A Fabulous Day in Florence

I think I'm starting to get used to this beautiful weather we have been having here in Italy.

Today was our first full day in Florence and I must say I absolutely love this city. As Florence is famous for both their gelato and pizza I don't think I need to say more.

Tomorrow we are visiting both the main art galleries in Florence so today we just wandered through the tiny cobblestone streets of the city. We started our morning by hitting up the famous leather market. It reminded me of being back in Morocco with the very distinct smell of leather present and all the vendors shouting "special price just for you." I am trying to keep my purchases to a minimum as I have to fit everything back into my carry on sized backpack but I'm thinking I might need to make room for that cute leather purse I saw.

We happened upon a food market as well and I was quite excited when I saw the lobster tail pastry! For those of you that watch Cake Boss you will know exactly what I'm talking about. It's basically a giant pastry shell filled with creme that is shaped like a lobster tail. I hadn't seen one in Italy till today so I am glad I can finally check off trying a lobster tail from my to do list.

This afternoon we also went to the Pizza de Michelangelo which was quite the climb up a steep hill. It was definitely worth the workout as the view of the city was absolutely amazing.  The bright orange and mustard yellow buildings with the vast greenery in the background definitely was the perfect Tuscan image.

After spending the rest of our day checking out different piazzas and markets in Florence the cherry on top of this great day was finding the best gelato shop in Florence (so Rick Steves says) called GROM. The organic gelato flavors on the menu were only listed in Italian so I'm not quite sure what flavors I had but I definitely know they were delicious!

Tomorrow I am off to see the statue of David and the Ufizi Gallery.

Ciao Bella!

More of Greece and Italy!

Now I must forwarn that this blog post is coming to you live from my itouch so you may see a few autocorrections here and there... With that said I must say I have seen quite a lot since my last blog post. For our one full day in Greece we packed in a lot of sites. We were quite the champs and made it to the acropolis right when it opened at 8 am to jump start our day. It was so nice being able to take in the view of the city and the ruins with only a few other people there. Afterward, we went to the boat docks to take a trip out to one of the nearby small islands. The weather was absolutely perfect, sunny and 72! The island was so beautiful that it reminded me of a postcard. That night we did some more exploring around Athens and noticed that most of the city besides from the touristy slots were kinda shady. There was a lot of graffiti everywhere so I'm glad our hostel was in a pretty touristy area. Now today I just left Rome after being there for 3 days and I'm now in Pisa! I loved that in Rome you can casually be walking down the street and run into some ruins or a piazza or a beautiful church. We even managed to run into a parade of gladiators yesterday...no joke! Apparently yesterday was the founding day of Rome so thus the parade. Now while seeing the leaning tower of Pisa and climbing to the top was pretty cool today there isn't much else to do here. We walked around the city for a bit and stopped at a place to grab dinner. See from the outside this place looked completely normal but after ordering my spaghetti the waitress frantically went to the back of the restaurant. I had no idea what was going on but to my surprise (or horror) I saw her pull out a frozen meal and put it in the microwave! I don't think many people can say they've been to an Italian restaurant in Italy and get served a frozen meal. I guess I'll just go with the idea that it makes for a good story. Tomorrow we are off to Florence for 3 days and then onto our last stop of Venice!

2 More Countries Down!

These past few days have been nothing short of a whirlwind.

We touched down in Vienna two days ago and now I'm in Athens!

The first day in Vienna the rain seemed to follow us from Munich but luckily on our full day there we had clear skies.We packed in as much as possible starting off by visiting the Schonbrunn Palace. I had just read about the palace last year in my German class so it was really cool to see it for myself. It reminded me a lot of Versailles as it was quite expansive and had a gigantic garden. The garden even has the world's first zoo..who knew?

Afterwards we made our way back into the city center. This is when we became directionally challenged. It took us FOREVER to find the Kaffee Haus we were searching for but we eventually found it with some help from some nice locals. As I am quite the dessert fan I think I want to take all these coffee houses with fancy pastries back to Chicago with me...everything looked amazingly delicious. 

We then checked off the famous Opera House, St. Stephen's Cathedral and Motzart's House from our sightseeing list. Afterwards, we went out to see the famous Ferris Wheel of Vienna...not exactly sure why it is so important but seeing the amusement park area made me feel like I was in a European version of Disney World. The views of the city were pretty great as I didn't realize how mountainous the outer city was.

