There's a kindergarten and a church in the Red Light District?

Amsterdam. A place where anything goes. We did an overnight bus ride and arrived in the city at about 6 AM but there was no sleeping because our walking tour started at 8 right after breakfast (I'm sure you getting the idea by now that we slept very little over these 10 days). Our tour guide took us through several... interesting (to say the least) places beginning of course with the Red Light District. There were some prostitutes sitting in windows even at 8 AM. We went on another tour later in the evening and it was ridiculous. There is an elite street (the hot women) and a cheap street (the not so hot women). While the girls are waiting for a guy to tap on their window they are just casually reading a book or talking on their phones as if they aren't standing half naked in a glass window. It really was the craziest thing I have ever seen. And yes down the street from one of the sex shops was a kindergarten..I'm not sure why but apparently that's how accepted prostitution is in Amsterdam. The church though does have a purpose. Back in the day men who used to be tempted to stop by a sex shop after work would stop by the church and pay to go to confession because they felt so bad about sinning and cheating on their wives. This was the churches way of making money and it seemed to work because it was a beautiful church.

Doing a complete 360..we went to see Anne Frank's house. First of all the line was out the door and around the corner. We waited for about an hour but it completely worth it. Again, learning about Anne Frank from a text book and being in her bedroom where her actual magazine clips are still on the walls and her and her sister's measuring wall where they measured how tall they were growing is still intact are two completely different experiences. The annex was up an extremely high and skinny staircase and the windows are still blacked out. I hate to admit that I have never read the whole book "The Diary of Anne Frank" but have been inspired to do so after going to visit the annex where the hid. There was a horribly sad video clip that played at the end of the tour through the house about Anne's friend. Her friend saw her one day from across the fence in a concentration camp but was unable to get to her. Occasionally her friend would throw her food.  She said they only got to see each other once because Anne died shortly after this. Her friend made it out safely though.

The coffee shops in Amsterdam do not serve real coffee..but they are a lot of fun. What they do here is not legal (even though I thought it was in Amsterdam) but the police view them as "coffee shops" and ignore what goes on inside them.

We were in Amsterdam for two full days so the second day we went to the Heineken Museum to see how beer is made. It was a very hands on museum and I even learned how to draft the perfect beer!

Food in Amsterdam was pretty good. They have this place called Wok to Walk which is like a Stir Crazy but to go. There is a lot of American fast food too. We went to this place where the have pancakes which Amsterdam is known food and they were soo good. I got a salty pancake with eggs and mushrooms. It was like a breakfast burrito. I've been craving some good breakfast food since Italy doesn't do big breakfasts at all.

Amsterdam was a beautiful town with lots of canals and a tonnnn of bikes. The bikers are insane and will literally run you over if you happen to get into the bike lane (which I would strongly advise steering clear of).

Buuuurlin

My memory of Berlin consists of 2 things: sadness and cold cold weather. We only spent one night and day in Berlin. The first night we did the usually pub crawl with our tour group which was fun and then struggled to wake up for our walking tour of the city. This morning was particularly difficult not only due to the hangover but due to the freezing cold weather. It was cloudy, cold, and a bit rainy which really set the mood for the day. Most of the walking tour consisted of a lot of World War II history (Berlin Wall, Check Point Charley, the grounds of where Hitler's bunker was). The Berlin Wall was by far the coolest thing on the tour. Although I thought it would be taller some of the stories our tour guide told us about people trying to jump over it, hang glide over it, and dig beneath it were very interesting.  She told us one story about a man who hid his mother in law underneath the carpeting of the car and installed a special seat to fold down for his wife. When they got to one of the checkpoints he flung her seat backwards and floored it through the checkpoint right underneath one of the barriers.  After this the barriers were lowered so that it could not be done again.  I can't believe people were separated from their friends and families for such a long time. I couldn't imagine going to bed one day and waking up being told I could not go past a certain point regardless of who was there.

After the walking tour we took a train to Sachsenhausen which was a concentration camp on the outskirts of Berlin. As I said before the overcast and dark weather truly set the mood. It was an extremely eerie feeling being on the grounds of a place like this. The horrible murders that went on here still linger in the air. It was very empty when we went which was an even eerier feeling. We walked through the barracks and saw the beds squished together and toilets. We walked past a few memorials where the names of the victims was an extensive list. The most shocking part of all was going to the ovens. They are still fully intact. Part of me wishes that they were completely knocked down just so that we can forget it ever happened. We learn so much about WWII in school but going to a concentration camp was a completely different experience. Seeing the remains of what went on here truly made me thankful for the type of world we now live in.

We also went to a Holocaust Memorial which consists of several pillars all at different heights. Some were very low to the ground and others were towering over my head. As I walked through the memorial it is hard to keep track of the people you are with and sound bounces off the pillars in a bizarre way. The artist of this memorial wanted people to get lost in thought and remember those who were victims in the Holocaust. It is also said that the different heights of the pillars is supposed to make us realize that such a wide range of people were effected.

So..now that I have made Berlin seem like the coldest, saddest place on earth I'll prepare you for my next stop: AMSTERDAM!!!

