Ciao Ciao Papa!

A Catholic...in Rome...during Holy Week! Is there anything better?! I think not. The picture is from the top of St. Peter's Basilica; we climbed 551 steps up just to get that view!

So I touched down in Rome Wednesday, April 8th, and met up with Brie and Lauren (and later Josh, who took a small trip to Naples before meeting up with us), all friends from Penn. I realized that four is the perfect number of people you want to travel with: big enough to have fun and always have something to talk about, and yet just small enough that you can easily appease everyone's wishes. The weather during the week was blue skies, warm and sunny: Spring was in the air, trees were sprouting leaves and green.

On Wednesday evening, we took it easy, just the three girls, hangin' out. Brie and I went for some carbonara and wine and later met up with Lauren when she arrived. We went to a 24 hour super cheap bakery, where I got a chocolate bomba (a donut, filled with nutella); as a side note, I proceeded to go to this bakery probably every day I was in Rome. We walked along the Tiber River and caught up on each other's lives. Afterwards, we went to Old Bridge and grabbed some amazing gelato. Old Bridge happened to be right next to the hostel we were staying at, so needless to say, we went to Old Bridge practically everyday.

The next day was another easy going day. Brie, Lauren, and I looked around a flea market, grabbed some cappuccino from a Bar (what they call cafes in Roma) and walked to the Basilica of St. John the Lateran. Apparently, this, and not St. Peter's Basilica, is the official ecclesiastical seat of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. We then walked by the Spanish steps (the longest and widest staircase in Europe, falsely named Spanish steps: they were built by a Frenchie) and towards Brie's school, a whole ONE BUILDING in Rome, haha, and had lunch on the rooftop of some museum nearby. We then took a mini-bus (about the size of a van, since the roads in Rome are too small to have too many regular buses) right past the Colosseum back towards our hostel. We bought fresh pasta (so fresh, I watched her put the pasta into the cutting machine!) and went grocery shopping for dinner. We had a pretty easy going night, drank wine, and watched Gladiator (a must to see before heading to the Colosseum).

Friday morning, Josh, after heading to Naples for a short trip, met up with Lauren and me in our hostel. We walked to the Vatican to take a tour through the Vatican museum. It's an incredible museum, including the Sistine Chapel, the coolest fresco painting I had ever seen, and paintings like the School of Athens among others. The Vatican is indeed beautiful with its plentiful courtyards; it made me rethink possibly becoming a nun, haha. Afterwards, we grabbed pizza for lunch (not Josh, since he is Jewish and it was passover, meaning he could not have any leavened bread products...yeah, I don't know what he was thinking coming to Italy during passover!) and met up with Brie to take a tour of St. Peter's Basilica, a massive massive Basilica! While it was our intention to climb to the top of the dome on Friday afternoon, we walked into the basilica at the beginning of Good Friday mass and got to catch a glimpse of the Pope (not really, since too many people were shoving to get in front of us, and being nice people, we let them). Afterwards, we took a bus to Trastavere, an off-the-beaten path part of Rome with relatively cheap eats. I found one of the many Roman fountains to fill up my water bottle, undoubtedly one of my favorite aspects of Rome. We saw a silly street show about a bee and a man (not kidding here) and grabbed some dinner. At dinner, I had mussels and clams with pasta and the waiter kept picking on me, saying things like "take your time and dip the bread into the liquid." It was kinda creepy, though amusing to the rest of the party. We found some Duff beer, which unfortunately, I did not try.

The next day, we walked those 551 steps up St. Peter's Basilica to get a great view of Rome. We then met up with Brie and Lauren's former Penn TA of ancient greek/roman history (or something like that) at the Forum. He gave us an incredibly thorough tour of the forum, the center of the Roman empire where ancient Roman civilization developed; so cool since the Forum would have been completely boring without the tour. I can't imagine how incredible the Forum must have been at its height. We spent hours walking around and soaking in the sunlight as well as the history. Seth also took us to the Pantheon, one of the coolest buildings in Rome. It's a dome shaped building that is technically square. It's a perfect 144 meters high and wide inside. Way back when, the Catholic Church owned it and it remains today, a very well-preserved Church. After the tour, we went to a famous coffee shop (I forget the name), and then to Giolitti, where I had the best gelato the entire trip! It was so good, we went back every day, even though it was completely out of our way most of the time. After a great tour and many awkward jokes, Seth, Brie and Lauren's former TA, left and we went to grab real Italian pizza, definitely the best pizza I had on the trip. This time, our waiter, picked on Brie the entire night. After dinner, Brie took us to Trevi Fountain, which marks the terminal point of the "modern" Acqua Vergine, the revivified Aqua Virgo, one of the ancient aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. Here, Josh, Lauren, and I threw some coins into Trevi Fountain. One coin = to come back to Rome, Two coins = to fall in love, Three coins = to get married in Rome. Approximately, 3,000 Euros are collected in the fountain each day!

