Strapped In!

Oh boy!  So, this is going to be my attempt at roughly regurgitating the happenings of the month. The term 'strapped in' refers to the state of being ready for adventure, coined after strapping our bulging backpacks and whatever other goods we are bringing along the way. 


Stephanie (a fellow Hoosier) and I started out on our way to the great city of Berlin.  We stayed in a hostel on the east side of the city with a guy-wanderer named Dan from the U.K.  We really kicked it into high gear in Berlin.  We saw nearly all the 'to-do' things in Berlin and even made it to Potsdam.  Even though I had been to Berlin for a week in high school, it all seemed new and exciting.  I had forgotten how huge the city was.  One of my favorite things about Berlin (besides the history), is that it is kind of broken up into different neighborhoods.  On the last day we went to the Turkish market in the south eastern corner in a mostly immigrant neighborhood.  It was fantastic!  I ate one of the greasiest and yummiest phyllo dough pockets filled with spinach and cheese ever!  There were musicians busking and street vendors vending, anything from olives (score) to jewelry (score for my friends).  Berlin was awesome.


Next, we were joined by Kate (one of those boilermakers...) and were off to Prague.  For whatever reason, many of the jokes that were coined and carried into the following trips started the night we left for Prague.  It could have been because the snacks we brought on the train were called Crusty Crocs and Snacky Crackys, or because the man on the train selling us sandwiches just kept repeating the phrase "yes, yes, very nice, very nice," or maybe because we got zero sleep.  We couldn't complain though, there was a Spanish couple sitting in front of us that had made it to China and planned on going to Japan, before the catastrophe and therefor had been taking the trans-siberian train home.  Anyway, we got lost trying to find our hostel.  When we finally got there, we found out they over booked and gave us an address for some accommodations up the street.  We were bummed, until we found out that up the street was a 4 star hotel that we would be staying in for the price of a hostel (ultimate score!!!).  This made Prague that much sweeter.  Its a beautiful city at night.  The architecture is amazing and when the sun falls, the shadows and narrow streets become eerie and enchanting!  We went into a castle and walked around the city a lot.  We got something called a Trednik, which we coined 'turtleneck,' which is kind of like a cinnamon roll but not as buttery and roasted on a rolling pin.  And on the last day we got a little antsy in the touristy-ness so we found a nice park outside of a beautiful church to read and play cards in. 


Then, we made our voyage home.  10 hours on a train.   But it was only a 48 layover in Freiburg, seeing when as we left for Italy my laundry wasn't even dry from the last trip.  Oh well!


So, next stop was Cinque Terre.  We were joined by Katie, making us a group of four.  This is a series of five little towns along the north western coast of Italy that you can hike between.  We took a train through Switzerland and eventually into Levanto, where we had the worst nights sleep and camping experience ever, then hiked 5hrs into Monterosso from there.  It was a chore with our packs, but SO beautiful!!!  Cinque Terre was barrels of fun because we went on day hikes through vinyardy areas, hung out on the beach and climbed on rocks on the coast, and ate delicious Italian food.  


After our wonderful time in the sun, we were headed to Rome!  Stephanie broke off from the group, so Kate, Katie, and I got our fair share of ruins and renaissance art on our own.  We saw the colosseum, the roman forum, the pantheon, the spanish steps, trevi fountain, lots of sculptures of Triton, lots of churches, etc.  Oh yeah!  And Vatican City!  Sistine Chapel!  I took a picture...(shhh)  Overall, Rome was pretty neat.  We were very lucky to have beautiful weather our entire time there (in fact, we've been pretty lucky with our weather in all of our travels)  We ate the most delicious focaccia, which was extra yummy because we pretty much lived off of apples and nutella sandwiches the rest of the time.  Katie departed at the end, then Kate and I were headed to...


Florence!  I think this was my favorite Italian city that I saw.  It was smaller and the river that it sat on was gorgeous.  The hostel that we stayed at was alright, but the very short and round lady that ran it was SO nice.  She brought us bananas and espresso and italian goodies in the morning.  Florence has a huge street market with crazy vendors yelling at you and trying to sell you things you don't need.  Lots of leather goods, as well.  When we were in Rome, some other girls in our hostel told us that when we got to Florence we had to find Vivoli, supposedly the best gelatto in Florence.  So naturally, we took them seriously.  It was on a street called Isola delle Stinche (pronounced 'stinkay,' we had fun with that)  I got coffee, cinnamon, and dark chocolate, all together.  I don't have words to describe how good it was.  Its hard for me to pick what I liked more, the gelatto or seeing Michelangelo's Statue of David.  It was so cool. By the end of Italy, I decided that renaissance art is not my favorite, but David was truly unbelievable.  On the last day we hung out on this little island/damn thing in the middle of the river that runs through Florence and people/sunset watched.  It was quite nice :)  


As much as I loved seeing all of these places, by the end, I really missed Germany.  It's nice to be able to read menus, street signs, and such.  And it's especially nice to not feel like a total tourist.  So, we were all happy to be back in Freiburg.  But, it was only for another 48 hour layover, because I left for Stuttgart promptly upon my return.  One of my roommates, Friedemann's family is from Stuttgart, so he invited me home for Easter weekend.  This was nice because it also happened to be my birthday and his family was so sweet!  We went hiking and saw a beautiful waterfall, lit a firework a midnight for my birthday, and even hunted easter eggs the next morning.


But, alas!  I am home, in Freiburg and tomorrow my classes begin! Uhh ohhh....