The Past Week

Hey everyone, I figured I'd write something short to you all, no pics this week. Just wanted to let everyone know what I've been up to. I really haven't done too much fun stuff, I've been busy as my finals started last week and conclude this upcoming week. I've been spending a lot of time writing papers and what not. On Easter Sunday I went to the grocery store to get some food for an Easter dinner I planned on making. Of course, nothing was open, not one grocery store! I was quite bummed (but couldn't get anything the day before because I didn't get back from Munich til midnight. So, I made do with what I had for breakfast before heading to Westminster Cathedral for Easter Mass. The church was beautiful and it was the first time I was able to make it to Westminster. After mass a few of us went out for our Easter dinner which was...fish and chips. It was delicious indeed but not quite the Easter dinner I had envisioned. What was funny is that, although the grocery stores were closed, the pubs and bars were open. We actually went out to see a cover band on that Sunday night, because we didn't have class Monday (much of the city shuts down on Easter Monday). 

On Monday I had to work on homework for most of the day but it was much needed. On Tuesday I had my final exam for Art History. After the exam I went to see the musical Billy Elliot with most of our group. The show was pretty good, not my favorite, but worth seeing. After the play we went out for Eric's birthday. He was celebrating his 22nd birthday so we stopped at a pub. 

On Wednesday I had class...but as for after class, I can't think of what I did quite yet.

On Thursday, same story, I had class, but can't seem to recall what I did all afternoon. That night a big group of us did go out in central London. 

On Friday I woke up and went to Hyde Park for awhile. After that I went to the Sigmund Freud house and museum. The museum was really cool and really well kept up. It was the actual house that Freud lived in when he escaped Austria after Nazi occupation. His office was still intact with his famous patient couch and all his worldly possessions. 

On Saturday morning a group of us got up and went to Portobella Road Market in Nottinghill. The market was packed but it was a lot of fun wandering around aimlessly. After the market we went to a famous pub for lunch called the Churchill Arms. It was the pub that Winston Churchill actually lectured as he was an up and coming politician. The cool thing about the pub too, it only serves Thai food. Not to mention, really good Thai food. The concept of an English pub serving Thai food really represents London as a city. Its very metropolitan, and you have the English history combined with the history of the world (Over 1/3 of London is made up of foreigners). I actually stayed in on Saturday night because I had to read an entire 400 page book and then I have spent today (Sunday) writing a book review on it. I have a final presentation and test tomorrow as well, so I won't be doing much else but homework for the rest of the day. 

Hope everyone is doing well, I hope the MN weather is improving, and I look forward to my return in less than 2 weeks! 

Germany and Austria

Hey everyone, it hasn´t been too long and I´m at it again. Since I last wrote to you I have done quite a bit in a short amount of time, let me briefly recap it for you. On Monday of last week I was planning on going to see the show Les Mis with Rachel. We went to get tickets but it was sold out so we decided to go to a cabaret called Le Clique. It was an excellent show and was extremely entertaining. It contained various acts of comedy, magic, and unbelievable talents. After the show we met up with some friends at a local pub called the Porcupine.

On Tuesday I was lucky to get to go to a Pablo Picasso special exhibit at the National Gallery in London. It was nice because my art history professor was able to give us complimentary passes to the exhibit and it was probably something I otherwise would not have done.

On Wednesday I flew to Munich on a last minute unplanned trip. It was actually quite the airport hassle and for awhile I was thinking I was meant to not go on this trip. It started by me not correctly reading my flight time, and thinking it was an hour later than it actually was. I ended up rushing to the airport and had arrived at the exact time my flight was supposed to start boarding. I hadn´t even checked in and the line was tremendously long. When I finally got my ticket I sprinted to security only to get denied because my backpack was too big for carryon. I was extremely frusterated because I had used the bag as a carry on 5 or 6 times already. I had to rush back to check my bag, but I didn´t have enough to pay in cash, so they had to send me to their info counter to do a credit card transaction. When I finally got back to check my bag they told me because it had straps that I should bring it to oversize luggage to insure that it doesn´t get caught up. Again, I SPRINTED through security, and as I was sprinting to my terminal, I was literally the guy in the airport whose name was being called via the loud speaker: would Mr. Brandt please report to gate 18 for your flight to Munich. I ended up arriving and was the last passenger on the plane. BUT, I made it. Of course when I landed in Munich the baggage reclaim quit and all bags were picked up, except mine never came. I was talking with the airline staff two grounds crew workers came up with my bag saying it was almost left on the plane. To say the least, it was a very hectic start to the day.

