Archive for June, 2011

Venice and Murano

Well…sorry for the late post. I know that I said that I wanted to post every day, but I have been pretty preoccupied. With what? Books. I have been rereading the Stravaganza series because they are all set in an AU Italy. I’ve read three of the series since getting here, and something about reading makes me want to blog less. But enough excuses! The past two days have been quite exciting!

Friday: Venice!
On Friday, my main task was to try and meet up with two of my friends from America at 2 pm. But that meant that I had around 4 hours to kill. I still hadn’t finished writing all of my postcards, so I decided to meander down to Piazza S. Pietro and then head east along the southern coast of Venice. So that is what I did. The window shopping on the way there was fun and I managed to find an awesome necklace for only 1,50€. Then I wandered down by the water until I found a nice little bench to sit upon. Here is a picture:


The view from the bench was also quite nice:

Although Venice is mostly buildings, the southeastern corner of the city is dominated predominately by trees and parks. Quite restful!:

After writing my post cards, reading my book, and eating a nectarine in the park, I headed back to meet up with my friends. Here we are!:

We didn’t do much for the rest of the day. We pretty much just hung around the city and chilled. I did buy a coffee (surprise I know…I don’t usually drink coffee). But I bought the coffee so that I could use the restroom at a restaurant. And the coffee tasted a lot better than I expected:

Saturday: Murano!
For some inexplicable reason, my friends had no desire to go to the island of Murano. (Well…it isn’t that inexplicable. They didn’t want to pay the money to go there. But it was totally worth it to me.) So on Saturday I headed out to see Murano by myself. I got to see one of the glass masters blowing glass and making a horse statue! It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. He has to form all of the glass before it gets cold and hard. Here is a picture of the process!:

The island of Murano was, in my opinion, even prettier than Venice itself. Here is a picture of the shops:

I managed to find a DESPAR grocery store and was able to stock up on some food for today, since I am certain that the grocery stores are all closed today. I then went window shopping. All of my restraint was needed to keep me from buying one of those cute little glass sculptures with the fishes inside. But I did end up buying a colorful glass dish for 5€. I actually need this dish because I have been using a cute chicken shaped egg cup to store my odds and ends on my desk, but the egg cup is actually my roommate’s, so I should probably give that back. Then I went and got a pizza:

Yummy!
After that I decided to head back to the mainland and relaxed by reading on a bench in a square near my hostel.
I actually have quite a few more pictures, but right now I should probably be getting out and about. I’ll try to post the rest of the pictures later!

2011
06/26
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Day One in Venice!

Well…after I finally got out of the door and went around and saw things, the day became pretty great. Venice is, in my opinion, not really a historical city full of historical monuments. It is really a romantic city with beautiful architecture lining the canals and alleys. It really isn’t a city in which one dashes from one historical attraction to another in hopes that they will manage to see everything that there is possibly to see. It is a city where one strolls through the alleys contemplating existence. =D

I did just that. Well…I didn’t really contemplate existence. I am already 100% certain that God created man and that we can only become fully satisfied by joining with Him in order to fulfill His desires. But I was contemplating…rather more romantic thoughts. You know. The future. Engagement. Marriage. Kids. Life. Somehow Venice just…makes you think about it. I think it is because the streets of Venice are much like life. They twist and turn, and although you are often positive that you are going in the right direction, you can never see more than 50 meters ahead of you at any given time. You are forced to turn constantly and when you come out, you eventually realize that you came out in a different place than you had planned to in the first place. But the walk there was so enjoyable that you don’t even mind.

In any case…I wasn’t actually intending on being philosophical. Normally I am not a bit philosophical, but the analogy was a good one, so I just went with it. I guess Venice has that effect on me. Here are some pictures!

I raided a grocery store and made this huge sandwich which served as both my lunch, my dinner, and my snacks (plus a bit leftover)! Yummy!

Chocolate gelato is TO DIE FOR!!!!

