I haven't posted in a couple weeks, but there honestly hasn't been much to write about. I am awaiting my new camera (may my old one RIP) so I don't even have any fun pictures to post. I've been here in Heidelberg the last couple weeks though, just relaxing and enjoying the city and life abroad. The weather here leaves little to complain about and many of my days consist of just relaxing on the Neckar soaking in the sun. Life these last two weeks has just been class and friends pretty much!
Friday night I went to a rave party on a freakin' mountain! Definitely one of the craziest nights of my life-- how many times have you been at a party...on a mountain?! On Saturday, Jennie came and visited! I hadn't seen her since November so it was so nice to see her! We watched the Champs League Final at Marstall and spent the rest of our Saturday night skyping with Mollie, just finalizing YAYA in Europe plans. Sunday consisted of climbing the Heiligenberg and eating at all the best Heidelberg eateries-- Kebabhaus, Back-Factory, Eis, Scheeballs, and just food galore. It was just the most gorgeous day, and Jennie and I just strolled down Hauptstrasse eating our ice cream and just enjoying life. And that's when it hit me: I have less than two months left here! I've loved being here but I've admitted how much I've missed BC and home and such, but it hit me now that I really do love it here! I love all the friends I've made, I love this city, I would even go as far to say that I love the few pounds I've gained from all the chocolate and kebab and beer.
YAYA in Europe has officially begun-- Marianne and Liz are spending a quick night here on their way to Munich, and I'll be with all of them next weekend. Thursday is a holiday and our group here is planning a day trip to Wuerzburg, a city in Bavaria, and we've got an AJY trip to the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) on Saturday. We're all pretty excited about that because all of AJY will be together again! I think everyone's starting to notice the elephant in the room that our time is waning! These last two weeks have gone by so quickly and tomorrow will be June!
I apologize for the extremely mundane post and my inability to express what I'm feeling right now-- I was talking to Mollie and trying to understand how she loves study abroad SO MUCH that she doesn't even want to go home, and she talked about how everyday is something new, and while she misses school sometimes, she knows that it'll be exactly the same when she gets back. And maybe her statements subconsciously hit something within me-- just how right she is. I was looking at the pictures of everyone that just graduated, and I realized that when I get back home and to school, that will be my life. Just living every moment of senior year before it ends. And that kind of scares me a lot and made me realize just the surreality of my life here--the amazing surreality. And now I don't want it to end! I don't understand why these kinds of feelings can't show themselves after one month or even two, but now after over three and I'm freaking out!
Okay okay okay... a little turn from my normal mostly unemotional posting-- but there had been a blog hiatus and I figured I'd just let it be known my current thoughts. As I said, I should get my new camera tomorrow and will finally be able to post some pics!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
I -heart- Heidelberg
We all know those famous t-shirts that say "I -heart- NY" and how the trend has continued to many other cities, including Heidelberg. Well this week, the saying was absolutely true. This past week was just all about Heidelberg and Heidelberg was fantastic.
Katherine and I got back Sunday night and basically just crashed after a long day of traveling. Up the next morning, introduced Katherine to Hauptstrasse while I went to my first class. German classes are all about "Referats" (powerpoint presentations) and I had my first one of those with Robert. We did fine... but the group that went before us were total over-achievers and made us look really bad, but hey, what're ya gonna do? This always surprises people, but I've got a minor phobia of public speaking. So combine that with a presentation in German, a language where I can't just speak on the fly, I was pretty nervous, but it was all fine.
Met Katherine after class and we went up to the castle. My third time up there, and I'm sure not my last. Walked a little more around the city afterwards, I showed her the Alte Bruecke, and took her to a typical German Bakery (Back-Factory!). We also had lunch at Kebab-Haus--the best doeners in Heidelberg (and probably Germany...) and she was instantly converted. A lot of my friends in various places abroad have kebab places, but they're not the same as actually in Germany! Class again, and afterwards rallied some people to come out on a Monday to Eckstein. Gotta show visitors my favorite bar! Katherine got to meet some of my good friends on the trip and we had some drinks and some laughs and then made our way out, with a little late night kebab stop on the way home. She, Becca, and I all walked back along the Neckar back to the Feld, which is a very long walk but the time really flies after you've left a bar!
We were FINALLY able to sleep in Tuesday morning, after getting up early for four straight days. I had wanted to have a picnic on the Wiese but the weather unfortunately wasn't that great when Katherine was here-- big shame because HD is GORGEOUS on a beautiful day. Introduced her to the Mensa for lunch (one of my favorites!) and then I had a quick meeting for our program, and then we went and hiked up the Heiligenberg. I haven't climbed that mountain in more than two months and luckily I remembered the way to get up! Explored the Nazi Amphitheater and the monastery ruins. The cooler weather was actually quite welcomed during our hike, so I guess that was nice. We were the only ones on the trail and it was very peaceful just being in the quiet of nature, after spending all weekend in a busy city. Katherine studied abroad in Rome, one of Europe's biggest cities, which is a HUGE difference from Heidelberg.
Hiked back down the mountain, took some schlafchens, and then went out to Tiger Dragon for some Chinese. Brock and Dan had been raving about this place for weeks so I figured we'd all go--we ended up having a group of like 10 of us! But Brock and Dan were right--so cheap, so much food, and so delicious! After dinner we went to a shishah bar, because I wanted Katherine to experience how strong it is when it's at an actual Turkish place. Called it a night and caught the bus back home.
Woke up SUPER EARLY on Wednesday (aka, 6am) to get Katherine to the train station so she could get to the airport to fly back to America! I can't believe that she and Cassie are already home, and so many of my friends are packing their bags to fly back, and I've still got over two months! Since I was up so early I figured I'd be productive, so I did some necessary grocery shopping, went on a run, and then made my way to my internship and class. Of course the day Katherine left it was finally gorgeous weather again!
A little digression-- after class, the Portugal crew met up to book our flights. Meaning...I'm going to Portugal! Pretty random, I know. We had wanted to go to Mallorca, but the flights were a little too expensive, so we decided on Faro, Portugal (please just do a Google Image search for that city and be excited for me) which is a small town on the very tip of the Iberian peninsula. We've got a random Thursday off that weekend, so I'll be going for SIX NIGHTS and only missing one class! We figured out the hostels a few days ago as well: it'll be Brock, Monika, Becca, and I leaving on Tuesday June 21, Krista will meet us there on Wednesday, and then Will's gonna get there Friday, and then we all leave Monday morning. Krista and Monika are also working on a one-night stay in Lisbon, because if we're going to be in Portugal for six nights, we might as well see the capital. I'm SUPER excited. I've never been to Portugal, it's cheap, and it's just somewhere kind of cool that not many people go!
Alright so after Portugal planning, Brock, Becca, and I hit up the Mensa for dinner. Brock left to go do some homework before Eckstein, but I didn't have any work so Becca and I bought some beers and did a little bridge drinking enjoying the sunset over the river. Hit up Eckstein as per usual on Wednesdays. Last Wednesday at karaoke, the bartender took our picture and said we'll be on the menu in the next couple weeks so we're anxiously awaiting the day when all of Eckstein's menus will be gone because we stole them all. After over two months, I think the finally remember us and we've got our official Stammtisch.
Thursday was a BEAUTIFUL day! I was finally able to go lay on the Neckarwiese and start tanning with actual sun! Was out for a couple hours, then class, and then met Jinah so we could set up for Katherine's surprise birthday picnic! We've all been wanting to Neckar-picnic for a while so we figured surprising her on her birthday would be a great opportunity. Most of AJY is in a class until 7:30 on Thursdays, so Jinah and I got Brock's grill, and a ton of food and party favors and made our way across the Wiese to set up. We looked like huge idiots carrying this grill, and of course every German stared at us -.-;;
Right when we got to the Wiese it got really cloudy, but luckily it only rained for like 2 minutes and then stopped. Set everything up, and then Katherine and the other AJY-ers made their way to us and Katherine was very surprised and absolutely loved it! We grilled wurst and spargel, drank beer and wine and sangria (our new favorite after Cinco de Mayo!), ate ice cream cone cupcakes that Monika, Krista, and Matt had made, and there were chips and nuts and pretzels and just food galore! We also all got dressed up really nicely which I think always just brightens the mood of everyone :) As I said, my camera broke but I'll just steal some pics from some others...
Cory and me in our preppy best
The beautiful and delicious cupcakes!!
Obligatory BC pic with the birthday girl in the middle!
We took up a lot of space...and if you click to enlarge this pic, you can see me obnoxiously waving at the camera as I tend to do
It finally got dark at 9:30 and we made our way back to the Altstadt for bar hopping! (It's a 21st birthday!) First stop was Eckstein of course--got some drinks but the place was empty which was kind of weird, so we left and walked down Unterestrasse and found a new bar! I don't even remember what it was called, but it was awesome and we think it'll be our new Thursday place. We still had a good half of the group out past midnight, and it being Katherine's 21st we just kept buying her shots and drinks until she could barely stand (as I've said, just because we're not IN America, doesn't mean we AREN'T American!)
We had all of Portugal crew out late and we could not stop dancing over the fact that we're going to Portugal next month. Finally called it a night around 2 I think, managed to get home fine, and boom bed! Had a relaxing Friday with no obligations-- tanned on the Neckar again with Becca for probably a solid three hours. The color is sinking in, and it's only May! Then I was planning to go out with everyone, but I was late leaving to catch the bus and then it started thunder storming and the bus wasn't coming for 28 minutes and then it started raining harder and after four nights out in a row, I was beat. So I ended up just staying in for the night, but I did get to skype with Mark for over an hour! I hadn't talked to him in over a week so that was nice.
So of course when I go out, I get up at 9 the next morning, and then when I don't go out and go to bed pretty early, I sleep until 11:30 -.-;; But I just had a slow start--made some eggs, updated my blog, watched some Curb... around 5 I met up with Brock, Cory, Katherine, and her friend Rachel and we got some blankets and sat on the Neckar drinking some burrrs for a couple hours--just a very relaxing afternoon. Last night a bunch of us went out to Halle 02 (main club in HD) which was a good time as always. THEY PLAYED DYNAMITE!!!! OMG, I can't say how much I miss hearing good old American top 40 songs in clubs. German House techno is great and stuff, but sometimes you just want something you know! Got pretty tired quickly though (it was the afternoon Neckar beers!) and left right after 2.
And finally caught up to today! Went to service at Peterskirche at 10am to see Will and Jenny's choir group perform some songs for the service. Peterskirche is Protestant so we weren't exactly sure what to do...the service ended up lasting 90 minutes because it was a special one that was also half in English because they had people visiting from all over the world or something...it was pretty cool, and the choir sounded BEAUTIFUL, but it was a litttttle long. Biked home with Quincy afterwards along the crowded Neckar, then went for a run--along a new route around all the farms which I talked about in my earlier post...Had to go to a DAI event this afternoon, and now I've just been taking it easy.
About to start a new week... no big travel plans for this weekend so it'll be just more low-key relaxing enjoyment of beautiful Heidelberg. We were talking about this on the Neckar yesterday afternoon-- it's nice to visit big cities, but we all really just love little old Heidelberg. I mean, it's definitely a city, but it's just very small. But it's just so charming and beautiful and mountainous, and ahhh as I began my post, I -heart- Heidelberg!
Katherine and I got back Sunday night and basically just crashed after a long day of traveling. Up the next morning, introduced Katherine to Hauptstrasse while I went to my first class. German classes are all about "Referats" (powerpoint presentations) and I had my first one of those with Robert. We did fine... but the group that went before us were total over-achievers and made us look really bad, but hey, what're ya gonna do? This always surprises people, but I've got a minor phobia of public speaking. So combine that with a presentation in German, a language where I can't just speak on the fly, I was pretty nervous, but it was all fine.
Met Katherine after class and we went up to the castle. My third time up there, and I'm sure not my last. Walked a little more around the city afterwards, I showed her the Alte Bruecke, and took her to a typical German Bakery (Back-Factory!). We also had lunch at Kebab-Haus--the best doeners in Heidelberg (and probably Germany...) and she was instantly converted. A lot of my friends in various places abroad have kebab places, but they're not the same as actually in Germany! Class again, and afterwards rallied some people to come out on a Monday to Eckstein. Gotta show visitors my favorite bar! Katherine got to meet some of my good friends on the trip and we had some drinks and some laughs and then made our way out, with a little late night kebab stop on the way home. She, Becca, and I all walked back along the Neckar back to the Feld, which is a very long walk but the time really flies after you've left a bar!
