London

Can't believe this was my last weekend of traveling this semester.  Mallory, Nina, Collin and I spent it in London!  We met up with a few DIS friends over there, Delaney and Kavanaugh.  It was a great last weekend of traveling but hard to believe it was our last trip.  Just this semester I've traveled to Sweden, Germany, Austria, Hungary, England, France, Spain, Greece, and Italy... I'd say a pretty good list for 4 months!

We landed in London on Friday afternoon and got settled into our hostel, which one of the people in our room described as "a concentration camp".  It wasn't that bad, but cramming 8 people into a room the size of a closet isn't the most ideal situation, but we made it work.  The first night we walked  across the street to Hyde park, then went to see Buckingham Palace and Big Ben.  On the way home we passed through Winter Wonderland in Hyde park, which is a seasonal carnival that they set up for Christmastime.  It reminded me a lot of Tivoli.  They had a ton of food and sweets, rides, fun houses, singers, and a Christmas market.  We hung out in there for a while and watched a bunch of drunk old ladies sing and dance to one of the entertainers at the park, it was pretty funny. 

  

 

The next day, we started off at the Portobello Market in Notting Hill.  There were tons of cute little shops all along the streets, it was a really cute place. 

 

Then we went to the Parliament buildings near Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, and Kings Cross (where a scene in Harry Potter was filmed).  It was a LOT of walking but we had a great day touring around the city.  I think London and Rome are my two favorite cities other than Copenhagen.

                                         

Westminster Abbey

 

Big Ben


Harry Potter, Platform 9 3/4



Buckingham Palace

 The next day we took the train to Greenwich, recommened by Jorgen, and walked around the town.  The Meridian line is in Greenwich, separating the East and West hemispheres.  We took a bunch of pictures there, then made it back into the city to see London Bridge, the Tower of London, and Tower Bridge.  It was so pretty at night time, everything was all lit up!

 

Greenwich Park and the Meridian Line

 

London Bridge                                                                     Tower Bridge

A Danish Thanksgiving

On the 23rd, Mallory and I cooked Thanksgiving for Jorgen and is family!  At first, we were told by Jorgen it would only be us and him, so we figured we could handle it.  A day before, he invited the whole family over which was 10 people total...  Me, Mallory, Jorgen, Else, Brian, Tina, Silje, Signe, Casper, and our friend Nina joined us.  We went shopping the day before, which is not an easy thing to do when you're trying to find all American foods.  We were out of luck finding cranberry sauce, but after about an hour of searching we found everything else for the meal.

With my cooking background (nothing), I had it in my head that this would be a major fail; we would burn the turkey, serve cold food, or mess up the stuffing somehow.  But after a whole day of cooking, it turned out to be a huge success!  We had turkey, carrots, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, rolls, and apple crisp with ice cream for dessert.   The family loved everything, I have no clue how we pulled it off.  Although it was no Thanksgiving in America with my family, we had such a fun day cooking with Jorgen and eating with the family.  I'll never forget our Thanksgiving in Copenhagen!

 

Royal Christmas beer!



 

Baby Silje!

 

Post Thanksgiving meal with Jorgen

Russian Christmas at Tivoli

On November 11, the Tivoli Gardens opens up for Christmastime.  This year, they decided on a Russian theme and featured St. Basil's Cathedral, with a 21 meter tower with domes and spires.  The park is open for Christmas from November 11th to December 30th and has a wide range of decorations, gifts, delicacies, and yummy food!

Mallory, Julie, Anna and I went yesterday afternoon.  It was a really cool atmosphere with elves, a Christmas market, music, sweets, food, reindeer, and all kinds of entertainment.  Santa, or Father Frost as they call him here, had a whole set up on the main stage and all the little Danish kids were taking pictures with him.  We bought some Tuborg Christmas beer and these things called "sticks", which literally are sticks with strawberries, bananas, marzipan, and nougat all covered in chocolate and dipped in hazelnuts.  They were so good!  After enjoying a little snack, we walked through all of the Christmas shops and took lots of pictures.  By the time we were heading out of the park, all of the lights were on and everything looked so pretty!



A Russian Christmas



A "stick" and a holiday beer!

  

  

 

 

And now we're in the process of cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people... Turkey, stuffing, corn, rolls, mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans, candied yams, and apple crisp for dessert! 


