I returned from Paris Tuesday and it was such a long trip and I was exhausted from being on so many planes. I got back to the "ghetto" as they call Bijlmer. And passed out. Later on I met Mal's close friend there Alexandra or Al and she goes to Chico and grew up in Redding which was soo bizarre when I found out considering my entire mom's side lives there and my parents grew up there too. It was pretty hectic around the dorms because everyone was moving out and going home, very emotional too for all of them.
The next day was America's independence day and for the second year in a row of course I wasn't in America...which if anyone knows me well enough I don't mind, I like it this way. :) The fourth started out later and I went into the city to meet up with Al and her roommate Elly who is German and literally the sweetest person ever. I hung out with them before going back to the dorms to do a little bbq'n for the night before we , again, went back into the city to go out. It was so cute watching all the foreigners BBQ and be American for the day. The we're being more patriotic than the Americans which was silly. The nightlife in Amsterdam is always alive too. Every night people are out and about at bars and clubs and what not. It's so interesting to see a different side of cultures here, so much different than London even or NYC. Plus it was nice to go out with a different group of people, everyone was foreign and from somewhere different. All these people got so close to each other studying abroad for 6 months it's amazing. I really really wish I were able to studying for a semester or even a year but thanks to swim and polo I can't :(. But at least I was able to get the opportunity to go abroad. Anyway after a fun night out, the next day was nice too. I walked around with Al in the city and we stumbled upon the outdoor market and had my first hot stroopwafel. SO DELICIOUS. It's a thin Waffel sandwich thing with caramel in the middle and it's warm and delicious. Obviously I have to bring back packs haha. And I tried frites that are fresh and also very delicious. They are homemade and in a lil pack so it's easy to eat with any sauce on top. After we did all that fun stuff we eventually went back to the dorms to to see everyone else that was leaving Amsterdam. It was very relaxed but of course everyone was super sad.
Friday everyone had to move out and Mal had to get all her stuff out and bring it to her boyfriends. This was the part of the trip that started getting interesting. We were all supposed to go to London but I decided on a financial scale it wouldn't be the best idea for me. So I told them I didn't want to go but they went anyway. I really wanted to see Amsterdam since that was the reason I came to europe and I only saw the city one day out of the entire time I had been there. So I thought it was a pretty good decision. Unfortunately something's got confusing and I was homeless for a second which sucked but every the g was figured out just fine.
Friday night was very interesting too. Everyone was moved out of the dorms and some people were in their own places. For dinner Al and I made a huge delicious salad and later went out on the town. We met up with another Californian Liz who goes to CSUSM and plays lacross. We went to a basically all Dutch bar and it had like no tourists what so ever so of course people assumed I was Dutch and were talking to me in Dutch. So that was fun. At one point I decided to be bold because everyone was talking to different people and I went up to a group of Dutch people and told them I needed friends. Everyone here is so genuinely nice it's awesome. I met some really cool people that night and it was so so much fun.
Saturday I wandered around by myself to see the museums. I used Al's museum card to get in for free which saved me soooo much money. I went into the Van Gogh museum which was amazing to see all of his late work and more recent stuff before he died. After that I wandered to the dutch museum that has a really long complicated name so I can't write it. It's home to all the early Dutch works of art, even the east Indian trading company memorabilia and Rembrandt's artwork as well. It was such a nice day out too so I walked all the way to Anne Frank's house which was kind of a long walk but I didn't mind. It was good :) the Anne Frank house was super intense to see. And learn about where they hid from the Nazi's and all that. They really made the museum very well. After that was over it was dinner time and I went to a place called wok to walk and it soo good and fresh. They make it right in front of you however you like it. I walked back to where I was staying and had a nice lil dinner on the balcony while Al and Elly were at a BBQ. Later when they got back we headed into the centre to meet up with friends and hung out at a place called coco's which is a lil Australian bar that Al knows the bartenders which is niiice. Getting home was interesting...we potentially got lost but found our way home thanks to some very nice people.
