After the most perfect day in Tuscany we took a train to Rome. Our first stop was the Vatican. The Cathedral was absolutely awe-inspiring. However, I am quite glad that we missed all of the Easter craziness. The Vatican Museum was absolutely enormous! It took at least a couple hours to walk through and ended with the infamous Sistine Chapel. They didn't allow photography in the chapel and security was extremely strict about this policy; we saw two guys get escorted out of after they tried to take a picture of the ceiling. After the Vatican, Sam and I met up with my roommate Dani! I was so incredibly excited to see her and she took us on her own tour of the city. Our first stop was to her favorite gelato place (of course :) It was honestly the best gelato that I have ever had! It was huge and wonderful! She then took us on a tour of the Jewish ghetto and told us the history of the area. After dinner she took us to a nice little wine bar that had a really neat atmosphere!
The next morning we got up bright and early and Dani continued her walking tour of the city. She took us to the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and finally the Colosseum before she had to leave for her own trip that afternoon. It was unbelievable to see all of these places that I have read about and learned about in school and seen in movies. It was even better that I got to see and experience it all with Sam and Dani too!
Our final destination was Paris. By this time we had been traveling for so long that we were all extremely exhausted. We spent the majority of the day in the Louvre but I was honestly so exhausted I don't think that I appreciated it as much as I could have. The museum did have two Vermeer paintings which were quite neat to see! After the Louvre we walked to the Eiffel Tower, but again we were all in a zombie-like state when we got there so we took pictures and didn't even go up to the top. I think we were all ready for a good night's sleep that first night in Paris! The last day we spent in Versailles. I had been before but you never get used to the beauty of that place. The gardens are absolutely stunning and you could spend all day just wandering the grounds. That night we met up for dinner with Sam, one of my friends from Luther, who has been studying in Paris for the semester. After dinner he took us to the Sacre Coeur, a beautiful church on top of a hill that gives you a beautiful view of the city! We got to watch the Eiffel Tower light up and enjoy the Paris night landscape. It was the perfect way to end the vacation!
So that is the main points of my two week romp around Europe. As I mentioned earlier it was probably the most exhausting two weeks, but also the best two weeks of my life! Allie, Mitchell, and Sam were the best travel companions that anyone could ask for and it was an absolute blessing getting to see my Luther friends, Dani and Sam. Every place that we went was wonderful and I wouldn't change any part of the experience!
Monday, May 9, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Euro-Trip 2011 Part 2: Venice, Lido, Florence, and Tuscany
Its finals time which means one thing: I am slowly but surely losing my mind. Thus, taking a break to continue the adventure about my wonderful European Romp seemed like the perfect distraction. After Amsterdam we flew to Venice. While each place that we went to was my favorite for different reasons, Venice was definitely the most beautiful city that we went to! It was similar to Amsterdam in that there were canals everywhere...however unlike Amsterdam there were only canals...no cars or busses or other forms of motorized transportation! If people needed to get across the city there were boat taxis or boat busses! I have never seen anything like it! The entire city was an absolute dream and even better than I imagined! We stayed in this adorable bed and breakfast that Joe Mantenega visited when he was in Venice (I was super excited about this!) Venice was also a nice change of pace from London and Amsterdam because we weren't constantly on the move trying to do a bunch of touristy things, but rather we spent our time just walking and taking in the beauty of the city. We did take a gondola tour which we got for a discounted price. While the tour was a little shorter than we had hoped it was a neat way to see the city and there would be people in other gondolas singing and playing music which was wonderful! We also discovered our obsession with gelato...we literally got gelato twice a day...everyday...it was amazing! It was also in Venice that Mitchell discovered his distaste for cuddlefish. Our first night we went to a restaurant and Mitchell decided to be adventurous and order something that he didn't know what it was. The problem was what came out was pasta in a black sauce with fish that had tentacles. Allie and I both thought that it tasted good...unfortunately it was a little too much for Mitchell so for the rest of our trip we made sure not to order anything that could potentially be cuddlefish!