They have a whole bunch of little cute glass figurines with little fish inside of them. A lot of them are of a faucet with a water drop coming out of it, but I really liked these ones! The fish is inside the kitty! Naughty kitty! But since the prices of those kitties are really expensive, I just took a picture instead. There were even a few mini octopuses inside of the glass pieces as well. There are a lot of little shops selling glass stuff. The island Murano is not too far away, and Murano is famous for their glass! I am definitely going to take a trip over there while I am here. And maybe I will break down and buy a cute little piece of glass with a little fish in it. I mean…I just know that such a figurine would make me smile all day long!

The Palazzo Ducale!

Isola di S. Giorgio Maggiore!

The bridge of sighs…or at least the commercialized version.

Well….I think I am going to go read a book! It is my vacation after all, and I do love reading so. This book is about Venice again…or at least an AU 1600 Venice. It is “Stravaganza – The City of Masks”. Quite a good read. And I think that Venice was actually made with reading in mind. It is quite a relaxing atmosphere and on my vacation I definitely prefer laying in bed to running around somewhere…

2011
06/23
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At the new hostel!

Iree is a pice of Venice am actually updating this from my smartphone (with WiFi. i disabled 3g to save €). The hostel I went to last night was quite….interesting. I was placed in a room with 12 beds (6 rickety metal bunkbeds). I was also on the top bunk. hmmm…probably should have taken a picture of that…but i hate taking pictures. I only booked that hostel for one night because my flight was so late and the hostel I wanted to stay at (this one) doesn’t allow check-in after 10 pm. So for last night I decided to book at the cheapest hostel I could find. But it felt safe and despite the rickety beds and the fact that they didn’t turn the lights out until 1 pm, I got exactly what I paid for. I probably even would have been able to sleep if I didn’t have a really annoying ear infection. Yeah. It isn’t that bad or anything. I got it checked out at the doctor last sunday, but last night there was so much pressure. Oh well. I am just taking ibuprofen and hoping that tonight it is a lot better. But now I am in my new hostel and it it is very nice and comfortable, especially in comparison to the last one. Hopefully no one here will find it necessary to talk extremely loudly to one of her friends at two in the morning about how much she hates Justin Bieiber. Seriously? I think it is necessary to talk about Justin Bieber just about…never. And at 2 am? When there are 9 other people already sleeping in the same room?

In any case, I may have to use my smartphone to blog afterall. My adaptor for my laptop doesn’t work here. It is a european adaptor, but the metal prongs on the plug are just a hair too large. It works for my smartphone though. 😉 But maybe that means that I can update my blog while I am out and about. Might be fun huh?

I probably should get off my bed and go out and explore the city now…but I am a tad bit scared because it maps are almost useless here…the streets aren’t really marked. Oh well. I am in Venice, so I’ll just have to do as the Venicians do.

He

2011
06/23
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Arrival! (Safely and without mishap)

The tedium of travel faded away as I lost my self in “The Daughter of Venice” as well as the first two installments of the Three Investigators (“The Secret of Terror Castle” and “The Stuttering Parrot”). I know, I know. The Three Investigators have absolutely nothing to do with Venice. But I have been meaning to reread them for some time now and I figured this was as good a time as ever. After I finished with “The Stuttering Parrot”, I started reading a generic mystery novel that I found for free online. Why this choice? Because I know that if I had begun to read the Foundation series (which was my first choice) even Venice would probably not have been able to distract me from my Kindle. But a generic mystery novel? It can wait.

It is really a beautiful city. I took this photo from my smartphone (it leaves something to be desired…but then again…so did my regular point-and-shoot):

That’s the Grand Canal! (I just found the night setting on my phone. So if I have to take any more pics after sundown, hopefully they will be of better quality).

