Tuesday, December 18, 2012

The Travel Bug...


Okay so I know it’s been ages since I’ve written sadly… been a crazy month preparing for Christmas break and planning my trip with Jeremy, along with many other things. I also started using my kindle, which deters me from writing myself. I get so into the books I’m reading! But now only a few days until our Christmas travels!

Speaking of traveling, I thought it was time to update on a few of my trips before heading out on any others. I’ll start with those I’ve taken out of the country, most recent one first and heading back in time after that. So much to catch up on! Sorry for a long post! I’ll keep them shorter from now on.

PARIS

A few weeks ago Ivana was in Paris celebrating her 21st birthday on a Europe trip with her mom. Being that it’s so cheap to get from one country to another in Europe, I thought I’d go and visit while I had the chance! Since she’s moving away from Orange after graduation in May, this may be the last chance to meet up for awhile. Ended up being that we could only see each other for one day. But we made the most of it! My roommates, Jamie & Kim, wanted to come along too, which was perfect so that we could do things together Sunday and Monday.

November 23 –
Friday after work, the three of us hurried home to pack our bags and leave for the airport. We took the Cercanias (trains within central Madrid) up to the airport, and then took the metro to our terminal. We arrive at our gate to find out that our flight has been delayed two hours, which would put us in Paris at 11-something and we still had to catch a train or bus into the city after that. Problem is… Paris doesn’t have trains/buses that regularly run that late from the airport. Makes no sense! Anyways, we weren’t worrying too much – we could relax, read, check emails (since our phones still worked being that we were still in Spain). All was going well until EasyJet decided everyone needed to board. We thought okay, awesome! Our plane won’t be leaving too late after all! Wrong.

They boarded us all onto a small airport shuttle bus, crammed the bus to the brim and then shut the door on us. Little de we know that we’d be standing there – everyone and their luggage all on top of each other for OVER AN HOUR!! My legs had gone numb by the end of it. An old lady next to me started making a scene after awhile because there was hardly any air circulation inside, they wouldn’t open the doors, and the bus driver was just sitting outside have a smoke while everyone stood inside, squished. After an hour or so they finally drove us somewhere – to the middle of the runway where are plane was. We thought great, time to get out! Nope. They made us stay standing in there another half hour before letting us out and onto the plane. And even then it took another 45 minutes before our plane even thought about taking off.

We ended up in Paris at 11:30, much too late for normal trains or buses into the city. We wandered around the airport before being pointed in the direction of a night bus. Luckily this bus took only about 45 minutes to get us into the city center. From there we had no idea where we were, and it was after midnight. So taxi to our apartment was the best solution! As soon as we arrived we all jumped into bed, much needed after all the commotion.

November 24-
Saturday was my only day with Ivana, so I got up by 8 to go meet her for breakfast. We saw the flea market near her place and stopped at a cute restaurant called “Le Sancerre” for breakfast. I had my first Croque-Madame (bread, ham, cheese, and an egg on top) with the classic café au lait. It was delicious! The service was great and the waitress really nice surprisingly! My experience in Paris a few years ago was not the best… so I had high hopes for making this trip better!

Afterwards, we headed up to Montmartre, the area of town where Sacre Coeur (the big cathedral) is. We took beautiful pictures of the city after climbing tons of stairs. The little town was neat, lots of artists painting in the main square and yummy things to eat. Took a gelato pit stop even though it was cold!
We walked a lot after that and made it to the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées. We wandered down the avenue looking into all the shops. Once we got to the end of the shops the Christmas markets started!! We got all excited and stopped for our first crepe of the weekend. They were serving them out of this old car!

Once it started getting darker and the markets got all lit up, we went over to look at the different stalls. For dinner we got German sausages in a French baguette – best of both worlds! We stopped and watched ice skaters, a high school band, and ended at the Ferris wheel all lit up. I tried vin chaud (mulled wine), and Ivana stopped for tea. We started to get super cold and it took us awhile to get out of the crowded area, but we finally made it to the metro. Back at Ivana’s apartment, we had a girls’ night since it was our last few hours together. We ate ice cream and watched a chick flick! Was so hard to say goodbye though…
View of the city from Sacre Couer with Ivana
November 25-
The next day my roommates and I woke up early again to take a train out to Versailles. We wandered about looking for breakfast, forgetting that not much would be open on a Sunday morning. We finally found a place next to the train station, and I got a croissant and coffee. It was alright (found much better later!) We ended up having to go to a different station because the train line there was temporarily closed. But after a couple hours we finally made it to Versailles! It was certainly beautiful. We were greeted with big golden gates as we walked up. We got to see so many of the rooms and the interior… it took awhile. After stopping for a snack we made the effort to go walk to the Trianon – the summer palace and Marie Antoinette’s apartments. I would have enjoyed the walk more had it not been so cold and windy with painful blisters on my feet. Poor Jamie’s feet started bleeding from all the walking and standing we’d been doing. The gardens were absolutely amazing though. We could have spent an entire day just doing that! One day I’ll go back in better weather.

