of the most amazing meals in Florence from pumpkin and ricotta penne, to endless amounts of caprese, to scoops after scoops of various gelato flavors, brie and turkey sandwiches, and a repeat order of meat and tomato truffle tortellini - loved it so much the first time had to have it a second time as my final Italian meal!! My favorite day in Florence was hiking up to Piazzle Michaelangelo and observing the breathtaking views of the city. It is one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. Florence is special because there is so much beauty to see there but you feel a sense of ease that makes you want to sit back and enjoy every moment of it instead of trekking around trying to do it all at once.
We just got to Budapest and I am thrilled to be in a new city that I know very little about. Our hostel was rated best hostel in the world a couple years back :) I will miss Italy. It is an amazing country with so much to see and so much to offer. I am so happy and feel so lucky to have spent a week there.
We took 10 minutes in the computer room, had our lovely reception man write us a note in Greek so we could communicate properly and efficiently and were off to make the long trip to Bari, Italy!
Naples: After one 3 hour bus ride, one 15 hour ferry, and one 3 hour train ride we had made it to Napoli! The pizza capital of the world. We met an Austrailian girl on our bus ride who we called the "Buddha" cause she saved our travel lives. We would have missed our ferry and had no place to stay in Naples if we hadnt decided to follow our Buddha straight from the bus all the way to our lovely hostel.
Naples was a pleasant surprise. Not only did we have phenomenal pizza but the city was equally as enjoyable. After check in at the hostel one of the men at the front desk decided we couldn't just come to Naples for pizza (who knew?) and created a walking tour for us. It was amazing exploring the city through a native's eyes. We visited a castle that provided the most stunning panoramic view of Naples. The weather was perfect and the view was outstanding with water, mountains, and beautiful castles and architecture. We spent the rest of the day walking around, eating pizza, and stopped at one of the authentic "hang out" spots called piazza Bellini for a drink. We enjoyed a "hostel made" dinner with the most delicious mozzarella cheese I have ever tasted - it melted in my mouth. If you ever get to go to Naples the best pizzeria is Gianni and Gennys. You can enjoy 3 decadent pizza pies and one large Peroni for just 20 euros ;) Naples is truly a beautiful city, with lots of history, and of course delicious Italian food.
Pompei: Before heading up north, we made a stop at Pompeii the destroyed city from an earthquake and volcanic eruption. It was amazing seeing this elaborately preserved city down to the structure that belonged to the baker, a couple of ampitheatres and bathing rooms, and remnants of frozen victims in a protective position desperately trying to resist the boiling air and debris. It was amazing being able to walk around such a unique piece of history. Of course after our day trip we had our final meal at Gianni and Gennys before leaving Naples.
Rome: The theme of Rome was of course - "When in Rome...". Accounting for our cappuccino followed by espresso addiction, chocolate croissants, and our elaborate 4 course carb loaded meal we had for lunch. Our waitress actually said to us when she was clearing our plates "wow, you girls really like pasta!". Walking around Rome felt surreal. I couldn't fathom the fact that I was standing in front of the Colosseum and was walking around Vatican city. The Vatican museum was the highlight of the sights in Rome. The artwork was unbelievable. The massiveness, elaborate detail, and quantity of artwork was amazing. Being inside the sistene chapel was a cool experience being jammed in the room with so many people all in silence looking up and around the chapel at the beautiful and famous artwork around us. The purity of silence and no photography made the experience memorable. Our day in Rome was very unorganised and we just spent the day walking around stumbling upon incredible and famous sites. We walked around for 8 hours and somehow managed to accidentally see everything we wanted to see. That is my favorite way to get to know a city and explore it. We found a street market along a beautiful river and I found a ring that I liked but couldnt decide if I should buy it until the woman brought out the Tibetan meaning: it is the mantra of Avalokiteshavara which is the bodhisattva of compassion. It contains six syllables of a symbolic representation of purification of the six realms of existence! Om: purifies pride ma: purifies jealousy and lust for entertainment ni: purifies passion and desire pad: purifies ignorance and prejudice me: purifies poverty and possessiveness hum: purifies aggression and hatred. So I decided since I would become one step closer to a Buddha that I had to have it. I love finding little souvenirs along the way that have a special meaning. Our day in Rome ended with Peronis on the Spanish Steps!
