Sammi Desire: 2010

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Rogue

This was our reward after climbing up the Crookedest street and sweating out our first round of beer we had earlier at O'Reilly's irish pub. We also got a warm bowl of chili, some appetizers and a burger nom nom! This little bar was cute! Huge selection of beer on tap, sports on the TVs and people shouting/gambling at the table behind us! :D

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San Francisco Hikin'

After getting through China Town and Little Italy where we made the pit stop for meat and cheese, we FINALLY made it to the Crookedest street. It only took us three hours, a few circles around Union Square, about four miles, and a few blisters, but we finally got here. It was getting pretty cold and windy but took a deep breath and tried to regain some energy to make the hike up to the top of this hill. And when I say hike I mean hike. This was one of the steepest streets I have ever had to walk up, and about half the walk up the hill just to get to the crooked street had cement steps. These "steps" though almost made the walk worse. They were about three inches tall, just high enough to make you need to pick your legs up higher than normal just to take one step. I was half tempted to just walk on the street where I could regulate my own stride but the drivers are crazy. Eat or be eaten in big city traffic my dad would say.

We definitely broke out in a sweat hiking up that hill and had to stop half way to catch our breath. But it was worth it once we made it to the top. The view was beautiful you could look all the way down Lombard street all the way across the City and you could see straight across the Bay. It was funny to watch tourist driving down the crooked street all with a passenger leaning out the front seat holding a video camera. The street was actually really pretty, it was paved with flat brick facing and lined with flowered bushes. The houses along the street were also old fashioned looking, very San Francisco-esque.

After snapping a few quick picks and dodging a few obnoxious tourists blocking all the walkways we went back down the street, which was also difficult because the street was so steep. Definitely too steep to run down :D

After working up a sweat on that mini adventure we headed to the Rogue for a few beers and a snack!

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Chinese Chikn

My sister would NOT like this. She was just asking me about how you hang/dry meats without them spoiling and going rotten. I told her as long as you keep them away from bugs and dirt (and wet places) it should dry just fine. But this little chinese market in China Town definitely proved me wrong. These were whole chickens, freshly plucked and hung from their necks right in the front window to dry out. They looked pretty gross to me, and for some reason they turned a shade of red. The ones right under these piled up in pans were even worse, again whole chickens dried out with some feathers and quills still stickin' out of them!! Ick

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First Meal in the City

We got a little lost coming into the city and almost the Bay Bridge into Oakland :O but I told Ty not to fret, I had my handy mandy blackberry to tell us the way to Hotel California. Luckily they let us check in three hours early so we could park the car in their garage. $33 a night isn't bad for parking here and our feet work perfectly fine so we don't plan on even looking at that car until Saturday. We wanted to meander around Union Square since its only three blocks from our hotel but first we decided to get some grub. Since Union Square is maximum shopping and minimum dining we walked right through the square, and past china town to find some off the path restaurants. We ended up at a small pizzeria on Kearney street. Very tasty Italian style pizza made in an open kitchen so you could see them make it. We got a motzerella and hot salami pizza with a few Cokes, nom nom nom!

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That'll do Pig

After a few hours of walking around the high end shops of Union Square and walking away with an $80 pair of Levis from the Levi store, we headed up the street through China town. Our destination was Little Italy but first we had to make it through the over crowded, stinky, smokey, gift shops full of useless junk streets of China town. One thing I did see that was a little silly and maybe worth ten bucks were these cute little ceramic sleepy piggies. I figured it was worth a few bones and a good laugh so we went into the shop to check em out. Turns out these little gems are really worth no less than $120! As you can imagine we passed on the pigs and kept on trekking for the dry salami and parmigiano in little italy. Sheesh is it windy here! My cheeks look like cherries and are already wind burned after only a few hours, clear skies though :)

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Ultimate Chess

This chess set was the size of a dinner table with hand carved figurines about six inches tall each. Ryan would <3 this!

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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Dinner Time!

Walking down cannery row we stopped to have dinner at the Chart House. It's right on the water and is very "luxe" on the inside, cant wait to eat I am starving. We spent the last two hours walking down cannery row looking at the cute little gift shops, but once it started raining we chose to hide in Sly McFly's for a beer and some shelter from the rain! Dinner time, prime rib here I come! :D

Oh ... "This is your Christmas Present"

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wimeme

DC at Christmas drinking egg nog

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San Francisco or Bust

Alright so Im not in Europe anymore but I am traveling still. I finished out my last semester of school (yeay graduation!) and worked for a bit but now I have a week off to spend traveling the central coast! Spent the last four days in Lompoc for Christmas with my parents and left early this morning for Monterey, a pit stop on our way to the City. But first we needed breakfast so we stopped in SLO at Gus'S Grocery for a sandwich and a drink! Yummy! i have only eaten here a handful of times with my sister who worked there all through college. Perfect snack for the two hour drive up to Monterey where we're gonna spend some time at the beach, shopping, and maybe visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium, haven't been there since I was a youngin'! We are staying the night in Salinas and leaving early tomorrow for the big City!!

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Friday, July 2, 2010

Paella

Authentic Spanish cuisine with muscles, clams, shrimp and fish cooked into it, it might have been one of the yummiest dishes I have had on this trip! We were only in the French Riviera for a day and a quarter so time was spent laying on the beach where most of the women were topless, old or young didnt matter. Then we took a nine hour bus ride, which I got a broken seat that reclined ALL the way back like laying down position to Spain. The hotel here in Barcelona is actually a full service hotel with a pool, REAL breakfast with an omlet bar, and a full size tub! Of course they would give us the nice hotel on our last two nights here! We went shopping and hit the beach of course which was packed and had even more topless women!! Not shy here at all obviously. The sand at the beaches here though are very dirty, they have small flat flakes of black which stick right to your skin. Even in the shower scrubbing myself I couldnt get it all off. But the city is absolutely beautiful, the scenery is so green and palm trees everywhere. Palm trees are one of their symbols here but a plague has hit their palm trees killing most of them.

