Approaching the end: Amsterdam, Dublin & London

It's pretty much over, and lets be honest here, I'm not ready to go back to working and studying. Back to the work that gives me crap hours and a manager that hates me with a passion. Yeah, sounds like a blast. BUT, I am looking forward to seeing everyone, food, my own bed and a shower that I can actually shave my legs in. It's kind of difficult living out of suitcase and living with other filthy travellers for 3 months. But anyway, let's recap what I've been doing since Prague, shall we?

After we said our goodbyes in Prague, which was terribly difficult, we headed for the train station. My best friend Alex misread the ticket and we ended up RUNNING full-speed through the station and down the platform. Picture three backpackers, 50lb bags, hobbling and wheezing down the platform. Hilarious but honestly the worst thing ever. We then proceeded to experience the worst trainride of our lives. Nearly 25 hours in a cramped cab with 3 other people, 6 total with the heater broken at a steady 95 degrees... sitting... all night. I was living in hell. Finally we reached Amsterdam and climbed 5 flights of stairs to our room. Distaster of a travel day.

Amsterdam was beautiful. We did walking tours through the city and saw the Red-Light District. That was simply unreal. Women were standing in red-lit windows looking for customers and knocking on the glass trying to get our attention. It felt like a movie. After several visits to "coffeeshops" (sorry mom) and multiple chocolate waffels later we were in love with the city. It was perfect up until I got the flu. Amsterdam fun, over. I spent the next 2 days hovering over the porcelain throne wishing I would just get it over with and die.

From Amsterdam we took a short plane ride to Dublin. It might have been my favorite place next to Munich. Christmas lights, pubs, and live music everywhere. Feeling much better by then, we ate our first big meal, Irish Breakfast. Simply amazing. A fried egg, two types of puddings, a deep-fryed potato ball, sausage, ham, baked beans and toast. We went back to get more later in the trip. It really reminded me of breakfast at home, which I miss a lot. We also went to the Guinness factory and learned how to pour the perfect pint. Pretty useful information if I do say so myself. On one of the last days we went into downtown and took pictures for my friend DJ's photography project. Along the way we found some of the best street performers I've seen on the whole trip. We even sang with a group who will be heading to Wisconsin on a tour later in the year.

As of right now we are in London. It's painfully expensive but the city is beautiful and the people have been really nice. We went to the London Bridge the first day and met a extremely talkative old man who offered to give us a free tour. Generally, when someone approaches you offering to lead you around a city you say no. What's in it for them? Are you leading me down a dark alley to steal my things? Well he actually just turned out to be a really cool old guy with some time to kill. He told us all about the history of London and brought us to check out views of old buildings, bridges, the Big Ben and a Christmas market. Everything was great until DJ recieved a text from his father wishing for us to have a good time at the Florence and the Machine concert.
Wait.
What?
That isn't two days from now?
If his father wouldn't have messaged him we would have missed the last big event of our trip. Phew! We said goodbye to our tourguide and hopped on the tube to get home.
The concert was everything I could have hoped for. Even though we were in the nosebleeds of the biggest venue I've ever been to, it was still incredible. Florence Welch's voice is like liquid gold.

Today we spent more time at the Christmas market and I purchased a hand-made leather journal. Maybe I'll start actually writing again. This blog has at least minorly got me back into the habit. We plan soon to head out to dinner and maybe grab a pint or two.

Tomorrow we're going to Harry Potter Studios. I'm stoked. I'll be sure to write about it in my last and final Europe blog... which I'm not fully excited to do.

Cheers!

Adventures in Berlin and Prague

Since leaving the south I've been keeping myself busy and also adjusting to the climate change. It went from 75 and sunny to 30 and cloudy in Berlin. Go figure, I ended up feeling sick as soon as I got off the plane. The following days I slept while my friends went out and discovered the city. Bogus. After some much needed rest I finally got out to see Berlin on a free tour led by a guy who used to give them in Munich. I saw the Brandenburg Gate and some other historical sights. I don't remember much considering I was in a heavy cold-medicine haze. Feeling much better the following days I got out of the room and made some friends. I met up with Liam and Nathan, two Aussie guys that my classmate Brittany met in Spain. I also hung out with some other Aussies and some Canadians and we had a really good time. I went with Brittany to see the Berlin Wall and some local alternative street art. That was incredible. I can't even describe it. Alex met up with us later in the week. More fun/ chaos ensued.

