Amsterdam

After classes finally finished, we spent our final weekend ( my birthday weekend) in Amsterdam. Some of the girls took me out to dinner near our hostel and I got really delicious ribs and fries.After dinner we kind of just spent the night exploring Amsterdam. The next day was much more exciting. We started off by taking a walking tour of the city. We learned all about the history of Amsterdam and saw the canals. We learned some really interesting things, like the reason many of the buildings are tilted towards the middle of the street. They used to build houses and stores that way so that if you wanted to move something large into the upstairs you could swing it in through and upstairs window instead of trying to fit it up the narrow stairs.

 Then we went to the Anne Frank house where she hid during the Holocaust. The house was very different from what I was expecting. I thought that the secret annex would be really small and a terrible place to live, but the annex is actually really big. Of course being stuck in there for years would make it feel small, but it really seemed like a decent place to live if you weren't living in hiding. After seeing the Anne Frank House, we went on a redlight district tour. We thought the tour would be really shocking, but honestly it wasn't. It was about as much as you would expect from Amsterdam.

 The next day I went to see the Heineken Brewery. It's not the actual brewery anymore, and it's really more of a museum, but it was really cool. One of the most interesting things I saw was something called the WOBO. It's basically Heineken bottles that were made so they could interlock and be used to make walls. They were made because someone who worked for Heineken saw how poverty could affect people and he wanted to create and affordable, sustainable way to build homes for them. And he did it by designing these beer bottles.

And finally, after 9 weeks away from home and traveling through 6 countries, it came time for me to head back to America. Being in Europe was incredible and I experienced more than many people ever get to. But being away from home for so long made me appreciate America and being American more than I ever had before.  

Berlin and Boppard

The following weekend Matt Laura and I took a day trip to Berlin. The train took about 4 hours to get us there and on our way there we ran into Elon and Spencer so we rode the train with them.

The first place we wanted to see was the Reichstag. This is where the German Parliament is housed. When it caught on fire during the WWII era the Nazis claimed that it had been burnt down by communists.The top of the building had statues of average everyday workers. You could tell what they were by what type of tools they had, so if the person had a plow you would know they were a  farmer.

As we walked down the street past the Reichstag, we found a city block completely covered in these huge concrete blocks. Some of the blocks were really tall and some were flush with the ground, but there were just thousands of them everywhere. We found out that this was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. What this really means is that it was a monument to the memories of all those murdered during the holocaust, not just jews.  At the opposite side of the memorial were a set of stairs leading down into a museum about the holocaust. It followed 15 people who were sent to concentration camps along with their families. The first room was a general history of the holocaust, which lead into a room with TVs on the ground displaying different correspondences the people had had with their loved ones. Many of them were letters or postcards that explained what they knew about the concentration camps even before they were sent there. 

   As we continued walking around Berlin, we found Checkpoint Charlie. This was the checkpoint you had to go through if you were going to either enter or leave the American sector of Berlin after WWII when the city was divided into different sections. All around the city there were pieces of the Berlin wall either displayed, or in some places, still actually standing.  But after spending probably an hour looking for the East Side Gallery, which no German person we asked had ever heard of, we decided to go see the Sony Center.  The Sony Center is supposed to be one of the most interesting buildings in the city because of the architecture, and it really is. The building is so different to look at. The courtyard area is open , yet the top is enclosed, so it's like being inside and outside at the same time. 

Since our trip to Berlin had only taken us a day, we decided to take the next day to visit the Rhine river. Matt, Laura, Michelle, and I spent the day in a tiny little town called Boppard. Being in a small town was really relaxing. We were able to find our way around without any trouble.  One of the biggest things they had for us to see in Boppard was the church. There wasn't really anything too special about the church, but i thought the outside of it was really interesting because it seems like most of the churches in Europe are made of stone and took hundreds of years to build, but this one looked almost like a cottage.

