Well as most all of you know by now there is a volcanic ash cloud from a volcano in Iceland that has ground all air traffic to and from Europe. Things have started to open back up (April 19), but our original flight on Saturday was canceled and we are able to get on a flight that heads back to the states on Wednesday.... so we are stuck in Brig.
Today is my 21st birthday, and it wasn't anything like I imagined it would be like - turning 21 in Europe is not really anything special. The people here made it much better by being there for both Lauren and I in our time of homelessness and allowed us to crash in their rooms - and then at midnight Anjida and Diane played Happy Birthday for me while we were in the bar and Rafn, the bartender, gave me my first shot I believe it was an "orgasm". Then two of my German friends, Philipp and Tobey, came down and bought me a beer... We closed down the bar - at like 12:30 am haha and we then all headed up to the lobby and talked until 4 in the morning. It seemed a little more like a birthday, but was none the less what I originally wanted. Had I known that my birthday was to be spent in Switzerland is one thing, but the fact that plans had be already made back home. It was a bummer, but no ones fault so you do what you can.
Flight is scheduled for Wednesday - hope all goes well!
picture dilemma - someone stole my camera a few nights ago and has yet to return it, until then I'm sorry but I have no pictures to show as for my travels... you'll just have to take my word for it. As bummed out about it that everyone probably is, try to imagine my life right now - those pictures ARE my life
Monday, April 19, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Vienna, Austria
After an amazing time in Prague, we headed out on our next adventure to Vienna, Austria. We had such a good and positive experience in our hostel in Munich that we again chose to stay at another Wombats hostel. And since we had stayed with them previously while we were in Munich, they gave us each a free meal. After settling in we walked around town to the museums quartier and to the palace that was there as well. Our hostel was in a great location, if you love shopping, and it was on one of the longest shopping strips in either Austria or Europe.... not sure which one.We then decided to have kebabs again for dinner and the guy working there, Memet, was younger and from Turkey and was excited to be talking to two American girls; we each got a photo with him as well. We then headed back to the hostel and chilled for the rest of the day.
The following day we met up with Sydney, who went to UCCR with us, and walked around town before meeting up with some of her family. Hannah - her cousin - gave us all a tour and took us out to a local coffee shop where we had lattes and apple strudel which were absolutely amazing!We then met up with Hannah's uncle and he walked around with us a bit as well pointing out various things here and there and it was a lot of fun having our own personal tour guides that were able to talk us around and fill in various facts about history as well.
The following day we met up with Sydney, who went to UCCR with us, and walked around town before meeting up with some of her family. Hannah - her cousin - gave us all a tour and took us out to a local coffee shop where we had lattes and apple strudel which were absolutely amazing!We then met up with Hannah's uncle and he walked around with us a bit as well pointing out various things here and there and it was a lot of fun having our own personal tour guides that were able to talk us around and fill in various facts about history as well.
Prague, Czech Republic
The train ride to Prague wasn't all that long... just the crew that we ended up sharing out train car with was ridiculous! There was Lauren and I sharing our train car with 3 boys (roughly 15-16 years old) that continuously stuffed their faces with candy, and soda, and even took smoke breaks! This is what shocked us the most, definitely not something that you would typically see in the states... I think that their group had about 15 or so boys heading to Prague for 4-5 days and just hanging out with their mentors... or something along that line.
When we first arrived in Prague we trekked out to the hostel only to be told that we were staying at their sister hostel right next to Prague Square and the astronomical clock. We then continued to the new hostel, checked in and took off to explore the city. We both immediately fell in love with Prague, it is gorgeous and we had a blast walking around and being able to experience the culture. Here they were preparing for Easter and had so many various Easter festivities taking place that the square was packed with people, traditional food, and even some live entertainment. For dinner, we stopped at one of the booths and got ourselves each a kiolbasa sausage with mustard in a bun for only 50 kc (which would be equivalent to I think $2.50). We also went and did some shopping around at the various shops and major mall that they had... it made each of us wish that we had large suitcases and tons of money to be able to fill up on all the various things that we wanted to buy.
The next day we started off by making our way to the St. Charles Bridge where we walked across and into town to make our way to the Prague Castle.. We ended up climbing a huge staircase to get to the top of the hill where the castle was situated.. it had some amazing views of the city! The line to enter into the castle was ridiculously long so we bypassed that and decided to head back down the hill to grab some bagel sandwiches from a shop that we had passed earlier. We each ordered a chicken caesar sandwich and it was amazing! We then headed back to the hostel, grabbed our books and journals and headed to the park where we layed out and read/wrote for a while before we both started to get hungry. We then went back again to the hostel adn asked where we would be able to go to get a good traditional meal that wasn't too expensive.. it ended up being only 150kc per person for each of us to get a slice of chicken, pork and steak with french fries, also a side of dumplings and a coca-cola. We honestly couldn't have asked for a better meal, or way, to end our time in Prague.
When we first arrived in Prague we trekked out to the hostel only to be told that we were staying at their sister hostel right next to Prague Square and the astronomical clock. We then continued to the new hostel, checked in and took off to explore the city. We both immediately fell in love with Prague, it is gorgeous and we had a blast walking around and being able to experience the culture. Here they were preparing for Easter and had so many various Easter festivities taking place that the square was packed with people, traditional food, and even some live entertainment. For dinner, we stopped at one of the booths and got ourselves each a kiolbasa sausage with mustard in a bun for only 50 kc (which would be equivalent to I think $2.50). We also went and did some shopping around at the various shops and major mall that they had... it made each of us wish that we had large suitcases and tons of money to be able to fill up on all the various things that we wanted to buy.
