After visiting Freiburg from Tuesday to Friday, we headed off to Nuernberg, Germany on Friday and stayed till Saturday night. Nuernberg is known for having the biggest Weihnachtsmarkt in Germany. The weekend we went apparently was one of their busiest and that was definitely true once we got downtown to the Weihnachtsmarkt. It was a really cute town in Germany, the whole city was surrounded by the old castle walls, it was really unique. Once we got there me and mom went exploring downtown and saw some churches and took lots of pictures, then stumbled upon a group of Native American musicians, it was really cool, they were playing covers of popular songs on like whistles and rain makers and some tom tom drums, it was really cool, so mom bought their CD. We had to wait until Eric got there and we were going to pick him up at the Hauptbahnhof (train station), so we shopped a little bit and saw some of the stuff around town. Eric finally called and we met up with him and had a Gluehwein (spiced Christmas wine drink) before going to dinner. We had no idea where to go to dinner in town so we asked the people working at our hotel and they told us there was a really good German restaurant down the road, so we walked there. It was really cute, typical German restaurant, the women waitresses were even wearing Dirndls (the traditional dress for German women, it's usually only worn at festivals like Oktoberfest). We got sat next to some really nice Swiss women and we started talking with them. They showed us what they bought that day in Nuernberg and told us the best Lebkuchen (gingerbread cookies) was Schmidt Lebkuchen. They let us try it and it was delicious!
The next day we set off downtown and walked through the Christmas Market, it was so cute! And there were soooo many people, you could barely walk, the street was full of people as wide as the street would allow. We also went into a cathedral in the center of town called Lorenzkirche, it was a really beautiful church, luckily I got pictures inside before the security caught us taking some. Of course the church was a Gothic style church, it was built from 1270-1350.
Nuernberg has quite the historical significance, it was a very prominant location for huge Nazi conventions-- the Nuernberg rallies, with its relevance to the Holy Roman Empire and the fact that it is in the center of Germany. In 1933 after Hitler's rise to power Nuernberg became a center for anti-Semetism and propoganda. Also Hitler specifically ordered the Reichstag to convene at Nuernberg to pass the anti-Semitic Nuernberg Laws which revoked German citizenship for all Jews. Nuernberg was also where the first railroad was built in Germany. Nuernberg is known for their Christmas Market and Lebkuchen too.
Once we got to the Christmas Market there was another really cool church but it was a bit smaller than the St. Lorenz Kirche, it was the Frauenkirche (Our Lady's Church), it was the main church in all the postcards of the Christmas Market and of Nuernberg, it was very unique looking.
During the day of shopping through the Christmas Market Eric and I had about 4 glasses of Gluehwein, it was really good in Nuernberg, and I got to collect all of the cups. And we even found the Schmidt Lebkuchen!! We got about 3 tins full of it, so delicious. I never liked Lebkuchen until I tried it in Nuernberg because I am not really a fan of Gingerbread but something about the cookies in Nuernberg made them so much better! Overall the trip was really great, it was added to my list of favorite cities in Germany, I really enjoyed it! It was sad saying goodbye to my mom and Dan but I know I will see them again soon enough! We had a great week of traveling around! Until next time =]
Auf Wiedersehen
Monday, December 29, 2008
Freiburg Visit
My mom and Dan went to visit Eric first in Mannheim and they also visited Heidelberg. After that they drove down to Freiburg to visit me. The first night I showed them a lot of what Freiburg had to offer downtown, like the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) and the Muenster (cathedral). It was very lively downtown when they came so that was fun, but sometimes the hoards of people are too much to handle. They were getting pretty hungry so I decided to take them to a place called Tacheles, which offers a lot of different types of Schnitzel (schnitzel is basically a pork tenderloin). The weather was fairly good then, which was nice. Later we met up with my friends and went to my favorite restaurant, Kartoffel Haus, which literally means Potato House, everything they serve has potatoes in it, so delicious! I had a salmon, potato lasagne...YUM!
