Halloweenie... Movies, and Rest

After Paris I was exhausted but we had a project to finish up. I ended up working on it almost all night with a few other people which ended up being fun, but we didn't think we would have had to pull an all nighter while in Germany. Oh well...

Friday the 31st of October was Halloween for us
Josh, a studio friend, always has a party for Halloween called Halloweenie. We cook hot dogs and dress up. So to keep that tradition alive my host family offered their house for the party. I think they are pretty excited that they had a real American Halloween party this year. Even the little boys dressed up and got in the spirit. My teacher came and did face painting, and I, along with 4 others, was a fall leaf. Since this is my first "real" fall I thought it was appropriate. Four other students dressed as the Presidential and VP canditdates... It was hilarious! We had so much fun just spending some time relaxing for Halloween. I spent most of the day getting ready before the party, but I also went shopping and bought some really cute boots that I have been wearing since it is getting very cold now.

Saturday the 1st of November
Girls Night! We decided that since no one went out of town this weekend that we would have a girls movie night. The AIB studio that we have class in has a projector, and our program director gave us permission to come up late and watch movies on it. We all brought snacks and watched Just Married and Love Actually. They both seemed fitting because they take place in Europe. It was a fun night.

As a side note:
Right before leaving for Paris our class carved Pumpkins and here is mine (its is supposed to be Nataile Portman):

J'adore PARIS

I very badly need to update more! I am behind right now because I have had school work, more small trips, and sickness. I am feeling much better now, but everyone in studio seems to be alittle sick, or recovering. Okay, time to update everyone on my excursions.

Ryan left early on Wednesday the 22nd of October.

Thursday 23rd
We went on a day trip with school to Schloss Dyck in the town of Juchen which is an old castle area that was turned into a artistic garden display. Each garden is separated by a very tall Miscanthus grass so it was almost like finding your way through a maze. After looking at all the gardens we had a picnic "brown bag" lunch, and headed to a sculpture garden in Stiftung. I am still not sure how the sculpture garden was put together, but it was an amazing site! The garden is full of these small brick buildings that are full of art work, sculpture, painting, etching, and more.

Friday 24th
PARIS! Catrina, Josh, Brad and I arrived in Paris in the afternoon and headed to the hotel, which was actually outside of the city boundary (meaning it took us forever to find). Once we found it and rested for a little bit and then meet up with Kari and Tim who arrived on a later train. We all ate a snack outside of the Louvre while enjoying the grand views of the city. The Louvre has a special deal where people under the age of 25 get in free on Fridays after 6pm! So we went to the Louvre for free. The Louvre is huge, so we only looked around the parts that we really wanted to see including the ancient Louvre, Greek and Italian Sculpture, The Mona Lisa, The Venus De Milo, and a few other interesting pieces. Then Brad and I went to Moulin Rouge and took photos. We decided to treat ourselves to dinner at the Chat Noir where we enjoyed escargot, wine, salad, and roast duck. It was delicious! Then we went to the Eiffel Tower to watch the night light show.

Saturday 25th
We went to Versailles and watched the Musical Fountain Show from 11am to noon. They only turn on the fountains on certain days for a few hours. They are so beautiful, and the music playing only added to the wonderful experience. Versailles was a must when visiting France.... I loved it. After Versailles everyone wanted to go rest at the hotel except for me and Kari. So, we went shopping in Paris. It was so much fun. We walked through the strip of designer stores that we couldn't afford, and then got excited when we entered into the cheaper area. I might have bought a few too many souvenirs. When everyone was rested they came to join us for dinner. I ate such a wonderful meal of pasta with salmon, salad, and an apple tart desert. Then we all went to the Eiffel Tower again to watch the lights and relax. We stayed there for a while before going back to the hotel.

Sunday 26th
We didn't want to try to do too much because our train left in the late afternoon almost evening. We went back to the Eiffel Tower, because it is beautiful, and ate lunch, sketched, and took a ton of pictures. Then we headed to the Opera House where the Phantom of the Opera story is based. There was a band playing on the steps which was fun for us all to listen to. I bought one of there CDs. They were all music students in Paris. Before catching our train we bought a few fruit tarts to share, and I got some Paris Fashion Magazines to look at on the way home.