The next day was Easter Sunday, and somehow, Brie got us tickets/seats for Easter Mass with Pope Benedict XVI! This was such a memorable experience...thousands and thousands of people in St. Peter's Square, all celebrating the Resurrection of Christ. Mass was mostly in Italian. We received the body of Christ from a priest in the Vatican and stayed around for the Pope's blessing to the world in different languages. Surprisingly, his English accent was probably one of the worst accents relative to the other languages he spoke. He said "Jesus Christ be with you all." according to Lauren (since I didn't really hear it, haha, no surprise there to those who know that I am practically deaf!).

After Easter celebration, we went for some lunch and had to wait a few hours for a rude waiter to serve us; typical Italian, not really caring about customer service. It was worth it since the food was relatively cheap and pretty good. Josh made friends with the much friendlier cook inside the restaurant. haha.

We then headed to the Colosseum and then for more Giolitti gelato! Unfortunately, Lauren lost her ticket and couldn't go. I have a fun picture of them digging around the closet for their tickets but I won't post it to spare Lauren. hah. The Colosseum is still magnificent, even though it's now mostly robbed of all the marble that once covered it. The Colosseum is an old stadium where gladiators once fought. It was finished in 80 A.D. and only took ten years to build! Josh pointed out that our stadiums today still have the same layout as the Colosseum does. It would be pretty neat to have a concert inside the Colosseum, but unfortunately, most of it is pretty worn down and it would be impossible to hold any event inside without the Colosseum falling apart. After the Colosseum, we headed back to Brie's apartment for dinner. We (read Brie) made risotto for us...I tried this recently, pretty good and pretty easy!

The next day was my penultimate day in Italy. We didn't do much: had some lunch at Brie's place, more gelato at Giolitti, walked around the city and took pictures at the Spanish Steps. We soaked in the sun and beautiful city of Rome. On our way home, Josh, Brie and Lauren picked up some Roman souvenirs. We haggled a bit and got the price of some of the items down. I went back later to also pick up an Italia jacket for myself. Josh left on Monday evening and Lauren and I left Tuesday morning.

So with that ends my amazing Rome trip. Cheap cappuccinos, delicious desserts, amazing pasta, free water fountains to fill up your water bottles...just a few of my favorite things about Rome!

Alles, alles, alles!

I'm going to apologize ahead of time for the length of this post...it's mostly for me to print out later and put into a scrapbook and remember everything I did.

Bonjour! Je m'appelle Diep, Je suiz American! (This was about the extent of my French.)

I went to Paris a few weeks ago, at the end of March, to visit Sisi, a friend from Penn who is studying at HEC (apparently one of or the best B-school in Europe). Unlike Wharton students, who still compete at the highest level, HEC students realize they are set and party....A LOT!

I'm going to forewarn you that my Paris trip was entirely about food. Hah, no surprise there, I'm sure. My first day there, I went to a fantastic creperie in Versailles, since France is famous for its crepes. Afterwards, Sisi left me for school and I toured the famous Château de Versailles (Palace of Versailles). The weather was a bit ugly, unfortunately, but the palace is indeed beautiful! According to Wiki, since I can't remember any of the history I read at Versailles, the expansion of the château became synonymous with the absolutism of Louis XIV. King Louis XIV wanted to keep his advisors and provincial rulers close him, to make sure they would not revolt against him. Others also resided at Versailles and aided in its current day construction, including King Louis XV and Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. I'm adding a few pictures to give you an idea of how incredible Versailles is...if you include its gardens, Versailles stretches for miles. It's so massive, I had to spend an entire day just touring Versailles. These pictures are the front of Versailles, the famous Hall of Mirrors, and the gardens/fountains/lake of Versailles.

The next day, I had duck confit...duck boiled/roasted in its own fat...yum! Then, to work off that food, I walked to see the Moulin Rouge theatre (where they still have interesting shows *wink*) and hiked up a hill to go to Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart Church) and to get a beautiful view of the City. Here are a few pictures for you.
Even though the weather was a bit ugly, it was a beautiful view of the city! We also heard random gunshots or something here so we quickly departed.

Next on the trip, we walked down Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the most expensive strip of real estate in Europe! Here, there were tons of high-end stores (much like Fifth Avenue, NYC) including the flagship Louis Vuitton store, which I went into hoping I could afford something for Chi, but to no avail. This street was definitely worth the walk, because I had a pistachio macaron (not to be confused with macaroons, an English dessert) from La Duree! It was so good, I went there again later in my Paris trip. Towards the end of the strip, we reached L'Arc de Triomphe (Arch of Triumph), which honors those who fought for France, especially during the Napoleonic wars. There's a cool eternal flame for the unknown soldier under the arch.

