Off again

Currently, I have an air mattress next to my bed, occupied by my college-friend, Kristi! She just got here yesterday and we explored Stuttgart a bit and went to the super fancy Mercedes Benz museum before heading back to little Tübingen. Tomorrow we are off to Munich, then to Prague on Friday! From Prague, we're going to Croatia and staying with her family for a couple days before I split off and fly to London to meet up with my boyfriend, Gus. Then we are flying back to Germany, going to a Jazz festival in Hamburg and then coming back for the week in Tübingen. *In case you were wondering, next week is Pfingstferien (aka. Pentecost), so I am not even missing any class here!

I'm excited for another big adventure and hopefully some good weather! Auf wiedersehen ;)

Schnitzel and Sachertorte

Yesterday I got back late from my weekend travels to Vienna! My exchange partner from high school, Krissi, lives in Vienna, or Wien which is it's real name, and I knew I wanted to go visit her since I'm only a country away in Deutschland. It was about 7ish hours by train, but do-able and a nice weekend trip even though it went by way too fast!

In the backyard at Schönbrunn

I left Tü early Thursday morning and got to Wien around 3ish and Krissi met me at the bahnhof, the first time we'd seen each other in over three years! She had to go to class that afternoon, but I keep myself occupied walking around the city, eating ice cream and Manner cookies, and taking a ton of pictures. I climbed up the 300-something steps of Stephansdom in the middle of the city and got a nice albeit foggy view of all of Wien. That night we went out to dinner with her boyfriend, Dani, and came home and watched Germany's Next Top Model. ;)

On Friday, Krissi and I met up with another friend Julia, that I met three years ago during Christmas break in Lech, and her boyfriend for breakfast. Unfortunately Julia was going to a wedding later that day, but it was fun to see her again and catch up on each others lives! Afterwards, Krissi and I explored the city a bit more and she showed me her university, which is literally a five minute-walk away from the Opera house! Then we went to Schloss Schönbrunn, the famous "summer house" for the royal families back in the day, including the beloved Empress Sisi. It really was a beautiful castle as the name indicates, and the backyard was ridiculous! That night we went out to pizza with a boy who I also know from Lech and some of his friends. Being all from Austria, they obviously spoke German, but the dialect was seriously hard for me (and Krissi!) to understand.

Schnitzel! <3

On Saturday, we went to a flee market with one of Krissi's girlfriends, then went out for Wiener schnitzel for lunch! It was seriously one of the best meals I've ever had-- it's essentially just thin veal, breaded and deep-fried, and so incredibly delicious! Hopefully I will be able to find it just as good outside of Wien, so I don't have to wait to return to have it again!! After lunch, we went and bought a Sachertorte, a famous Austrian chocolate cake, from THE Hotel Sacher and headed to the Belvedere art museum where Gustav Klimt's most famous collection is kept. The art museum was in yet another beautiful castle, almost overpowering all the artwork inside! That night we went to a handball game between Wien and Bregenz, the town where Dani is from and one of his friends from home played on the team, so we sat on the away side of the arena. It was a little funny for me to watch such a foreign, very European sport since it looked a little like basketball, but also not! It was quite an intense atmosphere and unfortunately Bregenz lost in the final minute...

Krissi and I at Belvedere

It was really great to see Krissi again and other friends from Austria, and also cool because we spoke German the entire weekend, since we've previously spoken a lot of English when we were together! Wien was a really awesome, old city and I totally understand why Krissi chose to study there-- it's big but not too big, and has more interesting things to do than you'd ever need! It was also really cool for me to see since there are sooo many old buildings and interesting things to look at wherever you turn, something we don't get a lot of back in America.

Studentenleben

Granted it is the summer semester here, but everyone is so incredibly relaxed about school compared to back at UM. It's seriously hard for me to imagine being back in Ann Arbor right now and taking finals-- ich würde sterben! I'm loving the casual student life, and simply learning to learn, versus worrying about getting good grades back home. Of the six classes (16 hours) I attend each week, I'm only receiving credit hours for three of them, and even then it only matters that I pass because my grades won't show up on my transcript. So yeah... Classes are pretty stress-free. Swedish is definitely my hardest class and I have to work the hardest at it, but I do have a lot of time on my hands here, and it feels kinda cool to be learning a foreign language in a foreign language. 

My end of the table, with all my French and Italian friends!

