Switzerland round Two

Sorry its been awhile again! (I told you I suck at thing keeping up with the blog thing).

School is done! Yippy! My sophmmore year of college has gone by in a flash! And I spent half of it in Europe! I am so thankful for that. It was one of the best things of my entire life so far. Now I have to plan more about what I want to do with my life.. O.O scary.

Now that school is done I am back in Switzerland for another month! After school I did some traveling for two weeks around Europe some more with a few of my classmates. We went to Amsterdam, Nice, Antibes, Florence, and one night in Milan before we parted ways.

Amsterdam was really cool. You probably know about their legal activities but it is also a very nice city in general! ;) It is built along canal ways and the city center is near the train station so everything kind of spreads out from it. The red light district is definitely a sight to see though. I have never seen anything like that before. What bothered me the most was how young some of the girls looked! Doesn't seem right but whatever.

After Amsterdam Casey and I had to make our journey down to the south of France, and BOY that was an adventure! We had to catch six trains that day and without reservations for some, we had to ask conductors to get on. I had done this before but it was in French so Casey knew enough to get us by but past that we were short out of luck! After six trains from five in the morning till about ten at night we made it Marsilles and spent the night there before going to Nice the next day. We spent most of that day resting from all the work we had done. After this we took a short trip to Antibes! It was a beatufil place! We spent the day at the beach, looking at shops, and having gelato! Then spending the rest of the day nursing our sun burn hehe, oops.

The following day we randomly decided to go to Monaco! Why not right? Previously in Nice we had overheard some American teenagers talking abut Monaco and how it looked like a picture out of a movie set. Of course we were making fun of them and did not believe them. And..
they were right. It was absoultly stunning. The water was all clear, crisp blues and turquoise, they had almost every luxury car you can think of driving on their streets and the people there look about as rich as the houses that lined the coast. While passing a realiter place we looked at prices of condos and appartments. Some were over 2,000,000 EU which is even More in dollars! I can't ever imagine having that amount of money and spending it on an appartment that probably is smaller than my house! It was a great day to say the least.

Now that I have arrived in Switzerland I have been mostly taking it easy. As much as I love being in Euorpe and almost everything about it and traveling, I am kind of burnt out. I want a little relaxation before going home and starting work again. Thats one thing I do not miss exactly. Working is nessiscary in order to gain money, yes, which I need, but.. it gets old fast to me. Thats why I am SO overly thankful for modeling because even though it can get repetious like other jobs, it is different because the people I work with change each time, what I model changes each time, and sometimes even job sties change, which I need because I need some sort of change and variety in my life. Anyway, so far in Switzerland I went to the mountains with Ben once again, feeling a little light headed and sick from his fast driving up the windy hills ;) It was gorgeous though. Something I truely admire and awe at are mountains.
One other grand adventure I had this past week was with Eric! He took me to Alpamare Water Park in Pfäffikon Switzerland! It was definitely one of the best times ever also! Ten water slides, a wave pool, stream pool and other water pools! And yes, I went in all of them lol. We spent six hours there climbing up and down the stairs (great work out) and going down some of the scariest slides ever. I was actually scared for once, which doesn't happen often. I think the last time I was really scared was a few years ago on 4th of July when the fire happened next door, otherwise.. nothin! Until now haha. But it was great fun! I have bruises to show and I don't regret getting them one bit!

Now my parents, little sis, and two cousins come and visit me in TEN DAYS! I am very excited to see them. I know I won't sleep the few days before. I miss everyone at home more than I thought I would! We have a family reunion planned, Ben's birthday party, and other places we are visiting that I will show you and update you on when they happen. Cheers!

A beginning and an end.

Now we are in our last city of the trip- Stockholm, Sweden. It is a gorgeous place, made up for 14 islands and a lot less city for once. I miss home in that sense, the trees and open space! I never really knew what it was like to live in a city until this trip, and I have decided I do not like it very much lol. Not being able to see a tree outside the window or fresh water is hard. And now we are 8 days away from this trip being over with! Well, for most of the other students at least since I am continuing on my adventure for another month :) But it is still hard believe that it has been also three months in Europe! I have had so much fun and learned an incredible amount about people, information, history of places, and myself in general. I plan on writing another blog soon to conclude my trip but this one is for my first few days in Stockholm!

