Münich

Last Weekend in Janurary

We woke up and took the train at 10:12 . The first part of the train was only 2 hrs, I slept most of the way. We switched trains in Zurich, where Greg and I split a Kebab, which was of course AMAZING and totally worth the 10 Euros. Finally after our 5hr connection we were in Munich! I immediately spotted a Starbucks and ran to get a coffee! The walk to our hostel, 4-U-Munchen, was less than a minute, which was so convenient. We got there around 6pm; the hostel was nice except for the awful STENCH coming from our room. There were 8 of us in a 12-bedroom room; there were 2 people in there already sleeping. One of them was Claudia from Brazil, and the other was Dylan from Australia. So we started to get ready for the night then headed downstairs for happy hour in the bar in our hostel. The “special” was a combination of 2 dark beers, 2 light beers, 2 wheat beers, and 2 shots of jager for 9.90 Euros! I started with a liter of beer and decided to hold off on the special until the next night. After happy hour we bundled up and headed out in the snow. We walked through the main plaza, past the glockenspiel to the Hofbräuhaus. When I walked it I was shocked! I knew it was a famous bar and all but I didn’t expect the hundreds people sitting at long tables eating bratwurst and chugging liter beers while singing drinking songs. It was so loud but I didn’t mind. The waitresses were wearing traditional bier garten dresses, and there were men and women dressed in authentic German outfits dancing and playing instruments throughout the restaurant/bar. Once we sat down I ordered a liter of beer and a sausage/bratwurst looking thing, it came with extremely too much sauerkraut. I sat with Meredith (bama) and Scott introduced us to his 2 friends from tech that are studying in Munich, Bryant and Tommy. Bama and me rode black on the metro back to our hostel, where we took advantage of our happy hour bracelets. Around midnight Me Scott Bama Tommy and Bryant were the only ones in shape to hit the club. We walked about 5 minutes down the road to Club Neuram (video below).

It was huge and only cost 7 euros and we got a free drink when we walked in. There were 3 huge dance floors on different levels. We danced the whole night. Around 4 am we left the club and walked to the kebab and pizza place above it and enjoyed an amazing kebab! Finally returning to our hostel around 4:30 am. Next morning we grabbed some toast and oj from the hostels free breakfast. We set out for sight seeing soon after. First stop was a beautiful church with a big clock on the top of its bell tower. Just around the corner was the GLOCKENSPEIL. It was absolutely gorgeous. We lucked out and happened to be standing right in front of it when the clock hit noon. Bells started chiming and towards the top of the glockenspiel the figures started dancing and moving in a circle (like a coo coo clock) in and out of the building. Next we climbed up all 26 flights of stairs to the top of St. Peters Church! The view was breathtaking, I could see for miles and miles; the whole town of Munich! After seeing all the famous buildings and churches we ventured around town and ran into “joy of sex” shop and multiple bier garten dress shops. Around 4pm we met up with Bryant and he took us to the BMW museum! I was in HEAVEN! They had all the new models on the main floor along with a bunch of interactive things to try out. I built my dream car and virtually test-drove it. They also had all the engines lined up which was pretty cool. We were all hungry and tired by this point. The boys went to a bar to watch the Milan futbol game and the girls got subway and headed back to the hostel to rest up for the night. We decided to dress up all sassy and head to another club, this time with everyone. The club was packed, this one was much more classier than the night before. We danced the whole time. On the way home I was struggling in my heels. Cobble stones+snowyice+liquor do not mix! Lets just say it took a lot longer then expected. The next morning we hopped on a train to Dachau, the first concentration camp instated in Germany during the Holocaust. It was an experience I will never forget. Seeing the crematoria, gas chambers, and bunkers close up were horrifying. After a few hours we headed back to the train station and back to Lugano. This was the first time our whole group had made it back together, which was a relief. I had so much fun in Germany I wasn’t ready to leave. We got home around 11pm, time for detox and sleep.

