Hola from Spain! Pia and I are currently visiting my home away from home... Caceres! A lot a lot a lot has happened in the past week - we climbed through the Swiss Alps with our Airbnb host, Andy, we enjoyed one crazy day of Oktoberfest with our couchsurfing host, Mika, and we found myself a piso (apartment) in Madrid!
Our time in Switzerland was incredible. I don´t know if I´ve ever seen a more beautiful country. Pia and I took about a 4 hour train from Lyon, France to Luzern, Switzerland and stayed with a very nice man named Andy. We were having trouble finding a reasonably priced hostel, so we looked at Airbnb.com and we are so grateful we found Andy! Andy is very chatty and corky, but very sweet. He has a library of movies (and Pia and I were SO happy that we were able to watch 2 Harry Potter movies) and he watches about 3 episodes of Lost every night in German. He also thinks the US government is out to get us and we need to take ALL of our money out of our bank accounts now. Pia and I just tried to move aside from that whole subject. He took us on a three hour tour of Luzern in the rain, where we stopped every 5 minutes to ´make a picture´. On our last day, he drove us to Burgenstock and hiked with us to the very top of the mountain (again ´making pictures´ every 5 minutes). Pia and I also went in the cable car up to Pilatus, where is was snowing!!! The views were incredible.
the city of Luzern
top of Burgenstock with our new cow friend
Andy!
After spending 3 days in Luzern, we made our way back to Germany. This time, we were going to Munchen. (And yes, I did find an ´I love Munchen´ tshirt.) However, getting to Munich was a little more difficult than we anticipated. We were supposed to take a train from Luzern to Zurich, then Zurich to Munich, but at our layover in Zurich, the train we were supposed to take was cancelled because it was derailed. I don´t think anyone was on the train because we never heard anything about it on the news, but it´s not very comforting when you hear the announcement that the train you´re supposed to take has been derailed. So instead, we took a train to St. Gallen, then the S Bahn to St. Marghareten, THEN a train to Munich. We were about 2 hours late when arriving to Mika´s flat. He wasn´t there when we arrived because he had gone to the train station to find us, but right as we were leaving, he came walking up the stairs.
Let me tell you a little bit about Mika. He is from France and has been working in Germany for two years. He designs for BMW, and even though he has lived in Munich for 2 years, he claims to not know ANY German. Let´s just say he has a very strong and not so nice opinion on Germany and the Germans. He found us on couchsurfing.com, saw we were looking for a couch, and asked if we wanted to stay on his ´magic couch´ for free. Now, I know that doesn´t sound the safest, but Pia and I could NOT find anything in Munich during this time because of Oktoberfest! So we kept his offer in mind and said we would use it as a last resort, which we ended up doing. But everything was fine and we enjoyed our time with Mika. And it turns out, he uses the word ´magic´ to describe almost everything, so it isn´t as creepy as it sounds. He just doesn´t know very many other adjectives in the English language, I suppose.
On our first day in Munich, Pia and I went to Dachau, where we saw the first concentration camp. Unfortunately, all of my photos from Dachau are on my dslr and I can´t upload them now, but we are glad we went. It was a very somber and somewhat depressing 5 hours, but we learned so much and it was very powerful to see it and spend the day there. We saw the main museum, the crematory, the bunkers, and the memorials.
The next day in Munich was basically the opposite of our day in Dachau. Pia and I went to the Oktoberfest parade that morning and then went to the Oktoberfest fairgrounds that afternoon around 2pm with Mika. As we were standing in line with MANY other people for the most popular tent, the HB tent, a woman who worked there came up to us (we were near the back of the crowd) and asked if we wanted to go in. We all looked at each other, a little confused, and obviously said yes. She brought us through the crowd and told the guards it was okay, she had three people coming with her. Then we sat outside in the beer garden for a good three hours, drinking liters of HB beer and eating chicken, preztels, and pork knuckle (aka haxen). Afterwards, we made our way inside the tent (where the real party was) and stayed until the tent closed around midnight. Here are a bunch of photos of the day/night!
because every dog loves a good parade
Oktoberfest parade
entering the fairgrounds
the dangerously overcrowded metro
happy to be in a beer garden!
pretzels bigger than my face
this one is for Joe Laipert... he knows why.
