Week One: Study tour with my school through Germany and the Netherlands.
Saw a lot of really cool architecture. In Germany, we went through Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Neuss, and Essen. (I got to stay with Allyn and Brandon one night in Dusseldorf, which was really great, and I saw Heather and her town outside of Amsterdam.)
This building (by Japanese architects SANAA) was cool cause you can't tell where the floors are from the outside, and the light patterns are really cool on the inside.
I got a real Berliner from Germany!! mmm.
actually, not that great. but now I've done that.
This one is by Peter Zumpthor. They built a building around old ruins of a church.
The cathedral in Cologne was incredible. sooo big.
We ate at a German Beerhall place. very German. meat + potatoes + beer + beefy males. This was my table (one of about 6).
I like to pick out one word to describe each country. For Germany it was hearty, because that pretty much sums up the people and food all in one.
This was a small pavilion building at a beautiful landscape museum. The landscape was like something they took right out of Pride and Predudice. I expected Kiera Knightly to come strolling around the corner any second.
These next few are at a museum by Rem Koolhaus/OMA. It's built around an old coal plant. So they had this display that had all these really cool old rocks. I didnt know rocks could be that exciting, but my view of old stones has now been revolutionized. The escalator ride up into the building was 2 minutes long.
Old petrified tree stump
Another cool building.
(Feel free to take a breather.)
We ate lunch at this one.
Wheee!
Then it was on to Amsterdam. I decided the word for the Netherlands is quircky. All the Dutch people we met were incredibly odd. Their language is super gutteral.--It sounds like they are hocking up spit every other word. But overall, neat place.I didn't have a map for the first part of our time in Amsterdam, so I ingeniously decided to take a picture of a map I found on the wall. haha. Look at all the canals!
I didn't have high expectations for Amsterdam, but I think that was good because I ended up loving it. It was a beautiful city, and it is sad it is only known for other things (ie drugs/hookers). Plus the Anne Frank house is there.We rented bikes and biked around the city! It was one of the funnest things ever. We got these awesome red ponchos, cause it was raining. I wish I had scanned it in to show you, but the picture on the front of the poncho packaging had Chinese people (cause they were made there), but they photoshopped Danish heads over the Chinese heads. It's hilarious, cause the photoshopping is so bad. They just look like Chinese people with Danish heads.
Rowhouses...
Swwwweet poncho.
We spent a lot of time in Utrecht, Netherlands. There was a lot of interesting architecture there.
Schroder house!!
Mom, this is for you. :) Anne, Schmidt, and Oscar!
Part Two: Week and a half in Italy. We had 2 weeks of spring break to do whatever we wanted after our study tour. So, we flew to Rome and met up with Andrew. And then travel north from there through Orvieto, Sienna, Castiglion Fiorentino, Arezzo, Florence, and Milan. I think it couldn't have been a more perfect time to go, because the weather was perfect, but there weren't that many tourists yet.
Climbing the Spanish Steps:
I got my picture with the pope! See him in the tiny window at the upper right of the building?
At the Pantheon. These are our individual reactions at the grandeur.
Ally:
Andrew:
Me:
St. Peter's!
REALLY BIG NUTELLA! They're actually bigger than they look. For scale, check out the wine/vinegar bottle on the bottom shelf to the right of the bread.
The Roman Forum was beautiful. The weather was perfect, and the flowers were blooming.
Arch of Titus
Colosseum near sunset
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Quick interlude in case you are bored of pictures. So, one night in Rome, I decided to be adventurous and order the the one thing on the menu I didnt know what it was. I figured if it was in between a chicken dish and a beef dish it had to be normal. So, I ordered this thing called tripe. Now, you probably know what this is, but neither me, nor Ally, not Andrew did at the time. I got 2/3 of the way through before I decided it had to be some sort of an organ, and I stopped eating it. I found out later that tripe is cow stomach. YUMM! ha. at least I know what it is now. :)
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Okay, on to Orvieto where so many of my wonderful friends live this semester. It is a beautiful hilltown. It was fun to get away and enjoy relaxing in the country--especially after Rome.
My incredible travel buddies.
We went to church with Andrew, and afterwards they invited all of us to dinner with them (there's about 15 people in the church). So we got to eat real Italian pizza with real Italians.
Ally discovered a new fave: corn and french fry pizza. mmm
Italians: yes, they exist. PS My word for Italy is passionate.
This is overlooking the city from the tower we climbed. The big building is the cathedral.
Our trusty tour guide in his home town :)
--------------------------------------------------------------IS THIS POST STILL GOING ON?!? yess. stay with me...
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We went with the Orvieto kids on their field trip to Sienna on Friday. This was my favorite Italian town.
We sat at the El Campo for a long time enjoying the sunshine and gelato.
and then our bus broke down, so we couldnt make our train to Castiglion, so we stayed in Orvieto another night. But it was fun to eat one last dinner with friends.
Then on to Castiglion Fiorentino (gosh that's really hard to type!). Basically this town is so small that the only thing of interest is the gelato shop....well if you don't count the gorgeous Tuscany surroundings. pretty incredible. We also took a day trip to Arezzo (10 minute train ride away) and checked out the antique market.
Then on to Florence for a few days. and it was a necessity to test out gelato in each and every town.
Palazzo Vecchio
Next was Milan. We mainly went there because our flight out of Italy was there. But it was a neat city to see because it was so different from any other Italy city. It felt more modern/westernized. There wasnt too many things to do unless you had the cash to shop at Gucchi and Prada. So we relaxed and spent a lot of time in pretty parks.
Here's the cathedral. Note the huge screen on the right...it had videos/ads playing 24/7.
Real Italian Villa!
Part Three: So finally we spent 1/2 a week in Prague to round off the trip. It was fun to see more friends there. This is at the Lenin wall.
Dancing House, by Frank Gehry.
Still friends after all this time together :)
We were there for Easter, and it was cool to see the Easter markets. They were selling beautiful painted Easter eggs.
We had a picnic on Petrin Hill which overlooks the city. Apparently it was the couples hang out spot. We even spotted our first topless woman in Europe. Pretty surprising we've gone this long without it.
Beautiful cathedral. The light coming through the stained glass made cool effects on the inside.
Czech candy!
mmm. Fried Cheese!
We went to vigil mass the night before Easter. It was cool cause they did it in three languages: Czech, English, Spanish.
And now we are back in Copenhagen. It was fabulous to see so many cultures. And being in all those cities made me appreciate Copenhagen even more. I'm so grateful to be studying here.
It's unbelievable that I only have 3 more weeks here. I don't think I've had enough time to soak it all up. I hope this was enough pictures. If you want to see more let me know. I have them--a lot more!
THE End!
