The Hall of Beer

Ahh, where have I left off!? I have not been able to find ANY wifi lately, so I am typing my blogs as I go so they are fresh in my mind, and then copying them into blogger whenever I can reach wifi, hopefully soon! Therefore, you may find a lot of blogs up all at once. Oh well.

Anyway, I think I left off finishing our night in Heidelberg? Yes. Next day, we were on the road again to Munich, Germany! I was pretty excited because I had heard a lot of good things about Germany, especially the baroqueness of Munich and how beautiful it was…. As a photographer, many of my friends told me I would love it there. And I did, it was nice, for pictures. We ended up getting there way later than expected because of an unfortunate traffic jam, so we missed an opportunity for another bike tour through Munich. So we were at least able to enjoy about an hour of daylight in Munich, walking around the streets.

Some street shots:

We all turned the corner and were sort of just like....woah.

I tried really hard to capture this girl posing all tres chic on her bike, but this was the best I could do...

Special moment! On the subway ride into Munich from our hotel, I got separated from my group of friends. So I sat alone and then random local germans started sitting around me, which I didn’t mind of course—I just stuck to myself and didn’t say a thing. Which was funny, because my friends were all speaking English to each other (obviously) and I wasn’t speaking to them, or listening, so no one could really tell I was an American. So then this old lady enters the subway, and is having a hard time walking. I didn’t notice this until someone next to me gave up their seat so she could sit down, which was so nice. But then for the next 25 minutes I could feel the lady staring at me, intermittently. But it wasn’t an intense stare, it was more of a curiosity stare. I think she was trying to figure out where I was from. After the end of the subway ride, and after I got up, I realized she was still having trouble standing up from her chair. Now this reaction is only natural, as I work with the elderly all the time at work, so I leaned in to help her stand and helped her walk safely to exit the train, and then said goodnight and she smiled. She didn’t need me anymore and so I caught up with my friends. Then I turned behind to look if she was OK, and she came up to me, and spoke a long phrase in german. Due to the fact that I only know how to say “Hello, thank you, excuse me, sorry, etc.”, I obviously didn’t get any of that. So I had to make a really sad face and shrug and say, “English” and pointed to myself. She was sad too, and smiled and walked away to exit the station.  Turns out, two of my friends speak some German for their Opera training, and they told me that she said, “Thank you, Love.”  So sweet!!!! Ahh! Special moment indeed!

A small group of friends and I were then starving. I started to notice that the people of Munich were a lot more “Sketchy” than any other city we had visited prior, even more so than New York City. As dark approached, men outnumbered women on the street, and then men were teenagers to about age 35-40, and all really not trustworthy-looking. Everyone looked at us as if they were waiting for their moment to launch—Looking at the “American” tourist women. So I wasn’t really a huge fan. Being so, I decided it was definitely best if I stuck with my friends that night, regardless of what we would be doing. We decided to grab dinner in one of Germany’s (and certainly Munich’s) most famous “Biergarten", where its just this gigantic hall of wooden tables, and you just sit down and they bring beer to you as if it were the bread before a meal, and then you order food. In case you are having trouble visualizing this, picture walking into Gaston’s bar from Beauty and the Beast, where its loud and rowdy and all the men are clanging their beer glasses together for a toast, and singing, lots of singing. Another friend of mine described it further as the opening scene to Lord of the Rings, but I cannot verify this as I don’t really follow it. So, it was definitely a fun atmostphere. The menu was completely in German and no one in the whole place spoke English, so it was pretty much up to us to just try and pronounce what we wanted over the rowdy hall. It was interesting. We all got served a huge liter of beer. Lets review the fact that being that I don’t drink often, I especially don’t drink beer. I’ve had It once or twice and wanted to spit it out, its just undesirable to me. I’ve heard it gets better after a few, but I had my doubts. However, I ordered a little bit more “girly” version of beer and it was called, “RaBn” pronounced “Rassen”, and it was a mix of beer and lemonade. Suprisingly enough I was able to finish the entire liter by myself, even it took me as long to finish that as it took my friends to finish three. But regardless, I was still pretty surprised I finished. When I looked at it when it came, I certainly didn’t think I would be making a dent. I didn’t even want beer but you are sort of shunned for not getting beer in a beer hall! But it was funny because even after a liter, nothing changed. I expected to fall over when I stood but nothing was any different.