inside the tent
our host, Mika!
my new Aussie friend, Byron
The next morning, Pia and I had to wake up at 6am (it was rough) and catch a flight to Barcelona. Once we arrived at the airport in Spain, our checked bags were not on the belt. So we stood in line for almost two hours at the lost baggage counter, and the woman said they would be sent to Madrid and we could pick them up there. She told us to check another belt before we left the airport, and there they were, by themselves on this belt in the corner. Of course. At that point, we had missed the train we wanted to take to Madrid, and the next two trains to Madrid were full! So we didn´t get on a train until 5pm and we didn´t arrive in Madrid until nearly 11pm. We made it to our hostel around midnight that night and I had orientation for my new job the next morning at 9am. Talk about a long day.
I spent 4 hours at orientation and then Pia and I were on a serious mission to find myself an apartment. We saw 7 apartments in less than 3 days until I found the perfect one. But you should have seen some of the apartments! And some of the neighborhoods they were in! I was about to give up this past Wednesday when I had an appointment to see an apartment at 930am. I had an appointment with my school at 11am and I wanted to leave by 10 to make it on time. The landlady arrived a half hour late, quickly showed me the apartment, and within 5 minutes I told her I wanted it. Then I ran to the metro and made it to my school, where I met my teachers and they showed me around the school. The school and the teachers are so great! I will be at a publc bilingual elementary school, potentially teaching 1st-5th grade. After my meeting, I came back to the city center and tried to come up with enough cash to put a deposit down on the apartment. Now THAT was a stressful afternoon. The agency wouldn´t allow me to pay with a card, and even though I had enough money in my account for the deposit, I could only withdraw so much cash from the ATMs. So I called US Bank and they told me I could get a cash advance from ANY bank in Europe as long as they accept Visa. Well, that´s a lie. Pia and I ran in and out of nearly 8 banks before they all closed for siesta (my appointment was at 4pm) and none of them could give me a cash advance unless I had a bank account with that specific branch. So Pia called her mom, whojust happened to be on her way to work, so she stopped by a US Bank, deposited the rest of the money that I needed into Pia´s account... at about 3:45 pm. Talk about cutting it close! Thank you, Linda!!!
After that afternoon, I was able to experience what stress feels like again. I do not miss it.
But now, I have an apartment in Madrid!!!!!!! It´s a 5 bedroom, 2 bath apartment and I share it with 2 Italian students, a Spaniard, and a Venezuelan. It´s quite the cultural mix. Even though no one speaks English, I am able to communicate with half of my roommates in Spanish. Communicating with the Italians has been very interesting so far. But I love my apartment, my roommates are awesome, and I love my room! I live in a very nice neighborhood, too. There´s a Starbucks across the street as well as an Irish Pub, so I´m all set.
After moving into the apartment on Wednesday, Pia and I went out to celebrate at one of my favorite tapas places in Madrid - El Tigre. We met up with a couple friends of ours that we met in Dublin, Ireland at the very beginning of this trip, two months ago! We walked around the city with them and then they drove us back to our place in their verrry nice Volvo convertible. Seeing the city at night from a convertible is a nice change of scenery from those digusting metros.
loving our convertible ride after a stressful day!
On Thursday, Pia and I came to Caceres! Lola and her friend, Susana, greeted us with big hugs and many besos, along with tortilla patata and Spanish salad for dinner. I will write about the rest of our time in Caceres in my next blog, along with photos of my new apartment! But now, Pia and I are off to enjoy our last night in Caceres with the best host mom.
Thank you all for the prayers, happy thoughts, and good vibes as I was searching for an apartment! I am so thrilled to have a place that I can call ´home´ for the next 9 months! Now come visit me!
Oofda. It's been a while. I'm currently typing on a French keyboard (this is going to take a lot of patience) in Munich, while we listen to "Don't Look Back in Anger", a song that has followed us around Europe for the past two months.
My last post was written shortly after the cruise, so let me catch you all up on our time in Brussels and Lyon!
Our time in Brussels was basically full of Belgian food... waffles, french fries, and chocolate. We didn't care too much for the city itself, and it rained every single day we were there, so it wasn't our favorite stop this summer. But whenever a city has good food, we are pretty content :)
On our first day in Brussels, we walked the half hour walk to the city center and saw the main square, also known as The Grand Place. From there, we split a Belgian waffle and then went to find Manekin Pis, a famous statue of a very small boy peeing water into a fountain. It was not that impressive. We then walked to the main cathedral and then found more waffles for lunch.