I AMsterdam

The traveling just never ends! I spent this past weekend in Amsterdam with Mallory, Julie, Anna, and Collin.  We left Friday afternoon after class and arrived in the Netherlands around 6.  We stayed in the Flying Pig Uptown hostel.  It was pretty nice, but my first experience in staying in a room with strangers so that was a little weird.  One of the girls in the room just slept 24/7 and there were 4 other guys in the room that all snored REALLY loud.  So let's just say I'm not a huge fan of the whole hostel idea.  I guess we were spoiled for the two week break with all private rooms.

  

Amsterdam is a really nice city.  It reminded me a lot of Copenhagen, especially the Christianhavn area, with tons cute little houses and buildings lining canals.  There were a lot more canals in Amsterdam, but the city itself wasn't as big.  All along the water were tons of houseboats, many of which are considered real houses of the city.  It was pretty cool.

The first night, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a Chinese place called Walk to Wok.  It was so good we went back the next night too.  Guess we didn't really experience any Dutch food but oh well, I think I like Chinese better.  After dinner, we walked around downtown Amsterdam.  There are coffee shops everywhere, surrounded by places like Burger King, the Pancake House, pastry shops, Chinese buffets, and anything else you could ever want.  I'm assuming all these food places do pretty well!



The Bulldog Coffeeshop



The next morning we had breakfast at the hostel then made our way toward the Anne Frank house.  It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining and it was pretty warm out compared to what we had left in Copenhagen.  The Anne Frank house was located right along one of the canals in a really pretty area of town, making it that much harder to imagine the events that occured there during the German occupation.  The house was set up like a museum and it guided us through the few years of her life spent in hiding.  I read her diary a long time ago so it was pretty cool to be in the house and to see in person what she was describing.

We made our way towards the center of the city and decided to do a canal tour.  Again, it was very similar to the canal tour we did in Copenhagen, just a lot more canals.  It looked like the houses were built right on the water and were floating.  Everything was really pretty.

   

   

When we got off the boats, we saw the Sex Museum right across the street.  I had remembered Kristen telling me she went to one before and said it was the most bizarre thing ever, so we decided to do it.  And it was strange... We were laughing the whole way though, and what made it even worse was that other people were actually taking it seriously.  We were in and out of there in about 10 minutes.

 

We ended up walking around the city for a while to take some pictures and enjoy the beautiful weather.  Then it was time for Walk to Wok round 2!

After dinner, the five of us decided to experience the Red Light District that we had heard so much about.  It was pretty crazy, I've never seen anything like it.  It was a few streets lined with tons of women in windows illuminated by red lights..  We were all so fascinated (in a bad way) by what was going on that we stood on the street corner and just watched it all happen.  It was pretty sad actually..  And I can't even imagine why something like that would be legal.

The next morning, we all went to the I amsterdam sign about five minutes away from our hostel.  It's a one of the big tourist attractions in Amsterdam and usually you can't get pictures of the sign without people in it, but it was a crappy day and we got there pretty early.

                         

And then it was time to head to the airport for our flight back home.  It was such a great weekend, I really liked Amsterdam.  But Copenhagen is still my favorite city!  It's so crazy that I only have one month left here.  It really just hit me that I'm actually leaving in 4 weeks and may never be back in this city again.  I'll definitely be making the best of the rest of the time we have here; Tivoli, the Nyhavn Christmas market, and Stroget at Christmas time are on the list!  Mallory and I are also making Thanksgiving for the whole family this Wednesday... I'm so excited but the whole cooking part should be interesting, hope Mallory pulls through.

I can't wait to enjoy the next month in Copenhagen at Christmas time :)

Two Week Travel Break

I can't believe the long awaited 2 week travel break is over!   This semester is flying by, but I'm loving every second of it.  Although it was an exhausting couple of weeks, I've had the most amazing experiences of my life traveling through Europe to Athens, Rome, Naples, Barcelona, and Paris.  It's pretty crazy how many things you can see and do in just two weeks.  From mopeding around the Greek Island of Aegina, to touring the Vatican and Sistine Chapel, to going out in Barcelona, I really have experienced a TON of what Europe has to offer. 

And it all started in Athens...

