Berlin, at last!

Our final leg on the great Germanic/Bohemian adventure was Berlin!

 Luckily, while in Prague, I managed to convince Chen to join us in Berlin- didn't really take much convincing though :) :) I was very excited to get to see her again before she left for home, and Meredith and I boarded the train in the morning back to Germany. Wellll that train ride was interesting. We actually napped really, really well on that train because we chose a random compartment and no one else ever came in so we each stretched out across the 3 seats and dozed off. When I did wake up, however, I noticed that it was time to be in Berlin... but we weren't!! Gasp! Turns out the train was delayed. Problem? Yes. Chen was supposed to be getting into Berlin much earlier than us, so I needed to warn her about our delay. Well I didn't have her French number! Dang it. Turns out it wouldn't have been helpful because my lovely friend lost her phone during a Paris Pub Crawl! Ha.

We got to Berlin 1.5 hours late but our hostel was actually right outside the main train station!! Woo! We met Chen right inside, checked in, and headed out to explore!

I had a few immediate reactions to Berlin. Number one: Berlin looks nothing at all like Munich! Totally different. Number two: Berlin is HUGE. Wow. The population is somewhere around 3.4 million which is about 3 times as big as Munich and about 2.7 million more than Aix!

The train systems were kind of a labyrinth at first, but we figured it out soon. Our first stop was the museum area where we went to the gigantic German History Museum. I kind of wish that we would have started in the more contemporary history area, but it was really neat. I feel like it would take me a good day or two to actually see everything in there. There was this extremely German security guy that yelled at me for having my fanta bottle in my hand ( it was empty!! ). Apparently it's contents- despite the fact that it was empty- were posing a threat to the artifacts inside the glass cases...

Beautiful :)

Wait? Where are we? What river?

We left the museum after they shuffled us out when it closed and we made our way to the Brandenburg Gate! We actually got there right at sunset, so it looked so beautiful. We snapped some pictures and then walked around the street it was on. It is a really long street with tons of cool stores and expensive restaurants. Very neat to see the gate, though.

After the gate we were starving so we decided to find ourselves a nice German restaurant. We each had something different, but I went with the Berlin classic- curry wurst. Curry wurst is a sort of sausage (go figure) with a curry/ketchup kind of sauce. It was quite delicious and went well with my tasty German beer! What? It was my last few days in the land of wonderful, inexpensive beer :) Our waitress wasn't our biggest fan though because I had the audacity to drop my fork! I think Chen might have too...geez we suck! haha

We rushed out of the restaurant and headed to a bar to meet up with a pub crawl! Haha yes, it's a trend. This particular one was packed- there were well over a hundred people in the group and it was jam packed. We were a little late to the hour of free beers so we missed out on that. The bar itself was this grimy, strange, kind of cool place with a huge fire torch in it. It seemed kind of unsafe, but really cool. Anyways it was around this point that my curry wurst was coming back to bite me. I was feeling rather nauseated but wanted to proceed with the pub crawl nevertheless!

The power-hour was over and we headed outside to get quite the fantastic introduction from the Australian tour guide.

***the following contains content unsuitable for minors. Viewer discretion is advised*** 


The guide gathered us all around and told us about the pub crawl and where we would be going. First he said that we should know that, legally, for the tour we needed to have metro tickets. But, then he proceeded to say that actually we didn't need them. He didn't have one. He never has one. End of story. Ha. Then he called our attention to the surrounding areas. He said that we may have noticed the large amount of prostitutes in the area- of course we had, they were the ones wearing giant boots, generally of the white patent-leather and/or fake fur variety! Anyways then he said something I will never forget:

"If your plans do not including fucking them, do not fuck with them. Do not take pictures of them, they will smash your cameras."

... good advice? Well we headed out to the next bar which was entirely too small for our huge group. We were under the impression that we got 'free shots' at the bar. Fine print... free shots with the purchase of another alcoholic beverage. Boo. Well at this point I had a horrific stomach ache, the smoke was getting to me, and it was really crowded and expensive. It took us a good ten minutes to even push our way to the bar. Ick. After that bar we decided to head back to the hostel and just have a nice relaxing night at the huge hostel lounge. Good choice!

We woke up the next day and headed out to Charlottenburg Palace. It is a massive palace!! It took a while to get there but luckily we had delicious COOKIES (my first cookies since America..aahhhh!) to last us on our walk/ride there. Once we got to the palace we headed inside for the audio guide and tour. The thing that sucks about palaces besides Versailles is that pictures are usually forbidden. Luckily Chen is a rulebreaker so you can all get a glimpse :)

Looks super awkward because Chen was covertly taking a picture!
but this was the most beautiful room in the palace.
Chen and I waltzed in it!!!

Porcelain room! So pretty!

           The Charlottenburg Palace was really cool, but the audioguide was the most longwinded thing I have ever heard... it was like my methodology teacher wrote it. Yikes. We left the Palace after a few hours there and headed to the Berlin Wall. I was really excited to get to see it! I did a presentation in a class about the wall and my history seminar research paper was about post WWII Germany and clandestine relations with the Soviets, so I was anxious to see something I'd spent so much time researching. 

Checkpoint Charlie

What's left of the Wall

We walked up to Checkpoint Charlie- there is a guy there dressed as an American soldier who will let you take a picture with him for a few euros lol- and then the original sign and stuff. There is the Checkpoint Charlie museum, and a big wall display explaining the different eras and information surrounding the history of the wall. Oh and there is a McDonald's right there too... I'm sure Stalin would really have appreciate that one!

The actual remnants of the wall are not by checkpoint Charlie, you just have to walk down a few blocks and there it is. It's so weird to think that when I walked to go see it, I was in "East Germany" and on the way back, "West Germany". It's difficult to imagine the wall actually being there. It seems like such a random place to just build a wall, but, hey, it happened. We took our time checking out the wall, the part that remains has some cool writing on it. Farther down from the picture I posted above is a huge painting or whatever that says "Save Our Planet". 

After the wall visit we headed to somewhere oh so amazing- the Ritter Sport Chocolate World. Ahhhhhhh!! Sadly we were too late to make our own chocolate, but we certainly bought enough of it to make up for that. I think I bought 7 different kinds. Don't worry, I only kept 2 for myself. Actually no I didn't keep any of it- but I did get to taste 3 of them! Yummy. It is soooo good. I highly recommend that if you ever see Ritter Sport chocolate, buy it. Just buy it and eat it immediately!! Or share with me... :) 

Stack of chocolates!! 

Sadly, after our amazing chocolate experience we needed to head back to the hostel so Chen could catch her train. It was really sad to see her leave, but I was glad we had some time together! Chen was actually quite interested in the German language. She learned an important lesson while she was in Berlin- be careful how you pronounce the word for street. If you're not, you'll end up calling everything an Ostrich!! 