So to end our one and only full day in Vienna that meant one thing and one thing only...eat a ginormous piece of schnitzel! Wien is the German word for Vienna thus where Wiener Schnitzel comes from. I'll have to say it was quite delicious.

And this morning we were up bright and early to make our flight to Athens, Greece! The islands looked so beautiful from the plane and our hostel is in quite a good location as well as it is literally walking distance from the Acropolis. We checked out the Acropolis Museum today as it is free museum day here (woo!). 

We then walked around the city and I have to say it is just how I imagined it with the old worn buildings with the laundry hanging outside the windows and store vendors just hanging out on the street.

I really wish we had more time here but we are making sure we are getting our full day's worth. Our plan is to be up bright and early tomorrow and out the door at 8 a.m. to actually visit the Acropolis and then take a ferry to one of the islands close by. You can't take a trip to Greece and not get the picture perfect postcard views.

It's supposed to be sunny and 72 tomorrow so I am so ready to soak up this sun in this beautiful country!

Hallo von Deutschland!

I've made it to the land of liederhosen, beer and pretzels!

 I haven't been able to wipe the smile off my face since being here. As I've seen many places I've read about in German class since I was 13 this trip is nothing short of a dream come true for me.

We made it here bright and early Thursday morning and we have been doing nonstop sightseeing ever since.

One of my favorite sites have definitely been the Glockenspiel in Marienplatz. It may be the most touristy thing to see but it is still so quintesential German  that I cant help but love it.

The weather though hasn't been in our favor since being here. It has been pretty cold and raining on and off. We didn't let it damper our walk through the English Gardens yesterday.

Here is a fun fact for you..did you know that you can go surfing in the river in the English Gardens here in München? It's pretty hard core and definitely wasn't something I was expecting to see.

After our walk through the Gardens  we went to the most famous beer hall in the world, the Hofbrau Haus! I got my typical German beer with the giant pretzel to go along with it. The atmosphere in the hall is so lively and fun with people sharing conversations at the long tables as the umpa band is playing. We even managed to meet some people from London which is a story in itself.

But I must add that I went into the beerhall with the mission of finding someone in Leiderhosen to take a picture with...and let me tell you I didn't just find one I found a whole table of them! I wish I could post the picture to prove it because it is definitely picture frame worthy.

Today we ventured out of the city and took a day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle which is about 2 hours south of München. The castle is basically the real life Cinderella Castle from Disney World. It was quite a hike to get up to the castle as it was literally built on the side of a mountain. The journey did make for a good work out and quite an amazing photo opportunity. We were able to go in the castle for a tour which again looked like it came right out of a fairytale. Seeing the castle was another one of those sites that I've wanted to visit for ages so I feel so lucky that I was able to see it with my own two eyes today.

I'm about ready to catch some Zs but tomorrow will be another day packed with touring München and then we are off to Vienna on Monday!

Auf Wiedersehen 

See You in 21 Days London!

40 page portfolio turned in, check! Research proposal turned in, check! Advertising case study turned in, CHECK!

So with all my final assignments turned in it I can finally take a big sigh of relief and get my travel on.
Tomorrow morning I'll be off on my 21 day backpacking trip through Europe. With seven cities to see in four countries I am off on my own version of the Amazing Race.

Now while I thought packing for Morocco was tough this is proving to be even harder. As I am only bringing a carry on size backpack there isn't much room for anything beyond the bare minimum. I'm trying to remind myself that this trip isn't going to be about making a fashion statement but keeping that in mind is definitely easier said than done.

My friend and I will be starting off our trip in Munich which I am EXTREMELY excited about! I am making it my mission to speak as much German as possible while we're there. I've also informed my friend, Vethina, that as soon as we touch down in Munich she must refer to me as Liesel as that was my German name back in the day...

Since packing is tight neither of us will have our laptops with us for the trip so posting on my blog often may be a bit of a challenge but it's one I am definitely up for.

I can't wait to start traveling through Europe and bring back many stories and whatever souvenirs I can fit in my backpack.

