Parisian Adventures - The Beginning

On Thursday after a normal day of classes, Christina and I (along with 3 friends, Danielle, Adina andNatalie) took the Eurostar to Paris, a very fantastic city! I totally over packed- a fact I realized after lugging that monster over to the tube. The train ride to Paris was about 3 hours long. The seats were nice and roomy; I definitely prefer trains to commercial planes! PLUS we got cool little train stamps in our passports! (It's the little things that amuse me.) Once we arrived in France, we asked a bunch of information guys how we should get to our hotel, which was an hour away from the Eiffel Tower. They equipped us with little maps and told us to take the Metro and switch over, then walk to the hotel from there. We got to our tiny 2 star hotel and found that the room Christina and I stayed in was a little bit strangly set up- it was at the end of the hall and once you walked in, the bathroom was on the right (normal so far) but to the left, there was a long, skinny hallway (it must have been the wall around the room next door) which led to the the rest of the room! Weird!
After checking in and dumping our stuff, we decided to stop some place and get dessert. We finally found an open cafe with only 2 people in it and sat down. The waitress brought over a huge board with the menu on it and we choose our desserts. The only problem was that they only had 2 of whatever dish we had picked out, so I switched to strawberry ice cream and Christina decided to be daring and get the "very French" dish that was described as bread, eggs and honey. We almost lost our minds when she came out and handed Christina a plate of FRENCH TOAST! We all had a bite of The Toast and felt very special- we had French toast in France!

The 2 Weeks Between Awesome Weekend Trips...

I had quite a full 2 weeks after returning from Germany! Christina's cousin came to visit her for a week, the weather was smashing and I had several picnic lunches in the park! I also had a rather large paper due, which I worked on til the wee hours of the morning the day it was due (I have considered changing my major to Procrastination).

The best part of my week was probably going to the theater- I should have definitely taken advantage of one of the theater classes they offer here, but alas! the semester is practically over and there is now nothing I can do! I saw the comedy The 39 Steps and it was fantastic! I didn't really know anything about it except that it was supposed to be funny and interestingly, it only had a 4 person cast! I ordered the ticket online the day before and for £10. (The best part about it was that it was actually free- UNH has a "cultural challenge" which we get reimbursed up to £20 of "cultural" events and things- that can't be done back in the states.) So I got myself to the theater which was right in Piccadilly Circus and then enjoyed the play IMMENSELY. It was about a man who was framed for murder and on the run in England and Scotland during WWII- and the 3 other cast members played all the people he met and/or evaded into while on the run. The staging was very creative- for example, to indicate they were moving through rooms, one of them simply wheeled a door around stage and the characters just walked thru it like it was a new room! Ahh... what a great play- I really enjoy the theater!!!!

Easter Weekend part 3

Easter Sunday

Corey and I spent the first half of the day by ourselves. She went off to Dachau which was the first concentration camp and I decided to stay in the city and explore a bit. It was a great decision because Sunday was the highlight of my visit. We were up early and after breakfast I walked over to Marienplatz intending to stop in at church. I ended up not making it to church, but spent my morning pretty much just going wherever my feet took me. I ended up walking along Maximilianstrasse towards what Ozzy told us was the parliament building and once reaching it, decided to stroll along the river since it looked lovely. It was! There were lots of people jogging, riding bikes and just walking like me. I ended up at a little beach which was mostly made up of rocks (kind of like Nice!) and found a stump that was on fire. It was strange as well as the fact that a man joined me on the beach and lit a newspaper on fire. Apparently this was the fire beach. I kept walking back on the path and came to a tunnel. I was going to head back towards town on the bridge but decide to go thru the tunnel, just for kicks. It was AWESOME! The entire inner surface was completely covered with a mural. It was really detailed and I must have spent 20 minutes just walking back and forth admiring it.

After I was finally done in there, I decided I needed lunch. I found some discount bakery place and got an enormous pretzel. I ate my pretzel in the sun and then went back to Marienplatz where I met up with a free bike tour group and proceeded to have the time of my life.

The bike tour was the absolute best thing I did the whole weekend. I didn't particularly care for the guide (he reminded me of a college guy who never grew up) but the bikes were so awesome and old school- they didn't have hand breaks; they were the back pedal ones like on our old Huffys! They were also silver and we called them California Cruisers. Our guide did a 10 minute history of Munich and then we got our bikes and started cruisin'! We rode by the Hofbräuhaus then over to Maximilianplatz (on the corner of the expensive street and the royal residence) and then to the English garden. It was so nice over there- flowers were blooming, the sun was out and the clothes were off-- of some people! Yes, we stopped by the nude part of the English Garden (which is an enormous park) but thankfully it was still early in the season so there were about 3 people with no clothes. We cycled by them and over to the Chinese Tower which is the second largest beer garden on earth! It can hold 9000 people! We had an hour to eat or do whatever and since I had already eaten, I just sat and chatted with my new friends. They served 5 types of beer and a bunch of different food- including giant pretzels (pretzels are really big in Bavaria/Munich (pun!) since they invented them).

some action shots...

