Europe in a Nutshell

Europe Adventures!

So Europe was AMAZING! Every time I go back to Europe, I am left speechless and in awe.  It never ceases to amaze me.  I had planned on blogging while I was in Europe, but I was enjoying myself too much to bring myself to my laptop.  I do keep a travel journal with me, so I did keep up with that.  I don't even know where to start about our Europe trip so I'm just going to go over my favorite parts.  We started out in Paris which to my surprise, ended up being my favorite city.  I had been to Paris as a kid, but it was just go to to Disney Land so I don't remember much of the city.  I feel like every person I talk to has some sort of negative connotation about Paris whether if its about the "rude people, public transportation, or street vendors (reasonably so).  We didn't experience any rude people.  As long as we attempted to speak French (and failed miserably), people were willing to help. And my word of advice to avoid street vendors and pick pocketers: Don't look like a dumb tourist, ignore them. and everything will be fine.  Our first day in Paris started off kind of slow because the airlines lost our luggage. Typical.  After we got all that sorted out, we checked into the hotel, explored the city, and got ready for our dinner in the Eiffel Tower.  SO COOl.  The next day we got breakfast at a cafe.  We met the nicest Canadian couple at breakfast and we ended up enjoying our meal with them.  They ended up giving us their museum passes which was SO NICE. Then, we hit up all the major sites like Notre Dame and the Lourve.  (My favorite part about Paris)  That pretty much took up the whole day.  We spent hours in the Lourve.  It was so crazy to see all of the people crowding around the Mona Lisa.  In my opinion, there are so many other spectacular artwork  to see in the Lourve so you shouldn't waste your time at the Mona Lisa.  It was still very cool to see though.    The next day we hit up Versailles which was also a day long activity.  We met so many nice and interesting people in Paris.  My favorite part about Paris was the food, and  all the artwork and architecture.  It felt like a dream walking around this city.  I could not believe we got to experience this beautiful place.  I know I am returning to this beautiful city in my future.  Our next stop: London!

London

The train ride from Paris to London was only a couple of hours.  Our train didn't end in King's Cross station but it was right next to it so naturally I had to get a picture at platform 9 3/4.  Our hotel was in the theater area of London which was perfect because Cory surprised me with tickets to Lion King on Broadway! We got a bite to eat before the show and we tried some fish and chips with a London Ale.  We met some really nice people in the pub and at the show!  The next day we did a muggle tour throughout London, which was awesome, and then we rode one of those big red buses and got some site seeing done. My favorite thing we did that day was the muggle tour and the London Tower.  I find castles and fortresses so fascinating.  The next day we went to the imperial war museum and then we watched a debate in Parliament! That was another highlight of London.  London is such a cool city with SO much to do.  I would love to come back during football (soccer) season.  The underground system is extremely easy to navigate.  You pretty much have to be an idiot to screw it up.  They only down side to London is the exchange rate sucks and everything is so dang expensive on top of that, and it was FREEZING. Oh, and traditional English food is terrible.  We always try to soak in as much culture as we can when visiting other countries and I was not a fan of English food.  It all gave me a terrible stomach ache.  Other than that, I really enjoyed this city!

Amsterdam



Amsterdam was so much fun! I want to revisit this city with a bunch of friends because it is truly a city that never sleeps.  It is filled with so much culture and night life.  The hotel Cory and I stayed at was right outside of the red light district, and we should have stayed in a hostel because it would have been nicer.  Oh well, at least we know now.  It was smelly and dirty and you could hear EVERYTHING that happened in the hotel.  On our first day we went to the sex museum and then went on a boat tour throughout the city's canals.  We checked out the red light district which was very interesting to see.  I have very torn feelings on the red light district but it was pretty cool to be in the heart of, in my opinion, one of the most liberal cities in the world.  We ended up going to a bar and enjoying some beers with these German guys we met that were around our age.  In Europe it is expensive to drink water with your meal which kind of sucks,  but it is extremely cheap to drink alcohol.  The four of us ended up talking to a local from Amsterdam but he was kind of crazy.  He said Cory and I should be institutionalized because we said we wanted to adopt kids in our future.  He ended up buying a round a jager, then he angrily left.  We enjoyed the rest of the night with those two German guys.  Good thing Cory and I had a good buzz going because we actually slept really well in our crappy hotel.  The next day we took a bus tour and went to the Vincent Van Gogh museum.  I would highly recommend going to this museum.  It was so beautiful.  Beside the Lourve, it was my favorite museum I have been to in Europe.  Then, we went outside of the Anne Frank house but we didn't go inside because it was a three hour wait just to get inside.  I wish we could have rented bikes and biked around the biggest bike capital of the world, but Cory can't ride a bike very well so he was too nervous to.  Next time!  There is truly no other city like Amsterdam between the history, the nightlife, bikes, red light district, and their famous "coffee shops". ( The coffee shops are marijuana smoke lounges)  Where our hotel was, there was pretty much one on every street corner, just like a Starbucks in the U.S. Next stop: my motherland (Germany)

