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4 May 2017: Bruges, Belgium - Day 2

Inspired by the film In Bruges, we decided to do a day trip to Bruges while in Belgium!  It’s such a charming town, and well-worth the visit if you’re in Brussels.

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3 May 2017: Brussels, Belgium - Day 1

3 May 2017

Day 1 in Belgium primarily consisted of walking through Grand-place and visiting the Musical Instrument Museum (would highly recommend!) - of course with waffle stops in between.

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16 - 19 April 2017: Barcelona, Spain

More than one year later, but better late than never, right?

I really want to finish this blog by posting the rest of my excursions, and I finally have the time to do so after just finishing my very last quarter at my university — yep, I’ve graduated!

Barcelona is such an amazing city — rich culture, fascinating architecture, delicious food, easy walkability, and the friendliest people!

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2 April 2017: Amsterdam, Netherlands - Day 3

2 April 2017

Today was mainly devoted to visiting the Keukenhof tulip gardens!  This place was amazing; it was kind of like a theme park devoted to flowers.  Unfortunately we didn’t arrive at the most blossomy of times, as the flowers tend to bloom later in April, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

Keukenhof has a petting zoo, which is adorable because kids (the human kind) hanging out with kids (the goat kind) all in one place is probably the best thing ever.

*This post is not sponsored by eatdutchwaffles.nl

Who are these men and how can I join their squad???

There were several buildings/greenhouse type things that had their own special displays and themes.  This part was pretty avant garde.

Noble duck.

I “named” a tulip.  Which is an actual process whereby the person who gives the name pours champagne on their tulip.  So that’s what I’m pretending to do.

We ended the day (and trip!) by getting this Dutch apple pie to-go from a restaurant and eating it while chilling in our hostel.  I swear it tasted 100x better than it may look in this lighting/presentation.

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31 March - 1 April 2017: Amsterdam, Netherlands - Day 1-2

31 March 2017

Today started off with a canal tour!  Most of us on the trip purchased an “Amsterdam Card,” which covers nearly all public transportation, gives a few discounts, and some free museum entries.  And also this canal tour.

After the canal tour, we walked around the city for a bit.

Afterwards, we went to the Stedelijk Museum, which is full of modern and contemporary art!  I apologize for the following lopsided pictures.

Next to this museum were the Van Gogh museum and Rijksmuseum, as well as the “I Am Amsterdam” sign.  

1 April 2017

Pancakes were definitely a point of interest for us, so we headed out to get some for breakfast.  I opted for the restaurant’s “Dutch Pancake”, which I’m fairly certain is far from authentic Dutch cuisine.  Ah well. 

This thing had stroopwafel pieces, cinnamon ice cream, powdered sugar, whipped cream, and chocolate shavings.  I felt extreme regret after consumption.

We then walked to Vondelpark!  I only have one picture?  At least saved on my phone as of now.  Unfortunately it’s not a pretty nature-y snapshot...But was more of something I was making fun of, because it trying to be #deep.

After Vondelpark, we walked again to the museumy area to get in line for the Van Gogh museum.  We waited for about an hour and a half, which sort of was a bummer.  But the museum itself was so amazing!  It covered Van Gogh’s life in such detail, and I definitely left having a greater appreciation and respect for the artist.  No pictures unfortunately, so you’ll just have to go see it for yourself, dangit!

A warm greeting from hostel kitty after a busy day.

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18-20 March 2017: Berlin, Germany - Days 2-3

18 March 2017

On 18 March, my friends and I did a walking tour of Berlin.  The next few pictures are from that.

The Neue Wache memorial is a memorial site for victims of war.  The statue pictured above is Käthe Kollwitz’s “Mother with her Dead Son.”

Hotel Adlon, a hotel where many celebs stay, and also where Michael Jackson infamously dangled his child out of its window.

Holocaust memorial.

A part of my favorite Berlin Wall art piece by artist Thierry Noir.  Later on this trip I would go on to buy a tote bag with one of these cartoon guys on it.

19 March 2017

No pictures, but we went to the flea market this morning!  It was rainy, so not the best of weather for walking around outdoors visiting different stands, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless!  I ended up buying a funny sweater.  Here’s what it looks like, featuring my hand (photo cred to my sister)!

