Chartres, no pun intended!

Part of Christine's family visit adventure was a day trip to Chartres (pronounced: sharts).

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. What an inappropriate name for a town! But all the more reason to go, I guess! Courtney, Monica and I tagged along with Christine, her mom and aunt as we rushed to the train station to get on the 10:33 A.M. train to Chartres. Luckily, we made it on the completely overcrowded train in time; and "overcrowded" is no exaggeration. The train was so crowded, there was absolutely no sitting room and we were left to stand in the aisles for the one-hour train ride. However, that did not deter us from the exciting day to be had.

Arriving in Chartres was a surreal experience. The town is exactly how I imagined a small, picturesque French town. It was perfect, beautiful, and the weather was absurdly nice. We couldn't help but gasp at all the adorable buildings and the pristine gardens. It was an amazing sight. 
We started off our day in Chartres at the market, where we sampled pea pods and bought some fruit for a picnic. After buying some sandwiches, biscuits, and a chocolate egg, we were ready for our picnic. Courtney, our GPS queen, led us towards the park where we wanted to picnic at. This park was UNBELIEVABLE! Set perfectly on the bank of a beautiful river, we parked ourselves neatly on a bench and the nearby grass and ate away at our strawberries, oranges, sandwiches, and whatever else we could fill our stomachs with.

Courtney, having finished her lunch a little early, began to sketch Monica and I, but soon found that two bodies are much more time consuming to sketch than one. She stuck with my obscenely beautiful body and sketched me away. I was posed in a very uncomfortable position, however, and Courtney continually had to yell at me to keep still even though my shoulders were giving out from leaning on them...Her sketch turned out pretty good, I think (considering I threatened her to make me look 20 pounds lighter)!


After our picnic, we walked around the park a bit more and came across a little hen pen, where we came across some interesting birds from Japan.

Heading out of the park, we walked around the quaint streets of Chartres on our way to its infamous cathedral. This cathedral was extremely beautiful and is especially famous for its stained glass.




Sitting around outside of the cathedral to soak up some more sun with our energy levels fading, we decided to take the 4:30 P.M. train back to Paris. We killed some time walking into a chocolate shop, a wine shop, and some other stores until it was time to trek our tired bodies back to the train station. This train, luckily, was practically empty when we boarded and we all got a chance at a nice nap during the ride back.

Chartres, thank you for providing me with a great memory of the French countryside!!

When in Rome, Ride a Segway

I know this is a delayed one, but better late than never!

Rome began last Thursday as Jamie and I headed to Orly airport for our flight into Fuimicino Airport. Our flight was good, however the couple sitting next to me really needed to get a room or restrain from tearing each other's clothes off during the flight. I felt rather uncomfortable.

Once we arrived, Jamie and I courageously attempted to take the train to the station where Mozer and Danny were meeting us. However, the extremely rude woman at the ticket counter failed to inform us how to take the train and we ended up missing it and had to wait for the next one a half hour later. No worries though! We made it to the Roma Trastevere train station in one piece and met up with Mozer and Blinky. We immediately went to a small Asian restaurant to get Suppli (a favorite for the Romans), which I did not favor myself. Thursday night was a mellow one for us considering Jamie and I arrived later than expected. The next day was going to be filled with touristy activities while Mozer and the Rome crew were on a field trip...

The next morning was nothing short of beautiful. Since luck always seems to be in our favor, the one day Jamie and I needed to travel around the city was the one day in April that the transportation department went on strike. Moral of the story, there were no trams or buses running. We were left to our own feet to get us where we needed to go, but we were fine with that! We hiked across Rome to the Forum and the Colosseum for our first stop. To say that the Forum took my breath away is an understatement; it was absolutely beautiful and thrilling.



The Colosseum was just as fantastic as the Forum; probably the most exciting part was getting to cut the 2 hour long line! Jamie and I didn't spend too much time in the Colosseum considering it is the same from every angle, but we did get a few good pictures in!

From the Forum and the Colosseum, we walked all the way back towards the Vatican City. We took a pit stop along the way and got some lunch at an adorable Italian restaurant, indulging in bruschetta and margherita pizza. We finally made it to the Vatican City, and since we arrived a little early, we laid in the sun for about an hour and the went into the Sistine Chapel.

