Paris...Our Final Stop

As you all know this is my second time back to Paris while studying abroad and I cannot tell you how excited I was to get back to this great city! We began our adventure by learning that we would be the lucky girls who got to share a 10-person dorm room with the boys. This was quite interesting but fun at the same time! They had so many inquires about how we did our makeup, our hair, the difference between tights leggings and pants hahahaha oh boys. Next on the agenda you guessed it our final Pub Crawl! (I could not wait for these to end) After a quick dinner we head over to the Moulin Rouge to meet up with the others! Luckily we call it quits early because we have a full day of sight seeing planned for the next day.

After over sleeping, we quickly throw on some clothes and dash to the metro station. We had to make it to the Eiffel tower by 11 am to make the fat tire bike tour we had wanted to do! This was a tour that took us all over Paris by bike! SO fun and would recommend to anyone who goes to the city! The Tour lasted about 4 hours and hit all the major points within the city and even places I had never seen before!

The Louve was next on the list and we got in for FREE because we were student woooo the perks! We posed with Mona and saw about as much as we could within the next hour before heading out to do a little shopping! Chelsea and Katelyn wanted to get a Long Champ bag here because they were around 50 US dollars less! On our way to get dinner we were trying to make a metro, me being the incredible swift person I am made a dash for the doors while the others fell behind. You can all imagine what this led to…me stuck on the metro with not directions of where to go by myself! Because I am so smart I got off on the next stop and waited for everyone hahahaha. Starving we headed to the Jewish Quarter to grab our favs…falafel and crepes! Our first time here Kendal Simon had taken us to this great little hole in the wall places and we had been thinking about it since leaving!

That night we decided to take it easy and went to the Eiffel tower to see it sparkle! There is just something so special and stunning about watching that huge tower glitter! I gotta say this rivaled as my favorite moment of the trip! It reminded me of my family and how when we went we could see it sparkle from our room every night and we would stare out the window watching it!

Versailles was next on our to do list! We headed out to the town of Versailles the next morning. This was the place where royalty lived as to not have to deal with the noise and traffic of the city! I don’t think I have ever seen grounds or a castle this big before. It blew my mind! Believe it or not I think I could live there haha. We wondered around the gardens for a bit before taking the metro back to Paris. We departed for Florence that night and although I had the time of my life on this trip….I could not wait to be back HOME!

Amsterdam!-Stop #3

After a combined twenty-two hours on the bus and 6 days later we arrive around 6 am in the morning to the little town of Amsterdam! We arrive and it is still pitch black so we decide to get a couple good hours in and sleep before the walking tour at 11. This city is the most wonderful, incredible, humble little town that I have ever experienced! The city was definitely my favorite of the trip with its idealistic brick houses lined up against the rivers edge and the small town feel. I instantly fell in love with this place! I first day we spent wondering around the city getting lost. Although it has the feel of being small Amsterdam is quite large. One of the most incredible museums I have ever visited was the Van Gogh museum! Here were housed many of the famous pieces of artwork done by Van Gogh himself!

This night we once again did the pub-crawl. Hahaha (as you can see we have a reoccurring theme) I was soo tired this night and almost thought we had gotten out of this one until we got a call from Chelsea saying get ready were going, I looked at the clock….it was 8:20 and we had to be at the meeting place by 8:30. To say the least we made it with seconds to spare. Although it was exactly what I did not want to do that night I decided that since I was out I was going to make the best of it. This ended up being my favorite one! We met some really nice people and the places we were taken were soo fun some dancing, some just hanging out, I liked how it was always mixed up!

The next morning we headed off to the Anne Frank house. Luckily we arrived early so we were able to walk right it. It was such a crazy and surreal experience to get to walk through the house in which she lived and hid out in for so long! It was definitely a touching and memorable experience that I suggest to anyone who visits the city! Also on display was her actual diary. It was interesting to read pages from it; you would be amazed by how mature she was for only being a little girl! Next on the list of activities was lunch and a little souvenir shopping! After eating junk on the road at very bus stop possible we were all craving just a little bit of healthy! We stumbled upon this little café that served up homemade sandwiches, just what we were all craving!! I got the chicken club that had…AVOCADO!!! (this is the first avocado I have seen since in Europe and boy was it exciting!)

After sandwiches we were onto shopping, this I have to say is where I got some of the best souvenirs. Cheese is a big part of Amsterdam so there was cheese stores everywhere! On our tour the previous day the guy had stopped at one place in particular he said was his favorite. We decided to venture back the next day to see just what the buzz was about! I think we stumbled into heaven! As you walking in you are faced with at least 12 different kinds of cheeses and the best part you were allowed to try them all as many times as you wanted! Hahaha you can only imagine how we got our moneys worth of tasters. After debating back and forth on my favorite I decided this would be a great little souvenir to bring home to the fam, so get excited because this is the world’s best cheese! (and it’s from miles away and that always makes it better right?) After picking up a couple more take homes we headed to the Heineken Factory! (we were in for a treat!)

