Weekend[10]/Week[11]: Studying/Celebration

This is going to be a short post, because I pretty much considered my summer ended with the trip to Slovenia. After the traditional finals week (too much caffeine, too little sleep, the right amount of cramming), I managed to miraculously pull out good grades despite the time/focus I dedicated to traveling and experiencing Europe as much as possible. I did celebrate the end of finals by going ice skating and kebab-eating with a friend. It was sad to say goodbye to Metz and the new friends and memories I had made there, but I was very much ready to go home. Below is a picture of me enjoying one of the many American traditions that welcomed me in the Philadelphia airport. The summer was amazing and I wouldn't trade it for any other experience, but it's good to be home :)

Weekend[9]: Slovenia

I decided my summer hadn't been adventurous enough, so I decided to squeeze in the furthest place possible into a 2-day weekend. A friend and I decided to go to Slovenia mostly for the heck of it, and partly because they have the world's number one caves (we had to justify 13 hours each way on a train somehow). We ended up making really good use of our train rides. Lots of studying, especially in the lit department (see left)... Each part of the board is dedicated to one of the countries we visited. Can you guess what the bottom right corner represents? :)


I decided to put a map of Slovenia's place in Europe considering how few people actually know where/what this country is. No, it's not some third-world country. And yes, it's part of the EU. And doubly yes, there IS stuff to see there. Seen the ads for vacations in Croatia? Imagine those views, but better. The lack of ads for Slovenia means there are fewer tourists and pickpockets, and more relaxation and people-meeting.

All in all, Slovenia was amazing. We stayed in a top European hostel, saw the world's number one caves (AND got the added bonus of the lights going out for a few seconds to experience actual total darkness). I wish we could have taken pictures in the cave, but if you look up Postojna caves, I think you'll get a decent idea of what we saw.
We also traveled to Lake Bled that same day to make the most of our 24 hours in the country. The lake was beautiful and we were bummed we couldn't stay for the festival that was happening that night -- they light floating candles and send them out on the lake! We did get to see some festivities, though, and got a great view of the city by finally tobogganing! (Something I'd earlier been told was a must in Europe)






(Picture of the tobogganing track)













In Slovenia, graffiti is largely overlooked by the police as long as the artists don't cover up the numbers on the trains. The graffiti artists are extremely respectful, and they even have their own section of the capital city (where we stayed, amazingly enough) that is dedicated to graffiti art. It is a pretty big attraction.







My mom pointed out my seeming obsession with cars and motorcycles, so I figured I had to include another motorcycle picture just to continue the trend :)










I'll close with a picture of the lake because it was just so beautiful there, and I hope anyone traveling to Europe (especially future GTLers) plan on going there at some point. It has great views, incredible people, and it's cheap! I really hope I get the chance to go back to fully appreciate the sights we managed to squeeze in and see the rest of the country.

Weekend[8]: Barca!

My last 4-day weekend was awesome. I got to spend it in Barcelona with Andy, Mariel, Parker, and a host of other people we met up with in Barca (anyone that could make the trains work went to Barca that weekend, minus the Harry Potter fanatics who took the trip to London).

We first went to Paris for Bastille Day. I didn't manage to get any good pictures of the parade (too many people, but I got some good video), so I just substituted it with a picture of a gorgeous car that we saw while finding our spot for the parade. We also saw a pretty cool air show. We were kind of bummed we couldn't stay for the fireworks, but we also saw huge crowds and sort of feared for our lives at the same time, so heading to Barcelona that afternoon didn't seem to be such a bad idea.




We saw water-isolated zorbing! Woohoo! We didn't have time to stick around to find out. We did have time to grab a delicious strawberry-banana slushie on the go, though.










We spent the night in a town just on the French side of the border. Our friend booked the hostel for the wrong night, but luckily we found a (cheaper?!) hotel for 8 euros a night! It was probably one of the nicer places we'd stayed in, too (though I can't saw the walks around the nearly inhabitless city were as pleasant that night). Lesson learned -- double-check hostel dates!

Barcelona itself was awesome. We visited a lot of Dahli stuff and mainly just perused the streets. We also tried paella with traditional Spanish sangria. It was a pretty amazing combination. I loved getting seafood in Europe -- it was about the same price as meat and was really good!













