Video from Today

We made a video when we were walking back from France into Germany! (see previous entry)

"Breakfast in Germany, Lunch in France, Dinner in Germany"--Jon Salvilla

Today Jon got his visa status fixed so he can finally leave Germany, and we celebrated by going to France for the day.

We left Freiburg at 1:30 and took the train to Breisach, Germany, which is basically as close as you can get to the border without being in France. From there, it was a 6km walk to Neuf-Brisach, France, which he chose because it was designed by the famous engineer Vauban, which is also the name of the area where Emily and Mitch live. It is an old fortified city that is completely circular and the pictures of it from far away look really cool. It was kind of a sketchy walk there because we went the wrong way and ended up walking down a highway in knee high grass for most of it. I was afraid the cops were going to come and arrest us or kick us out of the country or something, but thankfully that didn't happen. We had no map or anything and stopped a few times for directions but everyone was really nice and helpful.

We finally made it to Neuf-Brisach around 3:00 and stopped by the tourist information to get a map and see what there was to do, and more specifically, find out where we could eat. Turns out that there is only one restaurant in town and it was closed, so we ended up going to the only place that was open, which was called "Killian's Pub." An Irish pub in France! They only had 3 things on their menu but we were able to get some Alsatian food there: a very thin crust pizza with just cheese, pieces of bacon, and onions on it. It was actually really good. After that we walked around in circles for a bit before realizing that there was nothing to do there, and everything was closed anyway, so we decided to walk back to Germany. It was ok though, because the whole experience and adventure of it all was fun in itself. We went the right way this time where pedestrians could actually walk and it was so cool just enjoying the French countryside and thinking about how we had breakfast in Germany, lunch in France, and were going back to have dinner in Germany again.

Check out the rest of my pictures here!

"I got ketchup on my sunglasses!"--Emily Lines

Last night I had my first experience of watching an overdubbed movie in a theater. We saw "Bis Spaeter, Max" which in English is called "Love Comes Lately" and it was kind of a terrible artsy film, but they did film a scene in Springfield, MA which was cool. We walked into the theater and it was hilarious. There were only about 10 rows with 5 seats in each row and a tiny screen. We had to sit in the second row because the whole place was full of old people. I have never sat that close to a movie screen before. We were definitely the youngest ones in the theater by about 30 years.

Today Todd, Mitch, Emily, Jon, and I decided to go to the soccer game. The weather was supposed to be bad but actually turned out really nice, so we took the crazy tram to the stadium and bought tickets there. Me and Emily were very excited about our tickets and took a picture, not knowing that Mitch and Jon were going to be creepy in the background, but it is too hilarious not to share. We also decided to take a group picture but Jon was creepy in that one too. I told him I was going to post it on here anyway. So, we scoped out our standing spots EARLY, but crazy German soccer fan hooligans kept trying to take over. We stood our ground though and enjoyed an exciting (yes, the game was actually exciting!) 3-2 Freiburg victory. Thankfully, the weather was a lot warmer than the last game we went to, although standing on the concrete for a few hours is definitely rough on the back! The best part about soccer games is all the chants and songs that the fans sing the whole time. It sounds corny, but it really gives you a sense of pride about living in Freiburg. I wish we knew the words and could have sang along, but it was also fun just to watch everyone waving their flags and getting excited.

Tomorrow is my last day of vacation. I haven't been inside a classroom (minus my language course) since December 10th. I'm not sure what to do with myself!

"I'm just trying to put out your candle so mine can burn brighter"--Mitchell Holthaus

I haven't updated too much this week, but that's because there is nothing going on. The weather was beautiful for a few days, but the past two days it has been raining. Regardless of the rain and cold weather, we went out for ice cream last night which is always fun.

This is my last weekend before classes begin and I'm having trouble coming to terms with that. I haven't been inside a classroom since December so it's hard to imagine going back to school now. It seems like so long ago and so much has happened since then. Classes start Monday, but I don't have anything until Tuesday morning: literature in the Weimar Republic. Wednesday I have two classes in English: International Trade, Market Integration, and the EU, as well as Business Cultures. Thursday I have two courses taught by the language course program here. One is called Germany and Europe, and the other is Regional and Cultural History of the City and University of Freiburg. I have also already registered for fall classes at Mt. Holyoke, and it still seems as if that is more definite than what I'm doing here.

Also, at the grocery store all of the Easter chocolate is 50% off, and I'm pretty sure there is nothing better on Earth than 50% off German Easter candy!

It looks like this is going to be the last day of nice weather in Freiburg, tomorrow it is supposed to rain and be cold again.

Today I had to register for German classes. We had to go in person and take a number which seems totally crazy to me. I was number 14, but it still took over an hour and a half until I got to go in, just to register for one class! Nuts.

I've also noticed more tourists in the area and more people speaking English. Weird.

