pear ee

paris was the last stop on our trip. by the time we arrived there we were completely exhausted and smelly pretty bad. (did i mention we only brought a carry on for this trip? i had all the stuff i needed for the week in one small shoulder bag i bought from salvation army. considering my nickname as a child was 'the bag lady', this is a quite a feat.) our hostel was near the moulin rouge in montmartre. i'll give you the highlights below, but i have to say i was not overally impressed with paris. maybe because it's SOOOO romanitcized and what i was expected was a little too amelie, but it was seriously so different. very dirty and trashy- lots of people trying to sell you things. very busy and crowded and toursity. the buildings were beautiful of course. but it sucks to be standing in awe of the eiffel tower only to be swooped down upon by ten men trying to sell you glow in the dark eiffel tower keychains. and that was really everywhere we went. and we went a lot of places. we walked all over that town, seeking out the cute, non-touristy area that we were sure existed. the one that people fall in love with- we wanted to fall in love with paris like everyone else. all we needed was a reason to- just one tiny thing. but nothing. i obviously enjoyed my time there but i don't know if it's somewhere i'll visit again. maybe if i become a millionare and i can stay in ritzy hotels and buy diamonds and eat fancy french food. but until then, i can find much cheaper places to be harassed.

on a more positive note- here are the highlights:
1. saw the eiffel tower at night! and they do this crazy light thing were a million little lights twinkle all over it. very cool to see.
2. ate crepes! and lots of bread! (like, whole entire loaves of bread.) and hot chocolate!
3. notre dame & the sacre coeur! beautiful beautiful churches.
4. got macaroons at laduree! my favorites were the madagascar dark chocolate, the violet black currant, and vanilla bean.
5. drank bloody mary's at hemingway's old haunt where they were invented. set us back a pretty penny but they were absolutely delicious and the place was very old school classy. ( think red velvet-y seats and low lights)
6. walked all over the friggin' place. we thought our feet would fall off with the amount of walking we did. i guess it balances out the carbs though, right?
7. went inside the louvre, got scared of the crowds, exited the louvre before paying admission.
8. went to le puces (the fleas!) and looked at all the beautiful old furniture. so many treasures! i bought some old keychains and little books full of pictures- one of Versailles, one of eastern european costumes, and another one of cacti. so strange.
9. ate at the cafe amelie was shot at! got really good goat cheese on toast with a big ol' salad.
10. ate a the goofy restuarant ever- they gave you a toaster at your table and the whole place was duck themed? again, so strange.
11. met some nice australians and a guy from portland in our hostel. the one aussie dressed up as santa for halloween and we went out with them to some other hostel bar. turns out the bartender there was from california and his sister graduated from temple. this translated into free drinks all night and much reminiscing about TU.
12. climbed the eiffel tower by myself the next morning. christine had an early flight and my train didn't leave until the afternoon so i woke up early and took the stairs to the middle platform. 700 stairs up and the same 700 stairs down. quite a work out but beautiful views. the weather was absolutely perfect and i got there before it was too crowded. excellent experience. the one downfall to going alone though is you have to ask strangers to take your picture which is always awkward. i took a few of myself too which just makes me feel like i'm in seventh grade again.
13. met another nice australian at lunch. i happened to be sitting next to him and he heard me speak english so we started talking. he's traveling all over the place with no real plan- he just woke up that morning in paris and decided to go to amsterdam so he was just waiting for his train. he's also in the tv business so we chatted about tv shows for a really long time. it's so nice to meet friendly strangers. i feel like i'm always so hestitant to talk to people i meet on the street (for good reason i suppose) but it's nice to know that you can still make those connections today and that there are still good people out there.

i eventually met up with keiran at the train station and we rode the train back to london. coming back to london after having been away for a week really made it seem like home. i loved the familiarity. it still hasn't worn off either- i'm feeling so in love with london this week. plus we decided this is 'live it up in london' month'. our time here is FLYING by so we're going to try to make the most of it. should be fun.