The next day we drove to a town called Titisee, well the lake there is actually called the Titisee, yeah funny name I know, it means Titi Lake basically. It was the perfect day to go because it was snowing and the lake is up on a mountain, it was sooo beautiful, everything was just white. The drive there was gorgeous too, but a little dangerous because we were driving up a mountain, pretty scary. My really good friend Jason Ernst came too, so that was fun. We ate at a little restaurant and had some waffles and cake. My mom ordered a Schwarzwaldkirsch Torte, Black Forest Cake, little did we know there was cherry alcohol in it, and it was so strong, I'm sure she could probably feel the alcohol after that. Me and Jason shared an apple cake/pie thing, it was awesome. After that me and Jason wanted to take a lot of pictures by the lake. It was snowing really hard still so my mom and Dan stayed in the car. Me and Jason were definitely not wearing the appropriate shoes for the weather, tennis shoes. So we had to trudge through the snow down to the lake. We finally found some stairs that lead down there, but they were covered over with snow so Jason went first and ended up just falling on his butt and sliding down...hahah he loved it because he is from Arizona and has never seen snow. So then I did it next, and went really fast down. Then we took a ton of pictures by the lake, it was almost eerie looking because there was no sun, only gray, foggy, and white snow everywhere. We also took some pictures of us jumping which turned out pretty awesome.
We finally headed back to Freiburg and then my mom and I went back into town to go shopping for family and go to the Christmas Market. Then for dinner I took her out to the Feierling Brewery, the food was really good, and I looooove their beer, it's so smooth and really tasty. Mom even had a glass, I think she liked it too, we had a good time just talking, that was really nice because we don't get much time for just the two of us.
Unfortunately because of the really snowy weather I didn't get to show them all that I wanted, like the Shauinsland in the Black Forest, the lake by my apartment, hiking, wine tasting, and much more....but next time my mom comes around May or June I will definitely take her and show her all that Freiburg has to offer, and it will be much more enjoyable in the spring/summer! I can't wait! So I hoped they enjoyed Freiburg, it is a gorgeous city, I am really going to miss it when I have to leave.
Auf Wiedersehen
The next day we drove to a town called Titisee, well the lake there is actually called the Titisee, yeah funny name I know, it means Titi Lake basically. It was the perfect day to go because it was snowing and the lake is up on a mountain, it was sooo beautiful, everything was just white. The drive there was gorgeous too, but a little dangerous because we were driving up a mountain, pretty scary. My really good friend Jason Ernst came too, so that was fun. We ate at a little restaurant and had some waffles and cake. My mom ordered a Schwarzwaldkirsch Torte, Black Forest Cake, little did we know there was cherry alcohol in it, and it was so strong, I'm sure she could probably feel the alcohol after that. Me and Jason shared an apple cake/pie thing, it was awesome. After that me and Jason wanted to take a lot of pictures by the lake. It was snowing really hard still so my mom and Dan stayed in the car. Me and Jason were definitely not wearing the appropriate shoes for the weather, tennis shoes. So we had to trudge through the snow down to the lake. We finally found some stairs that lead down there, but they were covered over with snow so Jason went first and ended up just falling on his butt and sliding down...hahah he loved it because he is from Arizona and has never seen snow. So then I did it next, and went really fast down. Then we took a ton of pictures by the lake, it was almost eerie looking because there was no sun, only gray, foggy, and white snow everywhere. We also took some pictures of us jumping which turned out pretty awesome.
We finally headed back to Freiburg and then my mom and I went back into town to go shopping for family and go to the Christmas Market. Then for dinner I took her out to the Feierling Brewery, the food was really good, and I looooove their beer, it's so smooth and really tasty. Mom even had a glass, I think she liked it too, we had a good time just talking, that was really nice because we don't get much time for just the two of us.
Unfortunately because of the really snowy weather I didn't get to show them all that I wanted, like the Shauinsland in the Black Forest, the lake by my apartment, hiking, wine tasting, and much more....but next time my mom comes around May or June I will definitely take her and show her all that Freiburg has to offer, and it will be much more enjoyable in the spring/summer! I can't wait! So I hoped they enjoyed Freiburg, it is a gorgeous city, I am really going to miss it when I have to leave.
Auf Wiedersehen
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Paris!
My mom and Dan traveled to Europe a 2 weeks ago! The stayed from December 5-14. First off Eric and I met up and went to Frankfurt to pick them up. Once we finally got there it took forever trying to find them, there was the same car rental place like a 5 different locations throughout the airport. We finally found them and headed off to Paris! Little did we know, European driving is much different, and really scary. There was no way I wanted to drive. So Eric drove us most of the way to Paris and once we got there, the driving was even worse. Getting through Paris was a nightmare, I don't know what we would have done with out the navigational system in the car already. We finally got to our hotel, the Holiday Inn, and got our rooms and settled in for a while. Eric and I weren't very tired, but Mom and Dan were because they had been straight traveling for like 1 day and a half. So Eric and I headed out and next to our hotel we found what claimed to be a "Tex-Mex" restaurant, I was pretty excited because I had not had Mexican food in months, it was pretty tasty. Then we went out for a few drinks, it was a good time.