After over a week on the road, Meredith and I were burnt out so we decided on a quiet night at the hostel lounge/bar area. We took advantage of happy hour while we sat down, relaxed, and chatted. We had about 20 hours or more of travel ahead of us the next day, so we went up to our room to watch tv, shower, and sleep. That was where the relaxing ended...

During our first night our roommates at the hostel were Chen and a really nice, extremely hip asian guy! Other than Chen, our roommates were great! Haha jk Chen :) -- Actually Chen switched in to our room because there was a vomiting girl and creepy guys in here room. But back to the second night: Two rather malodorous Indian guys were put in our room. They didn't say much and some scented lotion fixed up some of the smell. When we went to bed, the first guy came back and didn't say much except for informing us that his friend would be returning late. Other than a habit of breathing extremely loudly, snoring, and making odd noises, there wasn't much wrong with the first guy.

3:30am: Pounding knocks on the door to the room. Scared me to death! I had been sleeping so well until then... the first guy lets the second guy- who is hammered- into the room. That guy proceeds to turn on the lights in the room! They talk really loudly and then the second guy gets in bed and passes out. 

7:30am: Knocking on the door. Who is it? Apparently another guy looking for our dear roommates. They didn't hear him so he decided to just knock for a bit every 15 minutes until about 8am when one of them noticed and answered. Swell. 

Once those two had showered and left, Meredith and I had the place to ourselves and took our time getting ready. We got some 'dunk'n coffee' donuts and fruit smoothies at the station before getting on the super long train ride to Karlsruhe. We switched there and took a train to Strasbourg and we were finally back in France. We took the night train from there to Marseille and, other than some super inconsiderate people around 3am, had a pretty pleasant journey back to Aix! 

8 days, 6 cities, and 3 countries! It was the trip of a lifetime and I'll never forget it :) 

Love you and miss you,

Olivia!

Praha!!!

The Charles Bridge!

Praha!

We left Vienna- a few hours later than planned due to an unfortunate encounter with mean Turkish food- and hopped on the train to Prague. The ride was pretty uneventful, except it did mark the very first time that I got in an argument in German!!!! I was sitting in my seat, minding my own business, and I had my foot touching the seat in front of me. That is when Helga arrived. She started making noises at me because she probably thought I couldn't speak German. Then, in German, I said something like, "Oh sorry, it's no problem. I'll put my feet down"... to which she responded that it was a big problem and started talking about scuffing the seats and paying a 6 euro fine. I told her that there was definitely NOT a scuff mark and that there was absolutely no way I was giving her 6 euros. She left, making noises yet again. Ha!

At the train station we needed to get out some Czech Crowns. I put my card in and the smallest amount it was going to give me was 1000. Wowza... should've looked up the conversion rate BEFORE going, but I did the best I could and just assumed that 1000 wasn't that much. (Thankfully I was right!) Europe tends to be super convenient, so the machine followed suit and actually gave me a 1000 crown bill. Super. Meredith got a 2000 crown bill so I guess it was worse for her! 

Anyways we made it out of the station and into Prague and it was actually a really nice and sunny day. A wonderful day for us to spend 1.5 hours wandering around Prague trying to find our hostel! Yes. The streets were basically all cobblestone and the signs, of course, were in Czech. It was really hard to read the map and though we navigated the metro perfectly fine, the roads were a different story. When we finally did make it to the hostel, it ended up being one of the best we stayed in! (Little Town Budget Hotel for those of you planning on making a May trip there!!) We were in an 8 person dorm but it was actually 2 rooms with a kitchen, a table, and very large and clean bathroom. We met some really awesome people at that hostel as well, which is always the best! After we got settled in we decided to go out and explore a little.. oh and EAT. 

Our destination: The Hard Rock Cafe. Haha, yes, how American of us. But, due to the unfortunate incident with Turkish-food-gone-wrong, we decided that food that we were quite familiar with might be better. I had some glorious fajitas and then a giant brownie sundae... oh and some wonderful Czech beer! After dinner we walked around the city for a while and checked out some of the sights and stopped in at a ton of souvenir stores- I was on the hunt for a giant, furry Russian looking hat. (No such luck, sadly). 

The next day we woke up and had some very cheap, very good Starbucks before heading out to see the famous clock tower. When I went to throw away my coffee cup, I noticed a tour group from the New Europe Tours (the same company we used in Munich) standing by, ready to leave after the clock struck. We decided to join the free tour and try and make the most of our time in Prague. It was definitely a good idea. I really love those tours because you learn so much stuff that you would otherwise have no way to know! 

Fun facts and pictures, Praha style:

1 US Dollar = 17.25008 Czech Koruna  

Tour guides use giant, colorful umbrellas to help the tourists find them!
It's actually really helpful.

The famed Astronomical Clock. It's pretty neat when the hour turns.
At the end a guy with a trumpet comes out at the very top and plays to each of the four corners. 

Synagogue that the Jewish people in Prague built to commemorate the help
and tolerance that the Muslim people in Spain gave them. That is
why it looks so much more like a mosque than synagogue.

The oldest synagogue in all of Europe. Hitler did not want it torn down because
he wanted it to be a part of his "museum" of sorts to an "extinct race".

The Eiffel Tower of Praha! It's just as tall as the one in Paris...
if you count the hill that it is sitting on :)

Yes, it was quite cold. Especially after 6 hours outside...

The view from our hostel bedroom window. The Prague Castle at night!

Factoids:

1. The lighting you see above that makes the Prague Castle look so amazing was actually provided by the Rolling Stones. Apparently Mick Jagger thought they should light up the castle at night, but since the country had just come out from under communist control they couldn't afford it. Mick Jagger donated the lights from his world tour to the city of Prague!

2. The Czechs drink more beer per capita than any other country! Heard of Pilsner? Yeah, it's a Czech invention!

3. The Charles Bridge (my very first picture) was built in 1357 by Charles IV

4. St. Vitus Cathedral (one of my favorites that I have seen in Europe) has crazy towers. Two of them are gothic, the third one is gothic style until the very top. Apparently by the time this tower was being built, gothic style wasn't as in vogue so some silly architect convinced the king to put a renaissance style top on it. It looks so odd!!

gothic... gothic... Renaissance!! Looks like they chopped the top
off of the 3rd one lol!

5. There used to be a huge, massive statue of Stalin on this one hill in Prague. After they tore it down, Michael Jackson actually did a concert in the city. Apparently his concert organizers decided that it would be awesome to put a giant statute of MJ where good ol' Stalin used to be!

6. Hitler wanted to make Prague his retirement home, so his did his best to make sure that the city was unharmed.

We learned most of these fun facts on our free tour and some of them we learned when we took the castle tour. After 6 hours of being outside in the 22 degree weather, complete with wind, we were both ready to be inside! We had dinner at this Czech place near the restaurant. The portions were huge, the beer was tasty, and the price was ridiculously cheap! We were finally profiting from a favorable exchange rate :) :) We walked around the souvenirs shops again trying to find a hat for me, but I finally gave up. The souvenir shops there remind me a lot of Florida in that there are tons of them and they all have the exact same crap! lol. Oh well!

