Amsterdam- The Rose of Love

Ok, so Amsterdam has absolutely nothing to do with the “Rose of Love.” But this is a pretty funny story. Awkward, but funny. We booked this cheap hostel in Amsterdam…a private room because it aas actually the cheapest option. And it worked out perfect. But when we got to the Amsterdam Inn, Bed and Breakfast, we found the staff to be slightly awkward. The whole city has a strange aura to it. But this was like something from a creepy strange movie. We got to our room and found a double bed for me and Keith to share rather than 2 singles like we thought. We’re friends, so not too awkward…EXCEPT that the bedspread and pillows were red and covered in roses with “Rose of Love” written in fancy romantic writing. When the guy left we died laughing. It was like some cheap cheesy honeymoon room (with an extra bed?), and Keith and I had to sleep here, together. Strange…

We bought a UK converter to charge phones and my camera battery. But it didn’t work, so Keith and I took it apart, found the problem, and MacGyvered it to make it work…and it did! I say “we” but it was more of Keith, I just helped a little haha. I charged my camera while at dinner, so I have some pictures here haha. But we explored the city, unfortunately finding Anne Frank’s house (I HATED that book and didn’t really want to have anything more to do with it), and went to this carnival thing. I wasn’t feeling too well and the mixture of heights and spinning would just not mix well with my queasy stomach. So I passed on the swings. We went back to our lovely hostel room for the night and went to sleep.

The next day we took a bus out to this little hamlet village called Zaanse Schans. They have all these windmills out there and we were able to tour a mill where they make peanut oil. We got this great Dutch sweet bread…mine was cinnamon flavored and VERY good. We had a great time there, and I’m actually typing this from our train to Munich. Everything has been great so far (other than the weird hostel room last night…). I’ve had a mix of dead battery and internet problems the past few days, so that’s why all these have been posted at the same time haha. Hopefully I won’t run into anymore internet problems, and we have our outlet adapter problems fixed, so I’ll be able to keep in touch more. I haven’t checked my email in a little bit, so I apologize if I haven’t gotten back to someone yet, but I will soon. Miss you all and can’t wait to see you soon!

Brussels

Well we made it to Brussels and after a confusing journey through the city finally found our hostel. It was so much nicer than the one in Paris, and a lot cheaper too haha. Oh well, I guess that’s just the nature of Paris. We got there earlier than we thought, but our Clemson friend in town, Helena Williams (in one of Keith’s classes, and friends with Lauren) wasn’t feeling well so we set off on our own. My camera battery died (320 pictures and some videos in Paris…), and our UK to Europe outlet converter didn’t actually fit so I had no camera during Brussels. I’ll try to steal some pictures from Keith and post them. But we walked around and saw a good bit of the city, then made our way back to the hostel.

Thankfully on Monday Helena was feeling better. She met us at the Mannekin Pis, which is this famous statue/fountain in Brussels of this little kid peeing…quite entertaining. It was nice to catch up with another Clemson student. She showed us these Belgian waffles which were INCREDIBLE! I got bananas, whipped cream, and chocolate on mine, and it was just amazing. I don’t know if I can ever eat another waffle again because it will just never live up (just kidding…I’m heading to Waffle House very soon once I get home for a waffle and some hashbrowns, smothered and covered!). But she took us out to the Triumphal Arch and the EU corridor, then she had to leave for other things she had to do that afternoon. We walked around for a while longer, found some AMAZING chocolate (yeah, you can be jealous…), then went off to the train station. Brussels was beautiful, especially the Grand Plaza/Grote Market. Really cool, but I’m jealous we didn’t get to see it with all the flower gardens. Victor Hugo said this sight was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. But they only come out at a certain time of year.

