Big Guns and Chocolate Mountains

I guess traveling for one weekend isn't so bad after all. This past weekend (Wednesday afternoon til now) was pretty exciting for the most part. I went to the Imperial War Museum and Brick Lane Friday and Saturday I went to Borough Market, Trafalgar Square and Covent Gardens. Here are some of the pictures from the weekend:

Here is me standing in front of the Imperial War Museum. These are two guns from what I am guessing is a pretty big boat.

Here is Mike and I standing with a piece of ammo for one of the big guns from above. Notice how its about the size of me.

Inside they had airplanes, tanks and rockets. It was really cool and amazing. And for the guys who went our testosterone was flowing to say the least.

Here is Sami in the Submarine section of the Museum. She had a pretty good time hanging out with the boys that day I think. Oh, there were four of us who went, Me, Sami, Mike and Dale. Dale is another Penn Student who also went with us the next day to Borough Market, while Mike sat out the market to do homework (what a sillyman).

A Luger.

Also at the Museum they had a section of the Berlin Wall.

Ironically, the WAR museum had a rose garden in front. They smelled damn good too.

Borough Market.

A mound of chocolate brownies. It was pretty awesome there too. They had so many different kinds of food, ranging from jam and oil to beer and ostrich.

Colored cauliflower.

They also had some fish and octopus.

My delicious turkey sandwich. Thanks for the recomendation Liv and Jules!

Here is a street performer at Covent Gardens. Here actually escaped from a straight jacket in under 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

A big lion from Trafalgar Square.

The back side of the statue of Charles I with Big Ben in the background.

Nelson's column with a typical London sky.

Go Big or Go Home

NOTE: the title of the blog doesn't have anything to do with my trip, although, it was the unofficial inside joke of the crowd with went. Therefore it was necessary to use such a phrase as my blog and clarify it has NOTHING to do with my trip.

Anyway, the past weekend I was in Amsterdam, aka the land of prostitutes, "soft-core" drugs and dozens of canals. We arrived a little later than planned Friday afternoon and once we put our stuff down in our pretty nice hostel, we were off to grab some grub for lunch/dinner downtown. On this trip there is a lot of people who shall take the place of the personal pronoun, we. We consists of myself, Rachel, Mike (a UCL student who goes to American University in D.C. but has a girlfriend who goes to friend), Dalila (Mike's girlfriend who is good friends with Rachel), Corey (UCL student who goes to Penn), Jennie (another UCL student who goes to Penn) and Michael (one of Rachel's travel buddies from her trip before school and who we met up with last weekend at Oketoberfest). Here is "we" (minus myself) when we are figuring out how to get somewhere:

Starting from the left: Corey, then Mike, then Rachel, then Dalila, and Jennie who is blocking Michael.

We were all starving so we pretty much sat a the first relatively cheap cafe to grab some food. I ended up getting a toastie, a small sandwich with meat that was "toasted" (obviously). Here is our view from the restaurant so you check out the picturesque view that we had while we ate:

As you can see the city is quite beautiful. The town is filled with trolleys, canals and many cyclists. And when I say many, I mean, a lot. They had more people riding bikes than cars, which I guess would make sense as it is the bicycle capital of the world. And to be a little dorky, the textures on the ground were so different and to use my knowledge of urban design, this is to enforce the separation of different ways of moving. For instance, the road would be one kind of brick if it was not meant to be used that much and it would be a different brick if more cars used the road.

Once we finished up eating, we started to walk around and check out the town. This is where things started to get tricky. Since Amsterdam is laid out in concentric circle with its canals and the Dutch language has numerous words that start with Leinds- and end in -plein, we got a little lost.

After walking around for about 2 hours we made it to the Palace. I really don't know why it was there or why it is important, but it is pretty big and I guess beautiful. Here are some pictures from our walk and of the palace:

Here is a picture of Mike and Dalila trying to figure out how to get the palace.

Here is a small street that was home to more pedestrians and shops than bicyclists.

Here is a strip of houses along one of the canals.

