The Food Chapter: Florence, Italy - Part Deux

Dear family and friends,

I hope some of you are actually reading this blog because I'm realizing now that it's quite a bit of work to maintain. Regardless, I must press on! I'm in Rome now but I left out some adventures in Florence that I'd like to remember. Our second day in Florence was rather uneventful compared to the first. Brian was without a camera, and (if you know him at all), he loves his artsy photos. We spent the majority of the day retracing our steps and documenting the beautiful views. We attempted to go see the state of David by Michaelangelo, but there was a 3-hour wait, which hardly seemed worth it. I guess I'll just have to go back to Florence sometime in the future. Tough life...

One of our favorite activities, in which we inadvertently partake daily, is people-watching (or creeple-watching, as I like to call it). We decided it would be a good idea to grab a bottle of wine, find a cozy spot, and just observed as thousands of tourists and locals passed us by. Here are some highlights:

My older sister, Lindsay, studied abroad in Florence and recommended that we visit Café Zaza while we were there. I got her message as we were packing to leave, but luckily enough, we had stumbled upon the same café the day before and split a (cheap) bottle of vino rosa.

Brian does not look good in my sunglasses (no offense)...

... And I look even worse in his.

Mint chocolate chip gelato. Yum.

We picked a café by the Duomo to enjoy some wine. While there, we met a wonderful couple, Dr. and Mrs. Hughes. Mrs. Hughes was kind enough to get this picture of us (while telling her husband, in the back right, "Just act like a person...").









After a long day of people watching and exploring the outskirts of Florence, we went back to the hotel and got ready for another night out. This time, however, we actually had a destination. We had heard of a bar nearby that was having a Beatles-inspired night and decided to go.

We went to dinner at an adorable Italian restaurant and had our first tastes of authentic pizza.












We realllllllllly liked it.













After dinner, we went to (the appropriately-named) Bebop Bar and bee-bopped around to some of our favorite songs. It's study-abroad season in Florence basically, and there were about 30 college students from Georgia Tech at the bar. Small world, right?

All in all, I absolutely loved Florence and cannot wait to return (hear that, mom??).

Caroline

The Food Chapter: Florence, Italy

If you know me at all, you know that the thing I love most in the world (besides Theo, of course) is pasta. Well, welcome to Florence. Of all the things on this trip that I've been excited about, it's Italy.

Last night, Brian and I took an overnight train from Luxembourg to Florence. It was interesting, to say the least. We had tiny little beds that folded out of the wall, and had to share a couchette with 4 other people. Ugh. The last time I took an overnight train was on my France/Spain trip in high school, and, since I was 16 then, I spent about 5 hours in the bar car drinking red wine with some family that I met. It was probably not the best idea, in hindsight.

Eventually, though, we arrived in Italy, and basically all my dreams came true.

This morning, Brian and I settled into our hotel and set out to explore the city. Needless to say, I am never coming home. We disregarded all forms of a map and set off on our first Italian adventure.

We walked about a block from our hotel before we stumbled upon an open-air market with vendors selling all sorts of Italian goodies.

One of the first booths we found sold all sorts of hats, which reminded me of my sweet mother. Mama, this one's for you. I love you!

With only our intuitions leading us, we quickly found the Duomo, the most beautiful church I think I've ever seen.

We were awe-struck at the sight. There were so many tourists, but I managed to take some good photos without them.

After the Duomo, we immediately ran into the ponte vecchio, the oldest original bridge in Florence. During World War II, in a raid on Florence, the rest of the bridges were destroyed. "Ponte Vecchio" means "old bridge" in Italian.









After wandering for a few hours, we finally gave into temptation and set off on a journey to find an authentic Italian restaurant. (This is my favorite part of the story.)

Insert: Café Bellini (established in 1895). The food pictures are a must... (what else would you expect form me? I mean, come on. Let's be realistic here.)

Cheers to our first glasses of wine!

Bread, olive oil, and balsamic vinaigrette.

Brian pointed out that I literally made a wall around myself with Italian-ism.

This is the face of the happiest girl in the world.

A real "insalata mista." But I must say, PortaVia, you do hold your own. It was delicious (and don't worry, I was being safe).

Oh. My. God. Homemade linguine in a mushroom/truffle sauce. Can somebody please kill me before I have to leave this place?

