Hey I'm alive! And kickin'. Sorry for the wait but I can finally fill you in on my life and spring break! Seeing as how the weather's been flawless, I hardly have a minute to waste of the computer. I'm like one with nature these days. So this week it was back to reality. Okay not exactly reality but back from Spring Break. Give it up for the Northern Loop wooohoooo! What a tiring yet extraordinarily exciting trip. I went to Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris... in that order. In case you were wondering, the entire trip was made by bus. Earlier in the game i didn't realize how utterly imperative it was to get a good seat, therefore i was shafted to the back corner of the smelly bus the whole way to Prague. Let's talk about the seats for a minute. The fact that those things are even capable of reclining on a small ass bus like that is just inhumane. It's all fun and games until the motherf*cker in front of you decides to recline 180 degrees and you conveniently lose complete feeling of the legs.
Anyway, after the gruesome 12 hours and a couple broken knee caps we finally arrived in Prague. What a beautiful city! It was the start of a great trip. The gothic architecture was awesome, there were cool looking castles and very ostentatious buildings. Apparently Walt Disney designed Disney Land after Prague, his favorite city? This is what I hear. In any case it's definitely a magical place. I learned a little history about the czech republic and stuff.. This Just In: it's not czechloslovakia anymore people, it's the czech republic and slovakia, there's a difference ;) I'll save the rest for a rainy day, at this point i'm pretty worldly and knowledgeable and wouldn't want to scare anyone away. The first night in Prague we went on the best pub crawl EVER. We started at this super cool bar underground that felt much like a bohemian cave. I tried absinthe for the first time and it tasted like mouthwash. Overall level of sillyness>>>>>. The coolest part of this night was our awesome hostelmate Jessica who had her first beer. Cheers! She couldn't exactly handle herself that night and the next day was even more humiliating but hey, she was just trying to be cool...#respect. The next day in Prahaha just fell into place. I saw the Charles Bridge, Lennon wall, and climbed up a big hill to see the Castle. For lunch I had some authentic goulash which is like a bread bowl of beef stew. It was really good! Topped it off with a mocha frappe from yours truly, Mickey D. Had ta do it. As we were walking around taking everything in we stumbled across a nice little outdoor spot on the river with live music. Maddie, Tracy, Steph and I relished in the beauty of a beautiful sunset, a scenic view of the castle across the river. We had the company of an ADORABLE golden retriever puppy, and we were serenaded by the melody of a sweet voice and guitar. That was the most perfect part of the day. Later we had awesome, fat burgers for dinner which is a guaranteed day booster, followed by a freshman-style pregame in the hostel. That was cute, <3 my Guelfa babes. That night we went to the 5 story club which was an experience in and of itself. Each floor was a differently themed Hatters. Good and bad. We made our way to the ice bar since I had some extra franks to spend. We met some [cool] British boys, but I'm not really sure if it was them that was cool or just their accents. Either way we made a good time out of it! I personally think the whole ice bar thing is overrated though- you pretty much stand around in a really cold bar with a puffy jacket on when you can be doing the exact same thing at a much more agreeable temperature. Allora.
Next was Berlin. I don't have too much to say about it because it really wasn't the place for me. Cool to see it and know that I don't prefere it though! The history is cool i guess, but I'm not a history buff and the actual sights themselves were anticlimactic for me. The Berlin wall for example was fascinating to hear about, but not a huge marvel in real life. I feel like I would have gotten just as much by reading about it in a text book. Sorry! To me the city was dull, although there was some awesome graffiti and alternative art, it was drab and dreary overall. Obviously that's only my opinion! What can i say, i'm more of a glam girl (we'll talk about Paris shortly)!
Fortunately we only spent one night in Berlin before heading to Amsterdam! I was super excited to get there. When we arrived it wasn't what I was expecting it to look like at all. I don't really know if I had any expectations to begin with, but this place was downright sick nasty!! lol. It was such a quaint little dutch land. There were lots of canals, a nice river running through the city and cute strips of stores and building throughout. Maybe a sort of antiquated Hoboken if you will? The red light district was weird to say the least.Prostitution IN YO FACE. The girls really freaked me out. We saw a kindergarden conveniently located beside a window of prostitutes. Talk about juxtaposition. That ain't right. Don't get me wrong though, Amsterdam was an amaazing place despite the hookers. We went to some cool "coffee shops" where I got all my friends high for the first time. I loved how relaxing an chill the place was in that respect. The cafe's were all really unique and eclectic too! We went to one called the Bulldog which was fun, i felt like such a hippie smokin' a pack of reefers in a cafe. We also went to this hang out called Lost in Amsterdam. What a perfect name for that place. It was a huge room filled with pillows where you sit down with all your friends and smoke hookah and order food and drinks and just chill and chat. My idea of a good time all the way! Didn't get as many pics in Amsterdam as I should have because i was....lazy the whole time. They really know how to appeal to the smokers of the city: the food was freaking delicious. I spent more money in Amsterdam than any other city and 75% of it went towards food. 50% towards belgian waffles. Holy shit that reminds me, one night i had 2 in a row. Hear me out..a warm waffle glazed generously with nutella, topped with strawberries and bananas, can't forget the scoop of icecream, and polished off with some whipped cream. I couldn't just have 1! Other amazing food Amsterdam had to offer included Wok to Walk (delicious stirfry joint), the Mexican (dirty good burritos), and real good boardwalk fries with cheese (obvo). I know what you're thinking and the answer is yes, we did actually do fun things besides smoking and eating, relax! We were feeling ambitious one day so we went ahead and rented some bikes. You could call this an eye-opening experience. We now know that biking is a VERY SERIOUS thing in Amsterdam and if you're not an elite biker you need to get the f*ck off the road. In fact don't even go anywhere near it. It's not a joke, we almost lost a friend to a vespa. I appreciate your life that much more, Noreen. On a serious note, everyone in Amsterdam bikes and it's very systematic and intense. If you hear a bell, get the hell out of the way. Not gonna lie, my biking skills were pretty substantial. That was one of the highlights of Amsterdam, stressful but very entertaining. I left Amsterdam with a little souvenir from a great store called Sabon. It's like the classy version of bath&bodyworks. They told me the stores are only located in Holland which could have been a lie but I had to act on it. I got this amazing exfoliating body scrub that was worth every penny or whatever the euro equivalent is..