The top of the Palace.

The bottom of the Palace.

Across from the Palace, the had a phallic monument, again I do not know what for.

After the long journey, we ate again but this time a Argentinian steak house, which was right around the corner from the palace. It was very good and relatively cheap (3 courses from 13 euro or so). Here is my steak:

By the time we got out of dinner, the palace area was packed and people we sitting on the monument:

Once we got our direction, we made over to the Red-light district, which was appropriate marked by red lights:

In this area, there were live sex shows, porn shops and prostitutes. It was quite an experience as the prostitutes (wearing bikinis) were inside their doors and try and get people to come in by dancing. Just so everyone knows no one took part in any activities and/or visual experiences. Also, photos are strictly forbidden so the photo that I have above is the best one I have of the area. After walking some more, we decided we had enough and decided to take the 2 mile or so walk back home. Here are some pictures from the walk back:

The next day we woke up relatively early so we could get the free breakfast from our hostel. After that we walked to the Anne Frank Huis (House). Again we walked and I took more pictures of the pretty city:

I almost forgot to mention that boats were another popular choice of Amsterdamians. The used them both to travel and live on.

Once we got to the Anne Frank House, there was already a line wrapped around the corner. Like the Red Light District, the Anne Frank House did not allow any pictures to be taken. The house was very moving and it gets quite emotional. Here is a picture from the outside of the house:

After the house, we decided to walk some more around the city centre and look for some food. One great thing about the city is that there was such a great variety of food. Since the city is so international, there is numerous stands that serve food from all over the world. I ended up getting a sandwich from this Greek place. It was really good. We ended up eating on the edge of the channel. It was just so nice out and pretty much perfect.

Another great food that I think everyone loved there was these chocolate covered waffles. Every sort of pastry place served them, but in there own way. Some would serve it warm, others with ice cream and even others with whipped creme. Nevertheless, they were very good. Here is picture of me eating mine:


After getting a little lost (like 2 miles out of the way), we ended finding the place that we wanted to go to, a giant chess set. It wasn't all too exciting and it turns out that some of us actually saw it the day before. This one guy was there both days we walked by it:

Since we were so close to our hotel, some of us needed to take a nap (not me) while others played cards (Rummy 500). After everyone gained some energy, we decided to grab some dinner in this area of Amsterdam called Rembrandtsplein, or something similar. We ate at this Italian restaurant outside and it was pretty good. You just don't realize how "bad" the food in London is until you go to other places in Europe and see how good it is there.

After eating, we walked back to our hostel. At this point all of our legs were tired from walking so much and as soon as we got to our room we all pretty much passed out. By 11:00am the next day, everyone was ready to go and we decided to get breakfast at the Pancake Corner which is basically a crepe place which was pretty good, but the service sucked. Once our stomachs were full of more delicious food, we made our way to the Van Gogh Museum.

The museum is located in a big park and is really nice. Here is a picture of the area:

The museum behind it is the state museum, which holds the "Nightwatch" by Rembrandt. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to go check that out.

The Van Gogh Museum was pretty nice. Not all of his most famous pieces were on display though. The most famous pieces there were the Sunflower picture, his self portraits and the painting of his room. Once you are up close you can really appreciate his style and his brush stroke. It is pretty amazing as he was not a painter for that long (about 10 years), but he did so many paintings (around 800 or so). In case you were wondering, there was no picture taking here either.

By the time we left the museum we were all hungry again. Some people got waffles while others got these really good fries. I just picked off other people's snack choices. Eventually we ended up getting dinner and being the adventurous college students that we are, we ended up getting Indonesian food. It was really good.

At first we were skeptical about going there as no one was eating in the restaurant, but then we figured we at least would get really good service unlike in the morning. They ended up serving the food pretty quickly and to keep it warm the kept it on these warmers in the middle of the table. Here is the group:

Michael ended up leaving early in the day, but Dalila's friend that is studying in Rotterdam came up to see her. Her friend, Kevin I think, is at the far left.