I completely underestimated the size of this thing, and jeez, it was huge. I did, however, break some rules (how unusual of me) and took some forbidden pictures :-)

After the Sistine Chapel, it was time for Jamie and I to meet up with Mozer at her apartment. We hauled our sleepy butts all the way back to her apartment and rested for awhile. Finally, it was time for dinner and a big group of us headed to an Apertivo, where you buy a drink and get to eat unlimited appetizers. Considering my pickiness, I had a successful dinner at the Apertivo and tried some cous cous and ate a lot of beans.

That night, we headed to a club and Blinky and I got our dancing on. Then, out of no where I ran into some friends from Vanderbilt who are studying abroad in Madrid...the best surprise ever! After some time at the club, we decided to head home and get ready for another filled day of seeing Rome.

We woke up that next morning filled with excitement and energy. The weather was amazing just like the day before, and we knew it was time to break out the jean shorts!! Of course we looked like tourists, but I have given up on caring what the Europeans think and I will wear whatever I want. If I wore jeans, like they all do, in that weather I would have melted into a puddle...

We walked around a bunch and saw the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain.

 We headed up the Spanish Steps to the Bourghese Gardens and laid in the sun for an hour just enjoying the landscape.

 Mozer's lightbulb went on and she suggested we rent segways. It took no convincing at all, and we were immediately on the hunt for where to rent the segways. Once we found it, we wasted no time and paid our 8 euros each to rent them for a half hour (total bargain). However, none of us had ridden a segway before this experience so we were a little rusty at first. But we soon became pros and zoomed all throughout the Bourghese Gardens; it was literally the time of my life.

 After our day in the gardens, we headed back to Mozer's apartment to prepare for our big Italian dinner! We gathered up Danny and headed to a restaurant nearby. I started off with bruschetta, then had penna alla vodka, then had some chicken with peppers, and finished it off with a nice fruit salad. It was the perfect ending to the day.

And no exaggeration, that was basically the ending to the day. We headed back to the apartment and I literally passed out, eliminating all chances of us going out and partying. We slept throughout the entire night! Waking up relatively early in the morning, we walked right outside of Mozer's apartment to the 3rd largest open air market in Rome! It was awesome to walk around and see all the random things people were selling. We ate some pizza as a farewell lunch, and right after lunch it was time for Jimbo and I to head to the train station to the airport. What an amazing trip!!!

I see London (I see France)

This blog post is about the first part of this rhyme...LONDON! It's about time I headed my croissant-filled ass over to a country that speaks my language (English....that is). It all started with the Chunnel...

One must first realize that the United Kingdom is an ISLAND and therefore, one must find other means to reach this land aka by boat, by plane, or by CHUNNEL! The Chunnel, a train that goes underwater, was my mode of transportation by choice for this solo journey. I'll admit I was a bit nervous, but the hundreds of people surrounding me paying no attention to the fact that we were riding underneath the ocean made me feel a bit more calm. Arriving in London was another story. Since I am without European phone (considering I never used mine and decided it was a complete waste of precious Euros), Abi and I made a strategic plan to meet at the top of an escalator. (We also had a backup plan in case Plan A fell through).

Good thing we had Plan B, however, considering little miss Abigail failed to realize that my train would be arriving in an international terminal and as a result, there was no escalator nearby! I soon realized this as I walked off the platform into St. Pancras (I still want to call it St. Pancreas) and saw not a single escalator in sight. No worries mate, for I headed straight to Plan B where I awaited anxiously for my British-American buddy. A hop, skip, and 2 tube rides later, Abi and I were in her cozy apartment getting ready for a night on the town!

But don't forget, for on this very night was St. Patrick's day, and we had to go out with a bang. We met up with her friends at an apartment and began to drench our wine in green dye in preparation for the night ahead. Once we were warmed up, we headed over to O'Neill's, an Irish pub conveniently located in the center of London. Lots of dancing and some beer drinking later, we had eventually had enough and headed back to Abi's tiny excuse for a bed to sleep. Little did we know that we would fit perfectly in this little cocoon of a bed and had some wonderful slumbers.

