Spain 6/15/2011-Seville (See below first...)

The Last Leg of the Journey

Oh the final stretch...the end is in sight as we get in the car and head from Granada to Seville. Julia and I will end our journey there, while the boys will head to Madrid to take a plane on to Morocco. As we leave Granada and head towards Seville, Julia and I are in agreement about many things. The list goes on, but to name a few:
1. Spain is the greatest place we have been thus far.
2. Of all the places in Spain, Barcelona is our least favorite, despite having heard multiple friends sing its praises.
3. Matt has probably never driven in a city before this trip.
4. Maps are a necessity on a road trip.
5. If Matt makes us visit one more cathedral instead of taking us to the beach, we're going to kill him.
6. We're tired, hungry, dirty, and sweaty.
7. Matt and Max might be trying to kill us slowly by depriving us of air conditioning.

As you can see from the list, our patience for the boys on our trip was wearing thin. Apparently, we all had very different goals for our trip and we should have ironed them out beforehand. Matt was trying to see every single tourist attraction in the entire country of Spain, while I just wanted to go to the nearest beach. Traveling by car is a great way to get to know someone and we all know each other better after this trip. We are happy to have had the car and appreciative to our driver, but let's just say no tears were shed by either party when it came time to split up in Seville.

To top off the end of the trip, we arrive at our so-called "hotel" in Seville to find that our reservation has been lost, the desk clerk speaks NO English and has trouble hearing, our room is shared with two other people, and there's no air conditioning. At this point in the trip, I literally thought Matt's head was going to explode. Julia and I, however, accepted the fact that this is part of the deal, so we decided to make the best of it. We spent our evening sitting on the terrace and watching Spanish television, trying to figure out what the shows were about. Eventually, everyone came around and we ended up sharing a lot of laughs, talking about all the things that had gone wrong over the course of the trip. It was nice to finally laugh about everything.

The next morning we checked out and had tapas together one last time. The food was delicious and it was a great way to spend our last hours together. The boys dropped Julia and I off somewhat near our hostel and were one their way.

Now my favorite part of the trip began. After spending three days with Matt the Nazi tourist, we were ready to do anything besides sight-see. We found our beautiful hostel and spent some time soaking up the sun on the roof-top terrace. After relaxing, we set out for a walk and actually ended up stumbling upon some of the sights and taking nice pictures. It was so nice to walk leisurely and just absorb the city. We ended our day on a floating dock on the river, drinking Rebujito and enjoying our girl time. On our way home, we stopped at a nice grocery store and bought supplies to make a lovely dinner of pasta with Spanish salami (solomillo), olives, and vegetables. We enjoyed this with a fine Sangria which cost 1.50 Euros for a two liter bottle. Later, we joined our hostel on a nightlife tour. What a great time!! We had our doubts at first when we showed up and there were only two other people. Luckily, we met up with six other hostels and had an amazing time. We ended up making friends and forming a little group with some solo travelers, two of which were from Montreal. We had such a great time with Linda that we have already planned to get together with her when we all return to Canada.

That brings me to today and what a nice day it was. This morning we slept in and took our time getting ready. Then we lingered over a tapa lunch and walked down to the river. It was SO hot! Literally, there was not one cloud in the sky and it was about 40 degrees C! Amazing! After seeing absolutely no sights, we sunbathed by the river until we couldn't bear the heat. Then we ducked into a shaded cafe for not one, but two iced teas. Thank god, the Spanish have mastered ice. I don't know why the Dutch have not realized the wonderful invention that is ice, but the Spanish have embraced it and we certainly appreciated it today. Upon finishing our teas, we tried to swim in the river but determined if we jumped in, we might not be able to lift ourselves back onto the dock. After a lot of convincing, I finally convinced Julia to sneak into a nearby hotel so that we could cool off in their pool and oh was it amazing! The water was perfectly refreshing and put the perfect end to our day. On the way home, we again bought supplies for a nice dinner of loaded baked potatoes and stir-fry complete with steak. Enjoyed on the terrace again, life couldn't be any better.

Now I sit outside my nice hostel bedroom shared with five other people, waiting to jump into my top bunk bed. I love this place and am so happy we have another day tomorrow. We are going to see the bull fighting ring and go inside the cathedral. I know I previously said no more cathedrals, but this one looks really cool from the outside and it's only two Euros for students. After our sights, more sun bathing will be in order, followed by more tapas and soaking up our last hours in Spain. Thursday morning, it's back to Amsterdam for three more weeks before coming home! Talking with my mom about my graduation party has made me really excited to get back and I'm more than ready to see those of you that I have been missing.

Te amo mucho mi familia y mis amigos. Estan en mi piensamientos y tienen un lugar especial en mi corazon.
De Espana con amor,
Meg

Spain 6/12/2011-Granada (Read below first)

We made it to Granada! We arrived at our hotel and got settled around midnight. Navigating the city was a bit difficult, especially since Matt decided spending 2 extra Euros to buy the nice atlas with enlarged city views was unnecessary. He seemed to believe we could use WIFI internet and printed maps from the internet to navigate. Fail! Our "hotel" in Granada was quite intertesting. It had four separate twin beds, probably purchased right after the building was built in the 1400s. The pillows were a little flat, but that's not even the best part. The web site advertised a choice of private shower or bath; I chose shower assuming it would be part of an entire bathroom. However, it was a shower and sink in the middle of our room, right next to the window.

Shower in the middle of our room...Matt doing laundry in the sink-traveling cheap at its finest.

 We were also starving after arriving, but were unable to find anything open besides shoarma. This was the low point of the trip. Everyone was tired, angry, hungry, and grouchy and in the end we just had to go our separate ways and take a break from each other. Julia and I did our own thing while the boys went out on their own. The good news is, we all woke up the next morning in much better moods and ready to see the Alhambra.

