Checkpoint Charlie
Ah, Berlin. Such a complex city! After our train ride from Munich we were plunked down in yet another German city full of beer, hot dogs, and this time, a deep and dark history. Just being in Berlin gave me a sense of awe as well as perspective for my place and significance in the world. So much has happened in that city it is mind boggling to imagine it.
The first night there we met up with two friends of mine from CBS, Jeff and Chris. We met up with a few additional friends and spent the night wandering around the city, stopping at kiosks for €1 beers and enjoying ourselves. When Rich and I woke up the next morning we realized how tired we were from all our traveling, so we decided to have s day of rest to catch up on sleep, do laundry, and relax. We went out later in the afternoon for a small excursion so we didn’t feel totally worthless for the day, and then met up with my friends once again to roam the city. We met up with a guy who knew the city relatively well, and he took us to some of the more popular areas to have a few beers and hang out. We watch some of our friends get pretty trashed and it was pretty entertaining :)
The next day we went on a waking tour of the city and saw A LOT. There are so many sights, monuments, memorials, cathedrals, and famous buildings it’s crazy! I will post pictures soon. Just a few weeks ago I finished reading a book about the US ambassador in Berlin during the Nazi regime so I had fun picking out the points of reference from my book as well as all my history classes.
Today we left Berlin and returned to Copenhagen. At this point we are exhausted and tired so we did a little last minute souvenir shopping and then headed to my friend Anna’s house for one last goodbye and to pick up my bag which she graciously offered to keep for me! Tomorrow morning we fly back home. At the moment I’m excited, but I also feel a little sadness that I have to leave this beautiful city :(
Side note: although we passed through Switzerland last Friday night, we were hardly in the country for any longer than 20 hours. When we arrived on Friday evening we got to our hostel that was way too far out of town for way too much money, which dampened our spirits. The dollar is extremely weak in Switzerland right now, so when we went to try and find something to eat, it was $20 for a burger meal at McDonalds. When we woke up in the morning we ate our free breakfast (thank goodness!) and booked our train out of Switzerland as quickly as possible. While the country is beautiful, it wasn’t feasible to stay longer.
SO. From Lucerne, Switzerland, we took the train to Munich, Germany! Ah, it was nice to see the rolling green hills and to feel our German heritage. We were excited to be in the land of sausage and beer! We got to our hostel and were instantly impressed - it was easy to find, right next to the central station, cheap, offered a free drink when we checked in, and was close to all the sights. We walked down to the famous Hofbräuhaus and had a few steins of beer and some traditional German food. Afterwards we went to bed, planning on meeting up with Vitus and Florian for breakfast the next day!
It was so nice to have brunch with our old friends! It’s been 5 years since I was last in Munich, and it was like de-ja-vu being together again! I love traveling and being able to visit friends. We had a nice, cheap brunch, then we went to BMW world, saw the Olympic tower, had a few beers, walked through a carnival, did bumper cars, played some carnival games, watched some wakeboarding, sat on a fake beach, and walked around for a while. It was HOT! So we decided it would be a good idea to go a lake that’s by Florian’s house to cool off. This was a great idea and a lot of other Germans seemed to be thinking the same thing because this beautiful lake was pretty packed full of people, but it was still really nice. The water was cold and the weather was still nice even though a storm was coming.
After swimming we were pretty hungry, so Vitus, Rich and I decided to go and have dinner at the oldest brewery in the world, Weihenstephan. Once again, we enjoyed some good beer and good German food. After dinner we hung out with Florian a bit more, as well as his girlfriend and her mom, and then we finally called it a night. Vitus let us stay at his house which was sooo nice!
We had one more breakfast with Vitus yesterday and he drove us around for a bit to show us a few more sights. We saw the Oktoberfest fairgrounds and we’ve vowed to go back for the festival someday. After saying goodbye, Rich and I got on yet another train and headed for Berlin! We’re here now, and I’m sure there will be plenty of stories to tell :)
Being in Strasbourg was really nice, we got to stay in a really nice hotel as well as relax for the day. The city is smaller, so it didn’t take more than a few hours to explore all the major sites at see all the major landmarks. We arrived around 7pm on Thursday night and had to leave at 4pm the next day, but it was enough time to see the sights.