Prague was a great surprise for me. Like I said, I had no idea what the expect but it was so beautiful and full of interesting stories, myths, and people. We said goodbye to Prague (and one of my favorite sweaters!!!!!!!) the next morning and headed off to a city unlike anything we had seen thus far- Berlin.

I hope you're all doing well.

Love you and miss you,

Liv

Part 2: Wiener Schnitzel und Apfelstrudel

Part 2 of the Grand Adventure, at last!

Ahhh Vienna. Can't really say enough wonderful things about it :)

We left Munich, completely exhausted, and were expecting to get a nice rest on the train. The Eurail Pass is really awesome in that you can basically just hop on whichever train you want without a reservation. For some reason, we decided that we needed a reservation for this train- maybe we thought that there was going to be some mad Monday-evening rush to Vienna? Who knows? Anyways we made seat reservations, boarded the train, and walked back to our seats. We booked two window seats and ended up in facing each other with a table in between and a strange man next to Meredith. He was on his phone, with a laptop in front of him, and was dressed in a really nice suit. The rest of the train was fairly empty and we were quite irritated that the one time we made a reservation they happened to put us next to people. Except that man was not supposed to be there at all! When they came around to check tickets, he and his son- I think he said he was 12 or 13- had to purchase tickets. Despite the fact that there were people right next to him and hardly anywhere else, they didn't move. Needless to say we were extremely bitter. Then, the man started talking continuously on the phone and just disrupting any hopes we had of napping! 

After a while we abandoned the idea of sleeping or getting rest and I asked Meredith if she might want to play cards. I got my deck of cards and my uno cards out of my backpack and Meredith and I played a few games. After our first game of rummy, the man said something to his son who then asked me, in English, what the game was called. I responded and he smiled- apparently they have this game to! This got the conversation going and Meredith asked the man where they were from. His response? Iran! He then asked us if we'd like to see some card tricks. We said yes and then he proceeded to do a bunch of them! I was super skeptical. Card tricks? Great. Buuuut, I was actually really surprised when the first one worked and the rest were really fun to watch! Eventually the conversation started to flow and I asked them if they knew the game Uno. The little boy had played it before but not the dad, but he wanted to learn. So the next thing you know, Meredith and I are aboard a train from Munich to Vienna, playing Uno with Iranians! Life is so cool!!! 

We got into Vienna after 10 I think and went to find our hostel. It was pretty close to the train station so we had very little trouble finding it. The hostel was so nice, cozy, and warm! The hostel bar was full of exciting people and we knew it'd be a nice stay. When we got to the check-in, the woman started talking to us and said that we had booked a mixed dorm and was that what we meant. I said yes but then asked if they had any all female dorms (let's recall the last dorm with the butt incident...) She said that they were all full, but that she could Meredith and I a discounted price on a private room. It was too tempting to turn down and we ended up staying in this really nice, super clean, private room with our own bathroom! Our first decision, then, was to agree on a good night's sleep so that we could wake up refreshed and ready to take on Vienna the next day. We actually ended up booking a second night there instead of heading to Prague!

We got up fairly late in the morning but fully rested for the first time since probably Thursday. Our first order of business- Schonbrunn Palace! According to my always-handy Rick Steve's guidebook, it was the only palace in Europe to rival Versailles. As I am a huge fan of the latter, I had to see Schonbrunn. When we got there, I was impressed. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the inside, but we took a lot of the outside grounds. I'd say the Versailles gardens are much better, but the inside of Schonbrunn might have a slight edge on the Frenchies... at least half of the rooms :) 

The Schonbrunn Palace was the summer home of the Hapsburgs. You might recall them from ruling the vast majority of Europe in some way or another... Marie Antoinette herself lived in the rococo palace before moving to Versailles and enjoying French hospitality! 

By the fountains outside! This picture makes it look so cold because of the ice but really it was nice out!!

Meredith and the 'summer home'

I'm making my grand entrance :) 

View of part of the gardens from the palace

The palace tour took quite a long time, but it was worth it and the audioguide was actually helpful and worth the money! We were both starving after this trip, so we decided to head back into town and find somewhere to eat. We ended up in Vienna's main shopping district- dangerous, I know- but withheld from doing any damage because we were so hungry. We wandered around for quite sometime before settling on "Wienerwald" as our choice. I'd be lying if I said the name didn't have something to do with the choice... This was where I had my first true Austrian Apfelstrudel and it was delicious!!!!!! I decided I'd have to have at least one more before leaving (Don't worry, I did!!). We also decided that we still hadn't recovered from the Beer Challenge so we had Pepsis instead of beer. Pepsi. It was my first Pepsi since I left the United States. I remember Meredith commenting that even the word Pepsi seemed strange after so long of neither saying nor hearing it. 

Our next stop was the art museum and we only did a tiny bit of wandering around before we found it! IT was actually a 'twin building' of the natural history museum that is across from it. They are both really cool on the outside and the art museum was beautiful! We only had one major tourist site left on our short list of things to see- the St. Stephen's Cathedral- and we set out to see it as soon as the mildly grumpy Austrian museum people insisted that the museum was closing! We started walking down the street towards a cathedral looking object (great sight-seeing plan, I know) and actually came across the Vienna Rathaus, which is the town hall. After we figured out that it wasn't the cathedral, we were really excited by the fact that they had some pretty inexpensive ice skating going on around it! Though we were tempted to go ice skating, we decided to try and find the cathedral first!

Rathaus! Sooo pretty!!

We kept walking towards another cathedral shape...aaaand it wasn't the right one either! So, we headed back, unable to resist the temptation of ice skating! I think it was the novelty of saying we went ice skating in Vienna that really drove us to participate, because it was surely not because of our ability to ice skate well! I was definitely far superior to wall-hugger Meredith! -Sorry Meredith :) But just because I left the wall doesn't mean I was cruising along. The Austrians were crazy good at ice skating. People of all ages were zooming by, doing tricks, etc etc. Once I got a bit more courage in me, I ventured further out. I was going kind of fast, thinking about how awesome my day had been, how lucky I was to be doing this, and how great life is and then BAM. I fell. No, I didn't fall. I completely wiped out. I skidded forward on the ice right to the wall in front of onlookers that were cringing and laughing. Luckily, other people were falling too! It doesn't really matter that those other people were 5, right? Right? 

Yay ice skating!

Meredith zooming around the rink!

We didn't last too long ice skating, surprise surprise, but we definitely had a good time! We turned in our skates and then actually managed to find St. Stephen's Cathedral! It was pretty cool, but I wasn't overly impressed by it. Though, to be fair, a lot of it was hard to see due to construction. 