While I'm unfortunately not going to be here in the fall for Oktoberfest, the second best festival of the year, Frühlingsfest, is happening right now in München and Stuttgart, which is only an hour by train away! Some friends and I went on Saturday for the day and it was if anything, just like what is shown in the movies. Huge mugs of beer, dancing, singing, and standing on tables in a giant red and white striped tent. I was actually surprised how many Lederhosen and Dirndls were worn though, literally like 75% of everyone there!! I wanted to buy a Dirndl soooooo bad, but at 150 euro, it seemed like a bit of a frivolous purchase for something I would wear once... The cheap train tickets make it very tempting to head back to the festival and I'n definitely planning on visiting it again during the next couple of weeks!

Settling in (again)

I've now officially been living in my little dorm room in Tübingen for a week, and am finally starting to calm down from all the traveling and moving around of the last couple weeks. It feels really nice to be in a college town again and to have more independence than we did during the homestay. My dorm is really in a perfect location right in the Altstadt (old town) and nearly everything is only a couple minutes walk away. My floor only has six people, who I share a kitchen and three bathrooms with. There are two other Americans, one girl from Mexico, another from New Zealand, and one sweet girl from Taiwan. Other than the fact that my scheiße internet isn't working in my dorm room yet, I have no complaints!

My dorm is just a street over from the church in this picture, hence I am woken up every morning at 9:00am to the lovely bells... Right around the block though, there's multiple bakeries, ice cream shops, a discount grocery store, and an H&M... What more could I ever need! It's also good to be in a student town again now that the weather is nice, because there are people out and about everywhere. These steps are a popular spot, as well as the botanical gardens, along the river, and outside of every university building. Yesterday and today have been pretty rainy and gray, but the rest of the week was beautiful and sunny, around 70 degrees each day (Sorry to everyone back in Michigan...). I went to a couple university classes this week, but our German classes that I'll be receiving UM credit for don't start until this coming week. Right now, I think I'm going to take an archaeology class (in German), a class about prison culture in the US (in English obvi), and a Swedish class. The Swedish class will definitely be the hardest since I'm essentially learning two languages at the same time, but since I have a lot of time on my hands here I'm going to try to give it a shot! My best Swedish so far is Jag heter Jen, aka. My name is Jen. ;)

Spring Breaking Part III: Lisbon

Some new friends and I in the main square

I decided to go to Lisbon for a couple days almost on a whim, but was so happy that I did because it really was my favorite city during the trip. It’s not as big as Rome, but still has a lot of cool places to see and things to do. I got in around 5:30 in the morning and since not even the Metro runs that early, hopped in a taxi to get to my hostel. Thankfully they had 24-hour reception, so I was able to check in and sleep for a couple hours before heading out and exploring the city. The first day it was raining when I woke up, so after my free pancakes at the hostel, I went to the aquarium and watched some awesome otters and penguins for a couple hours. Afterwards, the day had turned really beautiful and I took advantage of it by walking along the boardwalk next to the Atlantic Ocean. The next day was also really beautiful, so I went with a couple new friends to the beach. It wasn’t quite perfect beach weather because the wind made it a little cold,

The most delicious pastries ever!

but it was only April so I didn’t even care! I managed to get a sunburn and was honestly happy just because it meant that summer will be here soon! After the beach, everyone else was pretty tired, but I decided to head over to the neighborhood of Belem to try the famous pastry shop and explored along the water. There is a huge bridge in Lisbon that looks almost exactly like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco… Who knew!

Travelling alone was quite an experience, and I learned a lot, both good and bad. It’s kind of a scary feeling to go into a whole new city by yourself, not knowing anyone, but also teaches you to be more outgoing, and that it really isn’t very hard to make new friends if you just be yourself. Lisbon really is an amazing city though, and somewhere I could actually see myself living. Regardless, after two solid weeks of travelling, it is really good to be back in Germany and it feels a lot like home.

The sunset over the Torre de Belem

Spring Breaking Part II: Cordoba and Sevilla

After an exciting and exhausting week in Rome, we hopped on a plane to Sevilla, Spain and I split off from Mike and Ryan to go visit my friend Margaret in Cordoba, only about an hour away from Sevilla. She met me at the train station and it was so nice to see someone from home I was almost in tears! Her parents were there for that week so we went out with them for some really good tapas, strolled around the city, and went to Marge’s favorite little bar “La Bicicleta”, or The Bicycle in English. It was pretty strange being in a city where very few people spoke English, so I was very happy to have Marge around! Obviously I don’t speak Italian either, but since Rome is so touristy, almost everyone spoke English and I didn’t feel as incompetent not knowing the native language as I did in Cordoba.

The first night there both Marge and I stayed in the extra beds in her parents hostel room, but they left the next day so we had to find me a new place to stay. Since Margaret is living with a host family, they were hesitant to host another guest, so I ended up staying with two guys in her program who live in an apartment in the city. I got there right during peak tourist time, so it was nice not to pay the high hostel rates (and save money which I was already blowing through like crazy…).

