Just touched down in London town....

I love London. I want to move here. The tube is so convenient, the weather is perfect, and there's so much to do. The plan was to spend a day here, two days in Edinburgh, and return to London the night before my flight home. I arived from Rome late Friday night, so explored as much as I could Saturday, which also happened to be the Pride festival and parade. I loved the parade. Everyone had whistles and there was loud music and bright colors, and of course rediculous outfits. And Jay Z and Drake were here for a music festival. Too bad tickets were £100.

Sunday morning, I was supposed to fly out at 7 am. Cost: £10. The first wrong turn happened when I booked a bus to Gatwick from a tube station that I would have to take 2 buses to. Cost: £20. Then I found out that that would require me to get up at 3 and leave by 330. No way Jose. So then I booked the fastest way to Gatwick, a train that left from a station I would need to take one bus to. Cost: £30. I would get up at 445 and leave by 5. Then, I woke up at 5:09 am. Frantic, I checked out and left without washing my face or brushing my teeth. Ran to what I thought was the bus stop and bought a ticket. Cost: £2. But that wasn't my stop. My stop was like 3 blocks away. Ran there searching, but couldn't find it. By the time I did, it was past 6 am. Total travel time would be 65 min, so I was definitely missing my flight. Then I stepped on some glass because my shoes like to vacuum debris from the street. So I made my way back to my hostel, rechecked in, crawled back into my original bed, and cried myself to sleep. Not really cried, but I was sweating. So £62/$90 and a heart attack later, I pretty much got up at 5 am to take a mile jog. Awesome. But having only one mishap in 2 months of travelling isn't too shabby. So I'm kind of ok with it, only because I get to spend two extra days here.

Tomorrow I plan to go candy shopping, free museum roaming, and park napping. Tuesday, I return home! Boy, do I miss it. I've had an amazing time abroad. 2 months flew by in the blink of an eye. I've seen and experienced things that many people my age will never get the chance to do, and I am grateful to be so lucky.

Arrivederci Roma!

Rome is a huge mix of stuff. There are ancient ruins all over the city, high fashion shopping, sketchy looking people and places, and soooo much gelato. Its crazy that the original forum that Julius Caesar used is still here, or the Colosseum, where Gladiator happened in real life! The sistine chapel wasn't as large as I thought it'd be, but the paintings were more than I imagined. The walls were covered with beautiful, huge, colorful art. Every inch of the ceiling was painted. So crazy! Too bad no pictures :( I snapped a few quick, blurry ones anyways though. And Saint Peter's basilica was filled with statues of popes and paintings! Rome was all about the over the top, ornate decorations and marble everywere! Which, for your information, is mighty slippery in flip flops. I have a bruised elbow to prove it. And I didn't make it to the Pope. I got here too late :( The Vatican has its own Swiss guards, that wear the most awesome uniforms. Round berets with a button in the middle and tilted to the side, poofy pants, pilgrim like shoes, and all of it is like red, yellow, orange, and blue striped, and they hold a spear.

I don't know what it is about Europe, but over here its quite normal to stare, especially in Italy. And if you make eye contact, they don't look away, they just keep staring. I've gotten my fair share of cat calls and hollers, which gets old quick. And there are lots of Asians here and they own stores that have the most random stuff in them including, but mot limited to, cheap jewelry, socks, hardware, fly swatters, and parasols.
My hostel happens to be surrounded by them. And European kings and emperors loved stealing obelisks from Egypt. Every major piazza has an obelisk for a centerpiece, or a fountain.

Rome swarms with tour groups. Everywhere. You'll just be standing reading something, or what not, and then, all of a sudden you're surrounded by a tour and in the spotlight next to the leader holding an umbrella or a stick above their head.

I can't wait to see ECLIPSE!! Argh!

Italy. So hot right now.

The weather in Italy makes me feel at home... which is not a good thing when you're walking all over the place! Its hot, and there's no air conditioning in the hostel.

In a few words, Florence can be described as... dingy, pizza, leather, carnivale masks, gelato, cathedrals, and museums. That may sound like a lot, but for someone that's not too big of an art fan, paying €8 to go in a museum just isn't too appealing. And I wasn't allowed in cathedrals because I was wearing shorts because it was hot. Its a vicious cycle. Leather is a big deal here, and its pretty awesome for me walking down the streets and seeing rows and rows of purses. I hope I can come back to Italy for Carnivale one day, because attending a masquerade is an absolute dream of mine.

I got to go to an opera, too! My hostel kind of wrapped around a concert house, and there was like a balcony box in the middle of my room blocked by thin drywall and two locked doors, but there was a hole in the dry wall and you could see large frescos on a wall. The walls were so thin that you were basically sitting in the opera house listening to a beautiful voice and piano.