The next day we started off by making our way to the St. Charles Bridge where we walked across and into town to make our way to the Prague Castle.. We ended up climbing a huge staircase to get to the top of the hill where the castle was situated.. it had some amazing views of the city! The line to enter into the castle was ridiculously long so we bypassed that and decided to head back down the hill to grab some bagel sandwiches from a shop that we had passed earlier. We each ordered a chicken caesar sandwich and it was amazing! We then headed back to the hostel, grabbed our books and journals and headed to the park where we layed out and read/wrote for a while before we both started to get hungry. We then went back again to the hostel adn asked where we would be able to go to get a good traditional meal that wasn't too expensive.. it ended up being only 150kc per person for each of us to get a slice of chicken, pork and steak with french fries, also a side of dumplings and a coca-cola. We honestly couldn't have asked for a better meal, or way, to end our time in Prague.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Munich, Germany
To start off our trip our first location was Munich, Germany. We stayed in Wombat's hostel, which was extremely nice with lockers, a bar downstairs, a lounging room and a bunch of other cool things. The first day that we arrived, we ended up walking over to Marienplatz and looking around; this was a lot of fun and packed full of people. After walking around a bit there we headed to the englisch gardens to walk around... gorgeous! There was also a lot of people out walking their dogs which definitely made me miss mine a bunch!After walking around we hopped on the metro and rode it up to the Olympic park is for the 1972 olympics... this was pretty cool to see and we also went into a BMW museum. Tons of gorgeous cars! I wanted to take one home myself. After that we decided to head to the Hofbrauhaus where of course I had to take part and order myself one of the 1 liter steins. Lauren and I both got these amazing, and huge, pretzels and we hung out there for an hour and a half or so while I drank my beer. Now no night would be complete with gelato, so we stopped at the small stand just outside the Hofbrauhauas and ordered us some gelato for the walk back to our hostel.
The following day we woke up early and started by heading back out to Marienplatz to watch the clocktower in the square do a "show" with the characters spinning and dancing while the clock tower played music. After that we headed to Dachau, the concentration camp just outside of Munich. We spent a large portion of the day wandering around and reading all of the historic facts about what took place here. I was actually surprised to see that while they did do some killings there, it wasn't nearly as many as compared to the other camps and the primary focus of this camp was for work. I also found it interesting that those kept in the camp could be hired out as workers to some companies, and one of these companies was actually BMW. After walking around there for the better portion of the day we headed back to the hostel, found a kebab shop and had dinner. We continued with relaxing and prepared our stuff together to catch the train to Prague, Czech Republic the next morning.
The following day we woke up early and started by heading back out to Marienplatz to watch the clocktower in the square do a "show" with the characters spinning and dancing while the clock tower played music. After that we headed to Dachau, the concentration camp just outside of Munich. We spent a large portion of the day wandering around and reading all of the historic facts about what took place here. I was actually surprised to see that while they did do some killings there, it wasn't nearly as many as compared to the other camps and the primary focus of this camp was for work. I also found it interesting that those kept in the camp could be hired out as workers to some companies, and one of these companies was actually BMW. After walking around there for the better portion of the day we headed back to the hostel, found a kebab shop and had dinner. We continued with relaxing and prepared our stuff together to catch the train to Prague, Czech Republic the next morning.
Eli's 21st and last week(ish) in brig
The last week that we were in Brig before taking off on our adventure to travel Europe, Eli, one of the Americans was turning 21 and we all planned to have one last barbeque together and Katie and I made two cakes from scratch. I made a cinnamon vanilla cake and Katie did a vanilla cake with lemon zest. Let me just say that those cakes were AMAZING and absolutely delicious. Then to top that off Margy and Lindsay made an icing to frost the two cakes. The guys were in charge of the burgers and what not and we had plates and plates full of food and burgers, chips, and TONS of alcohol. I went with Katie to the store and we bought a case of Prosecco (6 bottles) and 3 bottles of Maui wine (DELICIOUS). We then all sat down and ate an entire feast until we couldn't fit anything more into our mouths... all the food we had which originally wasn't going to be enough ended up being too much to going to become the perfect amount.
The rest of the night we celebrated Eli's birthday starting in Laura's room before heading down to Chaos and allowing Eli to enter in at midnight. We all then went for sandwiches when the shop opened at 4 am before we headed back and went to bed.
The rest of the night we celebrated Eli's birthday starting in Laura's room before heading down to Chaos and allowing Eli to enter in at midnight. We all then went for sandwiches when the shop opened at 4 am before we headed back and went to bed.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Lausanne for Diane's Birthday... and our train home at 6:20 AM!
Saturday Feb. 20, 2010
One of the girls that I've met while I've been here, Diane, is from El Salvador and was going to Lausanne to celebrate her 20th birthday and invited some of us to come along as well. Sydney and I agreed to go with them as long as we would be able to catch the last train home at 10:25 pm to Brig. To start off we went for an amazing dinner at a very traditional swiss restaurant and order raclette. This was one of the best meals that I have had since I've been here. It primarily consists of cheese that you mix with onions, pickles, meats, etc. and you end up devouring it! I think I had 4 plates of this... as well as the white wine. As mentioned before in one of my blogs you need to drink white wine with most of these foods heavy with cheese as it helps the digestion and doesn't leave you filling as bad a little later on haha. Well with everyone there let me just say that we didn't end up finishing our meal there until 10:15 pm; Sydney and I ran to the taxi cab as everyone is trying to convince us to say... well we wouldn't have made the train in time so we stayed there with everyone and had an all night party in Lausanne with everyone. We started by going to a beer bar (of course I got carded at every place haha) and ordered one drink before we headed out to the location where they would party almost every night. We ended up getting two bottles of vodka and 12 cans of red bull for only $50(ish)! It helps when you have connections! We polished those off pretty quickly and made our way up to the bar where we had shots after shots! It was a really good night and I think that Diane had an amazing time for her birthday. After we closed down the bar at 5:00 ish we made our way to a pizza parlor to order pizza and wait for the first train to come at 6:20 am.... We ate pizza and had our fill before we made the way back to the train station... Here we hopped on and passed out... I ended up waking up as we pulled into Brig at around 7:45 AM, woke everyone else up and wandered back to the dorms where we slept for a good portion of the rest of sunday!
Definitely a night I won't be forgetting anytime soon!
