Spring Break Adventure Pt. 3: When in Rome...

While Anne, Danni, and Sarah headed back to Vilseck, Charnelle and Crystal headed to Rome!

Day 1:

The first thing that we wanted to see was the Colosseum (of course!) so we headed there shortly after dropping off our bags at our hostel. On the way to the Colossuem, we stopped at had yummy gelato! We continued walking and BAM, there was the Colossuem. After a mini photoshoot in front of it, we stopped by the Arch of Constantine, and walked along the outskirts of the Roman Forum/Palatine Hill (will talk more about on Day 2). We then ventured to a church called San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains) where Michaelangelo's famous Statue of Moses and the chains of Peter are located. Since it was getting late, we decided to grab dinner near our hostel. I (Charnelle) had lasagna and Crystal had pasta with pesto...and of course we had wine, why not? We were lucky to find a hostel that also had a bar, and decided to end our night there. 

Day 2:
We decided to start our day off early by going back to the Colossuem. This time, we went inside! It was amazing to be standing on grounds where so much history occurred! We then went into the Roman Forum/Palatine Hill where the most ancient buildings in the city are located dating way back to Ancient Rome. It took about an hour and a half to get around the entire area, and after leaving we were hungry. We stumbled upon a little organic store that specialized in selling meatballs and they were delicious! We then headed towards Capitoline Hill where we saw GORGEOUS views of Rome from the roof. Our next stop was to visit the Pantheon which was breathtaking! After going inside and hearing a group of singers, we headed to the Vatican City! Our our way, we stopped for more gelato :) Once we reached the Vatican City, we were greeted by a huge crowd of people and people who were trying very hard to sell us tickets to the museum and Sistine Chapel. We had to wait in a long line in order to enter St. Peter's Basicila (the dome of the church was designed by Michelangleo, but he did not live to finish it), where we were to marvel at the beautiful architecture of the city. The inside of the Basicila was also breathtaking with several statues and paintings. *Fun fact: The late Pope John Paul II is entombed here. *Another fun fact: A famous statue by Michaelangelp called Pieta is in this church as well.

We had a long day of exploring Rome, and decided to head back to our hostel to rest for a while. We met two sisters from Argentina who were very friendly and joined us for dinner. Crystal and I then found an ice bar...yes, an ice bar where everything was made of ice, even our shot glasses! We were obviously getting cold and only stayed for 15-20 minutes. We then ended our night by going back to the bar near our hostel and met our new friends/roommates from Argentina.

Seeing all of the historic sites in Rome was a rewarding experience, and we are so glad that we ended our Spring Break here!

Amsterdam and Brussels with Charnelle and Crystal

Amsterdam... So where to begin. Well, for starters, we stayed in a Christian hostel smack in the middle of the Red Light District. If you don't know what that is, google it. You will find out real quick! But that was quite interesting. And as soon as we got off the train it smelled as we had imagined it would... Like marijuana. That leads me to the coffee shops. I mean "coffee shops." If you want a cappuccino, you can't get it here. We stayed away from those... It was actually quite difficult to find a coffee shop that sold coffee. And the bikes...there were SO MANY BIKES! You were way more likely to get run over by a bike than a car. We were always on alert for the bikers.

Day 1:

We went to The Heineken Experience which is Heineken's brewery. It was HUGE and well worth 18€. There was a 4D theatre where we learned the brewing process, a room where a women explained the process showing us the ingredients that went in to the beer and approximately how long it takes, Charnelle learned how to make a "perfect" pour (a pour without half a glass of foam), how to properly drink your beer, a room full of gigantic kegs and also where the beer is made and lots of Heineken history. We also got 2 free beers at the end of the tour which is always a plus. 

Day 2:

Today was a very informative day for us! We started at the Van Gogh museum. That was incredible. We thoroughly enjoyed it and learned so much. We then stopped at a street market called Albert Cuyp Market where we found cute souvenirs. We also went to the Anne Frank house. That was moving. It is amazing what they went through in that little house and that Anne Frank documented everything in her journal. Later that night, we ended our night by eating at a restaurant that served fondue! We ordered steak with pesto and pasta with pesto as well...YUM!!!

