My Semester Abroad

This is my last blog post! Today is the last day of classes here at MUDEC, and we have our award dinner and Prom tonight.  I will head back to the states in less then a week! It has been a great trip. I have visited 13 countries and over 26 cities.  My list of places to see/return to is longer now then when I came!

Some things that I won't miss about Europe are the need to pay for bathrooms, the lack of free water, stores closing at 6 p.m. or not opening at all on sunday, and the challenges communicating with people.  But I will miss the Christmas markets in every city, the rich history around me everyday, actually going to the European Courts of Justice when I learn about it, and hopping on a 20 Euro flight and going anywhere I want for a quick weekend.

Ireland: Dublin, Galway, and the Cliffs of Moher

For our last weekend of travel, we decided to go to Ireland.  This could have turned out to be a disaster because of the harsh winter already starting in Europe, but we had great weather the whole time.  We arrived in Dublin late friday night and went out to get a delicious authentic Irish meal. I had a spiced hummus and pita dip, with peppered chicken, potatoes and green beans. So good! We just hung out there for a while and then headed back to the hostel.

The next morning, we decided to do a tour of the west coast of Ireland.  It was about a 3 hour ride, and then we switched to a bus that stopped at a bunch of destinations up and down the coast.  Our guide told us about the potato famine, legends of Ireland, and those evasive little leprechauns. The absolute highlight of the trip was the Cliffs of Moher. The tower about 700 feet above the Atlantic Sea. We had blue skies and no winds which was great.  We even hopped the fence to get a better picture, and luckily no one fell off the cliffs.  It was such a magical place and I want to go back once day.  On our way home, we also made a stop at the Galway Christmas markets and enjoyed dome yummy Irish food.  Unfortunately, the weather on the way home got a bit icy and so it took us about 4 hours to get home.  Since we were so late, we just changed and headed to the Temple Bar area and grabbed a pint.  We had to leave super early sunday, but had time to do some serious shopping.  It was a great trip and a great way to end the semester!

Business Study Tour and Parents Visit

Friday, November 19th our school departed for a series of field trips.  I was going on the International Business trip to Budapest and Prague. After an hour flight delay, we arrived in Budapest late friday night and immediately headed out to get some dinner.  I have no idea what my mean consisted of, some kind of meat and potatoes, but it was delicious! We hung out there for a while and then headed back to get some sleep.  The next day, our teacher had organized a walking tour of Pest and then a boat tour of the river so we could see Buda. After the boat tour, which was freezing!, we headed to a park that housed old communist statues. It was a depressing place and very imposing.  Our teacher had a little surprise for us that night, and took us to see one of the world's biggest wine barrels.  We also got to taste some great wine :)  There was a group of us that decided to go to Hungarian baths on the way home.  It was basically a bunch of indoor pools, spas and saunas with natural springs.  It was so relaxing and made our skin look so great! When we got back to the hotel, we got ready to go out and ended up at this cool bar called the ruins (which was basically just in a rundown old building).

The next morning, we got up early and loaded a bus that would take us to Prague.  It was already supposed to be a 6 hour drive, but on our way the bus lost a tire and we lost 3 hours.  It was scary, but the bus driver acted like a pro.  The only problem was there was no bathroom on the bus, and so we had to pee in the woods. Thanks for the travel toilet paper dad! By the time we got into Prague everyone was tired and we all headed to bed to rest up for the remainder of our trip.  We once again had a walking tour of Prague in the morning, and after a great lunch, has a couple lectures about the Brewery business in the Czech Republic and Eastern Europe.  It was hard staying awake through that, but they provided coffee which helped.  After that, we went to a great Czech restaurant and then went to see Harry Potter!!!  And it was in English. What more could you ask for? The next day we took a bus about an hour outside the city to visit an old cathedral and bone church.  If you have never visited a bone church I don't recommend it.  It is basically a chapel completely decorated with bones (chandeliers, curtains, statues, ect.) So depressing! After that we were able to visit the TPCA plant (Toyota, Peugeot, Citroen Automobile) and have a tour of their assemble line and talk to employees.  It was great and so fun to done hard hats and protective glasses. When we got back into Prague, our teacher had arranged tickets for us to see one of Prague's top entertainment sources, the Black Light Theater group.  Let's just say it was one the most bizarre and captivating things ever.  After that we hit a couple bars to celebrate the end of the field trip and I prepared to meet my parents back in Lux!

