Well friends, it has come to this. 7 weeks, 5 countries, a gaggle of new friends, and a whole bunch of wine later and I have officially left Freiburg and am at the airport. Well, specifically I'm at the hostel I'm sleeping in before I fly home tomorrow. With my one roommate. Who is a guy from Paris. Who has not been wearing any pants for the last 3 hours. Awkward.
But really, this whole experience has been amazing, and I cannot believe it is coming to an end. Even now that I am packed and out of my dorm, it still hasn't registered to me that tomorrow night I'll be sleeping in my own bed in my own house.
One of my friends asked me the other night if I was excited to go home. The answer is yes. I really miss my family, and am really ready to see them. I miss my friends and my new house in Fort Collins. I miss the dry Colorado air and I miss my dog. And I really miss going to the grocery store and understanding what it is that I am purchasing. But mostly, I really, really, really miss Mexican food.
But, even though I am excited to go home, I am just as sad that I am leaving here.
I've been on a few other adventures in the last few years- living in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, going to USC, studying in Europe two summers ago, living at Disney for 8 months, and transferring to CSU- and each of those experiences really changed me in a profound way. In North Carolina I learned independence and how to live on my own. At USC I learned how to stand up for myself and how to stay strong when you want to give up. In Europe I learned the importance of having an open mind, and the excitement that comes along with it. In Disney I learned how to balance professionalism with still being a kid at heart sometimes. And at CSU I've learned how much I really value and appreciate the people in my life who are closest to me.
So then I tried to think of what I've learned here. I tried to pinpoint how this journey had changed me in some drastic way that all of my other adventures have. And after thinking and thinking and thinking, I realized that maybe it hasn't. Maybe I haven't been drastically changed, and I guess I didn't experience an enlightening event that has made me a new person.
But that's okay. Because even though this trip didn't drastically change me, it has made me grow. I have taken all the characteristics and values that I've gained through my previous adventures, and I have strengthened them by leaps and bounds. I've learned to be independent in a place that is totally foreign to me. I've learned that being a good person is way more fun than being a mean one. I learned to open my mind even wider than I thought I could. I've learned to work hard and play hard too. And I've learned that friends and family are even more important than I could ever believe. And for me, at this point in my life, growing on those life lessons is more than I could wish for.
I'm gonna keep this post short, partly because I feel like I've said all I need to, but mostly because I need to pretend to be asleep now since my French roommate is once again wandering around the room without pants and I am concerned.
But before I put my eye-mask on and make fake snoring noises, I want to just take a minute and say thank you to my parents. Especially over the last few years, I have come
to realize that the value of my family is worth more than I will ever be able
to comprehend. They are more important to me than I could ever explain in
words. One thing that I particularly appreciate from my family is the
endless amount of support that they have for me. I have lived somewhat of a
crazy life over the last three years, and I know countless families that would have disapproved of this lifestyle that I've been living. My family, however, has responded to
each of my new crazy ideas with a “go for it!” and a “we’re proud of you”, and I cannot even explain how amazing that is. One time my mom even told me (and this is a direct quote) that " 'what the hell?' is usually the right answer- except when it comes to teen pregnancy and hard drugs". But,
even though I have lived a bit of a nomadic lifestyle lately, we have grown
closer than imaginable, and I’ve realized that not only do I love my family
beyond words, but I really, really like them too, and I think that I am incredibly lucky for that. I hope they know how much I appreciate them supporting me on this adventure to Germany, both emotionally, and financially. Next time though, I'm taking them with me.
To all my readers- I really appreciate you taking the time to look into my life. I really love being able to share all these crazy moments with you all, and I hope you've enjoyed it at least a little bit too. I like this whole Blog thing, so I think I'll try to continue with it every once in a while once I'm back in the states.
Again, thank you to everyone, and I'll see you back in the US!
Until Next Time,
Meggie
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
"There's a Marshmallow in my Mojito!"
Hallo meine Damen und Herren-
I don't have too much time, as we have our class finals in the morning, but here's a brief update about our adventures in Cologne last weekend and some notes about this week so far too!
(Side Note- When I refer to "Cologne", I am speaking about the town (in German "Köln"). No, we did not adventure into the body fragrance geared toward men. That simply does not make sense, and frankly, I don't think it would be very enjoyable)
Friday, July 27th
Schnitzel. Our (Anna, Träci and I) first night in the city we went to this restaurant recommended by the hostel front desk employees- adorably named "Oma Kleinmann". This place is known for its schnitzel, and after eating there, I understand why. This stuff was so good, and so massive. The schnitzel portion that they served me was flowing over the plate it came on. I decided to switch it up by getting it smothered in curry and pineapples, because, well, why not? This stuff put us in a food coma like I've never experienced- the three of us waddled back to the hostel and passed out at 8:30 pm. This is something I have not done since age 8, so well done Oma Kleinmann, well done.
Saturday, July 28th
We woke up at 9:30, after a solid THIRTEEN HOURS of sleep. I still don't understand how that is possible. But we dragged our lethargic bottoms out of bed and ventured into the city- in the pouring rain. But, as we have discussed before, a little (or a lot of) rain never stops us, and we made it all the way to the Chocolate Museum without melting. Cologne has this large museum that is all about our favourite sweet treat, and it's pretty cool. It covers the history of chocolate, the process to make it, different types and fillings, etc. My favourite part was watching the chocolate-makers create the delicacies in front of us. Plus, we got free chocolate, and who could pass that up?
After the Chocolate Museum, we wandered over to the famous Cologne Dom- the giant cathedral that is the most well known landmark in the city. It was unbelievable. I mean, this thing is incredible. It's a breathtaking gothic church, and it is absolutely gorgeous. I'm really glad that we went to Cologne and were able to see it, because I would have definitely regretted missing that.
Fast-forward through the shopping and awkward lunch at the Thai restaurant (sorry folks, gotta get back to studying soon!), and that night we decided to go on a guided Pub Crawl though out the city. But first, we wanted to grab some dinner, and watch the olympics. Naturally, the only place we could find that was showing them was the "American" themed restaurant. I say "American" with quotation marks, because when making this restaurant, I'm not quite sure any of the creators had actually ever been to America. We settled on eating there, because we really did want to watch the games, and we figured it could be a little funny seeing how the German's interpreted our food. Plus, after 6 weeks of German food, we deserved a little taste of home. The menu seemed familiar enough, and when the server, clad in "typical American" referee clothing came over, we excitedly ordered three of our American favourites- mozzarella sticks, jalapeño poppers, and chicken tenders.
Well, the meals came, in those red plastic baskets that we all know and love, and they were... well... not quite American. The jalapeño poppers were served with a tangy BBQ sauce, which seemed a little bizarre, but understandable. We moved on to the chicken tenders, assuming they would come with BBQ, ranch, honey mustard, or something of the sorts, but instead discovered that it came with a side of thai dressing, which was a little strange, and not very typical for America. The strangest were the mozzarella sticks that came not with tomato sauce, or even ranch dressing, as usual, but rather with curry. Yes, curry.
But wait... that's not even the greatest part. We each ordered a different long drink- mohitos, cosmos, what have you- and instead of coming garnished with fruit or tiny umbrellas like we expected and were used to, they came with the garnish that apparently we all use for our drinks in the good ole' U S of A... marshmallows. I think it's safe to say our server/umpire was a little confused when he set the drinks down and we immediately erupted into fits of laughter.
After finishing our almost-American meal, we giggled our ways back into the city center and met up with the group that was going on the pub crawl. It was a good sized group- about 20 of us from the US, the UK, South Africa, and other EU countries. It was a fun night, but not as fun as I had in mind. Let me recap...
WAIT- before I do there is something VERY weird that I need to address. There are so many bachelor/bachelorette parties in Cologne that I was actually scared and confused. I am not talking one or two parties of people in crowns getting drinks at a bar. I mean, it literally seemed like EVERYONE was a part of one. And you can totally tell because they are all dressed in extremely weird and elaborate costumes and they run up to each other asking people of the opposite sex to do bizarre tasks. Anna and I, for example, waxed a full grown mans legs. That happened, and I will need years of therapy to recover. And this happened all day and all night. When we went to go meet for the pub crawl the reason that the guides could tell that we were going with them and were not part of a bachelorette party was because we were one of the only people in the area not dressed in drag/penis jewelry/matching shirts. I have never seen anything like it.
Alright- back to the pub crawl. We met in the main Old Town square, which was hopping with already drunk people, and we figured we would be starting at one of the bars there. Instead, they took us to a street parallel to the square, where there was literally no one else. But it was still in their happy hour window, so we didn't complain and got a drink. For the pub crawl, we were to get a free shot at each bar, but we wouldn't get to choose it- instead the pub crawl guides just ordered a trey and it was a take-it-or-leave-it senario. The first shot was just a really sugary shot, but at least it tasted alright.
When the guides told us it was time to move to the next location, we were all excited to finally get to see the bars in the Old Town and to be somewhere with actual people. Instead, they dragged us about a mile (not an exaggeration) to the other side of town. In the pouring rain. Every once and a while they would stop to give us another shot, but once again, they were more like shots of sugar. There is this one drink here called Erdbeerlimes, and it is a thick, yummy drink that is like a strawberry-lime syrup with a wee bit of alcohol in it. Yes, it tastes good, and no, there is not very much alcohol in it, but may you be warned- this stuff is the devil. Once the massive amount of sugar seeps into your blood stream, you are on a one way train to Hangover-ville my friend: population, you (and probably a toilet).
By the time we made it to the 2nd bar I resembled a wet dog. So much for spending all that time on my hair! But soggy-doggy or not, we were determined to have fun. The guides heard some of the other participants complaining about the lame shots they were providing, so they opted to give us something a little more strong. It was straight vodka. Gross, BUT there was an interesting twist. One you slammed the shot, you had to eat a lemon that was dipped half in sugar and half in coffee grounds. It was interesting, and surprisingly good!
After the coffee shot and another drink, we moved to the 3rd bar and were finally starting to feel a little tingly in the nose. The third bar was the best, and had Karaoke. Usually, I abhor karaoke, but I was feeling particularly brave being in a new city with new friends (okay... and maybe the vodka was helping a little bit too...) so I signed the three of us up to sing. They called us up, the house was packed, and we owned it. I'm telling you, we we're rock-stars that night. When singing Karaoke, one obviously sings "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls, and so thats what we did. The bar went wild. People were cheering and singing along, and I'm pretty sure this one blonde girl in the front was crying.
A couple songes later, one girl decided that singing some Andrea Bocelli was a good idea. I know we're a tough act to follow, but really? That's what you're going to sing to drunk people at a karaoke bar? It was very awkward, so our guides took us to the next place. And thats when things got weird.
We approached the 4th bar, and our guides told us we needed to be really quite. We we're going into an underground art gallery that served drinks at night, and we needed to act calm and be very quiet.
I'm sorry, but you cannot take a group of rowdy foreigners, who's sole intentions for the night are to get super drunk and cause trouble, and who have already been consuming mass amounts of alcohol at the three previous bars, on a pub crawl to an art gallery. I mean, maybe if this was the st place we had gone things would have been different, but staying super quite at this point in the night was just not an option for all of us. Plus, the drinks were super pricy, and the art was super weird, and they weren't giving us any free shots, so we sobered up a bit, got some food, and stumbled back to the hostel.
Sunday, July 29th
Naturally, because the pub crawl guides were mean and only fed us those sugary, syrupy drinks, I was very, very hungover. Not cool.
Tuesday, July 31st
Last night, Anna, Träci and I all sat on Anna's porch with 2 of Anna's roommates and one of their friends. We just spoke Germlish (German/English) and laughed and had a really, really good time. It made me so proud of my time here. I really am going to miss just sitting on that porch, drinking wine with new friends, and laughing until by belly aches in the warm Freiburg air.
Wednesday, August 1st
We (our class) woke up early and took the train to the starting point of our hike. The hike was pretty challenging- it was steep and very, very hot. But it was amazing. The Schwarzwald (Black Forest) is absolutely stunning. The whole way next to the trail there are little waterfalls and a river that followed us, and we had to cross a dozen or so bridges. Anna, Träci and I ended up hanging out with our professor, JT, for most of it. It was really great.
At the end of our hike we came across a farm at which the owners make cheese, ham, honey, assorted liquors, and even cosmetics. They gave us a tour of their small factory within the barn and then gave us a small feast. We ate three or four different kinds of fresh cheeses and ham, and it was surprisingly tasty. It was one of those moments where I had to step back and look at my life and think "I am eating freshly made cheese in the Schwarzwald Mountains in Germany. I am so lucky."
