Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Finally Home!
I finally arrived home today around 5:30pm. My flight was a dreadful 10 hour flight, but I made it through. I got to see the movie "Yes Man", as well as "Gran Turino." They are both good movies. Anyway, for all you looking at my blog this is the latest news. I am probably not going to add a whole lot more to this blog, so thanks for keeping up with me while I was abroad.
Monday, April 13, 2009
France/Switzerland
Sorry for another late post, but I'm getting tired of posting haha. Anyway, France and Switzerland were both great places. I would have to say the Swiss Alps are by far my favorite memory from the trip. I'm also not posting as many pictures this time because the Internet is really bad over here and it gets frustrating. If you really want more, I can edit this post later and add more.
The trip started out in Metz, France. This town had a neat Cathedral and near the area at Verdun, I saw various places where World War I battles took place. After this place, I arrived in Strasbourg, France. This place was fun and had another cool Cathedral to see. The next and most exciting place I got to go to was Wilderswil, Switzerland. The hotel we stayed at was incredible. It had a volleyball court in the back as well as a castle near it that we could go to and climb all over. Switzerland's mountains were breathtaking, and I got to ski on them! There was a part of the mountain that was pure white; all snow and no trees. Switzerland also had probably the best chocolate I have ever tasted. Here's some of the pictures I got of it all:
This is the view from Wilderswil
This is a view from our Hotel that was amazing
View from top of Ski slope. I think I was above the clouds.
Picture I took while taking a break from a ski slope.
After Switzerland, I arrived at Taize. Taize, France is a small village where a monastery can be found. This monastery/Taize community was an interesting experience. We were somewhat forced to live our lives more simply. No electronics, "prayer/praise" time three times a day, and service. It was definitely different than church camp, and it was very neat to meet and talk with French and German people. Before Taize, my idea of a German was blank and naive. After talking with various people from all over French and Germany, I really began to like them. The Taize experience was definitely not for everyone, but it was definitely a place where people from all around the world can come together as one, no matter what their background is or what views they have.
After Taize, I arrived in Paris. Paris was shockingly amazing. In my mind, I thought Paris was going to be a disgusting city full of smokers and trash etc. However, Paris was way cleaner than London and most of the big cities I have visited. I was impressed. The day my group arrived, I went on a fat bike tour that went on through the night. We even got to ride on a boat that went around Paris. The next day, which was the last day of our trip, we were allowed until 6:15 pm to view whatever we wanted to see in Paris. So, that morning I went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa and a few other highlights found in that museum. But I only stayed an hour because I really did not have much more time. From the Louvre, I walked to the Arc de Triumph (the huge arch thing that sits in the middle of a crazy roundabout). After the Arch, I went to the Eifel Tower, ate lunch, and relaxed. It was an extremely long line to go up to the Eifel Tower, so I did not do it. Next, I saw Notre Dame. Notre Dame definitely met up to my great expectations. Even though I sat and watched people, I did not see the Hunchback of Notre Dame. After this I ended the day with a good Nutella and Banana crepe from a random place I found near my hotel. Here are my pictures from Paris:
The Louvre
Me with Nike
Me with Mona Lisa
Me with Venus de Milo
Eifel Tower at Night
The trip started out in Metz, France. This town had a neat Cathedral and near the area at Verdun, I saw various places where World War I battles took place. After this place, I arrived in Strasbourg, France. This place was fun and had another cool Cathedral to see. The next and most exciting place I got to go to was Wilderswil, Switzerland. The hotel we stayed at was incredible. It had a volleyball court in the back as well as a castle near it that we could go to and climb all over. Switzerland's mountains were breathtaking, and I got to ski on them! There was a part of the mountain that was pure white; all snow and no trees. Switzerland also had probably the best chocolate I have ever tasted. Here's some of the pictures I got of it all:
This is the view from Wilderswil
This is a view from our Hotel that was amazing
View from top of Ski slope. I think I was above the clouds.
Picture I took while taking a break from a ski slope.
After Switzerland, I arrived at Taize. Taize, France is a small village where a monastery can be found. This monastery/Taize community was an interesting experience. We were somewhat forced to live our lives more simply. No electronics, "prayer/praise" time three times a day, and service. It was definitely different than church camp, and it was very neat to meet and talk with French and German people. Before Taize, my idea of a German was blank and naive. After talking with various people from all over French and Germany, I really began to like them. The Taize experience was definitely not for everyone, but it was definitely a place where people from all around the world can come together as one, no matter what their background is or what views they have.
