BARÇA!

Hola!

Happy Spring Break to me! My spring break is only a week long but split into three different parts. The first part of my break was in the wonderful city of Barcelona, Spain. No where in Spain was on my original list of places I wanted to visit but I am glad I made my way to Barcelona. It was such a pleasant surprise, the food, people, architecture, and ocean were amazing. 

This post is a tad longer, so feel free to scroll down to the pictures! 

We began our journey Friday evening at the Venice Marco Polo airport, then took a plane to the beautiful Barcelona. After we landed we had to take a shuttle to the city center then find our hostel for the night. We eventually made it and checked in. I highly recommend this hostel, Hostel 360. The staff was so helpful and nice. We only stayed here one night (we rented an apartment for the other nights) but they still answered every question about Barcelona that we could think of.

Friday, March 14 is a very special day, it is my Mom's birthday! It is also the birthday of one of the girls I was traveling with! So after settling into our room we went out! We had a pretty tame night for Barcelona standards, but we had a good time. We then went back and fell asleep. Jenni, the birthday girl, actually left us then next morning to go to Valencia to meet with a friend. We then ventured out to move into our apartment then explore the city. On the way we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts!!! We were shocked to see them all over Barcelona. The coffee tasted American and the donuts were delicious.

We found our apartment and it was on the Main Street of Barcelona, La Rambla. We couldn't be happier with the location. We then went for lunch and ate tapas, paella, and drank sangria. This meal was a contender for my favorite foods in Europe. After we were full of Spanish food we headed to Port Vell. We walked along the pier and then eventually to the beach. The beach was fantastic, I can't imagine how crazy it is in the summertime. I have a suspicion that coming from a land locked state makes me fascinated by the ocean. We spent a few hours on the sand, looking for shells and soaking up the sun.

We then decided to head back in order to see a fountain. We took a pit stop at our apartment and took the metro all the way to the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc. This fountain was gorgeous it featured lights and water synchronized with popular music (some new pop music and classical music). I'll include some pictures. After that we stopped for kebab and went back to our apartment. 

Our plan for this evening was to go to a beach club called Opium and stay up until sunrise, the true Barcelona way. We didn't go out until 12:30-1 but we spent the time before drinking wine and watching music videos! The tv in our apartment had a channel of only music videos and we loved it. We did stay out until the sunrise on the beach at 7AM and it was beautiful. I had a fantastic time with my friends that night. We then went home and fell immediately asleep.

That day we woke up around noon and started to get ready for the soccer game! My friend who I was traveling with, Emily, played soccer throughout high school and is a fan of FC Barcelona. She convinced me to go to a soccer game with her and I was excited to see what a soccer game in Europe is like. On our way we stopped at a shop to buy some FC Barcelona swag. I was only planning on buying sometime cheap, but I was convinced to buy a Messi jersey for 30€! We then stopped for food and were on our way to the stadium on the subway. We didn't know exactly where we were going, but we thought we would follow then crowd. We ended up making our way to Camp Nou among all of the FC Barcelona fans.

We both wore our Messi jerseys to the game and had a fantastic time. We had some nosebleed seats, but the day was beautiful and it was awesome to be able to see the entire field and enjoy the warmth of the sun. FC Barcelona won by a landslide, but the game was interesting because Messi beat the record number of goals scored by an FC Barcelona player! He scored his 370th goal with FC Barcelona and the crowd went wild! It was very cool to see. 

After the game we headed back to the apartment and after eating out (more paella!) we spent the night in. We were so pooped from our nighttime festivities from the night before. On Monday we woke up and went straight to the market for breakfast. The market of Barcelona is wonderful. All fresh fruits, meats, fish, and vegetables fill the market that both locals and tourists frequent. We were enthralled with the fruits and fruit smoothies. For only a Euro you could buy a fruit smoothie with all sorts of exotic fresh fruit. I tasted two of them, I believe one was a strawberry papaya, and the other was some sort of mango concoction. 

