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