soooo it's been 2 and a half months...

.... and i never told you about the rest of my trip!!! i've been so busy, sorry it's taken so long!!

so i headed to berlin with a girl that i had met at my hostel in dresden, she was headed for copenhagen and decided to see if she could get a bed at my hostel.... no luck, so she headed out to look for a room, i got settled in and decided to go wander around berlin until my friend kat got to the hostel (horray for running into friends on european journeys!) it was a beautiful sunny day, my hostel was close to the tv tower, so i decided to walk towards that... i found the birkenstock shop!! (one of many in germany, but still an exciting event) and went in for a look... about 30 seconds after i left i got a text from my mom saying "glad you made it to berlin! go buy yourself some shoes!" so good. i wandered down the street towards the brandenburg gate, and got distracted by friedrichstrasse, the main shopping street, after a good little stroll i grabbed some lychee green tea and headed back to the hostel to see if kat had gotten there yet.... she had not.... but i did run into some friends that i had met in greece! so we hung out for the rest of the evening. i went to bed wondering if kat was alive... and was awoken by 3 texts from her at 6 in the morning... ridiculous... haha, we met up for breakfast and went on the free tour, which was quite informative and very interesting, we went to the brandenburg gate, saw where mj (rip) dangled blanket out of the window, hitlers bunker, checkpoint charlie, the wall, the holocaust memorial, and various other berlin sights to see, it was a good day. *kat and i bought birkenstocks on the way back!! that makes 2 pairs for me! haha* that night kat and i went out for ice cream and met up with jared and grant (my friends that i had met in greece) and went to the reichstag and took the elevator to the top, what a beautiful view of berlin. we left and grant and jared wandered off so we got a "china box" (so delicious). we then wandered to the trendy nightlife part of berlin and watched a fire twirler and wandered back to our hostel to hit the hay. the next morning we decided to wander around the trendy area again and go shopping, we ended up laying on the grass in a park next to a pool filled with german children, basking in the warm summer sun, i was supposed to catch a train to hamburg that afternoon, but decided to take a later train, so kat and i went out for lunch at a nice restaurant (real food! we had been on a diet of bread for breakfast and falafel for lunch and dinner) we found an amplemann restaurant! so delicious. i had risotto and kat had a yummy pasta dish, we ate outside and had some good conversation and did some people-watching. i love berlin's cafe culture, i found it to be much more inviting and less terrifying than the cafe culture in paris, to sit outside in paris you must pay extra, buy a 30 euro meal, etc, etc... in berlin there are cafes everywhere! and they are affordable, and not snooty and just an overall good time... so after lunch kat and i went to the starbucks next door to the restaurant for a delicious after dinner treat (at less than fancy restaurant prices!). kat got a frozen strawberry lemonade frapuccino-thing and i got the most delicious piece of chocolate truffle cake. so freaking good. we then wandered back to the hostel, i got my bag, bid kat good travels, and headed for the train station.





when i got to hamburg it was about 5 or 6 in the evening and pouring rain. i decided to run for my hostel and check in. the rain let up so i walked to a nearby grocery store to get some food for dinner and breakfast, i was exhausted and cold, so i had a quiet night at the hostel, there was a tv in my room so i watched the sports channel, which had a diving competition on! horray!





the next morning i woke up bright and early and hopped on the train to copenhagen! the swedish girls in the seats in front of me were watching gossip girl! season 2, so good. so fun fact about taking the train to copenhagen, the whole train goes onto a ferry!! so cool, they tell you to get off, leave your stuff and go wander around the ferry, and get back onto the train in 45 minutes when the ferry is almost there, so cool, so i went up to the seating area and watched gossip girl with the girls from the train.





