Lake Garda May 22 - 28

This is my first trip to Italy. We left Kassel Wednesday night and drove all night to Italy. I slept some of the way but we stopped ever 3 hours or so to take a break, it was a total of 9 hours drive. I have to say that the drive was beautiful, I didn't get any pictures of the drive there but here are some pictures from the drive back. We drove through Germany, Austraia and Italy. Lake Garda (Lago Di Garda) is in northern Italy, about 20 minutes from Lazie! There were snow capped mountains all through Austria, the roads were winding through the vallies between the mountains, it was so beautiful!




Ever once in a while there were castles/houses/towns that were on hills that over looked the rest of a village. Puts a new meaning to "House on a Hill." It was so beautiful where some of them were located, Im sure that they had a great view of everything.



We arrived at the campsite about 7am on Thursday and we were tired but not really that tired, haha, it was kinda weird! Well the campsite was really pretty also, it was apparently a 3 star site with bathrooms and sinks and stuff like that. Here are some pics of what the lake looked like and what our campsite looked like. The weather was really pretty, we had sun everyday but for some reason there was a fog around the mountains that were across the lake, although it covered the mountains a little, it was still very beautiful!!




Like mentioned, Lazie was about 20 minutes away and we visited that town also. What I noticed in Italy, other then the fields and fields of wine (vino) fields, was that every town had a clock/bell tower in the city. It was really cool because when we were driving back, we could see the different clock/bell towers in the cities and some were very beautiful and elaborate. Here is a picture of the clock/bell tower in Lazie.



There was a huge market area inside this castle like building. It was really beautiful and right on the water. I guess it was Lazie's Riviera. This place had tons of places to shop, eat and just hang out. There were people everywhere going along with their business. Rob and I sat down at a coffee shop right on the Riviera and got something to drink and eat. It was nice to relaz and just take in the culture. I definaltey plan on going back to Italy in July and seeing more of the major cities and taking in more culture!!

Amsterdam April 28 - 30

So this was the first spontanious trip that I planned and I have to say that I could have not picked a better time to go and check out a different county. This trip was so much fun, we got to go on Queen's Day, and this day is like the biggest party day of the year, they expected there to be about 2million people in the city on one day. This thing was huge, they closed off the downtown area and I mean closed off, no trams, cars, or even bicycles were being rented at this time. There were so many people it was just insane to get anywhere in the city.

Rob and I ended up renting a car and driving to Amsterdam. Well there is only a suggested speed limit of 100km/hr, haha who ever thought of a "suggested" speed limit?? Well here is a pic of me driving on the Autobahn, it was so awesome, I have to add that the German country side was absolutely beautiful, but I was going so fast that I didn't get a chance to take some pics of it, haha sorry people!! But don't think I was doing something that bad because there were numerous times that I was passed like I was standing still by other drivers, German drivers do drive fast!!



Like mentioned we got into Amsterdam on one of the biggest parties of the year and I was so glad that we did because it was just so much fun. Everywhere we went there were people and concerts happening. Amsterdam is known as the "Bike City" but at this time there were so many people that they didn't rent any bikes and noone was on any bikes. Here are some pic of what the streets looked like while we were there!!




Here is a picture of one of 10 concerts that they were having, this pic was taken from the Van Gogh Museum!! Like I said it was insane!!!



So Amsterdam is known as the "Bike City" of the world, well here is a pic of Rob infront of some bikes that were lined up in front of the train station, the crazy thing is that this wasn't all the bikes at all, they were everywhere!!! Yes! Those are all bikes lined up on that walkway across the water!!



No trip to Amsterdam is complete without visiting the all famous Red Light District. All I have to say about this part is that it was crazy, really good times and fun people all around. Although there were great people, there were also drug dealers on every corner and when we walked by they would say quickly "Coke, X" funny thing was that we would turn and say "Sorry man not tonight" and they would respond with "Alright, well have a great night" those must have been the coolest drug dealers I have seen. The also all famous "Coffee Shops" lined all of Amsterdam's streets and the smell of pot smoke vented from their doors. Overall Amsterdam had a really chill atmosphere to it, I guess it has to be from the drugs and pot, haha!!





As mentioned earlier, we did hit some museums like the Van Gogh Museum and the Heineken Brewery like pictured here.