One cool thing about these weekly class field-trips is that it forces us to speak ONLY German for the ENTIRE day. I can honestly say that my German has improved by leaps and bounds. Almost all the other students have take about 4-5 years of German, including high school classes, before this trip, where as I have only taken 2 years. So starting out on this trip I knew I was a bit behind with my language skills. This was very intimidating to me, and for the first two weeks or so, I was too scared to even open my mouth. Now, I am not afraid. Granted, I make so many mistakes, but I can get my point across and I can be understood and I can keep up in actual conversations. And just the fact that I've gained so much courage with my speaking makes me very proud :)
Only a few more days left here. I started packing a bit last night, and that was really weird. Freiburg is really feeling like home, and knowing that I have to leave in 5 days is super surreal.
Until Next Time-
Meggie
I don't have too much time, as we have our class finals in the morning, but here's a brief update about our adventures in Cologne last weekend and some notes about this week so far too!
(Side Note- When I refer to "Cologne", I am speaking about the town (in German "Köln"). No, we did not adventure into the body fragrance geared toward men. That simply does not make sense, and frankly, I don't think it would be very enjoyable)
Friday, July 27th
Schnitzel. Our (Anna, Träci and I) first night in the city we went to this restaurant recommended by the hostel front desk employees- adorably named "Oma Kleinmann". This place is known for its schnitzel, and after eating there, I understand why. This stuff was so good, and so massive. The schnitzel portion that they served me was flowing over the plate it came on. I decided to switch it up by getting it smothered in curry and pineapples, because, well, why not? This stuff put us in a food coma like I've never experienced- the three of us waddled back to the hostel and passed out at 8:30 pm. This is something I have not done since age 8, so well done Oma Kleinmann, well done.
Saturday, July 28th
We woke up at 9:30, after a solid THIRTEEN HOURS of sleep. I still don't understand how that is possible. But we dragged our lethargic bottoms out of bed and ventured into the city- in the pouring rain. But, as we have discussed before, a little (or a lot of) rain never stops us, and we made it all the way to the Chocolate Museum without melting. Cologne has this large museum that is all about our favourite sweet treat, and it's pretty cool. It covers the history of chocolate, the process to make it, different types and fillings, etc. My favourite part was watching the chocolate-makers create the delicacies in front of us. Plus, we got free chocolate, and who could pass that up?
After the Chocolate Museum, we wandered over to the famous Cologne Dom- the giant cathedral that is the most well known landmark in the city. It was unbelievable. I mean, this thing is incredible. It's a breathtaking gothic church, and it is absolutely gorgeous. I'm really glad that we went to Cologne and were able to see it, because I would have definitely regretted missing that.
 |
| The outside of the gorgeous Köln Dom |
Well, the meals came, in those red plastic baskets that we all know and love, and they were... well... not quite American. The jalapeño poppers were served with a tangy BBQ sauce, which seemed a little bizarre, but understandable. We moved on to the chicken tenders, assuming they would come with BBQ, ranch, honey mustard, or something of the sorts, but instead discovered that it came with a side of thai dressing, which was a little strange, and not very typical for America. The strangest were the mozzarella sticks that came not with tomato sauce, or even ranch dressing, as usual, but rather with curry. Yes, curry.
But wait... that's not even the greatest part. We each ordered a different long drink- mohitos, cosmos, what have you- and instead of coming garnished with fruit or tiny umbrellas like we expected and were used to, they came with the garnish that apparently we all use for our drinks in the good ole' U S of A... marshmallows. I think it's safe to say our server/umpire was a little confused when he set the drinks down and we immediately erupted into fits of laughter.
After finishing our almost-American meal, we giggled our ways back into the city center and met up with the group that was going on the pub crawl. It was a good sized group- about 20 of us from the US, the UK, South Africa, and other EU countries. It was a fun night, but not as fun as I had in mind. Let me recap...
WAIT- before I do there is something VERY weird that I need to address. There are so many bachelor/bachelorette parties in Cologne that I was actually scared and confused. I am not talking one or two parties of people in crowns getting drinks at a bar. I mean, it literally seemed like EVERYONE was a part of one. And you can totally tell because they are all dressed in extremely weird and elaborate costumes and they run up to each other asking people of the opposite sex to do bizarre tasks. Anna and I, for example, waxed a full grown mans legs. That happened, and I will need years of therapy to recover. And this happened all day and all night. When we went to go meet for the pub crawl the reason that the guides could tell that we were going with them and were not part of a bachelorette party was because we were one of the only people in the area not dressed in drag/penis jewelry/matching shirts. I have never seen anything like it.
Alright- back to the pub crawl. We met in the main Old Town square, which was hopping with already drunk people, and we figured we would be starting at one of the bars there. Instead, they took us to a street parallel to the square, where there was literally no one else. But it was still in their happy hour window, so we didn't complain and got a drink. For the pub crawl, we were to get a free shot at each bar, but we wouldn't get to choose it- instead the pub crawl guides just ordered a trey and it was a take-it-or-leave-it senario. The first shot was just a really sugary shot, but at least it tasted alright.
When the guides told us it was time to move to the next location, we were all excited to finally get to see the bars in the Old Town and to be somewhere with actual people. Instead, they dragged us about a mile (not an exaggeration) to the other side of town. In the pouring rain. Every once and a while they would stop to give us another shot, but once again, they were more like shots of sugar. There is this one drink here called Erdbeerlimes, and it is a thick, yummy drink that is like a strawberry-lime syrup with a wee bit of alcohol in it. Yes, it tastes good, and no, there is not very much alcohol in it, but may you be warned- this stuff is the devil. Once the massive amount of sugar seeps into your blood stream, you are on a one way train to Hangover-ville my friend: population, you (and probably a toilet).
By the time we made it to the 2nd bar I resembled a wet dog. So much for spending all that time on my hair! But soggy-doggy or not, we were determined to have fun. The guides heard some of the other participants complaining about the lame shots they were providing, so they opted to give us something a little more strong. It was straight vodka. Gross, BUT there was an interesting twist. One you slammed the shot, you had to eat a lemon that was dipped half in sugar and half in coffee grounds. It was interesting, and surprisingly good!
After the coffee shot and another drink, we moved to the 3rd bar and were finally starting to feel a little tingly in the nose. The third bar was the best, and had Karaoke. Usually, I abhor karaoke, but I was feeling particularly brave being in a new city with new friends (okay... and maybe the vodka was helping a little bit too...) so I signed the three of us up to sing. They called us up, the house was packed, and we owned it. I'm telling you, we we're rock-stars that night. When singing Karaoke, one obviously sings "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls, and so thats what we did. The bar went wild. People were cheering and singing along, and I'm pretty sure this one blonde girl in the front was crying.
A couple songes later, one girl decided that singing some Andrea Bocelli was a good idea. I know we're a tough act to follow, but really? That's what you're going to sing to drunk people at a karaoke bar? It was very awkward, so our guides took us to the next place. And thats when things got weird.
We approached the 4th bar, and our guides told us we needed to be really quite. We we're going into an underground art gallery that served drinks at night, and we needed to act calm and be very quiet.
I'm sorry, but you cannot take a group of rowdy foreigners, who's sole intentions for the night are to get super drunk and cause trouble, and who have already been consuming mass amounts of alcohol at the three previous bars, on a pub crawl to an art gallery. I mean, maybe if this was the st place we had gone things would have been different, but staying super quite at this point in the night was just not an option for all of us. Plus, the drinks were super pricy, and the art was super weird, and they weren't giving us any free shots, so we sobered up a bit, got some food, and stumbled back to the hostel.
Sunday, July 29th
Naturally, because the pub crawl guides were mean and only fed us those sugary, syrupy drinks, I was very, very hungover. Not cool.
Tuesday, July 31st
Last night, Anna, Träci and I all sat on Anna's porch with 2 of Anna's roommates and one of their friends. We just spoke Germlish (German/English) and laughed and had a really, really good time. It made me so proud of my time here. I really am going to miss just sitting on that porch, drinking wine with new friends, and laughing until by belly aches in the warm Freiburg air.
Wednesday, August 1st
We (our class) woke up early and took the train to the starting point of our hike. The hike was pretty challenging- it was steep and very, very hot. But it was amazing. The Schwarzwald (Black Forest) is absolutely stunning. The whole way next to the trail there are little waterfalls and a river that followed us, and we had to cross a dozen or so bridges. Anna, Träci and I ended up hanging out with our professor, JT, for most of it. It was really great.
 |
| On the hike :) |
 |
| Some of the cheese we tasted at the cheese farm |
Only a few more days left here. I started packing a bit last night, and that was really weird. Freiburg is really feeling like home, and knowing that I have to leave in 5 days is super surreal.
Until Next Time-
Meggie
Monday, July 23, 2012
The Pope of Rope: An Adventure to Austria
Hallo meinen Freunden!
So, this last weekend I went to a country that I had yet to explore- Austria. Specifically, Salzburg. This place was AMAZING. Honestly, it is absolutely gorgeous.
Thursday, July 19th
8 of us from the program made the 8 hour train journey to Salzburg from Freiburg. The trip was easy, mostly because Traci got me addicted to the author Tom Robbins, so I couldn't look away from my book for more than 43 seconds before having to dive back in.
We managed to get there and to our hostel (Meininger Hotel- definitely recommend this place to my fellow European travelers) in an orderly fashion, and after our rooms were situated, we walked to this restaurant that the front desk operator recommended. The restaurant was VERY Austrian- the servers spoke only limited English (not a problem for us, because conveniently, we speak German), and all the food was typical Austrian eats. We ate our way through enough schnitzel, pork dumplings, spatzel, and spare ribs to send a small family of Sumo-Wrestlers into a food coma. But damn, was it worth it.
Friday, July 20th
We awoke still full from the night before at a bight and early time and walked to Mirabellplatz to try and catch the 9am bike tour with Fräulein Maria's Sound of Music Bike Tour company. Although we emailed them a few days before letting them know that we were coming, they we're full, but promised that if we came back at 4:30 they would get us in.
So we had some time before we needed to be back at Mirabellplatz and decided to hit up some of the sights. First we strolled through the beautiful gardens at Mirabellplatz, and then we walked across the town and into the Salzburg Cathedral. It was gorgeous. Big, baroque, and beautiful. It was all nice and pretty there until I had the living shit scared out of me. I was taking my time through the Cathedral (being a very cliche tourist with my nose deep in Rick Steve's guidebook, reading every detail about every bit of the Cathedral) and I got separated from the group. Not a problem for me, because I like wandering though places like this alone. I made it to the underground catacombs and crawled down. I was all alone when I wandered into this dark, ominous room in the back. It was dimly lit by a few candles which shone shadows of little monsters onto the walls. All of a sudden a shadowy figure in a hood came floating across the wall and a soundtrack with loud beeping and voice came on. I pretty much peed in my pants right there as I jumped out of my skin and ran out with my tail between my legs. Turns out that an artist had set it all up as an art exhibit, but at that moment, I felt less like I was in an art exhibit, and more like I was on Candid Camera. Joke was on me I guess.
After the Cathedral we trekked up the steep hill to the Hohensalzburg Fenstung- The Salzburg Fortress. Sitting high above the city, the fortress has views of Salzburg that I literally cannot describe in words. We stood on an outside balcony with views of the city, the river, the fields outside the city, and the gorgeous mountains. Breathtaking doesn't even cover it. The weather was a little dim, but seeing the mountains against the stark purple sky, with the clouds playing hide-and-seek between their ridges made the whole thing seem completely surreal.
After spending a few hours going through the museums in the fortress we retreated into the city to try to find somewhere to eat. And honestly, things got frustrating. Traveling with 8 people is not easy. Everyone wants to go somewhere else or do something different, and keeping everyone together was like herding ferrel cats. At this point, everyone was also hungry, so tempers were short and attitudes were high. We managed to agree on a small Italian restaurant, and then grumbled our way back to Mirabellplatz to catch the tour.
We had a bit of time before the tour started once we got back to the gardens, so we decided to go our separate ways for a bit and get some space. Thank god we did, because when we finally met back up at the tour's starting spot, everyone was a beaucoup more cheery. We grabbed our bikes (coincidentally I got the bike labeled with the name 'Grelt', the littlest of the Von Trapp clan), met our guide (Jonas, from Denmark, and very, very cute) and set off.
About 15 minutes into our tour, it started to pour rain. I'm not talking about a light drizzle, I'm taking about a good, solid rain. But even the rain couldn't rain on our parade, and we biked further. The great thing about this group is that we go beyond being just troopers. In this case, a bike tour would have been fun, but a bike tour in the pouring rain was fun, hilarious, exciting, and memorable. There is this great quote my Bob Marley that I love that states, "some people feel the rain- other's just get wet". Let me tell you, at this moment, we were definitely feeling the rain (and to be fair... we were also a little wet. But in the literal sense, because after all, it's very hard to carry an umbrella and bike at the same time).
