My final voyage: Paris and London

Five weeks abroad. Wow. I can't decide if it really has been that long or not. I miss free drink refills, Mexican food, my bed, mani/pedis, and of course Dustin, my family, and friends. But

it's pretty much flown by!

This past week we had three company cultural visits. They consisted of European Parliament, the Council of Europe, and ADIRA, which is a non-profit organization funded by the Alsace region of France that promotes the land for companies to come and locate their businesses here. They definitely saved the best visits for last, because I thought they were all pretty interesting. All of the interpreters speak a minimum of 4 languages, frigging crazy. I speak 2.12 (I only speak enough Spanish and French to give me 10% and 2% credit) and I am proud.

Onwards. Thursday after our company visit, we left for Paris for the second time. All trains to London have to start in Paris because Great Britain is somewhat of a prick and requires people to go through customs and the whole shabang even though they're part of the European Union. Why they are better than everyone else in the EU and deserve special treatment, I do not know. But I guess its okay, because it gave me a chance to get a few pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower since I was what I like to call deathly ill the last go round in Paris.

Really, we only had enough time to walk up Champs Elysees again, see the Arc de Triomphe, and sit in front of the Eiffel Tower for an hour or two and watch it sparkle! It sparkles every hour on the hour. Its really pretty in person, but its pretty much impossible to get a decent picture of it sparkling. I've facebook stalked everyone on this trip, and no one has a good picture of it.

Friday morning started at 4AM with a quick shower, a walk to the train station, and saying goodbye to the land of inefficiency and absolutely no productivity (yes France, I am talking about you.) We arrived in London, got rid of our bags, and started out for a hike towards Westminster. The first thing we saw was an old english telephone booth. It was perfect. But then I started itching really badly on our walk so I checked myself out. And guess what?! I had a rash of some kind, all over me. So a trip to the doctor's later, I had some creme to put on me. Thank goodness we were in London so I could actually communicate with the doctor!

Medicined up, we strolled up to Westminster Abbey. Pretty much the whole entire church is tombs. There are dead bodies in the floor, in the walls, in the ceiling, everywhere. There are so many bodies they started putting them vertical to be more efficient with their spacing. Why William and Kate, and every other royal couple, chooses to get married there, I am not sure.

And then, just my luck, I started feeling really nauseous. So unfortunately, my Friday in London ended there. Food poisoning? Stomach bug? Why I keep getting sick here?I have no idea. I am never sick in America. I ate at the same crepe stand I ate the first time I was in Paris, so maybe I'm allergic to something in that. I have no clue. Point is, I was sick all over again. It was awful. And they were repainting the hostel we stayed in, so I was puking and breathing in tons of paint fumes all day. No bueno.

Continuing on. Saturday. Saturday I still felt awful, but I was even more sick of being in that hostel than I was sick to my stomach, so sightseeing I went! We did the London Eye, saw Parliament and Big Ben, Tower of London, London Bridge, Globe Theater, The Walrus and the Carpenters Pub, Harrod's everything. It was awesome. Here's some pictures:

And excuse me for a 99% fake smile in most pictures. Remember, I was not feeling good. God bless my friends who put up with me. :)

Now it's time to study my booty off for the final so I can make A's in both of these classes, International Finance and European Integration. Gross. And then it's time to pack. Even grosser. I have like twenty pounds of chocolate, quite a few bottles of beer, a few shirts, a few jackets, all of my H&M shopping sprees, some special gifts, and of course a beautiful new purse. How am I supposed to get all of this back? Looks like I might be paying overage fees on my checked luggage. Whoopsies!

I will see you in almost 3 days America! Can't wait!

XOXO

Victoria

The Three V's: Venice, Verona, and VRome

Bonjourno!

First and foremost, I would like to report that I am completely fluent in Italian now. Or rather, I know 'hello,' 'thank you,' 'you're welcome,' and 'please' and I am really good at making up an accent and sounding Italian at all the other words. I also have the movement of my hands perfectly down in order to seem like a real Italian! It is quite a skill... I know.

This weekend started with a bang and ended with a boom! Weekends like these do make me very thankful I have my own car and am not 100%, not even 10%, relying on public transportation. Why so do you ask? ....