The next day we woke up around 9 to get ready and leave on our tour, but once we got outside to look around for the bus stop for our bus to pick us up, it was a nightmare. I was the one leading us around trying to find it, and of course I am not that great at directions so I think we walked in a circle about 4 times. I was asking French people in my broken French where this bus stop was, and everyone was pointing us to the same place, but every time we would go back we couldn't find it. About a half hour-hour later, we found it!! So me, Eric and Mom went on the tour, and Dan went back to the Hotel. We were only on the bus for about 15 minutes and then got off at La Madeleine, which was a Cathedral built by Napoleon, I snapped two pictures in the church even though the sign said "NO PICTURES," haha I am so rebellious. It was beautiful inside, and the outside looked very similar to the Parthenon. After that we decided just to keep walking because we could see a really cool square in the distance, so we walked all the way there. By this time my mom had mentioned she needed to go to the bathroom. As we were walking we tried looking for a restaurant or any place that might have a bathroom, (side note: in Europe you have to pay to go to the bathroom almost everywhere). So we kept walking and finally made it to the pretty square, there were some monuments, and a ferris wheel, and a park, it was really beautiful, and we could even see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. We were so busy taking a ton of pictures and gawking at all the amazing architecture, we had forgotten mom had to go to the bathroom still, we had been walking around for about a half hour at this point. We were in the middle of nowhere that looked like it would inhabit a bathroom, but come to find out there was one hidden behind the ferris wheel. After all that we headed out on our trek to the Eiffel Tower. We walked really far to get there, but it was definitely worth it! The Eiffel Tower was amazing. We really wanted to go up on top, but the line was really long so we took a ton of pictures. One thing about the Eiffel Tower was that there were SOO many pigeons hanging around it, they were flying all around our heads, and one guy in front of me even got pooped on. We were out at the Eiffel Tower long enough to even see it get lit up! I think the color changes often, but when we were there, it was blue and there were all the yellow stars of the European Union on it (which I have come to find out the European Union stars are displayed on the Eiffel Tower because now there is a French presidency in the EU).
The Eiffel Tower is the most visited monument since its construction in 1889, it only took 6 months to build. The tower was orginally supposed to be built in Barcelona, Spain but the Spaniards thought that the project didn't fit well with the city architecture and that it was a strange monument (were they wrong!). It was built for a Universal Exposition (World's Fair), and it is one of the most recognizable monuments in the world. It is also the highest building in Paris. During the construction of the tower, only one man died. Once it was revealed, many many people greatly disliked it, writing angry letters to the paper, and claiming it was an eyesore. It was even supposed to be torn down in 1909 as a part of the contest rules, but the city used the tower during the First Battle of Marne to dispatch taxis to the front lines, after the battle it was seen as a victory symbol, so the city of Paris kept the monument in place.
After the Eiffel Tower we went to see the Arc de Triomphe, Arc of Triumph, it is right down the street from the Eiffel Tower, it is the sight of so many famous Parisian pictures. It was constructed for the soldiers that fought for France during the Napoleonic Wars. It is the 2nd largest triumphal arch in existence. A weird fact about the Arc is that every couple decades they have to bleach the arc because the color of it changes from all of the soot and exhaust from cars! People can also go to the top of the Arc and take pictures...we saw so many people at the top. It was a really beautiful monument, especially at night with the French flag hanging between the arch and it was all lit up. There is a huge roundabout around the arch, which was really cool, but packed full of cars. After seeing the Arc we decided to head back to the hotel and get some rest. The next day Eric and I woke up early because we were going to go and see Notre Dame.