Our guide did a great job of including both Salzburg history and Sound of Music sites. We wandered through St. Peter's Cemetery, peddled up the steep hill to Nonnberg Abbey, sped down the mountain to the Horse Bath fountain, splashed our way to the actual Von Trapp house, and the movie house as well, meandered to the infamous 16-going-on-17 pagoda, and explored every place in between. The best part had to be biking on the outskirts of Salzburg. The rural, country-side of the city is so serene, and is draped with meadows, farms, cows, dirt roads, secret pathways, and even a "Milk ATM".
And, naturally, I was unable to make it though the whole tour without making a complete fool out of myself. At one point in the tour, we stopped at this old house in the middle of a field that was covered by foliage. Our tour guide asked us to guess who used to live there. Traci started our idiot parade, and, without her glasses, she could only see the trees. So of course when the guide asked who lived there, she thought he meant "who lived in the trees" and she yelled out "A HOMELESS MAN!" Everyone laughed, because obviously, a homeless man would not live in a house. But I managed to top her as Queen Idiot with my next guess. Our guide gave us a hint and told us that the man who lived there loved "ropes and axes". But, with his thick, Denmark accent, I heard "robes and X's". I connected "X's" with Roman Numerals (an inference that I honestly have no idea how I reached), and connected Roman Numerals and Robes with a very famous figure that OBVIOUSLY does NOT live in a tiny house in the middle of Austria... but my mouth preceded my brain and I proudly shouted out "THE POPE!". I really need to learn to think before I speak. The correct answer (which made sense to me after Adara explained what the guide actually said) was the executioner.
We ended the day back at the restaurant from the previous night, where once again just couldn't hold back on the schnitzel.
Saturday, July 21st
On the way to walk around the Old Town, where most of the shops are located, we came across a giant market. Booths and tents lined the river as far as the eye could see, selling hand-made jewelry, funky clothing, and other bizarre objects. These markets are my favourite things to explore in any city in the world. I think it is the best way to get to know a place. Meeting the locals at the booths and seeing the objects being sold there, rather than at the big department store chains, is the ultimate way to understand a new culture.
After making our way through all the booths (and buying a pair of hippie pants that my fellow Vauban students would be proud of) we walked around the Alt Stadt. Finally we made our way back to our hostel where we made pasta in the kitchen they provide for us.
That night we decided to go out and experience Austrian Nightlife. Everyone had fun. Except me. Because I missed it all. I will spare the details, but, basically, I drank a little too much vodka before leaving the hostel (because it was cheaper that way and I was trying to be responsible money-wise), made it to the club, lasted about 15 minutes, prayed to the porcelain God, realized (with the help of the bar's bouncer) I should not be in public, took a cab home, and passed out in my bed. All before 11:30 pm. This is a wonderful example of "learning a lesson the hard way". And trust me- the lesson has been learned.
Sunday, July 22nd
Train-ed it back to Freiburg. Laughed the whole way back. Watched Traci open a bottle of wine with a toothbrush. Smelled the wine. Almost tossed my cookies. Ich habe einen Kater gehabt. Not worth it.
And that, my friends, was the adventure to Austria. Would I go back? Absolutely. Any year, any day, any time. So, if any of you head that way and need a travel buddy, you know who to call.
Until Next Time,
Meggie
So, this last weekend I went to a country that I had yet to explore- Austria. Specifically, Salzburg. This place was AMAZING. Honestly, it is absolutely gorgeous.
Thursday, July 19th
8 of us from the program made the 8 hour train journey to Salzburg from Freiburg. The trip was easy, mostly because Traci got me addicted to the author Tom Robbins, so I couldn't look away from my book for more than 43 seconds before having to dive back in.
We managed to get there and to our hostel (Meininger Hotel- definitely recommend this place to my fellow European travelers) in an orderly fashion, and after our rooms were situated, we walked to this restaurant that the front desk operator recommended. The restaurant was VERY Austrian- the servers spoke only limited English (not a problem for us, because conveniently, we speak German), and all the food was typical Austrian eats. We ate our way through enough schnitzel, pork dumplings, spatzel, and spare ribs to send a small family of Sumo-Wrestlers into a food coma. But damn, was it worth it.
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| So. Much. Schnitzel. |
We awoke still full from the night before at a bight and early time and walked to Mirabellplatz to try and catch the 9am bike tour with Fräulein Maria's Sound of Music Bike Tour company. Although we emailed them a few days before letting them know that we were coming, they we're full, but promised that if we came back at 4:30 they would get us in.
So we had some time before we needed to be back at Mirabellplatz and decided to hit up some of the sights. First we strolled through the beautiful gardens at Mirabellplatz, and then we walked across the town and into the Salzburg Cathedral. It was gorgeous. Big, baroque, and beautiful. It was all nice and pretty there until I had the living shit scared out of me. I was taking my time through the Cathedral (being a very cliche tourist with my nose deep in Rick Steve's guidebook, reading every detail about every bit of the Cathedral) and I got separated from the group. Not a problem for me, because I like wandering though places like this alone. I made it to the underground catacombs and crawled down. I was all alone when I wandered into this dark, ominous room in the back. It was dimly lit by a few candles which shone shadows of little monsters onto the walls. All of a sudden a shadowy figure in a hood came floating across the wall and a soundtrack with loud beeping and voice came on. I pretty much peed in my pants right there as I jumped out of my skin and ran out with my tail between my legs. Turns out that an artist had set it all up as an art exhibit, but at that moment, I felt less like I was in an art exhibit, and more like I was on Candid Camera. Joke was on me I guess.
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| Inside the Salzburg Cathedral |
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| View from the Hohensalzburg Fenstung. Doesn't do the real thing justice. |
We had a bit of time before the tour started once we got back to the gardens, so we decided to go our separate ways for a bit and get some space. Thank god we did, because when we finally met back up at the tour's starting spot, everyone was a beaucoup more cheery. We grabbed our bikes (coincidentally I got the bike labeled with the name 'Grelt', the littlest of the Von Trapp clan), met our guide (Jonas, from Denmark, and very, very cute) and set off.
About 15 minutes into our tour, it started to pour rain. I'm not talking about a light drizzle, I'm taking about a good, solid rain. But even the rain couldn't rain on our parade, and we biked further. The great thing about this group is that we go beyond being just troopers. In this case, a bike tour would have been fun, but a bike tour in the pouring rain was fun, hilarious, exciting, and memorable. There is this great quote my Bob Marley that I love that states, "some people feel the rain- other's just get wet". Let me tell you, at this moment, we were definitely feeling the rain (and to be fair... we were also a little wet. But in the literal sense, because after all, it's very hard to carry an umbrella and bike at the same time).
Our guide did a great job of including both Salzburg history and Sound of Music sites. We wandered through St. Peter's Cemetery, peddled up the steep hill to Nonnberg Abbey, sped down the mountain to the Horse Bath fountain, splashed our way to the actual Von Trapp house, and the movie house as well, meandered to the infamous 16-going-on-17 pagoda, and explored every place in between. The best part had to be biking on the outskirts of Salzburg. The rural, country-side of the city is so serene, and is draped with meadows, farms, cows, dirt roads, secret pathways, and even a "Milk ATM".
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| The Von Trapp Family House (as seen in the movie) |
We ended the day back at the restaurant from the previous night, where once again just couldn't hold back on the schnitzel.
Saturday, July 21st
On the way to walk around the Old Town, where most of the shops are located, we came across a giant market. Booths and tents lined the river as far as the eye could see, selling hand-made jewelry, funky clothing, and other bizarre objects. These markets are my favourite things to explore in any city in the world. I think it is the best way to get to know a place. Meeting the locals at the booths and seeing the objects being sold there, rather than at the big department store chains, is the ultimate way to understand a new culture.
After making our way through all the booths (and buying a pair of hippie pants that my fellow Vauban students would be proud of) we walked around the Alt Stadt. Finally we made our way back to our hostel where we made pasta in the kitchen they provide for us.
That night we decided to go out and experience Austrian Nightlife. Everyone had fun. Except me. Because I missed it all. I will spare the details, but, basically, I drank a little too much vodka before leaving the hostel (because it was cheaper that way and I was trying to be responsible money-wise), made it to the club, lasted about 15 minutes, prayed to the porcelain God, realized (with the help of the bar's bouncer) I should not be in public, took a cab home, and passed out in my bed. All before 11:30 pm. This is a wonderful example of "learning a lesson the hard way". And trust me- the lesson has been learned.
Sunday, July 22nd
Train-ed it back to Freiburg. Laughed the whole way back. Watched Traci open a bottle of wine with a toothbrush. Smelled the wine. Almost tossed my cookies. Ich habe einen Kater gehabt. Not worth it.
And that, my friends, was the adventure to Austria. Would I go back? Absolutely. Any year, any day, any time. So, if any of you head that way and need a travel buddy, you know who to call.
Until Next Time,
Meggie
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
I'm in Love With an Ice Cream
Friends! Family!
Again, so much has happened, but I'm gonna talk about the highlights since the last update :)
Wednesday, July 11th
We went to Heidelberg! Let me tell you my friends, this place is awesome. The two hour bus ride with the bus driver who was torturing us by playing German Polka music over the speakers at a volume that could be heard all the way in Mongolia was totally worth it. We started the trip by taking a tour of the Heidelberg Castle. It was really cool, but I''ll admit, the highlight of the tour was the guide company's fascination with George Clooney. There is this one statue of this prince in the castle that they SWEAR looks identical to the Cloon-meister. Personally, I didn't see it. But the guide sat there for a solid 30 minutes gushing over it. Then she whips out an autographed photo of Mr. Clooney himself explaining how they had mailed him a picture of the statue and had received that in return. Literally, we were standing in front of a 800 year old castle, filled to the brim with history, and the guide is more excited about George Clooney.
After the tour we were freed to venture about the city by ourselves. And this is when I formed my first serious relationship in Germany. With an ice cream. I'm serious, this ice cream was life changing. I guess technically it was gelato, but either way, I was smitten. It was Lemon-Basil flavoured, and while that sounds like a strange combination, when the two came together, it was magic. Miya, another friend on the trip, had Strawberry-Marscapone flavoured gelato, and it was nearly as good. Seriously Mom, we have to try to recreate this whenst I return.
We spent the rest of the day poking around stores and having lunch. We ate at this little Italian cafe, and the handmade ravioli in cream sauce that I had was delicious. Yummm!
Near the end of the day we came to a small shop that sold Schneeballen. For those of you who don't know, Schneeballs are these German desserts that are kind like sugar cookies that are rolled into this weird ball and then covered in an assortment of things (ie. sprinkles and chocolate). I got so excited, because I remember trying these in Rothenburg the last time that my family and I were in Germany. I gathered the team around and spend a good 5 minutes describing how these delectable treats were God's gift to mankind, and how they were the best things these people would ever taste, and how they make birds sing prettier and colors seem brighter, and how we needed to go inside immediately and purchase a small truckload amount because they were just so damn good! My friends finally cut me off and we went into the shop and settled on splitting one.
And it was awful. Dry and plain and yucky. And they all looked at me like I was crazy, which is when I remembered, when we tried them in Rothenburg, we hated them too. So I had remembered eating them, and I had remembered having an overwhelming feeling for them, but I guess I had just confused exactly which feeling it was. Oops. Taught them to listen to me anymore.
Friday, July 13th
Highlight of the day was going to the movies. We went and saw "The Chernobyl Diaries". The whole thing was in German and I was very proud that I understood almost all of it. Go me! The best part of the experience though was going down the 3-story slide. Yes, my friends, in the movie theatre here they have a 3-story, super steep, spiral slide. I was the first to attempt it, and it was awesome! I didn't expect to go as fast as I did, and I squealed the whole time that I flipped and flopped down it. I ended up coming out at the end upside-down and backwards and sans shoes. The theatre employees laughed at me.
Saturday, July 14th
Miya and I decided that we needed a little spontaneity in our lives, and so we went to the train station with no plan in mind. Being students of the university here means that we have train passes that will take us about an hour out of the city for free, and so we boarded the first train that came that would be free for us and road it until we saw a bunch of people exit, and we got off too. The stop was for a town called Kirchzarten, and that was good enough for us.
When we first got off the train, it looked like we had ended up in a neighbourhood. We figured we'd walk in one direction for a little bit and headed onwards.
Thank goodness we did. Kirchzarten ended up being this sweet little town. "Quaint" would be the perfect word to describe it. There were little shops and bakeries in the square, a campground with a neat public swimming pool, rows of houses and bed & breakfasts, and a big church in the middle. On this particular day, there was a big wedding at the church. There was a German "oompa" band playing tubas and whatnot, and all the men had on goofy looking German hats.