 And many of the other stores and homes around the city were built in the same style. The original reason we had chosen to go to Boppard was because we had heard there was a castle there. When we got there we found out that the castle was closed for construction, so we didn't get to see that but we found out that there was a chair lift that would take us to the top of a mountain so we could see the town from up high. The lift took 20 minutes to get all the way to the top and it was so scary being up that high, but when we got there it was completely worth it. Seeing the Rhine River stretch around the countryside was incredible.

Dublin

The next stop for me was Dublin, Ireland. It was a quick flight over from the Dusseldorf airport to get to there and we stayed in Avalon House, a pretty famous hostel. Avalon house was actually pretty nice. It was kind of what  you would expect from a hostel, but a lot nicer. The biggest problem was that our room was right next to a church and when the church bells rang they would wake us up.

The first day we got there wasn't super productive, but it was nice to just walk around the city and kind of figure out where everything was. The next morning we went on a walking tour of the city and saw a lot of really interesting things. One thing that I thought was really cool was that in Dublin a viking settlement had been found but was destroyed to make room for a building. The only thing that was left was the outline of a viking house that the city had made. We learned that a lot of people (between 10 and 20) would all sleep in one bedroom, so we laid down to see if we would fit inside.

We also went to see the city hall, the Dublin Castle, Trinity College, and Christ Church Cathedral. 

The  next day we went 

on a tour of the Irish countryside. This tour, by far, was my favorite part of the weekend.This funny little Irish man picked up about 15 of us in his van early the next morning to take us on the tour. The first stop was a mound of earth in the middle of a field. It was called Fourknocks Passage Tomb. The tomb was circular on the inside and had designs carved intot he walls to represent different things, like the seasons, or the months. The tomb was a place where a king would bury his family immediate and extended family members when they would die, so in this tomb, the remains of about 60 people had been found. Next we went to the cemetery of the St. Buite Monastery.  The cemetery was really interesting because even though it looked ancient it was still in use and people can be buried there even today. The most interesting part of it was the celtic crosses. The crosses were huge, probably 8 or 10 feet tall, and had images from bible stories carved on them.The tour guide showed us one that was kind of funny because when the priests were telling the stone workers how to design it the pictures came out funny. The priests said that jesus looked like "a very holy man" and so the workers carved him to look like a monk, and the that the roman soldiers looked like "very bad men" so the workers designed them to look like vikings. 

Our third stop was Slane Abbey. Slane Abbey was really cool. Here was where St. Patrick lit a huge Paschal fire in defiance of the King who didn't allow the

 other fires

 to be lit until he had lit his own. Because of this fire, St Patrick was taken to the king and the king allowed him to continue trying to convert the Irish to Catholicism and even gave him his own body guard as an escort around the country.

The final stop on our day trip was the Hill of Tara. It was the old capital of the country and it was the location at which a new king would be decided if they needed one.

On Tara there is another mound called the Mound of Hostages. When a petty king was not obeying the orders of the more powerful king, the king would kidnap a female family member of the petty king and take her to the mound of hostages and leave her there to starve unless the petty king started to obey the king's wishes.  There is also a spanish princess buried there and so is the Irish king.

Dublin was a really cool city to visit and it was so easy being there because everyone spoke English. I would love to go visit again.

Venice

The weekend after we started studying in Munster, I went to Venice, Italy. Getting there was one of the worst experiences ever. First we had to take a bus to the train station at midnight, get on a train to Duisberg at 1 in the morning, get off and wait until 3 for our bus to pick us up to take us to the airport, and catch a plane at 6. We finally got to Treviso around 8 in the morning and checked in to our hostel, which was really beautiful. The chandeliers were made of murano glass and the villa was really cute and home-y. And the hostel was only about a ten minute bus ride from Venice itself.

After a well-deserved nap, a few of us took the bus over to Venice. We mostly spent the day just wandering around and seeing the city. We got to see all of the canals, walk the tiny streets, and see all the different shops. We stopped for lunch at a little back-alley pizza/ pasta place. We thought the food was going to be awesome because the restaurant looked like it had been owned by the same family for generations, but it was so sub-par. The pizza was really good, and home made with fresh ingredients, but the pasta was probably the worst pasta I've ever had. It was legitimately from a microwave meal. And they charged us 9 euros for it. Not worth it. So for dinner we stopped at a much more reputable looking restaurant and had really really great food.  Then we tried to find a place to watch the world cup soccer game.