Interlaken!

Our second week of adventures began with a typical night at peter pan bar on Thursday for karaoke. Friday, Stephanie, Meredith, Claire and I finished up our midterm in the classroom at USI. After that we went to Migros (the local cheap grocery store) and got two bottles of wine for the weekend. Before that we started pregaming in the double deuce (room 22: Josh, Greg, and Scott). We each finished one bottle before heading to another local bar coyote ugly. Cory knew a one guy from her high school that was in another American group staying in the Montarina. She told them to head to coyote ugly as well. There were approximately 40 Americans at the bar. It was so nice to meet new people and actually hear more English! The next thing I knew the alarm was going off at 8 am for our 9 am train ride. I had yet to pack! We threw everything in a backpack and scurried down to the train station. The Eurail pass was amazing, all you did was flash it to the ticket guy and you were set. We had about a 2 hour train ride to our exchange in Luzern. We still haven’t eaten at this point, but our exchange was only 10 minutes so we didn’t risk it, and got on the next train to Interlaken. After another 2 hour train ride, we all got of the train and explored a little bit. Then walked about 15 minutes to our hostel. This hostel was AMAZING compared to Milan. Everyone spoke English and there were so many rooms, with so many Americans staying there. After settling in to our 10 person dorm, we decided to head out to get some food because we were all famished. The first thing we saw was HOOTERS. Obviously we were all drawn to the wonderful American “home cooking”, if you will. The waitresses costumes were the same. After we ate we headed back to Balmers to get ready for the night sledding. Next door to our hostel was a place to rent gear. So I splurged for some snow pants luckily snow shoes came with our package. We then went upstairs and threw on every layer possible before the van picked us up for the sledding. We drove in a bus for about 30 minutes straight up the hill. Once we got there we were given a little plastic toboggan with one single string. As a group we then waited to go up in groups on the gondola all the way to the top. That was a wee bit terrifying in the pitch black. Once we got up there we got a red flashing light stick to hang on our back (comforting), to that people didn’t CRASH INTO US. Then we got a quick lesson on how to steer by basically stomping on the ground. We were all a little nervous right before we got started, but lightened up once Greg (who was leading the pack) let out a loud “SO LONG GAY BOYS”- from the hangover. Then we were off! Right away we were sledding SO FAST, whipping around corners. Some girls were really bad at it, and I had to abort sled a few times. But other than that it was SO MUCH FUN. It was an amazing adrenaline rush. The sledding itself probably lasted an hour. And I’m pretty sure its safe to say sledding down the board of education hill will never be the same again now that I’ve sledded down the Swiss alps. After reaching the end, we put our sleds away and headed inside for what we thought would be a phenomenal fondue dinner. We headed inside and had 2 pitchers for our table, with a little plate of bread and salad. After a few pieces of bread, the pot of cheese was gone. Luckily they brought out another course, which was hash browns with egg on top (YUMMY). After everyone finished up we headed home. We returned our gear and RAN upstairs to get ready. We got ready very quickly (looking a feeling a little bit rough after sledding). After hanging out a little bit in our room, we headed downstairs to the club. There were so many locals and Americans there; it was packed wall to wall. It was so much fun to dance and hang out with new people. The next morning we had to check out before 10AM. A big group of us spontaneously decided to head up the mountain in Grindelwald. Once we got there we saw a big sign telling us that “world snow festival,” was the day before and there were still the snow sculptures from all around the world. After looking around for a while we hopped on the train back to Interlaken. Then with four minutes till our train to Luzern we got on and rode for 2 hours. Once we got to Luzern we were FAMISHED. So we headed inside burger king (where else?). We had about 10 minutes until the train left for Lugano. The line was kind of long but we decided to stick it out. With 1 minute to spare we got our food and started to run. Next thing we knew we were stuck behind a woman with a cart full of carbonation tanks going at the pace of molasses. We were trying to bob and weave but were unsuccessful. Once we got around her we started sprinting and with my hand almost at the door, the train started to pull out of the station NOOOOOOOOO. It wasn’t too upsetting, because we got to sit and relax and wait for the next train an hour away. We slowly enjoyed our burger king and watched MTV’s “Next” with German subtitles. We finally got home around 6:30PM. I was absolutely exhausted and so we watched “The Hangover” and went to bed around 12pm.

