Italian Adventures: Rome and Venice

One week ago I was sitting in the Venice airport preparing to fly back to Köln, Germany. Today, I am sitting in the Hong Kong airport preparing to fly to Bangalore, India. To say my life this past week has been a whirlwind would be an understatement. I'll go more into detail in another post, but for now I want to jot down my memories of Rome and Venice before they get too far in the past!

My last day of work, Tuesday Aug 14th, was also my birthday. However, I didn't do much raucous celebrating because I had to be up early the next day to hop on a plane to Rome. My flight to Rome was nice and short and I got to see aerial views of the Alps, not too shabby. I arrived in Rome about 6 hours earlier than my travel companion Shane. I wandered the streets with my backpack and discovered how damn HOT it is in Rome. Phew! I also accidentally found the Colosseum. That was cool. Then I finally met up with Shane after some confusion with our hostel situation. We had booked one hostel with Hostelworld, but when we got there they were closed for renovations so we were moved to a hostel a couple of blocks away. The hostel we ended up in was fantastic and we met some great people! Our first night in Rome consisted of wandering the streets with our new Canadian friends and drinking the most delicious wine I've ever had!

Look what I accidentally found!

Oh hey. 

Arch of Constantine and the Colosseum

Hostel madness.

Thursday we spent the whole day wandering around the city. Shane, the Canadians Vic and Heather, and myself set off toward the Vatican City early in the morning. We only got a little lost on the way, and it wasn’t bad because getting lost included finding the Pantheon.  It’s remarkable how something so old can still be so intact! Eventually we made it to the Vatican, only to find out that it was closed because of some sort of religious holiday… or restoration work… Regardless, we were a little discouraged but headed back across the city to the Colosseum. On our way we found some incredible gelato (the best I had in Italy!). The Colosseum was awesome. Absolutely awesome. As a Civil Engineering student I think I might have a greater appreciation for structures that have truly stood the test of time. The Colosseum is one of these structures. It’s massive and sturdy, and it really makes you wonder how people were capable of designing and building something like this so long ago. The only struggle with the Colosseum was that it was SO HOT, and shade was minimal. After all the walking and sightseeing we did that day, we treated ourselves to a nap before our hostel’s free spaghetti and disco party. Oh yes, spaghetti and disco do go well together. That night we met a lot of awesome people at our hostel and sort of found ourselves leading an unofficial pub crawl of about 20 people. Absolute chaos.

Oh hey Pantheon!

Awesome Piazza and Fountain on the way to the Vatican.

Off duty Gladiators.

St. Peter's off in the distance!

The best gelato ever. Ever.

Made it to the Colosseum! 

Insanely cool!

You'd think after 22 years of gingerdom, I'd know better...

On Friday we woke up again with the mission of seeing the Vatican. The day before we paid up for advance tickets that let us skip waiting in line at the Vatican museum.  Still, even with being able to skip the line, we still had a lot of waiting and herding that came along with the Vatican Museum. I couldn’t believe how many people they funnel through that museum every day. There were so many beautiful tapestries, paintings, and sculptures but no way to see them all with the hoards of people. At times I got very frustrated with the crowds, but seeing the Sistine Chapel made the trip worth it. I even had to buy a knee covering skirt in order to enter the chapel, but it was still worth it. Probably something I’ll never want to do again, but I’m glad I did it when I did. After the Vatican Museum, Shane and I walked around St. Peter’s Square for a bit before heading to Palatine Hill. Our ticket from the Colosseum they day before also got us into the Palatine Hill area which included the old Roman Forum. It was a lot of cool ruins and also a lot of walking around in the hot sun. After another long day of walking we treated ourselves to another nap before the hostel’s free cocktails and disco party. Like I said, we had an awesome hostel. That evening we went out again with a big group of hostel people and had a blast.

Totally frowned upon pic. But look at Genesis!

The most interesting and delicious pizza I've ever had.

The view from Palatine Hill! 

Hostel friends!

Saturday we woke up and checked out of our hostel. We set out to see some more sights before hopping on our train to Venice. Shane and I walked to Piazza di Popolo, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps before setting out. The Trevi Fountain was truly beautiful, and we got there early enough that there weren’t very many people there yet! I was very proud of our last minute Roman sightseeing with our backpacks in tow.

Shane and I at the Trevi Fountain!

Me on the Spanish Steps!

