Berlin

October 14

We got off the bus in Berlin around 9:30 am and my first thought was, 'I can see my breath,' that is never a good sign for someone who had packed for a study abroad in Valencia. I had my FSU jacket, my rain jacket, 2 scarves, and gloves and a hat bought in Amsterdam. I wore my leggings underneath my jeans most of the days and my long socks. It was insane. Anyways, we got off the bus and took a look at the bus map and decided it was safest to take a taxi to the hostel.

We got to the hostel and tried to check-in, only to discover that Brittany, being only 17, cannot stay in a hostel in Germany unless she's in a private room. We ended up spending 2 hours at the hostel trying to book Brittany hotel rooms for Berlin and Munich. It was an experience. We left our bags and went to explore. 

We started with lunch, where I got sausage, a classic in Germany but they were cooked different ways, one of which was "Berlin style," whatever that meant. It was pretty good. The Spanish don't appreciate meat enough in their restaurants, so it was great to be in a place that did. We found the Berlin Cathedral and as we walked we found the DDR Museum. We went to the museum, which is filled with the "ins and outs" of East and West Berlin. It was interesting. 

We were wiped by the time it got to be 3 pm so we decided to hit up a supermarket, by some snacks and call it a night. We bought food and headed back to the hostel. We ate (I had a Grandma dinner-vanilla wafers, chocolate chip cookies, and chips) with Brittany for a while before she left for her hostel around 5. Jacqueline and I took our showers, and were knocked out by 8 pm until 8 am the next morning. It was fabulous. 

October 15

The next day was much more productive. We left the hostel around 9 to walk to Brittany's hotel. We found it, but apparently we were pronouncing her name wrong so the front desk lady wouldn't let us call her (but she was supposed to be in the lobby waiting for us). So Jacqueline and I went to wait at a little cafe, where we got hot chocolate, and we got to talk to a lady who was excited to tell us about Germany. She lived in the West. We didn't have WiFi at the place but I could get a small signal from someplace around the cafe. Jacqueline couldn't though, so we couldn't iMessage Brittany, and she didn't respond to my Facebook messages. 

We ended up walking to a McDonald's to get WiFi. It was in the train station in Berlin and the train station is basically a shopping mall with a train underneath. Seriously, three stories of stores and then the actual station. Once we got there we got a message from Brittany who told us she was headed to the Reichstag building. So, so did we.

We also hit the Brandenburg Gate and got lunch, which included hot chocolate, I also got schnitzel, one of our Germany must eats. We met Brittany at Checkpoint Charlie and tried to walk to the Berlin Wall from there. We got lost, so we ended up taking a taxi. We got there at dark, like 7 pm, and left to meet up with Brittany's old Au Pair for dinner.

We ate dinner with Brittany's Au Pair, Beata, at someplace near the bus station. We sat and talked for 3/4 hours to stall until our 11:55 pm bus. Once we left we realized Beata didn't necessarily know how to get there, so we were lucky to get there before 11:45. The bus was much more packed, but we were alright. No stop for boarder patrol this time, but it got in much earlier to Munich.

Amsterdam

October 12

We had our last "real" breakfast for a while and then headed off to the airport. Our flight got us in, in the early evening so we hopped on a bus to head towards town. The bus, we soon realized, didn't seem to be stopping where we though it would so we chose a random stop (kind of, I noticed the pancake house) and we got off. We came across this cute little pancake house and ordered Poffertjes, which was on our list of Dutch food to try. Poffertjes are like minitaure pancakes served with butter, powdered sugar, whipped cream, and we also got ours with strawberries. I could not believe how delicious this was. It was amazing! As we were walking towards our hostel we came across a little bakery where Jacquline and I got hot chocolate (remember this as you read on) because it was freezing there. Absolutely freezing. We got to our hostel around 10 and decided to call it a night.

