Oktoberfest was crazzyyyyy!!

Oktoberfest was everything I imagined it would be... and much, much more!!!

Amelia and I went to Oktoberfest with Paige, Sarah, Stephanie, and Anka (the only German in the group) and walked into the tent trying to find a table. You can only order the one liter beers if you're sitting down, so we were scouting really hard for a table. We walked around and around and around... the place was SOOO crowded! Most tables were reserved and you had to book it way in advance (I think it's very expensive also!). After circling the tent with no luck, we left for another tent.

At the next tent, Sarah chatted up some Italian boys who let us sit with them, thank goodness (or so we thought.) Italian boys are crazzyyyy! They were jumping onto the table and made us get on top of the table with them (when everyone else was sitting down). They would not stop touching us, kissing us, and trying to dance with us. We were trying to order some beers so we could just leave them, but the waiter took forever to come around to our table. If you know me at all, you know I like my personal bubble-- and definitely don't like it if you enter it, much less touch me. The Italian boys kissed my forehead, cheeks, neck... and one boy was grabbing our butts! It was interesting... hahaha. After we finally got our beers, we left as quickly as possible and met really nice German people!

All the Germans were wearing the traditional Bavarian outfits and they looked soooo cute and sharp! Amelia and I definitely stuck out because we are asian wearing jeans... sigh. Oktoberfest was the one time in my life I wished I was a tall, white woman, haha.

The tents were super full of people and everyone was drinking and singing-- soo funn!! Also, the beer maids are SOOO strong. They made it look like a breeze to carry 10 liters of beer in those super heavy mugs and HUGE trays of food! I want to be as strong as those ladies (especially since I had to keep putting down my beer since it was too heavy for me)! Also, I got to see a fight in the tents where this guy got knocked down really hard-- crazy stuff! Overall, it was super fun and definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience (unless I go back again!)


♥ from Bath


crazy Italian boys

Bath sure is rainy!

Greetings from Bath! I'm too lazy to write a real post, but think it's time to update my blog.

-settled into Bath; I love my room!
-Made some new friends this week- yayy
-Going to Dublin this weekend by myself. =]
-Went to the grocery store today, found 3 more grocery stores, went shopping, bought a planner & two books-- so excited!
-Paige is coming to Bath this coming week!!
-I found an asian market on campus and bought a ton of ramen.

Bath is a beautiful city and I am looking forward to exploring it. I find something new every day! Bath Univ is a really cool university and the parties on campus are crazy. I guess it's weird for me to see multiple bars on campus and the university hosting bar-hopping events for the freshers! I'm learning more and more British words every day but I still have trouble understanding people sometimes, haha. I got a "howdy partner" from some people I just met and thought it was hilarious-- it's the first time since I've been in Europe that someone actually said that when I told them I was from Texas. =]

Now that I am finally settling in, I'm going to try to write in my journal more. I bought my journal to write about every single city-- whoops. I only have one entry... and it's from Paris, the first city. I guess I have some writing to do!

♥ from Bath


the sheep right outside my place-- awesome, huh??


asian market on campus

it is a VERY small world after all!

So... Amelia and I spent a lot of money to extend our trip an extra week so we could go to Oktoberfest. As a result, we were really hoping we would love Munich since it was so dang expensive. Well, WE DO!!!

The first thing we did in Munich was head to our hostel and we were really praying that it was decent since it was the only one available for 3 nights in a row. Although the walk was super far from the train station, we arrived to our own adorable apartment with Ikea furniture! We love our place and it is super clean-- yesssss!! After settling in a bit, we decided to go to the English Gardens which is bigger than Central Park/Hyde Park-- we had to check it out! The gardens were ginormous and amazing-- people were sunbathing (apparently people sunbathe naked there), reading, playing with their dogs, surfing??? (it was sooo weird- these 2 boys were surfing down the creek!), and tightrope walking!