I flew into Cologne, Germany on wednesday and took to the train to Luxembourg City to meet my parents around 19:30.  It was so exciting seeing them, and I took them to one of my favorite restaurants in the city Chi Chis.  They told me all about Rome and it was great being able to talk face to face.  The next day we walked around the city, and only got lost once! We hit up all the highlights of Lux and grabbed a beer at Scott's Pub.  In the evening, I took them to Differdange, where my school is, and showed them around the Chateau.  We grabbed a big boot at Das Boot to kill time for dinner and m parents got to enjoy some time with the locals who frequent the bar.  Then to celebrate Thanksgiving, we went to San Marino's, my favorite Italian restaurant ever! After being completely stuffed, we headed back into Lux city. On Friday, I took them to see some of the old fort and to tour the new European center. Then we went back into Lux and did some shopping, what mom and I do best!  We decided to call it a day and headed back to get ready for dinner with my host family.  My parents absolutely loved Andre, Lucie, and their son Joe.  They also got to see the great accommodations I have here. Lucie is THE BEST cook, and we enjoyed a meal of fondue and chocolate cake.  We all stayed until 00:30 (twelve thirty in the morning!). That made us a little late for our day trip to Brussels the next day. We left at 9:20 and arrived 3 hours later to freezing weather and a lot of people. Not exactly ideal travel conditions.  We got to see all the sights, had some good food (like beer and waffles) and enjoyed the Mannekin Pis. Unfortunately, we couldn't take the cold for much longer and headed home around 18:00. Bythe time we got back to the city we found a great little restaurant and hung out until late.  Sunday was our last day together, and the last day of my break, and so we slept in and headed into the city to enjoy the Christmas market.  Lux is tough because most stores close on Sunday and the weather was cold, but we found a nice little hut for coffee and some sweet treats.  Later that night, we met up with my roommate Meghan and grabbed dinner.  It was so nice seeing my parents and getting to share some of my experiences with them.  Their the best!  

Valencia

Returning to Luxembourg after Italy was really hard, especially with the temperatures dropping steadily.  Luckily, we had a trip for the next weekend planned to Valencia, Spain.  The group included Meghan and Shelby like usual, plus our MUDEC friend Brad. We literally were there for only one full day, but it was a great and relaxing trip.  We spent all day saturday walking toward the coast, and encountered all sorts of great parks and landscaping along the way.  It was also in the high 70s all day, and so sunny.  We played on some of the jungle gyms, slid down the giant slides, and fantasized over some of the million dollar yachts in the harbor.  The best part of the trip by far was the 2 hours we spent walking and laying on the sand. I forgot how much I loved the beach! We went for a great authentic Spanish meal that night, which lasted a long time.  We had to get up early on sunday to fly home, but the short weekend in Spain was definitely worth it!