We wandered around the streets looking at the cute homes and inns and finally made it to the edge of the town where we had a killer view of the Schwarzwald Mountains. After we took around 3453498 pictures (more or less), we grabbed some ice cream (obviously) and then made our way back to Freiburg. We're planning on going again soon to show our other friends our little find.
Sunday, July 15h
The four of us (Me, Melissa, Miya, and Traci) plus one German friend all woke up at 6 am and train-ed it to EUROPA PARK! This place was awesome! Think Disneyland/World for Germany. I'm not kidding. Like... I really don't know how Disney hasn't sued this place in some way. There were so many similarities to Disney that it couldn't have been a coincidence. Consider the following...
a.) Their main "mascot", which can be seen all over the park, is a mouse.
b.) They have a "Space Mountain" type ride. IE a very dark roller coaster that is set in space. Actually, they had two of them.
c.) The park is divided into different "pavilions" of different European countries. Very EPCOT-esque.
d.) There is a "Kali River Rapids" ride
e.) There is a (really shitty) Jungle Cruise
f.) There is an EPCOT ball. It is very irrelevant, and smaller than ours at Disney, but why would they have this?
g.) They have a "Pirates of Bratavia" ride. Similar scenes to our beloved "Pirates of the Caribbean" include the burning town, the initial drop, the ship-cannon scene, and the one where the men are in the jail trying to bribe the dog to give them the key (except they used a monkey instead of a dog... real original)
h.) And this is the most eerie one... They have a "Haunted Mansion" that is almost EXACTLY like Disney's. You get into the ride and get into an elevator. Disney. The elevator stretches. Disney. When the elevator stretches, the seemingly sweet portraits on the wall become longer and show dangerous situations. Disney. There are doors that are knocking with no one there. Disney. There is a ballroom scene with dancing ghosts. Disney. They even have those same singing statue heads!! DISNEY!!!
Even though this place was cramping on my Disney style, it was still pretty damn awesome. It was raining all day so there were virtually no lines, which was perfect because we were able to walk right onto some of the HUGE roller coasters. These things means business! The last one we went on was definitely the most intense coaster I have ever been on. So much fun! The park also had cool shows in each of the "countries", and we saw a circ-du-solei type show in Holland, a Flamenco dancing show in Spain, and a Ice Skating show in Greece.
One highlight of the day was our dinner. The place we ate was called the "food loop", and it was epic. Basically, you sit in a circular table where there are 15 people divided into 3 smaller groups. In the center of our circle was this twisty metal track that spawned from the ceiling. There was also a rotating platform in the center which housed condiments, silverware, and a place to put dishes. Your specific seat has a number, for example, I was seat number 7. For the 5 of us in our group we had one computer. This computer is how we order. So I ordered my food via computer and put it in as seat number 7, and a few minutes later, a pot with my dinner came flying down a ramp from an unknown location, spiraled down the ramp in the middle of the table, and stopped at my place. Dinner was served. It was so cool!!
Monday, July 16th
We made a group dinner, and then sat on Anna's (another friend in the group) porch and talked for hours. I can't say this enough, but I seriously lucked out with the people on this trip. We get along so great, and literally never run out of things to talk about. Last night we ended up each posing a new philosophical question, and then answered them. I can't explain to anyone outside of the program how well we mesh together. We laugh more than I can explain, and we can talk about incredibly immature topics, as well as topics that are so deep and question everything I've ever thought about life. We've only known each other for 3 weeks, and yet we've formed this inseparable family. And the best part is that it can continue after this program. So many time I've made friendships that mean so much to me, but once we finish camp/study abroad/the internship or what have you, we all have to move back to our respective states and our friendship fizzles out. But the great thing about us here is that we all go to CSU, so when we move back, it's not the end. And thank goodness, because these friendships aren't something I could give up easily.
Tuesday, July 17th
I've got to be honest, today was probably my favourite day in Freiburg thus far. After class, the 5 of us (Traci, Anna, Miya, Adara and I) went to the market that is in the Church square. We meandered from stand to stand and had real, honest to God conversations with local Freiburgers, completely in German. We talked to the woman at the Honey stand for a good 15 minutes, and she let us try local honey and honey schnapps. We had a conversation with the man who made homemade mustard and balsamic vinegar. The lady at the herb stand gave us free candies, and the man who worked at the toy stand taught how to properly pronounce the word for "squirrel" in German (Eichhornchen... it is physically impossible for American's to say correctly). It was just so amazing interacting with these people in this foreign language. This is why I came here. Everyone was so friendly to us and wanted to get to know us and the whole time we were just beaming with pride because of our ability to speak this language. I mean, my German is far, far from perfect, and I have an insurmountable amount to learn still, but I can get around Germany in their language on their terms, and that, to me, is priceless.
So friends, things are good here in Germany. I am really feeling at home and I'm becoming loads more comfortable with everything.
Tomorrow we are going to Titisee for the day, and Thursday we leave for our next adventure... 4 days in AUSTRIA.
Until Next Time,
Meggie
Again, so much has happened, but I'm gonna talk about the highlights since the last update :)
Wednesday, July 11th
We went to Heidelberg! Let me tell you my friends, this place is awesome. The two hour bus ride with the bus driver who was torturing us by playing German Polka music over the speakers at a volume that could be heard all the way in Mongolia was totally worth it. We started the trip by taking a tour of the Heidelberg Castle. It was really cool, but I''ll admit, the highlight of the tour was the guide company's fascination with George Clooney. There is this one statue of this prince in the castle that they SWEAR looks identical to the Cloon-meister. Personally, I didn't see it. But the guide sat there for a solid 30 minutes gushing over it. Then she whips out an autographed photo of Mr. Clooney himself explaining how they had mailed him a picture of the statue and had received that in return. Literally, we were standing in front of a 800 year old castle, filled to the brim with history, and the guide is more excited about George Clooney.
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| The awe inspiring George Clooney Statue |
We spent the rest of the day poking around stores and having lunch. We ate at this little Italian cafe, and the handmade ravioli in cream sauce that I had was delicious. Yummm!
Near the end of the day we came to a small shop that sold Schneeballen. For those of you who don't know, Schneeballs are these German desserts that are kind like sugar cookies that are rolled into this weird ball and then covered in an assortment of things (ie. sprinkles and chocolate). I got so excited, because I remember trying these in Rothenburg the last time that my family and I were in Germany. I gathered the team around and spend a good 5 minutes describing how these delectable treats were God's gift to mankind, and how they were the best things these people would ever taste, and how they make birds sing prettier and colors seem brighter, and how we needed to go inside immediately and purchase a small truckload amount because they were just so damn good! My friends finally cut me off and we went into the shop and settled on splitting one.
And it was awful. Dry and plain and yucky. And they all looked at me like I was crazy, which is when I remembered, when we tried them in Rothenburg, we hated them too. So I had remembered eating them, and I had remembered having an overwhelming feeling for them, but I guess I had just confused exactly which feeling it was. Oops. Taught them to listen to me anymore.
Friday, July 13th
Highlight of the day was going to the movies. We went and saw "The Chernobyl Diaries". The whole thing was in German and I was very proud that I understood almost all of it. Go me! The best part of the experience though was going down the 3-story slide. Yes, my friends, in the movie theatre here they have a 3-story, super steep, spiral slide. I was the first to attempt it, and it was awesome! I didn't expect to go as fast as I did, and I squealed the whole time that I flipped and flopped down it. I ended up coming out at the end upside-down and backwards and sans shoes. The theatre employees laughed at me.
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| Small part of the Heidelberg Castle |
Miya and I decided that we needed a little spontaneity in our lives, and so we went to the train station with no plan in mind. Being students of the university here means that we have train passes that will take us about an hour out of the city for free, and so we boarded the first train that came that would be free for us and road it until we saw a bunch of people exit, and we got off too. The stop was for a town called Kirchzarten, and that was good enough for us.
When we first got off the train, it looked like we had ended up in a neighbourhood. We figured we'd walk in one direction for a little bit and headed onwards.
Thank goodness we did. Kirchzarten ended up being this sweet little town. "Quaint" would be the perfect word to describe it. There were little shops and bakeries in the square, a campground with a neat public swimming pool, rows of houses and bed & breakfasts, and a big church in the middle. On this particular day, there was a big wedding at the church. There was a German "oompa" band playing tubas and whatnot, and all the men had on goofy looking German hats.
We wandered around the streets looking at the cute homes and inns and finally made it to the edge of the town where we had a killer view of the Schwarzwald Mountains. After we took around 3453498 pictures (more or less), we grabbed some ice cream (obviously) and then made our way back to Freiburg. We're planning on going again soon to show our other friends our little find.
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| View from Kirchzarten |
The four of us (Me, Melissa, Miya, and Traci) plus one German friend all woke up at 6 am and train-ed it to EUROPA PARK! This place was awesome! Think Disneyland/World for Germany. I'm not kidding. Like... I really don't know how Disney hasn't sued this place in some way. There were so many similarities to Disney that it couldn't have been a coincidence. Consider the following...
a.) Their main "mascot", which can be seen all over the park, is a mouse.
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| Mouse knock-off (and random Dolphin...) |
c.) The park is divided into different "pavilions" of different European countries. Very EPCOT-esque.
d.) There is a "Kali River Rapids" ride
e.) There is a (really shitty) Jungle Cruise
f.) There is an EPCOT ball. It is very irrelevant, and smaller than ours at Disney, but why would they have this?
 |
| What!? Really?! |
h.) And this is the most eerie one... They have a "Haunted Mansion" that is almost EXACTLY like Disney's. You get into the ride and get into an elevator. Disney. The elevator stretches. Disney. When the elevator stretches, the seemingly sweet portraits on the wall become longer and show dangerous situations. Disney. There are doors that are knocking with no one there. Disney. There is a ballroom scene with dancing ghosts. Disney. They even have those same singing statue heads!! DISNEY!!!
Even though this place was cramping on my Disney style, it was still pretty damn awesome. It was raining all day so there were virtually no lines, which was perfect because we were able to walk right onto some of the HUGE roller coasters. These things means business! The last one we went on was definitely the most intense coaster I have ever been on. So much fun! The park also had cool shows in each of the "countries", and we saw a circ-du-solei type show in Holland, a Flamenco dancing show in Spain, and a Ice Skating show in Greece.
One highlight of the day was our dinner. The place we ate was called the "food loop", and it was epic. Basically, you sit in a circular table where there are 15 people divided into 3 smaller groups. In the center of our circle was this twisty metal track that spawned from the ceiling. There was also a rotating platform in the center which housed condiments, silverware, and a place to put dishes. Your specific seat has a number, for example, I was seat number 7. For the 5 of us in our group we had one computer. This computer is how we order. So I ordered my food via computer and put it in as seat number 7, and a few minutes later, a pot with my dinner came flying down a ramp from an unknown location, spiraled down the ramp in the middle of the table, and stopped at my place. Dinner was served. It was so cool!!
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| Inside picture of the "Food Loop" |
We made a group dinner, and then sat on Anna's (another friend in the group) porch and talked for hours. I can't say this enough, but I seriously lucked out with the people on this trip. We get along so great, and literally never run out of things to talk about. Last night we ended up each posing a new philosophical question, and then answered them. I can't explain to anyone outside of the program how well we mesh together. We laugh more than I can explain, and we can talk about incredibly immature topics, as well as topics that are so deep and question everything I've ever thought about life. We've only known each other for 3 weeks, and yet we've formed this inseparable family. And the best part is that it can continue after this program. So many time I've made friendships that mean so much to me, but once we finish camp/study abroad/the internship or what have you, we all have to move back to our respective states and our friendship fizzles out. But the great thing about us here is that we all go to CSU, so when we move back, it's not the end. And thank goodness, because these friendships aren't something I could give up easily.
Tuesday, July 17th
I've got to be honest, today was probably my favourite day in Freiburg thus far. After class, the 5 of us (Traci, Anna, Miya, Adara and I) went to the market that is in the Church square. We meandered from stand to stand and had real, honest to God conversations with local Freiburgers, completely in German. We talked to the woman at the Honey stand for a good 15 minutes, and she let us try local honey and honey schnapps. We had a conversation with the man who made homemade mustard and balsamic vinegar. The lady at the herb stand gave us free candies, and the man who worked at the toy stand taught how to properly pronounce the word for "squirrel" in German (Eichhornchen... it is physically impossible for American's to say correctly). It was just so amazing interacting with these people in this foreign language. This is why I came here. Everyone was so friendly to us and wanted to get to know us and the whole time we were just beaming with pride because of our ability to speak this language. I mean, my German is far, far from perfect, and I have an insurmountable amount to learn still, but I can get around Germany in their language on their terms, and that, to me, is priceless.