A post-meal cappuccino.














We finished our (incredible) meal and set out again to the streets of Florence.

Brian and I bought of first pairs of handmade Italian sandals!

Florence is truly the most beautiful place I've ever been to.

I love Italian flags. They just make me happy (and also make me think of Mario and Luigi... Thank you, childhood of video games).

When we were tired of walking, we sat down in the shade to rest. This is where we sat. You don't see things like this in the States.











And that's just the beginning of my day. It's 8 o'clock here and we're about to head out for dinner. As the Italians say, "A day without pizza is like a day without sunshine." I couldn't love my life more.

As usual, I'm missing everyone at home (but I'll never see you again unless you come to Florence, because I'm moving here, eating pasta, and getting fat for the rest of my life).

Arrivederci!

Caroline

Luxembourg City: A City Upon A Hill

I have a new life plan. It goes like this: win the lottery, move to Luxembourg City, live happily ever after.

Yesterday, Brian and I said "auf weidersehen" to Germany and "bonjour" to Luxembourg. While I was napping towards the end of the train ride, Brian made a friend in the on-board restaurant, who turned out to be the nicest person we've met on the trip so far. As we were trying to figure out the way to our next hotel, we ran into him again and met his sweet girlfriend, a native Luxembourgian.

Insert: Henry and Elise.

Nos nouveaux amis (our new friends).














We asked them for directions, and before long, the four of us were on our way to a pub in the city. Elise showed us around and took us to "le Grund" (the ground), where we stumbled upon a Celtic music festival. Elise is from France, and insisted that we have a few bottles of cider (though we weren't protesting in the slightest), which was absolutely delicious. When the festival ended, we headed to their favorite local bar and enjoyed more cider and great conversation before heading in for the night.
 To Elise and Henry: It was a blast and I hope to speak to y'all soon!

Part of le Grund, a valley about 500 feet below the rest of Luxembourg City.













After a good night's rest, Brian and I were up again and ready to see Luxembourg City in the daylight. (Well, me more so than Brian because he wanted to sleep in and I insisted that we get up early.) We began the day wandering around and soaking in the beautiful views. Luxembourg City is built on the edges of hills and cliffs and provides such amazing landscapes. Eventually, we found the entrance to the Bock Casemates (pronounced kaz-mat), which are tunnels dug into cliffs by the Spanish in 1644. It was awesome but somewhat scary at parts with its small corridors and ridiculously thin spiral staircases that descended into darkness.

The view from the top of the Bock Casemates. The cliff I'm sitting next to is realllllllllly high.

Another view of le Grund from inside the Casemates.

One of the more well-light and less scary corridors.













We stayed there for a while (because we literally got lost inside) and were ready for lunch by the time we finally made it out. We walked through Place de Guillaume II and Place d'Armes (the two districts of the city center), and decided on Café Francaise. We practiced our French with the waitress and surprisingly did alright.

 Place d'Armes.

Just one of the many beautiful old streets in Luxembourg City.













After lunch, Brian and I walked around, shopped, and enjoyed more of the incredible views of the city. We're back at the hotel now and preparing for our night out on the town!

I will live here eventually.














If there weren't cars, I would feel like I was in a fairy tale.

Caroline

Hit the Road, Jack

Hitting the road is exactly what Brian and I did today (and even that may be an understatement).

Today was our only full day in Berlin, so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and create our own walking tour of the city. This morning, we took the metro to East Berlin to begin our amazing day of sight-seeing (literally everything the city has to offer). Part of the Berlin Wall remains standing in the city, and though the original graffiti was covered by more talented artists, it was surreal to witness.

The beginning.

Graffiti by an Italian artist.

Some of the work (like this, obviously) was incredibly intricate.

The back of the wall hadn't been completely painted over.













We stayed at the Berlin Wall for quite some time, but eventually started making our way towards the Fernsehturm (television tower), which apparently has the fastest lift in the world. We were going to go to the top, but the line was too long and we didn't want to waste any of the day.

It has a 360-degree view of the city... but not worth a 2-hour wait.












We woke up early this morning and left the hotel around 10, so we were getting pretty hungry at this point. We had heard about a market district on the way to our next destination, so we decided to head that way and have lunch.

