Danka Germany!

After I regained feeling in my little feetsies I wound up in the center of a huge outdoor outlet mall... go figure. At the time I was with my roommate Kara (who is the sweetest person ever- I love her) and a guy Adam from our program who was actually born in Switzerland and is fluent in German. Just some random facts about cool Lugano kids. We were starving and cold. So, after we bought better gloves we went hunting for food and rain boots. Then we spotted it. ZARA.

A little background about Miss Kara and me is that we have similar clothing style, but different attitudes. We had actually been referring to ourselves as Kate and Pippa (because she is obsessed with watching Casablanca and dreaming of meeting a prince in Paris and I am the more edgy sister Pippa.) The balance is perfection. So, we HAD to walk into the Zara store because not only is it where our beloved British icons shop, but they had sale signs everywhere. Adam is a sweetheart and actually has waited and held my groceries before while I was shopping in H&M, but we forced him to leave us in the store. There is no rushing the shopping experience in such a beautiful store. It was 3 stories and it's sad to say how happy I became 4 tops later (none of which were over 13 Euro.. go me!)

All the ladies that stayed in the hostel with me.

 On the walk back to our hostel I had an experience I will never forget. Our tour guide warned us earlier in the day about Neo/Anti Nazi rallies and to boo the Nazi's if we ever saw them. Little did I know that I would get caught up in one. While we were in the train station Kara and I saw kids wearing all black punk gear with hoods and spikes running all around. I assumed it was some gang of kids getting out of school. When we got to the top of the station we saw police men in riot gear and riot cars everywhere. In the middle of streets we the Nazi's with banners and cars with loud speakers on them shouting their messages of hate. All around them were police men protecting the Nazi's against the Anti-Nazi people who were yelling and trying to attack them. It was so loud on the street because the Anti- Nazi group had whistles in their mouths to drown out the Nazi messages. We asked the police if we could walk up past the riot and they said it was safe as long as we didn't try and go through it. As we walked up to the street we got stuck right at the riot line and an Anti-Nazi broke through. He hit my shoulder running past me and a cop through him up against a wall. Kara and I hid in a bank doorway with a German girl who looked just as scared as us. I was so emotional that people with so much hate still exist in this world and for the people of Munich who have to live in a city where this happens. It's a twisted road when you have to protect the freedom of speech for everyone, including Nazis.

Chaos.

After that roller-coaster of emotions, Kara and I went to go get kabobs. We had literally not eaten all day and forgotten about our hunger as soon as we saw clothes and couldn't get to food in the riot. I was originally planning on getting a kabob from every city that I visited, until I realized my insides would literally die and no amount of tums would be able to fix it. After an amazing relaxing lunch/dinner we went back to the hostel to take hot showers. After a day of frozen feet and snow I have never loved a shower more. Once we got ready we were off to the Beer Challenge!

The Beer Challenge was awesome. It was 12 Euro and came with 2 free beers and a Jaeger shot. I also happened to be staying at a hostel named Jaeger's that gave a complimentary shot at check in (if this didn't solidify my love of Germany I don't know what did.) We went to 4 famous beer halls of course including the famous Hofbräuhaus. I had the best hefeweizen beer of my life on the tour and got to try "the Pope's beer."

Some ladies on the Beer Challenge.

Me, Val, and Sarah-Margaret drinking the Pope's beer.

My new friend Jess and the band at Hofbräuhaus.

Declan and his pretzel smile. We introduced the Aussies to the wonderful pretzel and mustard combination.

Pretzels for days!

Val and the Aussies.