The Versailles Gardens
We headed back to the apartment after awhile. I had a snack and took a quick nap. Kim went and got some pizza and we had another relaxing night watching a movie. Needed more sleep for our final day!

November 26-
Slept in and packed up. Went to the nearby bakery and got a delicious mini broccoli quiche and chocolate-filled croissant! We went to the Arc de Triomphe and paid to go to the top. The views of the city were fabulous! Then we walked down the Champs-Élysées again and took a last look at the Christmas markets. So glad we got there late enough in November for them to be up!

View atop the Arc de Triomphe
Then it was travel time – back to the airport! Unfortunately it took much longer to get there than we expected… we ended up having to get off at the first stop the airport bus dropped us at and ran through the big parking lot to get to the right terminal. I had a strange moment in the parking lot – it reminded me of being at LAX back home in California for some reason, I guess because of the way it looked. I got homesick all the sudden… I think the holiday season is making me feel that way more.

Luckily we made it to our gate just as they were boarding. The flight home wasn’t too bad. At the end of a travel-filled weekend it’s nice to arrive back in Madrid!




BRUSSELS & AMSTERDAM

At the beginning of November we had a long weekend for All Saints Day. Luckily since the holiday was on a Thursday (November 1st), we got Friday off too! I went with my roommates (Jamie and Kim), my friend Christie, and Angela (another TA at my school). It was a great girls’ weekend eating lots of chocolate, yummy foods, and exploring!

November 1-
We spent the morning packing and took the train to the airport. Sadly Kim didn’t make the train and got on the wrong one, it was quite a mess. We were afraid we were going to miss the flight, but she was able to get a taxi and made it!! This was my first RyanAir flight, and it wasn’t too bad actually for being so cheap. I was sitting next to Angela, and neither of us like flying, but we had some gummy bears to snack on and magazines to look through!

We arrived at Brussels around 6:30 and had to take an hour-long bus to get to Brussels. Who would have thought that in such a tiny country the Brussels airport would be so far away from the city! While we were waiting for the bus we all got some French fries to share, and boy were they good! Along with waffles, fries are a Belgian specialty!

Waiting for our bus to the city
Once we arrived in Brussels, we attempted to find the tram to our hostel. The trams were a bit confusing… they ended up having them in Amsterdam too. You always feel like you’re going to get run over at some point! They always seem to be crossing over pedestrian walking areas. Anyways, we made it to our hostel only to find out we had to lug all our luggage to another part of the town to find the hostel we were assigned to. We were sharing the room with two other girls and a guy that was way over the “under 30” limit most hostels have. He was always up at strange times and made packing our last morning difficult since we couldn’t turn on the light. Also he snored super loud and made sleeping difficult! Let’s just say we didn’t get much sleep…

Our first night there was fun. We got pizzas to share, and Kim and I decided to try out kriek, the cherry-flavored beer made in breweries in and around Brussels. It was delicious, and I don’t even like beer! After that we of course had to try out our first, true Belgian waffle. It was to die for!! Decided to go all-out and get chocolate and ice cream on top – perfect way to end the night!


November 2-
We started out our day getting a quick breakfast and then heading to the chocolate museum! It was neat seeing so many things made out of chocolate. And with our tour we got samples too! There was a demonstration, but mainly in French. The five of us together knew 6 languages: Spanish, Italian, Korean, bit of German, bit of Danish, and of course English. But not a single one of us knew any French! Made talking to people a bit difficult at times, but most everyone in Brussels knew English luckily.

After the museum we walked through town to the Coudenberg Palace. It was basically the ruins of a palace from long ago…. It was neat but not the best I’ve ever seen. We stopped to get soup for lunch since it was cold and rainy out. This was the first trip I had to bring out my big, fluffy coat! We headed to the Parliamentarium at the EU headquarters. It was a wonderful exhibit, full of history and so much to learn. We could have spent hours and hours there had we not all needed a nap!