The next morning started off with some breakfast and then a trip to the Tate Modern Museum! Probably one of my favorite museums that I have seen in Europe yet, it was filled with good Ol' Picasso and Dali (some of my favs), with explanations in ENGLISH (which I thoroughly enjoyed). We then walked around to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, whether I got to experience some London rain! After walking past the Globe Theatre, we came across an old Prison Museum and decided to give it a go. We learned a lot about all the horrible things they do to you in prison, which was just lovely. Although the London rain was a lovely experience, we were getting a little fed up with the moist (great word) air and headed back to Abi's flat.

A shower, some Uncle Ben's rice, and a few hours later, it was time to head back out in Londontown. Our first stop was to meet Jimbo and Jenny to see Grease the Musical. Although it was a little different from the movie, it was still very entertaining and to this day, I am still singing the songs. Abi had heard of a really cool club to go to, XOYO, so we figured we would give it a shot. However, this was not the raging club we were expecting; it was kinda creepy. So Abi and I ducked out, met up with her best friend Emily, and went to a different club that was latino themed. As this is more my style, we danced the night away with some drinks, staying until the club closed.

The next morning, I headed to the tube alone to meet up with Jimbo, Max, and Bari for the walking tour! What kind of european trip would it be without a free walking tour? Getting to see all the main sights of London was great and extremely interesting. We got to see the Changing of the Guards, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and many other places.

 It was very cool! After the walking tour, I met up with Abi and Emily and we headed over to Camden Market, which is a huge open air market that sells basically anything you can imagine. We ended the night at a hawaiian themed club with Jimbo, Bari, Max, and everybody else.

The next day was a much lazier day. Abi and I walked around to Abbey Road and Kensington Gardens, and wandered our way everywhere in between. It was great to spend my last full day in London relaxing and walking around a beautiful part of the city. Nothing too eventful happened that night; a lot of sitting around and eating Uncle Ben's rice ;-)

I awoke 6 A.M. the next morning getting ready for the 8 A.M. Chunnel ride I had awaiting for me. Racing home and grabbing my books, it was nearly time for class! I must say it was a fully-packed trip, and probably one of my favorite cities yet!

Urine Paris!

No pun intended...Seriously.

I am sick. I am tired. I am sick and tired of having to explain the undeniable stench of urine throughout all of Paris to my lovely visitors. Because, to be honest, there is no explanation. There is no excuse.

I don't think the Parisian Founding Fathers planned on their entire city smelling like pee, but that is what this French metropolitan has turned into. I have spend the past two months studying the sources of this stench, and I have determined a few conclusions:

1. There is an enormous amount of homeless people living on the streets. Hey, they gotta go somewhere.
2. There is a lack of free public restrooms. I don't want to have to pay 50 cents every time my bladder fills up.
3. People are just rude.

Let's talk about the third item on my list, considering the first two items are completely understandable. The other day, I was departing the Metro on my way home from somewhere-French. Upon descending the steps that lead to the street, I immediately heard the all familiar "trickle" of public urination. And there it is...right in front of me... A woman holding her naked toddler as the toddler pees on the wall. Seriously, lady, can't you at least put a diaper on it?

For such a beautiful city, I am tired of it smelling like hell. Maybe April Showers will bring May Flowers and the flower power will overcome the stench of urine. One can only hope.

My Pay-By-The-Hour Boyfriend's Visit!

Christmas came early for me…

WHYYY do you ask?

Well, last Thursday night, my pay-by-the-hour boyfriend hopped on a plane and traveled the grueling, Ambien-filled 6 hours to Dublin, Ireland where he awaited the arrival of my lady-crew and myself. Dublin, Ireland…. the holy grail for Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day celebrations was the location of this past weekend’s travels. Let’s start from the beginning…

Early Friday morning, the ladies and myself hurled ourselves across Franceland to BVA Airport and boarded a Ryanair (ironic much?) flight to Dublin. Trying to keep as calm as possible, we landed and began to walk through the terminal until we met up with the boy waiting for me. With clammy hands stuffed in my pockets, we walked through the baggage claim with everybody filled with excitement and myself walking through the terminal trying to not piss myself. Walking through the door, my eyes darted from left to right until a familiar, yet skinnier, figure caught my eye. Shoving through the hundreds and hundreds of people in the room (joke), I finally made my way to my pay-by-the-hour boyfriend.