And my computer doesn’t recognize my smartphone. Problem? Nah. Not when you have Dropbox. I just connected both my phone and my netbook to the free WiFi here and then uploaded the photo to dropbox from my phone. Don’t have Dropbox yet? Install here for free and get 250 MB of extra space! Yeah, yeah…I know I am completely geeky, but seriously? If you have two devices running two separate operating systems, then you should at least try it. I guarantee that you will use it at least once! And it is completely free! So if you have a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or run dual operating systems, just check it out. You can probably find some use for it even if you don’t use two operating systems.

Sorry…that was an extremely geeky paragraph. And I am supposed to be writing about Venice, the “most romantic city on Earth”. Or something like that. Oh well…I guess you can take me out of Geekland but you can’t take the geek out of me!

Anyway…the walk to the hostel was short and nice and quite pretty. There are a lot of stands on the street with people selling many different souvenirs and other toys. They have a lot of masks! I forgot that  Venice is famous for masks. I could buy one…but personally they scare the living daylights out of me, so I would never be able to hang it up in my room or anything. I would just shove it in the box of souvenirs at the top of closet…but who knows.

The thing that I actually noticed the most was that there are a TON of Americans here. I haven’t seen that many Americans in one place since…well…since I was in America. I guess it is because almost every American student now has summer break and almost every American student who comes to Europe to travel ends up in Venice eventually. So it figures. I spotted a guy wearing basketball shorts! It was actually a breath of fresh air…

In any case, I think I am going to go to bed now so that I can rest up and be ready for a beautiful day of exploration tomorrow. So stay tuned!

2011
06/22
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Preparing for the big trip!

So…Venice look out. Here I come! I have dreamed of visiting Venice for as long as I can remember. I always used to think that a city with water for streets would be the coolest city on the Earth. But I also really love preparing for a big trip. You just sit at home and check over your paper work ten million times. You print out your Ryanair boarding passes and try to find the best way to get from the airport to your hostel once you get there. You check online to make sure that your cell phone company is not going to charge you extreme amounts of money to use your cell phone in a foreign country. You print out the confirmations for your hostels and then realize that your printer is just as bad as your roommate is always complaining about. Then there is the packing.

After travelling through Europe so much, I find that packing takes approximately 20 minutes. I know exactly how much clothes I need to take and all of the toiletry items that I need to take. In fact, most of my toiletries were still in the ziploc bag that I used the last time I went flying the world. I just had to refill my shampoo and conditioner and add my toothpaste and deodorant. The hardest part (for me) is trying to decide which electronic items I should bring. This time I am bringing my Kindle (travelling is MURDER without it), my Smartphone (which is going to double as a camera this time. We’ll see how that goes), and my netbook (because I am totally planning on blogging it up…and I much prefer to do so on a real computer as opposed to a smartphone). In any case, my suitcase is now packed and ready! :

I love my suitcase! It is the standard size for a carry-on suitcase on any of the really cheap European airlines. And it has been everywhere with me! I bought it at Primark last year when I was in Central London and carried it throughout the city with me (so it has had a good look at Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the Thames). It got me through Rome, Athens, and Berlin. Two weeks ago it took a little weekend trip down to Nekarzimmer with me. And today it is going to Venice! I hope to find a really cool sticker or something that I can put on it. I think it would be really cool if I could decorate my suitcase with things from all of the different places that I have been.

In any case, I need to get prepared mentally for my long trip! The flight itself is only a couple of hours, but the travel to and from the airport is the irritating part. I have to leave Duesseldorf Hauptbahnhof at 3:15 in order to catch a flight at 7:40. So I have about 4 hours of down time to kill before my plane even takes off the ground. Then it will probably be about 3 hours before I actually arrive at my hostel. Luckily, I have my Venice book! I am going to be reading “Daughter of Venice” by Donna Jo Napoli. I already have it downloaded on my Kindle! I have 210 books on my Kindle right now as well as 156 that are only a download away! So hopefully I won’t even notice the 7 hours. I got through my 9 hour trip from Düsseldorf to London by reading “Robots and Empire” by Isaac Asimov. And that was one of the craziest trips I have ever been on. The flight itself was only an hour. And “As You Like It” got me through waiting for my doctors appointment for two hours last Sunday.

