TravelStream™ news feed for member alina-beth on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/alina-beth en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:35:48 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1239436680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1239436680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1239436680/tpod.html Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:35:48 -0400 Bon jour, Guten tag, Moien, and other words I can't pronounce: Living for four months in Luxembourg (where I don't speak the language- yet)

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Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Mom and I arrived in Munich Friday night, but pretty much just stayed in our hotel since we got there a little late. Our plane had been delayed going through London (we flew Toulouse France to London to Munich) because of problems with the breaks overheating or something.

One thing hilarious that happened in the London airport. UK security is really intense, so we had to go through security again for our connecting flight. When you go to the UK there's a 1 hour time change, so our watches were 1 hour off. We're standing in the security line, and this skinny little guy behind us asks what time it is. Mom shows him her watch and says, "This is an hour off. It's 12:38." The guy instantly starts sweating and shifting his weight from foot to foot. He looks SO worried and keeps saying, "Oh no. Oh no." We ask what time his flight is, and he says "45". Of course, we let him cut in line in front of us, but the line was still moving really slow. He kept asking every 30 seconds or so what time it was. Poor guy... he was miserable!! Then, I asked him where he was flying. He looks at me all worried and says, "Tokyo!" POOR GUY!! So, I'm practically sweating too because this poor guy is gonna miss his flight to Tokyo. He's still pacing and going, "Oh no. Oh no." Finally, at about 12:43 we ask, "What time was your flight again?" And he shows us the ticket, and it's 1:45, not 12:45. This HUGE smile spreads over his face and he was just so happy to not be missing his flight to Tokyo. I think he misunderstood us when we told him the watch was wrong and it was actually 12:45. If he would have missed his flight, it wouldn't have been funny. But the fact that this poor guy suffered SO much over nothing is actually pretty hilarious.

So anyway, that was Friday.

Saturday morning we went into Munich. We were staying in a suburb thing just outside of the city, so we had to take the train in. The first thing we did was a free walking tour. It was by the same company as the free walking tour I did in Edinburgh, but this one wasn't nearly as good. It was alright, but I expected better after such a great Edinburgh tour. Oh well. At least it was free and we got to see some of the city. After that we went shopping, got dinner, and got some gelato. We did some more shopping (the shopping was pretty good in Munich) before heading back to the hotel for the night.

Sunday (Easter)- Sunday was the most interesting Easter Sunday ever. I have to admit that it was a bizzare way to spend Easter, but that's okay. It was fun.

First, we went on a Third Reich tour. This was a good tour and the guide knew a lot. I already know quite a bit about WW2 and Nazi power because of my class, but I did learn a few things about the resistance movement I didn't know, so that was good. I'm sure my mom learned a lot as well. There was a journalist and photographer there from a major German magazine (kind of like Time Magazine, German style) who was following our tour, so that was kind of cool. I'm a German celebrity now!! haha.

One interesting thing I learned about... After Hitler's failed Munich Putch in 1923 he needed to make the event look heroic, so he made up all kinds of heroic stories. He also posted a plaque after he came to power in the precise location where the shootout happened. Everyone was expected to hail Hitler when they passed the sign, but many did not wish to do this. Of course, if you refused to, they would take down your name and you would be visited in the night by the SS, who would take you to a concentration camp. So, to get around giving the Nazi salute, some people avoided the spot by taking an alley around the plaque. This route became known as "Dodger's Alley" and today a simple gold trail can be found in the ground. There is nothing to explain it, but it's there to commemorate those who took the other path to avoid saluting Hitler. See the picture.

After the Third Reich tour we got lunch on the go, and then went to Dachau Concentration Camp. I admit, this is a very strange thing to do on Easter, but I'm so very glad we did it. I learned so much from the Dachau tour, since I really haven't studied Dachau much at all. I'm going to warn you... the next week or so will be filled with some pretty sad history since the focus of the rest of my trip is on Nazi related things. However, I encourage you to read it anyway, because history is so important to know, and it's never best to close our eyes to the horrors of the past or even of the present.

Some interesting things I learned at Dachau...

Dachau was supposed to be the model concentration camp, so they needed it to look "good" and be in order. As a result, it was filled with bureaucracy. For example, SS guards were strictly forbidden to kill without "proper" reason. An example of proper reason would be attempted escape. There is a grass track that runs around the periphery of the camp, which was enclosed by a 10k volt electric fence, a wall, a 15ish foot wide stream, and another fence. Of course, escaping this way was essentially impossible. However, this initial grass track was considered a death zone. One foot on the grass trap, and it was considered an escape attempt, which was considered a justified "cause to kill." A guard in a tower would watch, and could freely shoot at anyone of the grass. So, SS guards would do things like removing a prisoner's hat and throwing it on the grass track. Then the prisoner had to make a choice: risk running to get the hat and probably get shot on the spot or report to roll call without his hat and probably be punished and killed there.

Another example of getting around bureaucracy: As punishment, SS members would often whip prisoners (who were laid over a wooden block for this beating). They were required to give 25 lashes, and those 25 lashes had to be counted aloud by the prisoner. Two things were done here to inflict extreme brutality within the limits of the camp rules. First, the prisoner was required to count in German. Many prisoners didn't speak German. So, if they could only count to 10 in German, for example, the SS could give as many lashes as he wanted and still only count it as 10 lashes. Many people died this way. Second, the SS would often do this with 2 SS guards administering the lashes, so that the whips came down simultaneously, and the count would officially only reach 25, but 50 lashes were actually given.

