Oh no! Nov 29-Dec 10

Hello everyone! So apparently this program will only let you upload so many pictures and I have filled that quota! It's a very sad time but that means I will have more exciting stories for you when I get home.

I'll give you a very, very brief overview of what I have been up to and will be doing since I will be home soon and can tell you in person (can't wait!). 

Last weekend, Lauren and I went to Berlin just for two nights, one day. We took a walking tour around the city and learned so much more history than anything that could be taught in history class. It was amazing to see what was left from WW2 and how everything had affected the city. 

The following day we took a 7 hour train ride to Munich to see Nathan for the night. I was so happy to be with him and Sasa and they showed us some great Bavarian food! 

Sadly, the next day we both left Lauren going back to Milan and I was on my way to Brussels. I have a friend from the UVM Dressage team studying there so I went to visit her and have her give me a tour. I have eaten so much great food and tonight we're going to the Christmas Market to eat some more! And yes it's true, the waffles in Belgium are amazing! 

Tomorrow morning I am on my way to Cologne, Germany to visit my flat mate from New Zealand for two nights. I'm so excited to see her again and have her show me around her home city!

Then on the 6th I'm on my way back to Munich to see Nathan and Sasa! I'll be there till the 10th but I believe Thursday night I will stay with a friend from studying abroad right in the city so I can catch up with her!

Finally, on December 10th I'm coming home!! I can't wait to see everyone again and for a very big Christmas!

Love and miss you all,

Michele

Venice, Italy Nov 26

Ciao everyone! After Denmark Lauren and I had a resting and touring day in Milan, which I have already seen with GS so it was just fun to see again. On Monday, Lauren, Lauren's friend Jill, and I  took a 2 1/2 hour train to the water city of Venice. 

The city truly is on water! There are over 100 islands of housing, government buildings, and shops. The only way around the city when it was first built and for a while after was by boat. Eventually, bridges were built all over the city and now you can walk to anywhere you need it just might take a while to get from one bridge to the next. The coolest thing was seeing public transportation by boat, it was so weird thinking that is how people get to work!

From left to right: Jill, me, Lauren. We took a gondola ride since we may only be in Venice once in our life! The rower was really nice and told us lots of history and just enjoyed talking to us. It turns out the Pope comes each year and gets taken around the city and our gondola man was one of the guys that rowed him around- how awesome!

I was so happy at the amount of dogs! They were all off lease and very well trained to just follow their owner and stop for a sniff when they wanted. The worst was they were too well trained and didn't get distracted enough to stay for a long pet!

There are so many mask stores in Venice! In this store a man was hand making them and they each had such beautiful decorations. I couldn't figure out how to get one home, otherwise I would have bought a few!

Also there are so many super cool kinds of pasta! There were some other places that had more colorful pasta and a lot more shapes.

A beautiful cathedral. My favorite part about it was all the different colors of marble that were used, it was very unique.

After walking around all morning and afternoon the three of us were ready to relax with a hot coco. It was the thickest hot chocolate I've ever had! Jill and Lauren were saying it's normal for it to be that thick and they have had some that you have to "drink" with a spoon because it's basically pudding- I was amazed! We sat for a while all reading and enjoying just hanging out in Venice!

After a couple more relaxing days in Milan Lauren and I are making our way to Germany on Thursday! Oh, by the way, I got to see the northern stars for the first time in 4 months while I was here, it feels good to be that much closure to home!

Love,

Michele

Copenhagen, Denmark Nov 23-24

Hey everyone! This weekend Lauren and I went to visit our friend Becca, who is studying abroad in Copenhagen. It was a quick two day trip and very worth it!

To begin Becca told us not to worry about any language barriers, everyone speaks English, we thought okay so some people speak broken English and we'll get by but no! We were on the metro and a man comes to check our tickets, speaking Danish very very fast I eventually nervously ask if he speaks English and immediately he says "oh yes, I need to see your tickets thanks!". It was amazing everyone we ran into spoke perfect English, it was so great! Becca's host family told us that it is a required class from third grade up.

While Becca was finishing up class Lauren and I walked around a small corner of the city. It is such a clean, happy city! We made our way to a beautiful castle that holds the Queen Jewels. 

The park around it was huge and a perfect place to take a long stroll. And you can see the buildings in the background are well taken care of and beautiful. 

The three of us went back to Becca's host family and Frank, the dad, had a bunch of friends over who went mountain biking so they were making homemade pizza. Not just any homemade pizza...pizza in a hand built pizza oven! It was pretty cold so Becca, Lauren and I cuddled up on the couch caught up and ate a lot of pizza. 

For dinner Frank and Janne, Becca's host parents, made a traditional Danish meal!

Becca's brother was also visiting for the week so the four of us bundled up (it's really really cold in Denmark) and went to Tivoli. It's a sort of Christmas festival with tons of lights, small shops, and rides. Walking around really got me in the spirit of Christmas. 

