Paris!

Soooo it's taken me a long time to update about Paris. It's not that I didn't love it, because i adored every second of it, I just knew that it would take me so long i dreaded writing about it. Butttt, here I go!! So Carnival lasted until Tuesday night and we were supposed to leave for the Paris early the next morning. Monday morning there was a horrible train crash in Belgium, which really isn't far from us. It was kinda scary. We were trying to get to Paris as cheaply as possible so this kind of ruined our plans. We were hectically trying to find a way to Paris through Germany, Luxembourg, whatever we could find. The night before we left there were really no trains even going through Belgium. We woke up early and got to the train station at about 9 o'clock and just hoped for the best. Thank God the trains were working. Our route was Maastricht to Brussels, Brussels to Lille, and then Lille to Paris. The train from Lille to Paris was only 3 euro so it was by far the cheapest route. We got to Brussels and all trains to Lille were cancelled. of courseeee. So the guy in Brussels tells us this, "There is a train to Gent in two minutes. Once you get to Gent take the train on platform __ to Lille and then to Paris." So of course, two minutes means run.. So there we are, five American girls with huge backpacks running through a major international train station. It was hysterical. The train was actually delayed so we ran for nothing but it was fun anyway. :) We got to Lille and then headed to Paris. It took us about six hours but it was all worth it. We were so excited to get to France. We ended up walking around for a while but that's ok. We went to the wrong hostel, missed our street twice, and then finally got there. We rested for a little while and then headed out to get some dinner and dessert (Jill and i got ice cream, so good). We went to bed pretty early that night because we were all beat. The next morning we woke up and headed out to our free tour. But not before we stopped at a crepe stand and had our first crepes!! soo very yummy. Mine had nutella and bananas. So amazing. Then we went on our NewEurope tour. We love these things. We have now been on three and it is so worth it. It takes up time, you see so much, and you only tip the tour guide. We saw a lot on our tour. We loved it! We had a tour guide from New Zealand. He took us to Notre Dame, the Louvre courtyard, lunch at this cute little sandwich shop, and so much more. We went to the artisans bridge or the painter's bridge. All along the bridge there are little locks. This was probably the most romantic thing in Paris. This is the spot that Big finally tells Carrie that "she's the one" at the end of Sex and the City. Two people will come to this bridge and take a lock and "lock their love" on the bridge and throw the key into the Seine. So sweet! I thought it was cute!!He ended the tour about a fifteen minute walk from the Eiffel Tower. SO DUHH!! we went to the tower. It was unreal. It didn't actually seem real to me until we were there. It is the most recognizable landmark in the world apparently. We took so many pictures it was kinda ridiculous. After that, we went back to the hostel to relax for a little while. We do a lot of walking. :) We decided to go back to Notre Dame and look inside and take some more pictures. Well we did that, but ended up getting to go to an evening service. Of course, everything was in French and it was all song and we had no idea what was going on but it was amazing. Just to know that we actually went to Notre Dame and sat through a church service is unreal. It was absolutely gorgeous and I will never forget it. By this time, we are starving. We are in the Latin quarter which is by the university, so everything is cheaper than the rest of Paris. Notice i said cheaper and not cheap. Nothing is cheap in Paris. Seriously, unless you want to eat a crepe for every meal, bring money. So we had dinner at this cute little restaurant. Three courses. I had French onion soup, spaghetti bolognese, and an apple tart. Usually dessert is always my favorite but this time it was the soup. It was delicious! We drank some wine and laughed and it was a great girls dinner. After that, we went back to the hotel to prepare