Our next stop was food.  Burgermeister was a must, according to my friend’s friend who is dating a Berliner.  And so we set out!

Ok, my burger was not as photogenic as my friends’.  But like, I wasn’t too upset because I was slightly more concerned with eating it.  Which I did!  

After burgers, we walked along the East Side Gallery, a segment of the Berlin Wall where you can see a lot of different artists’ works.  Many of the images were restored in 2009 by the original artists.

*EDIT* I totally uploaded my Amsterdam post without including these following pictures!  So here they are in this post.

20 March 2017

We didn’t do that much this day except go to a mall, eat, and visit the inside of the Berlin Cathedral.

Currywurst lunch

The most Berlin-y dish is currywurst, aka wurst that has ketchup and curry powder on it.  A+ idea.

The fries look huge because I ordered a large fries for my friends and I to share, okay?!?

For my true fans, y’all should remember that I uploaded a photo of the Berlin Cathedral’s exterior from my first Berlin post.  So then, imagine (or look back at) that, and then like, imagine this as its inside for a full visualization of the site.  Or I guess you can Google image search it. Yeah, that’s easier.

The arguably main draw of visiting the Berlin Cathedral is the view of the city from the very top.  It was a climb.

Last meal was...Ramen.  Ok, before you judge, I definitely did eat German food during this trip.  AND, if you know me, you know that ramen was like half of the meals I had with my boyfriend in the Bay.  So like, this was long over-due and was very necessary for my well-being .

It was glorious.

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East German dance video (DDR museum)

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East German kid's television show (DDR Museum)

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17 March 2017: Berlin, Germany - Day 1

My friend and I flew out from Geneva on Friday morning (17 March).  When we arrived, we took the train from the Schoenefeld airport to an underground subway, and from there we got to our hostel.  The first thing my friend and I noticed immediately was how CHEAP the food was!!  We were already freaking out at the train station, fawning and practically salivating over Chinese take-out that was 6-7 euro, which would have been probably 13-15 francs back in Geneva.

After reuniting with my sister and meeting her friend (who had arrived the night before), we all realized that it was in my and my friend’s best interest to get some chow in our systems, while the other half of our group would make a game plan for the day.  My sister and her friend referred us to a nearby Turkish place.  

After promptly wolfing down a durum doner (essentially a kebab wrap), the two of us returned to the hostel again.  The others informed us of what they came up with to explore for the day: the Topography of Terror museum and the DDR museum.  My friend and I were immediately on board.

This is the Berlin Cathedral. I completely forgot when I took this picture, so I’m inserting it here.  In my head I feel like this was one of the first things I saw when I was walking around but I’m really not so sure now...

Pieces of the Berlin Wall outside the Topography of Terror.  The museum is located on the site of the former headquarters of the Gestapo and SS, and does a very detailed, informative job on covering that period of history.  The buildings of the headquarters were destroyed by Allied bombing, and later the Berlin Wall happened to be built along the same street.  Admission to the Topography of Terror is free, which I really do laud the city of Berlin for; it seems that they care a lot about educating the public about these sensitive, important parts of history.

Next stop was the DDR museum, which displays what daily life in East Germany was like.  It’s roughly located on the bottom right hand corner of this picture, after walking down steps to get on the dock level.  On the left side is the backside of the same building from the first picture of this post.  DDR was extremely fun and interactive, and I highly recommend checking it out!

Me doing a driving simulation in a trabi, the iconic East German automobile.  Not pictured is the 7-ish year old boy next to me who actually cut me in line to do this.  And instead of leaving the car when I went to step in, he merely scooted to the passenger seat.  Throughout the simulation, he delivered orders to me (in German).  Not sure if I did a good job following his directions.

Trying out East German fashion in DDR.  Sliding an outfit hanging on a coathanger to the other side of the closet makes the “mirror” screen put that outfit on you!  I thought this was really cool, but maybe that’s because I am very easily amused and do things like waiting 8 minutes to have my turn to drive the Trabi simulation.

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7 March 2017: United Nations Visit

One of my classes at UNIGE went on a field trip to UNOG, aka the United Nations Office at Geneva, aka Palais des Nations (see its famous flags behind the Red Chair).  Little did I know at the time of this field trip, that I would actually snag an internship that would be located at Palais!  My start date is in April, and I’m so excited to work amongst so many incredible people and conferences.

