Lugano and Milan

So I decided to stay in Lugano for the weekend and I ended up having a great time! There were a total of six of us that ended up staying and i'm glad we decided to do so. Thursday night a lot of people left after class to go to their destination but there was a good amount of us still there who were leaving friday morning so we all went out in Lugano. We decided to try someplace different from the usual place that we go to which was right down the street but we would be the only people ever there. We ventured down the hill instead to see what we could find. The first place we went to was called the Milk Bar which was definitely crowded but it wasn't quite our style. I mean we should have figured since it is Lugano. The scene was very sophisticated and classy for our liking. A shot was 6 franc which was also completely out of our price range. We didn't stay long and left to go to Bar Ooops which was a couple buildings down from our school. The place was a little better, with more of a fun atmosphere. It was still crazy expensive but at least I didn't feel completely out of place. We ran into one of the guys who played intramural soccer with us and he told us some other good clubs to go to but they all had a really expensive cover. We still had a really fun night though, but we're still on the search for a great club in Lugano. Unfortunately we don't have too much time left to discover. I cannot believe I leave for Kenya in a week. I'm still in shock that we're even going and I'm so happy that I get the unbelievable opportunity to go while I'm here. We woke up Friday morning and we were originally planning to take a day trip to Lucerne, but that didn't really work out since it was a 3-hr train ride away. Looking back I kinda regret not making it work but hey there's nothing you can do about it now. We still had a really good day. And it was nice to just relax and lay by the pool. Which we were able to do since we've had unbelievable weather!! It's been in the high-60s low-70s for the past two weeks.

So on Friday instead of Lucerne we decided to go to Swiss-miniature land, a miniature version of all of Switzerland which was an hour and a half walk from the Montarina. The six of us just laugh looking back on it but it was fun with everyone. The walk was really pretty all along the lake. The miniature land I wouldn't recommend anyone else to go to, but we were able to make it fun.

We took the train back since it was only a 10 minute train ride free on our eurorail. My favorite part of the day was our family fajita night dinner! We went to the grocery store and got all the ingredients and then cooked at the Montarina. They were amazing and only cost us about 9 franc each which is so much cheaper than a meal you could get going out to a restaurant in Lugano. After stuffing our faces, we were all pretty much in a food coma and went to bed. The next morning I got up early ran and got ready for our trip to Milan. We were going to Milan to go to the AC Milan v. Roma futbol game. That's one of the main reasons why I wanted to stay because there was no way I wanted to return home without seeing a real soccer game in Europe. We got to Milan around lunch time and rode the metro to see the famous duomo.

The square around it was really pretty as well. I'm glad we were actually able to see Milan besides the train station which we've been to more times than I can count. We tried to find the bank where you can actually purchase ac milan tickets but it was closed. So we had to go straight to the stadium to get tickets. We were able to get tickets for only 20 euros which was in my opinion a steal! Our seats weren't that bad either but we didn't really think we were actually sitting in the right seats but no one checked. The metro was packed with people going to the game, and I was kind of getting nervous about being able to get tickets. The metro station was a bit far from the actual stadium but along the way the streets were lined with vendors and pannitecas which are these outdoor sandwich vendors that also sell alcohol. There wasn't any tailgating like we're used to in America so we made our own. We didn't want to pay for the 3 euro beers so we asked one of the policemen where the closest supermercado was and bought alcohol and snacks at the grocery store. It was a great decision since there the beers were only 45 cents. The only problem is they don't refrigerate their beer in the grocery stores so it was a little warm but not too bad. The funny thing is we were getting stared out from everyone. First of all it was 70 degrees out so we were all wearing shorts which is unheard of in Europe. Instead they have their jackets, scarves, and gloves on (crazy if you ask me). Second of all we were carrying bags of beer, chips, and bottles of wine. Ashvin stopped at the McDonalds and got 3 cheeseburgers so we figured we could just sit in their outside seating. Unfortunately a guy came out and kicked us out, but we had to start walking to the stadium anyways so it worked out. The stadium was enormous, and was a little crazy to figure out how to get to our seats.

I had a blast at the game. People go absolutely crazy in Europe for soccer. The fans are pretty much like they are if you go to an NFL game. So the atmosphere was so much fun and Milan came back to win with 5 minutes left. I didn't get the winning goal on camera but I did get their first goal on a penalty shot.