This was after I had 1/4 of it to drink! This is a lot bigger than it looks.

The Ceiling...so cool....

Everyone else then decided to hit a few more bars for the night but I honestly can’t keep up with all the drinking so I decided to split off with a separate group (another couple) and we went off for some German ice cream, and went to this music festival that was actually city wide! It is a festival that goes every Saturday night, and lasts a month long. Every month they change what they celebrate. This Saturday it was the “Night of the Music”. Five tours went separately in different ends of the city and made up to 20-30 stops at local cafes/clubs where different types of bands were playing. Our first area was in a small corner underground of Munich and it was swing dancing! All of the sudden we left the streets of Munich and found ourselves transported in time. It was just like out of a movie, old fashioned swing singer, old and young couples swing dancing with perfection….it was surreal. We then went to a collection of other cafes and heard some lovely different types of music and really got to see the atmostphere of Munich.

Swing dancin' :-)

And then we totally navigated the subway system by ourselves on our way home! This is an accomplishment for me. And its funny because when on that subway, this older gentleman comes up to us, and is like, “You’re American? I’m from Manhattan.” And we were like, “Yes!” And it was funny because I told him Manhattan subways were so much harder, and he said that actually Munich as harder. So, not sure on the level of hardness of public transportation in Munich.

Tomorrow we travel to Innsbruck, Austria (In the swiss alps!) on our way to VENICE, Italy!!! So excited!

~A Writer in a Nurse’s Body

PS- my spellcheck here is only in Switzerland mode so these are not spellchecked. Sorry for my grammar loving friends!!! :(

Hitting the College Town!

Greetings from the bus on our way to Munich, Germany! It’s Germany’s third largest city!

So picking up where I left off yesterday, after our extremely long and intense bus ride to Germany, we settled our happy feet in the lovely town of Heidelberg, Germany. I must say I had rather mixed feelings over coming to Germany. It sort of just came with the package. If I want England that badly and everything else, then Germany just had to come with it. Also, my tour guide is from Germany so she obviously knows a lot about Germany and was trying to prep us for the country on the way. She was teaching us proper etiquette unique to their culture, hand gestures, common phrases, facts & info, and information about their food. Although she thought their food is amazing as did most of my friends, the thought of “sausages bigger than your plate” scared me a little, considering I have grown up not really accustomed to eating any type of sausage. Also any of her other suggestions did not sound appealing to my picky and bipolar stomach. I rely on chicken when I do eat meat and she said chicken is not that common in Germany, and turkey is “cheap” (as in for the lower class?).

She also warned us that Heidelberg is not as big of a tourist attraction and is not a “city”, therefore not as many people would speak English. She taught us that it was rude to assume people speak English, and that we got  lucky by starting in Amsterdam where most people did. She was right. Most employees that I talked to in order to buy something or order dinner spoke no or very little English. It makes it kind of fun though—learning how to get your message across with what little german words you know and lots and lots of hand gestures. Lots of hand gestures, and making a fool of your American self. Also, you learn german a lot faster when its really your only option. Learn German or don’t eat. Also, I looked really silly reading off from my trifold phrase sheet, but it got the message across and they appreciated the fact that I was trying.

However, aside from all my Germanic pre-jitters/fears, I absolutely fell in love with Heidelberg. It was fantastic and amazing and lovely and loving and accepting and warm and happy. It was just awesome. Heidelberg is known for being a college town, and therefore encases a much younger population. We first went to visit the Heidelberg castle, which was…….I don’t have words for it. It was beyond fascinating. A step above Incredible.