 

Brussels:

The weather kept switching from rain to sunshine, but that didn't stop our plans of exploring the city. After stopping to eat, we visited the Grand Place, the infamous Mannekin Pis (boy), Zinneke Pis (dog), Jannekin Pis (girl), the St Michael & St Gudula Cathedral, the Delirium Cafe (bar that had high % beers!), and found of view on top of a parking lot (thanks to Pinterest) with a beautiful view of the city. I'm pretty sure that we crossed Boulevard Anspach plenty of times! That night, we went to a resturant that gave us a to go desert that we a Belgium Waffle :)

Although we were drained from our Amsterdam trip, we were glad that we made a pit stop to Brussels!

Spring Break Adventure Pt. 2: Cinque Terre

Sunday morning we were up and ready for our next adventure. We caught a train to La Spezia which is right outside the Cinque Terre towns where we would be hiking the next day. After we put our bags down we went in search of somewhere to have a glass of wine. To our surprise almost everything closed at 3 since it was Sunday. We finally found a wine bar that along with the wine served snack foods and appetizers! And if you know us you know how we love free things, especially food! We sat there for a while and enjoyed our wine and snacks. After a walk by the water we decided we were hungry again and it was time for dinner. After searching again for something that was open we found another restaurant that did not disappoint!

Cinque Terre is made up of five very small coastal towns and there are walking paths in between them all that allow tourists to trek up and down the mountain to visit these cute little towns. We set off Monday morning to start our hike. We took the train to the last town (Monterosso) and began the hike there. It was such a beautiful day and the sun was already out (something we haven’t seen much of in Germany)! Since the hike begins at the base of the mountain we had a very steep start to the hike, and there were so many stairs!!! The trail finally leveled off and it was such a gorgeous hike because you could see the ocean the entire hike. As we got closer to the next town you could see the brightly colored houses which were all shades of yellows, oranges, and pinks. It was such a beautiful sight to see as the sun was shining! We ended up walking all the way from town five to town three (Monterosso to Vernazza to Corniglia) and unfortunately the rest of the trails were closed. The hike totaled 8 kilometers which was quite a work out for all of us especially since a lot of it was up hill. We worked up quite an appetite and found a seafood restaurant right on the water in one of the towns. We ended the night with a great meal of swordfish, cheese plates, pasta, and wine. It was a great end to a very long day of hiking!

The next morning Sarah, Anne, and Danni headed back to Vilseck for some days of rest while Charnelle and Crystal took a train down to Rome for their next adventure! 

Spring Break Adventure Pt.1: Siena and Florence

We finally made it to our Spring Break trip! It was snowing in Germany when we left but when we made it to Italy the sun was shining and almost felt like spring. Sarah, Anne, and Danni arrived in Florence on Thursday night and were ready for dinner after our 13 hour train ride. We found a little restaurant near our Airbnb that had a page full of pastas and pizzas that were calling our name! After dinner we started off to find our first gelato of the trip. Most things were already closed but we found one cute little shop that had some amazing flavors! We all had two scoops and were amazed by how wonderful it tasted. We finished the night off with some Tuscan wine and card games as we prepared for our trip to Siena the next day.

The next day we headed off for a day trip to Siena. We had a little trouble figuring out where the bus station was but after some quick directions we made it to the station just in time to buy our tickets and settle in for our bus ride through the Tuscan country side. We passed by vineyards and rolling hills before we made it to the small medieval town of Siena. The first order of business was to find somewhere to eat. We stumbled upon this cute little restaurant and were greeted by a sweet Italian couple. There were so many good things on the menu that it was hard to decide what to pick. Finally, we decided to share a cheese plate with warm walnut bread and jam spread. We all devoured the cheese and could not get enough of that bread. By the time our main dishes came we were already pretty full from the four different cheeses we had. Anne chose the traditional Siena pasta with pesto sauce, Sarah had grilled beef with roasted potatoes, and Danni picked the grilled pork with potatoes. We all agreed that this was the best meal we had eaten since arriving! We walked off our lunch and found the Duomo which was like nothing we had ever seen before. Both inside and out the church was adorned with black and white stripes. It also had these beautiful tile pictures on the floor that added to the amazing detail of it all.