Paris was the perfect way to top off spring break. I love France. Upon arrival I was absolutely enamored. The beauty is endlesssss. It's an enormous city, absolutely enchanting all throughout. I honestly don't even know how I can explain it, but I can say that I felt dazzling the entire time I was there. On the first night we went on a pub crawl as usual. We had to take the metro home, but didn't exactly know that it closed at 1, or we did know and planned really poorly. Either way we had a pretty extraordinary time getting home. Luckily we met these 2 people who realized we had NO SHOT of finding our way home without them and they walked us allll the way home. god bless their kind souls. Who ever said french people are rude?? The next day we did a tour of the city which confirmed the obvious- Paris is breathtaking, romantic, and easily my favorite part of the trip. We had some downtime after the tour so we casually relaxed beneath the eiffel tower. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we chilled out in the grass. Couldn't have asked for better scenery. For sunset we climbed up a huge hill to a church where there was live music, and a ton of people sitting on the hill and stairs. Really we were just sitting there talking, but there was a sort of sweetness in the air and the atmosphere made me feel alive. I fully realize how gay that statement was and i stand by it! Honestly there's nothing I love more than being surrounded by beauty in the company of good friends, and having absolutely no where to be. Other than the alluring surroundings, France is also known for their delicious cuisine. I can attest. The french baguette is NO JOKE. That's one thing they do have on Italy. On the last night we went to a traditional French restaurant and I had the classic french onion soup. Some of my friends with more exotic taste dabbled with the escargot and caviar... #bougie. After dinner the big Marist group facilitated by Moyles, the group leader, headed to the Eiffel tower to enjoy it at night. That we did. We got there right in time to see it sparkle on the hour. It was great to all be together, and at that moment the surreal became real. Not one of us could deny how genuinely happy we felt, and how privileged we really are. The magic continued right into the next day. On the final day of what seemed like the longest trip ever, we went to Versailles. I didn't go inside of the palace, but it was amazing from the outside. A part of me felt one step closer to my dreams because ever since i was a little girl I always imagined myself as a queen living in a palace! Lol, I knew what i wanted at a young age. My vividly imagined wedding would take place in the gardens of Versailles! I have the whole game plan laid out minus the husband part........ small thing to a giant. But seriously Versailles was a fairytale. We went biking through the gardens which was priceless. Versailles was like my little piece of heaven, and one day I hope to go back.
That pretty much sums up my spring break on the Northern Loop, but there is in fact a perfect ending to this story. You should be happy to know that I hustled my way through and got the very best seat on the 15 hour bus ride home. I was able to fully recline without feeling guilty and morally incorrect, since I had the seat in front of the stairs with no one sitting directly behind me. I'll be the first to admit it was a great recovery from the awful bus ride there. Still a brutal ride home, but you gotta take the good with the bad. Of all the marvelous people, places, and things I saw on the Northern Loop, Florence remains number one in my heart, and i assure you that it's there to stay, forever<3
"This past weekend we went to Munich for Springfest which means I gained approximately 8 pounds in water weight. This is one of multiple reasons I do not drink beer but all you brewski affectionates will be happy to learn that I put the booougie aside for the weekend and pounded some serious German brews. Girl, yes i did! The taste is really unbearable for me but I like to see the good in things so I will say the beer was very cold. Moving on. We had ourselves a ball! It was expected to rain all weekend but aside from some evening showers on Friday, the rain wasn't much of an issue at all. I had my doubts about Germany, especially after Berlin (i'm a tough critic, i know), but Munchen definitely gave Germany a little boost in my books. It seemed to be much more visually appealing and an altogether happier place than Berlin if you ask me. The first day we went on a nice bike tour. The idea of it was cool but. I couldn't fathom how a group of 50 people on bikes were supposed to follow one tour guide throughout a main ass city, weaving through people, strollers, bikes cars and everything else possible. My doubts proved to be valid after getting stuck behind a girl "Casey" who apparently never rode a bike before. 2.5 minutes into the bike tour we were lost. People don't really like it when you tear through their city on bikes like idiots, obstructing traffic ans disturbing the peace, but eventually we found our way and at least no one got hurt."