for our next day. We foolishly made the mistake of planning Versailles and the Louvre in one day. We woke up and took a train to Versailles. We decided to try and get in because residents and citizens of the EU under 26 get in for free. Sooo we decided that since we are students residing in the EU we should get this privilege. The first guard let us in with just our student ids. After that, we didn't get far. We were hoping for someone who was unfamiliar with the rule maybe? well we got a guard that said if we were on the 3 month program we had to pay but if we were in the 6 month or 1 year program then we could get in for free. We had to show him our passports or our visas. O dear. So we had to get in line for the tickets and pay 15 euro to see Versailles. But it was completely worth it. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, but I was blown away. It was absolutely gorgeous. Gold everywhere, beautiful paintings, huge beds, one of a kind chandeliers and everything. I adored this place. We took a quick stroll through the gardens and headed back to town. It was getting later and we were all starving. We ended up going to the sandwich shop we were in the day before, before heading back to the Louvre. Let me first say, The Louvre is basically my dream. I love going to museums, I love art, and since the Louvre is the biggest museum in the world, how could it not be on my things to do before i die list? Unfortunately, we only had about 2 and half hours in the Louvre. That may seem like a lot but when you have thousands of years of history in art work, its not a lot of time. So we all went our separate ways to do our own thing. Of course, the first stop is the Mona Lisa. It was packed of course, and it had its own wall which was funny but i loved it. So many people say they are disappointed but i still loved her. She has a mystery and I was hooked. But there was so much to see! Being a painting girl myself, I decided to see all of them... and I did! Italian paintings were my favorite. So big, so famous, so great. Then French paintings, no impressionism which i was sad about, but they were still amazing. Then i went to the rest of the European paintings. Cam and I are doing a project for Dutch Art History on Rubens so I found the Rubens room and saw some of his paintings. Then I stopped by the sculpture places on my way out. I think it was a very successful short Louvre trip. I can't wait to go back and I will be back one of these days!! So then, we decided to hang out for a bit before going back to the hotel. We decided to go to the Arc de Triomphe because it has a beautiful view at night. After a scary walk up the stairs, we immediately knew it was worth it. It was so amazing. I took so many pictures and they all look like postcards. It was so fun! After the Arc, we were hungry. We wanted to go out to a nice dinner but decided not to. We ended up going to McDonald's instead. Totally worth it. We went back to the hotel and passed out after a super long day. The next morning we decided to split up. Cam and Deck wanted to go see Napoleon's grave, Jill Ellen and I wanted to go see Moulin Rouge. We got crepes again and went to the Moulin Rouge to take a picture. :) Then Ellen went shopping and Jill and I went to go see if we could see Napoleon's tomb as well. First we went by the opera house. It is supposedly where the Phantom of the Opera legend comes from. Well of course I'm going to go! i love love Phantom. That is where the first picture is taken. on the steps of the opera house! Then headed to the tomb. We ran into Cam and Deck while looking for his grave. You had to pay to go see him so we decided not to. We had lunch (savory crepes, probably one of my favorite things so far!) and headed to the train station after a wonderful few days in Paris. Turns out we should have booked before hand so we had to pay to get a first class ticket to Lille. oo well. Jill Ellen and I made it back home that night while Cam and Deck had to stay the night in Brussels. Luckily we had planned an extra day just in case that happened. Paris was wonderful and it was definitely my favorite city so far! I would love to go back even this trip. Who knows, maybe I'll get to Disney Land Paris. o gosh i wanna go!

