Saturday 24 December 2011
well, my study abroad experience has come to an end! i cannot believe its over...i had the most amazing experiences and made the best of memories. It was so sad leaving and saying goodbye to all the friends that we had made. It was truly the chance of a lifetime and i am so thankful to have been given the opportunity. It was by far the best 4 months of my life and i have grown so much from it! I didn't want to leave at all, it was soo hard to force myself onto that plane! and i miss it sooo much already! I most definitely plan on returning to England in the future! I hope you all enjoyed reading about my overseas adventures! and hopefully there will be more in the near future :)
CHEERS!
FRANCE
SUNDAY
530AM we were up and getting ready to leave! We took a taxi to London, and then the Chunnel to Paris. The second we got to Paris it was clear this would be an experience. Obviously, everyone was speaking French, and the moment we were caught speaking American English, we were getting looks up and down. We even asked for directions to les toilettes and the French guys gave us completely wrong directions…rude. You would think that after all the years of French i've taken that i would be able to speak it a little bit better haha, but unfortunately not. I did know most of the basic sayings and phrases though which was helpful, and surprisingly it was quite easy to pick up on what they were saying a lot of the times. We dropped our bags at our super swanky hotel and went out to get lunch at a cute little French café. Oh but then it started raining, that was fun. The café was cute though, and the champagne that we had was delicious, and only the first of many more glasses this trip. By the end of lunch it was completely downpouring sideways..aha. jokes. So we braved the rain and attempted to shop. But that was a complete fail so instead we went and got dessert….and more champagne. We got crepes and cakes and basically one of everything on the menu! When we were trying to make our way back to our hotel we got a little turned around so we asked for directions, one person told us to go a certain way and then we decided to ask another person, who told us the complete opposite. It was like the French were just messing with us. Not funny. Then we decided to go to the Eiffel tower because the rain had kind of let up. We got in a few good pictures before the windstorm kicked in and then we were out of there!
The tower was really pretty at night though, the way that it lit up and everything. Also at certain times it would sparkle like a Christmas tree! It was really cool. So, we went to dinner but first asked our concierge for advice on a nice quick light dinner place. Well they sent us to a long, heavy dinner place…thanks. It was so weird too everyone got their food and me and Katie had soups as appetizers and we hadn’t finished ours yet so they didn’t bring our food. And by the time everyone was finished eating, we still hadn’t gotten our food…they didn’t bring over our meals until we pushed the soups out of in front of us. The waitress was super rude too and rolling her eyes at us and stuff. They do NOT like it when you try to speak French apparently. Or just when your American. Well, we had enough with this day so we decided to just go back to our hotel and go to bed, hoping tomorrow would be a bit better.
MONDAY
We wanted to go shopping, but more like window shopping because we were in the most expensive city, on the most expensive street in the world! So it was fun to look and cry at all the things I wish I could have…actually no it was horrible and depressing. But we ended that quick enough and were just thankful that today it was NOT raining. It was actually really beautiful out. We went to a sandwich shop for lunch and had amazing baguette sandwiches with fresh deli meat. Mmm it was delicious, I won’t be able to have a sandwich at home the same. Katie and I went to the Eiffel tower alone after because we wanted to see it during the day.
Well after a few photo shoot sessions we had had ENOUGH with France and its tower. See ya never, time to go. We went to our hotel bar and ordered ridiculously expensive glasses of champagne and ended our trip on that note. In case you didn’t get the hint, the only thing I really liked about France was the champagne.
We took the chunnel home, Deb says to tell everyone she looks pretty…so there you go Deb. Haha. We decided to take a train back to Oxford and we had to run through the train station trying to get tickets because the last train was boarding in 2 minutes. So everyone was sprinting around trying to figure out how to get tickets, it was a ridiculous sight. We got the tickets, and some how Katie had time to get a Pasty? Deb was not too happy about that, she was starving. She really wanted that Pasty haha. Everyone was a little upset Katie didn’t get everyone Pastys it was hilarious. Well anyways, we made it on the last train…paid about 120pounds for tickets I believe…and no one ever checked them. Such a waste of money! We were all pretty happy to get back to England. J'ai deteste France
530AM we were up and getting ready to leave! We took a taxi to London, and then the Chunnel to Paris. The second we got to Paris it was clear this would be an experience. Obviously, everyone was speaking French, and the moment we were caught speaking American English, we were getting looks up and down. We even asked for directions to les toilettes and the French guys gave us completely wrong directions…rude. You would think that after all the years of French i've taken that i would be able to speak it a little bit better haha, but unfortunately not. I did know most of the basic sayings and phrases though which was helpful, and surprisingly it was quite easy to pick up on what they were saying a lot of the times. We dropped our bags at our super swanky hotel and went out to get lunch at a cute little French café. Oh but then it started raining, that was fun. The café was cute though, and the champagne that we had was delicious, and only the first of many more glasses this trip. By the end of lunch it was completely downpouring sideways..aha. jokes. So we braved the rain and attempted to shop. But that was a complete fail so instead we went and got dessert….and more champagne. We got crepes and cakes and basically one of everything on the menu! When we were trying to make our way back to our hotel we got a little turned around so we asked for directions, one person told us to go a certain way and then we decided to ask another person, who told us the complete opposite. It was like the French were just messing with us. Not funny. Then we decided to go to the Eiffel tower because the rain had kind of let up. We got in a few good pictures before the windstorm kicked in and then we were out of there!