Back In Freiburg

Saturday the 11th was an extremely long day. I was up at 5:30am to check out of my hostel. I had to walk about 15 minutes from the hostel to the main train station in Florence, where I took the train 4 hour train back to Rome. Once I was there, I tried to take the 5 Euro bus back to the airport, but couldn't find it anywhere, and flustered and worried about making check-in on time, I ended up spending 30 Euro on a cab. That was a 40 min ride and I got to the airport very early, but felt a lot less stressed so I guess it was worth it. I took an hour and a half flight on Easy Jet from Rome to Basel, Switzerland, and I can officially say that was the first time I almost threw up on an airplane. The last 10 minutes were so turbulent that when we finally landed, everyone clapped because I'm pretty sure no one thought we were going to make it.

The airport in Basel is really cool because it's half in Switzerland and half in France. I walked over to France and caught the 1 hour bus back to Freiburg. I was SO excited to be back in Germany, I could hardly stop smiling the entire bus ride, especially when we drove by my dorm on the way to the main train station. From there I had to take the 10 minute tram back to my dorm. I didn't get back until almost 6:00pm but I finally felt like I was home, and I loved it. Immediately, from the short walk from the tram stop to my room, I ran into a bunch of people that I knew and stopped to chat with everyone. The weather is suddenly gorgeous, sunny, and 70 degrees now in Freiburg, everyone is outside all the time, and everything is so green! It seems as if so much has changed while I was gone. That night Jon, Todd, and I went over to Mitch's place to eat dinner, watch a movie, and catch up on the past two weeks. It was a great way to spend a Saturday night.

Yesterday was Easter, and we all decided to get dressed up and go to Mass in the famous Muenster cathedral in the center of town, because what could be more cool than Easter Mass in an 12th century cathedral? I understood most of what was going on (except for the fact that it was a Catholic mass) and thought it was really interesting that the priest spoke about President Obama and Mr. Change when he was delivering his sermon. After church, we all went out to eat at an Italian restaurant (because clearly I haven't eating enough Italian food in the past week) and it was delicious, waaay cheaper than Italy, and a lot of fun.

Last night Todd, Jon and I went back to Mitch's for "Easter dinner", but none of us had any food and no one knew how to cook, so we made pasta again and tried to plan out all the fun stuff that we're going to do this semester. Classes begin a week from today, which is nuts, because everyone at home only has a few weeks left.

Now I am officially all caught up on my adventures in the past two weeks! If you want to see more photos, here are the links:

Paris
Paris/Rome
Florence

Florence

Florence was exactly how I always pictured Italy to be in my head. Tiny narrow streets, gorgeous churches, and bustling open markets. The hostel that Nikki, Amber, and I stayed in was amazing and had a swimming pool, a spa, a gym, 2 bars, free 15 minutes of Internet for everyone staying there, and amazing views of the city.

It seems as if all the college students in America are studying abroad, and all of them decided to spend their spring break in Florence! We saw so many American college students walking around and speaking English that you'd think we were back in the states! We spent the night exploring the town and of course, eating more delicious Italian food in outdoor restaurants. Interesting is that in Italy you don't tip, but instead are charged for the tables, the napkins, the plates, etc. There is usually a cover charge when you sit down between 1 and 2 Euro.

The next day my roommate from first year, Laurel, took the train from Bologna, where is she studying, to visit me in Florence. We spent the day walking around, catching up, and taking in all the sights. I'm not exaggerating when I say I must have walked at least 10 miles every day for the 2 weeks I was gone. We went to Dante's house which was disappointing, to Santa Croce, which contains the tombs of people like Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, and other important Italians, and saw a famous bridge where all the gold shops are. I am an idiot and brought the USB cord from my camera instead of the charger, so I don't have pictures of anything after my first day in Florence (which is why I am stealing them from my friends!). Supposedly, Italy also has amazing hot chocolate (although I was skeptical after already having the world's best hot chocolate in Paris) and after dinner on the second night, Amber and I went to a cafe to get some. I got mine with chili pepper and it was so thick that I had to eat (drink?) it with a spoon. DELICIOUS!!

The third morning in the hostel we decided to get the "all you can eat" 5 Euro breakfast, which was a HUGE ripoff, but we ended up meeting a guy there, Steven, who is also studying abroad in Germany this semester, and together with Amber and Nikki, we took the train to Pisa for the day. There is nothing to see in Pisa except for the leaning tower and it was hilarious getting there and seeing all the tourists from all over the world taking pictures trying to hold it up. We took tons of hilarious pictures at the Leaning Tower and got ice cream in town afterward before heading back into Florence.

That night, the four of us climbed up a hill to see what was said to be the best view of Florence at night. It was gorgeous, and off in the distance there was a lightening storm so every once in a while the sky would light up with a bright flash, although most of the time it was from someone's camera.

Walking back to our hostel, it was so hard to believe how fast the past 2 weeks went by. I had so much fun going out and seeing the world. I met so many people in so many different cities, tried new foods, and even picked up a few words of French and Italian (which really can get you a long way). By the end of the trip I was tired, dirty, and sick/allergic, but I had so much fun and it's something I'll never forget.

Rome

Apparently in Germany Easter Monday is just as big of a deal as Easter Sunday and nothing is open! I am dying of boredom! So I will update on my adventures in Rome.

