Winter Break: Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Vienna

It's been a while, let's see if I still know how to do this...

Again, since it has been so long and so much has occurred I will split this one up by location...

LAST WEEKEND: The Ellenbys and Rachel were here! We went to Versaille which was soooo pretty! Unfortunately, it was raining so we didn't get to see the gardens. We also went up the Eiffel tower at night, sooooo pretty! We were there at the same time as a school field trip. Some schools take their students to the museum of Science and Industry, and others up the Eiffel Tower. I feel like an old person because I can  barely remember what we did it's been so long. That night Jenny, Michelle, Rachel, and I went to this tapas bar in the Bastille area where we split a pitcher of Sangria. It was really good. We became besties with the bartender so I will be sure to go back there with eveyrone else. I then introduced them to cotton where he made us very fancy crepes, put the bananas on the outside and served them on a plate. Only the best service for us <3 It was so much fun to have them all here and hang out with them. Me, Jenny, and Michelle all tried authentic escargot which was surprisingly very good (I hope it wasn't Marcell that we ate, I'll feel really bad) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9-sEbqDvU) I got delicious scallops and Jenny ordered a fish not realizing she would get the actual fish, head, and all. Yikes! Saying goodbye was sad, I felt like we were on a family vacation where Sue shed a few tears. But as they say, all good things must come to an end.

Pretty canals in Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM: We arrived in Amsterdam around 1:30ish so we went straight to our hostel, Durty Nellys. A nice old man with a legitimate bear on his head guided us in the right direction. Our hostel had the PERFECT location right in the center of all of the action. It was on top of an Irish pub. That day we ate 5 euro cheeseburgers from the pub and then headed to the Jewish museum. It was okay, nothing too special. It was a good appetizer for the Anne Frank house which we went to right after. Thanks to Christine's friends who visited a few weeks ago we knew to pre order our tickets online so we didn't ahve to wait in line. Probably the best decision of our lives, it was better than a fast pass at disneyland! After Anne Frank we headed to dinner at the highly recommended Wok to Walk. It was soooo yummy it was like a fast food stir crazy. Oh how I miss tofu. After dinner we decided to stroll through the red light district. It was, interesting. We will leave it at that. That night we ate fries from a cone, my favorite, and the most amazing waffles I have ever tasted in my entire life. The next day we went to the Heinekin experience. We were going to go on a walking tour first but apparently if you don't get there 30 minutes early they run out of spots. That was fine we enjoyed Heinekin so much that we would have been rushed if we hadn't just gone there first. It was really fun, so many different activities and things to do. We got to be the beer, play games, pour our own beer. Oh, I forgot to mention that first thing int he morning we all bought matching Amsterdam hats we wore EVERYWHERE for the rest of the trip, and by everywhere I mean every other country we went to. We were THOSE tourists. After Heinekin we did our own walking tour to the Pancake Bakery (Skinny bridge, flower market, etc.) At the pancake bakery me and Christine split a Canadian omelet and banana chocolate pancake. YUM. I don't think I have ever eaten anything that delish before. We were the only smart ones who split right away, everyone else decided to copy us after. We then bought sandwiches and headed to the longest train ride of our lives. 9 hours from 7 pm to 4:30 am. Sweeeeeet. We started off choosing our own carts but then people came on and things got complicated. I sat with one of the nicest men I have ever met in my entire life. He saw me struggling to get comfortable so he offered to switch seats with me so I could lay down AND he gave me his sweater for a pillow. I still couldn't sleep because a fat lady got on 20 minutes later but it was still  so nice of him!

THOSE tourists...