We got back into Bonn pretty late, but it was worth it. I had so much fun in Paris. I didn't get to see everything I wanted to, so another trip in the future is a must. It was also fun to be able to use my mediocre French again. J'adore Paris...

Vienna Waits for ME

I know I am very behind on my posts, so I will try to catch up quickly.

After our 10 day break, I only had about half a day to get my stuff unpacked and get back to school. The break ended on Monday October 13th.

Tuesday October 14:

Ryan came to visit me! He meet up with us in Cologne when we where on a short tour of the Harbor. It was pretty hectic. We had lunch, stored his luggage, and then meet back up for the second half of the tour. Then we got back to Bonn and he had fun meeting my host family. They are so kind. They let him stay here.

Wednesday 15:

We went on another school trip to Hagen and Dusseldorf to look at different Harbor designs for a project we are working on. It was really fun to see some work that I have already seen in books before. When we got back to Bonn it was pretty late so we came back to my host family's house and ate dinner with them. Then Ryan played guitar for my host family and the little boys played along. It was so adorable. They are both musically talented!

Thursday 16:
Another trip to Dusseldorf, by this trip the whole class was so tired of moving around. It was exhausting, but the tour of Architecture was fun. When we got back to Bonn, Ryan and I went out so that I could show him more of the city.

Friday 17:
VIENNA! We booked a blind flight and ended up going to Vienna, Austria. It was so beautiful, one of my favorite cities so far. On the first day we went to the Belvedere Museum to see The Kiss by Gustav Klimt. I have never seen such a beautiful painting. It doesn't even compare to the prints.

Saturday 18:
We woke up early and enjoyed the wonderful breakfast at the hotel, and then went out to the town. We went to see all of the famous Doms, and then went out to a beautiful Garden just outside of the main town. We ate a reasonably priced 3 course meal in the gardens. It was a fun treat. I don't know if anything I have ever experianced would compaire to eating a wonderful meal in an enormous garden in Vienna with Ryan. For the evening we went to a small concert of Mozart and Strauss. It was held at the hall that Mozart used to perform as a child. Then we went to the Vienna Film Festival, Viennale. Ryan was so excited to go because he is quite into film stuff. The movie we saw was awful, but the theater and experiance was alot of fun!

Sunday 19:
Last day in Vienna! We didn't want to be too stressed, so we went to the museum district and just spent all day in museums until our flight left. We saw some very interesting exhibits, and more beautiful paintings by Klimt.

Monday 20-Tuesday 21:
I had school today, but for lunch my class mates, Ryan, and I went out to a nice place to get some authentic German cuisine. It was delicious. Since Ryan was about to leave, I tried to show him all around Bonn. We spent alot of time walking and just having fun. He really got to see what my life was like over here.

Wednesday 22:
I took Ryan to the train station in Cologne very very early. He had to leave to go catch his flight back home. I was sad to say bye to Ryan, but my day was extreamly busy after he left. We had a tour of the Bonn U.N. Campus. Then we had a personal presentation on what the U.N. World Conference is expecting for Bonn this Spring.

10 Day Break Pictures

Here is a sample of pictures I took in Italy and Greece:

Venice:

Rome:

Pompeii:

Athens:

Santorini:

10 Day Break

Sorry for the delay in my Blog. I have been busy with school and travels, but I took this weekend off from traveling to relax and catch up with different things. Here is an overview of my ten day break:

October 3rd:
We got home from the school trip from Prague and then I repacked to leave that same day. It was really crazy and hectic but I had already decided with Brad, Cat, and Josh that we wanted to get as much traveling in that we could. So we hopped on a night train to Milan, Italy.

October 4th:
We arrive in Milan around 7am with only a few hours layover. So we bought a map and headed for the Milan Dom. It was very pretty but not as grand as the Dom in Cologne. The street beggars and vendors in Milan really scared us because they kept grabbing our hands and pushing merchandise on us. I really thought I was going to get pick pocketed, but no one did. My overall impression of Milan was that it was expensive and not a place I would want to revisit.