After Taize, I arrived in Paris. Paris was shockingly amazing. In my mind, I thought Paris was going to be a disgusting city full of smokers and trash etc. However, Paris was way cleaner than London and most of the big cities I have visited. I was impressed. The day my group arrived, I went on a fat bike tour that went on through the night. We even got to ride on a boat that went around Paris. The next day, which was the last day of our trip, we were allowed until 6:15 pm to view whatever we wanted to see in Paris. So, that morning I went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa and a few other highlights found in that museum. But I only stayed an hour because I really did not have much more time. From the Louvre, I walked to the Arc de Triumph (the huge arch thing that sits in the middle of a crazy roundabout). After the Arch, I went to the Eifel Tower, ate lunch, and relaxed. It was an extremely long line to go up to the Eifel Tower, so I did not do it. Next, I saw Notre Dame. Notre Dame definitely met up to my great expectations. Even though I sat and watched people, I did not see the Hunchback of Notre Dame. After this I ended the day with a good Nutella and Banana crepe from a random place I found near my hotel. Here are my pictures from Paris:
The Louvre
Me with Nike
Me with Mona Lisa
Me with Venus de Milo
Eifel Tower at Night
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Spring Break in Italy
Wow, sorry this post took me so long to post. I went to Italy for Spring Break. It was extremely fun, interesting, beautiful and extraordinary. The first city I went to in Italy was Venice. This was probably my favorite of the towns I went to because of its beauty and peacefulness, even if it did not have as many "monuments" and the like. Venice also had the cheapest gelato of the places I went (I had this every day). I also rode on a gondola with the other 4 guys I went with on this trip.
St. Mark's Square
The Gondola Ride
Me with my new "Buff" hat that can turn into a neckerchief, mask, beanie, etc. (Used on the show Survivor)
The very nice hostel room that I got to have to myself for one of the nights.
Next, I went to Florence. This place was noisier and way more crowded, but it did offer some incredible museums and statues. This is the town with Michelangelo's David, which was way bigger than I thought it would be.
This is the Dome (Duomo) that I went up to the top of
In the inside
And from out the top
Like and ice cream scoop
Later, I went to Pisa with the leaning tower one early morning. Below are the pictures from that.
Rome was the last place I went in Italy and it was "colossal." The first day I was there, I went to the Vatican city. Here is where St. Peter's Basilica is as well as the Vatican Museum which contains the Sistine Chapel inside. Honestly, I was disappointed in this part of Rome because I did not like how the Catholic church had leeched all the money and stuff out of Rome into this one place. They even took from the Colosseum, Roman Forums, and Palatine Hill (which I went to on the second day) to make their church building look even better. My camera also went nuts on me when I went inside, so I don't have many pictures of the Vatican myself. My friend will send me his sometime and I will update this with them.
Outside the Vatican
One of the Vatican's Guards
The last picture I could take of the Vatican before my camera went haywire
The second day in Rome, I went to the Colosseum and the Roman areas near it. This was my favorite of the places in Rome because it felt really neat to finally see this stuff in real life. Below are some of the countless pictures I took of this.
What I thought was the Four Rivers Fountain, but it is not
This old man was dancing around enjoying life around this fountain. I'm guessing he is there every day because everyone around knew him and waved to him
The Trevi Fountain
Two of the guys Austin and Matt with me and the Trevi Fountain
You better know what this is...
The Group
Me with the Roman Forums in background
The Pantheon
Next stop...France and Switzerland!
St. Mark's Square
The Gondola Ride
Me with my new "Buff" hat that can turn into a neckerchief, mask, beanie, etc. (Used on the show Survivor)
The very nice hostel room that I got to have to myself for one of the nights.
Next, I went to Florence. This place was noisier and way more crowded, but it did offer some incredible museums and statues. This is the town with Michelangelo's David, which was way bigger than I thought it would be.
This is the Dome (Duomo) that I went up to the top of
In the inside
And from out the top
Like and ice cream scoop
Later, I went to Pisa with the leaning tower one early morning. Below are the pictures from that.
Rome was the last place I went in Italy and it was "colossal." The first day I was there, I went to the Vatican city. Here is where St. Peter's Basilica is as well as the Vatican Museum which contains the Sistine Chapel inside. Honestly, I was disappointed in this part of Rome because I did not like how the Catholic church had leeched all the money and stuff out of Rome into this one place. They even took from the Colosseum, Roman Forums, and Palatine Hill (which I went to on the second day) to make their church building look even better. My camera also went nuts on me when I went inside, so I don't have many pictures of the Vatican myself. My friend will send me his sometime and I will update this with them.