Zapata with our new friends and a rando

BrAtWuRsT

Two places at once at Checkpoint Charlie, East and West Berlin

BERLIN: What do you do when you arrive in a city at 4:30 am? A question we had been pondering but didn't really give much thought to. Well, you pay 80 cents to use the bathroom and then you linger in there. We spent a good 45 minutes in that place until the food area opened. How do you kill THAT much time in a bathroom you may ask. You brush your teeth, put on makeup, change your outfit (something we didn't do, you can notice that from the pictures, different country, different day, same outfit, whatever). Half way through our time in there this lady comes out of a stall and leaves, who knew she was in there. The man working the bathroom then went into her stall and threw out a McDonalds cup and then she came back and made him fetch it out of the garbage and give it to her. Looks like we weren't the people to be judged at that point. Okay so we eventually get out and then spend a good hour or two in the food area. After a glass of AMAZING orange juice, an asiago cheese bagel/roll thing, and a mocha we departed (well that's what I ate others were a different story). I guess you could say we got a taste of homelessness. Next stop, our hostel. It was an AMAZING hostel. We got upgraded to a private 6 person room with our own bathroom. I literally felt like I was at camp because it was bunkbeds and AWESOME! We napped for a while and then went to lunch for DONER KABABS! ummmm new favorite food (thanks steven for the recommendation, I speak for all of us when I say that). After that we went on a walking tour that had a pick up point straight from the hostel (avoided the risk of not getting on). On the walking tour we met these 4 boys 2 from USC and 2 from U of I, what are the chances. The tour went basically everywhere around Berlin, the wall, checkpoint Charlie, Hitler's bunker, the Jewish memorial (when we got here I was like why have I seen this before, I feel like I have been here, but then I realized it was from my Holocaust class last semester! we watched a video on it). After the walking tour we went to get Brats from the best known brat place. It was good, fun fact: they didn't serve them american style in a bun, it was cut up like it was being fed to a child. No matter the form, it was still good. After that we went back to our hostel to get ready for the night. We decided that we were going to go out with the boys from the walking tour so I have one of them my email to get in contact with us. (his carrier pigeon had a broken leg) We received one of the funniest emails of our lives and knew it would be a great night. Other people had told both of our groups to go the club Matrix but our tour guide persuaded us not to (dumb us). He recommended some other club, Zapata or something like that so we could get a real taste of the German nightlife. The boys came over to our hostel where we sat in the lobby and basically screamed as we pregamed (no one liked us). Then we headed to this other club, cookies, which apparently was invite only. We tried convincing them one of the boys was Michael Cera because they look and sound alike, didn't work. We then headed to Zapata where there was fire coming out of the walls. Interesting experience. We then hit they hay. Me and Kevin took a vow that night to be pen pals for the rest of study abroad.

Rachel!!!

Prettiest view ever.

PUBCRAWL!!!

PRAGUE: We arrived in the train station too late to make our walking tour. (catching onto a theme?) So we then decided we would do this tour that was half bus, half walking. It was a great way to see the city in 2 hours. The bus tour had an audio part to it and then we got off and walked around by the palace. When we got off the bus we saw the prettiest view of the city. Prague was beautiful, I wish we had another day there. Before the tour we stayed in the train station for two hours to eat lunch (another pattern?) Rachel came and met up with us!!!!! It was soooooo good to see her! Even though it was only like an hour, I miss my NJ friend! She was leaving for Rome, that's why it was so short. It's okay, she will be here thursday! She ordered a blueberry muffin and the guy thought she said Bulgarian muffin, gotta love language barriers. Okay so the tour, yeah we walked around and sat and watched. We were all so tired that we fell asleep by the end. Oh well. We then got to our hostel, Sir Toby's, where we got ripped off by a cab driver. You win some, you lose some. The hostel was really nice, it reminded us of an orphanage though. We had a private room with our own bathroom, can't complain. We got ready and then headed to our PUB CRAWL!!!!!!! I have literally been talking about this since the day we booked this trip, ask anyone. So we get to the first bar, which is like their own personal bar they use for the pregame. We arrive at 8 and it is free drinks until 10 (beer, wine, absinthe, vodka) soooo, we order food to come there and then we start drinking. It was awesome. We then headed to the first bar where we are greeted with a straight vodka shot. We head straight to the dance floor and rock out. We next headed to a Jazz bar, nice and chill. Then we went to another bar similar to the first one with dancing. We ended at a 5 story club. It was really cool because on each floor they played different music. We stuck to the oldies floor because Christine was in a swing dancing mood. In the earlier bars she swung dance with this kid who basically fell in love with her. Once she started avoiding him he came after me and Monica, as he swung danced with us he would whisper sweet nothings in our ears while looking at Christine. Sooo funny. We met people from all over the world, France, England, Australia, Japan, etc. The Japanese guy danced like a jackhammer. Rachel told us that we MUST try fried cheese before we head home but unfortunately we didn't find it anywhere and couldn't try it :( makes me sad. The next morning we woke up super early to shower before our train ride.