So, as Amelia and I were walking towards the huge Chinese pagoda, I was talking to her about how we needed to meet up with Paige & Sarah for lunch the following day since they were also in Munich. Literally, the second right after I made that comment, Amelia started screaming BECAUSE SARAH AND PAIGE WERE RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!!!! People cannot say the world is THAT big-- what are the chances we would be at the exact spot at the exact time??? It was so awesome to see some familiar faces-- loved hanging out with them!! =D

Have to end my entry here-- I should be packing right now since I'm flying to London in the morning (have to wake up at 6am), then taking the train to Bath. So excited to meet Geraldine and my new place for the next 2 months!

Will blog about Oktoberfest soon!

♥ from München

Roast Duck and Lazy Prostitutes

Sitting in the Amsterdam public library right now using their free computers-- awesome!!! (someone is also playing the piano beautifully nearby-- love this place!)


We arrived in Amsterdam early yesterday evening after a 3.5 hour train ride. What should have been a normal trip from Brugge to Brussels to Amsterdam turned out to be quite interesting. After arriving in Brussels, I read the sign for the next train to Amsterdam and headed to the platform. After settling in on the train and reading my new book (bought a book in Brugge-- soo excited!), the train employee asks us to show him our tickets. Turns out- we rode the more expensive, express Thalys train to Amsterdam when we only bought the cheaper tickets with the Belgian train system. Whoops! The guy was super nice though and told us to get off at the next stop (Antwerp) and take the Belgian train from there to Amsterdam.

After 30 minutes, our Belgian train arrived. No wonder that other Thalys train cost more money-- our train was sooo crowded that there was nowhere to sit! We sat near the doors on the !ground! next to some bikes. The train cars were completely full so a lot of people had to either sit on the ground (nasty) or lean against the doors. We were not too happy since the ride from Antwerp to Amsterdam is a little over 2 hours-- but we finally managed to find some ghetto seats near the doors next to a really nice couple. They were from Waco so we chatted the entire way to Amsterdam (which meant Amelia and I didn't get our usual train nap of the day)!


After arriving in Amsterdam and settling in our Christian hostel (it's pretty cool, actually!), we headed out to get some food following my guidebook. The book discussed an asian fusion restaurant, but when we arrived on the street-- it was ASIAN HEAVEN! The book took us to Chinatown. There were Chinese and Thai restaurants left and right and I couldn't even decide where to look next, much less eat. After walking down the entire street (and totally forgetting about the fusion place), we decided to eat at a legit looking Chinese BBQ place. We had roast duck and wonton noodle soup-- it was amazing!! Amelia said she was 20 out of 10 happy and we both ate in silence to enjoy the deliciousness and amazingness of our meal. SOO HAPPY!

After stuffing our faces, we walked to the Red Light District to see what the fuss was all about. It was very, ahem, interesting. There were girls in the windows trying to sell their bodies... but something was wrong! They were just standing there!!! No dancing, no trying to get customers, nothing. I learned from my guidebook that the women pay 60-150 Euros for an 8 hour shift at the windows. They pay for it by charging 50 Euros for 15-20 minutes. I could not understand why they were using their valuable time: smoking in the corner, texting??!!!, making phone calls, sitting & not really looking, and chatting to their friends from the other windows. We thought they would really try to get customers but most of the girls kinda just stood there looking out at all of the tourists gawking at them. We did see some guys ask for the price and most girls said it would be 50 Euros-- affordable??


We still have 2 more nights of Amsterdam, 2 of Frankfurt, and 3 of Munich (Oktoberfest!) before wrapping up our 5 week trip. I'm pretty amazed we made it this far without any major incidences! I look forward to going to Bath and chilling (well, kinda-- I have lots of trips & rotations planned!) with Geraldine, my landlady!

♥ from Amsterdam

Bomb at the Brussels Train Station

Last night, we flew from Berlin to Brussels. We barely made our flight, whoops, and arrived in the biggest airport ever (or so it seemed!). It took us forever to walk to the baggage section. I've been in a good amount of airports (and so has Amelia), and we both agreed that the Brussels one really makes you work for your luggage. We walked a bunch, then went down, then went up, and then walked some more... then walked some more... then finally arrived at baggage claim, phew!


