Sunny Skies in Monaco

Dave and I arrived to Monaco early on Tuesday. As always, Dave left to play a tournament within an hour of arriving as I attempted to get settled in to the apartment.

I spent the first day getting caught up on articles, but was able to venture out on Wednesday for a bit. It was SO NICE outside. Everyone was hanging out on the beach and enjoying the sunshine.

Welcome to Monaco! :) The entire town is basically landscaped by the way. I guess the richest principality in the world can afford that sort of thing. 

The ocean is always tempting you here! 

National Museum of Monaco! 

So beautiful! People are catching rays. Beware: The water is NOT WARM. It is freezing actually. Not even Dave would jump in.

Winding streets of Monaco.

Can you see the EPT sign? That is where Dave is playing in the tournament. 

On Wednesday evening, Dave and I did get the opportunity to experience a bit of the Monaco nightlife, and the pricetag that goes along with it. We started at the casino bar, purchased on drink for each of us, and was shocked to see that the bill was 30 euro!! That is basically $40 USD for two drinks. I think we should probably just invest in purchasing the entire bottle for 135 euro. What a ripoff!! Hopefully as the trip goes on we can check out some more places, and hopefully the price won't be as outrageous. We also visited one other bar for a quick drink and they served us gummy bears and marshmallows as a pre-drink appetizer...pretty interesting. The menu was also provided on a personal iPad. Things are pretty over the top here in Monaco if you couldn't tell...

Thursday was another sunny, beautiful day so we decided to head to the beach for a little bit. Besides there being screaming children everywhere, it was nice to relax by the ocean...and get some sun. I might have gotten a little tan, and as always, Dave is RED. Next 40 euro investment will have to be sunscreen!

Well, that is all for now! I am back to working on articles for a bit. I will venture to more of Monaco and the casino area tomorrow to take some more pictures!

San Remo & La Pigna

I have to admit: After Dave and I's trip to San Remo in the fall of 2011, I was a little pessimistic about going back. Luckily, being in the small city again has been amazing! I am having a way better time now than I did my first time! Yes, this means I will no longer refer to it as "San Shithole."

It has been sunny and beautiful here the entire time. There are literally hundreds of restaurants to eat at and a gelato stop every 50 yards. I am definitely not losing any weight being in San Remo...that is for sure. Dave and I have gone out to eat for most meals and haven't been disappointed yet. The lasagna, ravioli, lobster spaghetti, and pizza have all been delicious. We have also become fans of tiramisu.

Beach area outside our apartment. Not warm enough to swim yet :(

:)  Walking on the beach

The pictures just don't show how pretty the sea and the city are.

Dave and I both had "off work" yesterday, so we used the beautiful day to our advantage and trekked up to La Pigna. It is actually the location of the original city of San Remo. The streets consist solely of steps (no driving here!) and the walk to the highest point of the city takes about a twenty-five minutes. The view from the top is amazing.

Starting the walk to La Pigna! 

It was almost a bit creepy...we wouldn't do the walk at night! 

So pretty!

The happy and sweaty couple.

View from the top! - Started from the bottom now we here!! (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

You can see the ocean! That is the top of another church. 

Check out the sky! 

Madonna Della Costa Sanctuary. 

Believe it or not, that is a SNAKE dangling right there. It crossed in the path infront of us and then tried to book it down the side of a hill. I remained on snake watch the rest of the walk. 

Just in case you get thirsty! 

Walking back down. 

I love the different colored buildings here.

Sun just went down in the city of San Remo! We enjoyed some gelato while we walked along the boardwalk!

Berlin by night

Dave and I both were overwhelmingly swapped our last entire week in Berlin. He was playing poker non-stop and I was writing more articles than I ever thought possible for various jobs and finishing up my school semester. With this being said, we got very little time to really sight-see. However, we were able to take a few pictures at night!

Here are just a few pictures of the Postdamer Platz area of Berlin at night:

I honestly have no idea what these lit-up cylinder things are. However, they look pretty cool at night! 

The Sony Center Dome at night! The picture really doesn't do justice. The colors change between blue, purple, and pink! Amazing! There is a huge fountain underneath that basically functions as a gathering place too. 

A replica of the first traffic light ever installed in Berlin! In the original traffic light, an officer would have to go to the top of the tower, sit in the small glass box, and manually change the lights to control traffic! 

Exploring the City

Dave and I had the opportunity to walk around for a bit today. We actually ventured pretty far and didn't get lost! We are getting better at this. Then again, we haven't wandered into Tiergarten yet, which is a popular park that sprawls across 520 acres and has more than 14 miles of pathways. (We will have to save that for another day!) I got lost in it last year...

Anyways, here are a few photos from the day!

The Berlin Science Center - Free Admission too!

The Reichstag Building - It is free to go up into the dome and you can see all of the city of Berlin. Might have to give that a try. 

The building is just so massive! 

This probably isn't a booze cruise :( But we like the name anyways! 

The TV Tower. 365 meters high. We might have to go take a closer look at it. 