Sunday was such a lazy day since it was pouring allll day long. But once it stopped Al took me to the red light district which is very very different. I still can't believe that in that area prostitution is legal. It's so sad to see those girls standing in the windows looking for customers. I was intrigued by the whole thing. Later we had to meet up with the dude that sold Al her bike because it was broken. That was a whole different experience on its own. People buy bikes from junkies who just steal bikes and sell them for a profit. Very sketch. But he basically dragged us around the city and that was when we put our dumb American hats on and had a, well interesting night. Luckily we're still alive. But now that that was done with we ended our lovely day.
Today is another by myself day too. I really don't mind the alone time because I get to finish up this blog and relax and see the city on my own. Especially since I also needed to get all my Dutch souvenirs too!! Which I did. :) maybe something exciting will happen tonight that I can report too!
This experience so far has definitely been out of the ordinary tourist experience and I love it. I've gotten to see everything and when I mean everything I also mean I got to meet new people, see things that normal tourist definitely would not have. There have been some bumpy times but I've pushed through and made the best of a bad situation. I'm so excited to go back to New York and start my new chapter and finally move into my new apartment and work off this trip :) AND FINALLY SEE MY ROOMMATE who I haven't seen in 2 months. I love traveling but maybe I need to stay up for a little while :)
Till then :)
Xoxo
Sunday, 8 July 2012
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
Paris it's been fun.
The last week has been super interesting and busy. I left for Paris on Thursday, but Wednesday Mal and I explored Amsterdam for the day. We took the metro in and wandered around towards museumplein (where all the museums are, go figure) and went to a cute lil cafe that has a view of the city. Then we went to this thing called house of bols. It's a liquor made in Amsterdam originally that's like gin, but the OG of gin, not like the English version. We toured around the place learning about the flavors and how's it's made. It was super cool. I enjoyed it a looot! Since the euro cup was still on since Sunday, Spain played Portugal in the semi finals. All of Europe has been nuts watching the games, so it's been an experience also being here and watching them even though I'm not in a country participating anymore. We went to a bar Mallory likes to watch the game and have some drinks. Man does Europe loooooveee their beer. It was so fun to watch and see Spain win. There was a bunch of spanish people we were sitting next to so we kinda had to root for espanaaaa.
The next day I had to catch a flight to Paris! I met my aunt Lisa there since he was only in London it was a perfect meet up. I got there earlier than she did so I took the train to our hotel which incidentally was right next to the moulin rouge. The train was miserable getting to the hotel too. It was hot and crowded and ew. Luckily I made friends with an aussi girl who was just traveling to Paris for a few days by herself so we hung out being lost together. When I finally got to the hotel I decided to wander a bit and figure ou where I was. To watch the football game I stumbled into this Australian themed bar, which I didn't realize when I got there, and was going to watch the game by myself. LUCKILY, some random girl came up to me and asked me where I was from and all that. She was from southern California too so strange to find another one. She was traveling by herself and met a group of aussi's and they let her travel with them. She asked them if I could sit with them and stuff and so I went over there and met all of um. I OFFICALLY love Australians by the way, amazing accidents..and stuff. It was so cool I was able to not be a loner and hang out with them for the rest of the night ! Oh and Germany lost against Italy which sucked but whatever. It'll be interesting to see whether I see any of them again...
Friday was such a busy day filled with museums and museums. When we woke up we headed to get food and I finally had a croque Madame, 'twas ok. And after we headed over towards the Louvre to seee all those famous paintings. Just to add, that museum takes about a day to see everything. We did alll of it basically, except for the stuff we didn't care too much about. I We saw the Mona Lisa of course and took silly pictures with it. There were loads of people seein that thing. Afterwards we went towards the Le Centre Pompidou, which is the modern art museum and has a bunch of artists and cool statues everywhere. It's more like a hang out spot rather than a tourist thing. There were a bunch of crazy kids too running around. Me and the aunt had some happy hour and dinner over there it was really nice and the weather was awesome. It was such a tiring day of walking, especially through the miles of museum. And we needed rest to go seee Versailles the next day!!!! Saturday was the big day to head out to Versailles and see the great chateau, but it was dusty I sneezed a lot. But getting to the chateau was an experience all on its own. We had to take 2 trains to get out there and walk to the palace. The line to get in was ridiculous, so we pulled an American and cut the line, about an hour off our wait :) woops. The place is huge and beautiful with gold everything. Those kings didn't need that much space lemme tell ya! And the gardens was a completely different scene. They're so clean and proper and so many fountains every where. I loved it, so tranquil. Since it was my aunts anniversary, I was her mock husband for the day, we decided to rent a golf cart and drive around Marie-Antoinette's estate, which is gigantic. The estate of Versailles in general is massive anyway and actually includes a public park.