Sunday
We arrived in Athens around noon and took a bus to the hostel.  We were signed up for a public 8 person room at Athens Backpackers hostel, and when we got there we were offered a private room with a kitchen/private bathroom/balcony for 2 extra euros a night.  Not a bad start!  After settling in, we walked about 5 minutes to the Acropolis Museum and saw the many artifacts and ruins of ancient Greece. And it was free!  All students in the EU get discounts and free entry to almost everywhere in Greece.  After the museum, we stumbled upon Aeros Pagos Hill, right on the grounds of the Acropolis.  It had a beautiful view of the city and the Parthenon.  We ended up staying on the hill to watch the sunset over the city of athens, here are some pictures from the afternoon!

That night, we walked around an area called Plaka, a cute walking street full of restaurants and gift shops.  Every restaurant owner stands outside and begs for you to come eat, it gets pretty annoying after a while.  But when we were offered free wine and dessert, we were sold.

Monday
We woke up early to have breakfast and join the walking tour provided by our hostel.  Our tour guide was an archeologist and knew tons about all the sites we visited, including the Temple of Zeus, Hadrians arch, Syntagma Square, the Roman Agora, Parliament, the National Gardens, and the Acropolis.  It was a great tour and only 6 euros!  After the tour was complete, mal Collin and I made our way to the top of the acropolis to see the parthenon.  Again, free entrance!  Because we had gone to the museum the day before, we knew a lot of the history so it made it even more interesting to see.

Hardian's Arch

The National Gardens

In front of the Parliament Building

Syntagma Square

Aeros Pagos Hill

The Acropolis and Parthenon

The Parthenon

We returned to the hostel for a quick rest, then made our way to Monistraki, another shopping/restaurant area in Athens.  My friend who is studying here recommended we buy shoes at this place called The Poet.  All shoes are handmade right at the store, and then they custom fit them to your feet!  I got the style called Cleopatra, here's a picture!

By that point, we were pretty hungry so we picked up some 2 euro gyros and made our way towards Lycebetus Hill.  Our tour guide told us that morning that it had the prettiest view of Athens, and he was definitely right.  It was a long trek up, but SO worth it!!

Lycebettus Hill

We picked up some gelato on the way home, then met up with my friend Brett who is studying here for the semester.  He took us out to a karaoke bar in town with some of his friends.  One greek couple sang New York New York (dad I thought of you) and it was one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen.  Fun night!

Tuesday
Best day in Greece.  We woke up early to catch a ferry to Aegina, an island about 40 minutes away.  We walked around for a little when we got there and realizing we had no clue what to do/where to go,  we decided to rent mopeds!  Collin drove a 2 person one with Mal, and I had a single one.  The guy that rented them to us said he was worried about me driving it, but then watched me do a test loop and said I was better than Collin, HA!   It was such a great way to explore the island.  We literally covered every square inch of it, starting off looping around the coast then working our way inland.  Aegina is pretty big, 15 km across so we covered a lot of ground, mopeds definitely were the way to go.  We ended up staying for a couple hours at a beach called Aghia Marina and swam in the Mediterranean!  The water was surprisingly warm, but it was a little windy out so we didn't stay in for too long.  We walked to both ends of the beach and enjoyed the beautiful views, it was so nice to be on a beach again!  After a few hours, we got back on the mopeds and explored some more until we returned them to catch the ferry home at 6.  We had so much fun driving around and relaxing on the beach, literally a perfect day.

When we got back, we went out to dinner and I got veal with pasta, it was soo good.  Plus more free wine and dessert :)   Brett, my friend from Gettysburg met up with us again and we went out on a strip called Gazi, a street lined with like 20 night clubs.  We went to a club called Why Sleep and danced to some good American music!

Wednesday
Our plan was to go to the temple of Poseidon in Sounion, but after waiting for like an hour at the bus station and hearing about 5 Greek people tell us something we couldn't understand, we realized the buses were on strike.  So we scratched that plan, went to get sandwiches, and walked around the temple of Olympian Zeus then the Roman Agora.  We made our way up to the mountain that overlooks the acropolis and relaxed on the hill for a while enjoying the sun and beautiful view of the city.  We decided that we should try going to the National Archeological Museum, but we got there and it was closed.  Instead we walked around Montirasaki, ate some gyros for dinner, and found the best ice cream!  It was a pretty relaxing day and we got back to the hostel early to get ready for the flight to Rome in the morning.