Italy

Sorry it has taken me so long to update! During the first week in November, our school was on "holiday" and so we had 10 uninterupted days of travel.  My friend Shelby and I went to Italy for those ten days traveling throughout the country.  We started our adventure at 2:00 in the morning on saturday, October 30th.  We took a bus from Luxembourg to Frankfurt Hahn airport we we flew to Rome with RyanAir.  After sucessfully landing at 7:00, barely, we took a bus into the city and tried to find our hostel. That was probably one of the most sketchy discoveries of our trip.  The hostel was right outside the train station, which is almost never a good sign, and had groups of people loitering on the doorstep.  Luckily we ended up with some pretty cool roommates which salvaged the situation.  After setting our stuff down, we decided to get started on sightseeing. After grabbing some delicious gelatto, we found a cheep tour of the Colusseum and the Roman Forum.  It was great and lasted about 4 hours. All for 8 Euros.  It was amazing to see how much was still standing in that area after 2,000 years.  Later that night, we met up with some other Miami kids at a pub called Scholars.  It was really fun but we were really tired and headed home early.  The next day we woke up and went to do some more sight seeing.  We started at the Spanish Steps and then wondered through the alleys around that area to do some shopping. On our way, we ran into the Trevi Fountain and all stopped to make a wish. After some more shopping, we came across the Pantheon which was under construction.  It was still amazing to see the domed ceiling and huge columns that held the building together.  Our group was able to find a great Italian restaurant where we stayed for about 3 hours! I ordered gnocchi which is now my favorite food.  Monday was our last full day in Rome, and we spent the entire day shopping.  On tuesday before we took the train to Florence, we stopped by the Vatican.  It was the most amazing place I have ever been.  The entire Vatican Museum was spectacularly decorated and the Sistine Chapel was so detailed. But my favorite place was the Basilica, which was just huge and elaborate.  Later that day we took a train to Florence for the next leg of our trip.

It only took us about 2 hours to get to Florence, and we arrived to find our hostel was nice and cozy and in a great location.  It was pretty late so we just got dinner and gelato and headed to bed.  The next day we woke up early to shop at the leather markets. We went crazy and definitely came home with a lot of souvenirs.  In the afternoon we went for a hike into the Tuscan hills and got lost for 2 hours, but got to have a great view of the sunset.  Later that night we met up with my friend from high school, Meghan, and another Miami kid.  It was a great night and fun to meet up with old friends in new places.  Our last morning in Florence we went and saw the basilica there along with some of the other sites. Then we hopped on a train to Cinque Terre with an hour stop in Pisa.  We literally hopped of the train, got a picture with the leaning tower, and continued on our way.  We stayed in the costal town of Vernazza for the night, and spent our only evening visiting the other four cities.  The sun was shining, the weather warm, and later that night we got to see a beautiful sunset. It was by far one of the best nights I have had in Europe (or Ever!).  Unfortunately, we only got to spend one night in Cinque Terre, and headed to Venice early the next morning.

It was a long 6 1/2 hour train ride, and so by the time we got into Venice, it was already dark. We just grabbed food and then headed to bed.  The next morning we met up with two other Miami girls to shop and site see. The interesting thing about Venice is that when it rains it floods. Luckily, we missed the rain, but there was some residual flooding.  It was still a beautiful city, and looked remarkably similar to the Venetian Hotel in Vegas.  After we had visited the major sites, we hopped on a boat and visited glass island, called Morano. Once again we went a little crazy shopping but it was so cool to see how glass objects were made.  We once again had some great Italian food and Gelato before heading back to the hotel, trying to cram everything into our backpacks, and preparing for the long trek home. And what a long trek it was.  We started the tip off at 6:30, and were set to arrive in Luxembourg at 7:30.  Unfortunately, our train to Milan where we had a switch at was delayed and so we missed our train to Zurick. The next train would not get us home until 10:30 PM. We were able to whine our way onto a different train bypassing Zurick and going straight to Basel which got us home at our intended time! It was such a great trip and I definitely want to go back to Italy again!

Paris

For the past three weeks, French transportation workers have been on strike because the retirement age has been raised from 60 to 62. Tough life.  You know how taxing a 35 hour work week is.  So in the middle of all that, Shelby and I decided to go to Paris.  Luckily, we made reservations on the TGV, a high speed direct to Paris from Luxembourg train. You can get there in about 2 hours, because the train can go well over 200 mph.  Shelby's mom was great and got us a hotel right next to the Eiffel Tower. Everything in Paris is pretty spread out, but they have a great metro system set up so you can just head to the subway and get almost anywhere.  And pretty much every metro trip was quite the experience.  We arrived at about 16:00, and freshened up to head out.  On friday nights, the Louvre had free admittance for European students after 18:00, which saved us about 10 Euro.  I am not a huge art person, but it was fun getting lost for a couple hours and stumbling upon the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.  The Louvre is simply massive, and when we tried to follow the exit signs we ended up in the mummy displays.  But it was a lot of fun, and when we finally got out we grabbed some dinner. I was so excited to be able to order my chicken, potatoes and carrots all in French! We headed home fairly early and mapped out the rest of our weekend.