We were FINALLY able to sleep in Tuesday morning, after getting up early for four straight days. I had wanted to have a picnic on the Wiese but the weather unfortunately wasn't that great when Katherine was here-- big shame because HD is GORGEOUS on a beautiful day. Introduced her to the Mensa for lunch (one of my favorites!) and then I had a quick meeting for our program, and then we went and hiked up the Heiligenberg. I haven't climbed that mountain in more than two months and luckily I remembered the way to get up! Explored the Nazi Amphitheater and the monastery ruins. The cooler weather was actually quite welcomed during our hike, so I guess that was nice. We were the only ones on the trail and it was very peaceful just being in the quiet of nature, after spending all weekend in a busy city. Katherine studied abroad in Rome, one of Europe's biggest cities, which is a HUGE difference from Heidelberg.
Hiked back down the mountain, took some schlafchens, and then went out to Tiger Dragon for some Chinese. Brock and Dan had been raving about this place for weeks so I figured we'd all go--we ended up having a group of like 10 of us! But Brock and Dan were right--so cheap, so much food, and so delicious! After dinner we went to a shishah bar, because I wanted Katherine to experience how strong it is when it's at an actual Turkish place. Called it a night and caught the bus back home.
Woke up SUPER EARLY on Wednesday (aka, 6am) to get Katherine to the train station so she could get to the airport to fly back to America! I can't believe that she and Cassie are already home, and so many of my friends are packing their bags to fly back, and I've still got over two months! Since I was up so early I figured I'd be productive, so I did some necessary grocery shopping, went on a run, and then made my way to my internship and class. Of course the day Katherine left it was finally gorgeous weather again!
A little digression-- after class, the Portugal crew met up to book our flights. Meaning...I'm going to Portugal! Pretty random, I know. We had wanted to go to Mallorca, but the flights were a little too expensive, so we decided on Faro, Portugal (please just do a Google Image search for that city and be excited for me) which is a small town on the very tip of the Iberian peninsula. We've got a random Thursday off that weekend, so I'll be going for SIX NIGHTS and only missing one class! We figured out the hostels a few days ago as well: it'll be Brock, Monika, Becca, and I leaving on Tuesday June 21, Krista will meet us there on Wednesday, and then Will's gonna get there Friday, and then we all leave Monday morning. Krista and Monika are also working on a one-night stay in Lisbon, because if we're going to be in Portugal for six nights, we might as well see the capital. I'm SUPER excited. I've never been to Portugal, it's cheap, and it's just somewhere kind of cool that not many people go!
Alright so after Portugal planning, Brock, Becca, and I hit up the Mensa for dinner. Brock left to go do some homework before Eckstein, but I didn't have any work so Becca and I bought some beers and did a little bridge drinking enjoying the sunset over the river. Hit up Eckstein as per usual on Wednesdays. Last Wednesday at karaoke, the bartender took our picture and said we'll be on the menu in the next couple weeks so we're anxiously awaiting the day when all of Eckstein's menus will be gone because we stole them all. After over two months, I think the finally remember us and we've got our official Stammtisch.
Thursday was a BEAUTIFUL day! I was finally able to go lay on the Neckarwiese and start tanning with actual sun! Was out for a couple hours, then class, and then met Jinah so we could set up for Katherine's surprise birthday picnic! We've all been wanting to Neckar-picnic for a while so we figured surprising her on her birthday would be a great opportunity. Most of AJY is in a class until 7:30 on Thursdays, so Jinah and I got Brock's grill, and a ton of food and party favors and made our way across the Wiese to set up. We looked like huge idiots carrying this grill, and of course every German stared at us -.-;;
Right when we got to the Wiese it got really cloudy, but luckily it only rained for like 2 minutes and then stopped. Set everything up, and then Katherine and the other AJY-ers made their way to us and Katherine was very surprised and absolutely loved it! We grilled wurst and spargel, drank beer and wine and sangria (our new favorite after Cinco de Mayo!), ate ice cream cone cupcakes that Monika, Krista, and Matt had made, and there were chips and nuts and pretzels and just food galore! We also all got dressed up really nicely which I think always just brightens the mood of everyone :) As I said, my camera broke but I'll just steal some pics from some others...
Cory and me in our preppy best
The beautiful and delicious cupcakes!!
Obligatory BC pic with the birthday girl in the middle!
We took up a lot of space...and if you click to enlarge this pic, you can see me obnoxiously waving at the camera as I tend to do
It finally got dark at 9:30 and we made our way back to the Altstadt for bar hopping! (It's a 21st birthday!) First stop was Eckstein of course--got some drinks but the place was empty which was kind of weird, so we left and walked down Unterestrasse and found a new bar! I don't even remember what it was called, but it was awesome and we think it'll be our new Thursday place. We still had a good half of the group out past midnight, and it being Katherine's 21st we just kept buying her shots and drinks until she could barely stand (as I've said, just because we're not IN America, doesn't mean we AREN'T American!)
We had all of Portugal crew out late and we could not stop dancing over the fact that we're going to Portugal next month. Finally called it a night around 2 I think, managed to get home fine, and boom bed! Had a relaxing Friday with no obligations-- tanned on the Neckar again with Becca for probably a solid three hours. The color is sinking in, and it's only May! Then I was planning to go out with everyone, but I was late leaving to catch the bus and then it started thunder storming and the bus wasn't coming for 28 minutes and then it started raining harder and after four nights out in a row, I was beat. So I ended up just staying in for the night, but I did get to skype with Mark for over an hour! I hadn't talked to him in over a week so that was nice.
So of course when I go out, I get up at 9 the next morning, and then when I don't go out and go to bed pretty early, I sleep until 11:30 -.-;; But I just had a slow start--made some eggs, updated my blog, watched some Curb... around 5 I met up with Brock, Cory, Katherine, and her friend Rachel and we got some blankets and sat on the Neckar drinking some burrrs for a couple hours--just a very relaxing afternoon. Last night a bunch of us went out to Halle 02 (main club in HD) which was a good time as always. THEY PLAYED DYNAMITE!!!! OMG, I can't say how much I miss hearing good old American top 40 songs in clubs. German House techno is great and stuff, but sometimes you just want something you know! Got pretty tired quickly though (it was the afternoon Neckar beers!) and left right after 2.
And finally caught up to today! Went to service at Peterskirche at 10am to see Will and Jenny's choir group perform some songs for the service. Peterskirche is Protestant so we weren't exactly sure what to do...the service ended up lasting 90 minutes because it was a special one that was also half in English because they had people visiting from all over the world or something...it was pretty cool, and the choir sounded BEAUTIFUL, but it was a litttttle long. Biked home with Quincy afterwards along the crowded Neckar, then went for a run--along a new route around all the farms which I talked about in my earlier post...Had to go to a DAI event this afternoon, and now I've just been taking it easy.
About to start a new week... no big travel plans for this weekend so it'll be just more low-key relaxing enjoyment of beautiful Heidelberg. We were talking about this on the Neckar yesterday afternoon-- it's nice to visit big cities, but we all really just love little old Heidelberg. I mean, it's definitely a city, but it's just very small. But it's just so charming and beautiful and mountainous, and ahhh as I began my post, I -heart- Heidelberg!
IT'S FINALLY STRAWBERRY SEASON!!!!
There are few things in the world I love more than some good strawbs. I know I go on and on about my love of chocolate in this blog, but strawbs are back. Yes you can still get them in the winter and early spring months, but they're just not the same. I decided to run a different route today and went the opposite direction than I usually go, because on weekends the Wiese is PACKED, and the regatta was still going on and there was a cross country race today as well. So I ran the other way, through all of Neuenheimer Feld, past the zoo and swimming pool and dorms and came across FARMS! Like legit, acres and acres of farmland, and a whole other town not too far, and just more beautiful mountains. The paths were peaceful and quiet, and it was such a nice change from my Neckar route, which I've been growing tired of. As I was running back I saw a little strawberry stand right outside the zoo--I ran back home, grabbed my purse, hopped on my bike and rushed back to the zoo just to buy the fresh strawbs. They were fresh from one of those farms I had just passed. This was seriously the highlight of my weekend--I jolted back home and just ate probably half the carton because they were so delicious and fresh and sweet and amazing.
Now this is only one instance of strawbs season...but there's more! On Thursday Jinah and I stopped at Rewe to get last minute food items for Katherine's birthday picnic, and I walk in and there are fresh strawbs galore. Like...EVERYWHERE. All sitting in their fresh cartons--not covered which is how you know they're fresh. So of course I couldn't resist buying a carton (even though I had a carton sitting in my fridge at home...) and on our walk to the Neckar, I ate the entire carton. There are absolutely worse things to be binging on which is why this blog post has not one ounce of a complaint in it. I'm just so elated that it's strawbs season and that they're so easy to get, and that all of this means that it's almost summer!!!! :D
Now this is only one instance of strawbs season...but there's more! On Thursday Jinah and I stopped at Rewe to get last minute food items for Katherine's birthday picnic, and I walk in and there are fresh strawbs galore. Like...EVERYWHERE. All sitting in their fresh cartons--not covered which is how you know they're fresh. So of course I couldn't resist buying a carton (even though I had a carton sitting in my fridge at home...) and on our walk to the Neckar, I ate the entire carton. There are absolutely worse things to be binging on which is why this blog post has not one ounce of a complaint in it. I'm just so elated that it's strawbs season and that they're so easy to get, and that all of this means that it's almost summer!!!! :D
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Bruxelles!
Okay finally updating about Brussels...which in French, is Bruxelles. I was there last weekend but I've only now just got to updating about it--it's been a busy week in Heidelberg! I was skyping with someone last night and he said that he had been checking my blog awaiting a post about the weekend, and that meant so much to me! So, if you are actually reading this post and have been following my blog, I really thank you! I do the blog somewhat for myself, so I'll have a collection of all my thoughts from these five months living abroad, but also for all my friends and family-- you all know that I love to share every aspect of my life with everyone I know, so hopefully this is a way you can all still get to know about my life here! :)
Moving on! I got up at 6:30am on Friday morning to catch my train to Brussels. Had a layover in Koeln, and then direct to Brussels from there. I wanted to get to Central Station which meant that I had to get off at North Station and then take a different train to Central (though it turns out that my hostel was closer to North Station in the first place...oops.) So the train was a few minutes late arriving, so I missed the connection, so just waited for the next one. Unfortunately, I got on the train going the opposite direction... I really should've realized this when all the people waiting at the platform didn't get on...
So I'm sitting on this train, and it's only supposed to take three minutes to get to Central and it's been about ten...and we are not in a city anymore. So I asked a lady next to me and she told me I was going the wrong way, but luckily the train stopped after about 15 minutes, so I just got back on the next one going back into the city--so all in all I was only about thirty minutes of unnecessary travel. Got on the right train and asked some people if it was going to the city just to make sure, and they said I was good to go. I was sitting next to a guy from Brussels who started talking to me and asking where I was from and he said he had a few hours before his work appointment so he could show me around if I wanted. Now I knowwwwww, this scenario sounds super sketchy, but despite what people who know me think, my street smarts are actually pretty good, and I had good instincts about whether or not people are sketchy, and this guy seemed pretty genuine. He just really loved his city and wanted to show me it! So he showed me where my hostel was (which was very fortunate because I don't think I would've found it otherwise) and then we walked to the city center and he pointed out all the main sights and such. Kelsey was abroad in Brussels last semester so she had made me a list of things to see, so I basically read the list to him and he showed me how to get to everything, so when Katherine arrived, I already knew how to get to everywhere we wanted to go!
Here's a picture of Grand Place--Friday afternoon was absolutely gorgeous! Rest of the weekend, not as nice...
My new Belgian friend gave me a little history and tour of everything we saw which was really cool. (I honestly don't remember his name which is why I have avoided naming him haha) As everyone knows, Belgium is famous for its chocolate, waffles, and beer. There were chocolate shops EVERYWHERE. Chocolate shops to Brussels are as coffee shops to Amsterdam, I'd say...or Starbucks to D.C. As a local of the city, he knew of a good chocolate shop, so we went there first. The chocolates are on a giant display and you tell the salesperson what kind you like and they suggest ones and explain about what they have and such. I picked out a few, and then we sat outside and I ordered some hot chocolate--it was AMAZING. None of this powder crap you get from the grocery store, this was pure hot chocolate from Madagascar.