Florence: Firenze! Talk about a city stealing your heart - Florence has successfully done this two separate times. It is the most charming, beautiful, and fun city I have been to. I was taken by it although I had already been here just 2 years ago. We were able to stay with friends- our lovely gphi juniors who are studying abroad there. It was so comforting seeing familiar faces for the first time in a few weeks. They had a beautiful and big apartment just steps away from Santa Croce. They showed us a fantastic night on the town starting at a classic favorite Kikuya where they have the amazing and deadly Dragoon beers with a deceivingly large amount of alcohol in them. Thank you girls so much for letting us stay: Chlois Mayonnais, g-little, nat and Mary b, Morgan, and ali krak!! Love you all! I loved being with them and hated realizing how old I felt that I was in their position 2 years ago as they discussed their thanksgiving gphi reunion and grinding for midterms. We had some of the most amazing meals in Florence from pumpkin and ricotta penne, to endless amounts of caprese, to scoops after scoops of various gelato flavors, brie and turkey sandwiches, and a repeat order of meat and tomato truffle tortellini - loved it so much the first time had to have it a second time as my final Italian meal!! My favorite day in Florence was hiking up to Piazzle Michaelangelo and observing the breathtaking views of the city. It is one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. Florence is special because there is so much beauty to see there but you feel a sense of ease that makes you want to sit back and enjoy every moment of it instead of trekking around trying to do it all at once.
We just got to Budapest and I am thrilled to be in a new city that I know very little about. Our hostel was rated best hostel in the world a couple years back :) I will miss Italy. It is an amazing country with so much to see and so much to offer. I am so happy and feel so lucky to have spent a week there.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
The Greek Islands: Santorini and Ios
"Your life is an island separated from all other islands and continents. You yourself are an island separated by its own pains, secluded in its happiness."
Ahhh the Greek Islands. I think a common thought that we had while in the Greek Islands was "Wow, this is the life." Some words that I would use to describe the islands would be: charming, serene, and stunning. Overall all of the people we met whether locals or foreigners working on the islands exceeded my previous description of nice. They were so friendly, helpful, and they treated us like we were family. The islands were much more touristy than I had anticipated, however, it was pretty mellow and empty because we are just entering the off season of the islands. Both of the islands we visited were filled with breathtaking views, deep blue crystal clear water, perfect weather, and delicious food. Greek salad in all of its simplicity is truly scrumptious in Greece. The feta was tasty and the tomatoes were so fresh! Something else I really liked about this part of our trip was traveling by ferry. Although our last leg was pretty rocky and I felt a bit sick, I like the form of traveling by water. I find it soothing and I enjoy being able to walk around.
Santorini:
I have dreamed about coming to Santorini for as long as I can remember. I had set very high expectations for Santorini and therefore I was surprised by my experience there. I would not say that I was disappointed because the place is truly magical as are all of the Greek Islands in their own unique way but Santorini did not steal my heart away. It was very deserted and more spread out than I thought it would be. I was also surprised at how high up on the mountain the city was set. We decided to stay on the beach side of the island called Perissa to be able to catch some sunshine :) The beaches in Santorini have black sand which was a cool difference to see. It was beautiful to see the rich dark colors contrasted against each other of the sand and the water. I felt like I was being taken care of by family at the hotel that we stayed at. It was run by the cutest family. They had a little dog that trotted around after the man, following his every move. The owners would drive us into town and give us countless glasses of wine on the house. Our room was poolside with a patio and mini kitchen.
The main highlight from our trip to Santorini was the day that we rented ATVs. We rode into the main part of the island called Fira and had bloody marys at a bar called tropical that has the most gorgeous view that I saw while in Greece. We drove around some more parts of the island and watched the sunset at a famous view point called "The Lighthouse".
On our last day in Santorini we did a day tour where we took a boat around and hiked the volcano, swam in the hot springs, and road donkeys on a tiny island Thirissia. Santorini was so quaint with its cobblestone streets and narrow winding paths through all of the shops, bars, and restaurants. I love how on the islands there is one or two main roads and then no cars drive through the area where the stores and life of the city is. It was so fun to just wander around and get lost through those streets. This was a very romantic island and I saw love all around us. I hope to visit it again someday :)
Ios:
Everyone had said that Ios was going to be completely dead and that it would have little to offer. I have found that having low or no expectations is always when you turn out to be very pleasantly surprised. It was like night and day going from Santorini to Ios. Although Ios was definitely smaller and a bit less picturesque than Santorini it had a great feel. All three of us instantly had great vibes from the second we walked off of the ferry. One of the people we talked to said "You don't get hung over in Ios, it's just how it is here. It's magical" We were picked up by this hilarious British man named Allen who used the F bomb every other word and immediately informed us of the main activity in Ios: partying! We stayed at this awesome hotel/resort/village called Far Out which was recommended to us by Gabby :) and also by some girls we met in Istanbul. It was absolutely perfect. Both days we enjoyed great sunny weather by the pool and hung out with a group that was doing an organized Greek Islands trip and at night went to a couple of signature places that became our favorite spots after just one night. We met some of the craziest, most hilarious, and most interesting people in Ios. One of the people we became friends with actually left the group trip early and traveled with us to Athens. It was crazy to talk to some of the girls who come over to the islands just to work during the six month season. Their hours are from 11pm-6am and they do not get a single night off.
