Friday, April 10, 2009

germany

so last weekend i went to germany. we flew into hamburg, which we didn't realize was a 3 hour bus ride to berlin, our intended destination. we made a last minute decision to stay in hamburg instead of berlin, which was a really good idea. so we stayed in hamburg for the first day, where we ended up wandering around. we went to a fair, where we ate what we thought would be hamburgers, but turned out to be steak sandwiches. then we tried to find the club where the beatles became famous, but it turned out to be on a street full of sex shops and strip clubs. so ew. and near our subway stop, people were drinking beer at all hours of the day and night, even at 8 am. and the man working at the hostel was one of the most awkward individuals i've ever met..and i should know.
so the second day we took the bus to berlin. in berlin we saw the wall, of course. then went to the tiergarten, which is a huge park. we ended up in alexanderplotz, which is a big square. we walked into a wooden restaurant to eat, and we ended up being basically backstage to a runway show. so while the models prepared themselves to walk outside to the platform, we stuffed our faces with a delicious meal of lamb, berlinershnitzel, asparagus, potatoes, sour kraut, beans wrapped in freaking bacon, beer, and spaetzels. it was quite hilarious. then i bought a grass animal from a stand. and the final thing that happened was there was a very very creepy man on the bus back, who was talking and laughing to himself, knocking on the window, and imitating one of my friends. and jen gable, if you don't like this, feel free to add details ok bye. :)

spring break..long overdue

so..i'm a slacker. a ton has happened since i wrote last.
spring break was the longest consecutive ten days of my life, in ways both good and bad. by the time i got back to florence, i was a little dead. since most of the details are already fading in my head, i'll just write down some of the more general things that happened.
we started our break in paris, which was beautiful. i finally get what all the hype about paris is, although i'm not sure if i could explain it. everything there was just really pretty. the buildings and streets and everything. and every single meal was delicious. we ate so much, but it was worth it. pastries and food with fancy sauces, fondue and...crepes. the crepes were to die for. we saw the eiffel tower, arc de triumphe, walked the champs, went in notre dame, and spent a day seeing versailles. a lot of the minor details are escaping me, though i do remember us getting on the a tour bus once by accident. people were nice to us, despite what we'd been warned, although the fact that we are three polite and seemingly non-threatening girls probably had something to do with it. people also kept thinking we were spanish. speaking of which, our next destination was barcelona. there is a ton of cool architecture in barcelona, done by gaudi. we saw his unfinished church and the park he designed, parc guell. we also sat on the beach for a while. we saw a flamenco show, ape tapas and paella, drank estrella damm. next stop was valencia. saw another flamenco show, ate more tapas and paella to die for. also went to the beach. but valencia was a lot different from barcelona. it was a reeeally pretty city. they had this huge nice park. and they have this series of building that look like they're from the space age. we went into one, a huge aquarium. that was about it, i think. it seems like nothing when it's boiled down, but you better believe we were running around the whole time.