Milan (MEELANN)

The next morning after the pub, we had to wake up at 6:30 AM! (ROUGH) I put my hiking backpack to use and tried to pack light (or what I thought!). And we got on our 7:15 Train to Milan! We have one train layover and had about 45 minutes left. We got to Milan around 9 am and I was absolutely famished. Obviously the group was in unison about getting McDonald’s breakfast. Much to our dismay there is no such THING as a McDonalds breakfast abroad!? But in case you were wondering McDonalds does serve shrimp or beer if you’re interested. After finishing up a delicious 5 Euro meal, we headed out for some site seeing. Looking like complete tourists with camera’s attached to our hands we began to walk around. After a little bit of getting lost we found ourselves in the heart of Milan, at the beautiful square. This had everything from Gucci to Prada and every other major designer you could think of. Through this square was the duomo. This was a HUGE church, something out of a storybook. Next thing we knew we were completely surrounded by the GYPSIES. They were either complete guidos or black men trying to give us bird feed or “obama” bracelets (which were just rainbow string bracelets I used to make in middle school). They want to take our cameras to take pictures of all of us, it was kind of terrifying but you had to be harsh with them and say NO! After taking a bunch of pictures outside we decided to go inside. We couldn’t take any pictures inside, so sorry I don’t have any documentation, but it was absolutely BREATHTAKING. I was in complete aw of the beautiful paintings, candles, high ceilings, stain glass, beautiful pews and confessionals. The entire thing was stunning, we slowly paced the church for almost an hour. After we examined every last bit, and even prayed, we decided to head back outside to the bitter cold. Greg, Scott, and Chris decided to pay 5 Euros to go up to the top of the Duomo, but we decided to stay down and walk around a little bit. While we were walking around the square, mainly avoiding the gypsies, we noticed a big limo. A few minutes later we realized that there was a wedding processional. It looked as if Asian royalty had just gotten married! The woman’s dress was BEAUTIFUL old lace. After walking around we tried to find the boys that had gone up top. After about 2 hours of pacing around in the cold, we decided that it was going to be impossible to find these boys (even with our cell phones that we’re never going to figure out how to use). Instead, Stephanie, Claire James, Josh, Meredith and I decided to go to our hostel. Easier said than done! It took us about an hour to figure out the metro, which line to use, which way to go, it was all so confusing! We finally got on the right train and got off at a stop 2 minutes from our hostel! Hostel Greco, had a buzzer outside of the apartment complex with a big wooden door outside. We then checked in, to this tiny tiny, old hotel. When we were let in to the hostel it was our first glimpse at our first hostel. Luckily the only other people in the hostel were our age, one guy named Tom from Australia, and the another named Evandro from brazil. When we got to the hostel we unpacked and just hung out for a little and waited for the other 3 to get home. After an hour or so of sitting around we decided to start getting ready for the night. Dinner slipped our mind (or we just economically decided against it). We hung out in the hostel for a little bit, pregamed, and then decided to go out on the town. Our first plan was to look for “Discotopless,” clearly a classy European strip club. After about an hour of searching, we gave up and headed into the first irish pub we found. We stayed there for about an hour and then decided to head into Milan for the Discotecha! We got there and it cost 15 Euros for a free drink and to get in! Josh and Claire decided to walk back so me… Greg, C-ham, James, Chris, Scott, Stephanie, and Meredith went in and started immediately ordering LITs. We all then moved to the dance floor. I look over and see Greg already found his dancing partner for the night. He was getting his freak on with “a 350 pound black woman who was easily the same age as his mother.” After a few minutes of bumpin’ and grindin’ she moved out of the way and Greg flat on his face, and TWO TEETH were lost in the process. At the time we just laughed about it and stayed at the club till about 3 am. Before this happened Chris Meeks tried to get into the club without paying so he could relieve himself, yet he hadn’t paid, so walking out of the club he was tackled and almost arrested! Everything was fine once he paid the 20 francs they wanted from him! I woke up in the morning and was so confused, everyone was in different beds, Greg was missing two teeth and Meeks somehow found the hostel last night by himself, I felt like I was in the movie hangover fo real. We packed our bags and got out of that shitty hostel and went to the store, got some Heinekens, and walked towards the stadium for the AC Milan futbol game ! We each bought a jersey (I got Rhonaldino), met up with some other people from Lugano, and headed into the nearest bar. The game was SO much fun and seeing DAVID BECKHAM from the stands was well worth the 38 Euros! Right after the game we headed to the train station. Unfortunately we didn’t buy a round trip ticket, and when we went to get our ticket home, the ticket window said that the earliest trip home to Lugano was 5 AM THE NEXT MORNING!!!!!! We began to panic…. A LOT. We thought about being a stowaway but decided against it. As the 7pm train pulled away we noticed that two members from our group was ON THE TRAIN! We thought that they would for sure be kicked off (of course no! they got home safe). As we nuzzled up next to a heater, assuming we were sleeping in the train station, we got a phone call saying at another train station there was a train home at 9:15. Everyone in our group got their stuff and started running (Me and Josh stayed behind to find James who was missing, but that was a whole other story). Finally around 1am we were back to the home sweet home of the Hotel Montarina! It was so good to be at our home away from home!