So friends, things are good here in Germany. I am really feeling at home and I'm becoming loads more comfortable with everything.
Tomorrow we are going to Titisee for the day, and Thursday we leave for our next adventure... 4 days in AUSTRIA.
Until Next Time,
Meggie
Monday, July 9, 2012
Nutella Makes the Best Chaser
Hello Friends!
Sorry it's been a while since I've updated this. I've been so busy that the only free time I have I use to take mini-comas in my bed. I've done so much, but I don't have a ton of time right now so let me just mention some highlights...
Wednesday, July 4th
This day was our first "field trip". We started off the adventure by going to the town of Triberg. It's a small town who's claims to fame include the longest waterfall in Germany and the largest Coo-Coo Clock in the world. This clock was enormous. The bird that came out of the door on the hour was not the cute little sparrow that we're all used to, but rather a giant, man eating, beast of a bird. Think Big Bird from Seseme Street if he was German and blood thirsty.
After Triberg, we went to Gutach. When we first got to this town we all went to ride the Rodelbahn. This is a rollercoaster/alpine luge of doom. Friends, I have never feared for my life more. This thing cannot be safe in any way. It is like being in a shitty go-kart that is balanced precariously on a track that swivers and twists and tips you sideways. On top of that, each individual driver works their own brakes, so if one person slams on theirs and the person behind them doesn't see them (which is highly likely considering this is in the middle of the Black Forest) then they will come carrining into the back of the other person and die. By the time I finished going down and had gotten my hyperventillating under control, I could not understand how I was still alive. So I went down 3 more times and then we moved on...
We finished up the day by touring some kind of farm and then a clothing museum. You can just tell by our body language in this picture how much fun it was....
Thursday, July 5th
Sorry it's been a while since I've updated this. I've been so busy that the only free time I have I use to take mini-comas in my bed. I've done so much, but I don't have a ton of time right now so let me just mention some highlights...
Wednesday, July 4th
This day was our first "field trip". We started off the adventure by going to the town of Triberg. It's a small town who's claims to fame include the longest waterfall in Germany and the largest Coo-Coo Clock in the world. This clock was enormous. The bird that came out of the door on the hour was not the cute little sparrow that we're all used to, but rather a giant, man eating, beast of a bird. Think Big Bird from Seseme Street if he was German and blood thirsty.
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| At the middle of the Waterfall. It's longer in real life, promise! |
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| On the death-trap that is the Rodelbahn |
We finished up the day by touring some kind of farm and then a clothing museum. You can just tell by our body language in this picture how much fun it was....
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| Mind you, this picture was taken only 2 minutes before the others also fell asleep |
After class, some of us got lunch (Doner... so addicted. I'm scared to face the withdrawls when I get home) and then went to the Munster church in Freiburg.
No wait, that was Friday. Crap I don't remember what we did on Thursday.
I DO remember that night though. Myself, 3 of my program friends, and one of their German roommates decided to go to a bar in town. We left around 11:30 and went to a club called Karma where we danced for hours. I'm telling you, these Germans love to dance, and they do not stop. We had so much fun and by the time we left around 4 we were drenched in sweat from dancing. We ended up walking home, which was actually really fun. We all just laugh so much here, I love it.
We also drink so much wine here. In America, we drink Vodka and Rum and such, but here we end up going through 4-5 bottles of wine during family dinner (5 or 6 of us) and think nothing of it. I guess it's probably because wine is 1.5 euros/bottle here, and water is more expensive.
Friday, July 6th
THIS was the day that we went to tour the Munster church in Freiburg. It's this gorgeous old church that was started in the 1200s, which is a really long time ago. It's not like most other churches I've visited. I feel like many of the other churches I've been to have been pretty and uplifting inside, where as this one is straight out of a horror film. The fact that there was some old woman pounding on the organ to some creepy minor tune didn't help either.
We then hiked up to the Schlossberg beer garden, which is this great place that overlooks all of Freiburg. We got a beer, and some ice cream, and then I went home to do homework... ew.
That night we went to my very first OPERA! We went to the big opera house in Freiburg and saw "Rinaldo". I would recap it for you, but the fact is, the opera was in italian, and the super titles were in complex German, so I'm kinda shaky on what actually happened... Basically there was this guy, he loved this girl, but in the end they couldn't be together, partly because her father didn't approve of it, but mostly because he died. Oh well. But the voices were amazing and I was really surprised that I liked it so much! I'd definitely go again!
Saturday, July 6th
We woke up at 10 am to meet and start drinking because it was SOMMERFEST at our housing complex! We ran to the store and bought enough alcohol to supply an average group of people for a year and were ready to party! And then we realized that maaaaybe the Germans who told us everyone would be drunk by 9:30 in the morning may have exaggerated a bit, because they had basically just started setting up for the event and no one was there.
So we settled with making lunch at Arthur's apartment and hanging out on his porch until things started. 6 pizzas, 2 bottles of Malibu, a handle of vodka, a ton of laughter, and 8 hours later, we hadn't moved.
FINALLY things got going. We went down to check it out and discovered we had wandered into German Woodstock. I'm not kidding, I have never seen so many hippies in one place, and I'm from Boulder, so that's saying something. There were a bunch of people making vegan, gluten-free, non-discriminatory, sustainable food and selling it (pay what you want), and selling hemp, organic clothing. But they did have 2 stages with different bands, and a giant inflatable swimming pool, and beer, so we stayed.
We ended up sitting and listening to some live Reggae music for a while and just chilled out. And then absolutely everything changed in a heart beat, and around 12 pm, the chill-out fest turned into a 2,500 person, full out drunken party. This put the Rams Pointe party to shame. EVERYone was so drunk and running around and making new friends and dancing. They had bands in the basements of all the dorms and each one was a different party. It was absolutely insane, but we had more fun than I could possibly explain. Finally, around 4 am, we gave in and decided to go to bed. My mistake- my bedroom is on the first floor directly above one of the basement parties. It was SO loud, and my whole room was vibrating, and I seriously thought my bed might fall through the floor. This continued on until SEVEN IN THE MORNING. I wasn't kidding when I said the Germans liked to dance...
Sunday, July 7th
We dragged our hungover butts out of bed at 1:30 pm and went to get Doner, obviously the only choice to cure the post-night nausea. And then we made plans to go see a movie and be productive for the rest of the afternoon. And then I spent the rest of the day in my bed instead. Around 10 pm, the greatest sentence ever uttered by mankind was spoken outside my window via megaphone: "FREE BEER". So I gathered the others and we went to the bar where we had one beer before realizing that was the last thing we wanted to have and instead went to bed.
Monday, July 8th
We met at 9 am at the train station and took the train to the Schluchsee, where we went on a 12 km hike around the lake (about 8 miles). It was so gorgeous! Afterward we went to the Rothaus Brewery for a tour. It's like the German New Belgium! AND we literally spoke ONLY German the entire day! My German is definitely improving. When I first got here, I was terrified to open my mouth, and now I am so much more confident. I still have a long way to go and make some mistakes (okay, a TON of mistakes...), but it is getting easier!
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| Outside the Rothaus Brewery |
And now I am here, blogging! Hopefully you can tell that I am really having an amazing time. I am so lucky that the other people on this program are so awesome. We all laugh so, so much, and work well together, and just have fun with each other. And I love this town. Freiburg is amazing. There is so much to do, and even when we are doing nothing and just sitting on someone's deck or at a cafe I am loving it. And to think that I still have another month here!
Until Next Time,
Meggie
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
"I Feel Like Cookie Monster"
Bonjour mes amis!
I have finally returned from Paris and have caught up on sleep and homework. Therefore it is time for yet another blog post! Lets go back a bit...
Thursday, June 28th
Arthur, Anna, Adara and I departed right after class to go to PARIS. The train was easy, and when we got to the hostel, we were pleasantly surprised. Most of the hostels in Paris were about 99 Euros/night, so after booking this one that was about 31 Euros/night, I was prepared to get comfy for the night snuggling between a strange Turkish woman and a cockroach the size of a small house cat. But no! This place was great! It was about a 2 minute walk from the Gare de Nord train station, which was super convenient. It had a fun little lobby and a kitchen on the first floor where people from all over the world were hanging out. Our room had 2 bunk beds, which was perfect for the four of us. We had a private little balcony which we spent most of the time drinking wine on, and our own bathroom, which was shocking and awesome. It was also right near this little crepe shop, which was may or may not have eaten at 4 times...
Once we got settled, we bought out metro tickets and took the underground to this little cafe that the lady at the front desk recommended. It. was. so. good. It was not in the super touristy area, and most of the people there seemed local, so just walking in I had a suspicion that it was going to be wonderful. I had duck with potatoes, and the duck was literally falling off the bone it was so tender. For dessert I had this vanilla mousse type thing with fresh berries. I almost cried when I took the last bite because it was empty. Oh, and I had a mojito, because I was in France, and why not.
After I recovered from the tragedy that was finishing my dessert, we decided to walk around a bit. We wandered by the Bastille, and up the streets until we made it to the Notre Dame. Paris is so gorgeous. It is so cool, because there will be these modern, new looking buildings incorporated with these pieces of architecture that are hundreds of years old. It was really neat being at the Notre Dame at night too, because there were only a handful of people there, which is a huge difference from how it is during the day time.
Friday, June 29th
BEST DAY EVER. I was the annoying girl who made everyone wake up at 7:00 in the morning so that we could take the 45 minute train to get to DISNEYLAND PARIS the minute it opened. The entire day I was just smiling like a crazy person. We got there around ten and started the day by going on Space Mountain.
So here's the thing about Space Mountain. One of the girls who was with us, Anna, does not like Roller Coasters. She decided to sit out on Space Mountain, and immediately the three of us started to try to convince her otherwise. We told her about our experiences on Space Mountain in the US- how it's pretty tame, and geared toward little children, and doesn't even go very fast, and there is absolutely no going upside down. Finally we convinced her, and she decided to come with us. As soon as we buckled into the coaster and started moving, I realized that Space Mountain Paris was not going to be the same as what we were used to. And as soon as we hit the first double barrel roll and went screaming down the steep hills, I started screaming apologies back to Anna (of course, I had made us ride in the front row, so that didn't help). Thankfully, she survived, and has still continued to talk to us the rest of the trip.
But Disneyland was awesome. After Space Mountain we decided to change parks and do all of "Walt Disney Studios" first since it closed earlier. The park was really cool- very similar to Disney's Hollywood Studios, so naturally I felt like I was home. We hit up Tower of Terror and Rockin Rollercoaster, and even some ones that were native to Paris, like Stitch Live (think Turtle Talk w/ Crush or Laugh Floor but with Stitch. Obvi I was freaking out like a 5 year old).
We then moved back to the main "Disneyland" park and went on a bunch of the classics- Small World, Haunted Mansion, etc. We split up for a bit while Anna and Arthur waited to meet the princesses, and Adara and I decided to go on Pirates of the Caribbean. Big mistake. We make it to the room where the town is "burning down" and our boat stops. And we sit. And we wait. About five minutes later they tell us there is something wrong (something... very clear) and to remain seated. 5 minutes later we hear a panic-y voice say over the intercoms "BLU BLAH CE VOUS JU BLAH" (that is how French sounds to me) and they shut off the music, which was very eerie. It was strange hearing only the creaking and mechanical noises of the animatronics. Then the same loud freaked out voice comes on and states "JE NE PAW BLU VOUS HOMARD" (mind you that is just paraphrasing what they actually said) and the lights turned on. I start chanting excitedly "EVAC! EVAC! EVAC!" (as in evacuation, for you non-cast members) and clearly no one else on the ride was a Disney Cast Member from America because they just stared at me like I was mad.
We started moving backwards and by this time we'd been stuck for about 20 minutes. Everyone is getting a little nervous and trying to figure out what's happening and I'm just sitting there having the time of my life because this was like a super cool backstage tour, and the looming possibility of an evacuation left me giddy. I am such a cast member.
We finally made it out (sans evacuation) and ran to make our reservation at the Agrabah Cafe. Sehr lecker. After we stuffed ourselves to the brim with Mediterranean food, we rolled our way to the castle, where we watched the amazing firework show. It's called Disney Dreams and is kind of a mix between Wishes and The Magic, Memories, and You (the two shows at Disney World Florida). The whole time I watched it, I just thought of how lucky I am to work for such an amazing company. Seriously, I am one lucky kid.