YUMMMMM. And of course being a European man, the afternoon cafe was his treat :D Afterwards, we walked around the city some more...Kelsey had told me to go to Marcolini Chocolatier (we had some chocolates from there on Christmas which she had brought back...so good!) So we walked in, and this place was the equivalent of Tiffany's, but for chocolate--not even joking. All the chocolate was behind glass cases, and the workers were all in black and looking chique, and the whole store was very minimalist. ALL FOR CHOCOLATE!!!!
Walked around some more, and then Katherine texted me and said she was on her way to the city, and my Belgian friend had to leave for his appointment. We said goodbye and I graciously thanked him for all his help and went back to the hostel. Waited around awkwardly for Katherine to tell me she was at the metro stop. Played pool with this Turkish guy staying in the hostel. Now, I am terrible at pool, but for some reason, I was playing amazingly in those couple games! Maybe this will be a new chronicle in my life as a pool player.
Went and picked up Katherine from the metro station--I haven't seen her since December so it was really cool to see her again, and in Europe! She checked in, we changed into some Friday night appropriate clothing, and then left for dinner. The Turkish guy kind of awkwardly invited himself to come eat with us, and he didn't speak English very well so the whole walk there was pretty amusing. It was like he was trying to talk about American stereotypes, but he was mixing them all up.
Walked around the city center area and we were so hungry that we just picked the first restaurant that looked good. It was so charming on the inside! We sat down and ordered, and then the Turkish guy kept complaining about the food--Katherine and I thought the food was good, honestly. And then in the middle of eating, he just abruptly got up and was like, I must go! And he left.
So Katherine and I finish our meals, and are just awkwardly sitting there wondering what to do about the check. The waiters kept walking around and smiling at us, they took our plates, but never gave us a check or anything. So we just slowwwwly walked out, and said goodbye to all the waiters and they all smiled back at us wishing us good nights (one even asked for my number! It's nice to take a break from Germany sometimes and actually have men flirt with you...because that's a big no-no in Germany) and yeah, we just walked out of the restaurant. So I guess the Turkish guy paid for the entire meal--nice!
By the time we got of dinner it was after 9, and still light out! It doesn't get dark here until literally 9:30pm. It's so strange! So we walked around, took some pics...
Kelsey had told me I had to go to Delirium bar, which was also listed in my student guidebook as having 2005 different types of beer with like, 25 different ones on tap. The Belgian guy had showed me where it was earlier that day but I had forgotten (it was down a bunch of side streets) but after walking around for thirty minutes, finally found it! It was almost 10 and the place was already packed, so we grabbed an open table, and took turns getting the beer. We started off with a Charles Quint--8,5 percent! And it came in GOBLETS!
Next we got the Delirium Tremens, voted best beer in the world, according to this sign!
That one was 9 percent I think. I really liked Belgian beer--it had a very distinct kind of sweet flavor to it. I'm turning into a beer lover btw. All through college I could never stand to drink it, and then last semester, knowing I was going to Germany, I started forcing myself to get used to it, and after three months here, I can't go back! It's just so refreshing, and it's now usually my drink of choice over wine or mixed drinks (also doesn't help that it's cheaper than water...!)
So we were at the bar for a good four hours I think, met a group of hilarious and rowdy Danish guys. I feel it's a lot more acceptable to be drunk and rowdy when you're 30 in Europe than it is in America...
Back to the hostel, etc. etc. Saturday! Walked to the center, found the famous Mannkein Pis! And then got Belgian waffles at the place Kelsey had told me to go. The rest of these pictures I post will be complements of Katherine, because my camera broke--I think it's because it got a bit wet--and it stopped taking pictures. It is currently at some Canon Shop, who knows where, but I just pray it'll be okay and that it won't be an insane amount of euros to fix. All I can think is that it broke at a good time (if it had to break) because I'm not really traveling anywhere for next few weeks.
Of course I got the waffle covered in chocolate and strawberries :) Walked around some more, took lots of pictures, found the little tourist-info place and checked some email, went up to the parking garage to view the Atomium, and then made our way back to the hostel. It had been a late night so we were exhausted but the hostel had a lockout from 10am-2pm, so we had to be out of there during that time. Came back and showered and took a nice nap until around 5:30.
Saturday was the big Gay-Pride day in Brussels, they had a giant parade and a Mr. Gay Contest, and then just a giant rave basically all throughout the city that went on all night. Katherine and I both remarked how nice it was to be in a city that seemed to be so supportive of gay rights! We made our way to dinner, walking through all the craziness...
And found ourselves at dinner at a cute little restaurant called Publico. It was mainly a Mediterranean restaurant, but it also had typical Belgian dishes. We figured that since we didn't pay for dinner the night before, we would splurge on a nice dinner, and it was absolutely amazing! (I know I know, I say that about EVERYTHING!) We both got some red wine, and they served us some bread, and then Katherine ordered a spicy tomato sauce potato appetizer thing, and then I got the lamb tenderloin with an amazing sauce and garlic roasted potatoes and ratatouille-- AHHHH!!!
My camera rallied for one last picture of the food. Our waiter was also so sweet and charming, and it was just such a nice dinner! I had been on a no-starch and no meat diet for the past week and a half which I think made the dinner that much better. After dinner we went to the Irish pub called Celtica, which has 1-euro beers every night until midnight. Had a couple, and then by 11 we were still so tired so we just went back to the hostel and got a good night's sleep.
Our train back to Heidelberg wasn't until 6:30pm, so we had the whole day Sunday to see the rest of the sights. Bought a metro pass and made our way down to see the giant arch...
And we explored the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History...only because it was free. But it was actually pretty cool-- kind of reminded me of the Air and Space Museum back home. We were then able to go up to the top of the arch and get some nice panoramic views. In one of these photos, you can see the crazy Atomium structure.
Next went to the Palace of Justice, which was the biggest building in Europe when it was built. The outside is all under scaffolding so wasn't that cool, but we could walk around the inside atrium part which was very impressive. Next to the buidling, you can also very clearly see the elevation difference between Lower and Upper Brussels, and can actually take an elevator to get to Lower Brussels--that's how big the difference is!
By the time we had done all of this, we were very hungry, so we made our way back to the city center to eat at one of the famous frittes-places. Everyone raves about Belgian fries, but honestly, they are not that different from American ones. Quite different from the fast food ones, yes, but not from the ones you'd get a sit-down restaurant. Nevertheless, we were able to pick fun sauces (Katherine got curry-ketchup, and I was daring and tried the samurai sauce) and of course, they were delicious.
With our bellies full of fries, we went to the grocery store to buy some cheap Belgian chocolate. I bought one pack to take home, and not even gonna lie--I ate the rest. I just cannot resist chocolate, it's terrible. Then we went to Marcolini, and I bought a nice pack to bring home to mom, and then I took Katherine to that first chocolate place I had gone to with the Belgian guy, and she loved the hot chocolate just as much as I did. Went back to the hostel, packed up our stuff, went to the train station, and made our way to Germany!
I'll talk about Katherine's visit to Heidelberg in another post, because I just wanted this one to focus on Brussels. Overall, I absolutely LOVED the city! I've already told Kelsey this, but I am so jealous she got to spend her whole semester there! It's basically like a smaller, friendlier, and more manageable Paris. Everyone was so friendly, the food was amazing, the city is beautiful, the public transit is easy to figure out. I guess the only downside was the weather-- as I said it was beautiful on Friday, but Saturday and Sunday were pretty chilly and windy and grey, and I heard that that's kind of the norm for the city. Like Montreal, it's a bilingual city, so everything is in French and Dutch/Flemish. My knowledge of French is extremely minimal, and I was actually able to get by more by looking at the Dutch, because it;s so close to German. I really enjoyed traveling with Katherine as well-- she is also very city savvy and can successfully read a map and figure out public transport so we were able to share the burden of finding everything, because on a lot of my trips so far, I've been the one to organize everything, and it gets exhausting! Katherine is collecting original little paintings from all the cities she has visited, so she bought a pretty one in Grand Place, and I am so jealous that I never thought of something like that to do! Collect at least SOMETHING from everywhere I've gone. I always send postcards from places I go, but those aren't for me... so i was kind of sad that I'm more than halfway through and had only just now had this idea presented to me.
But as I said, it was a lovely weekend in a lovely city! Brussels is definitely one of my favorite places I've visited this semester!
Moving on! I got up at 6:30am on Friday morning to catch my train to Brussels. Had a layover in Koeln, and then direct to Brussels from there. I wanted to get to Central Station which meant that I had to get off at North Station and then take a different train to Central (though it turns out that my hostel was closer to North Station in the first place...oops.) So the train was a few minutes late arriving, so I missed the connection, so just waited for the next one. Unfortunately, I got on the train going the opposite direction... I really should've realized this when all the people waiting at the platform didn't get on...
So I'm sitting on this train, and it's only supposed to take three minutes to get to Central and it's been about ten...and we are not in a city anymore. So I asked a lady next to me and she told me I was going the wrong way, but luckily the train stopped after about 15 minutes, so I just got back on the next one going back into the city--so all in all I was only about thirty minutes of unnecessary travel. Got on the right train and asked some people if it was going to the city just to make sure, and they said I was good to go. I was sitting next to a guy from Brussels who started talking to me and asking where I was from and he said he had a few hours before his work appointment so he could show me around if I wanted. Now I knowwwwww, this scenario sounds super sketchy, but despite what people who know me think, my street smarts are actually pretty good, and I had good instincts about whether or not people are sketchy, and this guy seemed pretty genuine. He just really loved his city and wanted to show me it! So he showed me where my hostel was (which was very fortunate because I don't think I would've found it otherwise) and then we walked to the city center and he pointed out all the main sights and such. Kelsey was abroad in Brussels last semester so she had made me a list of things to see, so I basically read the list to him and he showed me how to get to everything, so when Katherine arrived, I already knew how to get to everywhere we wanted to go!
Here's a picture of Grand Place--Friday afternoon was absolutely gorgeous! Rest of the weekend, not as nice...
My new Belgian friend gave me a little history and tour of everything we saw which was really cool. (I honestly don't remember his name which is why I have avoided naming him haha) As everyone knows, Belgium is famous for its chocolate, waffles, and beer. There were chocolate shops EVERYWHERE. Chocolate shops to Brussels are as coffee shops to Amsterdam, I'd say...or Starbucks to D.C. As a local of the city, he knew of a good chocolate shop, so we went there first. The chocolates are on a giant display and you tell the salesperson what kind you like and they suggest ones and explain about what they have and such. I picked out a few, and then we sat outside and I ordered some hot chocolate--it was AMAZING. None of this powder crap you get from the grocery store, this was pure hot chocolate from Madagascar.
YUMMMMM. And of course being a European man, the afternoon cafe was his treat :D Afterwards, we walked around the city some more...Kelsey had told me to go to Marcolini Chocolatier (we had some chocolates from there on Christmas which she had brought back...so good!) So we walked in, and this place was the equivalent of Tiffany's, but for chocolate--not even joking. All the chocolate was behind glass cases, and the workers were all in black and looking chique, and the whole store was very minimalist. ALL FOR CHOCOLATE!!!!
Walked around some more, and then Katherine texted me and said she was on her way to the city, and my Belgian friend had to leave for his appointment. We said goodbye and I graciously thanked him for all his help and went back to the hostel. Waited around awkwardly for Katherine to tell me she was at the metro stop. Played pool with this Turkish guy staying in the hostel. Now, I am terrible at pool, but for some reason, I was playing amazingly in those couple games! Maybe this will be a new chronicle in my life as a pool player.
Went and picked up Katherine from the metro station--I haven't seen her since December so it was really cool to see her again, and in Europe! She checked in, we changed into some Friday night appropriate clothing, and then left for dinner. The Turkish guy kind of awkwardly invited himself to come eat with us, and he didn't speak English very well so the whole walk there was pretty amusing. It was like he was trying to talk about American stereotypes, but he was mixing them all up.
Walked around the city center area and we were so hungry that we just picked the first restaurant that looked good. It was so charming on the inside! We sat down and ordered, and then the Turkish guy kept complaining about the food--Katherine and I thought the food was good, honestly. And then in the middle of eating, he just abruptly got up and was like, I must go! And he left.