We also visited the super huge fancy park designed by Gaudi where we took a mini photo shoot in the stone tunnel where an episode of Americas Next Top Model was filmed!!! So cool. He was an architect who at the time people thought was crazy, but of course now that he is dead he is very famous and said to be a genius. The park has frosted buildings which resemble Hansel nd Gretel candy houses and animal shaped canals, so cool! Now we are about to catch the tram to our farewell dinner, sad to say bye to all these people, like moving out of the dorms and moving back home but soo ready to get back to my life in California with free refills, free water, A/C, screen doors, homemade meals, and clean free public bathrooms. I love Europe but I am definitely a California girl!

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Monday, June 28, 2010

Transfer Via TGV

I'm too tired to blog right now. But long story short we yesterday we went to La Louvre museum, checked out Mona Lisa, went to Luxembourg Gardens, shopped on the streets of Paris, caught a metro to the Eiffel tower for picnic and champagne in the park to watch it glitter, saw an old man get caught in metro doors, saw his life flash before his eyes, waited two hours for a taxi cab back to the hotel, packed my bag, hit the hay, and now we are sitting at the train station waiting for our high speed train to drop us off in the French Riviera. Beach time highly needed <3

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Saturday, June 26, 2010

Guilt Trip

So I felt bad after eating plain chicken while in France so for dessert Jackie and I shared this crepe, dark chocolate and banana! yum yum

After this dinner by the way we had to try and find our way back to the metro. We ended up lost and circling the National Embassy building a few times before we ran into some of their very intimidating police/security men. Since Becca was leading the pack she decides to ask them for directions, mind you she is from Louisiana and the officers don't speak english at all, "y'all, do y'all speak english? Can you tell us were the metro is?" The officer looks and her and with the appropriate hand gestures "slooooooww down english, left right left" Um ok merci! We found it, but I suppose you can only circle the National Embassy building so many times before they become suspicious.

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Comfort Food

I know I know I am in France and should be eating calamari with wine and cheese and having pastries for dessert. But I needed something a little closer to home sooo chicken and potatoes at a cute little french diner. It was absolutely amazing, I have never eaten an entire half of chicken but I went nine hours without food today and was starving. I didn't leave one scrap behind!

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French Macaroons!

Yeay we finally got them! They are from Laduree bakery where they are known for their macaroons. We had to wait in line and they were a bit pricey but so so worth it. They melt like butter in your mouth. I wanted to buy a box to bring home but un refrigerated they are only good for about a day, so we ate them! We hiked to the top of a hill overlooking all of Paris and sat on the grass to enjoy our sweet treats!

PS I had the girl give me a surprise variety and one was rose flavor...not so tasty.

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Salmon Panini in Paris

Paris is one of the most dangerous cities and has an extremely high crime rate mainly due to their exuberant population of 2 million people. This was proved this morning for me. It was 9 am in front of our hotel which is in a pretty nice little suburb about twenty minutes from the Eiffel Tower. Everyone was waiting on the bus for the last few people and our tour director placed his bag down inside the bus right on top of the steps then ran inside the lobby to grab something. Well in about two seconds one man asked the driver a question on the left side of the bus but was kind of making a scene, and as soon as everyone was looking over at crazy guy, another guy grabbed Spiro's bag and booked it. Inside that bag was EVERYTHING important to both the trip and Spiros. A binder with everyones personal info, hotel and transportation info, tickets for our museum entrances, all the important and confidential documents, all three of his work phones (one black berry, one iphone, one nokia smart phone) his lap top, wallet with a coule hundred euro, tons of credit cards...the list goes on. In literally just seconds right in front of 50 people, early in the morning, in a nice neighborhood. I'm extra careful with my bags now.
While Spiros stayed behind in hopes that they just took his wallet and dumped the rest of the stuff and his bag, we left on the bus for our tour through Paris and I cannot even begin to start listing what we saw. Just think anything that is any type of monument in Paris from Notre Dame to the huge castle built for hurt veterans which holds Napoleon's ashes...we saw it all. The square where Marie Antionette was executed, the huge glass pyramids that you see in the Davinci Code, the three arches Napoleon had built listing cities conquered, so much history here in Paris and its all so amazing to see.
The lady tour director on the bus pointed out a bakery where she says they have the best macaroons ever and if your ever having a bad to eat one of those and you'll be all better :) ill be stopping by there this afternoon.
Now we are, and yes this very second, walking down Avenue Champs Elysees where ALL the shopping is.
I stopped inside one store to buy a little bracelet and the man asked where I was from, I told him California and his face lit up. In his broken english he rushed back into the store and pulled out a photo album from 1984 when he visited LA. He was a little stud back then wearing his members only jacket standing on the walkway in Venice Beach and Disney Land. He was the cutest old man ever and he was so eager to show me all his California pictures!
The picture above is a smoked salmon panini that I picked up for lunch here on the walk, very very yummy. I miss my lox and bagels in the mornings :(

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Friday, June 25, 2010

Fire Ants

Here is the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower. It is looking down onto the park with the huge screen playing the World Cup soccer game. And all those little dots that look like bugs are people!

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Made it to Paris!

