Freshening Up

This week was a pretty solid week. Got some reading done for my classes, getting ready for these papers and finals that are slowly sneaking up on me.

I had been living like quite a slob for awhile, kind of since getting back from the European Vacation, and I had to turn that on it's head yesterday. I was tired of seeing clothes all over the floor and garbage and dishes strewn about. So I got my butt out of bed and decided to put on some music -Owl City- and clean up the mess. I got it all cleaned in a pretty timely manner and then proceeded to actually clean...like dust and sweep and wash windows. My mom would be so proud. The sweeping was the worst, but only cuz I feel like Cinderella when I sweep, and I never get a prince at the end of all of it. Haha.

Anyways, cleaned up nicely and then decided to move everything around. I've got my desk in front of my window now....to see the anti-sun outside. And my feet can sit nicely at the base of my heater too which is pretty nice, especially since it's getting pretty cold here now. The other day, on the bike ride to class, I thought the 33mph winds were gonna push me off my bike and send me to injury on the roadside. It was also 37 degrees, but 27 with the wind, yikes! And of course I couldn't find my gloves that day. Eek!

Got a great package from mom this week! It had all sorts of goodies, Tuna Helper, crackers, Reese's, Twizzlers, yummy rices, popcorn and more! I was through the roof when I opened it and saw that Reese's orange peeking at me through the bubble wrap.

Tonight Louis and I are making a homemade pizza and hopefully it will be a success and not be inedible. haha Apparently he is very confident in making dough so I'm leaving it to him. I'll just put on toppings and do the eating.

Later.

Time Warping into November

So Halloween has come and gone in Odense and it was...as I expected it to be, I suppose. I know a lot of it was mental but it's hard not to think about what's going on in the states while trying to be in Denmark. A lot of people dressed up and there were a lot of people in The Larmer but the lack of prep on my part and lack of supplies on Denmark's part just kinda made it okay. I suggested to Cam that we be tacky American tourists and she was successful. I, however, was not. It didn't help that I'd made a point to avoid bringing American clothes and red flags. So yea, it was ok. The bar was really hot cuz of all of the people and I just wasn't diggin' it too much so I was into bed attempting to watch Dune by 2ish. Dune fell through, so I just crashed.

The best part of the day was when Cam, Krista, Beth, and I all had our own little celebration in our kitchen. Cam had Halloween plates, cups, fake spiderweb, and Krista and Beth got a pumpkin. So we all ate some snacks, bobbed for apples, and carved up a pumpkin to a Halloween soundtrack of Monster Mash and the Time Warp. The bobbing for apples was particularly entertaining, especially because Liang-Kai (our neighbor from Taiwan) joined us. He had never done any of this stuff before so it was fun to have him along for the ride. The pumpkin turned out pretty well, we all did a little bit. We also picked out all of the seeds and cooked them up and they were so yummy. I was obsessed, unfortunately it was a small pumpkin so not too many seeds. But yea, it was fun to get festive with each other and bogart the kitchen for once. We're planning on doing a little Thanksgiving too, that should be a good time.

But now it's November and it's time to seriously start buckling down. It's less than two months until I get home and it seems sometimes that I will collapse inside of myself I miss it so much, but dually I feel such an affinity for this little city and I'll be so sad when I leave it. It's a strange mix of feelings that I haven't experienced really. Hm. More to come.

Later.

10 days, 6 cities, 4 countries...GO!

It seems so long ago, the trip around 4 countries, 6 cities and all in 10 days. It all began in Odense and getting on a train to Hamburg. Finding a seat wasn't a problem on this train but would be greatly so in the future. When we got to Hamburg it was a bit of an ordeal to find the hostel since we couldn't take the train we'd planned on taking. We explored the streets outside of downtown Hamburg and the main site to see was graffiti. So, upon finding our hostel, I was not suprised to see that it was covered in self-inflicted graffiti as well. We stayed in St. Pauli's backpacker hostel and it was my first experience with a mixed sex room. I was quite excited to be sharing a room with all men and Cam, assuming they would not be chatty and would go to sleep quickly after their night of drinking around town. However, we had a minor oversight in forgetting that men snore. Loudly. I swear it was like his face was on the other side of my pillow, projecting the snores right through to my ear. It wasn't too bad for me though because I have the full-ear headphones, but Cam was def not pleased.

