Week 2… Berlin, Germany & Prague, Czech Republic May 28, 2008

Well this weekend we definitely decided to leave France and go far, far away. It was a great trip though, and worth the little sleep and long train rides we had! We left Friday night for an overnight train to Berlin. We cramped 6 people into (not so much) reclining seats and rode the 11 hours or so to Berlin. The morning was a bit rough, but nothing German cappuccino couldn’t take care of. Since I had been to Berlin last year, I took the role of tour guide. It never ceases to amaze me how you can remember a city after only spending 2 days there a year before. We saw all the highlights in our short morning/afternoon there. We had a train to catch for Prague so we had to be quick. Here’s the highlights…

And of course… since it was Germany… we had to have good food and good beer right? I mean.. you have to appreciate Germany right? I took everyone to my favorite place in Berlin, Potsdamer Platz. It’s the “Times Square” of Berlin, complete with glass skyscrapers, a huge canopy covering a few awesome, yet touristy restaurants, Lego world (still haven’t been), a Sony center, and more. We drank at the beer garden and then had dinner at this huge bicycle expedition. There were live bands, tons of sausage, and alot of German bikers riding around. It’s amazing what you run into in Europe!

At the beer garden we finished off 1.5 L of beer/lemonade, 1 L of beer/Mango, and 0.5 L of beer/apple. Awesome. The sausages and potatoes with garlic sauce were especially good as well. Aww… Germany. Our last stops were the Victory Column and Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church before heading out to Prague!

After a long day of walking in Berlin, and a 4 hour train ride. We decided to get to our hostel in Prague, find an atm, have a local beer at a bar, and go to bed. Our first morning started with a free hostel breakfast (bread and bad coffee) and a 3 hour tour by a local tour guide. It’s funny how these “free tours” work. The person solely works for tips right? So you think… well it’ll be a cheap tour, she’s getting jipped, because we can pay her whatever we like as a tip. But the other tourguides stood on a sidewalk all morning waiting for a small group to approach them and pay the 20-30 euro fee for a tour. Whereas a group of about 30 young and old people find this “free tour” guide, and take her tour, and then tip her anywheres from 3-15 euros. I’m pretty sure the “free tour” guide profits more… anyways enough of my rant. She showed us the old town, starting in the Old Town Square. There is a really old astronomical clock, that you just look at and ponder for a while; wondering how in the world they had the intellectuals and technology to create such a thing 5 centuries ago. We also saw the Old Town Hall, the Jewish Quarter, some Synagogues, and Bethlehem Chapel. Prague has a crazy prejudice history, complete with witches, strict church beliefs (the earth was the center of the universe), communism, protests, and people committing suicide by burning themselves alive to protest communism. After our traditional Czech lunch (meat, potato dumplings and bad beer….) we went on the second free tour of the day. We missed the first part, but we miraculously found them on the other side of Charles Bridge. We toured the Little Quarter Square, the Church of St. Nicholas, and the Castle Quarter. We didn’t make it to the alchemist’s houses but we headed back for a sunset on the bridge, and some shopping at the touristy stops. The next morning we made it to the Museum of Communism and to the inside of some of the churches that were closed the day before because of it being Sunday. yay Prague!

pictures: 1) old town square 2) czech menu, and matt taking weird pictures 3) my travel group 4) Charles Bridge 5) Astronomical Clock 6) church 7) Church 8 ) church 9) National Theatre

Important thing learned this weekend… Take chances, we left Metz without having tickets booked for our ride home (German trains liked to be booked in Germany, and the border is an hour from Metz). However, it worked out, and we booked our trains from Prague home to Metz in Berlin

Field Trip May 23, 2008

Yesterday we went to the Lorraine American Cemetery and to see a fort near the Maginot line.  There are tons of fortresses (they’re more like caves) left from WWII, that Americans, French, and even Germans come and see.  I’m not much a war memorial person, my Dad used to always take my sister and I to see this stuff when we were little, but I was impressed by how nice they kept an American cemetery in France.  They really do appreciate what we did for them.  I’ve heard amazing stuff about Normandy, and how they even have a day where they celebrate the Americans on the beach.  I’m planning on going to Normandy and Mont Saint-Michel later this summer.