Outside the Vatican
One of the Vatican's Guards
The last picture I could take of the Vatican before my camera went haywire
The second day in Rome, I went to the Colosseum and the Roman areas near it. This was my favorite of the places in Rome because it felt really neat to finally see this stuff in real life. Below are some of the countless pictures I took of this.
What I thought was the Four Rivers Fountain, but it is not
This old man was dancing around enjoying life around this fountain. I'm guessing he is there every day because everyone around knew him and waved to him
The Trevi Fountain
Two of the guys Austin and Matt with me and the Trevi Fountain
You better know what this is...
The Group
Me with the Roman Forums in background
The Pantheon
Next stop...France and Switzerland!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Blenheim Palace and Barcelona!
Okay, 2 weekends ago I went to Blenheim Palace which is located in a village just north of Oxford called Woodstock. It was fun and really pretty. Below are some pictures I took there for you to understand the place I was at.
End of Blenheim Palace Pictures.
Now Barcelona was sure something! It was cool to see people driving on the right side of the road for once. At the airport I forgot to put my toiletries into a small baggie and as I was reaching in my bag to get them all and put them in a baggie, I cut my finger on my disposable razor (which was not taken from me when I got on the plane). At first I thought it was an extreme paper cut, but later I figured out otherwise.
When my friends and I got to Barcelona Wednesday night, it was around midnight or so (we lost an hour). We got on a sub and went to the district Les Corts where our hostel was. But we had trouble finding it and ending up asking a guy to direct us to it. Now Mom, you are going to go ballistic when you hear the rest of this story. This guy helped us to our hostel, and then we tried knocking on the door but we could not get in because we had arrived too late. So we were without a place to stay for the night. A little after realizing we needed to find somewhere else to sleep, the guy that helped us earlier ran into us again. He told us our options were go to the city center and find a hotel or hostel IF they are open then we can stay. The other option was to stay with him for the night. Now, this guy was NOT sketchy at all, and was the coolest guy we had ever met. We decided to stay with him for the night (Mom I know this is crazy). He had some chairs and other items that we helped him carry to his apartment. His apartment was nice and to buy it would cost him 300,000 euro, but he pays 900 euros a month to stay. We told him how much he could get for 300,000 dollars in the U.S. to stay at and he was amazed. The guy's wife was not home and he gave us 2 mattresses and a couch to sleep on. He even let us use his computer to look up information for Barcelona. Although, the idea of staying with a complete stranger at 2:00 am in the morning in the middle of Barcelona's stinky part of town may sound crazy, it worked out for the better. I was with 4 other guys and we felt completely safe with this guy.
The next day we got our hostel figured out and we had to pay for that night we missed. After that, we went down to a cooler part of town, met up with some of the girls who were staying elsewhere in Barcelona, and went on a fat tire bike tour. This tour was awesome. We went all over Barcelona on these funky shaped bikes following a really funny tour guide who liked to fool us into thinking the facts he stated were really what happened. Here are some pictures from the bike tour:
Our tour guide, JJ
The Mammoth I climbed on
After the bike tour, my friends and I went to the Picasso museum. This museum was not the greatest because Picasso's best stuff was not included. The museum barely did justice to such a great artist and I was disappointed. Later that night, my friends and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe. I sat next to a guitar signed by Weezer (if you know who they are), and there was an Aerosmith guitar on the way to the bathroom that was signed. After dinner, my friends and I wanted to sleep and so we went to bed at 9:00 pm haha.
Here are those guitars:
The next thing I did was go to Figueres, a town outside of Barcelona where Salvador Dali's museum is located. This museum was insane! It had all sorts of weird art and the museum was designed by Salvador Dali himself. ALSO, his most famous piece, Persistence of Memory was at the end of the museum. It is only in Barcelona for 3 months and my group was lucky to see it in this small window of a time. Below are some pictures from the museum.
Also later that day, my friends and I went to this HUGE fountain in Barcelona that plays music every weekend at 7:30 pm until 9 pm. I don't have pictures of it that are really good, but I will borrow some from a friend whose camera was able to capture this better. Here are the ones I have:
My friends Taylor and Melanie.
The last day of fun(not including the day we had to get back), my friends and I woke up and headed behind the area where the huge fountain is located and into an area where there was the 1992 Olympics (which the U.S. dominated). I have included a few pictures of that below as well.
My friend Matt posing like the statue.