But in any case, I most likely should go eat a couple of Bratwurst to get up strength for the journey (and they need to get eaten because they have been sitting in the fridge for too long). I have to leave here in about an hour in order to get to the Hauptbahnhof in time. If I have enough energy after I arrive in Venice and if there is WiFi at my hostel, I will try blog about my trip then. But in any case, keep coming back! I intend to blog every day about the cool stuff I see and the adventures that I have while I learn my way around Venice!!!

2011
06/22
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You know you are not quite so American any more when…

1. You love mineral water and no longer have a taste for bottled water without carbonation.

2. You no longer flinch when you see guys wearing capris.

3. You no longer wash your hair everyday (and your scalp has gotten used to this, so you actually can go more than one day without washing your hair).

4. You prefer to speak a language other than American English.

5. You cook from scratch. The days of cooking anything from a jar or freezer are long gone.

6. You have developed a taste for mayonnaise with fries.

7. You think that Americans using public transportation are annoying (so loud! And they don’t even realize it!)

8. You know more about European affairs than American affairs.

9. You are becoming very good at European geography and can guess the country from which a person comes pretty accurately.

10. You are completely used to dividing up your garbage and recycling EVERYTHING!

11. You are used to not having a car.

12. You are used to living in an apartment instead of a house.

13. You are used to eating with both a knife and a fork.

14. You don’t own a weapon (yeah…I know…Americans aren’t all weapon crazy…but at least in this regard I am not a STEREOTYPICAL American…although I should do a post on a German’s typical American stereotypes…).

15. You are used to hanging your clothes up to dry them instead of putting them in the dryer. In fact, you don’t even own a dryer.

REASONS YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE STILL AMERICAN DEEP DOWN INSIDE! :

(My roommate gave me quite a few ideas)

1. You change your shirt everyday (apparently this is very American).

2. You are still very nice to people while getting to know them (then after a few months, you become comfortable with them and then can speak directly with them).

3. You have a trash can in your room and you rebelliously throw all of your garbage in the can without splitting it up.

4. You still prefer to drive everywhere in a car if there is the opportunity.

5. You can bake a mean apple pie!

6. You prefer basketball to soccer.

I thought it was a fun little list. If I think of any more, I will add them to the list. If you can think of anything, just comment below and I will update the list as well!

2011
06/17
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Twitter comes to the Joy of Germany

Hey everyone out there! Sorry for not updating more regularly, but my life is crazy right now and I somehow never find the time to update my blog. But I have taken the time to add my twitter feed to this blog (look left below the section for recent action) and I will try my best to tweet every day or so. So catch what I am doing in 140 characters or less!

Of course, you could just follow me on Twitter. You could even tweet me back! And if you want me to follow you, just send me an @mention. I love following people on Twitter. That actually goes for blogs as well. I love reading blogs, so just list your blog in the comments and I will check it out. Blogs and Twitter provide a fun alternative to paying attention in lectures, especially when I don’t understand anything in those said lectures (the material that we receive in the lectures doesn’t really help with the homework anyway. It is just a matter of copying it down and trying to decipher it later.)

On a positive note, don’t give up on me as a blogger completely. I am still going to try my best and update every week. And later this month I am going to go to Venice, and am definitely planning on keeping you updated on everything that is going on just like I did with Rome in March.

I am also going to get a smart phone! This is the phone that I ordered:

Pretty sweet huh? Now that I have a job, I can actually afford a smart phone. And maybe having the internet constantly at my fingertips will allow me to tweet/update my blog more regularly.

And I changed the title of my blog again. I am still not 100% happy with the name. I’d like something catchy…like Google or Wikipedia. Unfortunately, those names are already taken.

2011
06/08
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