Took a train to Venice today and met two nice Irish boys that I explored the city with. Venice is exactly how you would imagine it. With gondolas paddled by guys wearing striped shirts and hats, with canals a plenty, with houses that kind of look dingy, but beautiful at the same time, and with winding cobblestone streets of varying widths. Its a cool place, and
I may have been more inclined to do some more widened exploring if I wasn't dying of heat stroke. The buses and taxis are boats, and supposedly the city is sinking because the wood is rotting because the water is being polluted, not because the water is rising. Iiiiinteresting, huh?

Gelato here is better than anywhere else in the entire world. And cheap. Just like Guinness is better in Ireland, but for some reason its more expensive than in the states...

To Roma tomorrow to see the Pope. He comes out of his hole every Wednesday! AND Eclipse is out tomorrow!!!

Bavaria, land of lions! or pictures of lions! Rawr!!

Its never really crossed my mind, but road tripping around Europe is probably the best way to go. I met three Norwegian guys driving around on holiday, and I was so jealous! You can drive 12 hours from Norway and be in Berlin, Germany! We can drive 12 hours and be.... in the Tennessee? Boring.

My brother in law, Jeff, took us on a Porsche factory tour which was awesome. They use the just in time manufacturing philosophy, weird because I actually learned that in manufacturing class. They had autonomous robots and lots of awesome cars and people rode bicycles around inside the building.

Its true that on the autobahn there is no speed limit, and boy were some people going super fast. Our Mercedes rental couldn't accelerate or go faster than 140 kph, so we could only watch as Porsches and Audis and BMWs and Bentleys sped by. We had the freedom to go wherever we wanted, so we stayed in small German towns. The country here in Bavaria, or southern Germany is beautiful. You see the Alps and lots of green from the highway, and the landscape isn't ruined by billboards. I really really want a traditional German dress, but they cost at least €100 and I could only wear it for two occasions - Oktoberfest or Halloween. So it might not be too justified. Now if I were going to live in Germany for a little bit, I would totally get one and serve liters in a bierhaus. I also wanted a Cinderella dress before going to Neuschwanstein castle (built by crazy King Ludwig II and basis for Cinderella castle), but the visit was just as majestic without one. Now that place was a castle!

By the way, there's a Legoland Deutschland and its awesome! Minus the fact that it ruined the picture of innocence and youth that I had in my head when someone stole my shirt that I had bought 15 minutes earlier. But there's huge lego statues and rides and big lego pieces that are like 10 feet tall. And. there's a world cup soccer stadium that's filled with Lego people! Its okay to be jealous.

I've had schnitzels, pretzels, tons of ice cream, nudels, wursts, and Ethiopian food (huh?). It has all been delicious, but not so much on the Ethiopian goat meat... but they offered zebra and kangaroo as well.

I miss my travelling partner, and my sister, and my brother in law already. And everyone back home of course, but I have 10 days left! I must live them up!

To Italy and pizza and gelato!!

So on Monday...

I could totally picture myself living in Berlin. There is so much to do and see, and all kinds of people. Our first day, we planned on treating ourselves to some all you can eat sushi at a restaurant recommended by my guide book. We find it, and its completely empty with an open front that allowed construction dust in. The one guy working was anything but helpful and this place was not rubbing me the right way (Strike 2 for the food recommendations by LetsGo. Strike 1 was buckwheat crepes in Paris). So we left and ate "kebaps" instead. I think 4 out of every 5 meals have been kebabs, but they're so cheap and delicious and warm. The book semi redeemed itself by leading us to a fried chicken beer garden. We got berliner pilsners and half a chicken each. Apparently, you don't eat with your hands over here because we got some disgusted looks as we tore into our chicken, but forks and fried chicken is so much less efficient!

Since we hadn't done much that day, we went on a pub crawl that night. There were like 90 people being shuffled from one place to the next, resulting in a huge cluster. There was a big group of study abroad kids from GaTech, small world. And a group of Brazilians who were extremely blunt and upfront about what they were looking for, and who enjoyed artacking girls' faces, aka face raping. That hapoened to me multiple times! First, by one who said he would visit me in the States, then by 4 all at once, then by one who said I was "the chinese that all the guys wanted to kiss." Brazilians are so weird.

I learned that Germany was very ready to forget all the bad things that happened, but would always remember the victims through memorials and exhibits aimed at reminding people what intolerance and hatred will lead to. We visited Sachsenhausen, the model concentration camp which was right outside Berlin. It was in a small town, and you had to walk through residential streets to get to the entrance. The camp was huge and eerily creepy. Almost all of the prisoner barracks were destroyed so replicas were put up. One of the original buildings that was still there was the pathology building. This was the creepiest. The walls and floors were tiled and there were two autopsy platforms still there. The basement was a mortuary and it just looked like a scene from a horror movie. The foundation was all that remained from Station Z, the last stop for prisoners. This is where the crematoriums, gas showers, and "medical exam"/execution rooms were. It took us 6 hours to see everything there. We did an audio guide, and the accounts that it had from some of the witnesses were horrific.