Also, there are many memorials erected at Dachau. One interesting one which you can see in my pictures includes a variety of triangles. These triangles represent the patches prisoners were required to wear to categorize them (this was done to create division amongst the prisoners so that they could never rise up in unison). The colors were:

red: political prisoner
pink: homosexual
green: Professional criminals
purple: Jehova's Witness
Black: social outcasts and gypsies/Roma
Yellow: Jew
Anyone with another yellow triangle behind the other (forming a star of david) was both the above AND a Jew. Yes, Nazis believed that you could be both a Jehova's Witness and a Jew, because to them being Jewish was a race, not a religion, so if you have one Jewish grandparent, you were a Jew. So, on one of these memorials, you can see these triangle patches. However, there are three colors missing: pink, green, and black. Homosexuals, criminals, and social outcasts/gypsies. At the time of the erecting of the memorial, being homosexual was still illegal in Germany, and they did not feel the criminals or gypsies deserved to be recognized in a memorial. As a result, they told the artist to remove these colors. Of course, this is ludicrous, because it does nothing but further exemplify prejudice, which was obviously a driving ideology behind Nazi National Socialism. So, the artist did remove these colors, but he left the spaces as blank triangles to still commemorate these people groups.

I would also like to point out that while horrific numbers of people died in Dachau, the gas chambers were possibly never used. The crematorium most definitely was, but there is no evidence the gas chambers were utilized. It's not ruled out, but there's just no evidence.

There's so much more I could tell you, but I'm afraid I'll bore you, so that will be all I'll say about Dachau. If you are interested in learning more about Nazi Germany, Hitler, concentration camps, or anything else related please let me know and we can talk about this stuff when I get back to the states. It's very interesting, and I definitely know enough about it now to have an intelligent conversation on the subject. But, like I said, there will be more Nazi stuff to come, since the next week I spent in Krakow, Poland.

Leaving Dachau behind...

After our return to Munich, mom and I went to the Hofbrauhaus, which is the most famous beer hall in the world. I don't like beer at all (it's disgusting) but we were told it's THE place to go for food and drink, so we decided to go. Mom highly encouraged me to order a beer, even though I hate the stuff, and I'm glad I did. I found one that was 50% beer, 50% lemonade. Horrah! So it didn't taste that bad at all. It was a lot though, and I really had a hard time finishing so much alcohol in one sitting. I must shamefully admit, I couldn't finish a whole Stein. But I was really really close. I probably finished about 4/5 of it at least. Their beer is much much stronger alcohol-wise than American beer, and they definitely don't do small portions! Haha. I also ordered german sausage and saurkraut which was delish!

So, that was our Munich trip, in a snapshot. We left the next morning (meaning Mom flew home), and I flew to Krakow to meet up with my Hitler class for our field study tour. Read the next entries (to be updated soon I hope) to hear all about the wonderful, fantastic, totally under-rated city of Krakow!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1239225600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1239225600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1239225600/tpod.html Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:40:20 -0400 Bon jour, Guten tag, Moien, and other words I can't pronounce: Living for four months in Luxembourg (where I don't speak the language- yet)

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Oradour-sur-Glane, Limousin, France

Wednesday we decided upon a more somber itinerary. We went to Oradour-Sur-Glane, a town about 2 hours from where we are staying and the site of a horrific WWII massacre.

Before I get to the massacre site, let me briefly tell you about lunch. We ate lunch in a restaurant just outside of Oradour. This was our splurge meal, and it was rather expensive, but it was a really neat experience. The restaurant was set on the site of a chateau, and was very small, with only a few tables. It's hard to describe except to tell you that it was incredibly quaint, posh, and French. It was wonderful. I did try some Fois Gras here, which is a duck dish typical of the region, and I thought it was incredibly incredibly delicious.

So, moving on to Oradour. The story of Oradour is such:

On June 10, 1944 approximately 200 SS Nazi soldiers entered Oradour without any kind of warning. The commander sent his men back outside of the city, where they made a circle and then combed inwards, eventually bringing everyone in the vicinity of the town into the city center. These were mostly peaceful civilians, but there were several unfortunate bikers who happened to be passing through and some visitors staying in the town inn. Everyone was held in the city center for several hours, while the town was looted. Then, the men were seperated from the women and children. The men were taken to sheds and houses, where they were shot and then burned. The women and children were all killed in the church. Only a few people escaped. It's horrendous and I hardly even want to recount the details. Details such as: burned out corpses of twin boys, 12 years old, found clutching to each other. The body of an 8 year old boy, found kneeling in the confessional. Men shot in the legs so that they can't run, then tinder piled on them and lit to finish them off slowly. It's really horrific stuff, and the fact that they've preserved the town as it was for people to see and remember is amazing. You can read more online if you want, just google Oradour massacre or tragedy or something and you should get some sites.

One thing that happened... We went through the museum before seeing the town, which was a very thorough well-done museum. About half way through, these teenagers came through. They were yelling, laughing, running around, hanging all over each other PDA style... overall being DISGUSTINGLY disrespectful. Sure, it was personally annoying, but more than that, it was horrifying that these European youth could have such disrespect for their own history... so sad and that is what really angered me about the whole thing. There were these quotes in one room, projected from the floor. These kids were just goofing around, running over these quotes and not even reading them. A few were in English, such as the one that said, "Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it." As these kids pranced over quotes such as this, I felt sick. Maybe they should take the time to read and ponder such a thing, because their behavior was, quite frankly, a little frightening.

