Being in my own room with my own bathroom is amazing! I'm now throwing myself into the job search and, fingers crossed, I won't be hanging around the condo for much longer....
Thursday, October 28, 2010
IM HOME
After flying to Paris I spent a quick night in a hostel then ran to Charles de Gaulle the next morning. Thanks to the transit strike it took one hour waiting in line and then an hour and a half on a bus to get to the airport. I arrived an hour before my international flight and ran to the plane just in time. After hopping through New York I finally landed in PDX and now here I am!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Rome
....has been conquered! (kinda) I had three days in Rome. Day one started with the Colosseum (which is just as impressive as I thought it would be). After about an hour of waiting in line I spent a good 30 minutes walking around inside the Colosseum. Right next to it is the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, where the ruins from ancient Rome are. It's really well preserved and really cool to walk through. It's crazy to think that Roman social, economic, and political life was centered in this little area. I mean they have monuments such as the Tempio di Guilio Cesare, which was built in 29 BC where Caesar's body was burned. Whaaaaat? Then it started to rain and our plans of making it to Vatican City were scrapped. (by rain i mean pour) On day two we made it to Vatican City with everyone else. And by everyone else I mean the thousands of people that came from around the world to celebrate the first Australian person to become a saint. The cool part was that we showed up right in time for Mass, which was given by the Pope. Not so cool was that we couldn't get into St. Peter's church for a while (I guess we had to wait for the Pope to clear out, and at that point thousands of people were there with the same plan as us) Also, I don't know if this is just the American in me, but there were not as many uniformed guards carrying guns as I would have hoped. I mean you have thousands of people in St. Peter's square, along with the POPE, and no snipers in sight. REALLY? I was creeping out my Aussie friend as I combed the crowd every 5 seconds for suspicious people and unattended bags. That's definitely not the most relaxed mass I've ever been to.
On my last day I woke up early to make it to St. Peters again to actually go into the church. Wow. All i can say. It was definitely worth the 40 minute queue to go inside. There are hundreds of people in there taking photos at any given point, but there are two areas that are private. There are confession booths on one side and you have to ask to get behind the rope to do that. They're open to everyone but that way there aren't people taking photos of you as you confess all your sins. There's also a room strictly for prayer, which I went into for a little bit. Being in there, smelling the weird incense, got me all nostalgic for the days when I would be forced awake on Sunday mornings to put tights on and go to church. As I was hanging out in the prayer room, having a little chat with the big man (please don't let my plane to Paris fall out of the sky) this Italian woman started saying "get out" in a loud whisper angry to this couple behind me. I turned around as she began to say it louder and angrier, attracting the attention of the guard. Apparently this man and woman had tried to take photos in the prayer room, and this Italian woman had taken it upon herself to kick them out. May not sound too funny, but the look on their faces was priceless, and when I saw them later in another part of the church (a part where photos are allowed) they had the same face. Terror. Like we just got yelled at in St. Peters by an angry Italian.
One thing I am going to miss BADLY are European clubs. Why? For one thing I love house and techno music so much better. In the States they just take the same top 40 songs we hear on the radio all day and put a beat on it. And what do we do? We dance. Oh wait sorry, we grind. Girls dancing in the states seems to be an invitation for guys to come up behind you -uninvited- and put their hands all over you. With the exception of Italy, European dancing is something that you do on your own unless YOU decide to dance with someone else. I know boys, it's crazy, but you can actually dance without us. Yep, you don't always need to sway behind us to the beat. I love that guys here just go for it, they just have fun and go crazy and sometimes look just as stupid and some girls can look while dancing. It's awesome. And honestly, it's hot!
On a plane to Paris, catch ya later :)
On my last day I woke up early to make it to St. Peters again to actually go into the church. Wow. All i can say. It was definitely worth the 40 minute queue to go inside. There are hundreds of people in there taking photos at any given point, but there are two areas that are private. There are confession booths on one side and you have to ask to get behind the rope to do that. They're open to everyone but that way there aren't people taking photos of you as you confess all your sins. There's also a room strictly for prayer, which I went into for a little bit. Being in there, smelling the weird incense, got me all nostalgic for the days when I would be forced awake on Sunday mornings to put tights on and go to church. As I was hanging out in the prayer room, having a little chat with the big man (please don't let my plane to Paris fall out of the sky) this Italian woman started saying "get out" in a loud whisper angry to this couple behind me. I turned around as she began to say it louder and angrier, attracting the attention of the guard. Apparently this man and woman had tried to take photos in the prayer room, and this Italian woman had taken it upon herself to kick them out. May not sound too funny, but the look on their faces was priceless, and when I saw them later in another part of the church (a part where photos are allowed) they had the same face. Terror. Like we just got yelled at in St. Peters by an angry Italian.
