Living in the Lap of Luxury

Guten Tag- Hallo- Ciao- Hi

I’m not really sure what language they speak in Budapest but I’ve made it here alive and I’m in the most amazing hotel. I never thought I’d see such a beautiful hotel again in my Life after the crappy places i’ve stayed in. When I got to Frankfurt for the night, I stayed by the airport by myself – I almost cried when I walked it.

When I got to Prague I jumped up and down, Vienna wasn’t that great it was a half a step up from the EF hotels, but now in Budapest it is like staying in the BENSON hotel in Portland – I love it!

Anyway I was surprised on Wednesday morning in Frankfurt to a phone call from my mom about 5 minutes after I woke up. She and my dad’s flight was a half hour early and they were already at my hotel! I cried when I opened the door to see my parents standing in Frankfurt, Germany!

We grabbed some coffee and hit the road in our Manual SUV! after about 3 hours my dad let me take the wheele! It was my first time driving a stick in 6 years. It was like riding a bike- actually no it wasn’t, because riding a bike in Amsterdam after 9 years was a lot harder than I thought!

Anyway, we got to Prague at around 7 pm. The city is Beautiful! I fell in love instantly- I also fell in love with my hotel room! We walked around the Old town and down the side streets before we had dinner at a cafe. We got back around 9pm- mom and dad went to bed right away to catch up on sleep, while i played catch up on my Facebook Albums!

We woke up and grabbed a cappuccino at this cool coffee shop down the street from our hotel. I fell in love with their coffee mugs. I actually stole it the day we left. I mean it was perfect for me the coffee addict. on the inside of the cup it said, “Forget Love- Fall in Coffee” The next day we walked around the streets, went over Charles bridge and had lunch on the other side of the city. We went back to the hotel for an afternoon Ciesta and got dressed up for a very nice dinner at the Black Rooster. we were one of Two tables at the black rooster. I had the salmon and it was delicious!

Later that night I met up with Jenna and Kim from my tour and grabbed dessert in old town. We later found our way to an Irish bar hanging out with an Irish Futball team! I was mistaken for a local about 4 times asking directions to Bombay pub- this seemed to be the hotspot open until 6 am! Good thing I knew where it was!

After I left Jenna and Kim to find their way home on the night bus, I packed my bag because we were off to Vienna the next day. I got up around 11 am. And we were out of the hotel by 12 to pick up kim and jenna and head to the Prague Castle! We wondered around the castle until about 5 pm. I was sooo excited to spend some more time with my friends from my trip. I was dreading saying goodbye. They were my last link to the trip.

I said my Final goodbyes and we were on our way to Vienna, Austria.

We rolled up to Vienna and found ourselves surrounded by Sex shops and peep show signs. – Dad didn’t do so well on the hotel choice this time. I knew this because I had to share a room with my parents! (actually I wasn’t planning on having my own room the whole time- it was a nice surprise to have my own room). We settled in to the room and walked down the creepy street to Schillings and had weinerschnitzel. My german skills came in handy again when trying to read through the menu!

I spent the evening on the internet and came up to the room to find my party animal parents ASLEEP!!!!! it was 10pm. I was NOT HAPPY. I just spent every night of the week up til atleast 4 am and my parents were 6 hours shy of my anticipated bedtime!

We got up at 8 am and made our way to the pedestrian area and had a cappuccino and a pastry and SHOPPED!! It was nice to finally spend someone elses money! I think we pretty much spent all day walking around the shopping area of Vienna before we headed to Grinsing to grab lunch.

Grinsing wasn’t exactly what i was expecting. It was a nice quaint little town. but We had lunch and I stole another mug and we walked around. I guess not much was open on a Saturday.

We headed back to the  hotel and I took a two hour nap, while the parentals climbed out our window to the rooftop and drank champagne. They managed to break the bottle and spill mineral water all over my suitcase! Thank you for being so kind Mom and Dad!

We Jumped in the car and made our way down to the this restaurant my aunt had suggested that was underground. It was closed. So while we were driving around we got stuck on a street, there was a tow truck about three cars ahead of us. we were sooo mad thinking we were going to get stuck behind a tow truck for 30 minutes, when to our surprise the JAWS of life come from over the tow truck and pick up the volvo fromt he top and put it on the truck!! it was gone in less than 3 minutes! it as sooo crazy to watch. (see the red volvo hovering over the white car- yes it is being lifted off the sidewalk!)

We parked in a SAFE parking spot and walked to a restaurant where I had Goulash and Spatzle, while my parents got their fix of Weinerschniztle- again. Dad and I finished two bottles of wine and we finished off the evening with the biggest cones of Gelato i’ve had all trip.

Once we got home I gave the rents a mini slideshow through Roma, and dad started to fall asleep. So we put it on hold and before I even closed the program dad was Snoooring!

We got up earl this morning and got in the car for the 2 hour drive to Budapest! I love it so far!! The hotel is beautiful (see the view from the sky bridge i cross to get to my room!!!!). We went to go walk over this bridge today and i bought SOOOO many earings I think I have enough earings from this trip to wear a different pair ever day for a year!

We had GIANT potatoe pancakes (see photo below)  and beer for lunch. and bought these rolls of fried dough which were like thin doughnuts in the shape of a tower. we drove around the city and came back to the hotel to hangout- in vienna we tried to spend as little time as possible in the hotel. NOT HERE!!!! we finally rolled out of the hotel at 9pm tonight to get dinner down the street. we had an amazing dinner actually. Dad and i finished 2 bottles of champagne and I’m a little tipsy!

I can’t believe I only have 4 days left of my European vacation. I miss my friends from my trip soooo much. I miss my brother also. I really wish matt would have been able to come. It just isn’t the same without him here! he would be down to go out and take tons of pictures with me!

Mama and Papa stringer are being good sports about my pictures. They keep calling me “M” if anyone knows my family, or my Aunt Maryland, you know she takes 90 million pictures of everything- well I take 90 million pictures of us!!! and I have the facebook albums to proove it! I know my friends from the trip were making fun of me because I had up all my pictures before they even made it back to the US!