Angela and I huddled in our furry coats to keep us warm!
After napping for a bit, we headed out in search of a Belgian restaurant for dinner. We decided on a place in the Gran Place (main square). The square was right next to our hostel and absolutely beautiful. Dinner was good, and of course more waffles for dessert!

November 3-
My favorite thing about Brussels was how quaint and beautiful it is. It’s a small town and there isn’t a ton of touristy things to do and see, but that’s what I liked about it. We spent a lot of our time wandering the cute cobblestone streets and stopping for hot chocolate or waffles to warm us up. We spent the first part of our day getting our final Belgian waffle of the trip and then wandered around in souvenir shops for a couple hours. We bought lots of chocolate and gifts to send back to family and friends. It was a relaxing morning!

At about noon we headed to the bus station for our bus to Amsterdam. Angela had to go to the airport because of work Monday and decided not to come to Amsterdam with us. It was sad to say goodbye! Luckily we see each other everyday at work J

The bus from Brussels to Amsterdam was super cheap – only 6 or 7 euros. Go MegaBus! It was a beautiful drive too. We saw the classic windmills of Holland and oh so many cows!


Our bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere though… we hopped on the nearest tram and hoped it sent us in the right direction. Luckily we ended up at the main station. We picked up our Holland Pass (gets us into the big tourist attractions for cheaper), and went to find the tram to take us to the houseboat we’d rented for two nights. This was quite an adventure… not only was figuring out the trams difficult (there are a set of A trams and a set of B trams), but once we got off at the right stop it was a bunch of walking in circles before we found some houseboats tucked away on a canal between buildings. The inside of it was great though, especially for being on a boat! We had a nice bathroom, kitchen, living room, and two bedrooms!

We decided to go out for the night and see what the Red Light District’s really like. First we went through the Green Light District, which eventually led us into the Red Light area. It was interesting to say the least… prostitutes were standing in windows of buildings, and interspersed between all the bars and prostitute rooms were “coffee shops”, also known as places to get the infamous pot brownies or smoke of course. After a bit of wandering we stopped at a crowded bar for a while. Then we took another walk outside but it started to rain. We wandered out of the district and back towards the city center, stopping at a German beer place. Unfortunately we were tired from all our travels and called it a fairly early night. Lots to see the next day!

November 4-
Day two in Amsterdam started out at Sara’s Pancake House!! They make their pancakes super thin in Holland, more like crepes. Which for me is perfect! I got a cinnamon apple pancake that was delicious. Sadly they don’t have syrup anywhere to be found… but it was good enough just with powdered sugar!

Next on our itinerary was the canal boat tour. But first… a coffee was much needed by this point, sadly it didn’t help much! The canal tour was neat in the sense that I got to take a lot of pictures and see pretty boats and homes. However an hour was a bit long for seeing the same thing over and over again. It was beautiful though!

Then for the Van Gogh Museum! Something I’ve wanted to see since I was a kid. The exhibit was temporarily moved to the Hermitage museum, but it was done wonderfully! There was also an entire area of the museum devoted to other impressionist painters. All were so beautiful... I was amazed to see it all in person.

Christie had to go to the airport to fly back to Madrid for work the next morning, so after that we took it easy for the night. We got some dinner and a pastry for dessert and wandered around a bit. Then bed early for once!


November 5-

After breakfast, I split from Jamie and Kim to be able to see the Flower Market. They wanted to go to another museum, but I figured this would be my one chance to see the market! It was beautiful. I loved seeing all the flowers and bulbs. I picked out some seeds for my mom and aunt for Christmas (if either of you are reading this they’re coming your way when Jeremy comes back!) And I got myself a cheese slicer. Thought Holland would be a good place to get one! The rest of the day I spent wandering and taking photos. I had the BEST chai tea later ever (other than one in Hamburg last summer). The guy even had his own homemade topping to put on top! 

I met up with Jamie and Kim for dinner and then we left for the airport. We were weary of what was ahead. We received a message from Christie earlier in the day saying that her flight the night before was delayed several hours due to a strike at the Madrid airport. She was there until after 2 am trying to get her luggage, which never came (the people who take luggage off the planes were the ones striking). So she was a bit worried about ever getting it back. We decided to put all our valuables in our carry-on and leave only clothes in our checked bags to be safe. Our flight turned out to be delayed too, but instead of letting us wait at outside the gate like normal people they made us all jam in a room for over an hour before letting us board the plane. When we exited the plane in Madrid we saw piles of suitcases lying in the middle of the corridor. I decided to take a look through them by chance, and guess what I found?? Christie’s suitcase!! I picked it up and took it with us and no one noticed or cared. Luckily our luggage didn’t take ages and did finally arrive (they must have figured out a solution to having the workers on strike). We made it just in time for the last metro back to our apartment!