After the break, we hopped back on our bikes (which was pretty funny since I think I was the only one who didn't have a beer) and rode back thru the park. I pretty much stopped listening to our guide the rest of the ride since he was being crude and just enjoyed riding my bike and the beautiful weather. One cool thing we stopped and watched for a few minutes were the river surfers- there was a point in the river right past a bridge that had basically a continuous wave and these dudes in wets suits took turns surfing!

We cycled back to the starting point and I dropped my bike and jogged over to meet up with Corey since we got back almost an hour late (oops!). Since it was still early in the afternoon, we walked over to the city museum, but it closed about 10 minutes after we got there, so we just looked around the gift shop (which was awesome). We were close to the painted tunnel, so I took Corey over to see it (she wasn't as impressed as I was) and then we walked in a direction neither of us had been in yet. Eventually we decided it was dinner time and I had the BEST German dinner ever. I wanted to try something traditionally German so I ordered Leberkäse. It's like a mini meat loaf and it was excellent! It came with potato salad (which was cold!) and I got what I thought was the German version of Sprite, but turned out to be a million times better. It didn't look like much, but when we were done I was so full!

It was getting cold at that point so we went back to pick up our jackets at the hostel. Before we left, we decided to cash in our complimentary drink coupons at the hostel bar. I got a 'rattler' which is half beer, half "lemonade" (which = Sprite). It came in a little glass and reminded me of Anheuser-Busch. After that little experience, we snagged our jackets and headed out for a taste of the night life! Basically Munich was pretty quiet but we did find a lion dressed as a monk holding beer (what possibly says Munich more than that?!). We headed back and were the first ones in bed.

I have to say that this was the best day of my trip, probably since I got to do what I wanted and also the amazing bike tour. I want to ride a bike everywhere from now on!

In Munich for Easter Weekend part 2

Saturday

Today was the day I was most looking forward to- the tour of Schloss Neuschwanstein, an amazing castle! Before our tour left, we wanted to go see the famous giant market (Viktualienmarkt) when it was actually open- since it was Easter weekend, everything was closed of course except on Saturday, the day we were not even going to be in the city! The market was pretty large and organized- all the meat was in one section, the cheeses in another, fruit, herb, flowers etc all together in their respective areas. After wandering a little while over there, we headed over to the train station to meet up with the tour.

I loved the castle, but the tour ended up being terrible for a bunch of reasons. #1- there were 60 people. #2- we had to wait for a wicked long time for everyone #3- after we were finally allowed to go, we had to RUN everywhere. They made us wait until about 5 minutes before the train left til they let us on to try and find a seat. We had to speedily walk up the hill to get to our tour. We had to sprint right into the entrance to get in line for the castle tour. The tour was designed to go right thru the castle at a fast pace. We went to a bridge over a gorge to get a good view of the castle- and had to run back down the mountain to meet back up with the group to catch the train. Overall, it was over rushed and I was not a happy camper, especially since we were waiting for 45 minutes in Füssen (the town) for no apparent reason.

Anyway, I will now highlight the good parts of the tour. How about the castle itself?

There is a lake nearby...

And it was in the Alps...

This was the gorge over which there was a bridge...

I loved the castle- but if I go back I will NOT take Radius tours, and neither should you. You can do the same thing we did, but spend more time at the castle and enjoy the view- all you need to do is check out a book about Mad King Ludwig and go down by the lake. By the way, Ludwig was pretty strange- he was very into swans; he was engaged to his cousin (they never married); he had a fake grotto built behind his bedroom, and he was found dead in a lake with another man (who was his doctor who was interviewing Ludwig to find out if he was mentally fit to rule). Anyway, that castle came out great- thanks, Ludwig!

Pondering the Germany countryside- on the way back to Munich, an older lady sat with us. She yelled at me and Corey (separately! while the other was in the ladies room) not to put our feet on the seat! We were in Germany now, not at home!