My main thoughts on France:
1. Thought it was rude when we tried to communicate with people. Granted, I’m not fluent in French, but multiple times I was scorned and “poo-pooed” upon for asking if someone spoke English. They would answer, “Je parle France,” and act like I was a piece of poo on their shoe they we just dying to get rid of. Okay. Maybe not SO horrible. But pretty bad.
2. People in France love their cigarettes. You literally cannot eat dinner without being surrounded by plumes of smoke.
3. Despite all that negative stuff, it’s still sooooo romantic somehow :)
Cathedral in Strasbourg, France
WELL. Paris was amazing in so many different ways! We have been busy busy busy, and I supposed I really need to start off by saying that Richard PROPOSED TO ME YESTERDAY!!! After a day of sightseeing and touring around Paris, he popped the question. Of course I said yes, and now I feel like this whole trip is like a dream, it’s almost too good to be true. I’ll tell you more in a second :)
So when we arrived in Paris in the late afternoon on Tuesday, Rich and I navigated our way using the metro to arrive at our hostel in Montmarte. I have visited the area before with my family, and I knew it was world famous for it’s romantic atmosphere, so that was why I picked the area. Once we were all checked in we headed out for an evening of exploring. We walked up to the top of Montmarte and saw Sacré-Cour, a beautiful basilica with views across Paris. We climbed to the top of the basilica dome and took some pictures, and then decided it was time to have dinner Parisian style. We went shopping along all the different street vendors and found the 4 main ingredients: baguette, brie, red wine, and some chicken. Dinner was delicious! After eating we decided to sleep knowing we had a big day ahead of us.
Wednesday we woke up bright and early, had free breakfast at our hostel, and headed to the Louvre to meet up with some friends of mine from Copenhagen (shout out to Sarah and Jen!!) We didn’t have to wait in line too long, and got inside around 10am to start viewing the exhibits. We saw a lot of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art as well as artifacts, and of course we saw the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa. By noon the museum was really packed and we were already getting tired so we all decided to leave and find some lunch. We ended up getting some sandwiches and walking around for a while, finding photo ops and taking pictures. Eventually it was time to say goodbye to Sarah and Jen because Rich and I wanted to ride on Les Cars Rouge, which are double decker buses that drive around the whole city and show you all the major sites. We saw the Trocadéro, the Eiffel Tower, Champ de Mars, Notre-Dame, Orsay, the Opéra, the Champs Elysées-Etoile, and the Grand Palais. It was nice to ride around and enjoy the sites while we rested our feet.
After stopping at a few sights like Notre-Dame and the Eiffel Tower, we decided it was time to head back to our Hostel. We had big plans for another night of wine and baguettes. This time we took our Parisian picnic to the gardens right below Sacré-Cour. We sat for an hour or two and drank our wine, ate our baguette. It was really nice. We had a view of the whole city and the weather was just perfect so we lingered there for a while. When the park closed at 9pm some French policemen ushered everyone out of the park so we walked up the stairs to the roadway that circles the basilica. All of a sudden, standing in the middle of the street, Richard starts telling me how much he loves me, how happy we are together, all that good stuff. I am starting to get a little suspicious at this point, especially when he dances with me for a second and twirls me. Then he got down on his knee and popped the question! We were in front of a crowd of about 50 people who were all sitting on steps above us with a perfect view of what was unfolding in front of them. Everyone started cheering in the background as I told Richard YES and we hugged and kissed and got all mushy mushy in front of everyone. There was even a taxi trying to drive by that paused for our special moment. IT WAS AMAZING. Words can’t really do the whole experience justice, but everyone has been wanting to know what happened so that’s it!