We set off in the morning and took the subway to where Notre Dame was, side note...the Paris subway system is really dirty, so beware. I had heard that Paris was dirty in general, but I never really thought so until we went down into their subway system. Notre Dame is on a little island on the Seine River in Paris. When we got to where the cathedral was supposed to be, we could not find it! We were looking at the map and went in a circle a few times. We thought we saw it but we didn't know how to get into it because it was in a courtyard, turns out the church we saw was Saint Chappelle, and NOT Notre Dame. I had wanted to see St. Chappelle anyway, but the funny thing was me and Eric were taking pictures in front of it not knowing it wasn't Notre Dame. We finally asked directions and someone pointed us to Notre Dame, once we got there it was an amazing Cathedral, unfortunately we didn't have enough time to wait in line and go in. Notre Dame means 'Our Lady' in French and its construction spanned through the whole Gothic period, many say its the best representation of French Gothic architecture, and it really is. While we were there I learned what flying buttresses are, they are used in Gothic architecture, they are basically used for bearing large walls, and enormous amounts of weight to make the structure stay put. They are usually found on cathedrals and mostly Gothic style architecture, they are meant to look as if they are 'flying' instead of just bearing weight from the ground...hence the name flying buttress. Anyway the cathedral was truly and amazing site, and it inspired a Disney movie (well book rather) remember "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," it was a book written to raise awareness of the historical value of the cathedral in the 19th century because the church was being ready to be torn down because it was so vandalized and in a poor state.
After Notre Dame my mom and Dan were not done with their tour so we decided to go see Basilique du Sacré Cœur which means in English Sacred Heart of Basilica. It is the highest point in Paris. It is a cathedral that, to me, sticks out like a sore thumb, the architecture looks like it is something that belongs in the middle east or something, the architecture is far from European, even the color too. On the way walking up to the cathedral Eric and I were bombarded by some African/maybe Nigerian people that were trying to really aggressively heckle us. Eric got stopped but I ran so I could get away from them, they really scared me. I legitimately thought we were going to get mugged or something, but one of them followed me up the stairs and was trying to sell me this stupid piece of string that apparently did something cool, but I really wanted him away from me, but he wasn't taking no as an answer. I could see Eric was also getting extremely annoyed with them too, so I took a picture wanting to keep the moment, because it was so strange. One of them saw me take the picture and rushed over to me demanding that I delete it off my camera, so I did, and then they finally backed off and tried annoying other tourists. We finally made it up to the top to the cathedral. It was amazing, and a really long walk to the top. I have never seen so many beggars in my life, but nonetheless we were at the highest point in Paris in the Montmatre region of the city.
After that cathedral we went back to the hotel to meet my mom and Dan. They got to see the Louvre, I really wish Eric and I could have made it there. Paris was a gorgeous city, and one of my favorites that I have ever seen, the architechture was phenomenal. I wish I could speak French though because it seemed not too many people spoke English, or maybe just didn't want to. I wish we could have seen more, like Versailles and the Catacombs underneath the city, but that could be for another time if I return to Paris at some point in my life. Overall it was an amazing trip. We headed back to Mannheim and I left there for Freiburg, my mom and Dan spent a day in Mannheim and Heidelberg seeing the sites, and Eric showed them around. On my way back to Freiburg I realized I was not going to get there by regional trains. I would have had to wait until about 5 am to make it back to Freiburg, and I really did not want to do that, so in Karlsruhe I hopped on an ICE (inter city express) train, illegally I might add, because I didn't have the right ticket. I was so lucky the ticket guy didn't ask for my ticket because I was pretending to sleep...so I got to Freiburg safe and sound!
I will be writing about their trip to Freiburg, Nuernberg, and Weihnachtsmarkt soon!
Eric and I are in Duesseldorf for Christmas right now with Flo's family, I'll be writing about it soon too. And for New Years I am planning to go to Chamonix, France with my friends, and we will be skiing in the Alps!