München is German for a Great Weekend

I spent my long Easter weekend in Munich with Corey and it was fantastic! The food was great, the city was nice and the tours were FREE!
On Thursday last week, Corey and I left London for Germany. Of course, we had a problem getting to the airport (missed the bus again, then there was traffic) but we ended up getting on the plane just about dead last after hurrying thru the airport (at least we got on the plane!). We arrived in Munich around 8PM or so then took the train into the city. What a great ride... (I had some pretty memorable instances on the train... read on) We sat down and a couple graced our presence in the seats across the aisle from us- and as luck would have it, it was the Most Annoying Couple of 2007! They canoodled, took pictures, cooed at each other... then took out an ipod and both listened to it together. The lady tapped her loud, clicky boots to the beat for about a half hour and the guy sang along with some of the song (for our benefit, I'm sure). We finally escaped them at the central station and found our hostel, which was only a 5 minute walk and actually pretty nice. We stayed in an 8 person room which had it's own little bathroom. The room was nice, but our roommates either snored (at one point I think 5 people were snoring at the same time!) or chatted about their wild night (when they got back at 3AM).

Friday - day 2
We got ourselves up early and after the free breakfast of toast and tea, went on a free walking tour of the city! Our guide was funny, really enthusiastic and named Ozzy. He took us over to the Glockenspiel (the famous clock), which is on the side of the new town hall building in a plaza in the center of the city called Marienplatz. It was under construction, plus it was Good Friday, so it didn't go off. In fact, we didn't see it go off the whole weekend, but Ozzy told us that we weren't missing much- apparently it's out of tune and not that exciting to watch! We took some pictures then walked over to Hofbräuhaus, the famous beer hall. We walked all over the rest of the city too, including Maximilianstrasse (the most expensive street ever- has tons of designer stores) and the royal residence, which was my favorite part of the tour. Ozzy took us to the courtyard and told us a little bit about how it was damaged in WWII then rebuilt and showed us some pictures. Then he told us that it cost 9 euros to get in. "But," he said, "since you guys are with me and this is a free tour we get to see the palace thru those FREE windows right over there!"

Like I said, he was funny. It was a good tour, I learned a lot about the city, including the fact that it became rich thru the salt trade (hmm, interesting) and the 2 symbols of Munich are the child monk and the lion. I started noticing a lot of monks and lions after that. After our nearly 3 hour tour, we decided to head back to Hofbräuhaus for lunch. I had sauerkraut and sausage and it was pretty darn good.

From there, we decided to head up one of the church towers to get a panoramic of the city. It was something like 300 steps but as always, worth the climb!


It was mid-afternoon by then and Corey suggested we go visit the Olympic park where the 1972 games were held. I thought this was a great idea so we consulted my little map inside my European guide book and headed out. It felt like the longest walk ever! I think it took us over an hour to get there but all we had to do was keep walking straight. (I took this picture of the deserted streets of Munich about 45 min into our walk) Finally, we found it. It looked like the set of the Teletubbies- very green, massive hills (it was surprising because Munich is very flat). We strolled thru the Olympic park, which was very strange looking- there was this plastic looking tent thing over parts of it. They must have thought that looked cool in the 70s... We climbed to the top of the highest hill (mid-climb, my camera decided not to work!) then rested for a while (my camera decided to work again) the we caught the U back to Marienplatz got dinner then bedtime.

YAY MY CAMERA WORKS AGAIN!

Pondering München

On top of the teletubby hill

Random Things in My Life

Last week was a doozy! Ok, maybe not. I just like saying "it's a doozy!" I had 3 interesting things happen. #1- Covant Garden, tea. I finally found a flavor of tea that I enjoy! It was vanilla and honey, mmmm. There was a tea shop that had free samples- and thanks to them, I now know what kind of tea I will be drinking on Wednesday April 23, 2007 at the RITZ with my roommate!

#2- I set my alarm clock on Tuesday for 8:40PM... Problem: I have class at 9AM. Solution: have body alarm clock wake me up at 8:47AM, and still make it to class on time.

#3- I woke up 2 days in a row from strange dreams soaking wet with sweat. It was weird, but I'm ok.

Why Don't They Wear Kilts in America?

