GENAU

THIS IS PERFEKT... SERIOUSLY COULDN'TVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF!!!

Turns out, I meet this guy in person and become friends. He went to the same University in Heidelberg!!! schmall schmall world

London, England

boom

 I almost went into culture shock!!! Everyone is speaking ENGLISH, yes in a very different accent that I'm not used to, even though it sounded better than the american accent by far. But it was just insane to hear err one speaking english. I've been to quite a few different countries lately all with a new language and of course they spoke english, but not just so easily and fluent. It was just insane to hear, also with the British accents, reminds me of watching Spice Girls  when I was younger, like a dream.

  So on my way home from Turkey I caught a connection flight in Paris to London. My Saudi friend from back in the states was home for vacation and went to London to see his brother, and of course I had to see him. Europe is so small and easily accessible by plane to anywhere within a few short hours. There was no doubt, I had to see him. I arrived about the same to London as Saud, but at different airports. His brother had arranged for someone to pick him up then they came and picked me up and we headed back to the hotel where his brother lives. The Hotel was awesome, a 5 Star Hotel! The nicest hotel I've ever been in.  A lot nicer than the hostel I'm used to staying in in Europe. We got there and talked to his brother for a while then went to our room and took a nap, we both hadn't slept for over a day due to traveling, we were both exhausted, and I'm still sick at this point.

  We then found out that a friend from back home was also in London, I have never met her but she is a good friend of my friend, and she has met Saud before, so we asked if she wanted to hang out with us, of course she did! So she came over to the hotel and we had a few drinks then went out. Well I was just wearing normal clothes, no one said anything to me about going to club, and we ended up going to this really nice club. So there I am in jeans and a shirt a some posh club, but that's okay, I'll never see those people again. I still felt really sick so I wasn't much in the party mood, but Brooklyn is really fun and got me in the mood, despite I felt like shit. After that we headed back to the hotel where Saud's brother Fahad, had arabic food sent to our room, so good. He ended up going somewhere else that night so Brooklyn and I had free reign over his room! And Saud went back to his room to sleep.

  The next day the three of us got the London Bus Tour pass, there are about 3 or 4 different tour bus lines and you can jump on and off them anywhere for two days. The lines tour around the most famous attractions in  London. So we jumped on the bus that took you to the main well known sights of London and just rode it without getting off, just taking it all in by sight from the Bus. After about two hours we were getting pretty tired again, so we went home and took power naps. That night Shanon, my friend from Oregon who studies in Freiburg arrived, she is also good friends with Saud. That night we went out to this arabic restaurant/bar with live music and belly dancing. I really enjoyed it. The food was good and the entertainment was good. We stayed there until like 3 or 4 a.m. I believe and headed home. Brooklyn had to go back to her uncles because she had to fly back to the states in the morning.

   The next day Shanon and I took the bus Tour, this time we got off and explored a little at some of the stops and got some great pictures. Then later we met Saud at Harrods, a famous shopping mall in London, with all the fancy designers and expensive shops. We walked around a bit, did a little shopping then headed back to the hotel. Shanon and I fell asleep and didn't wake up until about midnight. Saud was off with his brother so we decided to order in some food, bad idea. Turns out the food Shanon had ordered had peanuts in it and she's deathly allergic to peanuts, so she quickly went to the bathroom to try and throw it up before it got in her system. And she continued to do that for an hour or so, she got out her epi-pen and advised me if she were to go unconscious I were to give it to her! Good thing I'm rescue scuba diver certified, I have couple tricks up my sleeve to save a life, even though we're not in the water.  Luckily I never had to give her the pen and she didn't have to go to the hospital either, in the end she ended up surviving, but it was scary.

    The next morning was not fun. So I called downstairs to get a taxi called in and then I walked down there and they asked if I needed a taxi, I said no, I just called the front desk to get me one. So I sat down and waited, and waited and waited. And finally I asked the doormen where is my Taxi? They were like "Oh, I thought you ordered your own." I'm like no I asked you to, so they quickly got me one and I was on my way. By the time I got to the airport the taxi bill was insanely expensive I just wanted to cut my wrists. And there was about 40 minutes until my departure so I went up to the desk and the lady was like I'm sorry it's to late, you've missed your flight! errrrrrrrrr... So then I had to buy another ticket home and wait like 6 or 8 hours in the airport. Luckily they had computers so I just paid to mess around on the computers all day. And good things they sell alcohol at the airports, I bought a few shots before my fight, got me a little tipsey, which was awesome because I passed out on the flight home.

  I arrived at Frankfurt Hahn around midnight, I either needed to go to Heppenheim to Luisas or to Heidelberg. I went to go buy a bus ticket to Heidelberg and there was an old guy standing there and said he had an extra ticket if I wanted to buy his, because he came to pick up some people instead of them taking the bus. So I waited for his people to arrive. He asked where I was going , I said Heidelberg or Heppenheim, he said if there was room in his car he could give me a ride to Heppenheim, it's not very far from where he lived. So I accepted the offer. It was him, two old ladies and a young man, I figured if this wasn't safe, then the world is just doomed. So I jumped in the car with them and we were on our way. It was only little over an hour ride and quickly I was back in Heppenheim. I offered him cash for his ride but he refused. Luisa was freaking out thinking I had jumped in the car with some random rapist or something. Please I'm not that stupid,,, unless he was cute ;)

Saud, me, Brooklyn

First Budweiser I've seen in Europe!

Shanon!

some palace or something

 
 

Before Shanon almost died on me 

hahah Mrs????

ghosts????