MONDAY
We wanted to go shopping, but more like window shopping because we were in the most expensive city, on the most expensive street in the world! So it was fun to look and cry at all the things I wish I could have…actually no it was horrible and depressing. But we ended that quick enough and were just thankful that today it was NOT raining. It was actually really beautiful out. We went to a sandwich shop for lunch and had amazing baguette sandwiches with fresh deli meat. Mmm it was delicious, I won’t be able to have a sandwich at home the same. Katie and I went to the Eiffel tower alone after because we wanted to see it during the day.
We took the chunnel home, Deb says to tell everyone she looks pretty…so there you go Deb. Haha. We decided to take a train back to Oxford and we had to run through the train station trying to get tickets because the last train was boarding in 2 minutes. So everyone was sprinting around trying to figure out how to get tickets, it was a ridiculous sight. We got the tickets, and some how Katie had time to get a Pasty? Deb was not too happy about that, she was starving. She really wanted that Pasty haha. Everyone was a little upset Katie didn’t get everyone Pastys it was hilarious. Well anyways, we made it on the last train…paid about 120pounds for tickets I believe…and no one ever checked them. Such a waste of money! We were all pretty happy to get back to England. J'ai deteste France
Our Parents Visit!
Norm Barb Rolie and Deb are here! Unfortunately I woke up Friday morning feeling the most sick I had felt yet. But luckily, I had Barb get me a prescription of Z-pack. So the second I saw them I made sure to get that in my system. It was great to see our parents though! We met them outside the flat they rented for the week and then brought them around Oxford the day. By late afternoon the Z-pack was kicking in and I was feeling 80% better I was thrilled! When we brought them to Harcourt Hill (where we live), even they said “this is horrible”. They were shocked with our living arrangements, just as we were the first day, and half jokingly said they were shocked we stayed! Haha. They let us be for the rest of the night and headed back to their flat to cure their jetlag. I think my dad told me 5 times “don’t go out tonight your sick”. I went back to my room and ate soup, drank like a gallon of orange juice, took advil, vitamin C pills, had like 30 cough drops, and laid down for awhile. I got a skype call from the parents a few hours later where they so nicely told me I didn’t look so good and my dad told me one more time not to go out. Well, I totally wasn’t planning on going out I swear….but I only have like 2 more weeks left!.....so I went out. Sorry dad. So I got a bottle of red wine because everyone knows a glass of red wine is supposed to be good for you, and I ordered lots of drinks with orange juice…vitamin C! ;) hahah I’m sure that all helped. But honestly something worked because I woke up and only felt a little sick again, and once I took the Z-pack again I felt perfect!
The plan was to leave to meet our parents around 10 and head to London by 11. Katie was a huge struggle today. I went over in the morning to help her pack to prevent her from packing only tank tops again. Well we struggled longer than planned and didn’t get the bus to our parents until 11. When we finally got to our parents they immediately knew Katie was hungover and started picking on her while telling her she should have been more like me and stayed in. (last they knew I was laying in my bed like a good girl planning on spending the night in because i had been sick). We made it into London by late afternoon and were off to find a pub because our parents were freaking out about it. They had their minds set that like the only thing they should eat in England is things from pubs… I don’t know, we didn’t get it. But we found a pub and had a fun time in there. It was great being praised all day for not going out and listening to them give Katie trouble for going out. However, it didn’t last because at one point there was a slip up and I was caught saying I remembered something from last night, because i had actually gone out, and the lie was caught. Oops!
We headed to the London Eye next! The London Eye is like this GIANT ferris wheel that goes super slow so you get the full view of London.
Deb was freaking out before we got on because she is afraid of heights, but she actually did a great job once we were on it! It was beautiful at night.
Waffles are like a big dessert thing here, its kind of strange actually. But Katie and I got one to share since we hadn't tried this odd dessert tradition yet. It was pretty good, but i think i'd rather have it as my breakfast still...minus the chocolate sauce!
We caught the bus home and stayed at our parents flat for the night. We stayed because we were leaving for Paris early in the morning! So Katie packed good clothes this time, not tank tops…but we both forgot blankets. So we slept on our parent’s little sofas with their jackets as blankets…it was pretty funny.