After the game we went out to dinner at this chinese buffet place which I wasn't too thrilled for since I don't like chinese but it was not our typical chinese. It was acutally really good. We caught the train back to Lugano and didn't get back until 1am in the morning. It was so nice sleeping in on Sunday, which I haven't done this whole time. And sleeping in was until 11am (technically it was 10 am because of daylight savings time). We decided to play soccer with some of the locals at this outdoor turf field near the Montarina. It was really frustrating for me because I thought my ankle was pretty much better but I learned the hard way it is not. I played goalie to be safe and this one time I saved a goal by kicking it I had so much pain in my ankle that I was limping. I mean I can still walk on it now but it's a little swollen and I've decided to stop trying to run. I realized that I was running a really bad way for my body because my leg was trying to compensate for my ankle and as a result my knee and hamstring were killing me. I mean I only have two days until Barcelona and then when I get back I'm going to Kenya. Those two weeks should hopefully heal it back to normal at least I'm praying that it will.

French Riviera

The French Riviera wasn't on my original list on must go-to's in Europe, but I can without a doubt say that I'm so happy I went. It was by far one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to in the world. We left early Friday morning to catch a 7:30am train to Nice. We got to our hostel around 2pm, which was this really pretty quaintly-built hostel. It had an outdoor terrace and was on the top of this really big hill, so luckily the hostel provided a free shuttle service from the bottom to the top. The only minor problem was that it was a little far from the city center so we just had to take a tram that was 4 euro for a daily pass to get to places. All in all it ended up working really well since we walked around for the most part but just needed to take the tram in the morning and at night. When we first got there, we explored the city a little bit, went to the beach, and got dinner. The beaches there are made out of small rocks though instead of sand, so we didn't stay too long since it was overcast. We had a good Italian dinner and then went back to our hostel to get ready to go out. It was one of my favorite nights out because we went to Wayne's Bar which ended up having a live band that played a lot of old school songs. We got to dance on the tables and sing along to all the music. 

We had to go back fairly early because the tram stopped running at 2am, well I guess that's early in European time because we're now used to staying out until the way hours in the morning. We woke up early, got our free breakfast from the hostel, and then took a tram to the bus we needed to catch to go to Monaco. Monaco is the second smallest country behind Vatican City, and houses the famous town Monte Carlo where all the celebrities flock and your walk past Maserati's parked on the streets. The bus ride even though it was terrible for anyone with the least bit of motion sickness was absolutely gorgeous. We drove along the coast up cliffs with spectacular views.

We got off a couple stops from Monte Carlo in a beautiful town called Cap-d'Ail, which is also part of the french Riviera. This was my favorite town. We got of and immediately walked down this cliff to the water. Where we ended was this incredible beach with water more blue than I've ever seen. 

I could not get over how beautiful everything was. We spent a good thirty minutes just soaking it all in. Mike ended up jumping in which was quite bold considering it was only like 60 degrees out. It was a perfect day, but not warm enough to go swimming. He didn't seem to mind though. Mike is actually a friend of a friend from home who is studying abroad this semester a couple hours north of us in St, Gallen, Switzerland. He ended up coming to the French Riviera with us this weekend to tag along which is funny because my two really good friends (Dave and Sydney) who are also abroad I most likely won't be able to meet up with them. Plans kinda fell through with Sydney because I'll be in Kenya and Dave is studying abroad in Athens which is really hard to get in and out of with cheap flights for us to pick a destination to meet. I've also already been to a lot of the places that they want to go. Another reason why this is one of the greatest programs anyone could think of going to. With Switzerland's central location and with us purchasing our eurorail we've been able to go to so many places for a relatively inexpensive price. The other day I counted and so far I've been to 19 cities and 12 countries which is unbelievable! So to get back to the Riviera. We spent some more time on the beach and then hiked back up the cliff and instead of getting on the bus again we just decided to walk to Monte Carlo. It was a breathtaking walk, and we decided to stop for lunch along the way since we were all pretty hungry. We stopped at this place along the water which was a little pricey but we thought we'd get a good lunch and then do something smaller for dinner. I got this amazing dish, which was sort of similar to the American dish bouillabaisse. It was to die for!! It had fish, mussels, shrimp, and potatoes in it so I was in heaven.

 While we were eating there was another family that was eating a couple tables over from us with this four year old boy. He would get up from dinner and ride his spider man bike and pretend like he was shooting webs. He was adorable. His bike pedal ended up coming off during dinner and I got up to help him fix it. His mom got up thanking me and asked if I was American. She said she knew I was because no one else would do a thing like that. The family was so nice, and talked with us for like thirty minutes just about our travels and what we're studying and all sorts of other things. They were actually originally from D.C., and moved there for the husband's job. She came over a couple times just to talk, and I had to help him fix his bike a couple times because the pedal kept coming off. She then told us not to worry about our bill, because our meal was on them. We were all in shock. There was ten of us, and our meals were on average about 15 euro each. They then bought us four desserts for the table, so our total bill was probably around 200 euro and we paid nothing. We tried not to accept but they insisted. It was just so nice to meet people that were welcoming and just outright really nice people. Max was also the cutest boy ever and we ended up playing with him for a while. 