Yeay we finally got into France today and checked into our Paris hotel after being stuck in traffic for five and a half hours, or maybe six I lost track. We literally pulled our bus in front of the hotel, had fifteen minutes to bring our bags to our rooms, make ourselves look pretty, and get back on the bus so it could drop us off at the Eiffel tower. Once we get there we are handed tickets and take the lift up to the second level. You could also take the stairs if you are feeling energetic and athletic but, not me plus it was hot. Its 300 steps to the first level then another 300 to the second level. Then from there you have to take a lift to the top. The lifts seem more like roller coasters than elevators because they don't go straight up, they go diagonally and actually pretty fast.
Once we actually got to the top and stepped outside my heart stopped when I saw the most amazing view ever. I remember the view from the top of the Empire State building but this was different. There were just white buildings as far as I could see, almost resembling Greece and parks on three of the sides of the tower. In one of the parks on the north side of the building a huge flat screen was set up with tons of speakers where hundreds and hundreds of people watched the world cup games. From on top of the tower they all looked like little red ants. And someone must have scored because even from the top I could hear them cheering. And when I was standing still I could feel the entire building swaying just the slightest bit when a gust of wind blew. Amazing.
I sat up there for a while and took it all in before I started to head down. I took the lift to the second level then took the 600 steps down. My ankles started to feel sore about half way and once I hit the bottom and stood still my legs wouldn't stop shaking. I felt like my old dog Moses whose legs shakes when she walks due to her age. From the bottom I got some great perspective shots of the trusses and architecture near the pillars, I know I'm such an engi-nerd but I loved it. I took more close up shots of the architecture that of the entire tower.
From there we went to grab dinner, we were supposed to go on a cruise around Paris but our reservations got cancelled and rescheduled for tomorrow night.
After dinner I walked under the tower and grabbed a crepe with Lara and Mandy, yum yum chocolate and banana! Then we walked back to the park where the big screen playing the games was and met up with the rest of the group. They watched the game, I annoyed them all by using a blade of grass between my thumbs to make a very high pitched squeal, and waited until twilight when the building lit up. Its very pretty when the orange lights shine on the brown structure from the ground up with a dark midnight blue sky. I wish you all could have been there to see it with me!
It was absolute chaos in the streets after one of the soccer games. People screaming, yelling, jumping and hitting moving cars in the street, running under and around the Eiffel tower with Brazil flags...chaos!! But fun to be a part of and definitely made it a more memorable experience!
Tomorrow croissants for breakfast, hopefully, bus tour of the city in the morning, shopping with wine and cheese in the afternoon, boat cruise after dinner, and champagne in the park under the tower before bed. I love Europe <3

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Snack Time!

There are french fry stands on almost every corner here in Brussels so this was my dinner, along with a Belgium waffle topped with strawberries and nutella. Definitely need to visit the gym once I get back to California

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Thursday, June 24, 2010

Boring Brussels

Sorry the picture above is blurry, its a picture of a picture from my camera because I left my phone in the hostel when we went walking around Brussels. So Brussels is the capital of the European union which is pretty sweet and we learned both from a flier and from walking up and down the streets today that 50 percent of their population have foreign roots. Most of these people are muslim and I think I had a permanent look of fear burned into my face when walking to the Capital building from our hostel today. The men on the streets are all large and intimidating and all the women are wearing their head coverings and long dresses. And here we were a group of forty American girls all wearing shorts and tank tops speaking english, very awkward.
One of the biggest tourist attractions here other than the stock market building is the statue of the little boy peeing. So after Spiros dropped us off by Capital building we pulled out our maps and started searching for it. Every souvenir shop we passed had little figurines of it, the chocolate shops had molds of him and even the french fry stand (which is where we had dinner) had a picture of a french fry peeing on its window mocking the famous fountain. Needless to say we were pretty excited about this fountain, we were planning on taking silly pictures by it, throwing coins in it... all that fun stuff.

Well, we followed the ten signs there and turn the corner, and... he is about the size of my face. At first we couldnt even see it because a million people were standing around taking pictures. But once we squeezed in, we saw it was just in a random corner of a waffle shop building (which I also ate at for dinner, yes the same night right after my fries) and is all fenced in. The boy is literally about a foot tall and peeing into the worlds smallest fountain. Very anticlimatic and disappointing. I guess one night in Brussels really is all you need, actually not even, two hours and that includes the walk to the fountain, dinner art a fry shop, stop at the fountain, waffle for dessert, and the walk back.

Paris tomorrow!

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A Few Hours in Brugge

On our way to Brussels from Amsterdam we stopped for three hours in the city of Bruges. This city is mostly popular for being the oldest preserved medieval city in Europe, however it is also famous for its chocolate, of course. To get from where the bus parked to the main square we walked over an amazing little foot bridge. It crosses a little river full of swans and ducks and the bridge has long red pillars coming up from the sides in a shell or wave like motion. We stopped in a "tea room" for a sandwich and walked to the old church there. I know I have been inside so many churches on this trip and the most extravagant one of all the Vatican. However something about this church was really touching, maybe it was that it seemed for community friendly with a children's corner, or the beautiful carving by Michelangelo but as I walked through this church I got chills. There were scriptures and quotes carved into the walls, sculptures, and chairs. One of them in particular did something even more to me, it made me cry. I have no clue why it did, maybe the ambiance of the church alone who knows. But this little poem/saying was on a wall right above this little wooden bridge placed inside the church..

"Vacation... A bridge between 2 work years, between 2 school years, or just a bridge-for-a-day inbetween. A bridge for away or a bridge for nearby... Its not so important. Because from upon a bridge the view is always a little bit "other"...
Oh, we release that some problems never go on holiday, but nevertheless... Such a bridge maybe enables one: to see anew what one never saw, to hear anew what one never heard, to feel anew what one never felt, maybe to dream anew, and smile, and thank and just enjoy...
Dear visitor, enjoy the little bridge, that it may give new energy, and maybe a deep breath to go onwards.
And know that once in a while, you may put your worries into God's hands!"