One of the girls that I've met while I've been here, Diane, is from El Salvador and was going to Lausanne to celebrate her 20th birthday and invited some of us to come along as well. Sydney and I agreed to go with them as long as we would be able to catch the last train home at 10:25 pm to Brig. To start off we went for an amazing dinner at a very traditional swiss restaurant and order raclette. This was one of the best meals that I have had since I've been here. It primarily consists of cheese that you mix with onions, pickles, meats, etc. and you end up devouring it! I think I had 4 plates of this... as well as the white wine. As mentioned before in one of my blogs you need to drink white wine with most of these foods heavy with cheese as it helps the digestion and doesn't leave you filling as bad a little later on haha. Well with everyone there let me just say that we didn't end up finishing our meal there until 10:15 pm; Sydney and I ran to the taxi cab as everyone is trying to convince us to say... well we wouldn't have made the train in time so we stayed there with everyone and had an all night party in Lausanne with everyone. We started by going to a beer bar (of course I got carded at every place haha) and ordered one drink before we headed out to the location where they would party almost every night. We ended up getting two bottles of vodka and 12 cans of red bull for only $50(ish)! It helps when you have connections! We polished those off pretty quickly and made our way up to the bar where we had shots after shots! It was a really good night and I think that Diane had an amazing time for her birthday. After we closed down the bar at 5:00 ish we made our way to a pizza parlor to order pizza and wait for the first train to come at 6:20 am.... We ate pizza and had our fill before we made the way back to the train station... Here we hopped on and passed out... I ended up waking up as we pulled into Brig at around 7:45 AM, woke everyone else up and wandered back to the dorms where we slept for a good portion of the rest of sunday!
Definitely a night I won't be forgetting anytime soon!
Midterms, Fondue Dinner, and Wine.... lots of wine!
Thursday Feb. 18,2010
We had finished with a long week of midterms and the entire group of WSU students signed up for a fondue dinner that the school was putting on as part of their "service class" that all students are required to take. This class consists of serving fine dining meals (or other various types) to the students to allow for practice of english, family, traditional, etc. service styles to gain experience.
Part of the cafeteria was decorated with swiss flags and fun balloons. The great part was the free wine we had with dinner. Our server was trying to get us drunk; there was one time that he even started to fill my glass as I picked it up to take a drink; all of a sudden he was pouring, we all started laughing so hard as it took me by surprise. This is also part of the European culture that the glass never falls below half way. Such a different mindset from the US.
By the time we made it back to the dorms, each of us were very well intoxicated both with good food and white wine. We then made our way down to CHAOS, our student bar, to enjoy the rest of the night in good company. I'm going to miss everyone here more than words can explain... hopefully one day I will be able to make it back!
We had finished with a long week of midterms and the entire group of WSU students signed up for a fondue dinner that the school was putting on as part of their "service class" that all students are required to take. This class consists of serving fine dining meals (or other various types) to the students to allow for practice of english, family, traditional, etc. service styles to gain experience.
Part of the cafeteria was decorated with swiss flags and fun balloons. The great part was the free wine we had with dinner. Our server was trying to get us drunk; there was one time that he even started to fill my glass as I picked it up to take a drink; all of a sudden he was pouring, we all started laughing so hard as it took me by surprise. This is also part of the European culture that the glass never falls below half way. Such a different mindset from the US.
By the time we made it back to the dorms, each of us were very well intoxicated both with good food and white wine. We then made our way down to CHAOS, our student bar, to enjoy the rest of the night in good company. I'm going to miss everyone here more than words can explain... hopefully one day I will be able to make it back!
A Swiss Valentine's Day
Of course my "favorite" holiday is one that I will never be able to run from... Valentine's Day always seems to find me! haha. Don't know why it is my least favorite holiday, but one that I have never seemed to enjoy.
Of course being the only one who wouldn't mind skipping over the day and pretending like it never existed we ended up doing a pizza dinner with our professor. He bought us beer, coca cola, and waters and we ended up providing pizza, pasta, and salad. It was overall a good holiday and I guess it was "decent" for the time being... but I still wouldn't have minded skipping it all together....
Monday Feb. 15, 2010
I received a package from my girls back home.... Britt and Alice! They sent me a care package with an issue of Cosmopolitan (THANK YOU ALICE!!!!) some mac and cheese, a singing rose and a heart with my name on it (Thank you Brittani!!) Also, they sent me a mini photo album with pictures of me and my girls from back home... it made me smile and hasn't left the side of my bed yet. Miss you all and can't wait to see you soon!
Speaking of presents... Lauren sent me a calendar that she put together with pictures from her and my adventures! Vegas, Kansas, Arizona... my oh my we get around! As well as full of good times in Pullman, Vancouver, Chelan, etc. This calendar has been hanging on my wall since I got it (in January sometime) and makes me smile at the little notes she has put in there.... i.e. "You've been gone one month now... Skype me!"
Of course being the only one who wouldn't mind skipping over the day and pretending like it never existed we ended up doing a pizza dinner with our professor. He bought us beer, coca cola, and waters and we ended up providing pizza, pasta, and salad. It was overall a good holiday and I guess it was "decent" for the time being... but I still wouldn't have minded skipping it all together....
Monday Feb. 15, 2010
I received a package from my girls back home.... Britt and Alice! They sent me a care package with an issue of Cosmopolitan (THANK YOU ALICE!!!!) some mac and cheese, a singing rose and a heart with my name on it (Thank you Brittani!!) Also, they sent me a mini photo album with pictures of me and my girls from back home... it made me smile and hasn't left the side of my bed yet. Miss you all and can't wait to see you soon!
Speaking of presents... Lauren sent me a calendar that she put together with pictures from her and my adventures! Vegas, Kansas, Arizona... my oh my we get around! As well as full of good times in Pullman, Vancouver, Chelan, etc. This calendar has been hanging on my wall since I got it (in January sometime) and makes me smile at the little notes she has put in there.... i.e. "You've been gone one month now... Skype me!"
Lincoln's Birthday, WTO, WIPO and Global Capitalism in Geneva
Feb. 12, 2010
We headed to Geneva for the day as part of a field trip for our Global Capitalism class. Probably one of the hardest classes I have ever taken in my life, but I have learned more from George Cocker in these past few months about the EU, their law, and global capitalism in general than I could have ever imagined.
We started out by going to WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) and listened to two speakers talk about what they do as well as the company itself. It was rather interesting, but everyone was so exhausted from having to catch an early train that people began to fall asleep. We had to show our passports to be able to get a badge which were all numbered and we weren't even allowed to take pictures inside.