On the challenge we met a TON of Australians who were traveling on their summer break. If you have never  heard me do my Australian accent, you are NOT missing anything. I actually was attempting to speak to the native Aussies in it and managed to get a lot of dead stares. Go Tessa! I did manage to make some friends though! I met these three Australians Jess, Samantha, and Declan who became my partners in crime. Jess was the coolest chick ever who was the skinniest person I have ever seen who was also capable of consuming the most beer I have ever seen. (Don't worry mom I am not that cool, I only bought one beer.) We talked about Obama and how Australia was actually hardly hit by the recession and the quickest country to recover. Wooo intellectual conversations and drinking! After some delicious pretzels and our last bar the plan was to head to a dance club. Lets not forget I am American though... we wound up at a McDonald's.

I suppose you could say I had been hanging out with Declan the rest of the night because Jess and Sam were exhausted and went back to their hostel. So, after a lovely date at McDonald's I got my single girl mojo back. It's not trashy if you kiss after combo meal date right? I had a great night and now everyone who is worried about me can eternally embarrass me (yes mom I know you told Aunt Jennie and then she told Mr. Gecker about this incident.) It was actually pretty great because ironically we were both coming out of similar situations, and if you don't know EVERYTHING sounds better in an Australian accent. Even it is, "yeah it's just shit."

My last night in Munich was great. My post tomorrow will be more somber because we took the train to Dachau where the well known concentration camp is. I really want to visit Munich again and see the castles and English park surfers I missed... but maybe in the summer.

I love Munich

Alright, alright Germany you have stolen my heart.


** I was very excited to be going to Germany... but in all honesty I felt no connection to the place before arriving. I was 100% bias about the food and the sights compared to my beloved Italy. Germany always seemed like a dreary, dark place. Also, German does not stem from a romantic language (which I already struggle with) so the language barrier in my mind was hopeless. I thought I was destined to walk around Munich lost and confused while eating brats (not THAT terrible right?) However, I saw a quote this morning and I think it sums up my adventure.








The adventure began with an 8 hour train to Munich, Germany. My stomach was still a little delicate from the orange juice incident, so when we had an hour layover in Zurich I opted out of the seafood dinner that my group had. Train station seafood. Yep, I'm glad I dodged that bullet. When we finally arrived at 11 at night we were so excited to not only explore the city, but this was the first country we had all been to that uses the Euro let alone the first cheap country we had all visited. Within 2 minutes of being there we found delicious pretzels with butter and chives for one Euro... it was like a gift from God.





Traveling in a group of 30 is best summed up as the blind leading the blind. We walked around Munich in the cold snowy slush for an hour before we went to a club, got turned down because someone didn't have their ID, and ended up taking a cab back to our hostel pub. Solid. It was a blast though! We drank the cheapest Augustine beer (the natty light of Germany.) We also met lots of Australians because it is summer there and apparently everyone travels to Europe. The first Aussies we met were two burly guys who claimed to go to university with Herman Rockefeller's son. They told us about how his father went to a swinger's party without a partner and then got cut up by a chainsaw... I had never heard this story and found it very mean to be laughing about such a morbid death. However, the story actually pans out and I guess I missed it when the story hit the American news circuit. They also claimed that one of their dads owned an oil rig... but I was still drinking the cheapest beer at the bar, so I am still a skeptic.

This was our tour guide the whole time we were there... she had an awesome hat!

Munich will getcha with the buildings.

The next morning we had to be up and ready for our free walking tour of Munich at 11. I am a morning person, but I am NOT a cold weather person. This problem has not stopped me form going to school in the arctic of Blacksburg, so I figured I could easily take on Munich, Germany. Wrong. I lasted one hour out of the three hours I was supposed to spend on the walking tour. Not only was it heavily snowing with slushy puddles everywhere, but I learned my boots were in fact not water proof and nylon gloves are a sick joke.


Overall I wasn't sad that I missed most of the tour. The other kids didn't make it sound that amazing and a lot of it was a history based rather than architecture and art. However, I did maximize my hour and saw some really awesome things.

The New Town Hall building... very beautiful.

