Day 95: Munchen day 3

     I was feeling much better today and after breakfast, Euroadventures brought us to Dachau concentration camp. This was one of the first ones opened and stayed open the whole war. It was really sad; the most memorable thing was a picture of a man that showed how he changed after a month of inhumane testing. He looked normal beforehand, but at the end he just looked miserable and ended up dying soon after the picture was taken. Seeing the gas chambers was creepy but because they'd never ended up using them in Dachau, it wasn't as sad as where they burned the bodies.

     After returning to Munich, I climbed to the top of the tower in the square. The views were gorgeous and you could see the Alps. I met some French people while I was here and spent some time talking to them. At 7:30, the whole group of us went to the station. Evan and I went to PizzaHut! I don't think I've ever been there in the states but I don't really enjoy the German food I've had so I stuck to something safe. At 9:50, the train left and we headed back to Florence. We watched Horrible Bosses and then The Other Guys. I can't wait to be back in Florence and sleep in my own bed!

Day 94: Munich part 2

     The Oktoberfest tents were where we started today. They had Christmas things set up. Most stuff they were selling was Native American, which was ironic. I spent a solid 5 hours here. 

     As I had barely slept the night before, I went back to bed at 2 pm for a few hours. I sadly was feeling sick, so I got Subway for dinner and then went back to my room with the girls I was rooming with. We stayed up awhile talking and then fell asleep.

Day 93: Germany!

     I went to Munich (Munchen), Germany with Euroadventures. We arrived at 7 am and everything was all Christmas decorated. Our hostel was outside of the city center. It's a good place for Oktoberfest, but not for the Christmas markets.

     After dropping our luggage off, we got a tour of the city. We walked through some of the Christmas markets, saw three churches, went to a field where you could walk around nude, and then saw "the wave". I would love to come here in the summer and see the people surfing on this manmade wave. But today was really really cold.

     Shopping in the Christmas markets was really enjoyable and I bought a lot of souvenirs to bring home to family. At 5 pm we met up to go to the Hofbrauhaus, which is the biggest beer house in the world. I didn't want to buy a beer as I don't really like the taste, so I asked this girl if I could pose with hers. When I put it back on the table it fell off into my lap! Luckily only half of it spilled, but I was covered. So here comes my funniest story of when I was abroad.

     The beer was so cold that I ended up taking my pants off and sitting in this massive restaurant in my underwear. After being there 20 minutes, this group of tourists from Asia came over and asked to take pictures with us because they'd never seen people with red hair. It was hilarious. After dinner we went back to the hostel. I went up to the bar on the fifth floor and hung out with some people. It was a nice way to end the night after a really busy day!

Days 91-92: Birthdays and Thanksgivings

     The 23rd was Luisa's birthday. Italians celebrate the same way Americans do with some cake and singing. Thursday I went to the Ferragamo museum with my international marketing class. We learned how shoes were made by this famous designer. The field trips for this class really haven't made any sense or added any value to the class; I'm disappointed I took this class abroad.
     It was also Thanksgiving which is obviously not celebrated in Italy. It made Caroline and I both homesick to know we were missing out on family time at home. After a sad "Thanksgiving dinner" of omelettes, I went to the train station Firenze SMN. I caught an overnight train to Munich!!! This weekend is going to be so much fun!

Day 90: Venezia

     Today is the day that I had been waiting for since I got here. I finally went to Venice!! It took about two hours to get there; I went with Shelly and her family. Once you walked out of the train station you immediately got the full effect of Venice: there's a white bridge on the left, water 'buses' and 'taxis', and of course, the river with some floating buildings. It was exactly how I had imagined it to look.

     We took a water bus to the main square and explored the bridges and area around there. The area is very touristy and so prices are very high. After a quick lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, we just got lost in the streets of Venice. I walked wherever I wanted to and over a ton of bridges just because I could. Then I went on a gondola ride. I could not convince the guy to sing no matter how much I tried; you paid 80 or more euro to ride one so I was not happy with him..