After this, we then headed to lunch... we of course chose the local kebab shop and 10 of us sat down and had a feast of kebabs! They were sooo amazing... We then, being the Americans that we are, headed to Starbucks to fulfill our cravings of "american" coffee as there are no Starbucks in Brig - only Geneva and Zurich (each 2 hours away)
Following lunch we all met back up at the train station and headed off to the WTO (World Trade Organization) which was really interesting as this is the only location for the WTO. I had no idea. They took our passports and kept them in security as we entered in (with an escort) and were shuffled into a room. I ended up having a seat at the head of the table and the guy giving us the presentation ended up sitting next to me.... a little nerve racking, especially since the room was warm and stuffy and we were all content form lunch and of course still tired from the morning session (no time for naps! haha) I was determined to stay awake, not only to be nice but I was sitting right next to him! My ways of staying awake revolved around watching to see who was falling asleep and drinking water. I ended up shuffling around a bit and reading the packet of information they gave us to make my mind focus on something... needless to stay I stayed awake! hahah
We all then boarded the train and headed back to Brig. I think that everyone ended up passing out on the train as we were all exhausted. It was a good day overall and we all learned quite a bit.
We headed to Geneva for the day as part of a field trip for our Global Capitalism class. Probably one of the hardest classes I have ever taken in my life, but I have learned more from George Cocker in these past few months about the EU, their law, and global capitalism in general than I could have ever imagined.
We started out by going to WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) and listened to two speakers talk about what they do as well as the company itself. It was rather interesting, but everyone was so exhausted from having to catch an early train that people began to fall asleep. We had to show our passports to be able to get a badge which were all numbered and we weren't even allowed to take pictures inside.
After this, we then headed to lunch... we of course chose the local kebab shop and 10 of us sat down and had a feast of kebabs! They were sooo amazing... We then, being the Americans that we are, headed to Starbucks to fulfill our cravings of "american" coffee as there are no Starbucks in Brig - only Geneva and Zurich (each 2 hours away)
Following lunch we all met back up at the train station and headed off to the WTO (World Trade Organization) which was really interesting as this is the only location for the WTO. I had no idea. They took our passports and kept them in security as we entered in (with an escort) and were shuffled into a room. I ended up having a seat at the head of the table and the guy giving us the presentation ended up sitting next to me.... a little nerve racking, especially since the room was warm and stuffy and we were all content form lunch and of course still tired from the morning session (no time for naps! haha) I was determined to stay awake, not only to be nice but I was sitting right next to him! My ways of staying awake revolved around watching to see who was falling asleep and drinking water. I ended up shuffling around a bit and reading the packet of information they gave us to make my mind focus on something... needless to stay I stayed awake! hahah
We all then boarded the train and headed back to Brig. I think that everyone ended up passing out on the train as we were all exhausted. It was a good day overall and we all learned quite a bit.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Carnivale Di Venezia 2010
Venice, Italy - Carnival
After getting in trouble from just about everyone, I figured I should probably come and update my blog with what I have been doing recently. A few weeks ago.....Feb. 5th-Feb. 7th.... a group of us WSU students decided to go to Venice for the kick off of Carnival. Carnival starts aroun
d two weeks before Ash Wednesday and ends on Shrove Tuesday (aka Fat>Tuesday/Mardi Gras), the day before Ash Wednesday; and from my understanding it's a two week period where people are able to do whatever they wish, celebrate excessively, and indulge on food,etc. before Lent comes and they need to give up something. Also, for Carnival everyone typically wears masks, costumes, and crazy outfits in celebration. Hope that the small amount of background information I provided was good enough to know some of the reasoning for partaking in this event.
Friday Feb. 5th
One of our professors kindly allowed us (three WSU students) to leave early so that we would be able to catch our train that would have otherwise left 6 min. before class finished and we would have then had to wait another hour for a train and get into Venice 2.5 hours later than the earlier train that left at 2:44. We all packed up our gear, and headed back to the dorms to change out of our suits and put on some comfortable clothes for the train ride. Our entire group (besides 2 that didn't have classes and left at 9:44am) and started the journey. We first arrived into Milan and had an hour to spare there, the time passed fairly quickly and we tried to stay out of the way of pick-pocketers. We then got on our second train that was heading from Milan to Venice. We then arrived in Venice around
8:15 (ten min. late - typical for Italian trains). The two girls that had arrived in the early afternoon were supposed to meet us at the train station, but through a miscommunication on both sides they never showed. We pulled out our rain jackets and entered out into Venice - with all the rain they had been getting locals figured that should the rain keep up that the canals would flood for the entire weekend, luckily this didn't happen! The streets were flooding (minimally) and the rain poured the entire night. We finally happened to make it to our hostel - the Venice Fish expecting to find the other two members in our group, but instead of finding them we discover that the hostel has been overbooked and we are to be moved to their other hostel - The Museum - which was a 20 min. walk from where we were. None of us had eaten by that point as we figured we would make it to the hostel right as dinner was starting, they said they would throw on some extra pasta for us before they take us to the other hostel. We ate some pasta and then entered back out into the rain to make our trek to our new hostel. The city, even though it was pouring down rain, was absolutely gorgeous and to be able to experience a city like that lit up at night is indescribable. We finally make it to our new hostel after winding through
streets and then a random alley way before making it to the front door and being buzzed in. We enter to see that the other two girls are not here (physically), but all of their stuff still is, that was at least a relief. After hanging around for a while we came to figure that they got tired of waiting and went out to experience Venice and the night-life. We opted to do the same thing. We wandered around with some of the other people in our hostel (from Florence, Italy) and went out to the bars. It was a lot of fun, and we then ran into the two other members in our group that we thought we had lost! Such a relief. We then headed back to the hostel after hitting up a few of the outside bars.
Saturday Feb. 6, 2010
Today was the kick-off of Carnivale here in Venice! When we woke up the sky was overcast, but for the most part the weather was much better than the night before! Anything would be better than the night before and we didn't have to worry about the canals flooding anymore which was also a relief to all of us. We started out with breakfast at the hostel - which consisted of jam, nutella and toast. Sounds like a real winner huh?