Asterdam and Carnival!!

i know i know i know.... i haven't posted in a while! I apologize! but here I am now. :) Last weekend we went to Amsterdam for two days. Since it is so close, we figured we would probably be back sometime so we went for a quick trip. We all went at separate times so Cam, Jill, and I went first because we were ready. We hopped on the train in Maastricht to Amsterdam. About halfway through our two and half hour train, the lady came on the speakers to tell us that if we were going to Amsterdam central (we were) that we needed to get off the train and go to platform 8. Well i was the only one awake at this point so i woke Jill and cam up and we went to platform 8. The sign said Amsterdam Central so we went to the platform but the train wasn't there and so we went back down where it was warm. When we went back down, it said Rotterdam Central and we were thoroughly confused. We got on the train anyway thinking it would stop in Amsterdam.. that was dumb. We ended up in Rotterdam and had to take an hour train back to Amsterdam. Stupid intercom lady! But we got there eventually but were the last ones. o well! We walked around a little bit before heading to our hostel. We just wanted to see the city a little bit! We made it to our hostel after running into the rest of our group. We were staying in the Shelter City Christian Hostel. It looked nice and it was pretty inexpensive. When we got there, the reception told us that it was hostel night and they would be giving a free dinner and dessert night. Well of course we went! Free food! duh! so we went to the hostel night and got to meet some people. One girl from Korea that was traveling by herself around Europe. One girl from America that lived in New York for a while and then moved to Amsterdam because if they work at the hostel, they can stay there for free. Just clean and cook and free room and board! Pretty cool. And then a couple of German guys that would talk in German and snicker to each other every now and then. They made me laugh. So we had a free meal and then stayed for dessert. We watched Rob Bell's "trees" video. It was interesting to us because that is pretty much the first taste of other people in Europe that talk about Christianity. I enjoyed it a lot. And Rob Bell? apparently universal! haha. But we had dinner and dessert and then met the rest of the group at a bar. When we left there, we split up because everyone wanted to do different things. Jill and I saw a Mexican Cantina right next to our hostel. We had been craving margaritas for dayss. So we went in! We got margaritas, chips and salsa, guacamole and some sangria. It was wonderful. We loved every second of it! We were so excited. And everything was delicious! After that, we met everyone back at the hostel and crashed. The next morning, we woke up and had breakfast and Jill, Cam, Decker, Ellen and I all went to the Anne Frank house. That was incredible. We actually got to walk in the annex and see all their rooms and videos of friends and everything. Probably my favorite part of Amsterdam. Such history of real people and such difficult circumstances. After that, we met up with everyone and started the New Amsterdam tour. We love these tours. They are free and so good! SO we started the tour and left early because Jill and I really wanted to go to the Van Gogh museum. SO we broke apart from the group and headed to the Van Gogh museum. Pretty cool at first but we were definitely expecting more. Haha So after that we were going to meet up with the group again. But we waited and we must have been early so we never saw them. So we just got on the train to head back to Maas. We made it fine and were glad to be home! We liked Amsterdam but it is always good to have a home base!!

Carnival!!!

So Carnival. haha it is so fun. They always tell you it is a big drunken Halloween for three days. That is about right. You start seeing costumes as early as Thursday when it starts on Sunday. We were riding the train back on Saturday and had a parade down the aisles of the train because of people celebrating carnival! Sunday we slept in and got dressed to go out. We went to the Vrijtolf which is downtown Maastricht. So many people and everyone dressed up. We were all freezing and we were told not to wear coats or people would get mad at us! So there we are in cheap costumes in weather in the thirties. awesome. haha but we got used to it and then just froze again. There were these things that were like funnel cakes but just balled up. They serve them with powdered sugar. We called them dough balls and i'm not entirely sure what the real name of them are. But they were selling them for 1 euro a piece so we ate those alot. We were also told that nothing would be open. Not the grocery, not clothes shops, not restaurants, nothing. Well mostly it was true. Restaurants are open because they want the carnival business. All shops are closed but on Monday, the grocery was open. We were soo excited to have good food. We had been eating out because we stupidly didn't get groceries before carnival. But we did! and it was great! we stopped eating kebabs and pizza. and ate sandwiches and salads. soo much better. The ending day of carnival we all went down to the square again and watched everyone in the town sing and be sad when the lady of carnival came down. We went out dancing and came home to catch the early train to paris!! :)

Berlin!

