So, I don’t have internet! Yay! haha I’ve been going to university buildings to get WiFi, which wouldn’t bother me so much if my bike was working! I got a flat tire, again! I actually think it’s the same hole my dad helped me patch up. Air is leaking slowly out, so I’m thinking the patch is slowly ripping. :[ That means I have to walk everywhere, which I guess I shouldn’t mind so much since I have nothing better to do considering I only have class once a week on Fridays for 3 hours, but walking takes too long! haha I shouldn’t be complaining, though. Internet is better than no internet!
So about my trip…
BERLIN
We had a free 3 hour walking tour of Berlin and I’m super glad we did it. There’s so much history in Berlin that I think if we were to just walk around ourselves, we wouldn’t have gotten as much out of it. Our tour guide was Australian and he fell in love with Berlin, so he decided to live there and give tours, although he’s moving to London to find a real job. haha He was very entertaining. This is the Brandenburg Gate. (This photo was taken at night and not during the tour. :])
Under here is Hitler’s bunker where he shot himself. He also dressed his wife up before she took her cyanide pill because he wanted her to look pretty when she died. haha
But anyway, you can look through my facebook photos to see where we went and what we did. I’ll also comment on the pictures on facebook, so you’ll know. haha I’m being so lazy.
Berlin turned out to be more amazing than I thought it’d be. I was too excited about Italy to give Berlin much though, but the funny thing is that it turned out to be one of my favorite cities of the trip. We did so much, and there was so much more to do. My favorite part of Berlin, minus the food of course, was being able to visit the Pergamon Museum. They have life sized reconstruction of the Pergamon Altar of Ancient Greece and the Ishtar Gate of Babylon! They’re big deals! I studied them in Art History, so it was so amazing to actually see it in person! :]
The food was pretty amazing, too. I had a lot of currywurst. It was soooo good! I didn’t even know they existed until I saw it everywhere in Berlin. I’m actually looking up the recipe right now. haha The sauce tastes like sweet ketchup with curry. YUUUUMMMYY!
We also went to something called a pubcrawl. I don’t remember how much it was but you paid a price, it’s not that expensive, and you go with a group of people around to 5 different pubs and get a free drink in each and after that they take you to a club. We didn’t make it. haha Everyone was pretty tired and beat. We’re so lame. haha People rave about Berlin and how amazing the parties are, but they alright. It might be that we just weren’t in the mood, though. :/ Oh well.
Also, we went to a pub called The Pub, very creative, and basically you pour your own beer from the tap. It was pretty awesome! We were also there during happy hour, so it was very cheap. The food, though, was pricey, not very good, and took forever to get here and I mean FOREVER! It was a good experience, though! :]
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. We missed our flight going from Berlin to Rome, so we had to pay 60 euros to change our flight. Out flight was at 9:30AM and the only other flight that day was at 7:30PM. -.- We ended up taking the metro back to a shopping street in Berlin and walking around. 4 days in Berlin and only 2 in Rome. :[
Of course something like this had to happen. haha
ROME
Rome is by far my favorite city out of the ones on this trip. We only had 2 days, but I think it was just enough. We visited everything we wanted to. We took a tour of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum for 25 euros. I think it was worth it. It was very informational, it included tickets into those places, and we got to skip the lines. :]
We also went to the Vatican. Most people take tours for the Vatican, because it’s so big, there’s always a long line, and you won’t get much out of it if you just go by yourself, but a tour was 50 euros and Yvonne and I didn’t want to spend that much. It was also 6 hours and we didn’t want to walk around for 6 hours to hear someone talk so we just walked around ourselves. haha St. Peter’s Basilica was free, but we had to pay for the Museum which included the Sistine Chapel. We couldn’t take photos of it, though. :[ The Museum was U-shaped and you had to walk through everything in order to see the Sistine Chapel at the end. To be honest, it wasn’t as amazing as I thought it’d be. I mean it was great, but I think all the built up suspense as we were walking through everything was anti-climatic.
This hall was pretty amazing, though. The ceiling is a collage of framed paintings!