Part of the outside-inside walls

standing at the entrance

From the very bottom of the town you can see the castle up on the mountain. When walking to the base (still on ground level), we could see one staircase ahead. My tour guide gave us the option to walk up the stairs or take some sort of elevator. Well, after sitting for 8 hours on a bus and spending a lot of calories on drinks the night before, I was definitely up for some stairs, as well as about 10 others.

A gorgeous view of the first staircase

Those stairs kicked my ass. Maybe it was because I was tired, but I forgot that that little staircase ahead was not going to get me to the castle. Not even the staircase after that. In fact, it was like 20 staircases. Because I forgot the castle I was trying to get to was the same castle that was a wee incredible sight atop the huge mountain.

But I made it, didn’t die. And it was SO WORTH IT! First of all the VIEW from up there was beyond magnificent ( I need to find some more heavy duty adjectives!).. The people looked like little ants from that high up! The town was gorgeous to look down on, with the houses, the university, the river, the bridge, the sky, the clouds rolling in, the sun fighting through, it was incredible. I will post a picture right below this as soon as I can find a way for my phone to communicate to the computer and vice versa…!

A view from the top of the castle...

another view of our view!! Incredible!

So not only was the view incredible but just walking around the castle inside was earth-shattering. I got so many amazing pictures. I cant wait to show you.

 I realized during this tour that I need to hire a clone or really just anyone- to actually listen to the tour guide speak so that I could go take pictures. I really am interested in both- the history and the stories, as well as the photography. But I guess the photography is a big reason why I came to Europe, and the photography is more important to me than the history lessons. So when the tour guide is speaking, I am only picking up a couple words because I am busy taking so many detailed pictures (there is so much to take pictures of!) . But then I get a little disappointed when I return to my group and everyone is laughing at a story or interested in the history and I missed it all. And I don’t have any cool facts to share with you all about the castle or Heidelberg because I wasn’t listening. BUT, I have lots of pictures! If that counts…So I need someone to listen for me while I take pictures, any volunteers ?? I guess the good news is I can never (or at least not likely) ever come back to take PICTURES, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. However, I’m sure all that information is available on the internet, and I promise to myself to research more about the places I have visited once I get home.

But the actual town of Heidelberg once I got down from the castle, was just lovely. The tour split up into lots of groups and most of my friends were going to a wine cellar to buy/taste wine and then hit up a brewery for dinner. Wine doesn’t interest me and I still had fears about dinner- and I was enjoying taking pictures of the city way too much to go with them, so I split away, all on my own. As scary as it is to be on your own in a foreign country, where 5% speak English, it is actually liberating and freeing to say goodbye to your comfort zone , take a deep breath- and say, “I’m on my own. What now?” So I went window shopping (I actually bought things! WooT!), went to the university, walked around town, went up to the main bridge, walked down the streets and just took pictures, and….last but definitely not least, enjoyed a fabulous gelati (dairy free WOOT!).

Some pictures of walking around:

Translates to, "The soul lives on what is looking forward"

I'm pretty sure I fell in love with this guy and listening to his music was incredible. I will try and post a video sometime...maybe after we're married? Pshh. Lols.

I was disappointed in myself for dinner. Really disappointed. I was starving, as my version of lunch was a 50 cent Euro piece of bread on the bus. So that really hindered my vision and acceptance of trying new food, being so hungry,  I just wanted to eat anything I knew and was comfortable with. Well, lucky for me—American fast food chains are everywhere in Europe and I settled for my favorite- Subway. I saw it at first, and thought, “oh, thank god. I can eat Subway.” But I knew I would be disappointed in myself for not having tried a German delicacy, so I tried really hard to keep looking around town for anything else. But all the menus were in German, and I also didn’t want to sit down in a restaurant by myself, and  I couldn’t find any cute Internet cafes to sit by myself. So I settled for Subway. At least I got the experience of ordering food in German.