The three of us left for Prague with the addition of our Aussie friend Nathan... he had some complications with his passport and Liam had to go to Dubai without him. We reached the trainstation late in the evening and got hassled by someone trying to convert our Euros into Czech Koruna. This is obviously a scam so we walked away as fast as we could. The night got better when we ate our Thanksgiving feast. Even though we couldn't have turkey and the usual fixings, we had stir fry, mashed potatoes, green beans, meat, cheese, bread and wine. It was incredible. The Aussies were SO excited to be experiencing American Thanksgiving.

We also did a really cool pub crawl and went and saw the Castle in Prague. Apparently it's the largest in Europe.

It was SO hard saying goodbye to our Aussie friends. The last day we spent under a historical bridge eating sausages and drinking beer saying our goodbyes. I just hope it's not the last time I get to see them.

Leaving Munich and adventures in Italy

Leaving was extremely difficult. My coworkers became like a second family. My boss Dr. Peters even bought me going away presents. On the second to last day I walked my neighborhood streets one last time and said my goodbyes. I'm certain that I will be going back if not maybe living there (when I'm rich).

I arrived in Levanto Italy on the 6th and was greeted by my classmates as soon as I got off the train. The train ride was pure evil. The devil. 12 hours is far too long to be sitting with complete strangers and doing nothing. At least I got to sleep for a couple of hours. Anyway, Levanto was amazing. We were right on the beach and spent almost all of our time picking rocks and walking up to our knees in the water. The place is gorgeous. Being there also reminded me what it is like to be around people. In Munich I was more or less by myself and being with a group of almost 20 people was legitimately overwhelming.

Since then, I've been in Rome with my friends in the class. We've had so much fun, definitely too much fun. On the first day we went into Vatican City which is beyond words. We ended up getting ambushed by this sketchy lady offering to take us in to the Vatican and Sistine Chapel without waiting in the lines. We were nervous about this for sure. One of the rules for travelling abroad is to never trust someone who approaches YOU. If you approach them then it's generally safe. Regardless, the sketch lady took us to the best pizza place in Vatican City and then we were off on the tour. It turned out to be the best tour I've ever been on. We saw the gardens and sculptures surrounding the Vatican, went through the Sistine Chapel (breathtaking) and ended in front of the line for the Vatican. We walked right in without ever having to wait. We walked the entire thing from top to bottom. Literally. The basement was filled with the tombs of the first popes and we climbed 300 stairs to get to the very top. It was insane.

Today we took a stroll to the colloseum and rode a tour bus through the city. The ruins in Rome are mind-blowing.

Pizza is good, pasta is fantastic, I can actually somewhat sort of enjoy red wine now... kind of.

All for now!
Ciao!

It's been awhile, how are you?

I'm fully aware that I haven't posted anything in almost a month. Things slowed way down after Oktoberfest and I've kind of just been living here in Munich. Going to work, doing my laundry, buying groceries and watching T.V. is much less exciting than the things I was doing before, but I do have some things to share.

The weekend after Oktoberfest I went to Greffern to visit Kristi for the weekend. When I got there, our classmate Carl was in a frenzy. The "pipes" had burst in the house and it was pretty much raining through every lightbulb and every socket of the house. Apparently when they tried to fix things before, they had simply attached garden hoses for the houses water system. Some of her roommates stuff was damaged and we weren't allowed to use the lightswitch in the bathroom. The next day Kristi and I went to Stuttgarts Oktoberfest. It was really fun but the train rides to get out there and back took forever. If we wouldn't have gotten kicked out of the beer hall because of Kristi's drunk French roommate, who knows when we would have gotten back. All in all it was really fun though. We ate crepes like 3 times. That's something I'm definitely going to miss when I come back home.

In the weeks following, my classmate Mallory was in town so we got to hang out a bit. I also did Museums Night with a co-worker and that was amazing! We travelled from place to place seeing everything from a Russian library to a band playing Bob Dylan on top of the Olympia Tower. It was the best day. The only downside was that at then end of the night, the metro was closed so I had to walk quite a ways to get back to my apartment.