Saturday, June 30th
After our 16 hour ordeal at Disney (13 hours at the park, 1.5 hours there and back travel), we did not sleep through the night. Instead we coma-ed through the night. The second our heads hit our beds we were gone until 11 am the next morning.
Finally, we hauled ourselves out of bed, and we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower. Just as I was the last time I saw it, I was just in awe of its huge-ness. What really captured our attention, however, was the epic battle that took place underneath. This group of younger women in gypsy-esque clothing came tearing by us with a gaggle of cops behind them. One of the policemen managed to knock one of them down and she laid on the ground crying and wailing while the other gypsys ran back and started hitting and kicking and screaming at the cops. More cops came and they managed to move the women away from the tower, but we could hear the screaming and yelling from all the way down the street. It was like nothing I've ever seen! Kinda scary!
We meandered around Rue Cler, a recommendation from Dr. Z. It's a really cure shopping street with small cheese and book shops. We grabbed some lunch (Mom- I had pasta w/ Truffle sauce in your honor!) and then went on about a 4 mile walk to do some more sight seeing (and a bit of shopping, naturlich).
That night, although we were exhausted, we continued to experience Paris. Arthur, Anna, and I decided to check out the nightlife in Paris, and chose to go to the Banana Cafe. I'd never been to a gay club before, and I had no idea what to expect. I figured I'd be open minded and go with them. It ended up being so much fun! We danced and danced and danced! It was so cool to be able to dance and hang out without having any creepy guys come try to get in my business. We had so much fun!
Sunday, July 1st
The next morning, we did not have fun. It was hangover city in Paris, and we struggled to climb out of bed and pack before our 11am check-out. But we pulled it together (not gracefully) and trekked to the Lourve. The line was enormous, and we had to catch a train later that day so we didn't have too much time, so we opted to just walk around the outside and check out the gardens. It was so pretty!
We moved to the Notre Dame next and walked around the inside for a while before grabbing some lunch and heading to the train station.
Paris was amazing, I had such a great weekend, and not even my level-5 hangover could ruin my day!
What DID ruin my day, however, was our train being cancelled.
You know how Joshua said "it's not an adventure unless something goes wrong"? Well, if thats the case, this was definitely an adventure.
Our train was supposed to leave from Paris at 7:30 pm. We were then going to take a direct train to Stuttguard and then change and take a short one to Freiburg. The best part was that it was going to be a night train, and after an action packed weekend, we were pretty excited to catch some z's in our extra large, fully reclinable chairs.
But no. Our train had been canceled, and France tried frantically to figure out a backup plan for the 100+ people who were now screwed. And naturally, they made it as complicated as possible.
We boarded our new train at about 9 pm. It was not a night train, which was a bummer, but we accepted it. We took that train to Schlossburg, and then everyone transfered and squeezed into three greyhound-sized busses. The busses schlepped up to Mannheim, where we arrived around 2:30 am. They threw us out of the busses and took off. All 100 of us wandered over to the station, groggy eyed and half asleep, only to discover that the station was closed. Everyone started to get angry and scared, and I just started cracking up. I turned to my friends and said "Let me recap- We were supposed to take the night train to Stuttguard and then a train to Freiburg. Instead we took a train to a bus to a train station where we are NOW ABANDONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!" We looked inside the station where it said the next train wasn't supposed to depart until 4:45 am, so people started to get comfy and sleep on the ground.
Eventually, someone came out and told us there was finally a train that could take us somewhere. We took it to Stuttguard and arrived around 4 am. We waited in the station until 5:45 when we took another train to Karlsruhe, and then finally one to Freiburg. We arrived at the Freiburg train station at about 8:30 am. Yes my friends, it took me four hours longer to get from Paris to Freiburg (about 3 hours away) than it took for me to get to Europe from America.
If you feel so inclined to look at a map, you should look at our travel route. Paris to Schlossburg to Mannheim to Stuttguard to Karlsruhe to Freiburg. You will notice that this is the most inefficient route ever created. I'm getting a headache just thinking about it.
I finally got back to my dorm at about 9 am. I did my homework, took a "nap", and went to class. Ah... life of a study abroad student.
Nonetheless, it was totally worth it. We had an amazing time in Paris. I still find myself looking at my life in disbelief. I look back on this weekend thinking how lucky I am so have been to Disneyland Paris and to have seen the Eiffel Tower twice and to have eaten such good food and made such good friends and to have laughed and laughed.
Now its time for me to study. Yuck :(
Until Next Time-
Meggie
I have finally returned from Paris and have caught up on sleep and homework. Therefore it is time for yet another blog post! Lets go back a bit...
Thursday, June 28th
Arthur, Anna, Adara and I departed right after class to go to PARIS. The train was easy, and when we got to the hostel, we were pleasantly surprised. Most of the hostels in Paris were about 99 Euros/night, so after booking this one that was about 31 Euros/night, I was prepared to get comfy for the night snuggling between a strange Turkish woman and a cockroach the size of a small house cat. But no! This place was great! It was about a 2 minute walk from the Gare de Nord train station, which was super convenient. It had a fun little lobby and a kitchen on the first floor where people from all over the world were hanging out. Our room had 2 bunk beds, which was perfect for the four of us. We had a private little balcony which we spent most of the time drinking wine on, and our own bathroom, which was shocking and awesome. It was also right near this little crepe shop, which was may or may not have eaten at 4 times...
Once we got settled, we bought out metro tickets and took the underground to this little cafe that the lady at the front desk recommended. It. was. so. good. It was not in the super touristy area, and most of the people there seemed local, so just walking in I had a suspicion that it was going to be wonderful. I had duck with potatoes, and the duck was literally falling off the bone it was so tender. For dessert I had this vanilla mousse type thing with fresh berries. I almost cried when I took the last bite because it was empty. Oh, and I had a mojito, because I was in France, and why not.
After I recovered from the tragedy that was finishing my dessert, we decided to walk around a bit. We wandered by the Bastille, and up the streets until we made it to the Notre Dame. Paris is so gorgeous. It is so cool, because there will be these modern, new looking buildings incorporated with these pieces of architecture that are hundreds of years old. It was really neat being at the Notre Dame at night too, because there were only a handful of people there, which is a huge difference from how it is during the day time.
Friday, June 29th
BEST DAY EVER. I was the annoying girl who made everyone wake up at 7:00 in the morning so that we could take the 45 minute train to get to DISNEYLAND PARIS the minute it opened. The entire day I was just smiling like a crazy person. We got there around ten and started the day by going on Space Mountain.
So here's the thing about Space Mountain. One of the girls who was with us, Anna, does not like Roller Coasters. She decided to sit out on Space Mountain, and immediately the three of us started to try to convince her otherwise. We told her about our experiences on Space Mountain in the US- how it's pretty tame, and geared toward little children, and doesn't even go very fast, and there is absolutely no going upside down. Finally we convinced her, and she decided to come with us. As soon as we buckled into the coaster and started moving, I realized that Space Mountain Paris was not going to be the same as what we were used to. And as soon as we hit the first double barrel roll and went screaming down the steep hills, I started screaming apologies back to Anna (of course, I had made us ride in the front row, so that didn't help). Thankfully, she survived, and has still continued to talk to us the rest of the trip.
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| Sleeping Beauty's Castle! |
But Disneyland was awesome. After Space Mountain we decided to change parks and do all of "Walt Disney Studios" first since it closed earlier. The park was really cool- very similar to Disney's Hollywood Studios, so naturally I felt like I was home. We hit up Tower of Terror and Rockin Rollercoaster, and even some ones that were native to Paris, like Stitch Live (think Turtle Talk w/ Crush or Laugh Floor but with Stitch. Obvi I was freaking out like a 5 year old).
We then moved back to the main "Disneyland" park and went on a bunch of the classics- Small World, Haunted Mansion, etc. We split up for a bit while Anna and Arthur waited to meet the princesses, and Adara and I decided to go on Pirates of the Caribbean. Big mistake. We make it to the room where the town is "burning down" and our boat stops. And we sit. And we wait. About five minutes later they tell us there is something wrong (something... very clear) and to remain seated. 5 minutes later we hear a panic-y voice say over the intercoms "BLU BLAH CE VOUS JU BLAH" (that is how French sounds to me) and they shut off the music, which was very eerie. It was strange hearing only the creaking and mechanical noises of the animatronics. Then the same loud freaked out voice comes on and states "JE NE PAW BLU VOUS HOMARD" (mind you that is just paraphrasing what they actually said) and the lights turned on. I start chanting excitedly "EVAC! EVAC! EVAC!" (as in evacuation, for you non-cast members) and clearly no one else on the ride was a Disney Cast Member from America because they just stared at me like I was mad.
We started moving backwards and by this time we'd been stuck for about 20 minutes. Everyone is getting a little nervous and trying to figure out what's happening and I'm just sitting there having the time of my life because this was like a super cool backstage tour, and the looming possibility of an evacuation left me giddy. I am such a cast member.
We finally made it out (sans evacuation) and ran to make our reservation at the Agrabah Cafe. Sehr lecker. After we stuffed ourselves to the brim with Mediterranean food, we rolled our way to the castle, where we watched the amazing firework show. It's called Disney Dreams and is kind of a mix between Wishes and The Magic, Memories, and You (the two shows at Disney World Florida). The whole time I watched it, I just thought of how lucky I am to work for such an amazing company. Seriously, I am one lucky kid.
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| Still frame from the Disney Dreams show |
Saturday, June 30th
After our 16 hour ordeal at Disney (13 hours at the park, 1.5 hours there and back travel), we did not sleep through the night. Instead we coma-ed through the night. The second our heads hit our beds we were gone until 11 am the next morning.
Finally, we hauled ourselves out of bed, and we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower. Just as I was the last time I saw it, I was just in awe of its huge-ness. What really captured our attention, however, was the epic battle that took place underneath. This group of younger women in gypsy-esque clothing came tearing by us with a gaggle of cops behind them. One of the policemen managed to knock one of them down and she laid on the ground crying and wailing while the other gypsys ran back and started hitting and kicking and screaming at the cops. More cops came and they managed to move the women away from the tower, but we could hear the screaming and yelling from all the way down the street. It was like nothing I've ever seen! Kinda scary!
 |
That night, although we were exhausted, we continued to experience Paris. Arthur, Anna, and I decided to check out the nightlife in Paris, and chose to go to the Banana Cafe. I'd never been to a gay club before, and I had no idea what to expect. I figured I'd be open minded and go with them. It ended up being so much fun! We danced and danced and danced! It was so cool to be able to dance and hang out without having any creepy guys come try to get in my business. We had so much fun!
Sunday, July 1st
The next morning, we did not have fun. It was hangover city in Paris, and we struggled to climb out of bed and pack before our 11am check-out. But we pulled it together (not gracefully) and trekked to the Lourve. The line was enormous, and we had to catch a train later that day so we didn't have too much time, so we opted to just walk around the outside and check out the gardens. It was so pretty!
We moved to the Notre Dame next and walked around the inside for a while before grabbing some lunch and heading to the train station.
 |
| The Notre Dame |
Paris was amazing, I had such a great weekend, and not even my level-5 hangover could ruin my day!
What DID ruin my day, however, was our train being cancelled.
You know how Joshua said "it's not an adventure unless something goes wrong"? Well, if thats the case, this was definitely an adventure.
Our train was supposed to leave from Paris at 7:30 pm. We were then going to take a direct train to Stuttguard and then change and take a short one to Freiburg. The best part was that it was going to be a night train, and after an action packed weekend, we were pretty excited to catch some z's in our extra large, fully reclinable chairs.
But no. Our train had been canceled, and France tried frantically to figure out a backup plan for the 100+ people who were now screwed. And naturally, they made it as complicated as possible.
We boarded our new train at about 9 pm. It was not a night train, which was a bummer, but we accepted it. We took that train to Schlossburg, and then everyone transfered and squeezed into three greyhound-sized busses. The busses schlepped up to Mannheim, where we arrived around 2:30 am. They threw us out of the busses and took off. All 100 of us wandered over to the station, groggy eyed and half asleep, only to discover that the station was closed. Everyone started to get angry and scared, and I just started cracking up. I turned to my friends and said "Let me recap- We were supposed to take the night train to Stuttguard and then a train to Freiburg. Instead we took a train to a bus to a train station where we are NOW ABANDONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!" We looked inside the station where it said the next train wasn't supposed to depart until 4:45 am, so people started to get comfy and sleep on the ground.
Eventually, someone came out and told us there was finally a train that could take us somewhere. We took it to Stuttguard and arrived around 4 am. We waited in the station until 5:45 when we took another train to Karlsruhe, and then finally one to Freiburg. We arrived at the Freiburg train station at about 8:30 am. Yes my friends, it took me four hours longer to get from Paris to Freiburg (about 3 hours away) than it took for me to get to Europe from America.
