Carnival Break Part I - Nice, France

Carnival Break was a very relaxing and fun filled break which began in Nice, France.  Nice is located on the south east coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, and needless to say we spent the majority of our time in Nice hanging out on the beach and enjoying the sun.

Getting to Nice was a little more than we all bargained for.  As I mentioned before in my last post about Munich, my friends and I had the brilliant idea to "sleep" in the Brussels airport the night before our flight because we didn't want to spend money on a hostel/hotel for what would amount to less than 8 hours.  Let's just say that voluntarily sleeping in an international airport is one of those things that I don't regret doing but I will never again do in my life...ever.   Around 4:00AM I finally was able to fall asleep...at 4:30AM I was awoken by about fifty fellow travelers asking me to sleep elsewhere so they could sit at the cafe chairs I had put together to sleep on.  Needless to say I was a tad tired and out of it.  So much so that when going through security I left my cologne, hand sanitizer, and a half filled water bottle in my backpack.  Of course anyone who knows me when I travel I go through security lines like George Clooney did in the movie Up in the Air.  After a nice little strip search and going back through the long line with my friends unhappily waiting for me we finally made our way to the gate and were off to Nice.

After checking into our eight person hostel room we dropped our things off, grabbed some baguette sandwiches and made our way to the beach.  The beach is Nice isn't a nice sandy beach, its actually all stones but that didn't stop us from laying out and catching some rays.  Anyway, back the original reason we were in Nice for Carnival.  Supposedly Nice has been celebrating Carnival since 1294 and from the looks of the place they seemed to know what they were doing.  Carnival is basically a beginning of Spring/two month long Mardi Gras...at least that's how I thought of it.  We saw some parades of really goofy floats and some "euro fireworks" as we dubbed them because we couldn't help but make fun of the confetti popping off everywhere.  Oh, and all the French couldn't help but spray silly string in our faces every chance they got...it's ok though because we're Americans and they're French. Ha.

On the last day we rented bikes and road down the coast catching all the pretty sites and ended up in the harbor where some very impressive yachts were hanging out.  Oh yeah, we also hit up the casino one night...only a few of us actually gambled and those who did didn't last long, I passed on the tables and slots this time around.

Hopefully you like reading because I probably have about 20 pictures total from my ten day Carnival break...oops.  Part II - Lyon will be coming soon!

Nice beach.  Not too bad for the end of February.

Munich Recap

As I was on the long seven-hour train to Munich I had a few goals in my mind for the weekend.  These goals were all accomplished in the short time that we had to spend in the big city.  When we arrived on Friday night after checking into the hostel we headed straight to the famous Hofbrauhaus.  We stayed here until closing drinking one-liter steins of amazing German beer.  The following morning we arose, of course just minutes after the hostel stopped serving the “included” breakfast and made our way the BMW World and Museum.  This place was amazing, especially for me because I am a big fan of BMWs.  We spent most of the day walking around the city seeing the various sites and what not.  That night we went back to the Hofbrauhaus but this time we planned to eat there as well as drinking.  The food was amazing classic Bavarian cuisine.

Before leaving for Luxembourg we decided to make our way outside of the city to the smaller town of Dachau.  Obviously we did this to visit the Dachau concentration camp.  Dachau was the first and one of the largest concentration camps of WWII.  I’m not going to attempt to describe visiting Dachau because it really is one of those things that cannot be put into words.  I think the only word that could be somewhat adequate to describe the visit would be “intense.”  Although it wasn’t the most fun way to spend the last day in Munich, my friends and I were all glad that we took the time to visit this iconic site.

Seven or so hours later we were back in Luxembourg and ready (haha) for another week of school.  Side note – I’m writing this from the Brussels airport where I will be spending the night before my flight to Nice, France tomorrow to kick off my Carnival break, followed by Lyon, France to see a Lyon vs. Real Madrid Football game, and ending with a few days in Barcelona.  Another break you ask?  Why yes.  We’re calling this our spring break 2 of 4.

New pictures will be up soon!

Rome and Italy Tour

Three days in Rome and another five days traveling through Italy has been the highlight of the semester so far.  Rome was one of the most amazing cities I've ever been to.  I'm not even going to attempt to describe all the great things we did over the past week but the highlights of the trip were the Coliseum, Roman Forum, The Pantheon, The Trevi Fountain, Vatican City including the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica and St. Peter's Square, leaning tower of Pisa, La Scala Theater in Milan, and some spectacular Italian cuisine.  Italy was too beautiful to put into words so I'll share some pictures instead.

Coliseum

St. Peter's Square w/ St. Peter's Basilica in the background.

Swiss Guard

Saving money on dinner by eating salami, prosciutto, and cheese and drinking cheap wine in the hostel in Rome. 

Random lake in Lucca, Italy

Beautiful day in Pisa.  This tower...is leaning.

Was offered to drive this Lamborghini for 200€ an hour in Milan.  Unfortunately I had to decline the offer.

La Scala Theater in Milan.  Most famous opera house/theater in the world.