Hello Family and Friends,
So as I mentioned in my last post, I have been doing quite a lot of travelling while studying abroad - the plane tickets and hostel rooms are just too cheap not to! So instead of posting everything I've done, I decided to just show you the list of my most favorite places and experiences. This was probably the hardest blog post I've had to write, so enjoy!
The list of places I have gotten to go to:
-Day trip to Aachen, Germany
-Roadtrip (I drove!) to Luxembourg; Interlaken, Murren, Montreax, & Berne, Switzerland; and Strasbourg, France.
-Daytrip to Netherlands' capital, the Hague (and its beach) and Rotterdam
-Amsterdam and Brussels with Mom & Kevin
-Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany (I went alone and made a bunch of new friends on the bus)
-A week off from school lead to Athens, Greece; Santorini, Greece; and Budapest, Hungary
-My 22 birthday weekend in Disneyland, Paris and Versailles Palace
-A roadtrip (I drove a Mercedes on the autobahn - I'm spoiled on driving forever) through Germnay's Romantic Road (A route through many small, perpetually Christmassy, adorable Germany towns and the famous Neuschwanstein Castle - the castle Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty's castle is based off of)
-Barcelona, Spain
-Dublin and the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland
My remaining travel plans are:
- A daytrip to Bruges, Belgium
- A final trip to Amsterdam
- My last 4 days in Europe will be spent in Berlin, Germany before flying on connecting flights to Amsterdam, Dublin, and finally to San Francisco on December 17.
After being to so many places, each one seemingly better than the last I have been trying to come up with my top 5 experiences so I'm prepared for the questions when I get home. I'll preface this by saying that I loved every place I went to and this top 5 is in no particular order.
THE TOP FIVE EXPERIENCES:
1.The hike up to and the view from the Acropolis, (also food, also iced coffee - Fredo)in Athens, Greece
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| The Pantheon |
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| My travel partner, Anita (a UC student from Taiwan). |
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| The view looking towards the ocean and the ancient port of Pireaus. |
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| Looking back towards Athens. |
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| The view of the Acropolis from our Hostel's rooftop bar at night. |
2. Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany
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Oktoberfest starts early. You get there at 7am to grab a table.
You're then handed a liter of strong beer at 9am. The cheering and chugging starts soon thereafter. |
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The group of friends I made on the bus.
(Due to poor planning I ended up going a different weekend than my UC friends,
but all was well I found a good bunch of Aussie and English college students) |
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| No really, I can live on just pretzels and beer alone! |
3. The Alps and Water in Murren / Interlaken, Switzerland
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| Contrary to popular belief, this was not a cliff. Just the railing between viewpoints. |
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| THE HILLS ARE ALIVE...with the sound of music |
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You better believe that water is freezing.
You also better believe I took home some rocks. :) |
4. The Basilica de la Sagrada Familia (also the food) in Barcelona, Spain
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| Considered to be one of the wonders of the world, the Sagrada Familia is still a work in progress. |
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| It was designed by Gaudi. He wanted to design a new, modern kind of architecture. |
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| One based on trees, the sun, and animals. |
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The windows and mosaics are designed to rainbow-ize the otherwise white interior and
after seeing probably 50 large grandiose European churches,
I was honestly surprised by how much I fell in love with it. |
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| Basically: I don't believe in god, but this church makes me wish I did so I would have an excuse to come here. |
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| The view of the Sagrada Familia and Barcelona from Cuell Park. |
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Also the food (a variety of fresh seafood and smoked Iberian jamon) involved a live show from Flamenco dancers.
Wow, what a tradition. |
5. Musicians and Beer in pubs in Dublin, Ireland
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| Not quite a pub and not quite beer... but still quite important. :) |
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| Inside of the Guinness Storehouse with my roommate Laraine and our friend Dennis. |
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Lessons on how to properly pour the perfect pint of Guiness.
(An important and complex task) |
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Dublin's famous Temple bar.
I didn't realize it until I saw it, but my parents had a mass produced picture of the
Temple bar in their bathroom for my entire childhood. |
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Some cheeky irish musicians in another pub we went to.