Happy April Fools Day! The origin of this fun holiday is, funnily enough, Scottish just like "the water of life" also known as whisky! (April Fools -not the whisky part!). So I got back last night at midnight from Scotland. It is quite pretty up there. My friend Corey and I took the train from King's Cross up to Edinburgh and it took 5 hours. Since we got up bright and early on Friday, I slept the ride there. Once we got off the train, one of the first things I saw was a dude in a KILT! (Welcome to Scotland!) We headed right over to Edinburgh Castle and dropped £11 to get in- exactly the amount I had on me. It was quite a hazy day, so the view was not that great and it was windy and thus a little bit chilly. We got our £11 worth and spent a few hours looking at everything in the castle (museums, a chapel, the great hall, the crown jewels...) in fact until it closed. The crown jewels were at the end of a very long museum-like display about the history of the jewels (which consisted of a crown, a sword, its hilt, a belt for the sword and the Stone of Destiny). The story of the jewels is that they've been around for a long time (since the 1500s) and they've only survived because people keep hiding them! Every time there's a war or the potential for them to get stolen or melted down to pay the army, someone makes sure they are under a floorboard or locked in a vault somewhere! The Stone is the same that was returned by England that used to be in the coronation chair in Westminster.

the castle

After our few hours in the castle, we got dinner from this French vendor guy who was selling ratatouille and potatoes in these huge frying pans - it was reallllly good. Then for dessert I got a toffee crepe from the lady a stall down! That was also tasty and very messy. At that time, it was about 6 or so and everything started shutting down. We decided to find the hostel and it ended up being on High Street (part of the Royal Mile, not too far from the castle). Around 10, I decided I was too tired to function any longer so it was bedtime. We shared a room with 4 other people and they were all friendly enough and we all went to bed right around the same time.

I had a terrible night's sleep- there were rowdy people shouting and singing in the street and it sounded like the window was open. I even got up at around 4AM to see if I could shut it, but there was a bunk bed in the way of 2 of the 3 windows, so I just got back in bed and finally the loud people went to bed themselves and I fell asleep.

Me and my personal Stone of Destiny

We got up around 9 and got food for lunch before heading over to Nelson's monument and the national monument. They were both on a hill that overlooked the city to the East and we could see the ocean! (today was much nicer, weather-wise). Then we headed over to, and conquered, Arthur's Seat which is a long extinct volcanic ridge! It over looks the whole city and the higher we climbed, the better the view became!


Arthur's Seat

We ate lunch at the top and waited until 1 for the 1 o'clock gun to go off at the castle. The gun is a clock for the city and it goes off everyday (but Sunday) and it used to be for the sailors so they knew what time it was! According to the 1 o'clock gun, my watch was about 8 minutes fast (oops). We trekked down the rocky hill thing and visited the remaining wall of a chapel from the 1400s then went back into the city center.

can you guess which gun this is?

Up by the castle there was the Whisky Heritage Center... and we went on a tour. It was lame compared to Anheuser-Busch. We rode in a little barrel thing (like in a haunted house) and watched 3 videos in separate rooms. One of them was a "ghost" who talked about how old whisky is... he was green. We also got a sample and I have to say that whisky is not for me. I had a sip and let Corey drink the rest. I did learn that to be Scotch Whisky, it has to mature for 3 years on Scottish soil. Hmm, very interesting. After that delightful little trip, we went window shopping and then got back on the train.

I sat next to a woman and behind her two sisters. She was so funny- she chatted non-stop and whenever she saw something interesting she would point it out, mid-conversation: "Oooh, Tina, look at that one! That's a LOVELY little house! Oh T look at that tree, it's GORGEOUS!" It was entertaining.


On Thursday before the Scotland adventure, I saw the play Equus... it was crazy. I enjoyed the whole 'going to the theater' part but the show itself was very strange and a bit creepy. SPOILER ALERT! It was about a boy who was obsessed with horses (and ended up blinding 6 of them with a hoof pick) and really I noticed a lot of horses this weekend. Every time I did, I would think of EQUUS- even the whisky we sampled was called White Horse! Ahh! After the show we jumped out back and met Daniel Radcliffe! I took his picture and was close enough to touch him, but decided not to get his autograph. He was pretty friendly and also short.

my first celebrity encounter

The week of the BUG

So the exciting thing that happened this week is I got to change rooms from our crappy, bug infested room with the yellowish-green walls and putting green carpet to a newly refurbished room with crisp white walls and a red carpet. The reason: bed bugs.

Yes, it is gross, that's what we (me and my roommate Christina) thought, esp my roomie who was the one the bugs liked to bite! We washed all of our clothes and moved all of our crap up to the new room and I am happy to say that we like this one much better (even though I can no longer see the London Eye from my window at night. Oh well!) It was a very dramatic situation and the whole school knows and is talking about it. Our room is not the only one with bugs- I think so far about 20 mattresses have been destroyed! I am just fine- I did a presentation this morning and got an A on it and tonight I am going to see the play Equus (staring Daniel Radcliffe- aka, HARRY POTTER) and I might even get his autograph...