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Tuesday, March 15, 2016

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!

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

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.