The next day we slept in a bit and had a homemade breakfast of amazing rolls. Then jumped on the in ground trampoline! In this picture there is me, Becca, Lauren, Frank, and Janne (Becca's host parents). We're all wearing hats because it was so so cold there!

Becca, Nathan (her brother how cool is that!?), Lauren and I went to walk around the city for the day. We saw some fancy sculptures, nice buildings, and good company!

Lauren and I at the most famous street in Copenhagen, Nyhavn. 

We believe this was an opera house and I think it's just as impressive as the Sydney Opera House!

I continued my royalty from the south island and gave everyone viewing my castle a royal wave!

So the man who wrote Little Mermaid was from Denmark and this statue was put up in honor of the story. It's life size and is the biggest tourist attraction in Denmark!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and now getting in the mood for Christmas! Can't wait to see you!

Love,

Michele

Nov 19-22

Hello everyone! After Sydney it was time to move quickly into winter, sadly, I was getting used to the summer. I had an 11 hour flight to Shanghai, China then a 6 hour lay over. I was able to go outside and take a look around, I could have gone into the city but was too nervous to stray very far. But this is what I got to see!

It's funny seeing the markings on the streets in Chinese! I then had a 13 hour flight to Milan, Italy. I got to Italy early in the morning and after maybe 6 months of not seeing my best friend from UVM I got to see Lauren!! We spent the day at a market, Thanksgiving with friends, and lots of hugs! Since she still has class I've gotten to catch up with sleep since there is a 10 hour time difference from Australia to here and then hang out with Lauren. She's showed me a bit but it's funny how when you sort of live somewhere you don't take pictures, so I don't have any pictures yet! It's the typical Italian city, it's pretty cool! I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and be sure to give lots of hugs for me!

Love,

Michele

Sydney Nov 14-19

Hello everyone! After Melbourne I was on my way to Sydney. I stayed with a family friend (Emma) the first two nights, which was great to catch up with her. And to catch up on comfy, big bed sleep, skyping with people, laundry, and finishing up organizing things for Europe. I took a much needed day off on Thursday then Friday went into the city to book into a hostel. Marissa, who I met on the south island trip, lives about 3 hours away from Sydney and came in for the weekend to hang out with me! 

The first thing I saw in Sydney and am now absolutely obsessed with are these purple trees, Jacarandas. Emma was telling me they only bloom for about two weeks then are bare for the rest of the year and I got to Sydney at the perfect time. When I have a house I'm going to try to see if I can get one shipped over because they are just stunning. 

The second thing I saw in Sydney that was impressive is the Opera House. At first, honestly I didn't like it because it wasn't as big as I imagined and thought the white and cream tiling looked odd. Throughout my time there though I decided it is a very impressive building. 

On Friday I had the day alone since Marissa had to work and drive over so I went to the zoo! It was perfect because I ran into two girls I had studied abroad with there, we didn't even know we were all going to be in Sydney at the same time! It was great to catch up with them and hang out. It seems to be a small world! My major goal for Australia was to see a kangaroo (other than the one on my plate haha) and although these are wild kangaroos I'm glad I got to see some! 

Seals are just really cute...

I got to see a baby gorilla! 

And elephants! Haha I just have to share all the cute animals with you!

This lizard thinks he's the coolest guy out there.

There were a couple peacocks just walking around the zoo and I got to see one with his feathers all open, very impressive. 

Friday night Marissa and I just hung out, went to some bars and caught up. Then Saturday Marissa was my tour guide! We stayed in an area called Kings Cross where most backpackers stay and there are a lot of clubs. The Coca-Cola sign is a symbol of Kings Cross and Marissa had to pose with it!

There is a mixture of old building and new in Sydney, this is a beautiful cathedral we saw. 

This wild bore is outside the old hospital and if you rub his nose you get good luck I believe. 

There was a guy playing the didgeridoo on the harbor!

I decided I was in Sydney I had to take a tour of the Opera House no matter how much it was. We couldn't take a lot of pictures and none in the actual performance rooms. But you can google to see what I saw haha. After climbing a ton of stairs up to the main performance room there was a cool way to view the harbour bridge, by looking up at the bottom of the slanted windows. 

Here is the extremely purple rug in the waiting area of the biggest performance room. When we went into the room there was a man tuning the organ so we got to hear a bit of it. The organ was the most amazing thing for me on the tour. You can see 165 pipes and then there are 10,000 that you can't see 10,000!!!!!!! It took 2 years to initially tune it because it is such a massive organ. The smallest pipe is the size of your pinky and the largest is 3 stories high and can fit a man inside! AHHHH IT WAS SO COOL! I wish I could have taken picture of it but I'll just have to talk about how amazing it was. 

On Sunday Marissa took me to Bondi beach, a famous beach that has a few shows based out of it. There is Bondi Rescue, a show about rescuing people there, and some tattoo show since there is a famous tattoo shop along the beach.