So Katherine and I finish our meals, and are just awkwardly sitting there wondering what to do about the check. The waiters kept walking around and smiling at us, they took our plates, but never gave us a check or anything. So we just slowwwwly walked out, and said goodbye to all the waiters and they all smiled back at us wishing us good nights (one even asked for my number! It's nice to take a break from Germany sometimes and actually have men flirt with you...because that's a big no-no in Germany) and yeah, we just walked out of the restaurant. So I guess the Turkish guy paid for the entire meal--nice!
By the time we got of dinner it was after 9, and still light out! It doesn't get dark here until literally 9:30pm. It's so strange! So we walked around, took some pics...
Kelsey had told me I had to go to Delirium bar, which was also listed in my student guidebook as having 2005 different types of beer with like, 25 different ones on tap. The Belgian guy had showed me where it was earlier that day but I had forgotten (it was down a bunch of side streets) but after walking around for thirty minutes, finally found it! It was almost 10 and the place was already packed, so we grabbed an open table, and took turns getting the beer. We started off with a Charles Quint--8,5 percent! And it came in GOBLETS!
Next we got the Delirium Tremens, voted best beer in the world, according to this sign!
That one was 9 percent I think. I really liked Belgian beer--it had a very distinct kind of sweet flavor to it. I'm turning into a beer lover btw. All through college I could never stand to drink it, and then last semester, knowing I was going to Germany, I started forcing myself to get used to it, and after three months here, I can't go back! It's just so refreshing, and it's now usually my drink of choice over wine or mixed drinks (also doesn't help that it's cheaper than water...!)
So we were at the bar for a good four hours I think, met a group of hilarious and rowdy Danish guys. I feel it's a lot more acceptable to be drunk and rowdy when you're 30 in Europe than it is in America...
Back to the hostel, etc. etc. Saturday! Walked to the center, found the famous Mannkein Pis! And then got Belgian waffles at the place Kelsey had told me to go. The rest of these pictures I post will be complements of Katherine, because my camera broke--I think it's because it got a bit wet--and it stopped taking pictures. It is currently at some Canon Shop, who knows where, but I just pray it'll be okay and that it won't be an insane amount of euros to fix. All I can think is that it broke at a good time (if it had to break) because I'm not really traveling anywhere for next few weeks.
Of course I got the waffle covered in chocolate and strawberries :) Walked around some more, took lots of pictures, found the little tourist-info place and checked some email, went up to the parking garage to view the Atomium, and then made our way back to the hostel. It had been a late night so we were exhausted but the hostel had a lockout from 10am-2pm, so we had to be out of there during that time. Came back and showered and took a nice nap until around 5:30.
Saturday was the big Gay-Pride day in Brussels, they had a giant parade and a Mr. Gay Contest, and then just a giant rave basically all throughout the city that went on all night. Katherine and I both remarked how nice it was to be in a city that seemed to be so supportive of gay rights! We made our way to dinner, walking through all the craziness...
And found ourselves at dinner at a cute little restaurant called Publico. It was mainly a Mediterranean restaurant, but it also had typical Belgian dishes. We figured that since we didn't pay for dinner the night before, we would splurge on a nice dinner, and it was absolutely amazing! (I know I know, I say that about EVERYTHING!) We both got some red wine, and they served us some bread, and then Katherine ordered a spicy tomato sauce potato appetizer thing, and then I got the lamb tenderloin with an amazing sauce and garlic roasted potatoes and ratatouille-- AHHHH!!!
My camera rallied for one last picture of the food. Our waiter was also so sweet and charming, and it was just such a nice dinner! I had been on a no-starch and no meat diet for the past week and a half which I think made the dinner that much better. After dinner we went to the Irish pub called Celtica, which has 1-euro beers every night until midnight. Had a couple, and then by 11 we were still so tired so we just went back to the hostel and got a good night's sleep.
Our train back to Heidelberg wasn't until 6:30pm, so we had the whole day Sunday to see the rest of the sights. Bought a metro pass and made our way down to see the giant arch...
And we explored the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History...only because it was free. But it was actually pretty cool-- kind of reminded me of the Air and Space Museum back home. We were then able to go up to the top of the arch and get some nice panoramic views. In one of these photos, you can see the crazy Atomium structure.
Next went to the Palace of Justice, which was the biggest building in Europe when it was built. The outside is all under scaffolding so wasn't that cool, but we could walk around the inside atrium part which was very impressive. Next to the buidling, you can also very clearly see the elevation difference between Lower and Upper Brussels, and can actually take an elevator to get to Lower Brussels--that's how big the difference is!
By the time we had done all of this, we were very hungry, so we made our way back to the city center to eat at one of the famous frittes-places. Everyone raves about Belgian fries, but honestly, they are not that different from American ones. Quite different from the fast food ones, yes, but not from the ones you'd get a sit-down restaurant. Nevertheless, we were able to pick fun sauces (Katherine got curry-ketchup, and I was daring and tried the samurai sauce) and of course, they were delicious.
With our bellies full of fries, we went to the grocery store to buy some cheap Belgian chocolate. I bought one pack to take home, and not even gonna lie--I ate the rest. I just cannot resist chocolate, it's terrible. Then we went to Marcolini, and I bought a nice pack to bring home to mom, and then I took Katherine to that first chocolate place I had gone to with the Belgian guy, and she loved the hot chocolate just as much as I did. Went back to the hostel, packed up our stuff, went to the train station, and made our way to Germany!
I'll talk about Katherine's visit to Heidelberg in another post, because I just wanted this one to focus on Brussels. Overall, I absolutely LOVED the city! I've already told Kelsey this, but I am so jealous she got to spend her whole semester there! It's basically like a smaller, friendlier, and more manageable Paris. Everyone was so friendly, the food was amazing, the city is beautiful, the public transit is easy to figure out. I guess the only downside was the weather-- as I said it was beautiful on Friday, but Saturday and Sunday were pretty chilly and windy and grey, and I heard that that's kind of the norm for the city. Like Montreal, it's a bilingual city, so everything is in French and Dutch/Flemish. My knowledge of French is extremely minimal, and I was actually able to get by more by looking at the Dutch, because it;s so close to German. I really enjoyed traveling with Katherine as well-- she is also very city savvy and can successfully read a map and figure out public transport so we were able to share the burden of finding everything, because on a lot of my trips so far, I've been the one to organize everything, and it gets exhausting! Katherine is collecting original little paintings from all the cities she has visited, so she bought a pretty one in Grand Place, and I am so jealous that I never thought of something like that to do! Collect at least SOMETHING from everywhere I've gone. I always send postcards from places I go, but those aren't for me... so i was kind of sad that I'm more than halfway through and had only just now had this idea presented to me.
But as I said, it was a lovely weekend in a lovely city! Brussels is definitely one of my favorite places I've visited this semester!
Thursday, May 12, 2011
HALFWAY?!
As my friends back at BC are in the heat of finals week and my other friends abroad are wrapping up their semesters and getting all the travel they can in their short times left, I hit my halfway point yesterday. That's right, it's approaching mid-May and I am only now just halfway done with my time abroad! I've talked about general life abroad a few times abroad, just the fact that it's a roller coaster of emotions every day. After two and a half months though, I do consider this my home right now. We call our rooms our houses and when I travel, I mean Heidelberg when I say "going home."
I took a detour on my run today and hiked up the Philosophenweg, I haven't been up there in ages, at least not since everything is completely bloomed and I just walked really slowly and gazed upon this beautiful city. Sitting in a valley surrounded by giant green tall mountain is Heidelberg--and I live here! When I get annoyed about being hit with bugs when I ride my bike to/from my room, or when I get annoyed that the grocery store is never stocked, or that Hauptstrasse is too crowded, I just need to remind myself about all the wonderful parts of being abroad, and now I've gotta realize that the time I have left is less than what I've already spent. I already know that when I get home I'll be missing all these things that I complain about all the time.
Monday night after class we all gathered at Brock's for a bbq. Cory played us some tunes on his banjo and we just drank and were merry and enjoyed some great wurst! On Tuesday, Becca and I laid on the Neckarwiese for a couple hours in our bikini tops soaking in some rays and attempting to start our summer tans. We were surrounded by people of all ages, all doing the same thing we were--enjoying the beautiful weather. I know that's one thing I'll miss about being here versus America--everyone is just outside ALL THE TIME. The culture is so different in that sense. On Wednesday night, we were of course at Eckstein and it was karaoke week. We drank Koelsch and sang and were merry with rowdy Germans! Despite the rain this morning, it turned out to be a beautiful day, and we're leaving in a bit to go do some bridge-drinking over on the Alte-Bruecke. These are some examples of daily life here in Heidelberg--just hanging out with friends, mostly outside, having fun in bars, and just enjoying life!
I've been thinking about this blog post for a few days now and I'm kind of disappointed that I didn't really have anything specific to say. It's all in my head and just not really wanting to be articulated right now, I guess. But the point of this post is that I'm halfway! I honestly feel like I've been here forever, but I know that the second half will just fly by, especially with more traveling and such. I'm leaving for Brussels tomorrow morning--going to meet Katherine there, we'll be there for the weekend, and then she's going to stay with me in HD for a few days before she goes back to New York. Then I think I've got about three weeks with no big plans, but then it'll be YAYA IN EUROPE and I got a good chunk of time off to go down to Lyon so we can all be together at Mollie's. Will and I are also in the process of planning a trip to Mallorca--really hope that happens! And then Jennie will be doing her internship only a couple hours away, and hopefully we can do some traveling together. And before I know it, I'll be packing my own bags to come home!
Time to live it up! For the next two and a half months! :)
I took a detour on my run today and hiked up the Philosophenweg, I haven't been up there in ages, at least not since everything is completely bloomed and I just walked really slowly and gazed upon this beautiful city. Sitting in a valley surrounded by giant green tall mountain is Heidelberg--and I live here! When I get annoyed about being hit with bugs when I ride my bike to/from my room, or when I get annoyed that the grocery store is never stocked, or that Hauptstrasse is too crowded, I just need to remind myself about all the wonderful parts of being abroad, and now I've gotta realize that the time I have left is less than what I've already spent. I already know that when I get home I'll be missing all these things that I complain about all the time.
Monday night after class we all gathered at Brock's for a bbq. Cory played us some tunes on his banjo and we just drank and were merry and enjoyed some great wurst! On Tuesday, Becca and I laid on the Neckarwiese for a couple hours in our bikini tops soaking in some rays and attempting to start our summer tans. We were surrounded by people of all ages, all doing the same thing we were--enjoying the beautiful weather. I know that's one thing I'll miss about being here versus America--everyone is just outside ALL THE TIME. The culture is so different in that sense. On Wednesday night, we were of course at Eckstein and it was karaoke week. We drank Koelsch and sang and were merry with rowdy Germans! Despite the rain this morning, it turned out to be a beautiful day, and we're leaving in a bit to go do some bridge-drinking over on the Alte-Bruecke. These are some examples of daily life here in Heidelberg--just hanging out with friends, mostly outside, having fun in bars, and just enjoying life!
I've been thinking about this blog post for a few days now and I'm kind of disappointed that I didn't really have anything specific to say. It's all in my head and just not really wanting to be articulated right now, I guess. But the point of this post is that I'm halfway! I honestly feel like I've been here forever, but I know that the second half will just fly by, especially with more traveling and such. I'm leaving for Brussels tomorrow morning--going to meet Katherine there, we'll be there for the weekend, and then she's going to stay with me in HD for a few days before she goes back to New York. Then I think I've got about three weeks with no big plans, but then it'll be YAYA IN EUROPE and I got a good chunk of time off to go down to Lyon so we can all be together at Mollie's. Will and I are also in the process of planning a trip to Mallorca--really hope that happens! And then Jennie will be doing her internship only a couple hours away, and hopefully we can do some traveling together. And before I know it, I'll be packing my own bags to come home!
Time to live it up! For the next two and a half months! :)
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
How to Travel Alone...or, It's a small freakin' world...or, Hey I'm finally updating about Vienna!
Alright I am FINALLY getting around to updating about Vienna. Just as a forewarning, I'm not going to put a lot of pictures in this post because I honestly just want to get it done--but all my Vienna pics are on Facebook.