After Versailles we headed back into Paris city and went to the Eiffel Tower. I saw it last year and went up the massive stair case, so this time we just looked at it and gazed at it from a cafe. Some nice waiter gave my aunt a free lil dessert for it being her anniversary, some french are nice :). After we went to find a restaurant for dinner to celebrate. We went to somewhere near the champs-élysées and had a wonderful, filling meal with escargot and salad and veal and floating meruigue on some custard. Super yummy. That could've fed a 3rd world country probably. But hey, when in Paris. Later we went back to the hotel and crashed. It was such a long day and I couldn't be awake anymore!! Luckily it was Sunday the next day.
Sunday was different. It was something I don't do all the time: go to mass. But it wasnt like any other american mass but at Le Sacre Coeur en Français. I could only understand a bit of it but the songs were beautiful. I really enjoyed it. Before we even sat down though, someone told me I had to get out because my shorts were too short... I forgot to put my longer pants on, oops. But luckily I had my scarf so I could wrap it around my legs. No one even knew... Muahahah. After mass we headed down montmartre to find a place to eat and lil souvenirs. But we first had to stop and get macarons, duh. We ended up watching the finals game in an American themed place(go figure) called Indiana bar. And did some happy hour'n there. Then ended up a cute lil place and made friends with the bar tender. We all went back n forth with English and French.
Lastly, Monday was an easy day as well. We did our pit stop to the galeries lafayette which is an enormous department store, kinda like Macy's or nordstroms. I got another longchamp bag for cheaaaaaap and gorgeous :) there were soo many asian people it was ridiculous!! Like all of Asia was there. It wasn't that great of an experience there. Anywho, our las tonight out we decided to do mussels and frites which is more of a Belgian thing but still good anyway. It was a goood night too to end in Paris. After all of it I was glad to be leaving yet I had a fabulous time with my aunt and love her to death. She did so much for me in the last 5 days it was nuts. Good thing I was able to use my French a little bit too.
I left for Amsterdam today too and that was a long day of traveling and I'm really glad to be back in Amsterdam with Mal!!
More later!
x
The next day I had to catch a flight to Paris! I met my aunt Lisa there since he was only in London it was a perfect meet up. I got there earlier than she did so I took the train to our hotel which incidentally was right next to the moulin rouge. The train was miserable getting to the hotel too. It was hot and crowded and ew. Luckily I made friends with an aussi girl who was just traveling to Paris for a few days by herself so we hung out being lost together. When I finally got to the hotel I decided to wander a bit and figure ou where I was. To watch the football game I stumbled into this Australian themed bar, which I didn't realize when I got there, and was going to watch the game by myself. LUCKILY, some random girl came up to me and asked me where I was from and all that. She was from southern California too so strange to find another one. She was traveling by herself and met a group of aussi's and they let her travel with them. She asked them if I could sit with them and stuff and so I went over there and met all of um. I OFFICALLY love Australians by the way, amazing accidents..and stuff. It was so cool I was able to not be a loner and hang out with them for the rest of the night ! Oh and Germany lost against Italy which sucked but whatever. It'll be interesting to see whether I see any of them again...