The last day we were there the weather was terrible. It was like the worst monsoon I have ever ever seen. So trying to see the city was really difficult. I was meeting up with my cousins too, who I haven't seen since I was 12. So Danae, Laura, Matt and I were soaking wet in St. Mark's Plaza looking for my cousins. We finally found them and they took us to lunch which was really nice. I had this great penne pasta in a bacon/tomato sauce. So good!! After lunch, Laura, my cousins, and I went into St. Marks Basilica to see the inside. The inside is much more beautiful than the outside. The walls are covered entirely by huge mosaics that depict different religious scenes and meaningful things. And then you can walk along the outside of the rooof of the building. It was kind of scary because the floor slants out towards the street and it was slippery from the rain. There was also a mini-museum that had manuscripts of the old church song books, paintings, and tapestries. And then we had to finally leave Venice and make the trip back home.

Munster

Munster was the next stop on on travels. This was where we would all be spending the next month taking classes and experiencing Germany. We got really lucky because we were able to being in Europe during the World Cup and the German team made it through to the semi-finals. We went to a lot of the public viewings and got to see the city supporting the German players.

Our classes took place in 4 different buildings, but this building was the most interesting of the four.It was called the Schloss which mean castle. So we went to school in the castle!! I took an excel class and managerial accounting, they were both pretty fun but still a lot of work.  We also took a German class and we had a commerce/ German culture class once a week.

This building is where the Peace of Westphalia was signed. It's right in the middle of town, next to a huge scorched church. During WWII, most of the city of Munster was destroyed and had to be rebuilt so everything looks pretty new, even if it was built in a style that looks old-fashioned.

Interlaken

This weekend we all went to Interlaken, Switzerland. Interlaken is in the German speaking part of Switzerland and, as you might guess from the name, it is located between two lakes. Interlaken is the "extreme sports capital of the world." You can go canyoning, whitewater rafting, skydiving, paragliding, or almost anything else you could want.

I decided to go extreme hiking. Extreme hiking is really just normal hiking, but in the Alps instead of just up a regular hill.

The Alps are gorgeous. There were huge, snow-capped mountains and grassy fields everywhere. It was like walking around in the sound of music.

We decided initially to hike a mountain called Jungfrau. First we took the bus from our hostel (Balmers) to the train station at wilderswil and the train to Lauterbrunnen. From there we started walking. We thought we were taking the walking path and were goind to have a nice long stroll up the mountain, but somehow we ended up on the hiking trail.

Along the way, we saw all these different waterfalls and took breaks in the fields. Finally, after hiking for 3 hours, we figured out that we weren't even half-way to our destination, and decided to try to find a different place to stop and get food and rest. So instead of trying to makeit all the way to Murren, we decided to hike to Winteregg. At Winteregg, we found a great restaurant in the middle of a huge field. It also had a train to the next closest town, from which we could take a gondola to the bottom of a mountain and finally get home. The food at the restaurant was incredible, and so different from all the French food we've been eating lately. I got bratwurst with fries and then i had wildberry icecream for dessert.

When we got back, we were exhausted, but we had hiked the Swiss Alps.
The people who didn't come hiking with us went on great adventures too! Danae went paragliding and Victoria went cayoning, paragliding, and skydiving.

Paris!!

We went to paris this weekend!!

It was so much more fun than I was expecting it to be. I've been there twice before so I didn't think there was that much left for me to see, but this time I had an entirely new appreciation for the city.

Michelle, Joe, and I lucked into finding this really good hostel for really cheap. It was only 25 a night and it was in a really good location!

Friday we started out at the Luxembourg Gardens and then went to Notre Dame, the outside of the Louvre, and St. Germain. Then we walked up the Champs-Elysees towards L'arc de triomphe. Later we went to La tour Eiffle and on a boat tour along the Seine river.