Our last night in Venice we actually stayed in Lido, a small island just off the coast of Venice. We spent the afternoon exploring the beach area. It wasn't a sand beach, but rather a rock beach so we had fun climbing all over the rocks and watching the waves crash in. While there wasn't a whole lot to do in Lido the owner of our hostel was really nice and over breakfast the next morning gave us a brief history of both Venice and Lido as well as a quick lesson in Italian history! However, probably my favorite story from Lido only Iowa people will appreciate. We went out to dinner and we all got pizza and I was extremely excited because mine was honestly the best pizza I had ever had. It had mozzarella cheese, fresh parmesan cheese and corn!! It was so delicious but my companions could not get over the fact that I ordered corn on my pizza...they just don't understand...they aren't from Iowa :D
After Venice we took a train to Florence. We were all pretty sad to leave Venice because it was such a fairytale, but Florence was also fun! It was extremely different from Venice because it had more of the big city feel. Sam and I decided that it would be a good idea to try to get to an area on a hill in the distance to get a good view of the city. At first we thought we were golden because we found a staircase that led to a huge hill...unfortunately for us that hill never seemed to stop. We walked forever and along both sides of the road were huge walls so you literally couldn't see anything. We were about ready to turn around and head back but Sam talked me into walking 5 more minutes just because we had already invested so much time into climbing this hill. Of course just after we had decided this we turn a corner and we found the view we were looking for! Looking down at the city we couldn't believe how far we had walked.
The next day Sam and I decided just to wander around Florence and see what we could find! We found a beautiful park that had a pond in the middle where we could sit and watch the birds and soak up the sun! We then tried to see a this huge old fort that was near the park...unfortunately for us when we tried to go in there was a big sign that said that it wasn't a tourist attraction. I am still not quite sure what that means because it looked like an extremely large but extremely old fort. In the afternoon we decided to climb this huge tower that was apart of the Duomo (a massive Cathedral in the center of the city) The tower had 414 to get to the top! Those of you who know me best know that I am quite claustrophobic and this stairway to get to the top was a teeny-tiny passage way...so it was quite the struggle for me! Thankfully there were four places on the way up that were open areas so you could stop and look out and snap a few photos before continuing on the journey up! But once we finally made it to the top we got an absolutely gorgeous view of the city!
My favorite day of the trip was this last day in Florence. Sam and I took a day trip to Tuscany! Our guide Nicola was a very entertaining guide who was full of fun stories! Before we went to Tuscany he took us to Piazzale Michelangilo, which was this gorgeous Plaza overlooking the city that had this huge staircase and people could just sit and read, eat lunch, drink wine, relax, or whatever struck their fancy! It was the perfect way to start such a great day! Nicola took us to a farm in Tuscany that had dozens of horses! He passed us along to the man who would be taking us on our tour and Nicola and the the other two people on the trip Andrea and Matt (a very nice couple from Canada) went for a vespa tour around Tuscany. It was honestly an absolute dream, Sam and I got to horseback ride through the Tuscan country side! I don't know if I have ever seen a scenery so beautiful and so peaceful! Part of the ride was through the vineyards that were apart of the farm and our guide told me a little bit about the vineyards as well as the wine that the farm produces! My horse and I got along great! I was nervous because we didn't really get any instruction before hand about horse riding but my horse was so smart! Sam's on the other hand was....hungry! It was absolutely hilarious, it seemed like every five minutes his horse felt the need to stop for a snack! When we got back to the farm the vespa people hadn't gotten back yet so while we were waiting our guide brought us wine that was made from the grapes in the vineyard that we had just rode through! It was absolutely amazing! When Nicola, Andrea, and Matt came back the five of us went to a castle for lunch! The lunch was absolutely amazing! For the first course we had a meat/cheese/bread plate and then two kinds of pasta and panacotta for dessert! It was amazing! And if the day couldn't get any better after lunch we went to a wine tasting! It was so neat to be able to drink wine that was made right there in Tuscany. During the wine tasting we all tried a shot of Grappa, a particularly strong kind of alcohol....it burned all the way down. The wine tasting ended our day and I was so sad to leave! Tuscany was a fairytale that I never wanted to leave and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!
