I just had a dream

In which my train was actually Thursday night and not Friday morning. I panicked a little bit. But it's actually Friday morning. I'm off to the land of pierogi and wodka (aka Gdansk and Warsaw)!

Pictures and the simple things in life...

Once again I find myself with nothing packed when I am leaving for Poland in about 12 hours. For a whole week. But I like it. Here are some pictures from the soccer game I went to last weekend and Sally's visit. I was so incredibly happy to see her and I couldn't quite comprehend the fact that she was actually here in Berlin with me. Halfway across the world from Frau Schulte's Deutsch Klasse in high school where we sat together every day for 4 years.

At the Hertha BSC game

Outside of Olympia Stadion

Marshmallows and Thanksgiving food at ridiculous prices

Living the German dream...

I have been pretty busy with school lately, I turned in one of my term papers on Wednesday! And I did well on all of my midterms, which I'm very happy about. It's strange because after I get back from Poland, I will only have about a month until I return to California. I have NO idea where the time went. Within the next month, I will be traveling a lot and writing 2 more term papers, ahh! But I am so incredibly thankful to have made such great friends here who I can share my experiences with. And sadly, I broke down and bought a longer winter jacket. Coming from southern California...we do not put that much thought into jackets and socks! Next on my list for tonight: packing and figuring out how to say "I'm sorry" in Polish - my key phrase in every foreign country. On the bright side, my German teacher taught me how to ask for another beer....

Phew!

I feel like I had the longest weekend ever! It was definitely a great one but I was so busy the entire weekend. On Friday, for a project for one of my classes, I went to the Olympic Stadium that Hitler rebuilt for the 1936 Olympic Games. I was amazed at how condensed all the areas were: the actual stadium (where the Bundesliga games are played!), the swimming pool, training fields, hockey center, and May Field were all right next to each other. I guess I have never really been at the site of Olympic Games, but I always assumed that they were more spread out throughout whichever city was hosting them. It was really interesting to read about the history of the complex and what uses Hitler had for it. I was unaware of it, but Hitler was obsessed with architecture and was actually very good at it. I read that when an architect drew plans for the Olympic Stadium, he had a very modern design that would have been made out of all glass. Hitler apparently hated this design and threatened to not show up to the games if it wasn't changed. So another architect improved the existing design by adding natural stone onto the existing plans, making it look much less modern. Another thing that I learned was that Hitler wanted to shake hands and congratulate all the international Olympic champions, but refused to shake US runner Jesse Owens' hand, because he felt that blacks were an inferior race that had an unfair advantage in sports. Instead of publicly refusing to shake Owens' hand (which would have been internationally criticized), Hitler chose to shake none of the champion's hands and just privately congratulated the German champions.


It was very interesting because the next day, I was at the stadium again, but for a soccer game. The vibe was quite the opposite - everyone was drinking, singing, cheering, and sometimes swearing! It did remind me of big football games in America, with all the die hard fans and cheering. It was so much fun to be there and enjoy the game with Berlin's home team Hertha BSC, even though they tied.


Also this weekend, Sally and her sister Brittany came to visit me! I was so excited to see her and I had such a great time visiting with her and showing her around Berlin. I took her to a good Mexican place that I was just told about, called Delores. Let me tell you, there is a massive shortage of Mexican food in Berlin, let alone authentic Mexican! But this place was sooo good, it reminded me of home :]


Good thing that I did a lot of my homework before the weekend because I was going non stop. And I also had to make some purchases to ensure that I wouldn't freeze to death here in Berlin. I would like to say that its the combination of living in southern California all my life and having a naturally lower body temperature, but I think that I just can't handle the cold! I bought a pair of ugly, but amazingly warm wool socks and I'm debating buying another jacket. I really don't want to! I feel like it would be pointless but hopefully my body will start to adjust better and I can suck it up. And then, this Friday I'm off to Poland for a week! I'm very excited because I have never been and it looks like I'm going to be seeing a lot while I'm there with my program.

Ibiza!