We got to go to the Barca soccer club stadium/museum/'shrine' (the latter term would probably be the most appropriate, if it didn't have an old-age feel that undermined the sophisticated technology like the touch screens, multi-screen videos, and well-kept stadium). I don't even watch soccer and I become an addict after a few hours in that place!











We spent a lot of time by the water, especially when Andy and I had to wait up for the rest of the crew to get out of the Harry Potter movie. Who would've guessed there were actually 2 IMAX theaters near the beach and we had picked the wrong one to meet up at? Oh well -- we got to show them the dock the next day (Andy and I headed back to the hostel after we heard they were several miles away because we were wiped!). On our way back, we noticed that the streets were more crowded at 4am than at 4pm! It's true -- Barcelona never sleeps.


If I had to go back to a place for vacation and typical European city feel complete with the food, night life, and language (communication is awesome when you actually know how to ask where to find a bathroom), I'd definitely pick Barcelona.

Weekend[7]: Metz (relaxation)

On my next weekend, our plans to go to Normandy failed (trains are NOT easy in Europe, especially if you aren't there the weekend before to make things happen). Therefore, I hung around Metz to experience the wonderful effects of long-lost sleep, chill time with friends, and lots of episodes of White Collar :) I also got some studying in there as well, of course. Just trying to ignore the Emag and Microelectronic Circuits part of my summer when it comes to storing my memories... :)

Weekend [6]: Wedding!

I know this blog is about GTL, but Laura's wedding was so incredible that I can't leave it out! Here are a few pictures from the wedding:







































































After an amazing weekend, I had to return to studying and European travel (rough life, I know). I spent the first night sleeping 14 hours and the next day sleeping the 4 hours in between my classes. Fully recovered, I was ready to prep for my upcoming weekends.

Weekend [5]: Italy

Finally! Here come the blogs that I should've done FOREVER ago (sorry everyone!).

Italy was probably one of my favorite trips. We got a group of 9 together and skipped quickly through Naples (I don't recommend staying there for long) so that we could get to Pompeii. We spent the day there and it was pretty impressive. We saw a lot of building foundations and a huge garden there. At the end, we saw a petrified dog and person, which was pretty crazy to see. A map of the place showed that we hadn't even seen a tenth of the place, despite being there for a full day. The archeologists are still working on excavating the whole city.


Mariel, Parker, and I decided to head to Cinque Terre instead of Rome as the rest of the group did (okay by me because I've already been to Rome). Don't be too fooled by the picture. This was taken after we had caught up on our sleep. We decided to take the cheap overnight train route instead of paying for a hostel, and we ended up with the no-AC, no-leg-room train. Still, we met some pretty cool travelers on the train who gave us free travel-sized body splash (they claimed it was because they were in that business and they had loads of extras, but I think they may have been sending a message about our lack of showers for two days...). It ended up being worth it because we got of the train and literally looked over the railing to the beach! We stayed on the beach from 4am until sunrise, then went on our hostel-search in another of the five cities, discovering it was really close to the water in the middle of a residential area. Mariel was excited to find a Co-op (they have the granola from Switzerland that we all love so much).

We spent two full days in Cinque Terre, but it still didn't feel like enough. We visited every city, hiked between them, and tried to avoid the Disney tourist groups. The place was absolutely gorgeous and it is incredible that no one really knows about it. So far, it's my #1 I-must-visit-this-again spot in Europe!








Our cultural experience consisted of time on the beach, swimming (and cliff jumping) in a cove with the locals, trying wine made from grapes growing on the hills next to us, and testing out the seafood. It's the best cultural experience I could've come up with!







As we somewhat hesitantly continued with our plans to meet back up with the group in Florence, we made a pit stop in Pisa for literally an hour and a half just to take great pictures like this and get a quick glimpse the city.














Florence was as gorgeous as others had said, but it was a Monday so the museums were closed and we couldn't appreciate the artwork. We ended up spending our last night in Italy at a great spot overlooking the city with an Italian band setting a serene mood.








Overall, the trip was great and I was glad I chose to spend my longest weekend in Italy. If I could do it over again, I might have skipped Pompeii just because it was a pretty big trip and there are so many more places in Italy that I could have spent that day. Still, the trip was incredible and I plan to visit Italy again someday (hopefully soon!)

Rothenburg/Trier and Italy to come next week

Dear blog followers,

I regret to inform you that this short week has flown by way too quickly, filled with unsuccessful calls to train companies, changing travel plans, and lots of electromagnetics studying. Therefore, I shall update my blog upon my return from Italy (we leave tonight and return Tuesday night).