What a perfect place to end for now! The finale of the trip still to come!
Cheers!
Our last night in Venice we actually stayed in Lido, a small island just off the coast of Venice. We spent the afternoon exploring the beach area. It wasn't a sand beach, but rather a rock beach so we had fun climbing all over the rocks and watching the waves crash in. While there wasn't a whole lot to do in Lido the owner of our hostel was really nice and over breakfast the next morning gave us a brief history of both Venice and Lido as well as a quick lesson in Italian history! However, probably my favorite story from Lido only Iowa people will appreciate. We went out to dinner and we all got pizza and I was extremely excited because mine was honestly the best pizza I had ever had. It had mozzarella cheese, fresh parmesan cheese and corn!! It was so delicious but my companions could not get over the fact that I ordered corn on my pizza...they just don't understand...they aren't from Iowa :D
After Venice we took a train to Florence. We were all pretty sad to leave Venice because it was such a fairytale, but Florence was also fun! It was extremely different from Venice because it had more of the big city feel. Sam and I decided that it would be a good idea to try to get to an area on a hill in the distance to get a good view of the city. At first we thought we were golden because we found a staircase that led to a huge hill...unfortunately for us that hill never seemed to stop. We walked forever and along both sides of the road were huge walls so you literally couldn't see anything. We were about ready to turn around and head back but Sam talked me into walking 5 more minutes just because we had already invested so much time into climbing this hill. Of course just after we had decided this we turn a corner and we found the view we were looking for! Looking down at the city we couldn't believe how far we had walked.
The next day Sam and I decided just to wander around Florence and see what we could find! We found a beautiful park that had a pond in the middle where we could sit and watch the birds and soak up the sun! We then tried to see a this huge old fort that was near the park...unfortunately for us when we tried to go in there was a big sign that said that it wasn't a tourist attraction. I am still not quite sure what that means because it looked like an extremely large but extremely old fort. In the afternoon we decided to climb this huge tower that was apart of the Duomo (a massive Cathedral in the center of the city) The tower had 414 to get to the top! Those of you who know me best know that I am quite claustrophobic and this stairway to get to the top was a teeny-tiny passage way...so it was quite the struggle for me! Thankfully there were four places on the way up that were open areas so you could stop and look out and snap a few photos before continuing on the journey up! But once we finally made it to the top we got an absolutely gorgeous view of the city!
My favorite day of the trip was this last day in Florence. Sam and I took a day trip to Tuscany! Our guide Nicola was a very entertaining guide who was full of fun stories! Before we went to Tuscany he took us to Piazzale Michelangilo, which was this gorgeous Plaza overlooking the city that had this huge staircase and people could just sit and read, eat lunch, drink wine, relax, or whatever struck their fancy! It was the perfect way to start such a great day! Nicola took us to a farm in Tuscany that had dozens of horses! He passed us along to the man who would be taking us on our tour and Nicola and the the other two people on the trip Andrea and Matt (a very nice couple from Canada) went for a vespa tour around Tuscany. It was honestly an absolute dream, Sam and I got to horseback ride through the Tuscan country side! I don't know if I have ever seen a scenery so beautiful and so peaceful! Part of the ride was through the vineyards that were apart of the farm and our guide told me a little bit about the vineyards as well as the wine that the farm produces! My horse and I got along great! I was nervous because we didn't really get any instruction before hand about horse riding but my horse was so smart! Sam's on the other hand was....hungry! It was absolutely hilarious, it seemed like every five minutes his horse felt the need to stop for a snack! When we got back to the farm the vespa people hadn't gotten back yet so while we were waiting our guide brought us wine that was made from the grapes in the vineyard that we had just rode through! It was absolutely amazing! When Nicola, Andrea, and Matt came back the five of us went to a castle for lunch! The lunch was absolutely amazing! For the first course we had a meat/cheese/bread plate and then two kinds of pasta and panacotta for dessert! It was amazing! And if the day couldn't get any better after lunch we went to a wine tasting! It was so neat to be able to drink wine that was made right there in Tuscany. During the wine tasting we all tried a shot of Grappa, a particularly strong kind of alcohol....it burned all the way down. The wine tasting ended our day and I was so sad to leave! Tuscany was a fairytale that I never wanted to leave and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!
