Vienna, Poland, and Prague!

Hey oh,

S'up everybody! I write to you from my homeland. aka the Czech Republic. In Prague. yayyy. we arrived at 6pm this evening. so we haven't really done much exploring yet other than to eat. which was good. now we're chilling in the spacious hotel room. fun fun fun. but here's a little description of what i've been up to the past couple of days...

Vienna was AWESOME. i really really liked it. and not just the fact that i sang sound of music songs the entire time i was there.... it was just really beautiful and stuff like bathrooms were free and there was no service charge and the metro was really nice. plus german people and austrians are kind of awesome. i like the language a lot. i could totally see myself living there someday. just gotta learn german! plus the food was good and the hostel that we stayed in was really nice. plus the train station was the nicest thing ever. we ate there a lot. so GOOD. plus there was shopping and so many things to do just in the train station! cool cool cool!

We headed to poland to see the Auschwitz concentration camps. which in one word was just really depressing. and upsetting. so i guess two words. it was a very powerful experience. really mind blowing. everything is still there. the camp, the death camp. even one of the gas chambers. it was a really disturbing tour sometimes. but it was really mind opening and definitely made the entire holocaust even more real for me.

this morning we headed to Prague. on the world's longest train ride. thank goodness we had rented a movie. go casanova. it was fun to watch a movie where we had already visited (it's based in venice) haven't explored prague yet but we've got metro tickets and i'm sure alex will have me up bright and early tomorrow morning to start exploring!

trip is winding down, prague then berlin then back to france to catch my flight back to the US on the 11th! can't wait to see everyone!

Florence, Venice, Budapest, and now Vienna!

Hey everybody,

Sorry it's been such a while. it's been a crazy couple of weeks. LOTS of traveling! i figured i could do a quick update of what i've been up to.

So after my mom left to go back home to the US i headed down to Florence to meet up with Alex and start the european adventure take two! it was a fairly uneventful train ride. he met me at the train station and we headed to find food. italian food is DELICIOUS. i love pasta and i love pizza so pretty much i loved italy. alex ended up buying a leather coat and gloves at the leather market in Florence, i held myself back and didn't buy any boots even though that's what i wanted to do... :)

After Florence we headed to Venice, Italy. It was super expensive, but still really cool! i mean we got off the train and BOOM hey what's up venice!?! there were canals and boats and gondolas and it was just so cool. it though, is very confusing to find your way about Venice. we got turned around a momentarily lost constantly even though we had a very detailed map. we managed to see soooo many churches, (there are a TON) and we went on a gondola ride! so fun! the guy whistled and sang and just was perfect!! even found a sea food market which was fun. it was chilly though, if i ever go back to venice i will definitely be going in the spring or summer!

we took a night train from venice to Vienna. it was fun. we got on the train at 9:05pm. and then played some cards and then went to bed! fun! it was like harry potter but with beds and snoring bunk mates! when i woke up we were in vienna! we spent an hour in the train station in vienna before boarding another train to Budapest, Hungary were we spent new years. it was so different than anything i'd ever seen! the exchange rate is 243 fironts for one US dollar, so everything was really cheap. though unfortunately we didn't get to try any of the local food cause everything literally shut down on the holiday. we ate a a lot of chinese food. i mean A LOT. it was kinda funny actually how much we ate. got to see some of the sights but due to the cold and it being yucky weather, we didn't want to stay outside too much! frost bite is no fun! we found the awesome public baths too late to actually try them which is unfortunate, cause they looked awesome! oh well, there's always next time!

today we got up early, accidentally jumped a tramway, and caught a train back to Vienna were we'll be for the next 3 days until we head to Poland. it's pretty chilly but i really like it so far. the train station is awesome and i like german and germans overall! it's funny cause i speak no german but for some reason i can sometimes understand what they say. alex says it's cause english is a combination of english and french. interesting eh? tomorrow we're off to see a castle and do some window shopping! fun fun!

I hope you all had a wonderful new years and happy 2012!!!

Joyeux Fetes!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!

I wish you all a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year!

Versailles!!!!!!

Bonjour a tout la monde!!

I hope you're all gearing up for an excellent holiday season, Christmas is in only two days!!!!!!!!!! Paris is looking pretty Christmasy. Lights everywhere and today saw what i guess would be described as a day care group that brought a huge group of 4-6 year olds up the eiffel tower wearing santa hats, it was great!

today was a good day in exploring paris. we got up relatively early. headed over to the eiffel tower. thankfully the lines were manageable and we got right up. it's a little freaky to be that high up sometimes but the view is always worth it! last time i went up in the dark so the view was completely different. after that we went and did a little souvenir shopping and then hopped back on the metro to head to Versailles! it should have been relatively simple but the combination of changing zones, branches in the lines, and a really persistent beggar on the made the whole trip a little more stressful than it needed to be. but we managed to get there okay and it was totally worth it. the palace was absolutely stunning. so much gold!!! i've got to get to bed at the moment but i'll post pictures tomorrow!!!!