If you feel so inclined to look at a map, you should look at our travel route. Paris to Schlossburg to Mannheim to Stuttguard to Karlsruhe to Freiburg. You will notice that this is the most inefficient route ever created. I'm getting a headache just thinking about it.
I finally got back to my dorm at about 9 am. I did my homework, took a "nap", and went to class. Ah... life of a study abroad student.
Nonetheless, it was totally worth it. We had an amazing time in Paris. I still find myself looking at my life in disbelief. I look back on this weekend thinking how lucky I am so have been to Disneyland Paris and to have seen the Eiffel Tower twice and to have eaten such good food and made such good friends and to have laughed and laughed.
Now its time for me to study. Yuck :(
Until Next Time-
Meggie
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Ich Spreche Kein Deutsch
Well I finally made it to DEUTSCHLAND! Let's back up a bit, shall we?
Monday, June 25th
I woke up bright and early on Monday morning and made it to the tube station outside Lissie's flat at 5:30 am. I was so nervous and excited about going to Freiburg that I slept for a whopping 15 minutes that night, but I still somehow made it to onto the airplane at Heathrow in one piece. We landed in Frankfurt a bit late and were bussed to customs where there was a huge line for the non-EU passports.
And then the most amazing thing ever happened.
The line at customs was honestly going to take about 30-45 minutes to get through. I was pressed to get my train so I started to worry. Then this man who worked there came over to the line and started grabbing some people. He grabbed a family from back in the line, and then another one from a little but behind me, and sent them to another room. Then, he grabbed me and told me to follow them. Finally, he grabbed one other family and walked with us to this other room. It was another customs area, but there was NO LINE here! They started a new line and for some reason picked us out to go through it first.
The mother in the family behind me asked the man why he had hand-picked us. He responded that he selected us because he "didn't want the children to have to wait". Thats right! Finally, after years of being so sad that I look so young, looking like I am 12 has paid off! He thought I was a child alone in the line and didn't want me to have to wait! Score!
I caught the train, took it for 20 minutes to Mannheim and changed for the two hour one to Freiburg. I was so excited to have two hours to look out the window and see my new home. Trains my favourite type of transportation. Looking at the scenery and the beautiful views is something I think is amazing, and I was so excited to have two full hours to do it. I got lucky and found a booth that was unoccupied. I sat down, pressed my face against the window, and prepared to fall in love with the German countryside.
And then I woke up to my alarm going off telling me I had reached my stop. I literally missed the ENTIRE ride. Cool.
Finally I got to the study abroad office. I received my welcome packet and was sent off to my new "Wohnung". It was a little bit overwhelming to be honest. No one speaks any English to us at all, and I'm pretty sure I sat there with the most confused look on my face for most of this. They handed me my keys and sent me on my way.
The apartment area is really cool. We live in the "bohemian" complex so its colorful and bright and there are a lot of plants. And Buddah statues. Students are always hanging out outside at the bon fire or in the grass or just sitting on the staircase. I live in a flat with 5 (I think) other people. We each have our own room, but we share a kitchen and a bathroom and two showers. I have only officially one of my roommates. Her name is Katarina and she is very, very nice. She showed me around and let me know where I can put my food and everything. There are no pets allowed at the complex, but for some reason we are allowed to have the only "dorm cat". His name is Oskar and he loves me. He is always sleeping on my bed or hanging out at my feet. He loves to be scratched, but when I try to pick him up, blood is shed. And it is mine. This is a problem, because I can't get him out of my room- ever. When I'm leaving for the day and need to lock my door, or am going to bed and don't want to lock him in, he all of a sudden turns into Ninja Kitty, and it is dangerous.
I "met" two of my other roommates this morning at 4:45 am. My fire alarm went off for a good 25 minutes in my room, and besides scaring the living shit out of me, it woke everyone else in Germany up. Two of the girls came into my room and we worked together to build a contraption that we could climb up to take the alarm down. We have REALLY high ceilings, so it took a while for our sleep deprived minds to find enough furniture to stack so we could finally reach it.
Tuesday, June 26th
After some initial "safety and security" presentations, we went on a walking tour of Freiburg. The town is awesome. It is a lot bigger than I expected. For some reason, I had this idea that we were going to be in some Medieval town with no electricity and where we had to walk a mile to get to the shed that was used as a bathroom. There are a lot of shops, a ton of restaurants, and a bunch of bars and diskos. It is super pretty here too. The streets are all cobblestone, and there are a few giant churches. The most noticeable thing however are the mountains. We are surrounded by the Black Forrest, and it is gorgeous. The mountains are more like hills compared to what we have in Boulder, but they are covered in thick, dark green trees. It is stunning.
Oh, and I found the infamous small canals that line the streets. And by "found" I mean "fell into one". I was so distracted by everything in the city that one minute I was looking at a cool window display that housed a neat looking robot fish, and the next I was ankle deep in the canal. Everyone laughed at me because a.) I am an idiot, and b.) the noise I made when I fell was that of a donkey/small chimp. Once they were over it, the tour guide explained some old myth about the canal. Apparently, it is rumored that if you fall into the canal, you will marry a Freiburg-er. So sorry Mom and Dad, I may be bringing home my Freiburg fiance in August!
After the tour a few of us went and had lunch at a pub. While we were there, this man who was sitting at the bar overheard us and came to sit with us. He spoke no English whatsoever, and our German is not very good yet, so our lines of communication were a bit muddled. Eventually, he singled myself and two other girls out, and talked about how cute we were and how we weren't "typical fat americans" and wanted to know how we didn't have boyfriends and wanted to buy us a drink yadda yadda blah blah. But he was a wee bit creepy so we declined and moved on. It was cool to get to talk to a local though, and all in German!
That night we bought a few bottles of wine and some ice cream and sat in the grass and got to know each other. Once it got later, some of the people went to bed, but five of us decided to check out the night life in Freiburg. We discovered that, theoretically, it is cool, just not on a Tuesday night. There weren't too many people there, but we did meet some more locals.
Wednesday, June 27th
Class in the morning. Our professor is very energetic. I am used to the stoic, calm professors from the German department, so this was a bit of a shock. At first, I was actually a little scared, but slowly I'm getting used to the change.
After class, we went to this cool beer garden up in the Black Forest. We chugged down a giant beer, thinking that we were just going to go back to the dorms to nap afterwards. Instead, we went on a long hike up to the top of the hill. Yes, I did this directly after consuming this huge beer, and yes, I was in flip-flops, but it was so worth it. At the top of the hill they have a cool tower that you can climb 200 stairs up to see the view. It was breathtaking. We could actually see all the way into France!
Later tonight, we all met up and went to the old town again. We grabbed dinner, where I experienced my first German Doner Kebap. Think gyros, but way better.
We then went and watched the Portugal v. Spain soccer game at a bar. It is so fun to watch those games here. People are all over the streets crowded around televisions trying to see. And it's not just young people. There are children, and grandparents, and foreigners, and more. Everyone stops their life to watch! There is really nothing to compare it to in American. Spain won!
I have class tomorrow morning, and then I leave right after to catch my train to Paris!
Sorry this blog is not up to standards compared to my others, but it is 1:00 am, and I have to pack for tomorrow!
Paris, here we come!
Until Next Time,
Meggie
Monday, June 25th
I woke up bright and early on Monday morning and made it to the tube station outside Lissie's flat at 5:30 am. I was so nervous and excited about going to Freiburg that I slept for a whopping 15 minutes that night, but I still somehow made it to onto the airplane at Heathrow in one piece. We landed in Frankfurt a bit late and were bussed to customs where there was a huge line for the non-EU passports.
And then the most amazing thing ever happened.
The line at customs was honestly going to take about 30-45 minutes to get through. I was pressed to get my train so I started to worry. Then this man who worked there came over to the line and started grabbing some people. He grabbed a family from back in the line, and then another one from a little but behind me, and sent them to another room. Then, he grabbed me and told me to follow them. Finally, he grabbed one other family and walked with us to this other room. It was another customs area, but there was NO LINE here! They started a new line and for some reason picked us out to go through it first.
The mother in the family behind me asked the man why he had hand-picked us. He responded that he selected us because he "didn't want the children to have to wait". Thats right! Finally, after years of being so sad that I look so young, looking like I am 12 has paid off! He thought I was a child alone in the line and didn't want me to have to wait! Score!
I caught the train, took it for 20 minutes to Mannheim and changed for the two hour one to Freiburg. I was so excited to have two hours to look out the window and see my new home. Trains my favourite type of transportation. Looking at the scenery and the beautiful views is something I think is amazing, and I was so excited to have two full hours to do it. I got lucky and found a booth that was unoccupied. I sat down, pressed my face against the window, and prepared to fall in love with the German countryside.
And then I woke up to my alarm going off telling me I had reached my stop. I literally missed the ENTIRE ride. Cool.
Finally I got to the study abroad office. I received my welcome packet and was sent off to my new "Wohnung". It was a little bit overwhelming to be honest. No one speaks any English to us at all, and I'm pretty sure I sat there with the most confused look on my face for most of this. They handed me my keys and sent me on my way.
The apartment area is really cool. We live in the "bohemian" complex so its colorful and bright and there are a lot of plants. And Buddah statues. Students are always hanging out outside at the bon fire or in the grass or just sitting on the staircase. I live in a flat with 5 (I think) other people. We each have our own room, but we share a kitchen and a bathroom and two showers. I have only officially one of my roommates. Her name is Katarina and she is very, very nice. She showed me around and let me know where I can put my food and everything. There are no pets allowed at the complex, but for some reason we are allowed to have the only "dorm cat". His name is Oskar and he loves me. He is always sleeping on my bed or hanging out at my feet. He loves to be scratched, but when I try to pick him up, blood is shed. And it is mine. This is a problem, because I can't get him out of my room- ever. When I'm leaving for the day and need to lock my door, or am going to bed and don't want to lock him in, he all of a sudden turns into Ninja Kitty, and it is dangerous.
I "met" two of my other roommates this morning at 4:45 am. My fire alarm went off for a good 25 minutes in my room, and besides scaring the living shit out of me, it woke everyone else in Germany up. Two of the girls came into my room and we worked together to build a contraption that we could climb up to take the alarm down. We have REALLY high ceilings, so it took a while for our sleep deprived minds to find enough furniture to stack so we could finally reach it.
Tuesday, June 26th
After some initial "safety and security" presentations, we went on a walking tour of Freiburg. The town is awesome. It is a lot bigger than I expected. For some reason, I had this idea that we were going to be in some Medieval town with no electricity and where we had to walk a mile to get to the shed that was used as a bathroom. There are a lot of shops, a ton of restaurants, and a bunch of bars and diskos. It is super pretty here too. The streets are all cobblestone, and there are a few giant churches. The most noticeable thing however are the mountains. We are surrounded by the Black Forrest, and it is gorgeous. The mountains are more like hills compared to what we have in Boulder, but they are covered in thick, dark green trees. It is stunning.
Oh, and I found the infamous small canals that line the streets. And by "found" I mean "fell into one". I was so distracted by everything in the city that one minute I was looking at a cool window display that housed a neat looking robot fish, and the next I was ankle deep in the canal. Everyone laughed at me because a.) I am an idiot, and b.) the noise I made when I fell was that of a donkey/small chimp. Once they were over it, the tour guide explained some old myth about the canal. Apparently, it is rumored that if you fall into the canal, you will marry a Freiburg-er. So sorry Mom and Dad, I may be bringing home my Freiburg fiance in August!
After the tour a few of us went and had lunch at a pub. While we were there, this man who was sitting at the bar overheard us and came to sit with us. He spoke no English whatsoever, and our German is not very good yet, so our lines of communication were a bit muddled. Eventually, he singled myself and two other girls out, and talked about how cute we were and how we weren't "typical fat americans" and wanted to know how we didn't have boyfriends and wanted to buy us a drink yadda yadda blah blah. But he was a wee bit creepy so we declined and moved on. It was cool to get to talk to a local though, and all in German!
That night we bought a few bottles of wine and some ice cream and sat in the grass and got to know each other. Once it got later, some of the people went to bed, but five of us decided to check out the night life in Freiburg. We discovered that, theoretically, it is cool, just not on a Tuesday night. There weren't too many people there, but we did meet some more locals.
Wednesday, June 27th
Class in the morning. Our professor is very energetic. I am used to the stoic, calm professors from the German department, so this was a bit of a shock. At first, I was actually a little scared, but slowly I'm getting used to the change.