     Although this is a quick explanation of what happened, the pictures really explain how beautiful it was. When we were waiting for the train, there was a guy on the steps singing Jason Mraz while playing guitar. The whole experience was absolutely worth it. I wish I had had more time there. That was in my top five things to do before I die and it was as amazing as I thought it was going to be.

Day 89: Exhausted

     I am completely worn out from all the travel. Luckily I only had one class today. Tomorrow I'm going to Venice and I am so excited! Skipping one day of class will definitely be worth it to get all my travelling in!

Day 88: San Marino

     San Marino: One of the few enclave countries in the world. That's where Caroline and I went today! It took 3.25 hours to get there. It was all built up on a hill and remined me of St. Paul de Vence mixed with Tuscan towns. I liked it here but sadly it was too foggy to see anything. There was a Cathedrale and after lighting candles there, we got some good food (raviolis!). The ride home was long and it definitely wasn't worth the 7 hours of traveling that we did, but at least I have another country down!

Day 87: Milan

     Today Shelly and I went to Milan! It took only 40 minutes to get there. Once we arrived, we took the metro to the Duomo. You could see it before you walked up the steps; I think this is my favourite duomo in Europe. A ton of pigeons attacked us and there were people everywhere; it was much more crowded than Firenze.

     We spun on the bull's balls for good luck inside of the marketplace, saw the theatre, and then walked to where The Last Supper was painted. We had to wait two hours, so we walked around the area and saw what Milan was like outside of the tourist areas. When we finally got to see DaVinci's 'The Last Supper', we had to go through four doors because they have to maintain one temperature and air pressure in there. It was Really huge! I was expecting something as small as the Mona Lisa.

     There really wasn't too much to do in Milan besides shop, and so we went back to Florence slightly early. Caroline, Shelly and I went to the Diner for dinner to get some fake American food.

Day 82-86: Longer Week

     This week was just as normal, except we had a makeup day on Friday. On Wednesday, my Italian class went on a scavenger hung! We went to the train station and had to find certain things, like when the next train left for Milan and random things like that. Then she brought us to a coffee place and got us all a drink! It was so sweet of her; I got the most delicious cioccolata calda and I am going to be coming back here again for sure.
     Thursday I had a substitute teacher for my international marketing class, and he has given me the best advice I've gotten probably my entire college career. He told us that the meeting between our joy/talent and a demand is where we will find a career we are truly happy in. He had so much to say and I won't forget this experience; he made the entire study abroad time worth it.

Day 81: Leaving Prague Already

     Today was spent mostly souvenir shopping. I saw those fish spas that bite your feet in a window; they're banned in the US. I wish I'd had more time in the square to experience that! We left at 12:15 pm and Caroline and I ended up sitting at the back of the bus. We felt really sick and were really happy to stop in Austria to get some food. We arrived in Florence at 1:30 am!! Far too much traveling for a weekend; next time I will definitely be taking a plane!

Day 80: Czech Republic

     Most of the things that I did today I had seen yesterday. I went to the top of the Astronomical Clock Tower. The views are gorgeous. I also went back to the Lennon wall to take a ton of jumping pictures.

     Much later, at dinner, I got to try banana beer. I don't like Czech food because I don't eat meat. But they have funny names, such as Weinerschnitzel. Czech Republic has princess money and everything looks like it costs a ton but the exchange rate makes it really cheap. You could be paying 80 czech money for a $4 coffee. That's really everything exciting about today.

Day 79: 11-11-11 and Prague

     I have been waiting for 11/11/11 for literally years! I was standing right outside of Starbucks and the statue in Westminster Center when I made my ultimate wish. Prague has been really cold and Caroline and I are pretty tired from poor sleep on the bus ride.

     Euroadventures gave us a tour of the city. We saw a statue of a guy sitting on a horses' stomach while the horse is hung upside down from the ceiling. Apparently this is Czech humor. From there we walked to the Plaza with the Astronomic Clock Tower. There were Christmas mini shops set up in the middle of the Piazza. The City is known for their "Thousand Gold Spires" and you can see them everywhere.