As many of you know, I left my group of friends in Salzburg and traveled to Vienna alone. We had no class on Monday and I don't have classes on Tuesdays anyways, so I had one more day than everyone else. Vienna was on my "absolutely-must-see-while-abroad" list, and this was the best opportunity I thought I'd have to go, so I set out solo!
Hopped on the train Saturday afternoon, reading through my guidebook for the almost three hour ride. Arrived in Vienna, found my hostel with little problems, and checked in. The hostel was immaculately clean and modern and new and HUGE. Well the bad thing about huge hostels, is that it's hard to meet people... and since this one was so big, there were a lot of families and school groups staying there as well. I found it actually ironic that in every hostel I've ever stayed at, I've always met people to hang out with, and now, the first time I'm traveling alone, is the first time I don't meet anyone in the hostel! Got a 4-person room, showered and freshened up, and then decided just to walk around the area where my hostel was and try to find some food. It was Saturday evening of Easter weekend so all the stores had already closed...and I honestly couldn't decide what I wanted to eat. I walked and walked and walked, and ended up walking in a giant circle until I just decided on an Italian place...but it wasn't until I sat down that I realized it was just an Eiscafe. Whatever. I ordered a big Strawberry cup ice cream dish and that was my dinner. Made my way back to the hostel and went down to the bar in the basement-- this bar was honestly the coolest bar I've ever seen in a hostel, and of course I had no one to share it with. There were a few people there but they were all wrapped up in their own conversations so I went back to my room to figure out what I was going to do the next day, and then went down to the bar a little later.
It had gotten a little more crowded and as I walked in, I heard some Americans talking and just decided to go for it and ask to sit with then. It was two girls and one boy who are studying in Greece this semester, and they were introducing themselves, and the girl I sat next to says "yeah, I'm studying in Greece, but I go to Boston College." And I was like GET OUT. I GOT TO BOSTON COLLEGE! I had never seen her before, but she rooms with all the girls that were on my floor freshman year and we're actually going to have a class together next year. So that was crazy! It really just goes to show what a small world it is. So we talked all about BC and how crazy it is that we're going to be seniors next year and about housing and classes and what not. I was pretty tired though, so I headed back up the room and was in bed by midnight.
I was still just feeling very lonely and starting to regret my decision to spend three nights in Vienna by myself. I had just met some people but they were all leaving the next morning. I really do believe that part of traveling is sharing your experiences with someone else. Like, Turkey would not have been nearly as great if I Becca hadn't been with me to laugh about all the ridiculous stuff that happened. And then you always have those memories to look back on with the people you traveled with. I can be independent if necessary, but in general I'm a social being and just like being around people. I was optimistic for the next day though...
Easter Sunday--Easter in a Catholic country! For those that don't know, Austria is VERY Catholic. Woke up super early to take the metro to Stephansplatz so I could get a seat for Easter Mass at Stephansdom--the main cathedral in Vienna. Since I got there so early, the square was practically deserted, so that was pretty cool.
I was wayyy too early for mass (the 9am was just starting, and I wanted to go to the 10:15) so I walked around a bit and found another church--St. Peters Kirche which was BEAUTIFUL on the inside. The priests were walking around moving chairs and such preparing for Easter Mass and one of them and I exchanged a "Frohe Ostern!" Besides the priests, I was the only one in that church so that was pretty neat.
Walked around some more, it was still really early, so I sat at a little cafe right in front of Stephansdom and had a croissant and some famous Viennese "brauner"--their type of coffee, it's a brown color because they mix so much creme in it. Finished that and made my way into the cathedral, 9am mass was still going on, but I noticed that people kept going in and sitting, so I figured I would just follow suit. Squeezed my way into a pew towards the front. I ended up being behind a giant column but I could still see okay and at least I had a seat! So I was surrounded by lots of Austrians, but in general, the church was full of Italians--I ran into SO MANY Italians in Vienna in general! But I'd say a good third of the people at the mass weren't even Catholic, they just wanted to witness the service.
10:15, service starts, we all stand up, and everyone is snapping photos and getting really excited and I had no clue as to why...until I see a giant gold hat! Turns out, mass was being led by the Cardinal Archbishop! I don't remember his name, because mom took my program and didn't give it back when she came to visit...and she says you can't be a Cardinal AND an Archbishop...but the program said "Erzbischop Kardinal" so that's what he was. He said his welcome remarks in German, English, and Italian. There was a beautiful choir and orchestra that performed all of one of Schubert's masses--the last one he wrote before he died. The entire service lasted TWO HOURS but it was absolutely beautiful. The choir sounded so amazing. I didn't really understand the homily, but just the experience of the whole thing was amazing!
At the conclusion of the service, the choir performed "Hallelujah" from Handel's Messiah. I was sitting there listening as people started filing in for 12:30 mass, and I took in front of me, and see Erin! Erin is another German student at BC, so I've had lots of German classes with her, but I don't know her very well and we weren't even Facebook friends--I knew she was studying in Vienna but I didn't know how to contact her really...but as I said, sitting in front of me for the next mass--there she is! Again, SMALL FREAKIN' WORLD! A city of over 1 million people, and I randomly run into her! So I said hi and we exchanged numbers and such and then I left the church and decided to walk around some more. It was the most GORGEOUS DAY! I feel like Easter Sunday is always a gorgeous day though, wherever you are.
Armed with my map, guidebook, and street-smarts (they've fortunately been improving since I've been abroad I'll have all you doubters know!) I set out to see the sights. Vienna has a plethora of museums and such but being a poor college student, I just wanted to see things and not really see exhibits. The Vienna underground system is so simple to use so that made it very easy. I hit up a bunch of the main areas, walked in the Jesuit Church, walked over to Karlsplatz and went in the Karlskirche-- church count on Easter: 4.
Erin texted me later and said that she and her friends were grabbing lunch near the church so I hurried back there but got there too late to order :( (I was SOOOO HUNGRY). Sat with them for a bit and they told me about their program and such, we walked by the Opera House, and then they all parted ways to go back to their houses and such. Erin wanted to go home and change but she said she was hanging out with some friends later and she'd text me when she was going. So I set out again to view more of the city--but right as I turned the corner I came across the famous Sacher Cafe, home of the famous Sacher Torte! This was on my list of things to do in Vienna, so of course I had to go in, especially dressed all nice for Easter Sunday! So I waited in line and shyly told the hostess that I was just one person, got seated at a table...and was alone.
This was probably the hardest part of being alone in Vienna, was sitting at Cafe Sacher alone. It's not such a big deal at other cafes because people do that all the time in Europe, but this is like a huge tourist place, so all the tourists come here with their families. And especially on Easter Sunday, when everyone is with their families anyways. I could tell people were giving me strange looks, like, what is this 21 year old girl doing just sitting by herself? But I pulled through. I honestly think that eating at a restaurant like that by yourself is something everyone should learn to do. And unlike in America, I couldn't start texting the world and pretend I was waiting for someone. It's so bad at BC, even if you're in the elevator alone with someone, both parties will whip out their phones "checking their text messages." Yeah right, you have a text message! So this was just me, myself, and I enjoying a lovely Easter Sunday meal.
As I said, I was STARVING since I had only had that one croissant in the morning, so I ordered a nice soup, and then of course ordered the famous Sacher brauner and the famous Sacher Torte.
The cake was very good, not DELICIOUS, but very good. It had a very distinct flavor to it so I can understand why it's such a big deal. Left the cafe and walked and walked and walked some more. Armed with my Lonely Planet Guidebook, I just walked all around the entire city. The architecture in Vienna is incredible. Literally everywhere you turn, there is something else amazing to see! I will say that this part of my trip, I was thankful to be alone. Traveling solo has its pros and cons, but a definite pro is that I could do everything according to my own agenda. I didn't have any plan, I was just walking around. And I didn't have to worry about anyone else being hungry or tired, I could just keep trekking as long as I wanted. I saw tons of stuff though, all the main sights in the downtown area, and just enjoyed the gorgeous weather.
A bit later Erin texted me and told me where to meet her, so I hopped on a train and met her at the outskirts of the city. We met up with an Austrian friend of hers that she had met a couple months ago at a club, and we then met all of his Austrian friends. They were all hanging out outside, but it got really cold and windy with storm threats lingering by the time we got there, so we ended up all going back to the apartment of one of the friends. Kasimir (Erin's friend) and Sebastian went out to go find some alcohol (I still don't know how they found somewhere that was open on Easter Sunday at 8pm in Austria...!) and we all just sat in their living room teaching them American drinking games and listening to music and just having a fun time! All around a great time! I am just SO THANKFUL that I ran into Erin because if I hadn't, my evening and night would've just been me sitting at the hostel feeling sad that I was alone on Easter. Managed to get back to my hostel by midnight, showered, met a new roommate--a guy from Brazil, but I honestly don't remember our conversation because I was a little out of it when I got back-- and then hit the sack!
Woke up Monday morning a bitttt hungover, and if I had just been back home in Heidelberg, I could've just slept in without feeling guilty, but this was my last full day in Vienna and I had sights to see! So I made my way out the door, and headed down to Schoenbrunn Palace. The tour of the palace was fine, but honestly (and I'm going t sound SO SNOOTY when I say this)--if you've seen one palace, you've seen them all. It was interesting to learn about the history of the family though--it's the palace where Marie Antoinette grew up. What was really cool though was the gardens around the palace--they spanned for acres and acres, and if you climbed all the way up, you got a beautiful view of the palace with the city of Vienna surrounding it.
Was just walking around enjoying myself, came across a little Easter Market on the grounds and bought a giant pizza pretzel thing, and then got a call from my friend Joe! Joe graduated from BC last year and is doing his Fulbright in Vienna this year, and I had forgotten he was there until Sunday night so I had written on his wall saying we should meet up. So we made plans to meet for dinner at 7pm. Walked and walked and walked some more...it was a little colder today and I was wearing shorts (seems to be a recurring theme...wearing shorts on the wrong days...)
Back to downtown, climbed the tower of Stephansdom--the viewing platform was very cramped, so not one of the best I've climbed, but still offered some nice views.
After that, bought some postcards, and hopped on the train again to the other side of the city to giant ferris wheel which was surrounded by a little amusement park/fair. Then went over to the island that's in the middle of the Danube River just to sit on a bench on the grass and write my cards. Well, right as I got there it turned pretty cold and grey, and then this family of four sat on the bench with me and they were all arguing--it was kind of annoying but at the same time kind of funny, and really funny to listen to what they were saying. They had the strangest accents, it was like someone speaking German with a Russian and Italian accent. And the woman was saying she was so tired and then the older man was like "well you're only 50! I'm 70!" and then they went into a long discussion about taking care of your hands and cutting your fingernails. Crazy Europeans ;)
Got another text from Erin about meeting up later, so I ran back to the hostel and got some warmer clothes and met up with her--we went to the other part of that island in the Danube where there's beach volleyball and more fields and such and hung out with the same guys from last night. Luckily the sun had come back out so we just laid there soaking it in--I was still exhausted. Then we all headed over to this giant mall called Millennium City because a bar inside had a happy hour special, Mondays from 5-7, ONE EURO COCKTAILS! NO JOKE! ONE EURO! So we got there around 6:30 and I chugged down two--a Mai Tai and a Sex on the Beach. ONE EURO! YOU CAN'T FIND THAT ANYWHERE!
Before I knew it, it was time to go meet Joe, so I said bye to Erin and all her friends and thanked her again for making my time in Vienna not suck, and met up with Joe a few train stops down the line. We went out to a more local restaurant--cheap prices and lots of food and lots of beer. I haven't been in contact with him for almost a year so it was nice to see how he's doing. He told me all about his Fulbright, which is actually over next month! And I told him about being abroad and such and caught him up on BC news. It was so funny that it ended up being such a BC weekend. I met that girl in the hostel, Stephanie, who's at BC, then I hung out with Erin who goes to BC, and then Joe who just graduated from BC! It was so nice to hang out with all these BC people though, because all we did was just talk about how great BC is. I may have already said this in another post, but being abroad has just made me realize how much I truly love that school and everything about it...except maybe finals week ugh. But it's just such a special place, and luckily I had Katherine and Jinah in my program so I can still use my BC jargon with them and they'll understand it. It's just such a special place once you're there, and it's so hard to explain the experience to people unless you go there. I try to explain BC to Dan a lot and he just doesn't get it. So, for this one weekend, I was able to talk BC with a bunch of BC people scattered across the city--we're everywhere!