We made it back to the hostel just in time for happy hour! I guess our anti-beer thoughts had worn off at this point as we both enjoyed a half liter! We were in the lounge/bar area and ended up meeting this really nice guy from England who was traveling around alone and on his way to Istanbul! He was really friendly and wanted to know tons of things about the United States. It was funny to see his reactions to some of our answers! He ended up joining us when we ran out to get some Turkish food and bring it back to the hostel. After we ate he took off to go get some sleep, Meredith stayed in the lounge, and I went to the computer room. While I was there I met 3 Americans who were studying abroad in the Netherlands! It was really nice to talk to them. They said they had been to Prague (our next destination) and loved it, so I was quite excited to go!

We went to bed a little late, but it was a wonderful day full of great food, people, and places. All was going wonderfully until the next morning. As it turns out, our little Turkish food run didn't go so well for Meredith. She was sick and we ended up staying in Vienna a few extra hours to give her time to recover!  When Meredith was feeling better we packed up and headed to the train station! Destination: Prague!

Stayed turned for Part 3: Praha!

See you all in 49 days :)

Miss you and love you,

Liv

The Great Germanic/Bohemian Adventure: Part 1

Hello all! I know it has been quite some time since I updated, and I thought I would do the update about my crazy adventures into Germany-Austria-Czech Republic in parts so it won't be too too long!

Part 1:  Heidelberg & Munich

Our adventure began around 9pm or so when my new friend, Meredith, and I packed up our stuff and headed to Marseille. I was really excited about our overnight train to Strasbourg because I was convinced it would be just like Harry Potter- I'm referring to the Knight Bus for those of you uncultured beings!! Shame. Shame. Anyways we got to the train station and were starving. Our only food options were MacDo or a jambon-buerre sandwich. I went with my first MacDo in months. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't too good either! We encountered some fellow Americans that were headed on their break. It was about 5 or 6 girls traveling together and they were really loud and obnoxious... the kind of Americans that you just love representing all of America as they loudly parade down the streets! Yes. Anyways we got on the train and the bunks were hilarious and I loved them! It was just Meredith and me in the compartment and one random French girl. I slept decently throughout the ride and the next thing you know we were in Strasbourg. We then took a train from Strasbourg to Karlsruhe (I think?) and then from Karlsruhe to Heidelberg.

When we got to Heidelberg our first task- after the inevitable bathroom break- was to find my longtime penpal Chris. He called my phone and said he was waiting outside the train station for whenever we got there. The time had come to find out if he was a murderer/stalker or simply a nice penpal that I'd had for about three years now! Luckily it was the latter and the three of us set off towards Altstadt- Old Town.

Before setting off on this journey I checked out TripAdvisor for some ideas for food. One place- Schnitzelbank- caught my eye. I'll admit the name was a huge part of the attraction, but the reviews were quite good. Despite the fact that nearly all reviews said it was difficult to find, I decided that I did not need to write down any directions of any kind. When we set off to find this restaurant, everyone was a little less than impressed with my planning skills. I wasn't really concerned, I knew that I'd find Schnitzelbank!! I had Chris ask a few random people if they knew of it or where it was and no one seemed to know. Not exactly a good sign... but I wasn't deterred. I was sure I knew where I was going. As we kept on walking down the main street Meredith and Chris were growing tired of the search and just as they wanted to abandon the quest I looked to my left and shouted "Ha! Schnitzelbank! In your face!" There it was on a lonely alleyway right where I knew it would be... I had a feeling the whole time!! No one could believe that I managed to find this place, and we went inside to eat. It was amazing. The start of a wonderful German-food eating extravaganza that I happily participated in for the rest of the week. HUGE proportions, tons of meat, sauce with spices and interesting flavors, and don't forget the tall glass of cold beer!!! Ah. Deutschland =D

After we stuffed our faces and learned a little bit about some German beer drinking culture - everyone is apparently supposed to finish their beers at the same time or girls finish them first? Obviously I paid attention... Our next task was to walk to the Heidelberg Castle! We could see it from where we were and it was really, really awesome. The only non-awesome thing was the hike up the extremely steep hill after eating more food than I have had all semester. Once we finally got to the top of the hill, I was so so so out of breath! Luckily everyone else was too so I didn't feel quite as ridiculous. The castle was really neat and parts of it were being restored while others were left in ruins. We walked around the grounds a little bit and got some great views of the city. We actually encountered quite a few Americans there. I guess it is quite a hotspot for American military families to visit on weekends.

View of the river and the city from the Castle.

The Castle!!! The part being renovated is what crumbled and fell down a while back. 

After all of that walking around we decided that nothing could be better than some delicious gelato! We first walked down the hill and over the bridges and things. There were some amazing views and a crazy guy kayaking on the super cold water! After that we went back to the main area in search of ice cream! We found this little place and ducked inside. I got cookies and chocolate as my two flavors and they were both delicious. We left the ice cream place and were then in search of a bar/pub to watch my favorite team Bayern Munich play Dortmund. Just as we walked outside I heard this massive thud and turned around to see poor Meredith on the ground!! (***Please note that falling will be a common theme throughout this great adventure!!***). We got Meredith off the ground okay and then set out. Here is a fun fact about pubs in Germany: When in search of a bar, the best place to look is by a church! That is where we found the pub and settled in to watch the greatest team ever!!!!! We only got to stay for a little bit- long enough for me to see Franck Ribbery score yeeeeeeeah- because we had to catch a train to Munich. We left the pub and made a sort of mad dash to the train station to get on whichever train came next! 

The train ride to Munich was uneventful and there was hardly anyone else on the train. We did sit across the aisle from this unfortunate young man that apparently only has one techno song on his iPod that he decided to play on repeat for about an hour or so. That was fun!! When we got to Munich it was late and raining and, essentially, we had no idea where we were going. My broken German could only get us so far and it was only a matter of time before we hopped in a cab. The cab ride totaled about 6 euros... we were super close to the hostel and had no idea. Grrreat. We got to our hostel, checked in, and took our stuff upstairs. It was a mixed dorm with 8 beds and that turned out to be quite the interesting experience. After we had settled in and found out some things to do for the next day we went back to the room to get some sleep. There were two guys asleep in the bunk on the far side of the room and at about 2:50am or so we were just about to go to bed when the door to the room flies open and a bunch of really drunk Brits come stumbling into the room. They all had really heavy accents- from Liverpool we found out later- and were just constantly talking and shouting and making noise. They must have asked where we were from about 10 times and one of them was quite insistent that we were from Kentucky. Meredith and I kept exchanging glances and I felt realllly bad for the poor guys asleep in the room. Just as I was about to turn over and go to bed, one of the Brits decides that clothing was just unnecessary. As you can imagine, he gave no warning and I turned my head and there was a butt!!!! I looked wide-eyed at Meredith and we decided it was definitely time to sleep.. and also time to rethink the mixed dorm for the future.