Oh well I love it! They just need to add their pictures so I can steal the ones I didnt take myself!

Hope all is well at home. I still can’t believe I have to some how make some money when I get back, Find a job, a place to live and move to Seattle-if you can help with any of these I would be Delighted!

Can’t wait to see everyone, I’m having the time of my life though I wish you were all here to share it with me!

We won’t Say our Goodbyes… it’s just a moment of change

I think I’m going to need happy pills after saying goodbye!

well it’s over. I left this morning, I was the 1st one to leave. I didn’t want to say goodbye because sometimes it’s just better that way. This has been such an amazing experience. I’m torn, because I’m ready to be home and have a break, yet leaving these people breaks my heart. I’ve learned so much from everyone I am definitely coming home a changed person.

Nathan and I were talking on Monday night about expectations, and how before we left everyone kept telling us, “you’ll have so much fun” “this is the trip of a lifetime” and it has been all those things, but the last thing we wanted was to be let down. The last time I was in Europe I didn’t enjoy it while i was there, and I regreted that when I came home. I know that won’t be the case when I come home this time. I sat at the airport crying because I just left the most amazing group of people-

Leslie- one of the funniest people I’ve ever met in my life. Everyday she brings non-stop laughter to our group. Whether it’s her New York sass, or just the way she says Kellie’s name, Leslie has us on the floor laughing constantly- i occasionally pee my pants a little. I don’t know what I’m going to do without her.

Kellie- I will miss Kellie’s facial expressions, she has so many of them. I will miss Kellie’s willingness to drink every waking moment of the day and her eagerness to get up and go to every museum in ever city we went to. But most of all I will miss her sincerity. Kellie always made sure everyone was in a good mood!

 

Stephanie- I will miss Stephanies crying everytime Nathan would Smoke. I will miss her Giant heart and her constant smile!

 

Yanel- Mama Yanel. I will miss every-time we walk into a restaurant and hearing her say ” do you accept credit cards?” I will miss her looking after all of us- all of the time. I will miss our late night talks and her listening to my marathon stories!

 

Nathan- I will miss little baby carlos! I will miss our talks, I will miss seeing his face light up when h talks about his cello, and when he saw a beach for the first time in Venice. I will miss the fact that he usually takes longer to get ready than 4 girls and the fact that he slept through almost every walking tour since rome- but then again, so did I! I will miss all the wine, beer and cigarettes we shared over the past 30 days.

I can’t believe it’s over. I tried not to put high expectations on my last day. I spent most it of it in the hotel packing and figuring out my flight info and how i was going to get to the airpot. 

Leslie, Yanel, Stephanie, Kellie and Nathan went to get lunch and they all ended up getting their hair either done or cut. Nathan shaved- he looked so different! But everyone looked great for our farewell dinner. They came back around 330 and we slept until about 730 when we had about an hour to get ready for dinner. Dinner wasn’t what we thought. I think we all kind of wished we’d just gone out to our own dinner to be just us. but i guess it was nice to see everyone.

I ended up sick again and in some random hotel bathroom. We finally got back to the hotel at watched leslie pack for 3 hours. Kellie drank. I went up to nathan’s room and we stood on the balcony and talked. It was probably the best part of the day. I have too high of expectations for things and I always seem to get let down. But i didn’t really have any expectations for this. i just never wanted the night to end. 

It felt like graduation all over again. Traveling with people is one of the hardest things to do, especially with strangers. these people barley know me, and to eat, sleep and deal with me 24/7 is crazy. we’ve been through, laughs, cries, fights-everything. and we’ve made it out alive and maybe even a little better for it!

I’ve learned more from these people in 30 days, than I have in most of my life. They taught me about myself and helped me realize how much fun you can have if you let loose and stop caring about what other people think. I seriously have no idea what i’m going to do without them. 

This was an experience of a lifetime. I wish it never would end. But it’s just a moment of change.                                                                          

accepting donations to the Staci Stringer European fund!

lucky you two posts in a row.

this is short though.

today i officially ran out of money! damn i must love my friends cuz i have not bought much for myself! but i´m having a blast!

after spending the day at the medical clinic which are nicer than our hospitals in the US leslie yanel and i kicked it around our hotel for pretty much all day and we found this funky little bar around the corner that had pepsi, ice cubes and sandwhiches on white bread! we were all in heaven. we called nathan to come meet us and sat there for two hours and talked. it was great.

when we got back to the hotel around 10 pm we decided we wanted to go to a movie, well yanel, leslie and nathan all know spanish fluently. so they didn´t mind, it was me who was lost, considering the only spanish i know are the curse words melinda taught me in the 6th grade.

so we went. i toughed it out. but this theater was crazy, it was 9x the size of ours and had assigned seats. nathan had to pretty much translate all of hancock for me, but it was fun to sit, the dubbing wasn´t as bad as i had expected. when we got back to the hotel around 3am we decided we could rent a movie on the tv.

so we sent nathan to do it while us girls hung out for a few minutes in leslie and my room. well that was a bad idea, nathan accidentally – he says accidentally we think it is purposely bought two pornos!!! haha it was great! we were up til about 6 am again and woke up at 230 today and have spent all day shoping.

hence i have no money.

we are goign to a water show tonight, and then off to madrid tomorrow!!!

hope all is well at home i miss you all and i can´t wait to see the parentals on wednesday. i can´t believe my trip is almost over, it will be hard to say good bye to these people i´ve lived with every waking moment for 30 days!!!

why doesn´t europe have toilette seats?

wow. this is going to be a long one, since i haven´t updated since rome and we´ve been everywhere since then.

well hola from Barcelona! but before we go into the craziness that is my night last night we need to back track quite a few countries. so much has happened and i can´t believe my trip with EF is beginning to wind down, it has gone by sooo fast I can´t believe last week at this time i was in Venice.