Anyway, that's all for now. Look for updates from Munich!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1239137880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1239137880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1239137880/tpod.html Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:20:20 -0400 Bon jour, Guten tag, Moien, and other words I can't pronounce: Living for four months in Luxembourg (where I don't speak the language- yet)

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Bergerac, Aquitaine, France

Tuesday we did a wine tour of the Bergerac area, which is incredibly famous for their wine. Bergerac is barely East of Bordeaux, one of the most famous wine regions in the WORLD. I defended my thesis Tuesday, and mom thought it would be in the morning, but I of course had to do it in the evening, since it would be with professors back at Miami via Skype and they're 6 hours earlier. So, mom had planned a celebratory day with a wine tour. When I informed her that it would be later, she said, "Oh, shoot. Well, it will be a pre-celebratory tour then I guess."

So, we went on a wine tour. The first place we went was my favorite. The vineyard of Monbazillac is complete with a chateau (which you can visit, and we did), and a subsequent wine tasting. This vineyard is very famous for their sweet white wines, which is precisely what I like best. This wine was SO AMAZING. There were three kinds, with the most sweet and also most expensive tasting the most incredible to my tastebuds. It was so sweet it was almost like sugar, but it had incredibly rich, spicey undertones. Hard to explain, because I've definitely never tasted a wine like it before. I bought 2 bottles of a slightly less expensive but ALMOST as delicious year, and I intend to take both back to the US with me.

After Monbazillac we went to the red wine areas of Bergerac, because that's what mom prefers. We first went into this tiny little vineyard we hadn't planned on stopping at. This guy pulls up on his tractor because he'd been out working in the fields and was the only one there. He takes us into this little shed, where we tried 3 years of wine (because he only had 1 type). 2004 was a rainy year, so the wine was more subtle and smooth. 2005 was a dry year, so the alcohol content was higher and the taste was more pungeont. 2006 was a normal year so the wine was... normal. Mom bought one bottle here. I think the guy was hoping for a big sale, but we really can't carry that much because we'll be flying.

Then we went to another winery, which I can't remember the name of off the top of my head, but it was somewhat famous I think. Anyway, we tried 3 wines there. I didn't really care for any of these either, particularly in comparison to the white wines we had tried earlier. They were all red wines, and while red wine can be delicious, I rarely like it as much as white.

Finally, we went to a last place, called Merles. We ended up eating here, because they also had a restaurant. The restaurant was delicious (although rather small portions, in the French style), and we kind of accidentally ordered a glass of wine here too. Oops. I really didn't want a whole glass, because after 9 (small albeit) glasses, I was beginning to feel rather tipsy, and remember, in a few hours I was going to defend my thesis. Anyway, we accidentally ordered it, and then knowing I had to pay for it, I had to drink it because that's my way. So, he pours the glass, and the bottle runs out before it's full. So, he leaves and I'm thinking, 'Thank goodness! I don't have to drink much now!' So I drank almost the whole thing, happy to be done with wine for the day. And then HE COMES OUT WITH A FRESH BOTTLE and says, "Okay, let's make this the way it should be!" And fills it again!!! I'm thinking GEEEEEZ! I have to defend my thesis in 2 hours! But I drink it anyway. Good gravy that was ridiculous. I left with one bottle from here, a rose wine, with the intention of drinking that throughout the week.

We drove back to Beynac, and I was chugging water the whole way there. I also ate a bunch of food when we got back and took a shower to try and prepare for my thesis presentation. Overall, the thesis defense went great, and it was probably the first Honors thesis defended via Skype in Miami University history :-) I only have a few minor changes to make before my readers/advisor will approve it, so that's great news for me.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1239050220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1239050220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1239050220/tpod.html Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:58:04 -0400 Bon jour, Guten tag, Moien, and other words I can't pronounce: Living for four months in Luxembourg (where I don't speak the language- yet)

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Sarlat-la-Canéda, Aquitaine, France

On Monday we visited the Chateau de Marqueyssac, which didn't have much for you to see for as far as being inside the castle, but had a HUGE and really neat garden to walk in. We literally walked for a good hour or so just inside the garden, which was full of rectangular bushes (I really don't know the technical term for them), natural canopies, and even peacocks!!! I was so excited about the peacocks, because I looove peacocks, and I was really pleased because after we got done in teh gardens we found one of the peacocks perched on a high ledge near the gate, which made for a great/unique photo opportunity. This was, for me, the best thing about the day. See pictures. The gardens also had an aviary, but this was just a fancy pigeon house, essentially. Pretty lame if you ask me.

After Marqueyssac, we went to the Chateau Milandes, which is a really really neat Chateau that used to be the home of the famous Josephine Baker. They have an excellent website, which you can check out if you're interested: http://www.milandes.com/

Chateau Milandes was really unique because besides being stunningly beautiful, it was so interesting to learn about Josephine Baker's life. The inside of the Chateau was like a giant museum to her life, so as you walked from room to room you saw some of her gorgeous dresses, the famous "banana belt", pictures and stories of her 4 husbands, info on the work she did smuggling refugees during the war, stories of her life with the 12 children she adopted (all of different ethnicities/religions/etc... in order to make a point that people of differences could live in unity as a happy family), and about her eventual economic demise and eventual death. She had a REALLY interesting life, so that was neat to see. Also, the chateau has a birds of prey show that they do, so we saw that. One of the owls actually flew over and perched RIGHT BESIDE ME! That was kind of crazy and slightly unnerving.

After this we decided to go to Belves, which is a town we were considering spending a whole day at later in the week. We thought we would just drop by and get some dinner. Belves was, essentially, a flop. We couldn't even find anywhere to eat. The positive thing was that we now knew not to go there again. We just went back to our apartment in Beynac and ate in our apartment.