After dinner, we headed back downtown to a traditional Viennese coffee house--one of the reasons I loved Vienna (and Austria) so much. It's more European--like the European that people imagine when they think of Europe. Germany is kind of in the middle of Europe and America, which is why I have problems with it sometime-- but Austria seems to be much more European, and I LOVED my time in the country. After the coffeehouse, we went searching for a club, but Joe couldn't find it, so we went to a shisha bar instead. Stayed there til closing (which isn't that late on a Monday...) but the trains weren't running anymore, so we walked ALL THE WAY ACROSS the city--a 40 minute walk. Joe explained how Vienna is an extremely safe city, and I totally see that, because we didn't run into one person on our walk back.
Said goodbye to Joe and thanked him for the tour and the company, then it was bedtime! Up early, checked out, stuffed my face with breakfast in the hostel, and hopped on my train back to Germany. I was going to stop in Passau, a German city on the border, and explore it a bit before I went back to HD, but the train I was on went right to Frankfurt and I was so tired from the weekend, that I just stayed on the train until Frankfurt and caught the next one home to Heidelberg. Overall, 8 hours of train travel on Tuesday--but that's still better than plane travel!
And that was my time in Vienna! I hated it the first night and was dreading the fact that I would be alone, but I found connections and had a lovely time! I was able to do all my own stuff and tour at my own quick pace during the day, and then have company to hang out with in the evenings and night. I'm not rushing to go travel anywhere alone again, but at least I know it's something I can do. As I said though, I absolutely loved Austria, and if I do end up applying for a Fulbright (the emails have begun about submitting our countries ughhh) then I think I would pick Austria over Germany. I read in my book as well about bungee jumping off the 197-meter high Europabrueke in Innsbruck, a small town in the Alps. The bridge I jumped off of in New Zealand was 40-meters...this is almost 5 TIMES AS HIGH! But I've still got a lot of time left abroad, and now I am FINALLY caught up with my blogging! Sorry I completely neglected to post pictures in the whole second half of the post, but it's already long enough!
As many of you know, I left my group of friends in Salzburg and traveled to Vienna alone. We had no class on Monday and I don't have classes on Tuesdays anyways, so I had one more day than everyone else. Vienna was on my "absolutely-must-see-while-abroad" list, and this was the best opportunity I thought I'd have to go, so I set out solo!
Hopped on the train Saturday afternoon, reading through my guidebook for the almost three hour ride. Arrived in Vienna, found my hostel with little problems, and checked in. The hostel was immaculately clean and modern and new and HUGE. Well the bad thing about huge hostels, is that it's hard to meet people... and since this one was so big, there were a lot of families and school groups staying there as well. I found it actually ironic that in every hostel I've ever stayed at, I've always met people to hang out with, and now, the first time I'm traveling alone, is the first time I don't meet anyone in the hostel! Got a 4-person room, showered and freshened up, and then decided just to walk around the area where my hostel was and try to find some food. It was Saturday evening of Easter weekend so all the stores had already closed...and I honestly couldn't decide what I wanted to eat. I walked and walked and walked, and ended up walking in a giant circle until I just decided on an Italian place...but it wasn't until I sat down that I realized it was just an Eiscafe. Whatever. I ordered a big Strawberry cup ice cream dish and that was my dinner. Made my way back to the hostel and went down to the bar in the basement-- this bar was honestly the coolest bar I've ever seen in a hostel, and of course I had no one to share it with. There were a few people there but they were all wrapped up in their own conversations so I went back to my room to figure out what I was going to do the next day, and then went down to the bar a little later.
It had gotten a little more crowded and as I walked in, I heard some Americans talking and just decided to go for it and ask to sit with then. It was two girls and one boy who are studying in Greece this semester, and they were introducing themselves, and the girl I sat next to says "yeah, I'm studying in Greece, but I go to Boston College." And I was like GET OUT. I GOT TO BOSTON COLLEGE! I had never seen her before, but she rooms with all the girls that were on my floor freshman year and we're actually going to have a class together next year. So that was crazy! It really just goes to show what a small world it is. So we talked all about BC and how crazy it is that we're going to be seniors next year and about housing and classes and what not. I was pretty tired though, so I headed back up the room and was in bed by midnight.
I was still just feeling very lonely and starting to regret my decision to spend three nights in Vienna by myself. I had just met some people but they were all leaving the next morning. I really do believe that part of traveling is sharing your experiences with someone else. Like, Turkey would not have been nearly as great if I Becca hadn't been with me to laugh about all the ridiculous stuff that happened. And then you always have those memories to look back on with the people you traveled with. I can be independent if necessary, but in general I'm a social being and just like being around people. I was optimistic for the next day though...
Easter Sunday--Easter in a Catholic country! For those that don't know, Austria is VERY Catholic. Woke up super early to take the metro to Stephansplatz so I could get a seat for Easter Mass at Stephansdom--the main cathedral in Vienna. Since I got there so early, the square was practically deserted, so that was pretty cool.
I was wayyy too early for mass (the 9am was just starting, and I wanted to go to the 10:15) so I walked around a bit and found another church--St. Peters Kirche which was BEAUTIFUL on the inside. The priests were walking around moving chairs and such preparing for Easter Mass and one of them and I exchanged a "Frohe Ostern!" Besides the priests, I was the only one in that church so that was pretty neat.
Walked around some more, it was still really early, so I sat at a little cafe right in front of Stephansdom and had a croissant and some famous Viennese "brauner"--their type of coffee, it's a brown color because they mix so much creme in it. Finished that and made my way into the cathedral, 9am mass was still going on, but I noticed that people kept going in and sitting, so I figured I would just follow suit. Squeezed my way into a pew towards the front. I ended up being behind a giant column but I could still see okay and at least I had a seat! So I was surrounded by lots of Austrians, but in general, the church was full of Italians--I ran into SO MANY Italians in Vienna in general! But I'd say a good third of the people at the mass weren't even Catholic, they just wanted to witness the service.
10:15, service starts, we all stand up, and everyone is snapping photos and getting really excited and I had no clue as to why...until I see a giant gold hat! Turns out, mass was being led by the Cardinal Archbishop! I don't remember his name, because mom took my program and didn't give it back when she came to visit...and she says you can't be a Cardinal AND an Archbishop...but the program said "Erzbischop Kardinal" so that's what he was. He said his welcome remarks in German, English, and Italian. There was a beautiful choir and orchestra that performed all of one of Schubert's masses--the last one he wrote before he died. The entire service lasted TWO HOURS but it was absolutely beautiful. The choir sounded so amazing. I didn't really understand the homily, but just the experience of the whole thing was amazing!
At the conclusion of the service, the choir performed "Hallelujah" from Handel's Messiah. I was sitting there listening as people started filing in for 12:30 mass, and I took in front of me, and see Erin! Erin is another German student at BC, so I've had lots of German classes with her, but I don't know her very well and we weren't even Facebook friends--I knew she was studying in Vienna but I didn't know how to contact her really...but as I said, sitting in front of me for the next mass--there she is! Again, SMALL FREAKIN' WORLD! A city of over 1 million people, and I randomly run into her! So I said hi and we exchanged numbers and such and then I left the church and decided to walk around some more. It was the most GORGEOUS DAY! I feel like Easter Sunday is always a gorgeous day though, wherever you are.
Armed with my map, guidebook, and street-smarts (they've fortunately been improving since I've been abroad I'll have all you doubters know!) I set out to see the sights. Vienna has a plethora of museums and such but being a poor college student, I just wanted to see things and not really see exhibits. The Vienna underground system is so simple to use so that made it very easy. I hit up a bunch of the main areas, walked in the Jesuit Church, walked over to Karlsplatz and went in the Karlskirche-- church count on Easter: 4.
Erin texted me later and said that she and her friends were grabbing lunch near the church so I hurried back there but got there too late to order :( (I was SOOOO HUNGRY). Sat with them for a bit and they told me about their program and such, we walked by the Opera House, and then they all parted ways to go back to their houses and such. Erin wanted to go home and change but she said she was hanging out with some friends later and she'd text me when she was going. So I set out again to view more of the city--but right as I turned the corner I came across the famous Sacher Cafe, home of the famous Sacher Torte! This was on my list of things to do in Vienna, so of course I had to go in, especially dressed all nice for Easter Sunday! So I waited in line and shyly told the hostess that I was just one person, got seated at a table...and was alone.
This was probably the hardest part of being alone in Vienna, was sitting at Cafe Sacher alone. It's not such a big deal at other cafes because people do that all the time in Europe, but this is like a huge tourist place, so all the tourists come here with their families. And especially on Easter Sunday, when everyone is with their families anyways. I could tell people were giving me strange looks, like, what is this 21 year old girl doing just sitting by herself? But I pulled through. I honestly think that eating at a restaurant like that by yourself is something everyone should learn to do. And unlike in America, I couldn't start texting the world and pretend I was waiting for someone. It's so bad at BC, even if you're in the elevator alone with someone, both parties will whip out their phones "checking their text messages." Yeah right, you have a text message! So this was just me, myself, and I enjoying a lovely Easter Sunday meal.
As I said, I was STARVING since I had only had that one croissant in the morning, so I ordered a nice soup, and then of course ordered the famous Sacher brauner and the famous Sacher Torte.
The cake was very good, not DELICIOUS, but very good. It had a very distinct flavor to it so I can understand why it's such a big deal. Left the cafe and walked and walked and walked some more. Armed with my Lonely Planet Guidebook, I just walked all around the entire city. The architecture in Vienna is incredible. Literally everywhere you turn, there is something else amazing to see! I will say that this part of my trip, I was thankful to be alone. Traveling solo has its pros and cons, but a definite pro is that I could do everything according to my own agenda. I didn't have any plan, I was just walking around. And I didn't have to worry about anyone else being hungry or tired, I could just keep trekking as long as I wanted. I saw tons of stuff though, all the main sights in the downtown area, and just enjoyed the gorgeous weather.
A bit later Erin texted me and told me where to meet her, so I hopped on a train and met her at the outskirts of the city. We met up with an Austrian friend of hers that she had met a couple months ago at a club, and we then met all of his Austrian friends. They were all hanging out outside, but it got really cold and windy with storm threats lingering by the time we got there, so we ended up all going back to the apartment of one of the friends. Kasimir (Erin's friend) and Sebastian went out to go find some alcohol (I still don't know how they found somewhere that was open on Easter Sunday at 8pm in Austria...!) and we all just sat in their living room teaching them American drinking games and listening to music and just having a fun time! All around a great time! I am just SO THANKFUL that I ran into Erin because if I hadn't, my evening and night would've just been me sitting at the hostel feeling sad that I was alone on Easter. Managed to get back to my hostel by midnight, showered, met a new roommate--a guy from Brazil, but I honestly don't remember our conversation because I was a little out of it when I got back-- and then hit the sack!
Woke up Monday morning a bitttt hungover, and if I had just been back home in Heidelberg, I could've just slept in without feeling guilty, but this was my last full day in Vienna and I had sights to see! So I made my way out the door, and headed down to Schoenbrunn Palace. The tour of the palace was fine, but honestly (and I'm going t sound SO SNOOTY when I say this)--if you've seen one palace, you've seen them all. It was interesting to learn about the history of the family though--it's the palace where Marie Antoinette grew up. What was really cool though was the gardens around the palace--they spanned for acres and acres, and if you climbed all the way up, you got a beautiful view of the palace with the city of Vienna surrounding it.
Was just walking around enjoying myself, came across a little Easter Market on the grounds and bought a giant pizza pretzel thing, and then got a call from my friend Joe! Joe graduated from BC last year and is doing his Fulbright in Vienna this year, and I had forgotten he was there until Sunday night so I had written on his wall saying we should meet up. So we made plans to meet for dinner at 7pm. Walked and walked and walked some more...it was a little colder today and I was wearing shorts (seems to be a recurring theme...wearing shorts on the wrong days...)
Back to downtown, climbed the tower of Stephansdom--the viewing platform was very cramped, so not one of the best I've climbed, but still offered some nice views.