Walking out of the church, every other shop was a chocolate shop, of course. it actually wasn't too expensive and I really truly wanted to buy a bunch to bring home and share with everyone but it has too many risk factors: 1) Our suitcases get stored under the bus during travel where it gets really warm and will melt the chocolate 2) If I carry it in my purse instead it WILL get eaten before it can make it home 3) I tried a piece before I bought an entire bag and honestly it wasn't any better, in my personal opinion, than any of the fancy chocolate shops in San Diego.

Sorry everyone no chocolate :( One more funny thing about Brugge, there are tons of horse carriages which the people use to see the town without having to walk but these carriages run through the streets, which mean they have to keep up with traffic! Its very funny to see a line of cars at a stop sign and in the line is a horse drawn carriage. And once traffic starts to move the horses have to trot to stay with the speed limit.

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Last Day in Amsterdam

Today was our free day and Amsterdam and the weather was actually quite warmer than the past few days. It was a very lazy day not much to report. I woke up early to walk down to the laundromat, yeay clean clothes! Then we caught the train into town and stopped at a salon where Jackie got her hair cut. About eight inches came off in an hour and a half. Then from there we stopped at a tattoo shop where jackie and danielle looked into a little something but it was too pricey so we opted for some window shopping instead. Grabbed some lunch, our feet hurt so we head back to the hotel, took mini baby naps, picked up some snacks and had a picnic in the park! That's where I am now and there is a huge "I Amsterdam" sign here. Pictures to come. Tomorrow we wake early of course and head to Brussels, Belgium where we are staying in a pretty ghetto hostel supposedly. Speaking of gross hotels, the one we are in now is just infested with black mold which stinks up the room literally smelling like poop, and messes up my nose the second I walk in. The mold isn't just in the shower either its coming down from the ceiling and through all the cracks in the walls.

Amsterdam is the cutest little town it looks like a larger version of Solvang. All the buildings are skinny and tall and built of red bricks and the canals circle the city everywhere. Along with canals are bikes bikes bikes and more bikes! Honestly I am more scared of getting ran over by a bike here than a car or train, at least they stop.

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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Bloumin Markt

This is on long street here in Amsterdam The Tulip Market where they sell just flowers, seeds, bulbs, and of course tulips!! This street is absolutely beautiful and I want to buy some tulip bulbs so bad! But just not sure if I want to lug it home when I can buy them at home. Still very pretty flowers all along this street market!

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Anne Frank Huis

This morning we took a tram to Dam Square in Amsterdam and walked to the Anne Frank house museum. It was early when we got there and there was already a pretty lengthy line forming outside. When you first walk into the museum/Otto house there are quotes from her book chiseled into the wall. You begin in the main family quarters of their house where Maip and her husband lived. You take a very narrow and steep, almost walking straight up a wall, into the bedroom and living room. The entire house was renovated after the war but they used the same wall paper and flooring as the original. After turning the corner of Frank Otto's office you see the bookshelf that was actually the hidden door to the secret annex. The book case is the original and its surreal to hold the exact handle Anne used to pull the door shut for hiding during the day. One entering through the bookshelf door you take an even more steep and narrow, and quite scary, staircase up to their secret annex. When they renovated the house they cut out the original wall paper from their room because Anne loved to cut pictures and comics from books, newspapers, and magazines and glue them up on the wall for decoration. She had pictures of famous actors and actresses from the 1940's as well as a picture of the statue of David, gardens, parrots, and funny little comics from the morning paper. The windows in their annex were covered in black curtains to keep the Nazi's from seeing inside or suspecting Jews of hiding. And from their secret annex is the staircase up to the attic where she did a lot of her writing and "got fresh air to get the stale air from their bedroom out." You can also see the famous chestnut tree from the attic which she wrote about numerous times in her diary.

Down on the main floor of the house are display cases set up with her original diaries set out to read as well as some scrap pieces of paper which she wrote fairy tales on. Also in display cases are the confinement cards which were filled out when the Frank family was captures. On the actually marked off list of hiding Jews was Anne Frank marked as number 309. Under a picture of her is the card filled out by a Nazi officer with her name, family information, place of confinement (Auschwitz), and the date of her death, one month after the date of her sister's death and one month before the liberation and freedom of her father. On the bottom of the old yellow card in red pencil was the signature of the Nazi who checked her body and the swatzika (spelling?) sign.

There are videos of Anne's father throughout the museum where he discusses how thankful he was to survive the Holocaust and spread his daughter's story and the knowledge of what discrimination and hate could do to a community and even the world. He seems to have been a very sweet man who loved his daughters and wife with everything and until the day he died, continued to work for their foundation and spread his knowledge to younger generations.

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Sunday, June 20, 2010

German Chocolate Fix

Jackie and I stopped at a "chocolaterie" in Heidelberg to get our last German chocolate fix before leaving for Amsterdam tomorrow. We ordered a hot dark chocolate (in the picture), a waffle, which when they make it its a dough that they spread into the waffle press not a batter to make it extra thick and denser than the waffles we know with bananas, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce on it, and an espresso. For that hour we were in heaven, a good friend with a good afternoon treat. But we are struggling a little right now on the bus. Kinda like when an old dog eats so much that his stomach is too full to walk so he has to just lay down and sleep for a few hours, that's us. But it was so worth it, best hot chocolate EVER! Man I am going to miss the chocolate here, can't wait to get to Belgium!

