Update

Sorry it's taken so long for me to update! There really hasn't been too much excitement in my life, but let me give you the highlights:

Our trip to Brussels was really fun! A big group of us met up there and visited the infamous Delerium bar (the one that sells over 2000 beers) again. And because the last train back to Maastricht left at 10pm we decided to catch the first train the next morning at 6am! Here's a lovely video of Drew trying to conquer "Das Boot!" at Delerium.

We spent a good portion of the night in Delerium and then went to a dance club for a while. That was fun but we got bored after an hour of dancing. By this time it was 4am and we were getting pretty tired. We tried going to a casino but got rejected because we weren't 21! Who would have thought! And then we tried going to another club but got deneyed because it was too late. Finally we settled on playing tag in the Grand Place! I figure not many people can say they've done that! After a good half hour of running around we decided to just head to the train station and wait for the train. Here's us after a long night :)

Other than that, my wrist is healing well. I'm slowly getting my flexibility back, but its still got some healing to do. We're going to a nearby city to see a professional soccer-sorry, football-game on Saturday so that should be fun! I only have a week of class left and things are wrapping up pretty quickly! I'm really excited for Carly to come visit. Our trip seems to be coming together but we need to start booking some hostels. The schedule from my last post is staying the same but we decided to stick Verona, Italy in there, and we decided Croatia was too expensive so we're going back to Maastricht and going to see Amsterdam and the tulip fields!

Well, thats all for now, hopefully I'll have some more interesting news to report back with next time!

Update on My Wrist

Good news everybody! I'm recovering quickly; I can feel my wrist getting stronger every day. Today I went to the hospital and they cut my cast off and took the stitches out. It was a little earlier than they normally like but everything turned out well. It looks a lot better than it did 5 days ago but its still is a sight for sore eyes. They then sent me to "ergotherapie" to get a fitted brace for about the next 3 weeks (let's pray thats all it takes!). I go back on Friday for some physical therapy training because its extremely important that I consistently stretch it out so I don't lose my flexibility. Here are some pictures of the cut (bandaged) and my brace:

So that's pretty much all I have to update you on. I was going to travel this past weekend but was left alone by literally my entire group to fend for myself ;)  I'm going to Brussels this weekend with two friends Lisa and Annie because we all have friends who are going to be there. My friend Julie from IU is studying in Florence and she came and visited Amsterdam and is flying out of Brussels so I'm meeting her and her friends there. It should be a fun trip.

My big trip is coming in April! That will definitely be an awesome trip and I'm really excited Carly will be joining me for it! Here's the tentative schedule for that trip:

31 March - I fly to Barcelona, Spain
2 April - I fly to Rome, Italy
2 April - Carly Arrives in Rome
5 April - train to Naples / Pompei
5 April - night train to Venice
6/7 April - train to Florence
8 April - train to Pisa
then idk... Croatia maybe??

Whatever we decide I'm really excited! I'll keep you posted as I book more!

Picture Links

So I promised you all some pictures and here they are! Check them out:

6 Day Study Trip Through Europe

Brussels and Sarah's Visit to Maastricht

Vienna and Graz

Carnival

Vienna, Graz and Carnival!

First let me apologize for the lack of timeliness of this post! Its been a busy week, prepping for and experiencing Carnival!

So as you may remember from last week, I blindly booked a flight to Vienna! It turned out to be an awesome trip! Getting there was even entertaining. To go to the Cologne, Germany airport where our flight departed we had to take a bus to Aachen, Germany and then a train to Cologne. In Aachen none of us knew how to buy a ticket so this old man (who we lovingly named Gandalf) already had a 5 person pass and told us we could ride with him! He was so helpful with everything! When we got to Cologne he showed us how we could buy all the discount tickets and everything! This is a picture of our new friend in front of the Dom Cathedral in Cologne:

After exploring Cologne for a while we made our flight and were off to Vienna! As soon as we got off the train from the airport Sarah and her friend Lucy were right there waiting for us and 

we had a drink before I split ways with the group and headed with Sarah. We had a fun night and went dancing at a club called The Empire. The next morning we set off to Graz, Austria! The summer after he freshman year, Sarah studied abroad there and stayed with a host mother who we went to go visit! The train ride there was beautiful. There were breathtaking views around every corner; we saw a great deal of the Austrian Alps as well. 

After arriving in Graz Sarah showed us around and we did all the cool touristy stuff. A good article I found if you for some reason ever make it to Graz is here. After exploring we set off for Pia's house! Our stay there was such an awesome experience of true Austrain culture. We made Wiener Schnitzel (about 20 of them!) for dinner and just spent the night cooking and eating and talking. Sarah was my translator because Pia didn't speak (or refused to speak!) any English. It was still a lot of fun, though! 