After Rich’s amazing proposal we went to a fancy restaurant on the top of Montmarte and had a little celebratory snack. Then, after a HUGE day, we went back to our hostel for bed. I am the luckiest gal in the world to have been proposed to in the most romantic city in the world by the most amazing man and love of my life. It was really a perfect day.
This morning we got on a train and headed for Strasbourg. We’re here now and our hotel is pretty much the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed in on my own dollar. I don’t have the camera cord for my Nikon so for now I’m just posting fun little pictures from my ipod. I’m sure they’ll suffice!
Love you all!
Left Amsterdam. Currently traveling about 200 mph on a high spee train headed for Paris!
A cute little houseboat along the canal
Goodness. Today was jam packed full of sight-seeing and more exploring! We woke up first thing in the morning determined to have Dutch pancakes for breakfast. After a few wrong turns and a lot of walking we finally found a place that served me a giant pancake with traditional Dutch syrup and sugar - it was delicious. Then we headed to the Van Gogh museum, which we explored for an hour or so. Surprisingly Rich had some appreciation for some of Van Gogh’s pieces, he said he especially liked the “pointalism” paintings. I enjoyed a lot of them as well and it was really cool to see so many famous paintings in person. After Van Gogh, we headed to the Heineken Brewery so we could have the “Heineken Experience.” The tour was actually really fun and we got to learn a lot of history about the beer, the company, and how Heineken is made. There was a lot of interactive games, a movie, and two beers included in the admission price! It was fun to watch Rich get excited about the processes that Heineken goes through to make their beer because he used to brew beer himself. After a few brews we needed a late lunch, so we grabbed some stir fry and headed back to the hotel to eat it and have a quick nap. After napping it was time to go out again! We met up with my friends Sarah and Jen (Sarah is a friend from Copenhagen and Jen is her friend from back home!). We got some ice cream with them and walked around for a bit, and then they walked us over to the Anne Frank House where Rich and I got in line so we could go inside. We waited in line for quite a while and endured a little rain and some pushy people, but it was totally worth it so see the Anne Frank house and see the intense history inside. I’ve actually been there before, but even going a second time it’s just as powerful and moving. It was really great to step inside a piece of such important history. We tried to do something tonight with Sarah and Jen but it’s just too rainy outside! It was literally pouring, but we’re thankful that most of the day was sunny and nice. Since Sarah and Jen are going to Paris tomorrow (just like Rich and I) we decided we’ll meet up again in Paris!
Hello all! This is no longer my Danish adventure, it’s my European adventure!! Richard and I arrived in Amsterdam today after a HELLISH train ride that lasted from 5:20pm on Saturday afternoon until 10:30am this morning. We had to sleep in a room with 4 other people in bunk beds and it was pretty rough. We were paired with two young Danish boys who were actually really cool to talk to and quite interesting, as well as a mother and her son from Russia/Sweden. Of course, after about 8 hours of traveling together in a small compartment we got really sick of a few people! We were really thankful to get off the train and step off at Amsterdam Central Station this morning!
We found our hotel with hardly any trouble, and it’s a great place! Nice, clean, and about a 5 minute walk from Dam Square. Today Rich and I decided not to make plans and to just walk around and explore the city to get our bearings. We found Dam Square because it’s so close, and from there walked along the canals, ate french fries, stolled through the red light district, drank a few beers, and just soaked it all in. So far Rich really seems to be enjoying himself (minus the train ride) and I am as well.
After a little nap in the afternoon, Rich and I headed out again for a little more exploring. We walked to the Jordaan district, which is actually a World Heritage Site known for it’s quaint architecture and small, tree filled streets. It was really lovely. We found a great looking Italian restaurant while we were walking around so we got a table and had a great meal. The chef was shouting and singing in Italian the whole time, and our waitress was Sardinian. The food was phenomenal :) After dinner we walked around and had a few more beers while walking through the red light district, bombarded by nearly-naked women on every corner! Such a crazy and fun experience.
Tomorrow we are planning on meeting up with a few friends from Copenhagen who are also in the city to see some of the touristy stuff!!
