Last weekend I travelled to Interlaken in Switzerland. I went with 7 other friends and had an absolute blast there. We decided on Interlaken because it was the closest city that we could travel to from Luxembourg that also had hostels for less than 30 euro! We ended up staying at the "Happy Inn Lodge" which was a really cool and friendly hostel. We arrived about midnight on Friday night due to a late train causing us to miss our connection :( Obviously, we pretty much got into our hostel and went straight to bed in our lovely bunk beds.
The girls in my group and I woke up early on Saturday morning to get some delicious Swiss breakfast. After eating a breakfast of quiche and apple cider (really good actually), we went back to our hostel. Unfortunately, it had started raining during our breakfast and was actually raining really hard on our way back to the hostel. We resigned ourselves to viewing the Alps from our hostel's window and had a pretty leisiurely morning. The rain stopped around 2 p.m. and, after eating a hearty lunch from a grocery store, half of our group went to go canyoning. Canyoning pretty much means climbing a mountain and then falling, repelling, sliding and jumping down it. If you know me at all, the whole jumping off 30-40 foot cliffs is not really my cup of tea, so myself and three others stayed back and explored Interlaken. We spent the day hiking around the city and shopping for some souvenirs (my last name is Switzer, after all!). I got my biggest purchase of the semester, a Swatch, which was very exciting (and much cheaper than the rest of Europe). We completed the day with a dinner of fondue and potatoes at our hostel's restaurant. Funny enough, we actually spent the rest of the night there, talking to some US soldiers who were visiting Switzerland as they were stationed in Italy.
The next morning we got up very early to hike "an Alp" as my friend Kristen liked to say. We hiked up the mountain, Harder Kulm and got some seriously amazing views of the city and the Alps. The hike was pretty rough as it was really steep and quite slippery with all the wet leaves on the ground. For some reason, I did not expect Interlaken, or the Alps for that matter, to have so many trees! I just pictured entirely snow covered mountains. We saw a few of those, but mostly they were all quite green! After hiking, we caught our one o'clock train home. After our 3 hour hike, I don't think I have ever appreciated a train ride more!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Florence!!!!!
I love Italy! I already knew that, but I love it even more now! Especially Florence! A few weeks ago(I know I'm way behind!) I traveled to Florence with my Art History class as part of our Field Study Tour! We left Wednesday afternoon and came back on Sunday. The trips there and back were a mix of bus rides and plane rides, making for a very exhausting journey. Upon arriving in Florence on Wednesday, we went to a really cute Italian restaurant. We got in pretty late so we really only had time for dinner, but my friend Lisa (yes, that did get really confusing!) and I managed to learn a language lesson at dinner. We found that the restaurant had a deal for a drink and a salad for 6 euro, an incredible deal especially for Italy! Our salad's description said, Big salad, lettuga, pomodoro, mozzarella and tonna. We were quite excited about that and figured the tonna was just some sort of lettuce or something as what else could you put on a tomato mozzarella salad. Turns out that, in Italy, they often put TUNA on their caprese salads! We were not exactly pleased as it really isn't the best combo, particularly with the tuna that they used. But, we figured that we had to have one language snafu and that one was certainly better than cow tongue or something!
After our first night, we woke up early (about 6:30 am) on Thursday morning to see the Uffizi Gallery. My entire 30 person class, professor and I travelled the 4 stories of the Uffizi within about 4 hours that morning. We saw a ton of paintings that we had studied the past month which really made the whole study abroad thing seem even more valuable than it had before. For me, it was just really incredible to see the actual “Birth of Venus” by Boticelli after learning all about it just a few weeks prior to the trip. Following that, we were allowed to get lunch on our own and were expected to meet in front of the Church Santa Maria del Carmine at 2 p.m. For lunch, my friends and I had some pretty incredible paninis from a random restaurant and had our first gelato of the trip! We learned that gelatos can be more expensive than the actual meal and I learned that “rockets” on my panini are not a fun name for lettuce but actually a rather bitter leaf. At the Church Santa Maria (aka the Brancacci chapel), we saw many frescos by Masaccio! He was also one of our artists of study in the past month so, again, seeing his works right there in front of us was pretty incredible. I believe one of his most well known is the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden but I could be wrong about that. From there, we went onto “discover” the outsides of the Palazzo Medici Ricardi and the Palazzo Rucelli. We had learned about these in our class as well, mostly from a historical viewpoint. After this discovery, we convinced our professor to let us look around at a market of random shops as we were all pretty excited about souvenir shopping. My friend and I bartered for a few scarves, which was super exciting, and just walked around. It was there that we completely randomly stumbled upon the Boar’s Head that you’re supposed to rub its nose for good luck. I remembered this vaguely from my last trip to Florence about 8 years ago, but couldn’t remember why we were supposed to rub its nose. No one else seemed to know the legend, but were easily convinced and we ended up with several pictures in front of the statue! From there we went onto the town square to see the David by Michelangelo, then ended with a class dinner at the Pizzeria Cellini. The pizzeria was supposed to have some of the best cheap pizza in Florence, and I found that to be very true!