First we met up at the New Town Hall and saw Rathaus-Glockenspiel which is a beautiful large building with 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures that dance around for 15 minutes and is a huge tourist attraction. Then we went to The Frauenkirche which translates to the "Cathedral of Our Lady."It was a gorgeous church where we were told the legend of the Devil’s footprint. The basic gist of it is that there was an architect who was building a church and it had no windows, but he didn't have enough money to finish it. The devil came in and said I will help you finish the church and it will be my house of worship if you do not build anymore windows. The architect agreed and finished the church. Then the devil came back and was very angry because he saw windows. If you go inside the church and face the front alter, there are columns that block all of the windows so it looks very dark. However, if you move to either sides you can see the beautiful stained glass windows. The devil was so angry about this he stomped down his foot and you can literally see "the devils footprint."Then we went to another square where they talked about the "white trade" or salt trade and how the Pope gets special beer imported to him from Germany. They also spoke about culture in Munich and how on Sunday you're not supposed to work at all and have a day of rest (even laundry YAY!) Finally we went to another square near a scholar's beer hall were Hitler recited some of his first speeches and later returned when he overthrew the government.

No windows!

The roof of the church was destroyed in a war and the groups that help rebuild it are commemorated on the ceiling. Because of this there are not only Jewish stars, but flags from other countries in a German Catholic Church.

The Devil's footprint.

After that part of the tour I was so done. I could hardly walk my toes were so frozen so I ran to the nearest Puma store and bought fleece gloves.


I hope you enjoyed my educational Munich post.. tomorrow will be shopping and nightlife :)

Ciao Bellas

I am so sorry my loyal blog readers that I did not catch up on blogging before I leave for the weekend. There are still a couple of juicy posts I have to write about my recent trip to Munich and Dachau, Germany that I will try and write on the train while I am away so I can upload them immediately! In all honesty though I tried very hard, but a couple factors led be to fall behind on my schedule...

1. I have a midterm (3-10 page paper) due tomorrow
2. I have an Italian quiz tomorrow and shocker... I am HORRIBLE at English let alone another language
3. There is an Italian train strike scheduled for 24 hours on Friday which almost ruined my weekend plans until we convinced our teacher an Madga to not make us have class on Friday so that we could beat the strike on Thursday afternoon!
4. I am going to freaking ROMA this weekend and I have to pack so I look super cute in all my pictures
5. I cooked some yummy food tonight which I will blog about in my "Cooking in a foreign country when you never cooked in America" section of the blog :)
6. I do what I want because I am an independent woman sorryyy!

A little preview of Munich... and my sorry not sorry for not posting face.

Paragliding in Interlaken- a safe sport

I woke up on Saturday in Interlaken and felt like a bus had literally ran over me. My knees and elbows were bruised, ankles swollen, and an overall ache was kind enough to stay the night with me. I even had an awkward bruise below my butt that stretched across my cheeks... but that was a bit of an over share I apologize. No worries though I was so happy to be alive and on my first excursion in a new city that there was no time to complain. Our hostel gave us a breakfast voucher with  two complimentary options. One was a "traditional" breakfast of wheat toast, white rolls, and orange juice (with topping options of jam or local un-refridgerated slightly sweaty Swiss cheese) and the second option was oats and an apple with orange juice. I know these seem bland, but there was only one smart decision in front of me and that was oats. When you are traveling and your biological clock is crying on a daily basis you better fight for that fiber. Moving on...

After I survived gliding down the mountain of death at night I decided what better to do during the day than jump off one?! SO a very nice Swiss-German man met us outside of our hostel in a van... WOAH rewind... let me rephrase that.... Our paragliding instructor met 3 other girls and me outside the hostel in a van with our instructors and a driver to take us up the mountain!

A brief history lesson about Interlaken, Switzerland is that the town is water locked in between Lake Brienz to the east and Lake Thun to the west. Hence being internally locked? Lets just go with that.