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4 March 17: Tuscany Trip - Day 2

Sorry for the lack of updates!  I’ve been trying to do this post multiple times, but Tumblr won’t save my drafts for it and all my progress gets erased.  Fingers crossed it’s ok this time!

We took a train from Pisa to Florence, a roughly 2-hour ride for a day trip.  When we arrived, we stopped by a cafe for coffee, and decided to walk around a bit!  If I had one takeaway from our Florence trip, it was PLAN AHEAD.  There were so many sights to see, and I definitely didn’t do my research about what museums/basilicas to go into.  Next time, I definitely would like to spend at least 2-3 days to explore the city.

Piazza del Duomo

When we turned around the corner at Piazza del Duomo, we all gasped.  

Piazza di Santa Croce

Basilica di Santa Croce

A statue of Dante Alighieri, the author of Divine Comedy, outside the basilica. He along with Machiavelli, Michelangelo, and Galileo are buried there. I’ll have to make another trip to Florence to go inside!

Piazzale Michelangelo

After some rain and a long uphill hike, our next stop was Piazzale Michelangelo.  Here’s a fake David, one of many.

The view overlooking the city from Piazzale Michaelangelo.

Ponte Vecchio

We headed back down from the Piazzale to grab lunch.  On the way we were to go through Ponte Vecchio, the market on the bridge over the Arno.

“Legend has it that if you and your loved one attach a padlock to any surface of the famous bridge and then throw away the key into the Arno River below, your love will last forever. Millions of couples have come to the Ponte Vecchio for expressly this reason, to lock in their love and throw away the key for eternity.” (via Firenze Albergo)

View of the Arno from the bridge.

Lunch at Mangia Pizza Firenze.  As per the waiter’s recommendation, I (along with my friends) all ordered the white pizza with mozzarella cheese, racket, ham, tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar.  Mangia we did.

Piazza della Libertà

To walk off lunch, we headed to Piazza della Libertà, which has the Triumphal Arch of Lorraine.

“The arch was begun after 1737 to welcome the arrival in January 1739 of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty; it was past this arch that the same dynasty was to leave for exile in 1859.�� (via Wikipedia)

Mochaccino to rejuvenate.  We did lots of walking (the total came out to be 26, 659 steps/12.7 miles at the end of the day).

Pasta dinner to end our Florence trip!

On Day 3 of our Tuscany trip, we took things easy and hung around Pisa, so my next post will be skipping over that!  Stay tuned for a few pics from my class trip to the United Nations.  

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3 March 17: Tuscany Trip - Day 1

On March 3rd, I woke up at 4:00 AM to take a 7:00 AM plane ride to Pisa!  With a backpack in tow, the journey was pretty painless.  Geneva’s airport was very efficient, although not sure how much I should attribute that to being there at 6 AM.

Plane ride ft. the Alps!  

The EasyJet ride was under an hour long and really smooth.  Although we were prepared for rainy weather all throughout the weekend, Friday turned out to be really beautiful! 

Tuttomondo di Keith Haring

Shortly after arriving, we encountered “Tuttomondo di Keith Haring”, which is a legit Keith Haring painting dedicated to world peace on a whole side of a building!  I’m a fan of his art, so this was a lovely surprise.  For more information on it, check out this link!

Imitating the mural.

The Arno River!  

Piazza del Duomo (aka “the Field of Miracles”)

The Leaning Tower

Obligatory tourist picture.

Looking up at the Leaning Tower!

In the Piazza del Duomo, there’s also a cathedral and a baptistry in addition to the tower.

Baptistry

In front of the baptistry. 

Cathedral

Forgot to take a picture of the cathedral’s exterior, but here are two pics of its interior below!

Lunch

My friend and I split a sandwich and a meat and cheese board at a little place called L’Ostellino.  Also had a coca-cola.  Energy replenished.

After lunch, we walked to another Piazza: the Piazza Dei Cavalieri, which Wikipedia says was the political center of Pisa and is now currently its educational center.

That statue in front of the building is Cosimo I.  The first thing I noticed when I went up to it is that he is squishing what seems to be porpoise head, which Wikipedia confirms.