Matt, Max, Me, and Julia happy
atop the Alhambra

Alhambra from a distance at sunset

The Alhambra is the most visited landmark in Spain, with over 3 million visitors per year. It was almost chosen as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The Alahambra is an old Moor Palace that is very well preserved and absolutely beautiful. Don't worry there are pictures to follow. The other great thing I can say about this destination is that they do an excellent job of crowd control. In order to better preserve the palace, only a certain number of people are allowed in at a time. Instead of having insanely long lines like most other monuments, they give you a ticket stating the time you can enter and must leave. It makes the whole experience much more enjoyable. The Alahambra is absolutely huge and it took us about three hours to hike all the way through, plus an hour to eat while waiting to enter. After all this, we didn't have time to see anything else in Granada. The stop in Granada is absolutely worth the journey if only to see the Alahambra. After sweating all day, it was time for four stinky tired people to jump back in our tiny car and head to Seville.

On the road again....
-Meg

Spain 6/11/2011

Spain
For my final trip through Europe I saved the best destination for last. Since I originally decided to study abroad, I have wanted to visit and live in Spain. I was unable to study in Spain because there were not enough classes offered in English and I have thoroughly enjoyed Amsterdam. Spain, however; is probably my favorite place by far. For my final trip, I am traveling with my very good friend Julia and our friends Matt and Max. Julia and I started in Barcelona, met Matt there, then traveled down the coast to get our friend Max in Valencia. Then the four of us are (currently, as I type in the car) proceeding to Granada, followed by Seville. After Seville, the boys venture to Madrid to catch a flight to Morocco, while Julia and I fly back to Amsterdam.

Barcelona
Julia and I arrived in Barcelona on Monday night. We were lucky enough to find a very nice hostel that was extremely clean and had hot water!! It was probably one of the best hostels I have stayed in. Our luck contined when we found that we had a nice grocery store and fruit stand directly across the street. This saved us a lot of money because we were able to buy food and cook in our hostel's kitchen. We also met a lot of great people in our hostel, which seemed to be filled with mostly Americans and Canadians.

After resting our first night, Julia and I were looking forward to spending our first day on the beach, saving all of our sight-seeing for after we met our friends. The weather seemed a little worrisome, but we ended up having a nice day on the beach. We got massages for five euros from an Asian lady and drank excellent mojitos. We also met some friends from New York and Atlanta. As the day wore on, the weather seemed to cloud up and the beach started to clear out. We stuck it out as long as we could, then joined our friends in a nice beach tapas bar for dinner as we waited out the rain. After dinner, we met our friends at the hostel and spent another night in, hanging out with Matt and Chad who had just met us.

During the next day, the weather was cloudy, cool, and rainy; not beach weather. This turned out perfectly though, because during the rain we visited a church called Sagrada Familia. This is a cathedral that is still undergoing construction, even though the original architect, Gaudi, is dead. Gaudi is very famous and has a lot of work throughout Barca, including the Gaudi houses and a park on the top of a mountain, overlooking the city. The park was next on our list to see, but we had a nice lunch while we waited for the rain to stop, then headed to the park. The park was a little hike, so we were thankful for the cooler weather. The view was spectacular and I bought a nice Spanish bracelet! After the park, we headed down to the city center to see the Magic Fountain and an art museum. This concludecd our sight-seeing tour and we headed back to the hostel for dinner and to go out. This was our first night out in Barca and we joined a large group from our hostel for dancing. After heaing a lot of hype about nightlife in Barca, I was a little unimpressed. The music was all American-not Spanish! Also, the clubs are just full of tourists. I am hoping to find some better nightlife as we head south. I want authentic Spanish music and dancing!!

Sagrada Familia

For our final day in Barca, we headed back to the beach for more massages in the morning. There are literally hundreds of immigrants working illegaly in Barca, selling everything from massages (5 Euro) to Mojitos (best ever!!).  When the police come they all scatter. We spent the morning on the beach, enjoying the sun and fresh fruit from our fruit stand. After soaking up some sun, we headed into the city to see more of the city and get some fantastic sandwiches, per reccommendation of our friends. For our final night out, we met up with some of our friends from Amsterdam: Chad, Julie, Gustavo, and Mathias. We had mediocore tapas and sangria, but had a great time meeting new people and checking out Las Ramblas-a big, shopping and nightlife street in Barca. We spent a bit of time watching street performers and hanging out before heading to another club. This time was a little better than the night before and it was very warm so we got to hang out on the beach for a majority of the evening. Very nice night!!

Valencia
Now our trip was about to really begin. On Friday morning we headed to the train station to rent our car, which Matt would be piloting. After getting-gasp-McDonald's in the train station, we were off. We spent our day driving south toward Valencia to meet our friend Max. This was a day of what Julia and I like to call "drive-by tourism". Basically, we spent the day driving and seeing various sights in Spain. We made a stop in Tarragona to see the beach, but it rained on us again :(. We had a beautiful drive through Spain and this is when I absolutely fell in love with this amazing country.

Tarragona

Arriving in Valencia with no place to stay proved to be a poor decision. We amazingly were able to meet up with Max at his place, but we had trouble finding a hostel. After a very long day of driving, we finally crashed in a Holiday Inn Express, which turned out to be the same price as a hostel. We were absolutely exhausted so we probably would have paid anything, but luckily after splitting three ways it was quite inexpensive and included breakfast. We got VERY spoiled! I forgot how  nice styaing in a hotel is, especially compared with a hostel. You can leave your things everywhere!! We had a huge bed and TV. The only channel in English was CNN and we were able to catch up with some news and learn about the problems in Syria. It always feels nice to catch up with current events. Julia and I had a nice dinner at a very authentic Spanish restaurant that was cheap and had great food!! I had a very nice calamari and we had delicious bread with tomato spread. After a nice night in the Holiday Inn, a bath, and free breakfast our road trip continued.