The cute little streets in Cordoba

After doing so many activities in Rome, I was happy to just relax most of my time in Cordoba, which is exactly what we did. Literally everyday we walked around in the beautiful weather and ate gelato and tapas and drank coffee and canas (little beers). While Marge was in school, I wandered around the winding little streets and visited a couple big tourist sites. The most famous was the giant Mosque, a very old church that has been changed and added to at least three times because of the changing population and takeovers of the city. It was really good to see an old friend and catch up, and also so funny that we are both in Europe at the same time and able to meet up so casually.

Enjoying a cana in the mushroom-thing overlooking Sevilla

I left Marge and Cordoba on a Wednesday in order to head to Sevilla and catch the overnight bus to Lisbon. After getting slightly lost in Sevilla, I met up with a friend from UM who is also studying in Spain and had some really good tapas for lunch. Side note: Spaniards eat on such a strange schedule! They have a big lunch at 3 or 4, then eat dinner around 9 or 10 at night… I suppose it’s not super strange, but took me a little while to get used to! Anyways, after our 4 o’clock lunch, we walked around the city for a while and I saw a lot of the famous buildings in Sevilla. He went off to eat dinner with his host family and I went to this really cool mushroom-looking thing that gave a great view of the entire city before catching the bus to head to Portugal. 

Spring Breaking Part I: Rome and Florence

Ryan, Mike, and I inside the Colosseum

I started out my vacation within a vacation in Italy, which as I expected, was so so so amazing! After a not so graceful, Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality-style fall right when I stepped off the airplane and onto Italian soil, our trip went off with very few additional missteps. I was travelling with Ryan and Mike, two other boys from UM in my program, and we spent 6 nights in Happy Days Hostel, with a solid five days to explore the city. Our hostel was pretty hilarious, and basically the kind of hostel you always hear stories about... We had no room keys, lockers without locks, and always had to get buzzed up (it was on the fifth floor of a random building, just a couple blocks from the Vatican). We were given a sheet and comforter (with no duvet cover) and the pillow was tucked under the sheet since they didn't have enough pillowcases! Oh, and the power (including hot water) was out one morning, lol. Regardless, we had a really fun time there, and were always woken up to hot Italian coffee (basically an espresso shot that you mix a heaping spoonful of sugar into), the workers gave great recommendations for food, transport, and nightlife, and to top it all off, one of the workers made us all pasta for dinner the last night!

My best picture of the Pope riding around
on his chariot through the masses

While in Rome, we tried to hit up all of the touristy must-sees, including the Vatican museums, where

My amazing snipe of the Sistine Chapel...
("No pictures allowed!")

the Sistine Chapel is located, the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain, and the Mouth of Truth. A happy and pretty special coincidence was that we arrived the day before Easter and were able to see the new Pope give Mass in St. Peter's Square on Easter Sunday. There were sooo many people and Catholics from all over the world migrated to the Vatican for Easter. We woke up at 5:30 and went to stand in line along the Vatican walls until they started letting everyone in at 8:00, before waiting until Mass started at 10:15. We were pretty exhausted after the flight and then staying up wandering around the city, but it really was a once in a lifetime experience! All of the other sites were really amazing-- we decided to take a guided tour of the Forum and Colosseum, which was definitely a good choice since we got to hear a ton of stories and history by our Irish tour guide, and without the tour, we would have been looking at rocks with hardly any background info. I really liked going inside the Colosseum, and it honestly felt like I was walking into the original Big House, combined with the Hunger Games... Two of my favorite things! We didn't buy into the "Skip the line!" tours of the Vatican Museums, and while we saved money without doing the tour, we certainly paid for it by having to stand in line for over three hours, in the pouring rain and sometimes hail. On the plus side, the vendors all had a happy day selling their 5 euro umbrellas!

At the top of the Bell Tower in Florence

Since we did have a decent amount of time in Rome, it would have been a crime to not do a little more exploring throughout Italy, so on our fourth day there, we hopped on the express train to Florence! Firenze was a perfect day-trip and really nice city to walk around. We got to see Michelangelo's famous David, but I would love to go back and visit the other art museums there sometime since we didn't have time for them that day slash the boys aren't quite as into art as I am... I maintained my steady diet of two gelato-a-day naturally, since the gelato there was AMAZING! Real Italian food may have just been my favorite part of Italy, and seriously puts Olive Garden and Bravo to shame... I could live on the pasta, gelato, and wine alone and would be a very happy (and overweight) girl.