The plan was to leave to meet our parents around 10 and head to London by 11. Katie was a huge struggle today. I went over in the morning to help her pack to prevent her from packing only tank tops again. Well we struggled longer than planned and didn’t get the bus to our parents until 11. When we finally got to our parents they immediately knew Katie was hungover and started picking on her while telling her she should have been more like me and stayed in. (last they knew I was laying in my bed like a good girl planning on spending the night in because i had been sick). We made it into London by late afternoon and were off to find a pub because our parents were freaking out about it. They had their minds set that like the only thing they should eat in England is things from pubs… I don’t know, we didn’t get it. But we found a pub and had a fun time in there. It was great being praised all day for not going out and listening to them give Katie trouble for going out. However, it didn’t last because at one point there was a slip up and I was caught saying I remembered something from last night, because i had actually gone out, and the lie was caught. Oops!
We headed to the London Eye next! The London Eye is like this GIANT ferris wheel that goes super slow so you get the full view of London.
We caught the bus home and stayed at our parents flat for the night. We stayed because we were leaving for Paris early in the morning! So Katie packed good clothes this time, not tank tops…but we both forgot blankets. So we slept on our parent’s little sofas with their jackets as blankets…it was pretty funny.
Saturday 10 December 2011
AMERICAN PARTY!
So I have been dying of illness but there was an American party the day after we got back from Florence, and I couldn’t resist. So of course, Katie and I went all out…wouldn’t expect anything less. They advertised this party as “all things American” which apparently they associate with frats, sororities, cheerleaders, jocks, nerds, beer pong, red cups and tom brady. They actually had a beer pong table set up but it was literally like on the floor.
For some reason they don’t have solo cups here and they are amazed that we actually drink out of them. I’ve been asked, “you really drink out of those red cups?! I thought it was only in the movies”. Haha….its so funny.
So most people were dressed as football players/cheerleaders and a bunch of other things I don’t remember. But Katie and I were basically just 2 dumb Americans. The usual…
We went to LAVA and they have a sweet deal of buy one drink get one free. So Katie and I each ordered 2 drinks and 2 jagerbombs. All of these drinks were sitting in front of us when we handed the bartender our card and she told us they only take cards with chips.
(cards with chips are what they use over here now, instead of a swipe you just insert the tip of the credit card where it scans a chip)
so that was awkward... there were 8 drinks in front of us and we had zero cash. So we said we would be right back and we went across the street to an ATM, in our fullout American outfit. I put my debit card in, typed in my pin and then read a message that said, “Sorry your card has been retained, please contact your bank” then we saw my card kind of coming back out of so we were both frantically trying to grab at it. But the message was right…my card was then retained. Not good. Then Katie thought it would be a good idea to try hers because I have had issues with my debit card since I got here so we assumed it was just my card that had the issue. Well the same message popped up for Katie and again we were caught frantically trying to grab her card back out of the machine. It was horrible. Horrible 1. That our cards were just taken and horrible 2. That now we have no way of buying drinks. We figured we would deal with the horrible 1. In the morning and went back in to LAVA and borrowed 20pounds from Sarah. Thanks Sarah!
But yeah it was really fun. It was basically like the fourth of July for us haha. And although I definitely should not have gone out…it was worth it. I could never turn down a USA party.
So most people were dressed as football players/cheerleaders and a bunch of other things I don’t remember. But Katie and I were basically just 2 dumb Americans. The usual…
(cards with chips are what they use over here now, instead of a swipe you just insert the tip of the credit card where it scans a chip)
so that was awkward... there were 8 drinks in front of us and we had zero cash. So we said we would be right back and we went across the street to an ATM, in our fullout American outfit. I put my debit card in, typed in my pin and then read a message that said, “Sorry your card has been retained, please contact your bank” then we saw my card kind of coming back out of so we were both frantically trying to grab at it. But the message was right…my card was then retained. Not good. Then Katie thought it would be a good idea to try hers because I have had issues with my debit card since I got here so we assumed it was just my card that had the issue. Well the same message popped up for Katie and again we were caught frantically trying to grab her card back out of the machine. It was horrible. Horrible 1. That our cards were just taken and horrible 2. That now we have no way of buying drinks. We figured we would deal with the horrible 1. In the morning and went back in to LAVA and borrowed 20pounds from Sarah. Thanks Sarah!
Tuesday 6 December 2011
FLORENCE
Thursday November 24 I headed off to Florence, Italy! Katie and I make bad decisions and decided to go out the night before. I was smart and made sure to pack everything the night before and be ready to leave. We said we were going to make it an easy night, but apparently everyone knows when you go to Fuzzy Ducks (name of the club), there is no such thing as an easy night.
We even promised that after Berlin travels we were never going out the night before travel day again…Oops.
Katie hadn’t packed that night and had to do it in the morning, which turns out to really cause her some problems once we get to Italy. So after some rushing around and chugging water to try and replace the jager-bombs still in our systems, we were ready to head off to Florence. We were traveling to Florence with Emily and Matt and meeting Sarah there. After some serious struggles on the bus ride and noticeably annoying all the other passengers, let me just say we were ready to get out of there. The plane went smoothly and we arrived into Florence at around 1030PM, and ready to pass out. We dropped our things at our hostel, which was really nice.