Our train ride to Venice was about 3.5 hours and upon arrival we bought a map and our Rolling Venice passes. With these passes we got 72 hours of travel on the Venice water taxis for 18 euros. We water taxied to our hostel and on the way got a brilliant taste of Venice’s beauty. The canals and houses are a magical sight to behold. Our hostel wasn’t as nice as our Rome hostel, but the man who runs the Venice hostel cares a lot about his customers. He made great suggestions about what to do and see and introduced us to another hostel visitor from Poland. After finishing check in, Shane, our new friend Karina, and I walked all around Venice. We had a great time making our way through the winding “roads” of Venice. I say “roads” because there really aren’t any cars on Venice. We made our way to Piazza San Marco and then back to the hostel relatively early because we had a long day!

Piazza San Marco! 

Masks everywhere!

On Sunday we got up early and headed to the beaches of Lido, an island near the main Venice Island. The beach was a very relaxing and… interesting experience. There were tons of urchins trying to sell us crappy sunglasses, and there were also locals tanned to a crisp. It’s safe to say that I was the palest person on the beach, and I had to apply sunscreen about every half hour. Shane and I stayed on the beach for the morning and most of the afternoon, and when the sun started to get way too hot we packed up and headed back to the main island. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering more around Venice. We even found the old Ghetto! Venice is home to the first ever ghetto, and the term was even formed there. It’s home to the Jewish population, and many Jewish people still live there today. That evening we hung out in the Margarita Square where our hostel is located. We met some other people from our hostel; two Americans from Louisville (small world!) who study film and just got done working in broadcasting for the Olympics, and a Belgian guy named Jef that biked, yes BIKED, all the way from Belgium to Venice (took him about a week biking all day long!).

Rockin' the paleness on Lido!

On the Ponte di Rialto!

Monday was our last day in Venice, and we still had a lot that we wanted to see. We took the water taxi to the island of Murano, which is famous for glass blowing. We say a live glass blowing demonstration and got to walk through lots of shops and admire the glass creations. After Murano, we water taxied to Burano, another small island near Venice. Burano is known for lace making and all the houses are painted brightly with different colors. It was an awesome sight to behold! We also found a great pizza joint and had some delicious pizza for lunch! After eating it was time for us to head back to Venice and check out of the hostel. Then we took a miserable, AC-less, bus ride to the airport and before we knew it we were flying back to Germany.

Awesome blown glass creation on Murano!

Great pizza on Burano!

Beautiful Burano houses!

This Italy trip was everything that I wanted it to be and more. I saw everything that I had dreamed of seeing, and met tons of cool people along the way. It was equal parts exhausting and relaxing, and there was never a dull moment. I ate and drank like a queen and got to see the legacies of old emperors. Italy was a perfect way to end my time in Europe, and a great inspiration for future visits. There is so much more that I want to see in Italy, so I’m sure I will be back someday!

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag!

Yes, that's right, I just wished myself happy bday auf Deutsch on my own blog. I can't help it! I am just so excited because not only does today mark my 22nd year on the planet, but it is also my last day of work! Also, tomorrow I jet off to Rome to meet up with fellow ICPer Shane where we will adventure around for a few days before heading to Venice for a couple more days. It's my last big trip before I head back to the states - which is in 8 days by the way. Incredible how fast five months fly by! Ahh!

So birthdays in Germany are a little different than they are in the USA. Parties aren't thrown by friends for the birthday girl/boy... the birthday girl/boy throws the party for their friends. I'm not having a party, but I did bake a cake last night (carrot cake of course, and I hope it tastes as good as it smelled) and carried it all the way to work. At work people just come into my office and wish me well and eat some of my cake and are on their merry way. No fanfare, no fuss, just good efficient happy birthday wishing. It's the German way.

Copenhagen!

This past weekend Michelle and I met up in glorious Copenhagen, Denmark! I flew with Air Berlin and experienced ridiculous delays in my Berlin layover. We sat on the runway for about 2 hours without moving! The flight from Berlin to Copenhagen is only 40 minutes! It was just simply ridiculous. I finally got to Copenhagen about 2 hours behind schedule, all the currency exchanges were closed at the airport, and naturally I got lost on my way to the hostel. Michelle thought I died, but I eventually made it, and we even found our other ICPers Zack and Dylan. Our hostel was so awesome and located right in the heart of the night life. After my stressful travels it was only fitting that we hit the town, and so we did!

Saturday morning we woke and at 11:00 headed to another one of Sandeman's free walking tours.  I can't recommend these tours enough - always highly entertaining and quite affordable. We had a great British tour guide named Simon and he was in full support of Michelle and I enjoying Carlsberg on our tour. I'm really going to miss socially acceptable public day drinking, it's just grand. During our tour we saw the Danish Royal Palace, the picturesque Nyhavn harbor, Danish Parliament, and much more! We enjoyed our tour guide so much that we bought tickets to the Pub Crawl that Sandemans puts on. After the tour, we followed our noses and sought out some delicious Indian food. After we ate ourselves into a food coma, we took a little nappy nap before the pub crawl. When we woke up we met the other people in our room, an Aussie named Zach, two Austrians whose names I forget, and the unforgettable Benny from Germany. He had the most hilarious German accent whenever he spoke English, and he humored us and helped us speak auf Deutsch. We couldn't convince our new hostel friends to pub crawl with us, but it was ok because we met back up with Zack and Dylan and made plenty of new friends. We met a group of girls from Switzerland, and awesome chick from Sweden, and people from all over the place!