I could easily say that was my best meal in Europe. We continued our incredible walk to Monte Carlo with even prettier views, if you can believe. 

I would literally stop and tell one of my friends to hit me because there is no way that this was real life. I felt like I was in a dream. We finally got to Monte Carlo where everything was extravagant. I felt like I had to watch where I walked because I might scratch a million dollar car. Monte Carlo is known for its famous casino. We just went inside to take a quick look because there was no way we've even been allowed to pay to go in one of the gambling rooms because we were way under dressed.

It was about 4pm when we were done with everything so we decided to catch the bus back to our hostel and get ready to go out for St. Patrick's day. They don't quite celebrate it as heavily as we do in America, and you can definitely tell that the people dressed all out in green are Americans. The next morning we got up early, checked out, and went to the market. The city of Nice was filled with tons of markets selling fresh produce, flowers, and other homemade goods. We then got lunch at Wayne's Bar and headed to the train station to go home. We got back to Lugano around 8:30pm and it was raining for the first time since we've been here. It rained for a good portion of yesterday, but it's cleared up and now beautiful again. I was able to run for an hour yesterday which makes me so happy because it was killing me to be bed-ridden. My ankle's doing so much better, of course it's not 100% and it's gonna take me a little while before I'm playing floorball again but I'm just thankful I can run. Another girl on the trip who went to the Amalfi Coast actually came back on crutches because she sprained her ankle really bad. So at least I'm not the only one but her's seems like it might be a lot worse. I think this weekend coming up I might just stay in Lugano and do some hiking and excursions around here. Everyone else is either going to Paris, Prague, or Belgium. I've been to Prague, have already x-ed out Paris from my list expense wise (it's just not going to fit in my budget--> flights and hostels are ridiculously expensive), and I just wasn't feeling Belgium. We'd have to take such a long train to only be there for one full day. I think some other people might be staying as well so I won't be a loner by myself.

Budapest

Budapest was a fantastic way to spend our last couple of days of our ten-day break. It was just so relaxing, and honestly I don't think we would have been able to survive a really busy city because we were just simply too exhausted. The five of us (Sarah, Val, Bryce, Tessa) were the only ones to stay in a hostel. The others stayed in really nice hotels because they found five star hotels for only like $30 a night. It would have been nice but we were able to find a hostel for $10 a night so we thought it was just another way to save money. And use our saved money to get messages. Everything in Budapest was pretty cheap, well at least we thought. Budapest had a currency similar to Prague in that you had to get out thousands of their currency to have enough money for the time that we were there. Budapest was also nice because everything was in relatively close walking distance. They did have a metro system but we only used it twice, to get two and from the train station to our hostel. That night we arrived around six checked in and went out for dinner. We ate at another Mexican place but it wasn't nearly as good as the place we ate in Berlin. Truthfully no Mexican will compare to what we eat back home, I'm especially missing that homemade guacamole. I decided to be an absolute nerd that night and stay in and read Hunger Games. I made the mistake of starting it on the train ride from Vienna to Budapest, and could not put it down from that point on. I'm waiting to download the second one until I'm on the beach and can just read for hours.

The next morning we woke up early to do the walking tour. There wasn't too many interesting historical facts or stories from the tour, but it was a beautiful tour. Instead of boring you to death on what each individual picture is I just put together some of the prettiest views and buildings that we saw.

Of everything we saw, my favorite by far was Matthias Church. You can see for yourself how gorgeous the church was built, especially the roof with all of its colorful tiles.

 The view overlooking the city from the church.

We explored a lot of the city ourselves after the walking tour, got lunch, and then found this really cool indoor market which was huge. The bottom floor was filled with food vendors, and the top filled with clothing and souvenirs. I ended up getting this really pretty stone necklace, and I'm almost mad at myself for not getting more jewelery since I had some cash leftover at the end of the trip that I can't now use anywhere else in Europe. It was one of the girls' birthdays so for dinner we went to this incredible restaurant which was an all you can eat AND drink buffet. Normally I don't even like buffets because they food is gross most of the time, but the food was amazing. And they put an endless supply of alcohol on our tables; whatever we wanted (wine, beer, champagne, you name it). It was a lot of fun since all 20 of us went to celebrate, and a perfect way to spend our last night. For the perfect hangover cure the next morning, we bought our ticket for an entrance fee into the baths and a 30 minute message. We went to the largest public bath in Europe, the Szechenyi Bath and Spa. A public bath may sound gross but this place was heaven on Earth.