We got to have a boat tour instead of a walking tour this time! It was pretty chilly without the sun but it was really nice to be out in the fresh air, enjoying the scenic view for once. It was a 3 hours tour and we saw many of the islands, most of which I couldn't spell if my life depended on it, but it was awesome. Some were so small you'd think no one would live there but then surely enough there would be a cute little house out there. I even got to see a seal swimming in the water! That was a great surprise to me not even knowing seals were here haha.

Today I went with a group of girls to City Hall and around Old Town Stockholm! This consisted of Riddarholmen Island where the oldest church,Riddarholm Church, is still standing in Stockholm and where the tomb of King Magnus Ladulas is who founded Stockholm. We couldn't enter due to construction, or something, but we tried to open the doors! We also visited the palace and got to see some cute guards on petrol walking perfectly in-sync even up the stairs. I want to try and visit Drottnighom Palace while I am here too because this is the place where the royal family lives, and I gotta meet the prince ;).

So far I love Stockholm and can't wait to explore more in the coming days! Now back to studying for finals and finishing papers! ♥

Copenhagen!

So I'm still not getting on this whole blogging thing the greatest but I will now update you on the last few days! I was just in Copenhagen and it was a great to be there. I did not get out as much as I would've liked to just because things up in the North are much more expensive than the southern countries in Europe and I have kind of a lot of homework to finish within 2 weeks. (Five papers.. no big deal.. lol) I visited Star Island and the Little Mermaid!

Which is something everyone should go get to see if they come to Copenhagen. And the National Museum was another interesting place I went to learn about Danish history since I knew nothing of it before coming here. I was also hoping that the prince would come out and find a nice young Minnesotan girl like me ;) but this movie (The Prince and Me) dream did not come to life.

Now I am currently in Stockholm Sweden, and I plan to get out more than I did once I pound out these papers (four left as of tonight! :D) So I will have another update soon! And after two weeks once classes are done I will be on independent travel time! So that will be some fun stories hopefully because I won't have anything to do but tourist things and whatever I want to do! :D Very exciting! Bye!

Hamburg!

After Berlin I went to the second largest city in Germany, Hamburg! It was beautiful the two days I was there and enjoyed walking around the city and seeing some of the sights that I could within such little time! I got to go by the lovely water and down to the docks to see the boats and other fishy stuff, lol, then we walked to St. Nickolai's Memorial which was near the docks.

It was really cool to see and read about even though we didn't go down into the actual memorial site. After some more walking and taking pictures we enjoyed dinner at a steak house off of Reeperbauhn St. In other words its the Red Light District of Hamburg (all European cities have one it seems). The girls were dressed in moon boots, fully clothed and fanny packs of all things! Fashion no no but I guess prostitute go to? Anyway I made it to Copenhagen today! It was a great train ride and we had to cross the Baltic Sea on a ferry, on the train! It was soo cool! Chilly, but awesome ;)

Now I'm just chillin in Copenhagen for about a week then off to Stockholm! And while I'm here I have more time to type away! So I will be updating you on the cool things I have seen so far in Europe :)
See you soon!

Berlin!