We talked to one of the girls who was supposed to be holding on to the train ticket that help everyone's for the ride home. Ends up she didn't have the ticket anymore and we made our way to the train station where we bought all new tickets to be able to make it back to Brig the next day. Nothing any of us wanted to pay for and have an extra expense placed on our account, but it could have been worse right?
After that we headed out to the shops and bought masks for the evening and random souvenirs here and there. We mostly spent the entire day wandering the streets and canals of Venice taking in everything. It is easily one of the prettiest places I have ever seen and it was an experience to be there during one of their largest celebrations. We stopped at a local kebab/pizza parlor and got kebabs and pizza for lunch - YUMMM and then headed back out into the city before heading back to the hostel to get ready for the night.
At night we all got dressed up and put on our masks before heading out into San Marco Square to celebrate the kick-off of Carnivale! We danced, drank, and partied the entire night... Couldn't have imagined anything better. Then next morning we all got up showered, ate our lovely toast jam and nutella breakfast before we headed back out into the madness.
Sunday Feb. 7, 2010
We entered back out into San Marco Square and the streets of Venice to discover everything was more packed now than yesterday when we thought it was already overwhelming with the amounts of people that were there. You were unable to move through the square as people were shoulder to shoulder (didn't help that we had our backpacks as well). We wandered around, did shopping here and there and grabbed some more kebabs for lunch. These are my new favorite thing! I'm in LOVE!
It was relaxed for the most part the rest of the day trying to weave in and out of crowds. We grabbed some gellato ice cream on the way back to the train station before we headed back to Brig.
After getting in trouble from just about everyone, I figured I should probably come and update my blog with what I have been doing recently. A few weeks ago.....Feb. 5th-Feb. 7th.... a group of us WSU students decided to go to Venice for the kick off of Carnival. Carnival starts aroun
d two weeks before Ash Wednesday and ends on Shrove Tuesday (aka Fat>Tuesday/Mardi Gras), the day before Ash Wednesday; and from my understanding it's a two week period where people are able to do whatever they wish, celebrate excessively, and indulge on food,etc. before Lent comes and they need to give up something. Also, for Carnival everyone typically wears masks, costumes, and crazy outfits in celebration. Hope that the small amount of background information I provided was good enough to know some of the reasoning for partaking in this event.
Friday Feb. 5th
One of our professors kindly allowed us (three WSU students) to leave early so that we would be able to catch our train that would have otherwise left 6 min. before class finished and we would have then had to wait another hour for a train and get into Venice 2.5 hours later than the earlier train that left at 2:44. We all packed up our gear, and headed back to the dorms to change out of our suits and put on some comfortable clothes for the train ride. Our entire group (besides 2 that didn't have classes and left at 9:44am) and started the journey. We first arrived into Milan and had an hour to spare there, the time passed fairly quickly and we tried to stay out of the way of pick-pocketers. We then got on our second train that was heading from Milan to Venice. We then arrived in Venice around
8:15 (ten min. late - typical for Italian trains). The two girls that had arrived in the early afternoon were supposed to meet us at the train station, but through a miscommunication on both sides they never showed. We pulled out our rain jackets and entered out into Venice - with all the rain they had been getting locals figured that should the rain keep up that the canals would flood for the entire weekend, luckily this didn't happen! The streets were flooding (minimally) and the rain poured the entire night. We finally happened to make it to our hostel - the Venice Fish expecting to find the other two members in our group, but instead of finding them we discover that the hostel has been overbooked and we are to be moved to their other hostel - The Museum - which was a 20 min. walk from where we were. None of us had eaten by that point as we figured we would make it to the hostel right as dinner was starting, they said they would throw on some extra pasta for us before they take us to the other hostel. We ate some pasta and then entered back out into the rain to make our trek to our new hostel. The city, even though it was pouring down rain, was absolutely gorgeous and to be able to experience a city like that lit up at night is indescribable. We finally make it to our new hostel after winding through
streets and then a random alley way before making it to the front door and being buzzed in. We enter to see that the other two girls are not here (physically), but all of their stuff still is, that was at least a relief. After hanging around for a while we came to figure that they got tired of waiting and went out to experience Venice and the night-life. We opted to do the same thing. We wandered around with some of the other people in our hostel (from Florence, Italy) and went out to the bars. It was a lot of fun, and we then ran into the two other members in our group that we thought we had lost! Such a relief. We then headed back to the hostel after hitting up a few of the outside bars.
Saturday Feb. 6, 2010
Today was the kick-off of Carnivale here in Venice! When we woke up the sky was overcast, but for the most part the weather was much better than the night before! Anything would be better than the night before and we didn't have to worry about the canals flooding anymore which was also a relief to all of us. We started out with breakfast at the hostel - which consisted of jam, nutella and toast. Sounds like a real winner huh?
We talked to one of the girls who was supposed to be holding on to the train ticket that help everyone's for the ride home. Ends up she didn't have the ticket anymore and we made our way to the train station where we bought all new tickets to be able to make it back to Brig the next day. Nothing any of us wanted to pay for and have an extra expense placed on our account, but it could have been worse right?
After that we headed out to the shops and bought masks for the evening and random souvenirs here and there. We mostly spent the entire day wandering the streets and canals of Venice taking in everything. It is easily one of the prettiest places I have ever seen and it was an experience to be there during one of their largest celebrations. We stopped at a local kebab/pizza parlor and got kebabs and pizza for lunch - YUMMM and then headed back out into the city before heading back to the hostel to get ready for the night.
At night we all got dressed up and put on our masks before heading out into San Marco Square to celebrate the kick-off of Carnivale! We danced, drank, and partied the entire night... Couldn't have imagined anything better. Then next morning we all got up showered, ate our lovely toast jam and nutella breakfast before we headed back out into the madness.
Sunday Feb. 7, 2010
We entered back out into San Marco Square and the streets of Venice to discover everything was more packed now than yesterday when we thought it was already overwhelming with the amounts of people that were there. You were unable to move through the square as people were shoulder to shoulder (didn't help that we had our backpacks as well). We wandered around, did shopping here and there and grabbed some more kebabs for lunch. These are my new favorite thing! I'm in LOVE!