The place had 3 heated outdoor pools (one the temperature of a hot tub) and 15 various indoor pools and saunas. My favorite was the warm outdoor pool because it was so nice out that it wasn't even that cold to walk around in just your bathing suit. I could fall asleep with the sun beaming on me. Let me say though the public sights were quite entertaining. I swear Hungary has to beat America in the obesity rate. I have seen enough hairy fat men for the rest of my life. But getting over that fact, it was one of my favorite days. I couldn't handle any of the saunas; they were wayy too hot for me. And let me just say my massage was INCREDIBLE. I never wanted it to end. After our full spa day we went straight to the train station, and headed back to Lugano! Home sweet homee.

Vienna

We literally spent less than 24 hours in Vienna. For some reason I guess in my mind I had this picture of Vienna in my head, but it didn't really turn out to be that way. Don't get me wrong it was definitely pretty, but we really only had one night there and left the next day at 2pm so I felt like we didn't get to see all of its worth. The first night though Val, Tessa, and I went to the Opera to see a Ballet. They have cheap standing student tickets every night so we decided to make use of our time there. When we got there though, we found out they also had student seats for only 10 euro versus 4 euro for standing. With my ankle we thought the seats were the better option, especially since it wasn't even that much more. When we got inside we didn't believe our seats. We were in the 12th row, and even Val went to go ask the guy if we were in the right seats because we thought it was too good to be true. The Ballet was beautiful; I'm so happy that the three of us did it even though no one else from our group joined. The music and the type of dance isn't really what I'm used to, but the performance together was superb and each dancer was incredibly talented. I was in awe just watching that amount of talent even though it wasn't particular our normal form of entertainment. This is a picture of the famous Opera House where we saw the ballet.

The next morning we woke up early to start what I called the Frick walking tour. I used my kindle to find the top sights in Veinna and then I mapped out how to get to them. Unfortunately they weren't as easy as planned to find using the map and as you can see from the pictures it was snowing all day. Who would have thought it would be snowing in Vienna when it was in the forties in Berlin.We did get to see some of the attractions but spent most of the morning trying to find this palace which we ended up just giving up on. This was the really pretty dome near the opera house which I can't remember its name from the top of my head.

 The coolest part of Vienna was that I was famous! Just kidding but they had a bookstore chain called Frick. I saw many of its signs across the cities. I went inside to try and buy a book or something with Frick on it but I couldn't even find on. Instead I just got a business card and a post card.

 We did get some pretty snow pictures of the parliament buildings, and other sights.

 Apparently, Vienna's ferris wheel is a huge tourist attraction. It called the Wiener Riesenarad and has appeared in lots of popular films. Unfortunately the amusement park that it's located in wasn't open so we couldn't ride any of the rides.

 Vienna was short lived, but still I'm glad we went. Just adding another city and country to my big list. We left at around 2 and got on a train to Budaaaapest!

Prague Day 2

This morning, not going to lie was a little bit of a struggle functioning after the night we all had. We got a late start to our day and went straight to the bagel place. Had to get french fries with my wrap this time for the hangover cure. We decided to go straight to the Jewish district, the place we're all the Jews were contained in Prague, and not allowed to go outside of the borders. We bought one ticket to go to all the main museums in the area. We first went to the Pinkas Synagogue, which is dedicated to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust from Bohemia and Moravia. All of the victims names are inscribed on the walls covering an entire building. The building attached was my favorite part. It has an incredible story behind it. A German school teacher smuggled in suitcases several thousand drawings by children staying in the Terezin concentration camp to Prague. It comprises some 4,500 artworks by Jewish children who were incarcerated during the second world war in the Terezín ghetto. You could see the hurt and pain in these kids' drawings and it was shocking that the school teacher was able to risk her life to help these kids and start this project of them revealing their feelings through art.

 We next walked through the graveyard which I explained about earlier which was almost sickening to see all of the head stones piled completely one on top of the other.

 After exploring through the Jewish quarter, we were off to find the Lennon wall. This however was not as easy as we thought since we never really got exact directions how to get there. It was quite an adventure though, and we came across some interesting things along the way. For instance, these creepy baby statutes we came across. After a couple hours we finally came across the Lennon wall.

After getting our pictures, we headed back to the square and did some shopping. I didn't get anything because the prices were pretty expensive and my ankle was not in the mood to be shopping around a mall. This was the night we went back to the place we ate the first night, and the whole check fiasco happened. We got ready and went back to "The Pub" to actually go there at night for our pregame. We had so much fun, and I decided to just go back to the apartment when we left there around 1pm instead of going out to the club. We had to catch an early train the next morning to Vienna, but of course we made time before to go to the bagel place.