Bellinzona Castles!

Oh my what a first weekend. We ended classes early on Friday, Magda let us out early for those of us going on the 1:15 train to Bellinzona. Bellinzona is a just a 20 minute train ride, through Switzerland. About 25 of us were going to go site see. We hoped off the train and walked straight to the first castle. It was something out of a movie, a real LIFE CASTLE! Although it took away from the authenticity of it, we took an elevator to the top. We walked around taking pictures and just looking out over the gorgeous town. After about 30 minutes of walking around, up and down the towers and such, we headed down to the town. We found a huge church, so we walked inside and it was GORGEOUS (I’m thinking that beautiful churches is going to be a theme this semester). We walked around taking pictures, and I wrote in the prayer book to bring us home safe and sound after this crazy semester and lit a candle. After a few hours in town we decided to hop back on the train and head home. Typical Claire she had lost he round trip ticket, but the ticket checker looked at her receipt and let her go. So we came home and got ready, for what else? But going out! As a house we decided to go to an Irish pub (BAD IDEA) without getting lost it would have been a 30 minute walk in heals, but because we were following James who apparently knew exactly how to get there it took us about an hour! We walked in, and immediately met some AMERICANS!!!!! They went to Franklin college which was right across the street, it was so refreshing to hear everyone speaking English, even the bartenders.

First Week of Classes!

We started classes this Monday, with Consumer behavior taught by our leader of the trip Dr.Brinberg at 1:30. Good thing we left early because it took us a while to find University of Switzerland (called USI). It is gorgeous and everything is a little different! The first day we bought pizza (which I have eaten at least once a day since we’ve been here, for only 4 francs ()! It’s basically a quarter of an entire pizza. DELICIOUS. Tuesday we started Italian bright and early at 9am, getting up that first day, still pretty jet lagged at 730 was pretty rough! We have at least a 30-minute walk to class. Wednesday we only had class with Bringberg, and afterwards we went to our second aerobics class, which is taught by someone who looks exactly like Snookie from jersey shore (minus the bump-it). Everyone from the entire class attended so it was pretty entertaining, and I’m glad I’m working off all of that pizza and pasta. After our long day of classes we have our walk home (up the hill) it is straight up hill for a solid 20 minutes, and im panting and sweating by the end. I have no idea how people can say that they even gained weight here with all of the walking we do! Thursday we have classes all day, and Friday we only have Italian in the morning. I decided that it was a good idea to get some groceries on Thursday so that we didn’t have to keep buying pizza every single day. So far im loving classes, especially our Italian teacher Magda she’s the cutest lady and has the funniest laugh/chuckle.