Auf Wiedersehen
The next day we woke up around 9 to get ready and leave on our tour, but once we got outside to look around for the bus stop for our bus to pick us up, it was a nightmare. I was the one leading us around trying to find it, and of course I am not that great at directions so I think we walked in a circle about 4 times. I was asking French people in my broken French where this bus stop was, and everyone was pointing us to the same place, but every time we would go back we couldn't find it. About a half hour-hour later, we found it!! So me, Eric and Mom went on the tour, and Dan went back to the Hotel. We were only on the bus for about 15 minutes and then got off at La Madeleine, which was a Cathedral built by Napoleon, I snapped two pictures in the church even though the sign said "NO PICTURES," haha I am so rebellious. It was beautiful inside, and the outside looked very similar to the Parthenon. After that we decided just to keep walking because we could see a really cool square in the distance, so we walked all the way there. By this time my mom had mentioned she needed to go to the bathroom. As we were walking we tried looking for a restaurant or any place that might have a bathroom, (side note: in Europe you have to pay to go to the bathroom almost everywhere). So we kept walking and finally made it to the pretty square, there were some monuments, and a ferris wheel, and a park, it was really beautiful, and we could even see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. We were so busy taking a ton of pictures and gawking at all the amazing architecture, we had forgotten mom had to go to the bathroom still, we had been walking around for about a half hour at this point. We were in the middle of nowhere that looked like it would inhabit a bathroom, but come to find out there was one hidden behind the ferris wheel. After all that we headed out on our trek to the Eiffel Tower. We walked really far to get there, but it was definitely worth it! The Eiffel Tower was amazing. We really wanted to go up on top, but the line was really long so we took a ton of pictures. One thing about the Eiffel Tower was that there were SOO many pigeons hanging around it, they were flying all around our heads, and one guy in front of me even got pooped on. We were out at the Eiffel Tower long enough to even see it get lit up! I think the color changes often, but when we were there, it was blue and there were all the yellow stars of the European Union on it (which I have come to find out the European Union stars are displayed on the Eiffel Tower because now there is a French presidency in the EU).
The Eiffel Tower is the most visited monument since its construction in 1889, it only took 6 months to build. The tower was orginally supposed to be built in Barcelona, Spain but the Spaniards thought that the project didn't fit well with the city architecture and that it was a strange monument (were they wrong!). It was built for a Universal Exposition (World's Fair), and it is one of the most recognizable monuments in the world. It is also the highest building in Paris. During the construction of the tower, only one man died. Once it was revealed, many many people greatly disliked it, writing angry letters to the paper, and claiming it was an eyesore. It was even supposed to be torn down in 1909 as a part of the contest rules, but the city used the tower during the First Battle of Marne to dispatch taxis to the front lines, after the battle it was seen as a victory symbol, so the city of Paris kept the monument in place.
After the Eiffel Tower we went to see the Arc de Triomphe, Arc of Triumph, it is right down the street from the Eiffel Tower, it is the sight of so many famous Parisian pictures. It was constructed for the soldiers that fought for France during the Napoleonic Wars. It is the 2nd largest triumphal arch in existence. A weird fact about the Arc is that every couple decades they have to bleach the arc because the color of it changes from all of the soot and exhaust from cars! People can also go to the top of the Arc and take pictures...we saw so many people at the top. It was a really beautiful monument, especially at night with the French flag hanging between the arch and it was all lit up. There is a huge roundabout around the arch, which was really cool, but packed full of cars. After seeing the Arc we decided to head back to the hotel and get some rest. The next day Eric and I woke up early because we were going to go and see Notre Dame.
We set off in the morning and took the subway to where Notre Dame was, side note...the Paris subway system is really dirty, so beware. I had heard that Paris was dirty in general, but I never really thought so until we went down into their subway system. Notre Dame is on a little island on the Seine River in Paris. When we got to where the cathedral was supposed to be, we could not find it! We were looking at the map and went in a circle a few times. We thought we saw it but we didn't know how to get into it because it was in a courtyard, turns out the church we saw was Saint Chappelle, and NOT Notre Dame. I had wanted to see St. Chappelle anyway, but the funny thing was me and Eric were taking pictures in front of it not knowing it wasn't Notre Dame. We finally asked directions and someone pointed us to Notre Dame, once we got there it was an amazing Cathedral, unfortunately we didn't have enough time to wait in line and go in. Notre Dame means 'Our Lady' in French and its construction spanned through the whole Gothic period, many say its the best representation of French Gothic architecture, and it really is. While we were there I learned what flying buttresses are, they are used in Gothic architecture, they are basically used for bearing large walls, and enormous amounts of weight to make the structure stay put. They are usually found on cathedrals and mostly Gothic style architecture, they are meant to look as if they are 'flying' instead of just bearing weight from the ground...hence the name flying buttress. Anyway the cathedral was truly and amazing site, and it inspired a Disney movie (well book rather) remember "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," it was a book written to raise awareness of the historical value of the cathedral in the 19th century because the church was being ready to be torn down because it was so vandalized and in a poor state.
