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Monday, September 24, 2012

Hameln and Hannover

Well I've been back a week now from my first trip as a lone traveler. And I would definitely deem it a success. I left last Friday afternoon. I very nearly didn't make it as I stopped to buy snacks for the road and the bus that was supposed to take me from the grocery store showed up super late. But I got to the big bus station with a few minutes to spare. And the charter bus I took was super nice. More comfortable than any plane I've been on recently. So after three and a half hours I arrived in Hannover. It was dark and raining and it took me another hour to get to my hostel because the directions said to take either tram 1 or 2, but I couldn't find either of those trams. Turns out they're underground at that point and I hadn't thought to go into what I considered the subway. But I finally got there and finally got checked in to my nice, albeit strange hostel. There was no staff in the hostel building. You had to go across the street to a much nicer looking hotel and check in there. But the beds in the hostel were nice with privacy curtains and shelves and even personal lamps. And it was quite clean, by hostel standards. And most of the tenants were nice, though I think there was a circus troop staying there with lots of hula hoops and things. It was very strange. Anyway, I picked up a döner (which was terribly disappointing) for dinner and read my book for awhile (I got a ton of reading done on this trip) before heading to bed.

The next morning I got up early, took the tram back to the central train station and bought a ticket to Hameln. The train ride was only about 45 minutes. And the city was absolutely beautiful. It's wasn't a very big city, so I just hung around all day in the old city part of town and marveled at the beautiful timbered buildings and all of the intricate details on everything. I thought it was awesome how the city fully embraced it's heritage as the origin of the Pied Piper. Everywhere you looked there was some reference to the Piper or to rats. The cobblestone streets had these little rat stones in them that you could follow around to learn about different things pertaining to the Pied Piper. I followed it for awhile, but the signs were all in German that was a bit above my reading level. One of the things that I really loved about Hameln was that strangely enough, it reminded me of home. I think it was the mountains on the horizon. I hadn't seen mountains in awhile. I actually spent a long time just sitting on this bridge that looks a lot like one in Riverfront Park, staring out at the water and the beautiful skies. For lunch I ate in a Mexican restaurant and apparently made friends with the man next to me who was so incredibly proud of himself for having finished a bowl of the restaurant's hottest soup (Which was probably not that hot. I know how Germans do spicy.)

Hameln was a wonderful place to visit alone. I don't think I would've had as much of a chance to wander and marvel and appreciate all the small things if I'd been with someone else. Like the miniature key chain with salt, pepper, paprika, and curry powder that I bought in a little store. I fell in love with it because A) it's tiny and adorable and B) I'm always sad when German restaurants don't have salt and pepper on the table. I also got the chance to laugh when 99 Red Balloons, a song that is normally in German, came on in a German store in ENGLISH. I never hear it in English in America, lol. And I got to try my first bubble tea, which was surprisingly delicious.  Mind you, I was trying to buy frozen yogurt when I got the bubble tea, but it was a worthwhile mistake.

The major tourist things that I did in Hameln were of course to watch the Glockenspiel figures of the Pied Piper and to climb up to the top of the church bell tower in the middle of  the market. It required climbing up a ton of really narrow, really steep staircases and I spent half the time worrying that the bells would start ringing and I'd go deaf. But the view was absolutely worth it. The only downside was that on the way down I had to cross through this room with three doors and I couldn't remember which door to go through, so I ended up sitting in the room until some other people came through and then just following them like a dork.

Anyway, I took the train back to Hannover that afternoon and had dinner at this outdoor restaurant. I ordered chicken strips and jojos and then totally freaked out everyone around me by proceeding to eat them with my fingers. You can't use a fork and knife on chicken strips silly people! It was a great meal though. There was something going on next door so they were playing lots of loud music that I got to enjoy, including one of my favorite songs these days, Haus am See. You can find it here if you're interested.

I went back to the hostel and planned to go to sleep pretty early so that I could get up early the next day. Unfortunately at about 3am I think I might've swallowed a bug, because I woke up with the worst tickling throat feeling and couldn't stop coughing. And about an hour later, when I'd just finally drifted off back to sleep, this jerk checked into the room and decided that 4am in a room with 20 sleeping people would be a good time to have a fight with his girlfriend on the phone. Sadly, he was an English speaker and I might've been the only other English speaker in the room, but I didn't want to get involved.