    

Bayreuth



My family lives in a city called Bayreuth, located about an hour away from Nuremburg.  It is the home of Richard Wagner, and it's famous Opera House.  It was so nice to be reunited with my family.  Cory and I went to the disko one night and I had a little too much fun.  The next morning, I was feeling rough but Cory, my cousin Shannon, and I headed to Munich for a random day trip!  When we got to Munich, we found out that it was the birthday of the city so there was a huge festival at the Marienplatz.  We climbed 300 stairs of this church tower and got this amazing view of the city with the Alps in the background.  Then, we headed to the hofbrauhaus and enjoyed some beers and pretzels.  We met this really nice Brazilian couple and had a great time!  The next days we just relaxed with my family and I got to enjoy all of my favorite foods.  I felt bad for Cory, because he doesn't speak any German and most of my family only speaks German.  I felt all sorts of nostalgia going back to Bayreuth, and it was sad to leave but our trip wasn't quite over yet!

Tubingen

My friend Julia was an amazing host and it was the perfect way to end our month long Europe trip.  Her town is a university town with so much history.  Her town is also extremely environmentally friendly.  The citizens are encouraged to bus/bike instead of drive.  The bus system was very easy to use and the buses run pretty much all day and all night long and come about every 10 minutes.  That is my dream to live in a city like that.  I wouldn't even own a car. Julia and I were exchange students and we have kept in touch over the years.  It is crazy that we can go a year or so without seeing each other and when we do finally see each other, we pick right back up where we left off.  It was so much fun visiting her!  We went on multiple hikes to different castles, and we even hiked to a German monastery village.  The other days Cory and I took on her town while she had classes and we all went out to the bars and discos a bunch.  All of her friends got Cory on a good level one of the nights and I think he had too much fun.  Every bar in Germany turns into a big dance party at about 1230, and they stay open until about 4 in the morning.  They all love house music too.  I always have SO much fun when I go out in Germany.  It is also ridiculously cheap to drink in Germany.  Cory bought two beers and a shot a jager for only 3.50!  My favorite hike was when Cory and I took a train to a different village and hiked the Swabian Apls to this beautiful castle with a beautiful view.  I was so sad to be leaving Germany but it was the perfect trip with the perfect person.  To not be so home sick, I brought home about 50 Euros of chocolate.  Oops.  



Travel Day of Hell

It was cheaper for us to take a train from Germany to Paris and fly out from Paris instead of flying out from Germany.  It seemed easy enough.  We were wrong.  When we got to the central station in Paris we bought our subway tickets to the airport. Right as our train was about to arrive, they announced the train station would be closed for at least a few hours because a man had died on the tracks.  We thought okay, we will just refund our tickets and take a taxi to the airport.  We stood at the taxi line and this guy had us walk about 10 minutes away from the train station and we were both thinking this is super sketch but a French family was with us so we kept following this guy.  It wasn't a real taxi company, but some people trying to scam travelers and they tried charging us 180 Euros! We demanded that he let us out of the cab and after a little bit of back and forth yelling, we finally got out of the taxi.  We walked back to the bus stop outside of the train station, thinking well we can just take the bus to the airport. The only bus that showed up had people hanging out of the doors because it was so packed.  The real taxi companies in Paris were on strike so we were literally stuck in the middle of Paris.  People were missing their flights because of the underground being closed and taxis being on strike.  Luckily our flight was the next day and we just needed to get to our hotel.  We met this British girl around our age who was trying to get to her hotel next to ours.  This very friendly guy who worked at the airport finally told all of us to follow him and we jumped the barriers to get to the train and we caught the last one for the night.  The wheel of of 50 pound suitcase broke on top of all of this.  I was carrying the big suitcase because Cory had been lugging it around all day and his arm was dead.  When we reached the walkway to our hotel, I wanted to cry but I gave myself a pep talk and told myself "city Stacey doesn't cry".  After 6 hours of being stuck in the middle of Paris, we finally made it back to our hotel and we made our flight the next day with no troubles.  Despite all of this, Cory and I still adore the city of Paris.   

This was the most amazing trip and I am so thankful Cory and I were given this opportunity to go and explore these different countries and cultures for a month! Thank you to everyone who gifted us to help fund this trip as a wedding gift.  We are so thankful!  Cory and I both believe experiences are far more valuable than possessions so thank you so much for helping this experience happen!  We are even more eager to travel the world together.  We are already planning our next trip abroad.  They say that traveling leaves you speechless then turns you into a storyteller but I am honestly still left speechless.  I can't wait for what adventures lies ahead for Cory and I to tackle!