Hamsterdayum

Mike, me, Heloise, Alex, Chris, and Ryan on the bus

This past weekend was my second in three consecutive weekend trips in June: Amsterdam! Five friends and I took the overnight bus on Thursday night, got to Amsterdam on Friday morning, then had a long 11-hour bus ride home to look forward to on Monday. While I did like the city, it honestly wasn't my favorite, especially after loving Greece the weekend before (although it's probably my fault for scheduling so much traveling in a row... it's hard to not compare them!) Not to mention that it rained nearly the entire time we were there, while in Greece we had perfect beach weather...

One of our favorite activities was also taste-testing
every cheese store we passed on the streets

Anyways, some of the highlights of the trip were as follows. The first day after checking into Bob's Youth Hostel, we walked (in the pouring rain of course) to the Van Gogh Museum, one of the most popular tourist spots. It was literally full with nearly all of his famous paintings, including the sunflowers and his self portraits. The next day we went to a traditional Dutch pancake house, and I had a delicious, ginormous waffle with bananas and bacon. Even funnier was that the NBA player Andrew Bynum rolled up with some friends and sat at the table right behind us. I didn't know who he was at first, but a giant black man dressed in sweats with an American accent is quite rare for Europe, and I correctly assumed he must be an athlete. The best part was that I overheard one of his friends ask what language the menu was in, and his response, "French!".... Classic American jock, seriously. On Sunday, we went to the house where Anne Frank hid for years before being found, which was super interesting, but also sad and eerie.

After being in Germany where you can literally buy beer everywhere, it was super interesting and strange that you can buy and smoke weed everywhere in Amsterdam. It's a totally different approach than what we grew up with in America and by the ratio of guys to girls in our hostel, you can clearly tell how many come to the city just for that. The second big difference is the amount of prostitution in the city, which I found super creepy and didn't want to be around. Some people say it's fun and part of the "Amsterdam experience", but all I could think of was that those women were most definitely not there by choice, or that it was really their best and only option. Seeing some of the women on their iPhones in the windows made that pretty clear, and I really don't understand how anyone can take enjoyment from it all. This all kind of put a damper on my time in the city, and I got pretty annoyed with one of the guys in my group. Regardless, I did love that the city had canals all through it and that I got to travel and join in on their first hostel-experience with my French friends, Alex and Heloise, who really haven't done that much travelling throughout Europe although they've lived here their entire lives.

Ya sas, Thessaloniki!

Ya sas, which actually is spelled like this Γειά σας, is the only Greek word I managed to pronounce and remember, but I want to try and remember to use it as a greeting regularly! Last Friday, I flew with 4 girlfriends to Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece. I wasn't expecting/planning on getting to go to Greece during my travels, but when we found a 42 euro round trip flight with Ryanair, it was hard to resist! It ended up being one of my cheapest trips yet as well, since the hostel was only 12 euro a night, and restaurants were super cheap as well! Plus museums and historical sites are almost all free for EU students like myself. :) 

My favorite parts of Greece were probably the beach, bakeries, and olives. I've never been the biggest fan of olives, but omg these were amazing, and wayyyy cheaper than any I've ever seen in my life. We got a quarter kilo-bag for only 1 euro-- amazing. The bakeries were also fantastic, and every day there started with a sugar-high off of their chocolate molten cake, mounds of shortbread cookies, baklava dripping with honey, and a delicious Thessaloniki special pastry, like of like a flaky hot pocket filled with vanilla sauce. And lastly, of course the beaches were beautiful and wonderful. We took a bus to Halkidiki, just south of Thessaloniki, on Sunday, packed a picnic, and spent the whole day basking in the sun and in the salty Mediterranean. Even more amazing was that I managed not to get sunburnt after being exposed to some deadly rays. 

Greek Salad! Veggies, eggs, feta, olive oil. Delicious.

The rest of our time was spent sightseeing and eating Greek salad and gyros. We went up in the famous White Tower, saw some ancient artifacts at the Archaeology Museum, and went on a free (minus cocktails) Pirate ship around the harbor. The nightlife there was super alive, and the streets were more crowed at 2am than 2pm. The financial crisis going on was definitely noticeable with the many street beggars and state of the majority of houses, but it seemed similar to the life in Italy, Spain, and Portugal. It was interesting traveling in a big group of girls, with sometimes contrasting opinions, but overall a really nice mini-vacation. I would love to go back someday and visit one of the islands, and stay on the beach absolutely the whole time. 