We took a 20 minute drive up the mountain and the instructors explained how safe it is and that they in fact do not do night sledding or sledding in general because of how dangerous it is. They gave us the option of picking our instructor to glide with or playing Swiss roulette which "is a bit more safe than Russian roulette." We chose the roulette option and I wound up with a man named Bruno. He was from a small ski town near Interlaken and they actually only had service roads there so everyone either walks or skis to class growing up. Talk about going green no wonder there are no overweight people here.

At the top of the mountain they gave us some snow boots and we took a 10 minute hike to where we were going to take off! Bruno set up the harness and one by one we all ran a couple steps and the were lifted off the ground so delicately you really don't feel badass at all. I can say that view was absolutely amazing, and if I was not appreciative and in awe of this amazing adventure I am on before.. it forced me to stop and reflect on how incredibly blessed I am. Gliding and turning 2,000 feet in the air you can see the two lakes, towns, and only happy mushy thoughts cross your mind. Maybe it was the altitude was messing with me, but mind felt to clear and happy. I highly recommend  paragliding, at the end we turns and twists were like a roller coaster that took my breath away. The landing was just like a stomp on the ground and we paid the men and went off to explore the town!

Unfortunately, Interlaken was not as banging as I thought it would be... we strolled... they have an odd amount of Chinese restaurants. I purchased engraved Swiss army knives for the three Anderson men in my life, but I made sure not to get them any dangerous gadgets that they would accidentally slash their pant leg with.

After exploring and downing a much needed kabob we showered and got ready for the nightclub attached to our hostel to celebrate a girl in my groups 21st birthday! I was told by a very wise person to celebrate everyone's birthday like it is my own and I intend to do so since my 21st was during winter exams. The club called "Metro" was fun and creepy (our bus driver had been posted up in the corner of if all weekend.) I danced battled the locals and listened to this banging Spanish song a million times which cemented its legacy as the official song of the trip. 

One story from the weekend that was beyond hilarious happened when a girl from our trip apparently dropped her pants and allegedly pee-ed in the nightclub. She was then kicked out and the bouncers actual grabbed her arm and yanked her which is when she said,"this shit does not fly in America." ***Just a heads up study abroad tip... do not EVER say that in a foreign country. The bouncer then tried to get her passport number and arrest her and by the grace of mary she cried her way out of it and safely back into our hostel.

The ride home was very long... 3 people vomited and bruises from night-sledding were still raw but overall it was a HUGE success. A guy from our trip made a video and added in the legendary Spanish club beat and a sweet little scene of someone puking.. enjoy!

Super Swiss opening a Swiss wine bottle with a Swiss army knife.

My Hostel girlies!

Out hostel/ the cute town

Floating with Bruno

Can you believe this?

My fellow Altria intern Whitney and I before take off!

Loving life :)

My landing!

Apparently I dance with my tongue out... pretty attractive stuff!

Night Sledding in Interlaken!

Last weekend our group made its first official trip to Interlaken in Switzerland. The town is known for extreme sports which is right up my alley! We rented a charter bus and off we went after class on a three and a half hour trip. Thank goodness we left early because it is customary for drivers to get a ten minute smoke and eat break on top of our driver pulling over to let the 20 cars stuck behind us ahead every 20 minutes. When we were almost there we actually got stuck in a car crash on the side of a mountain... Which means there is NO way to turn around or pass the accident safely. Not to worry though folks I brought some cooking wine on the bus. When we finally got to interlaken we had thirty minutes to get ready and then book it to our night sledding package!

The bus!

WARNING: Mom please stop reading here and pretend I had a nice fondue dinner and an early night.

Look mom our bus was volvo! I made one safe decision this weekend wooo!

All 44 of the students and I took a bus to a gondola to another gondola to the top of the mountain. Along the way we met a nice little family with boots, helmets,and headlamps. That is when the red flags started kicking in that I had none of the items they had. When we asked them if we needed head lamps they laughed and said yes and looked at us with pitty. In hindsight this all seems so dumb but at the time I was imagining sledding in crestwood farms and how if she could my mom would have required us to wear helmets sledding so maybe it was just a protective family? Nope, wrong again Tessa you are in the freaking Swiss Alps get it together.

