Buffet Heaven....TOTALLY WORTH IT

OH...MY...GOODNESS... I just ate the most delicious food that has ever existed.

I splurged on a fancy buffet that my hotel had and it was WORTH IT! I sat down at the table planning to order yet another pizza because it was the cheapest thing on the menu.  It turned out that the menu in my room was different than the menu downstairs in the restaurant and they weren't serving pizza, so I decided to try out the buffet that I had been eying earlier but didn't plan on getting because it was quite pricy.  Well...it was meant to be because it turned out that the buffet was AMAZING!

The entrees were grilled steak (I think it was tenderloin), a white fish in a lemon butter sauce, and veal loin.  There were a few other main entrees but I wasn't particularly interested in them.  The sides were a veggie medley, a delicious couscous, and some really yummy,sauteed, thinly sliced zucchini. They also had some wonderful rolls, a huge variety of specialty cheeses, and various sauces to go with everything.  All of these things were soooo good, my favorite being the fish, couscous, and beef tenderloin. 

Then I moved on to desert...I don't even know how to describe how amazing the little miniature deserts were.  They had between 8 and 10 little mini desert that were all very different.  The first one I tried was a tiny chocolate square that resembled a brownie but tasted far more rich and fudgy than a typical brownie.  The next thing I tried was a strawberry puree that was topped with a dollop of a wonderful vanilla bean cream.  I was so shock at how delicious it was.  There was a similar apple desert that the cream was flavored with cinnamon instead of vanilla bean, which was also good.  Then I tried a wonderful, pallet cleansing dessert made up of chopped kiwi in a sweet juice/sauce topped with a raspberry. That one was my second favorite because it was just so sweet and refreshing!  My favorite overall was a chocolate mousse square (and I don't even usually care for mousse) that tasted like it was made out of a delicious hot chocolate. It was sitting on some sort of cookie that was kind of like a lady finger and it was all sitting down in a vanilla cream sauce. Stuck it the top of this crazy awesome desert was a thin garnish of chocolate with gold designs on it. OH MY GOODNESS...which is actually what I said out loud when I took a bite of it...it was soooo YUMMY!  I really wanted to stay down stairs and continue to go back and get more over and over again but I forced myself to leave and come back to my room. 

By the way, the size of each of these desserts was about the size of a shot glass or smaller....I'm just defending myself and making sure that I don't sound toooo glutinous lol (all though even if I do, I don't care because it was THAT good)

Anyway, I just had to share this awesome meal with people :) I hope that all of your mouths are watering right now...because they should be... lol

Observations of Venice

First Impression: I would HATE to see a major flood here.

The second thing I noticed was the strange smell that Venice has but after about 5 minutes, I got used to it and didn't ever notice it again.

Something I noticed about Venice is the people are not nearly as nice as the people in Rome. That being said, at least they aren't trying as hard to sell you crappy cheap souvenirs.  

Venice is a really unique city and I can say that I have definitely never seen anything like it.  I only have a few pictures because everything that was really cool or pretty had some kind of construction going on or a giant crane or a massive banner in front of it (btw mom, the banner business in Venice is on fire! lol) But even so, Venice is a really interesting and pretty place.

One thing I noticed a LOT all over Europe, but especially in Italy, is guys wearing their collars popped...stop it. It looks ridiculous and nobody thinks you are cool.

Another thing that I have noticed is that people in Europe don't wait for you to get off of a train/bus/boat/elevator/etc before getting off. There would be a lot more rooms if they would just let us off first but oh well. 

I took a water bus all over the Grand Canal in Venice today and got off to explore some things, one of those things being Piazza San Marco.  That area was really pretty. There were artist set up all along the canal and I got a piece of art that I LOVE (and I am hoping to get home without ruining it.) The main square was flooded a bit so they had a bunch of elevated walkways set up. I got a delicious ham and cheese panini and a scoop of chocolate chip gelato for lunch. Yum.  Spent a little bit of time just wandering around and then sat near a park to rest for a little while.  I enjoyed seeing Venice and I hope one day to be able to come back :)

Oh another REALLY weird thing happened to me today. A girl ran up to me and said "YOU GO TO GEORGIA STATE?!?!" I was confused for a second but then realized I have my Georgia State t-shirt on.  Turns out she goes to GSU and is studying abroad this semester in Venice. Small World! :)