That brings us to today. I currently sit typing in the backseat of a small hatchback, while the boys drive, navigate, and control the Ipod. This morning, we toured Valencia, with tour guide Max who has been there studying all week. We visited a beautiful cathedral and climbed the tower for more great views. Much of southern Spain was once occupied by the Moors (Muslims from Africa) and this can be seen in the distinct architecture. The further south we travel, the more Islamic the buildings become. Tomorrow we will be visiting an very Islamic palace known as the Alehambra. Valencia also looked Islamic, a bit. We visited the city market and bought some nice olives for a car snack. Then we ate a lunch of montaditos, or small, Spanish sandwiches, followed by gelato. Now, we have been driving for about three hours; munching olives and listening to techno music. We have now entered into the sing-along music phase of the trip. We usually like to end our journeys with rap, in order to keep everyone awake and entertained. Tonight, we journey to Granada in search of tapas and flamenco music. ETA: 10:00-11:00 pm. Since we are a group of four, we have booked a hotel, in advance this time. Tomorrow we climb the Alhambra then head to Seville. I will keep you all posted.

Happy Reading! Love from Spain!

The Canary Islands

For our second break of the semester, our reliable travel planner Chad organized a trip to Lanzarote, Canary Islands. I have to give him a big shout-out, because I harassed him to "just book something already" for about a week while he was searching for this wonderful destination. If it was up to me, we probably would have been in Switzerland with a group of three or four. Instead, we were in sunny, wonderful paradise for seven days with a group of 15 people!!! What an amazing time! After scouring the internet, Chad booked two adjoining villas for our amazing group. The villas were identical, each with four bedrooms, complete with two backyards and TWO heated pools! We were amazingly lucky that our break fell at the "low" season and we were able to get amazing deals on our flights and villas.

Pool/View from the Girl's Villa

An Overview

For those of you who don't know, as I didn't, The Canary Islands are a chain of small, volcanic islands controlled by Spain and just off the coast of Morocco. They are very close to the Equator so the weather is pretty much amazing year-round. We visited the island of Lanzarote, which is less developed than the main island of Grand Canaria. The island was very touristy, with lots of beach houses, shops, and a few restaurants. All houses and buildings on the island are white. Much of the island is not developed, with houses and beaches along the coast and desert in the middle.

The Trip

Day 1: The Journey

Getting to the airport was quite challenging. To keep our flights cheap, we were using the budget airline, RyanAir. Because it is a budget airline, it doesn't fly out of Amsterdam, but the nearby city Eindoven. To get to Eindoven airport, we had to take a from Amsterdam to Eindoven followed by a bus to the airport. It was quite a process. When we finally boarded our plane, we found out the flight was going to last over four hours and that our plane was about 50% kids under age five. This was the most chaotic, disorganized plane ride I have ever been on in my life. There were kids everywhere; all over the aisles, climbing on the seats, etc. To top it off, the RyanAir staff attempts to sell you something every five minutes. Because their flights are so cheap, they make money off of in-flight "services" such as selling smokeless cigarettes(?), lottery tickets, duty free alcohol, food, and perfume-to name a few. Needless to say, it was an interesting and entertaining flight. I made several "friends" with some little children. Luckily, I was not planning on sleeping. After arriving at the airport, we rented two cars and somehow fit 12 people+luggage in them and managed to find our villa on the first try. I would have to say this was probably one of our most successful trips. Please take a moment to think about the fact that we found a car rental agency that would rent two cars to a group of 12 people all under age 25....

For our first night, we had all had dinner together and made good use of our pools! Great start to an amazing trip!

Day 2: Beach!!

For our first day, the beach was absolutely in order. There's not a lot to say, other than we spent an amazing day at the beach together. No sight-seeing, no getting lost, just the beach! The sun was very hot and several people came home with sunburns. I used my sunscreen, but somehow managed to burn only my stomach! Ouch! Because there was such a large group of us, we spent most of our evenings at home, cooking dinner together. Also, there was not much (none) nightlife in our tiny town of Playa Blanca, but we had cable TV! We did spend a bit of time watching TV, just because we don't have TV in our dorm so we haven't watched TV in months. One night, Billy Madison was on and we all watched together! What a wild group!

Day 3: Beach Again!!!

For day number three it was back to the beach again. Different beach, same story...

Me on the beach!

Day 4: Adventures

On the fourth day, some of our group spent the day surfing/relaxing on the beach, while the rest of us went sight-seeing. We drove through the Timilfaya National Park and saw the "Fire Mountains" or reddish mountains formed by volcanoes. We then drove to the other side of the island (only takes one hour) to see the coast. We also visited the Cactus Garden and Jameos del Agua. Jameos del Agua is part of a cave formed by a volcanic tube. It contains a man-made amphitheater, gardens, museum, and restaurant/bar. It also has a deep pool filled with blind albino crabs that sparkle in the water. Truly beautiful. It also contains a beautiful, white, outdoor pool that looks great for swimming.

Cactus Garden

National Park

A story for your entertainment:

 While viewing the pool, I thought it looked very tempting for a swim. However, no one was swimming in it. This launched a debate of whether or not you were, in fact, allowed to swim in the pool. General consensus among our group was that maybe you could swim, but probably not. As we were leaving, I decided to find out for sure. Very quickly, I took off my clothes (I was wearing my bathing suit) and canon balled into the deep in, only to emerge from the water to hear a lot of yelling in Spanish and see every visitor staring at me. No, the pool was not for swimming. Thus, our visit to Jameos del Agua was over.


We also went to El Golfo, a green lagoon and black sand beach. Absolutely amazing!!! I have never been to a black sand beach and this one did not let me down. Truly a beautiful sight!

On a cliff over looking the black sand beach. Hard to see the sand!

Day 5: Scooters

My favorite day of all was the day we rented scooters! Now, when I say scooters I am aware that it sounds like we rented small Vespas. That's what I thought we were renting. What we got were more like small motorcycles. The guy who rented them to us barely spoke English. He asked if our drivers had a motorcycle license  they said yes, and that was that. Very trustworthy people in the Canary Islands! We spent the entire day on our scooters, enjoying the weather, stopping at the beach, eating amazing seafood, and having a really fun day!