We woke up early again on Friday morning to visit the San Marco museum. Following that, we went on to see the insides of the chapel of the Palazzo Medici Ricardi where we saw several frescos by Gonzolli. After that, we were to get lunch on our own. It was then that my friends and I had a pretty epic gastronomical experience. I feel I must explain how I tired we were by that point. We had literally been on our feet for 4 hours without sitting and had gotten up much earlier than we all felt we should. So, when a nice Italian baker lady was handing out pizza frites (fried pizza), we literally jumped at the chance for an Ahthentic (get it anyone?) Italian meal. Our new friend offered us each a meal of pasta, bread, salad and a half liter of water for 5 euro! This is huge deal in Florence, but would even be considered a great deal in Luxembourg where food is much cheaper than these tourist cities. It is even cheaper if you consider that there was no “cover charge” or a “service charge.” Many restaurants would charge you a cover charge for eating at their establishment and a service charge for table service. After this awesome lunch, we met our class at the Santa Maria Novella church. This church was again, part of our studies but mostly due to Alberti, its architect. We finished touring this church around 4 and were free for the rest of the day. My friends and I realized that gave us just enough time to get to the Duomo, the Florence cathedral, and climb it before it closed! We pretty much raced across a very unfamiliar city and climbed the 466 steps to the top. Our teacher had been very emphatic about the Duomo throughout the past month, so we were extremely excited to see both the inside and the beautiful view from the top. I honestly don’t know if I can even describe the view from the top, it was just incredible. We felt like we could see all of Tuscany from it. We also felt like we could easily fall as the guardrail hardly went about my waist! That was certainly a difference from the high walls of pretty much every skyscraper in the United States. After about 20 minutes up there, we reluctantly trudged the 466 steps down. Following that, my friends and I got dinner at an incredibly delicious restaurant called Dante’s. I don’t think I have ever had a more delicious pesto. We then travelled to the steps of the Uffizi and listened to a random musician named Ken Mercer. He turned out to be really good and myself and my friends have a copy of his CD!
The next morning (Saturday), we travelled by bus to Siena. The trip was only about an hour and the scenery, as you might imagine, was just beautiful. There, we visited the Palazzo Publico for about 3 hours. I really only knew the Publico because Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Peaceful City/Peaceful Country were there. We had learned a great deal about these two as they’re the famous “effects of good/bad government” paintings. After that, we went to the Duomo of Siena. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be climbed like the Duomo of Florence (we asked), but the interior was definitely much more impressive and ornate than that of Florence. We followed that up with a late lunch and gelato and left Siena around 4. Our last night in Florence was spent eating at a pizzeria, drinking espresso at a café, eating gelato at a gelaterie and listening to our new friend, Ken Mercer on the steps of the Uffizi.
We woke, you guessed it, early on Sunday morning as we only had until 12:15 before our bus departed for the airport. My friends and I went to the Academia as it was extremely close to our hostel to see the real David by Michelangelo (the David in the square is actually a fake due to the fear of the effects of pollution on the read David). Unfortunately, the line was already extremely long so we just ended up walking around Florence the rest of the morning. This turned out to be a great idea, as we got one last glimpse into our new favorite city! My friend Chris and I actually rode a merry-go-round! We ate our last pizzas/pastas at a really cute restaurant and ended up having the best gelato of our trip that morning. I had many chances to hone my favorite combination and found that straciatella and dark chocolate is the best! We left around 12:30 for the airport that afternoon, tired but extremely happy to have had such an incredible adventure. I was actually really sad to leave Florence, I gained a much deeper appreciation for the city that week/weekend and can’t wait to return someday!