it was rainy in copenhagen too. boo. i was hoping for 3 days of sunshine. oh well. i walked to my hostel and checked in. i went to my bed, in a room with 66 tiny bunkbeds. i barely fit into my bottom bunk! i definitely couldn't sit on it without being crouched over to avoid hitting my head... i went to explore copenhagen, i walked down the main shopping street, the stroget, and had a wonderful time window shopping and people watching. i stopped at the grocery store on my way back to the hostel. oh boy. everything is so expensive in denmark. even at the grocery store. a pint of ben and jerry's was 10 us dollars. a liter and a half of coke was about 6-8 us dollars. so expensive. it was at this point that i realized that i would not be able to eat out at all in denmark. i grabbed the cheapest bag of pasta and the cheapest sauce, some cheese and some bread and prayed that it would last me my three nights in copenhagen. the next day i took the train to malmo, sweden (only 30 minutes away by train, across the bridge) and walked around, it was a cute little town, good for a day trip. the next day i woke up bright and early, ready to see all copenhagen had to offer, i saw the planetarium, and went to the huge graveyard where hans christian andersen is buried, which is absolutely beautiful. it is huge, green and so peaceful (i walked by two people making out on a bench, in a cemetary? really? so bizarre, copenhagen, so bizarre) i dropped my camera and broke it while i was there, which was quite upsetting. after the seeing the cemetary, i walked by the smaller jewish cemetary and then way north to see the little mermaid, which was pretty sweet. on my way back to the hostel for lunch i saw the rosenborg castle. that night i hung out with my friends, travis from seattle, shelby from georgia, and doigo from portugal, we met a group of belgian girls and a few guys from england and hung out in the hostel that night. the next day i checked out and put my stuff on shelby's bed. shelby, travis and i went to the micro-nation christiania, which is basically a hippie commune in the middle of copenhagen. it was a fun little excursion. we made pasta for lunch, shelby contemplated coming to london with me and in the end decided against it. travis, shelby, diogo and i had ice cream at the delicous ice cream place in the square near our hostel (best ice cream from my trip, so goood). and i said my goodbyes and headed for the airport



my plane to london was delayed. so delayed. it got into london 2 hours after it was supposed to. i had told my hostel that i would be there at 10, i got there at 1 because the train that went to kings cross wasn't running anymore so i had to take a train to victoria and then wait for a bus to kings cross. thank goodness i had been to this hostel before, i got in soooo late. found my bed and crashed out. the next morning i walked towards oxford circus. shopping!!! i had a wonderful time at topshop and primark and met up with my friend nick,whom i had met in nice, he took the train in for the day to see me! horray! we ate fish and chips and drank a pint for lunch, then we went to the british museum. there we saw the rosetta stone and all sorts of egyptian artifacts! so cool. we walked to the thames and chilled on a bench for a bit. we then walked back to oxford circus, i had a cornish pasty for dinner which was quite delicious. we went to platform 9 3/4 which fulfilled my nerdy tourist-y ness for the day. nick took the train home and i went back to my hostel. there i met a girl from seattle and 2 girls from new zealand. the girl from seattle and i went to the bar in the basement of the hostel for a drink and then we wandered to a nearby pub where i had a delicious bulmers pear cider. which is one of my favorite drinks ever. so good.

the next morning i got up bright and early, ate some breakfast, and took the tube to the airport! hopped on my plane which was on time and arrived in denver an hour earlier than scheduled! horray!

well that's the end of my trip....

until my next adventure!

thanks for reading!!!

copenhagen!

hello!
i'm in copenhagen right now!i just thought i'd say hey i'm still alive! i don't have much time around a computer here, so i'll probably blog about berlin and the end of my trip in a few days when i get home! also, my camera broke today and my pictures from berlin, sweden and copenhagen got deleted, sad day =( i'll be back on thursday! i'm not sure how i feel about it at the moment, i'm super conflicted, i'm excited to be home, but i want to keep travelling! it's weird. oh well, off to explore denmark!

love

annnddddd i'm back!!!

in germany, that is.... looove germany
prague was absolutely beautiful!!! i wish i had gotten to spend more time there! i went and wandered around this morning, so that was nice. then i took the train to dresden, which is absolutely adorable, i loveeee germany! i wandered to the historical district and took a bunch of pictures of the pretty buildings and then wandered around the new district and hung out in a park, it's such a cute little german city! i found a street called Carolinenstraße! i should probably live there... excellent!
headed to berlin tomorrow!!!!!

lovelovelovelove

where did my europe trip go???

so, it's july 13. i come home in 10 days! this is a terrifying thought. i'm really excited to be home, don't get me wrong, but, where did my trip go??? it hasn't been 2 months? oh wait, yes. yes it has. but i have so much left to see!!!! gosh. anyways, i'm in prague. i'm feeling infinately better. the baths in budapest were absolutely divine. soooo good. i highly recommend them. i spent 8 hours on trains to get to prague today. woo! i had some tasty garlic soup and goulash for dinner with some guys from sweden and i'm about to go explore the town with some aussie girls!!
yay!

love love love love love love

budapest!