The Trevi Fountain was my favorite part of the trip! I don’t know why, but when I saw it, it just made everything seem so unreal. It was so amazing! Every time I saw it, it made me think wow, I really am in Rome! :] It was beautiful! Yvonne and I made a wish and tossed a coin in the fountain of course!
We went at night and honestly, I think it’s even more amazing at night!
Rome is a very touristy city, but to me it was still amazing! I seriously think I saw more tourist and locals, but despite that, I still feel like I was immersed in their culture. It weird. haha
PISA
We took the train to Pisa and spent 1 day/night there. There’s really nothing to see there except the leaning tower. haha It was really cool, though. Of course we did what most people go there to do..
My variation on it. hahaha :]
VENICE
I took my first step out of the train station and I was already blown off my feet. Venice is so breathe-taking and it’s a place everyone has to go at least once in their life. I do have to be honest, though, and say that there isn’t much to do in Venice. There were a few museums and San Marco Basilica, but other than that, it’s mostly a city you walk around and get lost in, and believe me, it’s very easy to get lost in. There are a million streets and they’re very small and narrow. There are also a million bridges. Carrying our luggage around the city was a pain. haha Our time in Venice was very relaxing. We basically just wandered the streets for 3 days. The scene is amazing everywhere you go. 3 days was too much time there, though. We basically walked all over Venice. Another thing about this city is that it is very touristy, as well. I think it is worst for Venice in the sense that Venice is supposed to a place that’s very unique and full of culture. It is somewhere I want to go to get immersed in the city, for me anyway. There are a lot of small stores and all of them cater to tourists. They sell souvenirs and Venetian masquerade masks and every store sells exactly the same thing. It really ruins the feel of Venice or what I had in my mind anyway.
That’s San Marco
That’s the scene right out of the train station!
Don’t get me wrong, though, I loved Venice and everyone should go! I do suggest maybe just a day or two, though! You might think otherwise.
MILAN
I went into Milan without many expectations. Everyone kept telling me that there was nothing to do in Milan, which was true. We spend 2 1/2 days there and you only really need 1 day there. The only thing you need to see is the Duomo. It was very weird because it’s located in the center of a bunch of shopping stores. It seemed out of place. If it weren’t for the Duomo, I wouldn’t have like Milan very much. Duomo is my all time favorite cathedral and I’m so glad I got to see it after learning so much about it in art history. It made Milan a place worth going to for me. The only other reason you would go there is for fashion week, if you’re into that. haha
Inside of the Duomo. I love that the ceiling is super high and everything is so detailed and intricate, especially the outside, and the stained glass windows!
Wrap Up
I think the best part of the trip was just the fact that I got to see so many things that I saw and studied in textbooks. It just feels so unreal to me.
If I were to rank the places in order to favorite to least favorite it’d have to be Rome, Berlin, Venice, Pisa, Milan. This is in terms of the city itself. In Rome we got hit on a lot and I mean A LOT. haha We were at the Trevi fountain and this guy that was selling things there hit on us then we went back the next night and he remembered us. 0.o How creepy. haha. Pisa and Milan were the cheapest cities in terms of food. Milan had the most expensive gelato, though, and it didn’t taste all that great either. Rome had the best gelato. :] We got the cheapest gelato in Venice. The prices were 1.30 euros to 2.50 euros, so it’s still cheap compared to the US and they basically give you 2 huge scoops even though they say 1. :] Also, another thing is that you have to pay to use the restroom and for water in all of the cities we went to, so I was very dehydrated and I held in my bladder. haha It was 1.50 euros to use the toilet in Venice! Also, we bought bottled water in some cities, because we weren’t sure if the water was safe to drink.
We ate gelato almost everyday and we had a lot of food in general, especially pasteries. I think I took a picture of everything I ate on the trip, so you’ll see what I pig I am. haha I have a few photos of fruits, so I tried to be a little healthy! I swear I gained so much weight in the 2 weeks I went on this trip in addition to the weight I gained from just being in Sweden. haha I’m so going on a detox when I get back. After I eat everything I miss of course. I’ll give myself a week before getting into my detox. hahaha
I’m wondering if any of you actually read all of this… hahaha