Here is a rundown of my trip if any of you are sitting there pondering...hmmm I wonder where in Europe Lisa is today.....

April
12-16 Munich
16-18 Vienna
18-20 Athens
20-23 Rome
23-24 Pisa
24-27 Florence
27-30 Venice

Just typing this schedule out is getting me anxious and excited! Now get ready for my next post to come from Germany.

Auf Wiedersehen!

An English Easter & My Last Day at TogoRun

From a trip to Westminster Abbey for mass to Shepard's Pie for dinner I'll have to say that my Easter could not have gotten anymore English.
Yesterday I was up bright and early to enjoy a hot cross bun for breakfast before heading off to Easter Mass at Westminster Abbey. My friends and I arrived at the church early as we figured there would be a big crowd, which there was. After waiting in a line outside for some time we made it inside with a pretty good spot right near the front. While I may have been close to dozing off a few times during the hour and a half mass it was a really cool experience to be in such a beautiful and historic church for an actual service.

Later that night my friends and I had our own Easter dinner back in the flat. My friend Karina knew how to make the traditional English meal of Shepard's Pie so we let her take charge. It was quite delicious so I definitely think I'll have to get the recipe to try it out for when I'm home and missing some English food.

This past week was also the last week of my internship at TogoRun. It's so hard to believe that its over already as I just started to feel like I was getting into my rhythm there, but I guess that's how it goes with short term internships.

 I'll have to say though that I definitely left my internship on a high note. Last Thursday I got to present my "lunch and learn" session on social media where I talked about my past experience with Check, Please! They really seemed to enjoy it and take a lot from it.

If that wasn't cool enough we even had an office Easter egg hunt. Now many of you know how I can get a little competitive over Easter egg hunts so I showed them a thing or two about how it was done. And as a parting thank you gift they gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a really nice card that everyone in the office signed. It was sad saying goodbye since its hard to say when I'll see them next but I know I'll definitely carry my experiences at TogoRun with me as I continue to pursue a career path in PR.

A Trip to the McDonald's Office...and LOTS of Easter Eggs

Yesterday I got to do something extremely awesome thanks to my extremely awesome mom as I had the amazing opportunity of meeting the Vice President of Communications for the McDonald's U.K. office. My mom helped get me in contact with Nick as she had known him from a past trip to the U.K for work. I had been trying to find a time to meet him since I got here so I was so happy that we finally found a time that worked in his insanely busy schedule.

I was really curious to see what the McDonald's U.K. office would look like as I have been to the Oak Brook office many times. I had to snap a picture of the building as there were giant posters for the Olympics right at the entrance. It may have looked a little odd to the other people walking in but hey I'll deal.

Nick met me downstairs and brought me up to his office (which was about double the size of my flat). He shared many interesting stories about his career path in Public Relations and how he came to work for McDonald's. I truly enjoyed hearing about the communications controversies the company has faced in this country and how they were managed through communications. He also had some really interesting opinions about social media. I think my favorite analogy he used in regards to twitter was saying that some brands and people are like "disco dad" in that they don't know when to get off the dance floor...apparently the Brits use that phrase a lot.

I feel so lucky to have been given the opportunity to meet with such a well known and respected member of the communications field in the U.K. and I truly look forward to the opportunity of keeping in touch with him as I move forward in my career.

Now onto a completely unrelated subject...as we all know Easter is coming up, London  has been celebrating big by hosting the world's largest Easter egg hunt for the past few months in which 200 Faberge eggs have been placed all across the city. To bring the egg hunt to a close this week, all 200 Easter eggs have been moved to Covent Garden. As I've been snapping pictures of the eggs all over London I knew I had to check this out after work. I made my way over to Covent Garden which was jammed packed with egg seekers just like me and it was so neat seeing all the eggs located in one area.

But I'll have to say I think the best part of it all was finally seeing the "Where's Wally" egg. This egg was the only egg that moved around over the past few months and I had been quite unsuccessful at understanding the clues to find him. Since Covent Garden isn't that big it made the task of finding him that much easier. He's even become quite the famous egg appearing on multiple talk shows and sporting events the last few months.

So while I may not be victorious at the Easter egg hunt this year between me and my sister. I think finding 200 giant Easter eggs should count for something.