I know, it seems like there was no end to this day, we continued on to go to the Louvre, which was formerly a palace and is now a gigantic art museum. I saw Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, but to be honest, there are so many cool paintings there besides the Mona Lisa. A little tip, the Louvre is free on the first Sunday of every month and for those under 26 on Fridays from 6-9p.m.! By the time I was finished walking through one wing of the Louvre, an hour or two had already passed, and my legs felt like they were going to fall off. Typical me, I demanded we leave and grab some food. Hah. Here's a cool nighttime shot of part of the Louvre.
The next day, Sisi, Cat (one of Sisi's friends from HEC), and I went to see Notre Dame Cathedral (Our Lady of Paris Cathedral) and did not see any hunchback during our visit. It's a beautiful Church, here's a cool view of it from the side. Cat and I played on the seesaw in the back of the Church and then we grabbed some food. I had pate, steak and fries, and some appletart...apparently typical French!
After our tour of Notre Dame, we went to the Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower, obviously). It's an iron tower built beside the Seine River; it stands as the tallest building in Paris...much less impressive than I had hoped it to be, probably because I decided not to go up the tower. After the Eiffel Tower, we ended the day with Chinatown and had some Chinese food, which was probably the funniest meal I had the entire trip. Since my friends spoke Mandarin, they proceeded to speak to our waiter in Mandarin; however, we had several waiters and only one spoke Mandarin. As I knew neither French nor Mandarin, I proceeded to order in English. hah. We were indecisive about what we wanted to eat for our entree and dessert, and probably called the waiter(s) to our table at least 10 times! I'm pretty sure they thought we were absolutely insane.

On my final day in Paris, Sisi left me to attend to schoolwork, and I wandered around the French Tuilleries, which is a huge garden that I'm sure is much more beautiful during the summertime when the plants are actually alive. I had some hot chocolate from Angelina's, which was a bit too heavy and rich for me, but others rave about it! Since there was no Sisi and I had no map of Paris, I searched for a hour or so to find the Pantheon. So of course, it would be my luck that by the time I find the Pantheon (which is located at the Luxembourg Gardens stop, which by the way, is a beautiful garden and actually had live flowers and plants!), my camera runs out of battery! It's a cool building that houses the remains of some famous Frenchies, including Voltaire, the Curies, Braille, etc. There are a lot of empty spots; I guess the French thought they'd have a lot more famous French scientists and philosophers and other contributors to the world. hah. After the Pantheon, I tried escargot (snails)...they're okay.

Okay, so to say the least, I did a lot in France, which explains why I came back to Rotterdam totally sick!

I'll write about Rome, my favorite trip thus far, pretty soon.

What nice weather!

It's been quite a while since I've updated this blog, my apologies. Spring is on it's way...the weather has greatly improved in just the past couple of weeks. It's made me totally disregard school and just hang out 24/7...hah, that's pretty much been the theme of my abroad "studies."

Anyways, so in the past couple of weeks, a lot has happened. I went to Antwerp with my roommate, her boyfriend and his bestfriend. That was a lot of fun; it was my first trip to Belgium. I tried Belgian chocolate, which is delicious for sure, but I can probably find the same in the Netherlands (probably not in America, though). I also tried a Belgian waffle...it was delicious. Caroline described it perfectly when she said it was like a piping hot doughnut from Krispy Kreme in the form of a waffle. Yummy! There is a lot of shopping in Antwerp, and I bought a nice Spring/Summer bag. That's a picture inside the mall where I bought the bag. We walked around, hung out, went to a pub, had a couple of Belgian beers. It was relaxing for sure.

After Antwerp, not much happened until Grace and Caroline came to visit! That was such an insane week, with some beautiful weather! We did a lot while they were here. We traveled around Amsterdam, here's a fun picture. We did typical Amsterdam stuff, Rijks and Van Gogh Museums and the Anne Frank House. We went on a quick run through of the red-light district (apparently, there's a red light district in many large cities of Europe, Amsterdam is just the most famous, I think?). We went on a boat tour and had some Holland pancakes (a little bit flatter than the ones in America, tastier, I think).

After Amsterdam, we went straight to Leuven, a student town in Belgium. We met up with a friend, Petronille, and toured the city a bit. Here's a picture of her school's main library...yeah Van Pelt just does not compare. We saw the town hall, here's a fun picture of it lit up in green!





That night, we went on a fun bike ride to a Spanish-themed bar and had one of those long thought-provoking conversations about life and beliefs, etc over a jug of sangria. Haha. It was surreal to be hanging out with Mobilians in EUROPE!