It was relaxed for the most part the rest of the day trying to weave in and out of crowds. We grabbed some gellato ice cream on the way back to the train station before we headed back to Brig.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
One Month!
I'm sorry everyone to have kept you waiting for another entry! I know it's been just over a month since I have written anything so tonight (maybe tomorrow) I will have updates! No worries you will have stories of Carnival in Venice, Italy as well as Carnival last weekend in Brig. Updates of travel plans for when I finish with school. They WILL come soon! I promise!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Milan, Italy
Milano! Milan was a ton of fun! I went into Milan with three other girls and took off on an adventure to explore the city not really having any goals in mind... just fun! We started out catching 
the 7:45 am train into Milano leaving from Brig. It was only about two hour train ride and absolutely gorgeous. We drove through the mountains and then next to a lake as well; being that early in the morning and the sun rising the tops of all the mountains were a fiery red!
When we arrived in Milan, I made sure to hug my purse as tight as possible as I know the chances of being pick-pocketed are extremely high here. Luckily, this never happened to me. We headed down to the metro that they have that efficiently runs all the people here and there throughout the city and bought a 24 hour pass for 3 euro, not too bad considering we used this at least 10 times and a one way pass was a single euro. We started off by head
ing to the Duomo. It was absolutely gorgeous and I can safely say I have fallen in love with european architecture; it's breathtaking. My favorite part about walking to the Duomo was walking up the steps from the Metro and it was a keyboard, the steps we walked on each were keys to a keyboard and played the
sound as we moved up them. When large groups came it was sort of chaotic sounding, but made my day right away.
After exploring and walking through the Duomo we head to other places in the city. Walked around saw the sights, shops, and people. Soaked in the culture and their city life. Hard to believe that I was in Italy just the other day. When we stopped for lunch we went to a sandwich shop - "Sammy Sandwich" and had panini's! They were absolutely delicious and we couldn't even eat the entire thing! After exploring a bit more we went to a coffee shop and had some of the local espresso, yumm! Headed back out into the cold and wandering a bit more, we went to the far side of town and ran into a castle, we stopped here to take pictures, walk through, and I pretended I owned the place. Gave the other girls a personal tour :) After that we set off to find a traditional Italian restaurant to have PIZZA! You can't come to Italy without having pizza or pasta, we wanted pizza. We found a rather nice place near the train station that served pizza and all got our own. Probably could've split one between two people, but this allowed for lunch tomorrow!
We hoped back on the train and set out back for Brig, it was a fun but very LONG day. Not to mention cold, but well worth it! Can't wait to see what next weekend may bring.
the 7:45 am train into Milano leaving from Brig. It was only about two hour train ride and absolutely gorgeous. We drove through the mountains and then next to a lake as well; being that early in the morning and the sun rising the tops of all the mountains were a fiery red!When we arrived in Milan, I made sure to hug my purse as tight as possible as I know the chances of being pick-pocketed are extremely high here. Luckily, this never happened to me. We headed down to the metro that they have that efficiently runs all the people here and there throughout the city and bought a 24 hour pass for 3 euro, not too bad considering we used this at least 10 times and a one way pass was a single euro. We started off by head
ing to the Duomo. It was absolutely gorgeous and I can safely say I have fallen in love with european architecture; it's breathtaking. My favorite part about walking to the Duomo was walking up the steps from the Metro and it was a keyboard, the steps we walked on each were keys to a keyboard and played the
sound as we moved up them. When large groups came it was sort of chaotic sounding, but made my day right away.After exploring and walking through the Duomo we head to other places in the city. Walked around saw the sights, shops, and people. Soaked in the culture and their city life. Hard to believe that I was in Italy just the other day. When we stopped for lunch we went to a sandwich shop - "Sammy Sandwich" and had panini's! They were absolutely delicious and we couldn't even eat the entire thing! After exploring a bit more we went to a coffee shop and had some of the local espresso, yumm! Headed back out into the cold and wandering a bit more, we went to the far side of town and ran into a castle, we stopped here to take pictures, walk through, and I pretended I owned the place. Gave the other girls a personal tour :) After that we set off to find a traditional Italian restaurant to have PIZZA! You can't come to Italy without having pizza or pasta, we wanted pizza. We found a rather nice place near the train station that served pizza and all got our own. Probably could've split one between two people, but this allowed for lunch tomorrow!
We hoped back on the train and set out back for Brig, it was a fun but very LONG day. Not to mention cold, but well worth it! Can't wait to see what next weekend may bring.
Swiss Nightlife - CHAOS
Finally getting to the good stuff! What everyone has been asking about and expecting me to partake in. Well lets go back to Monday, Lauren and I went out and got an amazing fondue dinner, it was a Swiss traditional cheese fondue with fresh bread as well as potatoes. Which I found to be rather interesting, but extremely AMAZING! I got a glass of white wine to go with dinner, as it helps break down the food and makes digestion easier. Good to know, I guess I will have to keep upon this one!
Tuesday Jan. 12, 2010
Nothing overly exciting, rather than starting classes and sitting in class from 8:30 am until 4:20 in the afternoon.... let me tell you that is one long day! Yes I know it's shorter than a job, but not being able to get up, walk around, talk, etc. it's making my life tough! haha. :) After I had classes I needed to pick up some notebooks for classes and all for taking notes. Even though the told us it is mandatory to have computers, NO ONE uses them in class. It's very different from what I am used to. When we were out I ended up buying a hair dryer (discounted at that) and it may be saving my life it seems! Never knew how handy these things were until you d
on't have one to use. Still using my curling iron to straighten my hair, makes life interesting. Especially since my converter won't plug into my bathroom ones (they're too far inset) and I have to straighten my hair with my computer in "sleep" mode and look into the black of the screen as a makeshift mirror. I'm a college student, I am handy with these things.With all of these stressful first days and transitioning into the cultural and what not I bought my first bottle of alcohol LEGALLY! Jack Daniels! My favorite :) Dad, you would be so proud....