Next we decided it was time to try out the gelato in Siena! We found a shop in the city square and we all got huge scoops and ate while we sat and watched the hustle and bustle in the square. We walked around the town and did a little window shopping before our bus left. By the time we got back Crystal and Charnelle had finally arrived! That night they got their first experience of Italian food and gelato and fell in love just like we had. That night we found a karaoke bar that catered to both American singers and Italians. It was such an interesting mix of songs and singers because one minute we would be singing along to a song we knew and the next minute someone was belting out an Italian song that none of us knew. As it got busier none of us could work up the courage to try our hand at singing.

The next morning we set out for our first full day in Florence! We found a huge leather market in the center of town that was packed full of purses, bags, and anything that could possibly be made out of leather. As soon as you glanced in one of the booths the sales person would immediately come up to you and try to sell you something. They all claimed that they had the best price and could find you anything that you wanted. Charnelle and Crystal had their eyes set on buying a leather book bag and they soon became expert hagglers. If they wanted to see one of the bags they would go up and ask how much it was and soon they were decreasing the price trying to get the best deal possible. If that didn’t work Crystal would just start walking away till they came down to the price she wanted. They were pros at it! After all that haggling we worked up an appetite! We found a pizzeria close by and had another wonderful meal full of pizza and pasta. Next we found the Duomo, which was hard to miss because it was probably the size of two football fields. After touring around, we stumbled upon a chocolate market that had rows and rows of chocolate truffles, pastries, and even chocolate fountains. We finally found a square full of famous statues (most of them copies) and got to see the statue of David constructed by Michael Angelo. We headed back to the apartment to eat dinner and rest up. Since we had had such a fun time the night before we decided to go back to the karaoke bar. This time Danni was ready and got up to sing! She killed it with her version of “I Like Big Butts” and had the whole crowd singing along! We all had an amazing time in Florence but were excited to get on another train and head out of the city to Cinque Terre.

Buda + Pest = Budapest!!!

HFun fact: Budapest is actually pronounced "BudaPESHT" :)

After two hour train rides, we were happy to discover that we all had the same connecting train to Budapest! We arrived into the city late in the afternoon, so we decided to scope out a restaurant as soon as we dropped our bags off at our Airbnb. We found a cute little restaurant and had delicious food and wine. Another fun fact: Hungarians LOVE wine! Since the famous Chain Bridge wasn't too far away, we decided to take a walk down to the bridge and what a beautiful sight it was! Since it was dark out, the lights on the bridge made even more beautiful! For those that don't know, Budapest is separated by the Danube River with Buda on one side and Pest on the other. We decided to walk across he bridge from Pest over to Buda. During our walk, we looked over and saw the gorgeous Parliament building! We decided to head back into town (Pest) and on our way back, we stopped at a Tiki bar where we each had unique cups for our drinks. Since it was late, we decided to head back to our Airbnb and call it a night. 

The next day was a rainy one, but that didn't stop us! We started off our day early and ate breakfast at a nice restaurant. We crossed the Chain Bridge and headed in the direction of the Buda Castle to find a Flea Market. Unfortunately, the flea market no longer existed. But, we were able to explore the castle which was HUGE! We wanted to get out of the rain for a while and stumbled across a WWI Propaganda Museum was it was very interesting. We stepped back out of the museum to have mini photoshoots in front of the castle, with Buda, Pest, and the Danube River on the background. We went back across the Chain Bridge to visit the famous Central Market Hall. The lower level sold local produce and wine, and the upper level was filled with local food vendors and lots of kiosk to buy souvenirs. We were there on a Saturday afternoon, and the place was PACKED! We then split up with - Crystal and Sarah went back to the apartment and Charnelle, Danni, and Anne hung out around the Central Market area to check out shops, drink coffee, and eat delicious deserts. We eat ordered different desserts and let's just say...all of the plates were cleared within a few minutes! Later on, we all met back up by the dock for an evening boat tour down the Danube. Since the boat was full, we had to wait another hour & 30 minutes for the next tour. In between that time, we found a cute restaurant to have dinner. After eating, we headed back to the docks and boarded our boat which was an amazing experience with such amazing views of historical buildings along the Danube along with complimentary glasses of wine which of course was a plus! It was a great end to our night!