Once upon a time on a very early Thursday morning at around 5AM, a young woman along with 12 of her friends departed for a fun filled weekend in the country of carbohydrates. First on the list, Venice.

After over 10 hours on the train, we finally arrived. And boy was Venice absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, we had less than 7 hours to enjoy the city so it was a very quick stop! We of course saw Saint Mark's Basilica, rode a Gondola, and ate our very first authentic Italian meal! None of which were disappointing! Words cannot describe how unique of a city Venice is. It is old and ruined, yet completely intriguing. I think Venice has been my favorite city so far, although Munich was also incredible. It was an absolutely perfect start to our weekend!

How long can things stay that amazing? Not long. At 10PM we left the island of Saint Lucia to head back to the mainland of Italy, to catch our next train to Rome. Unfortunately, our train did not leave till 3AM. So as simple mathematics calculates, we were sitting at the train station for 5 hours just waiting and wishing. Sitting for five hours is not so bad. After an encounter with a completely cracked up American who is traveling Europe with a band (although he was alone with a backpack), brushing our teeth in the train station, and feeling homeless and very dirty, our train arrived. That is the good news. The bad news, the train literally had not a single seat open. The 13 of us got very comfy sleeping in front of bathroom doors in hallways that reeked of pee for six hours. It was fabulous!

I can positively say arriving in Rome at 9:15AM and getting off of that train never felt so amazing. Well, besides for the shower I took at noon once we got to check into our hostel. So continuing on, we arrived in Rome dirty and very exhausted. We left the train station going straight to the hostel to get rid of our backpacks and freshen up for a fun-filled (and very tiring) day of touring the Ancient City! Over Friday and Saturday, we saw the Coliseum, Palatino Hill, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and Vatican City by foot, as well as everything else the city has to offer by bus! Below are a few pictures.

I will say, Rome did not incredibly impress me. It is so touristy, there is barely any italian culture left in the city. Of course as expected, its dirty, the natives hate the tourists, the food is expensive and tastes well below par. Obviously I am not at all cultured or take interest in art, because I don't see any difference between the Coliseum and the ancient ruins of amphitheaters and city centers I saw in Turkey a few years ago. Why see St. Peters Church in Vatican City when you can see the Cologne Dome in Germany with the three wise men buried there? Pope Benedict who? What is all the hype about when you can go somewhere equally as historically rich, yet with a native culture still in tact?

Anywho, so after all day Friday and most of Saturday until 6PM, we embarked onwards to our next location: Verona, home of the supposed Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague. Oh, Verona. In Verona, the biggest and main tourist attraction is of course Juliet's house, or more specifically the outside wall of Juliet's house with a balcony overlooking a garden where according to Shakespeare and not history, Romeo climbed up. Who has seen Letters to Juliet? That movie is lies!!!! In 2004 in an effort to preserve the outer facade of the home, letters were no longer allowed to be attached to the wall for Juliet's Secretaries. Instead, they now let you buy sharpie markers for 1,50euro and permanently graffiti it. And no, I am not kidding. But have no fear! I indeed left my letter for Juliet. I placed it in the gardens and bought a sharpie to leave mine (and Dustin's) mark forever!

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing in Verona and enjoying a true Italian culture. The food was delicious! The crust was homemade and thin, and better than you can imagine! And seriously, Verona is a gorgeous city. It has a beautiful town center with fountains and statues everywhere, lined by dozens of outdoor cafes. Like Venice, Verona was almost too good to be true. And indeed it was.

We had two options: a train that left at 4:30PM on Sunday and arrived in Strasbourg at 1:00AM, or a train that left at 6:30PM and arrived at 6:3oAM. Obviously, we chose the former. At 3o'clock, with a five minute taxi ride to the train station, we began trying to haul three taxi cabs, enough for all of our bottoms. As you can imagine the story ends, it was 3:55PM and multiple phone calls to the taxi station later, only one taxi had driven by anywhere of the downtown area. So 4 of us were now successfully at the train station waiting for the rest. 4:15PM, and you guessed it, a van with just enough seats for our rumps pulled up! We jumped in and told him we had to hurry and he drove off! Four blocks later, we were kicked out of his taxi because he decided we were not the group of 8 people that had been calling for a taxi. So we were left on the streets, and 8 elderly got into the taxi at the slowest rate possible. Not very happy, we decided to walk as quick as we could to the train station. And of course, we were not there at 4:32 to catch our train.

