All Adventures Must End

Hello Readers,

February 15th was the day I left Kempten, Germany and head back to Rovaniemi, Finland. I was bittersweet about leaving because I met a lot of nice people from all over the world (I now have connections to Hungary, Spain, Ireland, Mexico, USA, South Korea, and India to name a few), but I was also excited to get back to my friends that I haven't seen since May of last year.

Last Trip to the City Center of Kempten. Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

I haven't written a post in about a month because when I arrived back to Kempten after Christmas we had 2 weeks of classes and then exams began. I was just in my apartment studying for the exams because in Germany the exam is worth 100% of the mark, there are no assignment marks or anything, so studying for the exams was very important to achieve the grades.

Last View of the Mountains from the Train. Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

Prior to leaving I had a lot of tying up loose ends like closing my German Bank account, cleaning my apartment, preparing my luggage and saying goodbye to everyone. There were a few things I didn't do while I was here, like visit a few people I wanted to see while I was in the area but I just ran out of time and the 5 months just flew right by. I did get to meet up with my exchange student from High School who I hadn't seen for 12 years, I got to go to Italy, I went home for Christmas, and I got to explore much of the Allgäu region. That to me means that it was successful, just being here and meeting all of the generous people and exploring would have been enough experience for me.

Delicious but Expensive Hamburger at Helsinki Airport. Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

I will met with my Teacher Tutor on Monday February 19th to discuss my progress for school, since I was planning to arrive later into the semester. This was known before I left for exchange because in Finland the School Terms are End of August to Just Before Christmas, then January until Beginning of May and in Germany it goes from Beginning of October to Middle of February, then Middle of March to End of July. However, I only have two courses to take over the course of the term and they start on March 12, so currently I am enjoying my study week at my friends house.

Reminiscing about Venice with these lovely girls from South Korea. Photo Credit: So Young Lee

I will be posting again this week about when I attended a Reindeer Race last week. Stay tuned...

Bye for now...

Venice...The City of Water

Hey Readers,

I recently returned back to Germany from a 3 day trip to Venice, Italy. I went with 3 friends that I met here. It was a great experience, however, my cellphone didn't work there unless I had WIFI, so I had to rely on my friends who could access their data. Without the phone connection, I would have gotten lost in the many alley ways and would have had to plan ahead for the day as to what sites and restaurants I wanted to go to that day.

The Canal. Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

The first day we decided to put our luggage in the baggage hold at the bus station. We also purchased a 3 day water bus pass, that would last us the time we were there...it only cost 29 euro for the 3 day pass, for persons under 30. The baggage hold was 6 euro each for 5 hours, but worth it, since Venice is all canals there are bridges with many stairs everywhere...not ideal for carrying your suitcase. We arrived at 8:00 am and we didn't get our apartment until 1:00 pm. We rented an apartment through booking.com because it was cheaper for 4 people then to stay in a hotel. We also liked the option to go to a grocery store and buy some things to make in the apartment. The apartment was beautiful, we had a canal view (one of the many, not the main water way) and it had 2 bedrooms, a big bathroom, and a very large terrace.

Best Gelato Ever.
Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

 The girls I traveled with wanted some Asian food the first day, so we went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch that day. You can find the photos of this food on the Venice, Italy Photo Page. But we walked Venice to see all of the main sights, Rialto Bridge, and St.Marks Basilica. We even waited in line for 45minutes for the best Gelato in Venice. By the time 6pm rolled around, I was exhausted because of lack of sleep on the Flixbus the night before. We wandered our way back around 7:30pm, and I was asleep by 8pm. The next day we got a head start around 10am, and we decided to do the island Lido and Burano. Lido is a beautiful beach island, I was very taken back to see cars on this island, because we had already spent 24 hours in Venice, where they don't have cars. The girls wanted to see Burano island because of its beautiful coloured buildings and because a famous Korean singer made a music video on this island.

Burano Island, Coloured Houses. Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby and Eugene Kim.

We found a dessert bakery on the island, where we enjoyed some small chocolates and I got myself a real Italian Canoli.

When darkness came over the island, we decided it was best to head back to Venice. Once we took our water bus back, we chose to have some pizza for dinner. It was a must on the list of things to have in Italy, Pizza and Pasta. The pizza was so good, best I have ever had. Except if your looking for Dee[ Dish, you need to go to Giordano's in Chicago.The restaurant was called Antico Forno in Venezia. There were thick crust like the one photographed below, or thin crust available as well. The other photo below shows how many different pizza flavours they had available at any time. A lot of flavour, and a small restaurant with a small area you can enjoy your slice, or take it to go.
 

Antico Forno Pizzeria. Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

Greatest Slice of Pizza I have ever had. Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

When we got up on our last day, we decided we didn't want to pay for our luggage to be held for the entire day as our bus didn't leave until 10pm and we had to be out of the apartment by 11am. We chose to be out by 10am and make the most of our day. We went to Murano Island to try and see some glass making, however we didn't realize that they do not do it on Sundays. We missed out on that but still explored the island. All of the glass sculptures and designs were wonderful.

We then went back to Venice to check out St.Marks Basilica again in the day light, we even went inside the massive building. Around 4pm we decided we should go to an Italian restaurant and have some pasta. I had Bruschetta to start (which I shared with the others, they didn't even know what Bruschetta was). For my main dish I had some lasagna. You will find photos of these in the Venice, Italy photo page on this blog. We had a little bit of time left to see the last few things, before going back to the train station area to catch the water bus back to Tronchetto (Bus Terminal) to catch our Flixbus back to Munich.

The bus was late arriving to Munich because we got held up later than expected at customs, coming back into Germany. So once we got to Munich, we had to wait later than expected for a Train back to Kempten, since the cheaper morning train was gone, and it would take about 1.5 hours for the daily Bayern ticket to be available. We stayed at the train station and then headed to Kempten around 10am. Then rested for the next afternoon.

This was a whirlwind trip to remember. We had a lot of fun, and crammed a lot of stuff into the 3 days but it was well worth it for the memories we have together.

Hope you enjoyed this...
Bye for now.