Witamy w Polsce

"Welcome to Poland"

I have to write a short post about my adventure to Poland, just because of how ridiculous it was. We left our hotel in Berlin at 8:30 AM on Sunday morning. One of the girls suitcases broke, first encounter of problems. 12 of us make the train no problem, 3 make it last minute. One of those three was our professor WITH THE TICKETS! In the words of one of the grad students, "I almost heart attacked on the floor" when the train started moving in Berlin and our professor was no where in sight.

Our train ride was 10 hours and 10 minutes. At times I feel like I could've walked faster alongside the train. In one city, we attached a restaurant car to our train. Let's just say it wasn't exactly "smooth" as it seemed like the trains just simply crashed into one another.

Best part of the trip? We had no A/C. It was honestly to be expected in my opinion, but I must note it. I just rode in a sauna for 10 hours.

After we got off the train though and saw a little bit of Krakow, I feel like I am going to love this city. It kind of reminds me of Pula, Croatia.

Still surviving on one backpack 6 weeks in. 7 more to go!

The view from my hotel room in Krakow.

To the land of wine & beer

After leaving Brussels, our group spent a week in Paris. Our site visits were pretty cool, but my favorite by far was IFRI – Institut Français des Relations Internationales. It’s a French think tank.

I was so happy once again to be able to go back to the Marais. I did a little shopping there, and bought another pair of Bensimons! As well as the cutest shoes from Andre! This Parisian visit, I lived in the 15e arrondisement, minutes away from the Eiffel Tower. It’s crazy how after spending so much time in Paris last summer, I did not know this area at all!

My grandpa shoes from Andre.

I also went on a hunt to find the lock that Lee and I had put up two weeks before. It took me two visits before it was actually found. Note to self: Don’t go looking for locks in the dark, especially when your lock looks just like everyone else’s!!!!

This time around I also avoided tourism like it was my job, although I did go to the Pantheon and see some famous graves. When it came time to leave Paris, I was almost devastated. I kept saying that I won’t get on the train to Berlin and instead just spend the rest of my summer in Paris. My wallet, however, really appreciated that I got on the train.

Other things I saw in Paris/France: 

• Fête de la Musique 2012 (no dancing in water fountains this year)
• Normandy
• Bayeux Tapestry

So then off to Berlin. I speak no German, but thank god Germans are pretty good at English. Probably my favorite thing to see in Berlin was the East Side Gallery.

East Side Gallery & I

In Berlin we stayed at Hotel Kurfurst, near Kurfurstendamm. The internet was anything but fast and convenient, but the rooms were huge in comparison to Paris.

We had a cute tour guide two of the days being here, Stevie Bloomquist. She’s an American who moved to Germany in the 60’s and was here when the wall was torn down. It was really cool to hear some stories from someone who experienced life in a divided Germany. One of the places we visited with her was Checkpoint Charlie.

"You are now leaving the American sector."

One regret of Berlin is that I didn’t go to the DDR (East Germany) museum. I meant to go on the last day of being here, but when it’s almost 30C and there is no A/C anywhere, the last thing I want to do is even move. But I can always come back. Who knows, maybe then I will be speaking German!

Other significant visits in Berlin: 

• Charlottenburg Schloss
• Coca Cola Deutschland
• Building where they held the Wannsee Conference
• Cecilienhof in Potsdam
• Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Typography of Terror Museum

Also Café Bleibtrau is freakin’ delicious (near Savignyplatz). I went there 7 times in 7 days. Good cheap food and American sized portions. But I must say, I was a bit disappointed with the beer in Germany. I actually like Belgian beer better. (Not that I am a beer expert by any means, but I miss my Leffe.)

Today I'm off to Poland. Krakow, Poland. I never thought I’d be going there (although I never really saw myself in Croatia either). We leave for the train station in 4 hours, and then it’s 10+ hours of travel. While my group only has one week left in Europe, and I realized that I still have 7 more. I feel like I'm never going home. 

Travel break from Brussels

It's almost Sunday, which means it's almost time to leave Brussels. While other students in the group are sad about leaving our "home" I'm kind of "ehh" about it since I know I will be back for work. I am however EXTREMELY excited about Paris. But before I start ranting about how excited I am for Paris, I'll recap my past month in Brussels.

 I have seen a lot.

Parc de Cinquantenaire

Université Libre de Bruxelles

African Museum - which I found fascinating

Grand Place - which I will return to in August for the flower carpet!!!

My new place of employment! The reason for my return!

A real Belgian BBQ. 

I also go to visit the Atomium and Mini Europe, live with a real Belgian family, in a real Belgian neighborhood. At the end of the day, Brussels isn't Paris, but it's not bad either.