So the city was much nicer once we got into the actual heart of it. It felt a lot like we were doing a church tour though. We went past Jacob's, Peter's, Michael's, and then ended up at St. Nikolai memorial. It was the remains of what was left after the city was bombed during war. It was neat and reminded me of Coventry's remains. So the main attractions around Hamburg were purely architectural. This was okay with me and I was pleased that we had such nice weather while walking around. It was also nice to walk up to the Elbe, see some real ships and what a highly functional river looks like. Other cool places were St. Michael's, right by the river, and a building at the other end of it's park which looked like it could fit right into UC's campus. We didn't ever find out what it was but it was cool. The Rathaus in the main square was also really nice, especially with a small inlet full of swans and other sea-faring birds. There were swans all over in our trip to be honest, and I was always in awe of them; so powerful and beautiful.

After Hamburg we hopped on another train to Berlin and had no idea what was in store for us: sitting on the floor of the train next to the bathroom for about 3 hours. Let me tell you, your butt and feet get pretty cold and sleepy sitting on the hard floor of an old train. That millimeter of carpet that been trodden down to nothing does exactly that for cushioning: nothing. Upon arriving in Berlin we were a bit overwhelmed, I hadn't looked up any directions to the hostel because that would've been far too intelligent. So my decision was to go into a tourist shop and look through a info book to find the address of the hostel and then ask the info desk how to get to that street. It worked brilliantly, no matter the fact that I was terrified to be found out and taken away by the police outside with assault rifles. Yea, there were a lot of those in Berlin and they did not make me feel safe at all. The train station was massive but we figured out how to get out of it and head to Mittes Backpacker Hostel, AKA funkiest hostel of the trip. Every room was themed and ours had pirates on the wall, along with a dragon. Enough said.

Walking around Berlin was a blast and the gorgeous weather solidified it as my favorite city we visited, even though it was only the second. We took the U-Bahn into the city and went ALL over. We saw the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Potsdamer Platz, the Reichstag, Holocaust Memorial, Rathaus, Brandenburg Tor, Tiergarten, Siegessäule (Berlin Victory Column), and the Berliner Dom. I was extra excited about the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the Holocaust Memorial and Brandenburg Tor. Checkpoint Charlie was teeming with people and beggars to boot, so that was annoying but it was still neat to see the soldiers that have to remain on duty there all day and the old signs about entering and exiting the area. There was a large piece of it preserved down the road on Niederkirchnerstraße. Great street names by the way, it made me wanna pick up some more German classes.

Heading north, the Holocaust Memorial and Brandenburg Tor awaited on Ebertstraße. I had never seen the Memorial before and the design for it was quite thought-provoking. I though the large number of rectangles signified people lost but Cameron informed me that the design was meant to incur a sense of instability and confusion just like the time of the Holocaust had; made me like the Memorial even more. Another fun fact, the memorial is painted with graffiti resistant paint; smart, but should it be necessary? Hm. Moving up the street we hit the Brandenburg Gate and I was in love more than I thought I could be with an architectural piece of history. Just the images of how many historical happenings had taken place at this gateway and the Pariserplatz overwhelmed me. The seriousness of the history I was experiencing was really beginning to sink in. It was actually kind of hard for me to leave Pariserplatz and stop taking pictures of the gate.

Eventually we did though and walked to the Reichstag, yet another amazing building full of history. The line to get in was absurd so we just took pictures from the outside and avoided the demonstration of energy conservationists (?) we think. We walked through the Tiergarten and a memorial to Soviet soldiers in order to get to Straße des 17. Juni and start the LONG walk down it to the Siegessäule Berlin. The street was beautiful though, lined with trees which had turned yellow and had yet to start dropping it's leaves. Upon reaching the Victory Column we sat and took a rest, deciding our next move to be going back to the hostel for a bit of a rest. Walking 4-5 hours straight can take a toll on some 21-year-olds. On our way to the U-Bahn station we heard someone screaming, turns out it was a man of about 24, flying along a zip line while his girlfriend watched. We quickly decided it was time to have some childish fun. Cameron was just a tad more graceful than I but it was definitely a good laugh we both needed.