So I realize it has once again been a long time since any updates have happened, but this time I blame the hotel. It is a very beautiful hotel! Just with no free internet. So I broke down and paid for it twice so I get to update up you on things! Overall I'm having a great time! My 2nd class will be officially over tomorrow although with no final it barely feels fare ;) We get to go observe work behaviors in one of the Turkish communities in Berlin, being the international city that it is. While in Berlin I had class every day which made it hard once again to go out and do what I like but I got to walk around the west and east side a little bit and hope to explore more tomorrow. I also really want to come back to Berlin just because there are SO many things to see and do that I know I want to.
The different things I have done so far is went on a walking tour with the best tour guide ever Arja! If you ever come to Berlin look her up online at www.berlinwalks.de (+49 30) 301 91 94 she explains the history in a way that's interesting and tells the story of Berlin very well. The tour was mostly on the east side of Berlin. We went to Museum Island, where literally, all the museums are mostly located, got to see the place where the Natiz's burned all the books at the university and the empty book shelves that are now underneath the spot as a symbol. We walked around Postdamer Platz, saw the spot where Hitler's bunker was, this also being the place he died. We walked to the Holocaust Memorial which was absolutely great. It is a very interpretive monument but I think they did a great job design wise. Then we walked to the Brandenburg Gate where later that day I watched videos of how close the Berlin wall was and all the people near it when it was being torn down. That is definitely something to watch in your free time. The whole history of the Berlin wall is very interesting to me. Other things we saw were the Berlin wall, the parts still standing but also the brinks on the ground that follow the exact path around the city where it had been laid. We also walked up to the biggest building still standing from the Natiz's time. It managed to survive the bombings I just hope it wasn't intentionally missed. Overall it was an amazing tour even with the cold, rainy weather.
In my free time I went to the Holocaust Museum which is located under the Memorial, and for being free I think everyone should take the time to visit, but go when you have a full day because after being there, emotionally I did not want to do anything else but walk around. It is a very moving museum and provided in great detail in formation about the anti-socialistic groups and who was affected. There are personal stories that are.. SO touchy I cried a few times in there and had many more chills while reading some of the things. It was an awful time in history that I know I've mentioned before but I hope no one ever has to go through it ever again.
For my Personnel Class, that was just finished today wooh! We visited two companies to help further our knowledge and just for fun also. The first we visited on Monday was Thermofischer Scientific. They put on a great presentation for us, showed us around the lab downstairs and even helped us learn about how they go through their personal hiring processes using some of my classmates. It was a very long day but I think pretty worth the visit. On Tuesday we had the opportunity to visit Pfzier and no they didn't hand out free drugs like in the movie Love and Other Drugs lol. Their HR person was from the states but has lived in Berlin for 3 years now I think so it was nice to hear someone speak who we could throughly understand lol.
Wednesday was a packed day of class in the morning for Adjustment on marriage, love, sex, and friendship and then off to the German History Museum. I really liked it there and could have totally spent more than 2 hours but it was enough for one day.
Now that its almost one my time I should probably go to bed. Otherwise nothing extremely interesting has happened since if I haven't been in class I've been either studying, walking around or sleeping! I am off to Hamburg on Saturday for two days then Copenhagen! Yay for travel :D

Praha!

Day 39, March 7th 2011

Prague or Praha has been one of the best cities in my opinion. It is lined with very old cobblestone streets and lots of buildings, and people, with character. After arriving I was a little cautious with the beat up buildings, graffiti (though this is everywhere in Europe), and mostly the quiet and relaxed feeling. I was so use to go go go of the previous cities that being here is a pleasant change! I still have class every day but it just feels different than the other cities have, even though you wouldn’t know since I suck at keeping up with blogging apparently! Anyway my second day here was full of a few little busy work things some girls and I did. We found our way to the main post office, the only laundry mat around, made it on all three metro lines, went to a mini market store, and to the biggest mall in Prague! The mall made me realize how much I did Not miss malls at all!The post office was much harder than I thought with the extreme language barrier and the only English person helping us hitting on my constantly but I successfully mailed a package that will hopefully get to my parents safely back in Minnesota soon! I should really count how many times I get hit on in each city because it is quite annoying and too often but oh well.
Sunday was one of the best days in Europe so far! It was a beautiful day out (no coat!) and we went to the Zoo! It was a very well kept zoo and all the animals I saw seemed healthy and well taken care of, which I like to see. We skipped the Bison for some elephants and exotic birds but I think I saw almost every animal at the zoo! For about 6.00 bucks, it was totally worth it. After that we went to Old Town and found our way to the Astronomical Clock and Leah and I got lost trying to find Charles Bridge but it was really cool just walking around the small streets and seeing little shops, restaurants, and buildings around Prague. We found our way back safely after another successful day!
Today, Monday, was our tour for class around Prague. We started at the clock we were at and even got to see all 12 disciples go around the clock and hear the horn sound at 11:00! After a short talk about the Old Square we went to the Jewish Quarter in Prague and got to see a number of different synagogues that weren’t destroyed when the Natiz’s came because Hitler wanted to have museums of the Jewish generations after he wiped them out; how generous right? But it was cool to see the Old New Synagogue and the Jewish cemetery. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at a little restaurant with some amazing hot apple cider and went off to the palace, the cathedral in the palace, and Charles Bridge afterwards! There area that that palace covers is very grand. I wish the garden would’ve been open to take a look at also, but I think in the winter it must be closed. I didn’t fall in love on the bridge but maybe I fell in love with the city? ;) More to come! I promise :)