Sorry about my failure with the camera haha. I’ll steal some pictures and post them soon. Hope everyone is doing well back home! 2 cities down…

Paris Day 2

Well, thankfully for our second night in Paris we had the room to ourselves. So far I haven’t had trouble getting up early. I’ve actually enjoyed the time to myself to relax and start my day the right way. But we got everything packed up, ate a little breakfast, stored our stuff in the luggage closet there at the hostel, and headed off to the Louvre with our tour guide again…thanks SO much James!!!! We got there and luckily this was like First Sunday or Open Day or something like that so we got in free. We had a great time in there! It was really cool (and kinda weird) to walk through and see all these famous paintings I learned about in school, and they were RIGHT in front of me. Unfortunately I hated those art classes so some bad memories were brought up as well haha! The Mona Lisa was cool to see…sorta. It’s more of a tourist attraction than an art piece. They have it roped off, glass or some kind of protective covering all around it, and lots of guards. People just get as close as they can to snap a picture or two, then get shoved out of the way. It’s a huge mob there, all fighting and pushing towards the front. But the rest was really cool. We got to Napoleon III’s apartments and James (Lauren’s cousin) and I had a pretty funny moment. There was this beautiful Vanity Desk (I think that’s what it’s called…makeup stand and mirror). It was crystal, outlined in gold, with a matching chair. Very beautiful and ornate. I turned with a comment on the tip of my tongue, and as I turned to James he beat me to it. He looked at me and said “You should ask Lauren if she wants one of these!” I died laughing, then told him how I was about to say something along the exact same lines, and we both cracked up.

After the Louvre we did a little shopping in the side stores, made our way down the famous Champs Elysees and up to the Triumphal Arch. It was a beautiful day, but unfortunately we had to reserve an earlier train than we thought so we had to leave. We grabbed our bags and set off for the train station. We said goodbye to James, thanked him for everything (which was more than we could have imagined…we all agreed that he made Paris amazing for us). We had a great time and I left Paris VERY impressed. Now on to Brussels…

A day in Paris...

Wow, Paris is a pretty sweet city! Walking through it in the dark last night was not too much fun and we were in a rush to make our check-in time at the hostel. However, we woke up today, ate breakfast and met my friend James. James is Lauren's (girlfriend) cousin who currently is studying/working in Paris, teaching French as part of finishing his masters degree. He had the weekend free and thankfull was willing to show us around the city. We were so thankful to have someone who not only knew the city but also spoke French. I cannot thank him enough for getting us around the city...he was incredible today! I honestly don't know what we would have done without him.

Well we met this morning and started heading out to Versailles, which is the palace built by Louis XIV. The palace was incredible! Louis was not shy about his wealth and loved showing everyone how much gold he had haha. The gates are covered in gold, part of the palace, statues and busts, and so many other things. We saw so much gold today haha. We toured the palace, then walked through the gardens and around Hamlet, which is this little village area built by Marie Antoinette. Apparently she went from party girl to shepherdess and decided to build this whole village for her shepherdess stuff. She also didn't want to live in the palace, so she built her own little area. The entire estate was pretty cool...gardens, fountains, palaces, houses, villages, and everything you can imagine. Huge, elegant, ornate, and very cool. And now I see why France went bankrupt after Louis finished...

After Paris we found some lunch, then walked to Notre Dame, booked our seats for our train to Brussels tomorrow, and set off for the Eiffel Tower. We got there at dark (we spend a lot of the day at Versailles...the place was huge and definitley an all day trip). The tower was lit up, and we were able to go all the way to the top. Me being scared of heights, I was terrified the entire time. But it was very cool at the top. We got a nice view of the city (which is huge!), and I'm pretty sure I felt the tower swaying up at the top...it's so tall that I wouldn't be surprised. Every hour they do something very cool. All along the outside of the tower are light bulbs (besides the ones lighting it up at night). On the hour for about 5 minutes, these light bulbs flash, so it looks like the tower is sparkling...very cool! I'm gonna try to figure out how to load a video of it on here so you can see. But the Eiffel Tower was very cool, and definitely worth going to the top.