We woke up bright and early the next morning and headed to Marienplatz to meet a tour group that was headed to the Dachau Concentration Camp. We knew it wouldn't be some sort of pleasant trip or anything, but a worthwhile experience that we both thought we needed to have. After grabbing some amazing German coffee and pastries, we met the group and headed to the metro. Ironically enough, when the guide was asking people where they were from, one guy said Indiana! Turns out that this guy, Trevor, goes to Butler and knows several people that went to high school with either Meredith or myself! Even crazier- in the bathroom before the tour started, Meredith saw a random woman that she talked to while her flight was delayed. This woman happened to be on the same flight as Meredith because she was going to go teach English somewhere in Germany (not Munich). She just happened to be in Munich on the same weekend as us, on the same tour as us, and in the bathroom at the same time as us! Crazy!!

The tour of the concentration camp was really intense. It was the longest running of all of the camps. While it was more of a work camp than a death camp, thousands of people perished at Dachau. The whole place was really eery. The grounds were immaculately kept- apparently it was the same way during the time of the war- and there was a really stark contrast between the grassy outside areas and the grim, gravel areas where the prisoners were kept. While most of the barracks have been razed, they rebuilt a few of them when the site became a national museum of sorts. They show the evolution of the barracks from separated bunks to just a massive wooden box for hundreds of people. The tour included the shower areas as well as some of the areas where the Nazis would torture the prisoners. It was all really grim. The most intense of all of these places was the end- the gas chamber and crematorium. Above the doors to the gas chamber there is a sign that reads "Showers" in German. The inmates believed that they were finally getting a shower, not headed to their deaths. While this place was nuts, it kind of just seemed like a big empty room. It was difficult to imagine what might have happened there. The next room, the crematorium, was different. That was the one of the most gut-wrenching places I have ever been. As crazy as it sounds I felt like I could sense the horrors in that room. Seeing the ovens was too much and I couldn't really stay in that room too long. Everyone else felt the same way. If any of you ever have the opportunity to visit a camp, I would highly recommend going so that you can try and better understand the horrific events that took place. It is really worthwhile. Here are a few pictures, but I didn't really take a lot while I was there. It felt weird..

 This is one of the monuments in the main square where they used to do the roll calls. It is supposed to represent the bodies that would get caught in the gates surrounding Dachau. Guards used to do sick things like take a prisoners hat, throw it in the grass, and command them to go get the hat. The catch? If you step on the grass, they tower guards shoot you. If you don't follow orders, the guards beat you.

This is the famous gate that leads into Dachau. It translates to "Works set you free". This originally gave false hope to prisoners that believed if they followed orders and did the work they would be set free.









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As you can imagine, after a day like this, we were in desperate need of much lighter, more enjoyable evening. Ironically the same company that offers these tours also offers a "Beer Challenge" a few hours after the Dachau tour ends. Meredith and I grabbed some Turkish food at the train station, freshened up at the hostel, and headed out for a night of fun! When we got to the meeting point- Berlin Central Station- the first thing the guides did was hand out beers to everyone. What?? In the train station? Everyone could SEE us?!?!? This must be illegal, right? Apparently as a rule of thumb in Germany, anywhere you can eat bread, you can drink beer. The metro is no exception! We were instructed that we had to finish these beers before arriving at the first Beer Hall, which meant we had to drink them on the metro. I had this intrinsic desire to hide my beer the entire time. I felt like such an alcoholic. I kept wondering if people were staring at me because I had a beer on the metro at 6:30pm! Meredith and I were even sitting across from some nicely dressed couple. Talk about culture shock!! Our first stop was the famous Hofbrauhaus and before entering we were taught the great folksy tune that all the locals sing when prompted by the awesome little band. Essentially it has to do with having a good time and drinking and at the end you yell "1, 2, 3... CHUG!" Excellent. We went inside and it was everything I had always hoped it would be and much much more! The waitresses were wearing traditional attire and tables were a great mix of locals and wide-eyed tourists like me. The funniest thing was when I walked in and saw an elderly woman of about 90 or so with two hands on her huge 1 liter jug of beer just downing it. So funny!!! We got to our table and it was 5 of us from the tour and some locals. I was too much of a wimp to order the full liter of beer so I went with the 1/2 liter of the Hofbrauhaus wheat beer. We also ordered some pretzels and bread to go with it. They had a great polka band and I happily snapped photos of the tuba player. After my liquid courage was in full force, I decided to make friends with the German woman sitting next to me. The conversation was a hilarious combination of broken English and broken German. We understood each other for the most part and it was a lot of fun! My German improved (sort of) as we spoke and she was happy to get to practice her English. She and her boyfriend taught as about the importance of eye contact and cheersing with the bottom of the glass- there really is a lot to remember about German beer drinking! 

TUBA! He was great and I took a ton of pictures of him. He waved when he walked by my table!!! .. probably because I waved first but still :) :)










Just some beers for the table!! Mine is the tall skinny one in the middle. Definitely wasn't up for the whole liter!

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We left there around 9pm and headed to the next place. We went to a total of 3 beer halls and 1 bar. The crazy Brits from our hostel were actually on the tour and we got to know them a little better. Turns out they were only half as irritating and douchey as we thought! We met some great friends from all over the place and definitely enjoyed ourselves. Somehow this night- which was supposed to be over at 10pm- was dramatically delayed. The short version is that after we left the bar at 3am, we met a woman outside who asked if we had a lighter. I said no and then she started to talk to me and, for some reason,  was totally happy to chat. The resemblance between this woman- who was at least 40- to Cruella Deville is uncanny. It is how I will refer to her from now on (I swear she never told me her real name). 

Somehow Cruella convinced Meredith, our new friend David, and me to go with her to a Milch Bar- whatever that is. We followed her around Munich for a while and she rambled to me about Switzerland, her son in Germany, her passion for hot air balloons, and a bunch of crap I don't remember. It was certainly entertaining because we spoke to each other in German, French, and English. Not quite sure when or why we switched from language to language, but I think I just kept going with Cruella because it was too funny to pass up. When the Milch Bar was closed, she took us to this 24 hour Turkish restaurant and proceeded to buy us all falafels and fries! Amazing!! Then we all went across the street to some random bar and thought that shots of tequila were in order. Oh boy. After about 15 minutes or so I decided it was time to go. I was getting really tired and surely it was late! We said our goodbyes to Cruella (who was having a smoke outside) and wandered off. Sadly I have no pictures of Cruella, but she will live on forever in my heart!! 

Once outside the bar there was a big question to be answered.. where were we? No clue! We must have asked 5 people or so on the way back to the hostel which way we were going but no one was particularly helpful. We finally made it back to the hostel around 5:45AM. OHHHH my goodness. I was so shocked when I saw the time! Checkout was at 10am! Luckily we could pay for late checkout and we did so promptly. We went back upstairs and climbed into bed after quite a long day. 