Oh and the internet isn't the greatest here so that's why there are no pictures yet!

Updating

So I feel really bad that I have barely written anything since Paris! It has been a few weeks, I'm still alive and A LOT has happened. For a preview of what I will be writing about tonight and posting either tonight or tomorrow here it is: Paris-Switzerland-Vienna-Prague, Bed-bugs (very joyful), finished a class already and about to start my 4th and final one, annnnnnd other random things about the places we visited! Again sorry its been so long!!!! Its been a little crazy :D

Chau!

Paris :D

Day 16 February 11th, 2011

Ah Paris the city of love… or something like that lol. Paris at first was not what I was expecting at first. After being in London for so long I had gotten use to the language, the city itself, and the people. But once we got to Paris things changed a lot, at least in my view. The language is obvious because I don’t know any French at all besides Borjour, though after being here awhile I know more. The city itself is huge! Not only huge but not the cleanliest I’ve ever seen. I thought London had its bad parts but all over Paris there is graffiti and tags, and much more garbage even though they have garbage cans almost on every block. The culture here is much different also; not as friendly as I had expected. The men are very forward (hitting on me a lot made me realize this lol) and not so nice looks whenever I didn’t say something correct or when I was with someone and we like took too long to order or something. And not everyone is like this but there was enough for me to be like, why? You are just another huge city ya know? And yes they have amazing scenery and who knows how many museums, but they didn’t have to have the attitude they did. Our first day in Paris was an early one at 8:00 meeting at the Opera house and going on a walking tour! And I wasn’t completely excited for me up this early and having to walk about 5-6 miles but after it started I was very interested and glad we did it. My tour guide had a great attitude and seemed to know a lot about the city. We started at the Opera house learning about how and when it was built and different things about it. It had three main purposes while it was being used; for performing arts, choreography and music but also the more secret thing that went on there which was congratulate the dancers with gifts such as expensive jewelry and receiving sexual favors in turn. It wasn’t a sort of prostitute house but it was just something that happened and only a few rich men were able to be a part of it. I really wish we could have gone inside because just seeing the outside with statues of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart made me so jealous that I couldn’t see the inside where they had played one day. We learned about Napoleon the I and III, King Edward the 8th? I think, and got to see Notradam Cathedral was absolutely gorgeous, and went to the Latin quarter of Paris. We walked all over Paris all day and weren’t finished there!

After our walking tour a group of girls and I went to Sacred Heart and a place where these artists paint and draw all day. And oh my gosh are they good! First we go up hundreds of steps, see this beautiful basilica, looking out over Paris from the tallest point of the city, and see artists painting pictures I would pay lots of money for was surreal and amazing! I was totally wiped but didn’t care at all haha. On our way back to the hostel we found Moylan Rouge and the street that has too many sex shops, but I guess every city has its issues lol. We made it back for dinner, which was a huge step up from the Generator’s food which was nice, and slept in a bed already made for us in the great city of Paris!

Bordeaux Adventure!