The market had more than just fruit, we stopped at a stand selling burritos, tacos, nachos and salads. Emily and I each bought a burrito. I had a sausage, egg and fries burrito. It was fantastic hot breakfast food. That is a rarity in Europe, hot breakfast. I cannot wait to have eggs, bacon, and pancakes back in  the US. After our burrito we headed to the Sagrada Familia. Sangrada Familia is a famous church in Barcelona that is unfinished. Gaudi, the architect, designed the structure in a very interesting way and died mid-way through. It is still under construction years later. I unfortunately did not go inside because the line was much too long, but the outside was amazing. I find that most Gaudis work resembles something out of a Dr Suess book, including this church. 

After viewing the Sagrada Familia we headed to Park Güell. Park Güell is a huge park with a lot of gardens and architectural structures. Gaudi also designed this park. Originally it was built at the turn of the 20th century to be a new housing development for upper class members of the barcelona community. However, Gaudi left the project to begin work on Sagrada Familia. The facility changed to a park and is another tribute to Gaudi. We walked a long while around the park then paid to get into the area of Gaudi's work. It looked like a Dr Suess world. All the mosaics were beautiful and I had a fantastic time wandering around viewing all the beautiful scenery.

After Park Güell we siesta-ed then walked through the gothic quarter to a sandwich place that was highly recommended. The sandwich place is called Bo de B, and it was very delicious. The line was a bit long but worth it. I had a tuna sandwich with all these Spanish fixings and it was very flavorful. The sandwich didn't change my life but it was amazingly delicious. After sandwiches at the port, we went on a search for churros and hot chocolate.

We eventually found a churro and hot chocolate place! The hot chocolate in Barcelona (as in Italy) is basically melted chocolate, which is too rich for me to drink plain. However, we dipped our churros in the chocolate and it was unbelievably delicious. 

We then met up with Jenni who came back from Valencia and headed off to a bar crawl! The bar crawl was a lot of fun. Some highlights include, meeting new people from around the world, us 4 American girls beating some German boys in beer pong, and of course Emily's birthday! 

When the bar crawl was over Jenni and I headed back to the apartment and attempted an hour of sleep until we had to leave for the airport to Rome for our next leg of the journey. 

I wish I could have stayed in Barcelona longer. The people, atmosphere, food and scenery has me wanting to go back as soon as possible. 

Here are a few pictures!

This cool arch we found on the way to our apartment

Me and my dunkin donuts coffee!

One of our delicious meals! We love paella :)

Emily and Me with our Sangria!

Me on a lion

The ocean!

The beautiful beach

The Magic Fountain

The Barcelona sunrise

Me, Emily and Danielle at the sunrise

At the FC Barcelona game!

All of the fruit smoothies at the market

The Sagrada Familia! I recommend just googling a picture because I am a terrible photographer 

A lookout over Barcelona in Park Güell

Park Güell

Mosaic lizard fountain in the park

Dr Suess houses

Beautiful mosaic tiling

All of us at the bar crawl Monday night!

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for my next blog post on Sorrento, Capri and Pompeii!!

Adios!

Carolyn

A Weekend in Cinque Terre

Ciao!

I am currently on an airplane to Barcelona for my first leg of my spring break! I thought this would be a good time to start writing about my time in Cinque Terre last weekend. 

Also for those interested in reading about my spring break, I am planning on writing it in three separate blog posts (one for each leg of the journey). So be on the lookout for that!

Back to Cinque Terre, for those who do not know the Cinque Terre are five small towns in the western coast of Italy. These small towns are built on cliffs on the sea. I was completely taken aback by the beauty of the entire place. However, it was kind of a journey to get there. We took a taxi and three trains to get to Pisa Friday night. Based on the train times it wasn't logical to go to Cinque Terre Friday night. We thought since Pisa isn't much out of the way it would be worth the stop for the photo opportunity with the leaning tower. 

We arrived in Pisa and after some stumbling around we finally found our hostel. The cutest old Italian man was running the reception. He was unbelievably nice and went out of his way to accommodate us in the hostel. We chatted with him and he has a sister who lives in California and he knows where Paderno del Grappa is! Not very many Italians know where Paderno is because it is such a small town. When we tell people where we are from we either say Bassano del Grappa (a larger nearby town) or in the Veneto region. 

After a great nights sleep we woke up early to grab the obligatory photo and a train to Cinque Terre. Let me tell you, The Leaning Tower of Pisa is not all that great. It is short, it does lean, and wasn't all that impressive. I don't really recommend anyone visit the leaning tower...