This is where all you readers say “Aww”

However, don’t let this romantic moment make you think my eyes weren’t on the prize. It was unofficial, and it was officially time to party. We hopped on a shuttle and made our way to Barnacle’s Temple Bar Hostel conveniently located in the heart of Temple Bar, the awesome, party/touristy area of Dublin. Wasting no time, we found Cori and the rest of her friends and began to drink with our Carlsberg beer we bought upon our departure from the shuttle. The rest of the day was filled with party, party, and more party.

Dublin Day 2 began super early as we headed to the pick up point where our Cliffs of Moher tour was to begin. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the tour office, Ryguy’s jetlag got the best of him and we needed to return to the hostel for the rest of the day so he could sleep it off. But that didn’t stop us from rocking Dublin! Walking around and taking in the lively environment was a fantastic continuation of our Unofficial celebration the day before.

 We walked around the Cathedral district and the Museum district, and ended up in the Viking district. By far my favorite visit was St. Patrick’s Cathedral and I could tell Ryan’s Irish blood was pulsing double time upon seeing it. 

It was absolutely beautiful. The day soon turned into night and it was time for eating and even more drinking.

Dublin Day 3 was our last day in Dublin but was still filled with excitement. Jimbo, Monster, Ryguy and I went on a walking tour, which ended in one of the most beautiful parks EVER!

 After a lovely Kodak moment, we left the walking tour and headed to a pub with our tour guide and indulged in some local Irish food. Soon enough, however, it was going to be time to head to the airport for our flight back to Paris. After one last stop at St. Patrick’s Cathedral so Monster and Jimbo could see it too, we hopped on the shuttle to the airport and boarded our Ryanair (so ironic) flight back to Paris.

It was a long and tiring travel from the plane ride to the shuttle back from BVA, but eventually we arrived back in my apartment. And as I suspected, it was a very tight squeeze for Ryan in my tiny bed, to say the least. However, that did not deter us!

Our 4 days in Paris were comprised of a whole bunch of EVERYTHING! To spare the long and boring details, I will provide the best highlights of it all:

One of our first stops was the Louvre.

 Seeing the vast decorations of the outside and then the beautiful artwork inside, we got the perfect impression of one of the most famous sights in all of Europe. We met up with Ryan’s cousin, Matthew (one of my favs in all of Franceland), in Le Marais and ate some falafel before heading down the Seine over to Notre Dame. Since it was such a beautiful day in Paris, with not a single cloud in the sky, the stained glass within the Notre Dame was especially beautiful!

For the next 3 nights, Ryan and I stayed in a hotel near the Eiffel Tower. Our first night in the hotel was the perfect time to show Ryan the Eiffel Tower at night and the sparkle that happens the first 10 minutes of ever hour at night. It was perfect, to say the least.

A one-of-a-kind experience Ryan and I had was a gourmet, 5-course French meal. Each course started off with a glass of wine and the food was paired with the wine (not the wine with the food!). Although I cannot describe what food I was ingesting, it truly was quite an experience that I will never forget

The day after our 5-course meal was filled with more walking around and sight seeing, however our experience at night was what made this day especially remarkable. Two words are all that I need to describe it: Moulin Rouge. The show was AMAZING, the costumes were unbelievable, and the dancers (and lots of boobies) were extremely entertaining. It was something I will go to my grave telling everybody, “I WENT TO MOULIN ROUGE IN PARIS!!!”

After our exhausting days of sight seeing in Paris, it came the time for us to head to our third city: Amsterdam. Friday morning, we embarked on a super early train headed North to the wonderful Dutch city I had already fallen in love with. After a difficult cab situation (the guy took us to a completely WRONG hotel), we arrived at the CitizenM Hotel ready for a nap. I’ll make this sweet and short: I could write an entire blog post about how awesome this hotel was. It was beautiful, modern, and all around perfect. My only complaint was that the toilet paper was a little rough. The room was controlled with a touch screen remote, where we could control the lights, blinds, temperature, tv (and free on demand movies!), and the color of the lights. It was SO cool, I can’t even describe.

Our trip to Amsterdam consisted of a lot of shopping, walking around, eating chocolate covered waffles (YES!), Mannekin Pis fries (YES!), and a walking tour. The walking tour gave us a whole new perspective of Amsterdam that the average person does not usually receive. 