We stumbled across this pretty fountain on the way.

Hackescher Markt.














We got to Hackescher Markt and walked around a bit before settling on a place to eat. Since we arrived in German, Brian has been dying to try a traditional German meal and was set on having "currywurst" for lunch. I ordered a salad (like a normal person) and wanted nothing to do with creepy-sounding German food. However, Brian finally guilted me into tasting a bite of his meal. Let me preface these photos by explaining that currywurst is some sort of sausage thing covered in ketchup. I actually have no idea what it really was.

Preparing and looking blatantly hesitant...

Face of horror. I was NOT a happy girl at this point.













Ugh. Let's just say I do not think I'll be having German food anytime in the near future (or long future for that matter). Anyway, we finished our meals and headed on our way.

Next destination: Checkpoint Charlie. It was incredibly touristy so we hardly spent any time there. I did, however, get a chocolate ice-cream cone, which was great.

The Brandenburg Gate, where President Reagan delivered his famous "Tear down this wall" speech to President Gorbachev.

We stumbled across this monument on our walk. I don't have any idea what it is. My bad.













All in all, we walked probably 10 miles today. We left around 10:30 am and made it back to the hotel at 5:45 pm. It was an incredibly long day but we got to see so much of Berlin. By the time we were on our way back, our legs were literally buckling beneath us. I'm not complaining, though. The city was breath-taking, the weather was perfect, and I got a little much-needed Vitamin D. (I have the Tory Burch logo from my flip-flops tanned onto my feet. Sorority girl problems.)

Now it's time for me to recuperate before tonight!

Caroline

P.S. - This post is titled "Hit the Road, Jack" because German musicians looooooove to play that song on their trumpets, accordions, etc. It was stuck in my head for about 4 hours. Annoying.

Frankfurt to Berlin

It's been an interesting day so far...

In my last post, I wrote about how Brian and I woke up a little (4 hours) early for our train from Frankfurt to Berlin. Well, we finally made it!

If you know me well, then you obviously know about my fascination with trains. Today, we had our first train adventure. Before the trip, Brian and I purchase Eurail passes, which allowed us to purchase cheap train tickets throughout Europe. We arrived at the train station early, and I couldn't help but check the track every 30 seconds in anticipation of our train's arrival. I was literally so giddy. We got first class tickets for $11 each and it was great. Brian got the window seat (hmph) but it was alright because our seats were against a wall right in between two windows. Regardless, I was still ecstatic about the trip.

Brian (my little ray of sunshine) at the train station. Note the funny word in the background. Seriously, Germany?

Oh nothing, just training from Frankfurt to Berlin.

















I was a little tired on the train (ahem, Brian) so I fell asleep about two hours in, but the German country-side was incredible.

Incredible scenery in Middle-of-Nowhere, Germany.













We made it to Berlin in about 4 hours, and after another long day of traveling, all we wanted to do was relax. Too bad that didn't happed as quickly as we wanted it to. In the metro station, we found the information desk and asked the gentleman which bus to take to get to our hotel. He said the X34 bus. I studied the map and was quite proud of myself when I figured out with stop to take. We got on the bus and after about 15 minutes, I was a little suspicious that we hadn't arrived yet. As it turns out, the (RUDE) man at the station had told us the wrong bus. So there we were, stuck on a bus for about 45 minutes that took us outside of Berlin and back into the country-side. We finally decided to get off the bus and take another bus back to the city, and made it back into town (after I almost got hit by a car along the way. The streetlights are confusing, alright?!).

During our walk to the hotel, my the wheel of my suitcase broke and I ended up having to drag about 60 pounds of luggage through the street. Talk about an arm workout. I mean I know I'm not the strongest person in the whole world but it was an absolute nightmare.

When we got to the hotel, the concierge told us that we had been upgraded to a nice room with a balcony, so that made the day a lot better. After a(nother) great Italian meal, Brian and I are back at the hotel and planning our (touristy) day tomorrow in the city. As usual, by "we," I mean Brian. (I'm so lucky that he's here to make all of our plans.)

I skyped with Theo (and my mom) tonight. I think that may have been the highlight of my day.

He has a face!













Caroline

Frankfurt

It's not even 11 in the morning and I've already been awake for 3 hours.