Days 11-15 February 6-15th, 2011:

While planning this trip I would have never thought of coming to such a beautiful place: Bordeaux, France. It is filled with culture, college kids, amazing food (though most of France is), and very nice people or at least the ones I was with ;). I went on this adventure with two other girls on our trip Charlee and Ally and we were on our way to meet and stay with Charlee’s friend Loïck, very French name I know! On our way to Bordeaux was one of the more... difficult parts. We had to catch a train from St. Pancras in London to Paris then transfer to a different station to get on another train to Bordeaux. First, while going through security in London, being dark and tall or something, I had a full search of my things and self, I don’ t know why haha. But once we were on our way it was fine. The chunnel goes so fast it didn’t seem like 2 hours even. Then while traveling to the next station, Monparsse (I don’t know if that’s spelled correctly though) the train we wanted to get on, we missed because we had to activate our eurail passes and the guy at the booth said all the trains were full up until the 7:00 pm! And we had told Loïck we would be on the 2:50, well that didn’t happen. We waited till the 3:50 and even though it ‘was full’ we went to the conductor of the train and asked if we could get on anyways. He let us on no problem, only had a pay I think… Euros? And the best part of all, he was so nice to us we got to go to first class. Talk about good luck! Once we got to Bordeaux there was a little wait time trying to figure out how to find Loïck since we had to phone to contact anyone with but using the internet at a café and the very helpful Skype we found him and made it back to his small but adorable studio apartment in the middle of the city! He even made us crepes right when we got there! And I can assure you I will be making many of these when I get home because he taught me and I’m pretty good at it!

Our first official day in Bordeaux was a little lazier one because we were very tired and had stayed up to watch some of the super bowl the night before. Loïck didn’t mind and just wanted to show us some pretty areas in Bordeaux anyway. So after a great breakfast of crepes and Nutella we went around looking at shops, monuments, and other things Bordeaux was known for such as the sea of mirrors. It was a bunch of small fountains with a small amount of water; only a couples inches that reflects the buildings and other things around the area. It was very cold water but we had to go in it anyway, it’s not every day you’re in Bordeaux walking around in a pool in winter ;). That night we met up with some of Loïck’s friends Sara and Charlotte at a wine bar! I don’t remember the name of the place but it was adorable! It had velvet walls, a random assortment of chairs, and even trees and other plants in the building just hanging over you. It had a lovely atmosphere and we spent about 3 hours there only having a glass of wine, some small cakes and chocolate and just talking to each other. In France, that is the thing to do when you are out to eat. It is a very social thing not to just come, eat, and leave. You are there to enjoy your food and drink and talk about thing with the people you are with, which I have noticed I have changed a little in my eating habits and have been taking more time to eat than I normally would have. One of the biggest differences that I have noticed in most of Europe is the coffee sizes because coffee is usually offered after every meal as part of the custom. You usually get just a shot or two of espresso and some sugar to add and milk if you want. But it is a cute, tiny cup that people could take an even a half hour to enjoy – just because they can! It’s awesome!

Our second day in Bordeaux we had plans to go to Archecon and to the beach because it was in the upper 60’s and free to get there so why not! And I’m so so so glad we did because I had a great time walking along the beach and in the sand. Just thinking that if I was home I’d be inside in a blanket and here I was walking in sand and in the sun all day. The water was a little cold to be walking in but I had to try. Other than enjoying some pizza and coffee at a restaurant we were on our way home and very tired once again. It was this night I actually got to talk to some family members and friends back at home.