The next morning, we woke up early to head to Brussels. We saw a lot of cool things, including two peeing statues (one of a boy and the other of a girl), they seem to really like the peeing statues in Europe. Yes, he is dressed as the Dalai Lama to celebrate some anniversary? We had some Belgian beer (a little bit too much for me and Grace) at a bar that holds the Guinness record for varieties of beer, I think? We went into a gigantic Catholic Church, it's nice they don't charge to see such beautiful churches! We saw some other pretty cool things, like a great view of Brussels and a gigantic Iron Molecule called Atomium or something? We ended the day with some Belgian chocolate and waffles, mmm...yum!

After Belgium, Caroline and Grace hung out in Rotterdam for a couple of days. We met up with Caroline's former next door neighbor who happens to be from Rotterdam (I know, what a small world!). We walked across Erasmus Bridge (first time I had ever walked across the bridge, even though it's a ten minute walk from my apartment!). We rode a water taxi (never done that before!) and went on the Euromast (highest point in Rotterdam, I've discussed this before). We went to Delft, one of my favorite cities in the Netherlands and saw where they made this famous Delftware. For the most part, we just hung out in Rotterdam, took it easy. I had class the next day, but told Caroline and Grace to check out the windmill in Delfshaven. Unfortunately, I told them to take the tram going in the very opposite direction. This was pretty much a theme of the trip, go in the opposite direction that Diep says to go. Anybody who has traveled with me knows I am not very good with directions. Luckily, they found their way back, a bit frustrated with me, but that's okay. :-D We had dinner with Romy (Caroline's former neighbor) and her family later that evening; we had a traditional dutch meal: Stomppot with bacon and vla & coffee for dessert. Dutch food is really starting to grow on me. We even had bread with butter and chocolate sprinkles (yeah, try that for breakfast when you get the chance, that's what they eat here).

So that wraps up what I've been up to for the last few weeks. I had an exam the Monday after Grace and Caroline left...we'll see how I did on that. haha. Lately, I've been just hanging out. Kelly, an intern from over the summer who currently works for Coke in Madrid is coming to visit me tomorrow! I'll be on the road again soon and writing about my adventures yet again.

Rainy and Cold in Praha

So after Berlin, I spent about two days in Prague. Hannah took me to Prague Castle and through Malestrana (Old Town) or something along those lines. We walked around the city and wandered into the town square which houses the Old Town Hall that has the famous astronomical clock (which apparently strikes at every hour, but is really not that exciting so I didn't take the time to watch). Prague is known for its Bohemian glass but I knew I wouldn't be able to carry it home without it breaking, so I didn't buy any. We saw the Peeing Man statue, which is a graphic fountain. We also walked across Charles Bridge, which was my favorite thing to do while I was there. It's a bridge with religious statues going down it. Here's a good picture of Charles Bridge with part of Prague in the background.

Here I also touched the St. Stephen (the Czechs love this man, statues of him EVERYWHERE!) statue for good luck!

We saw the infant of Prague, a baby Jesus doll that sits inside the Church of Our Lady Victorious. Found from Wiki: One day, while praying before the statue, Father Cyrillus heard a voice say, "Have pity on me, and I will have pity on you. Give me my hands, and I will give you peace. The more you honor me, the more I will bless you." We also went to the John Lennon wall, where John Lennon once wrote peace and now there is writing that usually relates to John Lennon all over the wall. We also saw the Dancing House building by famed architect Frank Gehry and a million and one other churches (yes, there are just that many churches in Prague). Funny thing is, you would think the Czechs are religious with all of the religious statues and churches at literally every corner, but surprise! according to Hannah, the Czechs are not religious at all (I guess this makes sense seeing as how they used to be Communist). We also went to Charles University which is the where Vysehrad - another beautiful Church/Castle building is. There, I walked through the National Cemetery and got to see more pretty views of Prague.

So I'll end this blog with some things I enjoyed about Prague:

1. Cheap cheap food (the cost of living in Prague is relatively low compared to the Netherlands).
2. Beautiful views of the city, EVERYWHERE!
3. Catholic Churches, everywhere
4. Metros and Trams where you technically don't even need a ticket (Hannah and I were too lazy to walk to the metro to buy me a ticket, shhh! don't tell the Czechs!)

Before I leave you, here's some creepy art from a famous artist in Prague.


I went to Antwerp this past weekend, I'll write about it soon.

Pictures from Berlin

Victory Column where Obama spoke last summer

Protestant Cathedral Built in 1905 to Look Very Old

Top of the Reichstag Dome

Largest Remaining Piece of the Berlin Wall

Charlottesburg Palace, It was ridiculously large


Tiergarten

My Favorite Site in Berlin: Brandenburg Gate