For some reason, Brian and I were under the impression that our train from Frankfurt to Berlin left at 10:13 am... Clearly, we were wrong. (And by "we," I mean Brian because he's the one that woke me up at 7:51.) As it turns out, our train doesn't leave until 2:13 pm - only 4 hours off. It's alright, though. Our hostel had a nice breakfast set up so we relaxed and enjoyed a good meal before walking around for a bit. (I had a grilled cheese sandwich for breakfast. Typical. You can take the girl out of America, but you can't take America out of the girl.)

Frankfurt is a beautiful city. It has such an interesting mix of old, classic building and huge, modern skyscrapers. Maybe we just didn't do enough research before, but there isn't really much to do aside from just walk up and down the streets. We're in something similar to the Red Light District, I guess, because there's some sort of bizarre strip club on every corner. They are far from subtle about that sort of thing, to say the least.

Anyway, last night, Brian and I decided to hang out in the lounge of our hostel, and ended up making friends with two guys, Will and Joel, from Melbourne, Australia. (They immediately made fun of me for legitimately using "y'all" as a word. Sorry I'm not sorry it's a contraction of "you" and "all." It makes perfect sense.) It really made me miss my Aussies from DC. They've been in Europe since January and have been hitch-hiking from country to country and working wherever they can find jobs. I had a couple glasses of wine and the guys enjoyed a few Becks, and we decided to go out for a bit. We went to a few (normal) bars in our area and made friends with some (absolutely smashed) businessmen from Milwaukee.

We got in around 3 or so and immediately crashed. A little over 4 hours later, Brian yelled at me to wake up and get ready to leave. Once we were packed and everything, we realized that we had gotten the time wrong. We had literally nothing to do so we walked around the city again and took pictures of funny-looking words (my new favorite pass-time).

We're back at the hostel now, wasting time until we're set to go. I'm so excited about our first train-ride! It's a bit rainy but c'est la vie.

I miss everyone back at home!

Caroline

Greetings from Frankfurt!

As we bounced down the runway into a country that I know absolutely nothing about, I began to get a bit nervous. It might’ve just been the sleep deprivation and lack of decent meals, but I looked at Brian and couldn’t help but ask, “What the hell are we doing here?” Thankfully, the airport was incredibly “American-friendly” and we made our way through just fine. The problem was, though, that the airport is located about 6 kilometers (maybe around 3 miles – no idea) south of the heart of Frankfurt. While I waited in line for the ATM to get some euros (monopoly money), Brian went to the information desk to inquire about our next move.

As it turns out, we needed to take a bus to a different terminal, then a train to the main train station in the city, and then a short walk from there. Great. We got to the train station, asked which tickets we needed to buy, and bought them from the machine (which an “English” option). Everything was going well… until we missed our train. Luckily, a nice guy from Denmark became our first European friend when he gave us a puzzled look and asked if we spoke English. The three of us (actually, the guy from Denmark) figured out what to do and we made it to Frankfurt all in tact.

It is beautiful here. When Brian and I stepped out into the city, we were both awe-struck at the incredible old buildings all around us. As it so happens, some sort of street festival was taking place in front of our hostel (which is “20 meters” from the station). We found our hostel without too much trouble (I ran over some sort of brick with my suitcase and a very unhappy vendor snapped at me. Brian ran away laughing.), and checked in with ease. Our room is much better than I had anticipated. We have a great view of the main street, which is buzzing with vendors, locals, and tourists like us.

Unfortunately, as soon as we got settled in the room, it started to rain and the festival below cleared out in seconds. All is well though. After such a long day of traveling, it is so nice to relax and adjust to our new home (for one night).

We’ve finally arrived!

Caroline

 Our first hostel. Not bad, not bad!
(Notice the matching suitcases and laptop bags.)

The view from our room. When we checked in, there were hundreds of people in the street, but they all scattered once it started to rain.

 This is for you, Sloan. I miss you!

 I forgot to write about this earlier! On one of our walks, we stumbled across this bridge with hundreds of locks stuck all over the place. I was enjoying the view of the city, when I overheard this German couple talking. As it turns out, couples will get a lock inscribed with their names, clip it onto the fence, and throw the key into the river. It was such a cute thing to witness.

So German.