Wednesday Jan 16, 2010
Yet again another day of classes. Only one today though. It went by fairly fast and was actually rather interesting, especially considering I have worked within restaurants for the past year or so now. This entire course is in relation to Food and Beverage (F&B) Management; not s
ure if it's the path I want to go into, but it has potential. Today we ended up going to the store again... this time I was determined to by Coca-Cola for a jack and coke... Well this store that we went into doesn't accept VISA so I told her I would be abck because I didn't bring any of my cash on me. Went and walked around downtown, say a bunch of little shops here and there, it's really an itneresting and fun little town with a ton of personality. So many little restaurants, pubs, clothing and shoe stores GALORE! and your typical little knickknack stores as well. I find it interesting that postcards here cost 1.75 - 2.50 PER CARD. Defnitely not in the US anymore with our .25 cent postcards haha. Lauren was able to get a bragain steal and found a cute little sweater that was only 2.50!Thursday Jan 14, 2010
Tonight is the "ICEBREAKER" for the entire school.... all 290 of us. It started at 5:30 at the University and we took pictures for the yearbook and then went into the dining room for the reception. Here we were served wine, beer, apple juice, and Coca-Cola. I opted for the white wine! Only to help my digestion of course.... after this we all headed to one of the other student's rooms to drink a bit more before we headed to CHAOS, the bar inside our dorms. I had a jack and coke and then around 10:00 we headed to CHAOS to drink the free punch and dance
the rest of the night away. We met a bunch of the other students and had a good time laughing, dancing, and hanging out with everyone. We weren't the "lame" americans anymore. haha. While we were there this one girl (actually my RA haha), and she bought me a shot, it is called a B-52 and she wanted them to be "flaming". It consisted of Kahlua, Bailey's, and antoher liquor that was on top of the too and then lit. You then say CHEERS! stick your straw into the shot glass and drink it. Theses were absolutely amazing and Lauren decided they tasted like ice-cream.. not sure I got that impression, but they were delicious! Defnitely buying her one next time. Finally, around 3:00 am I headed up the elevator to my room to get some sleep for the night and prepare for class today (Friday). Thank goodness it is at 1:00 today! Such a fun night though getting to know everyone. More to come later...If I dont get on too often its because my computer is starting to "crash" again. I have already had a "blue screen of death" and it enjoys spazzing out.... just what I want and need while Im here. Good thing BestBuy caught this BEFORE I came like I told them to....
Monday, January 11, 2010
Suit, heels, and nylons.
Monday January 11, 2010
Suit, heels, and nylons. This will be the everyday dress for school. Definitely a change from my Pullman attire consisting on sweatshirts and jeans, occasionally the sweatpants. Here any type of clothing other than a suit will result in me being sent back to my dorm room to change.
Lets also start with the fact that my hair straightener does NOT work. It won't heat up, so to straighten my hair this morning..... a curling iron. Have to make do with what will actually heat up using my converter. Hopefully I can make it into town to find a straightener as well as a hair dryer so that maybe I can do my hair haha.
Mondays = the weekend! No classes for my on Monday, though I do have class on Friday it's only one class and I'm done at 3:00 so I will still be able to catch a night train out of town to do something fun for a long weekend.
Today was primarily orientation, getting books, and filling out information. Tomorrow, for me starts real class work with Management Operations (Organisational Behaviour) , Finance (FIN 325) , and Econ (Global Capitalism). Tuesday and Thursdays are going to SUCK! While Wednesday and Friday I have one class HBM (Food and Beverage Management) from 1 - 2:50.
Suit, heels, and nylons. This will be the everyday dress for school. Definitely a change from my Pullman attire consisting on sweatshirts and jeans, occasionally the sweatpants. Here any type of clothing other than a suit will result in me being sent back to my dorm room to change.
Lets also start with the fact that my hair straightener does NOT work. It won't heat up, so to straighten my hair this morning..... a curling iron. Have to make do with what will actually heat up using my converter. Hopefully I can make it into town to find a straightener as well as a hair dryer so that maybe I can do my hair haha.
Mondays = the weekend! No classes for my on Monday, though I do have class on Friday it's only one class and I'm done at 3:00 so I will still be able to catch a night train out of town to do something fun for a long weekend.
Today was primarily orientation, getting books, and filling out information. Tomorrow, for me starts real class work with Management Operations (Organisational Behaviour) , Finance (FIN 325) , and Econ (Global Capitalism). Tuesday and Thursdays are going to SUCK! While Wednesday and Friday I have one class HBM (Food and Beverage Management) from 1 - 2:50.
Portland - Chicago - Zurich - Brig
Wednesday January 6, 2010 / Thursday January 7, 2010
Finally after days of packing and preparation I have boarded the long awaited plane and left for Switzerland/Europe for the next 4 months. You can never start a trip off smoothly so why not have this happen immediately when checking in, minor details. When using the self check-in and through scanning my passport my cousin's travel information would come up.... thanks Rachel! After 5 min of searching the representative was able to help us out and get me checked in to my flight to Switzerland and not Atlanta. Said the good-byes and headed for my gate to wait for boarding. The flight to Chicago went smoothly and we arrived earlier than expected so all was well there. Then after arriving in Chicago I realized I had to go to a completely different terminal via train before re-entering in through security to arrive at my gate. Here I waited for Lauren to arrive to board the 8.5 hour flight to Zurich.
After boarding our flight, a guy kindly switched seats with me to allow me to sit next to Lauren for the flight.... maybe this was a mistake. On our overnight flight I may have slept for an hour. We ended up having a family sit behind us, with a toddler and another child a few years older. When the toddler wasn't screaming and crying the other kid would kick the back of our seats. What a fun flight! Not to mention we had a few delays that made the flight that much longer. Finally touching down at 11:00 am Swiss time (2:00 am Portland/West Coast time) I was exhausted after being up since 6:00 am the previous morning.
We passed through customs without any problems and went down to baggage claim, rounded up our luggage and headed to a travel agency to purchase our 1/2 Swiss Rail Pass, train tickets to the Zurich HB, and our ticket to Brig the next morning. After filling out paper work, handing in passport photos. We asked what train to take to get the the main center (Zurich HB) he said to take train 3 or 4. Whatever one. We made it down to the trains and immediately stood there extremely confused. I asked a gentleman if this train went to the Zurich HB he said he thought so, yeahhhh we let that one pass. A young lady say us looking around, at our tickets, and then at eachother and laugh. She asked if we needed help, she then told us what train to take (the same one as her) and then showed us our stop. First train ride a SUCCESS!