So the next morning I packed up and headed out. I had breakfast in a bakery and then went to the tourist information center to buy the red thread guide. The red thread is a line that's painted on the ground in Hannover. With the guide (that only costs 3 euros), you can follow it around the city and learn about all of the major sites. It was probably the best sightseeing set up I'd ever encountered. I was able to go at my own pace and learn a ton. I spent all day doing that. I also spent a considerable amount of time in the Town Hall, which was absolutely beautiful. I waited in line for like half an hour just to go to the top of the tower. I'd say it was worth it. You could see the whole city, plus you got to ride up in the crazy elevator that switches angles on the way up.

All in all, it was a great trip. I took way more pictures than I normally do (probably because I had no one to distract me with conversation) and I got to practice my German quite a bit because people in Hannover either don't speak English or don't want to speak it with me. But I got to relax and take it slow and just spend a weekend taking in how beautiful the world can be. It was exactly what I needed.

Now I'm just getting ready to head off to Italy in one week. I'll be spending seven days seeing Pisa, Florence, and Venice with Martina!! I'm so stoked to get to see here again :)

I'll post about the last week and this upcoming week right before I leave.

*Edit: Does anyone actually look at my pictures on here? Is there anyone who reads this that isn't already friends with me on Facebook? Because if I don't need to post pictures twice, I'm not going to do it. I just don't have the time. So if anyone would still like me to post them here, please leave me a comment below and let me know. 

Thursday, September 13, 2012

London Pics

Ok, here you are. Pictures of London. Finally got them uploaded. I mean, I did promise after all :)

Enjoy!


Chasing the Sun

First of all, super super sorry that I didn't post the London pictures. I'm going to do that next, promise.

Alright. Well the last two weeks have been somehow both excruciatingly slow and ridiculously fast. First I spent a good three days holed up in my apartment working on my website. Good news though is that it's finally done! If you're interested (or, you know, have a super awesome job that you're just waiting for an excuse to offer me) then you can check it out here.

So after the three day Actionscript marathon of doom I went back to work. Reading, playing, chasing, chastising, praising, cutting fruit, changing poopy diapers. This is my life these days. And I didn't even have to suffer nine months of what sounds like terrifying bodily changes to get here. And of course, with all of this fun stuff going on, I inevitably picked up the stomach bug that is apparently making it's way around my Kita that no one felt the need to warn me about. So then I spent two more days in my apartment making best friends with both the toilet and my bed.

I recovered just in time to enjoy the wedding madness on Saturday. The children's grandfather got married. My first German wedding! The ceremony was definitely interesting, in a tiny packed room in an old government building with only a couple of chairs and a lot of big German words that I didn't understand. But apparently that office (the Standesamt, of which I understand there to be one in each district) is the only place you can legally get married in Germany. And they do the ceremonies in 20 minute time slots. That part I liked. No time for a dawdling priest to go on forever.

The reception was wonderful. The way I often picture weddings to be, but have never really experienced because everyone I know is on the broke side. There was a great entertainer and delicious food. And a dance floor, which I did not partake in as I was still pretty exhausted from the previously mentioned days of disease. I took loads of pictures for the bride and groom and even though I wasn't doing any professional work, I'm very pleased with the way a few of them came out.

So after the hugely packed day of wedding activities on Saturday I spent Sunday just relaxing. Lucky for me I had Monday off as well. I did my Zumba class in the morning and then set off in the afternoon to do the free walking tour of Berlin that I've been saying I was going to do for weeks. But then I stopped at Potsdamer Platz to look for some food before the tour and well, turns out I'm easily swayed. I found myself in front of the big movie theater and I realized how badly I just wanted to sit down and relax. So instead of being a good student of life and taking the tour where I'd get both a decent dose of exercise and a load of historical knowledge, I treated myself to an outside dinner in the Sony Center and then went to see a movie by myself. I know, it sounds terribly pathetic. But sometimes you just gotta do what you want, whether there's anyone else around to enjoy it with you or not. And because I refuse to grow up, I ended up seeing Brave. My second choice was Cabin in the Woods. Probably a good thing I didn't go with that. We all know how my seeing scary movies alone tends to turn out... So I saw Brave, which I had really wanted to do for awhile. It was cute and sweet and may have even brought a few tears to my eyes. Not Pixar's best (but honestly, I don't think anything else will ever live up to Finding Nemo), but definitely a good movie.

