I have a Desire to Explore @goandexplore11393 - Tumblr Blog

Hello All!

Sorry that my blog is kind of out of use right now. I am at school and can't travel for awhile. I might always add to it the weekend that I go to Ludington, MI for Labor Day.

#travel #camping #labor day

So yesterday Janelle and I took a 40 minute train ride to Utrecht. After finally navigating the train station, we found bus 195 that took us to Lopik. I was unsure of which of the Lopik stops to get off at, so we ended up getting off too early and walking probably another mile or so through this farm town to get there. We just walked around the little town. It is very cute! There are so many little canals and the houses have gardens in the front yard filled with flowers and shrubs. When we were leaving we went under the tunnel to cross the road and found the giant graffiti. We went back home and made some dinner. We walked around and found a pizza place.

Today is our last day!

Hey all! This one might be long.

Yesterday we went walked around the red light district. We saw lots of coffee shops (which sell pot legally), we ate at this little place in the middle of the red light district. We had AMAZING pizza! We havent had that good of pizza since we were in Italy (way too long if you ask me). Then we went to the Erotic Museum. That was...interesting to say the least. Walking down the streets of the red light district all's you can smell is weed, and you see the prostitutes doing business.

Prostitutes here don't stand on street corners though. They are in these little rooms with a door in front of them that has a huge window. They stand in the window and wait for someone to come up to the door. When someone does, they open the door, discuss a price, and then shut the curtain to their window. I got to watch this many times from a pub that we went to last night.

Speaking of last night. Janelle and I went out with our friend Tim that we met in Hamburg! He is the Swiss guy if you remember. We went bar hopping (or pub crawling as they like to call it in Europe) and we hit up like 3 bars that night. We ended up meeting this guy from Brazil. He was a little odd, but still nice. His english was a little rough, but we got by. Also, Tim, Janelle, and I ate at this wonderful hamburger joint in the red light district. Tim talked to our cook in french while we were there. His english was a little rough, but our cook spoke 5 different languages fluently. It was crazy. He talked to us about his wife and 5 kids he has at home. He was a really sweet guy.

The pictures of Janelle and I dying were taken in a square while we were bar hopping with Tim and Phillip (the Brazilian guy).

_________________________________________________________________

Today Janelle and I went to the Van Gogh museum! We walked around the other parts of Amsterdam and I enjoyed the wild poppies that were everywhere. We moved into our new room and are staying with 2 very nice Australian guys. Our room theme is cheese. So the walls are yello and have paint that looks like swiss cheese.

Tomorrow we are going to LOPIK!! So tomorrow will be a blast.

Home in 3 days :)

This is the history of Berlin's interesting crosswalk symbols. It originated in East Germany and is one of the only things that outlasted the Iron Curtain. Check them out! They are cute little communist guys.

#amplemännchen

Only 5 more days!

It's crazy to think that this adventure is almost over! Today we attempted to get to Amsterdam in one piece, and thankfully did so, but there was a lot of problems that arose when trying to get our trains.

First, we were scrambling in the morning to try and find our train to Amsterdam. It was supposed to be a direct ride from Berlin to Amsterdam, but we could not find where it was on the schedule for the day. After breaking down and asking the information desk about it, we found out that all direct trains were cancelled due to flooding on the way. When we found an alternate route, it ended up being 20 minutes late. At our stop where we had to switch trains, that one ended up being 40 minutes late, bringing our 3:30 arrival time to after 5:30. But hey, we are in Amsterdam now!

I must say I love the Netherlands though! The houses are so pretty, the little ponds are filled with lily pads, old windmills are still in every town, there are wild poppies growing in random ditches, goats are chilling in random meadows, and the houses are so adorable! I did catch myself farm gazing...what a tragic thing. I blame detasseling...I was looking at the corn and wondering when it would be ready for the tassels to be taken out. Oh, and mom will get a kick out of this, I outwitted Janelle for the first time, which of course left her speechless. As if all of that didn't already make my day, every time we had to give our name to someone they would ask if we were Dutch. It was really fun because when we would say yes, they would be like "Are you going to Lopik?" Most people don't even know that Lopik is an actual town. You almost get this weird sense of acceptance when they find out that you are Dutch. It's pretty cool.