I ate really quickly—to avoid eternal personal shame—and got back on the town. I still felt guilty for not trying new food- but I guess I’d rather feel guilt then extreme nausea/sickness on the bus or in the hotel room, or in the city. Bathrooms are not free and not easy to find, so I have been avoiding any reason that would have to make me go any more than the usual.

Well, I think this blog has reached its readability limit. I can still talk and talk and talk but then you wont read and read and read because you will be tired of reading. So that’s it for now, I will continue on my thoughts hopefully tomorrow!

LOVE YOU ALL!

~A Writer in a Nurse's Body

Get the Popcorn Out

Hey guys, so I'm going to try and cover the Awesomeness of my last day in Amsterdam and my first day in Germany, so get ready for a blog thats most likely going to be a tad long!

Yesterday was our last day In Amsterdam. I had a continuous debate with myself (I literally changed my mind for very good reasons and asked a lot of people on their opinions) on what I should do for the farewell of Amsterdam. I’ll explain later.

For the morning adventures, a special select group of us got to experience a bike tour about an hour away from Amsterdam. This was definitely the classic “Dutch” experience…I mean, cows, windmills....wind, more cows, big open fields, more cows, some horses...It was like a Dutch Ice cream commercial. But an awesome one.

My bike was too big (Im REALLY short- but "not short enough" to have qualified for a kids bike ((but even that was big)) so I had to go on a huge adult bike. I was definitely the first to fall off, and we weren't even RIDING yet. And I just went down.  I sort of just lost my footing on one side while standing, and since my feet couldnt touch the ground, I couldnt grasp the other side, but then I couldnt get my leg over quick enough to catch myself...and then it all was downhill from there. It was definitely a crawl inside a hole moment.  But after that, i got the hang of it, and learned how to stop without killing anyone. The funny part is I bike all the time at home and there are absolutely no issues.. But then give me one that is too big for me and uses back-pedal breaking.....not so much. And it was comical because since everyone bikes here more so than cars, the cars sort of just don't care.  THey just drive and assume you'll get out of the way. They assume the bikers are skilled enough to know what they are doing, and those that don't know- must be tourists and they want to run them over anyway. So Here we are- very beginner bikers, crossing major highways. It was good times. 

But then we got to the real countryside, and got to see a windmill and go inside. We had lunch as a picnic in a barn, and lunch was jam and bread and apples! Hah! At least I could eat it...

Favorite.

The countryside was so different from the city of Amsterdam. We were riding right around the time that the school systems were letting out, so we got to see a lot of schoolchildren riding their bikes home (so cool!). Also, a LOT of parents ride with their babies in front, and the babies get a little shield to protect them from the wind. So adorable.

So as I mentioned before, I wasn't sure what to do at night. My options were 1) stay in hotel by myself, get my suitcase packed, shower, and relax, go to bed early (I was super tired) or....2) go with all my friends out on the town on our last night in Amsterdam to celebrate my tour guides birthday but doing this "Pub Crawl". Apparantly all of Amsterdam participates....And by god they participated. You pay 20 Euro, get a free teeshirt, and get a free drink at every bar. Every 45 minutes, the whole group switches to a new bar until the group is no longer coherent and functional OR too rowdy OR it is morning. Also, unlimited shots at each bar, and at least one shot is "required" to get into the bar. And there was lots of dancing.

So, if any of you know me at all, this is TOTALLY not my scene. Not even in the SLIGHTEST. Drinking, no. I don't drink. I can't drink. It causes hell for my whole body. And bars? Not my thing. Smoking? No. So my first reaction was, "I'll definitely be skipping that". But when I realized that my only other option was to sit in my hotel room by myself doing nothing while in AMSTERDAM, I figured I should just go have fun with my new friends and live every minute in Europe to the fullest. Well, it got full. A very long and rather interesting funny story made short, lets just say we all finally got back and went to bed at 4:20 am. I would never do it again, but I'm really glad I made the experience and it will always be something I'll remember.