View from the top of the Cathedral

VIENNA: We took their form of metro system to meet Kelsey (Christine and Courtney's best friend from school). After a 5 minute embrace of screaming and jumping, we headed to her dorm. We then met up with all of the other business U of I kids. Talked to them for a while and then all of us went on a walking tour that Figs led. We walked past the H&M my mom got pickpocketed in (yikes Davi). Then we got to a cathedral you can go up and see the entire city. So, we got in an elevator, paid a few euros, and headed up. It was a really cool view. The roof of the cathedral was different colors. After that we continued on our tour just walking around the city. We went to an ice skating rink where we got amazing chips. The guy literally puts a potato into this machine that shreds the potato and then he fries it. mmmmm so good. After we bought groceries to just cook in. We made chicken parmesan, pasta, and vegetables. That night we went to this Erasmus (exchange student) boat party. It was soooo fun, we had to remind ourselves that we were raging on a boat in Austria. If we don't stop and think about things like that then we don't truly appreciate what is going on. The boat was awesome and yeah. I requested club can't handle me right now so I could rock out the proper way. The next day we caught up on sleep and woke up around 12:15 pm. We showered and then headed to the palace. But first, we ate another Doner Kabab. Sooooo good. Dangerous we found that they have them here (in Paris) too. We got the palace and went inside, it was pretty cool. All of the palaces are pretty similar, beautiful. We then trecked up this hill. Beautiful view, then we went into this cafe where we ate apple strudel. (another pattern, everything is about food). Me, Monica, and Kelsey all split one and it was sooo good. We got vanilla sauce on it. After that we went back to their dorm so they could get ready for a dinner party. While they were there we packed up and then went to this restaurant called Figl Muller which is known for the best Schnitzel in Vienna. They were right, it was like a big, round, chicken finger (only it was veal). yummmmy, I couldn't finish it. That night we went to this bar called the travel shack. It was a lot of fun. They had any shot you could possibly think of. The names of them are not the most appropriate so I will let you use your imagination for what they might be. (don't let your mind wander too far, it was just the names that were funny) We then went straight from the bar to the dorm to get our bags where our cab picked us up at 3:15 am. The airport was an experience. After sitting there for a while with no tellers, they all of a sudden showed up. We go to check in and Me and Monica do not have tickets. The company screwed us over (never book anything with Go Voyage). We bought new tickets and all was well. We eventually got on the plane and flew home. European airlines are a joke compared to American ones. They literally did not care about anything. It's going to be a rude awakening when we get back home.

Boat Party

Palace

Schnitzel

Got home at 9:30 am where we all slept until around 5 pm. Goooood times. 6 Girls. 4 Countries. 6 Days.   I am sure that I am forgetting a lot of great things that happened but for now, this is the story, when I think of more I will write more.