When we got into town we checked into our hostel and went out to eat! We had a lovely 3 course dinner that really hit the spot. Tomorrow we are meeting up with Tim sometime! (Our friend that we met in Hamburg that is from Switzerland!)

#amsterdam #the netherlands #lopik #dutch #traveling #travel

Rain, Rain go away.

On our last full day in Berlin, it was raining pretty hard...the entire day. So Janelle and I hit up 3 museums. One was the DDR Museum located in East Berlin that interactively showed the lifestyle of ordinary people living in a dictatorship back in the day. It was very interesting, but difficult to fully engage in the activities because of the dense crowd trying to avoid the rain. After, we went to 2 of the other museums which held the jewelry of King Priam and the Egyptian artifacts that Berlin has collected.

The next day we were off to Amsterdam!

Berlin

Today we Janelle and I went on a hop on hop off bus tour! It took us to all of the historic sights of Berlin. We saw where all of the embassies are, where the Berlin wall is and was, we saw Checkpoint Charlie, and even went to Berlin’s Salvador Dali Museum. Berlin is very big and hard to see everything in only 3 days. So tomorrow we are going to the museums and maybe even the zoo!

#berlin #traveling #abroad #sisters #germany

Today was a wonderfully full day in Munich! We took a 4 hour long Segway tour through town. It ended up being a half an hour longer than 4 hours because Janelle and I were the only 2 in our tour group, and the guy leading our tour was having so much fun that he took us to more places than he normally takes his groups.

Munich has a lot of history to it, especially when it comes to the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler. We saw where Hitler's office was, where he set up his party's base, and most of his buildings that he held. We also saw some of the remaining Swastikas that were left after the rebuilding of Munich.

Later, we went to Haufbrahaus which is the big "touristie" beer house in Munich, but you have to go there because they play traditional music and its quite the experience. Actually, before it was a tourist beer house, Hitler used the hall for his speeches.

When walking home, we ran into Michael Jackson's memorial. It has been there since he died, and has been kept up since then.

Only a little more than a week until we are home!

Making new friends!!!!!

Hamburg

Today was a very fun day in Hamburg! I admit there is not much to see, but we had some really fun people staying in our hostel. There was a guy from Switzerland who can speak French, Swiss, English, and German, a guy from Canada who speaks English as well as French, and two girls from Sweden who can speak Swedish, Spanish, and English, that we spent the evening with. (I feel very undereducated.) We got pizza for dinner, bought some inexpensive beer, and then found a nice bar to chill at for the rest of the night. Well, while we were at the bar a storm started coming in. So we all went under a big umbrella and watched the storm go through. Everything started to close down because of the weather so the DJ had stopped playing, so we started dancing to the music on their iPhones and also started singing. When we decided to go back to our room, we went to a tunnel that is really well known in Hamburg. Tim (the Swiss guy) pulled out his camera to tape our lovely singing of Journey’s Don't Stop Believing. Next, we ran to the metro station through the rain to get back to our hostel.

On a less exciting note, earlier that day Janelle and I just walked around Hamburg and found a garden. Janelle lost our map so we had no idea how to get back, so we used the churches and the TV tower to direct us in the right direction to our hostel.

When we go to Berlin, we will be there at the same time as the Swedish girls, so we might meet up with them again. Also, we will be in Amsterdam at the same time as the Swiss guy so we might meet up with him too! And Canada said that he could show me around Montreal sometime if I visited.

Today we leave for Munich! I can’t wait. J

Yesterday we went to Helsingor which is home of the Kronborg Castle. This was apparently where William Shakespeare's the play "Hamlet" took place. It is also right on the Baltic Sea! We had a blast on our tour "In Hamlet's Shoes."

