Amsterdam

Last two days of the trip were in Amsterdam. I didnt really know what to expect from the city, but it actually turned out to be a really nice place. There are a TON of places to eat which I really liked and the canals make the setting really nice. We did a canal cruise the first night to get a feel for the city and then turned in for the night to be well rested for the last day of the trip.

Day two started with breakfast at the hotel and then a trip to the bike rental shop. I read somewhere that like 40% of the people in Amsterdam ride bikes which turns out to be the best way of getting around. We rode over to the Van Gogh museum to see some of the famous paintings and then down to try and do the Heineken experience. I was actually really pumped to go on the tour of the brewery because Jack had said it was fun and got a nice bottle opener, but it was closd for renovations. Instead of doing the tour we Jordan and I ended up spending most of the rest of the day biking around.

Not much else to report except that after 13 hours of flying (and 4 full length movies) we finally made it back to LA.

Paris

The overnight train to Paris worked out really well because we got an entire extra day in the city without having to travel.

First we dropped off our bags at Hotel du Sully. The manager was nice but it was definitely the cheapest hotel of the trip. It wasnt very nice, but for 57 euro a night it was actually a pretty good deal. After leaving the bags we started with a walking tour from the Rick Steves book. The tour started with Notre Dame, the deportaiton memorial, the Sainte-Chapelle and finally the Louvre. It was a lot of walking but really good to see. We ended the day by walking all the way from the Louvre to the Arc de Triumph up the Champs Elyse. The view from the top of the Arc de Triumph was amazing because you could see all of Paris. Later that night we went out to the the Eiffel tower to see it all lit up. It was especially cool because at 10pm it flashes lights all over it.

Day 2 started with an early trip out to Palace of Versailles. It was nice because we went early enough to avoid most of the lines. The inside of the palace is amazing, but just as impressive are the gardens outside. We spent a view ours exploring the palace and gardens before going back to Paris. Upon our return Jordan and I split up for 3 hours to do our own thing. I saw the museum d’Orsay, Napoleons Tomb, the Robin Museum and went on a sewer tour. Jordan and I then waited in line for 1 hour to go up in the Eiffel tower, but some stupid person left a bag near our ticket window so they had to shut down our ticket counter (the other 2 lines got to stay) and we had to get out of line even though we were 2 people from getting a ticket. We didnt want to stay around to go up because we would have had to wait in line again for tickets, so instead we went to dinner in the area. Jordan was starting to feel sick that night so she went to sleep early and I went out to use in internet.

Munich

In Munich Jordan and I met up with Eric. He had arrived the previous Sunday so although he seemed like and expert he really only had like 5 days on us. After dropping off our stuff we headed out to a beer garden which was really fun. The servers are all dressed up in traditional German clothes and serve beer in giant 1L glasses. The crowd was kind of quite so we decided to go somewhere else to watch the Turkey/ Croatia soccer match. Word on the street is that Munich has the 3rd largest concentration of Turkish people of anywhere in the world so when Turkey won the game in a shootout the streets were packed like when the redsox won the world series. Note… people in Europe love the MULLET! I dont know what the attraction is, but just about every European teenager has one like Christiano Ronaldo.

The next day we went to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau that were like 2 hours outside the city. Note…Munich travel is really expensive unless you have 5 people. They sell passes for 27 euro where up to 5 people can travel anywehre… neuschwanstein castle was actually the inspiration for the Disneyland castle. We toured the castles all day then headed back for Munich at the night. When we got back we met up with a few more MIT kids from around Europe and watched some more soccer. We went to a few bars and were out so late that the subway actually stopped running. We then had to wait until 4 am when it was open again to head back. As we were going to sleep the sun was coming up for the next day.

Day 3 was the touristy part of the day. We got up really late at 11:30 am because we went to sleep at 5am. The only thing we did this day was go to the Deutsche museum which is their version of an science museum. Overall the place was pretty cool. It was so big that I couldnt even see everything in the 3 hours we were there. The coolest part was the mining section because it was in the basement caverns below the museum. I couldn’t read anything in the mining section because it was all in German, but the experience was really cool. I was all alone down there and thought i might get jumped a few times. Jordan lost interest in the museum pretty quickly so she explored the surrounding area while I was at the museum.