This weekend we went to Berlin, Germany. We had already been to Maunshau and so we were ready for another German city! We had to make train reservations and book our hostel in advance so we were ready. Ellen, Reid, and Zach went a little early to go get train reservations and spend the afternoon in Liege. I waited till Kat and Jenna were out of class and then met up with them in Liege. Jill ended up leaving by herself to Liege (about a 25 minute train ride) because we were worried there wouldn't be any spots left on the train but everyone got a seat. Then Decker and Cam met up with us at the train station in Maas. Then we left! We took the 409 train leaving Maastricht and changed trains in Liege and again in Koln. We got to Berlin at 11:08 at night. Our hostel closed the reception desk at midnight so we had to high tail it over to our hostel. We ended up taking a taxi but got there on time! That night we all pretty much crashed and went straight to bed. our hostel was interesting. It wasnt very nice but we only really wanted a bed to sleep in and we got that! And we only paid about 6 euro a night. Which is less than 9 dollars. so we were pretty happy that we didn't spend alot considering we had to pay for train reservations. So the next day we woke up and decided to go on a walking tour of Berlin. We were staying in West Berlin and the tour started right on the border of East and West. We started walking and ended up getting there about two hours later after being lost for a little while. But it was fun! it was sooo cold. We really didn't think that much about it but it was freezing. And all the sidewalks are pure ice. They don't really salt their sidewalks they just wait until they freeze and cover them with gravel. But that doesn't work sometimes. I fell probably 5 times. It was hilarious but at the same time i am a little bruised. By the time we got to the tour, we had missed it. :( but we had some starbucks and caught the same tour the next time around. We went on the New Berlin walking tour. It is done in English and the whole tour is free. they took us to Brandenburg gate, the Berlin Wall, Hitler's bunker, and a bunch of other places that were just as historic. It was a long tour but totally worth it. We got to know a lot of history of Berlin. When we got back to the hostel after some confused metro riding, we were all exhausted. We stayed close to home and ate some pizza or kababs or chicken, whatever was in the nearest kiosk near the hostel. We all fell asleep and overslept actually. We woke up at 10:20 and were supposed to meet the boys at 10. So we missed our tours for the day but thats ok. We kind of did our own thing and split up. Half of us went on a Potsdam tour and saw a bunch of castles in Berlin. The group i was in decided to go to Sauchsenhausen. It is located in Oranienburg, Germany about 30 km north of Berlin. It was a concentration camp back in WWII. We decided to go because 1) cam has to go to a concentration camp for an independent study she is doing, and 2) none of us had ever been to one. I have been to the Holocaust museum in D.C. but going to the actual place was so different. We split up to see everything and it ended up just Camille and I walking around looking at all the stories, and all the exhibits. They still have all the original buildings and watch towers and fencing everywhere. It was said to have housed over 100,000 prisoners duriing the years it was open. It was a Nazi concentration camp as well as a Soviet Special camp. Everything is just so eerie. Everything happened almost 70 years ago but it is still so serious and ominous. I'm so glad i went though. It is such an eye opener and i don't think i'll think about it the same way. In 2003, there was a bottle found that had a letter in it. It was a letter written from a prisoner during the time when it was a concentration camp. He had written a letter to his wife telling her how he missed her and loved her. It was left there because obviously it could not have gotten to her but they didn't find it until 60 years later. SO sad. We headed back to the hostel and then headed out for the night. We went to a pub crawl run by the same people that did our free tour. Berlin is said to have some of the best nightlife, many clubs not closing till 8 in the morning. We had so much fun. We danced alot and met alot of fun people. We went to bed exhausted again and got up at 9 to head back to Maas. We barely caught our train and left at 1030 and got home at 830. It took alot longer because we didn't want to have to pay for a train back but it was worth it. We got home and i showered and crashed! It was a great trip and we learned alot about traveling, which i think is the point of the first weekend trip. I didn't feel like we missed anything and can now know what to do and not to do for next time!

Monschau

On saturday, we went to this cute little German town called Monschau. It was about a two hour bus ride, so of course i fell asleep. When i woke up, we were driving through the mountains in what seemed like a blizzard. It was absolutely gorgeous. I started taking pictures in the bus and was having so much fun. ha. We get there after a short detour because our bus could not fit on the small streets. We had a super wonderful traditional German meal, schnitzel and hush puppies. The German waiter was so nice and i think he was a little overwhelmed with 40 Americans coming in to his restaurant on a random saturday afternoon when all the shops were closed because of all the snow. But it was so much fun. After lunch, we had a tour guide show us around the sweet little town and sampled some of the signature dishes in Monschau. Some were great, like the truffles and white elephants, and some were iffy, like the pork bread with butter? Not so sure about that one. Then we walked back to the bus because we were all freezing. When the bus wasn't there, we were entertained by cami and zach jumping head first into the snow. When the bus finally got there, we were all ready to leave but loved our quick trip to Germany. Here are some pictures!