Roses Are Red

This post has nothing to do with Valentine's day but I decided to put it in the title because tis the season. Well not much has happened since I last posted. Today, Rachel got here! YAY VISITORS! She is staying with me until I depart on sunday morning. First stop, obviously french onion soup from my usual cafe. The Ellenbys are also here this weekend! I am currently waiting for them to get to their hotel and then I am meeting them for dinner. Their hotel is near the Eiffel Tower so we will likely go to it after we eat. I'm excited to be with them for a weekend, it will be just like our typical family vacations minus my parents, my brother, matching Hawaii shirts, and Marissa (sorry dude, looks like I'm replacing you for the weekend). Just won't be the same. (lies. it will probably be just fine but I'm trying to suck up to you 4 because I feel bad that you aren't in PARIS right now).  I decided to add this picture because Cori put it up on facebook today and I really like it. Sigma Delta Tau Recruitment Wall 2011?! (Hey Rebecca and Becca!)

This big trip that I keep alluding to is a week long trip to Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, and Vienna! (WOW! THAT'S 4 CITIES/COUNTRIES IN 7 DAYS!) We get back bright and early on next Saturday morning. I am going with Monica, Torey, Courtney, Chrisitne, and Jen. It should be a lot of fun!

Hmmm anything exciting happen in the past few days. We hit up the ESCP bar again after class last night. Could become a wednesday night ritual. Let me tell you, after that class, it's needed. No one has any idea what is going on or what our professor is talking about. He's an American guy that reminds me of my 8th grade math teacher because he always has THO and pit stains, riddle me that. Here's a picture of me Greg and Natalie in the basement of our school. We go by the death trio, don't ask questions. I really like the fact that there is a bar in the basement of our school (imagine having a bar in the basement of Foellinger, yeah exactly!)

I did some shopping today. Got three shirts for under 28 euro from H&M. I know, I know, I am quite the bargain shopper. Don't worry mom, I kept my purse close to me at all times so I don't get pick pocketed!

I will hopefully post again before I leave to talk about my weekend!

We on the Monica's 21st Grind

Spark Notes of the Week...

Monday - Nothing special happened

Tuesday - Dane turned 21 so we drank here, didn't quite make it out because Dane took 21 shots

Me, Rebecca, Sade, and Casey at the ESCP bar after class.

Wednesday - Me and Torey walked a million miles during the day, we got Angelina's hot chocolate. It tasted like a melted chocolate bar, it was the best hot chocolate of my life. Literally. I went to the ESCP bar after my 5-8 PM class with a bunch of people that are in my class (yeah, that's right there is a bar in the basement of our school, pretty cool) hung out there for a while and then came back and hung out with Hugh, Greg, and Natalie in Accent. We were going to go to a club called Queens because girls get in free on Wednesdays and get free Champagne but we didn't make it out.

Torey, Me, Cori, and Monica on our tour!

Thursday - CORI ARRIVED!!!!!! We did a walking tour of Paris which I hadn't done before. It was cool to hear the explanations and history of things because we typically just look at them and don't know their significance. For dinner Torey cooked us her infamous stir fry. So domestic she is. At night we obvs got crepes and fries (what else is new) and then went to Corcarans (spelled that wrong, an Irish pub). Me and Monica played pool with some Parisians. We eventually came back and went to bed for our early morning because...

Friday Day - DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and Michele's arrival) Where to even begin, I don't know. It was AMAZING! When I say to you the 8 of us (Me, Monica, Torey, Christine, Courtney, Michele, Cori, and Megan) all smiled for 7 hours straight. I mean it. I felt like a little kid again. Me, Monica, Cori, and Christine were the group that went on all of the rollercoaster type rides while the other 4 did other rides and walked around. There are 2 parks and it was 44 euro for an all day both park ticket. Can't beat that. Hmmm it's a tough call as to what my favorite ride was. All of it was so great, I never appreciated the little things in Disneyland when I was younger. Did you ever realize that in it's a small world the little dolls sing in different languages and dress to those locations? There was a Finding Nemo ride which was fun, you ride on Crush's shell (the turtle dude) for the East Australian Current. Gnarly. Tower of Terror was an interesting experience because they would say everything in both French and English and the guy had the buggiest eyes I've ever seen in my life. We spent close to all day at one park and only had an hour at the second. The rollercoaster crew was able to accomplish all that we wanted to in this one hour: Rockin Rollercaoster, Finding Nemo ride, Tower of Terror, and walk through Toy Story Land. We had to run from ride to ride as I pulled up Eye of the Tiger on my phone for motivation. We could not have asked for a better day to go to Disneyland. It was 63 degrees in February (yikes for those of you in Chicago, don't hate us) and the sun was shining the ENTIRE day, we didn't even wear our coats, we were carrying them. As usual, a major part of Disneyland was all of the food: footlong hot dog with cheese, fries, ribs, fries. Others also had ice cream and churros. mmmmmmmm. 