On to happier things... A lot of Berlin was new and modern since 80% had been destroyed during the war. There was only one Nazi building that remained and it was now the tax office. The Berlin wall was a lot smaller than I expected, and was a simple concrete wall 8 ft high with barbed wire on top. There was a gay pride festival going on and free love all over the place. The wursts were cheap and yummy, and came in a bun that was 6 inches too short. Three nights in Berlin just wasn't enough. The public transportation system was vast and extensive, and we definitely pushed our luck by not buying tickets everytime we hopped on a train, because on our way to the train station to leave for Frankfurt, we got caught and had to pay €40 each. And then the transportation gods wanted to punish us more because an hour later, we dscovered that our eurail passes were valid for the train we got caught on and could have easily gotten out of paying the fine and being slightly humiliated.

Frankfurt is one of the few cities in Europe with a skyline, as the center for EU banking.A city arena was set up with food and beer and a huge screen for people to gather and watch the world cup matches. It reminded me of the area outside the Superbowl or outside the FL-GA game, but smaller.

Now were on our way to Stuttgart to meet my my sister and brother in law! It's Patrick's last day before he heads back to Dublin and then home :( and I'll tour southern Germany with my siblings before venturing on my own again to Florence, Rome, London, and Edinburgh.

Home of the Little Mermaid

The cheapest food in all of the countries we've visited has been the same - kebabs or asian food. And I can't remember the last meal that didn't consist of one of those. Kebabs are like gyros or schwarma pita sandwiches and asian is normally rice with chicken, vegetables, and sweet and sour sauce. Yum yum.

We made our journey from Amsterdam to Copenhagen on an overnight train, but unlike our luxurious private room train ride from Barcelona to Bern, we went the cheaper route, and did a six person couchette. Our room was six beds and thats it, and only had enough room for one person to be standing in it at once. The beds were hard, and the room was hot, but it was better than a chair. Our route went through the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark, so on three separate occasions in the middle of the night, the train stopped, and police officers came through asking for passports. I've had better sleep than what I got last night...

I've been on a quest to find a danish, but I found awesome cookies instead. Hopefully, I will get a danish for tomorrow's breakfast before we leave for Berlin. We did a self guided walking tour that was suggested on one of our city maps. Got to see palaces, canals, yachts and sailboats, and Copenhagen's pride and joy, the statue of Hans Christen Andersen's little mermaid- oh wait, just kidding. She was on "holiday" in Shanghai for the 2010 World Expo. So in her place in the harbour, stood a 10 ft tv screen showing live, streaming video of the statue on display in China. The tv was probably cooler than the actual statue. Then we made our way to the King's garden, a huge city park. Europeans loooove their parks. It's great. Hundreds and hundreds of people congregate there for lunch or after school, just sleeping or reading or hanging out.

So the currency here is the krone, or dkk, and its about 6 dkk to the dollar. So we get to the atm and each take out 500 dkk, and out comes one crisp 500 dkk bill. Doesn't feel like much, and kind of makes you feel like a jackass when you buy a 15 dkk cookie with a 500 dkk bill... Just sayin

And if you have free time, read Chelsea Handler's books. So funny. I'm currently on the second one and its been a bit of a quest to find them here, but totally worth it.

Oh, Amsterdam...

You are full of smoke and prostitutes. Our hostel is pretty much in the heart of the red light district, which is super convenient. You know me, all about smoking and hookers! I did have to give the Amsterdam experience a try, so that's how we commemorated our first night here. Last night we found a coffeeshop that was listed in our lonely planet book. In my opinion, the lights were a bit too bright and the music was super intense for the "coffee" I was about to try. But anyways, it was an interesting experience that I don't think I ever have to try again.

Today, we went on the free walking tour, given by the same company as in Dublin and Paris. It started off kind of slow because or tour guide rambled at light speed in an almost nervous sketched out way, and our tour group was pretty quiet.

Our tour guide, Bernie.

But by the end of the tour, everyone was laughing and our guide was a little better about delivering his stories. We saw an old church that supposedly the red light district grew around because of the pervy clergy men back in the day. We also saw the most famous coffeeshop of them all- it was in a scene of one of the Oceans, and has a stoned, fat cat that hangs around.

The famous coffeeshop

A lot of the house fronts here lean forward and have pullies on the tops to ease moving into the attic. The forward lean was to prevent the packages and things from swinging into the windows, but then someone smarter came along and suggested simply extending the pulley arms instead of the crazy architecture.

You can kind of tell how the houses lean forward...

I've seen a good number of prostitutes in windows. In 2000, prostitution was made legal, and pimping illegal. So these hookers are their own boss and rent window time from businesses. The standard is €50 for 15 minutes of heaven, or whatever. Apparently, you pick one out, go in, wash up, and if your lady friend still doesn't like the looks of you, she'll give you a plastic sheet with a hole in it. That's just sad if a hooker doesn't even approve. Our Amsterdam adventure continues tonight as we tour the red light district and do some window shoppping, ha. Be sure to look over the older posts, I've added pictures since Dutch internet is cheap, cheap.