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Wine Anyone?!

Sorry everyone that i haven't really posted in a while but the past few days have been a little uneventful. Yesterday we spent seven hours on the bus from Prague to Heidelberg and tomorrow we spend seven hours (with no traffic) from Heidelberg to Amsterdam. I suppose i could write about how crazy the bus makes me or how I feel like I am at a summer camp now with all the drama between couples and hookups with these people. BUT I will save all that for later.

This morning we woke up early, and we had real beds this time in our hotel! We got lucky and got assigned just two to a room and we had a queen sized bed to share with our own down comforters and fluffy pillows! Danielle and I literally sat in bed for four hours watching some bootleg MTV channel, it was the only channel in english, and gave our bodies a rest.

We took a scary scary bus ride, at one point I swear it was going to roll down the side of a hill, up to the Heidelberg castle which is about three thousand years old. Unfortunately only three parts were open to the public. One of these parts was their old pharmacy, one of the oldest built pharmacies as well as their wine cellar. See picture above for the worlds biggest wine barrel! It holds 228,000 liters of wine! I climbed all the way up and stood on top of it!

Heidelberg is also the city where they built the first bicycle, pretty sweet as well as the hometown for the first University ever built in Europe. The only time the university was shut down was during 1933-1945 WWII because of Nazis taking over the city. Thousands of the cities citizens were captured and sent to Dachau concentration camp :(

Now we are back on the bus heading to the main square for some lunch and shopping. We are going to drop by Heidelberg University however we are not allowed to stop by and check it out because its still active and we cant bother the students. Also there are several rivers here, all coming from the alps with some really cool brick arch bridges.

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Friday, June 18, 2010

Old Prague Castle

This morning we went and took a walking tour (which lasted for freaking ever! 3 hours exactly) of the oldest parts of Prague. We went into the old cathedral, of course, which is part of the old Prague Castle which is designed in complete roman gothic style. So very harsh lines with pointed arches and tall needles at the top of any points. The castle was also built of marble and very very beautiful on the outside because over time the marble turned black. It almost looks like the castle is on fire with the mixture of black stain and green marble. From there we walked over Charles bridge, very cool arch stone bridge, which they are renovating because they have to give back the old stones they used to build it and replace them with new industrial ones. It was cool to see it with the original stones before they reconstruct the entire thing. Then we ate at the Hard Rock, yes Hard Rock Cafe!

Everything in Czech is very very cheap and im not sure if it has to do with their economy or just their money system but its definitely cheaper than Italy and Germany are. However here in Czech i feel far more foreign and uneducated than I have in any of the other countries. The restaurant we went to yesterday confirmed that when not a single soul in there spoke english and they all stared at us from the second we walked in the door. I just feel that I know very little history behind the Czech republic and their language is insane . With german, italian and even greek I could make out some of the words and somewhat communicate but here, not even close. Their words literally look like they just took a random arrangement of letters and made it a word, not to mention some, or most actually, of their words are 14 or more letters long! I don't stand a chance even sounding out their words! This trip has definitely made me want to learn more of the countries histories and yes even try to learn their language! I wish I spoke Greek, Italian, Czech and Spanish fluently :( Time to invest in some rosetta stone!

Tomorrow we are taking the metro back to the main square where the astrological clock is, which is awesome btw, and we are going to visit the communist museum, the Lennon peace wall, and the Black Light National Theater. At least the weather here is cool, about 65 degrees so all the walking wont kill me like it did in Italy. However the water in this hotel is cold as well. I took a freezing cold shower this morning :(

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Arrived in Prague

ceska korunas

We traveled what was supposed to be five hours but turned to be about six and a half when the bus driver got lost from Munich to Prague today. The hotel room is not as nice as our room in Munich but at least there is water pressure and a blow dryer! Here in Czech of course they don't take the euro so I had to take some money out of the atm. It is a little difficult to get used to their currency, 1 euro is 25 ceska korunas "czech crowns" and one ceska koruna is 0.047 us dollars. Interesting right? I pulled 1,400 ceska korunas out of the atm which was only about 65 US dollars. Whew this is going to be a long four days with this money, and the worst thing is once you have the currency you cant exchange it back into euros so you have to use it all!

We walked down the street a ways to find a place to eat which looked a little sketchy but we ended up having an amazing meal for only 190 czech crowns! (about 8 euros). I got a pasta with smoked salmon, sun dried tomatoes, capers, and a light lemon butter sauce. I actually think it was one of the best things I have eaten on this entire trip to be honest. Tomorrow we have a bunch planned, walking tours and what not but the next day we have free time where we can hopefully find the Lennon peace wall for some cool pics and visit the Communist museum. I hope we don't get lost!

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Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Dachau Concentration Camp

We went from the most romantic place to one of the saddest places in Germany, Dachau concentration camp. When we first arrived we watched a short film that explained what really went on in the camps and showed photos and video from the 1930's. After the film we were free to roam the land where we saw their baracks made to fit 50 but were jammed with over 400, the old torture chambers, and the creamatorium. We were allowed to actually walk through the creamatorium where I stood right in the middle of the "shower" room where they would jam 150 people into a room the size of my bedroom in the dorms, telling them they were going to shower but really...

It was a very sad, eerie, and chilling experience. At one point they were killing so many people that they had to actually build another creamatorium, well they made the slaves build it. Behind this building was a beautiful foresty area where they had built many memorials. One very large grave which thousands of people were buried in and others for the unknown who died. This area was behind a barbed wire fence with watch towers which held the prisoners captive. If one tried to run by they would be shot immediately, they say many would run towards the fence on purpose just to end their lives and prevent anymore suffering. The worst part is literally a foot behind the fence is a running river which would just taunt the starving and suffering prisoners. Although this was a sad visit I feel it was necessary for remembrance and knowledge. I also bought a little remembrance bracelet on the way out of the camp.