Christine, Courtney, Torey, Me and Megan at DISNEYLAND!

Monica really enjoyed her free birthday crepe...

Friday Night - MONICA TURNED 21!!!!! Woooooh!!! We got back from Disneyland late so we figured it would be best that Monica turns 21 at crepe stand man (what's a 21st birthday without food?!) She turned 21 on the way! Then, we went to this club called Cafe Oz. It was a lot of fun. It was soooo crowded though. Usually clubs make you check your coat but the coat check was full (to better illustrate the crowdedness). Eventually we left (21st birthdays typically are an early night) and couldn't find a cab. It is the weirdest thing in Paris how difficult it is to find a taxi (metros close at 2 am). We finally find a taxi and they won't take all 5 of us so me and Cori walked back. We went in the wrong direction for a good 10-15 minutes. It literally took us about 2 hours to get home. There were creeps screaming things at us the entire way (typical) if you ignore them they stop and its no biggie. We get to the Bastile area and all of a sudden we hear guys scream at us "Pardon! Crepes!" At this point, I realize these boys are American for 3 reasons: one was wearing a northface coat, Parisian men do not scream things about Paris at us but rather things about being American, and three they pernounced the french words the same way that I do. We talked to them for a few minutes and sure enough, they were American.

Saturday - Chill. We chilled all day. Me, Torey, and Monica met Michele and Cori for some hot chocolate and then came back as they did more touristy things. We later went to dinner at this place that was recommended to us by a lot of people. It's a fondue place that serves wine in baby bottles. Well, we didn't end up eating there because we were 30 minutes late and they gave our reservation away. We will have to go another time. Instead, we went to this Italian place. It was yummmmy. After that I went to the Eiffel tower with Monica, Cori, and Michele to see it twinkle again.  After that we went to this bar called the Princess and the Frog. It was an English bar. I worked my magic to get a free drink for Monica from the bartender and then he gave me one too. Then we walked back because we missed the last metro. womp.

Long story short: this weekend was the bomb. I'd put it in my top 10.

Word of the day: Happy birthday = Bon anniversaire

Weekend Updates

Sorry, it's been a while...here are some pictures of the highlights of my weekend... (I'm trying to limit the text so no one gets bored)

 Me and Monica went to this place called Montparnasse. It is a 56 story building you can go up and view Paris. It only takes 38 seconds to get all the way up! The view was soooo pretty. On the roof it was sooo windy, hence why our hair looks crazy. We stayed until it got dark (the next picture). It was so beautiful because it was probably similar to going up the Eiffel tower, however, when you are up the Eiffel tower you cannot see it. (I know, I know, I'm really smart for being able to reason through that)

Ari and her friend Jess visited me this weekend! This is us on our way to the D'orsay museum. Long story short, its free every first sunday of the month so we didn't go in. The line was wayyyy too long.

Rita is in for the week and took me out to dinner at this restaurant called Le Petite Bofinger. It was delicious! There was a little bit of a language barrier though, Rita thought she was ordering Veal but it turned out to be liver and onions. I went the chicken route. In front of us is Tiramisu, it was delicious!

We went to an Irish Pub to watch the superbowl. We were very disappointed when Courtney went up to order onion rings and mozarella sticks for us. She waited for 5-10 minutes to get help, then they were like sorry the kitchen closed 5-10 minutes ago. Wellllll if you had helped right away then we wouldn't have had a problem! Grrrr, we wanted the taste of home.