We had a great day in Brussels today-- ate a Belgian waffle, ate some more food, went to see the peeing boy statue, visited the chocolate museum (delicious samples!!), and then went back to the hotel to get our stuff. We left our luggage in the hallway at our hotel (btw- it was the worst place we have stayed in BY FAR-- and it was not even a hostel, wtf??), and headed back to the train station. I noticed my luggage was kinda vibrating as we were walking, but it was really windy outside and we were in a rush, so I just ignored it.

By the time we got into the train station and were standing in line for tickets, I noticed my stupid luggage was STILL vibrating and making a humming noise. By this point, I was getting kinda nervous and thought that maybe someone put something in my luggage since it was accessible to anyone in the hotel lobby. I sat down in the middle of the station and had to open my luggage and search it. At first, I hoped it was my electric toothbrush-- nope. Then I thought of my Steripen (it sterilizes water)-- nope. I started to panic and was looking a little crazy pawing through my suitcase. There were people all around us and I'm pretty sure they thought I was a freak also. Finally, at the bottom of my stuff-- I found my OTHER electric toothbrush (I forgot I brought 2!), and turned it off-- crisis averted!! I DID NOT have a bomb in my luggage AND learned my toothbrush is really really powerful.

hopefully, the remaining 10 days of my 5 week trip will be bomb-free!

♥ from Bruges

Extreme Adventure: Canyoning!

(haven't had much internet access, can finally update now!)

I LOVED SWITZERLAND!!! Everything in switzerland is so beautiful, the only downside is everything is so EXPENSIVE. We couldn't afford to eat very well, but the scenery definitely made up for it. We went to luzern, interlaken, and geneva. everything there is soooooo GREEN! I don't know how else to describe it-- the mountains were beautiful and the hills were full of beautiful green grass & trees!

We went hiking in the Swiss mountains and got lost, whoops! We didn't know how to pack properly so we did not have a map, compass, or any water... and then got lost! We had to follow these two women down the mountain and finally found our way to the correct town! Lesson learned: hiking is hard, especially when you're going downhill on a steep trail.


Anyhow, I wrote this post to discuss our canyoning adventure. If you haven't already, YouTube "Interlaken Canyoning Saxeten"-- it was AWESOME! We slid down waterfalls, rappelled down some cliffs, I kinda drowned once, and it was FREEZING. The group comprised of 8 big boys... and me and Amelia. Haha. The guides always made us go first or last so they could watch us. We fell in love with one of our guides (he was super skinny but SO STRONG!) Whenever we couldn't swim forward because the current was pushing us back, he would just jump in the water and push us forward, haha! The hardest part of it all was climbing up a huge hill to the van in our wetsuit (it was SOO heavy!)-- I thought I was going to pass out. All in all- loved loved loved Switzerland.

♥ from Bruges (I'm in Belgium right now!)

Buongiorno from Florence!

We are about to leave Florence for Cinque Terre. We have 4 more days of Italy and then onto Switzerland!

Florence is a wonderful Renaissance town, but one day of exploring was definitely enough. We were too tired of museums/churches so we decided to do a tour package-- The Best of Tuscany Tour! It was as amazing as the brochure stated (for once!). They took us on an air conditioned bus to three different beautiful towns and were able to see the Tuscan countryside. You know the pictures of fields of poppies/sunflowers/gorgeous vineyards along the countryside?? WE SAW THATT!!! it was sooo amazing. We had our best meal yet at an organic winery/farm that included a wine tasting. Everything was so delicious. We ended the tour in Pisa where we spent the entire allotted time trying to take pictures with the leaning tower-- we suck compared to everyone else! It took us forever to pose when the other tourists did it in less than 1 minute. =[



loving italy, but the food is not what we hoped-- the pasta is all al dente-- it's too hard! it almost tastes a little raw! We keep eating chinese food and McDonald's here, whoops. We are not being very adventurous with the food, but we just wanna eat what we know!


Looking forward to cooler weather in the northern countries, but it hasn't been too hot in Italy, thank goodness. ARRIVEDERCI!


♥ from Firenze