When we were heading back, there was a marathon beginning near the fountain. Two of my friends and I jumped into the race and ran a little bit of it. I have a video I included below that is of us starting it:
Later that day, a bunch of the groups that went to Barcelona met up and we went to a beach outside of Barcelona (I will edit this and add the name of it later). It had been really warm until this last day, but it was still really fun. We played Frisbee on the beach and one of my friends jumped in the Mediterranean and swam for a bit. He froze his butt off and somewhat regretted doing that. I also was running along the beach and I cut my foot on some glass. I cleaned it off and kept it covered the rest of the trip because it would be awful to get an infection, especially from Spain.
End of Blenheim Palace Pictures.
Now Barcelona was sure something! It was cool to see people driving on the right side of the road for once. At the airport I forgot to put my toiletries into a small baggie and as I was reaching in my bag to get them all and put them in a baggie, I cut my finger on my disposable razor (which was not taken from me when I got on the plane). At first I thought it was an extreme paper cut, but later I figured out otherwise.
When my friends and I got to Barcelona Wednesday night, it was around midnight or so (we lost an hour). We got on a sub and went to the district Les Corts where our hostel was. But we had trouble finding it and ending up asking a guy to direct us to it. Now Mom, you are going to go ballistic when you hear the rest of this story. This guy helped us to our hostel, and then we tried knocking on the door but we could not get in because we had arrived too late. So we were without a place to stay for the night. A little after realizing we needed to find somewhere else to sleep, the guy that helped us earlier ran into us again. He told us our options were go to the city center and find a hotel or hostel IF they are open then we can stay. The other option was to stay with him for the night. Now, this guy was NOT sketchy at all, and was the coolest guy we had ever met. We decided to stay with him for the night (Mom I know this is crazy). He had some chairs and other items that we helped him carry to his apartment. His apartment was nice and to buy it would cost him 300,000 euro, but he pays 900 euros a month to stay. We told him how much he could get for 300,000 dollars in the U.S. to stay at and he was amazed. The guy's wife was not home and he gave us 2 mattresses and a couch to sleep on. He even let us use his computer to look up information for Barcelona. Although, the idea of staying with a complete stranger at 2:00 am in the morning in the middle of Barcelona's stinky part of town may sound crazy, it worked out for the better. I was with 4 other guys and we felt completely safe with this guy.
The next day we got our hostel figured out and we had to pay for that night we missed. After that, we went down to a cooler part of town, met up with some of the girls who were staying elsewhere in Barcelona, and went on a fat tire bike tour. This tour was awesome. We went all over Barcelona on these funky shaped bikes following a really funny tour guide who liked to fool us into thinking the facts he stated were really what happened. Here are some pictures from the bike tour:
Our tour guide, JJ
The Mammoth I climbed on
After the bike tour, my friends and I went to the Picasso museum. This museum was not the greatest because Picasso's best stuff was not included. The museum barely did justice to such a great artist and I was disappointed. Later that night, my friends and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe. I sat next to a guitar signed by Weezer (if you know who they are), and there was an Aerosmith guitar on the way to the bathroom that was signed. After dinner, my friends and I wanted to sleep and so we went to bed at 9:00 pm haha.
Here are those guitars:
The next thing I did was go to Figueres, a town outside of Barcelona where Salvador Dali's museum is located. This museum was insane! It had all sorts of weird art and the museum was designed by Salvador Dali himself. ALSO, his most famous piece, Persistence of Memory was at the end of the museum. It is only in Barcelona for 3 months and my group was lucky to see it in this small window of a time. Below are some pictures from the museum.
Also later that day, my friends and I went to this HUGE fountain in Barcelona that plays music every weekend at 7:30 pm until 9 pm. I don't have pictures of it that are really good, but I will borrow some from a friend whose camera was able to capture this better. Here are the ones I have:
My friends Taylor and Melanie.
The last day of fun(not including the day we had to get back), my friends and I woke up and headed behind the area where the huge fountain is located and into an area where there was the 1992 Olympics (which the U.S. dominated). I have included a few pictures of that below as well.
My friend Matt posing like the statue.
When we were heading back, there was a marathon beginning near the fountain. Two of my friends and I jumped into the race and ran a little bit of it. I have a video I included below that is of us starting it:
Later that day, a bunch of the groups that went to Barcelona met up and we went to a beach outside of Barcelona (I will edit this and add the name of it later). It had been really warm until this last day, but it was still really fun. We played Frisbee on the beach and one of my friends jumped in the Mediterranean and swam for a bit. He froze his butt off and somewhat regretted doing that. I also was running along the beach and I cut my foot on some glass. I cleaned it off and kept it covered the rest of the trip because it would be awful to get an infection, especially from Spain.
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