For example, it was in Amsterdam that the first “stocks” and “shares” were sold, through the Dutch-East Indie Company. Basically, it was in Amsterdam where “business” was invented. We also learned that Amsterdam was the only place where people actually protested the Nazi’s during the Second World War. The Dutch protested to their best efforts, but were forced to stop after only 2 days due to the Nazi’s whipping out their machine guns and such. But all in all, I give props to the Dutch for being the one group of Europeans that not only acknowledged, but also made an effort to stop the wrong the Nazi’s were doing. Thanks Dutch!

Our time in Amsterdam ended with a stop at the I Am Amsterdam sign where we took the typical touristy pictures that I will cherish forever. 

Our train ride back was filled with the beautiful French countryside and a screaming baby next to us. Paradise.

Arriving back in Paris early Sunday morning, I had one wish: to go to the Pont de Artes and put a love padlock on the bridge. Hunting for a padlock and a marker, we finally put a lock on the bridge and threw 2 of the 3 keys in the Seine. I kept the key we used to open the lock to take back home with me.

Our 10 days together was filled with the perfect combination of Europe: the partying in Dublin, the high class in Paris, and the relaxing in Amsterdam. It couldn’t have gone any better!!!

My Pay-By-The-Hour Boyfriend's Visit!

Christmas came early for me…

WHYYY do you ask?

Well, last Thursday night, my pay-by-the-hour boyfriend hopped on a plane and traveled the grueling, Ambien-filled 6 hours to Dublin, Ireland where he awaited the arrival of my lady-crew and myself. Dublin, Ireland…. the holy grail for Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day celebrations was the location of this past weekend’s travels. Let’s start from the beginning…

Early Friday morning, the ladies and myself hurled ourselves across Franceland to BVA Airport and boarded a Ryanair (ironic much?) flight to Dublin. Trying to keep as calm as possible, we landed and began to walk through the terminal until we met up with the boy waiting for me. With clammy hands stuffed in my pockets, we walked through the baggage claim with everybody filled with excitement and myself walking through the terminal trying to not piss myself. Walking through the door, my eyes darted from left to right until a familiar, yet skinnier, figure caught my eye. Shoving through the hundreds and hundreds of people in the room (joke), I finally made my way to my pay-by-the-hour boyfriend.

This is where all you readers say “Aww”

However, don’t let this romantic moment make you think my eyes weren’t on the prize. It was unofficial, and it was officially time to party. We hopped on a shuttle and made our way to Barnacle’s Temple Bar Hostel conveniently located in the heart of Temple Bar, the awesome, party/touristy area of Dublin. Wasting no time, we found Cori and the rest of her friends and began to drink with our Carlsberg beer we bought upon our departure from the shuttle. The rest of the day was filled with party, party, and more party.

Dublin Day 2 began super early as we headed to the pick up point where our Cliffs of Moher tour was to begin. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the tour office, Ryguy’s jetlag got the best of him and we needed to return to the hostel for the rest of the day so he could sleep it off. But that didn’t stop us from rocking Dublin! Walking around and taking in the lively environment was a fantastic continuation of our Unofficial celebration the day before.

 We walked around the Cathedral district and the Museum district, and ended up in the Viking district. By far my favorite visit was St. Patrick’s Cathedral and I could tell Ryan’s Irish blood was pulsing double time upon seeing it. 

It was absolutely beautiful. The day soon turned into night and it was time for eating and even more drinking.

Dublin Day 3 was our last day in Dublin but was still filled with excitement. Jimbo, Monster, Ryguy and I went on a walking tour, which ended in one of the most beautiful parks EVER!

 After a lovely Kodak moment, we left the walking tour and headed to a pub with our tour guide and indulged in some local Irish food. Soon enough, however, it was going to be time to head to the airport for our flight back to Paris. After one last stop at St. Patrick’s Cathedral so Monster and Jimbo could see it too, we hopped on the shuttle to the airport and boarded our Ryanair (so ironic) flight back to Paris.

It was a long and tiring travel from the plane ride to the shuttle back from BVA, but eventually we arrived back in my apartment. And as I suspected, it was a very tight squeeze for Ryan in my tiny bed, to say the least. However, that did not deter us!

Our 4 days in Paris were comprised of a whole bunch of EVERYTHING! To spare the long and boring details, I will provide the best highlights of it all:

One of our first stops was the Louvre.