So its now 6:30PM in Verona, Italy and we're boarding our train to Basel, Switzerland. No big deal, right? Well, unfortunately no trains run from Basel to Strasbourg after 10PM so we once again, all too familiarly, sat on the floor of a train station all cuddled up for heat till our 5:15AM train to Strasbourg arriving at 6:33AM. It was 90+degrees in Verona and 50degrees in Basel. I'm cold just thinking about sitting on the tile floor in my shorts and tank top! But be proud mom, no sleep, dirty, and chilled to the bone, we all still went to class today!!

I'd like to say my weekend in Italy was exactly how it should be for 13 young Americans: spontaneous, not according to plan, and fun!

Unfortunately, I only have one more weekend left in Europe! Next weekend is London! I think my body will be happy to not inhale quite as many carbs. :)

There are many more pictures on facebook than on my blog! Look at them all here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1702299407521.2080222.1539030106

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1717156258933.2081219.1539030106

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1743827085687.2082750.1539030106

XOXO

Victoria

Brussels and Paris

Bonjour!

This past weekend, I was blessed with going to Brussels and Paris with the whole entire foreign exchange group. 32 dumb Americans walking through the streets all together at once, quite the pretty picture! Now I wish I could show you some amazing pictures I took while traveling. But unfortunately, I returned Sunday evening to my camera sitting on my bed in Strasbourg waiting for me. :(

In Brussels we got to go to the European Commission, which was quite interesting *cough, cough*. We of course ate belgium waffles, saw the pissing mannequin (yes, it is called that), and went to Delirium, a bar serving over 2000 beers. And bonus, they let you taste test for free until you found once that you liked!

The next morning we were up and off to Paris. I am bitter towards Paris. We had a long bus ride. We got there and it was 45degrees and raining. We took a boat tour which was quite possibly the most boring thing I've done in Europe. Then we took a bike tour, and the guide did not tell us a single thing. We just rode. We went to bed, woke up, went to Versailles, went to the Louvre. And this is where the story turns for the worst. I'll let you take a hint. I believe it starts with an F and ends with an OOD POISONING. It was awful. I spent most of my Saturday and all of my Sunday in the hotel bent over the toilet. Thank goodness Staci is a doctor! She skyped me and kept me company the whole time! And for this reason, I am mad at Paris.

Mad at Paris? Doesn't that sound a little extreme? I didn't finish my story. Three people on my trip ended up with food poisoning.... and we ate at different restaurants!!!! Over 72 hours and hopefully ten pounds later, I ate my first meal in Frankfurt, Germany while visiting the European Central Bank and Deutsche Bank headquarters. And let me tell you, it was the best meal of my life.

Well I am lying. One good, grand, amazing, marvelous, unforgettable event happened in Paris. No words needed.

Now, I'm off to a weekend in Venice, Rome, and Verona! Hopefully Italy leaves me healthy!

Again, I wish I had photos for you. I promise I won't forget this go around! My camera needs Italy! Italy needs my camera! It's destiny. Don't worry!

XOXO

Victoria

Dachau Concentration Camp

Here it is ladies and gentlemen: the awaited post, my time at Dachau Concentration Camp. I am not here to deceive, I was only at Dachau for less than 4 hours. But those 4 hours were 4 very, very intense hours. And therefore, I feel they deserve their very own, special post.

I honestly don't even know where to start. It was the most horrifying and devastating, yet humbling experience. Everyone has seen the pictures. Everyone has heard the stories. Everyone has read a book or two about it. But there is something about standing in the exact, unscathed room 80 years later that makes the Holocaust twenty thousand times worse than we already think it is.

Thank God I only ate a piece of bread for lunch, because otherwise I would have most definitely regurgitated it back up my throat.

Well for starters, Dachau was actually the first concentration camp which came about in 1933. It was originally intended for political prisoners, so therefore not those of the Jewish faith, gypsies, homosexuals, or mentally handicapped. The prisoners found at Dachau, at least for the first couple of years, were ordinary people just like you and me, even of the arian race, that simply just did not agree with Adolf Hitler. I don't know about you, but for me, Dachau becomes that much more of a terrifying part of history. Of course eventually Dachau was also filled with the "outcasts," because the Nazis took too many off the streets than they had bunks for in concentration camps across northern Europe.

