Tuesday, March 27, 2012

5 Cities: 10 days

Berlin, Germany was amazing and my first stop of the craziest 10 days of my life. In a nutshell, Germany started with a 4 hour walking tour of the city where I saw, where the old Berlin wall stood, the Holocaust Monument, the site where Hitler killed himself and many other WWII statues/ monuments. On a happier note, I went to the Berlin Zoo which is the home to 13,000 animals and over 1,400 different species. On the last night we went to the HofbrÀuhaus which is a traditional German beer hall, which is filled with loud music, loud germans and lots of beer!

Below is the monument where the Old Berlin wall used to stand


Beautiful Church! 

 Below our feet is the bunker where Hitler had his coward moment of killing himself
 The Holocaust monument in Berlin. According to our tour guide, 90 percent of present day Germans, in Berlin, agree with this monument, while the other 10 percent do not

Good kitty... 




Amsterdam, Netherlands was quite an interesting place. Full of coffee shops and cafe's alike, there was always something interesting taking place. The red light district was very shocking and the rumors were true. We also made sure to stop at the Anne Frank house where her and her family stayed in hiding for a few years, from the nice Nazi Regime. It was unreal and one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I was also able to make my way to the Van Gogh Museum, however Starry Night and Almond Branch were not there. After that we made our way over to the Heineken Factory which was so great and definitely worth the Euros, we even went on a free boat cruise after around the Canals! If I had to rank the place where people were the nicest it would definitely be Amsterdam. Everyone was so willing to help us with directions and would go out of there way to direct us to the right place! 

Me Waiting for the Tram in Amsterdam! The transportation was very cool there, and very easy to navigate! 






 What a Boss... 
 At the Heineken Factory! (behind the bar) 





Next was a stop in Belgium for lunch and of course, waffles...



Paris, France was definitely one of the best cities I have ever been to and much bigger than I had imagined. The Eiffel Tower was beautiful and lights up at night. One of the days we took the Elevator to the top and saw a view of Paris that was beautiful. However, I still love the view from Piazza Le Michelangelo, in florence, more! We made sure to do most of the tourist attractions such as seeing the Arc of Triumph and the Notre Dame cathedral. The cathedral was beautiful and it was what they based Disney's Hunch Back of Notre Dame on! Devin and I also made sure to have dinner on the Champs De Elysees and had a traditional three course meal. We had REAL french onion soup and trout. You can imagine my reaction when the waiter placed a dead fish in front of me, scales and all. On our last day in Paris I made sure to make my way over to the Long Champ store... what a treat. Then Devin and I decided since we were in Paris it would probably be a good idea to eat crepes. So from there we got Crepes filled with Nutella and ate them on the steps in front of the Eiffel Tower, because it was Thursday, and we could. 







 The Arc of Triumph! 

The view from the top of the tower! 



 




 The Notre Dame Cathedral 






Barcelona, Spain: where I spent the last 2 days of spring break. Beautiful in its architecture and beaches with an insane night life. Barcelona offered great food, great shops and great sun. Barcelona had the most amazing fresh market full of everything and anything, I made several trips there.