Sorry there aren't any exciting personal stories from the day. It was a great day, but pretty straight-forward. So if you're looking for drama, you'll have to look elsewhere.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1238964060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1238964060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1238964060/tpod.html Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:01:56 -0400 Bon jour, Guten tag, Moien, and other words I can't pronounce: Living for four months in Luxembourg (where I don't speak the language- yet)

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Beynac-et-Cazenac, Aquitaine, France

Friday my mom flew into Frankfurt, and then she took a train to Paris (as did I) and we met there. We spent a few hours in Paris-- mostly just repeats of things I'd done before but mom never had-- before catching an overnight train to Toulouse. I was pleasantly surprised by the train. We didn't get couchettes, but slept really well in ultra comfy seats. Sweet.

From Toulouse we rented a car. We had mom's Garmin, which made navigation pretty easy... or at least it SHOULD have made navigation pretty easy. Mom was so paranoid because someone told her that sometimes the GPS maps are wrong in Europe (or that you'll get confused on the roundabouts or something like that) that she would just kind of do her own thing. For example... we enter a roundabout (for those who don't know what a roundabout is, it's a circle in the road, with exits veering off of it) and the GPS clearly says "Take the 4th exit in the roundabout." So, mom starts counting outloud... "1... 2... 3!!!!" And with all kinds of enthusiasm takes the 3rd exit. I'm thinking, 'What the heck!' but I just go along with it. So, we end up on this totally ridiculous route that takes us down a winding road only big enough for one car. I don't know how the Garmin knew about this crazy road, but after seeing how it somehow navigated us through such an obscure route, I will never doubt the Garmin again. The strange route actually ended up being pretty cool though! It was really pretty and off the beaten path.

So, we then drove to Sarlat, where there was a really neat market. Sarlat has been having this market at the same time on the same day of the week for over 600 years. Wowza.

Then we went to Beynac, which is where we'll be staying. We actually have our own little apartment, and it's nestled up in the cliff right beneath the Beynac castle. Beynac is SO cool... actually, this whole area is fantastic!

Sunday, April 5
We slept in a little today before driving about ten minutes to St Cyprien. There was a market there today too. This market was so cool! It just kept going on and on. Mom was a little out of control with the vegetable stands though. I swear, if I wasn't there to control her she would have bought everything in sight. She kept saying, "Ooo! This looks so good! I want this!" and I would have to remind her that we're only here for about a week. :-) We did get fishy stuff for lunch though, and I contained mom's market madness to lettuce, avacados, two varieties of fancy olives, more fish, three types of cheese, strawberries, radishes, and zuchinni. Good gravy.

After the market, we went back to Beynac and began to explore. Mainly, we climbed up to the castle, which took us a long time because there were so many neat things to take pictures of and there were also cute shops and stuff too. It was really neat. The castle was really cool too, and we spent a good amount of time there just exploring. There weren't really things to do in this castle other than look around, but it was definitely a neat castle and we enjoyed ourselves. There are over 1000 castles in this area, so just looking out from our apartment or from the Beynac castle towers you can see multiple other castles. It's really, really freaking cool. I don't know why more people don't vacation here, because it's perfect.

After the castle, we made the long descent down to ground level, where we then proceeded to the grass along the river. We mainly sat in the grass and soaked up the sun (it's t-shirt weather and BEAUTIFUL!!!) which was SO relaxing. After this, we got delicious ice cream (chocolate and pistachio) and went back to our apartment. We ate some of the food from the market today for dinner, which was delicious, and some other stuff too. After dinner, mom and I had Bordeaux wine and some of the cheese we got at the market today, which was very very good! We got three kinds of cheese... goat milk cheese, normal cheese (but with French pizazz... can't really describe it any other way), and sheep milk cheese. They were all really delicious, but I actually think I liked the sheep milk cheese the best. That surprised me!

It's late and we have a big day tomorrow, but enjoy the pictures (I think I got some of my best pictures in Europe today) and I'll try to keep this updated as we continue our travels-- which there will be plenty of since I don't return to Luxembourg until April 19th!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1238321460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1238321460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1238321460/tpod.html Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:21:04 -0400 Bon jour, Guten tag, Moien, and other words I can't pronounce: Living for four months in Luxembourg (where I don't speak the language- yet)

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Paris, Île-de-France, France

Our trip to Paris started out a little rocky on Thursday! I was trying to finish the first copy of my thesis and things were literally coming down to the last minute (as I expected they would). So, I got it done and we left, and as we're hurrying to the train station I realized I forgot my wallet, so I sprinted back to the house, and then sprinted to the train station. About 150 meters away, I slowed to a walk, only to see Marissa ahead of me break into a dead sprint! The train was early!! We sprinted and barely made it, which was super lucky, because we would have been stuck without a way to Paris if we wouldn't have caught the train. We then proceeded to have a good laugh about how out of shape we most definitely are. Marrisa, Jenny, Katie, and I arrived in Paris kind of late so we pretty much just found our hotel and went to sleep (yes, a hotel, not a hostel because it was actually the same price! A welcome change of pace).

We stared our day early on Friday. We split up and Marissa and I went to the Latin Quarter. We mostly just explored, including an excursion into LUXEMBOURG PARK. We can't escape Luxembourg I guess. We just wandered, took fun pictures, and looked in a few shops and stuff. A favorite find was the giant head statue! What the heck!?! We also found a really unique church called the L'Eglise de St Sulpice! See pictures. It was really dark and dungeony... one of the coolest things was the statue in one of the prayer nooks of a skeleton... really cool. We also got DELICIOUS crepes. Mine was filled with Nutella and banana.... YUM!! Totally delicious!

We met up with Jenny and Katie after lunch and went to the Pantheon. This is super cool. It's pretty much just a huge memorial/crypt. Inside there are wall murals/paintings telling the stories of Parisian greats and legends, as well as an iron sphere suspended from WAY up in the ceiling to demonstrate the rotation of Earth (this is where Focault first proved the rotation using the pengelum), and down in the basement is a giant crypt with the tombs of many famous Parisians and greats, such as Joan of Arc, what's-his-face Braille (invented Braille writing), Marie and Pierre Curry, etc... It was pretty cool.