Me on the scooter...no I didn't really drive!

Day 6: Beach again...

Me and Jules on the "beach"

Day 7: Another day at the pool/beach
For our last night, we made frozen pizzas-kitchen was already clean! Then we drove out to a remote part of the island and went star gazing. We probably saw about 10 shooting stars! It was so incredibly dark but beautiful!

It's hard to take pictures while star gazing! Blinded by the flash!

Sorry if this is a disappointment. We really didn't do much on our trip besides go to the beach! It was an absolutely amazing time and we had a great group of people! Having the villas was such an added perk, we all had our own space. The cars also gave us freedom to split up. Some people surfed, mountain-biked, visited other islands, or spent most of their time at the beach. We shared many great breakfasts and dinners together as a group and had a wonderful, relaxing week! Couldn't ask for a better trip!

Watching the sunset on our last day at the beach!

Queen's Day and Joe's Visit

So for the duration of my time in Amsterdam, I have been hearing of this holiday known as Queen's Day. According to the hype and legends, it is a day unlike any other. It is a national holiday, honoring the queen and celebrated by the entire city of Amsterdam and country of Holland. Last year, DJ Tiesto (http://www.tiesto.com/) performed, for free, so we knew that it was going to be a big party.

Here's a little background:

Queen's day, or Koninginnedag as we call it, is a national holiday in the Netherlands. On this day we celebrate the birthday of the Queen of the Netherlands. Although it's original the birthday of Queen Juliana (the mother of Queen Beatrix), not of Queen Beatrix, we celebrate her birthday on 30 April. Our Queen Beatrix birthday is really on the 31th January, but the winter isn't the time to party outside. Because of this Queen Beatrix officially celebrates her birthday on 30 April, so we can party with (hopefully) better weather! Isn't our Queen lovely?

Queen's Day is also a typical occasion for the world-famous Orange Craze. On this day most of the people wear orange clothing and creative orange accessories. The colour orange is a ubiquitous sight, referring to the name of our royal family, the House of Orange. Everywhere in the city you'll see orange banners, orange coloered foods and drinks. So don't forget your orange t-shirt when you join us in the Orange Craze!!!

Because Queen's Day and Queen's Night (the night before Queen's Day) are such a big deal, almost everyone in my Residence had friends visiting from all over Europe. My friend Joe Craig is currently on exchange in Madrid, so after some flight mishaps, he made it to Amsterdam Friday afternoon to observe the national holiday.

Joe and I on Queen's Night

After hearing all of the hype, I thought that it was just too good to be true. There was no way this celebration could live up to all my expectations. Somehow, the night and day surpassed my expectations. 

We began Queen's Night, like so many other nights, with a gathering in our building's Common Room. After socializing with the people in our building and introducing Joe to all of my friends, we set out to check out the city. Somehow, our group managed to stick together and about 70 of us boarded the metro all together. Wanting to keep the party going, some of the boys began leading our group in song and running between cars at every stop. This created quite the stir in the metro, but most of the people loved it and either laughed and joined in. Yes, it was true, almost all Amsterdammers were in good spirits celebrating the Queen. 

Making our way downtown, we ended at Leidseplien, where there was a band set up in the middle of the square! People were everywhere and we spent our night hearing live music in the street and inside some of the bars and restaurants. What a night!

The next morning was Queen's Day! After having a Queen's Day breakfast together, we all set out for downtown to see the sights the city had to offer. On Queen's Day, any person living in Amsterdam is given the opportunity to sell whatever they may want to sell in the streets. This means that the streets are lined with people selling everything from books, antiques, & usual yard sale fares to head massages, orange nail polish manicures, and other orange accessories. Vondel Park is reserved exclusively for children looking to capitalize on the opportunity and sell some old toys or other fares. We even saw one little boy playing his guitar-adorable!

We spent the day hearing music from Dutch Djs at a stage called Loveland, walking around the city and seeing sights, and finally making our way to Museumplein to hear Dutch Djs Afrojack (http://www.afrojack.com/) and Armin Van Buuren (http://www.arminvanbuuren.com/). These are really famous Djs and we got to see them for free!!!

Museumplein on Queen's Day-I was in there!!!

It was a truly amazing day and I am happy to say it lived up to my expectations. Everyone is out and about and in good spirits! I did not see anyone acting unruly or getting in trouble from the police. In fact, I did not see any police. Some would compare Queen's Day to July 4, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, or St. Patty's Day in Ireland. I don't think that Queen's Day is comparable to any of these! July 4 tends to be celebrated more individually than collectively and Queen's Day is a family affair-definitely tamer than Mardi Gras. I have just never seen so many people take over an entire city, but do so in such an orderly fashion. Either way, it's a wonderful, fun day and I am happy to have experienced it here and happy that Joe got to be here as well.

Canals and streets filled with people in orange!

For the final day of Joe's visit, Sunday, we went out sight-seeing a bit. We saw the Red Light District, Dam Square, rode the giant swings at the Dam Square Carnival for aerial views of the city, and Joe did the Heineken Experience. I had to return home early from our day for my big interview for my next adventure in Montreal! Stay tuned to hear more about that!

View of Dam Square from the swings!

Dear Mom and Dad...

Dear Mom and Dad,

Thanks for coming all the way to visit me-even though I know that sight-seeing in big cities is not your usual idea of a vacation. It meant so much to me that you would spend your time and money coming all the way over here-especially dad who has not had a vacation in almost a year! You sacrificed family vacation and your beloved Texas fishing trip to work in West Virginia, but you managed to find the time to fly all the way over here to see me! I am happy to be one of the (very, very few) things in your life that rank higher than fishing trips.

This has been an amazing experience for me and I never would have had the courage to do it without your love, support, and encouragement. I am so truly and amazingly blessed to have the opportunities you have provided and I could never thank the two of you enough for everything you have given me.