This has been a very busy day, and an amazing day thanks to James! We worked our way through Paris, covered most of the things we wanted to cover, and now I'm exhausted and am going to crash in bed after a great day. My feet are killing me, but I hate to think about what it would be like if I didn't have these new hiking shoes. Support and padding were two things I did not have in my old tennis shoes. These are great, and I don't know if I would have survived this trip without them. Tomorrow we are heading to the Louvre in the morning, then jumping on the 2:25pm train to Brussels. I hope we can get through all of the Louvre in time, and I hope the lines aren't too long. Its opening day or something tomorrow, so we can actually get in free (always good news for a college student)! I still can't thank James enough for what he did for us today. We would have never made it without him, and I am so glad we were blessed to have him. Tomorrow hopefully will be a nice relaxing day...walk around the Louvre for a few hours, grab our bags, and jump on a train to Brussels. We're actually getting there earlier than we thought, so hopefully that will translate into extra time to relax and hang out with friends. Check back soon for pictures if they aren't already up! Sorry, I'm just too tired to load them from my camera tonight, then load them onto here, but I'll do it tomorrow. Now off to bed before finishing up Paris then on to Brussels...

Paris!

Well I made it to Paris! This Spring Break trip across Europe should definitely be interesting! I got out of class at 12 on Friday, finished packing up some little things, then jumped on a train out to the airport and flew into Paris. We have 2 weeks to travel across Europe, hitting Brussels, Amsterdam, Munich, Interlaken (Switzerland), Geneva, Nice (France), Florence, Pisa, Rome, and Venice. Saturday night we're flying back into London. We'll be too late to catch the midnight train, so we have a hostel in London, then we're spending all of Sunday in London before catching an overnight bus back to Glasgow. We'll get back Monday morning at 7:15 haha. So pretty much every second of Spring Break will be used during this trip. But it should be a lot of fun! I'm so excited to begin this trip.
Well we thought our flight was going to be a little delayed, but we ended up leaving on time. We got into Beauvais (outside of Paris...it's the small airport RyanAir flies into). We had to wait on a friend who was joining us from Spain where she is studying abroad this semester. Her flight was actually delayed 2 1/2 hours, so we didn't actually get into Paris until close to 11:00. We got off our bus then had the nice task of finding our way around the city. I honestly was not expecting much. I've had so many people tell me that Paris was a dirty city, the people were unfriendly and rude, and it was just an overall bad experience. However, we got off the bus and walked to an intersection. We started looking at this city map when a couple walked up to us and asked if we needed help with anything. We told them that we were looking for our hostel, showed them the name and address, and they tried to help us find it. When we couldn't find it on the map the man actually pulled out his phone, called the hostel, and got us step by step directions to the hostel. He told us exactly how to get through the subway system, and exactly which stops to take and where to change trains. He then explained exactly how to get to where we needed to go. So right away I am very impressed with the people of Paris. Others may prove otherwise, but that man left a great impression on me, and I am so thankful he stopped to help.
Our hostel isn't the greatest, but what do you expect? Haha it's a youth hostel called Woodstock Hostel, and it isn't in the greatest part of town. But it's a bed, and it's cheap, and it serves all our needs. Tomorrow we are heading to Versailles and hopefully the Eiffel Tower late that afternoon. I'm excited to see that part of the city and I can't wait to see Paris in daylight. So we'll see what tomorrow has in store, especially since we have a guide coming with us who knows what he's doing. Lauren's cousin James is here in Paris studying French. He's coming with us all weekend and showing us around. So we'll not only have someone who knows the city, but also someone who speaks the language. So far it hasn't been to hard and we've managed. But I'm excited about tomorrow and I can't wait to see what all we get to do!

Missing parts of home...