This time it was just Emily Matt Katie and Myself in a room with our own bathroom…so no more strangers stealing my bed incidents thank god. Sarah was staying with a friend.
We went out to get a midnight dinner because we were all starving from traveling. We found this little café type place that served pasta of course. Oh My God. It was unbelievable…and it was only going to get better as the trip goes on. We had planned to go out so that we didn’t waste any time but on account of still feeling rough from the night before in addition to the long travel day we decided to head back to the hostel and get a good nights sleep. Much needed.
Friday morning came and we were ready to go! We thought the weather was going to be a lot warmer than England’s and apparently Katie thought “a lot warmer” was like beach weather because the girl brought like 8 tank tops…skirts and one thin jacket. So she kind of struggled to find something to wear as each item she pulled out of her suitcase was spaghetti straps, or sheer.
Luckily though, the weather was warmer. In the mornings it was always still pretty cold and at night the temp would drop drastically. But! During the main hours of the day it was beautiful out, no jacket needed.
Anyways, Friday we woke up and tried to find our way to the duomo.
Matt was the only one the entire trip who actually attempted to look at a map and find the way...well Katie and I were pretty directionally challenged. After walking in circles for about 40 minutes we found it but decided to get pizza first. It was obviously the best pizza ever and it was like thick bakery style. So good. Then we went to the duomo and got a tour. The tour brought us halfway up the duomo which was around 200 stairs up, so tiring. We then realized we weren’t at the top yet. Our guide then told us it was another 300something stairs to the top. UGH. It was a work out. But so worth it because the view was unbelievable, and the weather was beautiful!
We were so relieved to have finally made it to the top! But then we realized we had to now go down the hundreds of stairs. Once we reached the bottom we rewarded ourselves with gelato! I’m obsessed with pistachio now.
Next we went to the museum that had the statue of David! Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures of it, but we did see a replica of it outside.
I wasn't expecting the sculpture to be so huge!
Florence is way different than England. There are hardly any buses and the streets aren’t nearly as crowded. It was quite refreshing actually. The Language barrier wasn’t nearly as hard as Germany, I think because at least we can pick up a few Italian words whereas German is just way different. They had markets set up everyday on the same roads that were kind of like the flea market back home.
I started feeling ill Friday afternoon and wasn’t sure if I was literally still struggling from Wednesday night or if I was coming down with something. We went home and relaxed for a while after walking around all day. We then met up with Sarah for dinner, at ZaZa’s. We all got pasta and wine, of course!! Everyone absolutely loved their meal and cleared their plates in like 5 minutes. I even finished mine before Katie and I’m the world’s slowest eater, whereas Katie could possibly be the fastest, but she “didn’t want it to end” haha.
Saturday
Early start, we were out by 745 and heading to the bus stop because today we were going on an all day tour of Tuscany! The tour brought us to Sienna, to San giamano, to Pisa! Sarah tried to book hers later than ours and it wouldn’t allow her, but she decided to come and try to make it on the bus anyways. The driver told her she would have to wait and see if no one showed up so we were all keeping our fingers crossed for her. Unfortunately, everyone showed up….but then the bus driver and tour guide told her they would squeeze her on!!!! So Sarah got to sit shotgun. Hahaha.
Our first stop was Sienna, where we saw the world’s first and oldest bank. We walked through the streets of Sienna, which were beautiful, and made our way to a cathedral.
This cathedral was my favorite I’ve seen, and I’m seriously not a cathedral person, they all feel the same to me, but this one was so different! It was like zebra inside, it was pretty I loved it.
We had some free time before we had to make it back to the bus so we went into the big open area and sat in the sun for a while.
Our next stop was San giamano, which I still can’t properly say. This was by far my favorite. We went to a farm first for lunch which was also a wine vineyard. We got a tour of the wine cellar,
saw the vineyard
and headed inside for the most delicious meal ever!
First course, bruschetta with a white wine
Second course, pasta Bolognese with a red wine
Third course, cured meats and cheese with a different red wine
Fourth course, biscotti with a dessert wine
They just kept bringing out more food and wine it was out of control! Best part was that they left the bottles of wine for us and we got to pour our own glasses, so basically we got to fill our glasses to the rim….and refill. We were all unbelievably full after as you can imagine. They opened the glass doors where we ate to the patio and the weather was just perfect out. We also had a beautiful view of the vineyards and san giamano. I wish we could have stayed there longer but we were kind of getting rushed back onto the bus so we could fit everything in!
we headed into the town area of San Giamano which was just as fun. What was so cool about San Giamano is that it is still completely surrounded by walls! We had ‘free-time’ here and got to do whatever we wanted for about an hour. We just walked around took in all the sights and did a little shopping!
Pisa! Was next on the list, and that was about an hour away. We all passed out on the bus ride there…probably partly because we were so tired, and partly because of all the wine we just drank.
Obviously the biggest thing people do in Pisa is see the leaning tower.
I thought it was going to be a lot bigger than it actually was, and I didn’t even expect it to be leaning THAT much. So crazy it looked like it would fall over any second! So of course we took all the touristy pictures and by then end of that it was getting dark!