Here is the outside of the Indonesian Restaurant.

As we made our way back from dinner, we had to get one more waffle which turned out to be the best place. They made them fresh and you could get anything you wanted on them. It was sooooo good.

The next day, Rachel, Jennie and I had our flight at 8:45am so we had to get up pretty early. We got in on time and made it just in time for class. Although, it was hard to make the transition from traveling mode to studying mode, I think we did pretty good even though we were pretty tired. But I made up for my tiredness later as I fell asleep at 7:30pm and didn't wake up until 7:30 the next morning.

This weekend I am taking a break from traveling and probably starting my assignments that are due in a few weeks so I can get ahead. I am pretty excited NOT to travel and enjoy the city I am living in. Stay tuned as I will probably being writing about my weekend, sometime early next week. And by the way GO PHILLIES!

No naan?

With a four day weekend, you have many options on what to do especially when you are in a city like London. Today, me and Rachel went down to Brick Lane, a street famous for their Indian restaurants and somewhat respectable prices. Here are some pictures of the area:

If you look closely you can see the Brick Lane road sign on the right.

Here are a bunch of the Indian restaurants.

So once we settled on a place that was cheap and/or a buffet, we sat down an began to think about the great Indian food that we were about to intake. However, there was one flaw with the place we choose. There was no naan. For all of those who do not know what that is, well its is possibly the best part about going to an Indian Restaurant. It is basically a flat bread that is uber good. Since we were already sat down and ready to eat whatever we got a tortilla shell thing instead. For my courses, I got chicken tikki and a chicken curry that was pretty spicy. Here is a picture:


After eating, we went somewhat back towards the city and ended up finding Spitalfields Market. This market was the nicest we have seen yet; it was basically a better, less crowded version of Portobello. In the market there were numerous restaurants and stalls with offices surrounding it (a great urban space). Here are some pictures for the rest of the day:


After admiring the positive outdoor space and lively sidewalks, we decided to go home so Rachel could work on her Art History Project. But first, I needed to pick up somethings on Oxford Street and we ran into this famous graffiti painting. Here it is:

I know its a little hard to tell, but the art work is of a kid painting on the wall "One nation under CCTV" and there is a cop yelling at them.

Well, I am off to Amsterdam in less than 12 hours. Look out for that blog sometime next week.

State Fair on Steriods

So, I would say my first real trip this year was a "success"; aka I made it there and back in one peace, despite the fact that I was in a country where I did not speak a work of their language. Although there was a delayed return trip and long train ride from our hotel to the airport in Munich, my Oktoberfest fun was...well, quite fun.

To get to Munich, we (Rachel, Andy, Jennie and I) took easyBus to the airport and then easyJet to Munich. Although the company that runs both is not so fun or easy. The first easyBus that went by was too full to take all of us so we waited 20 minutes for the next one and luckily that one did have enough room. Fortunately, this would be the last of our travel problems, for that day anyway.

Late Friday night, after getting to the airport, flying to Munich, and checking into our glamorous Sheraton hotel (props Rachel), we had a late night snack at the hotel next door (which happened to be another Sheraton with a different name). We ate some traditional, German sausage plates and pizza, accompanied by some good ole German beer. By the time we ended up leaving the other Sheraton, we were ready to pass out since we traveled all day practically. This was a good thing though as we had to get a fresh start for the festivities the next day.

Saturday, we left the hotel by 7:25am and got to the "carnival" no later than 7:50am. Here is a picture of the crowd after we got on the escalator to go up from the U-bahn (subway):
Once we emerged on the surface, we saw an atmosphere like no other. I put carnival in quotes above as it is a carnival that is nearly impossible thing to imagine. Just try to picture a state fair on steroids, without the animals and blue ribbons for largest pumpkin, but having roller coasters and three-story haunted houses. Oh yeah, and lots of Beer. After talking to some friends the night before, we decided to go to the Hofbrau tent. Here is a picture:


When we got there, there was already a line waiting to get and they didn't open the doors for another hour. But, we waited patently and at 8:30 they opened the doors. This is when things got a little iffy. I would say at this time there were about 150 people in front of us and about 200 behind us. When the doors opened people started pushing. I never felt anything like it. They were pushing so hard and you had literally no control of where you wanted to walk. And we were so close to one another that you could lift up your feet and still be up right. To say the least you got up close and personal with the people around you.

