Goodbye Madrid, Hello Barcelona!

So far Spain has been an amazing experience! We just spent the past few days in Madrid, which was incredibly beautiful. We saw all the major sights including the Prado, the Reina Sofia, and the downtown areas. We even went to Toledo for a day to try some of their famous Marzipan and check out the shopping. Yesterday was a big shopping day for me, I bought all sorts of accessories and clothing. Seeing the Guernica in person was quite the experience, it is much larger than I had envisioned!
Today is our first day in Barcelona, which has so far been a little depressing, because the rain has been coming down really hard. We did however, manage to see the Cathedral designed by Gaudi, which has been under construction for over 130 years! They say it won´t be completed until 2030 at the earliest! Gaudi´s house was my favorite thing we have seen so far.... there were cascading pillars with beautiful mosaics and a tropical garden paradise surrounding his Mediterranean house. There were even life size artsy gingerbread houses, which were used as the guest houses!
Tonight we are going to go search for some Paella and check out Barcelona´s famous nightlife.

Off to Spain for the next week!

So tomorrow morning I will be on a plane to one of the most exciting destinations of the semester. We will be spending 3 full days in Madrid, and 3 days in Barcelona. This is a  trip that was incorporated into the study abroad program, so the entire group will be going. In addition we will have guided tours through the famous Reina Sofia, Picasso Museum, The Prado, and a day excursion through Toledo! Should be Awesome!  

After Spain, one of my friends and I will be going to Croatia to visit the capital and the Jezera Lakes (most beautiful in the world.... see pic!)  

So unfortunately there will be very little updates for the next week since I will be without a computer... but I look forward to sharing everything with everyone when I return!

xoxo

A Bountiful and Magical Weekend In Bavaria

Concert and Bavaria from Brittany Sobel on Vimeo.

I couldn't have asked for a better weekend.... we kicked it off with a concert in Cologne, featuring the Sounds and Fall Out Boy. It was packed, and the fans were crazy! The Germans were not too familiar with The Sounds, but they knew every word to every Fall Out Boy song, and hearing them sing the songs with their German accents was an experience with in itself! 

After the concert we stayed up all night to catch our 3:30am train to Bavaria. Our first stop was Munich, which was much more beautiful city than I had imagined. We started off with a stroll to the Olympic stadium, where the Olympics were held in the 1970's. We also walked through the BMW Museum and saw some pretty sweet cars and motorcycles. After the stadium we found a flier for a free bike tour of the city, so we took advantage of this amazing offer and toured the entire city on bike in a 3 hour tour. We saw everything from river surfers to Nudist Gardens and the famous grounds where Hitler battled Bavarian Armies.
We celebrated our completion of the bike tour at the world's most famous Beer hall, where Germany's most exported Beer is brewed. Here we feasted on Weiss Sausage, Bratwurst, giant prezels, and of course beer! It was a massive place, and said to hold over 1,500 people! Munich has so much to see, and is by far my favorite city of Germany!

Sunday we woke up early to go to the most southern tip of Bavaria, where the Neuschwanstein Castle is. This is the infamous castle Walt Disney based his castle off of and belongs to the famous King Ludwig, who unfortunately only got to enjoy it for less than a year due to a mental illness he suffered from. The castle was filled with beautiful murals of King Ludwig's famous legends and crazy gold chandeliers that weighed over 2,000 lbs! Walking through the castle was truly like 

being on a Disneyland ride, there was even a cave room! The hike was an uphill 45 minute walk and was incredibly scenic, as Bavaria lies right along the border of Switzerland, with the Swiss alps surrounding ev

erything. This castle was awesome and definitely a must see in Germany!! 

Frankfurt

Yesterday we all went on a class excursion to Frankfurt, which is large city just 2 hours away from Bonn. They called it the Manhattan of Germany, as most of it is very industrial, however, the town center still maintains some of the old German charm as seen in the pic. While we were there we took a 2 hour walking tour and learned about the reconstruction process of Frankfurt as it was heavily bombed during WWII. After the tour we had an awesome lunch and went to a modern art museum which displayed a lot of Andy Warhol's work. Frankfurt is also where the European Central Bank is located, so we got to take a tour through there as well. This is the central bank for the European Union, and is where all the monetary policies are determined and the money is distributed. Being a finance major, I found this really fascinating!

This weekend will be filled with lots of exciting events.... Friday I am going to see Fall Out Boy and The Sounds in concert, and then off to Munich in Bavaria!! : )

Happy Birthday Mom!

I wish I could be there to celebrate with you right now Mom! Unfortunately I have no Molly Cake for you, but I did send my favorite German Chocolate for you to enjoy! I hope you have a wonderful day and keep smiling! Lots of love from Germany!
<3

Zurich, Lucerne, Basel

I spent this weekend in 3 beautiful cities in Switzerland. We stayed in Zurich for two nights, which was plenty, as Zurich is actually a relatively small city. It is a major Western European Metropolis with upscale shopping, beautiful lakes and scenery, and yummy chocolate shops! We went to a few churches, strolled along the streets, went to a huge botanical garden, where we saw Purana fish from the amazon, the largest flower in the world, and some other really exotic flowers. We also found an awesome lake with the Swiss Alps as the backdrop; this was the perfect spot to chill on the edge of the docks and indulge in the swiss chocolates we bought! 