The Luxembourg Gardens were pretty cool. The flora itself was not that striking, but there were many statues and a very beautiful palace with a huge fountain. We got inside part of the palace and found an art show. There were the works of 3 different artists but I really only liked one of them.

Notre Dame was just as I remembered it: huge and imposing. I took much more time to enjoy it this time than I ever had before. I think I liked St. Germain better though. Notre Dame is so big that it's really hard to see it as a real church. St. Germain was much more intimate, as was Le Sacre Coeur.

The Louvre was pretty cool to see from the outside. It is absolutely massive. There's just no way that pictures can really capture how big and ornate it is. We decided not to go inside because we didn't want to pay and the volume of art inside was intimidating.

The Champs-Elysees was nice, but the stores were way too pricey for me. We went to this Adidas store that was too cool for school. They had all these "games" that could measure how fit you are or how good your balance is. And where they were selling shoes, they had computers attached to the couches so you could custom order exactly which ones you wanted.

We finally got to L'arc de Triomphe which is basically a tomb for the Unknown soldier. It's pretty much what you would expect it to be. It's huge and looks just like you see in books and movies.

Our boat tour was really nice. It was only 11 Euros and it took us past all of the major sightseeing places that lie along the seine. It was a really nice way to see the sides of the bridges, which are unbelieveably intricate and ornate.

Saturday was a little less busy, but still just as amazing.

We started out by going to the palace of Versailles. We were going to go inside, but the line was huge and it seemed expensive, so we went to the gardens instead and it only cost 6 euros. The gardens were massive. They even had a small citrus orchard on one side. There were tons of fountains and probably hundreds of statues of different mythical characters like Hercules.

After versailles we tried to head over to Montmartre and see the painters, but it was really cold out and we didn't find them. We ended up walking past the Moulin Rouge and then we up to Le Sacre Coeur.

The Moulin Rouge was much less impressive than I thought it would be. The movie made it seem huge and rowdy, but it was actually pretty small and just seemed to be in a kind of seedy part of town.

Le Sacre Coeur was incredible. It's on a huge hill in Paris so you can see everything for miles. The inside of the church is gorgeous. We were only allowed to take pictures outside though. But there was mass going on when we came in and all the nuns were singing in french.

The most impressive thing about Paris was its Metro and RER system. The metro system is immense. I absolutely could not believe how big it all was, how quickly the subway and trains came and went, and how efficiently everythin was run. The prices were great too. 1.60 for one ticket, 11.60 for a pack of 10, or 6.60 for an all day pass that allows you to use the RER (train) system too.

The worst thing about Paris was that it was definitely a major city. It smelled like urine everywhere we went and it was not hard to get to the wrong side of the tracks.

Dijon

Our group of students is staying in Dijon, France. It's beautiful here and our commute to school is amazing. We get on a bus and drive through town into the center of the city and along the way we pass historic churches and theaters and a palace.

This building is our school. They built around the old building front so it's actually inside of the school now!

I'm taking operations management with Lance Matheson. He's a really fun teacher and it seems like he has a lot of life stories to tell so I'm probably going to try to get him to tell us some.

Across from the school there's a really good (and really cheap) bakery where I got breakfast and lunch today.

All the bakeries (boulangeries) here are so good. The french really know their bread.

After class, Taylor, Brent, and I went to find gelati and the post office. Somehow we managed to get lost on the way to the post office but sometimes that's better in a new city. So we got to explore more of Dijon and see the little shops and markets that we hadn't gotten a chance to see yet. We did finally find it though and then we found gelati. I got passionfruit. It was pretty good but I got some great gelati while we were in Nice over the weekend.

We tried to go to the farmers market but it was closed when we got there. I did get a chance to go to it between classes and I saw some really neat stuff. I saw a man scaling fish right in front of the customers and the poultry still had heads and feet and sometimes feathers attached. They had huge cheese wheels and tons of salted fish and fresh vegetables. Some of the other vendors were selling clothes and sunglasses and bags and shoes. There was one dress I found that was gorgeous but by them time I went back to buy it, the vendor had packed up and left.