I was talking to Lauren last night and she said something which I think is very true. She said that one of the things I missed most while abroad was the food, and I think she's right. I miss my friends and family, and I miss Clemson, but I really do miss food back home. Now don't get me wrong, I have eaten some fantastic stuff over here. These people know how to do bacon...but it's more like ham haha. And there's plenty of other things here that are great. But Tuesday night I went out to dinner with some friends...they kept raving about this Ultimate Burger at one of the pubs. So I ordered one, and ever since then I've been craving a nice juicy, greasy chili cheeseburger. The Ultimate Burger was pretty good, but it was very dry. So was every other burger I've tried. It's just not juicy, and it's not that it's necessarily overcooked to the point that it's dry, they just don't know how to cook them to where they're juicy and greasy (which I guess in some ways is good...). But I really miss juicy burgers. I miss sweet tea and lemonade. You ask for lemonade here and they bring you Sprite. That's just weird... But I miss onion rings, and fried okra, and meatloaf, and macaroni and cheese, and mashed potatoes and gravy, and ribs, and bbq. I wanna go out to Mema's and have homemade ice cream straight from the ice cream churn...chocolate is the best. And I want to go to a bonfire with friends where we have fried fish, fried pickles, fried chicken, and all other fried things you can imagine (you know how those things go...you try to fry anything and everything around, but most stuff just doesn't work out haha). Lauren was right, I miss the people and places back home, but I have friends here and places to see and enjoy here. But nothing can replace the food. I swear when I get back we're stopping at the Beacon on the way home. I want some sweet tea and a chili cheese-a-plenty. Before I left I joked that the only thing I cared about being at the airport was a glass of sweet tea. I said I didn't care who was there, or how many people were there. Heck, if it was just Mom and Dad and Lauren (which is what I'm expecting honestly), I'll be perfectly happy, as long as the bring me some sweet tea. I joked about that before I left, but not I think it's kinda true. I'm not serious about that part, but I really do want to stop at the Beacon on my way home. The best sweet tea around, and one of the greasiest burgers you'll ever eat. I couldn't imagine anything better....

Random Thoughts...

Well, this weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday, Mike and I ran down to the Starbucks downtown to steal wireless internet from the Apple Store across the street. Mike bought ESPN360 so we can watch basketball games (especially March Madness). However, because of the way internet is set up on campus (something about a proxy server), we can't receive live feeds, so we can't watch the games on campus. The only other problem is that Starbucks here has some strange hours. On Saturdays they close at 8:30. So we can't stay up very late to use the wireless internet and watch games, but trust me, we'll figure something out. There's some benches outside the Apple Store, so you might just catch us down there at 2:00am watching basketball haha!
Other than that, I spent Friday night doing some hw. I have 2 big projects, a 2,500 word essay (about 8-10 pages), and a big class test all due on March 20, with one project due the 19th. This was supposed to be a little more spread out, but a sudden change of plans pushed everything together. Talk about little time and no fun haha. So this weekend was spent studying and doing some work.
Saturday I decided to go out and buy a webcam! So now anyone on Skype (Scott_Banish...search for me) can talk to me with video! It's pretty exciting, and even though the technology isn't the greatest it's still fun!
So random thought here...ever wondered why movies in the US go out of theaters but take so long to come out on DVD? I have. And I've found out that it's due to more than just timing and advertising. Yeah, you want to release movies when they will sell the most (e.g. wait 2 extra months for Christmas time to release a movie), but there's also another factor to consider. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" was released around Christmas in the US. It just now came out in the UK. "Marley and Me" isn't even out yet. "Seven Pounds" was a huge hit when it was finally released here. I could go on and on. But it also goes the other way around. I saw "Taken" sitting in a Blockbuster in Edinburgh before it ever hit theaters in the US. Weird... So I guess it's more than marketing strategies, but you also have to wait for the rest of the world to catch up before releasing movies on DVD.
Anyways, that's all for now. I'll post on here soon about our church experience on Sunday. Let's just say we won't be going back there again haha... I hope everyone is doing well! I love you all! It's hard to believe that 2 months from now I will be starting my exams and getting ready to come home. I'm excited for what's ahead...