Then we took a little train ride tour through the town of Pisa and that was the end of our tour through Tuscany!
Unfortunately I was feeling even more ill today than yesterday so when we got back to our hostel I laid down and fell right asleep. Then I woke up and we all ate pizza…..and then I went back to sleep! Haha. Our Hostel was SO cold. It was all marble and there was no heat that we could adjust. They gave us 2 sheets each and like a not so warm blanket. Oh and smart little Katie also forgot to pack anything to sleep in, so she had the wide variety again of sheer, or tanktop! I took some medicine and hoped when I woke up I would feel better.
Sunday
Went to the cathedral where Michelangelo and Galileo were buried. It took us forever to get there though because there was a marathon being held through all of Florence. Because of the marathon a lot of the roads were blocked off so we had to find alternative routes….well matt had to find alternative routes and we had to follow. It took us a while but we finally figured it out.
The weather was so nice it was the perfect day to go to the ponte vecchio, so that is where we went next.
Then we got lunch and enjoyed even better gelato at the ponte vecchio! There was ferrero rocher gelato….like those little delicious chocolates
but gelato!!!!
For the rest of the day I went to the markets with Sarah and then we all met up again to get dinner. We went to a nice tented restaurant that had intense heat lamps because like I said, at night the degrees drastically drop. Katie got the best lasagna ever. Everyone elses meal was really good too but the lasagna was crazy.
I wanted spaghetti and meatballs but the guy told me that in Italy they don't do that. That is an American thing and that no one actually eats spaghetti and meatballs together...oh.
Katie and I went on a carousel after because we still want to be five years old
Monday
So sad, our last day in Italy!
Katie and I met up with Liv Whitney who is currently studying in Florence.
I grew up with Liv as my neighbor and Katie and I both went to middle school with her. It was so nice to meet up and catch up…especially in Florence!! She brought us to an American Diner and we got breakfast, Pancakes & omelettes. I hadn’t had pancakes in such a long time. So we had a great time with Liv but she had to get to class and we still had some stuff to do on our last day.
We went to the markets again and did some more shopping and gift buying. Then we met up with our other friend Brady from High Point! Katie roomed with Brady freshman year. She brought us to lunch at this amazing sandwich place which we all devoured and then she brought us for dessert! She introduced us to Florence hot chocolate…which is like basically chocolate syrup. It was super thick and chocolatey. What they do is put gelato in it!
So we all got one of those and it was amazing. It was so cool to meet up with people from home in a different country. By this time we had to get going to the airport, and none of us wanted to leave ☹
The flight home went fine there wasn’t any issues except for when we arrived at Heathrow. We got to the bus station at around midnight and we immediately checked for the next bus back to oxford. Well, with our luck we were NOT pleased to find out that the next bus was not until 1:50. Fantastic. So after wanting to cry and pretend it wasn’t real for 15 minutes we all sat down in silence and waited. It wouldn’t have been so horrible if it was warm but it was absolutely freezing…perfect for my sickeness. But we made it back to our rooms eventually….
Katie hadn’t packed that night and had to do it in the morning, which turns out to really cause her some problems once we get to Italy. So after some rushing around and chugging water to try and replace the jager-bombs still in our systems, we were ready to head off to Florence. We were traveling to Florence with Emily and Matt and meeting Sarah there. After some serious struggles on the bus ride and noticeably annoying all the other passengers, let me just say we were ready to get out of there. The plane went smoothly and we arrived into Florence at around 1030PM, and ready to pass out. We dropped our things at our hostel, which was really nice.
We went out to get a midnight dinner because we were all starving from traveling. We found this little café type place that served pasta of course. Oh My God. It was unbelievable…and it was only going to get better as the trip goes on. We had planned to go out so that we didn’t waste any time but on account of still feeling rough from the night before in addition to the long travel day we decided to head back to the hostel and get a good nights sleep. Much needed.
Friday morning came and we were ready to go! We thought the weather was going to be a lot warmer than England’s and apparently Katie thought “a lot warmer” was like beach weather because the girl brought like 8 tank tops…skirts and one thin jacket. So she kind of struggled to find something to wear as each item she pulled out of her suitcase was spaghetti straps, or sheer.
Luckily though, the weather was warmer. In the mornings it was always still pretty cold and at night the temp would drop drastically. But! During the main hours of the day it was beautiful out, no jacket needed.
Anyways, Friday we woke up and tried to find our way to the duomo.
Florence is way different than England. There are hardly any buses and the streets aren’t nearly as crowded. It was quite refreshing actually. The Language barrier wasn’t nearly as hard as Germany, I think because at least we can pick up a few Italian words whereas German is just way different. They had markets set up everyday on the same roads that were kind of like the flea market back home.