Since then the week has passed pretty uneventfully. Except for that hour where I was alone in a room with 25 sleeping children under the age of three and they all started to wake up way earlier than they were supposed to and I definitely couldn't wrangle that many screaming babies at once. But hey, I'm still alive and so are all of those children, so I call that a success!

Tomorrow I'm heading off to Hannover. People keep asking what in the world I'm going there for. Honestly, there is no reason. I picked it because bus tickets are 9 euro each way and I wanted to get out of town for cheap. So that's all. Oh, and I love the Pied Piper. He's from Hameln, which is a short ride from Hannover, so I'm totally gonna go be geeky and learn all about him.

I'll be back late Sunday night. In the mean time, I wish you all the most wonderful of happy and relaxing weekends. And here's the song currently stuck in my head. Hope you enjoy :)

Saturday, September 1, 2012

London (Not Nearly as Late as Istanbul!)

Alright, so London. London was definitely an experience for me. Honestly, it was not the best trip I've ever taken. I was still recovering and we hit a couple of bumps while there, but it was a good trip.

We flew Ryan Air. This was my first experience with a budget airline. It was great for what it was. Just a short hour and a half trip. But I definitely wouldn't fly anything overseas that way. Seats are not assigned, you get to the gate, wait in line, and grab the first seat you can find. Then the seats don't even have basic things like pockets on the back or the ability to recline. But the worst part to me was that the stewardesses try to sell you stuff the whole time. From suitcases to drinks (no, they're not free) to tickets to attractions in your destination city. I seriously just wanted them to sit down and shut up for a little bit.

So we arrived pretty late in the afternoon. By the time we got to our hostel I think it was like 7:00 or 8:00pm. The hostel was actually the biggest problem with the whole trip. It was a huge let down from what was advertised. It was not close to anything, though they'd promised a 15 minute walk to huge attractions (It was a 15 minute walk to the underground station where you could catch a train to attractions. Not the same.) They had promised a bar, but what they meant was that they sold a few overpriced drinks from a fridge behind the main desk. The staff did their jobs, but definitely didn't make any effort to be helpful or even friendly. And our room. Well. I'd never stay there again. There were four sets of three high bunks beds crammed into a room small enough that there wasn't enough space after the beds for all of the tenants to still stand in the room. And it was hot. Unbearably hot. I hardly slept the entire time because I was melting. I spent most of the nights roaming the hallways. Oh, and to top it all off, there was only one toilet on our floor for about 50 people. And it was broken most of the time. So in case anyone's planning a trip to London, please do not ever make a reservation at the London Eye Hostel.

Well once we'd checked in we found a restaurant that Martina had looked up to have dinner. It was a traditional fish and chips place. I had the chicken and mushroom pie (you all know how I feel about fish). But I did try Martina's fish and it wasn't half bad. Plus the place gave you shrimps and pickled onions and pickles and bread, all for free. And the portions were huge, so that was nice.

The next day we headed out to the National Observatory because we're nerds and wanted to see the Prime Meridian. It took us ages to get there due to closures from the Olympics. We had to walk up this huge hill of doom to get there. It sucked really bad. After that we went to the Tower of London. Ended up spending all afternoon there. I didn't realize it was a whole complex, not just a tower. But it was a really cool site, probably my favorite of the "must see" sites that we saw. And then that evening we did a Grim Reaper tour. Our tour guide was awesome. She enthusiastically told us all about the dark history of London while still be respectful of the history and the victims. After the tour our guide directed us to Brick Lane, a street full of Indian food restaurants. I do love my curry, so it was awesome.

On Friday we got started early with the free walking tour of London. This is one thing that I'd highly suggest to anyone going to London. There's no charge, but they ask that you leave tips at the end depending on how much you thought it was worth. And believe me, it is worth it. It's a great tour and you get a good overview of all the main sites. After the tour we were pretty exhausted, so we took it easy. We took the train up to King's Cross Station to be nerdy tourists and get a picture of the Platform 9 3/4 thing (it's not actually inside with the platforms, as you need to buy a train ticket to get in there.) And that night we had Groupons for Rodizio for dinner. It was so delicious. We spent a couple hours there just stuffing ourselves with the best, most flavorful cuts of meat I'd had since leaving home. I freaking love Rodizio.