When I got into Munich I was realizing that not booking any hotels or hostels might´ve been an issue, I was really roughing this trip out. I did contact three of my friends from Ireland to meet up with them and they were staying with a guy. They asked if I could stay with him and luckily the guy said yes. They met this guy, Tom, threw an online program called couch surfers in which you get in contact with people in different cities and they let you crash on their couch. My friends from Ireland have hosted a few people back at their place. After I dropped my bag off we headed straight to none other than the Hofbräuhaus. It´s probably the most famous place to drink a beer in the world. We ordered some sausages and saurkraut and beer by the liter. It was a great night, a little too much beer was consumed, but it was a great night that I was able to spend with some good friends from St. John´s. We made it back to Tom´s apartment and stayed up talking about Germany, the US, and whatnot while listening to music around a Hookah.

On Thursday we made our way around town consuming sausages, seeing the Glockenspiel, and some of the great Bavarian architecture. We then found a great park that we chilled at for a couple of hours. After the park we went to Augustiner´s (the most famous beer in Germany) but we made it to one of their brew houses for a half-liter of beer. It was great, they still keep their beer in wooden kegs. After our pint we went to train station and booked some train tickets to Salzberg, Austria. We went online and lined up another place to crash at and then made our 2 hour decent to Austria through the Alps. It was a beautiful and peaceful train ride and we could tell we were in for a good Friday. When we got to Salzberg we found the guys place, who was ironically a Tom again, and crashed for the night. Tom had a beautiful apartment that overlooked the Alps, he loved having us and the company, I kind of got the vibe that he was a lonely 34 year old, so this couch surfers thing was a great way to meet people from different cultures.

On Friday we got up extremely early because we wanted to see the entire city in just one day. Our plan was to pretty much throw the map to the side and see the whole city by foot, Salzberg is a relatively small city that lies just at the base of the Alps. We made our way around and into some beautiful parks during the early morning. The city is surrounded by three massive mountains and then has one high point right in the center of the city. We summited the hill, went and saw the fortress that overlooks the whole city getting great pictures all the while. By early afternoon we decended into the city center. Salzberg has one of the most classic, untouched, bavarian city centres that still exhists. There is so much culture and so little English. The restaurants and shops are like something I´ve never seen. For those who have seen Sound of Music, its where the movie was filmed in (1967) and it seems like nothing has changed since. It is also the city where Mozart was born and raised so there are a lot of references to him around the city. The city had street performers on violins and accordians playing classic German-Bavarian songs that really help make the atomoshpere. The city also has three very old and beautiful church´s that we were able to tour. By late afternoon we decided that we had seen enough of the city. I got a train ticket back to Munich and my friends from Ireland continued on to Vienna, Austria (they are backpacking for awhile). I called the first Tom we stayed with and he said it was cool that I come back to Munich to stay with him for night. My train ride back was just as beautiful as the one on the way there and I got back to Tom´s place to call it a night.

I woke up pretty early to hit Munich. I started the morning by heading to the Olympiapark. This is where the 1972 olympics were held (Mark Spitz breaking records and the terrorist hold up). The Olympic grounds were extremely modern and unique when they were built in 72 and trust me they still look crazy unique today. The grounds have been very well kept up and it is absolutely beautiful. Great green grass, walking and biking paths, all on a hill and around some man made lakes. 

After checking out the Olympic grounds I decided to go to BMW Welt. This is the BMW headquarters and main global showroom. It also contains a BMW museum as well as a room with all of their concept cars. It was really great looking at cars I'll probably never be able to afford...no actually it was a cool experience and the building had some awesome architecture. Around noon I decided to head back into the city center or Marienplatz. The city center was absolutely packed because a) it was 78 degrees b) it was a Saturday c) FC Bayern Munich had a football match (soccer game). The beer gardens were absolutely packed by noon. Literally thousands of people were sitting out at these out door beer gardens. I had to stop and grab a half liter and enjoy all of the commotion. I continued on getting some lunch at an our door sausage stand. I couldn't complain about the German cuisine, it was awesome. After some more walking I decided I need to relax at the Hofbrauhaus one last time, it could've been my last. Both levels and the outdoor garden were packed. Luckily a friendly local told me to grab a seat at the corner of his table. He was a really nice, educated, and well traveled man. We talked for almost two hours about the cities I had scene, what he thought of them, and then he talked about the US cities that he had visited. After my time at the Hofbrauhaus I decided to go to Englischer Park to people watch and enjoy the beautiful weather. I ended up staying all afternoon and got pretty sun burnt. After the park I had to head back to London. I got to the airport extremely early after my previous airport experience. With my luck my flight was delayed an hour :) Karma. But, I made it back and had an awesome trip.

