21 January 2010

January Travels: Part 2

 Part 2: Berlin, Nurenberg, Munich, and Füssen (for Neuschwanstein Castle!)



Then we went to Berlin. Berlin was an interesting city. I mean, it is the capital of Germany, which as a capital, should present a great place, right? Well, I liked the city, I might have to go back one day and give it another chance, but for the most part I thought the city was filled with a lot of crazy homeless people and tons of people still stuck in the punk rock era. Okay, I mean, I grew out of that phase freshman year of high school haha! Got to see the Berlin Wall, the part that still is standing that divided East and West Germany or Communism and a free world. Such a crazy thought. The city was kind of ugly for the most part. Don’t get me wrong, it had a good deal of cool historical buildings, but I didn’t get a good feel of character from the city. Then again, thanks to Hitler, most of Germany was bombed out. Made me kind of sad for the country, because almost every historical German site we went to, they noted that most of it was reconstructed after heavy bombing during WWII…so sad to think that because of one crazy man, almost all of Germany’s physical history has been erased. Weird thought to me. Funniest moment of bar hopping was in this city though. We went to a bunch of random bars and a few gay bars. I was drunk and chatting it up with the bar tenders to get good advice on where to go. Got free shots for us out of it, good conversation and good laughs. We then took the U-Bahn, which is there metro home and we both freakin’ fell asleep on the metro! It ended and the driver woke us up and we left and realized we were like 8 stops past our hostel! HAHA. So we hailed a cab and when I paid the woman, I was so drunk I thought it only costed 1euro for that whole trip and I was like ‘fuck France! Germany is so cheap!!! I’m moving here!” HAHA. And Tyson was like….noooooo, you paid her 11euro! She gave you change! LMAO….ahhhh….my drunk mind, ill never know ;)


(Currywurst: Berliners love this stuff! It's basically curried ketchup on a bratwurst with fries haha, and of course a German beer to wash it all down!)


(Standing on either side of the Berlin Wall: This year is the 20th Anniversary of it falling...on the left, freedom, on the right, East Berlin & communism)


We then headed for Nurenburg. It was a really beautiful city. TONS of things to do. We did lots of random museums, walked around the old castle, ate my first super german dinner: tons of sausages, sourkraut, mustard. MMMMMM. So good.



(Sausage sampler and a dark beer: Sooo good)

Then we headed to Munich, capital of Bavaria! This is where they have the real Oktoberfest everyyear and drink from the giant 1 liter stein mugs and wear leeterhosten (sp?) Haha. We only spent one night here as a half way point to our next city. I wasn’t worried though, we were coming back for another actual full day after our castle trip.


  (Haufbrauhaus: Famous beer hall and Oktoberfest brew house! Now THAT is a beer and THAT is a REAL pretzel! mmmmm)

We headed FARRRR to the southern part of Germany in Bavaria to a small town called Füssen, closest village to the castles I have been DYING to see. It is called Neuschwanstein…. A castle that was actually built by the last true King of Bavaria in the late 1800’s, construction stopped in like 1915. He died before he could complete the castle. There are over 300 rooms in the castle and only about 30-50 are complete! CRAZY! This castle is called the ‘fairytale castle’ because it looks straight out of a story book! It was SOOOO magical. As a matter of fact, the Disney Princess castles are modeled after this actual castle. Super cool huh? I loved this one. And, it is settled right at the foot of the French Alps, looking out over the vast forest and mountains. There was snow every where and some fog too, made it really quite beautiful. Sadly they had a quite strict no picture policy inside the castle...and believe me, I was so incredibly saddened by that. The interior was nothing but whimsical extravagance. Example: King Ludwig II's bed frame, elaborately carved wood, took four full time wood craftsmen 6 years to carve it. Just put yourself in that mindset and then expand that into making an entire castle!

 


(This is the view from King Ludwig II's bedroom...amazing)

Well everyone, that is all from Part II, I will post Part III in a few days, don't wanna overwhelm you with reading =)

Bisous
 

15 January 2010

January Travels: Part 1

New Years Eve in Paris, Bruges, & Amsterdam:


So basically my travels this month were really really great! It was so great seeing Tyson again after so long not seeing anyone from home. Having someone from home visit really makes this whole experience not feel like a big dream. Someone from home getting to see my life here was a really nice feeling.

