Monday, July 13, 2015

Weekly Summer Linky: Best Trip of My Life

Today I'm linking up with I Heart Grade 3 for the Weekly Summer Link Up.  This week's topic...

Oh man!  This one is a tricky one for me because I have been on 4 amazing trips to 7 countries.  Here's the 4 trips I attended with MSSU's Teacher Education Department as either a student or alumni. In China and England we were able to do observations at elementary schools.  In Belize I student taught in a kindergarten aged class for a month.

May 2010: China! - Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai
May 2011: Europe! - Southampton (England), London, Paris, Barcelona
October 2011: Belize- San Ignacio - did 1 month of my student teaching there
June 2013: Europe again...Italy & Germany - Rome, Florence, Venice, and Munich

It is really hard to just choose one of these trips to show you.  I'll show you my latest trip I did a couple of years ago to Italy and Germany.  I love pictures, so I'll post some below from each city.


Italy:

Some of these are Instgram photos with filters.  Venice was beautiful but surprisingly not a whole lot to do.


Inside the Colosseum. We arrived right at the opening and had a pass so that's why it's not full of tourists.  :)  It was impressive, gave me goosebumps.

Ponte Vecchio.

Above Florence.  We got this view when we first arrived.

The Forum in Rome.

You know what this is.  :)  Haha.  

The food.  My goodness.  It...was..AMAZING.  Each meal I thought was the best.  The pasta, the pizza, the wine.  Sigh...

There was a thunderstorm when we arrived at Pompeii.  The "streets" are all stone...we had came from Positano and the beach so we were in flip flops. It's no wonder that someone didn't break an ankle.  I slid around everywhere.  It made it memorable though.

In Rome at St. Peter's Basilica a few of us were waiting to go down to the crypts but they closed it for a mass.  So we waited, and waited.  Little did we know that it was worth it because the POPE came out and did a mass.  Seriously!  There he is!  The day before we had arrived in time to see him speak at his window at the Vatican.

Sienna, Italy.  We took a few little day trips here and there to Sienna, Pompeii, Positano, and more.

The Spanish Steps in Rome.  It was packed!

We had a lovely meal at a winery for about 20 euros.  It came with TONS of wine and a 5 or so course meal. It was the absolute best lasagna ever.  It had truffle oil on the top.  

Germany:
Why hello Munich.  Munich was the only city we went to in Germany and only spent a few days there.

The glockenspiel in Munich.  It chimes and is like a cuckoo clock.  It's really neat.


We took a train to nearby Dachau.  It was a concentration camp in WW2.  When we got off the train an old lady told us which bus to take to Dachau.  We waited, waited, and waited some more.  We finally realized she told us the wrong bus #.  I'm pretty sure she did it on purpose.  They're not too proud of that time in German history and a man we talked to later on in Munich said so many still deny it in ways...that they didn't know what was happening.  
I have never in my life been in a place that has given me more shivers.  


It was also one of the quietest places that wasn't "nature" that I've been to. Mostly everyone walking around taking it all in somberly.

Our last day we went to Neuschwanstein Castle.  Ludwig II had this castle built.  It's nestled high up and quite the trek to walk up to it.  It was gorgeous inside.  He was obsessed with fairy tales and Wagner's operas.  Disney used it as inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle.

My pictures weren't that great.  It was kind of overcast that day.

The picture looks amazing but being there in real life was one of those mouth hanging open moments.  This was from inside the castle...a little balcony area.  Look at those gorgeous mountains.


Well, I overloaded you with pictures.  There could have been many more.  ;)  

I have loved having the opportunity to travel so much in college and as an alumni.  One professor who I went on this trip and another with recently retired but plans to still take alumni and friends on more trips when she can.  She's planning on Greece possibly for 2017!  Um..yes!








4 comments:

  1. Wow! You are one lucky traveller! And to be able to mix teaching into it - BONUS!

    Thanks for linking up!

    Monica

    www.iheartgrade3.com
    www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/I-Heart-Grade-3

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  2. Love all of those places! I got the chills at Dachau too...I still think about it. I actually took a Holocaust course in my final year at University because of that experience. And soooo jealous that you got to see the Pope! Bryn

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  3. How fortunate you are! That pizza looks delicious!

    WW2 history shows one how easy it is to be brainwashed into something you don't believe is right. Have you read "The Book Thief"? (although there is a movie so even if you have seen it, I would still recommend the book - it is beautifully written) It is a heart-warming story from a different perspective in Germany at the time. Dachau would have a great impact on me too.

    Thanks for sharing your story.

    Margaux
    Learningwithsunflowersmiles.blogspot.com

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  4. It looks like you have had some amazing experiences! I wish I would have branched out more during my college years, and even while I am in grad school. You're pictures are amazing! Keep having these experiences so I can see them! :)
    Lauren
    Flipping into First

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