First Weekend in Lugano!

The next day Lauren and I didn’t wake up until 3pm, due to the horrible jet lag! We woke up starving so we walked down the huge hill to the center of town and stopped at a Pizzeria. We soon realized that the pizzas, which were said to be for only one were huge, everything was much more expensive, and dinning out is a lot different than it is in the states. In Lugano and all around Switzerland and Italy dinning is more a social event than eating. A typical dinner here would last 4hrs and the waiters are in no rush to get you to leave because tip is included on the paycheck. Once it began to drizzle we started to head home. Later that night all of us got ready for a nice first dinner. We dressed up and headed out in the rain. Although we tried, 40 people in one restaurant is not exactly doable. Therefore we all split up. Myself and about 15 others went to a small Italian restaurant (IF you’re wondering why Italian? That is because Lugano is the only speaking Swiss city, which happens to be one of the wealthiest places to live). We all fit at one table, and everyone was ecstatic at the fact that we could order wine at dinner. I split a bottle of pinot grigio with Kate. All of the portions here are huge! And everything here is pretty expensive! I spent about $20 on dinner, even when I split my meal (Spaghetti Carbonara) with Claire! After dinner we walked to a nearby bar called “bar oops.” It was a little expensive but who cares IM LEGAL TO DRINK! This bar was much more crowded then peter pan from the night before. There were so many locals and it was more expensive so after the bar closed, we all began to walk home in the POURING RAIN! That was not exactly very fun but I didn’t mind.

The beginning

Today I left for my adventure to Lugano, Switzerland. It began with my plane ride at 6pm from Dulles, Washington D.C. I woke up bright and early and was eager to continue my packing at home. Trying to shove 4 months of life into2 suitcases was an adventure in itself. Eventually I completed my packing, or so I thought. I arrived at the airport with my mom and dad and slowly met a couple people going on the trip, which excited me even more. Me, Corey, and my new friend steph waited as Claire had tried to check her 75lb bag! Then ended up having to switch her clothes into another bag and check a third bag for 150$. We boarded the plan right around 6 and I was happy to be sitting in the isle and next to Claire! We landed around 8 am Switzerland time, in Zurich. Carrying my bags was IMPOSSIBLE. I was dying walking through the airport. We all became friends quickly because we had to help one another with our bags. From Zurich, we took a 3-hour bus ride to Lugarno, the snow slowed us down. When pulling into Lugarno, I woke up from my nap and was STUNNED by the beautiful surroundings. The Alps would be right outside my window and there were palm trees everywhere!!!! When we arrived in the Villa Monterina, we had to carry our bags up a huge hill in the mix snow ad rain(which is nothing compared to the rest of lugano). Lauren and me roomed together. Our room had 2 beds a sink and 1 amour between the two of us! We were then served lunch, which was huge! We were served a big salad, delicious lasagna, and then a slice of pie. After lunch our teacher, David Brinberg, took all 40 of us through the pouring rain through the town of Lugarno. The stairs that we have to climb everywhere we go is a bit of a shock. The town is beautiful and looks like something out of a storybook. After finding the university (USI), our teacher left us on our own to explore, and basically find our own way back. Later that night we were served dinner, which was carrots, potatoes, and cordon bleu. YUM! The rest of the night the students spent time getting ready for our first night out. We decided that for our first night we would go to a small bar called peter pan pub. It was small, and the locals probably didn’t appreciate 40 American students taking over their space, but we had fun!