      The Czech souvenirs are pretty awesome. There are 'Czech me out' shot glasses and 'Praha drinking team' sweatshirts. I really enjoy these. My favourite part of Prague has been the Lennon wall. It was a wall that was compltely graffiti-covered in quotes and pictures and love things. It was so colourful. It changes daily so I would love to see this every day that I'm here.

Day 75-78: A Regular Week

     Nothing crazy happened this week. I picked my classes and got everything I wanted, I decided to start the entire show of Lost from start to finish while I'm still here in Italy, and started planning a lot more trips.
     I grabbed lunch with Nick at the Oil Shoppe one day; this is a great place to get cheaper sandwiches! Tonight (Thursday) I left for Prague at 8pm and the bus is going to take about 12 hours to get there. The last thing I saw before falling asleep was the gorgeous mountains in Austria.

Day 74: More Spain!

     The pastry shop near our hostel had the best pastries for breakfast :). We started our day there and then went to The Chocolate Museum. Our ticket to get in was a bar of chocolate! It was a nice way to pass the time because chocolate sculptures are a cool idea. We didn't have much time in the city today, as we had to catch the bus back to the airport. The trip home was easy and I will have to come back here some day!

     However, I did have a moment of culture shock. I ordered a caesar salad and was really excited to finally have this again! But that is not what caesar dressing is in Spain. It's actually mayonnaise. Yuck! I definitely won't be ordering that again.

Day 73: Gaudi Art and Ice Bars

     Today was my first experience with Gaudi Art. Caroline and I took a bus to Guell Park. This place is really awesome because not only is the art really unique, but also has great views of the city. One of the museums had some furniture that he made. I think Lady Gaga would've liked it: it was cool looking but completely impractical.

     Sagrada Familia is also Gaudi Art. It's a church of sorts. It's really big and is a crazy shape. Recently the inside was finished, but they still haven't copmleted the outside. The inside has mile high ceilings and the stained glass made beautiful colours dance across the white walls.

     After this, we got some hot chocolate. It is so thick and I'm not sure exactly how it's made but I've never had anything like it. We spent the night on the waterfront. At the restaurant where we had dinner, it just so happened that Caroline knew the two kids who sat next to us! What a small world. After dinner we went looking for IceBarcelona, an ice bar right on the beach. There was a lot of night life to choose from, which is very different from Florence. It took awhile to find but was totally worth it.  Everything, including the glasses, were made of ice! Today was one of the best days of my life, despite the terrible weather!

  

Day 72: Barcelona!

     This morning Caroline and I took a bus and a plane to get to Barcelona! Flying RyanAir is definitely an experience; the entire 75 minute trip is an advertisement. We had to take an hour long bus to get directly into the city and then spent awhile trying to find our hostel. We had our own room and a balcony overlooking the street.

     The metro wasn't hard to figure out because I lived in Boston my whole life. The first place we went to was Montjuiic. We ate churros and saw where the 1992 Summer Olympics were held. The whole city is much larger than Florence and I was already in love with it!

     La Rambla is a nice hangout spot and the Mercat was a cool open air market that we visited. We walked up and down La Rambla until we reached the waterfront. It rained this whole time but I had a blast. After a lot of walking, we decided to try and find Gimlet, a mojito bar on the other side of town. We completely overestimated how far away it was; we stopped at a restaurant along the way and even though we were three doors down from it we didn't go in. Barcelona is an absolutely amazing city, I can't wait until tomorrow to experience more!

Day 70-71: Same old week days

     Getting back to schedule wasn't hard; my week days are pretty much becoming the same so I won't explain them in much detail. It is really exciting to plan all the trips I have coming up. Tomorrow I have to wake up at 4:55 to go to Barcelona!!

Day 69: All Saint's Day

     I came back to Italy on a holiday; the family was sitting down to dinner. I am definitely glad to be back! Caroline and I are booking our trip to Barcelona for next weekend. I was exhausted from all the travel again so I went to bed early tonight.