After our first night, we woke up early (about 6:30 am) on Thursday morning to see the Uffizi Gallery. My entire 30 person class, professor and I travelled the 4 stories of the Uffizi within about 4 hours that morning. We saw a ton of paintings that we had studied the past month which really made the whole study abroad thing seem even more valuable than it had before. For me, it was just really incredible to see the actual “Birth of Venus” by Boticelli after learning all about it just a few weeks prior to the trip. Following that, we were allowed to get lunch on our own and were expected to meet in front of the Church Santa Maria del Carmine at 2 p.m. For lunch, my friends and I had some pretty incredible paninis from a random restaurant and had our first gelato of the trip! We learned that gelatos can be more expensive than the actual meal and I learned that “rockets” on my panini are not a fun name for lettuce but actually a rather bitter leaf. At the Church Santa Maria (aka the Brancacci chapel), we saw many frescos by Masaccio! He was also one of our artists of study in the past month so, again, seeing his works right there in front of us was pretty incredible. I believe one of his most well known is the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden but I could be wrong about that. From there, we went onto “discover” the outsides of the Palazzo Medici Ricardi and the Palazzo Rucelli. We had learned about these in our class as well, mostly from a historical viewpoint. After this discovery, we convinced our professor to let us look around at a market of random shops as we were all pretty excited about souvenir shopping. My friend and I bartered for a few scarves, which was super exciting, and just walked around. It was there that we completely randomly stumbled upon the Boar’s Head that you’re supposed to rub its nose for good luck. I remembered this vaguely from my last trip to Florence about 8 years ago, but couldn’t remember why we were supposed to rub its nose. No one else seemed to know the legend, but were easily convinced and we ended up with several pictures in front of the statue! From there we went onto the town square to see the David by Michelangelo, then ended with a class dinner at the Pizzeria Cellini. The pizzeria was supposed to have some of the best cheap pizza in Florence, and I found that to be very true!
We woke up early again on Friday morning to visit the San Marco museum. Following that, we went on to see the insides of the chapel of the Palazzo Medici Ricardi where we saw several frescos by Gonzolli. After that, we were to get lunch on our own. It was then that my friends and I had a pretty epic gastronomical experience. I feel I must explain how I tired we were by that point. We had literally been on our feet for 4 hours without sitting and had gotten up much earlier than we all felt we should. So, when a nice Italian baker lady was handing out pizza frites (fried pizza), we literally jumped at the chance for an Ahthentic (get it anyone?) Italian meal. Our new friend offered us each a meal of pasta, bread, salad and a half liter of water for 5 euro! This is huge deal in Florence, but would even be considered a great deal in Luxembourg where food is much cheaper than these tourist cities. It is even cheaper if you consider that there was no “cover charge” or a “service charge.” Many restaurants would charge you a cover charge for eating at their establishment and a service charge for table service. After this awesome lunch, we met our class at the Santa Maria Novella church. This church was again, part of our studies but mostly due to Alberti, its architect. We finished touring this church around 4 and were free for the rest of the day. My friends and I realized that gave us just enough time to get to the Duomo, the Florence cathedral, and climb it before it closed! We pretty much raced across a very unfamiliar city and climbed the 466 steps to the top. Our teacher had been very emphatic about the Duomo throughout the past month, so we were extremely excited to see both the inside and the beautiful view from the top. I honestly don’t know if I can even describe the view from the top, it was just incredible. We felt like we could see all of Tuscany from it. We also felt like we could easily fall as the guardrail hardly went about my waist! That was certainly a difference from the high walls of pretty much every skyscraper in the United States. After about 20 minutes up there, we reluctantly trudged the 466 steps down. Following that, my friends and I got dinner at an incredibly delicious restaurant called Dante’s. I don’t think I have ever had a more delicious pesto. We then travelled to the steps of the Uffizi and listened to a random musician named Ken Mercer. He turned out to be really good and myself and my friends have a copy of his CD!
The next morning (Saturday), we travelled by bus to Siena. The trip was only about an hour and the scenery, as you might imagine, was just beautiful. There, we visited the Palazzo Publico for about 3 hours. I really only knew the Publico because Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Peaceful City/Peaceful Country were there. We had learned a great deal about these two as they’re the famous “effects of good/bad government” paintings. After that, we went to the Duomo of Siena. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be climbed like the Duomo of Florence (we asked), but the interior was definitely much more impressive and ornate than that of Florence. We followed that up with a late lunch and gelato and left Siena around 4. Our last night in Florence was spent eating at a pizzeria, drinking espresso at a café, eating gelato at a gelaterie and listening to our new friend, Ken Mercer on the steps of the Uffizi.
We woke, you guessed it, early on Sunday morning as we only had until 12:15 before our bus departed for the airport. My friends and I went to the Academia as it was extremely close to our hostel to see the real David by Michelangelo (the David in the square is actually a fake due to the fear of the effects of pollution on the read David). Unfortunately, the line was already extremely long so we just ended up walking around Florence the rest of the morning. This turned out to be a great idea, as we got one last glimpse into our new favorite city! My friend Chris and I actually rode a merry-go-round! We ate our last pizzas/pastas at a really cute restaurant and ended up having the best gelato of our trip that morning. I had many chances to hone my favorite combination and found that straciatella and dark chocolate is the best! We left around 12:30 for the airport that afternoon, tired but extremely happy to have had such an incredible adventure. I was actually really sad to leave Florence, I gained a much deeper appreciation for the city that week/weekend and can’t wait to return someday!
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