The morning of day two in Brussels was spent doing laundry. That afternoon, we went to the Brussel's library to eat lunch on the 5th floor, where they have cheap food and great views of the city. Then we spent the majority of the day at the Music Museum, which has the largest collection of instruments in the world. They had 4 levels of instruments from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Mexico. The inexpensive entrance fee also came with audio guides, which allowed us to listen to each of the instruments as we viewed them. My favorite section to look at was the piano/keyboard section and my favorite section to listen to was the accordion section.
Since we didn't eat any waffles on the second day, we decided to find another food that Brussels is famous for: chocolate. We went to the "chocolate square", where we found free samples at four different chocolate stores. (We bought some for later, too.) On our way home, we stopped by a pub to try some Belgian beer.
On our last full day in Brussels, we walked 7.56 miles to reach "the best french fries in Brussels"... and they were pretty delicious. Especially with some aioli sauce. Then we went to the top of the highest parking garage in the city to get some good views.
we literally walked across the entire city and back
Before we left Brussels the next day, we walked to the city center one last time to find some good ice cream. The place we were told to go to was closed for another hour and we needed to catch our bus, so we went to a place down the street, and it was ,meant to be because it was the best ice cream cone I've ever had in my life! The freshly baked cones are filled with homemade chocolate which is constantly churning behind the counter. I chose the flavor, "Gingerbread Cookie", and Mom, if you're reading this, I would appreciate it if this is the flavor of homemade ice cream you make this year for Christmas.
That afternoon, we took a 5 hour bus to Paris, where we hung out for about 4 hours before leaving on another bus for Lyon. Pia and I orginially planned on just staying in Paris, but we've both been there before, and since we're running low on cash, and Paris is the type of city that likes to take all of your cash, we decided to go somewhere else in France. So we randomly chose Lyon. However, we made sure to get a crepe for dinner while in Paris. Everything was going well until Pia noticed that her eggs were cooked over easy in her crepe. And this is when we started to bicker like old people:
Me: What are you doing?
Pia: I'm taking the egg out... I dont like my eggs like this.
Me: Like what? Over easy?
Pia: I like my eggs cooked.
Me: They ARE cooked.
Pia: No...
Me: Yes...
You get the point. But this went on for about 20 minutes haha.
our crepes... with cardinal and gold napkins!
Then we traveled across the entire city of Paris to take our LAST OVERNIGHT BUS EVERRRR. I've never been happier.
We arrived in Lyon at 6:30 in the morning and waited in the lobby until our room was ready, then we slept for the majority of the afternoon. Since I was starting to catch a cold, we decided to stay in that day, and I spent the evening Skyping my dad, Paige, and V&M.
On our only day in Lyon, we spent the entire day in the city center, walking along the river, eating crepes and ice cream, and sitting in one of the squares listening to live music... it was such a beautiful, sunny day!! Just what we needed after all the rain in Brussels.
a lovely day in Lyon
Our next stop was Lucerne, Switzerland, which had some of the most breathtaking views I've ever seen! Lucerne was also interesting because we used Airbnb to find our accommodation so we stayed with a very sweet, but very interesting man. I will write about our time in Switzerland in a post with our time in Munich, which has also been a little interesting so far since we are Couchsurfing.
After celebrating Oktoberfest this weekend, Pia and I will be leaving for Madrid on Sunday and we will only have one week before I start teaching and before Pia leaves me! I'm not sure where the past two months have gone!
Hello, everyone! It feels good to have some connection to the outside world again. That being said, this past week was incredible and it's safe to say that my first cruise was one of the best times of my life! Pia and I met so many great people and we were so completely spoiled these past 7 days. And now we're back to backpacking. Our little (or should I say long, 15 hour) adventure to Brussels last night was on the waayyy other end of the spectrum than our cruising adventure this past week.