After Notre Dame my mom and Dan were not done with their tour so we decided to go see Basilique du Sacré Cœur which means in English Sacred Heart of Basilica. It is the highest point in Paris. It is a cathedral that, to me, sticks out like a sore thumb, the architecture looks like it is something that belongs in the middle east or something, the architecture is far from European, even the color too. On the way walking up to the cathedral Eric and I were bombarded by some African/maybe Nigerian people that were trying to really aggressively heckle us. Eric got stopped but I ran so I could get away from them, they really scared me. I legitimately thought we were going to get mugged or something, but one of them followed me up the stairs and was trying to sell me this stupid piece of string that apparently did something cool, but I really wanted him away from me, but he wasn't taking no as an answer. I could see Eric was also getting extremely annoyed with them too, so I took a picture wanting to keep the moment, because it was so strange. One of them saw me take the picture and rushed over to me demanding that I delete it off my camera, so I did, and then they finally backed off and tried annoying other tourists. We finally made it up to the top to the cathedral. It was amazing, and a really long walk to the top. I have never seen so many beggars in my life, but nonetheless we were at the highest point in Paris in the Montmatre region of the city.
After that cathedral we went back to the hotel to meet my mom and Dan. They got to see the Louvre, I really wish Eric and I could have made it there. Paris was a gorgeous city, and one of my favorites that I have ever seen, the architechture was phenomenal. I wish I could speak French though because it seemed not too many people spoke English, or maybe just didn't want to. I wish we could have seen more, like Versailles and the Catacombs underneath the city, but that could be for another time if I return to Paris at some point in my life. Overall it was an amazing trip. We headed back to Mannheim and I left there for Freiburg, my mom and Dan spent a day in Mannheim and Heidelberg seeing the sites, and Eric showed them around. On my way back to Freiburg I realized I was not going to get there by regional trains. I would have had to wait until about 5 am to make it back to Freiburg, and I really did not want to do that, so in Karlsruhe I hopped on an ICE (inter city express) train, illegally I might add, because I didn't have the right ticket. I was so lucky the ticket guy didn't ask for my ticket because I was pretending to sleep...so I got to Freiburg safe and sound!
I will be writing about their trip to Freiburg, Nuernberg, and Weihnachtsmarkt soon!
Eric and I are in Duesseldorf for Christmas right now with Flo's family, I'll be writing about it soon too. And for New Years I am planning to go to Chamonix, France with my friends, and we will be skiing in the Alps!
Auf Wiedersehen
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Pictures above ( Me Shane and Kelly in the night train on the way to Amsterdam, this was before the guys in front of us puked all over themselves) (The group in front of the I AMsterdam sign, it was sooo cold!)
So I have not updated my blog in quite some time so I definitely think I need to let everyone know what has been going on in my life overseas. A few weeks ago my friends, Eric and I all went to Amsterdam from November 20-23rd, it was quite an experience to say the least. First off we took a night train to Amsterdam, which was about 10 hours away. We got on the train and I sat next to my friend Shane and we were trying really hard to fall asleep, but lucky for us there were 2, I would say about 16 year old German boys sitting in front of us, and they were drinking some vodka very heavily and listening to loud music. After about 2 or 3 hours into the trip I just see out of the corner of my eye one of them puking all over himself! I was totally disgusted and got up and moved down to the train and sat by some other friends of mine for a bit. They sat there for a while and one was just covered in his own puke with his head in a sweatshirt, as if trying to hide his shame. I finally go back to my seat and after about another hour I am just getting to sleep and I hear the kid puke AGAIN! I couldn't believe it, Shane and I were just laughing behind them, thinking thats what they get for getting drunk on a night train, smart idea right?
Picture of (Eric and Kelly standing next to a tiny car in Amsterdam...we saw a ton of cars like this...where did they come from??) (So many bikes in Amsterdam, the had bikes everywhere! People did bike tours around the city a lot) (Me in some huge clogs...hahah)
So we finally arrive in Amsterdam around 9 AM in Amsterdam and I had gotten maybe 3 hours of sleep. We began the day by getting all of our things in the hostel and starting some sight seeing. If anyone doesn't know, Amsterdam is known for having Marijuana and prostitution legalized, so there are some strange characters in Amsterdam.