Here is a picture of Amsterdam's train staion, it was absolutely beautiful.



These are a couple other random pictures, the first one is a huge ass beer that I got, haha had to take a pic of it and show my friends. The other pic is a pic of the "Public" toilets on the Red Light Disterict, haha great times like I said.

Kassel March 20

On Monday March 20 I jumped on a train and headed towards Kassel because they told me that they had a place for me to stay, haha finally. Three hours later and one change over, I arrive at Kassel and once again am totally lost. After asking around I get on the right tram and head towards the housing place. After doing all the paperwork for the housing, which I have to add was all in German, so I had no clue what it says, haha, they give me a ride to where I'm staying. Here is a pic of what the house looks like. This house had 16 bedrooms, 3 stories with a basement, a bathroom on each floor along with 2 guest bathrooms on the main floor, a living room, a dining room, and one kitchen!!



Here is what my room looks like, haha it is so tiny and so is the bed but I finally have a place that I can call home!!



I spent some time getting used to Kassel and getting orientated with what I need to know to get around. I take care of things that I need to do for the university and began going out with the roomies and making new friends. I have a ton of pics already of us going out, if you wanna see some just let me know, I decided to leave these pics of the scenery and other things that give you and idea of what its like here for me!!!

Here is some pics of the Orangerie, it was a huge palace and in the field was orange trees, hence how it got its name.




Here is another famous sight in Kassel, its called the Herkules. Certain days they will turn the water on and alot of people from Kassel come to see it and hang out. When the water is on there are horns that sound from the russing water and there are stations where it fills up and once full, gates are opened and it creates things to see when the water flows!!

This is a look away from Herkules and then one down Herkules




This is a look up towards Herkules.






Look at this creek when the water flows through it!!





This is further down the hill, still water from Herkules.

Ramstein March 13 - 19

Well.....I was planning to head to Kassel to move into my dorm on Monday March 13, but when I called them, they said that they didn't have a room available for me!! Well I had to think fast, I made some friends the first few nights that I was in Frankfurt and after talking to them, they suggested that I head to Ramstein, because there is an airforce base there that I could stay in. I take a train to Ramstein and get on the base only to find out that they are booked and don't have any room either, haha. Well I make some phone calls and get a hold of Christine, from Tx also. Well she was really cool and offered a place for me to stay on her couch for a bit. She was extremely nice considering my situation haha, I was homeless, but things worked out and I stayed around Ramstein for about a week!! Well there wasn't really much to see around that area, but when we did go see a castle, haha I forgot to bring my camera. So here is the only pics that I have from that time.

This is a pic of Christine, Kyle, Floria, and me. I met Kyle at an internet cafe, he's an officer in the Airforce and was in Frankfurt to visit a friend. I met Floria in Frankfurt, she was up there with some friends and also lived in Ramstein.



This pic is of Nathan, Me and some of Nathan's friends. Nathan is Christine's roomie, really cool guy!!

Frankfurt March 9 - 12

Alright, here is where my journey begins, the flight itslef was an interesting journey but nonetheless it was a good flight. Well, I landed in Frankfurt, Germany, and after getting my luggage, I realized "Wow, I know noone here and I don't have a cell phone, haha." Well luckily in the states my mom, thank you, made me make a reservation for a hotel to stay at, I was just planning on winging it like I always do! Well after exchanging some money at the airport, which I have to add, I got raped by the exchange rate, but I got into a cab and showed him where I needed to go. Luckily I had the address because the cab drive spoke alittle English and I spoke absolutely no German, haha.

Here is my hotel, I booked it online and it said "in the center of the city" well apparently that meant right in the Red Light Disctrict. Just for the record, no hookers for me, thats gross but the area was still interesting. I get there and there are porn shops and red hearts everywhere, I thought it was gonna be a bad part of town but it ended up being really cool, nothing bad happened. Oh I have to add this in, haha, there was a Tv in the room so I was like "cool something to watch" haha well all the channels were in German execpt for one, which was an all porno channel in English, guess it was because of the great location I was in. Well here is what the hotel room looked like!!



After getting settled in alittle, I decided to do alittle exploring, Downtown Frankfurt is absolutely amazing!!








This area of the city was called "Old Town Square," this was the oldest part of Frankfurt.





Haha just had to add this in, it was too funy to not add!!