Your experience at Dachau begins driving through a quaint, normal german village. The bus stops, and you exit in a relatively wooded area. There is a pebble path, leading to nowhere one can see from the street (besides for the visitor area hiding behind more trees only 50 feet away). You keep walking, and eventually you see what to me is the most recognized part of any concentration camp: Arbeit Macht Frei, or rather Work Sets You Free. The harder you work, the sooner you will be released was what the Nazis told the prisoners.

What was once the maintenance building where many of the prisoners worked during the day, is now converted into a museum. There of course is plenty of artifacts, stories of prisoners from Dachau, the daily life of a prisoner, the evolution of Dachau, and much more.

The barracks are next. One of the barracks with individual rooms for prisoners was original. Only prisoners sentenced to isolation, usually from revolt, were housed there. In all honestly, I couldn't walk through it. The outside of the building was enough to make me queasy. Therefore, I have no pictures of it.

There were two additional barracks, like the normal ones we think of, that were reconstructed as the originals would have been.

Next, the fence. Surprisingly similar to the Berlin Wall on the east side, there was a trench before a large wired fence guarded by watch towers every few hundred feet. If you stepped near the trench, you were yelled at. If you tried to jump over it, you were of course shot. And if you somehow were quick enough to reach the fence before being shot, electrocution awaited you.

And lastly, the crematorium. Words cannot describe how incredibly sick I felt the whole time. The ovens were original. There were mass graves, ash burials, execution ranges, a gassing room, sanitary washers for the clothes and shoes that were covered in diseases. The rooms where the bodies were piled up while waiting to be incinerated were unscathed. In those I could also not stand to walk in. I feel like detail here is not needed. But here are the pictures, if you care to see them.

The crematorium.

The ovens.

The gas room.

The original execution range, overgrown by landscape.

Now to finish on a slightly more upbeat note. When Dachau was open to the public as a memorial site, the original prisoners who still were alive came and presented this memorial. Never again will history bear such cruelty, nie wieder.

Hopefully none of my other posts are this morbid. But it was definitely an experience I will never, ever forget. And I hope my experience was enough for you that you don't feel the need to see it yourself.

XOXO

Victoria

Muenchen, Deutschland

This past weekend I was in the city of my favorite food: Munich. I spent over 100euros on food alone in three days. It was bad. But in my defense, plates at any decent restaurant start at 18euros or so and go up from there. So technically, I actually did really well. But still....

I did way too many things in Munich to make one post. Y'all would stop reading after like the third paragraph. Instead, I'm going to write about my Friday and Sunday. And tomorrow I'll post about my Saturday. Deal?

Well. We woke up at 4:30 on Friday morning to catch a train to Munich. And it was beautiful. The train was empty, so we got to sit in individual rooms on the ICE trains instead of the car with the commoners. Oh, I felt so snazzy. We arrived in Munich about noon, put our luggage away, and raced to Marienplatz, the shopping and restaurant center of Munich, to catch our bike tour of the city. Of course, being just my luck, the guy forgot he booked a bike tour for us so we were standing around for thirty minutes just waiting. In the meantime, I did however get some wonderful pictures of the Glockenspiel, this huge clock that has chimes and rotating figurines that each represent different things at certain times during the day. (It's the tower on the left side of the picture, and the two green circles at the very top are the rotating figurines.)

We got on the bikes. And let me tell you. I mean I ride my bike all over A&M's campus, I know how to ride, but riding in a downtown of a huge city is a completely different story. It was frigging hard. But have no fear, I didn't kill anyone.

Once the bike tour ordeal was sorted out, we began! He showed us tons of Munich landmarks, such as The Opera House, Residenz, White Church, Muenchen Bundestag, Hofbraeuhaus, and many more. Here is a picture of my first German meal at the Biergarten in the English Garden, which is the world's second largest Biergarten. It was unreal!

My meal consisted of a Radler, sauerkraut, and white bratwurst. Muy delicious.

But dinner that night was even better. I had roasted pork with crackled skin, a semmelknoedel (comparable to a bread dumpling but much better), and sauerkraut. It is okay if you're jealous. It was the best meal ever.