After the Pantheon we split up again, because Marissa and I wanted to go to the Louvre. On Friday nights students get into the Louvre for free, so we took advantage of that. Before doing the Louvre we wanted to get some dinner though, and after searching far and wide we settled on some pizza from the Louvre food court. Oh well. You win some you lose some. It wasn't bad pizza though at least. Anyway, the only way to really describe the Louvre is to note how freaking huge it is. You could spend quite a long time there, to be sure. We knew we just wanted to see paintings, to keep it simple, so that's what we did and it made the Louvre much more do-able. Marissa and I bee-lined it to the Mona Lisa, and saw that. Then we just wandered. One cool thing was that one of the wings is named the Richelieu wing, who I am supposedly descended from on my mom's side (Richelieu= Drischell after a little evolution). Neato. After this we walked outside and got to see the Louvre and the Pyramid at night... really cool!! See the pictures. This was truly beautiful.

We were supposed to meet Jenny and Katie at the hotel before having more adventures, so we went back there, but when we sat down on our beds, we all crashed and whatever plans we had for the evening went down the drain. Haha. Whoops!

Saturday we woke up nice and early again and headed to the Arc de Triomphe. This was really pretty cool as well (cooler than I expected, to be honest). We got to go up in it and look around the city, and that was neat. It was just overall pretty impressive, and there's a ton of history there. I mean, so many people have marched through the arch into battle or coming home etc... Anyway. It's history rich. After that we window-shopped on the very expensive Champs-Elysées and kept our eyes peeled for celebs (didn't see any).

We then got crepes AND got lost! Eventually we got back on track though, and we headed for Notre Dame Cathedral. There was a ginormous line coming out of the cathedral (so we missed the tour we were hoping to take). We were ALMOST in the door, when the weather changed SUPER fast. It was sunny, and then all of the sudden it was POURING buckets of rain. Whatever semblance of order remained in the line seemed to go out the window! IT WAS RIDICULOUS! People were mobbing the doors to get out of the rain. The line seriously meant nothing anymore. I almost got knocked over! It felt like I was in a pack of animals. Crazy! Anyway, once we got inside I was sort of thrown off kilter by the unexpected mob incident, and had to sit down for about 20 minutes because I was feeling really dizzy. Eventually I saw a little of the cathedral, but I didn't see much because I spent most of our time there recouping.

After Notre Dame we did some more shopping, this time checking out Lafayette as well (VERY expensive stuff and super crazy-busy). Finally, we were ready for a break and decided to head back to the area near our hotel to get dinner. We found a super cute little restaurant and got a delicious meal, which was fun, then went back to the hotel. Jenny and Katie went to a show at the Moulin Rouge Saturday (Marissa and I decided that, while it would no doubt be amazing, the 90 euro tickets just weren't in our budget) so they wanted to get ready for that. Marissa and I picked up a bottle of wine and intended to go to the Eiffel Tower at night with our wine and just sit and talk. Unfortunately, it started raining again, so we figured we were just kind of out of luck, so we drank our wine and watched French TV instead. Poo. It was fun anyways though.

Today (Friday) we woke up super early (with the daylight savings time change this morning too) to try and catch the sunrise at the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, due to some stupidity on the hotel check-out guys part, we didn't make it in time. But it was a pretty morning, so we still got to spend a little time there. Then we had to catch the 8:39 train back to Luxembourg. We figured it wouldn't be that hard to get there in time. So, we found the nearest Metro and asked the info desk guy which route we should take. He told us, we boarded, and we were on our way.... THEN... the place he told us to get off was UNDER CONSTRUCTION and in the middle of NOWHERE! So, when we got off, there wasn't a train to get on to take us anywhere useful. We had been pretty calm, but started to panic a little at this point. We left the Metro and went looking for a cab. By this time it was 8:15, and we couldn't find a cab anywhere! We were kind of freaking out. At 8:20 a cab finally drove by. We flagged it and asked him to take us to the train station ASAP. He got us there barely in time! Phew! If we would have missed the train, we would have been stuck in Paris for at least another night and I would have been out at least 100 euro + food and lodging. Close call!

Okay, so this is the point I evaluate Paris, as I do with many destinations. I'm going to have to say, I liked Paris A LOT more than London (if you recall, I thought London was a total let down), but I still think it's not even close to the coolest place I've traveled. Everyone keeps saying Paris is pretty. I mean, yeah, kiiiiind of. But it's still a city with trash in the street and that rank dirty city stench. It has dirty public transportation, an abundance of gypsies and homeless people... you get the picture. So, it does have some really, really neat features architecturally and historically, as well as fantastic art and fashion. However, I can't say I loved it. Another thing that bothered me about Paris... WHERE'S THE ROMANCE?! I really wanted it to be terribly romantic because that's the way I picture it, but the city did little to conjure up lovey-dovey images, and it DEFINITELY didn't smell like roses. But overall, a great city with a lot of history and a lot to do.

To summarize: It was really nice. I very much enjoyed it. I probably won't go back (other than next weekend when I'll be there for an evening with my mom, but that doesn't count).
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1237628700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1237628700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1237628700/tpod.html Mon, 23 Mar 2009 08:24:39 -0400 Bon jour, Guten tag, Moien, and other words I can't pronounce: Living for four months in Luxembourg (where I don't speak the language- yet)

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Venice, Veneto, Italy

We arrived in Venice Friday late afternoon/early evening. Our flight that was supposed to be about 2 hours and left 5 minutes late somehow arrived 35ish minutes EARLY! I was in shock and kept saying, "How do they DO that?!" Haha. Anyway, we were instantly confused by Venice. If you've ever been there you know what I mean!! The streets are crazy, and the public transportation is weird!!