(Picture of me in front of the canals in Amsterdam) (The Heineken Brewery where we went for the "Heineken Experience") (Me and Kelly in a huge wooden clog/Dutch shoe) (Me, Kelly, and Emma with Darth Vader in the main square, hahah they would stand out there and you have to pay to take a picture with them)
When we were sight seeing the city was actually a cool city, but pretty dirty by my standards because looking into the canals right away I could see a ton of trash in them and the color of the water was almost black. Everywhere we went smelled like weed too. Amsterdam had some really cool buildings and architecture. Such as a lot of the buildings were purposefully slanted forward because all the houses are so close together that you can't get any furniture through the actual house, so they have a pully system to get them through the windows, but if they were smart wouldn't they have just made the pully stick out farther so they wouldn't have to actually build the houses forward just to get things inside? Another strange thing was the Red Light District, we went there at night to check it out, and there are just women everywhere standing in windows trying to lure men in and pleasure them for money. We found out that it is illegal to take pictures of any of the women in the Red Light District, and if anyone catches you snapping a picture the women have cups of urine by the window to through at you, they will break your camera, or throw it into one of the canals; before the end of the trip I actually snapped a quick picture of one of the red light girls, I think she might have seen my do it, but nothing happened.
(The pictures below are ...the first of Ginny in the square in Amsterdam walking through a huge crowd of pidgeons) (The next of our first day in Amsterdam outside of our hostel) (And the I AMsterdam sign at night when it was snowing.)
Another thing about Amsterdam was that it was so expensive!! I never had expected it to be so bad, but the first night Eric got into Amsterdam we went out for a beer at a pub and Eric ordered a Guinness and the bartender said it was 7 Euros!!! Which equals about $9 for one glass of beer! Eric strangely had two glasses and then decided to call it a night because he spent 14 Euros on only 2 glasses of beer. We also went to a Pancake house(we saw them everywhere, apparently pancakes are very popular in Amsterdam) and I decided to get a pancake since I had not had one since being in the USA, when my pancake came out it was as thin as a piece of paper and had nothing on it, I laughed because they charged me 4.25 Euros...approx $5.50!!! So I basically ate it like a tortilla. Another funny food thing was the coffee portions, all Eric wanted was a normal sized coffee and they would bring him a tea set sized cup of coffee that would be gone in 3 seconds, and charged 2.25 Euros for it. Overall Amsterdam was a cool city, but I would never feel the need to return. Oh and we also did a Heineken Brewery Tour which was actually really fun, but if any of you decide to go to Amsterdam ever, go when it is warm because I froze my butt off the entire time, partly because I only had a thin jacket and was sick the whole time.
The next week was Thanksgiving which was really fun because my program hosted a Thanksgiving Potluck at my apartment complex, everyone brought some homemade Thankgiving food, I was really happy I didn't have to miss out on that Food Eating Marathon Holiday called Thanksgiving! It was funny what some people brought, a girl Heidi in my program brought a pumpkin pie that was totally homemade from an actual pumpkin because Germans have never heard of pumpkin pie, nonetheless have canned pumpkin pie filling. I got a huge piece but I was disappointed by the result, it tasted like black licorice, but I definitely give an A for effort because that would have been hard to make. I had so much food that night, when I got up from the table I couldn't even stand up straight because my stomach was so full, I had to hunch over all way home.
Pictures below... (My table at the Thanksgiving potluck, mmmm delicious!) (The table full of desserts and food!) (My roommate Joanna, Shane, Me and Kelly eating our Thanksgiving dinner in GERMANY!) (Ulli, my program director, serving me some Turkey...yumm! )
We also had a Thanksgiving dinner at my apartment for my German roommates. My roommate Joanna basically planned everything, it was so delicious. We made for them chicken, corn, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, carrots with brown sugar, rolls, jello salad, and a real pumpkin pie. It was so good, and the Germans were obsessed with the pumpkin pie because they had never tasted anything like it before, so I had my mom send me some more pumpkin pie filling so they can make it for their families on Christmas! They were also really confused with the cranberry sauce and jello salad because they have nothing like it here. It was a really fun night with all of my roommates.
Right now my mom and Dan are here and we have already gone to Paris and they went to Heidelberg and Mannheim to visit Eric. They are in Freiburg visiting me now. That blog is soon to come! Next week! Hope all is well at home. Everything is flying by so fast here, and it's amazing that it is already December! I miss you and Love you all! Happy Holidays!!!
Auf Wiedersehen!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