I got to visit the Netherlands for the first time as well (outside of the airport) by going to The Hague, so now I can legitimately knock that country off of my list. I learned to use the Brussels metro, bus AND tram, which is more than what I can say for Paris from last year.

Now we move into the phase of the trip where we aren't living in families anymore, but collectively in one hotel. So here's to my last weekend in Brussels, and to an exciting adventure in Paris. This is the part of the trip I have been waiting for!!!!!

But before all of that excitement happens, we get to visit Bruges and Ghent. It's supposed to rain, but my host mom just told me at dinner that when move back in July, she will take me there and we can go to her mom's house for dinner. I'm a tad bit excited for that as well.

Sometimes it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

So I call my parents a couple of weeks back to remind them that I had a long weekend coming up. My parents kindly asked me, "Oh what are you thinking of doing?" I respond with, "Mom... Dad... I'm going to Croatia!!!" Keep in mind this was all over Skype so I was basically on speaker at my parents apartment. Mom's face looked shocked and Dad in the background yells, "SHE'S GOING WHERE?!?!?!?" Well tickets had been bought, and the hostel had been booked. There was no turning back. :)

Off to Pula, Croatia!

From France to Croatia in less than a week. I barely got to settle back into life in Brussels before I was packing up bags again. This time I was off to a country that I had never visited before, taking RyanAir - the least sketchiest form of flying ever. Since I had paid 30e for my ROUND TRIP tickets I was literally crossing my fingers as the plane took off, flew and landed.

I went with five other girls from my study abroad, but I was potentially the least prepared. I didn't have the address to our hostel. I didn't have any "Kuna" (currency). I didn't know what the exchange rate was for said "Kuna".  Not to even mention the fact that I was a complete bum when it came to needing to borrow toothpaste, shampoo and sunscreen.

Georgia Tech girls take over Croatia.

Day 1: I got to see a gladiator fight in an arena!!! Pizza for lunch. Pizza for dinner.

We definitely had our favorites.

Day 2: Beach. A 21st bday dinner. Croatia - Ireland football match. (1. The EuroCup is going on in Poland/Ukraine this year. 2. Croatia won!) Pizza for dinner (lunch was skipped due to the beach).

Rocky beaches of Croatia. 

Day 3: More Pizza for lunch. Get on board lawn mower and fly back to Brussels.

Yummy. 

In conclusion, I definitely don't need ANY MORE PIZZA while I'm in Europe. I had a good time. I don't know if I'll ever go back to Pula specifically, but it was definitely a memorable weekend. It's one more country I can cross off of my list of places to visit. All I know is that next time I go, if I go, it will be an EU country so I won't get a stamp on my passport! So at least I got that knocked off.

My life as a Parisian tour guide

Last week flew by. After having Monday off, it turned out that the trip on Friday was optional, a.k.a. I got a ticket to Paris a day earlier. This is where things got a little interesting. I had to somehow meet up with people who were coming in from London, when none of them had phones. After sending a couple of "FYI" and "GET A HOLD OF ME NOW" emails, I was able to get a response and set up a meeting time at noon at the Paris Nord train station.

I arrived three hours earlier, so I took the morning and went into town. I headed straight for Marais, my old neighborhood. I walked by the MIJE, picked up a quiche lorraine from Manon, and went to enjoy my breakfast at the Notre Dame. Since it was so early in the morning I was able to sit inside (sans beaucoup de touristes) and just take in the beauty of the church.

Third Floor, Middle Window. Mine. 

Notre Dame

Meeting up went a lot more smoothly than planned. We went immediately to the hostel, checked in, and off we were to explore Paris. Let me start out by saying, we accomplished a lot more than I thought humanly possible, but our feet definitely suffered because of it.

On day 1 we saw: Moulin Rouge, Sacre Coeur, the Montmartre neighborhood, Notre Dame, Louvre (outside of it), the Tuilleries Gardens, Concorde, Arc de Triomphe (from a far, from Concorde), the Petit Palais & Grand Palais (walked by), les Invalides (again, walked by), and the Eiffel Tower + Champs de Mars (while enjoying pastries and a bottle of wine!). I literally showed them all of the highlights in one day. (Now considering becoming a Parisian tour guide.)

Quiche Lorraine at the Eiffel Tower

This picture makes me smile. :)

On day 2: The Catacombs, and climbed up the Arc de Triomphe.

Never ending maze of bones underground.

On day 3: The Louvre and climbed up the Eiffel Tower.

The Mona Lisa

Can't you tell we got a little worn out after day 1? I just wanted to make sure they saw it all!!!!