We just walked around a little after finally figuring out how to get to our hostel via bus and enjoyed the city at night. It was really pretty! Then we went to our hostel (which it was really weird, because everyone in Venice kept calling it a Bed and Breakfast when we would ask them about it, and that was even the only thing written on the building, but it was definitely a hostel and there was definitely no breakfast provided. Weird. Anyway... we found it) and just went to bed pretty early.

We got a relatively early start the next morning, and just ended up walking all around Venice. Amanda and John suggested that's what we do, and it was a great suggestion. We ran across a few really interesting things, such as a fish market (which smelled and looked gross, but made for some neat pictures and people watching), a really talented classical guitarist, etc... We just did things at a leisurely pace... stopping to sit in the park, going into shops that intrigued us, sitting on one of the docks for a while, trying the local cuisine (DELICIOUS GELATO!), etc... We went to San Marco square, but didn't go into the church because there was a really long line, and we didn't think waiting in line several hours was worth it. Even the outside of the church was incredibly extravagant in the Baroque style.

Another really fun thing we read about and then I eventually did was to find one of the wine shops. Since we did a ton of walking we had several water bottles. You can go into these wine shops and fill your water bottle with wine. It was kind of funny. I filled half a liter for only a Euro, and it wasn't bad wine either. It was a bizarre way to drink wine, but definitely funny. See the pictures :-)

At the end of the day, we took a late flight back to Frankfurt-Hahn, where we slept in the airport again Saturday night. Adam left to go home Sunday morning. :-(

I really, really loved Venice. It's been a bit of a childhood dream for me to go there; the idea of a city on water has always fascinated me and provoked my imagination. I loved the feel of the place with all the water around you, the glass blown gifts, the masks, the lace, the gondolas and water taxis... I just really, really liked it.

One thing we didn't do was drop 60-100 euros on a gondola ride, but I'm glad we didn't. I think we had a ton of fun and saw just as much if not more of the city on our feet, and as I watched the people in the gondolas it looked to me like we were having more fun anyway. So, even though a gondola ride seems like an essential, neither Adam nor I felt like we missed out on anything! It was the perfect visit to Venice and an absolutely incredibly perfect week with Adam. I was, of course, devastated to have him leave, but that's life I guess.

I'm going to Paris this weekend, and since the first copy of my thesis is due to my readers this Thursday, it will be a well-deserved break after the CRAZY week that is to come. I'll hopefully update with info on Paris early next week. Bon voyage! :-)


Oh! A quick addition... just to give you some frame of reference, this is what the rest of my semester is looking like:

This weekend I'm going to Paris.
The following weekend Easter break starts and my mom is coming to visit, so we will be going to the Bordeaux region of France and Munich, Germany.
Then, my Rise of Fall of Hitler Class is going to Krakow, Poland for a week.
Then, I have a week of classes and then finals the following week... the weekend between those I'm planning on taking a day trip to the part of Luxembourg known as "Little Switzerland" which is just a super pretty area of the country with waterfalls and stuff.
Then I'm going to Stockholm, Sweden for a few days before flying HOME!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1237181640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1237181640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1237181640/tpod.html Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:35:18 -0400 Bon jour, Guten tag, Moien, and other words I can't pronounce: Living for four months in Luxembourg (where I don't speak the language- yet)

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Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom

MONDAY: Stirling!

We decided to go to Stirling on Monday, which was a GREAT choice!! And if you're wondering, I took Mon-Wed off from school since Adam was here, so that's why I was traveling during the week. Anyway! Stirling! It was a bit of a drizzly day, but nothing too unbearable.

We took the Megabus there, and when we boarded Adam noted that there were an awful lot of old people on the bus. We made a few stops along the way, and more old people were getting on. We were kind of laughing to ourselves about this... then when we arrived in Stirling, they all piled off and entered the train station TO EAT AT THE BUS STATION DINER! It was HILARIOUS! The whole place was filled with older people who just rode the megabus an hour or so to hang out in the Stirling bus station. Later, as we were walking in Stirling we came across a sign (see the picture) that just said "Elderly people" on it. We were rolling with laughter.

Anyway, our main objective in Stirling was to see the Wallace Monument. We got a map at the station, then started hiking to try and get there. We walked a LONG way. It would have been long, even without the part where we got lost... So, we marched a good hour or so before we got to the foot of the HUMONGOUS hill that the monument sat on top of. I prefer to call it a mountain. Anyway, by the time we got to the top we were nothing short of exhausted. It was really good exercise, but I'm proud of us for doing the whole thing.

The Wallace Monument was super, super cool (think Braveheart). I think it was both Adam and my favorite thing of the Scotland trip, or at least in the top two. I don't know what to really say about it... it was this super cool tower monument you could climb to the top of, and at each level there were different displays. There was a re-enactment of the William Wallace trial, different displays about his story, etc... and then at the top you had AWESOME views of Stirling (where the famous battle occurred when Wallace and his band of common men completely obliterated the strongest troops in Britain) and of the border to the highlands. Overall, this was super cool. If you go to Scotland and have any interest in the history of Scotland ("FREEDOM!!"), do this!!

After this, we made our way to Stirling Castle, but decided it wasn't as cool as we were hoping, so didn't pay the entrance fee. We just looked around a little outside, then went in search of some good eating. We found another great pub place that felt a little more American, which is a nice change of pace for me. After that, we headed back to Glasgow.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1237091160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1237091160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1237091160/tpod.html Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:33:05 -0400 Bon jour, Guten tag, Moien, and other words I can't pronounce: Living for four months in Luxembourg (where I don't speak the language- yet)

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Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

I'm afraid I'm going to become so backed up with these blogs that they'll become unsalvageable, so I'm writing this even though I really, really don't have the time. I still need to add Venice and (in a few days) I'll be adding Paris
too!