After arriving at the Zurich HB, we figured our hotel was there.... not a chance. We wandered around lost, trugged our luggage up stairs, asked for help in a flower shop and were told to take the moving stairs to the top and then get on a train #3 and it would take us there. Back down the non-moving stairs and found what they were talking about (as well as a Tourist Information Station). They told us to hope on Train #3 and get off at a certain stop, we did this and hopped off, say signs to the hotel and wandered in. Navigation around Zurich..... success!
After checking into the hotel we went into our rooms and passed out (3:30 pm) woke up at 4:30 pm and decided that dinner wasn't going to happen and went back to bed. We then woke up again at 2:30 am fully rejuvenated and ready to go. Hoped on facebook for a bit then decided that it would be best to go back to bed. Woke up again at 6:00 am and thought might as well get up, shower, eat, and head to the train to make our way to Brig.
Friday January 8, 2010
We ate a wonderful breakfast buffet at the restaurant, checked out of our rooms, hopped back on the #3 train back to the Zurich HB, here we once again stopped in the Tourist Information and were directed to platform 14 where the train to Brig left every hour on the hour.
We jumped on the 11:00 am train to Brig and arrived around 1:15 pm. We wandered around the streets with our luggage looking for where we needed to head to. Luckily I had my WSU sweatshirt on and an RA found us, turned us around and brought us to where we needed to be. The RAs checked us in and brought us to our rooms. I'm in Xenius 462. I can't complain. A full size temperpedic bed, desk, my own bathroom with a shower, closet, and a TV. Life should be good for the next three months.
We met up with a few other WSU students as well as a few students studying at UCCR for the term as well. Most everyone ended up heading back to their rooms and sleeping as they flew in on Friday morning and had been traveling all day.
Saturday/Sunday
Traveled around Brig for a bit, did some shopping at the stores for a few groceries. Oh threw in a workout as well, that's something new for me! Most of you back home know that I will not enter into the WSU Rec Center at ALL! I'm trying something different haha.
On Sunday the entire city shuts down. I believe that we say only a pizza parlour to be open. Definitely different from NYC, Seattle and even Portland!
Finally after days of packing and preparation I have boarded the long awaited plane and left for Switzerland/Europe for the next 4 months. You can never start a trip off smoothly so why not have this happen immediately when checking in, minor details. When using the self check-in and through scanning my passport my cousin's travel information would come up.... thanks Rachel! After 5 min of searching the representative was able to help us out and get me checked in to my flight to Switzerland and not Atlanta. Said the good-byes and headed for my gate to wait for boarding. The flight to Chicago went smoothly and we arrived earlier than expected so all was well there. Then after arriving in Chicago I realized I had to go to a completely different terminal via train before re-entering in through security to arrive at my gate. Here I waited for Lauren to arrive to board the 8.5 hour flight to Zurich.
After boarding our flight, a guy kindly switched seats with me to allow me to sit next to Lauren for the flight.... maybe this was a mistake. On our overnight flight I may have slept for an hour. We ended up having a family sit behind us, with a toddler and another child a few years older. When the toddler wasn't screaming and crying the other kid would kick the back of our seats. What a fun flight! Not to mention we had a few delays that made the flight that much longer. Finally touching down at 11:00 am Swiss time (2:00 am Portland/West Coast time) I was exhausted after being up since 6:00 am the previous morning.
We passed through customs without any problems and went down to baggage claim, rounded up our luggage and headed to a travel agency to purchase our 1/2 Swiss Rail Pass, train tickets to the Zurich HB, and our ticket to Brig the next morning. After filling out paper work, handing in passport photos. We asked what train to take to get the the main center (Zurich HB) he said to take train 3 or 4. Whatever one. We made it down to the trains and immediately stood there extremely confused. I asked a gentleman if this train went to the Zurich HB he said he thought so, yeahhhh we let that one pass. A young lady say us looking around, at our tickets, and then at eachother and laugh. She asked if we needed help, she then told us what train to take (the same one as her) and then showed us our stop. First train ride a SUCCESS!
After arriving at the Zurich HB, we figured our hotel was there.... not a chance. We wandered around lost, trugged our luggage up stairs, asked for help in a flower shop and were told to take the moving stairs to the top and then get on a train #3 and it would take us there. Back down the non-moving stairs and found what they were talking about (as well as a Tourist Information Station). They told us to hope on Train #3 and get off at a certain stop, we did this and hopped off, say signs to the hotel and wandered in. Navigation around Zurich..... success!
After checking into the hotel we went into our rooms and passed out (3:30 pm) woke up at 4:30 pm and decided that dinner wasn't going to happen and went back to bed. We then woke up again at 2:30 am fully rejuvenated and ready to go. Hoped on facebook for a bit then decided that it would be best to go back to bed. Woke up again at 6:00 am and thought might as well get up, shower, eat, and head to the train to make our way to Brig.
Friday January 8, 2010
We ate a wonderful breakfast buffet at the restaurant, checked out of our rooms, hopped back on the #3 train back to the Zurich HB, here we once again stopped in the Tourist Information and were directed to platform 14 where the train to Brig left every hour on the hour.
We jumped on the 11:00 am train to Brig and arrived around 1:15 pm. We wandered around the streets with our luggage looking for where we needed to head to. Luckily I had my WSU sweatshirt on and an RA found us, turned us around and brought us to where we needed to be. The RAs checked us in and brought us to our rooms. I'm in Xenius 462. I can't complain. A full size temperpedic bed, desk, my own bathroom with a shower, closet, and a TV. Life should be good for the next three months.
We met up with a few other WSU students as well as a few students studying at UCCR for the term as well. Most everyone ended up heading back to their rooms and sleeping as they flew in on Friday morning and had been traveling all day.
Saturday/Sunday
Traveled around Brig for a bit, did some shopping at the stores for a few groceries. Oh threw in a workout as well, that's something new for me! Most of you back home know that I will not enter into the WSU Rec Center at ALL! I'm trying something different haha.
On Sunday the entire city shuts down. I believe that we say only a pizza parlour to be open. Definitely different from NYC, Seattle and even Portland!
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