Please look forward not only to pictures of the #1 medieval town in Germany (last weekend), but also snapshots of Pompeii, Cinque Terre, and Florence.

My father, however, did request a picture of me studying to prove that it actually happens here in Europe. I will leave you all with that in the meantime.

My sincerest apologies and best wishes,
Allie

Week[4]: Non-grumpy train tellers: They exist!

I had perhaps the greatest discovery of all time. There are, in fact, ticket tellers at the Metz train station that are not grumpy! GTL students have to visit the train station about once a week to grab tickets for different trips (France STILL doesn't let you reserve stuff online. It's a pain and someone should fix it ASAP. Anyway...) I stood in a ridiculously long line counting the euros on this sign to make sure they added up to 25 euros (you can check too if you want), distracting myself from the inevitable struggle awaiting at the end of my long wait. I'd once again ask the teller whether they spoke English (in French), they'd say no and get a grumpy look on their face, and then grudgingly get my tickets only because I wrote everything out so explicitly that they couldn't pretend they didn't understand.

Much to my surprise, this time was totally different! I greeted the teller with a 'Bonjour' and a smile as usual and asked the guy if he spoke English. He said only a little, but had no problems with me showing him the paper, and even seemed a little impressed that I was that organized. He looked me in the eye when he spoke, found my trains quickly, and said 'Voila' when he was done with a smile (my favorite French phrase now!). I wish taking pictures of random people in public wasn't such taboo, or else I'd have documented the experience. I'm pretty sure no GTL student is going to believe that he existed...

Week[4]: Awesome news

My last final is at 8am on Wednesday, August 3rd :) That means until Friday morning, I'm totally free. In Europe. Though my Eurail pass will have expired by then, so I can't go too crazy on the trains. I may just do a lot of exploring in Metz. Quick trips to Trier and Luxembourg may be options as well if I'm willing to spend a few euros to get there and back...

Weekend[3]: Fussen/Munich

Alright -- I'm finally caught up on weekend blogs after this (woohoo!). I went to Fussen and Munich (Germany) last weekend. I didn't expect to fall in love with Germany, but I ended up finding out that people there and their attitudes are AWESOME. The trains are incredibly efficient, the people don't glare at you if you're American, and they are hard workers. The language is also a LOT more recognizable than French, and they have English translations for nearly every tourist attraction (when we went through Paris, there was no English anywhere).

We started out in Fussen to see the famous castles there. Because we had the whole day (and there's pretty much nothing else to do in Fussen), we decided to walk to the castles. It was about a 40 min. walk and it was raining, but it was very pretty, so I don't regret skipping out on the bus.

There was some ridiculously blue water along the way that I had to take a picture of... Plus, I was admiring that great graffiti. The Europeans definitely know how to graffiti things well!

We saw Neuschwanstein and took a tour inside. This is the castle in Sleeping Beauty! (the cartoonist picked this one to draw for the movie. Surprisingly enough, they didn't have Disney back in the time of King Ludwig II). I couldn't take pictures of the inside, but the coolest part was the king's room; he had a forest theme on the walls and the ceiling was painted like the sky! There was also a secret door so the queen could sneak up whenever she (he?) wanted.




We saw a second castle, but it wasn't as famous. It is a lot prettier from the outside in my opinion, but it wasn't really technically a castle -- more of a summer home for the royal family.









I may have missed out on the BMW museum with the other Munich crew, but I did spot a gorgeous motorcycle on our walk!!!











When we got to Munich the next day, we pretty much had no idea what was worth seeing, so we took a free tour from New Europe. The guy was great; he entertaining, cute, and Australian, so you couldn't ask for much more (sorry, Jackie, I forgot to ask for his number at the end). This is the most famous beer garden in Munich (and therefore the world). It is also a tourist trap, so we basically went inside, took pictures, and left.











The ceiling is shaped so that you feel like you're inside of a barrel!












I had some amazing hot chocolate because it was so cold/rainy outside. Apparently it wasn't sweet enough so they gave me a huge packet of sugar with it. I love Germany.