We woke up kind of late- hard to believe, I know- showered, and headed out for the day. We decided to go healthy with our meal choice and ate some much needed subway. Then we set out to find and visit Allianz Arena, home of Bayern Munich! We took the metro for what seemed like a really, really long time until we got to the outskirts of Munich. There was really nothing around at all until we got out of the station and saw a GIANT stadium. It kind of looks like a huge (and amazing) white tire! The area around it is totally empty and flat so it was really windy as we walked up to it. Unfortunately the tour of the stadium is only offered in English once a day- 11am- and thanks to the Beer Challenge that was sort of impossible. We did get to see the field, walk around the stadium itself, and experience the 4 or 5 room gift shop! I managed to spend about 50 euros in that place... don't judge!! They were the only souvenirs I bought all trip (minus post cards which do not count... and minus a t-shirt I got Steve in Prague). Considering all of the useless stuff I wanted to buy, the fact that I limited myself to 50 euros is actually impressive. It is, I promise :)

After the stadium we took the metro back and decided to wander around Munich a bit. We saw some really neat buildings and monuments. As we were walking, we saw this one monument that had tons of photos and flowers all over it. We decided to go over it to get a better look at it and figure out who this guy was that was still so popular. When we got close enough to make out the pictures, it was none other than Michael Jackson. Somehow, someway, a random Michael Jackson memorial was started on the base of the monument of some random Bavarian dude. It was so strange. See for yourself:

Sadly we had no random flowers of our own to add to this strange monument, so we simply paid our respects and headed to the train station. We had a 5 hour train ride ahead of us to get to Munich, and we decided it was in our best interest to get some food for the journey. So, what did we get? Well, 16 euros worth of candy is the answer! The best part? It turned out to be all be pretty terrible! Oops. There's a life lesson! 

Stay tuned for Part 2: Vienna!!

Hope you are all doing well. See you in 57 days =D

Love you and miss you,

Olivia 

The Roller Coaster of Barcelona

It's been a crazy few weeks here in Europe!

I met my friends Nathan and Chen, this time in Barcelona, Spain, for another great weekend. But first, I'll talk about school so that I can prove to you nay-sayers that I do, occasionally, attend class! 

Last week was one of the scariest academic weeks for me outside of the week where I had to turn in my 30 page history paper... or maybe when I had three 10 page papers due on the same day? Anyways this was way worse because, as I am in France, all this crap is in French! Bah! In my history of France in the 19th century class I had to do what they call a "fiche de travail"- sort of a 2-page essay/report on a topic- as well as a 25 minute oral presentation on a really boring document, which I think I mentioned in the previous post. For those of you who are unaware, the professor-student relationship in France is quite different from America. When you give a presentation, it is extremely common for the professor to simply stop you in the middle of it and tell you that you should have done more research, said something stupid, etc. At the end of the presentation, the prof proceeds to ask you a ton of questions that are difficult to answer or are worded in a really condescending way. Well my roommate and I worked tirelessly reading and organizing our presentation, finding relevant maps, and making notecards. We went to class that day and the prof kind of put our group on the spot and made us talk about our fiche. Much to my amazement, he didn't insult the information we gave him! Nice. But then it was our turn for the presentation...

Marley and I had been getting really, really nervous throughout the entire class. Of course we had to give the presentation at the end of class, which meant we were super antsy the entire time and staring at the clock. When it was our turn, we walked up to the front of the class and put our stuff on the table. We both took a deep breath and began. During the presentation, whenever Marley was talking, I looked at the prof and I swear every face he made was of disdain or absolute confusion. Despite this, we kept going and then wait for the worst part- the questions! He was brutal!! He asked us so many questions (and I was so terrified) that I can barely remember what he asked. I do know that either myself or Marley had a plausible answer for all but one question. Then he hit us with another question. We tried desperately to answer, guess after guess. Even the French students looked confused. So what was up? The prof decided that a trick question was necessary. Cruel and unusual punishment. After he finally admitted there was no real answer, we got to go sit down and finally breathe again. Everyone told us we did well, but after that torture, Marley and I were less sure. 

The French grading scale goes from 1-20. You will never get a 20. Actually 17-20 are sort of off-limits to anyone. 15-16 are considered exception, 14 really good, etc etc. IU curves the French grades so that a 14 is an A. Thank god, because today we found out that despite the attacks and questions at the end, we got a 14!!!! !!!!!  !!!!!! 

Alright that's super boring on to the next thing. BARCELONA! 

Chen got to Aix on Tuesday evening and stayed with me to rest up and do internship applications, laundry etc. Thursday night I took her to the bus stop and she rode to Barcelona to meet Nathan. I took the very same bus the next day, except my experience was totally different!!! When I dropped Chen off there were several other students from Aix getting on the bus. She also boarded promptly on time and headed to Spain. When I got to the stop the next day, there was not a single other person there! Then, the bus was 45 minutes late. Considering that I got to the stop 30 minutes ahead of time like the ticket says, I had been outside waiting for quite some time. I was freaking out and freezing. By the time the bus came I was so exhausted from trying to think of how in the world this was happening to me that I was content to just sit and relax on the bus. I was in and out the entire way and got to Barca at 5 am. I hopped off the bus and onto the metro and made it to the hostel around 5:30. They finally let me check-in at 6:30am and I went to bed... for 2 hours. 

When I got up to see if Chen was in the lobby, I actually found Nathan checking in! Luckily his room was in the same dorm as Chen's so we went in and woke her up. After Chen was finally ready to go, we headed out for our first day on the town! Our first stop was La Rambla where we ducked into the markets. They were so amazing. It was kind of a labyrinth of stands and people shouting in Catalan. We were all drawn straight to the beautiful fruit stands. Nathan bought this big thing of freshly cut strawberries for a euro, and the rest of us bought these amazing fruit juices. Mine was pineapple/cocunut. It was sooo good. After that we walked around for a while trying to find this sculpture garden or something like that, and when it ended up being a fail we just decided to eat! Yay! We went to a tapas restaurant.. Tapas, in Spain? How original :) But they were pretty yummy. Chen and I had some delicious sangria too! I was adventurous and tried the eel. Sick. Chen likes eel and she said that particular kind was bad so maybe there is hope for eel in my future? Or not.

Anyways feast your eyes:

Our next stop was this history museum that I wanted to see, and it ended up being pretty cool. It was kind of a massive museum and the guys were getting really sleepy, so we decided to leave after a while. Then we decided to take a walk towards the beach. On the way we stopped and got the BEST gelato I have ever had. So so so so good. I think I had dark chocolate and dulce de leche? Not sure, but it was a good choice! After a brief stop at the beach we decided to head back to the hostel for some rest and to figure out our evening plans. We decided on a general location to get food and then, more importantly, which night-life to attend! 