This is one of my best friends on the trip her name is Val and she is super cool! Woo I made friends who'd a thunk.

nom

game time focus action shot.

At the top of the mountain we met our guide Sam who assured us that "Yes, it is a little dangerous but fun. You will go!" however first we had to eat our fondue dinner which seemed like a genius idea at first to eat my body weight in cheese before I propelled myself down a mountain. Wrong again. The waiter set us up with our kettle of Swiss cheese with a healthy helping of cooking wine in it (I am officially an expert on the taste after all) and we chowed down on bread and potatoes smothered in cheese! The waiters kept bringing us bread basket after bread basket simultaneously while shh-ing us . A group of 44 Americans is basically a natural disaster in a European restaurant. After the feast I can safely say I never want to look at a pot of cheese again, because then Sam (who I begged to go down the mountain with me) give us sleds and said off you go! Once again, I didn't realize that 1 hour and half of sledding meant that hypothetically you are supposed to sled 3 times because you are sledding down a monster of a mountain.

The weather conditions that day in interlaken were rainy which meant the snow froze at night and it was very foggy. Perfect right? Mom please stop reading now... I know you ignored my first warning.

So I flung my self down the mountain screaming with my feet out and only a set of lights on ONE side of the track that you could hardly see. The beauty of this was when you put your feet down to slow down the snow goes up in your face and blinds you. Steering was also an art that I have never been able to master so I would fling my body left and right around the curves and dips. When this failed I would either fall into a bank of a foot of snow, hit someone else, or roll off and run after my sled. When I finally made it down the mountain my adrenaline was rushing but I was also mildly afraid I would never have children after the damage I did to my body. Sooo like the smart, intelligent, reasonable girl I am I went down the mountain again. This time I only flipped over my sled once and saw a girl to run straight into a light post to realize this was a bad decision. By the second time through I frozen cold and we had to wait 45 minutes for a bus to come get us. True to the American way we started a chant when the local transit bus finally came and convinced the driver to take us straight to the hostel instead of making us walk 20 min. Wooo successful night! Luckily, everyone made it off the mountain and only one girl scraped up her whole face. My ankles were so swollen and my body was so bruised though that I fell asleep on the bus and passed out in our hostel.

I love everyone, being alive, and cheese!

I look slightly mental here...

Gandria

I know, the same sounds like a sexually transmitted disease. Lets move on. This little town is located a little over an hour away from Lugano (if you walk.) So one day after school we set of off for a little afternoon adventure possibly with some pasta and gelato rewards in mind. It was a gorgeous walk along the lake and when we finally got there we found out we were only one mile from the Italian boarder. This is to give you an idea of how confusing the culture is in Switzerland. The country has Swiss-Italians, Swiss-Germans, and Swiss-French people. All them have different opinions about each other WITHIN the country let alone what the actual Italians, French, and Germans think of the Swiss (which is that they are NOT a part of their countries or cultures.) Is your mind a little bit blown? Lets just move on.

Yes, that is a four toed cat.

But he loves to PLAY!

Some highlights of the trip were:

• Beautiful cliff arches
• Differnt views of the lake
• Tupac graffiti - they love him here!
• The BEST postcard like picture I have ever taken (at a gas station)
• Bonding
• A delish gelato and espresso
• A four toed cat we named Pedro

Arches

The gang walking to Gandria

Tupac

Before

Crushed after

This is real life i SWEAR... reflection of the mountains in the lake was unreal.

Holla at the solo pic!

#Swissbeatz

Proof I made it!

Literally there are no water fountains here so we use well-like things that constantly stream

Don't let the boat distract you from the background!@#$%

Belltower and ginger head.

bellisimo!