I started feeling ill Friday afternoon and wasn’t sure if I was literally still struggling from Wednesday night or if I was coming down with something. We went home and relaxed for a while after walking around all day. We then met up with Sarah for dinner, at ZaZa’s. We all got pasta and wine, of course!! Everyone absolutely loved their meal and cleared their plates in like 5 minutes. I even finished mine before Katie and I’m the world’s slowest eater, whereas Katie could possibly be the fastest, but she “didn’t want it to end” haha.
Saturday
Early start, we were out by 745 and heading to the bus stop because today we were going on an all day tour of Tuscany! The tour brought us to Sienna, to San giamano, to Pisa! Sarah tried to book hers later than ours and it wouldn’t allow her, but she decided to come and try to make it on the bus anyways. The driver told her she would have to wait and see if no one showed up so we were all keeping our fingers crossed for her. Unfortunately, everyone showed up….but then the bus driver and tour guide told her they would squeeze her on!!!! So Sarah got to sit shotgun. Hahaha.
We had some free time before we had to make it back to the bus so we went into the big open area and sat in the sun for a while.
Second course, pasta Bolognese with a red wine
Third course, cured meats and cheese with a different red wine
Fourth course, biscotti with a dessert wine
Obviously the biggest thing people do in Pisa is see the leaning tower.
Unfortunately I was feeling even more ill today than yesterday so when we got back to our hostel I laid down and fell right asleep. Then I woke up and we all ate pizza…..and then I went back to sleep! Haha. Our Hostel was SO cold. It was all marble and there was no heat that we could adjust. They gave us 2 sheets each and like a not so warm blanket. Oh and smart little Katie also forgot to pack anything to sleep in, so she had the wide variety again of sheer, or tanktop! I took some medicine and hoped when I woke up I would feel better.
Sunday
Went to the cathedral where Michelangelo and Galileo were buried. It took us forever to get there though because there was a marathon being held through all of Florence. Because of the marathon a lot of the roads were blocked off so we had to find alternative routes….well matt had to find alternative routes and we had to follow. It took us a while but we finally figured it out.
The weather was so nice it was the perfect day to go to the ponte vecchio, so that is where we went next.
Then we got lunch and enjoyed even better gelato at the ponte vecchio! There was ferrero rocher gelato….like those little delicious chocolates
I wanted spaghetti and meatballs but the guy told me that in Italy they don't do that. That is an American thing and that no one actually eats spaghetti and meatballs together...oh.
Katie and I went on a carousel after because we still want to be five years old
Monday
So sad, our last day in Italy!
Katie and I met up with Liv Whitney who is currently studying in Florence.
I grew up with Liv as my neighbor and Katie and I both went to middle school with her. It was so nice to meet up and catch up…especially in Florence!! She brought us to an American Diner and we got breakfast, Pancakes & omelettes. I hadn’t had pancakes in such a long time. So we had a great time with Liv but she had to get to class and we still had some stuff to do on our last day.
We went to the markets again and did some more shopping and gift buying. Then we met up with our other friend Brady from High Point! Katie roomed with Brady freshman year. She brought us to lunch at this amazing sandwich place which we all devoured and then she brought us for dessert! She introduced us to Florence hot chocolate…which is like basically chocolate syrup. It was super thick and chocolatey. What they do is put gelato in it!
The flight home went fine there wasn’t any issues except for when we arrived at Heathrow. We got to the bus station at around midnight and we immediately checked for the next bus back to oxford. Well, with our luck we were NOT pleased to find out that the next bus was not until 1:50. Fantastic. So after wanting to cry and pretend it wasn’t real for 15 minutes we all sat down in silence and waited. It wouldn’t have been so horrible if it was warm but it was absolutely freezing…perfect for my sickeness. But we made it back to our rooms eventually….
Thursday 1 December 2011
BERLIN
Once we finally made it to Berlin we saw Rainer and Val waiting right outside baggage claim! Yes, thank god! So we got all excited and relieved and walked right out not realizing we wouldn’t be able to walk in again to redeem our bag. Oops..So we had to have someone look for our bags in there for us…only our bags never came out. Great. So we went to the baggage people…our luggage was still in Munich, fantastic. So they gave us a little travel care package with a triple XL teeshirt, a toothbrush, shampoo…all the little essential things. But we were freaking out about our bag. We had a tour planned for early morning, and alls I had to wear was the shirt I had on which I gracefully dropped a meatball on hours before at lunch..and now this new XL tee. Hot. Anyways, we got to Rainer and Vals and they had beer chocolates and little gifts for us! They are so sweet, the best hosts ever!
The next morning we woke up pretty early to meet our tour guide. We had to borrow a bunch of Val’s clothes/ hats &gloves …warm things since we didn’t have our suitcase and Rainer told us it was freezing out. So we bundled up best we could..or thought we could, and headed out to the cold.