OKAY, back to my recent travels. Okay, so Tyson’s flight got in around 10am and I went to pick him up, looking super good I might add and it was super cute when he came out of the arrival area, looking all excited and stuff. I was as well.

I then took him right to Paris and dropped his big bag off at a friends apartment near the Eiffel Tower (PRIME LOCATION btw! We spent new years eve pre-partying there before we went to the Eiffel tower to watch the light show at midtnight. SO perfect). He was super jet lagged but I insisted that we press on with seeing stuff lol. I showed him the Seine (the river of course), Notre Dame, the Latin Quarter, Moulin Rouge, The Eiffel Tower (of course!), where they do Fashion Week and the Chanel Shows, Champs Elysee, etc. basically ALL the touristy stuff that I personally STILL love to see. I don’t care how many times I see the Eiffel Tower, it still get so energized and excited.

Okay so for new years eve we spent it at the Eiffel Tower, yes it was wonderful. Kind of insane though after midnight. A few fights broke out but there were TONS of police there anyways so we avoided the area and let the cops handle it haha. Needless to say, had lots of wine and champagne. How many people can say they have spent new years eve in front of the eiffel tower? I CAN! =)

Morning of the first, freakin new years day man, we left on a high speed train (love these things, they go like 175-200 miles per hour, gets you places in no time) to Amsterdam. It connected in Bruxelles Belgium so we decided to take  a stop off in Bruges, which is famous for its beer (Beligans are coo-coo for their beer, like 400 different types!) no clue though. Had a glass or two, walked around the amazingly cute town, bought some Beligian chocoloates from the cutest British woman at her shop who talked our ears off about wanting to write a travel book about LA. It was super cute.





(Belgian Waffel! mmmm...)

 Then we got back on the connecting train and were on our way to Amsterdam! Amsterdam was a really awesome city. Since it was still the first of the year, the city was fairly trashed from the partying the night before, but still it was quaint and super pretty. I will definitely have to go back one day. The canals are super pretty and so are the buildings. EVERYONE in the Netherlands and Belgium speaks seriously perfect English. I was shocked. But everyone was super nice. Wandered around the city more. Went to the Heineken Experience they call it, where they brew the beer and went on a fabulous tour of the brewery and had a few complementary beers at the end in the Heineken bar they have at the end of the tour. I definitely recommend the tour, especially if you are a fan of the beer. It is well worth the 10 or whatever euro we spent on it...similar to the one for Guinness that they have in Dublin (which had an amaaaazing bar at the end).  Saw Anne Frank’s house, even though I thought her book was SUPER boring in high school (haha, im so terrible).



 

Hmmmm what else. I seriously should have kept a journal. Damn. Lol. Oh yeah! So we went to check out the infamous Red Light District with all the legal prostitutes and what not. The whole red light district was a really really odd experience. NO NO, we did not buy anyone, but just walked around the street. There are literally about 100 full length windows facing the street that are lit up with a red or pink light and the girls are standing there in super skanky undies doing little dances, motioning for you to come over, etc. It was so weird to me! I felt kind of unsafe in the area, even thought it is super regulated and there are police all over, I just didn’t like the feeling of being where all the hookers are. Haha. Also, perhaps it was the cake that was making me paranoid..not sure. Lol


(Freakin' maps man... haha!)

So then we headed from Amsterdam to Hamburg Germany. Hamburg is in the northern part of the city. We only had a day to spend there and we got there kind of late because we slept in that morning in Amsterdam lol. Hamburg is appartently one of Tyson’s favorite cities in Germany. Me personally, I didn’t get a good enough feel for Hamburg cuz I thought it was wayyyy to industrial and boring lol. I mean, it is a major business center, but I prefer older more historical places. We did a tour through this old cathedral that was bombed out during WWII and left half standing as a memorial to keeping peace and not way. It was very moving.

Part 2 in a few days =)