The next day, we again traveled across the Chain Bridge to explore Buda. Crystal and Anne walked around along the Danube and Castle Grounds, and had lunch on the Pest side of town. Charnelle, Sarah, and Danni went to the Budapest History Museum where we learned more interesting facts about the city. Charnelle and Sarah also tried a traditional Hungarian desert called a "lango" fresh out of the fryer. A lango is a deep fried piece of flatbread that typically have sour cream and cheese toppings. We opted for a chocolate topping and it was soooo delicious! We ate it so fast that we forgot to take pictures. We then all met at the historic Hungarian Opera House to buy tour tickets. We then split once again to venture out to grab lunch, visit the Hungarian Parliment, and to see the Shoes on the Danube, which is a memorial to the Jews who lost their lives during the World Wars. Later on that night, we visited a bar called Szimpla Kert, which is a Jewish Ruin pub and it was a great expereince. It was a two story building that had approximately 6 separate bars. Fun fact: The location of the ruin pub used to be the homes of Jews, but they were taken away from them during WWII. The buildings were abdondoned for YEARS, and some genius came up with the idea to turn the space into a bar back in ~2006.

We truly enjoyed all that Budapest had to offer. Can't wait to share our Spring Break adventures!!!

Exploring Prague

Friday:

We arrived on late Thursday night to the beautiful city of Prague. We had a few hiccups in finding our air b n b but thankfully we eventually found it later that night. Friday morning we woke up and ate breakfast at a restaurant near our apartment. It was delicious and so cheap! We enjoyed being in a city where everything including beer was cheap! First on our itinerary was old town square. We walked from the restaurant to the square where we saw the astronomical clock. We waited until the top of the hour with a large group of people to see the clock ring.  It was similar to a cuckoo clock. Following old own square, Danni, Anne and Charnelle got Thai foot massages for 9.99. We all agreed that the massages were totally worth it after all of the walking we had done. A major bonus was that we got free tea after our massages! We then wandered around and Danni and Anne found a cute little coffee shop where ordering proved difficult since after asking if the barista took euros he pulled out a map and began speaking Czech. We were quite confused! We decided pull out our money and see how he reacted. He happily took our money and made us fabulous cappuccinos. While Anne and Danni were getting their coffee fix, the rest of the group found a church that had gorgeous gold statues and paintings on the ceiling. It was then around lunch time so Charnelle, Danni and Anne stumbled across a local brewery and shared a meat platter with cabbage and dumplings (more meat than we can name). It was incredible! J Crystal and Sarah walked back to the air b n b stopping along the way to eat a swirly donut/funnel cake with chocolate, strawberries and whipped cream inside. We’ve decided that Prague has the best and cheapest food so far! Later in the day, we walked over the Charles Bridge and found a castle and cathedral at the top of hill which overlooked the city. We watched the sunset from the top and took many beautiful pictures! (See facebook! J)

Saturday:

Saturday proved to be the most exciting day of the trip! We had a late/ relaxing morning that consisted of Anne and Danni eating breakfast at the same restaurant which was again glorious. We walked to the Cat Café and drank coffee while playing cards and petting cats. It was a fun and unique experience in which we got to wear slippers that did not fit Anne’s feet.  Afterwards, we walked across the Charles bridge and took pictures with the giant baby sculptures before having a photo shoot at the John Lennon wall. We then walked to a street fair and bought street food (meat and potatoes). Charnelle was ecstatic when she saw that we could walk around with beer and not get arrested. After getting Charnelle a beer, we walked onward to the castle where we ran into a parade and protest. It was very interesting to see the gathering of hundreds of Czech citizens. It was also amazing to see such a large group of people together with almost complete silence. There were Czech flags everywhere as well as signs in support of the protest. People seemed very invested in what was going on, however, it took us a while to figure out what was going on because of the language barrier. Thankfully, as we were navigating our way out we stumbled across the beer monastery which we had wanted to visit that evening. We ate food, drank beer, and had a jolly good time. The night we went to an Irish bar and met a Dutch football team with an overwhelming number of silver foxes. All in all, we were in the Czech Republic dancing to country music while hanging out with polish and Dutch people. It was a fun night!

We left Sunday morning but not before Anne and Danni ate a good breakfast and drank coffee. It was a fun weekend filled with lots of yummy fo

Conquering the Silver Mountains!