Our favorite bars were Fun Pub which we started at both nights and Slammer bar. Fun Pub was filled with hilarious signs all over the walls like: "AVOID HANGOVERS. STAY DRUNK" and a mechanical deer head that danced to the music. They also had a bunch of games so we played Jenga and darts. The Jenga was life sized and we managed to build it so tall it was up to Laura's shoulders before it fell! Of course I made it fall two out of three games. The drink of choice on the island seemed to be Jager bombs that were passed around like candy and they even had special glasses with built in shot glasses for the Jager. The Slammer bar looked Medieval inside with stone walls and arches between the different sections of the bar. The DJ played great music and the bartenders were really energetic and friendly. The bar gets its name from their famous shot which is a large shot that you take with a helmet on your head and then after you take the shot they whack you on the head with a hammer/large board. My head still hurts a bit from that...It was hilarious to watch one person after the other take these shots.
On our last night in Ios we enjoyed an amazing meal with some of the people that we met at the hotel and from the previous night. It was the cutest restaurant, with teal painted walls and so many decorations and nik naks all over the place that fit together so well and gave it such a great feel. It could have been a room in someones home it was so cozy.
Today we made our way back on the five hour ferry to Athens and are trying to figure out our travels to Croatia tomorrow. I am so happy that I got to get a little tour of the Greek Islands and would love to go back and island hop someday during the high season! Like I said each and every island seems to have something very special about it and it is definitely worth discovering.
<3
Ahhh the Greek Islands. I think a common thought that we had while in the Greek Islands was "Wow, this is the life." Some words that I would use to describe the islands would be: charming, serene, and stunning. Overall all of the people we met whether locals or foreigners working on the islands exceeded my previous description of nice. They were so friendly, helpful, and they treated us like we were family. The islands were much more touristy than I had anticipated, however, it was pretty mellow and empty because we are just entering the off season of the islands. Both of the islands we visited were filled with breathtaking views, deep blue crystal clear water, perfect weather, and delicious food. Greek salad in all of its simplicity is truly scrumptious in Greece. The feta was tasty and the tomatoes were so fresh! Something else I really liked about this part of our trip was traveling by ferry. Although our last leg was pretty rocky and I felt a bit sick, I like the form of traveling by water. I find it soothing and I enjoy being able to walk around.
Santorini:
I have dreamed about coming to Santorini for as long as I can remember. I had set very high expectations for Santorini and therefore I was surprised by my experience there. I would not say that I was disappointed because the place is truly magical as are all of the Greek Islands in their own unique way but Santorini did not steal my heart away. It was very deserted and more spread out than I thought it would be. I was also surprised at how high up on the mountain the city was set. We decided to stay on the beach side of the island called Perissa to be able to catch some sunshine :) The beaches in Santorini have black sand which was a cool difference to see. It was beautiful to see the rich dark colors contrasted against each other of the sand and the water. I felt like I was being taken care of by family at the hotel that we stayed at. It was run by the cutest family. They had a little dog that trotted around after the man, following his every move. The owners would drive us into town and give us countless glasses of wine on the house. Our room was poolside with a patio and mini kitchen.
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| Celebrating Laura's birthday :) |
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| Our little patio at our hotel in Santorini |
The main highlight from our trip to Santorini was the day that we rented ATVs. We rode into the main part of the island called Fira and had bloody marys at a bar called tropical that has the most gorgeous view that I saw while in Greece. We drove around some more parts of the island and watched the sunset at a famous view point called "The Lighthouse".
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| Hiking the volcano. |
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| Donkey ride in Thirissia |
Everyone had said that Ios was going to be completely dead and that it would have little to offer. I have found that having low or no expectations is always when you turn out to be very pleasantly surprised. It was like night and day going from Santorini to Ios. Although Ios was definitely smaller and a bit less picturesque than Santorini it had a great feel. All three of us instantly had great vibes from the second we walked off of the ferry. One of the people we talked to said "You don't get hung over in Ios, it's just how it is here. It's magical" We were picked up by this hilarious British man named Allen who used the F bomb every other word and immediately informed us of the main activity in Ios: partying! We stayed at this awesome hotel/resort/village called Far Out which was recommended to us by Gabby :) and also by some girls we met in Istanbul. It was absolutely perfect. Both days we enjoyed great sunny weather by the pool and hung out with a group that was doing an organized Greek Islands trip and at night went to a couple of signature places that became our favorite spots after just one night. We met some of the craziest, most hilarious, and most interesting people in Ios. One of the people we became friends with actually left the group trip early and traveled with us to Athens. It was crazy to talk to some of the girls who come over to the islands just to work during the six month season. Their hours are from 11pm-6am and they do not get a single night off.
Today we made our way back on the five hour ferry to Athens and are trying to figure out our travels to Croatia tomorrow. I am so happy that I got to get a little tour of the Greek Islands and would love to go back and island hop someday during the high season! Like I said each and every island seems to have something very special about it and it is definitely worth discovering.
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| My personal travel companion: Doug, he's become a very special member of the trip to all three of us :) |
<3
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