What a perfect place to end for now! The finale of the trip still to come!
Cheers!
Friday, May 6, 2011
Euro-Trip 2011 Part 1: London and Amsterdam
So I realize that i am the absolute worst blogger ever and that it has been two months since my last post! My only excuse is that it has been a pretty crazy last few months! March and the beginning of April was a whirlwind between my family coming for a visit, classes ending, my big choir concert, Trinity Ball, my friends from the IES General Studies Program leaving, and finally my big two week trip across Europe! My trip (which we lovingly dubbed Euro-Trip 2011) was honestly the most exhausting, but also, the best two weeks of my life. When our departure date, April 16, rolled around I could hardly believe that the time had come for us to go on this huge adventure. Sam, Allie, Mitchell and I had been planning this trip for a month and I could hardly believe it when the time came for us to leave!
Our first stop was a three day trip to London. We left incredibly early on the 16th, but despite that we were all excited when we landed in London. Luckily we were there a week before the Royal Wedding so we didn't have to deal with a madhouse of tourists. The first day we toured both Westminster Abbey and Parliament. Both buildings are were so impressive and it was so neat to learn more about British history! Something out of the ordinary that happened the first day that as we were walking to Parliament we ran into a protest. I have never seen a protest before so I was very intimidating. We couldn't quite figure out what the protest was about but there were hundreds of people marching down the street with signs that said "No Justice, No Peace" There were also people driving in cars and people playing music...it was quite the event! British police officers were there however they did not seem particularly worried about the situation. One officer was even smoking a pipe while walking along the protest!
Day two of our trip we spent the morning walking in the beautiful Hyde Park. It was an absolutely beautiful day and the park was enormous! After our walk through the park we went by Buckinham Palace in hopes of seeing the changing of the guard, but of course with our luck it just so happened on that day they weren't doing the changing of the guard. So even though we didn't get to see the changing of the guard, it is always impressive to see the the building. In the afternoon, Allie and I managed to talk to the boys into going shopping at my favorite shopping spot in London, Covent Gardens. We ended our day with the beautiful St. Paul's Cathedral. That night we decided to wander around Soho, an area of London known for its nightlife!
Our last day in London we spent at the Tower of London. This was the third time I had been to the Tower, but I did not mind at all because the tower is always amazing! Also since my favorite part of history is 16th century European history there isn't a better place to go in London to learn about life during that time period. That night we went out for Indian food and a show (going to the theater was the part of London that I was most excited for!) Allie and Sam went to see Over the Rainbow, a play about Judy Garland (or Julie Garland as Sam thought it was :) And Mitchell and I went to see Billy Elliot! The play was absolutely amazing! I didn't know a whole lot about the play going into it, but I was blown away. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the play it is about a little boy who wants to be a dancer and his father is not supportive of that dream at all. I was amazed by how talented the actor was who played Billy, it is amazing to think that someone so young can already be so talented!
We had another obnoxiously early flight from London to Amsterdam the next morning, but again it didn't really phase me a whole lot because I was so excited to go to Amsterdam. Obviously, my Dutch heritage made me extremely excited to go to the country that my ancestors came from! I absolutely loved Amsterdam! It was such a quaint city, although walking was a little dangerous. There is no differentiation between street, sidewalk, tram tracks...you would be walking along and all of the sudden a stream of bikers would be behind you all sounding their bells trying to get you to move out of the way! The first day in Amsterdam we went to the Anne Frank House and walked through the flower market! The flower market was absolutely amazing! Tulips are my favorite flower so to see a whole block of flowers along the canal was a dream! During our second day in Amsterdam we went to the Van Gogh Museum.. the line was so long that Allie and I went to get a baguette, cheese, and bologna and we had a picnic while standing in line! The museum itself was amazing and all of the paintings there were just beautiful! After the Museum Allie, Sam, and I went and found a cute little restaurant that served poffertjes!! I was sooo excited because poffertjes are my favorite Dutch food so to get to introduce them to it was wonderful! (btw...later that night we also went to mcdonald's because they had stroopwaffle mcfluries....best thing ever!!!) And in the early evening we took a canal tour!
