Viva Las Vegas!

During Fall Break, I ventured to the wild and crazy place known as LAS VEGAS, Nevada with my family and boyfriend. It was quite the trip to say the least. My parents decided to take me along with my brother, sister-in-law and boyfriend as I was the last one to turn 21. This trip was one to never forget! We stayed at the Flamingo!

It even had REAL flamingos!! Along with some other weird birds...

We did A LOT of sight-seeing as there is much to see in the Fabulous Las Vegas!

Is this the real Caesar's Palace?

The Venetian was GORGEOUS! So much to see and do including gondola rides and shopping at the Forum Shoppes.

We went to Old Las Vegas known as Freemont Street. It was pretty cool! They did a HUGE light show known as the Freemont Experience on screens that line the roof of the walking path. It was so cool!

We did countless other things but that would take up way too long for me to explain it all! Needless to say we very much so enjoyed ourselves!

Enjoy your weekend!

An Ice Place to Visit

I recently came across an article and some pictures about this place in Jukkasarvi, Sweden. I have heard of it and seen it on television, but I had never actually witnessed true and detailed pictures along with so much information explaining it. The place I am speaking of is called Sweden Icehotel. Though this is not necessarily a very creative name, don't let it fool you. This thought of an "icehotel" is anything but normal. The hotel is located 120 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The room temperature is 23 degrees. The walls, beds, chairs, light fixtures, even the glasses used in the bar are made of ice. You can't unpack your clothes because they'd freeze, and the thought of getting out of your sleeping bag to go down the hall to the toilet is enough to keep you awake all night.

Though these conditions are quite extreme and seem more than unpleasant (at least to me!), thousands of people venture to the Sweden Icehotel every year! This year it has 60 rooms and 25 fully decorated suites. These rooms cost anywhere from $291 a night to $653 a night! And to think, to to freeze your buns off and sleep on ice!

Here is one of the fully decorated suites! This is quite crazy and very detailed in the ice sculpting. Bet not many people can say they have slept in an ice bed or experienced anything, even remotely close, to this!

And, of course, being in Sweden, you wouldn't expect anything else less than a lavish Absolut Vodka Bar!

This is quite the unusual place! Even though I am not a fan of cold weather, especially not 23 degree sleeping weather, I definitely think it would be a cool place to visit if I were ever in the neighborhood. Who wouldn't want to say they have seen/stayed in an icehotel? Honestly!

That's all for today! Stay tuned for next week's post! I will be venturing to VEGAS!!! So you know I will have some good information and pictures! Enjoy!

German Excursion

My graduation present from my wonderful parents was a trip to Germany (and Paris, but I already blogged about that one)! My best friend from high school and I traveled to Germany to stay with our foreign exchange student friend and her family. Needless to say, it was quite the adventure! Germany is an awesome place! The people there are so friendly and very laid back. We were able to do so many things while we were there for the month.

The shops and restaurants are just as you see in the movies. Quaint and appealing to the eye. I enjoyed shopping very much. They have so many different items to choose from that are all very German-like!

This is a great picture displaying the shops!

We traveled to Koln (Cologne) to see the Kolner Dom. It is a cathedral that began construction in 1248 and was completed in 1880. It was the tallest structure in the world until the Washington Monument was built. The cathedral sees approximately 20,000 people everyday!

The cathedral was damaged in World War II due to aerial bombing. Some parts of the Kolner Dom are still not open due to this. It has some of the most beautiful architecture I have ever seen in my life. There is not a part of the cathedral that is without intricate detail. It is exquisite.

One of the treasures of the cathedral is that there are three golden tombs inside. They are called The Shrines of the Three Kings. It is traditionally passed on that the tombs contain the remains of the Three Wise Men and there 2,000 year old clothing. There is also a 10.5 ton bell inside! This bell is HUGE! It is the largest of the 11 bells the cathedral contains.

This is the view from the top of the Kolner Dom! It was beautiful and totally worth the 509 steps to the top in a spiral staircase barely wide enough for one person let alone two people passing up and down! It was gorgeous! If only we had seen it at night all lit up! 

Something else we did was hike up a mountain to see the Schloss Drachenburg Palace. It was quite the steep hike but the palace was beautiful!  

It was worth the hike there and back!

We did a TON of other stuff! Germany is such a wonderful place to visit. I would highly recommend it! I could even give you my friend's info and you could have your own tour guide! Thanks for reading my latest post! If you have any question or comment, please write one!

Sie sehen! (See you soon)