Amber and I took a 2 hour flight from Paris to Rome on the morning of April 5. The atmosphere upon our arrival was completely different than that of Paris. The first thing we noticed was how friendly everyone was and how everyone spoke English just as fluent as us. We took a bus to our hostel and were greeted by the nice woman at the front desk who helped us with everything we needed and even gave us good lunch recommendations. We set out to explore the town before Amber's two other friends were going to meet us in our hostel later. It was then that we got our first real Italian gelato, and proceeded to order some every single day for the rest of the time we were in Italy. Yes, it really was as good as they say!

Everywhere in Rome we noticed these weird fountains that just ran water all day long. We weren't sure what they were for, but later discovered that they are drinking fountains and that the water in Rome is so clean that people fill their water bottles from them all the time.

After we met Amber's friends Nikki and Allison, and they were settled into our hostel room for the night, we went out to dinner. This is one of my favorite stories from Rome. In the restaurant, the waiter gave us some bread and after we ordered, he came back out with some oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper, but didn't give us a plate to put it on. Amber went and stole one from another table next to us and we sat there enjoying our first Italian meal in a real Italian restaurant, dipping our bread in the oil and talking about our travels. Whenever the waiter came back, he would look at us funny but never said anything. I found out a few days later that dipping bread in oil is unheard of in Italy, it was supposed to be for Amber's salad! We also sadly discovered that there is no garlic bread, meatballs, or Italian dressing in Italy either.

The next morning we walked around all of Rome. We must have walked at least ten miles. We started off at the Coliseum which absolutely blew my mind. It was huge and so well preserved, and I couldn't believe that we were standing in the place where ancient Romans met so many times for so many different events! We also saw the Vatican, the Trevi fountain, the Spanish steps, everything. The weather was hot, sunny, and perfect and we were totally exhausted by the end of the day.

In the middle of the night on April 6th, I awoke at 3:30am to feel everything shaking. I was scared and confused, and heard people shouting outside our hostel, I was but so tired from our long day of walking that I fell right back asleep as soon as the shaking ended. I completely forgot about it until the next morning when the guy working at the front desk asked us if we had felt the Earthquake. I had no idea of the extent of it until a few days later, since I wasn't on the Internet too much and can't understand Italian TV. There was an aftershock the next day that we also felt.

I really liked Rome, it was a busy little city with ancient ruins scattered throughout. The people were nice, the food was amazing, and the weather was awesome. I had really bad allergies the third day and spent most of the it inside my hostel coughing, sneezing, and trying to get rid of my sinus headache. We said goodbye to Allison, who was headed to Budapest, and on the 7th, Nikki, Amber, and I took the 4 hour train up to Florence.

Paris

I'm finally back to updating my blog, I apologize for the long hiatus but it's hard to write in little internet cafes when there is a timer counting down the minutes you have left on the internet. I'm going to separate my travel stories into different entries so they don't get too long.

I left March 31st for Paris and took a 5 hour train to get there. I arrived around 10 at night and was immediately culture shocked when my taxi driver dropped me off at a corner and pointed in both directions, talking a mile a minute in French. Luckily I found my hostel, but even that was a mess because the guy didn't/wouldn't speak English to me and couldn't understand why I didn't show up with the other 2 girls I was staying with (they were coming from Denmark, I was coming from Germany, what's so hard to understand about that?). He basically gave up and let me into my room so it was all good.

Paris was absolutely amazing and I loved it. We bought a week long Metro pass and were able to see the entire city. We did all the touristy things: like buying baguettes, visiting the Eiffel tower, and taking photos of the aforementioned. We went to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa and listen to classical music performed by local musicians throughout the exhibits, saw Notre Dame, and had our breath taken away by Versailles. One of my favorite memories was going into a fancy restaurant and ordering the "World's Best Hot Chocolate" which was pure milk chocolate melted into a cup with whipped cream. It was absolutely amazing, but so rich I could barely finish my cup.

My friend Amber, who I was traveling with, had a friend who was studying for the semester in Paris, and she really helped us out by showing us the non-tourist side of Paris. It's true that if you don't speak French, the French won't speak to you and we even had trouble getting served at restaurants because they heard us speaking in English. The weather was warm and gorgeous the entire time and we spent afternoons napping in parks and eating ice cream.

The last two days (of the 5 total we were in Paris) we had to change hostels and moved from the center of the city to a quiet little suburb 20 minutes outside of Paris called Bry-sur-Marne. Our hostel was actually a small apartment complete with a kitchen and TV! It was a relaxing change of pace compared to the big city, and we totally loved it.

April 5th was our last day in Paris. I really loved the city life a lot and it was a huge change from studying in a small town like Freiburg, although I'm glad that Freiburg isn't as touristy. I was surprised by how nice everyone dressed and how much even knowing a few words of French, like merci and bonsoir helped me get by. I'll definitely be returning to Paris someday, but we were off to Rome!

Happy Easter!

(Us in our Sunday best going to Easter Mass at the cathedral in Freiburg)
Updates from my traveling adventures coming soon, just wanted you to know I didn't forget about this blog!!