One thing I am going to miss BADLY are European clubs. Why? For one thing I love house and techno music so much better. In the States they just take the same top 40 songs we hear on the radio all day and put a beat on it. And what do we do? We dance. Oh wait sorry, we grind. Girls dancing in the states seems to be an invitation for guys to come up behind you -uninvited- and put their hands all over you. With the exception of Italy, European dancing is something that you do on your own unless YOU decide to dance with someone else. I know boys, it's crazy, but you can actually dance without us. Yep, you don't always need to sway behind us to the beat. I love that guys here just go for it, they just have fun and go crazy and sometimes look just as stupid and some girls can look while dancing. It's awesome. And honestly, it's hot!
On a plane to Paris, catch ya later :)
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Vienna & Florence
I had a great time in Vienna, it's such a beautiful city! if you remember, I had met a guy on the train from Nice, France to Barcelona who is studying in Vienna, (a couple months ago) and he invited me to stay with him while I was there. I spent the first day just walking around and taking in the city. I found a Starbucks and drank coffee while people watching outside :) Once my friend heard about this he immediately took me to a proper Viennese coffee house, but don't worry I won him back with a Starbuck's peppermint mocha at the end of my visit.
Some of the things I loved about Vienna: the city is super clean, people were relatively nice to me, and the opera house shows the operas live on a huge screen outside the building every night for free. They have tons of chairs outside and anyone can come sit and watch a fabulous opera for free! We stopped by one night to watch a little bit of one, and it is such a cool thing that they do that!
I took the night bus (night bus!!) from Vienna to Florence, Italy, my next stop. I arrived in Florence at 3:30 in the morning, and had already booked a room at a hostel for that night. The bus had been so crowded I was definitely ready to sleep....I roll up the hostel, buzz reception, and wait. After a baffling conversation with who I assumed was the night receptionist (I just kept repeating my name and "I have a reservation") I stood at the gate in silence for a couple minutes waiting for her to buzz me in when an old man in a robe and slippers comes busting out of the door to my left. He starts shouting at me that it better be an emergency because it's 3 o'clock in the morning. (Keep in mind that all of this is in broken English with extreme hand motions) I tried to tell him that not only does it say online that they have 24 hour reception (one of the reasons I even booked them) but I sent a follow up email letting them know that I would be arriving after 3am so they didn't give away my bed. He shouted some more, led me into a room, took my passport, and told me to pay in the morning (again reminding me of the hour) the next miring i paid, got my passport back, and tried (in my nice voice) to tell a different receptionist that they need to change the "24 hr reception" part of their website and perhaps check their business email more than once a week. Strange concept, I know.
Luckily my trip only got better. :) I went to Pisa, hung out with the leaning tower. I ate bunch of gelato. I got to see Craigy and all his friends who are studying abroad. They made me feel like I was in college again :) I also got the chance to see another travel friend who was studying abroad in Florence. We reminisced about Greece while enjoying the restaurant's all you can drink wine policy for students. Heyy ooooh! Overall it was a great little visit to Firenze that reminded me how great it is to hang out with true friends.
One 1.5 hour train ride and 55 euros later and I'm here in Rome!! This is my last stop in Italy and I'm going to enjoy it! I just arrived this afternoon and haven't really done much. The hostel is really a camp ground, and my "bungalow" looks like a trailer. But hey there's a bathroom ensuite so I'm not complaining. Also, there is an alarming number of cats hanging out here. We had our bungalow door open to get some air in here when I first arrived, and a black cat jumped up onto my bed and joined in on my nap. (the photo is on Facebook) I swear I don't mean to be such a cat lady but sometimes it just happens. The worst part was that Im coincidentally wearing my cat shirt today, so my roommate must think I'm a 40 year old spinster. Greeeat.
Tomorrow (Saturday) I'll be taking a 20 minute bus ride followed by a 15 minute metro ride to get down to Rome's city center to start exploring! I plan on taking tons of photos :)
Some of the things I loved about Vienna: the city is super clean, people were relatively nice to me, and the opera house shows the operas live on a huge screen outside the building every night for free. They have tons of chairs outside and anyone can come sit and watch a fabulous opera for free! We stopped by one night to watch a little bit of one, and it is such a cool thing that they do that!