After the best meal ever, we of course did none other but go to the Hofbraeuhaus, otherwise known as the Royal Brewery. To give you an idea of how absolutely fabulous this beer is, a commoner was not allowed to drink it until after the beer had been brewed for 230 years. All kings before King Ludwig I thought the beer was only fit for a king, and none others should have access.

Ironically enough, the Hofbraeuhaus in Munich is also the site where Hitler held his very first public speech as a Nazi.

Being in the capital of the most german state of Germany, Bavaria, of course the beers only come in one size; the size for german men. It took me close to an hour to finish my liter. And my pitcher for my ring dunk is obviously bigger than one liter. I am officially slightly nervous for my ring dunk now. Once we got about 2/3rds of the way finished with our liter, we had a chugging competition. A third of a liter was enough chugging for me... how am I supposed to do a full pitcher? Goodness!

Saturday, we visited Dachau Concentration Camp and Residenz, the home of the Bavarian royalty. But like I said, that will be tomorrow's post! So get excited! Whoop!

Sunday, I went to visit my dear friends in Aschaffenburg, where I previously studied abroad. Now, get this. The train I was traveling on was going this fast:

Thats 187 mph! Frigging ridiculous! German ICE trains for the win, ladies and gentlemen. And it even got a little faster than that, I just snapped the picture of the 300.

Unfortunately, I was only in Aschaffenburg for a few hours. But while I was there, we walked around the castle, ate lunch at a Cuban restaurant (so delicious), and of course went out for dessert. What's a good meal without a fabulous dessert?

And don't forget, you can always check out my facebook pictures, even if you don't have a facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1702299407521.2080222.1539030106

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1717156258933.2081219.1539030106

Until tomorrow!

XOXO

Victoria

Since day two....

Well. I'm already miserably failing at the whole blogging thing. All of last week, I didn't feel like I had enough to write about to make up a full blog post, so I just never wrote. But now, a week later and a weekend in Munich, I have way too much! So here's my plan. Expect a post a day until I catch up. I won't bore you with throwing it all into one ridiculously long post.

Today we'll cover my first week in Strasbourg.

On Monday the 30th, we went to the Mercedez-Benz factory in Rastatt, Germany. She told us about the world's first car, which is confusing. Hello, Ford?? And then she showed us the new hydrogen car Mercedez is producing. It takes only hydrogen as its fuel, and its exhaust is 100% vaporized water. They've already released 500 to the public. I think that is pretty dang cool. After that, we got to go back into the factory where the steel is punctured and the car is assembled. Unfortunately, they made us put our camera away once we actually started the tour of the facility. I did however catch one wearing my sexy 'VIP- Visitors in Production' jacket.

After Mercedes, we ran home and changed and went to yet another castle. I feel like that is what Europe is for. Churches and castles. How many do you have to go to before its enough? I was not very impressed by the castle. But our tour guide was however the most detailed and confusing person I have ever met in my life. The view from the top though is gorgeous.

On Thursday, we went to this park in Strasbourg called L'Orangerie, and it had this mini-zoo. And we saw peacocks. I was amazed.

That night, we decided we were tired of Strasbourg and tired of french food. Thank goodness we are right on the border. So guess where we went to? That's right, Kiel, Germany. Just a skip, hop, and swim across the Rhein River away.

Thursday was actually a holiday. It was ascension, which we don't really celebrate in America. Regardless, that's when Jesus ascended (get the name) back to His Kingdom after being resurrected.

So, the Europeans loving all Easter-related-holidays and loving to party even more, of course they held a huge festival for ascension, which we did not know when we decided to go to Kiel, Germany for the evening. But man am I glad we did randomly go to Germany that night. It was so much fun, and a perfect break from the boring french food.

There were sausage stands, tons of beer, live bands (which did in fact play Hanson), dancing and the whole shabang. Unfortunately the last bus back to Strasbourg leaves at 9:55, so we did not get the full experience. But that's still alright.

Yes, I did eat the best bratwurst sandwich in my life and I may or may not have stolen a Pils glass. You will never know.

Well that's all for now, ladies and gentlemen. Watch out for another post tomorrow about my time in Munich last weekend!

XOXO

Victoria