After the disappointment of the Leaning Tower we hopped on a train headed to Monterosso, the one of the five towns we were staying in. We got to Monterosso at around 10AM, and were immediately taken aback by the beach and ocean. We attempted to drop our stuff off at our hotel, but they wouldn't be there until noon. We spent the two hours basking in the sun, toes in the sand. I actually found some really cool rocks washed up on shore. There was a lot of green and purple rocks that really grabbed my attention, but the best thing I found in the rocks was glass that had been polished down by the ocean waves and sand. The glass was smooth and clear. I began collecting as many cool rocks and pieces of glass that I could find. I felt like a little kid looking for the coolest rock in my backyard. 

After dropping off our bags we took a cheap train to Manarola, another one of the five towns. In this town there were houses all painted beautiful colors built on a cliff! We did a small hike along the grapes growing on the cliffs to get a view of the houses and the ocean. The hike was challenging but fantastic. I would have loved to spend an entire day hiking along the coast. After our gorgeous but exhausting hike we took a train to the next door town of Corniglia. We grabbed a delicious lunch. We randomly chose a restaurant and walked in. I ordered pesto gnocchi and when I tasted it, it was like nothing I have ever experienced before. It was so fresh. I felt like everything on the plate must have been made fresh for me personally after I ordered. I tasted all of my friends cuisines and everything tasted like it was caught today, the cheese was made today, etc. I never thought I would be able to taste the difference between fresh foods and older foods and I was so wrong. I also felt happy because I got to try pesto in cinque terre, the birthplace of pesto. 

After some gelato dessert we took a train back to Monterosso. We stopped at the local tabacchi to buy wine, cheese and crackers for dinner (we were so full from our delicious lunch). After snacking on our food and sipping on our wine we ended up checking out a local bar. The night life in cinque terre is pretty slow, but we thought we would get a few drinks and then come back. We ended up staying for a while! The bartender was unbelievably friendly and nice. He made us bruschetta and burgers and chatted with us about Italy and the US. Then a group of Italians walk in carrying a huge branch of flowers. It turns out they were all celebrating one girls birthday and it was also women's day (and also my sister's birthday!). The flowers are called Mimosa (like the drink!). We had a great time socializing with the Italians, and then we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. 

The next morning we woke up a little later than expected and headed on the next train to Vernazza (another of the five towns). We shopped for souvenirs, and enjoyed the harbor. The views were gorgeous and the sun was shining. We spent most of the time relaxing listening to the waves crash against the rocks. We then traveled back all the way to Paderno del Grappa. 

Here are a few pictures of the weekend!

Leaning tower picture

I feel like the trees lean with the tower!!

The Monterosso beach

View of one of the towns!

View of the ocean from our hike!

My pesto meal!

Me and my friends at the bar!

Vernazza

Harbor in Vernazza

I had a fantastic relaxing time visiting cinque terre (even though I missed one city, Riomaggiore). It was fun to be with good people, eat good food, and have fantastic views. 

Stay tuned for my spring break blog posts!!

Ciao,

Carolyn

Prost: A toast to Bavaria!

Grüß Gott!

Last weekend I visited my favorite cities thus far, Munich and Salzburg. We had a long weekend at CIMBA and Dakota, my boyfriend, had the week off for his study abroad program so we decided to travel together. He let me plan the weekend, which is probably why we visited German speaking areas (for those who may not know, I am a German minor). 

You know the drill! This post may be longer than usual, so if you don't want to read the entire thing I understand. I suggest just scrolling down to look at the pictures! 

Wednesday evening I took the train to meet up with Dakota in Venice. He was flying in from Paris and we were going to stay the night in Venice because our train to Munich didn't leave until 1:30 the next day. Dakota had never been to Venice! It was exciting to show him the place I had been twice already. After we stumbled around trying to find out hotel we went out to dinner. Dinner was delicious, I had a seafood pasta, salad, and veal. We ate right next to the grand canal with a view of the Rialto Bridge. 

