Bluechigger

Heading out the door for Germany pretty soon here. I absolutely cannot wait. Berlin is the first stop, I’m sure it will be exciting and very interesting, but its just the appetizer to the main course that is Wolfsburg! Jennifer has been reading in our Germany guide about Wolfsburg and apparently there is a ton of stuff to do regarding Volkswagen and automobiles in general. Very exciting. I usually read the travel guides once we are on the plane, so I have yet to actually read the material for myself. After Wolfsburg we will be going to the tiny town of Fungstadt (spelling?) where Jennifer traced her family to a long way back. Finally it’s on to Munich and then back to London. We may actually end up renting a car to use on the Autobahn because our second and third destinations are a little off the beaten path. We’ll see though how it works out. I can’t wait to see everyone when we get home. Thanks for reading! See you soon.

Okay, I mean the end is near…but not necessarily in a doomsday-esque way. I only have one more test to take tonight and I will be completely done (sadness) with my one and only semester in London, England. I have been only marginally sad this week because this amazing experience is coming to an end. Thats okay though because I’m looking forward to being home and maybe driving a car–although most certainly not looking forward to buying gas–and maybe going to WAL-MART and marveling at the massive expanse and selection of goods…plus I need some toothpaste. Anywho, one of my roommates went home a week early (he reaaaallly likes NOT being in London) so it is just Mark and I here at the moment. It was an uneventful weekend in every sense except for academically I typed two papers that were massive. When I get home I think I will publish them online so everybody can read my travel essays! Wow, I have had an incredible time here and I am going to miss this place more than I ever thought possible. Feel free to stop reading the site now if you want because I predict several more sad-themed posts over the next week.

In other news Jennifer and I are going to Germany Saturday evening and will return the following Saturday…and the back to America which I am really excited about except for the part about never living in London again. It’s cool though, I’m prepared for the sunshine and warm weather! More again…soon.

Jennifer and I are headed out to southern Europe and the beautiful nation of Spain tomorrow morning. We will be returning next Wednesday after having visited Valencia, Madrid, and Barcelona! We actually just booked our places to stay tonight, which was an enormous adventure in itself. Everything worked out very well and I couldn’t be more excited to hit the road for what will be one of our last European adventures unfortunately. Please look for plenty of details of the trip when we get back next Wednesday. Speaking of next week, that will be the last week of classes here in London. I have a couple of essays left to write and a test or two that need to be taken. After that I will be free and clear of all things academic for at least 3 weeks! I’ll post again soon!

What an interesting place. I am not sure I can say that enough about Amsterdam the beautiful canal city in the tulip-laden Holland region of the Netherlands. Jennifer and I landed there Thursday evening (thankfully with the time change it is now daylight until about 8pm) and had absolutely no trouble at all taking a train into the city and walking for the Central Station to our hotel on the Rembrandtplein or Rembrandt Square as it were. The hotel was pretty nice, I knew this because it had a minibar where a can of Coke was €3. I also knew I would like this place because there was a French fry stand on the corner of the square. In Amsterdam they love French fries. Every few blocks there is a sidewalk stand that sells nothing but French fries covered in your choice of about a dozen different sauces. Of course, as I’m sure you’ve already guessed, Mayonnaise is the by far the most popular sauce in the country. Truthfully, the mayonnaise was absolutely awesome! Although I’m pretty sure am going to have to run from here to Missouri to clean the grease and oil out of my arteries. But on to other topics…

Jennifer and I made sure to peruse the Red Light District while we were in town. What a strange place that was. Street after street of ladies just standing in windows doing various things like painting their nails or chatting on a mobile. The narrow streets were shoulder to shoulder with people on Friday night. The creepiest and strangest thing about the Red Light District however, was the multiple men we passed on the street that evening who wanted to know if I knew “Charlie” and did I need any cocaine or heroin. Fortunately I didn’t know “Charlie” so I kept on walking. Good times. Please, continue reading… »

Tomorrow afternoon Jennifer and I are headed to Amsterdam for two days. This is going to be a strange adventure. I assume the red light district will be really creepy. I will inform everyone with my findings as soon as I return. This is going to be odd. I am looking forward to the Anne Franke house and the Heineken brewery. I cannot wait to see the Netherlands. Sweet!