Friday was such a busy day filled with museums and museums. When we woke up we headed to get food and I finally had a croque Madame, 'twas ok. And after we headed over towards the Louvre to seee all those famous paintings. Just to add, that museum takes about a day to see everything. We did alll of it basically, except for the stuff we didn't care too much about. I We saw the Mona Lisa of course and took silly pictures with it. There were loads of people seein that thing. Afterwards we went towards the Le Centre Pompidou, which is the modern art museum and has a bunch of artists and cool statues everywhere. It's more like a hang out spot rather than a tourist thing. There were a bunch of crazy kids too running around. Me and the aunt had some happy hour and dinner over there it was really nice and the weather was awesome. It was such a tiring day of walking, especially through the miles of museum. And we needed rest to go seee Versailles the next day!!!! Saturday was the big day to head out to Versailles and see the great chateau, but it was dusty I sneezed a lot. But getting to the chateau was an experience all on its own. We had to take 2 trains to get out there and walk to the palace. The line to get in was ridiculous, so we pulled an American and cut the line, about an hour off our wait :) woops. The place is huge and beautiful with gold everything. Those kings didn't need that much space lemme tell ya! And the gardens was a completely different scene. They're so clean and proper and so many fountains every where. I loved it, so tranquil. Since it was my aunts anniversary, I was her mock husband for the day, we decided to rent a golf cart and drive around Marie-Antoinette's estate, which is gigantic. The estate of Versailles in general is massive anyway and actually includes a public park.
After Versailles we headed back into Paris city and went to the Eiffel Tower. I saw it last year and went up the massive stair case, so this time we just looked at it and gazed at it from a cafe. Some nice waiter gave my aunt a free lil dessert for it being her anniversary, some french are nice :). After we went to find a restaurant for dinner to celebrate. We went to somewhere near the champs-élysées and had a wonderful, filling meal with escargot and salad and veal and floating meruigue on some custard. Super yummy. That could've fed a 3rd world country probably. But hey, when in Paris. Later we went back to the hotel and crashed. It was such a long day and I couldn't be awake anymore!! Luckily it was Sunday the next day.
Sunday was different. It was something I don't do all the time: go to mass. But it wasnt like any other american mass but at Le Sacre Coeur en Français. I could only understand a bit of it but the songs were beautiful. I really enjoyed it. Before we even sat down though, someone told me I had to get out because my shorts were too short... I forgot to put my longer pants on, oops. But luckily I had my scarf so I could wrap it around my legs. No one even knew... Muahahah. After mass we headed down montmartre to find a place to eat and lil souvenirs. But we first had to stop and get macarons, duh. We ended up watching the finals game in an American themed place(go figure) called Indiana bar. And did some happy hour'n there. Then ended up a cute lil place and made friends with the bar tender. We all went back n forth with English and French.
Lastly, Monday was an easy day as well. We did our pit stop to the galeries lafayette which is an enormous department store, kinda like Macy's or nordstroms. I got another longchamp bag for cheaaaaaap and gorgeous :) there were soo many asian people it was ridiculous!! Like all of Asia was there. It wasn't that great of an experience there. Anywho, our las tonight out we decided to do mussels and frites which is more of a Belgian thing but still good anyway. It was a goood night too to end in Paris. After all of it I was glad to be leaving yet I had a fabulous time with my aunt and love her to death. She did so much for me in the last 5 days it was nuts. Good thing I was able to use my French a little bit too.
I left for Amsterdam today too and that was a long day of traveling and I'm really glad to be back in Amsterdam with Mal!!
More later!
x
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
A'Dam
Monday morning was the lovely day for a 3 hour drive back to Amsterdam from Cologne. Germany was loads of fun, very different from anywhere else I have been before. Sven (Mal's BF)'s parents drove us back and they were really nice, of course they didn't speak English but that was ok. When we got back, it was a lazy day. We went to the grocery store for some dinner yummy's and made a really good meal and just watched a movie.
My sleeping schedule has still been really off, so the last few days I've been waking up at 2 in the afternoon which is completely useless, but we still manage to do stuff. Yesterday, we booked our tickets to London via blind booking! It's a site where you choose a theme of places where you want to go and by the end of the booking it tells you where you're going. I wanted to go somewhere I've never been before, but I LOVE London so it really didn't matter, I'm so excited to go again now that I know everything over there. After we did our spontaneous trip booking, we headed into Central Amsterdam for dinner and wander for a bit. We went to Vapiano's which apparently there's one in NYC, so I'll have to try it. It was super delishhh.