The tour was extremely interesting and our tour guide was excellent! The tour took us from a beautiful dome cathedral, to checkpoint Charlie, to the Jewish memorial and everywhere beyond and in between! We were on this tour for 4 hours, until around one! Germany’s history is so interesting that it really wasn’t boring for a second. As the tour carried on, it seemed like the temperature continued to drop. Leggings weren’t cutting it anymore and I was absolutely freezing. We stopped and got the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted, but it was gone in a sip and then I was freezing again. My teeth were actually chattering at one point, we couldn’t believe how cold it was! As much as we enjoyed the tour, we admittedly enjoyed it coming to an end as well, because that meant it was time to go inside and warm up!
We went to a Bavarian Restaurant for lunch….that I continued to mix up with Bulgarian….struggle. They love pretzels (like the big soft ones) in Germany and it is what they have as appetizers rather than say, a loaf of bread. So delicious…and seriously I’m sorry for this always turning into a legit food journal, but the different foods I’ve tried since I’ve been abroad are all so different, and all way too good! Its becoming a problem. Katie and I both got the schnitzel with fried potatoes. It was like smothered in cheese and ham or something that was extremely delicious. And those fried potatoes were the best things I’ve ever had as you’ll find out because I ordered them at the rest of my meals. After we cleared our plates, literally, we headed back into the cold.
The checkpoint Charlie Museum is where we went next. It was huge! Its just crazy how much history there is, and how after looking in a museum for an hour there is still so much more to learn about. Some of the really interesting things we saw in the museum were how people would try to sneak out/over the Berlin wall. There were women who tried shoving themselves in suitcases…so claustrophobic so scary, to people making zip lines from their windows all the way to the other side!
We were wiped out after this so headed home for a quick power nap. On our way we were able to pick up our luggage. THANK GOD. Because I am definitely going to need something more than leggings tomorrow if this weather was planning on staying the same. Once we were all rested enough we went to a bar called Julep’s. We ordered drinks and had a great time. Then we ordered a bunch of appetizers and tried a whole bunch of new things! Katie likes tomatoes now and she’s really proud about it.
Saturday
Museum of German History. I thought the Checkpoint Charlie museum was big…no no this museum was enormous! We spent quite a long time in there soaking up all the German History. After we went to the dome cathedral we saw on our tour. Inside was beautiful and amazing just like all the other cathedrals. We got to climb it, which was horrible but incredible once we reached the top. It was seriously a struggle and I know half way up Auntie Val seriously regretted coming with. From the top we could see all of Berlin. It was so nice in the sun, it actually felt kind of warm for the few minutes we were catching our breaths. Definitely not like the day before. Well after we climbed all those stairs we figured it was definitely time to eat something so we went to another Bavarian restaurant. This time we got the weiner schnitzel, which was the biggest portion of anything I’ve ever seen. Weiner schnitzel is fried veal, and it was crazy good. Katie and Rainer did a beer tasting and had like 4 beers each…which Rainer took down in a sip and Katie tried to keep up haha. As if we weren’t full enough we got some dessert platter that really pushed us over the top. This food coma was by far the worst.
We walked around the city area which was so cute I loved it, shops and restaurants or cafes everywhere. They were setting up the Christmas markets when we were there so unfortunately none of them were ready. There was however the coolest thing ever set up in the middle of the city. It was sledding. There was just this random hill of ice and you can pay like 5 euros to go up with a tube and sled down! So we did it, apprehensively because of how much we just ate…but it looked so fun! And it was, me Katie and rainer all went and we held on to each other’s tubes. Yah I was screaming the entire way down haha, it was so fun we went flying!!! It was so weird being at the top of a sledding hill and looking around and seeing buildings and cars everywhere, and no snow on the actual ground.
Next we went to this beautiful park which was pretty much the backyard of this Castle. I can only imagine how pretty it must be in the warmer months when flowers are blooming and everything is green!
We went back to the apartment after and literally all passed out for 2 hours. It wasn’t even planned to fall asleep but we were so wiped out and so full we couldn’t help it. We woke up around 8 and decided to go out for a little because we didn’t want to waste the whole night away! We went to an Irish pub where we got these drinks that tasted like a legit cookie. There was disorono, frangelico, vodka, orange juice, and whipped cream in it! It tasted like a milkshake. So so so good. We went to another bar after that called The Klo….its a dive bar. It was so weird and so fun.
Auntie Val walked in first and when she opened the door water squirted at her from this watergun thing on the wall! Hahah it was hysterical. There is just so much stuff all over the walls, caskets and toilet seats as chairs and statues of weird looking people everywhere! There was toilet paper on the walls, extremely inappropriate shows on the tvs and the beer was served in these urinal things.
Oh and there was a man on a loud speaker the entire time yelling out jokes and insults to the people in the bar. Although Rainer had to translate everything because the man was speaking German, it was even funnier to have to hear Rainer repeat the obscene things he was saying.
Sunday
We went to the ZOO! I had never been to a zoo before….or at least I can’t remember the last time I went. It was pretty cold out but walking around made it not so bad. The monkey house was insane. So many different types. They are so creepy though I’m actually kind of afraid of them now. Some of them were like literally putting on shows
whereas other ones were sketchy in the back corner staring at us.