Off to Venice

Today I left Rome and set out for Venice. I got to the Rome train station very early because I wanted to make sure that my reservations had gone through and I was good to go.  Everything regarding my reservation worked out fine and I walked around the train station until my train got there.  I got on the train and found my assigned seat with no problems.  A girl from Buffalo, New York sat down next to me and I asked where she was from and we talked the entire train ride until her stop, which was Florence. She and her boyfriend were traveling for 2 weeks around Italy. They were on their way to Florence and then they were going to head to Venice. I slept for the rest of the train ride to Venice.  Once we got into the Venice area we stopped at a stop called Mestre. It wasn't my stop but I made the decision to go ahead and get off the train there.  The reason for that was because I knew that Mestre was on the mainland and my hotel was too, so I figured it would be easier to take a taxi from there rather than from the city center of Venice.  I was right! The taxi lady said it was only about 10 minutes away and it ended up only costing around 15 Euro, which isn't so bad for a taxi.  I checked into my hotel and it turns out, its pretty nice (although NOTHING will compare to the AMAZING room I had in Rome!)  Now I am waiting until about 6:30 (an hour from now) so I can go to a restaurant nearby and get some dinner (and maybe a drink after a day full of travel lol.) I plan on making this an early night (still not feeling wonderful so the more sleep the better) and getting an early start to the day tomorrow. I am really looking forward to exploring Venice!!  Pictures from Rome will be posted on Facebook either tonight or sometime tomorrow :)

Rome is so cool :)

I got to explore Rome today and had a WONDERFUL time.  Its a really neat city with many cool sights and some really good food.  I met two people from my hotel on the shuttle into the city center. We ended up traveling together the whole day. The girl's name was Traci and it worked out really well because we had some very similar travel stories and we are very similar when it comes to how we like to explore a new city.  We saw so many cool things like the Roman Forum, the Vatican, Arch of Constantine, Circus Maximus, Castle Sant'Angelo, Piazza Venezia, the Trevi Fountain and of course the Colosseum. After seeing all of those things we strolled up and down beside the river looking at all these little shops that were set up in tents there. I got a picture of the Colosseum to add to the other pictures that I have from Amsterdam and Paris. I was glad to have some buddies to explore with!  I ate a yummy fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil panini for lunch which was really good.  I also tried some Gelato (Caramel, Rassberry and Coffee flavors) which was good too. 

Now I am back at hotel and I am really tired and a bit sunburned. I also have had a really sore throat (that is radiating pain to my ear) and what seems to be a very red and lumpy throat...Probably to much info but I'm just keeping it real lol. Sooo I am going to go take Advil and hopefully get some good sleep so I am ready for more adventures tomorrow!  Goodnight!

In Rome!

I'm in Rome!! Thank goodness! Its been a looong day of travel and I am EXHAUSTED!! Every part of my body ached when I got here. I took a hot shower and feel much better now. I just ate dinner and now I am laying in my hotel room. I found a GREAT deal on this hotel.  My room has a king sized bed, every surface in the room is granite, it has two bathrooms (one with a large walk-in shower and a bidet and one with a huge spa tub and towel warmers) and the bed has a big feather duvet and 6 giant feather pillows. I am in HEAVEN compared to the flying pig hostel lol. Tomorrow I'll explore Rome :)

Busy in Berlin

It was a busy day in Berlin today. I had a ton of fun! I did one of the hop on/hop off city tours and really got to see everything. I wandered around a lot of places. Some of those places included: Potsdamer Platz, Checkpoint Charlie, the Eastside Gallery, Rankestraße/Kurfürstendamm, plus a bunch of other places.  My FAVORITES were Checkpoint Charlie (which was really cool to walk around) and the Eastside Gallery (which was so awesome!) I ate on Rankestraße at a German currywurst place and it was really good. 

Oh also the hotel I am staying at had the most DELICIOUS breakfast today.  They had a bunch of different types of cold cuts and cheese, tons of pastries, 6 different cereals, a bunch of various juices and coffees, cake (who eats cake for breakfast?), lots of fruit, 3 types of yogurt, granola, eggs, etc

I'm now back at the hotel (and my font is now stuck in italics for some unknown reason) and I am enjoying a nice German beer. 

Berlin has been WONDERFUL and I hope I get to make it back someday!!

Pizza

I felt the need to post about pizza. Its EVERYWHERE in Europe it seems like.  So in the last week or so I have eaten pizza several times.  At all 3 places I have had pizza they haven't cut it into slices so I was left with my dull knife to try and cut pizza. Also it you ask for Parmesan cheese to go on the Pizza they think you are reeeaallly strange and inform your that there is already cheese on the Pizza and say, "You want MORE?!?" at which point I act like I was unaware of the cheese already on my pizza and go back to eating my pizza in shame without Parmesan.... lol  

Also I have made the mistake twice of asking the waiting what he or she likes best out of 2 or 3 choices on the menu... They got really confused and informed me that they are different and it wouldn't make sense to compare them.  The seem completely confused on why you would want there recommendation...its awkward. 

Its funny how little things like this are so different from place to place.