The other places we saw was very nice, the Berliner Dom and the Rathaus, although I liked the fountain outside of the Rathaus much more than the structure itself. It was so intricate and such good artistry, we had to take a slew of photos with it. Nothing like Poseidon to make a powerful fountain. The Berliner Dom had a nice little fountain as well but not one that outdid the Dom. We snapped some shots of the Dom and pretzel vendors snagging a kiss from each other in passing- it was so cute. (Pretzels have got to be the national food of Germany-swear.) Another cute attribute of Berlin was the Belin Bears that were all over the streets, it was so Cincinnati, like our pigs and I was infatuated. We took some pics with a couple of the bears on the street and I enjoyed seeing all of the different designs.

After our debacle with the train from Hamburg to Berlin, we'd learned our lesson and got to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof early enough to make reservations on all of our other trains we planned on taking. We did not want to sit on the floor again. Before getting on our train to Prague we happened upon a Dunkin' Donuts and rejoiced at buying 6 for ourselves, albeit quite gluttonous of us. We were hungry and they were calling. The train to Prague was relatively empty and we had our own compartment with one other guy in it, because we just could not sit in our reserved compartment, the funky smell coming off of the women we were meant to share it with was pretty unbearable. Around halfway our compartment emptied out and it was just Cam and I and that was quite enjoyable. Watching the autumn trees stream by out the window, journaling about my adventures and keeping my mind sharp doing sudoku made the trip serene.
Serenity ended upon arrival in Prague. The station was Holesevice and it was barely a station. Our hostel, Hostel Spoas, located ~150 yards away took us a good 3 hours to find. Granted, we ate a restaurant, hoping to get help for about 45 minutes after 2 hours of searching. I just couldn't believe it. We were hysterical when we decided to eat and it took everything to gather ourselves outside, stop laughing and voiding peeing ourselves in our fits of laughter. Once we found the hostel we were practically drop-jawed. I literally said, "That cannot be it." It was surrounded with chain link fencing, barbed wire, and the windows had bars on them. I believe 2 windows were lit. It was not the best welcome mat. We walked down the long outdoor corridor of fencing and wire to get to the front door and enter the "reception"area. It was like a house from the '60s that had been forgotten. However, Spoas pleased us with strong showers, free wireless internet, a private room for the two of us and $18 a night. I guess you can't expect much more. We got to talk to our families and that was much needed, god bless video chat.

Prague was gorgeous, although cold and drizzly. We probably would've had a better time if it hadn't been so crummy but we tried to make the most of it. We saw the St. Agnes convent, New Old Synagogue, many other Synagogues, Old Town Sq. with Staromestská Radnice and it's Astronomical Clock. Old Town Sq. was so cool with its little autumnal shops set up like a tiny market. There were all kinds of bric-a-brac, marionettes, and food stalls chock full of pretzels, sausages, and potatoes. I couldn't resist the sausages and I snagged one for lunch, with a bit of mustard (shocking!). The Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, and Mikulas were also gorgeous. Seeing Betlémská Kaple (Bethlehem Chapel) after a stumble and fall onto the sidewalk, we found and took the Charles Bridge (Karlův Most) across the Vltava river to see Prague Castle which was stunning.

We had to climb a whole lot of stairs to get up to the Castle but the view of the city from above was worth the hike alone. The rain wasn't hitting us at this point and it made the wind a bit more bearable. The Castle had an entrance fee, of course, and Cam and I being poor and all, couldn't manage to pay to get in. We adored it from outside instead. It was massive and the rear of it reminded me so much of Notre Dame's backside with it's gothic features and plethora of flying buttresses. Dr. Hautz would be so proud that I remember these things from 9th grade. The front had a stained glass window to die for as well. We walked down Jiřská and it was raining again. We got to a cable car stop and decided to hop on it and take it right over to our residence since we were quite far from home at this point. The next day in Prague we kind of just ambled around and went to the main train station after mailing some postcards and attempting to get rid of all of our Koruna before hopping on the train to Munich.