Drankin' and tourin'

Power Island

Copenhagen :)

Fast-forward to Sunday. Michelle, Zach, Benny and I decided to check out the free state of Christiania, a neighborhood commune in Copenhagen that has their own laws and it basically just a crazy place. Weed is pretty legal there, and by pretty legal I mean I saw one of those giant bricks of weed like you see in the movies. The place was insane, and so dirty. After we had our fill of squalor, we headed back to our sweet hostel and napped on these awesome couch/bed things. Then Benny convinced Michelle and I to accompany him to Tivoli Gardens. The park opened on August 15, 1843 and is the second oldest amusement park in the world. It was a money pit, and not very exciting, but it was rather cute. I think I'm just spoiled from Cedar Point, best amusement park in the world! Still, Tivoli was adorable as was the entire city of Copenhagen. I think the best part of the weekend was meeting all sorts of people from all over the world. I'm really going to miss that when I'm back in the states, which is in 16 days but who's counting? Also, did I mention that Shane and I booked flights and we're going to Rome and Venice as a final hurrah? ADVENTURES!

The crazy couch bed things.

Adorable lil Tivoli

Greenservations 8: Schrebergärten

It seems to me like 'Urban Farming' and 'Urban Gardening' is becoming all the rage in the states lately. I personally love the idea. Re-purposing unused urban space to grow food has a myriad of environmental benefits. Urban gardens are a better use of space. They can replace unused lots or buildings that are causing unnatural run off. Eating food from an urban garden also reduces the carbon footprint of the food because the transportation from origin to plate is significantly decreased. Plus, getting outside and gardening  every once in a while is good for you!

The Germans realized these environmental and health needs around the time of industrialization and urbanization. Large amounts of people were moving off their rural farms into the city to work. Around the mid 1800s, a doctor named Daniel Gottlob Moritz Schreber was writing publications that dealt with the subject of children's health and social consequences of urbanization during the Industrial Revolution. He is credited with starting the "Schreber Movement" which emphasized the importance of fresh air and appreciation of nature. This movement also started organized allotment gardening, or Schrebergärten.

I was pretty confused when I saw my first Schrebergärten. They kind of look like a mini neighborhood with little huts for houses. It is pretty rare for Germans to have a house with a yard since a majority of people live in apartments. My roomies informed me that the little plots of land are passed down through the generations, and it's pretty hard to get one! They have also told me that living in your Schrebergarten hut is frowned upon, but throwing parties in your Schrebergarten is encouraged. A little party/chill spot that provides you with health benefits and sustainable agriculture? The Germans know whats up.

I've turned into the quiet girl

I've always been a talkative person. I like to have conversations, I don't like to argue. I'm the kind of person that can have a nice chat with almost anyone. Heck, I was voted "Most Outgoing" by my peers in high school.

But here in Germany, I've turned into the quiet girl. I blame this on the fact that I am currently at the frustrating point in language learning where I can understand the gist of what people are saying, but I just can't think of a gramatically correct response quick enough. Rather than speaking incorrectly, I usually just don't speak at all. I usually just nod along, peppering in a ja genau here and there.

This frustrates me. I want people to get to know me but I don't know how to do this without talking to people. I feel like my co-workers think that I'm an anti-social mute, which, if you know me, could not be further from the truth. I also like to think that I have a pretty good sense of humor, but I have no clue how to show it to people over here. My German skills aren't strong enough to tell jokes or use sarcasm (do Germans even use sarcasm?). I feel like it's been months and no one over here really knows the real me because well, I've turned into the quiet girl.

Today is August 1st which means that I've got a mere 3 weeks left in Germany. I can't believe that 5 months is almost up! I am really REALLY bummed that my ICP year got shafted with the semester conversion, thus cutting our time abroad short.  Not only do I feel like I'm not going to have my German speaking breakthrough, but I'm also missing Oktoberfest. I mean c'mon that's just cruel.

As you can tell, I'm feeling very frustrated today. RAWR. However I'm also really excited because this weekend Michelle and I are meeting up in Copenhagen! Also, I finally bought tickets for my final travels. Shane (another ICP guy) and I are going to travel to Rome and Venice before finally heading back to the states. Prepare for the fastest 3 weeks ever! Bis später!