so after Rome we drove to Assissi, which is a tiny little town on a hill, we had to stop at this reepy pottery making place where they make and hand paint pottery and sell wine, liquor, chocolate and pretty much anything, but it was a scary warehouse and EF has some contract with the and we need to stop there to get a bus pass to go up to Assissi. the city is also very strict and our tour director was not aloud to direct us and give us a guided tour otherwise he could have gone to jail. so we pretty much had free time, and we were sooo tired we just went to a cafe and sat there for two hours and had lunch. Nathan and i got really excited because we saw this GIANT bagel sandwhich and we both ordered it with turkey, lettuce and tomatoe, when it showed up it didn´t look like a bagel sandwhich, and we should have known, it was ham and chesse on a baguette…surprise surprise.

we walked around and they ditched me when i tried to buy a water and i got lost and almost missed the bus! we still had another 2 hours on the damn bus and we finally got to florence. Sean sat next to me on the bus ride, it was nice to talk to someone else.  like most people i talk to about music tried to turn sean onto Jason Mraz, but he already knew about him!! i was so excited. but i did find out sean has a friend in seattle he is planning on visiting in a few months so we are hopefully oging to hang out and catch up!

Anyway we arrived in florecne to our crappy hotel with a lift big enought for 1/2 a person , the lobby was on the 3rd floor, which in Europe means the 5th floor. we are starting to learn when someone says it takes 20 minuts to walk somewhere it really takes 40 minutes- it´s a European 20 minute walk, not an american. anyway back to this crazy lift in florence. I got off the bus last and waited outside on the sidewalk for close to an hour to get all 44 of us up and it was hot with nasty garbage cans text to us, it was not a special experience.

Once I got up to my room, my roommates had been there for 45 minutes already and i once again was shafted with the bed next to the door. i jumped in the shower because i thought i was going on the walking tour with the group, when yanel came down and said she and nathan were taking a nap and skipping the tour. that sounded good to me, so we ran down to tell leslie and kellie, who went anyway. on the way bak up i ran into kim, jenna, brandon, and mallory who were going to find jenna´s favorite kebab place, so i said what the hell an went along for the walk. this turned into a 3 and a half hour adventure and i felt so bad since i hadn´t left nathan and yanel a note.

i ended up getting back at the same time as leslie and kellie and we went to get wine and sit by the river for a girls nights, and we ran into yanel on the way  so we´re having a great time talking and laughing when 3 italians walk  by and say ¨cheers¨so we do it back, well one went farther down the bridge and sat and was staring at us the whole time these other two guys were attempting to talk to us. the other two came over to ¨try¨to talk to us. but they were really creepy. we kept trying to ignore thema nd then kellie would start to talk to them and one kept making creepy cat calls at me and was asking us for our names. when we wouldn´t tell them they made them up instead, my new going out name is Lillian, kellie was barbra, leslie was christina and yanel was merve- i thought he said margaret, but merve was so funny so we still call her merve. so these have become our names we say when we go out!

we proceed to drink a bottle of wine each, while kellie chugged hers. the guys started to get mad that we weren´t talking to them and flat out ignoring tem and they starting mocking us. so i grabbed my swiss army knife out of my purse and had it in my hand and i got in the guys face and told him to leave, it was starting to piss me off. they left finally, so as kelli e was getting pretty drunk she began to dance and entertain us all until 3 am. she got sick and vomitted all over my leg, which was sick,  yet sooo funny. so we took her back to the hotel and on the way she fellin the street, hit on more italian men and begged for more wine! it was an advenutre in itselt trying to get her to stay in her room.

the next morning we awere all tired and decided to skip the walking tour in the morning and sleep ing! it was the best decision , at 11 i woke up and went to leslie and kellies room to relive last night and it started pouring down rain! it was crazy so we got ready and woke up nathan and yanel and went to lucnch across the street at around 1 pm. we showed nathan the crazy videos of kelli efrom the night before and he couldn´t stop laughing!

after lunch kellie, yanel, nthan and i decided to walk into the town center to spend money and that is what i did, i spend a lot of money. we went to the duomo, which i remembered it being in germany! haha shows how much i remembered from our trip in the 7th grade, we found an amazing gellato place it was my 3rd time going tohere. but i bought 2 purses and a bunch of tshirts and gifts for friends! we walked around for abouth 3 1/2 hours when we ran into sarah, christinia and lauren and they recommended we go to this great, not too expensive 5 course italian dinner, so we thought it would be fun to dress up and have a nice last dinner in italy.

we headed home to find a laundrymat, and searched for a half hour and we finally found one. we rushed home to get ready for our 945 reservation, dinner was good, but not as filling as what everyone had told us, because it was sample sizes. anyway we ordered a bottle of the house red and white. we turned nathaan on to white wine! they were both great wines, i probably drank about six glasses because leslie kept filling up my glass. we ended up ordering a 3rd bottle at the table and then 3 bottles to go!

after dinner we headed to the Duomo, the group  had met there earlier to drink, so we headed that wasy and sat on the stops to drink.  on the way we met two guys from ARgentina who were very nice. nathan, yanel and leslie started talking to them in spanich about where we´d been adn where we were going. we were on our way to nice in the morning and they told nathan the water there was as blue as my eyes! haha  gotta love the guys in europe. we finally made it to the duomo, yanel started talking to a man from pakistan who kept calling me a ¨beautiful giant¨and egyptian man named mimo, who sat and asked natha nd i for a lite, and was speaking in a thick accent so nathan kept translating how he felt drawnt o me and wanted to talk to me about life. i don´t know what it was about me that night, thank god thanat was next to me though, i kept grabbing his knee when i got uncomfortable and he would come in and save me from the conversation. then a guy from ugoslavia sat down next to yanel and i called nate really fast to get myself out of an awkward situation, the next thing i know nathan is in my face yelling at me cuz i walked away and no one knew where i was.

when i got back to the steps the man from ugoslavia kept asking me to sit and take a nap on his last and that was not happening. then around the corner come jenna, kim, sarah and alena they´d just been at  bar drinking, and it was sarah and alenas 1st bar! so sarah is drunk and stephanie starts talking to this very attractive guy from ukrane who looks like a model, and the next thing i know he kisses her, he kisses jenna, kisses me and says ¨damn she really is hot!¨, and then kisses sarah!!! it was so funny, it was sarahs first kiss too!