Overnight train to Paris… depart at 8:53pm arrive 7:49am

Milan and Interlaken

So we made a mid trip change in plans and decided to go to Interlaken instead of spending an extra day in Venice. This turned out to be a great decsion as Interlaken was a highlight of the entire trip.

For starters, the place we stayed really was like a grandmas house. The lady that runs the place is like 83 years old and is barely able to walk up the stairs. It was pretty cheap for a double ($86 per night) and really homey. The first night we had dinner at a cheap Chinese place because we were tired of Italian food. After that it was a quick walk through town before bed.

The second day was all about hiking. We took a train to Lauterbrunnen then a gondola to Grutschalp. After that we hiked for like 4.5 hours all over the east side of the mountains. We went through Gimmiewal then back to the town. The views were really beautiful and it was for sure worth the trip. We could have used another day of hiking but it was still a nice short trip…off to Munich.

Venice

**(note… im in france using a French keyboard which is making this pretty tough… i just figured out that there is a button so that i can type in english, but all the keys are still in French. so this post will really be a test of how well i can type without looking at the keyboard. i will report how it goes at the end)

Venice turned out to be a very romantic place. It is different than anywhere else we have been because there are no cars. everyone just walks to takes a boat places. The first night we arrived late and only went out to dinner before heading out to walk abound and then back to the hotel.

Since we were only in Venice for a day we made sure to get up early the next day so we had a whole day on the town. First was the Doge palace where we looked at where the Venetian elite used to rule. After that was St. Marks church. The crazy thing about everywhere in Venice is that the city is sinking into the ground so the floors are competely uneven. After the church was the Correr museum for a quick look and then a trip to Lido beach. I wasnt going to take off my shoes, but I decided that I was worth it so that I could say I had been in _____ (i dont know the name of the ocean or sea). After the beach we went back to the hotel and then out to dinner. It poured at dinner, but we got to sit by the cannals and eat in the rain. Later in the night we went out to a jazz bar and watched a Euro cup soccer game which was really fun. Got up early the next morning to go to Interlaken.

(typing is not very hard…. )

still alive

im back online here in paris and wanted to write a post but the french keyboard is too hard to type on (keys in the wrong places). Ill just do it when i get back…

Florence (Days 4,5,6..)

(Note: my spelling may suck becuase i am trying to write this at an internet place with limited time. Pictures to come when i get back)

So first things first…I can not for the life of me find the ‘~’ symbol on the eruopean keyboard which you may notice is a problem because the website address is ‘http://scripts.mit.edu/~rgdean/blog’. For the past couple of days I have been going to other peoples scripts.mit.edu sites linked from my google reader and having to copy the tilda looking symbol from the adress bar (WAY too much work).

Florence day 1- We took the regular train from Rome instead of the express train because it saved us €15. We arrived at Hotel Etrusca which turned out to be an ok place. Our roomis a double with a bath included. Originally the two double beds were pushed together but after looking at our passports and realizing that Jordan and I aren’t married, the desk guy seperated the beds. After a long lunch near the central market we went in the duomo, ate gelato near the Uffizi and had dinner near San Lorenzo.

Day 2- Today was and awesome day because we did a bike ride through Tuscany with a company called I Bike Italy. Our guides name was Bill and he turned out to be an American guy that has lived in ital for 15 years. There were 4 other people in the group (2 recent college grad girls from LSU) and a young married couple from DC. The bike ride was 13 miles through the Tuscan countryside outside of Florence. Overall it was really fun although I wish there would have been more bike riding. The hills were pretty easy for me although Jordan had a tough time with them. Before lunch we stopped to get out of a torrential downpour at a coffee shop. We also wine tasted at a small vineyard then had lunch at a restaurant where we had wine from the vineyard. Lunch was the best meal we have had so far on the trip because it seemed very authentic. After we went to the Piazza Michelangelo which overlooks Florence. Note for the day….