So yes those are the major highlights of the first five days of our Euro-trip! Seeing as how the trip was so long I figured I would break it up into different blog posts! No worries, I will not wait an obnoxious amount of time to write about the next part of the trip!
Cheers!
Our first stop was a three day trip to London. We left incredibly early on the 16th, but despite that we were all excited when we landed in London. Luckily we were there a week before the Royal Wedding so we didn't have to deal with a madhouse of tourists. The first day we toured both Westminster Abbey and Parliament. Both buildings are were so impressive and it was so neat to learn more about British history! Something out of the ordinary that happened the first day that as we were walking to Parliament we ran into a protest. I have never seen a protest before so I was very intimidating. We couldn't quite figure out what the protest was about but there were hundreds of people marching down the street with signs that said "No Justice, No Peace" There were also people driving in cars and people playing music...it was quite the event! British police officers were there however they did not seem particularly worried about the situation. One officer was even smoking a pipe while walking along the protest!
Day two of our trip we spent the morning walking in the beautiful Hyde Park. It was an absolutely beautiful day and the park was enormous! After our walk through the park we went by Buckinham Palace in hopes of seeing the changing of the guard, but of course with our luck it just so happened on that day they weren't doing the changing of the guard. So even though we didn't get to see the changing of the guard, it is always impressive to see the the building. In the afternoon, Allie and I managed to talk to the boys into going shopping at my favorite shopping spot in London, Covent Gardens. We ended our day with the beautiful St. Paul's Cathedral. That night we decided to wander around Soho, an area of London known for its nightlife!
Our last day in London we spent at the Tower of London. This was the third time I had been to the Tower, but I did not mind at all because the tower is always amazing! Also since my favorite part of history is 16th century European history there isn't a better place to go in London to learn about life during that time period. That night we went out for Indian food and a show (going to the theater was the part of London that I was most excited for!) Allie and Sam went to see Over the Rainbow, a play about Judy Garland (or Julie Garland as Sam thought it was :) And Mitchell and I went to see Billy Elliot! The play was absolutely amazing! I didn't know a whole lot about the play going into it, but I was blown away. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the play it is about a little boy who wants to be a dancer and his father is not supportive of that dream at all. I was amazed by how talented the actor was who played Billy, it is amazing to think that someone so young can already be so talented!
We had another obnoxiously early flight from London to Amsterdam the next morning, but again it didn't really phase me a whole lot because I was so excited to go to Amsterdam. Obviously, my Dutch heritage made me extremely excited to go to the country that my ancestors came from! I absolutely loved Amsterdam! It was such a quaint city, although walking was a little dangerous. There is no differentiation between street, sidewalk, tram tracks...you would be walking along and all of the sudden a stream of bikers would be behind you all sounding their bells trying to get you to move out of the way! The first day in Amsterdam we went to the Anne Frank House and walked through the flower market! The flower market was absolutely amazing! Tulips are my favorite flower so to see a whole block of flowers along the canal was a dream! During our second day in Amsterdam we went to the Van Gogh Museum.. the line was so long that Allie and I went to get a baguette, cheese, and bologna and we had a picnic while standing in line! The museum itself was amazing and all of the paintings there were just beautiful! After the Museum Allie, Sam, and I went and found a cute little restaurant that served poffertjes!! I was sooo excited because poffertjes are my favorite Dutch food so to get to introduce them to it was wonderful! (btw...later that night we also went to mcdonald's because they had stroopwaffle mcfluries....best thing ever!!!) And in the early evening we took a canal tour!
So yes those are the major highlights of the first five days of our Euro-trip! Seeing as how the trip was so long I figured I would break it up into different blog posts! No worries, I will not wait an obnoxious amount of time to write about the next part of the trip!
Cheers!
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