After Milan, we hopped on another train going to Venice! We were in Venice until late evening. It is one of my top 5 favorite cities I have visited here so far. We walked all around Venice taking photos and sketching. We also bought some bread, wine, cheese, olives, and olive oil to have a picnic dinner at sunset. The sunset was extremely beautiful, there are no words to explain how much I loved Venice. I really want to go back and spend some more time there. Shortly after sunset we went to the train station to wait for our next night train. This is when we started a card playing tournament of spades.

October 5th:
We arrived in Rome around 6am and found our hostel to drop off our luggage. Then we went on a jam packed self lead walking tour. It was so much fun, but we were all very sleepy. We went to the Colosseum, the ruins beside the Colosseum, San Marco Basillica, Monument Vitorio, the Pantheon, the Spanish steps, and much more. When we got back to our hostel we found out that they cook a big spaghetti dinner for everyone staying there. It was so good, and free! At our hostel we also met some amazing people from all over who were traveling all around Europe. We had so much fun talking to them about our travels.

October 6th:
We went to Pompeii. On the train ride up to Napoli we meet some women from Texas! We had so much fun talking to them. When we arrived in Pompeii we got tickets, a map, and a little guide book of the town. We didn't pay to take a tour, but we ended up hearing alot from other tours we passed. We saw almost the entire city in just a day. It was amazing to view the way people lived in 79 AD. Pompeii was a very awe inspireing experiance.

After Pompeii, we went back into Rome to our hostel, got free dinner again, and then went ot bed early.

October 7th:
Rome day 2! We had alredy been almost everywhere we wanted to visit in rome, so we spent the morning shopping, doing laundry, and relaxing. Then we went to St. Peters Bassilica/The Vatican. We didn't go inside because we didn't want to wait in line, and we forgot to wear close-toed shoes. We went back to the hostel early to meet up with some of the people we had meet there. We all ate dinner together and then spent the evening at the Trevi Fountain. This was one of my favorite moments in the trip. We exchanged email addresses so that we could all stay in some sort of contact. Everyone was so much fun.

October 8th:
Today we flew to Athens Greece. The flight was really nice and had a full meal. When we arrived in Athens we found our hostel, which was nicer but not as much fun as our Rome hostel. We dropped off our stuff and then went shopping on one of the major shopping strip areas. Shopping in Greece is the best because they have so much amazing stuff and it is all very cheap. We then grabed some dinner and headed back to the hostel.

October 9th:
We went to the ancient Agora, the Roman Agora, the Acropolis, the Parthenon, Mar's Hill, and saw the Theatre of Dionysos. It was a very busy day. Athens is really beautiful, and the weather was perfect.

After all the site seeing, we had to get to the Port of Athens to catch a Ferry to Santorini. The ferry ride was not too bad, but we arrived in Santorini at 2am, exhausted.

October 10th:
The arrival in Santorini was a blur. We got into the port and the hotel picked us up. We got to the hotel and went back to sleep until late morning. Then we got up and went to the beach that was located right down the street from our hotel. The beaches in Santorini are black sand beaches. They also have whtie and red sand beaches. In the afternoon we rented 4 wheelers and explored the island. We hiked around to the red and white beaches, and then we went up to the highest point of the istand to watch the sun set. When we got back to the hostel, we got some groceries to make dinner and then watched a movie in our hotel room. The hotel was really nice, but we ended up being the only guest for the night which is a little creepy. I guess that is what happens when you go on the weekend right after tourist season.

October 11th:
We spent all day laying on the beach. Then we had to be back on the ferry in the late afternoon. This time the ferry ride was misrable. It was so windy that the boat rocked back and forth the entire time. When we got into Athens again, I felt pretty sea sick. We found our hotel in Athens and then went to bed very late.

October 12th:
Our last day in Athens was spent shopping around and just wandering. We didn't have much on the agenda. In the afternoon we had to catch our flight back to Rome.

October 13th:
Travel day! We spent this entire day traveling by trains back to Bonn. We went from Rome to Milan to Zurich to Bonn. It was a long day and I was SO happy to get back to Bonn.

That is the end of my 10 day trip... I have much more to post tomorrow about what has happpend since then. I have so many pictures, but I haven't had a chance to go through them all so I will post some later.