• Our Rick Steves book said not to bring a jacket and for some reason I listened to it. It ended up pouring on the bike ride though so I had to borrow a jacket from Bill. Turns out that I bought a €48 jacket which is just ok tomorrow (skip ahead to the future) instead of buying a $115 jacket from REI before the trip that i really liked. For some reason I thought I would have no room in my bag, but I still have plenty of room and we barely carry our bags anyway so I could have brought a lot more weight.

Day 3- Today Jordan got up to do laundry in the morning. We had planned on eating at tratatorie Mario which was recommended to us, but for some reason everything closes on Sunday here. I ended up buying a waterproof (hopefully) jacket while Jordan shopped somewhere else. At 3:30 we went to see the David which was definitely as cool as everyone says. It was even more awesome because some nice lady gave us the extra ticket she had so Jordan and I only had to buy one. Overall the accademia is pretty lame becuase they add a bunch of stuff no one really wants to see next to the David, but overall it was worth it. At 5:45 we went to the Uffizi and got in without a line since it was the very end of the day. It was a nice place but not as interesting as the vadican museum since I had forgetten details of most of the paintings since my art histroy class in high school. In the evening we saw some random festival in the Piazza San Croce where people were dressed up in medival style clothes. Dinner at buzzino was the second best meal of the trip. All the food seemed really homemade and the guy waiting on us seemed to be the owner (he didnt speak much english though…three course mean €12).

Tomorrow off to Pisa and Venice….to be continued

Rome day 3

Today we spent most of our time in the old part of Rome. First off was the Colosseum where we got an audio tour. There wasnt too much to see so we went across the street to the Palentine and Roman Forum. These areas were nice and quite which was a great break from all the traffic on the streets. it really felt like we were in old Rome because we were wandering among all the ruins. Next was lunch at a market where they have much better deals than anywhere else. Spent .29 euro on a 1.5 L water which usually costs 3 euro other places. In total i got very full for only 2.30. We ate by the pantheon then went back to the hotel for a nap. Back out to the pantheon for dinner later that night. We ate pizza and bruscheta which was very good.

Lessons learned day 3:

• Make sure to weigh your own fruit at the market because its not like America where they do it for you
• 0.5L is a very small amount of water (make sure to get a bigger size to share at dinner)
• Set an aggressive aspiration price (thanks 15.665) when buying fake purses on the street.

Rome uno & duo

Today my 17 day adventure began. It started off well as we got moved from an Ibera flight which was supposed to stop in Madrid to a direct fligt on Air Altalia (sp). This meant that we made it to Rome with enough time to go exploring the first day. After checking into Hotel Papa Germano Jordan and I headed out for a walk. We saw the Piazza della Repubblica, Quirinale, Fontana di Trevi, and Piazza Mignanelli. My favorite part was definitely the Trevi Fountain becuase it was so beautiful. Its just amazing to see what beautiful things can come from stone.

In the afternoon of day one we headed across town to the Pantheon, Campo de Fiori and Piazza Navona. We got lost heading to the pantheon because I was disoriented, but that gave us a chance to see some of the small side streets where we ended up eating dinner late the next day. We also got a quick look at Tom Hanks near the Pantheon. On day one we ate dinner at a place near the hotel which was offering a 10 euro deal which was just OK. It was kind of americanized, but I thought it was fine because I got a primi and secondi for just 10.

For day two we spent most of our time at the Vatican. We started by almost seeing the pope speak but we didnt want to wait that long so we went to the museum instead. The best parts of the Vatican museum were the Raphael rooms and the Sistine Chapel (especially the Last Judgment). The sisten Chapel was awesome and although I lost Jordan there it was still a really good time. After the museum we went to the top of the Cupola.

Later we went back down to Piazza Navona for dinner. The place was good and much more Italian than the first night.

I graduated!!!

I’m finally done with MIT!!! By far the two best parts of the event were walking into Killian with the procession and turning my ring around. Now on to the real world….