 Seeing the vast decorations of the outside and then the beautiful artwork inside, we got the perfect impression of one of the most famous sights in all of Europe. We met up with Ryan’s cousin, Matthew (one of my favs in all of Franceland), in Le Marais and ate some falafel before heading down the Seine over to Notre Dame. Since it was such a beautiful day in Paris, with not a single cloud in the sky, the stained glass within the Notre Dame was especially beautiful!

For the next 3 nights, Ryan and I stayed in a hotel near the Eiffel Tower. Our first night in the hotel was the perfect time to show Ryan the Eiffel Tower at night and the sparkle that happens the first 10 minutes of ever hour at night. It was perfect, to say the least.

A one-of-a-kind experience Ryan and I had was a gourmet, 5-course French meal. Each course started off with a glass of wine and the food was paired with the wine (not the wine with the food!). Although I cannot describe what food I was ingesting, it truly was quite an experience that I will never forget

The day after our 5-course meal was filled with more walking around and sight seeing, however our experience at night was what made this day especially remarkable. Two words are all that I need to describe it: Moulin Rouge. The show was AMAZING, the costumes were unbelievable, and the dancers (and lots of boobies) were extremely entertaining. It was something I will go to my grave telling everybody, “I WENT TO MOULIN ROUGE IN PARIS!!!”

After our exhausting days of sight seeing in Paris, it came the time for us to head to our third city: Amsterdam. Friday morning, we embarked on a super early train headed North to the wonderful Dutch city I had already fallen in love with. After a difficult cab situation (the guy took us to a completely WRONG hotel), we arrived at the CitizenM Hotel ready for a nap. I’ll make this sweet and short: I could write an entire blog post about how awesome this hotel was. It was beautiful, modern, and all around perfect. My only complaint was that the toilet paper was a little rough. The room was controlled with a touch screen remote, where we could control the lights, blinds, temperature, tv (and free on demand movies!), and the color of the lights. It was SO cool, I can’t even describe.

Our trip to Amsterdam consisted of a lot of shopping, walking around, eating chocolate covered waffles (YES!), Mannekin Pis fries (YES!), and a walking tour. The walking tour gave us a whole new perspective of Amsterdam that the average person does not usually receive. 

For example, it was in Amsterdam that the first “stocks” and “shares” were sold, through the Dutch-East Indie Company. Basically, it was in Amsterdam where “business” was invented. We also learned that Amsterdam was the only place where people actually protested the Nazi’s during the Second World War. The Dutch protested to their best efforts, but were forced to stop after only 2 days due to the Nazi’s whipping out their machine guns and such. But all in all, I give props to the Dutch for being the one group of Europeans that not only acknowledged, but also made an effort to stop the wrong the Nazi’s were doing. Thanks Dutch!

Our time in Amsterdam ended with a stop at the I Am Amsterdam sign where we took the typical touristy pictures that I will cherish forever. 

Our train ride back was filled with the beautiful French countryside and a screaming baby next to us. Paradise.

Arriving back in Paris early Sunday morning, I had one wish: to go to the Pont de Artes and put a love padlock on the bridge. Hunting for a padlock and a marker, we finally put a lock on the bridge and threw 2 of the 3 keys in the Seine. I kept the key we used to open the lock to take back home with me.

Our 10 days together was filled with the perfect combination of Europe: the partying in Dublin, the high class in Paris, and the relaxing in Amsterdam. It couldn’t have gone any better!!!

Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, and Vienna...WHAT?

Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, and Vienna. That's all I have to say...

Just kidding, but seriously, there is a limited collection of words I can use to describe the "epicness" of what I like to call "Eurotrip 2011". And to make this enjoyable for all, I will provide the best/fulfilling/dirty/rather inappropriate/fun details of Eurotrip 2011. 

To start: who joined me on this adventure? Well, despite the group of 5 we are usually comprised of, I could see the pain in Courtney and Christine's eyes as their sunshine blonde hair has been constantly outnumbered by our doodie colored brown. So, as a treat, Jen's golden locks accompanied us and evened the match. 