More for today laterrrsss.
xx
My sleeping schedule has still been really off, so the last few days I've been waking up at 2 in the afternoon which is completely useless, but we still manage to do stuff. Yesterday, we booked our tickets to London via blind booking! It's a site where you choose a theme of places where you want to go and by the end of the booking it tells you where you're going. I wanted to go somewhere I've never been before, but I LOVE London so it really didn't matter, I'm so excited to go again now that I know everything over there. After we did our spontaneous trip booking, we headed into Central Amsterdam for dinner and wander for a bit. We went to Vapiano's which apparently there's one in NYC, so I'll have to try it. It was super delishhh.
More for today laterrrsss.
xx
Sunday, 24 June 2012
Planes, Amsterdam and Germany
I landed Friday morning in Dublin for my layover flight at 5 am. Of course I didn't sleep at all on the flight because my body wouldn't let me obviously. At this point I was so exhausted, running on no sleep since the night before but luckily I was actually in Britain! Even though i have never been to Ireland. I went to eat a nice Irish breakfast and enjoy my 3 hour intermission before my next flight. It was so delicious. It reminded me of last summer :). Finally after a billion hours later and many chapters in my book, I got on the lil hour flight to Amsterdam.
I landed and was greeted my Mallory and her boyfriend Sven, who is super cool and German. We were literally in Amsterdam for an hour before we got in a car and drove to Cologne, Germany. It was 3 hours but I finally got to sleep! When we arrived we went to a public viewing of the euro cup Germany vs Greece, Greece got whooped and the german fans are nuts especially with their beer and pride when it's appropriate haha. It was such an awesome experience and I wore a cooool German jersey.
Saturday was a really nice day. We all went to get doners or gyros, which were so delicious and went to the park to relax and have some nice drinks. It was really interesting, they had booths set up and a dj playing music the whole time till it got dark.
Sunday, was super rainy so a perfect day to go to a museum or chocolate museum! It was neat, showed how to make chocolate and mal and I made our own chocolate ingredients. :) yummmyyy. And of course had to buy some extra. After that we went to a brauhaus for a meal and brewsss. For obvious reasons I had to get a schnitzel which was delicious. Time flew by too and we watched the England vs Italy game and too bad Italy won. I'm back to Amsterdam tomorrow so that's a new adventure ;) and Paris on Thursday!
X
I landed and was greeted my Mallory and her boyfriend Sven, who is super cool and German. We were literally in Amsterdam for an hour before we got in a car and drove to Cologne, Germany. It was 3 hours but I finally got to sleep! When we arrived we went to a public viewing of the euro cup Germany vs Greece, Greece got whooped and the german fans are nuts especially with their beer and pride when it's appropriate haha. It was such an awesome experience and I wore a cooool German jersey.
Saturday was a really nice day. We all went to get doners or gyros, which were so delicious and went to the park to relax and have some nice drinks. It was really interesting, they had booths set up and a dj playing music the whole time till it got dark.
Sunday, was super rainy so a perfect day to go to a museum or chocolate museum! It was neat, showed how to make chocolate and mal and I made our own chocolate ingredients. :) yummmyyy. And of course had to buy some extra. After that we went to a brauhaus for a meal and brewsss. For obvious reasons I had to get a schnitzel which was delicious. Time flew by too and we watched the England vs Italy game and too bad Italy won. I'm back to Amsterdam tomorrow so that's a new adventure ;) and Paris on Thursday!
X
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Beginnings!
It's that time of year again, when I randomly go to Europe and do some awesome traveling. This time is a bit more spontaneous than last year since that was for my study abroad. Anywho, I fly into Amsterdam tomorrow to visit my very good friend Mallory; who has been there since January. I think she'll know where to take me. I'm so excited for this new chapter in my life that will change me (again). This time it's only for 3 weeks so I have a lot of things to do in a short time! I'll be going to, not only Amsterdam, but Cologne, Berlin and Paris. Keeeep in touch!
xx
xx
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