it was a great night. at 3 am we decide we should start walking home. nathan and i are basically holding eachother up for the half hour walk home. once we get back nathan and i decided to go sit by the river and we were out there until about 5am. when we contemplated waiting and watching the sunrise, but we had to get up at seven to pack and get on the bus so it was a great night, probably my favorite so far. the next morning was brutal, especially since the elevator broke halfway through getting us all down, so i had to carry my bag down 5 flights of stairs. we drove tto pisa took some picture and left for nice! such a beautiful city, got got there and it was Bastile day, which is the frenches version of the 4th of july.

we all jumped on a city but and over packed it with college kids, the locals were kinda pissed. and we went to town to watch the fireworks. which we ended up missing. so we sat on the boardwalk for a half hour and people watched.

the next morning kellie leslie and i got up at 10 and headed to the beach. the rocky beach. kellie and i ended up staying down there from 11 am til 5 pm when yanel and nathan showed up and we went to get dinner. i got soooo dark i love it!! we went back to the beach after dinner and nathan fell in the water it was great. we headed back ordered a pizza and hung out in the room, leslie yanel and i ended up staying up til 4 am talking, then i made phone calls til 5. i havent gotten much sleep you could day.

anywaywe stayed in provence on our way to barcelona it was a nice hotel, i finally sewed on all my patches and i now look like a world traveler!

we got to bareclona and we are staying in such a nice hotel i feel like a queen!! we even have two showers! we got dressed up and went to a flamenco show last night from 11-1 it was awesome one of my favorite things we´ve done so far. then we went to a bar grabbed a drink and headed to a club.

the club was being dumb an not letting some of the guys in with flip flops on, so nathan got in a ian was right behind him, so i was hanging on ians shoulder telling the bar tended what a stud he was, and how he was goign to buy so many drinks, and they let him in!! i worked my magic, so ian bought me a drink and i hung out wtih him and sean for a while. nathan and i were laughing at all the old people in the club, and they wouldn´t even let college kids in! we sat out side and talked for a while, and headed to the beach at 4, we sat there til about 530 am and headed home around6! we slept all day and had to take leslie to a clinic for her ear infection.

now we have a pub crawl tonight!!! damn i need some sleep! but thats all for now!

sorry its sooo long only a few days left!

weird

ciao

ciao from Roma!!!

wow a lot has happened since switzerland and finally i have a keyboared that isn’t retarted besides the apostrophies. so this may be easier to read.

we were woken up in switzerland to a heard of cows and their bells crossing the road in our mt. side hotel. we got on our death bus with our crazy italian driver clautia who doesn’t speak any english and she listens to headphones and text messages while she is driving, she has almost killed us about 100 times, no joke, everyone complains about her, i kinda just thought it was me. also, our airconditioning doesnàt work on the bus so i’m really hurting.

anyway we stopped on the way to venice in Verona and i didn’t feel to well, and also wasn’t in a good mood but i did see Juliets balcony from romeo & juliet.  then we sat in about 4 hours of traffic on our way to a winary just outside of the venice. i ended up buying some wine. i’m very excited for it.

so as we pull up to our hotel in this small seaside resort outside of venice our tour director tells us that this we are not allowed to open our windows because there was a tour group two years ago who had people climb up to their balcony break in while they were sleeping, mase them and rob them… so all of us were a little freaked out.

We got up early to catch our water taxi to venice,  and half the group didnàt make it because they all went out the night before. we got a guided tour of venice and which Nathan, yanel, leslie, kellie and i were definently NOT paying attention too. so we dicked around and took pictures. then we had a glass blowing demonstration and a few of us went to Doges palace. Lauren and I decided we wanted to find some black risoto and we were on a mission.  so of course we find the most expenisve place possible and we split a risoto (thanks dad!) it was amazing. then about six of us got a gondola and took a 40 minute ride around the canals. i’m so glad we did this, it was sooooo much fun.  so after that kellie and decided to go shopping, so look out friends i have lots of gifts!!!! we made the water taxi home and Nathan, yanel, leslie, kellie and i grabbed dinner some beers and headed to the beach for the evening.

Nathan being from Texas had never seen an ocean. so we were all there to experience his first time, or as leslie likes to call it, we popped his ocean cherry! haha.so us girls hung out on the beach and took pictures while nathan was mesmorized by the ocean and swimming in it.  after about an hour lauren and katherine came running down the beach each with a bottle of cheap wine in their hands screaming at us.  so they came and drunkenly entertained us. that was a great night.

Nathan walked me home while the rest of the group went to find a phone and a grocery store. we had a really good talk and ended up running into a bunch of people and sat on the balcony in his room and talked til the girls came home. And i finally got a hold of sam and stayed up pretty late on the phone, just to get up at 630 to leave for Roma!!!

We got to rome on wednesday, i came to the internet cafe with nathan we probably sat here for a good hour and a half ran back to change before we went on a walking tour of the city and to the Trevi fountain and the spanish steps. then we hopped in a taxi to Piazza Navona to meet CAITLIN whitham my little chi o baby and some of her friends who are studying architecture in rome for the summer and got some gilato! after that nathan, yanel, leslie, kellie and i hung out in the piazza for about  another hour and just wondered around before we got a taxi and headed hom late.

Yesterday, we had a tour of the coloseum and ruins, we got these awful headsets that i couldnàt hear anything, so since i’d already seen it i gave mine to kellie, because she forgot hers and nathan gave me his ipod, and everyone was looking at me funny cuz i wasn’t paying attention,b ut oh my god it was so amazing to be listening to great music and wondering around these ancient ruins! i loved it. we took the bus half way home and got out and walked the rest because there was too much traffic. i was feeling very sick i was neaseus all day and threw up six times over the period of the day so i was not feeling up to the pub crawl with the rest of the group. so  we got home fromt he ruins around 130 and i slept until around 630 when i wokeup to see when the girls were leaving for the pub crawl and helped them get ready.