This past week Alex and D.J. came and visited me again. We haven't done anything too exciting, but it's just nice to be around eachother. Last night we went to the Euro Youth for their halloween party. It was really fun. We got our faces painted and watched them tap a keg of beer.

This upcoming week is my last in Munich. It's really sad because I've gotten so comfortable here. It's literally become like a second home. It will still be good to move around and see something new and exciting again. On the 5th I leave for Levanto wich is very exciting. I get to meet up with my classmates and hopefully see some warmer weather.

Also, I bought myself a rather expensive Christmas gift. No one gets to see it until my return. You should probably be worried. =P

Oktoberfest

Oh yes, it was glorious. Alex, D.J., and Kristi all came down to celebrate with me and it was honestly the most fun I've had. They all showed up on Friday (even though D.J. missed his first train) and I brought them to their apartment. They lived with two German students named Marcus and Marcus. When they asked if we wanted to go play a drinking game in the park we were excited to go. It was intense. The midwesterners were put to shame very quickly. On Saturday, I had booked a Beer Challenge Tour that ended up being both fun and kind of informational. We went to some of the big beer gardens and learned a German drinking song. The tour ended with Oktoberfest which is where we stayed most of the night. We met some really interesting people and had a blast. On Sunday Kristi left and I actually convinced Alex and D.J. to stay another couple of days. So on Monday the three of us went to Dachau. That was a serious experience. I really can't even put it into words. If you want to hear about it you're just going to have to go for yourself.

That was my extended weekend in a nutshell. I actually plan to visit Kristi this weekend in her little German village and possibly make it to the Oktoberfest in Stuttgart. For now, I could use the relaxation. The past 4 days have flown by and I'm a little exhausted.

Sorry this is really condensed. We did so much in such a short amount of time. But it was honestly the greatest. I'm going to miss Alex and D.J. but I'll get to see them again in a month.

Tschüs!

Miss me?

Yeah, It's been awhile. I guess I'm just keeping myself busy. I visited the Neuschwanstein Castle on Friday. That was sweet (other than the 2 mile climb up a mountain.) The views were amazing and the castle was super cool. I learned a lot of history and also met some awesome people. Sunday I went to the English Garden. Most likely my favorite place in Munich. It's the largest in the world so it took me the better part of a day to walk it. Rivers and huge open fields, ducks, dogs, little kids. Pretty much everything I love. It really reminded me of home. Most of Europe is buildings and streets so it was nice to get back to some nature. I needed some fresh air in my life. There's even a lake that you can rent boats on.

Work has been going well. I'm now working with a woman from Latvia. She's really nice and is a important museum worker in her country. My research is coming along as well. I may start writing next week.

Other than that, nothing to really tell. I guess I'm finally settled in to my surroundings.

Also, Alex, D.J., and Kristi are coming to visit me this weekend. I'm more than excited. I've already booked a Beer Challenge tour and have a mental list of things I can't wait to do with them. It will definitely be the highlight of my month.

This is a picture of the institute now and back in the 40s when it was turned into the Central Collecting Point for artwork after the plunder of the Nazis.

I'm an utterly boring person...

Yep. The truth. Today I went to work, came home, skyped, did some laundry, and now I'm in bed. When did I become this old person? I might have to start taking Fridays off just so I can go out an do something. I might check out the thrift store in town. But don't worry, I wont go crazy or anything.

On the other hand, Saturday was not an old person day for me. It was the first day of Oktoberfest! I left the house at 11:30 and walked through the pouring rain to get there. I did it. It was glorious. Although I didn't go to any beer tents, I followed the parade route into the carnival area and had a few at one of the smaller vendors. It actually wasn't too expensive. I met a really cool couple from Oregon who knew a lot about the Twin Cities and Wisconsin. The husband was a big Vikings fan. They've even been to Spooner, WI which was insane to me. I have a ton of friends from that tiny town.
Consequentially, I spent most of my Sunday napping in my room. You tell yourself that you're doing a great job at pacing yourself... but you're not even close. Just stop, go home early. German beer is both delicious and deadly. But I do have to say (now that I'm feeling better) it was totally worth it. Also, the sausages at Oktoberfest are TO DIE FOR. Served on a baguette. But sauerkraut was no where to be found. I was puzzled.

Anyway, I think that's really all that's happened in the past couple of days. I can tell you that I am unbelievably excited for my friends from class to come and visit me in Munich.