Today we headed to Hamburg. A four hour train/boat ride wasn't bad. It was interesting though, our train loaded onto a ferry and when the ferry ride was over our train drove off to Hamburg. We arrived in Hamburg and went to check out the red light district. We got hit on several times...kind of awkward, but an experience none the less.

<3 Andrea

Hello there! So yesterday I arrived at the København airport around 10:30am, and Janelle arrived at around 1:30pm. We headed off to our hostel and walked around the city for awhile. We went to this place called Fish Kiss, which you go in and stick your feet into and they eat the dead skin off of your feet. It sounds really awkward I know, but it tickles your feet and it was an interesting experience to say the least. Our time limit that we paid for was 20 minutes, but the guy let us stay for almost an hour with no extra charge! I think he enjoyed talking to us and also we were pretty amusing for the people walking by the shop. We were the ones who convinced about 6 to 8 customers to come in and try it themselves. So the extra time might've been a marketing technique too. We got a pizza after and ate it at the King's Garden next to the Rosenburg palace, and called it a night.

The next day we started off with a wonderful breakfast at a café we found. Then, we headed off to Nyhavn for our canal tour. As soon as our tour started it starting pouring. So the picture above is us on that wonderful tour! After we changed into something a bit warmer, we headed to Christianshavn which is a town that is a part of København. We headed to Our Savior's Church (shown above), and there you can climb the 400 some odd steps to the top. There you will see the best view of København, and you can even see Sweden! Next, we headed to Christiana which is a town in Christianshavn that is basically the green light district of the city. Pot is illegal in Denmark, but the rules aren't enforced in Christiana. It is mainly run by gang members and hippies who made an unwritten deal that as long as they just stick to selling pot no one will get in trouble. Even though it was a tad sketchy, it is a safe place that many tourists visit. And NO, we did not smoke any pot while we were there (for the adults reading). Finally, we ended up at Tivoli. We ate at a very nice restaurant and had a beer that was brewed right downstairs. We also had a ton of cotton candy just because I couldn't get enough :).

Tomorrow we are headed off to see Hamlet's castle!

hej hej for now!

Let's talk about London.

So this trip was not supposed to happen for those of you who didn't know. I found out my friend Alex was interning at the House of Commons in the Palace of Westminister. So I crashed on his floor for a few days and explored London!

I saw the pretty much all of the important things in London. I got a special tour of the Palace of Westminister, went to a service at St. Margaret's Church, chilled at the bar with some pretty sweet Aussies at the Hard Rock Café my first day. The second day we went everywhere. We went to Harrods, Platform 9 3/4, out to eat, M&M store, a big toy store which I dont remember the name of, and way more.

So if you get a chance to go to London, even if it's for a split second...DO IT.

This weekend Betsy and I just walked around town and explored København one last time before we leave. We stopped at a market next to Nørroport St. and got some cupcakes!!!

Today my psychology class went to the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (basically a meditation center). We meditated and explored spirituality and mindfulness in Positive Psychology. We were told to pull a card from the lady's hand which had a virtue and I pulled Beauty. I was pretty excited about it. Then I found a card with inspirational goals on it. Mine said, "Find at least one good quality in everyone, no matter how many defects are visible to you." So I think I'm going to make that my personal goal for the trip. I also found out that they were a part of the Climate Change Conference back in 2009 that was held in Copenhagen! I picked up a pamphlet that incorporated spiritual and environmental healthiness. It really reminded me of Miss Mariah Urueta ;-).

Now, Betsy and I are cleaning and packing. Tomorrow I have class at the Open Air Museum and then I'm going to LONDON!!!!