October 13

Caitlin had a 2pm flight this day so we tried to fit in as much as we could before she left. We paid for museum tickets for the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum at our hostel so we didn't have to wait in line (lies). We went to the Rijk first, and once we got there we discovered that those under the age of 19 get in free so we were slightly (super) bitter that the lady in the hostel didn't tell us and made us pay 17,50 Euro for those tickets. The museum is not worth that. Then we headed to the Van Gogh Museum, where we had to wait in a line (in the freezing cold) to get our tickets. We still had to wait. Dumb. This museum was much better than the Rijk, much better. Caitlin left from the Van Gogh Museum so it was just Jacqueline and myself for the rest of the day. We split french fries, which were on the list, as we walked to Anne Frank's house, to stand in the freezing cold. We stood in line for a little over half and hour, not bad, right? Well, as we got towards the very front of the line there was a sign telling us we couldn't bring large backpacks into the house. So, we ended up waiting in line and not even getting to go inside. We'll be back though, definitely

Once that was over we headed to McDonald's, the once place in all of Europe that for sure has free wifi, to wait for our other friends to get done with their adventures. We told them, Brittany, Lia, and her roommates, to meet us outside of their hostel at 7. We couldn't go inside and wait because we weren't staying there. So, we waited, and waited, and waited. We waited until 7:45 to go back to McDonald's, where there was warmth and wifi. They finally contacted us around 8:15 and it ended with  very annoyed Becky and Jacqueline. We all headed our separate ways after we met up. Jacqueline, Brittany, and I went to dinner and then to the bus station to catch our 11:30pm bus, while the other girls went to experiment.

The bus was a night bus to Berlin that would get us there around 9am the next morning. This saved us on a days worth of travel and a stay at a hostel. The bus wasn't packed so I slept band bus style and actually got quite a lot of sleep, not very good sleep, but a lot. The bus stopped at the border between the Netherlands and Germany and Boarder Patrol got on around 3am to check our passports. That was an interesting experience.  

Barcelona

Caitlin and I took a bus from Valencia to Barcelona to meet up with Jacqueline, who was traveling with her parents, to fly out together. Caitlin and I went to the Sagrada Familia and then Park Güell where we met up with Jacqueline and her family. I had already been to both before, so no super exciting news there. All of us went out to dinner at this amazing crepe place and then headed back to the hotel to plan. We spent a solid 2 hours attempting to plan for Amsterdam and Germany, and honestly, I think we did pretty well. It wasn't a set "be here, do this," list, but more of a general idea of what we could do, should do, and what we need to eat, of course.

We came across this Monday morning. A Celebration of Spain's National Day.

October 9

Valencia Day!

Happy Valencian Day! I walked outside of my building at noon to watch, what looked like the Bonofest, taking place. There were benches set up and tents lining the walkways and bridge. The smell was absolutely amazing and there were flags lining hanging above our heads.

Our first adventure was out to the parade where, when it ended, the Valencian's sang the Valencian Hymn. The parade itself was very scattered and not that spectacular, but it was very cool to hear everyone sing (in Valencian) with their flags waving in the air. After that we walked to the Plaza de La Reina to "watch" fireworks, yep, fireworks at 2 pm. It was INSANE. They had strung the fireworks throughout the center of the plaza and when it was time to start they ignited the string and the fireworks went of accordingly. You couldn't see anything of course, they do it more for the rhythm of the noise. Personally, I felt myself trembling from the powerful explosions. We were up close and could see them go off.The smoke cloud covered the square and it sounded like bombs were going off. Dara and I got a photo, of course, in front of the debris and then we strolled back to Garnet.

The Serrenos Towers, which were once the entrance to the city, are right in front of our apartment and were free to visit. Naturally, Dara and I ventured our way to the top to finally say we've been up the towers. We made it just before the man started kicking us out. Once we got back on the ground we went to the bridge, where there were people selling jewelry, bags, candy and anything they thought had value. Dara went to scope out her parents after that and I went in for a nap. :)

Once I woke up it was after 6pm and I 

assumed I missed the 2nd parade, because everyone left to watch it at 5. I was wrong. I went out in search of food and I had to plow through crowds of people standing on the sidewalks of all three plazas. I could hear the bands playing in front and behind me, that was nice. Earlier in the day the parade consisted of a "band" of what looked like mini oboes, not an appealing sound. These bands however, were all brass, it was much better. There were also several camels and people riding the camels through the streets. The parade that started around 5 didn't end until I started walking back around 8.