Saturday we set out for Regent's Park with some sandwiches and the intention of having a picnic on Primrose Hill, where the views of the city are supposed to be spectacular. Unfortunately, we were pretty tired from our full days before and the lack of sleep we'd been getting. We ended up crashing somewhere in Regent's Park to eat. And then I passed out in the middle of the park and got an hour of sleep in so that I wouldn't be cranky the whole rest of the day. So I guess I can add London to my list of cities where I've slept in parks, lol. After the park we went to Hard Rock so I could buy my shot glass and get pictures. Then we went to Madame Tussaud's, where we had pre-purchased reservation tickets to get in. If you're going to go, then that's definitely the best plan. The line for regular tickets was crazy long. As usual, we had a great time at the wax museum. This is the third one I've been to, and by far the best. We even braved the Scream portion. I want to say it wasn't that bad, but I think my eyes were closed the whole time, lol. I did appreciate that once you got through the live actors part there was a section about the old beheadings and stuff, with replicas of a few of Madame Tussaud's original death masks. I know it's morbid, but I find that stuff so interesting. I also liked that this wax museum had a part called The Spirit of London. It was a ride where you sat in these taxes and were taken through the history of London. Very cool. When we finally left after three whole hours in the museum we headed to Piccadilly Circus to check it off of our places to see. At this point I was so hungry that I could no longer function. I grumpily stomped around until we ended up at an "American" diner. It was hokey and not the best food I've ever had, but I was so hungry that it didn't matter. And we had a great time making up backgrounds for all of the staff, who were some of the most varied men I've ever seen. After food we were going to go on a Pub Crawl, but we were just too tired. We ended up sitting there at Piccadilly Circus just watching the people and the street performers. There was a really great drum group and this dude who could limbo like nobody's business. I've always loved people watching, so this was totally great.

Sunday we planned to hit the free museums. Apparently museums are paid for with taxes in England, so entrance to a lot of them was free. We started at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Martina had wanted to see the old clothes exhibit for ages. We also wandered around to some of the other exhibits, but we honestly hardly saw any of what they had to offer. Next we went to the Natural History Museum. It was awesome, with a huge range of exhibits, though it did look a bit like it could use some updating. By the time we got done there though, it seemed too late to go the Science Museum, so we decided to put that off until the next day. We ended up at a Japanese place for dinner, where I had some absolutely wonderful ramen. I seriously wish there was a ramen place somewhere near me, either in Berlin or Spokane. And then that evening we walked along the Thames to see the bridges all lit up at night. We walked across London Bridge and the Millenium Bridge. And we got to see the Globe Theater, at least from the outside. It was a wondeful little walk. Another thing that I'd highly suggest to anyone heading to London. There were other tourists along the walk, so it felt plenty safe, but it was also quiet and not at all crowded. And the city lights over the water are beautiful.

On our last day in London we went to the Science Museum. I. Loved. It. We spent like seven hours in that museum. It was full of interactive exhibits and really interesting things to learn. I wish we had something like that in Spokane that I could take Harper to when she gets a little bit older. It was so wonderful and totally inspiring. After we finally escaped from the museum (at closing time, lol), we wandered over to check Harrod's. Definitely not my kind of store. I looked at a few articles of clothing and nearly had a heart attack. There was a hat, an ugly one in my opinion, that cost more than what I made in the last year. And they have a year round Christmas section. I feel so terrible for the employees that work there. Can you imagine having to listen to Christmas music ALL YEAR? Now that sounds like torture to me. So after we left Harrod's we had nothing planned. We went to the station where we would be catching our bus to the airport and traded in our Oyster cards to get our deposits back. I didn't mention the Oyster cards before, but they were absolutely invaluable. We loaded ours with a one week pass (which cost nearly as much as my one month pass for Berlin) and then we had access to all of the buses and trains by just swiping in and out of every station. I have to say, I much prefer Berlin's systems. And our underground trains are only a little bit underground. They never make me feel nearly as claustrophobic or get nearly as stiflingly hot as the ones in London. Anyway, we ate at a pizza bar that night because we couldn't find anything else and a buffet is a good way to waste time. Our bus picked us up at 9:30 and we got back to our airport at 11:00pm. Then we had a nice long night of sleeping on the airport floor ahead of us, since our plane didn't depart until 6:00am. By that time I was nearly ecstatic to be heading home to my own bed and a good night's sleep.