czech yo'self

after spending a glorious weekend in Berlin, Christine and I hopped a bus to Prague. It was nice to ride through the country and look at the landscape, though those of you who know me, know i fell asleep almost immediately (travel induced narcolypsy- i swear it's real.) We watched dirty dancing in German and our bus driving sang along to the songs. It was an especially cozy, hilarious ride and we arrived in Prague in good spirits. My friend Ellen is studying in Prague this semester and graciously offered to let us crash at her flat for a few days. She met us at the train station and showed us around the city- absolutely stunning. prague is breath takingly beautiful. the castle sits on top of a hill and from the top you can see the whole city. It was all spires and red roofs and cobblestone streets set against the backdrop of changing autumn foliage. gorgeous. and on top of the sheer beauty of the city, we stayed with the nicest people ever. seriously- ellen and her roomies were ridiculously hospitable. they made us dinner at night and breakfast in the morning. they showed us all around town and made a bed for us. seriously so nice. overall, it was just a really relaxing kind of trip. we didn't go to 'see the sights' or hit up museums. we just kind of wandered and hung out and soak it all up. here are the highlights:
1. beef and onion goulash followed by apple strudel with vanilla sauce. nuff said.
2. hiking to the top of a park that overlooks the city and despite panting like a crazy person and cursing myself for being so out of shape, just standing there and marveling at the city. absolutely stunning.
3. tons of weird marionette shops everywhere! i find them simultaneously awesome and creepy and i dragged poor chris into them everytime we passed.
4. the sweet old astronomical clock in the center of town. there's a big fan fare there every day when the clock strikes three and back in medievel times, it was a pretty big friggin' deal to have a clock like that.
5. eating these weird dough-nut-y/monkey bread things. it's like dough wrapped around a rod & cooked and covered in sugar, i think? whatever it was, i want more.
6. PRAGUE HAM. <--this is the best. there are a bunch of food stands in various city squares (like mini villages!) and the one features a full pig on a spite, cooking all day. when you order, they literally just cut it off the pig and onto your plate. this ham melts in your mouth. so good! so salty! i'm salivating just thinking about it now.
7. walking tours with ellen's history class. got to explore less well known sections of prague.
8. ellen's roomies being the nicest people ever. spent a lot of late night time just drinking wine and watching arrested development. so good. and they made us yummy food! spring rolls and pasta and apple pie and eggs and toast. very very nice people.
9. the money is crazy- it kept throwing me off. for example, you order a fast food lunch and it costs you 100 crown. that sounds nuts right? but it's actually only about $5. so our group dinner bill would say we owed like 1000 crown and despite it not actually being in USD, i felt pretty pimp.
10. learning czech phrases from ellen & co. 'jeddycheck' (totally spelled phonetically) was my favorite. it means grandpa. we also learned 'momika' (mommy) and 'permite' (please) and 'proscem' (thank you). i even ordered stamps in czech! granted, ellen wrote it down and i just read it off a piece of paper but i was super pumped when the dude understood me. like, on the verge of pure giddiness at the post office. ultimate triump.

prague was lovely lovely lovely. if you're even in the city, eat the ham and look at the puppets for me.

ich bin ien schnapps hund

i'll start this thing off with an intro: i had a week off for fall break and considering the accessibility of european travel, i, like many of my peers, took the time to do a whirlwind trip around western europe. completely exhausting but totally worth it. i went with my roommate christine and we saw so many beautiful things and met so many wonderful people. it was such a positive, incredible experience. i highly recommend to everyone if you have the means. you honestly can't really know a place until you're there, despite having read countless guides and articles. i learned so much about the places we went to, and their history, and even myself on the trip. very good expereince. i'm going to break down the trip into our three destinations. i'll only be able to give the highlights (in list form!) because it's honestly too much to try to rehash. of course, you can always ask me if you want to know more. i can literally talk for hours about what we saw/did/ate. and so, without further adieu, our first stop:

ahhh berlin. you snuck up on me. i was not expecting to fall in love with you the way i did. i heard you were nice, yeah yeah yeah, but you were on the roster with prague and paris- that's pretty tough competition. and yet, you totally stole my heart. it was the street art and the nice people and the pirate play ground and the flea market and the history and the schnitzel. you really won me over. i would move to be with you. here's a recap of our journey:

1. ate delicious food. schinitzel (i didn't even know what this was besides a funny word), and waffles with nutella, and weird turkish tomato and parsley crepes, and roast beef with whiskey cream sauce in puff pastry and gummi bears. all so good.
2. went on a hilarious pub crawl. met girls from maryland and dudes from holland and australia. we went to a ping pong bar (they have a giant ping pong table and you rent a paddle, then everyone lines up around the table and takes turns hitting it. if you miss you're out. super fun despite the fact that i got out on the first round everytime.), a gothic bar, a king kong lounge,and some underground bar. everyone was really nice and we had a blast.
3. went on an incredible walking tour of berlin. our tour guide was from boston, but studying in berlin and she was very knowledgeable about the city's history. and what a crazy history it is! they have some very interesting memorials (the book burning memorial is a window in the ground at the site and when you look down, there's an entirely white room with shelves- enough space to hold the amount of books burned. there's another memorial with a hole cut in the roof so the statue is exposed to the elements.) we saw checkpoint charlie and the berlin wall and where hitler's body was burned (it's just a random parking lot now. so crazy.) we met a woman on the tour who's riding her motorcyle AROUND THE WORLD. she was obviously very interesting to talk to.
4. found a photobooth on some random street!
5. went to the flea market! it went on for days. if only i had my car, i would have stocked up. but alas, i came home empty-handed (this may be a first for me.)
6. went to the east side gallery. it's the largest remaining chunk of the berlin wall and it's full of murals. very pretty.
7. took awkward pictures- christine and i are not good at posing together.
8. stayed at an incredible hostel that was circus themed. it was everything a hostel should be. clean and crazy and very friendly.
9. ate chocolate! i got a little bear and a truffle that looked like a mushroom! i'm a sucker for candy.
10. just generally walked around and loved everything. beautiful fall weather and cute streets and shops. found an incredible magazine store- bought an interview with miranda july (love love love)

after a few glorious days in berlin, we took a bus to prague. to be continued!

(ps- the title of the post? that's the only german i learned on the trip.)