The lead guitarist downed his pint of Guinness in about 3 seconds and then
immediately broke out into fast paced, Irish jig-worthy song. Classic. |
THE CLOSE RUNNER UPS THAT I REALLY WISH STILL ADDED UP TO FIVE:
6. Sunset in Ia (also the 9 hour ferry it took to get here), Santorini, Greece
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| Somewhere in the Aegean sea between Athens and Santorini |
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| Feels good to be back out on the ocean, also note my swaggin' shoes and my perfectly matched socks. |
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| Ia, Santorini |
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| Fira, Santorini |
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| The clouds didn't seem to mind the sunset. |
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| I'm telling the camera: THIS IS LITERALLY PERFECT! |
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| Gorgeous. |
7. The Chillon Castle in Montreaux, Switzerland
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| A just perfect timer shot, complete with perfect weather and swans with my roadtrip buddies. |
8. Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany
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| Amazing |
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| Roadtrip buddies! Also we're on the scariest bridge known to man in this picture... we were all too happy to hop off |
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With so much to be thankful for this year, we knew we had no right to skip celebrating our thanks!
And plus we could only take so many perfect photographs before we had to send one out to everyone as a 'family'. :) |
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| Not in the castle, but in the nearby small German town. Fall has gone bananas here. |
9. Versailles Palace, France
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| The front of Versailles. |
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Marie Antoinette's bedroom. Marie Antoinette is one of my favorite movies and for some reason
I love the tragic story. It was very meaningful to visit her room. |
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This highlights one of my biggest annoyances with having to ask people to take photos of you.
They will inevitably block the important thing you are trying to get a photo with.
Example A, the beautiful view of the gardens and grand walk to the water. |
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After a very Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire-esque (think the maze) walk through the gardens
I needed another photo with the palace, the pond, and the autumn all over the place. |
10. Driving on the Autobahn (no speed limit... I have a lead foot *ahem*) in Germany
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| The Romantic Road (Romantische Strausse) |
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| Our beautiful rental Mercedes, The Swaggin' Wagon. Aka, Betsy. |
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| Alps in the background, fall in the front. Perfect! |
11. Just everything in Amsterdam, Netherlands
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| Mom & Kevin in their AirBnB apartment in Amsterdam |
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| The view from the Skyview Bar in the Amsterdam DoubleTree |
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| Canals <3 |
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| more Canals <3 |
12. Ruin Bars and Just Everything in Budapest, Hungary
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| Public baths in Budapest. Keep in mind it's about 30 degF outside. |
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Ruin Bars (Bars that are built out of ruin and are just barely modified to make
them safe for habitation and then decorated with interesting art everywhere)
have the best sorts of people in them. This bathroom wisdom resonated with me. |
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| The park. I couldn't agree more, adorable graffiti. |
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| Europe as a whole doesn't really celebrate halloween. Kids may dress up and eat candy, but for most people halloween goes unnoticed in their daily lives. We saw a herd of wild jack-o-lanterns in the Heroes square and nearly cried. Thank you Budapest for giving us our Halloween! |
13. Cliffs of Moher, Ireland
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| Not the Cliffs of Moher, but the nearby 'Mini Cliffs'... that aren't actually that mini and would still kill you. |
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Just perfect weather at the Cliffs of Moher. They are 702 feet tall...
(Yes these are the Cliffs of Insanity used in Princess Bride!!) |
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Does it make me insane for standing this close? Yes
Am I fooling you with camera angles and hidden ledges to make you think I'm on the edge? Yes |
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| General cuteness on a menacing cliff! |
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| What you see when you turn around, this cute fence, this crazy raven, and these perfect Irish hills. |
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Let me guess, huge drop, sharp rocks at the bottom? Let's just not.
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14. Painting a Royal Delft Blue Tile in Delft, Netherlands
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| Royal Delft Blue pottery painter at work |
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| Me making my very own tile! (It's a windmill with NL '14 on it) |
I already know Berlin and Bruges will be added to this list somewhere... *phew* I'll keep you updated.
Hope you enjoyed my Best-of travels here in Europe!!
