Brussels

Brussels, Belgium, September 29
Very strange city. Never knew what to expect next. Stranger than Amsterdam in some ways. Not going to lie, I would go back just for the hotel/hostel/bed and breakfast/oasis we stayed at. Oh yeah, and the waffles, the chocolate, and the chocolate on waffles.

The Atomium...weirdest 'museum' ever.

An 'exhibit' in the 'museum'

Not our hostel, just a cool building.

I could have cried when we walked into our hostel. Emma and I shared the king-size bed, Salter had a twin. It was a private room. No stranger in the bed next to me.

Wait! It must be too good to be true!! Our own bathroom!! A full tub!! No reason to wear shower shoes!! We had it better here than our dorms at school.

Belgium waffle, yeah, that sinful.

All the options

Mannequin Pis...yup, a little boy peeing. Small fountain, big deal in this city.

Special Mannequin Pis lollipops

Belgian chocolates...to die for.

On our glorious king-size bed in our glorious private room with our glorious full, private bathroom. Can you see the euphoria on my face? I don't think I've ever slept so well.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam, Holland, September 28
Not a lot of pictures. Definitely a two-sided city. Pretty in places, raunchy in others. Cool stop on the trip, pleased with the amount of time we spent there just so we could get a taste.

Anne Frank Museum...couldn't take pictures inside.

Zurich

Zurich, Switzerland, September 26 (Salter's birthday)

Pictures don't properly show how much we loved Zurich. You'll just have to believe me when I say it was wonderful.

Oh baby, I'm smokin'...no, really, Emma and I had to wash every article of clothing to cleanse our clothes and souls of Italy. Explanation: we kept getting bug bites, and we're convinced we got bugs in Rome. I walked around the hostel in those clothes while I did laundry [free detergent!! Zurich is heaven on earth.]

Scoreboard for the card game Plump. I'm "C" on the right. Please, notice my streak of zeros. I was actually saddened when I finally got points in the end.

Florence, day 2

Florence, Italy, September 25

This picture needs explanation...Michelangelo's David was closed the one full day we were in Florence. We were sad.

GELLATO!!

Florence, day 1

Florence, Italy, September 24

Rome, day 2

Rome, Italy, September 23

Rome, day 1

Rome, Italy, September 22
These posts will progressively get more dull so I can just get pictures up. I swear, one of these days I will update with all the experiences we had. All I can say about Italy is that the pictures are gorgeous, and it probably leads you to believe that Italy was the best place we went to. Do not be deceived, it was the worst. Stories to follow...

Trip to Neuschwanstein

September 20th, Emma's birthday. We split up from Salter who wanted to go to a concentration camp memorial, while Emma & I went to Neuschwanstein to see the castles, one of which is what Walt Disney modeled his castle after.

Our delicious and unhealthy breakfast on the train in the morning.

As luck would have it, our train broke down, and we stopped in a town called Lengenwang until a replacement could come get us. Emma & I had fun walking around this small, German town.

Chocolate candy with a toy in the middle

Waiting on the railroad track

Emma, the birthday girl (big 2-1!!)

We finally got to our destination, and through unluckiness and bad scheduling with buses and trains, we had to run up the mountain, take quick photos, and run back down to catch our train to Munich in time. Our cell phones weren't working (never trust Vodaphone), so we couldn't tell Salter we would be late. It was a beautiful place, and I would love to go back and do it right.

Me playing with my Kinderegg toy

That night we went back to Oktoberfest and celebrated Emma's 21st birthday.

Munich, Day 2

Here are pictures from our second day in Munich, Germany.

Glockenspiel, in the city square

Some city shots...



Lunchtime

Yum, bratwurst became one of my faves


The Residenz Museum

Emma & Salter with the uber-cool audio guides

Glockenspiel again

A really cool, unflattering picture of me at dinner at the Hofbrau Haus (rowdy section this night)

Dinner...who would have ever thought I would eat so much meat?!

Salter & me at Oktoberfest eating gellato

I know I'm lacking on writing out specific details of my trip. I hope to quickly get a lot of pictures up and then add details later. Also, the journal I wrote in throughout the trip, which is a huge help in remembering specific details, is back in the US with my boyfriend Jeff. So, I have a feeling that this blog will be very ongoing, and I will let everyone know via email when it's complete. Until then, I hope the pictures are fun enough.