As we got closer and closer to the main door, Andy began to become separated from us from the overwhelming current of the river of the crowd. He ended up getting in the tent, as the three of us were not as fortunate. Rachel, Jennie and I got to be about three people from the door before they stopped letting people in. After waiting about til about 10am, hoping that they would open the front door again, we gave up, however, little did we know about 100 feet away there was an outdoor table with people already drinking. The three of us got a table with a bunch of Italians and ordered a beer. And not just any beer, but an entire liter of beer (around 33 ounces or a little under 2 pints of beer from the UK) and for a bargain of 8.50 euros (around $12). It was great, especially, since you were served in a huge glass stein.

I was a little parched/hungry at this point in the day, so I downed my first one pretty quick. Here is a picture of when I ordered my second one and since I dont have a time stamp on with my camera, I "created" my own:

Yes, I know what you are thinking, it was 10:30 in the morning. Here a few other pictures from the day:

Here is a picture of the three of us (taken by an Italian at our table).

Here is a picture of Jennie posing with her big pretzel (and this is the smallest size). One of the things that they have there at all of their tents are these huge pretzels. They also serve other German foodstuffs including sausage and half chickens.

After the first group of Italians left. Along came another group of them (some of the notable ones/the ones I remember are Paulo, Massimo and Sergio). Supposedly it is customary for Italians to come during the third weekend of Oktoberfest. We learned much from them, including the phrase Pompino (ask me what it means in private).

Once we got bored of Hofbrau tent, we tried to meet one of Rachel's friends (Micheal) who was in the tent next door. After a bathroom break and a half-an-hour of trying to get in through the back and side entrances, we ended up just walking through the front door. After getting to Micheal's table, we ordered another beer, some food (a half of chicken) and took some photos:

Here are some traditionally dressed German's in their attire.

As you can see the inside of the tents are very decorative and many have a live bands. Also, about every 15 minutes people for no reason would stand on the tables and just start cheering, instigating a massive toast.

After our meal, we ended up meeting up with Andy and we all went back to the hotel to take a nap in hoping to recover so we could come back later that night.

Unfortunately/fortunately, we slept until about 8pm. After deciding that none of us wanted to drink that much beer ever again, we concluded to just go downtown and get some traditional German food at a pub. Here I got a variety sausage plate with potatoes and tried some of Micheal's weiner schnitzel (and of course we had a beer with our meal):

After eating, we decided to walk around a little and explore the city:

Supposedly this is one of the most famous churches/catherdrals in Munich.

And of course, there was a KFC down the road.

After exploring, we (excluding Michael) went back to our hotel. The next day we decided to play it easy, sleep in and just check out the state fair portion of the carnival. Here is a picture:

After doing that for an hour or so, we did what college kids do well, drink some more. We checked new tents but we just ended back at a table outside the Hofbrau tent. We had a beer each (that was all we could do after the day before) and played cards (Rummy 500). After that we ate lunch (more sausage and chicken, and a traditional German platter) and got our souvenirs (for me, a tee shirt and a few magnets).

By 2 or 3 we decided we had enough of Oktoberfest and decided to leave. We ended up going to a park near a University (we think) and played more cards. After a few hours of that, we went back to the hotel to pick up our stuff and headed off the airport. We got to the airport extra earlier, unfortunately our plane didn't and we were delayed for a hour. And once we got to London we had a forty minute wait in customs then a hour long bus ride back into the city and then we had to wait for a late night bus to get us back to the West End. After all the traveling, I ended up going to bed a 3:30am Sunday night/Monday morning.

It was a long day and weekend. However, I would say it was worth it and memorable experience to say the least.