We woke up the next morning and had a few hours to wander around the island. This was especially fun because Venice was having Carnivale! We had gelato, took pictures of people in costumes, walked by all the sights (St Marks Basillica, St Marks square,  etc.). We then took a Vaporetto (the water bus) back to the train station. The day was so sunny and the water was so blue, we really lucked out! We were soon on a train to Munich! Our train was very nice and we both lucked out with window seats across from each other. Our train went through the mountains and the views were gorgeous. In northern Italy there were little mountain towns with grapes growing on mountainsides. The. We crossed the boarder to Austria and we stopped seeing grapes, but started seeing snow! We even traveled through a blizzard at one point! Thankfully, there was no snow on the ground in Munich because I did not bring the right clothes for that. 

We hopped off the train in Munich and it was around 8:30 by the time we got to our hotel. This weekend we stayed at hotels the entire time, but strangely the prices were very reasonable (comparable to hostel prices). It was also nice to have housekeeping, a quality bathroom and great service. 

That night in Munich we were starving and walking around the city center trying to find a place to go. Unfortunately we were too late for many restaurants, so we caved and got McDonalds. Surprisingly, the Munich McDonalds is my favorite McDonalds I have ever been to. I ordered a burger with beef, lettuce, tomatoes, a fried potato patty (with seasoning), and some sort of sauce. It was so savory and juicy! They also had great desserts. They had 1€ donuts (with delicious favors, like cranberry and candy), as well as a yummy black cherry McFlurry. They also have a Euro menu! This was especially refreshing because McDonalds in Europe has been much more expensive than the McDonalds I am used to (but it is better quality). We then headed back to our hotel and went to bed in preparation for our day in Salzburg! 

The next morning we purchased something called the Bayern ticket. This ticket was 13.50€ for each of us and it allowed us to take all transportation in the German state of Bavaria, and it included some Austrian boarder cities like Salzburg! I love how easy and cheap German transportation was compared to Italy. We used the Bayern ticket to take a regional train to Salzburg. It was a gorgeous ride through the German countryside and then the mountains nearer to Austria. We arrived in Salzburg an hour later and began walking around. We ate kebab, frolicked through the Mirabell Gardens, strolled through the old town, then it was about time to go to our Sound of Music tour! The tour was somewhat expensive, but the movie has been a lifelong favorite of mine, so it was worth the money. 

For the tour we were put into three smaller vans. Dakota and I got to sit in the front of the van (because the seats are smaller and everyone else on the tour was a bit older the us), but the views from the front were great. First we drove through town and viewed all the sights from the movie in the town, like the concert hall, the convent where the real Maria Von Trapp started off, and the Mirabell gardens and palace. We then left the city to see the palace where the Von Trapps lived in the movie. It was gorgeous, we also learned a lot about the history. Apparently the real Von Trapp family did not live there, it was the price archbishops palace for a long period of time. Also the lake the palace sits on is man-made, when the prince archbishop lived there he wanted to live on the water so he had the lake built. We drove by the mansion where the real Von Trapps lived (it was still huge), then we were to the road lined with trees and the famous gazebo.

The gazebo has a cool history. It was actually on the same property as the palace, but the scientists who own the palace now were tired of having sound of music fans come and sing at the gazebo, so they moved it across the lake. However, across the lake the gazebo was vandalized and destroyed. The people in Hollywood donated a replica that is now in a gated park of Salzburg. This worked to prevent vandalism, but then the sound of music fans were starting to get hurt from jumping from bench to bench. So now the gazebo is closed for entry, which is pretty sad, but it was still cool to see the gazebo. 

After the gazebo our tour guide cranked the Sound of Music tunes as we drove through the mountains to see more sights outside the city. We sang along and it was great to see the views of the mountains and lakes. We stopped in a few of the smaller mountain towns on the lakes and saw the gorgeous scenery of movie as well. My favorite town was Mondsee. It was near a lake (the Mondsee), it had the church interior that was used in the movie for Maria and Captain Von Trapp's wedding, there was also cute shops and delicious cafés. We stopped here for an hour and we shopped then has ice cream, apple fritters and hot chocolate. This was the best dessert I have ever had. The hot chocolate was not too sweet, the ice cream was homemade, had the apples were fresh. 