hello!
i am feeling much better today, but still not 100%, but i can't complain... i took the train from vienna to budapest today. i took the metro to my hostel and went off to explore budapest! it's so beautiful! caitlin told me that it was "the east colfax of europe" but i definitely disagree, i felt that it was more clean and i felt safer than i did in madrid and rome, plus everything is beautiful! the architecture here is beautiful, the danube is huuuge, and there is so much green and ther are so many parks to wander around to! plus everything is waaay less expensive on the forint than it is in euros.... anyways, i left my hostel and walked across the danube on one of the newer bridges and then hiked to the citadel which was quite the hike, but gave me the most excellent view over the city! it was such a nice day! then i walked to the chain bridge, which is the first bridge that connected buda and pest into the city now known as budapest... and there were vendors all over it and delicous smelling food and gypsy clothes and jewelry, it was excellent, then i walked to parliament because it was big and beautiful, then i walked to the basilica and got falafel at hummus bar for dinner! then back to the hostel, i was tired.... i met my roommates, 4 girls from the states that are studying in prague for 6 weeks during the summer, we all went to a nearby bar and had some local brews, i had palinka, which is a budapest specialty, tasty... and now i'm really tired and am headed to bed! thermal baths tomorrow!!

much love

my immune system hates me

bahhh i feel like i've been sick this whole trip! i was sick in london, belgium, the netherlands, france, and spain, got better, then got sick again in nice, then got better ish and now i'm sick again. boooo. so i didn't get to see as much of vienna as i would have liked.. hopefully the baths in hungary will cure me? or maybe i'll just sleep for the next 5 days... no, i really need to see europe!! bah.

anyways, i left you off after i went to füssen and hiked to the castles! well the next day was defintely sunnier! still chilly though, i went to the glockenspiel at 11 at marienplatz, and then wandered to maximillianstraße which is where all of the ritzy stores are and then had a delicious lunch of bratwurst, saurkraut and bavarian potato salad, yummm, followed by some sort of pastry that i don't remember the ridiculously complicated name of... but it was a waffle with marshmallow-y cream all covered in chocolate.. then i took the metro to the university section of town... and fell in love! again! gosh, i love munich. it's my favorite city, even better than paris. the university neighborhood is so wonderful! and then i went to the englischer garten which is absolutely stunning. i want to move to munich. it's wonderful. then i went back to the tent to meet up with some people from utah that i had met the night before while cooking dinner, we went to the hofbrauhaus biergarten, which is one of the worlds most famous beer gardens, it was huge! and there was an oompah band! i had a liter of the hofbrau dark beer and a pretzel that was as big as my face (and i have a picture! haha) then we went back to the campsite and made some stir fry and called it a night!

the next morning, i woke up and headed for the train station! i took the 9:27 train to vienna! or wien as it is called here... the train took me through salzburg, which was absolutely gorgeous. so beautiful! but very rainy... when i arrived in vienna it was sunny and beautiful! i checked in at my hostel, changed into my favorite black dress and headed out to see vienna! i got a delicious kebab from the most adorable austrian kebab lady ever and headed for the center of town... i saw some pretty buildings and hung out in a park then grabbed some gelato and headed back to the hostel.

this morning i woke up feeling like someone hit me over the head with a frying pan, so sick. i got up and showered and walked to naschmarkt, which is the big street market, i got kebab there for lunch. yum. it's so cheap! and delicious! haha then i went to st stephans cathedral, the big church in the center of town, which was beautiful, by then i was still feeling really sick, so i decided to call it a day and head back... i napped, did some laundry, and made myself some dinner... hopefully i'll feel better tomorrow! i'm headed to budapest tomorrow!!!!

lovelovelove

love games

i feel like germany is playing love games with me. i love it and it rains on me. are you testing my love for you? love games. not cool, germany, not cool. so, needless to say, it's been raining. a lot. but i still love love love germany... today i was going to do the sound of music tour in salzburg, austria... but it was supposed to be rainy and horrible, and i would only do that if it were lovely out, true sound of music style... so instead i took the train to füssen, to see castles!!! after 3 train changes i made it to füssen and took the bus to the village at the bottom of the hill between neuschwanstein and hohenschwangau castles, it was pouring, i almost turned around to take the train back. in addition to the rain, getting to the castles was a hike through the forest, up the mountain, and to get into the castles it was €9... expensive for me... but i decided to hike up to take pictures, and i'm very glad that i did! it was beautiful! i didn't go into either of the castles, but the forests around them were absolutely beautiful.. füssen is so pretty! then i grabbed a train back and made some tasty dinner at my hostel/campground/hippie tent that i'm staying at and had some nice conversation with some people from utah, minnesota, ireland, and canada... so that was fun... and very rainy. it won't stop raining!!! i guess i couldn't have good weather the whole time that i'm here, now could i? also, i've realized that i fit in well here. i dress like a german, like the clothes that i wear at home are what people wear here... also, i get mistaken for a german person a lot... probably because i dress like them and have german bloodlines? i dunno, but it's nice to fit in! now if i only spoke german...

much love!