Beach at Viareggio

A travel-savvy companion suggested we visit a beach 15 minutes away from Pisa Centrale, Pisa’s train station, to watch the sunset.  10/10 would recommend — especially with the cute dogs running around.

Dinner

For dinner, our group went to Numeroundici.  The staff was extremely understanding and accommodating with our large group of 14, and we were seated at large wooden tables.  I ended up ordering testaroli with walnut pesto, and tried bites out of people’s wild boar fettuccine and black ravioli with fish.  The quality was great, but the portions were a little smaller than what I was expecting.  As far as ambience, this definitely seemed like a hip place for locals, as I’m pretty sure we were the only non-Italians in there.

Anyway, it was an extremely long, eventful day.  Suffice to say that I slept very well that night.  And I needed to, because Day 2 we were to head out to Florence!

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19 - 25 February 2017

Walking Tour of Geneva

Reformation Wall

From left to right: William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore Beza, and John Knox.

Geneva, a.k.a. “Protestant Rome,” became an important refuge for Protestants after the repeal of the Edict of Nantes.  These four figures above, William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore Beza, and John Knox (left-to-right), are key individuals of the Protestant Reformation.

Old Town

St. Pierre Cathedral

Some day I will have to go inside; I am told there is an amazing view of the city at the top!

Flower Clock

Allegedly the longest seconds hand of a clock in the world.

Lake Geneva and fountain

Fondue at Bains de Pâquis

View from inside the restaurant.  Bains de Pâquis is actually a public bath, but it’s also known for serving food — especially fondue in the winter.

So.  Much.  Cheese!  Once we hit the 3/4 point with finishing the bread, my friend and I started to slow down our pace...a lot.  Definitely had to take breaks in between bites.  Happy to report that we finished the whole thing, though! 

The mulled wine we had with our meal was also great.

Mont Salève

Unfortunately the hiking trail was closed, so we took a cable car (téléphérique) up and back.  We still were able to get some walking in at the top though!

A Buddhist temple on Mont Salève!

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17-18 February 2017

Lumping these 2 days together!

17 February 2017

Today was the big orientation for exchange students (the picture above is the huge administrative building where it took place, called Uni-Mail).  Not much to report on, other than there were so many people from not just UCs, but also other universities and countries around the world!  I signed up for the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) Genéve, a student organization all about bringing together international students at UNIGE and doing fun things together.  I’m really looking forward to it.  Other than that, I am very interested in the different sports offered at UNIGE.  Only a handful of them are free for students, such as volleyball, basketball, and badminton, but I’d love to join one of them...because free.  When I looked up fencing (the sport I play at home) at UNIGE, it seems that students practice on their own at pre-existing fencing clubs around Geneva.  I sent a few emails to these clubs and hope that I can check them out!

The last bit of orientation was a campus tour.  UNIGE doesn’t have a central campus like what I’m used to in California.  Instead, individual buildings are sprinkled here and there.  Most of my classes will take place in Uni-Mail, but I still definitely want to be able to navigate around the different buildings.  If I haven’t mentioned it yet, these academic buildings are like a 20 minute bus ride from the residential dorms, and the dorms are collectively called Cité Universitaire.

After orientation, I went back to my room to rest a bit.  I then walked to Migros, one of the main grocery chains in Geneva, to buy some food.  After being spoiled at home for a couple months in winter break, I am going to make a great effort to start cooking again, especially since eating out is quite expensive in Geneva.

18 February 2017

Today I decided to run some errands!  I walked from Cité to the Cornivan train station that I mentioned before, in order to buy a monthly bus pass (45 CHF) and a sim card.  The 40 minute walk was lovely and perfect for getting some air!

I passed by some beautiful buildings and crossed the Rhône river (I think).

After doing those errands, I Yelped for cheap lunches in the area.  I decided on Parfums de Beyrouth, a Lebanese restaurant.  When I arrived, it was filled with customers, many of whom were locals — a trustworthy sign in any city.  I decided on a lamb shawarma sandwich (8 CHF), which I regretfully didn’t take a picture of.  The man serving me was extremely funny, nice, and accommodating.  I’ll be sure to visit again when I need a cost-efficient meal!

After lunch, I decided to take the bus home, and work on other administrative details I had to iron out.  All in all, I’m very happy with deciding to do a solo day, where I explored a bit of the city by myself!