The train to Munich was empty pretty much and we got there in one piece, determined to find our hostel quickly this time. We knew it was right next to the train station but alas, we still did not find it right way. Euro Youth Hostel:1, Cam and Leah:0. We found it quicker than in 3 hours though so it was okay. This hostel was top notch and we were so glad they allowed check in after 10pm. We showered off the cold wind and rain of Prague in a shiny white bathroom and tucked into our cozy beds before exploring (an apparently snow-burdened) Munich the next day.

Marienplatz was the first stop, as it was not far from our hostel and it's like the biggest square in Munich. We got there at the right time because the classic German clock, with figurines of boys and girls dancing was chiming and twirling the dancers in a circle that went on for around 10 minutes. The excursion around Munich was dampened for about 45 minutes by Cam and I getting in a tiff over the weather but after walking in silence for that length of time, I just couldn't take it anymore and we hugged it out around Odeon Platz, after seeing the Original Hofbräuhaus, the Royal Residenz, and Music Hall. It was snowing and we were cold so we headed into a Starbucks for some treats and eats. We trekked back through the city to see some more, spotting some great statues along the way: warthogs and fish!

Our map was running out of sites so we went to the closest U-Bahn station to check their map for a stop at Konigplatz, if it was so big, there ought to be a stop, and there was. We zipped over to see the Greco-Roman architecture in the middle of Munich and it was pretty but there really wasn't much going on. The coolest part of going there was a photo shot of Cam with sun shining on her face but a foreboding cloud rolling in from behind, I absolutely love it. We kind of just rummaged around the stores of the city for awhile, looking for a warm coat for Cam, and ended up with a München Oktoberfest hoodie for her and two new scarves for me. We took silly videos around the city and quickly hopped on our train to Zürich, excited at the idea of Switzerland. We sat next to a cute couple of older people who kept playing footsie with each other and they managed to melt my snow-frosted heart a bit on the way there. I also snagged a quick vid of Cam sleeping. Hehe.Hopefully I don't get killed for putting it up.

Getting to Zürich with reserved seats was grand and it was packed so the reservation was finally a handy purchase. There was a gorgeous show of scenery flying by the windows the whole way to Switzerland and the camera just couldn't capture the views. Lakes and mountains and fields filled with wind turbines and moo-cows all the way there. Finding our hostel was a success on the first try this go-around and it was on a neat little pedestrian street called Niederdorfstrasse. It was right by the river Limmat as well. We took a litte vid here of the street and it captures the ragtag nature of our trip when I can't remember what city we're in. It was also very difficult to remember what currency to use seeing as I had Danish Kroner, Euros, Czech Koruna, and now add in Swiss Francs (abbreviated to CHF for Confoederatio Helvetica Franc) go figure.

We explored the city seeing the mouth of Lake Zürich at the end of Limmatquai and all of the buildings surrounding it: Grossmünster, Frauenkirche, St. Peter's Church, the Rathaus, adn the Landesmusuem. We went inside the Landesmuseum seeing as it was freee with our Eurail passes. It was interesting to see Swiss cartoons and caricatures in there and realize just how many ways the Swiss cross can be used in artwork. I was fascinated. It was called "Witzerland". We tried to do a boat tour on the river since Cameron was only there until 2pm because she had a train to catch for her divergent trip to Paris. But the boat never came so we just walked around some more. There wasn't much time and before we knew it, I was waving goodbye to Cameron like a worried mother allowing her daughter to travel alone. I was a bit wary but I figured she'd be ok.

Being in the train station prompted me to hop on the S-Bahn to Üetliberg hill and see Zürich from afar. After a 20 minute ride, I got off at a dead-end stop at the based of Üetliberg hill. Soon I was 2864ft above the city, awing at the view of it and the surrounding small Swiss villages on the other side. It was crazy windy and cold, but I climbed the viewing tower to get even higher and wish Cam could've been there with me. I could even see some of the Alps far off in the foggy distance. It was wild and I loved it. Once I got down the hill and the sun started setting, I got a sausage dinner from the train station's tiny version of Oktoberfest. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep anytime soon so I walked around the city and took pictures of the sites at night, sitting on the riverbank, watching the swans swim by.