On Sunday we left Zurich and visited Lucerne and Basel on our way back to Bonn. Lucerne was an incredibly beautiful city, and my favorite of the 3 that we visited. The whole town is adorned in medieval architecture and traditional Swiss homes. There are castle fortresses that surround the whole outer section of the town and even some monuments carved out of Glaciers! We walked the entire city including some of the outskirts, and treated ourselves to some Swiss pastries and Mochas afterward! : ) 

Arriving into Basel was quite the experience. Apparently in Basel, there is a parade of Fifers who play their fifens (kind of like a flute) all throughout the city every Sunday after Karnival, for 3 weeks, or until Easter. When we got there, we only saw a few small groups playing. This however suddenly spawned into over 10,000 fifers who dominated the city streets. We still managed to see a few major monuments here, including the Munster Church and the famous Medieval Guard Tower. So, incase you ever stroll into Basel on a Winter Sunday you know what you are getting yourself into! 

Only 3 words to describe this weekend... Awkward, Fascinating, and Yummy!

These past few days have been pretty fun and relaxing....it was our first weekend with no international travel! On Thursday we went to Trier, which lies just barely east of the country Luxembourg. While we were there we saw some ancient Roman ruins, shopped and ate in the downtown area, and even got to go to Karl Marx house! Karl Marx's house was a very typical german home from the exterior, the interior however was filled with all sorts of communist memorabilia. After visiting his house we went took a bus more to the country side to the region of Auhrweiler and did some wine tasting!

Friday we had class for half of the day and then later that night we went out to an Italian Restaurant and a Tapas Bar with some nice German people we met!

Saturday was a girls day and turned out to be one of the most unexpected days ever. A few of the girls on the trip and I went to an adorable tea house in Bonn and we lounged for a few hours with our tea and crumpets! After tea we took the train to the Monte Mare Spas, which had saunas, a wave pool, jacuzzis, slides, and lap pools. When we entered the sauna area we found ourselves in a quite interesting yet extremely awkward position. The workers told us that we had to be naked to use the saunas and steam rooms! We had already paid to use the saunas so we decided that the experience would hopefully override the awkwardness... so we all stripped! YES I Brittany Sobel got naked in public.... you may not believe it...it may take a while to soak in but I can assure you it is 100% true! haha. Getting naked I think cursed me because the day only got worse from there... later that night we got lost on the trains, I almost got into a fight with a group of horribly belligerent ignorant men, and did not get home until after 5am!

Today was a delicious and relaxing day... my host sister took my friends and I to this awesome gelateria where I had an amazing Tiramisu Ice cream Sunday, and a great Italian Cappuccino. My friend Gina came over afterward and we watched "What Happens In Vegas" on my computer! : )

p.s. Click on the pictures to make them larger!! : )

We All Have Friends...Which One Are You?

German Musical

Tonight we saw the musical The Starlight Express in German. It was absolutely hilarious! It was all performed in roller skates by actors dressed in the most outrageous costumes. The choreography was incredible as there would as many as 15 people on stage at a time flipping, jumping, and coordinating dances. We sat in the left pit of the stage, so we were in the midst of all the action with actors wizzing right by us in their skates! Since it was in German we couldn't understand a lot of the songs, but the story was based around a young boy who has a dream in which his toy train set comes to life.
Tomorrow we are going to Trier for some sight-seeing and wine tasting!! : )

Budapest!

I just got home from a very eventful weekend in Budapest! This was a perfectly planned trip, considering we just bought the plane tickets last week (and for only 50 Euro might I add ! ). We stayed at a nice hostel for only $8 a night on the main street, and managed to fit in all the major sights, such as the Budapest Parliament, Heroe's Square, 2 castles, 2 cathedrals, and the largest Synagogue in Europe! The best of all was our 3 hours of relaxation and spa treatment at the Rudas Hot Springs! We treated ourselves to a Aroma Massage and a day pass to the hot springs with all natural hot mineral water that comes out from the ground! It is definitely something you must experience when in Budapest!! Another great experience was the food... I ate all traditional Hungarian food the entire time, which is both very unique and delicious! We had everything from Spatzle, to Chicken Pancakes, and Veal Stew, followed by some yummy Hungarian pastries! There was even a Pizza place called Marxim run by communists with all sorts of Communist symbols inside that we ate at haha!
We went out to the clubs every night, which is something I will have to tell you all about in person, because I have some crazy stories for you! The best club was Dokk, which is on a small island and is one of the top techno/house clubs in Eastern Europe. We scored a free bottle of Champagne there from the DJ who was handing them out all night, and even managed to gain access in the VIP area where we could people watch from 30 feet above! The clubs were filled with some of the wierdest and craziest party goers I have ever met, as all of the clubs don't end until 5am and all have included entry to the "after party" which is typically at a venue across the street that starts at 5am and goes until 9am. We weren't crazy enough to make it to the after party and stood out like sore thumbs leaving the clubs at 3:30am, since taxis don't even start coming by until around 4. Overall, this was an excellent trip, and I highly recommend Budapest! I feel like I truly lived the life this weekend, and I did it all on under $100 including the flight!