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Neuschwanstein Castle

Sleeping beauty doesn't live in this castle, and neither did King Ludwig who had the castle built. But this is definitely the definition of a perfect castle. So perfect in fact that Disney made a copy of this castle for Disney Land, the big one in front! If there is anyone I wish that could have seen this today with me is Nawnee because she is in total love with Disney Land. The scenery from the very top of this castle was breath taking, you could see all the amazing hills, forests, rivers, farms, and the lake that King Ludwig and his doctor died in.

The castle was decorated so extravagantly with gold paintings, a two thousand pound chandelier, mosaic floors and huge bed frames carved from wood. The king dedicated the entire castle to one of his favorite composers at the time (I cant pronounce his name so i surely cant spell it, sorry) but the composer never actually saw the castle before he died as well. The castle was only about one third completed when the king died and they halted construction.

We took a mini bus to the top of the hill but coming down we took a horse carriage! So cute and definitely the most romantic experience in the world, to take a horse carriage up to the top of a hill to a fairy tale castle. Well not so romantic for me with 50 other people but I am sure it could be very romantic with a loved one. <3

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Swiss Alps/Austria

Yesterday we journeyed out of Italy and into Germany however the trip there took way longer than expected. The bus we ordered to take us there only had 49 seats which wouldn't work because we are a group of 51. Our director Spiros tried to get another bus that night but considering it was Sunday night around 9 o'clock nothing was open. So their solution was to have the bus take us an hour back into town near Venice and send two people (Danielle and myself) via train. So on the bus ride to the train station two people had to lay on the floor of the tiny bus.

We get to the train station finally around 9am and ask for a train to Munich but the next train didn't leave until 11pm which would have left us waiting in the station for 14 hours and stuck on an over night train. So we got back on the bus where I sat in the very front corridor area.

Driving through the alps it started to rain which I loved since we have been stuck in high heat and humidity cities the past two weeks. And the hills were nothing but green with the brightest blue water running through them, I even saw a few water falls.

Well after we passed through the hills and finally made it into Austria our bus began to smoke so we had to pull off to the side of the road. It was a little scary and a little cold but it made for a great photo op! The bus went into a shop where they told us three hours, but while at the shop Spiros called the company again to complain and they said absolutely no more than 49 people allowed on the bus! So a man in a lexus picked up Danielle and I and took us to the train station. There we had to make three transfers, all very easy and in about three hours we finally made it to our hotels.

The train was really nice actually they had six seat cabins with glass doors to keep the cabin quiet, a/c, little reading lights, tables and a trash can. The train ride to Munich was actually nicer than the bus ride, and I made it through half my book!

The best part is once we got to the hotel we realized how nice it was. Granted it is only a three star hotel, its a huge step up from the "two star" hotels we have staying at where the toilet is literally in the shower. The pillow and blanket were like butter on my face and I almost couldn't get out of bed this morning.

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Sunday, June 13, 2010

Venice

This morning we had to wake up early to catch a water taxi out to Venice Before that though we spent twenty minutes killing mosquitoes in our hotel room before we could go to bed. Even then we didn't get more than half and there was still a wasp stuck in our lantern over our beds.

Any who we got to Venice and took our hour long walking tour where we got see Doge's Palace and the Rialto bridge, absolutely amazing, the bridge that is not the palace. I think after seeing the Vatican we are all so jaded to other cathedrals and nothing is quite as spectacular. After our walking tour we went to see a blowing glass demonstration where the "master" made a glass vase with handle and a little glass kitty right in front of us in about then minutes!

After all the tours we did some shopping of course and bought some of their famous glass pieces. I picked up a few necklaces both made with real gold flakes to make a light purple color and silver.

While walking around shopping we noticed huge puddles of water forming all around the city. We learned that these puddles appear because the entire city of Venice is built on pillars over a sand foundation. So every six hours when the tide changes, the entire island and all its structures change as well. The puddles we forming because the tide was rising and coming up through the marble foundation! Its crazy to think that in the next few generations the city could be under water!

This is a particularly sad story because I don't know where all the pigeons will live once Venice is gone! These pigeons literally run the city and rumor has it if you hurt or catch one of the pigeons you will be charged 200 euro! There were many many people today feeding them and letting them sit on their arms to feed out of their hands. We even saw a couple who just married taking their wedding pictures in the middle of San Marcos with the pigeons eating from their hands while the couple kissed. Very cute!

A lot of our group also took gondola rides around the city. I did not ride one, they are pricey but they are really cute and make for great pictures. our tour guide said they used to wear stripes to represent their family colors but now they all just wear the blue or red striped shirts we all know. The gondola boats themselves are beautiful long black boats some with gold embellishments and velvet seats. The gonaleers are silly too, some sing and whistle along the way and they have to duck or squat to get under the bridges!