After class, we went to this cool beer garden up in the Black Forest. We chugged down a giant beer, thinking that we were just going to go back to the dorms to nap afterwards. Instead, we went on a long hike up to the top of the hill. Yes, I did this directly after consuming this huge beer, and yes, I was in flip-flops, but it was so worth it. At the top of the hill they have a cool tower that you can climb 200 stairs up to see the view. It was breathtaking. We could actually see all the way into France!
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| View from the Beer Garden. I forgot my camera, but this works! |
Later tonight, we all met up and went to the old town again. We grabbed dinner, where I experienced my first German Doner Kebap. Think gyros, but way better.
We then went and watched the Portugal v. Spain soccer game at a bar. It is so fun to watch those games here. People are all over the streets crowded around televisions trying to see. And it's not just young people. There are children, and grandparents, and foreigners, and more. Everyone stops their life to watch! There is really nothing to compare it to in American. Spain won!
I have class tomorrow morning, and then I leave right after to catch my train to Paris!
Sorry this blog is not up to standards compared to my others, but it is 1:00 am, and I have to pack for tomorrow!
Paris, here we come!
Until Next Time,
Meggie
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Bless His Little Cotton Socks
'ello all!
So as promised, here are a few pictures that go along with last week's post...
Alright, now lets catch up since the last time I wrote...
Now we are relaxing, having some cider, and watching England play in the semi-finals of the soccer... I mean football... tournament. Afterwards will be be making our way to a new cocktail place to try one of the drinks from their alleged dictionary sized menu of drinks. There is one called the Colorado Bulldog, and I have been sentenced to try it. Hopefully it won't be too late of a night though, as I have to be on the tube for the airport bright and early at 5:45 am to make my way to my next stop... GERMANY!
So as promised, here are a few pictures that go along with last week's post...
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| This is Lissie and the little boy she nannies, Noah. He is the sweetest little child ever! |
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| The roast dinner we had on Friday night! So good! |
Alright, now lets catch up since the last time I wrote...
Saturday, June 23rd
Lissie had to nanny a different child again today, but that did not stop us from running around the city. She was in charge of a 19 month old, Swedish baby named Kai. This child was the grumpiest human I have ever met. He just hates everything. When we first picked him up, I held his food bowl while Lissie loaded him into his buggy (English word for stroller), and he started to cry, assuming I had stolen it from him. After that moment, he decided he didn't like me. But I didn't care, because I didn't really like him either. He literally gives people dirty looks. Usually, when someone makes a funny face at a baby, they laugh and burp happily or do whatever it is that babies do. This child can't even speak, but he can look at a human in the most disapproving way, eyebrows furrowed, as if to say, "you are embarrassing yourself. I am disgusted by you".
Of course, grumpy child or not, we were going to be productive. All of Lissie's friends were working that day, so we decided to visit each one at work. This meant taking Kai and his buggy up and down the stairs of the tube stations. This was not fun. I swear, this stroller was not normal. It was like a bassenette that was attached to solid cement poles, with wheels filled with sand, and a container attached to the bottom that contained Kai's food, an assortment of toys, approximatly 624 dipers, a small asian family, and a few bricks for good measure. The two of us carried this monstrosity of a stroller up and down and up and down the stairs of the tube stations. If any of you have used the tube station before, you are fermiliar with the copious amounts of stairs. For those of you who haven't been, there are more or less a whole lot of them.
Our first stop with Mr. Grumpypants was to visit Rosie. She works as a barista at a small cafe called J + A Cafe. It was super cute. They had a funky indoor seating place, as well as an outdoor courtyard that had flowers and wooden tables. Really sweet. She made me a latte with a pretty design in the foam, and didn't even charge us :) so nice!
Next, we trekked the ornery infant to Sloane Square to see Lorna. Lorna works at a popcorn stand at an outdoor market in the square. It was a cool area. More "posh" than what I'd seen so far on the trip. Lissie and Kai and I meandered around the market while Lorna finished her shift, and then we went shopping for a bit before heading to our next stop.
The four of us then made our way to Waterloo where Lorna's boyfriend, Harry, was working at a fresh juice stand at an outdoor food market. The market was really cool. It was showcasing food from around the city, so there were a ton of different places to grab a bite to eat. I ended up having a spicy lamb wrap with mint chili sauce and cabbage salad for dinner. It was tasty!
Around 10:30 pm, Lissie and I decided to go out. We went to a bar in Shorditch called 'Queen of Hoxton'. It was a pretty cool bar! The decor was a bit strange- the ceiling was plastered with plastic leaves and vines, and the walls were all painted with cartoons of monsters and dogs and trolls. I know it sounds weird, but trust me, it was. We ordered some drinks, but the bartender said they were out of one of the ingrediants in the specific one we wanted, so we asked him to make us something of his choice. He got us involved by making us each shake up our own shakers of drink. I was feeling like a pro bartender until he snatched it away and told me I wasn't doing it good enough, and finished shaking it himself. So I guess I can now check bartender off my list of potential careers.
We danced for a while, and made friends with a group of guys. One was the penguin keeper at the London Zoo, and the other one was convinced I was from South Park. I told him I was, and he asked if I knew Cartman or Kenny. I got really sad and told him it was a touchy subject. He asked if everything was okay and I said "haven't you heard? They killed Kenny!!!" (for those who don't watch the TV show South Park, they kill off this one character named Kenny in every episode)
We left around 2 to walk to the bus stop, except we couldn't find the right one. At night in London, only about 1/2 of the stops are still working, so we kept having to walk further and further. Finally, after about a mile and a half, we got to a working stop. Mind you, I did this all in 5 inch heels on cobbelstone in the drizzling rain. Lissie and I were standing at the stop, and this car sped by us right through a puddle of water that was at the edge of the road and we were hit by a mini tidal wave of water. I'm talking in my hair, in my mouth, on my face, everywhere. Lissie and I looked at each other, dripping wet, and started cracking up! It was seriously something I thought only happened in movies! We were soaking and laughing and then the bus came and drove right by us without stopping. This just made us laugh even more and we decided to walk to another bus stop a while away.
This ended up turning into a 2:45 am tour of London. We walked through the business district, and by the Gerkin building, and even through the place where they filmed the Diagon Alley scenes for Harry Potter! We were cold and soaking and it was nearly 3 am, but we had such a fun time!
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| 2:45 am at Diagon Alley! You can kinda tell how wet the car-puddle got us from how see-through my shirt ended up. Yuck! |
TODAY-
Sunday, 06/24
Lissie is dancing in the opening ceremonies of the olympics, and I am very, very jealous of this. She had rehearsal for it today, so I was flying solo.
I woke up and made my way to Camden Town. I went there last time I was in London, but it was during the evening and everything was closed. I've heard such great things about it, but since my trip there last time was so diappointing, I wanted to check it out again to see what the big fuss was about. Upon arrival, I immediatly saw what was so great about it.
There are THOUSANDS, literally, of stands set up all over this street. They sell clothes and food and gadgets and knick-knacks and chotchkies and everything else you can imagine. I wandered for about an hour before making it to the end of the street, where I then disappeared for about 2 and a half more hours. The stalls at the end of the street started with this food market where there were stands for different foods from all over the world. They had Chinese food, Thai food, Mongolian, Mexican, Greek, Italian, Moroccan, etc etc. Past that, there were even more stalls with clothing and stuff that went back off the street about a good 3/4 of a mile, but it was like five blocks thick. I'm really doing it no justice with this description, it's just one of those places you have to see! I was there for about 3 hours and saw maaaybe 1/10th of the stalls.
They had this one store there called CyberDog and it was the MOST INSANE STORE I HAVE EVER BEEN IN. Again, you'll have to go to it to understand, but I'll do my best to explain. They have a big, scary looking bouncer at the front door next to metal detectors, so at first I thought it was an exclusive club or something since I could hear techno music playing from inside. So I stood and watched people come in and out and decided to try to get in, figuring if Hulk the bouncer said anything as I tried to enter, I would just start to cry and shake and play stupid American. I waited until I saw this Indian family go to the doors, ran over, and awkwardly shoved myself in the middle of them, thinking in my head that maybe Mongo would think I was just part of the family (which of course he would have had to be blind to believe, because, as incredibly tan as I am, I cannot pass as Indian). I made it past Brusier and into to building, only to find that it was just this crazy store.
The techno music in the place was blaring so loud that it was making my brain actually melt a bit. I don't know how my new Indian grandparents could handle it! Thankfully, no one noticed when some of my brain spilled out my ears and onto the floor, because they were too busy watching the crazy alien dancers who where convulcing on balconies jutting off of the ceiling. The whole store was lit using only black light, and everything that the staff and dancers were wearing, as well as all of the clothing they were selling was bright neon. I followed my Indian family and took the escalator to the bottom level to look at the clothes. This stuff was weird. I have never seen any human wear stuff like this. They call it "futuristic club-wear", but it was just like space-age, neon, cut up, alien-looking stuff. Think Zenon, Girl of the 21st Century from the Disney Channel if she were a hooker, and on acid.
The techno music in the place was blaring so loud that it was making my brain actually melt a bit. I don't know how my new Indian grandparents could handle it! Thankfully, no one noticed when some of my brain spilled out my ears and onto the floor, because they were too busy watching the crazy alien dancers who where convulcing on balconies jutting off of the ceiling. The whole store was lit using only black light, and everything that the staff and dancers were wearing, as well as all of the clothing they were selling was bright neon. I followed my Indian family and took the escalator to the bottom level to look at the clothes. This stuff was weird. I have never seen any human wear stuff like this. They call it "futuristic club-wear", but it was just like space-age, neon, cut up, alien-looking stuff. Think Zenon, Girl of the 21st Century from the Disney Channel if she were a hooker, and on acid.
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| The outside of CyberDog |
After spending way too long in Camden Town, I decided it was time to move on. I got back to the tube station, only to discover that once you get to Camden Town, you are apparently not allowed to leave. The tube only ran there, but not back, and there was no sign of another tube station in the area. There were busses, but I hadn't figured out the busses like I had the tube system. AND to make things as complicated as possible, all the streets were one way with no rhyme or reason, so figuring out where and which side of the street to catch the bus one was a toss up.
At first, it seemed like it was all too complicated. I decided that I was going to give in and just work as an alien dancer at Cyberdog for the rest of my life. But after remembering that I was already missing part of my brain from the music, I instead settled on a bus stop and decided that I would just get on whatever bus came next. The next bus that stopped was going to Trafalgar Square, and therefore so was I.
When I got off the bus at the square, I saw a bunch of people standing in a line. I did not know what this line was for, but I decided to stand in it. It ended up being an entrance to this big event for the Paralympics, which start tonight in London. I'm not really sure if I was supposed to be there though- they were doing security checks or something at the front of the line but no one would check me so I just walked through. They had a huge stage with performers and a bunch of different booths set up. I wandered for a while and then made my way out and down the road.
When I got off the bus at the square, I saw a bunch of people standing in a line. I did not know what this line was for, but I decided to stand in it. It ended up being an entrance to this big event for the Paralympics, which start tonight in London. I'm not really sure if I was supposed to be there though- they were doing security checks or something at the front of the line but no one would check me so I just walked through. They had a huge stage with performers and a bunch of different booths set up. I wandered for a while and then made my way out and down the road.
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| This is the Household Calvery Museum. It is currently closed, because it the olympic beach volleyball games will be played there. I thought it seemed like a funny place for beach volleyball! |
I wound up at Westminster Abbey and the House of Parliment, which are still to this day two of the most amazing exhibits of architecture I have ever witnessed. I wanted to go inside Westminster Abbey, but there are no visiting hours on Sundays. So I went around the back, scaled one of the flying buttresses, broke through a small stained glass window, slid down an ivory corinthian column, and ran around the abbey for a while before sneaking out again. Just kidding, I didn't do that, but I was very tempted to.
I palled around the outside for way too long and then walked across the bridge going over the Thames River to the London Eye. The area around the London Eye is so strange. It is really cool and alive, but they have SO many people in weird costumes trying to make money off of dumb tourists. There were like 8 people dressed like Shrek, a break dancing Spongebob, an assortment of Disney characters, yoda, and a bunch of other random outfits. I walked around and ended up at the same food market that we visited the day before. I got some Carribbean Jerk Chicken which I ate down near the river, and then returned back to Lissie's flat.
I palled around the outside for way too long and then walked across the bridge going over the Thames River to the London Eye. The area around the London Eye is so strange. It is really cool and alive, but they have SO many people in weird costumes trying to make money off of dumb tourists. There were like 8 people dressed like Shrek, a break dancing Spongebob, an assortment of Disney characters, yoda, and a bunch of other random outfits. I walked around and ended up at the same food market that we visited the day before. I got some Carribbean Jerk Chicken which I ate down near the river, and then returned back to Lissie's flat.
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| London Eye |
Until next time-
Meggie
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