I think this was probably one of my most fun weekends, if you like beer there's probably no better city in the world. You never have to feel bad, people are out in masses consuming beer at all times of the day. 

I'll update again next week with all my happenings over the coming week. Have a happy Easter and take care. 

London, Edinburgh, and Paris

Hey everyone, its been awhile since I've checked in with you all, my apologies! I've had a pretty crazy few weeks and as most of you are aware, my parents were over here for ten days. The time flew by and I'll surly miss a few things, but I'll try to get you all the lowdown. Before I start though I thought I'd let everyone know that I heard from United Health and found out my start date, location, and the part of the company I'm going to be working for. I don't start until September 1st, so that means I'll be spending the summer with my bros which should be a great experience before I enter the "real world". I'm going to working out the Golden Valley office and I'll be working for one of their subsidiaries called OptumHealth. I'm excited to be with Optum, my first interview was with the VP of Optum and he had apparently put in a request for me to join his team after our initial interview. As for the past few weeks, I'll rewind back to Thursday the 19th of March. My parents flew in bright and early, I actually met them at the airport prior to my class for the day. Once I got them checked in at their hotel I had to go to class, they caught up a bit on rest before we tackled the city with the storm. On the first day we did the must see tourist spots. We went to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and around that whole part of the city. After doing a short amount of walking we made our first pitstop at a pub called 'Adam and Eve' (the only reason I remembered that was because it was the first, or beginning, Adam and Even, I think you get it). That night we had a great English pub dinner. Greasy fish n' chips and pints of English Ales. Metal mouth and myself even tried some pork scratchings (deep-fried pig skin) being the true diplomats that we are. After dinner we went and saw the show 'Wicked'. The show was absolutely amazing and I'm pretty sure that all three of us enjoyed it. On Friday morning we got up and went to an area of town called Hampstead. Hampstead is a great part of London with a very unique feel to it. It's a pretty spendy area of the city to live in because of its quaint neighborhoods and rural feel within the city. We then walked around the Hampstead Heath which is a huge park with trees, walking paths, and green grass. The amount of large parks in London is quite amazing actually, with the size of the city and the population, you just wouldn't think they would have the space for this expansive parks. After Hampstead we headed to a part of town called Camden. I've blogged about Camden before-it's a market town with some pretty crazy and unique shops. We wandered around for a few hours before getting lunch.

I can't really remember what we did after Camden but I know we went to several pubs that afternoon night. I know we went to a famous pub called 'The Lamb and Flag'. 

On Saturday we went to the City, which is the financial district of London (also where the G20 protests are going on this week). We walked along the Thames and saw the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. Afterwards we went and walked around St. Paul's Cathedral. After snapping a few pics we headed towards central London to a place called Covent Garden. Covent Garden is known for its market style shopping and weekend performers. The place was absolutely packed. We ended up going out for pub food again and then to see the show 'Avenue Q'. I really loved this show, it didn't have the same Theatrical experience as wicked but it was funny and a bit vulgar, geared towards an adult audience. 

On Sunday we got up to go to church at St. Paul's Cathedral. It was my first time in St. Paul's and wow was it beautiful. After church we headed to Greenwich. I let my parents explore the different museums and snap some pics on the Prime Meridian. I had already been to Greenwich and needed to do some reading for my Monday classes. 

On Monday I had class from 10-5, so my parents took a day trip to see Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and the city of Bath. It sounds like they loved their trip although the weather didn't cooperate all that well. I met up with them at the local pub near my place called Gloucester Arms when they got back. 

On Tuesday we went to Oxford street so my mom could get her shopping in. Not sure if she really got anything, but Oxford is a famous place for shopping. We continued on towards an area of town called Soho. After lunch I split with my parents and let them continue shopping. That night we went out with Eric and did the London Eye. We got some great views of the city and its a must-do when it London, so we were obligated. After the Eye we went and had dinner at an Indian restaurant. London is known for their Indian cuisine and neither of my parents had ever had it. I must say they both loved the food, as did Eric and myself, I've developed quite the tongue for a good curry. 

On Wednesday morning I had class, so my parents decided to go see St. James' Park and Buckingham Palace. They got to watch the changing of the guard but unfortunately didn't get to see the queen. After they got done with that and my class was out we met up to do a tour of Fuller's Brewery. Fuller's is the only brewer within the city of London. The tour was great and very interesting. 