On Sunday morning, Mariel and I split off from Layla and Anthony to meet up with Andy, Senthuran, and Ahmed for a visit to Dachau. It was a perfect day to go because it was a Monday (meaning it should usually be closed), but it was also a holiday (Monday after Pentecost), so the concentration camp was open, yet very few people were there. It was incredibly moving, and by far the best thing I could've decided to do in Munich. I was originally not going to go, but I was so disappointed I hadn't gone to the BMW museum with the other group that I really wanted to hit this other hotspot (I had been told Dachau and BMW World are the two places you HAVE to see in Munich). It was really emotional to see what people had to go through; the museum was good at emphasizing how inhumane so many people acted during WWII and what kinds of things people had to go through. The most momentous part was the gas chambers. Dachau was mainly meant for "special prisoners" (people openly defying Germany or well-known figures), but there were still many many deaths during that time.
It was horrible to read the sick words above the chamber. 'Brausebad' means 'showers.' They actually told people that they were going to take showers. They even installed fake showerheads in the ceiling. Going through this part and the museum (which was in the old barracks), we passed by a few people from different countries. Each of us knew what the other was feeling, and it was gratifying to realize that despite our cultural (and especially linguistic) differences, we knew we were having the same experience/emotions. If you want to hear more about the concentration camp and everything I felt when I absorbed it all that morning, I'm happy to talk (email?) about it. It's tough to put in a blog everything I'd like to convey to people about it. I'm not much of a history person, but I could truly understand why it was so important to preserve this piece of history for us to experience.

Weekend[2]: Interlaken

My absolute favorite weekend so far (and probably the whole trip) was when we spent the 4-day weekend in Interlaken, Switzerland. It was so beautiful and even better than I could have imagined!

We saw a lot of beautiful landscapes...

...Lakes...

...Mountains...

...Chocolate....

...Famous hostels (ours)...

...New buddies from said hostel (back right)...

...Life-size chess boards...

...Dangerous cliffsides....

...Viscious cows...

...and best of all, canyoning. Andy and I decided to split off from the group and do the 'intense' canyoning. Apparently it's as good as it gets in Switzerland. Our guides were awesome, and very good at reassuring us beforehand:

Allie: "So, can you do canyoning other places in the world?"

Guide: "Not most places, except Austrialia. Definitely not the States. There are big insurance issues elsewhere with commerical canyoning. You definitely picked the best one."

and during:

Guide: "Alright. This is an easy jump. It's only about an 8m drop. Just don't land to close to the waterfall or you'll get pinned to the bottom. Don't go too far to the right either, though, because there's a huge rock there. So just land somewhere down there in the middle. Ready? 3...2...1... "

[You HAD to jump on 1]. I think I've been conditioned to do stuff on countdowns, now. I've tried it with homework -- it actually works!

In order to save 100 bucks on a video, I'm just going to direct you to the videos of a billion other people who did the same thing. Just imagine each of these people with a ponytail sticking out behind:

http://youtu.be/wTp1e-FUaV4

http://youtu.be/kl-zNIPtIHw

http://youtu.be/wTp1e-FUaV4

The wetsuits were amazingly comfortable, and the padding all over the suit definitely came in handy (though didn't help with our elbows on the corkscrew slide). If you ever go to Interlaken, DO THIS! The only thing I regret not doing is canyon-jumping, but we didn't have much time and it was a lot of money for a few minutes of adrenaline.

Week[3]: FR - no Guitar

This is just one extreme example of the ways in which we are underprivileged being here in France:













vs.




(What you all are seeing today)




I think Google should really take into consideration that there are American students studying abroad that need the Google guitar for an extra day as well to ensure that they are sufficiently distracted from studies.

Week[3]: Weather

Since Dad sent me a picture of the temp in MD, I figured I could spare a few moments from studying to point out that it is not hot here!




To note, this was taken at 7:30am my time, meaning it's 30 degrees warmer in MD even when it's 1:30am there!
2 Good things:
(1) I still get to wear jeans
(2) The absence of AC in the dorms hasn't been too bad... yet...

Week[3]: Hold-up in blogs

Hey all,

Just as a heads up, I have 3 tests this week so I won't be able to make an Interlaken blog that could fully give the place justice. I'll post one Friday night (afternoon for you), though, so look for one then!

-Allie

Headed to Interlaken!

Just wanted to let you all know that I'll be in Interlaken for 4 days (woot!). Feel free to email me with tidbits of advice / requests for wallpaper backgrounds :) I know I'll be taking my fair share of photos expressedly for that purpose. I'm thinking if I just take 365 pictures there, I'll be set to have a new background for the next year...