These are the weirdest birds ever, they are all over Sydney and just look ridiculous!

After Marissa left I decided to go to the botanic gardens and take a nap in the sun since it was the last time I would be in summer for a while. So I spent the afternoon walking around, trying to get tan, and napping. Then I heard some music and decided to go investigate. There was an outdoor swing music  concert along the water in the gardens. It was a ticket concert so I couldn't get in but was just standing at the gate listening a bit enjoying the view. Then a woman came up to me and asked if I had a ticket to get in when I said no she handed me one saying that it was her friend's and they couldn't make it. So I got into the concert for free! There were people dressed up dancing and a huge crowd listening. The music was really good and I got to just hang out and enjoy the evening! 

This is the view next to the concert. It was so great to get Opera House and Harbor Bridge in one picture!

I had a great time in Sydney and was so glad that I got to see so many friends! It's amazing that when I booked the tickets I thought I would be on my own the whole time and yet you find family and friends where ever you go!

Love,

Michele

Great Ocean Road (Melbourne) Nov 12

Hi everyone! I thought it would be fun to get out of the city one day and see the Great Ocean Road. Apparently, it was the top scenic drive in the world at one point and I could see why. Katherine came as well and we took a bus tour just for the day. 

There were some beautiful beaches with tons of tourists on them (if I showed you a picture of the other direction you would understand). 

This is the start of the Great Ocean Road! I believe the drive is over 200 km, we didn't do the entire thing but got to see a lot of it. 

Most of the drive was just like this- right on the edge of the cliff. A lot of the time they had just carved out the road from the rock, pretty scary. We were in a double decker bus...I wouldn't want to be the driver!

Along part of the drive there are these rocks I guess you could call them called the 12 apostles.  They were part of the mainland and the waves have crashed so hard against the cliff that part will wear away then eventually isolate these "apostles". The water was the most amazing blue, I could have stood there all day it was so beautiful.

Here are a few of the 12 apostles. The smaller ones are older because the waves have crashed and broken them down more. 

Does this picture even need a description, it's so perfect.

You can see the different layers of earth!

This was one of my favorite things I did in Australia since I got to see more than just a city, I would recommend it to everyone. At our lunch stop the driver recommended trying some shark and chips. So of course I had to! It's really meaty and good, trying different food is such a good thing you find things you wish you could eat more often! 

Love,

Michele

Melbourne Nov 10-14

Hi everyone! As soon as classes finished on Nov 9th I had a final get together with who ever was left and then left for Melbourne, Australia. I did another one of those let's stay up until I have to go to the bus for the airport days again and let me tell you it's so tiring! 

I got to the hostel and met a girl who had also just gotten to Australia the day before so we toured around together. Melbourne is the coolest city in the world, I think I would live there. It just has all these cool buildings and awesome energy (sounding hippy now), I wish I was better at describing it just everyone should go there. Take a look for yourself! These pictures are all messed up in order but just gives you a look at what I got to see.

This is Federation Square- look how wacky the building is!

I went to the botanical gardens and they were so beautiful. There were a few ponds and so many different kinds of plants. It was the perfect thing to do on my first day there so I could relax!

This is a cathedral next to Federation Square. There were a lot of different kinds of buildings all mixed together in Melbourne, it made it a really fun place to walk around.

Katherine (my flat mate from NZ who came with me to Melbourne) and I were sitting having lunch then wondered into a library thinking nothing of it. This is the middle of the library with a huge dome and just stunning. We decided that if this was close to us we would actually go there and study!

Look how random and awesome Melbourne is! Not sure what these were but it was next to Federation Square.

A building inside a building? Yup! This is Melbourne Central, a fancy really nice mall.

I can't remember the name of the river that winded through the city but here it is! Katherine and I stopped to take pictures and met a family that loved to tell us how they were seeing each other after two years. I then realized that will be me "Hi random person these are my parents I haven't seen them in 6 months!".

I convinced Katherine to go up the Eureka tower, the highest observation deck in Australasia. We went up 88 floors and the view was amazing. You could see the entire city and mountains in the distance.

While taking pictures I realized you could see me in the pictures if I got it at the right angle. I loved it a lot haha.

There is an outdoor observation deck that we went onto! It was so windy and cold up there.

This is at the bottom of the tower, I couldn't figure out why there were gold bees but it's pretty cool.

This was taken when I was standing at the bottom of the tower looking up. The architecture in this city is so interesting - I really loved walking around.

What kind of meat do you think this is? Katherine and I went to a market and got some salad stuff and then I decided I was in Australia and I had to try kangaroo. I went to the grocery store and got a pack of kangaroo steaks, no one else wanted them thinking is was really gross. I made them try a bite and everyone thought it was really delicious, I would definitely eat it more if we had it back home!

Love,

Michele