I could have stayed in there all day and just observed them haha I thought it was so cool. All the other animals were interesting too but I felt bad for the kitties (lions and tigers etc) because they were all roaring and upset and stuck in tiny cages.
After the zoo we walked around town for a while seeing all the important and interesting things. Then we went to have lunch in the TV tower.
thats the TV tower.
The restaurant is at the top and it is rotating the entire time so that you get a 360 view of Berlin! I could tell immediately when I sat down that we were rotating and I got slightly light-headed but it was still awesome. Meal was great, as always. But my dessert was the best! So much ice cream.
The lunch lasted a pretty long time and kind of turned into our dinner as well and before we knew realized it was getting dark out! We went to the Olympic stadium but unfortunately it wasn’t open.
Monday
Ahh the time flew by, and we were not looking forward to leaving at all! We woke up early to get in as much as we could for our last day and headed to the KaDeWe…but that is not even close to how it sounds. The KaDeWe is an amazing and huge shopping center, mostly full of the expensive and designer stores.
One floor was basically a huge indoor market for buying fresh food etc. There was a section for all different types of foods and international sections. The American section was selling like some mac and cheese and a tiny can of rootbeer that they were charging about 4euros for! Then we went to my favorite part, the champagne bar!
Katie, Val and I had a nice glass of ice cold delicious champagne, I could have stayed there all day!
We got lunch at a Russian restaurant, which was amazing…of course like everything else! But that concluded our stay in Germany and soon we were off to the airport. It was so sad leaving we both had an unbelievable time. It was definitely my favorite trip so far!
The next morning we woke up pretty early to meet our tour guide. We had to borrow a bunch of Val’s clothes/ hats &gloves …warm things since we didn’t have our suitcase and Rainer told us it was freezing out. So we bundled up best we could..or thought we could, and headed out to the cold.
The tour was extremely interesting and our tour guide was excellent! The tour took us from a beautiful dome cathedral, to checkpoint Charlie, to the Jewish memorial and everywhere beyond and in between! We were on this tour for 4 hours, until around one! Germany’s history is so interesting that it really wasn’t boring for a second. As the tour carried on, it seemed like the temperature continued to drop. Leggings weren’t cutting it anymore and I was absolutely freezing. We stopped and got the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted, but it was gone in a sip and then I was freezing again. My teeth were actually chattering at one point, we couldn’t believe how cold it was! As much as we enjoyed the tour, we admittedly enjoyed it coming to an end as well, because that meant it was time to go inside and warm up!
The checkpoint Charlie Museum is where we went next. It was huge! Its just crazy how much history there is, and how after looking in a museum for an hour there is still so much more to learn about. Some of the really interesting things we saw in the museum were how people would try to sneak out/over the Berlin wall. There were women who tried shoving themselves in suitcases…so claustrophobic so scary, to people making zip lines from their windows all the way to the other side!
We were wiped out after this so headed home for a quick power nap. On our way we were able to pick up our luggage. THANK GOD. Because I am definitely going to need something more than leggings tomorrow if this weather was planning on staying the same. Once we were all rested enough we went to a bar called Julep’s. We ordered drinks and had a great time. Then we ordered a bunch of appetizers and tried a whole bunch of new things! Katie likes tomatoes now and she’s really proud about it.
Saturday
Museum of German History. I thought the Checkpoint Charlie museum was big…no no this museum was enormous! We spent quite a long time in there soaking up all the German History. After we went to the dome cathedral we saw on our tour. Inside was beautiful and amazing just like all the other cathedrals. We got to climb it, which was horrible but incredible once we reached the top. It was seriously a struggle and I know half way up Auntie Val seriously regretted coming with. From the top we could see all of Berlin. It was so nice in the sun, it actually felt kind of warm for the few minutes we were catching our breaths. Definitely not like the day before. Well after we climbed all those stairs we figured it was definitely time to eat something so we went to another Bavarian restaurant. This time we got the weiner schnitzel, which was the biggest portion of anything I’ve ever seen. Weiner schnitzel is fried veal, and it was crazy good. Katie and Rainer did a beer tasting and had like 4 beers each…which Rainer took down in a sip and Katie tried to keep up haha. As if we weren’t full enough we got some dessert platter that really pushed us over the top. This food coma was by far the worst.
Sunday
We went to the ZOO! I had never been to a zoo before….or at least I can’t remember the last time I went. It was pretty cold out but walking around made it not so bad. The monkey house was insane. So many different types. They are so creepy though I’m actually kind of afraid of them now. Some of them were like literally putting on shows
The restaurant is at the top and it is rotating the entire time so that you get a 360 view of Berlin! I could tell immediately when I sat down that we were rotating and I got slightly light-headed but it was still awesome. Meal was great, as always. But my dessert was the best! So much ice cream.
Ahh the time flew by, and we were not looking forward to leaving at all! We woke up early to get in as much as we could for our last day and headed to the KaDeWe…but that is not even close to how it sounds. The KaDeWe is an amazing and huge shopping center, mostly full of the expensive and designer stores.
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