One of the best days of being in Europe so far was on Wednesday, the day before we had to leave. We had plans for lunch at Sara’s house, who lives with her grandma, then dinner reservations at an authentic French restaurant. (Once I find where I put the business card I will give the name of the place because it was incredible food!) But first, lunch at Sara’s! We did not know what to expect besides that her grandma didn’t speak English, at all. But once we got there we saw what a great lady she was even if we didn’t know what each other was saying! Frist we had some raw salmon with lemon, and different spreads on small pieces of bread – caviar, a pâté that was quite salty but good, and another one with crab on it. Along with this of course there was a very good dessert wine which I should’ve got the name of but didn’t want to take a picture of during lunch lol. After this we had a dish with another type of fish in it, another course that was a sort of a small lasagna crab cake, then some cheese and bread, then crepes were brought out for dessert with ice cream, and coffee after. I was SO full I thought I wasn’t going to be able to fit anything else in my stomach that night! It was one of the best meals I have ever had and he was so sweet about it and later that night we were told she had a great time so I’m so glad we were invited! It is truly a gift to meet some of the people I have like Sara and her grandma. That night was still around the corner and although I had eaten so much earlier by 11:00 when we were eating I was ready for more anyway! I wasn’t going to get that chance again anyway. This small but adorable restaurant is hidden in some alley somewhere and you need reservations because it is sought after and not that large. Sara had been there before and got a big table for us 6 to have a wonderful night! The owner is also the waiter and part of the culinary work. I didn’t see who else was in the back but his wife. For my appetizer I had an amazing salad, and I know ‘it’s just a salad Katie’ but no, this cook/owner/waiter is amazing and I have never had a better salad. It had some sort of balsamic mixed vinaigrette with greens and beef or port hash (my mouth is watering right now it was so good!) For my main course I had some of the best filet minion ever with more salad and in a cranberry/date sauce with some cheesy potatoes on the side. I wasn’t sure if I could eat it all but I did and it was amazing lol. But wait there’s more! After that was a beautifully arranged type of cheese with caramel. I didn’t get any but almost everyone else couldn’t eat there so I was able to try it and loved it anyway! You’d think that is a strange mix but it was really good! And for the best part – dessert!! I was debating between getting crème brule and some other amazing dessert . I went with the second one and was soo glad I did. Since I was dumb and didn’t bring my camera that night to take picture of everything this is just a picture off Google but damn it is good!! I didn’t get the coffee because my stomach felt like it was about to burst but I didn’t care because I had eaten some of the best food in my life and had a great time with new friends! We walked back around one in the morning and slept very well to say the least. We left with a few tears the next morning on our way to Paris and our next stop on the adventure around Europe!

Welcome Collect!

Day 10 Feb. 5, 2011:

One of my favorite days in London, and my last day sadly, was the Welcome Collect Museum dedicated to Henry Collect and his random collections of things. It had three parts that I went to at least. The exhibits were High Society, Medicine Man about Henry and his collections, and New Medicine which was very cool. High Society was about all different kinds of drugs and their history, how and why they were used, where they came from, and many examples of different ones through videos, pictures, and other things. It was very very interesting. One of the things I really enjoyed learning about and trying was called the ‘Dream Machine’ where you would close your eyes for a few minutes and after a while you were supposed to have the feeling like you were hallucinating. I didn’t sit there long enough to see if it really worked or not but it tied in with our studies because one of the only reasons it works it because you are suggested that you will feel ‘high’ or like you are hallucinating. If you believe and think you will be, then more than likely you will. It is a pretty simple concept and we use it every day without even realizing it sometimes.

In the Medicine Man exhibit there were different items that Henry collected including vases, chairs, phallic objects and statues, a few pieces of skin with tattoos on them still, Napoleon’s tooth brush, old paintings, drawings, writings, other different statues or gods or deities from different parts of the country or world, tools, and many more things. Off to my favorite exhibit though! I really enjoyed being in the New Medicine Exhibit. It talked about the human genome and genetic makeup, how societies have changed food intake and body size, and other random things for evolution and prescription drugs. It amazes me how someone went through the whole human DNA sequence and found out every little ribosome. I was looking through one book and just thinking that they found this, but everyone is still completely different. It’s pretty humbling! There were two interactive things we could do also in this exhibit, which who doesn’t want to do! One was comparing your face to other people’s faces that had gone through the exhibit before. It would show you the average face and warp yours, usually turning out to make you into a gargoyle or something and then adding your face to a conglomeration of faces creating one that resembled a man and a woman to say the least. The other was creating your own bio-identity symbol, which I have a picture of below. It takes your age, height in cm, finger print, and eye color (which was so hard to actually get I feel with the camera they had) and they put all those things together to create a symbol, no ones being a like! One of the other things I did was draw a picture for the wall; it was just coloring random things so nothing worth taking a picture of lol. If anyone ever goes to London this is a must see museum! I had never even heard of it before but I really enjoyed learning about all the things I did and could’ve spent much more time there. Plus they have a kick-ass book store; I need to invest in a nook or something because there are too many interesting books in the world. :)