Its startingly funny because everyone in Amsterdam so far that I have met is exceedingly interested in America. The question everyone wants to know, is, "Where YOU from?" People ask us this and we ask locals this. People come to Amsterdam from all over Europe, so last night we met a lot of people from England, Norway, Finland, France, Ireland, America, India, etc.  When they find out were from America, they go so excited and are all like, "OoOo, what STATE?" My friends and I are almost all from NY or NJ and when they learn that they are fascinated with with New York City and get Ubbbberrr excited and jealous (I'm serious!-Jealous!) that we are not only from America but close to the big apple. They tell us of how much they aspire to go to NYC or America in general one day which I find hilarious- Because I've always wanted to go to Europe! I guess the grass truly is greener on the other side.

TODAY, we spent 8 hours on a bus ride to Heidelberg, Germany! Eight hours is not fun when you literally slept 2 hours and fifteen minutes the night before, but it was also funny because my other drunkenly new friends were all in the same boat and we all sat together and it was fun. ALSO, we got to ride on the AUTO BONN (sp?) today! It was so funny, because our tour guide came over the loudspeaker and told us we were getting on the Auto bonn as we spoke. Well, lets review the fact that I do not know my European history OR any common geographic knowledge. First of all, I did not know the Auto bonn was in Germany. Second of all, I thought it was this special highway that only really fast cars were allowed to go on if they passed special fast tests...and once on, they could do like over 100 mph and everyone just went crazy. I mean, I had DREAMS of one day driving a corvette on the auto bonn at 150mph. Well, that obviously wasn't it at all, considering my BUS was on it going 60mph. The only cool thing we saw was a lot of fast cars in the fast lane, which I would have seen on any other highway, really....But it was funny because she announced, "Occaisonally you will hear a car go by but you will not see it." I thought that was funny.

WELL, my battery is dying, my roomie wants to sleep, I want to sleep, I need to shower, and sleep. As you can imagine from my ridiculous Amsterdamian adventures last night.

To any people from Holland or the Netherlands (Its the same thing apparantly), I LOVED your country, I really did! It was absolutely gorgeous and I would come back to visit any day. You guys are certainly on the right track in terms of being environmentally friendly! Thank you!

Tomorrow, or the next day or whenever, I will pick up sharing with you how awesome Heidelberg was!!

~A Writer in a Nurse's Body

Its a Different World!

Hello! I have found a small nook of time to blog a little before we leave for our bikeride along the Dutch countryside! I have one hour so I will blog as much as I can and then pick up where I left off!

It gets dark here at like....10:30. That is so wild. At 9 pm, I swear it looks like the American version of 2 or 3 pm. So weird. It really isn't helping my body get used to adjusting to jet lag! Jet lag is funny because no matter how much sleep I get I'm still tired, I keep waking up at 3 am feeling awake, and my stomach is constantly hungry!! (which is not good, because food is not exactly plentiful!) Well, it IS plentiful, but my wallet is not!

Anyway, no more complaints.

Our hotel is lovely! It is on the wee outskirts of Amsterdam in a residential neighborhood, about a 15 minute walk to the tram station and then about 30 minutes on the tram. As I'm writing this I can hear neighborhood kids playing outside- running around playing baseball and kickball (they probably call it something different).

I have the bestest, most sweetest roommates in the world! For Amsterdam at least, we are probably going to have to switch next city to meet other people.

I am 90% sure that my group is the only 30 people in the hotel that speak fluent english- everyone else is Dutch. Which I KEEP FORGETTING, because other than that--you would think this is an "american" hotel. So I get on the elevator and I say "Good morning" and they don't respond. Or I mutter off something quickly that any fluent english person would understand but not someone that does not know it well. Or, days like today, I said "Good morning" in Dutch! Woot! and must have pulled it off well because then they continued a conversation with me in Dutch and I had to sheepishly say and shrug, "Sorry, English."  Conversation over.

And its weird being out in public-- Like I can't say "I'm sorry" to a stranger if I bump into them, or whatever. Or I can't say little things to keep up a conversation with a stranger.