Sooo... there were several things that came together making this past week or so nothing short of incredible. First and foremost, my fiancé ADAM CAME TO VISIT! He came on the 13th (a Friday... spooky I know
haha) and we met up in Frankfurt. We went into the city for some dinner and a walk before taking a late bus to Frankfurt-Hahn airport (the Ryanair budget airlines airport, for those of you not accustomed to cheap European travel). We slept there Friday night on the airport floor (if you can really call it sleeping... more like TRYING to sleep restlessly) before catching a Saturday morning flight to EDINBURGH SCOTLAND!!! If you don't know (I didn't) you pronounce Edinburgh like Edinburrow. Anyway, we arrived, had some time to briefly wander the city
and get some pizza (Not exactly Scottish, I know... don't judge) before heading to Glasgow in the late afternoon/early evening. We got our accommodations in Glasgow which is about an hour from Edinburgh
because it's way cheaper to stay there and a little higher quality too. So, Adam was pretty pooped from flying across the Atlantic and not really sleeping the night before in the airport, so we just chilled out for the rest of the evening and he went to bed really early.



Sunday: Edinburgh.


We went back to Edinburgh on Sunday, and the first thing we did was realize we forgot to bring the directions on how to get to the free walking tour we were planning on going on. Whoops. So, we scrambled around the
city, trying to ask people. Finally, we found the tourism office and they told us where to go. We made it just in time for the tour.

This tour was great!! As I already said, it was free, which was a great perk. We really got our moneys worth (har-har)... some friends of mine Jenny and Katie had recommended we try this, and so glad we did! It took a really long time (4 hours!) so we didn't have much time for other stuff, but it took us to most of the key spots
in the city and gave us tons of interesting stories and random knowledge. I will try to attach some video with our tour guide here soon but it takes a while to upload... yes, he was an American grad student living in Edinburg, so he didn't have the cool Scottish accent (Craig Fergussen anyone?), but he was a great guide and knew a lot. We learned about all kinds of great stories...

For example, there's a picture of me spitting on a heart. It is where the tax collectors booth used to be, and people used to spit on the door... so when that disappeared they put it in the sidewalk, and people still spit in the center. Tourists walk THROUGH the spit (or, in the case of one proposing guy who had no idea what it really was, kneel right in the spit... ew!) but of course the locals walk around it, so as not to dirty their feet.


Or, there's a picture with me and I have my ear up against a stone wall-like thing. This was where they would nail criminals, placing the nail right through their ear! You would stay there for 24 hours, if you could handle it. After 24 hours they would remove the nail, and that would be that. BUT if you couldn't handle it, you had the choice of ripping yourself off and going free... of course, this meant your ear would be permanently mangled, and
you would be forever marked as a criminal. YIKES!



Or, the story of Greyfriar Bobby... I don't remember the details exactly, but the law was that the head of police or something like that was required to have a dog with him. Contrary to expectations, one elected official
got himself a little terrier named Bobby. When he died not long later, Bobby would come to his grave every day and sit there all day. He became quite famous, and they actually erected a statue of him outside of the graveyard.
They say he's buried right outside, because they weren't allowed to bury animals in the church graveyard. Anyway, Edinburgh is kind of obsessed with the story of this little dog.


After this tour we tried going to the National Museum of Scotland, but this was just dumb, so we didn't waste our time there.


We then wandered for a while trying to figure out where to eat. We ended up at one of the themed pubs, the Frankenstein pub. This was kind of cool, and as you can see from my pictures, the burger I ordered was HUGE!!!
I couldn't even fit my mouth around one slice of the bun! After Frankenstein's we headed back to Glasgow,
ready for the next day.



The whole city of Edinburgh is really, really neat because it just feels sooo SCOTTISH! Kilts everywhere, pubs galore (including an abundance of fun themed pubs), bagpipes playing in the background, castles rising above
the city... it just has the whole Scottish feel to it, and it's a really, really cool city.


We went back on Tuesday, so I'm gonna skip Monday (you can read about that in the next entry) and jump to Tuesday:


Tuesday: Edinburgh!


We decided to do Edinburgh again on Tuesday because we had liked it so much before and had not had enough
time to go to the Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh castle is HUGE and it had tons of great things to do inside, like great views of the city, different exhibits about wars and soldiers of Scotland, the Scottish crown jewels on display, etc... We spent a good couple of hours here, and then pretty much just wandered the city, taking fun pictures, shopping, and eventually getting dinner at the themed pub, "The Last Drop" named after the last public hanging in Edinburg (these used to happen allllll the time). I tried the haggis, which is a Scottish dish which is essentially different
spices, vegetables, and parts of the sheep's meet wrapped up in the SHEEP'S STOMACH! Or that's what it's supposed to be at least... Mine didn't appear to come in a stomach, which was weird, because I thought that was a stipulation to be called haggis. Anyway, it was alright, but it had a sort of icky slimy texture to it, unfortunately. It came with neeps and tates (turnips and potatoes). I liked these better than the haggis. Adam just had pasta, but he WAS brave enough to try my haggis.

After this we shopped some more, then found a great pub that served curry and a beer for only 3 pounds. Adam
had wanted to try curry the whole time we were there (thanks Red Dwarf), so we did that and stayed there until pretty late before heading back to Glasgow.