On the way to the restaurant we saw a protest! Well, we heard it first because there were these really loud explosions going off. Apparently the firefighters were protesting at city hall or something. All of the Barcelona riot police were out. It was a good time :) We had a nice dinner- I had lamb!! Yummy!- and then decided to find the famous, or infamous, Chupitos shots bar! Though we doubted Chen at first, she finally got us there and it was such a great experience.

The place was packed. It is basically the size of a big galley kitchen, with basically no sitting space, only squeezing through crowd space. All of the shots have some sort of dazzling effect to them- anywhere from setting the bar on fire to just really cool color combinations. We started off the the "Harry Potter" and there was no stopping us from there! I took some pictures of the particularly cool or tasty ones!

***Please keep in mind that I am over 21 and all beverages were enjoyed as responsibly as possible*** 

This shot was called the "Boy Scout". It was recommended to us by a fellow IU Hoosier that we met at the bar. He is studying abroad in Barcelona and apparently frequents Chupitos!

Roast mallow on the fire on the bar, drunk mallow into the shot, drink the shot, eat the mallow, enjoy responsibly!! 

Ahh the "Harry Potter". This was our first Chupitos experience! First they put the orange slice on top of... whatever was in the shot... and cover the slice in sugar. Then they light it all on fire and throw more sugar into the flames! Quite the spectacle!! :)

The "Bob Marley". I think this shot is really pretty! It was also quite delicious! I think it was strawberry, banana, and lime? Not really sure but I enjoyed it (responsibly).










As I mentioned, we happened to meet a guy who goes to IU and is studying abroad in Barcelona. He and his friend invited us to join them at a really swanky club in Barcelona called Sutton. The guys were no match for us girls at the bar, so they went home before we departed for the club! We walked and talked with our new friends on the way. They told us that we had to tell the bouncers that we were on "Chaz's list"... no idea who Chaz is, but that is no matter! We got to the club and there was a massive line all the way around the building. My first thought was that there was absolutely no way we were getting in. Then the group we were with told us to just start cutting the line! Cutting???? How rude! But we did it anyways and when we the group got to the front, Chen and I were sort of huddling in the back. The bouncers turned them all away and somehow Chen and I did not get included in that group. We were randomly in the front of the line and a girl we came with whispered "Chaz's List" to us, so when they asked that it is what I said. They let us in! We couldn't believe it- especially when we got inside and it was so unbelievably chic! We checked our coats and then went out on to the already-packed dance floor!

Until about 3:30am, it was a great night. That's when things turned around. Chen and I decided to head back to the hostel because we were tired and had a lot to do the next day. She started looking in her bag for our coat check receipts and discovered that her wallet was missing!!! We were both pretty frantic right away. Barcelona is notorious for thefts. We retraced her steps to find the wallet and there was no sign. I got back in line to get our coats and ask the coat check people if anyone had turned it in. No one had. Chen didn't find the wallet. All she found were little receipts and things on the floor that had been in zipper pockets of her wallet. Eek! We had one of our new friends help us talk to the club employees (neither Chen nor I know Spanish) and she left her Barcelona address and number with them in case the wallet turned up. Chen and I headed home to call her parents to have them cancel her cards.

The end? Ha. We were really, really far north in Barcelona. We had absolutely no idea where we were and it was nearly 4:30 at this point. We asked for directions to the nearest metro and didn't really find it. We found a bus stop and then when the bus came we just decided to hop on and see if we went the right way. We asked the driver (in English) and he responded (in Spanish). Surely whatever he said had to have meant, "Sure, hop on! Next stop- metro station!!!" Thankfully, it kind of did! We made it to the same metro stop that was next to our dinner location. We went down into the metro and all was well!

Until we got to the actual platform. We heard a lot of commotion going on and figured it was just some people coming home from the clubs. It ended up being one of the scariest/most intense things I had ever seen. Someone was being beaten up, kicked, and harassed by a group of 5 or 6 guys. We looked closer and it was a girl! She was screaming madly at some of the guys and then attacking them. They would throw her to the ground and then start stomping on her. We were TERRIFIED. Chen and I backed away next to this French girl and didn't know what to do. Other people on the platform were on their cell phones calling the police. Men on the platform across the tracks were screaming at and threatening the guys on our side. It was completely insane. It seemed like it took days for the police and the train to arrive. When they did everyone scattered, but I'll never forget what I saw.

We did finally make it back to the hostel safe and sound, but certainly freaking out! We both called the US really quickly to make ourselves feel better and cancel Chen's cards. Then we went to bed... for 3 hours.

The next day we ventured to this crazy cathedral by Gaudi and a few other architects. Chen did the tour of the inside while Nathan, Bob, and I went across town to see the park that he created. Both were incredible and ornate.

This is the cathedral from the front! Notice the Christmas tree on it. It is supposed to tell the story of Christ's life on the outside. 

The star of the show! The back is very different from the front, as you can see! It's a really great cathedral, and is still under construction.

We met back up with Chen and then headed down to the beach for more Vioko! Woo! That place was great. I think I had cheesecake and chocolate that time. We ate our gelato while we walked to this cable car lift that would take us up to Mont juic, the mountain! The ride was really great and the view was spectacular! The mountain also had great views and we sat there for quite some time just taking it all in. Enjoy :) 

All in all the trip was a lot of fun. We saw some really neat things, ate wonderful food, and definitely enjoyed each other's company. I found the Spanish people extremely nice, and enjoyed the laid back lifestyle they had. We saw people just singing in the streets and then others would start dancing. It was a really neat cultural experience! Bad stuff aside, we all agreed that Barca was great!! 

Miss you and love you,

 Liv

The Green Fairy and Roman Ruins

Hi everyone! It's been a while since my last update because, despite what you all may think, I am forced to go to school here. Unfortunate, I know.

After my adventures in Cannes it was back to the daily, or Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, grind. I honestly have no idea what I did that week. I think I just did some readings for class and hung out with friends in between. I was definitely still exhausted from the week before! But, I did have a rather exciting trip with some other program people to an Liquoristerie, which is a place just outside of Aix that is famous for its production of... Absinthe! We took about a 25 minutes bus ride to this little town where the place is located. The guy who owns the place, Pascal, is a really curious fellow.

A few fun facts about Pascal:

1. He is the man that got the 84 year ban of absinthe in France lifted with his new recipe and brand "Versinthe" 

2. He has a really awesome cane that he hollowed out and placed a glass tube in. Inside this tube he keeps absinthe. The top part of the cane screws off to become a makeshift shot glass! 

3. P. Diddy really liked Pascal's cane when they met in Las Vegas for an alcohol convention of some sort.

A few fun facts about Absinthe

1. It really shouldn't be shockingly green

2. It was once more widely consumed in France than wine! Gasp!! Yes, it's true. 

3. It only caused hallucinations when there was too much of a certain chemical inside of the alcohol... or when they stored it in lead tanks. 