The funny thing is, I guess because its a huge city, is its a lot like New York City in that its a big melting pot of languages. There is mostly Dutch, but also a lot of spanish, german and a wee bit of French. Most signs are first written in Dutch and then in English, which is nice of them. America doesn't exactly pride itself in having signs with Dutch translation at the bottom. Also, when looking at a Dutch phrase, with a little common sense it is easy to figure out quickly. I have already figured out the common words for "the, your, you, I, we, would, no smoking, open, again, etc." Also if you try and pronounce the Dutch phrase, sometimes it even sounds like the English way except a little different.  Languages are so much fun to play with!

Also, all of their music here is the same as ours, and all in English. A lot of their signs and coffeeshops and clothing stores, are all written in English and only English. And when my friends and I were lost, every Dutch person we stopped to ask directions was able to communicate enough in English. Kudos to them! I think America needs to step up their game in terms of learning more languages. I know its in our school systems, but its not enough. Most of us are not fluent in Spanish, and that is our "second language". We need to step it up and be more universally acceptable.

Anyway, Yesterday was fun! We started on a sightseeing tour which was funny because typical me is listening with one ear but taking pictures like crazy. But this is necessary, you see, because when the tour group stops to teach us something, I have to take pictures because taking pictures while walking has proven to be difficult.

After the sightseeing tour, we ended up at Anne Frank's House. This was really emotional and very saddening. Unfortunately cameras were strictly not allowed, so I don't have any. The entire tour going through was very quiet. It was startling to see the living conditions they were forced in to, and how it turned out anyway. It was very sad and hard to see, but also very eye-opening and interesting. For instance, I did not know that Anne wanted to be a writer. She wanted to publish her own book called the "Secret Annex". Besides her famous diary, she kept many other books with random favorite quotes, and creative writing scenes, novels and poetry which reminds me a lot of myself, which I really liked.

After that emotional toll, we all went to their supermarket here and grabbed some lunch ( I got a smoothie and an apple for 2.80 Euro! woot

After my mini-alone excursion (one I will never forget!) We went on a relaxing boat tour through the canal, which was relaxing. Did I mention it was relaxing? We all so needed it. We took lots of pictures together and I took lots of pictures of....everything else.  After our cruise we had some free time til dinner, and this is where the bonding came in. About 6 of us decided to just walk around and explore. We came across a really cool flea market and I got some sweet pictures. We did some shopping, talking, and getting to know each other. By the end of the 2 hours, we all felt like best friends. It was unforgettable, and amazing, having that instant connection with five other people after just meeting them.

We then went to dinner, and it took us about halfway into our entree to figure out what nationality we chose. We thought we were in a Thai or Indian type food place, but turns it was totally Greek. very, very Greek. And I tried new things! And didn't die! Didnt even get nauseous! :D Although I honestly could not tell you WHAT I tried.

After dinner we went to this park where the famous " I amsterdam" sign is, and we all took pictures in while climbing in letters together. It was so much fun!

After that we went to the "Red Light District"....for those of you that do not know, prostitution is very legal in Amsterdam. The RLD is a place where prostitutes can openly sell their services to people seeking. It was the wildest thing I have ever seen, and certainly something I will never see in America! Women in bikini's wait in their house doorways behind a glass window, and tap at you as you walk by if they are interested in you. If you are interested in them first, you can go to them and discuss pricing for their services. Then you make a deal and...well, you know. So it was sad to see that women were relying on this for their income and being treated so lowly and this is what their life has come too...but at the same time I am glad it is legal because the country has so many practices in place to keep these women safe, STD free and free of lifelong detriments such as AIDS. Also, they are making a LOT of money.


Anyway, thats the majority of my day! Thanks for sticking around for a long blog! Hope I made it interesting! Today is a bike ride along the Dutch countryside, and I leave in ten minutes! We won't be done until later tonight. Tomorrow is an 8 hour bus ride to Munich!

~A Writer in a Nurses Body < 3