Tomorrow we head to Munich, yeay Germany! However somehow we got screwed and EF delivered us a bus with 49 seats when there are 51 people in the group. So some of us will be taking a train there instead of the bus, myself included which should be interesting. The good part to this story is the train ride is about two to three hours faster than the bus ride, and the bus will take our luggage. So we literally just take some money, some food, a pillow and relax on the train until we get to munich. Oh and we get reimbursed! :D

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Saturday, June 12, 2010

15000 Tons of Marble

Sorry I haven't posted since Tuesday! My phone didn't work yesterday it got shut down for "fraud" the phone company says. But its back up and running! Yesterday was a walking tour of Florence where we saw, of course, the cathedral in Duomo square where there is a duplicate Statue of David, picture to come. Then we walked down to the river where there are bridges crossing the river with houses built on them! Along the river is a chain link hand rail where people write their name and the name of the partner, lock the lock on the fence, then throw the keys into the river. According to Florence stories, those who do this stay in love together for eternity. Its very pretty to see, I even saw one lock with a name carved into it with two wedding rings locked on it, very very beautiful it gave me goose bumples. My guess is those are the rings of a couple who has passed away and their family/friends wanted them to stay in love in the past life. Ill try to put up a picture in a bit. Every three weeks though the fences become too full and heavy that they have to come cut off all the locks. I am not sure what they do with them after that.

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Locks of Love

Here are the locks of love that I described earlier. This is only one of the rails, they go all along the river. This isn't just a Florence tradition either. When I was in Rome and walked over and bridge or anywhere along side the river you could see the same thing. They are on handrails, fences, light posts, anywhere next to the river where the keys could be thrown. I wish I could participate in this! maybe I will make one for DC and I!

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Friday, June 11, 2010

Galileo's Study

This chandelier is the exact one Galileo used to study when he was 19. He first used this to study oscillation when he was sitting in church once and both of the double doors swung open at the same time due to wind. When they swung open the chandelier began to swing back and forth. In his own words, according to the handout the tour guide gave us today Galileo:" Probably around the age of 20, I noticed a chandelier swinging overhead while I was in a cathedral. I was curious to find out how long it took the chandelier to swing back and forth, so I used my pulse to time large and small swings. I was shocked to find out that the period of each swing was the same. I concluded that the relationship between the oscillation time and the length of the pendulum's swing, was O(oscillation time) is proportional to P²(length of the pendulum). The weight of the pendulum does not make a difference in the time it takes for each swing." The cathedral is built off many types of architecture, classic roman, roman gothic, islamic geography and turkish black and white stripes. Inside is a mix of all these styles combining arches with pointed pyramids and popits with harsh lines and movement in the figures sculptures.

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Wednesday, June 9, 2010

View From Our Hotel Window

Normally I would be annoyed with a view of old roof tops from a hotel. However the buildings here in Florence are so old yet beautiful at the same time. We are on the fifth floor so our window is higher than most of the buildings. Bad news though, more bugs :( I did however manage to find bug spray at a pharmacy in Rome and so far so good!

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Jackie's Pet Peeve

Granted Jackie came back to our room pretty drunk just now complaining about these light she has a valid point. They look like Star Wars light sabers or as she says some kind of old robot from the 80's. In every room they are the same, fluorescent lights mounted to the wall at a weird angle like in the picture. None of them are straight and there are two huge red dots that looks like they should be buttons of some sort but are just "decoration"

Oh and you have to pay to use the tv here, and another separate fee to use the remote.

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Thumbs up for walking shoes and backpacks

Tan Lines

Today was one more reason why I am so grateful that I brought awesome walking sandals and backpack instead of a rolley suitcase. My shoes may not be as trendy and strappy as all the southern belles sandals here but at least Im not the one bitching about my feet hurting! I wear them every day, we are walking on average five miles a day, which feels good on my feet but now I have some crazy tan lines.

And with the backpack I was in heaven today! Out hotel was on the third, and up, floor of a building that had one elevator just barely big enough for one person with their suitcase. With fifty of us all trying to get to the fourth or fifth floor, the line of us was all the way down the street in the blazing sun. But since Danielle, Jackie and I had backpacks we opted for the stairs and booked it up to our room where it was, slightly, cooler than outside. Yeay for practical travel ware!

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Dinner in Florence

See the huge meringue cookies in the upper left corner?!?

Danielle, Spiros and I went our for dinner tonight and we ended up at a spaghetteria down in the main square where many of the locals were hanging out. The waitress was a little slow but the food was actually one of the best meals I have had in Italy thus far. I hate to sound slightly negative but the food in Italy has not been anything memorable, very opposite from Greece. However tonight was a different story. I ordered tortalini rose, which was tortalini pasta stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach in a cream sauce. We also got caprese salad for appetizers and I finally got a beer, yeay!

Danielle got spaghetti was pesto sauce which was really yummy but could have been better with a little feta cheese on top :P After we went across the street and got some more gelatto, caffe flavor of course! This time though I couldn't finish my entire cone and had to throw some away. Sad face. I had a hard time deciding though between the gelatto and the enormous meringue cookies! The caffe gelatto makes me burp though and every time it tastes like Kaluah, bad at first but awesome after!

Jackie just got back from drinking all day and she is in the bathroom complaining about the towels. She is right though they aren't towels they are sheets.

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Florence Night Life

As I observed earlier there are tons of college and younger aged kids in the area. Spiros says there is a university near by and that the square is a very popular night life space for them. Earlier in the day I went for a walk down the street a few blocks and realized the shopping here is ridiculously better than anywhere else we have been so far. There are actual shops on the streets instead of just little street vendors. Of course here in Venice every other shop is leather. I have been pretty good so far but I dont know how much longer I can resist the shopping. Especially given my obsession with boots I wont be able to pass by too many more shops with Italian leather boots in the window and not stop to get a pair. 0_0

Along with the leather are a good amount of glass stores. Glass and glass blowing is big in Italy and I will definitely have to stop by and pick up some jewelry for friends! Ugh I was doing so well with money but I just know with all the free time we get here the next two days, Im going to do some serious shopping!

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Arrived in Florence!