Wednesday we pretty much just headed out early to catch our
flight back to Frankfurt, where I then attended class for a day before our next
travel adventure in Venice!
:-D


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1234706340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1234706340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alina-beth/1/1234706340/tpod.html Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:38:27 -0500 Bon jour, Guten tag, Moien, and other words I can't pronounce: Living for four months in Luxembourg (where I don't speak the language- yet)

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Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Vienna was a fabulous time, and I wish I had the time to blog extensively about it. Unfortunately, I'm so incredibly busy this week with midterms and doing the qualitative research component of my thesis, so this is going to be short and sweet compared to what it could be.

FRIDAY
Friday we met as a class to go on a tour of Vienna. Dr Backes, our professor, gave the tour. The problem with the tour was that it was outdoors and very, very cold. So, I didn't get as much out of this if we wouldn't all have been freezing. We did get to see some neat things in the city though, which you can see pictures of. I think Vienna is an incredible city. If you recall, I'm not too fond of London and I think Vienna (while still being sort of touristy like London) has a more authentic feel and a higher level of charm, but the same amount of history, in its own way. And there are less tourists, which is wonderful.

For lunch we had weinerschnitzle at a local restaurant. Weinerschnitzle is a popular cuisine here. It's essentially just a big slab of fried pork, but it's famous. I thought it was okay. I mean, you can't really mess up fried anything, but it wasn't anything special.

In the afternoon we went to the Mozart museum/house. He lived several places in Vienna, but this was the apartment he lived in the longest. It was a really good tour and I liked our tour guide. There were three floors, each with different themes. The third floor talked about the people that influenced him, etc..., the second floor talked about his music and his life, and the 1st floor was his apartment, with original doors, ceiling decor, etc... This was an interesting tour... I learned such things as that Mozart actually fluently spoke English (a rarity) and we learned the real way he died (he was tiny with a poor immune system, got pnemonia, then he got diarrhea, then received medical "care" that consisted of using this disgusting little contraption that would suck the blood out of your body and then was given mercury to "cure him"... so the common misconception that he was murdered by his rival is so far from the truth).

For dinner we went to a famous cake place here to get the world famous Sacher Torte. It's a chocolate cake that was invented a long long time ago, and hasn't changed since. As such, it's really just so-so, but it's a Vienna favorite so we had to get some. The only annoying thing was the coat check. They like to check your coat here, and it costs money. I don't want to give them my coat, let alone pay to give it to them! Oh well. I guess that's one thing I haven't gotten used to here yet.

I felt a little sick to my stomach, so Marissa and I went back to the hotel and watched a bad movie which was airing on a British station. It was fun, and I felt better lying in bed. It was good I got to bed early, cause the next day was very full.

SATURDAY
Saturday morning we had free time. Marissa and I decided to go see the Vienna Lippizans. These are the white horses which are known all around the world. When I have time I'll take the pictures off my camera and post them. I really really wanted to go see these horses when they came to Cedar Rapids (this is when I was a little girl). It was really expensive though, so we didn't go. Here you can go watch their practices for only 6 euros (student price), so we did. It was totally worth it! I hope Marissa wasn't too bored, but I was loving it!! It was really really neat, and was a childhood dream fulfilled. On the way to the practice we got lost though! We actually wandered for almost an hour totally lost in Vienna before we found it. Whoops! At least we had fun being lost...

We also went to Saint Stephens Cathedral. This is probably my fav cathedral I've seen in Europe so far. It's really really neat. One cool thing about it is that it has two huge organs. This is part of what made Vienna perfect as a music capital, because these two organs allowed composers to compose multiple lines.

After this we ate a quick lunch (rolls stolen from the hotel breakfast) then met up with our class. Dr Backas took us to Franz Schubert's birth house, which was alright but nothing too wonderful. Our professor likes alcohol (a lot), and we had a lot of time to kill before our next appointment at the Beethoven house museum, so he told us that "The next pub we see, we stop and drink." So, after wandering looking for a pub, we found one, and he bought us all drinks. It was kind of funny.

Then, we went to the Beethoven museum. They say it was his house, but they've actually proven it's not. Oh well. It's at least in the vicinity of the house he lived in and wrote, among many musical pieces, his famous Heiligenstädter Testament (written to his brothers as a final will right before an intended suicide that never happened). This was kind of a neat museum. They actually have a plaster mold of his face, taken after he died, so that was creepy and cool at the same time.

After Beethoven, we had a lot of time to kill again. Our professor took us up the mountain to this incredible point overlooking Vienna. I didn't take any pictures because it was really snowy and foggy and they wouldn't have turned out, but it was really neat. We then sat in a cafe for a while before heading back down the mountain for our dinner appointment in Vienna's famous wine village area.

This was definitely the highlight of the trip. They had a full buffet especially for our class and there were unlimited drinks of any kind. We definitely gorged ourselves, and the evening was really fun. Everyone there had an incredible time. Dr Backas and the other chaperone Dr Manes had... a bit too much fun... which was really amusing for us. The atmosphere was great and we had a great time.

SUNDAY

Sunday morning we checked out of our hotel, then went to Vienna's Central Cemetary, which is the largest cemetary in Europe. It really was huge and was an amazing historic and artistic place. The graves of Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and other composers... were all there, as well as monuments to others. It was really neat. I really, really like cemetaries A LOT in general, and wished we could have had another hour at this one because it was so neat.

After this it was back home. We traveled pretty much the rest of the day to finally end up back in Differdange.

Vienna was a great trip. My favorite moments include the Spanish Lippezan horses, the cemetary, the dinner at the winery, and lunch on Friday. I also really liked the Mozart house tour. Hope you enjoyed reading this quick run-through of my Vienna trip! :-)

Pictures will be added eventually, so check back.
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