Sorry it took me so long to get these pictures up! I haven't had the time to sit down and upload these pictures to my blog. Compared to Italy and Rome, Ibiza was much more relaxing and our agenda mainly consisted of hanging out at the beach, walking around, and enjoying the warm weather on the island! Our hotel was awesome and we got a breakfast and dinner buffet, which was so good! But it didn't have any Spanish food and we always ended eating so much that we wouldn't even want to eat any lunch.

On the first night at dinner we met a cute German couple, Angela and Johann. We actually ended up eating every breakfast and dinner with the two, speaking a mix of German and English. Angela spoke more German than Johann, and Johann seemed like a typical Germany, very reserved and quiet, while Angela was very energetic and talkative. I think they took a liking to us because we reminded them of their own 2 daughters and it was good to practice some of our German!

Ibiza had a beach town feel and it's a pretty small island, but the beaches are absolutely amazing! The water is unbelievably clear and gorgeous. The weather was perfect Socal weather - in the mid 80s! I actually had to buy sunscreen and I know that if I didn't, I definitely would have gotten sunburned! The people there were so friendly and it was so nice  just to relax. We did make it into Old Town Ibiza and did a little bit of shopping. Nothing but beautiful ocean water and glowing sunsets :)

If my Spanish is correct...the beach Calla Compte

I could not get over how pretty the water was!

I think my pale skin is a nice contrast to the blue water

This beach was filled with topless women. Not my favorite.

At sunset at the beach right by our hotel

Our friends Johann and Angela. We hugged instead shaking hands because we're American!

Day drinking at an aquarium on the water? What a wonderful place.

At the beach with Michelle

The water made me so happy!

My favorite beach, Cala Gracio

Purple Rain

Watching the beautiful sunset

Ibiza was a pretty cool place. I enjoyed the fact that the public buses played American Top 40 music...all the time. And the warm weather, it made me homesick for California. Especially when leaving Ibiza, it was mid-80s and arriving back in Berlin it was mid-30s. And today it was COLD. For all of you in southern California, the weather here now is comparable to the dead of winter there.

The Rest of Italy

So after getting all my pictures and sorting through them...here are the some more pictures from Italy. Even looking back at my pictures, I can't believe how much I saw in that short time in Italy and how incredibly amazing it was. I think that everyone should go to Rome at least once in their lifetime.

Michelle and I at the Colosseum

Inside the Colosseum

View of Rome on top of the ruins of the Roman Forum...it was a little windy!

At the Roman Forum

The Roman Forum

Apparently we took a lot of pictures at the Roman Forum

In Vatican City

St. Peters Basilica

Outside of St. Peters Basilica in Vatican City

Delicious pizza at a cute Italian restaurant

At Sant'Agnese in Agone with Maria, an adorable woman who sold us our rosaries

Outside the Pantheon

In front of the Spanish Steps at night

Attempting to eat biscotti with my Limoncello

The wonderful Italian family we ate dinner next to

Duomo in Florence, Italy

First glass of red wine!

A wine tasting/market in the Republic Square in Florence

It was really windy. And cold.

At the top of Mount Vesuvius

I was going to post about Ibiza but my pictures are taking forever to load...I might try again later today or maybe just tomorrow! Enjoy!

Italy - the land of pizza, pasta, and Limoncello?

First of all, I had an absolutely amazing time. I'm still in disbelief of all the beautiful and wonderful things I was able to see in just 1 week. I will start off by trying to give a condensed summary of Italy (with pictures!) and then probably in another post I will get to Ibiza. The 2 themes of this trip were not having a plan and the phrase "well, you would think...". Because we thought we had a plan, but it turns out we didn't have a plan for anything and just went with the flow, which turned out for the best and most things that we thought would make sense, did not at all. For example, you would think that it being mid-October in Rome, that the tourist season would be over and you would think that you wouldn't have to wait 2 hours in line to see the David at Accademia in Florence. But there was a ridiculous amount of tourists and we did have to wait in line for 2 hours, with no ticket. Unprepared, but so worth it!