I took the night bus (night bus!!) from Vienna to Florence, Italy, my next stop. I arrived in Florence at 3:30 in the morning, and had already booked a room at a hostel for that night. The bus had been so crowded I was definitely ready to sleep....I roll up the hostel, buzz reception, and wait. After a baffling conversation with who I assumed was the night receptionist (I just kept repeating my name and "I have a reservation") I stood at the gate in silence for a couple minutes waiting for her to buzz me in when an old man in a robe and slippers comes busting out of the door to my left. He starts shouting at me that it better be an emergency because it's 3 o'clock in the morning. (Keep in mind that all of this is in broken English with extreme hand motions) I tried to tell him that not only does it say online that they have 24 hour reception (one of the reasons I even booked them) but I sent a follow up email letting them know that I would be arriving after 3am so they didn't give away my bed. He shouted some more, led me into a room, took my passport, and told me to pay in the morning (again reminding me of the hour) the next miring i paid, got my passport back, and tried (in my nice voice) to tell a different receptionist that they need to change the "24 hr reception" part of their website and perhaps check their business email more than once a week. Strange concept, I know.
Luckily my trip only got better. :) I went to Pisa, hung out with the leaning tower. I ate bunch of gelato. I got to see Craigy and all his friends who are studying abroad. They made me feel like I was in college again :) I also got the chance to see another travel friend who was studying abroad in Florence. We reminisced about Greece while enjoying the restaurant's all you can drink wine policy for students. Heyy ooooh! Overall it was a great little visit to Firenze that reminded me how great it is to hang out with true friends.
One 1.5 hour train ride and 55 euros later and I'm here in Rome!! This is my last stop in Italy and I'm going to enjoy it! I just arrived this afternoon and haven't really done much. The hostel is really a camp ground, and my "bungalow" looks like a trailer. But hey there's a bathroom ensuite so I'm not complaining. Also, there is an alarming number of cats hanging out here. We had our bungalow door open to get some air in here when I first arrived, and a black cat jumped up onto my bed and joined in on my nap. (the photo is on Facebook) I swear I don't mean to be such a cat lady but sometimes it just happens. The worst part was that Im coincidentally wearing my cat shirt today, so my roommate must think I'm a 40 year old spinster. Greeeat.
Tomorrow (Saturday) I'll be taking a 20 minute bus ride followed by a 15 minute metro ride to get down to Rome's city center to start exploring! I plan on taking tons of photos :)
Friday, October 8, 2010
Vienna
I was so sad to leave Prague today! The city is beautiful & everything is cheap!! I did end up going to spinning yesterday, in case you're wondering. And even though I don't know czech, there is something universal about a so inning instructor yelling at the class to push themselves. I knew exactly what he was saying the whole time...it's also been a while since I did a post-drinking workout, which is different from a normal workout. Not only is it harder to begin, and you want to die a little during, but you also sweat out ALL the alcohol that's still left in your body from the night before. That's the key difference.
I spent the night watching a couple reruns of Glee with my Aussie roommates. Amazing. I can't stop watching the B. Spears episode! I didn't leave Prague until 5pm today, so I had the morning to do laundry (best feeling ever) and walk around the city. For those of you who haven't seen my Facebook, it turns out that Oktoberfest didn't succeed in killing my camera, only the memory card. So I can still take photos without the memory card, but only like 15 at a time. I'll look into buying a new card when I have time, for now I'll just take very few photos and immediately transfer them to my iPad.
The bus ride here to Vienna was uneventful, sorry! I had no trouble catching the metro once I got to the bus station here, and it only took about 30 minutes to get to my home for the next 3 days. An Austrian friend from Barcelona is studying here in Vienna and is graciously letting me sleep at his flat. (love free accommodation!) while he's in school tomorrow (haha!) I'll be wandering around the city exploring and taking exactly 15 photos. Then we'll meet up downtown and he's going to show me where the locals hang out, maybe meet some of them. I do know that aside from the tourist spots I'll be watching The Sound of Music while here. Can you believe my friend is from Salzburg and has never seen it???!! Don't worry I've taken it upon myself to fix that.
RG
I spent the night watching a couple reruns of Glee with my Aussie roommates. Amazing. I can't stop watching the B. Spears episode! I didn't leave Prague until 5pm today, so I had the morning to do laundry (best feeling ever) and walk around the city. For those of you who haven't seen my Facebook, it turns out that Oktoberfest didn't succeed in killing my camera, only the memory card. So I can still take photos without the memory card, but only like 15 at a time. I'll look into buying a new card when I have time, for now I'll just take very few photos and immediately transfer them to my iPad.