I knew I'd seen the city as much as I could the next day and I hastily decided to go on an excursion to Mt. Pilatus in the small neighboring town of Luzern. Mom had mentioned they had a pretty lake, I had to go to the train station anyway to drop my stuff in lockers, and the guide book Cam had found me said it was a great little trip to see the lake and Alps with fabulous views. They weren't kidding. I got on the train to Luzern, only half knowing where I was goind, with only Swiss German directions leading me. 30 minutes later I was in the center square of Luzern, facing a carnival and a mass of busses and stops that I had to navigate. Rather speedily, I figured out which bus to hop on and which stop to get off at. Luckily, getting off in Kriens at Linde-Pilatus ending with lots of signs around the stop telling me how to get to the littel cable car, chairlift that would take me up the mountain. Soon enough I was faced with a lengthy ride up a forested land to the base of a snowy mountain top.

The cable car ride took quite awhile and finally I got off only to jump onto the steepest cog train in the world (seriously). The ride was a bit nerve-wracking but the views I could start to get hints of turn those nerves into excitement in no time flat. I was sneaking peeks of the Alp peaks and Lake Luzern and I was enamored. Reaching the top of the mountain, I was 7000ft. up and freezing! It didn't occur to me that I would be on one of those snow-capped mountains I'd admired from afar. I was in flats and snow was finding it's way in very quickly. There were all kinds of paths through and on top of the mountain and I took three of these to get the best views all over. The Alps were breath-taking and I just couldn't think of anything else.

The view combined with the slow silence found atop the mountain's Esel peak was enough to make me cry. It wasn't too cold for some hot tears and I couldn't hold them back, just thinking what I would give to have my mom and sibs up on that mountain with me at that moment. It was amazing but being alone took something away from the experience. I needed someone to share it with for sure. This was more amazing than anything I've ever seen and I wonder if I'll ever top it. It was a few hours later before I started the trip down the mountain; it's pretty hard to leave something like that behind. I understand why there was a hotel on top of the mountain. I'd like to wake up to that every day too. No doubt in my mind, mountains are where it's at and where I want to be. They just stretch on and on, seemingly to no end.

After Luzern there wasn't really anything to do before my overnight train to Amsterdam so I wandered about, spending the rest of my Francs at Coop, their grocery, and sitting around the train station. Getting to Amsterdam was an okay trip, I had a place to sleep but not much room to do so and the guys in the next cabin were speaking drunken german rather loudly, yelling at one another on a regular basis. Eventually they passed out though and I slept the route to Amsterdam. The city was just as I'd remembered it from 2005 and I enjoyed recognizing a city for a change. One change: a whole bunch of painted elephants (like Berlin Bears, and Cinci Pigs) all over the city! Seeing as I am in fact in love with elephants, I was pretty pumped. The canals were just like a remembered: gorgeous.

We couldn't really afford to go into any of the museums so this was a true window-shopping, site-seeing experience. The only place we paid to go into was the Anne Frank House, with some encouragement from me as Cam felt guilty, since I'd already been. Although I'd already been, I still got something out of going into it again. There were a lot of parts I didn't remember and I enjoyed it very much. We even put our "Leaves"on the Anne Frank Online Tree. :D We walked through the Red Light district and enjoyed the mixed varieties of sex shops and sex shows that were available, although I was quite let down to still not see a man standing in a window offering up his services. It just doesn't happen that way. We saw plenty of average looking ladies though. Nothing shocking there. Nevertheless, we were entertained and it was nice to walk around a city that hadn't go to bed with the sun. The best juxtaposition was also found in the Red Light district, swans floating down the canal that ran through the main thoroughfare.

The train home the next day took about 12 hours and 4 trains actually. We spent 7 of those hours on the floors of trains but we made it back safely, assuring our parents, mainly Cam's, that we were indeed alive and thriving. So that's that.

Later.