MUNICH – OKTOBERFEST!!

So how did I decide to spend my 21st birthday in Europe?? Well since I couldn’t be home going to Vegas with my friends… decided to make it epic and go to Oktoberfest!! Figured if I have the opportunity… why not?! Flights we a bit expensive ordering only a week before, but on studentuniverse it wasn’t too bad! And… I got to fly Lufthansa, which was super nice. The meals on the flights were amazing for only a 3-hour trip! And since I had friends living there I could stay with, even better! By the way, before I get started… Oktoberfest is a 16-day festival starting in late September and ending the first weekend in October. It’s the largest fair in the world, and over 6 million people go to it every year!

September 22-
My flight to Munich was at 7 am… much too early to take the metro. I had to figure out how to get the night bus to the airport at 4:30 in the morning, not a pleasant experience. Of course I was up till after 2 am packing and being anxious and excited about the next day. So when my alarm went off at 4 I slept through it… poor Jeremy knew I should have been up already and was calling my cell and landline… no luck. However, I did wake up in time to not miss my flight! Had to catch a taxi instead of a bus to Plaza Cibeles (where the night shuttle leaves from), but I made it!!

The flight was good, drank lots of coffee. My friend Chen was nice enough to meet me at the airport and show me which train to take into the city. It was nice to catch up after having not seen each other in over a year. Well other than Skype dates every so often so that I could practice German!

Hofgarten near Odeonsplatz
We went to lunch at Paulaner Im Tal – a bit pricey but delicious, authentic food. I got my favorite – spätzle! It’s a type of egg noodle covered in cheese and popular in Bavaria. Afterwards, Chen changed into his lederhosen (what all the guys wear to Oktoberfest). We wandered around Hofgarten near Odeonsplatz. The flowers and greenery are so beautiful in Germany! Within hours I’d realized how much I’d missed it. Then Oktoberfeset time!! We took the metro to Thereisenwiese – I can’t believe that entire section of Munich is completely empty except for that time of year! It was packed full of people when we arrived… the biggest carnival or fair I’d ever seen! All the rides and food and people amazed me. It smelled soooo good too because of all the treats and fair food!

We met up with our friends Ashlee and Teilo briefly, they were getting ready to go back for the night since they’d been out all day. Then we met with the group Chen had reservations with, the Rotary club. There were people from Rotary clubs all over Germany there, really neat! Luckily Chen had bought an extra ticket so that he could take a friend. I had no idea you had to reserve tables almost a year in advance!! He was nice enough to let me use his second ticket J The ticket came with two steins of beer and an entrée!

At first I felt a bit awkward because everyone was speaking German, and I don’t know it well enough to actually converse much. So I stood there looking like an idiot for a while. But soon people started talking to me in English and we got to know each other, and it was great from there! The girls and guy sitting next to me at our table were named Daniel, Sabine, and Flow. They were wonderful! It’s amazing that the people you meet by chance end up leading to so many more adventures. I met Teilo, Ashlee, and Chen back in 2011 during my travels after studying in Florence. Wouldn’t have gotten the chance to go to Oktoberfest without them! And then Daniel was the reason I had plans my second night at Oktoberfest, and Sabine turns out will be who Jeremy and I spend New Years with in Munich this year!! So it all works out somehow! That’s my favorite thing about traveling and living in Europe – you meet people from all over the place and get to experience and see more than you ever imagine!

Me and Sabine with our beer steins!
Anyways… that night after having some beer, everyone started standing up on the tables and dancing and singing. They all loved to teach me the songs and explain to me what they meant. After a couple of hours I had some of them memorized already! It was quite the experience. So many videos and photos to record what a crazy, lively place Oktoberfest is! There are just soooo many people. I tried going to the bathroom at one point and it took me almost an hour to get through the line. There was pushing and shoving and people all over each other. But I finally made it through alive!

I decided for my entrée to get a dish called Kaiserschmarrn. It’s a caramelized pancake with raisins in it all cut up into pieces, covered in powdered sugar, and served with applesauce. It’s amazingly delicious! Not the healthiest dinner ever… but it’s my birthday weekend right??