It was only a three and a half hour bus ride from Rome to Florence. We just checked into our hotel and its a pretty small three bed room. Our toilets (yes two) are pretty much in the shower. There is actually just a curtain seperating the shower from the rest of the bathroom. We had quite a walk from our bus to our hotel and the city seems very peaceful. My guess is there is a university near by because i have seen a bunch of people my age riding bikes up and down the streets. The main street for shopping and food, much like State Street in Santa Barbara is only a block away from where we are now. Most of the group is headed out for wine tasting which I am passing on. As much as I wish I was a wine drinker, I cant stand the stuff so myself and a few other girls staying behind are going to go wonder the streets while its still early.

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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Last coffee in Rome :(

I know the picture is bad, the sun was working against me. After yet another long hot day in the sun walking around we stopped at a cafe for our last coffee break in rome. I got an iced cafe in a martini class! <3

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Real Gelatti in Rome!

In the main square in Rome by the Parthanon we grabbed some real gelatti! yum yum caffe flavor! So good in the 100 degree weather! :D

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The Vatican & St Pauls Church

Jesus and the three...

Once we got into the Vatican Danielle and I headed straight to the Sistine Chapel. Of course no cameras or talking was allowed so I am not able to share with you all :( The Chapel though was out of this world beautiful. Each painting had so many details that unless you painted it yourself you could not see it all. Needless to say my neck has a kink from looking straight up for so long. I was surprised that for as old as it is the colors are still so vibrant.

Unfortunately once you leave the Sistine Chapel you can not re enter the Vatican, I wish we knew that earlier because there are so many museums in there that we missed out on. Grr

From there we visited Saint Paul's church which was so over the top and overwhelming that I was completely speechless. All the statues inside are enormous, the Jesus statue in the picture is at least 15 feet tall all carved from marble. In the church w walked through the pope's tombs. There were cubicle like boxes throughout that were individually dedicated to a different pope. The tombs typically were are large marble caskets with a carved statues of themselves laying in the sleeping position on top. Then on top of the carved statue they dressed them with their fancy robes, hats and shoes. The last tomb on the way out was for Pope John Paul II who died in 2005. There was a prayer place right in front of his tomb where tons of people were kneeling (priests, nuns, and common people) all mourning, crying, and praying for him. It was, for me, very eerie and put me in a weird indescribable mood. Now we wait for Spiros and go to the Trevy fountain and Spanish steps for some shopping and coin wishing for love! <3

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Vatican City

Line at the Vatican

We got lucky today Spiros told us, we have only been waiting in line for the Vatican for an hour and a half. He says some days or if you get here too late you can be waiting in line for over four hours! Luckily we got here early enough and they are just about to let us in! :D

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Monday, June 7, 2010

Its 104 Degrees

Its a billion degrees outside and we have four walking tours today. Our first tour today was the Coliseum. Most of it is still under construction but you can see under the foundation where they kept the animals for gladiator games. Mostly they fought lions and we were able to stand where the king would sit to watch the games. This tour was short and sweet just long enough to get some good pictures.

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Pantheon Church

One of the oldest churches in Rome and contains three tombs inside of the first queen of Italy, the first king of Italy, and of Raphael the architect and painter :) These tombs are from floor to ceiling, and made of black marble and iron. The Pantheon is an extremely large round brick building with a dome ceiling. What makes this structure more unique than the others in the city is that the roof is not supported with columns, the arch supports itself!

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Rome's Court House

They call this building, their court house, the wedding cake because it is an exuberant building made completely of white marble with statues along the top. Statues of justices and men on horses the size of two or three story building are propped all along the perimeter of the courthouse along with battle scenes carved into the marble.

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Caesar's Temple

The forum was politics, finance, and the chat room of the ancient times. There was this huge temple (the picture doesn't do it justice) dedicated to Julius Caesar after he was murdered. Next to the temple was the small tent like structure where his body was buried and later stolen. There were seven layers to the forum all still under excavation.

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Sunday, June 6, 2010

89 B.C.

We got off our ferry tonight (where some people got attacked by bed bugs) at around 8 and got on the four hour bus ride to the city of Pompei. It is one of the oldest Roman cities that was destroyed by the volcano Vesuvius. The city was preserved because the ash covered the site before the lava had a chance to completely destroy everything. The city of Pompei was discovered accidentally and a lot of the architecture, mosaic floors, marble floors and wall paintings are surprisingly still in tact. The had a main temple dedicated to Apollo, a large common area where they would sell food and store wine and olive oil. We also had the chance to walk through a fairly well preserved house and bath room. The men back then had three option, hot tubs, steam rooms, and cold baths where as the women only got a cold and hot bath. Along with bath houses and market rooms we walked through their own version of the red light district. There was one large room with many small rooms within all containing stone beds. The walls in these rooms are covered with erotic paintings with different sexual positions much like the kama sutra.

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Saturday, June 5, 2010

19 Mosquito Bites

The locals say they are having a hard time with bugs this time of year and man I agree. We accidentally left all our windows open yesterday when w went out and let all the bugs in. During the night I could feel and hear the bugs all over my arms and face and when I woke up this morning it looked like I had some serious acne! Just last night (excluding all the bites from previous days) I had 19 new mosquito and small spider bites, nine of which being on my face, the rest on my hands and arms.

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Friday, June 4, 2010

Center of the World

Temple of Apollo pillars and foundation

We learned all the history behind the temple of Apollo in Delphi today. They used to say it was the center of the world. Zeus sent two eagles out from opposit corners of the world they say and the two eagles met right in the center of Delphi and dropped a rock there which they call the belly button. Along with seeing the ruins that used to be covered with a village we also saw some of the biggest bugs ever! Ants the size of large spiders and grasshoppers the size of small birds!

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