Semester Abroad in Germany—Other Countries

While I was in my semester abroad, I traveled to a lot of the areas around Pforzheim, where I was studying, on the weekends, but I also went to a few other countries while I was in Europe.

On one of the weekends I went to Zürich, Switzerland. I used a site to carpool from Stuttgart to Zürich which only took a few hours.

I was couchsurfing, which helped save some money, because otherwise Zürich is expensive! My hosts were fun, and we went out to a club one night. Another time while we were sitting on their balcony, one of them told me how he accidentally stole a table from the university. The university had set out a table with some books that were free to take home, and they had put a sign on the table saying free. As the pile of books disappeared, my host told me how he ran across the table with a sign on it stating free, and he thought he would take the free table home. It wasn’t until later when he talked to another roommate who asked him if he saw the books that were free did he realize that the table itself was not part of the deal. Oh well, he kept it, and that’s what we ate off of on the balcony. When I wasn’t talking with my hosts, I was off checking out the city.

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Angelo Poretti 7 Luppoli Review

Brewery: Birrificio Angelo Poretti
Brewery Location: Varese, Italy
Alcohol: 7%

This was the second beer my friend and I got in the bar in Rome (after the first one). This was an unfiltered lager that was a bit stronger than the 4 hops. While this was a bit more what I was looking for, for a “7 hops” beer, it was still much less hoppy than I would have wanted. It was considerably less hoppy than an IPA, so it just kind of bridged the gap between a “normal” lager and a hoppier ale, like an IPA. Continue reading

Angelo Poretti 4 Luppoli Review

Brewery: Birrificio Angelo Poretti
Brewery Location: Varese, Italy
Alcohol: 5.5%

This was the first beer my friend and I got when we arrived in Rome and went to a bar. It seemed to be the standard “big beer” in Italy, much like Heineken or Budweiser. It seemed to be in about the same tier, and my friend nailed it on the head by stating that it tasted “very commercial.” It wasn’t bad, just seemed to be like any other widely produced beer out there. Continue reading

Return to Rome

Earlier this year, a friend and I went to Rome, which would mark my second trip to Rome (after my first trip).

The friend that I went with was actually Italian, and he had a bit of knowledge that I wasn’t aware of the first time I went there. We left Friday evening after work and arrived late in the night. We went to a bar and got some Italian beers (which I will post about later), and while there we ran into a bunch of people from Wales. There was apparently a big Rugby game between an Italian and Welsh team, so the bars were full of Rugby fans preparing for the game the following day. Continue reading

Rome (Pt.1) – Easter Break in Italy Pt. 3

I arrived in Rome via the train sometime around noon. I was tired from generally traveling, as well as my general lack of sleep, so without a specific destination in mind, I simply wandered around the train station. Almost immediately, an ancient looking structure caught my attention and I wandered towards it.

I made my way inside the Baths of Diocletian museum, which had an impressive display of ancient Roman artifacts inside.

In the garden outside the museum

In the garden outside the museum

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