Caitlin and I got gelato together, once I got back, and then we stopped in to see Mike, the guy with the place that doesn't open until 8pm and closes around 4am. We'll be gone this week and he'll be gone the next week, so no greasy food at 3am for us for awhile...

October 5 and 6

Monday
I slept in, went to class, got lunch with Dara and went shopping. It was super exciting.

Tuesday
I got you bright and early for my math midterm that went alright-ish. I dunno how I feel about it. I couldn't figure out simmering that was probably super basic, but I figured it out using calculus...and some people are just, euh, in that class. I got out early and had a break before Spanish. That class went by quickly and later i meet up with my group for our project. It's a project for an online course, required for all FYA student. Lia and I got dinner and ended up at McDonald's for McFlurries where e ran into Jacqueline. I just got done with another chapter of macro and an assignment (I'm trying to bust out the entire module before I leave on Sunday. Hmm. And tomorrow I'll get up and run, but because the sun rises later now, I get to sleep in some :)

October 3 and 4

Sushi for dinner Saturday. This is how
we paid...

Yesterday I finished all of my work for Econ, that had to be done before I took the exam. My roommate is in Italy so I took advantage of my empty room. I believe it was pretty successful. It is, however, the week leading up to Valencia Day. That means parades, concerts and loud noises outside of our apartment all week. So, today, Sunday, when I made it about halfway through my Econ exam a band marched by and now they are setting off fireworks...at noon. It is highly distracting and super annoying to say the least. Everyone is walking down in their pajamas now to figure out what is going on...It is literally the sound of 100 bombs going off right outside. We just had to be placed behind a historical monument.

UPDATE: They are shooting muskets, right outside of our apartment. Sounds like a scene from a Civil War movie.

Dara and I went to a crepe place for dinner (they take cheques!) where you could draw on the wall and they give you crayons at the tables and the crepes were filled with chocolate, not nutella, chocolate, it was the best!

October 1 and 2

Thursday
Yesterday I made myself chicken parpikash for lunch, kind of. I attempted to make the gravy but lo and behold they don't use sour cream over here. It's very difficult to make the sauce without sour cream, so I just ate chicken and dumplings with butter and it was well worth it.

Later that night we had to finish planning four our fall break trip and it was not going well. One of the girls coming with us (maybe) didn't show up and ended up not booking half of our hostel or bus reservations before she left for the weekend. Nobody seemed to care that we didn't have transportation to half the places we needed to go, like our flight is out of Munich, but there was no way to Munich...but they weren't worried. Halfway through planning Brittany had us come to jazz bar with her, to watch someone she met perform. I didn't want to be there to begin with, I wasn't dressed to go out, I stood for an hour, and I had to buy a 2,50 Euro bottle of water because we had to buy something. I got a 1/3 liter of water for that price, and at the Chino store I could get 15 liters for that. I was not happy. Also, she wasn't very good and the pianist was alright, but I personally think it's not very good jazz unless you've got some trumpets, saxes, and trombones on stage. I was not having a pleasant night. We finally got back and done planning and my budget on food while we're traveling is super limited, but I'll survive. It's only a week.

Friday
We went to a winery today and it smelled of rotting fruit then entire time. It was super strong and nauseating and the people that went hungover were having problems. We got to taste 3 different wines and had the chance to buy them...I bought wine but not the kind we tasted. It was buy 2 cases get 1 free so half the students looked like they were alcoholics getting on and off the bus.

We spent the afternoon in a town that was on our way back. We ordered hamburgers and fries and got a patty on a plate surrounded by fries...it was terrible. So we went to Consum and bought a 6 pack of ice cream cones and split it between 3 people. I spent 55 cents on two ice cream cones it was a great decision.

Now, Dara and I are planning a trip to London and possibly Rome. I've decided those will be my last trips for the semester, because, money. London before our FSU Madrid trip and Rome right after. I'm excited and if we start planning now, which no one else is really good with, flights are super cheap. It'll be set in stone by tonight, I'm sure of it.