We woke up early to catch the train back to Vienna. After we got back to Vienna Sarah and I decided to do a little sight seeing so we went to the Belvedere palace! This is an old palace 

turned art museum. They had some really cool paintings in there, one of the most famous being Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss". This is a picture of Sarah and me in front of the palace! After that we went back to her apartment which is right next to a couple buildings built by the famous architect Hundertwasser. Literally across the street from her is the KunstHaus and right around the corner is the HundertwasserHaus so we went and saw those which were really cool. Then she took me on a short preview of the city so i could see what i get to explore next time I visit! The trip home was another adventure. We missed the last bus back to Maastricht by 5 minutes and had to take a taxi 45 minutes home!

So Carnival... The Catholic festivities celebrating indulgence before Lent. Everybody here dresses up in the craziest, most outlandish costumes. I, myself, got a pretty hilarious costume which you can take a look at! The festival technically lasts Sunday through Tuesday (today) but the dressing up and partying starts around Thursday just less intense--Carnival "Lite" if you will. It was really crazy! The streets were full of people dancing and singing all day until three in the morning! There was an unfortunate incident that I unfortunately got into which put quite a damper on the festivities, but I was still able to go see the closing ceremony tonight! All in all it was a great time and I'm so glad I got to experience it!

Well thats all for now. I'll post some links tomorrow so everybody can see the adventures I've had so far!

Blind Booking

So I came home from the bars last night and stopped in my neighbors' room to say hey. They were all huddled around a computer talking so I decided to see what they were doing and it turns out they were booking a blind flight. A blind flight is basically a situation where you have a set of 6 or 7 different destinations and you get a really cheap flight but you don't know where you're going until you book the flight. Well I had no plans and was feeling a little risky so I decided to get in on it and turns out I'm going to Vienna tomorrow! The flight is out of Cologne, Germany so we're going tomorrow morning early to do some exploring before our flight. Sarah actually had plans this weekend to go to a small town in Austria called Graz where she studied the summer after her freshman year of college. If everything goes according to plan I think I will tag along with her because I plan to return to Vienna again in late March and I want to Sarah to show me the city :)

Well that was all. Just thought I would share my interesting story before we head out tomorrow!

Panorama

I finally figured out how to create a panorama picture! I used this program called "PTGui" to stitch the photos together and used Adobe Elements to crop it. Here again is the St. Servatius Bridge in Maastricht!

Sarah visits Maastricht

Hello! Or Hallo as we say here in the Netherlands! This past week was quite busy! Sarah came to visit on Tuesday from Vienna so I was pretty negligent towards the comptuer! We had a really awesome time exploring Maastricht and on Saturday before her flight back to Vienna we spent the day exploring Brussels. The picture above and to the left is the lovely St Servatius Bridge, which was built during the days of the Roman Empire and their hold on Maastricht! Maastricht was actually a pretty sought after city because the Maas river (as seen in the picture as well!) was an excellent "barrier" to invading armies! I have really enjoyed learning about the history of Maastricht; its a really cool town with a lot of history. The building to my right is the old city hall located on the Markt (not a misspelling). Every Wednesday and Friday mornings they set up a market where local vendors come and sell everything from food to clothes! It's really fun to walk around. If you look closely at the picture you can see the tops of the tents set up.

After her 3 days in Maastricht, it was time for Sarah to go home. However, her flight didn't leave until Saturday night out of Brussels so we decided to spend the day exploring! For those of you who don't know, Brussels is both the capital of Belgium as well as the European Union (which I visited earlier on my 6 day study trip). If you have only a day to spend in Brussels, here are the few things I would recommend doing:

• Get a Belgium Waffle. Doesn't matter where (A random van such as the one seen above will do as well!). Toppings are mandatory, however. The Haagen Daz has one topped with ice cream which probably ranks in my top 5 foods I've ever had.
  
• Go to Delerium Tremens. This large and spacious bar is located in the back alleys of Brussels but it is an awesome place to drink a beer if you can find it. In fact, this bar currently serves 2004 different types of beer! My favorites so far: Maredsous, Kwak, La Chouffe and Leffe Blonde.
• Visit the Grand Place. This is what I would consider the center of the city. The buildings are the most incredible in this main square and definitely worth a look. It's also pretty central to most everything. The train station, all the good restaurants, the museums, the St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral and the Palais Royal are all a 10 minute or less walk from here.
• For an awesome photo op I recommend going to see the Manneken Pis, the pissing mannequin. It's a cute little boy peeing into a fountain. (For the more risque crowd, there's a similar statue right outside of Delerium, just a different sex...)

Well that's my 10 cents. I plan on putting all these pictures up on facebook where I might be able to post a link. Later.