Temple of Zeus

The Roman Agora

Thursday
Our flight was around noon, and after about 2 and a half hours we were in Roma!  Our friend Nina from DIS met us at the station and brought us to our hostel which was in a great location.  And the hostel was so nice!  We had a private room again, and there were only 8 people staying in the whole place.  The owner made us breakfast every morning and we all sat around a big round table and ate together.  That night we took a short walk from our hostel and stumbled upon the Trevi Fountain, took some pictures, then went out to dinner at a cute little restaurant in the square.  I got spaghetti carbonara, my first real Italian meal!  And it was literally to die for, sooo good.  At dinner, we were approached by this American club promoter spreading the word about a pub crawl happening that night.  He convinced us it'd be pretty fun, so we did it.  And it was a really fun night, we met a ton of people from all over the world; New Zealand, Germany, Spain, China, and all over the US.  I also met another Delta Gamma!

The Trevi Fountain

Nina, Mallory, and I in front of the fountain

Friday
The next morning, we left the hostel pretty early to beat the massive crowds to the Vatican.  We ended up doing a tour that lasted about 3 hours.  It was SO huge that we didn't see everything, but the tour guide was able to show us the good stuff.  The Vatican is actually considered it's own city, which I thought was interesting because it literally is in the center of Rome.  After touring around the Vatican museum, we entered the Sistine Chapel.  Everything was SO beautiful with such intricate detail, even though I'm not the museum/art type of person it really was impressive.  We weren't allowed to take pictures in the chapel but I snuck a few... The tour ended in Basilica St. Pietro, the biggest church I've ever seen.  The whole place was really cool, so glad we went. 

The Vatican Museum

The Sistene Chapel

Basilica St. Pietro

Outside the Vatican

The rest of the day we toured around the section of Rome near the Tiber River.  We visited the Castle Sant Angelo, the Spanish steps, the Colosseum, and the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele.  It was a pretty busy day, we were exhausted by the end of it.  When we got back to the hostel I looked online to find an authentic italian restaurant, and found Picollo Buco, rated the 13th best restaurant in Rome! It was the best italian food I've ever had, by far.  I got bucatini with bacon and marina sauce, the house special.  Delicious!!

Castle St. Angelo

Spanish Steps

Dinner at Picollo Buco!

Saturday
Another early morning to tour around Roma.  We visited the Colosseum again, the Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill.  The ruins were interesting, but I personally liked the ones in Athens better.  The Circus Maximus was pretty cool though. Here are some pictures from the day.

Collin and I in front of the Colleseum

Inside of the Colleseum

Circus Maximus at the Roman Forum

We were pretty exhausted after that so we returned to the hostel for a while and napped.  Mallory's friend is studying in Rome and met up with us for dinner that night.  She knew all the local secrets and took us to this pizza place that is locally known to be the best pizza in the city.  We definitely ate well while in Rome :)  The restaurant was right near the Pantheon so we stopped there on the way.  She took us out for gelato after dinner, and they had a nutella flavor... I was in heaven.

The Panthenon

PIZZZAAA

After dinner we met up with Lindsay and her dad right in Plaza Navona.  I talked with them for a while, then her dad went home and we went out to a bar called the Drunken Ship right in Campo de Fiori.  It was so good to see her, and we had tons of fun!

Sunday
We got up at 6am to catch the train from Rome Termini station to Napoli.  It was a 2 hour ride, so we got there around 10.  Naples is a pretty dingy city, the first place I haven't really felt safe walking around.  The hostel was  pretty nice, nothing too special but the owner was really helpful.  We decided that morning we wanted to go to Pompeii, so we made our way towards the train station.  All of a sudden it started POURING, like a monsoon.. We were entirely soaked in like 30 seconds.  So that changed our plans, and we decided to go get pizza.  Naples is the birthplace of pizza, and it was DELICIOUS!  The rain started to slow down so Pompeii was back on the agenda.
And the adventure began... Our train broke down in the middle of the tracks, so we had to get off in the middle of no where and walk to the nearest bus station.  The trains in Italy are nottt reliable.. But we made it to a bus station, waited about a half hour, and were en route to Pompeii once again.  To make the day even better, by the time we reached Pompeii it was closed... Am we missed it by 10 minutes.  So, we figured we'd just go to Sorrento for dinner then go home.

   

Rain and Pizza, that pretty much defines Naples for us

Monday
We woke up at 6 to get to pompeii for 8:30 when it opened so we could get to Positano for the majority of the day.  Once again, it was raining.  Pompeii was cool, we took some pictures in the rain, and then it started down pouring again.  And things just kept getting better, when we went to leave the man told us the trains were on strike.. So when things go bad, we eat, and that's just what we did. More pizza. Once the trains were done striking, we went home, soaking wet, cold, and exhausted.  We spent the rest of the afternoon at the hostel catching up on some much needed sleep, woke up at 6, got more pizza, then went back to bed.  Eventful day!!