By the way, it did rain just after I finished posting the other day and it has pretty rained ever since. Spring has sprung.

Wow, so it has been almost 70 degrees here today. That is amazingly warm for this country especially at this time of year. Not too much is happening these days now that all of our visitors have gone back to their respective homelands. Jennifer and I are taking off for Amsterdam this weekend and will be back Saturday night. It just turned grey outside and now I think it is going to rain. So this week my goals are to write several things that are due next week. Including an 8-page assignment for my Travel Literature class comparing Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage to Jack Kerouac’s Life on the Road. That will be a fun one. After that I just have to type a 4-page analysis of one of our weekly trips, that is mostly my own thoughts so I can type it relatively quickly. I feel like I’m reading and writing a ton this week. After next week though it should be nearly smooth sailing.
Please, continue reading… »

Sorry for the lack of posts! My good friend Marshall has been in town, and entertaining him is a full-time job. Not really, but we have been running around and awful lot. Jennifer left this morning to fly to Marseilles, France to spend the weekend with her friend BJ who was her roommate in Scholars last semester. Next weekend Jennifer and I are likely headed to Amsterdam to see what Holland has to offer us. After that we will *hopefully* be traveling to Spain and possibly Morocco over our 5 day Easter break. Marshall is here until Monday morning, so I think this weekend we are going to head out to Greenwich and visit the Prime Meridian and the National Maritime Museum.

But you’re probably looking to hear about Venice… Please, continue reading… »

Rome! Oooh Rome! What a beautiful town. Everything was so friendly and nice. My entire time in Europe everyone I meet has told me about how horrendous the traffic was in Rome. Apparently they had never been to Naples. In my experience I found the traffic in Rome to be tolerable, almost tranquil. I really enjoyed their system of crossing the street whenever they felt like it and simply threading their way through traffic. Again in Rome we ate delicious pizza, although not in anyway as fantastic as our Neapolitan cuisine. Our last night in Rome we ate at a wonderful restaurant in the basement of a building just down the block from our hotel. Jennifer and I each had pasta, mine had bacon and something in it. Jennifer ate tortellini stuffed with ham in a cream sauce with chick peas and more bacon…according to what she is telling me over my shoulder at the moment.

We saw some amazing sights in Rome. This is a town where around every corner, down every alley, in every family’s backyard there is a ruin. The guide on our guided tour the first day told us that they have an impossible time building anything in the city because as soon as they begin to excavate they run into ancient buildings under the surface. While in Rome we saw most of the highlights of the city including the Colloseum, Pantheon, Vatican, and the Trevi Fountain among others. One of the most interesting things to see for me was the balcony where Mussolini gave speeches before and during World War II. The buildling still stands and his balcony is still there.  Please, continue reading… »

We are back, safe and sound. What an absolutely great trip! We saw an amazing portion of what Italy has to offer in just shy of two weeks. We never ran into any major snags or hassles along the way. Our trains left when they were supposed to, our hotels were where the addresses said they were. I ate some of the best food I have ever tasted and I branched out and really attempted to order some things I hadn’t heard of before, mostly on pizzas though.

Our journey began in Naples where we arrived on Thursday the 2nd around 7ish. The flight wasn’t particularly long and we were given a snack on the airplane, so I was happy. Naples was a wild town though. Please, continue reading… »

Okay, so this post isn’t really about pizza entirely, but I do love pizza. Jennifer and I are having a great time in Rome at the moment, but just two days ago we were in Naples enjoying some of the finest pizza I have ever tasted in my entire life. Naples was the nastiest, most graffitied city I have ever been to in my entire life, however we had a fantastic time eating pizza and wandering around avoiding the poop on the ground. Rome has been absolutely fantastic! What an amazing city, I will post all of my pictures as soon as I get back to a decent computer. Tomorrow morning we head to Florence and then on to Pisa and Venice. Check out Jennifer’s site for a much more lengthy description of the events thus far. I intend to give my full write up at the end of the week. In the meantime, I hope the BEARS get and NCAA bid.