I had an absolutely wonderful week with the two of you. I really loved showing you around my new "home" and introducing you to my friends. We had a lot of laughs, a few arguments, and made a lot of memories. I enjoyed experiencing new parts of Amsterdam with you, like shopping,eating in nice restaurants, and going to museums. I still haven't seen Anne Frank's house and the Van Gogh museum did not even begin to repay Dad for all the space centers, museums, trees, historic landmarks, and lack of pandas we have seen on his vacations. I especially enjoyed the herring tar tare and the cheese in France (NOT!). Some of my favorite times were sitting with you in Vondel Park and under the Eifel Tower, just watching people and talking. 

Thanks to mom, I have some lovely pictures of the trip displayed in my room now. I miss you both very much, but seeing you made me a little less homesick. I love you and could never say thank you enough, but Dank U Wel for a wonderful week!

I love you!

-Meggy Jo

Paris!

To top of my parent's European vacation, the three of us spent Easter weekend in Paris. We left Amsterdam on Thursday afternoon, after I finished with class. We arrived in Paris around 5 pm and set out to find our apartment. My first impression of Paris was not excellent. The airport in huge and very confusing, but that is to be expected in a large city. What I was not expecting, however, was the very poor quality of their public transportation. The trains and metros were crowded, dirty, and had no air conditioning. This was a big change from clean, pristine Amsterdam. I think the difference is based on those who use the public transportation in each city. Amsterdam is a very "green" city so using public transportation is considered the norm, as is biking. In Paris, however, a lot more people drive, so those that ride the metro are those that cannot afford cars. Therefore, the ratio of crazy/dirty/drugged out people to normal people on the metro is about 10:1. I might be exaggerating a tiny bit, but you get the idea that I was slightly disappointed in this respect.

Making our way to the apartment was fairly easy, with only one wrong turn. The apartment was very nice with a small kitchen, bedroom, pull out couch for me, and very nice bathroom. It was close to a little river and park. Nice location! 

For our first evening, we were very tired and hungry. We had dinner in a little Paris cafe', my mother ate a cheeseburger! It was actually quite good. We tried to find some English television and turned in early. I was busy reading my Water for Elephants, which I highly recommend!

For our second day, we slept in late and then hit the ground running to see all our of tourist sites. We started at Notre Dame and walked and walked and walked and walked all day!! We walked from Notre Dame to the Isle of St. Louis, which is a very cute area. From there we walked along the Seine to the Gardens de Tuileries, the Lourve, Champs Elysees, and Arc de Triumphe. I was very happy to be with my father and learn about the history of the Champs Elysees and Arc de Triumphe. The Arc was built by Napoleon after a victory. During World War II, when the Germans conquered France, they marched their tanks, troops, and generals down the Champs Elyse to the Arc. Then, when the Allies liberated France, they did the same. According to my father, Hitler, Eisenhower, and many other officials probably walked the street. It was very cool.

U.S. soldiers of Pennsylvania's 28th Infantry Division march along the Champs Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe in the background, on Aug. 29, 1944, four days after the liberation of Paris, France.

My Dad and I pose in front of the Arc de Triumphe, April 2011

 This is also one of the nicest streets in Paris, with restaurants and shops along the way. We stopped in Adidas to buy new shoes, because my feet were killing me! According to Mary Hart, my mother could find a place to buy shoes in the desert and I have to agree. Somehow we were able to find our favorite Adidas sandals all the way in Paris! My feet were very thankful! We also looked for our store to buy macaroons, but were unable to find it. To finish our day, we had a wonderful picnic of cheese, baguettes, and meat under the Eiffel Tower. We finished it up with some ice cream. We tried to go to the top, but the line was simply too long. It was a simply wonderful end to a great day!

New Shoes!

The next day, we got up early to attempt to go up the the Eiffel Tower, but the line was extremely long again. It just was not worth it! We then caught the train out to see Versailles. It was amazing!! We toured the inside and the gardens. Since we happened to go on Saturday, all the fountains were turned on so that was a nice touch. We spent the day walking all through the palace and grounds, it's a massive place. I actually liked it better than the gardens at Kuekenhof. This was probably my favorite part of the trip!

Beautiful!

After our long day, we had a relaxing evening of (finally) seeing the Eiffel Tower at night! It is an amazing sight-it actually sparkles. I got lots of good pictures and felt that our trip was finally complete! Early the next morning it was back to Amsterdam for me and back to the United States for mom and dad!

Eiffel Tower at Night!

My Parent's Visit

As most (or all since it's probably only my family) of my readers know already my parents came to spend a week in Europe, visiting me in Amsterdam and traveling to Paris. Since they have been home for quite some time, hopefully you have had a chance to see pictures/hear details of their trip. For the sake of this blog, I will run down the highlights with you, in bullet form. Here we go:

-Kuekenhof: Home of the famous tulip fields!! 

This is one of the most famous sights in Holland. It's a huge garden filled with tulips, some other flowers, old people who walk really slow, and tourists (mostly Asian) with humongous cameras. I'm going to be honest, because I always am, this is not at all what I expected. I, for some reason, was expecting huge fields of multi-colored tulips, planted to form different designs and shapes. That's not it. It's one field of multi-colored tulips, plus a lot of different gardens that all look (pretty much) the  same. I mean after you have seen 500 different kinds of tulips, there is not really a  reason to see 500 more. All in all, good experience, happy that I saw it, didn't quite live up to my expectations.

-Haarlem

Haarlem is a smaller, nicer, ritzier city just outside of Amsterdam. It has a large cathedral and the Corrie Ten Boom house. On the day we visited, all the floats from  the flower parade at Kuekenhof were on display. Think giant parade floats made  exclusively of flowers. Really amazing! Plus, the floats were designed after musicals (Wicked, Sound of Music, Hair, Alice in Wonderland, to name a few) and were really cool!