London was an experience, that's for sure. The one thing I can say I truly loved was the food. I love diverse, flavorful food. We ate stuff from all sorts of ethnicities. Even in Berlin the food isn't nearly as good. So the food was by far my favorite part. My least favorite part was, unfortunately, the price tag. We did London on a really strict budget, something that is incredibly difficult and that I wouldn't suggest. We did not properly see a lot of the main sites for this reason. I loved my trip and I wouldn't change anything (other than the hostel), but hopefully someday I'll be able to go back on a bigger budget and experience the more lavish side of London.

So that's my trip to London. The next place I'll be going is Hannover in about two weeks. I'll try and keep you guys updated on everything that happens in between then. Now, I'm off to see what I can do about actually getting my butt out of bed and grocery shopping for the rest of the weekend. Loves to everyone, especially my beautiful Harper who is now three whole years old!

Oh, and pictures are done and up on Facebook. I'll sort out some for those of you who aren't my friends on Facebook and post them on Flickr with a separate post tonight.

What if I Say That I'll Never Surrender?

Sorry it's been a couple of weeks. I hit the ground running with work when I got back from London, so this weekend is the first down time I've had. I'm gonna split the last two weeks into two posts, London and home. I can't really remember all of what went down since I got back though, so I'll just give you a rundown of the more memorable moments.

So first, here's something that actually happened the day before I left. My host family had already left for their vacation and I got a letter saying that I had a letter waiting to be picked up. Now normally, a letter would just come to my house. Or if it was a package and no one was home to claim it, they'd take it to the postal place here in my neighborhood. But this said that I needed to go to the Zollamt in Schöneberg to get it. I really had no idea why, but I figured I could just swing by and get it after work at the Kita. So I took the bus out there, thinking this would just take a few minutes and then I could get back to finishing up all the pre-travel stuff I had to do. Well I was wrong. The Zollamt is the customs office. And it's just like the DMV. It actually took me forever to even figure out how to get a number (you had to wait in line at the desk in the first room and answer a bunch of questions to get it). Once I had a number, I waited. Like you do. For what seemed like forever. After an hour they finally called my number. I went back to a room with a row of cubicle type things. In my cubicle they had a little box that apparently Ben had sent me. It was at that point that I realized that it was the MagicJack he was sending for my friend to use. So I had to stand in this cubicle and open the box while the attendant stood back like this was some specialized SWAT procedure. When I showed her what was inside she asked me what it was. I tried to explain, but MagicJacks are kind of hard to explain in English, and this woman was one of the few people I've met who only spoke German. She ended up looking it up on the internet and found that on Ebay in Germany they go for 50 euros. She wanted me to pay that 50 euros, but I refused. It seemed ridiculous. I mean, most of the price is for the year's subscription to make it work and the subscription had been activated in December. After awhile she just got fed up and told me to leave. And I didn't have to pay at all. So that's my Zollamt story. Two hours later, I was done. I just sincerely hope that they never pick up one of my packages again.

Alright, so post London. I have worked loads in the week and a half that I've been back. School started again so my host mom has been gone quite a bit. Last weekend was a rough one for me because Martina finally left for Italy. I miss her like crazy. Even caught myself havng a conversation with myself this morning. Also last weekend I had to make 111 from scratch cupcakes with homemade frosting for my host mom's birthday party. I love baking, but that much of any one thing can be awfully repetitive. And then you have the added hazard of leftover frosting. And you know I only make delicious frosting, lol.

This week was just more of the same. Work and work and work. I decided to officially end summer and restarted my workout routine on Monday.  I don't know why I keep doing it, since I've made zero progress since I got here. But I guess deep down inside I feel like it's gotta be helping with something at least. And then last night I pushed myself to go out and try something new. I went to an English language film quiz in the city. The quiz itself was pretty enjoyable. The people I met up with were ok, just not really my types I guess. But it was good to get out. It was the first time I'd really been in the city since we got back from London.

Overall, things have gotten better. Life is busy again, and that helps a lot. And as soon as I get these two blog posts up I'm going to get to work on finishing my website so I can start applying for jobs in earnest. I can feel this chapter of my life ending and I'm getting excited about coming home for a little while before I figure out where exactly my adventures will take me next.

And here's what I'm currently listening to, in case anyone's interested. The Pretender by Foo Fighters.