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