#PUMPED #traveling #london #cupcakes are awesome

kimchikansan

This weekend has been quite a busy one; thank you Trine for an extension on my paper. Friday after class, I did some light grocery shopping and worked on my paper before going to the world renowned Tivoli. Aside from the gardens and rides, Tivoli hosts musical concerts every Friday night throughout the summer. I grabbed a delicious and famous Amerikaner (ice cream cone with whipped cream, strawberry jam, and a chocolate covered meringue/marshmellow) after riding the oldest running wooden roller coaster in the world. 90% sure I was in line behind one of the boys from my practicum site, but I didn’t want to accidentally talk to a stranger or cramp the boys style if it was him. Overall, it was magical; what a cultural enlightenment :P

Saturday, my roommate and I hopped a train to visit my motherland: Sweden. Buying the ticket was quite a fiasco. Long lines, with ques in Danish, and bustling people made for quite the overwhelming ticket purchase but we made it through and were on our way soon enough. Once in Lund, we got to see beautiful chapels and gardens as well as several surprises. When we went to the Lund Cathedral, we got to eavesdrop on a haunting choir practice for a baptism. We followed a wedding party around the city as they went from one stop to the next, and got to watch over little duckling/birds at the Botanical Gardens. Our trip finished with a man from London chatting with us, handing us his business card, aaaand then asking us to drinks for the evening O___o (sorry 52 yr old stranger. no.) This morning, we got up early and *tried* to rent a bike, but 7 minutes after the shoppe opened, they were all gone. We hopped an S-train and saw the star fortress near the mermaid before going to the Norreport market for a dessert pick me up. ta taaaaa to the budget, but it was very delicious. Tonight, we are anticipating a guided tour of the Green Light district. But now, to finish my paper. Hej hej

goandexplore11393

The post below is from my roommate Betsy! Enjoy :)

<3 Andrea

The past few days

Nothing too much has been happening lately except a lot of school and work. The other night i had 80 pgs to read for class the next day. Betsy and I did meet some Italian guys who invited us to a cookout that night. There was also a German girl, a Dutch guy, and a girl from Finland there as well. The girl from Finland kind of reminded me of Luna from Harry Potter. She was really nice. We had lots of food there (although it was mainly meat and bread.)

I just realized what an interesting collage these pictures make. Haha! After our garden day we went back into town for our dinner. Betsy and I had sandwiches and coffee. We decided that we were going to walk around town. Now, when Betsy and I travel it is the "oh that looks cool" game. We basically see something sparklie and go for it, to sum it up. We walked into different parks in town and just strolled around town. We were watching the sunset and decided to just walk until we got tired, then we would ride the bus home. Well, we never rode the bus home. What would've been a 30 minute bus ride turned into a 2 hour walk home! It was very relaxing and so much fun. We got to see lots of things on our way out of town that we would've never seen on a bus. When we got home we hit the hay to save some energy for our day at the zoo.

A group of 6 six girls (including me) went to the Copenhagen Zoo on Sunday! I must say I was very impressed with their animals. I was surprised by some things though:

The educational content for the children was very graphic. It showed lots of blood. In fact, the polar bear game for the children was an animated game where you hit the polar bear paw when a seal came to the surface. You won when animated blood splattered on the screen.

Apparently Americans can hunt polar bears as much as they want? (This was from the educational content.) I am not sure about this fact. Mariah??? Please explain.

The exhibits for some of the smaller animals were very easy to get into. I swear if I wanted to be with the penguins I could've climbed into their exhibit with ease. It just shows you how trusting Danes are with everything. The difference between the Individualistic cultures compared to the Collectivist cultures is astounding.

I got to see a hippo just like BERT! There was the most adorable baby elephant there too. The polar bear was very active, and so were the monkeys! They would come right up to the glass and just stare at you. It was as if they were at the zoo looking at the crazy people walk by. We also saw some turtles gettin' it on. It's really unfortunate that I couldn't understand the conversations going on about that one.

After our fun at the zoo we went back and enjoyed our evening in our Kollegium. Today, I basically just went to class and have been chilling the rest of the day. I made pasta and enjoyed a relaxing day since I didn't get a chance to do so this weekend.

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