The bus ride here to Vienna was uneventful, sorry! I had no trouble catching the metro once I got to the bus station here, and it only took about 30 minutes to get to my home for the next 3 days. An Austrian friend from Barcelona is studying here in Vienna and is graciously letting me sleep at his flat. (love free accommodation!) while he's in school tomorrow (haha!) I'll be wandering around the city exploring and taking exactly 15 photos. Then we'll meet up downtown and he's going to show me where the locals hang out, maybe meet some of them. I do know that aside from the tourist spots I'll be watching The Sound of Music while here. Can you believe my friend is from Salzburg and has never seen it???!! Don't worry I've taken it upon myself to fix that.
RG
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Oktoberfest broke my camera
I ended up going with them to Frankfurt for the night as well, then headed to Munich the next morning. Unfortunately Oktoberfest broke my camera, so I have no photos of my own from those 3 days of amazingness.
Right after arriving we went to the Haufbrau house and pounded back a few beers to start the trip off.
Day 1: Haufbrau tent. People standing on tables chugging an entire liter of beer. Chants. Singing. Prosting like crazy. Just general "festing."
Day 2: we didn't realize that the last Saturday of Oktoberfest would be crazy busy (cause were dumb) and by 10:30am all the big tents were full. We chose a small beer garden instead, and it was a good thing we did; within 30 minutes the place was packed and there was a line at the door. I reached a person
al record of 4 liters of beer in one sitting, and I don't think i need to even tell you how obliterated I was. The festing that day was great, and we were all back at the hostel by 5pm to sleep it off. Day 3: woke up at 6am to make it into the Haufbrau tent. Good thing we were there an hour and a half before they even opened. Not. I think the boys wanted to kill me, since we woke up so early but could have simply walked through the front door at 9:30am and gotten a spot. Keith bought liederhosen, and looked like a champion while prosting all our neighbors.
I slept 15 hours in a row in my parents hotel room after that weekend....
And now I'm in Prague!! I did the free walking tour today (great!) to learn all about the history of the city, and tonight I'm doing the pub crawl. But the best part about this hostel and city is that Pilates & spinning are 3 euros!! So I'm going to go down in about 5 minutes for Pilates, and tomorrow will be some kick ass spinning. THANK GOD because these carbs are getting to me! And even though I'm walking all around these cities, sometimes you just need someone to scream at you to pedal faster while dirty rap music plays, ya know?
RG
Saturday, September 25, 2010
in between
I successfully switched hostels, what was it, 4 nights ago? I spent the last four nights on the West End in a comfy little place tucked away in a neighborhood area (although not the nicest area) it feels like I'm living in a little apartment, and I'm able to cook dinner and store leftovers, etc, which is a nice change. I made a meat sauce to go with pasta for about 7 euros and it lasted me all 4 nights. Unfortunately I got sick the first couple days here and did nothing more than sleep and read. Finally feeling better, I spent the last couple of days taking it easy, just walking around to enjoy the sunshine.
Then last night I boarded the night bus to Amsterdam! ( which is where I am now) the bus left at 7:30pm and got in early this morning at 4:30am. It wasn't supposed to get in until 5:45, when I figured I'd only have to wait a half hour for the metro to start running to get to city center and my hostel. I honestly had no idea where the bus was even taking us in amsetrdam, I just figured the central bus station was close to the central train station. I ended up having to walk about 2 hours to my hostel (super fun with a backpack!) and passed out in their lounge area when i finally got in a little after 6am. After being woken up to check in, I went back to drifting in and out of sleep (because although I was supposed to pay for my room at that point, I couldn't go in until 10:30am.) I got into the room, changed my own sheets, and passed out for a solid 8 hours. I woke up, just had a bite to eat, and now I'm drinking Becks in the hostel bar as I finish typing this.
No plans for tonight yet, but I'll prob meet people here as soon as I put away the iPad. Tomorrow I have to wait in the abnormally slow line that is the Amsterdam central ticket counter and figure out how much it's gonna cost me to get to Munich. After Munich I have Prague & Vienna to visit, then down to Italy to see craigy (&Rome) and thennnnnnn people I'm just about done! Now I know the tentative plan was to stay until December, but my brain is kind of turning to mush over here! The intelligent conversation doesn't exist in hostels, which has been awesome the last 3 months, but I'm missing the real world a bit. I was so burnt out when I graduated, I'm so glad I took time completely off to forget about it. And I think this vacation will have helped once I go home, because I'll be completely ready to find a job and start doing something again. But I think I'm just going to enjoy the last month I have here, spend my money like crazy, then come home!!