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16 February 2017

This was the day that I arrived in Switzerland!  I flew from SFO to a layover in Paris, and then from Paris to Geneva.  During my layover, I met up with a fellow student on the same study abroad program.  While we were talking and figuring out our game plans for when we landed in Geneva (I needed to get to my university dorm and my classmate needed to get to a hotel), a young woman next to us overheard our conversation and gave us suggestions and tips for how to travel from the Geneva airport!  In essence, public transportation is super easy, taxis are extremely expensive, and that if we wanted to Uber (a far cheaper alternative to taxis), we should take the train from the airport to the main train station (Cornavin) in Geneva and get an Uber from there.  This would be my first of several experiences with an extremely friendly Genevan.  If you’re somehow reading this, thanks Claire!

When I exited the plane in Geneva, this was one of the first things I saw.

As a Northern Californian native, this excited me a lot.  There are so many cool countries in proximity to Switzerland; Geneva itself is right up next to France.  One of these days I need to take a train/bus and pop into the neighboring nation!

After gathering my luggage at the airport, I picked up a ticket that allows for free public transportation for 80 minutes (which both Claire and my study abroad program recommended).  Right after that, however, my fellow classmate and I were stopped by customs...Yikes.  They asked us a few questions about what we were doing in Geneva and went through our luggages.  The agents were friendly enough, but they were definitely taking their time before letting us go through.

I opted for public transportation to get to my dorm.  After the hold-up with customs, I hurriedly hopped on a train from the airport to Cornavin in order to hitch a ride on a bus from Cornavin to my dorm.  The airport train was straightforward, as Cornavin was the first stop.  But the struggle began when I got off Cornavin and tried to look for my bus, Bus #3 headed to the direction of Crêts-de-Champel.  I read and re-read the instructions my program gave me, and thought that that specific bus stop wouldn’t be too far away from the train station, since there were tons of other bus stops surrounding it.  After circling around the station twice with my 75 pounds worth of luggage and asking two different people, I finally found the stop.  It ended up actually being couple of blocks away from the train station — more than I had anticipated.

When I finally boarded the bus, it had already been more than 80 minutes after I picked up the free ticket.  Oops.  With my heavy suitcases and sweaty face, I merely hoped that no one would check my ticket and sat down frantically.  Cue Encounter with Kind Genevan #2.  A woman on the bus told me to sit next to her, and she started to immediately talk to me in English and made sure I was all sorted out.  She told me that it was important for her to reach out and offer help to people who look like they need it, since she knows what it’s like to be in that position too.  After chatting for a bit, she actually gave me her business card “in case of emergency.”  Frances-Lise — thanks again for lending a hand to a clammy, clumsy American girl!

Finally, I made it to my dorm.  After sorting out administrative details, I was able to relax for a bit!

Not pictured:  The tons of shelves, closet, and sink and mirror behind me!

This is the first time I actually will have my own room to myself, excluding when my twin sister is not home and sharing our bedroom.  I have to say, this new space is pretty glorious.

To end the day, I met up with the classmate I had the layover with for dinner.  We decided to eat at Le Relais de l'Entrecôte, a well-known steak frites place that has locations in several cities around the world.  When you sit down, all the waitresses ask you is how you like your steak.  Your subsequent dinner consists of bread, salad, and two servings of steak frites (!!).  Everything else (drinks that aren’t water, dessert, etc.) you have to order separately.

Encounter with Kind Genevan #3 happened during our dinner.  During a lull in my classmate’s and my conversation, the man next to our table asked my classmate and I about our very American accents.  The three of us had a very interesting, educational discussion mostly about international politics,  on topics like nationalities (where we’re from and where our parents are from), languages (I don’t speak French, and only a little Mandarin), and the phenomenons of the rises of Trump, Duterte, and Brexit.  Later, it was revealed that the man was a former director at the United Nations, which made his perspective and opinions even more fascinating!  When my classmate and I left, the last thing he told me was “Casey, remember to learn Mandarin!”  I include this statement only because I know my parents would appreciate it.

That pretty much wraps up my very eventful first day in Geneva!  In the future, I hope to be more succinct, but this particular day was very much worth retelling, in my opinion. :)