Monday in Munich

On Monday, September 18th we arrived in Munich, Germany. We checked into our hostel, which I was initially concerned about, before I actually saw it. We stayed in a big room with 4 different sections, each section with 10 beds. So a room with 40 people. It was actually a very nice, safe and clean hostel with very friendly people working there.

After checking in, we went out for dinner to the Hofbräu Haus which is the beer house (or bier haus) that Hitler supposedly started the Nazi party. It's quite the tourism hot spot, with the upstairs being a quiet restaurant atmosphere and the downstairs a loud, rowdy, cafeteria-style seating section. After a long train ride, we chose the quiet upstairs. I ate bratwurst with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. It was good, and I definitely became a fan of the bratwurst.

Emma & me at dinner

Salter & Emma

Dinner

After dinner we window-shopped, including some traditional German wear for Oktoberfest. A lot of people were really walking around in lederhosen and dirndl. I felt so underdressed!

Then we checked out Oktoberfest. I would describe it as a big carnival for drunk adults. It was a lot of fun, but not at all what I was expecting. I was thinking it would be more like a fair than a carnival. I expected German folk music (not "Sweet Home Alabama"--no, I'm not joking), lots of food and beer and people all outside, maybe some dancing. Instead there were a lot of carnival rides to get you dizzy, a lot of pop music from the States, and there was junk food aplenty, but drinking had to stay contained in the beer halls which were very crowded and loud and hot. It was still quite the experience, and there is nothing quite like walking into a beer hall with everyone standing on tables with beer steins, singing and dancing and yelling.

Yay for bratwurst!

Salter

Emma shopping for food

Me with some sort of mocha chocolate marshmallow heaven

A merry-go-round for drinking haha

The Hofbräu Haus beer tent (not really a tent)

Inside, but I couldn't really capture the craziness of it all

I have noooo idea

COOKIES!!

This was only Day 1 in Munich. We left Munich early Thursday morning, so there is still Tuesday and Wednesday to write about.

I love Paris in the springtime

Note: For these travel entries, I am not going to send out an email and just write out more on the blog so I can actually get these finished. Also, click on a picture to see it bigger.

My travel partners for the two weeks after my pre-sessional course were Emma & Salter. We left very early in the morning on Saturday, September 16th. We had to leave our luggage in storage in Lancaster Friday afternoon, so we were left with only what we were travelling with. This meant a bare mattress Friday night. Thankfully we didn't have to sleep long since our train left Lancaster for London just after 5am.

Very early in the am.

We first took a train from Lancaster to London, and then we went through Immigration to get on another train to Paris, France, under the English Channel.

From the train station we needed to take the Metro to our hostel, which was in a kind of suburb of Paris called Clichy. The Metro was standing room only, and a guy kept nudging Salter until he looked down and saw a crab (a legit crustacean) running around the floor of the cart! It was no small crab, either; he was dinner-size. We were all worried that this was normal in Paris and tried to stay as far away from it as we could, which was kind of difficult with people squished all around you. When we got off, we heard girls screaming "C'est un crab!!", so we realized that, thankfully, a crab is not normal.

It was late when we found our hostel, so we just found our room, dropped some stuff off, and went to find dinner. We found a small Italian restaurant and each got our own pizza (mine with olives, capers and anchovies). We were so thirsty, and our waiter, who was originally shocked that we weren't ordering wine, ended up giving us a huge pitcher of water because he had to refill our small one too often. That was actually a rare occurrence for our travels: free, bottomless water. Not a lot of the places we went to gave out tap water, and although paying for water in a restaurant seems so wrong, it was important to not get dehydrated.

We woke up early on Sunday and ate the free breakfast the hostel provided. I never ate so much bread, butter & jam in my entire life than during this trip. Or be so thankful to also be offered plain cornflakes. Variety is the spice of life, right?

We took the Metro (sans crabs) to the Arc de Triumphe to start off our day of sight-seeing.

A place to charge your electric car, just ahead.

Aannnddd my eyes are closed

For an unknown soldier

Looking up

From the Arc we walked to the Jardin des Tuileries, which was a pretty garden.

Food we passed. Yeah, we actually passed it.

The dogs got free water too.

We then found the Louvre, but we agreed that an art museum (especially the Louvre) would be an all-day thing, so we didn't go in. Next time, though...

We got lunch from a take-out deli. It was fun walking around Paris carrying a baguette-type roll with ham and camembert cheese. Then we went to Notre Dame.

I have no idea who that woman is behind me.