No sleep and crazy hair on the ferry
Getting to and from Copenhagen was quite the task. When we left Berlin last weekend to get to Copenhagen, we missed our bus. Remember that bad karma I was telling you about in my last post? Yeah, that finally came around. To make a long story short, Pia and I looked at the arrival times for Copenhagen instead of the departure times. You would think by now we would have that part mastered. So it was after midnight and we were hanging out with all the crackheads in the bus station, not really sure what to do or where to go. Luckily, the metro was still running so we took it to the train station, pulled an all-nighter in the McDonald's there, and took the next train to Copenhagen at 5:15am. As if that wasn't an adventure in itself, an overly friendly/creepy man really wanted to hang out with us on the train and when we arrived in Copenhagen (after getting on a ferry while inside the train... that's a new one) the man almost ran off with Pia's bag. But no worries, we still have all of our things... knock on wood... and this post is coming to you safely from Brussels!
Since we didn't get to Copenhagen until about 1pm and we had to leave early the next morning, we didn't get to see much of the city. We walked straight for our hostel and took a 4 hour nap, got ready, then met up with our friend, Jared from Kansas, whom we met the train to Austria a couple weeks back. That night, we went to an outdoor concert with Jared and his roommate.
The next morning on my birthday, we made our way to the port! As we stood in line to check in for the cruise, we looked around and we thought we would be spending the whole week playing cards with all the elderly people surrounding us. There was not a single person our age. However, by the end of the week, we had met some pretty incredible people.
our ship!
inside - The Centrum
It was easy to find our room due to the big, sparkly birthday sign on the front door. When we opened the door, the entire room was decorated with birthday banners, flowers, a cake, and two bottles of wine, all from a dear friend. Thank you, Tom! It was a wonderful birthday surprise. While I'm on the subject of thanking people, a big thank you to my dad for the cruise, V&M and my mom for the birthday gifts, and everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes!
A nice glass of Shiraz on my birthday
That afternoon, we took a short nap and explored all 10 decks of the ship. That night, we went to our assigned table and assigned dinner time at 8:45, where we dined with the same 9 people for the whole week. An adorable couple from England, a couple on their honeymoon, a gay couple, Matthew and Kurtis (who we became best friends with), and an awkward trio - a mother, her son, and his girlfriend, who all shared a room, which made for some very awkward dinner conversations.
Birthday dinner
This past week was hands down the most luxurious week of our lives. We loved the cruise for the following reasons:
- A room to ourselves. We were able to unpack everything, which caused us to get a little messy at times, but it was so nice not living out of a backpack.
- A real towel. I almost cried when I used my microfiber hand towel this afternoon.
- A shower with constant hot water.
- Free, all you can eat breakfast and lunch buffets. Although I'm not sure if this is a pro or con because my stomach has stretched three times its size in one week. Pia and I felt as if it was freshman year all over again and we were stuffing our faces with ISU Dining.
- Our bed and being rocked to sleep every night. The bed was hands down the most comfortable bed we've slept in since we've been in Europe. A king size bed with down pillows and a down comforter. Once we hit that bed we were out!
- The captain of the ship. Our captain, Lis, was awesome. Fun fact: she is only one of five female captains in the cruising industry!
- Free room service. Pia and I found the room service menu on the last night while packing (which is probably a good thing). Obviously we had two dinners that night. No shame.
- Our personal room attendant, Vinessen. He was so sweet and took such good care of us. We would come back to our room with towels turned into turtles and bunnies and various sea animals. The best part was when he put our headphones on the animals :)
- Our own TV in our room. It was nice being able to watch CNN... in English, and hearing what's going on in the world. And it was nice watching movies... even though they only played the same 5 movies over and over again. It's a good thing Pia and I love Ryan Gosling.
- Topi and Chris. Let me tell you a little bit about these boys. Topi is the cruise director and Chris is the activities manager. Even though it's likely that they are gay, Pia and I were smitten kitten with them from the very beginning. And we may or may not have left them a little love note in one of the tip envelopes on the last day.
- Our boys, Matthew and Kurtis. On the first formal night (the second night of the cruise), Matthew and Kurtis asked us to be their dates for the rest of the evening and that was when our friendship began. We hung out with them almost every day since. They are from Tucson, Arizona, but Kurtis' family is actually from Mapleton, IA! Just a half hour from my house... small world.