-Dinner with Julie and Lisa

Most of you have already heard me mention my best friend Julie. As luck would have it, our parents were visiting during the same week. One night, we all got together for dinner at a great Italian place. Afterwards, Julie and Lisa lead us to a little cafe with the best apple pie ever for dessert!

-Vondel Park

One of my favorite places in the city. This is a very beautiful and famous park. My parents were fortunate enough to have nice weather during their visit, so we spent some time people watching in the park!

-Canal Tour

The nice thing about having your parents visit is that you get to do all the things that you want to do but can't afford. One of the top things on my list was a canal tour. We were lucky enough to get on an open-air tour on a small boat, instead of the giant,  ultra-touristy, covered tours. It was only the three of us, one other family, and the captain. It was a very relaxing, yet informative tour!

-Anne Frank House

Unfortunately, I was late and missed this tour!

-Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum is a very nice tour, but it should offer a disclaimer stating "you are not going to see any of his famous paintings." All of his most famous works are at  the Louvre or other museums around the world. I did learn a lot about Van Gogh the man and about his influences in each period of his work. We also got to see a lot of really nice paintings, so it was not a waste of time. I enjoyed it for about an hour, then that was enough for me. My dad enjoyed it for approximately 5 minutes.

-Food

Some of the food that my parents had to sample during their visit: fries with good, Holland mayonnaise and curry sauce, Kapsalon, Stroopwafels, Stroopwafel McFlurries, delicious sandwiches (shared outside in Dam Square-one of my favorite parts of the  trip), cheese, pancakes and pastries!

Kapsalon

Fries

Pancakes

Sandwiches in Dam Square

I know this does not do their trip justice, but I wanted to post something so I hope this is better than nothing. I promise I am working harder on the upcoming posts!

Under Construction

Dear Readers,
I know that I have fallen behind on my posts. I have been traveling a lot and have finals coming up. I am working diligently to get caught up! I promise I have not completely abandoned this project. Stay tuned for posts regarding my parent's visit, Paris, Queen's Day/Joe's visit, the Canary Islands, and Carly's visit. Love you all!
Love,
Megan

Antwerp, Belgium

This week, my friend Julie had a friend visiting. It is mid-term week at school and I had only one mid-term, so all my other classes were cancelled. Julie, Jessi, and I took the train to Antwerp, Belgium for an overnight trip, just to visit and check it out.

Antwerp was a very nice city, very clean, and NO tourists. Walking to our hostel, we kept passing tons of people dressed in traditional, Orthodox Jewish apparel, so I can only assume we were staying in some type of Jewish neighborhood. Our hostel was in an extremely old building. The smell was atrocious; it smelled like an old house that had never been cleaned or renovated, mixed with cigarette smoke. Luckily, we were only there to sleep and did not have to spend any time there. We were sharing a room with four other girls, so the accommodation was not ideal.

We arrived around 7 pm, went to dinner, then out to a small bar with a live jazz band. There wasn’t much night life since it was Tuesday, but the band was good and we were able to go to bed early so we could spend the next day exploring.

On Wednesday, the weather was cloudy, but luckily the rain held off until the evening. First, we set out to find the beach. Antwerp is bordered by a river and there was supposedly a beach that you could visit. To get to the beach, we had to cross the river. Instead of a bridge, Antwerp has a tunnel 32 meters underground to accommodate pedestrians across the river. It was really cool to walk through, the escalators are ancient and wooden and you feel like you are going down forever. When we finally arrived at the “beach” it was about two meters wide and you could not even walk on it. Basically, we walked about 45 minutes to see nothing, but we got to experience the tunnel and get some good views of the city.

Antwerp has a lot of historical buildings, castles, a fortress, and is very pretty-I will try to put pictures up soon. We spent the rest of our day walking the city, shopping, and exploring. I did eat a Belgian waffle which was delicious, but we did not get any chocolate. Much to our surprise, chocolate was very hard to find. When we asked a local where a good chocolate shop was, she suggested we try Godiva.

It was a very quick, short trip, but we all had a good time and I got to put another star on my map!!

As school is picking up and funds are dwindling, my travels are probably going to become more sporadic. Currently, I am looking forward to my parents’ visit for Easter and our trip to Paris. For May break, we just booked a trip to the Canary Islands, off the coast of Morocco. At the end, I am planning Spain, Southern France, and Italy. Stay tuned!

Kiss Me I'm Irish

Hello again! I know it has been too long since I last posted, but I swear I’m trying. Apparently, my school work has been getting neglected so I have been spending quite a lot of time catching up. The good news is I had my first mid-term today and I feel that it went really well! Since I have fallen behind, I’m going to try to post several today and tomorrow! Hopefully I will be able to catch up.

I last left you in London and after London I had another girl’s trip to look forward to-this time with my sister coming along! Ireland was actually one of the first trips we booked, wanting to make it there for St. Patrick’s Day. The group consisted of me, Carly, Marli, Julie, Gen, Gen’s boyfriend Henry, Mathilde, and Kathy. Trying to avoid the crowds and expense of Dublin, we traveled to Cork, a very small town in the southern part of Ireland.

Departing early Wednesday morning, we were excited to have the whole day and night to explore. Before our plane even touched the ground, we were in love! Never have I been somewhere so green; just seeing the green grass bordering the ocean was beautiful. After arriving, we went to meet Henry, who had arrived the night before. Sidenote: Henry is Gen’s amazingly cool boyfriend who is also on exchange in Norway. He met us in Ireland for St. Patty’s Day. At Henry’s suggestion, we decided to spend the afternoon seeing Blarney Castle. The weather was simply amazing: so warm that you did not need a coat, just a sweater! Coming from cold, rainy Amsterdam, we were ecstatic. Blarney Castle is an old castle but it also sits on acres of gardens, trails, waterfalls, and a lake. Enjoying the nice weather and view, we stayed until dusk. We climbed up the castle to kiss the Blarney Stone. Kissing the stone is supposed to give you the “gift of gab” for the next seven years. Winston Churchill kissed the stone so I suppose it has a good track record. In order to kiss the stone, one has to lie down backwards and lean over a ledge, while being held by an old man. It’s quite scary and I closed my eyes.