This place felt like you had walked into a miniature Disneyland, consisting of rides, movies, interactive games, and trivia’s! I thought that it was such a fun and unique experience. We got to see the whole process of how the beer is made and I have to say there is much more to a beer than I thought! During trivia yours truly won a free drink! The lady asked what is the German word for cheers and I shouted PRAST! Bam beer for me! Hahaha oh its good to be smart! We headed back to the hostel, but before getting back in we ran across a gourmet bakery shop, how could we resist? As we entered the smell of waffles caramel and chocolate filled the air! Christine, Kaitlin and I decided to go big or go home and got one of the best things ever to come to me…a homemade waffle, a scoop of gelato on top, ad drizzled hot fudge! The stomachache I had for hours after was SO worth it!

We decided to take it easy and stayed in for the night to get some good rest before heading off to final stop Paris! We sat around and kind of chatted with others from the program in the lobby of the hostel before heading to bed. Only a short sleep and 5 hours on a bus to Pari!

Berlin- Spring Break Stop #2

This was the shortest of our stops on our journey. We were here for all of about 24 hours but wow the things you can learn and explore in that amount of time! Berlin definitely was one of the most interesting places because of the vast amounts of history that occurred in the city. We arrived in the afternoon so we didn’t really have any time to explore the first day and we had a walking tour in the morning so we decided that we would just go for a local cuisine dinner and call it quits early. We stumbled upon this little German restaurant boy were we in for a surprise. We sat down and tried to attempt to order food. We decided that we would get the appetizer of sausage and pretzel to share between the table. I, loving sausage, was so excited to try some authentic stuff. When the dish arrived I was a little shocked because it came in a bowl….yes true life the sausages had been steamed so they were basically white, one of the worst colors I have seen to this day, and not to mention you had to de-case them before eating…YUCK! Then we moved onto the main course. I have this problem of ordering things I think I wanna like but actually don’t, example goat cheese. I have tried it many times before any it has not been my thing but being one of Chelsea and Christine’s favorite cheeses I too wanna get in on the action. So of course I get the goat cheese salad (so German I know but after the sausages I got nervous) lets just say the lettuce was delish? Hahaha although I can definitely say it wasn’t my favorite meal since being in Europe (by any means) it was fun to try the local food!

That night we carried on the tradition of pub crawling. We were so tired we bowed out at the third stop. Berlin is known for their nightlife and I’m sure it is amazing but I also think Sunday is not the best night to try it lol.

The next morning we had our walking tour! We began the tour at the gates to the city. This is where the embassy’s reside and also drum rollllllllllllll where the hotel that Michael Jackson dangled his baby from the balcony for the world to see!! Haha some good history right there (ps is the picture of the aldon hotel). We continued onto the memorial site for those who died in the holocaust. The architect for the project created these cement blocks of varying height that was meant to be left for interpretation of each individual of what was meant. I thought this was really cool because it got you really thinking about what happened in those times. Next we stopped by Hitler's bunker , but it was in a place you would never know if not told what it was. The people in Germany do not want to shrine such an awful person so this hiding place has been covered up and now a parking lot sits on top of this cave. Some other cool sites that we stopped at while on the tour was the site of the book burning riot, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Berlin Wall! After the tour we decided that we would visit a well known exhibit about the holocaust. It was said to give you an insider’s perspective on what happened in the holocaust. This exhibit was amazing and sad all at the same time! It was so cruel what happened in these times and how some saw nothing wrong with it.

After a long day of touring and seeing the sites we decided to pit stop at a little stand that served up authentic and native bratwurst! I ordered the original bratwurst, which really meant it was a currywurst with a curry ketchup! It was very interesting to say the least and also VERY curry-esc.

Once finished with our snack we tried to make it to the “TV Tour” which is basically a tall tower that allows you to see the whole city but it ended up having a 2 hour wait!!! We opted out and instead opted into get lost on the subway! Wooooo for subways! Hahaha after about an hour on the metro trying to get just anywhere we recognized we made it to somewhere we recognized! We ended up in this district that was close to the hostel and had some great little shops! One of the things I think that surprised me most about Berlin was the cleanliness of the city. Everything was spotless and I looooved it! Also you may not know but we decided that the Germans were simplistic people. I mean this in the sense that all their memorials restaurants, hotels, everything was simple to and to the point no extra frills needed to distract from the main point trying to be made.
After about 10 hours on the go we had to be on the bus at 10 to overnight it to Amsterdam. We decided that we had tried enough German food for the time being so we this time decided to go for Mexican! OMG it was amazing!!! I miss Mexican food more and more by the day hahaha. Next stop….AMSTERDAM!