Nathan and I found a place to eat dinner across the street from our hotel, i was still feeling sick but for some reason pasta and a glass of wine sounded really good. so i ordered the 10 euro glass of something from under the Grappe section’- well i came to find out Grappe doesnàt mean GRAPE as in WINE i ordered god only knows but all i can say is it didn’t help me being neasous. so nathan grabbed the check and we decided to just walk through the city, so we walked back to the trevi fountain and ended up hanging out there for about three hours and talking before we got lost and made our way back to the hotel around 1 am. a bunch of people were sitting outside our hotel waiting to watch all the pub crawl people to come home so we hung out outside to wait for his sister and the lelsie and kellie to come home. and they didnàt get home til around 145 so we went and changed and into our pjs and continued to hang out outside for everyone.

this morning was great becasue we had an optional to go to the caticombs, and you had to pay in advance, well everyone was soooo hungover that about 15 of us went! they had to combine us with the other group because so many people slept through it. but it was amazing. we went under ground and saw millions of tumbs of ancient christians. really cool, and boy was it cold down there, i was in heaven. it has been sooooo hot here.

we had about an hour before the bus left for vatican city. it was about 105 today i sweat to god, and we all had to have pants, skirts or shorts to atleast our knees and something over our shoulders. so we went to the vatican museum and i hung out with kim and jenna in the museum for the afternoon, i was sad to leave my group but it was great to hango ut with kim and jenna, i donàt get to much since they are in the other tour group. but we went to the sisteen chapel and then booked it out of there because we had a bout an hour and 15 minutes to make it to st. peters and back before the bus left. so we kinda rushed it, which was sad. it was cool to be in vatican city again, because nathan and i switched books (even though im not done with mine yet, he reads really fast) and he gave me angels & Demons which all takes place in Vatican city. so it was fun to be walking around there.

anyway well nathan yanel, leslie and kellie ended up missing the bus, and i figured they would when they all started listening to the audio tour in the vatican museum. jenna kima nd i didnàt listen to anything and just walked straight through and it took us an hour and a half!! so i wasnàt surprised because nathan was really excited to see all that stuff. so we came home and tried to find a laundry place but thats a no go, so here i am. i really want to try to go to the coloseum tonight and see it lit up. so iàll try to drag nathan or someone to go with me. but weàre off to florence in the morning i cant wait to shot!! im almost done buying for everyone else, which means i can just focus on me!!!!!!!

man i cant wait to be in air conditioning!!! hope all is well at home!

ciao

mezzo mix & schnitzle

Guten Tag from Germanz & Switzerland

first and foremost i am going to apologize for my spelling and if the y and z´s get mixed up, this swiss keyboard is switched around and is very confusing.

anyway, after  convincing mz tour guide and his girlfriend to take mz  death mobile (bike) off my and jenna`s hands in Amsterdam, we were able to enjoy the daz without dodging cars and pedestrians all daz. we finallz got started around 130 and headed to the van gogh museum and the I AMsterdam sign to take pictures. AFter, we made our way to Dam Square and headed to Ann Franks house. it was prettz intersting to see the annex after reading her Diarz and imagining what it looked like. it gave me chills the second we walked in. AFter walking out on an over priced “mexican` resturant we ran into brandon and mallorz and found dinner.

so im going to back track a ittle, when lauren and i first showed up in amsterdam we found out our names had been erased from the group we signed up to room with. so we got stuck rooming with four crazy girls who slept til seven every day. on e took my book and the other stole my ipod and went thruogh laurens bag and stole her mousse from the bottom of her bag. seriously, i mean just ask. but wait, that´s not all. so when we first got t amsterdam i had plugged in both my converters and adapter to charge my chell and ipod. on e of the girls asks if she can use an outlet and borrow my adaptor, being the nice person i am, i said zes. well i never remeroved mz adaptor and just figured everzon was using it- no big deal.

well, not so fast, on thursdaz night while i was packing, lauren wa asleep and the four of them came home high and zelling, long storz shrot thez claim my one and onlz adaport is theirs. we started screaming back and forth and i almost ended up in a fist fight with two of them. i was furous i almost went to get mz own room for the night. come morning i stole it back- donät mess with me.

we got up fridaz  for a 6 hour bus ride to Heidleberg germanz. we stopped at multiple truck stops along the az where i whipped out mz two zears of german from freshman and sophomore zear of high school- <herr <<hrable would have been proud. but i did find mz favorite german refreshman, MEZZO MIX- it is oragne fanta and coke mixed together, sooooo good. and note never order scnityle at a truck stopd, its not a good idae.

we made it to heidleberg and went to the castle where we saw the largest barrel of wine. then walked down 309 stairs to the citz square. ´had dinner in townb and then drove to our hotel 20 minutes outside the city. there was a bar that we dept open verz late and i taught nathan and all the youngin´s how to plaz Kings and Fuck the dealer. and zet again we had another 6 hour bus rid e t o lucern the next daz.

along the waz we stoped in the black forest @ a cuckoo clock workshop, in a small beautiful lake side town of , titisee, and then again at the rhine falls. we ate dinner in lucerne and then took the scariest buss ride 30 minutes into the alps to this little hotel. thez have us in 3 dfiffernt buildings there is a maing building, st. michelle wher i am, tand the bozs are stazing in the convent, yes its a real conent with nuns and all.

iäm getting a little sick of re packing everzother daz, but oh well.

todaz a bunch of us rented a motor boat on lake lucern and got stuck in the  pouring rain for two hours and wondered around lucerne soakcing wet ffor for another 5. none of the best dazs.

 off to bed and venice in the morning.

guten abbenn

Redlight, Canals, Bridges, bikes Oh MY!

Well Here I am in Amsterdam at the Stayokay Hostel! After a 7 hour bus ride we made it through Brussles (beautiful city) and to Amsterdam.