The Colosseum

After landing in Rome on Friday, we got into the city and got settled in. Straight away we went and saw the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. The Colosseum was pretty incredible, but I enjoyed the Roman Forum better because it was essentially the Colosseum multiplied by 100. There were so many archaeological ruins that were so well preserved, it was amazing!  It was also raining on/off that day and at one point it even poured. After wandering around all day, we happened to stumble upon the Trevi Fountain at night. Besides the absurd amount of tourists there, it was gorgeous! Way prettier at night than during the day. I went and made a wish and threw my coin in! Needless to say, I slept so well that night.

Just arriving in Rome..it just started to pour!

Outside view of the Colosseum

The Roman Forum

Rome's equivalent to the White House

After making my wish!

Trevi Fountain...so beautiful!

Inside Vatican Museum

Saturday consisted mainly of visiting the Vatican City - a tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peters Basilica. Wow. This place is almost indescribable - it is so ornate and filled with priceless pieces of art, sculptures, and architecture. This was one of my favorite places to visit and the money we spent on a private tour to skip the lines and see all 3 things was well worth it! After the Vatican City we wandered around Rome and would literally stumble upon gorgeous churches that usually had small amounts of tourists and were just as incredible as the St. Peters Basilica and other things we had seen. It is truly amazing to see these incredible architectures that were built such a long time ago, before computers, and have them be right smack in the middle of a bustling city. I also bought some beautiful rosaries from an adorable old Italian woman in a church whom we had a great conversation of Italian/Spanish/English (thanks to Michelle's greater knowledge of Spanish) and she ended up stuffing our bags of rosaries with free postcards. I found that Italian people are usually very friendly and warm and we made friends with people all over Italy. That night, we went to this cozy Italian restaurant away from the touristy locations and had a delicious meal. We noticed an Italian family next to us dipping biscotti like cookies into this yellow liquid in a champagne glass. After asking them, we found out its a lemon liqueur called Limoncello that is the strongest alcohol I have ever tasted! Even the tiniest of sips was too much for Michelle and I and we definitely saw them down 2 glasses each of the stuff in addition to their wine and other alcohol. Even though they only spoke Italian and we only spoke English, we still had a great time talking with them.

In a gorgeous hallway in the Vatican filled with tapestries

View from the top of the Spanish Steps

We had bought 2 train tickets on Saturday to Florence and Naples, because they were very cheap and we thought it would be fun to see a couple of other Italian cities. Originally we planned to go to Naples on Sunday and Florence on Monday. But luckily we checked and saw that the David statue (in Accademia in Florence) was closed on Mondays, so at the last minute we switched the train rides around. Both Sunday and Monday we got up around 5 AM to be on the train by 6 AM...I know, we got up earlier on our vacation than we did when we're in school! But I am so glad that we did, because Florence was so beautiful. It definitely had a smaller, more intimate feel than Rome. Everywhere we went, there was winding, narrow streets with cobblestones and beautiful squares with markets and vendors. Never have I seen more stores solely dedicated to leather, shoes, and leather shoes! We stood in line to see the David (Michelangelo's famous masterpiece), which was pretty cool to see. Apparently, same as in the Sistine Chapel, we weren't allowed to take pictures. But I was determined to get at least a picture of myself in it, so we managed to get in a couple of pictures. And we had a tasty Italian lunch (lasagna and bruschetta) sitting besides the Duomo (the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore) while I sipped my first glass of red wine. It was so good, much better than white wine!

I have to climb this?

Then on Monday, we took our early train again to Naples (NapoliSorrento that made me so thankful that I did it. After making our way back to Naples, I could not bear to leave Naples without having a delicious pizza, which is apparently what Naples is known for. Also, on the train ride back, we met a Canadian guy our age who told us that Naples can be kind of a sketchy place, so I'm really glad that we chose to climb Mt. Vesuvius instead of looking around the historic part of town.

View into Mount Vesuvius...it was huge!

At the top of the crater - so windy!

My climbing outfit and a spectacular view of Naples and Sorrento

My favorite angel at Castel Sant'Angelo

I have more pictures coming since at the end of our tour at Vatican City, my camera battery died! But Michelle took a ton of pictures so those will come soon. I know I have used the word beautiful and amazing so many times, but those are the only words I can use to describe my travels in Italy.