Who said the French hate Americans? May 20, 2008

After classes, Stephanie and I went to book our reservations to Prague.  Afterwards we went looking for the perfect khaki rush skirt at the new Gap in Metz (Parisian Gap yay!)  I went to Printemps (“Spring”)  a store that sells cute purses.  Basically, Eden comes back with a Longchamps bag from Printemps everytime she goes to Europe, so I have been dying for my own!  We were looking at the overpriced nylon/leather bags, when a lady tells us they had promotional ones left.  She said this in French, I got a few words,  but Steph translated for me.  She dug into a cabinet, got one, and then went into the back for a different color, “Verte.”  Yay I got two purses, each for half the original price.  One is for my sister, if she can ever let go of her Vera Bradley bags   I told my friends she’s preparing for the Vera Bradley diaper bag one day (far, far away).  See… the French love Americans… when we’re spending euros

Je suis allé à Paris! [I went to Paris] May 19, 2008

This was my third time to Paris, but I was still very excited. We thought we were not going to be able to go, because when we went to buy the ticket for Paris (we are saving our 2 month rail pass) tickets were 68 euros due to late notice. This is equivalent to 104 dollars one way. We found another route not via TGV to Paris that took twice the time, and half the money, so we were sold! We left on Friday night, and our first stop in the city was our awesome hostel (St. Christopher’s) and then the eiffel tower. Matt Fillette and I played around with my Canon Rebel on the train and we were ready to capture the twinkling lights.

The next morning we woke up early, got our free breakfast, and headed out to the Lourve. We walked from there all the way to the arc de triumph. Everyone went up to the top and viewed Paris. Then we walked to Notre Dame, and got some sandwiches for a picnic. We found some shade under a tree near the Eiffel Tower, opened some wine, and ate our lunch. It was pretty parisian. We then went to Notre Dame, and walked around the Fête du Pain (Festival of Bread) before making our way inside. Then we headed to Musee d’Orsay to see some lovely artwork from Europe. On the way, I found a lovely painting of Van Gogh’s starry night. I think it’ll match the color scheme I’m going with in my Florida apartment, so I decided to get it. Musee d’Orsay was awesome, and I saw the top floor that I didn’t get to see last time I was there. Of course my favorite was the Van Gogh section. By the time we were out, it was ready for a thunderstorm, so we ducked into a restaurant for dinner. Ashleigh and I left the group to go back to the lourve to explore, and we went to Sacre Coeur to see the Montmarte part of Paris. We all met up at the Lourve afterwards, and looked for a bar. We ended up just going back to our hostel to drink at their bar because Paris party life obviously didn’t start at 10:30.

The next morning we woke up and went to the Eiffel tower. We walked up to the top (I was really really cold) and took no pictures of anyone eiffel towering anyone (Fillette was upset).

all and all it was a terrific time!

next stop… Berlin/Prague! (hopefully)

Georgia Tech Lorraine May 16, 2008

My last semester.

Well this is it, I’m officially in Metz France, after a day of travel. I’ll be here for about 3 months, while I finish my degree. I’m taking thermodynamics, computer networking, and French 2001 ( a class I was really scared about because the teacher came in the first day and read our syllabus in French, however I later found out he did that to the French 1001 kids as well… talking about scaring someone). This is technically the 4th day I’ve been here, but I’m going to try to update my blog as much as possible. Every weekend I will have 2,3, of 4 days to explore a new part of Europe. I did this last year, but I’m really excited about this summer. I’ve met tons of new people so far, and I’m really excited about traveling with them. Today we took a tour of downtown Metz and ate at a Pizzeria, here’s a couple pictures of Metz!

May 16, 2008

Well I have 6 hours left in my major to complete before I graduate.  This past semester at Georgia Tech I took Senior Design and a Speaker Building special topics class.  I thought I would share some pictures/video from my projects because I’m pretty proud of them.  Here they go…. They explain themselves I believe…

yay!  I graduate on August 1… but first… I have to finish my study abroad at Georgia Tech Lorraine