After that, bought some postcards, and hopped on the train again to the other side of the city to giant ferris wheel which was surrounded by a little amusement park/fair. Then went over to the island that's in the middle of the Danube River just to sit on a bench on the grass and write my cards. Well, right as I got there it turned pretty cold and grey, and then this family of four sat on the bench with me and they were all arguing--it was kind of annoying but at the same time kind of funny, and really funny to listen to what they were saying. They had the strangest accents, it was like someone speaking German with a Russian and Italian accent. And the woman was saying she was so tired and then the older man was like "well you're only 50! I'm 70!" and then they went into a long discussion about taking care of your hands and cutting your fingernails. Crazy Europeans ;)
Got another text from Erin about meeting up later, so I ran back to the hostel and got some warmer clothes and met up with her--we went to the other part of that island in the Danube where there's beach volleyball and more fields and such and hung out with the same guys from last night. Luckily the sun had come back out so we just laid there soaking it in--I was still exhausted. Then we all headed over to this giant mall called Millennium City because a bar inside had a happy hour special, Mondays from 5-7, ONE EURO COCKTAILS! NO JOKE! ONE EURO! So we got there around 6:30 and I chugged down two--a Mai Tai and a Sex on the Beach. ONE EURO! YOU CAN'T FIND THAT ANYWHERE!
Before I knew it, it was time to go meet Joe, so I said bye to Erin and all her friends and thanked her again for making my time in Vienna not suck, and met up with Joe a few train stops down the line. We went out to a more local restaurant--cheap prices and lots of food and lots of beer. I haven't been in contact with him for almost a year so it was nice to see how he's doing. He told me all about his Fulbright, which is actually over next month! And I told him about being abroad and such and caught him up on BC news. It was so funny that it ended up being such a BC weekend. I met that girl in the hostel, Stephanie, who's at BC, then I hung out with Erin who goes to BC, and then Joe who just graduated from BC! It was so nice to hang out with all these BC people though, because all we did was just talk about how great BC is. I may have already said this in another post, but being abroad has just made me realize how much I truly love that school and everything about it...except maybe finals week ugh. But it's just such a special place, and luckily I had Katherine and Jinah in my program so I can still use my BC jargon with them and they'll understand it. It's just such a special place once you're there, and it's so hard to explain the experience to people unless you go there. I try to explain BC to Dan a lot and he just doesn't get it. So, for this one weekend, I was able to talk BC with a bunch of BC people scattered across the city--we're everywhere!
After dinner, we headed back downtown to a traditional Viennese coffee house--one of the reasons I loved Vienna (and Austria) so much. It's more European--like the European that people imagine when they think of Europe. Germany is kind of in the middle of Europe and America, which is why I have problems with it sometime-- but Austria seems to be much more European, and I LOVED my time in the country. After the coffeehouse, we went searching for a club, but Joe couldn't find it, so we went to a shisha bar instead. Stayed there til closing (which isn't that late on a Monday...) but the trains weren't running anymore, so we walked ALL THE WAY ACROSS the city--a 40 minute walk. Joe explained how Vienna is an extremely safe city, and I totally see that, because we didn't run into one person on our walk back.
Said goodbye to Joe and thanked him for the tour and the company, then it was bedtime! Up early, checked out, stuffed my face with breakfast in the hostel, and hopped on my train back to Germany. I was going to stop in Passau, a German city on the border, and explore it a bit before I went back to HD, but the train I was on went right to Frankfurt and I was so tired from the weekend, that I just stayed on the train until Frankfurt and caught the next one home to Heidelberg. Overall, 8 hours of train travel on Tuesday--but that's still better than plane travel!
And that was my time in Vienna! I hated it the first night and was dreading the fact that I would be alone, but I found connections and had a lovely time! I was able to do all my own stuff and tour at my own quick pace during the day, and then have company to hang out with in the evenings and night. I'm not rushing to go travel anywhere alone again, but at least I know it's something I can do. As I said though, I absolutely loved Austria, and if I do end up applying for a Fulbright (the emails have begun about submitting our countries ughhh) then I think I would pick Austria over Germany. I read in my book as well about bungee jumping off the 197-meter high Europabrueke in Innsbruck, a small town in the Alps. The bridge I jumped off of in New Zealand was 40-meters...this is almost 5 TIMES AS HIGH! But I've still got a lot of time left abroad, and now I am FINALLY caught up with my blogging! Sorry I completely neglected to post pictures in the whole second half of the post, but it's already long enough!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Frühlingsfest in Stuttgart!
Many of my friends have been asking me to clarify the facebook status update I posted Saturday evening that said "Best day abroad everrrr. Gotta love Deutschland!" Well, here is the clarification. On Saturday morning a group of eight of us met bright and early at the train station to go to Stuttgart for the annual Springfest. Springfest is known as "little Oktoberfest" and happens annually from the end of April to beginning of May. It also just so happens that the biggest one in the country is in Stuttgart!
I had been out until 3 the night before and woke up slightly hungover so I was pretty close to turning off my phone when the alarm went off and just going back to bed, but that would've been the worst decision ever, because as my status said, it was the best day of abroad ever!
Train ride took about 90 minutes cause since we got the cheap ticket we had to take the slow ticket. Our train was full of Germans in their lederhosen and dirndls and we felt very left out...too bad traditional German clothing is like 150 euro :( So got off at Stuttgart and made our way to the city center only to realize that Springfest is actually NEXT to Stuttgart...so we had to ask like ten different people and finally just followed the lederhosen and dirndls and caught the right train to about 10 minutes out of Stuttgart to a GIANT FAIR!
With the exception of all the Germans in their crazy clothing, we honestly felt like we were back in America at Six Flags or King's Dominion or something. Fair food, fair rides, fair games...ahhhh! We didn't even know where to begin. Drinks? Food? Rides? Games? So much to do! We decided to go on a crazy turning scary ride (this was more like a fair than amusement park, so you just pay for each individual ride) and this being Europe, who knows what kind of safety regulations they have...especially after seeing the harm the Krampus can do--and that's just a kid's ride! Turned out the ride was completely safe and completely AWESOME and we were all screaming at the top of our lungs and just having a BLAST.
Here's Katherine and Jinah correctly identifying everyone's emotions before the ride started, and in the next picture, please note the beautiful artwork on the ride lol.
After that ride, we continued our spazieren acting like kids in a candy store..."I want to eat that!" "I want to ride that!" "OMG look at that!" Walked the whole premises and then found another ride we wanted to try...it was kind of like the swings, but in a rocket ship--so we thought, why not? Well, it ended up being one of the scariest rides I've ever been on!
Now I know it doesn't look that scary. But you're just sitting there thinking you're going for a nice ride, and then all of a sudden you are just hanging upside down. For a long time! And it was moving so slowly, and it goes higher and higher and then gets faster and then you're over a river!
We were a little frazzled after the ride and SO HUNGRY so we made our way into the beerhall right next to the ride. Security check to get in--we had to throw away any other bottles we had. The guy tried to make me throw away my lotion, and I couldn't figure out how to say lotion in German (according to my bottle in my room, it's "Lotion"...who knew!?) But he eventually realized it wasn't a drink. So we walked in to this GIANT and colorful tent, about ten degrees warmer and stuffier than outside, more lederhosen than we could count, beer and beer and more beer, and a band that was so loud we couldn't hear each other speak!
We found a table, each ordered a liter of beer and were soon re-greeted by our waiter holding all seven liters at one time in the (in)famous German beer glasses. A big "PROST" and we drank!
We were in the hall for about an hour, having the absolute BEST TIME! I can't even explain it--it was really just the moment, it was Deutschland! The band came back from its break and started playing Beatles and Beach Boys and other Oldies hits and we got up on the tables with the other younger Germans with our beers and were just belting out the words and dancing and drinking (and finishing) our beers and nothing in the world was going to go wrong! Here are some more smiling photos!
After a liter of beer we were even hungrier than earlier so we sadly left the beerhall in search of food. Of course it's all nasty (but delicious) fair food--and we were very buzzed after those beers! I found myself some currywurst...I'm on a diet where I'm not eating bread...but of course they gave me a free roll with my currywurst so I ate it. But that's the only time I've broken the bread rule in one week! With our stomachs full, we wanted to go to another beerhall (there were maybe 3 or 4 of the giant ones) but by the time we went back to all of them, the lines were out the door to get it and we realized that we really should've just stayed in the one where we were--if only we had known!!!
So we just walked around more enjoying the 80 degree sun and our stupors and the lederhosen and the fair and eventually hit up another beergarten and only did ,5 liters this time. Just sitting and enjoying company! Also, please see this GIANT FERRIS WHEEL!
After our beers, we said goodbye to Springfest and hopped on the train after buying some train snacks (my diet is also no sweets-- but I have absolutely no self control towards eating when I drink beer so I ate a chocolate bar...but again, only sweets I've had in a week!...I think Saturday will actually just be my "free" day...) We all took some naps on the train back because we were EXHAUSTED. Got back to Heidelberg just before 8 and parted ways to go home. We were thinking about going out afterwards, but I was just SO TIRED and had already spent way too many euros at the fair, so I was in bed at 11pm, something I had absolutely no problem with though, since as I said, I had been out until 3 the night before, and since this had been just the most amazing day!
I realize I may have not described our experience at the festival in a way that makes it seem as good as it was--but it's hard to explain. It was just the fact that everything came together so perfectly. We honestly had no idea what to expect from Springfest, or really what it was, but I always find that when you go into something without any expectations, that's when you have the best time (take mom's trip to Germany last week!) We had a great group of people, the weather was GORGEOUS, we got to be kids and ride roller coasters and be a fairgrounds, and then we got to be super German and stand on tables singing as loud as we can drinking liters of beer! It was just a fantastic day and I am SO THANKFUL I wasn't FOMO-ed out of that one!
I had been out until 3 the night before and woke up slightly hungover so I was pretty close to turning off my phone when the alarm went off and just going back to bed, but that would've been the worst decision ever, because as my status said, it was the best day of abroad ever!
Train ride took about 90 minutes cause since we got the cheap ticket we had to take the slow ticket. Our train was full of Germans in their lederhosen and dirndls and we felt very left out...too bad traditional German clothing is like 150 euro :( So got off at Stuttgart and made our way to the city center only to realize that Springfest is actually NEXT to Stuttgart...so we had to ask like ten different people and finally just followed the lederhosen and dirndls and caught the right train to about 10 minutes out of Stuttgart to a GIANT FAIR!
With the exception of all the Germans in their crazy clothing, we honestly felt like we were back in America at Six Flags or King's Dominion or something. Fair food, fair rides, fair games...ahhhh! We didn't even know where to begin. Drinks? Food? Rides? Games? So much to do! We decided to go on a crazy turning scary ride (this was more like a fair than amusement park, so you just pay for each individual ride) and this being Europe, who knows what kind of safety regulations they have...especially after seeing the harm the Krampus can do--and that's just a kid's ride! Turned out the ride was completely safe and completely AWESOME and we were all screaming at the top of our lungs and just having a BLAST.
Here's Katherine and Jinah correctly identifying everyone's emotions before the ride started, and in the next picture, please note the beautiful artwork on the ride lol.
After that ride, we continued our spazieren acting like kids in a candy store..."I want to eat that!" "I want to ride that!" "OMG look at that!" Walked the whole premises and then found another ride we wanted to try...it was kind of like the swings, but in a rocket ship--so we thought, why not? Well, it ended up being one of the scariest rides I've ever been on!
Now I know it doesn't look that scary. But you're just sitting there thinking you're going for a nice ride, and then all of a sudden you are just hanging upside down. For a long time! And it was moving so slowly, and it goes higher and higher and then gets faster and then you're over a river!
We were a little frazzled after the ride and SO HUNGRY so we made our way into the beerhall right next to the ride. Security check to get in--we had to throw away any other bottles we had. The guy tried to make me throw away my lotion, and I couldn't figure out how to say lotion in German (according to my bottle in my room, it's "Lotion"...who knew!?) But he eventually realized it wasn't a drink. So we walked in to this GIANT and colorful tent, about ten degrees warmer and stuffier than outside, more lederhosen than we could count, beer and beer and more beer, and a band that was so loud we couldn't hear each other speak!
We found a table, each ordered a liter of beer and were soon re-greeted by our waiter holding all seven liters at one time in the (in)famous German beer glasses. A big "PROST" and we drank!
We were in the hall for about an hour, having the absolute BEST TIME! I can't even explain it--it was really just the moment, it was Deutschland! The band came back from its break and started playing Beatles and Beach Boys and other Oldies hits and we got up on the tables with the other younger Germans with our beers and were just belting out the words and dancing and drinking (and finishing) our beers and nothing in the world was going to go wrong! Here are some more smiling photos!