Anyways back to the story...
    We got a tour of where they make and flavor all of the alcohol. It's actually not a very big place, but I think it is because they don't actually bottle the absinthe there, or grow the plants and things on location. After the tour we did a tasting of a few different kinds of liquor and then 2 kinds of absinthe. The liquors were flavored and generally pretty good. I think I liked the melon one the best. It had a really refreshing flavor to it. The absinthe itself was interesting to watch while it was served. They put the absinthe in a glass and then put a sort of slotted spoon with a cube of sugar on top. Then, they turn out a little spout of water and let it drip over the cube of sugar and into the glass. After the cube disintegrates, they stir it up and serve it!

This is the little absinthe apparatus! The prince of Monaco bought one of these from Pascal! 

This is where they sell the absinthe and different liquors, candies, books etc. I bought a small bottle of absinthe and a few other things for souvenirs! Pascal actually gave all of us 10% off so everything ended up being really inexpensive. Always a nice surprise!

So, what did I think of it? Were there any green fairies?? Hm. I definitely did not dislike it. I definitely do not need my very own absinthe cane for fear of not having any on hand... We tried a different absinthe called Versinthe Blanche (white) which was distilled a cooler temperature. I think I liked it a little better. I can't really see myself going out of my way to drink absinthe though, but a fun experience nevertheless!


The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. During the week I had a lot of things to take care of, as usual, and that is always really stressful. Classes are going pretty well. I can't say I've really gotten used to a four hour class... but oh well! That class, medieval literature and iconography, is actually really interesting. Not for the full four hours, but still. The other day, we sat in the class and in the entire four hour period the profs did not manage to make it around to talking about our assigned readings. Geez. Thank goodness I actually did the reading... The other classes are going fairly well. I like my industrial revolution class and oral expression. My other history class is a bit more difficult and the professor talks really fast which stinks. My roommate and I have an oral presentation this coming Thursday about an extremely boring and stupid document. It basically outlines this unimportant village in northern France in 1899 and we have to get up in front of a bunch of native French speakers and present. Awesome. We stayed and talked to the prof after class to get help. He ended up being super helpful (after we looked clueless) and gave us a lot of pointers. Woo! In that same class, however, my group has to prepare this written expose (only 2 pages though) on dialects in France in the 19th century. I've actually been able to find a bunch of information on that stuff, so I'm not too worried. But, he also decided that we needed more work for that class, so we assigned us something else to do for Thursday... Can't. Wait.

My unbelievably absurd methodology class got cancelled on Friday, and I could not have been happier (unless someone had emailed me and told me I could take that ridiculous excuse for a class as pass/fail). It is such a waste of my life. The class is designed to teach us how to do well in French university classes... despite the fact that we are already enrolled in French university classes. We have to write the French version of essays (on these insanely mundane and useless topics) and give an oral presentation in the class. This would have been helpful about a month ago... now it just annoys me to no end because it's on Fridays and a huge waste. Oh and we only get one absence before he starts knocking our grade down what amounts to about 10% an absence. Swell. The prof is extremely weird too... he leaves the classroom about every 15 minutes or so to go smoke and rambles unlike any person I have ever encountered. Awful.

Anyways, this weekend was pretty cool. I was quite boring on Friday night and stayed in to do research for my upcoming presentations. Saturday morning I got up bright and early to head to Glanum, Arles, and Point de Gare with the program. It was definitely a fun trip :)

Glanum is an archaeological site about an hour from Aix that hosted the Gallo (I think) people, Greeks, and Romans. The ruins in the picture on the left are from the Romans. The picture on the right is a reconstruction of the original structure. It was a pretty neat place. We kind of had a rushed tour, but I did manage to grab a piece of stone from one of the walls to keep! After toured Glanum it was back to the bus to head to Arles.

 This is the Roman Theatre in Arles. It is a lot bigger than it looks here. The picture doesn't quite do it justice. You'll notice the modern iron railings and such because the people in Arles actually still use it for outdoor plays and such. I thought this place was pretty neat, even with the touches of modern crap thrown about.

Here I am at the Arles Arena! My friend, Meredith, is pictured below. As you can see from her expression and white-knuckle grip on the railing, the arena goes pretty high up! This place was originally a gladiator arena in the Roman period... I felt just like Russell Crowe!!! In the medieval times they added a few towers and stone walls to the area for protection. There were about 212 homes inside the arena area at one point. In 1826-1830 all of the houses were destroyed and the arena was built. The first bullfight in the Arena was in 1830! Good news though- in Arles they do not kill the bulls!

We then climbed to the top of the tower and had an amazing view of the Rhone and some of Arles! We made it down the many stairs of the arena and decided to go see what else Arles had to offer. The first place we went... well I honestly have no idea what it was... but some sort of modern art studio perhaps? There were some really strange structures made entirely from bottles as well as some completely useless collection of clay "people" (really just ovals with circles on them). Despite that crap, there were some really neat paintings and this series of sculptures of a woman running into water. Each piece in the series was smaller and smaller until the last one which was just the top of her head. Great effect!

Right across the street from this place was a huge church called St. Trophime. When we walked up to it I had to laugh because I recognized a lot of the religious iconography discussed in my medieval lit class. Meredith noticed it too and so we checked some of that out a bit before heading in. The church was really ornate on the inside and had a bunch of rooms with sculptures and paintings. They had two displays of religious relics and a lot of them looked very old and very expensive. We walked around the church for a bit and then it was about time to leave so we decided to head back. At this point I decided it would be a great idea to use the public facilities across the street. This decision led to one of the worst public bathroom experiences of my entire life. I'll spare you the details but Meredith and Kim had to hear alllll about it. That place was just so nasty. Yuck.

So we boarded the bus for yet another one hour commute to the next place- Pont de Gare

This a Roman Aqueduct that is really, really cool.
The area around it is quite beautiful. This a view from the "other" side of it, not the entrance. You can actually walk on the lower part of the structure. There are trails to panoramic views and such on the sides. We also saw this pretty cool cave. It was such an amazing view!


It was really a great trip and I am glad I got to see all of the ruins and such. After the bus ride home I went to Monoprix (grocery) and then just collapsed into bed! It was such a long day.

This week Chen will be here again on Tuesday!! Yay! Wednesday is our required medical visit in Marseille, which is honestly a hugely inconvenient and I am annoyed that I have to go. France is really dumb sometimes... Thursday is the presentation day and then Friday.... Barcelona!!!!!! I'm taking a bus Friday evening to Barcelona to meet Nathan and Chen! It will be my first European country outside of France and I am very excited :) I get back from Barcelona Monday morning and the following Friday it's off to Germany! Should be an exciting few weeks! 

I hope you're all doing well

Miss you and love you,

 Liv