We stopped in Brussles after 3 hours to grab lunch and wonder around. It was hot there, but dry hot I loved it!!! I can handle the dry heat, its the humidity that is miserable. So Alana, one of the girls on our trip had lived in Brussles for 3 summers so she showed us the way to Belgium waffles and Fritz (fries) because we had to try the local cruisine!

The waffles amazing, after I pretty much got it on every bodypart and every clothing item i had on. Then we grabbed some fritz and sat in a square full of homeless people because it was the only place to sit! that was special. after wondering around the square we went to buy some belgium truffles -get ready dad I bought you a ton!!!

 

Then it was back on the bus! we had atleast another 3 hours plus traffic, which was awful. We watch 2 Days in Paris on the bus which was hysterical and we finally made it to Amsterdam!

 

The city is much bigger than I had expected! I guess I was expecting a quiant little town. So after having my name erased from the room situation I got stuck in a room I’m not happy about! We 

went for a walk through the city and then to find dinner on our own. I had talked to Heather and Trina from Kappa Delta/dorms and we met up in Dam square and then walked through the redlight district. That was an interesting experience if I’ve ever experienced one! I’m glad I did it with people I was comfortable with though. Then we found a bar grabbed a beer and I tried to make my way home, but it was too late and I took a taxi which I payed wayyyy too much for, but I was a little freaked out. Rather be safe than Human trafficed!

Yesterday, Wednesday we woke up and went on a canal cruise witht he group, and then to a Diamond factory where I found my Diamond for my wedding ring, so I’ll bring my English boyfriend back here for it! Then we were free. Some of us went to go find pancakes because amsterdam is known for their pancaks. In the middle of lunch there was a terential downpour and we had to run through the rain to meet the group for our 2 hour bike tour of the city.

Thank god it stopped raining, because rain, humidity and me DO NOT MIX!!!!!!!!!! This bike ride was ridiculous considering I haven’t riden a bike in atleast 9 years. I was struggling. Amsterdam has bike paths, walking paths and roads for cars and trams. I have no idea how anyone finds their way around this place!  After running into another bike, a tree, some posts, a parked car and then falling onto a moving car I kinda made it out alive! All I wanted to do was return the bike, but he have them for 24 hours!  so Nathan Yanel and I somehow found our way back to our hostel- after an hour.

We showered and took naps! Then We went to dinner in town and walked around for the evening. and Here I am!  I woke up this morning and most of the group is going to do a million things by bike and I just know i would get killed on that thing. so I talked Jenna into not going and we got our tour director and his girlfriend to return our bikes for us!!!! heck yes!

So jenna is asleep and I’m catching up on my interent time! Then its off to Anne Franks house and the Van Gough Museum! My feet and butt neeed a break. We are off to Heidelberg tomorrow throught the Rhine falls and Black forest and then to Lucerne! I’m getting nervous for the weather in Italy, its sooo hot there I’m going to die!

Hope all is well at home I love getting emails from everyone so keep writing!!!

Off to Explore!

Pucker up for Oscar Wilde- Paris Part II

Paris is such a beautiful city, Especially when you take a stroll along the Sein with your Ipod and no distractions. It feels soo liberating being able to get through a city that you don’t speak a word of their language and somehow get mistaken for a local!

On Monday I decided to skip Sac Ocuer and sleep til 10:30am. I was really bummbed about it because that was my favorite place last time I was in Paris. But my poor swollen feet needed the break. So I took my time getting up and getting ready and I met the other girls at Arc de Triomph where we took some pretty awesome pictures and walked below it where I almost got scammed into a frienship bracelet. I’m usually pretty good about dealing with those people and spotting them, but this woman was sneaky, she was dressed like a tourist and kept asking if I spoke English. So jenna and I looked at each other because we thought she needed directions (not as if I could have given her directions since I was pretty much lost the entire time we were there, but we thought we’d try) then she came at us with this string, i was like “I DON’T THINK SO LADY!” anyway we walked down the Champs Elysee for a little while, hopped on the metro and headed toward the Opera House!

I was stoked about the Opera House considering I’ve seen Phantom of the Opera atleast 4 times and it is one of my favorites! We grabbed lunch but were on a time crunch and we didn’t get to go inside for the tour (the ONE thing I hadn’t seen in paris yet and they just skimmed by it). It is definently hard traveling with a group because since i’m alone I don’t really want to spend too much time alone in the city because I will more than likely get lost! So I bit my lip and we went to the Louvre.

The Louvre was Miserable. I’m not the biggest art fan in the world, so I didn’t really care about going back (i feel like that is really bad to say) but we only had about an hour there before we had to head to meet our group. So we headed straight for the Mona Lisa. Most of the girls hadn’t seen it yet and Stephanie and I warned them it isn’t some HUGE portriat on the wall, its tiny and you can’t even really see it because its always crowded with tourists taking pictures. There were just thousands upon thousands of people in the Louvre you couldn’t enjoy it. Too hot and too many people makes staci I not so happy girl!

So Stephanie, Lauren and I left Jenna and Kim and headed to Pere Lachaise Cemetery to meet the group. This was by far my favorite thing we did in Paris. The cemetery was Beautiful. Miles upon miles of cobble stone (which was quite painful) and tombstones with famous dead families! So we found out that Oscar Wilde(the gay Playwrite) was barried there. We were told that it has been tradition to put on lipstick and kiss the grave, so like all other tourists I put on gross red lipstick puckered up and Kissed the grave! The grave is covered in greasy red and pick shakes of puckered lips -who knows what disease I contracted from this outting. Then we walked down to Jim Morrisons grave, not quite as cool as I had expected. it was interesting to hear though that families have to rent the plots in the cemetery, and I guess Jim morrisons is almost up and people started writing ont he grave infront of it in protest to them removing him! But yea if your family doesn’t continue to pay the “lease” you are dug up and removed!