You probably won't hear from me again until Oktoberfest!!
RG
Then last night I boarded the night bus to Amsterdam! ( which is where I am now) the bus left at 7:30pm and got in early this morning at 4:30am. It wasn't supposed to get in until 5:45, when I figured I'd only have to wait a half hour for the metro to start running to get to city center and my hostel. I honestly had no idea where the bus was even taking us in amsetrdam, I just figured the central bus station was close to the central train station. I ended up having to walk about 2 hours to my hostel (super fun with a backpack!) and passed out in their lounge area when i finally got in a little after 6am. After being woken up to check in, I went back to drifting in and out of sleep (because although I was supposed to pay for my room at that point, I couldn't go in until 10:30am.) I got into the room, changed my own sheets, and passed out for a solid 8 hours. I woke up, just had a bite to eat, and now I'm drinking Becks in the hostel bar as I finish typing this.
No plans for tonight yet, but I'll prob meet people here as soon as I put away the iPad. Tomorrow I have to wait in the abnormally slow line that is the Amsterdam central ticket counter and figure out how much it's gonna cost me to get to Munich. After Munich I have Prague & Vienna to visit, then down to Italy to see craigy (&Rome) and thennnnnnn people I'm just about done! Now I know the tentative plan was to stay until December, but my brain is kind of turning to mush over here! The intelligent conversation doesn't exist in hostels, which has been awesome the last 3 months, but I'm missing the real world a bit. I was so burnt out when I graduated, I'm so glad I took time completely off to forget about it. And I think this vacation will have helped once I go home, because I'll be completely ready to find a job and start doing something again. But I think I'm just going to enjoy the last month I have here, spend my money like crazy, then come home!!
You probably won't hear from me again until Oktoberfest!!
RG
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Alison. 0 Berlin 1
So here I am on day 6 of Berlin...still alive! I'm staying at a hostel that is basically a college dorm: 7 floors of people under the age of 30 & a bar attached. I went on the pub crawl the first night with Genevieve and a bunch of other people that I had just met. Super fun but sadly we didn't last the whole night...we were back at the hostel by 2. We took the next night off, and the day after that I went on the free tour of Berlin. It was a really good tour and I got a little refresher of the amazing history that this city has. The tour went right by the Hilton that we stayed in last time I was here with the fam, and I def got a little sad. As much as I like hostels a nice night in a proper hotel would be AMAZING. I mean room service? A TV? Hell, an actual mattress and sheets that are most likely clean?!
Since the free walking tour I've had many bar nights around the city, and I actually did the pub crawl AGAIN (since I didn't get to the end last time) and I ended up finishing like a champion around 4am. :)
I have met a surprising 3 people from Portland since I've been here!! One was staying in my hostel, the other two I met in Starbucks :) but this is the first time I've run into other people from Portland! Usually I have to tell everyone I'm from California since that's the only west coast state they know, so it was fun to compare our neighborhoods and talk about our favorite bars.
Tonight is my last night in the Generator hostel, and tomorrow I'll be in a quiet hostel on the west end of Berlin near the Tiergarden. Like I mentioned before, a place where I can rent a bike, walk (perhaps jog?!) around the park, and actually cook a few meals will be a nice break before Amsterdam.
And sidenote people, sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself over here, so you should comment if you're reading my blog!! Thanks :)
Xoxo RG
Since the free walking tour I've had many bar nights around the city, and I actually did the pub crawl AGAIN (since I didn't get to the end last time) and I ended up finishing like a champion around 4am. :)
I have met a surprising 3 people from Portland since I've been here!! One was staying in my hostel, the other two I met in Starbucks :) but this is the first time I've run into other people from Portland! Usually I have to tell everyone I'm from California since that's the only west coast state they know, so it was fun to compare our neighborhoods and talk about our favorite bars.
Tonight is my last night in the Generator hostel, and tomorrow I'll be in a quiet hostel on the west end of Berlin near the Tiergarden. Like I mentioned before, a place where I can rent a bike, walk (perhaps jog?!) around the park, and actually cook a few meals will be a nice break before Amsterdam.
And sidenote people, sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself over here, so you should comment if you're reading my blog!! Thanks :)
Xoxo RG
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