- Our waiter, Johnny, and our assistant waiter, Rade. Johnny is from Panama and Rade is from Serbia. We really enjoyed talking with them every night at dinner! Mostly because when they saw us, they said, "Pia and She-a!" and pronounced my name so it rhymed with Pia's. Definitely not the first time that's happened.
- The photos. Photographers were constantly taking pictures of everyone (so you could buy them for only $19.99 a photo). But it was fun looking at them, and everyone else's, the next day.
- The activities. There is no way that anyone could have been bored on that ship. They had activities ranging from line dancing, to napkin/towel folding, to a White Russian Party (when we were in Russia... how fitting), to game shows. One of our favorite game shows we went to was "Majority Rules", mostly because it was hosted by Chris. One of the questions was "What is the best pickup line?" You should have heard some of the answers these people came up with. Our favorites were...
1. If I told you you had a nice body, would you hold it against me?
2. Are you Irish? Because I'm 'doublin'.
3. Do you work at Subway? Because you just gave me a footlong. (I think that last one was a little too dirty for some of the people in that room.)
Pia has a drinking problem.
Just kidding. They were giving out free champagne so we couldn't resist!
from our room attendant :)
New friends on formal night :)
this guy gave me two nicknames: Shea Butter and Julia Stiles?
Table 14... the last night! Can you identify everyone I described?
Our waiter friends - Rade and Johnny
Topi and Chris <3
Aaaand the closest thing I found to Leo on the ship...
Some of the things we didn't like:
- No internet.
- No window in our room. One day we slept until 1:30pm!
- Our room cards which are also used as our credit cards. It was so easy and kind of fun swiping them to pay for drinks or internet, but it wasn't so fun getting our bill yesterday morning.
- Going back to backpacking after a week of luxury. We are still adjusting. This is a bigger adjustment than coming to Europe in the first place!
Overall, we loved the cruise. Everything you need is right there: Your room, two dining areas, bars/clubs, a spa/salon (where Pia cut 8 inches off of her hair!), swimming pools and jacuzzis, a fitness center and track, a theatre, a small shopping area, a casino, Ben and Jerry's, a rock climbing wall, etc. It is seriously a little city on a ship!
Pia getting her hair cut!
Before the cruise, I thought it would be more about seeing the cities rather than the cruise. But it's really the other way around. I felt like the past 7 days were more about the cruise and its activities than seeing Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, and Stockholm. We had two "at sea" days and the rest of the four days we were in a new city, only spending a few hours in each city. That's something I didn't like because you barely get a taste of that city if you're only there for a few hours.
Reindeer Meatballs
In Tallinn, we walked to the old town area with Kurtis and Matthew, and mostly just looked around in the shops. We also visited the cathedral. In St. Petersburg, Pia and I bought a shore excursion because if you don't book an excursion with the cruise, you aren't able to get off the ship, unless you have a Russian Visa. Our tour guide, Andre, was very sweet. We took a three hour walking tour with him and saw a couple cathedrals, the palace, and a market. In Helsinki (I loved this city!), Pia and I did our own thing and took a hop on hop off bus tour, which also brought us to the city center from the ship. We saw two cathedrals, the Lutheran Rock Church, and spent time at the market, where we tried smoked reindeer meatballs... which were quite tasty! In Stockholm, we took the hop on hop off boat tour and when we got to the Old Town, we headed straight for the Palace in hopes of seeing Obama, who was there that day having lunch with the King and Queen. Unfortunately, we missed him by an hour, but we saw a very unique changing of the guard instead. Then we walked around old town and bought some Swedish chocolates.
Yesterday morning, we said goodbye to the ship and all of its wonderfulness. We hung out in Copenhagen for the afternoon, then took a 15 HOUR bus ride to Brussels. The completely full bus ride consisted of 4 toddlers screaming the whole time and the most disgusting bathroom I've ever seen/smelled in my entire life. It was so badly infested with multiple unknown diseases that no one used it and the bus driver had to stop at least every two hours so people could use the restrooms at gas stations. Needless to say, we didn't get any sleep. But we're now in Brussels and we feel much better because we showered, took a four hour nap, and our hostel is right next to the Godiva Chocolate Factory. Life is good again.
We're in Brussels until Thursday morning, then we head to France! It's hard to believe that in just 2 weeks, Pia and I will be in Madrid and I will be starting my job! Where did these past 2 months go?!