Our tour guide was a classic cockney Brit with a dry sense of humor. My mom was one of two girls on the tour so she got a few shots from our guide. At the end of the tour we got to do a full sampling of six beers followed by a pint of our favorite. It was kind of a hammer-session and I think we were all feeling a bit week in the knees after consuming 3 pints in 30 minutes. For dinner on Wednesday we went and had some Caribbean food. London has large Caribbean populations that emigrated from the English colonies post WWII. We went to a place called Jerk City for some great jerk chicken. 

We also ordered a fried fish appetizer. To our surprise it was literally a fried fish, a whole fish fried and still intact. It was actually very tasty, and of course, being the culinary oddball that I am I had to try one of the fish eyes. It started out pretty good but I didn't expect the middle to be as hard as it was! After dinner we went to one more famous pub for a pint called 'The George'. 

On Thursday we were up early to catch a flight to Edinburgh, Scotland. Once landed and settled in Edinburgh we just walked the center of the city a bit as it was already getting dark. We went for an Edinburgh style pub meal at a great place called 'The End of the Earth'. This was a great, and very old pub, where I was able to try my long anticipated haggis. My mom tried my meal AND enjoyed it, until she found out that haggis was minced heart, lungs, liver, pouridge, and spices. It's served with neeps and tatties (mashed parsnips and mashed potatoes). We also had some 'pudding' for an appetizer because it was the scottish thing to do, I'm not even sure what we ate but it was great.

On Friday we ended up taking a bus tour into the Scottish highlands. The tour was great and we had awesome tour guide. I can't really tell you what we all saw, but we made several stops in the Scottish mountains, drove along the lochs, saw rolling hills and some tiny Scottish villages. The destination of our tour was of course, Loch Ness. It is to my dismay that I must report that we didn't see the monster. The Loch was gorgeous and the town we were in was great. We had a good lunch at a small cafe, I had a venison burger (venison is popular in Scotland) which was very tasty. The rest of the trip was through the highlands back into Edinburgh. 

Saturday was spent exploring Edinburgh. We got up nice and early to realize that everything was closed until 10. Thus, we decided to climb to the highest point in Edinburgh, called Arthur's Seat. It sounded like a good idea but it turned into quite the workout. After we got some pics of the city we made our way back to the city center. The Royal Mile was rustling and bustling by the time that we got there. We made our way up the road stopping in tourist shops, kilt shops, etc. Our next stop was an area of town called Leith. Leith is the part of town that is located on the sea. It's known for having great sea food and an overall good dining scene. For lunch we stopped in at a place called The Ship. The restaurant was great and our food was even better. My mom ordered the most authentic bowl of clam chowder imaginable. It had whole mussles and who shrimp right in it. 

I ordered a smoked salmon sandwich with a cup of 'chowder-like' soup that was delicious and my dad ordered a venison burger that was extremely tasty. After walking around the area we stopped for a pint before making our way back to the city center. 

That night we waited a little too late before going out for dinner. Most pubs were done serving food and everything else was packed. We ended up going to a so-so restaurant for our final meal which was a bit of bummer, but we definitely had a great culinary experience over our 10 days together. 

On Sunday we had to fly back to London and then I had to bid my parents adieu. Their flight was overbooked and both were offered a $1,000 travel voucher with their dinner for the night compensated as well as a night in hotel. They could have traveled again later in the year, flew out to Philly a few times, etc. But, they chose not to take advantage of the offer (or to spend another night with their eldest son). I was definitely giving my mom a hard time about passing up the offer but they did have to get back to the boys and my mom had to get back for work, understandable.

After my parents I had a little school work to take care of over the next few days, however, knowing me I didn't give myself much time at all to relax. On Tuesday I FINALLY made it to Tate Modern for my art history class. Tate is one of the most famous museums in the world. It contains only paintings and sculptures post 1900. As a modern art museum it is without a doubt the world's most famous. On Wednesday after class I decided to take one of the girls on the trip for a date, Rachel, as featured in several pics. I tried to impress her with my culinary techniques making stuffed chicken breasts, baked yams, and a dark chocolate and strawberry ice cream (not store purchased!). After dinner we then went to see the Phantom of the Opera. I'd never seen the Phantom and let me tell you, it was AMAZING! Before my trip over here I had no idea that I'd enjoy theatre so much. Granted, London is supposed to have the best theatre in the world, but every show I see seems to blow my mind. 