So after that we walked to a creepy bar for Absinthe tasting. This is a 140 proof aclohol that you HAVE to mix 1 part absinthe 3 parts water and 1 sugar cube. They call it the Green Fairy. partially because it is a green liquor that tastes like black licorisce and also because you’re supposed to kinda trip out on it and see fairies! well I did not trip out, I barley even got drunk. But it was a really cool experience and I’m so glad I tried it, the first one was green and the second one we tried was white.

Then Lauren, stephanie and I found a little place to get ham and cheese crepes for dinner, and then it was Nutella and banana crepes for dessert! mmmm they were soooo good.Then it was back to the hotel to pack for our next adventure.

Every time i pack it seems to be a new more challengeing experience. I haven’t bought anything, yet my bag gets bigger and bigger!!!! Kim and Jenna came to hang out and it seemed to be very entertaining to them to watch me try to pack 6 months worth of clothes in my small duffle bag.

As I’m packing Jenna and Lauren tell me I have to answer a question that will depend on our frienship- now i got a little nervous, i’m traveling with these girls if I answer wrong I’m screwed. They say, “what is your favorite professional football team?” now because I dont watch professional football except for the times on sunday when I lived with chad and Bevan that all beaver would watch was Cowboy football I answered “the Cowboys” WRONG ANSWER!!! they were not very happy with that answer!  I started laughing SOOO hard I spit water out my nose, They were both pissed at me, I guess the cowboys aren’t a neutral team! about 10 minutes later i started laughing while drinking water again and spit it out my nose for a second time in 10 minutes- i’ve never done that before in my life!~ I’m such a klutz, but alteast I provide the comedic relife of the group! We left for Brussles and Amsterdam at 9 am!!!

Long bus! Off to Amsterdam We went!!!!

Bonjour Paris!

Bonjour from Paris!

So we woke up at 5:45 Saturday Morning to try to make it to the train station for our 10 am Train. now that’s 4 hours, why so early you ask? oh that is incase someone is late. and weird what happened on fo the girls decided to go out til 6 am… so when our bus was supposed to leave at 6:45, we’re looking for her. and this is after we were told if you sleep in and miss the bus you’re on your own to meet up with us. i guess that isn’t the case since our tour guide went to wake this chick up!

We get to the train station and there are two tour guides and two different groups. we do a lot of stuff together, but we are semi-seperate. Daveed (david) is my tour guide, and Alice is the other guide. Well Alice’s group keeps getting screwed over. They got one charter bus, one half sized bus and we couldn’t all fit our stuff so two people cramed about 15 bags into a taxi. Well I was on the small bus and we got dropped off in the wrong spot and waited outside for an hour for Daveed to find us, until I finally said WHO HAS DAVEEDS Phone NUMBER! Problem averted. Then we find out they aren’t releasing our tickts. My group finally gets them, but the other group doesn’t. So we get on the 10 am train and Alices group (most of my friends) take the 10:30 train.

the Chunnel was great I slept the WHole way. As soon as we arrived we realized Daveed was with the other group and Alice was with us, So we had to wait for the other group to arrive. As soon as I arrived I received a phone call from Ben, My London Pr/Twitter friend. Apologizing for the night before (not sure why you apologized, it wasn’t your fault!!) we had some miscommunication and no way to get a hold of each other at the Tube station since his phone was dead. So we both were asking random people for each other- kinda a great story. Anyway he wanted to make it up to me, but I guess I had forgot to let him know I was leaving for Paris, so when I told him I was in Paris he sounded a bit shocked. I was mad I would have loved to try to meet up again! Anyway it’s always fun to get phone calls from British Guys (so you may have to call me more often just so I can hear you talk Ben!).

Anyway, once in Paris we  took a bus to our hotel, which is WAY out of town half way to Versillies I swear! We got dinner ( I took my 2nd shower of the day) and we headed to the Eiffle Tower!!! I totally thought we were going up when it was dark. That would have ment waiting until 10 pm since it doesn’t get dark until about 10:30!! We were up there for 3 hours and then had a scheduled night tour down the Seine river. all my friends decided that they wanted to not go on the boat with everyone else and wait another 40 minutes for a boat just to sit on the outside. After 20 minutes of waiting  igave up and went and sat down.

It was fun to sit on the Seine By myself and watch the lit up Eiffle Tower and as soon as the boat left the light started sparkling!! Such an amazing sight. About 10 minutes later the other group came off the cruise so I went home with them!  Thank god cuz I was dying. I didn’t think my feat would be this bad!!! but they do.

So today we got up and did a guided bus tour which was great, I just wish I wasn’t so tired. Then we split up for a free day. Lauren and I went to the Notre Dame and then took a Taxi to Musse D’Orseey because my feet hurt so bad, grabbed a bite at a caffe outside the louvre and they headed to versillies, and I walked to the Latin Quarter to find an internet Cafe, and here I am! We’re meetingup later to watch the Futball game.

Tomorrow Lauren and I are going to do Sacre Coeur, Champs-Elysees, and the Louvre – I’ve been to all three and am not sure if I’ll make it the way my feet are acting, but I might meet Meghan McCloskey for coffee somewhere, which would be great to see a familiuar face! So Big day ahead! I’m ready for bed!!!!

Well I guess that is it for now, I’ll update as soon as I see more internet and have time!

Cheers

Stringer

Mind the Gap (and the Door)

Greeting from London!

I finally made it after removing 12lbs of clothes from my luggage, 16 hours of traveling, a 2 hour bus ride from hell and being attacked by an Irishman at a pub!

I love London, I truly do. I’ve been holding back from proposing to every Englishman in a suiton the Tube, but then they start to talk and I melt away. A few men have caught me staring-oops!

We are staying at the Queen Mary University,k Which is pretty cool. I have my own room, which is a luxury ( I know I can’t get used to)! I’m starting to get to know the people better, It’s hard though, there are about 87 of us total, but we’re seperated between two groups. Most of the people I’m friends with are of course in the other group. But at least we do a lot together.

This trip so far is different than what I expected. But great none-the-less. The Tour guide sucks. He’s not nice and if the guy thinks I’m tipping him he’s crazy. He has made no effort to get to know anyones name, he is very unaccommodating and tells us stuff like “there is absolutley NO way you can get yourself to Stonehenge”= well DAVEEED we did and I have pictures to Prove it!