Ameera, Alex, Tiffany, me, and Kasia

Besucher, Besucherin

Kristi and I in my kitchen, before Top10

Gus and I at Schloss Hohenzollern

Ever since I got back from my nearly two-week vacation, I've had quite a bit of company in my dorm in Tübingen! Kristi was here a couple nights before we took the bus to Munich, then Gus was here for almost a week after we got back from Hamburg, and Margaret and her boyfriend, Tim, were just here for two nights on their mini-Euro vacation. It's been really nice being able to see people from home, and getting to show them around the city I've been living in for the past couple months. It's also cool because I have a chance to see the "touristy" sights around Tübingen that I might not have done otherwise. I took everyone to see the castle in Tübingen, where I have my archeology class, as well as Neckarmüller, the local brewery that has really good schwäbisch food, and one of my favorite bars, Bierkeller, which serves french fries until midnight!

Marge and Tim at Bebenhausen

While Gus was here, we took the quick train over to Schloss Hohenzollern, which was (and still kind of is) the home to the Prussian royal family. Afterwards we stopped and explored the town of Reutlingen, which is only a train stop from Tübingen, but I had never bothered to go before. We also popped into the Stadtmuseum in Tübingen that I had never been into, which had a really cool exhibit about Lotte Reiniger, famous for silhouette films and animation. While Marge was here on one of the first summer days, we walked the 5-6 kilometers to a small village called Bebenhausen, where there is a really old and beautiful monastery.

Besides my visitors, I've been living a pretty normal, college life in Tübingen, similar to in Ann Arbor, minus the crazy studying and hours in the library. This Saturday, I went to a typical brazilian 'June Party', which included a "wedding" where everyone joined in and danced. It was a pretty hilarious experience! In other news, I'm flying to Thessaloniki this Friday with four girlfriends-- yay!!

Pfingstferien Part II: London and Hamburg

We decided to go to London almost on accident, since it was one of the cheapest places for me to fly from Croatia, and also for Gus to fly from Michigan. I was literally only there about 48 hours, but we managed to fit quite a lot in, and it was honestly just fun to be together again after being apart for so long.

In front of the London Eye

The coolest pelican ever in the Royal Gardens

One of the first things we did when I flew in (Gus arrived the day before), after checking in at the hostel and dropping off my bags, was to go find fish and chips at a little pub near our hostel. I've become a sucker for the traditional/typical cuisine, so this was a must for me! It was served with peas, which I usually don't like, but ate for the sake of being English. Afterwards we headed to a concert that Gus really wanted to see at a hip club called Cargo, which ended up being a super fun and non-traditional way to spend our first night. The next day we hit up as many sites as possible including Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey (although we didn't go inside because it cost 18 pounds!), Harrods (the coolest store I've ever seen), Platform 9 3/4 (a must-see for me), and the Victoria and Albert museum, where there is a lot of random but awesome collections, including a cool fashion exhibit which I liked a lot. We took a quick nap since we were exhausted from all of the sightseeing, then went out for Lebanese food, and did our
own little pub crawl in Camden Town.

The touristy picture I made Gus take

The next day was a classic, rainy day in London, but we made the most out of it by having an "English breakfast", going to Buckingham Palace for the "changing of the guards" and then over to Oxford street for a little shopping before we had to head to the bus station to get to the airport. The bus was at least 45 minutes later than it should have, which gave us only 45 minutes to catch our flight, but thankfully we made it in time (after a bit of running) and then had to wait a half hour anyways for the plane to get fuel. We made it to Dortmund almost on time and caught our bus just fine, but of course this bus was also late, causing us to miss our train to the Hauptbahnhof. We took a quick taxi ride and luckily made our 2-hour train from the Hauptbahnhof to Hamburg, with enough time to buy snacks. By the time we got to Hamburg, it was past midnight, so we just found the hostel and went to bed.

The "best currywurst" and a lot of mayo

Our full day in Hamburg was super rainy and cold, and I was unfortunately very unprepared for the weather. We tried to go to the famous Fischmarkt there, only to find that it was only on Sundays, then had a warm lunch before heading to the Jazz concert that we had day passes for. The concert, called Elbjazz, took place on the docks, and we got to ride a boat over to get there. Since we were so cold and it was nice to be out of the rain, we rode the boat back and forth a few times before actually getting off and checking out the concert. We only stayed for a while because the weather was so depressing and the concerts were outdoors, then headed back for a nap. Luckily by the time we woke up, the weather had cleared up slightly and the rain had pretty much stopped! We went to supposedly the best currywurst
restaurant in Germany, then headed to the docks for the concert. They had a TV monitor set up where we got to watch the Champions League final, where Dortmund lost to Bayern, 2-1. Everyone was freaking out in Germany, since it was a huge deal that they beat out all the other Spanish and European teams. Right afterwards, the first concert we wanted to see started, called Caravan Palace. They are a french "electro-swing" band and really put on a great show. Right afterwards, we headed to the main stage to see Aloe Blacc, who also put on an amazing show. He seemed like the coolest guy ever, and even got a soul train going on in the middle of the crowd! Overall, the concert was definitely a cool experience and we thankfully had a little luck that the rain mostly stopped for the performances.