Istanbul, Turkey

love this one

:D

Lavinia

One of my Favorite pictures

Blue Mosque

Hagia Sophia

Sea of Marmara

 

Well I wanted to do something exciting for new years, what better to do than take a trip to ISTANBUL!!! I had a few friends of mine from Heidelberg going so I joined along. There was 7 of us. Lavinia, Victoria, Deanne, Kristin, Mary, Brian and I. Lavinia and I had separate flights and the others flew together. Lavinia arrived at about 4 p.m. and I arrived around midnight, but my flight had been delayed so the expected time she expected to see me and she didn't, she started freaking out. Once I arrived I started walking and got pretty much jumped my Lavinia, because she was so happy to see me, she scared the shit out of me. We then waited about 30 minutes and the rest showed up. We got two taxis and headed to our Hostel. Our Hostel was in the perfect location, very central. Just a few short minute walk to the main attractions, and it was cheap, had breakfast and computers and internet. We were suppose to be in a big room with like 20 other people but they gave us our own personal 6 bedroom room. But Lavinia booked after us so she shared another 6 man room with some random people, but that was fine because she was us in ours  most of the time anyways. We had a whole week to explore Istanbul. We kind of had an itinerary planned out, with some famous tourist attractions to go see.
   So our first thing we had to see was the famous Blue Mosque. It was amazing, so beautiful and the architecture was just incredible. When you go into a mosque you're suppose to cover your hair, it's just part of their religion and beliefs, so we covered ours before we went in, even though a lot of tourist don't. We went in and took pictures, but then we had to leave soon, because it was prayer time, and they wanted them  to pray in peace and not with everyone taking pictures and watching. One thing I noticed right off the back in Istanbul, was there was a lot of stray cats, EVERYWHERE!!! And they were all fat, they are fed well by all the tourist, but seriously, I think they're taking over. There were dogs too, but not quite as many, and the dog were so nice. One night we were out walking around and we ran into about 5 of the dogs, and they just came up to us all nice and wanted to be petted and loved. Then they found a little kitten and was playing with it, but not hurting it. We also went to a little bazaar and bought some scarves, obviously very popular in Turkey. And you could get them cheap, but there were also really nice wool or silk ones that could get pretty expensive. But the exchange rate from Euro to Turkish Lira was awesome, about 1 euro=2 TL.
   We walked down to the Sea of Marmara and put our hands in and hung out for a while taking pictures, way to cold to get in tought. The weather was sunny but still chilly. We then later went to an Islamic Art Museum, that was cool, they were original pages from the Quran. Of course every night was finished off with smoking hookah. But I only did it once, surprisingly. I don't know, I just couldn't do it. It made my throat just super dry and all weird. Well our group didn't last long together, we ended up splitting into two, before we all killed each other. And it was just a lot easier that way.
   We also visited the famous Hagia Sophia, which used to be an Orthodox patriachal basilca, later a mosque and now a museum. That was quite amazing as well. The rest of our trip included more sight seeing and more hookah smoking. Since coming to Germany I have discovered the döner kebab, which I heard originated from the turkish, so I was very excited for the Kebabs there, well turns out, the kebabs sucked as did all the food. I mostly ate McDonalds. McDonalds is faithful and always has your back no matter what country you're in. One night when Lavinia, Victoria, Kristin and I were walking down by the bay, they had short little boat tours for 10 lira, we're like hell ya lets do it. So we got to see Istanbul at night by the boat, even though it was extremely cold up there, so then we went downstairs inside were it was warmer.
 One day when the others went into a Palace Lavinia and I didn't want to so we went on a little excursion and just took off walking. The streets are like literally up and down, I about had a heart attack walking up them. But it was cool, we got pretty high and could see out over the water and found a nice little local coffee shop and had Turkish tea and coffee. Turkish apple tea is so good, and their coffee is different too, to strong for me. I enjoy random little excursions like that, it makes the trip more personal.
  We also went to the big bazaar, that was insane, a lot different than what I expected, I thought it would be like personal stuff people sell, but it was a LOT of jewelry and scarves and rugs and all that good stuff. It was inside and huge! And of course at every single little shop in Istanbul, the men stand outside there doors trying to get you to come in, by the end  I wanted to kill all of them, I couldn't handle them haggling me to come into theirs, I was about to go crazy.  We also went to the spice bazaar, with many fresh spices and prepackaged spices. One night when we got home we were still hungry so Lavinia and I walked around to see if there was any food still open, of course they were haggling us to come in and have a drink, but we told him we wanted food. So he said okay, and got us bread and dip, and it was good. Then we ended up talking to him and a few of his friends, then he got us drinks, and they showed up a little traditional turkish dance and we just had a good ol time, and in the end we didn't even end up paying!!!! ah yeah! 
   For new years we went to a house party on the Asia side of Istanbul in this really fancy house. Victoria had some friends from Turkey who knew some people, so we went to their party. The view was so incredible and the house was nice, and great music and alcohol. We had a great time, a few people got way to drunk, but that's bound to happen. Then later that night we caught a taxi home. But it was great new years, a lot of fun. 
  For the last couple days I started getting sick which really sucked, because I turned into a cranky little bitch. And I hadn't got good sleep either, but I tried to stay civil, even though there was some things really annoying me. But overall a great trip, I discovered there are some amazing places to see in Turkey, I will be definitely coming back in the future to visit them,
   My flight home I was suppose to connect in Paris then fly to Frankfurt, but my friend was gonna be in London, so I connected in Paris to London. And soon I was on my way to London :D

Istanbul representing my state

so incredible

I love the wild dogs

The resemblance is uncanning  

Hookah, all day, all night

Hagia Sophia

original mosaic 

Galata Tower

Bosphorus Bridge

palace of Constantin 

wild cats and dogs

Spice Bazaar

alkohol anyone????

New Years