Merry Christmas everybody!!!!!!

Wine Tasting in Dijon France... YUM

First off: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!

Now on to some pictures from our wine tasting adventures in Dijon, France!

The Vineyards in Dijon, they stretched on for miles!

89 euro bottle of wine. SCORE. So good. Too bad I can't afford a bottle! But i did get to try it!!!!!

Pretty sure this sign says it all.

The second wine cellar had some super old wine bottles in it! it's either really good or vinegar!

Most expensive bottle i could find was 320 euros. Awesome.

Europe travels, Phase One

Hey All!

Sorry about the delay in writing, but things got a little hectic with the end of my program. sob. so sad that it's over. seriously never cried so much in such a short period of time. i think it started around 3 days before the end where i would just be doing something and i would tear up. the farewell dinner was a sob fest. when alex and i went to leave, and the hugs started, that's when the tears started flowing. it was bad. really really sad. but i'm doing better now, probably cause i've left grenoble so i'm not continually reminded that i'm still in france but none of my friends are.

on a more positive note, had a great last couple days with my host family. it was really fun introducing my mom to them and playing translator. it was so sad to leave them. more tears. but i'm now currently curled up under the covers in Dijon France! it's been a LONG trip getting here. we were going to rent a car but then they were just being car rental people and being stupid, so we decided to take the train to Chamonix, which was fine, expect for the fact that our second train was late so we missed our third train and had to hang out in an unheated train station for two hours. but we got there okay, and i was happy just to be inside a warm hotel and take a hot shower. Chamonix was gorgeous. the mountains are huge! it was however, like being thrust into winter. there was no snow in grenoble, there was around two feet in Chamonix. but it was gorgeous none the less. took lots of pictures of its prettiness. the real fun was this morning though when i stupidly got us on the wrong train. Whoops. instead of heading towards Chamonix and down the mountain, i got us on a train towards switzerland.... complete opposite direction of where we wanted to go. we then got off at the next stop like the conductor told us to but it wasn't the stop he wanted us to get off at, we got off at the optional stop and literally stood outside in the freezing cold for the next hour + waiting for the train. it was so cold and my feet felt like blocks of ice. but luckily the train came an hour later, same train actually, with the same conductor who was mortified that we had gotten off at the stop we had. but really i was just so grateful to be inside and out of the elements that i didn't even care that we had made a mistake. i spent the next 55 minute train ride pressing myself into the heater. after that, the rest of our voyage came fairly easily thank god. got into Dijon at 18:20, found our hotel with relative ease and then off to find some dinner!!! more later!

Winding down....

It is so sad for me to write this, but there's only a week and a half left in Grenoble! That's just the rest of this week in classes and then finals next week. SO SAD. I never want to leave, i love it here! and the people i've met and my family are amazing, i will be so sad to leave them! luckily for me, i get to extend my stay here for a little more than another month. because (drum roll....) MY MOM COMES NEXT WEDNESDAY!!!!!!! in case you can't tell i'm just a tad bit excited to see her. there will most definitely be tears and running towards each other movie moment except for it's me and my mother not me and some long lost love. but yes, next wednesday, i will be done with my finals and my mama rolls in! One word: AWESOME!

Finals should of course be super fun. Been writing papers all week. One for my french seminar class and one for my class on the european union. really feels like exam time now!

But (drum roll please) i have some exciting news for all of you.... i'm staying even longer over here! not for another semester unfortunately, (though i would LOVE to do that!) but i am staying until the 11th of january to travel around europe with alex!!! we'll see places such as florence, venice, croatia, Budapest, Prague, Poland, Berlin, and somewhere else. he's staying another semester so he's gonna travel even more once i head home but the two extra weeks i have to travel will be absolutely fantastic! i am beyond excited. can't wait to travel with my mom and then with alex! SO many adventures to be had!!

I am aware that this is the most random post ever and i'm kind of all over the place so i'm going to continue that theme and go off on another direction. Christmas. it's kind of an awesome holiday where ever you go, people tend to get really into it. France is no different. grenoble has this market called the marche du noel, and it's for pretty much all of December and these little booths have taken over all of victor hugo park, all of place grennette and they sell tons of sweet stuff! christmas shopping made easy pretty much. but they sell food too! crepes, sandwiches, candy, hot wine, so many options! and they have a dancing santa bear which really everyone needs in their life so mine is pretty much complete. if you're ever in grenoble around this time, definitely definitely hit up this market. you won't regret it!

Alrighty, i've gotta head, got to go to class now, LAST CLASS BABY! at 10:20am (my time) i will be done with my semester abroad (at least the classes part done...still got finals) ciao!