We decided we wanted to get some ice cream, so we walked along the Seine to the Isle de St. Louis. On the way, there was a ragtime band playing in the street. They sang in English, and it was so good. I got video recording of it on my camera, and once I figure out youtube or another video hosting website, I will post a link. By the way, the name of this blog entry is a line from the song they were singing. Catchy little tune.


After ice cream and walking around, we got a quick snack and then went to the Eiffel Tower. We paid 3 Euros and walked a good ways up. It was pretty exhausting, let me tell you. And unfortunately it was a cloudy day, and I'm sure the view would be better on a clear day.

Cafe for a snack

Taking a break from walking around

Exhausted but made it.

My Crocs pointing westward

At dusk

We decided to find something to eat and then come back to the Eiffel Tower to get pictures of it at night. Right when we got back to the Eiffel Tower, at 9pm, the whole thing just lights up with blinking lights. It was so beautiful. Again, I got video of it and will post a link to it, because these pictures just can't do it justice.

We went back to the hostel, passed out, and the next morning left very very early again (5:30am early) to catch the Metro to catch the train to get to Munich. GO!-GO!-GO!

I loved Paris, and I really want to go back. I was surprised at how well my limited knowledge of French got me along, and now I'm a little excited for the other two semesters of French I still need to take at Gettysburg.

Coming up...Munich & Oktoberfest.

Sunday in Edinburgh, Scotland

These pictures are from the second day we spent in Edinburgh, Scotland. We went to the Palace of Holyroodhouse which is the Queen's residence in Scotland. We couldn't take pictures in the palace, but it was really beautiful. The audio tour was great and definitely worth the money.

Emma & me listening to our audio tours




Yay! Finally got a picture with a guy in a kilt.

Coming very soon, the mega-travels from the 2 weeks.

Saturday in Edinburgh, Scotland

As promised, no more field trips. These pictures are from our weekend trip to Scotland. These are from Saturday. Some are mine, some are Sarah's, some are Emma's. I might add more pictures as I steal from more people, but at least I have a start. Sunday in Scotland, coming soon. Enjoy!

Lancaster train station, heading out

The group, from the left it's Salter, Laura, Emma, Sandy, Sarah

Finding the hostel

Edinburgh Castle

The girlies

On the back of a cannon, Gburg style

The city

All of us

Where we had dinner, where I had haggis

Our room, blue & clean

Ingleborough Field Trip, Part 2

Week 3 of our class was centered around ecology, and we went to Ingleborough again. These are pretty much just more mountain pictures. Thankfully we weren't expected to scale the mountain again; we just walked for about an hour on an easy trail.

BIG bull

This is a sunken cave.

The Class

Okay, I promise no more field trip pictures. Scotland is coming up soon.

Ingleborough Field Trip

This was our second field trip for the geology class. These pictures are from Ingleborough. We climbed a mountain to look at rocks. There were sheep definitely putting us to shame since they were jumping all around while we were awkwardly trying to not fall on our faces from the wet ground and steep rocks. Well, that's what I was trying to do, anyways. John, as usual, was several yards ahead of us at all times and laughing at us with the sheep. It was very pretty, and again I was very happy to have real hiking boots and not tennis shoes.

Beautiful skies

Crazy John Gunner, back at it on the mountain.

The Class

Glad we survived the mountain

Heysham Head Field Trip

For the first day of our week of geology, we went on a field trip to Heysham Head to look at rocks. It was a really small, beautiful town right on the water. Our professor made us wear some humorous looking hard hats to protect us from falling rocks. Ask if we saw any rocks fall. We didn't. And kids and dogs and parents were running around where we were with no protection. That's okay, gives some interesting photos of us that I don't know I would get at any other time.

Note: Some of these pictures are mine and some are Emma's. I can't be credited for all these pics. Also, if you want to see a picture bigger, just click on it, and the image should come up bigger and easier to see.

Me & Emma, ready for the excursion.

The class. You have no idea how glad I was to bring hiking boots.

These were graves. Note the spot for the heads to the left. These must have been for short people.

Rocky beaches are hard to walk on.

Looking for grain size, texture, sphericity and roundness. I believe this was sandstone. It was deposited by wind or water, obvious by the well-sorting of the grains. Yes, I am a nerd.

The man in the white hat is Dr. John Gunner, our professor. That man can run on rocks; left all of us in the dust. Cool guy, knows his stuff.

Walking back to the bus through town.