Praha! Czech it Out (Stop #1)

We arrived in Prague at about 10 am on Friday morning after a mere 15hr bus ride. How can I possibly explain this bus ride….the company with which we were going to be traveling with for our spring break adventure offers inexpensive travel accommodations and transportation but the downside (sometimes the upside) was that we had to travel by bus to each place. The first 5 hours were easy as we all sat back and watched movies….then the sleepiness started to set in….we were lucky that our trip was small (only 23 of us) and therefore we each got out own double seat on the bus! The number of different ways we all tried to get the most comfortable was quite amusing. I gotta hand it to some people they can get pretty creative in times of desperation. My style of choice was the curled up ball this worked best when the person in front of you slightly leaned back their chair, just enough to secure you in the position so that no bumps in the ride would cause any shifting. After a restless 8 hours of sleep we arrived in the wonderful country of Czech, in a little city known to the locals as Praha! Fun little fact the Czech’s use crowns as there currency, so when I pulled out money my options were 1000 crowns 2000 crowns 3000 crowns, etc. you can only imagine how fun it was to try and figure out how much you were spending at every place. We decided that by the end we considered this monopoly money because we just could figure it out!


We kicked off the morning with what we later found out was going to be the best breakfast we would get on the trip! (it was a deal that breakfast was included at every place we stayed) lets just say we got eggs!! Then we followed the amazing breakfast with a short little 3 hour tour of the city! Prague too me by surprise I think the most of each place I visited because it was significantly larger than I had expected, requiring a metro to get around. The style of buildings in Prague resembled that of a gothic style. Every different from Italy but in its own and unique way gorgeous. Our tour guide James (an Ireland native, so you can only imagine the cute little accent he had) lead us around the city telling us myths of the city along with facts about how Prague became a get away for those such as Hitler during the world wars. After the tour since we decide that it would be fun to bond with some of the other people on the trip by heading to “The Beer Factory” a little place we had heard about from friends where you sit at a table that had a tap in the middle from which you could draft your own beer and would get charged only for what you drank! The place was very interesting a fun way to kick off the trip!
After a few hours at the factory we decided to head back to the hostel (please as you read this do not confuse hostel with HOTEL because as I have come to learn they are two completely OPPOSITE things including but not limited to….communal bathrooms (my favorite by far), random roommates, bunk beds, no towels, and no maid service) starving by this point we decide that since we cannot figure out what local Czech food is (we still to this day think its something like fried meat and fried cheese) the Mexican restaurant just across the street by far is our best option. We sit down to order, we ask for nachos which came out just as expected but then we went for asking for salsa (we had every hand motion going to try and get across what we were asking for) and when she came back in her hands she held a double size of more nacho cheese…definitely one of those lost in translation moments…cheese and salsa, I get how those can be confused? Hahaha anyways for Mexican food in Europe I’m going to say this place wasn’t half bad. Upon returning home we had decided that for not knowing where to go out to in the city we would stick with the group and pub crawl through Prague…oh man how we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into…lets just say that one of our stops along the way was an old church? An 80’s bar! And an over 40s club I’m pretty sure hahaha. We made the best of it though and you will be surprised to find out that we made it to every pub crawl in every city oh dear lord haha. The next morning we woke up and headed over to the palace of Prague, the Charles Bridge, and the John Lennon wall. The palace offered great views of the entire city, while the bridge housed many different street acts and artists! By far my favorite was the John Lennon wall. After his death people came to this wall to try and promote peace. The police tried to stop the graffiti that accumulated but soon learned there was no stopping it so instead allowed people to tag the wall with what ever they like. Most postings relate to peace though. After getting some typical tourist pictures in front of the wall we headed to a little café to get some lunch where….I SAW BILL!!!!!!!!!! I walked in and low and behold there he was in the flesh! I was sooo excited I could not believe it what are the chances of running into him all the way in Prague?!

While doing a little souvenir shopping we stumbled upon possibly the worlds best dessert! It was just a little hole in the wall but that served but the best thing I have ever tasted!!! It was a puff pastry that had been cooked over an open flame then rolled in cinnamon sugar and coated on the inside with nutella…OMG it was to die for!!!!

A cat nap later we were up and ready to go for the night. This night we tried a little Asian restaurant by our place (not my choice by any means) and below read our choices of what we could have….

Chicken of strange taste, Chicken of Mysterious taste, Chicken of five tastes, or my personal favorite which did not get its debut Eight treasures in Strange taste…what had we gotten ourselves into?! I think its fair to say that we stuck to noodles. That night we went to the 5 story club. This palace is famous to Prague and definitely one of the largest clubs I have ever been in during my time in Europe. Each floor had different genres of music, which was fun to mix up where we hung out and danced. After a long night out we were up and at it again this time a 5-hour bus ride to Berlin!

Midterms have finally finished!!!!! Now Spring Break 11'!!!!! Off to Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris for the next 10 days!!! Cannot believe the AMAZING life I am living!!!!!!!!!