Weekend[1]: Paris

Went to Paris this past 3-day weekend!

We hoped to go to the French Open, but tickets filled up :( We got to see the outside of the place, though. Definitely not as impressive as the U.S. Open, if you ask me!
















That day we found our hostel!




Okay, it's not really this one. We'd like to pretend we stayed in a place with a red carpet entrance in the middle of the city...






This is what our Saturday night hostel looked like. (I'm only showing this one because our Friday night one sorta looked like a hotel, and I don't want you all thinking I'm living in luxury). This was a Korean hostel that houses about 20 people max, I believe. We got a free Korean breakfast (rice, tofu, etc.) and had the option of a free dinner, but spend Saturday night in a creperie meeting Australian people instead. The owners were incredibly nice and I'd definitely stay there again!




Andy and I split the cost of this really nice car. When I come back and say that I went bankrupt from European travel, you can assume it is because of the expensive vehicles I collected along the way. There are sooo many pretty cars in Europe! (This has been my favorite so far. Dad, perhaps you should consider upgrading!)







We had a lot of appreciation for the various art museums we got to tour. You can see from this picture that we were very focused on the hidden emotions and the message in each work.


Perhaps Tech should invest more time in forcing us to take social sciences/humanities courses rather than our overload of math/science courses...




Woohoo! We went to the Louvre and got to see the famous Mona Lisa. You can't see in this picture, but the rest of the room has massive paintings (the size of giant walls), and then they threw this one on its own wall. I don't think that helped her look very important, but the huge crowds of people around it did, as well as the four security guards and two panes of bulletproof glass.





On our first day in Paris, we visited Versailles. We saw the palace and got to tour Marie Antoinette's gardens. Not sure if you've seen the fourth Harry Potter movie, but if you have, this scene should look a little familiar...















Don't be fooled by the smile on his face. Senthuran was viciously attacked by the hedges. They came alive right as we walked past them. Luckily, we saved him just in time. Right after I took this picture, of course.













The Gorillapod I got for Christmas was the most useful Christmas present I've ever gotten. We took pictures from basically anything. Railings were the most useful. It was a lot better than asking random people to take group pictures for us all the time.








We were surprised when we got our first view of the Eiffel tower. Once again, you can see our strong respect for the architecture and beauty of the tower in this picture.















On Saturday evening, we visited the Notre Dame cathedral. Andy, one of my travel buddies, is Catholic as well so we went to mass. We also convinced our three other friends to attend the mass as well. It was a pretty cool experience. They have the most efficient communion I've ever seen. I think it was 1/10th of the time that St. Joe's takes...






We finished off our trip by visiting the Pantheon. Like last trip, we ended by seeing dead people... there's a crypt in the basement with some pretty famous people in it. We also saw the pendulum that proved that the Earth rotates. It shows the exact time by rotating around that circular sundial-like-clock as it swings. I helped it by giving it a solid push while we were there.











By far the greatest part of the weekend was this. We were all ready to buy a Paris Museum Pass for 35 euros until the lady in Versailles asked us if we were EU students (everyone here thinks you're British if you speak English. Apparently they can't tell the difference in the accent). We showed them our ISIC cards, which are basically things that say we're studying at Georgia Tech and on the back they had some little address line that has Metz, France. The lady told us we wouldn't have to pay for entrance to the Versailles palace. It was awesome. So we decided to try it out other places too...
It worked EVERYWHERE. No one at GTL apparently knows this, and I'm amazed. All you have to do is point out 'Metz, France' on the back of the card and they're happy to let you in for free. So the only major expenses I had were food, the 3-day metro pass (should've asked for a discount on that too -- bet they would've given us one!) and hostels. Deal.



I summed up how much we saved by being 'EU students:
Versailles: 13.50
Arc de Triumph: -- (They were on strike, believe it or not).
Napoleon's Tomb/Musee' de le Arme'e: 9.00
Rodin Museum: 12.00
Eiffel Tower: Saved 5ish euro? (had to actually pay for about half of this one).
Louvre: 10.00
Pantheon: 8.00


At the end of the weekend, we were exhausted. It was an amazing trip, though, and I really enjoyed the group I traveled with. I look forward to being with them and many more this weekend in Interlaken!