Not sure if this hotel looks like anything special but... it IS the hotel that Michael Jackson dangled his son out the window in November of 2002. Being one of the most famous hotels in Europe (before Jackson's time), it was visited by many historical figures including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Franklin Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller and Albert Einstein. The Felix Club, which is attached to the back side of the hotel, is the location of the PokerStars party that is scheduled for tomorrow night. In true European fashion, the nightclub generally does not open until 11:00PM at night. The Europeans usually party til 6 or 7am! No joke! 

These bike things are so crazy. Like 5 people are peddling...How is that possible?! Note Starbucks in the background...these places are popping up on EVERY corner. 

We also took a stroll down Friedrichstraße, a major shopping street in the city of Berlin. It was pretty busy! It was also funny to see places likes "ShoeCity." At least we could figure out what it was!

After walking around for a few hours, we decided to eat in the first restaurant that wasn't Subway or McDonald's (hey now, before you judge, we haven't had Pizza Hut yet..). It was called Vapiano and was pretty delicious. Unfortunately, it was not German cuisine in any sense of the word, but rather EXTREMELY Americanized Italian. It was good though.

Dave was mad at me for not wanting to try German traditional dishes just yet, but I did a good job of convincing him otherwise when we returned back to the apartment and I Googled a variety of German dishes. Sorry babe, Mettbrötchen (literally raw meat on a bread roll) just doesn't sound appetizing. I promise that I will have Wurst or Currywurst  of some sort before we leave....maybe. haha 

Berlin, Germany...we are back!

Our plane landed on Tuesday afternoon, which just happened to be Dave's 26th birthday! He is seriously getting so old :( After taking a taxi through town, we were dropped off at our studio apartment where we will be staying for the next two weeks. It is in a decent location, and about a 10 minute walk to where Dave will be spending every minute of his life (that is if he is not grinding online...). The apartment, however, does not have a microwave or toaster and only a MINI fridge. Yup, we are definitely roughing it here. haha just kidding. It just takes some getting used to and knowing that I might have to go to the grocery store every 3 days.

We took a walk our first night and tried to get acclimated to the area. We did find the grocery store, which is actually pretty large. Then, after screwing around trying to get the internet to work for about 3 hours, we decided to call it a night...and finally fell asleep around 4:30am. We never adjust well to the time change...ever.

Dave took off the next day (Wednesday) and we spent some time walking around and taking pictures.

This is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

There is 2,711 slabs of concrete. Nope, I did not count them all.

Yes, there were children playing hide and go seek in here!

Bradenburg Gate - this is where Hitler's rise to power was celebrated. CREEPY!

Cute horses Dave bought for me:) He's the best!

DB building and the Sony Center dome.

Sony Center Dome from the inside. It changes colors at night! I'll make sure to get a few pictures.

Legoland giraffe! Dave is so tall!

And I'm short....

The Underground Train Station. There is another one just like it literally across the street! Guess you have 2 chances to get off the train at Postdamer Platz!

We had a great time walking around and an even better day came when the landlord's helper fixed our internet! Thank goodness! I was seriously behind on my articles. Dave and I then visited the Casino last night and hung out for a bit before going to bed at (you guessed it...) 4:30am or so. 

Today (Thursday), I spent the entire day working on articles and researching flights, etc. Dave has been playing at the casino for about 8 hours now. Like a good girlfriend, I made him spaghetti dinner and garlic bread. haha. Now it's back to articles, cleaning, and organizing the apartment until he is done for the evening. I'm hoping to get out a bit tomorrow and maybe see a few more sites! 

Ferraris, Lambos, and Porches..oh my!

In Monaco, if you don't drive a Porsche, you clearly aren't from the area. Everyone here drives some sort of luxury sports car, and even if it isn't a Porsche, it's a brand new Mercedes or BMW. By the way, I know SmartCars aren't huge in the United States yet, but I saw one here in Europe that was a convertible! Pretty cool and probably still amazing on gas! 

Anyways, it was very nice and sunny the last two days so I did a bit of walking around and took some pictures. Today, it is rainy and cold:( I guess I'll just stay put! 

New Ferrari....no big deal.

They just look powerful...you should hear them on the street!

Grimaldi Forum, the convention center of Monaco.

Bently! Isn't this what Rick Ross rolls around in? haha 

They spelled my name wrong:( 

The coastline.

THE Monte Carlo Casino. Fun fact: Legal residents of Monte Carlo are not allowed to gamble in this casino!

The gardens in front of the casino.

"

Apparently it was "bring your Lambo and Ferrari to Monte Carlo casino" day? 

Seems like a decent Mercedes...

Hotel De Paris. One week in this hotel will cost you over $6,500. The Diamond Suite for the week you ask? Just $85,000. 

One of many fountains in front of the casino.

Big cruise ship!

Ok so this is the starting point for the walk from the apartment to Monte Carlo  Bay Casino, where Dave plays. I counted the number of steps that you have to go DOWN or UP each time you walk to or from the casino... the grand total: 535 steps each way!! Holy crap my bum has been getting quite the workout.