After over 5 hours of craziness, our tent was closing up for the night. I forgot to mention this earlier – each brewery has its own huge tent. You either have to have reservations for a specific table to get in, or you have to get there by 7 am and stand in line for when it opens at 8, otherwise you can hardly ever get a table. There are 14 large tents (holding anywhere from 3,000 – 9,000 people each!!), as well as 20 smaller tents. The first night we were at Armbrustschützenzelt, the tent for Paulaner brewery.

After leaving Oktoberfest we went to Hacher-Pscharr Brähaus, a restaurant/bar they’d turned into a place for dancing for people wanting to stay out later after Oktoberfest closes up. I got to hear more traditional Bavarian music and dance, dance, dance! Everyone was commenting on where my “dirndl” was (the outfits girls wear to Oktoberfest). Of course I hadn’t the chance to buy one... and they’re very expensive. But all night I was wishing I had one! Next time, next time.

While we were dancing, Chen got a call from Teilo saying that the trains to his place stop running earlier than the rest of the metro (he lives just under an hour outside of the city center, and that’s where I’d planned to stay the night). Well, turns out I wouldn’t be able to make it to Haupbahnhof (the central station) to get my luggage out of a locker there and make it to Teilo’s… so Chen offered that I could stay at his place that first night. Plus that meant I could stay out later… although at that point I felt like collapsing after hardly any sleep in 48 hours! But everyone kept persuading me to stay out since it was for my birthday J

Someone in the group had a girlfriend that worked at what is supposedly the best club in Munich called P1. He’d gotten her to put us on the list somehow, so we all headed that way. At this point I was really lagging from sleep deprivation… Daniel and I were walking a little slower talking, and at one point we lost sight of the rest of the group and the road had forked. We picked the wrong street unfortunately. We couldn’t have gotten to the club more than 5 minutes later that the rest of the group, but we’d already missed our entrance in. Chen had waited for us and we tried calling but it was no use. I really didn’t mind because it was already 2-something, and I was very ready for bed. So Chen and I took the night bus back to his place.

September 23-
Bedtime ended up being about 4 am… and I’d planned to meet up with Teilo and Ashlee to get in line at Oktoberfest at 7:30 am. That definitely didn’t happen. I slept in and had lots of bread and Nutella for breakfast! Chen let me borrow his phone for the day (mine doesn’t work outside of Spain unless I have Wi-Fi). I went to finally get my luggage out of Haupbahnhof and change clothes, but when I went back for a locker there was none left. I waited for an hour with no hope, when luckily Daniel befriended me on Facebook. I remembered he lived near Oktoberfest, so I asked if I could keep my bag at his place for the day (hooray for the benefits of social media!). He didn’t mind at all, so we walked over to Oktoberfest together and found Teilo and Ashlee. At that point they’d been up for hours and were heading home. Since I’d just gotten there, Daniel offered to try sneaking me into his reservation at Schottenhamel. Amazingly we snuck in a side door when the guards weren’t looking, and I waited around a bit before reservations started. Their reservation was under BMW, so we had a great table up on the balcony, with a wonderful view of the whole place! Daniel wasn’t feeling that great still from the night before, so we ended up splitting the entrée and steins that came with his ticket. More Kaiserschmarrn... so good!

View from the balcony of everyone dancing on tables!
The people were again super friendly. It was a fun night! Luckily I knew the words to a lot of the songs by then too. From the balcony there was a great view of the whole festival. Before heading to Teilo’s I got one of the classic heart cookies they sell everywhere called Lebkuchenherz. Couldn’t leave without one to remember the experience!


I got to Teilo’s by 11. He lives out in Wolfratshausen, a more residential area but still close enough to take public transport to the center. His neighborhood is gorgeous, full of greenery and a river runs just past his backyard. At midnight, we started off my birthday with a cake Ashlee had brought back from Vienna!

September 24-
In the morning we walked to the bakery for bread and made a huge, traditional German breakfast. Then we took the car and went on yes, the Autobahn!! It was a bit rainy, but still a beautiful day. I decided I wanted to drive out to Starnberg See, a pretty lake near when Teilo lives. In a restaurant with a great view of the water, we got champagne and dessert (Apfelstrudel and Schokoladenkuchen) to celebrate my birthday. It was a fun last few hours in Germany. Wish I could have stayed longer, but needed to get back to Madrid to start teaching!

I arrived home with a surprise little cake and a gift from my roommates – my first Spanish cookbook! It really made my night. Perfect way to end a 21st birthday weekend I’ll never forget.

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