Anyway When I got to Chicago I meet Kellie from Florida State and we got dinner, she will be graduating in December. and then I meet Amy, My little soon-to-be University of Oregon Freshman(I’m so excited for her- I also may be dirty rushing her a little)!!! We Landed in London to find about 4 different EF Tour Guides and they pretty much threw us in a holding pen. After standing in the humid airport for  an hour we got on a chartered but. This just about gave me a heart attack. The driver was pissed off because it was his day off. This was the scarriest car ride of my life. I sat with Amy, and First of all getting used to driving on the left side of the road was hard, but driving in the small narrow roads in an oversized bus with an angry driver is not a recipe for success. Every truck made me have a slight panic attack, we were so close to hitting things on the side of the road Amy started laughing at me jumping because I started Ducking. But weird, we ended up hitting a sign, twice. Our side mirror fell off and we got stuck! After 2 and a half hour bus ridewe arrived at the Queen mary University. It’s a gated area with 5 story tall wooden buildings on the West end of London.

Wednesday evening after we settled in and found our own dinner ( a bottle of wine, cheese and some bread) we walked down to a pub about a mile away and David (pronounced DAVEEED), our tour guide trated us to our “welcome” drink. Now our tour is mostly high school graduates (way annoyng) This means their first time away from home and the ability to drink and go to club legally. This is not so fun for us “seasoned” drinkers! I turned a bunch of girls onto Strongbow, and I’m not a huge beer fan, but I seem to be the only person who knows anything about beer! Then we took the tube to London Bridge, walked across the bridge, past London eye and to Covent Garden. After that a bunch of us jumped back on the tube and headed hom to catch up on sleep.

Sleeping was AMAZING. especially after being awak for 48 hours. On Thursday we got up and left at 9:30am. We had an all day pass on the Double decker sightseeing buses. We all went to Buckingham palace to watch the Changing of the Guards- and of course I couldn’t see a thing. Then walked to Westminster Abbey. we had met a group of girls and a brandon there.One of the girls, Mallory had already been in like i had and we didn’t want to pay 9pounds so we stayed outside and waited. While waiting we figured out she and John Robinson went to high school together!! such a small world! we’re still laughing about it.

After waiting for an hour and a half for the rest of the group to come out we walked over to Big Ben took a quick picture and jumped on the Tube to Tower Hill and found the Bourgh market where we had the BEST Fish & Chips ever!!!  mmmm sooo good. Then the group split and Kellie Mallory and I jumped back on a Double Decker bus, and pretty much sat on it for an hour because we were all SOOOO tired. well then we figured out we were on the wrong bus. So we got off and headed toward Trafalager Square.

we arrived at Trafalager at 4:45pm and were supposed to meet the huge group at an Indian resturant on 21st and dean St. We walked through the square and thought we’d go to an ATM and grab a drink at a pub before dinner. Well when we couldn’t find and ATM we thought we should start looking for the resturant as well. It took us an hour and fourty five minuts to do find this resturant- which was horriable might i add. Our tour guides gave us NO direction whatsoever!!! so frustrating. I understand that is part of traveling, but they gave us the impression they were going to help out a lot!

After Dinner a large group of us headed back to the Queen mary campus. we were traveling pretty close to Rush hour on the Tube, well I got STuCk in the doors! Half of the group was on, and half was off. I was pushing toward this lady and well she pushed back on her way out, but I was on a mission. The doors closed on me scatched my arm and I have a bruise the side of a grapfruit on my left leg!! Everyone couldn’t stop laughing. when the second group met us at the next stop they were laughing soooo hard! i guess it was a great ice breaker-I’m always glad to be the brunt of  a joke!

We ended up going to a pub near by, the new Globe and we met Gary and irishman, and Bruce,  an English-Turk. Gary was your typical CRAZY irishman drinking and being crazy, we called him the bar hospitality though! Anyway so he came over and I kept trying to talk to him, and he was telling me he was intimidated by me. Anyway he tries to shake my hand, licks it instead and when I refuse my hand at him since he licked it, he STANDS ON THE TABLE GRABS MY NECK AND KISSES ME! oh my god i was so red but ahh it was sooo funny. It really helped our large group start to bond, everyone was laughing at me. loved it. Probably one of the best nights yet!

Okay so Friday we were told that our trip to stonehenge was cancled. but We didn’t buy it. mallory, brandon, lauren and I got on the Tube to waterlook bought a ticket to Salsibury, and then a bus ticket to stonehenge. IT WAS AMAZING. unless you’ve been there i can’t even describe it! All I can say is I’m soo glad we decided to try to find a way there! On the way home Lauren and I decided to go to London eye and we took a spin on the famous Ferris Wheel!

In planning my trip to London I had received some Great advice from Friend and fellow twitter and Pr Geek, Ben Matthews, a true Londoner. So I gave him a call to see if we could grab a drink. Friday turned out to be the best night. So on the way to Stonehenge I called (got to love your accent Ben you should have seen the smile on my face!) we found a place to meet and set a time!

So after a long day of traveling, walking Lauren and I ran home jumped in the shower and headed to Liverpool St. to meet Ben for a drink. Well who  knows what happend but we couldn’t find be, and ben couldn’t find us! I was sad, I was so excited to meet him, and grab a beer afte that Long day!  I couldn’t get a hold of him, and I would have stuck around longer to see if I could spot him, but poor lauren came with me had to pay like ten dollars to ride the tube since she left her day pass at home and was tired. I felt really bad having her wait. So after 45 min of calling we left!

we had to get up at 5 am to head to Paris in the morning. Sad day. Thanks for trynig Ben- I promise I’ll be back soon since I’m planning on finding and English guy to marry! We’ll meet up then!

Now that I’ve written the LONGEST blog post known to man I’ll Leave you be. Rest your eyes and get ready PARIS is next!

Cheers!

Stringer