On saturday, we got up early and headed up to Moulin Rouge, where we thought our tour started.  We grabbed Starbucks right across the street and took some pictures.  15 minutes after the tour was supposed to start there was still no tour guide, so we checked the directions again and realized we were at the wrong place.  Oh well, at least we got a tour of the city.  Luckily for us there was another tour starting in an hour, so we headed toward Notre Dame and the Saint-Michel fountain.  This was our third city that we used the New Europe walking tours, and once again it was great.  We walked all around the city and got to hear some great history.  She also told us about some the typical scam artists you would see in the city.  My favorite was kids with clipboards asking you to sign for peace, and really there was fine print saying you owe them 40 Euro.  The end of the tour took us to the Eiffel Tower, so Shelby and I took the opportunity to take some pictures.  We did not go up, because it had been closing frequently for security threats. After we were done with the whole tourist thing, we headed back toward the center of the city and did some shopping, finding some great things at H&M.  We found a cute Italian place and had some penne arrabiata and some wine. Before we left the center, we decided to pop by the Arch de Triumph for a quick picture too.  We headed home around 22:00 and rested up for our last day in paris.


On Sunday, we decided to take the train 30 minutes outside of the city to Versailles.  The palace was absolutely amazing! The gardens were gorgeous and the Palace itself was covered inside and out in gold leafing.  And because we were students of the EU, we only had to pay 6 Euro for the gardens as opposed to the regular 25! Good deal for sure.  We wondered around for a while, and it only confirmed my belief that I should have been a princess.  We couldn't stay for too long, because we had to catch the TGV home at 18:00.  We did end up with more time then we thought we would, and so we stopped by the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur.  It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. It is pure white, and situated at the highest point in Paris. We probably spent a little too much time there, and so for the next hour we were running around Paris trying not to miss our train.  We made it, barely, and were soon on our way back to Luxembourg!

Interlaken

        While it was still (relatively) warm here, we decided to go to Interlaken, Switzerland for some extreme sports. We left around 16:00 on friday, and arrived at 22:00.  We stayed at a place called Balmers, which is world famous, so when we got there there were guards that checked our IDs before they let us in. It was intense.  We stayed in a 10 person dorm, and there were 15 of us total.  We went down to the bar for a bit that night, but knew we needed to rest up for our big excursion the next day.  

On Saturday, we signed up for a 6 hours canyoning experience.  Canyoning uses repelling, climbing, jumping and sliding to descend the canyon. We headed to the shop we would depart from and were told it was time to gear up.  We were given a long wet suit, two wetsuit jackets, special shoes, a life vest, a harness and a helmet. Each of the helmets had names, and mine was "Flipper".  They loaded us into a van and we travelled about an hour up the mountain.  They dropped us off on the side of the road and that is where we changed into our gear. Good thing they told us to wear a bathing suit.  They lead us on a short hike and we came to a cliff where they told us we would now repel down into the canyon. Yeah okay.  It was a 150 foot cliff, and there was nothing to hold onto as you stepped over the cliff.  It was one of the most thrilling things I had ever done.  Once we got to the bottom, we continued on.  Now I should let you all know that the water in the canyon was about 40 degrees.  Almost right away we were swimming in the water, and it was a brain freeze every time you went under.  One of the coolest parts was using the natural slides that the water had made out of the granite rocks it ran over.  There was also a 25 foot jump, where you have to make sure you don't hit rocks! It was a workout, and we got a little bruised, but it was definitely the coolest thing I have ever done.  We were so cold by the end of it, that our hands were bright red and we were definitely ready to get into our sweats.   The rest of the weekend was pretty laid back.  We were so tired, so we just walked around some of the shops got dinner and packed up to leave early on sunday.  Such a great weekend!