So originally I was supposed to leave the night of day 3. That didn't happen. I stayed one more night and left around lunch time on day 4. This made things a little interesting since I had to be in a suit meeting up with my study abroad group at 2 PM. Thanks to the best roommate ever this was made possible though. She met me at the train station with my suit + heels + passport.

I was so sad to leave Paris. My friends were off to Germany and I headed back 'home' to Belgium. Ready to tackle another week of school, keeping in mind that I am returning to Paris in 2 weeks. But before that happens, I will be hitting up Croatia for the weekend!!!

Memorial Day in Brussels

Last week was our program's first week in Brussels. Monday started us off with a tour of the city, which did nothing but confuse me. Tuesday through Friday we had class at a local university - Universite Libre de Bruxelles. The weather was beautiful so we were able to eat lunch on the lawn every day amongst the other students. Also I think that was the most intense week of class in terms of the amount of information that I've had in a while. There will be a lot of re-reading things on Wikipedia to make sure I got it all before various site visits.

The weekend was spent in Brussels venturing around. Yesterday was a holiday in Belgium (as well as conveniently Memorial Day) so we did a girl's day and went rowing in a pond in Park Woluwe!

Park Woluwe & Memorial Day

There is also nothing funnier than watching two girls who don't know how to row, attempt to do so!

"How does this work...."

I also did my souvenir shopping for Brussels yesterday. Got a sticker for my Nalgene and a badge for my backpack!! (Big spender over here) We also went to the market and one of the girls found the CUTEST ring stand. So obviously I bought one of those too.

I kind of wish they had it in silver, but it was too cute to pass up!

This past weekend was fun though. One of our host brother's was in town from France so we went to a BBQ at his friend's house in Northern Brussels and then went out downtown with them on Sunday night (holiday Monday, so downtown was packed). I was too intimidated by everyone's French that I chickened out and spoke English with them.

The weather has been so nice here, but I am about ready for it to get colder again. I did NOT bring summer clothes to Europe. Not a single pair of shorts, and after this past week I kind of regret that decision. Although the weather really does need to start to cool down. The portion of our trip that requires us to be in suits has started. Either the weather has to cooperate or we are about to be really gross and sweaty in our nicest clothes.

I thought one of the biggest adjustments would be living in a family again. I haven't lived at home since I left for college before I turned 18! And last summer's study abroad we weren't living in families so we could come home at 2 AM if we please. My biggest adjustment has been to come home for dinner every night (but with the price of food here, I am more than happy to do so). Our host parents are currently in France until next Sunday so it's just me, the roomie and their 24 year old son. Between the 3 of us we have very minimal cooking skills, although I'm tempted to take over that department. I'm just happy enough to be getting free coffee in the mornings before heading out.

Also bought tickets to Croatia last night. Random, I know.

From Connecticut, to Manhattan, to Brussels

So this past week has been, well to say the least - interesting. Went to Connecticut, did the whole New England thing (which was AWESOME!). Visited Mystic Seaport with Lee. Walked aboard the oldest wooden functioning whaling ship, the Charles W. Morgan. Learned how to eat lobster (the appropriate restaurant way). Went and visited Yale in New Haven. It was almost a little depressing to walk around and seeing how beautiful their campus is in comparison to Georgia Tech.

On Friday, we went to Manhattan for the day since my flight left for Brussels that evening. Picked up sandwiches and had a picnic on a rock next to the pond in Central Park. What more could I ask for. Then we went downtown to see the construction of the Freedom Tower, walked around Battery Park and saw the Statue of Liberty. Perfect way to end the spring in the Americas before jet setting to Europa!

View from our picnic in Central Park

The flight to Brussels was good, no complications. I of course am not used to flying to Europe with such short distances (I usually leave from Atlanta so that buys me a couple more hours on the plane) but this flight was 6h 45min. That's cool and all, but I needed to finish my homework!!!! Like it was the first time I was legitimately a little upset about how short my flight was...

Anyways, made it safely in one piece to Gare Central, met up with the rest of the students and off we were to have lunch together and go home for the weekend with our families. I live in a French speaking family, which was intimidating at first, but I have yet to speak English! We went on a guided tour of Brussels yesterday so I am slowly catching on to how to get around here. It's crazy how I have very little sense of direction here, but put me in Paris and I can find my way home without a problem.

Belgian Waffles at the Cinquantenaire

Today was our first day of class (at ULB) and we went over very basic things. The history of the EU & European identity. We only have lecture this week, so it's hard to cram a semesters worth into 4 days. Today I decided to be lame after class and go running. My host brother asked me if I wanted him to show me how to get to the park... stubborn Jonna said no and went off on my own. I got lost. Go figure. I went running around in Etterbeek though, the neighborhood that I live in. There are some reaaaally nice houses!!

School is off to a good start so far! Day 1 down.