After a liter of beer we were even hungrier than earlier so we sadly left the beerhall in search of food. Of course it's all nasty (but delicious) fair food--and we were very buzzed after those beers! I found myself some currywurst...I'm on a diet where I'm not eating bread...but of course they gave me a free roll with my currywurst so I ate it. But that's the only time I've broken the bread rule in one week! With our stomachs full, we wanted to go to another beerhall (there were maybe 3 or 4 of the giant ones) but by the time we went back to all of them, the lines were out the door to get it and we realized that we really should've just stayed in the one where we were--if only we had known!!!
So we just walked around more enjoying the 80 degree sun and our stupors and the lederhosen and the fair and eventually hit up another beergarten and only did ,5 liters this time. Just sitting and enjoying company! Also, please see this GIANT FERRIS WHEEL!
After our beers, we said goodbye to Springfest and hopped on the train after buying some train snacks (my diet is also no sweets-- but I have absolutely no self control towards eating when I drink beer so I ate a chocolate bar...but again, only sweets I've had in a week!...I think Saturday will actually just be my "free" day...) We all took some naps on the train back because we were EXHAUSTED. Got back to Heidelberg just before 8 and parted ways to go home. We were thinking about going out afterwards, but I was just SO TIRED and had already spent way too many euros at the fair, so I was in bed at 11pm, something I had absolutely no problem with though, since as I said, I had been out until 3 the night before, and since this had been just the most amazing day!
I realize I may have not described our experience at the festival in a way that makes it seem as good as it was--but it's hard to explain. It was just the fact that everything came together so perfectly. We honestly had no idea what to expect from Springfest, or really what it was, but I always find that when you go into something without any expectations, that's when you have the best time (take mom's trip to Germany last week!) We had a great group of people, the weather was GORGEOUS, we got to be kids and ride roller coasters and be a fairgrounds, and then we got to be super German and stand on tables singing as loud as we can drinking liters of beer! It was just a fantastic day and I am SO THANKFUL I wasn't FOMO-ed out of that one!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
The Smell of Summer
It's here. Summer is HERE. Yes, I realize that the summer season doesn't actually start until June 20th or 21st which is more than a month away...but I SMELLED IT! You know how people can always smell when fall starts? That comforting smell of wood burning, and the leaves falling, and that feeling of the crisp air? Definitely one of my favorite smells... But it doesn't always mean that it's the start of fall--it usually takes a month into the season to smell that. Well it's the same with summer--but it starts earlier. Being in a German dorm, I've got no air conditioning so we just always have all the windows open. I walked into the bathroom just now and was greeted by the smell of summer wafting through the open window. It's a harder scent to explain than that of fall...but it's just kind of a fresh scent with a warm breeze--it differs from the smell of a warm spring day though because along with this smell is a feeling of relaxation--a summer feeling. This smell brings a feeling of relaxation I think because the air is a bit more humid, a bit heavier, and all you want to do is just be outside and let the sun soak into your skin.
I realize nothing I'm writing makes any sense, but it's just been a weekend of such glorious weather, and I am so excited for summer to come (though I'll still be in classes for all but a month of it...) and it is finally coming! I used to never mind winter, and was fairly neutral about summer, but this past winter I suffered an extreme case of the winter blues, even though winter was very mild in DC this year. I was so tired of being cold and having to bundle up, and even convinced mom to take a vacation to the Caribbean just to return to the sun. Spring would be a welcomed visitor then, you'd think, but because of my debilitating allergies, I literally count down the weeks until plants stop blooming. Words cannot describe just how excited I am for the summer season.
I realize nothing I'm writing makes any sense, but it's just been a weekend of such glorious weather, and I am so excited for summer to come (though I'll still be in classes for all but a month of it...) and it is finally coming! I used to never mind winter, and was fairly neutral about summer, but this past winter I suffered an extreme case of the winter blues, even though winter was very mild in DC this year. I was so tired of being cold and having to bundle up, and even convinced mom to take a vacation to the Caribbean just to return to the sun. Spring would be a welcomed visitor then, you'd think, but because of my debilitating allergies, I literally count down the weeks until plants stop blooming. Words cannot describe just how excited I am for the summer season.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Spargel
So I still haven't gotten around to updating about Vienna, but that'll get done eventually... wanted to talk about the last few days though!
I don't have classes on Fridays so I've been using that as an opportunity to do lots of traveling-- two weeks ago to Austria, and last week to Munich with mom. So this is the first Friday in a while that I've been able to just enjoy Heidelberg!
Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo which obviously means nothing to Germans, but it's a holiday American always like to celebrate. We all gathered at Dan's for a fiesta, and he made guacamole...kind of...Krista made delicious salsa, Matt bought six liters of sangria, we ate burritos with meat and rice and peppers and hot sauce, drank tequila shots, and listened to some samba music. All around, a great time had by all! Since we've started normal classes, we all don't see each other four hours every day, and usually at least a few people are traveling every weekend, so it was really nice to gather as a group and hang out! My camera got passed around and here are the results:
Dan and I hard at work at the stove...(but really all I did was make sure the meat got cooked)
Quincy, Jenny, and Brock--actually got a smile out of Quincy in a photo!
And someone took this one...just the whole really crowded kitchen
Made it home safe despite a tipsy bike ride, and woke up this morning to a beautiful day! It had been kind of cold this past week but we're in for some warm weather. Katherine, Jinah, Brock, and I met at 10:30 to climb the Koenigsstuhl--a mountain in Heidelberg. You must climb up the Himmelsleiter to get there, translation: "Heaven's Ladder." Correctly named because it's 1,200 steps--no joke.
The other three had climbed it once before, but this was my first time, and damn was it a tough climb! It probably took us around thirty minutes to get up there (Matt's record is something like 14 minutes!) and the view from the top was incredible.
And the three of us BC girls are still trying to get a picture on Webmail, so here was our shot for that:
Took a little breather at the top, then practically fell back down the mountain cause it's so steep. Once back in town, we stopped at the supermarket to grab some Lebensmittels (groceries) and then Katherine, Jinah, and I headed to the Neckarwiese to soak in some rays. It actually wasn't as warm as we had thought, but we still had a very pleasant two-hour siesta laying on the grass by the river. We all parked our bikes right next to each other--
It's approaching that time of the year when it's time to get tan, so today was my first try. It was quite hazy out today, but I think I may have gotten a little color! I came home to find horses in my backyard! That was weird. My roommate said there's a riding school right next to our apartment, but I had never seen the horses over here before...but they were literally just, right in the backyard! I actually had a nice conversation with my roommate though-- she's from Duesseldorf, so I told her how we went there and tried to find "die komische Gebaude" and what not, and I finally know for certain that there actually are only three of us living here this semester. The other girl who was here last semester is taking a semester off for some personal reasons, so it's just me, Dayana, and Alexander. Also--turns out that the American guy who lived in my room last semester ended up dating Dayana, so I thought that was kind of funny.
After our chat, I went for a short run, making the most of the great weather, and then cooked a nice dinner with...SPARGEL! Alright, Spargel is the German word for asparagus. Germans LOVE Spargel. Except...the spargel here is really fat and white...and quite phallic looking actually, but they LOOOOVE it. I think it looks disgusting so I've been too afraid to eat it and have since switched to green beans. I couldn't find green beans in the grocery store all week though, so I figured I would just try the white spargel--it tasted like it looked--gross. But when we went to the supermarket today, they had GREEN SPARGEL! I'm a big lover of asparagus back home, so that was like the highlight of my day. So I made some marinated chicken and green spargel for my dinner and watched some Curb.
All in all--a GREAT day! Tonight we're supposed to be going to this party in the Feld, so we'll see what happens with that. Tomorrow the plan is to go to Stuttgart for a Spring Festival/Fair, so that should be fun--hopefully some good rides!
Today was an example of me loving being abroad, but overall, it's a huge emotional roller-coaster. Sometimes I hate it and just want to be back at BC, and sometimes I love it and never want to leave and cannot believe this is actually my life. Sometimes I'm just neutral about the whole thing. When I'm exhausted and biking the two miles home with twenty pounds of groceries on me and I'm swallowing too many bugs to count, I really hate it. Like, why can't I just have my car? And my air conditioning? But on days like today, especially with no class and no traveling and I've just gotten to take advantage of the beautiful city, being abroad is pretty fantastic.
I don't have classes on Fridays so I've been using that as an opportunity to do lots of traveling-- two weeks ago to Austria, and last week to Munich with mom. So this is the first Friday in a while that I've been able to just enjoy Heidelberg!
Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo which obviously means nothing to Germans, but it's a holiday American always like to celebrate. We all gathered at Dan's for a fiesta, and he made guacamole...kind of...Krista made delicious salsa, Matt bought six liters of sangria, we ate burritos with meat and rice and peppers and hot sauce, drank tequila shots, and listened to some samba music. All around, a great time had by all! Since we've started normal classes, we all don't see each other four hours every day, and usually at least a few people are traveling every weekend, so it was really nice to gather as a group and hang out! My camera got passed around and here are the results:
Dan and I hard at work at the stove...(but really all I did was make sure the meat got cooked)
Quincy, Jenny, and Brock--actually got a smile out of Quincy in a photo!
And someone took this one...just the whole really crowded kitchen
Made it home safe despite a tipsy bike ride, and woke up this morning to a beautiful day! It had been kind of cold this past week but we're in for some warm weather. Katherine, Jinah, Brock, and I met at 10:30 to climb the Koenigsstuhl--a mountain in Heidelberg. You must climb up the Himmelsleiter to get there, translation: "Heaven's Ladder." Correctly named because it's 1,200 steps--no joke.
The other three had climbed it once before, but this was my first time, and damn was it a tough climb! It probably took us around thirty minutes to get up there (Matt's record is something like 14 minutes!) and the view from the top was incredible.
And the three of us BC girls are still trying to get a picture on Webmail, so here was our shot for that:
Took a little breather at the top, then practically fell back down the mountain cause it's so steep. Once back in town, we stopped at the supermarket to grab some Lebensmittels (groceries) and then Katherine, Jinah, and I headed to the Neckarwiese to soak in some rays. It actually wasn't as warm as we had thought, but we still had a very pleasant two-hour siesta laying on the grass by the river. We all parked our bikes right next to each other--
It's approaching that time of the year when it's time to get tan, so today was my first try. It was quite hazy out today, but I think I may have gotten a little color! I came home to find horses in my backyard! That was weird. My roommate said there's a riding school right next to our apartment, but I had never seen the horses over here before...but they were literally just, right in the backyard! I actually had a nice conversation with my roommate though-- she's from Duesseldorf, so I told her how we went there and tried to find "die komische Gebaude" and what not, and I finally know for certain that there actually are only three of us living here this semester. The other girl who was here last semester is taking a semester off for some personal reasons, so it's just me, Dayana, and Alexander. Also--turns out that the American guy who lived in my room last semester ended up dating Dayana, so I thought that was kind of funny.
After our chat, I went for a short run, making the most of the great weather, and then cooked a nice dinner with...SPARGEL! Alright, Spargel is the German word for asparagus. Germans LOVE Spargel. Except...the spargel here is really fat and white...and quite phallic looking actually, but they LOOOOVE it. I think it looks disgusting so I've been too afraid to eat it and have since switched to green beans. I couldn't find green beans in the grocery store all week though, so I figured I would just try the white spargel--it tasted like it looked--gross. But when we went to the supermarket today, they had GREEN SPARGEL! I'm a big lover of asparagus back home, so that was like the highlight of my day. So I made some marinated chicken and green spargel for my dinner and watched some Curb.
All in all--a GREAT day! Tonight we're supposed to be going to this party in the Feld, so we'll see what happens with that. Tomorrow the plan is to go to Stuttgart for a Spring Festival/Fair, so that should be fun--hopefully some good rides!
Today was an example of me loving being abroad, but overall, it's a huge emotional roller-coaster. Sometimes I hate it and just want to be back at BC, and sometimes I love it and never want to leave and cannot believe this is actually my life. Sometimes I'm just neutral about the whole thing. When I'm exhausted and biking the two miles home with twenty pounds of groceries on me and I'm swallowing too many bugs to count, I really hate it. Like, why can't I just have my car? And my air conditioning? But on days like today, especially with no class and no traveling and I've just gotten to take advantage of the beautiful city, being abroad is pretty fantastic.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)