We began early Sunday morning, and with bags in tow, headed on the metro to Gare du Nord where our train awaited to ship us off to Amsterdam. We were cutting our time short and ended up having to sprint to the train to ensure not missing it. The 5-hour train was a no brainer; we slept and talked about the food we wanted to eat (obviously the #1 priority in all of our minds). Once we arrived in Amsterdam, we headed out of the station and our GPS-master Courtney led us towards where our hostel was. While looking confused on the map, a little old Dutch man approached us and offered to help us. The only explanation I can possibly give for our awkward encounter with him was that he had to have just come out of a coffee shop and gotten totally high. Otherwise, he was just a strange man telling us to go back and forth on our map. Within a few minutes, GPS Court got her bearings and led us to Durty Nelly's Inn, one of the coolest hostels in the world. With a pub located on the bottom, and a hostel on the top, we dropped off our bags immediately and went down to the pub for a 5 Euro special, a cheeseburger with fries. After some time relaxing, it was time to head out into Amsterdam and experience it head on; by that I mean wander through the Red Light District and go prostitute shopping.

Just kidding, because it was time to head to the homeland museum! AKA, the Jewish Museum, which is rated one of the best Jewish museums in all of Europe. I, myself, and not usually one to appreciate museums, but this experience completely changed my mind. It was fascinating to learn more about my peeps and all the Dutch Jewskies with our old school museum headsets. Don’t worry, after leaving the museum, the “Jew Day” was not yet over! It was time to hop, skip, and trot over to Anne Frank’s house for a tour I had been waiting forever to see. Since Jimbo is a damn near genius, we purchased our tickets before leaving for our trip and got to skip the entire line (baller status). The house was fantastic and really took Anne Frank’s story to a new level. Not only were we given visual depictions of the years Anne Frank spent while in her hiding place, we were given insight into her diaries, video interviews, and a plethora (great word, I know) of other artifacts. After spending time with one minority, it was time to head to another. With a raving recommendation from Jimbo, we went to Walk to Wok and got some delish stiry fry. After some more shopping in the Red Light District, we headed back to the hostel for an early night.

Arising to a beautiful drug-filled sun, we hurried our sluggish selves over to a walking tour and were rudely turned away. I even offered to translate the Spanish tour for my friends and the tour guide responded by looking at me like I was a complete idiot and turned me down. Anyways, we ended up not being able to take the tour and moved onto bigger and better things: the Heineken museum!  We spent hours going through the maze of activities through the old Heineken brewery such as learning to pour beer from the tap, which I instantly mastered. 

I learned at Heineken that there is no better way to spend your day than to experience everything there is to experience about beer.

After the Heineken Experience, we walked through a flower market and across the “Skinny Bridge” which was magical, nonetheless. 

After taking a plethora of pictures throughout the day and our forefingers were tired from clicking the camera, it was about that time to head to our next city: Berlin.

9 hours. That is how long it took to transport my jiggly butt from Amsterdam to Berlin. Arriving in Berlin at 4:30 A.M. was an experience in and of itself. We sat in the Berlin train station bathroom for about an hour to get away from the cold. In preparation for the frigid day, I proceeded to pull out every single article of clothing I had in my bag and put it on. To say I had on 7 shirts and 2 sweaters is not an exaggeration in the least. Once the cafes began to open up, we migrated until it was a proper time to venture into the city. A hot chocolate, tea, and a piece of apple cake later, it was time to head out into the blistering cold to the wonders that Berlin had to offer. And trust me, I do not say “blistering cold” lightly, for that day Berlin was being pummeled with 15 degrees Fahrenheit. I had never been so cold in my life. As we waddled with our many layers throughout the freezing streets of Berlin, we finally arrived at our beautiful, warm hostel and were greeted cheerfully with a 6 person private room already prepared for us. What nice German hospitality. The first thing we did when we walked through that door? We hit the beds for a nap before a quick Doner Kebab lunch and walking tour. 

The walking tour deserves a paragraph of its own. First and foremost, we made some new friends upon the beginning of the trip, two of which go to Illinois! We took part in being the group photographers for each other and got to know each other on the most personal level possible in 15-degree weather. Those 4 hours were by far some of the most interesting, yet freezing, hours of my life. Our tour guide was extremely intelligent and clearly knew everything there was to know about Berlin, yet it was nearly impossible to pay attention with the frigid cold and my near-frostbit limbs. Berlin was a much more metropolitan European city compared to the ones I have thus far experienced. We witnessed many of the footprints Nazi Germany left behind. For example, we stood in front of the Museum where Hitler would deliver many speeches, where several of the book burnings took place, and where the Memorial stands for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

 The “Museum”, as it is simply called, was once the set for a Holocaust film. In response to the several large swastikas being portrayed throughout the giant square, the film crew calmed the nerves of many German citizens by posting “THIS IS JUST A FILM” signs throughout the set. The location of the book burnings was a fascinating place that had an underground empty library to represent all the books that were burned. Finally, the memorial for the Jewish victims is comprised of a sea of plain cement blocks with graffiti-proof paint. We were also given a great view of one of the last main pieces of the Berlin wall. 