The Holocaust Memorial

Gates of Sachsenhausen

The ovens

Bunks through the window of a barrack

The Berlin Wall

Bagels and 90s music..Prague was awesome

So I just got back from 10 days of crazy traveling and long hours on the bus but it was totally worth it. We started out our trip with a 12 hour ride to Prague. We did a walking tour of the city with this guy Issac who was one of the funniest people I have ever met in my entire life. The first night we were there we did a pub crawl which was a ton of fun. The second day we braved our hangovers and did some exploring on our own. We went to the castle and cathedral that sits high on a hill overlooking the entire city. We got STARBUCKS (coffee in Italy is small and not nearly as satisfying as Starbucks if i didn't tell you all this already). Then we went the Lennon Wall which was pretty awesome. Its full of quotes about peace and love and was painted over several times before the government gave up and let people draw on the wall. We even added our own addition to the wall with our initials. Not only was Prague my favorite city of the entire trip because of the awesome sights we saw, but the had BAGELS!!!! Bagels are nowhere to be found in Florence so this was awesome! We went to an 80s and 90s music video dance club the second night we were there which was awesome and brought me back to my childhood with the spice girls and backstreet boys.  We also tried some  traditional Czech food. I had Goolash (spellling?)  which was actually pretty good to my surprise. Going out in Prague can get a little crazy though because absinthe, an alcohol that is illegal in America is completely legal there. So lets just say we all made it out alive.

So basically Prague was awesome. How could you go wrong with 90s music and bagels? I never really knew much about Prague but now that I've been there I would go back in a heartbeat!

Living an even richer life in Monte Carlo

This past weekend my friend's dad took 5 of us to Monaco. We stayed in an amazing Hotel in Monte Carlo right behind the Casino. It is truly the richest place I have ever been to. I only played 5 Euro in the slot machine because I was scared and won 11 so that was exciting! One of my roommates won 105 Euro and then we proceeded to spend 99 of it on room service later that night. How you might ask does one spend 99 Euro on food..well lets just say a burger was 33 Euro. RIDICULOUS! I also tried snails and they were actually very good with the right type of sauce on them. We went to the Buddha Bar for dinner and drinks one night. (Google it its so cool).

I also learned a lot on this trip. For starters I thought Monte Carlo was in France..its not. Monaco is a country of its own even though its so tiny. They also have royalty there and we went on a tour of the castle. I wish I could have taken pictures to show you all the art work and pottery it was so beautiful in the castle. I would love to go to London to see the changing of the guards but since the pound is double the dollar I doubt I'll be going there..so instead we watched the changing of the guards in Monaco which was a much smaller ordeal but still fun.

The weather was great and I came home with a little bit of a tan!! The sad news is that its pants and sweatshirt weather finally here in Florence =[  I can't believe midterms are next week. Time is absolutely flying by. Tomorrow we are going to the Euro Chocolate Festival in Perugia on a field trip. Yep I'm sure it will have no educational value. We are going with nutrition but we haven't been learning about chocolate at all..and chocolate is not nutritious so..i'm not sure how this fits into the curriculum but I'm certainly not complaining!

After midterms its time for our big bus trip: Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris! YAYYY (I better get some sort of sleeping pills for this bus ride)

Pear Ravili

Making the pasta from scatch

Yogurt with fresh blueberry sauce and gram cracker crumbles

Tanning weather!

The pool at our hotel

Hotel de Paris (my friend's dad stayed in this 5 star hotel)

The Castle!

The marina

Monte Carlo Casino

the marina at night

view from our hotel room (there were always 2-3 cruise ships)

the casino at night

trying a lot of new slimy foods..

Living the rich life in San Moritz Switzerland

We started out our weekend by taking a 4 hour bus ride to Lake Como. Lake Como was so nice and we got time to shop around and have lunch. I tired to get an iced coffee..but they put plum wine in it for flavor and it was so weird! Haha i guess I better stick to getting espresso here. We also to a ferry to Bellagio Italy where we got to hang out on the other side of Lake Como and see many beautiful old villas. I would definitely take a house here!

I've always wanted to see the snowy alps and this weekend I finally got to do it! We took a 2 hour ride on the Bernina Express through the Swiss Alps after getting a chance to view the adorable town of San Moritz.  Although it was the coldest weather I have experienced here in Europe it might have been my favorite place so far (I feel like I say that every weekend). It was just so peaceful and the scenes were unreal. Our tour guide told us we had just missed about a foot of snow that melted last week! It was craziness compared to the 75-80 we still have here in Florence. I broke out my new boots and scarves though! Anyways as we toured through San Moritz we learned that it is becoming hard for locals to continue living there because it is becoming extremely expensive due to its growing popularity. I feel bad for the locals who live there and are being forced out of there homes..its sad. The school house was the cutest thing I have ever seen and has a gorgeous view of the Alps. Right next to the school house is the Palace Hotel, which is a five star extremely expensive hotel. The kids in the school next door get the same exact view from all their classrooms and their basketball court. I sure would love to work there. They use Francs in Switzerland not Euros.. personally..I think everyone in the world she use the same currency..this is getting confusing!

Going to Switzerland also made me realize how much I wish I was fluent in more than one language. Although I have taken a few years of Spanish and now am taking beginner Italian I am nowhere near fluent in either of them. In Switzerland they have 4 national languages: German, Italian, and Romansh and French. I asked a girl which language she was taught in school and she said all 4 but mostly in German because she was from the German speaking area. She also told me they had to take either Spanish or Japanese as foreign languages in school. But waittttt they all somehow know perfect English! People in Europe are way cooler than us pretty much and I'm jealous! We stumbled upon a country music festival on Saturday night where we heard all American songs. I am constantly surprised by the amount of English that is spoken here.

Yes Switzerland is famous for its chocolate and yes I tried it and yes it was delicious!

The bus home was kind of rough because we hit so much traffic but definitely worth it! Went into the Duomo today with art class and was amazed. Although I pass by it every single day I've never actually been inside and all I can say is it is HUGE! Off to Monte Carlo to do some gambling on Friday!!

Bernina Express

Some Swiss Chocolate

Bellagio