On Thursday I began my next European journey. I, and some friends, went to Paris for the weekend via the Eurostar, a train that travels beneath the English Channel. Before I even begin I have to say that I think Paris has been my favourite city that I have traveled to. The weekend wasn't the 'most-fun' but as a city, I loved Paris. When we arrived we made our way to our hotel passing by Moulin Rouge on the way. Our hotel was extremely nice and was in a great location. On Thursday night when we got in we decided to do a little foot traveling to see the city at night. At first we headed through a park that was extremely well up kept before making our way to the Arc de Triumph. 

I have scene several Arc de Triumph's in Europe, but the one in Paris is 'THE' Arc. It was pretty spectacular, right in the middle of a round-a-bout, and we definitely snapped our fair share of pics. We then made our way to the Eifel Tower which can be seen from anywhere in the city at night.

 Once we got their we took a ton of pics (I probably have 200 pics of the tower that were accumulated over the weekend). Eric and I discovered something called 'fireworks mode' on our cameras and were experimenting while capturing some great pics of the tower at night.

 I also tried my first crepe on Thursday night and it was a strawberry jam crepe (Crepes are pretty much all I ate in Paris). 

On Friday morning we started by walking towards 'central Paris'. We walked to the Parisan Opera House which is the most famous opera house in the world. Right next to the Opera House was a huge department store called the Galleries Lafayette. The Galleries is a huge, crazy-expensive, department store that rivals Harrod's of London. We walked around and gawked at things we couldn't afford, I actually did make one purchase at the Galleries and that was a gondola shaped baguette from the gourmet food section. 

We continued walking through Paris in awe of the beauty of the city before making our way to the Cathedral of Notre Dame. We ended up touring the church at the perfect time because on Friday's at 3 they bring out the 'crown of thorns' and do a ceremony. 

After seeing the inside of the church we went to the top and threw the bell tower in search of Quasimodo. 

We got a great view of the city from atop the church but never found the hunchback. After Notre Dame I got my second crepe of the trip. This time I got a cheese, egg, and ham crepe and it was crazy-delicious. Crepes were perfect because they were inexpensive, authentically French, and tasty in a VERY expensive city. After eating we made our way to The Louvre. Now I know I've said I've been to some famous museums, and you probably are wondering how so many could be famous, but the Louvre, by far, is the most famous art museum in the World. This museum was massive! It is also the home of the Mona Lisa, which I saw and got a pic of. There are also some very famous sculptures in the Louvre. We didn't spend too much time there because we were tired and it was so busy. 

On Saturday we got up and made our way to a market that was further outside the center of the city. Central Paris is very clean and safe but as you get out further it gets much more ethnic and unfortunately much more dirty. It was great to see that part of the city though because it gave you a good perspective of the city as a whole. The market at first seemed like junk, but there were some shops with some cool things. A majority of the shops were clothes and shoes shops, which I wasn't looking to buy, so we didn't spend much time there. We did get some great sandwiches at the market though, so again the trip was worthwhile. 

After the market we headed back to our hotel for a bit to rest up. We then made our way down to the river (the Seine) to walk along the water, soak up some more Paris, and to see what the street vendors had to offer. I got a pretty cool abstract painting of the Eifel Tower while we did our looking. My bartering skills came out as the guy wanted 20 euros for one painting and I ended up walking away with 3 paintings for 30 euros (one for Eric, Rachel, and myself). After another crepe we went back to the Eifel tower to see it light up again at night one last time. The beauty of the tower, right within the city, is indescribable. There are also tons of people so its fun to do some people watching. 

This morning we slept in a little later than planned but we did do a little walking around, by a park and through a small antique market. We also had our final culinary experience which was to have Creme Bruelee at a sidewalk cafe. Unfortunately, because it was so beautiful out, all of the cafes were packed so we did have to eat it inside, but let me tell you, this was one of the best desserts that I've ever had. It was an excellent way to end the trip in Paris.

The next few days will be consumed with some school work, my classes are really starting to wind down (and so is my collegiate career, which is killin me!). Tomorrow night I think I am going to see a show/cabaret called 'Le Clique' and on Tuesday for my art history class I will be going to see a Pablo Picasso exhibit at the National Gallery. And then, as most of you are unaware, I am heading to Munich on Wednesday! I'm going by myself but I am planning to meet up with the guys from Ireland (who I met up with in Barcelona and who were here two weeks ago). I will also be "training" to Salzburg, Austria for one of the days in order to see the Alps. I am extremely excited but I am kind of going without a plan which should make for a crazy experience. I'll definitely blog about my trip upon my return. I'm sad that I won't get to see anyone for Easter and I hope you all have a great holiday! I'll be back in about a month so I look forward to seeing everyone.