We topped off the tour with viewing one of the most famous and expensive hotels in Germany. It is particularly famous, however, because it is the sight where Michael Jackson playfully dangled his baby over the edge of the balcony. Finally, we hit our wits end with the cold and went to eat our feelings in bratwurst. It wasn’t as magical as I had expected, such as the explosive feelings of ecstasy that I felt when biting my pearly whites into the heavenly Brussels fries. Yet, it was satisfying enough.

We ended our night going to a bar called Zapata, which was filled with strobe lights, lots of smoke, and a sketchy crowd. I was exhausted and not feeling well so Courtney and I opted to head back early for an even EARLIER train to Prague!

The train to Prague was a mixture of sleepiness and epic beauty. The landscape was breathtaking and made me resist falling back asleep (which was a true shocker). After arriving in the Praha train station, we all exchanged our Euros to the infamous Czech Krona. Think paying for things with the Euro is like Monopoly money? The Krona is a whole new level of the game. The 1600 Crown I withdrew was worth 60 Euro and it was sure to last me the entire day. While opting out of the Prague walking tour, due to the even more frigid cold, we hopped on a little bus for a 2-hour tour around Prague which showed us the main sights and stopped at the Castle to allow us to walk around for 45 minutes. 

Prague was by far the most amazing and most disappointing city I had been to on our trip; disappointing because we only got to spend 18 hours there. 

After the bus tour, we headed to our hostel and found not only a private room, but also individual beds for our slumbers! We were in high hopes for the Prague Pub Crawl we were preparing to embark on. We headed to the location for the pub-crawl to start and ordered pastas and pizza before we began the night of heavy binge drinking.

Long story short….

I drank 1 beer. Had 1 absinth shot. Within 2 hours I was back in the hostel alone. I suck.

But don’t worry! Once we awoke, it was time to go on another train ride to our fourth and final stop, Vienna! A refreshing warm breeze took us over as we hopped off the train onto the platform. It was calming and gave us a rush of excitement for what was to come. Not only we were in Austria, but also we had loads of friends awaiting our arrival and we knew this combination was bound to leave us with a good time. Kelsey, Courtney and Christine’s bestie, met us at the train station and led us to their dorm where we would be staying for the next 2 nights. We met up with all the Illinois-Vienna kids and began a walking tour around the main sights of the city.

 After experiencing a 25,000 euro bottle of champagne, rum chocolate, and freshly made potato chips, we headed to a grocery store and collected the ingredients for chicken parmesan in preparation to cook a feast! After a great dinner, we all got ready to head to a school-hosted boat party, which probably ended up being one of my favorite nights in Europe. I don’t know if it was the combination of alcohol, the people I was with, or the general atmosphere of the party, but I had the time of my life. Leaving the boat party was sad yet left me wondering what was next to come. The next day, we took a tour of the Schonbruun palace and the surrounding areas, which left us with an incredible view of Vienna and some photo moments! 

At the top of the hill, which left us with the stunning view, we headed into a café for some Austrian Apple Strudel drenched in a vanilla sauce that I could eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the rest of my life. However, as travels go, one classic Austrian dish led us to another one for dinner: Schnitzel! My eyes must have been too big for my stomach, because I ordered enough food for 3 adult men. But that didn’t stop me. It’s a marathon, not a sprint…right? After dinner, we went to a bar with the entire Illinois-Vienna crew called the Travel Shack. After many shots with inappropriate names, it was nearing 3 A.M. and about that time to go to the airport for our flight home.

Moral of the story, I don’t remember much of my time in the Vienna airport. However, arriving at our beds at about 9 A.M. was probably one of the best feelings I have ever experienced in the world. Sleeping until early evening was no issue as I awoke feeling refreshed and accomplished, knowing we mastered 4 cities in 6 days. It was both tiring, yet exhilarating. I would not trade this week of travels for anything!!