Pompeii

And more pizza!

So Naples was a major fail, but we were bound to have some bad things happen in two weeks of traveling.  Off to Barcelona!

Tuesday
We landed in the afternoon and met up with Zoe! She took us out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant downtown and we walked around Las Ramblas, the main street in Barcelona.  Taylor got out of class around 7 then met up with us to bring me back to her apartment.  That night we went to a club called Opium and ran into a bunch of kids from DIS!  I hung out with Jen and Dylan from my medical practice and policy class for almost the whole night, it was tons of fun.

Wednesday
We woke up around 11 and spent the day sightseeing around Barcelona.  It was 70 degrees all day, I was loving it.  First stop was Park Guell which is basically a park full of really cool structures by Gaudi.  It has a really pretty view of the city too, we sat on some benches and enjoyed the sunny weather.  After getting some gelato we made our way towards la Sagrada Familia, a church that won't be finished until 2025.  It is also a work of Gaudi.  The intricate detail and size of the place was insane, it's hard to imagine how someone could build something like that.

The group of us in front of Park Guell

Park Guell

La Sagrada Familia

I made my way home to Taylor's apartment after walking around the city for a while.  One of the girls in the apartment had her mom visiting and she cooked us an amaaazing meal.  Eggplant parm, chicken, Mac and cheese, rice, pasta.. Literally everything you could want and more. It was so good.  We met up with Zoe and the boys again and went to Suttan, another club in the city.  The nightlife in Barcelona is pretty crazy, it's known for the clubs and bars so we had to experience it! 

Thursday
We woke up and went to a place called Milk for breakfast.  They served American breakfast, my favorite.  We had eggs, bacon, ham and toast, all of my favorites.  It was another really nice day so we made our way to the beach while Taylor was in class.  The boys went swimming but the water was waaayy too cold for me.  I met up with Zoe that night for dinner and ice cream and ate the most amazing fajitas.  We went out again that night to this concert thing with a pretty famous DJ named Chuckie.  Another fun night!  Pretty exhausting few days but when in barca you have to experience the club scene, and we definitely did.

Friday
I met up with Zoe for breakfast in the morning to hang out before my flight.  It's been so nice to see all my friends from home all over europe.  Flight to Paris was that afternoon.  I kind of hit a brick wall at this point in the trip, 2 weeks is a longggg time to be traveling.  We were all ready to go back to copenhagen at this point but we had to rally for Paris.
After using about 13 different modes of transportation and getting lost about 12 times, we made it to the hotel.  Collin booked this one, and said it was going to be the nicest place yet... Wrong.  I'll just show a picture and you'll understand. 

VIP room?

We wanted to get out of our closet of a room for the night so we decided to go to the USA vs. France soccer game!  It was so much fun, and there were tonsss of people there.

Saturday
We started the day off by visiting a famous cemetery called Père-Lachaise.   It's huge, over 109 acres, and  Jim Morrison, Frederic Chopin, and Oscar Wilde were all buried there.

We then made our way to meet Ali, my friend from Gettysburg who was also visiting Paris for the weekend.  After eating some omelets in Place Des Vosges, the oldest square in Paris, we made our way towards the Eiffel Tower.  It was weird that I've been there before because I hardly remembered seeing it... I have such a bad memory.  We took some pictures there, then walked along the Seine River, which passes through the center of Paris.  Along the river we saw the Louvre, Norte Dame, the Grand Palace, and many other famous sites.  It was a lot of walking but we ended up seeing a lot of the sites in just one day.  We went to the big shopping mall that night and I got Kristen a present (get excited kiki) then we came home for the night and packed for the next day.

Placa des Vosges

Collin, Mallory, Ali and I in front of the Eiffel Tower

The Louvre

Notre Dame

And Sunday night, we were back in Copenhagen! It was so good to be back and to see Jorgen.  We walked in the door and he had dinner and wine waiting for us on the table :)  All of this traveling has made me really thankful to be studying here and living with Jorgen, I wouldn't change a thing!

And now it's going to be a CRAZYY couple weeks with school work, but next weekend I'll be in Amsterdam, and then I'm spending Thanksgiving in London!  Can't wait.