We then took the autobahn back to Salzburg and finished the last few sings from the Sound of Music soundtrack. Dakotas favorite song is Climb Every Mountain, mine is Do a Deer. We then did some shopping in Salzburg, ate some hot dogs from a food cart, then took a train back to Munich.

When we got back to Munich we met up with my CIMBA friend, Jennifer. Jennifer had spent the first few days of the weekend in Vienna then was going to spend the rest in Munich. We walked her to her hostel then we decided to get to bed because we were going to Dachau early the next morning. 

The next morning the three of us headed out to the Dachau concentration camp. We got there right as the site opened, which I highly recommend doing. It was almost empty because the tours do not start until later in the day. We purchased the audio tour and then separated to experience the site on our own. It is hard for me to describe the experience. I was full of a wide range of emotions from grief, to uneasiness, to extreme sadness, to being curious. I had always heard about what went on here, I had seen movies and documentaries, read books, and learned in history class. I really don't think the reality of the event truly hit me until I was at the camp. I highly recommend to visit because I feel like I can't really do it justice in this blog.

We then headed back to Munich and immediately ate lunch (we were starved!). We had currywurst, fries and beer. The currywurst is not what you think of when you think Indian curry. The curry sauce for the sausages tasted like a sweet ketchup with curry powder. This meal filled me up and was so delicious. We then headed to St. Peter's church. We went in the church, then up the tower. Going up the tower is only 1€ for students and it was a great experience. The views of Munich were totally worth it. We then took a donut and pretzel break after (we deserved it after all those steps!). 

Jennifer and I (after we were full of donuts ands pretzels) headed to the Deutsche Museum and Dakota went shopping. The Deutsche Museum is basically like the Smithsonian of Germany. We arrived with an hour left of the museum open (which is not enough time at all!) but we got in for free because of that. We played with all of the stuff in the museum, but I will admit I wish we had had more time to look at some of the cooler exhibits.

We then headed to some souvenir shops and met up with Dakota at a shoe store. I wanted to buy some Birkenstocks, but they didn't have much of the summer collection for sale and I am not a huge fan of the clogs. We then went back to our places of stay to drop off our stuff and get ready for dinner. We ate dinner at this wonderful place called Weisses Brauhaus. They brew wheat beer (they claim the best wheat beer in the area). We had beer, pork, bread dumpling, and apple fritters for dessert. The pork was so delicious. The gravy and meat were so savory. I had a fantastic meal. 

After our delicious meal we went to the Hofbrauhaus! The Hofbrauhaus is my favorite place in Munich. The huge beer hall is filled with long tables and benches, life traditional Bavarian music and dancing, and a lot of beer and food. I actually ran into a few other Edina people who I graduated with! It was a great time. We then left and went to bed. 

The next morning we had to leave at 11:30, but we did some shopping, ate gummi bears, and saw the famous Glockenspiel of Munich! We were then on a train back to Italy. 

I had a fantastic weekend and I would love to go back. 

Here are some photos!

Venice for Carnevale 

Dakota on the Vaporetto

More venetians in costume!

Where Mozart was born in Salzburg!

View from a bridge in Salzburg 

Mirabell gardens

Pegasus fountain in Mirabell gardens (the Von Trapp kids dance around it in the movie)

In the front seat of the tour!

Us at the palace

The gazebo

The Von Trapps actual residence

One of the lakes in the mountains

Our dessert snack in Mondsee

And of course we ate some Mozart chocolate! It is very famous in Austria (especially in Salzburg and Vienna) to eat chocolate of the deceased composer. 

The gate to Dachau. This was a fantastic experience because we got there right as it opened and there was no one else around. At around 11am it was a little crowded and ruined the eerie experience of being there almost alone.

Dachau memorial

Poplar trees lining the main road of the camp. 

My delicious currywurst! 

On the tower of St Peters church, with a great view of the Frauenkirche. 

Great view of Marianplatz from the tower. 

Me stop the tower

We got a free tulip on our way to the Deutsches Museum

Me and Dakota at our dinner!

Jenni bought the menu for a euro cent! 

Hofbrauhaus!

Me and my liter of the original hofbrauhaus brew

Bavarian dancers

Bavarian music!

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for a blog post on my weekend trip to Cinque Terre,  five coastal towns of Italy along clifs. 

Aufwiedersehen!

Carolyn