After the castle, we returned to the hostel. Julie and I decided to make dinner in out hostel instead of eating out. After eating we showered and napped, waking up in time to meet the rest of our group at a traditional Irish pub. We joined them at a pub called Preacher’s that played American music circa 1960-1980. We absolutely loved it and I made the comment to Carly that my dad would have really enjoyed it. Irish people are some of the most fun people I have encountered. They speak English, which is so nice and are very friendly. My favorite part, though, is that they LOVE to sing. In every bar or pub we visited, everyone would be singing along with the music. People were up dancing; these were not the kind of bars where you could sit down and talk. Irish people also like to start their parties pretty early; most of the pubs closed at 12.

Our second day in Ireland was St. Patty’s Day. We got up early because we were under the impression that festivities would last all day, but that wasn’t really the case. We ended up spending the morning buying St. Patty’s Day accessories and walking around the city. Again, it was quite warm and we spent most of the day outdoors. The parade began at 1 and was about the least impressive parade I have ever seen in my life. The parade was definitely geared toward children, but there was not even candy. There were no floats, just people walking. Everyone was out of work and school though, in Cork St. Patty’s Day is a bank holiday. Most of the city was closed. After the parade and eating a quick, late lunch, the pubs opened their doors early for the holiday. We spent the afternoon/evening/night visiting different pubs and meeting a lot of people. Every place was completely packed, playing music (including traditional Irish music-which I loved), and busy with singing and dancing. It was a great holiday, although, as reported I think we have bigger celebrations in the States.

On Friday, at Carly’s urging, we signed up for the Paddywagon tour. This was a tour that began at 8:15 am and lasted all day, driving you through the Irish countryside, the Cliffs of Moor, and the Burren.  There are a lot of pictures online and I suggest that you check them out. Words cannot describe how insanely beautiful this trip was. The stone walls, small cottages, cliffs, and fields of green grass are straight from a storybook or movie. The bus ride was a little dangerous and windy driving down the coastal roads. Everyone was feeling very queasy and Carly had a very hard time. The tour was a perfect activity though, because we got to snooze on the bus ride and see some truly beautiful parts of the country.

After celebrating St. Patty’s Day then spending the day on the bus, we were all feeling a little ragged. Our plane for Amsterdam left at 6:00 am Saturday morning so we, of course, did not feel that we needed a hostel for Friday night. Our thought process was that we would go out on Friday night, and then head straight to the airport to catch our flight. However, we were so tired and dirty that no one wanted to go out. We tried to doze in the lounge of our hostel, but were eventually kicked out for some unknown reason. With nowhere else to go, we headed straight to the airport, which was completely deserted since it was about 11:00 pm. Since it was so late and flights were not departing for several hours, security was closed, meaning we could not get through to the comfy benches/chairs. This left us sitting on some wooden benches and chairs, sleeping sitting up for the next four hours. Not the most pleasant experience, but at least we saved ourselves some money. Traveling is not for the faint of heart!

This is unrelated to the trip, but I would like to share this story nonetheless. As we were eating breakfast on St. Patrick's Day, I noticed that a guy in our hostel was wearing a fraternity shirt that a lot of my friends have. I knew it was from SEMO, but I thought it would be too random if he went to my school, so I assumed maybe another school had the same shirt. Eventually, I asked him about it. Turns out, he was originally from St. Louis and goes to school at Eastern. He got the shirt last year on Spring Break in Panama City, trading it for one of his frat shirts from his school. Small world.

London Town

Hello again my faithful readers! If you are returning after reading the novel that was my Prague trip, I thank you and hope I am not boring you too much! This past weekend, my friend Julie and I took our first solo trip to London. After traveling to Prague and in such a large group, we were prepared for a very different type of trip, which is exactly what we got.

To begin our trip, we started researching hostels. After a bit of research, we discovered that London is an insanely expensive city. London uses the Pound, which is even stronger than the Euro. The exchange rate to US dollars is about 1.7, meaning things basically cost double. Additionally, no hostel we looked at had above an 80 percent rating and London is a huge city so location was very important. After all these setbacks, we decided to try couch surfing.

Basically,couchsurfing is an online community of travelers who open their homes and couches to those passing through their city. After going online and creating a profile, you can send out requests and hope someone agrees to host you in their home. After some searching, a guy named Samuel Carter agreed to host us for Thursday night and we arranged to stay with a young couple on Friday and Saturday. Our friends were a bit skeptical, but we were determined everything would work out. Based on location, we ended up spending the entire weekend with Samuel. It was a very interesting experience and it really exposed us to a lot of English culture we would not have experienced otherwise. We watched their TV shows, listened to their music, etc. It was also very helpful to have someone to help us navigate and find our way around.

We set out for our journey after class on Thursday afternoon. We got to the airport, checked in, and boarded the plane with no problem. After boarding the plane, we were informed that the airport we were flying into, London City, was closed due to the fact that a helicopter had to make an emergency landing and was blocking the runways. This created congestion in the airport. First, all the planes that were already in the air were allowed to land first, after the helicopter was cleared. This meant we sat on the runway for about two hours, waiting to take-off until we were given a landing slot. As I have mentioned so many times, Dutch and Europeans in general are so much more patient and this really showed that. In the United States, if a plane full of people were told they had to sit on the runway for two hours, people would lose it. I imagine a good majority of people would have left the plane, while the rest complained and griped loudly. On this plane, however; one man expressed concern about missing a connecting flight, but after being assured he would be accommodated, was very relaxed. Everyone else stayed on the plane, calmly making one or two cell phone calls to inform people they would be late. No one got angry or aggressive toward the flight staff. Julie and I sat and ate some snacks we had brought on the plane. We also began talking to the guys behind us who were from Boston. Through our travels, we have developed the skill to spot Americans from far away. We enjoyed talking with them and it helped pass the time.