Charnelle and Crystal left Boebligen on Friday morning after waiting for a delayed train. Once we got on the train, it was smooth sailing all the way to Interlaken. The view from the train ride was gorgeous with snowed covered mountains at every turn. Once we arrived, we waited for Danni, Anne, and Sarah so that we could explore Interlaken. We didn't go far since the sun was beginning to set. We found the cutest little Irish Pub (it was happy hour and ladies night!!!) and had a few beers. We got hungry and went to a small cafe that had delicious pinnis and wraps. We went back to the Irish Pub for another beer (happy hour was over unfortunately). There was a live music by a "one man band", but we were a bit disappointed since he only sang no more than two songs. On our way back to our hostel, we saw what looked like a star that can be drawn, but realized that it was just a light that was placed on the top of a mountain.

Day 2: Danni and Anne woke up early and walked to town to a little cafe to get cappuccino and a corned crossiant. When they returned, everyone ate peanut butter for breakfast and we set out for the day's journey. We caught the bus to Interlaken West and looked around and decided that we wanted to get a good view of the lake and made our way to Lake Brienzersee. The views were unreal! The water looked so clean and the mountains in the background made it even better. We ate lunch by the lake and decided to head back to town. Charnelle, Danni, and Sarah while Anne and Crystal walked back to town to get their steps in. They made it without any maps, and used visual cues and their good memory skills to make it back. While Charnelle, Danni, and Sarah began shopping and as we were leaving the store, Crystal and Anne caught up to us! We continued walking through town and shopping until we reahced a resturant that sold fondue. We ordered and shared cheese fondue and it was delicious!

The best part of the trip was our CHOCOLATE TOUR!!!! The experience was more than we expected. We learned how chocolate it made and we had access to lots of free chocolate! We took a few pieces to go and headed back towards our hostel. We stopped at a Lebanese resturant where Charmelle and Anne once again expanded their food taste (Doner boxes)! We then stopped by a store to buy food and wine, and came back to our hostel to chill out before our train rides our tomorrow. 

We had so much fun and really enjoyed the quaint town of Interlaken. Stay tuned for our next adventure next weekend! :D

Crystal and Charnelle's weekend in Salzburg, Austria!

Unfortunately, we were not able to coordinate a trip with the other three girls this weekend. Danni just arrived this week and was still trying to figure out her housing. So Sarah and Anne waited for her and we agreed to make separate trips for the weekend!

We left Friday morning and made it to Salzburg, Austria at about 1:00pm. As soon as we got off the train, we saw how mountainous Salzburg was. The snow-covered mountains were beautiful! We walked straight to our hostel and luckily were able to check in early. Once we threw our bags down, we walked to the Salzach River and began our walk around the city! The sides of the bridge were filled with all different kinds of locks. Each lock had 2 names on it to signify their love. You are suppose to throw away the key once you put a lock on the bridge. 

Once we crossed the bridge we discovered the Mozart Statue and Museum. We also saw the Salzburg Cathedral. It was all so beautiful! At the top of the hill in Salzburg sat the Hohensalzburg Fortress. We were determined to get up there. So after hiking for what seemed like forever, up the steepest hills imaginable, we made it. We could barely breathe but we made up! We paid only about 6€ to get inside. At this point it was time for a beer. Once we got our energy back, we turned the corner and saw the most beautiful view of the city. We didn't know how impressive our photography skills were. Maybe we will drop out of grad school to be photographers... just kidding. 

The sun began to set so we started making our way back down the hill. We stopped to eat dinner at a small Italian restaurant in the village. Charnelle ordered lasagna and I ordered mushroom risotto. Wow were our meals delicious!! After dinner we made our way back to the hostel, stopping to grab a bottle of wine to enjoy at the end of a long exhausting day. We ended up walking about 9.5 miles.

On Saturday we woke up to snow falling. We made the trek back into the city and stopped to defrost at a little cafe for some tea and hot chocolate. For lunch, we went to the Stiegl restaurant for some delicious beef broth with cheese dumpling soup. We had no plan today so we just decided to hike up the hill to the top near the fortress a different way. We are glad we did because the view was even more magnificent than the one from the day before. At the end of the day, we went back to rest before dinner. We met one of the girls in our room and she was very sweet. We invited her to join us for dinner and had such a great time. After dinner we returned to our hostel and just hung out with our new friend.

This trip was truly amazing, we wished that Sarah, Danni and Anne could have been there with us! Maybe soon we will be back in Austria to see Vienna! 

Stay tuned for next weekends amazing trip to Interlaken, Switzerland!!