Aloe Blacc (we were so close, I didn't even zoom here!)

The next day, we headed back to the Fischmarkt, then met up with our driver back to Stuttgart. It was the first time I had used Mitfahrgelegenheit (basically a website for carpooling across Germany), but it worked out super well and was much cheaper than the train tickets back to Tübingen! It was a really fun and fast five days and we managed to see a lot, but were both happy to get back to Tübingen where we could relax and just hang out together again, which we've gotten quite good at during the last three years we've been together. :)

Pfingstferien Part I: München, Praha, Croatia

Since I had two visitors over my weeklong break (which turned into almost 2 weeks), it only makes sense to divide it up that way as well. This part could also be called Kristi, since we did all of this traveling together!

Since it was Kristi's first time in Germany, I thought it would be fun for her to see one of the biggest touristy cities, Munich. We took the bus on Thursday morning (only 9 euro!) and got to Munich in the afternoon, slightly exhausted and a little hungover, but we wanted to make the most out of our day there. We checked into the hostel right by the Hauptbahnhof, then headed to Marienplatz for the Glocken (bells) and then to the English Gardens, where we hung out in a Biergarten, right next to the Chinese Tower. Afterwards we took the subway to the Augustiner brewery and had some pretty delicious schnitzel and natürlich beer, all the while amazed that this brewery was founded in 1328-- practically twice as old as the USA! We were pretty exhausted at this point, so headed back to the hostel bar for a drink, then went to bed since our bus left at 7am the next morning.

At the John Lennon Wall

We got to Prague midday Friday and stayed until Monday at the cute little Hostel Elf. After some initial complete confusion with the currency and language, we really had a great time in the city, the farthest east I have been so far in Europe! The currency was pretty hard to get used to since 25 krones is 1 euro, and about 20 krones to $1. Everything was amazingly cheap though, and a traditional Czech meal in a restaurant usually cost only 5 or 6 euro, much cheaper than anything in Germany. Our hostel had happy hour every night as well, where the typically 17 krone beers were only 9 krones! Unbelievable.

Our favorite part of Prague was definitely the bike tour, which ended up being a private tour since we were the only ones that showed up that morning. They were advertising "free bike tours" which naturally made me a little skeptical, but they really were just a couple guys that love biking and like to show tourists the sights of Prague. We did the 2-hour long historical tour and biked all the way up and around the castle, then back into the city. Our tour guide Karel (Carl) was the coolest guy, and afterwards I gave him 500 krones, since we definitely would have paid that much for a much lamer tour anywhere else. Our other daytime activities included the Prague Zoo (the 7th largest in the world), walking around the old town and across the Charles Bridge, where we coincidentally ran into a friend from UM, and climbing up the Czech Eiffel Tower, which is actually as tall as the one in Paris if you include the hill it's on (a joke among the Czechs according to Karel). The first night we met up with Kristi's friend who is studying abroad in Prague, then to this cool underground "Labyrinth" bar. The next two nights we hung out with our German roommates and did a silly pub crawl (with the t-shirts) that Saturday. It was pretty funny to have met so many Germans in Prague, since I live in Germany and honestly don't hang out with too many considering that I live in the international dorm.

View of Prague from the top of the Eiffel Tower

After a fun couple days in Prague, we headed over to Croatia, where Kristi's parents were both born and most of her family still lives. We flew into Split and were taken around the city by her cousin who studies there, then went out for a nice dinner (I had a delicious bowl of seafood gnocchi) before catching the bus to Zadar, where her family's house is. I only got to stay two nights at her place before flying to London to meet Gus, and it rained almost the whole day I was there. Still, it was fun to met her family and have some delicious home-cooked food for a change, and also to hear her speaking Croatian with her family (she's fluent!) since I definitely had never heard it before.

The boardwalk at Split

Kristi was definitely a good traveling partner since we have a lot of the same interests, and also because we were always hungry at the same times! We did quite a bit of traveling (at least 10 hours on a bus and also a plane ride), but also saw quite a bit, and with a couple naps squeezed in, I wasn't exhausted by the time I flew to London. ;)