After arriving in London, we made our way to Samuel’s flat very easily with the directions he gave us. That night, he took us out to some local pubs and introduced us to some of his friends. We had a very good time hanging out with them. Afterward, we returned home to sleep because we were so tired from traveling. Julie and I were pleased to find Samuel’s roommate was out of town so we had our own room for the weekend!

On Friday, we got up and had a traditional English breakfast or “fry up.” This consists of eggs, toast, hash browns, wonderful bacon, sausage, and beans. Most English food is not that good. The breakfast was alright and the bacon was fantastic; extra thick. After having breakfast and coffee, we set out to go sight-seeing. The weather in London was beautiful. It was a wonderful sunny day and we were happy to be out walking around. We saw Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Horse Guards Parade, and Hyde Park. Being the non-tourists that we are, we managed to accomplish all of our sight-seeing in about four hours. We spent most of the day walking through London’s beautiful parks and enjoying the weather. We even snacked on ice cream! After sight-seeing we went to High Street to do a little shopping at Top Shop. Top Shop was a little more expensive than we expected and with the unfavorable exchange rate we were hesitant to buy anything. Before we could make it around the entire store, an announcement came on stating, “Leave the store immediately. Please find the nearest exit. Do not run.” Of course, I never would have thought of running until they said “don’t run”, but we had no idea what was going on so we calmly made our way out of the store. All the fire escapes were opened and even the employees were evacuated. Our hosts later told us this was most likely due to a bomb threat, as Top Shop is a huge, crowded store. We still do not know exactly why the store was cleared; it was an odd experience. We vowed to return to High Street, but we got distracted with so much other shopping that we never made it back. After a long day we returned to our host’s home. We were all tired from our long day and Julie and I wanted to get up early the next day to get discount theater tickets. We all decided to have a “chill” night and order pizza, play video games, and watch movies. Julie and I were over the moon to find that they had Pizza Hut and, even better, coupons. Our pizza was delicious and it finally satisfied our craving for “real” pizza!

Our mission for Saturday was shopping and show day. We got up early (later than planned due to alarm malfunction) by our standards at 9:45 am. We made our way to the theater district and got tickets to the matinee of Chicago for 19 pounds. This is probably the most reasonably priced item we purchased. With a few hours to spare before our show, we headed down to Portobello Road to shop at the street markets and thrift shops. We spent the rest of our morning browsing and eating food from street vendors. We bought strawberries and bananas covered in chocolate and Julie filled her craving for steak by finding a delicious steak sandwich. I got a seafood basket for four pounds, containing shrimp scampi, fried fish, fried crab, and delicious sauce. It was awesome! In addition to our wallets, I found a great new watch for fifteen pounds. After finishing at Portobello Road, Julie had to have Starbucks. After going on a rant about what a rip-off Starbucks was, I found myself inside with Julie dying for a coffee. Eating my words, I paid the price for an iced white chocolate mocha and it was worth every penny! Sometimes it’s nice to be able to have your old favorites! After our Starbucks treat, we walked through the Notting Hill and Kensington Gardens area. This is the nicer part of London and it is just beautiful! Check pictures on my Facebook.

Now it was time for our show. We made our way to the Cambridge Theater for Chicago. It was simply wonderful. Julie and I were just falling out of our seats singing and dancing along with the show. We were both very pleased that we saw Chicago instead of Wicked, because we have both already seen Wicked. We felt that the show was cast really well and thoroughly enjoyed seeing it onstage. Chicago is a truly amazing show in that it is exclusively a showcase of singing and dancing. The characters wear the same costumes for the duration of the show, dressed in all black, and use no props. It is not a production like many other shows, but it is great. At this particular theater, the orchestra took up a majority of the stage so that the show was performed in front of the curtain the entire time. It was an excellent performance and I highly recommend it!

After the show, we went to another part of the city called Camden to shop. This is a quirky area of town with lots of different types of shops. Though we didn’t buy anything, it was really great to see. Our original goal was to go out this night, so we headed down to central London and asked some people for suggestions. After much time and difficulty finding an affordable restaurant, we had a quick dinner during which we decided to hike back to our host’s flat to change before going out. On the way home, however; we noticed we were getting very tired. After some discussion, we decided to spend the night in and save our money for shopping the next day.

On Sunday, our flight was scheduled for 6 pm. Wanting to make the most of our day, we got up, packed out backpacks and headed out for the day. Originally, we planned to shop at Brick Lane and High Street. After making it to Brick Lane, we were overwhelmed and overjoyed at what we found! Not only was there a whole market of street food but it was a whole market with tons of booths selling everything at (semi) reasonable prices. We immediately became absorbed in this and spent hours falling in love with items, contemplating if we should buy them, going back to buy them, and snacking in between. I ended up buying some really cool shirts, a dress, a fish necklace, and a really funky pair of earrings. Julie did equally as well. We made pretty good shopping partners and managed to spend most of our money.

After tearing ourselves away from Brick Lane, we made our way to the airport, after buying a train ticket for 9.50 pounds (20 USD)!!! London is so expensive. After getting stopped in security for having extra liquids, we made our way back to Amsterdam. After returning home it was time to finish a group project and presentation for the next day…it was nice to forget about school for awhile though!

Sorry for the delay in posting! Up next: Carly’s visit, Awakenings in Rotterdam (concert), and St. Patty’s Day in Ireland. Stay tuned faithful readers!

Sending love from Amsterdam and wishing everyone as much happiness and excitement as I am feeling knowing Carly will be here in 2 days!

PS: I love, love, love getting everyone's mail! My room is decked out in St. Patty's day decor thanks to Grandma Jenny and I love all the pictures from Mom. Thank you all so much!!