nadia makes a quick recovery from her sinus and after a pretty good weekend, spring has finally arrived in paris and all the world is good.
so last thing i wrote was about how sickly i was. after finally coming to the conclusion that i must have had an infection i decided it was time to see a doctor. i was purposly avoiding this because of money, awkwardness, and ...money. but going to classes on tuesday and having about 7 people tell me i look like death won me over. i talked to one of the teachers at the center who looked for a doctor near my metro stop and made an appointment for that night. after phonetics i got on the metro and around 650 was looking for the office. i finally found the address..250 something street..but after searching each floor of the building there was NO doctors office. confused, i called teh doctor and asked him where he was and he told his location. again, i looked at the address..and it was right but there was no office. i found a pharmacy and asked them instead and they again told me the SAME ADDRESS. i was about to give up when i finally saw the doctors name printed next to a door that i had not been looking at since it was NEXT to the address that everyone gave me. i went upstairs and he opened the door for me and the office was literally a desk, a wall, and half a room with medical equipment. it was a ONE room doctors office. and he was the only one there. so weird. so he got my info..felt my face, looked into my mouth..and decided i had a sinus. THANK YOU DOCTOR. i told him i needed antibiotics, he prescribed them. this took about 8 minutes. for the next 20 minutes he talked to me about the difference between french and english grammar. in french. i dont even know. finally, i paid the 22 euros and ran back to my apartment for dinner. after dinner i went to the pharmacy and got my meds (antibiotics AND some stuff to clear my nose). and that is how i got all better. :) yay.
the next morning i was refreshed. by that night (st. paddys) i was feeling great and i was just bummed that i couldnt drink. we went out to a bar right by the moulin rouge. its called o'sullivans and it was PACKED and AWESOME. although i did not drink, i was dancing and the night was awesome. but, as always, the metro closed and the night ended. thursday we also went out and ended up NOT leaving the bridge but it was a night of funny events. the people we encounter under the bridge are just great. or sketchy. but looking back is always a great laugh. like thursday for example, these guys were beating the crap out of eachother right in front of us. later on, the guy who got beat up walked past us and we talked to him, realized he was a prick, and almost beat him up ourselves. good times. friday was pretty chill. we had to wake up early saturday for our chartres trip so we had a girls night in a tavern by kims house. they all had ciders and since i wasnt drinking still i just ate all the snacks that came WITH the cider. speaking of food, i think i lost weight because while i was sick, i did not eat. the end.
chartres was pretty nice. the town was cute and the cathedral was really magnificent but the tour bored the hell out of me. the lady mostly talked about the stained glass windows and how each color represented something or other. i dont know. and the cathedral was MAD cold inside. when we finally got outside we were so happy again. we had a FREE lunch :) and it was very good..and got to explore. and then we got home around 5 and prepared to celebrate nicks 22nd birthday.
we went to the sacre coeur to pregame and although it sprinkled a little from time to time, we had fun. after a bit of that we headed to a karaoke bar where doug sang "total eclipse of the heart" and rocked it hahah. it was a lot of fun. we even had REAL french people with us cause dougs host sister brought some friends. woo. then people started heading home cause of the metro but me, lauren, nick, and a few of the guys AND french people decided to stay out. all in all, it was a fantastic night. happy birthday nick. woo.
sunday was BIA day..of course. and study day..and yesterday i ran. woo. it was pretty out and i was feeling good. i cant wait til its warm out everyday. and ive officially booked every flight for spring break!
today was my bad day..tuesday. i had a midterm but i think it went well and the day finally ended at 630. i got on the metro and about halfway through my ride i smelled something horrible. being in paris (especailly in the metro stations) you learn the smell of homelessness. theres a lot of homeless people and once youve walked past enough of them sleeping or lounging around you can recognize the smell pretty easily since its FOUL. and disgusting and SO GROSS. so yes, the second i smelled the digusting smell on my metro i knew right away: homeless person. and i was right. and within 2 minutes everyones scarfs and hands were on their noses. it was quite funny except for the fact that it reeked in there. but no worries, i made it home. and thats about it for now. PEACE
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Sick :(
sorry i havent written in a while..although i seriously doubt anyones even reading this except katrina..thanks kitty. but im been confined to my bed for the past 3 days due to the worst sinus of my life. it was so bad, it even affected my teeth for this reason, i couldnt sleep..yeah cause my freakin teeth were hurting so much. what the hell? thank god i got sick on the weekend so i didnt have to miss school. im hoping that my head stops having sharps pain when i raise it or school wont be going too well tomorrow. thats pretty much all the news. being in bed has helped me catch up with chuck which is def the best show ever. and lauren (my roomie) got her package from her grandparents and she said we can make mac and cheeseeee which would be amazing. other than that..ive been doing homework and trying to rest. illl write more when something interesting goes down..peace
Monday, March 8, 2010
Dublin/Ireland: Where are all the Redheads?!
the flight was mad quick from london to dublin and we actually got there in the daylight! we found our hostel which was called dublin international house and it used to be a nun convent. how fun. it was actually REALLY nice and clean and breakfast was included mmmm. after dropping our stuff off kate and i headed off to find the tourist office because we decided to take a day trip into the country side of ireland. this, of course, was NOT inspired by the countless romantic movies in which a hot irish man with an amazing accent decides to marry you just cause youre both on a beautiful landscape in ireland. nope, really...i mean i wasnt expecting gerard butler to find me on this day trip and make out with me. psh. thatd be silly :) so we booked that and found some food before heading back to our hostel. the only girl in our room at that time was this girl named alison from chicago. shes 25 and backpacking through europe for a year. holyyyy monkey. but she did the pub crawl the night before and recommended it so thats exactly what me and kate did the first night (and the third but ill get to that later).
so dublin has an area called temple bar which is jampacked with bars and clubs. we made our way down o'connell street which we walked up and down probably like 30 times. and guess who we saw at the pub crawl...the AUSSIES. hahaha jk.. they were in poland but thatd be funny. anyway, there was only 7 people on the crawl altogether but it was actually a lot of fun. our leader, louise, was an awesome irish girl. we met two other americans: james and his gf amber who were great! and there was also two german guys..that were odd but hey, they're german haha. so we had a ton of fun the first night, got some food on the way back (I DIDNT GET A KEBAB!! haha) and went to bed.
we woke up for breakfast and went to take the 11 oclock free tour (btw..in case youre wondering why we took all these free tours and went on pub crawls..theres this company called "sandmans new europe" that has these free tours and (not free) pub crawls in most major cities in europe. good deal!) the tour was again, fabulous. our guide, whos name i cannot pronounce cause it was way too irish for me was funny and we learned all about how the mean english took over ireland for 700 years. psh assholes! we saw lots of old buidlings and learned about the famine anndddd other fun stuff. the vikings were actually pretty prominent in the tour because they had ireland for a while too. oh the poor irish. so overall the tour was nice and the city of dublin is awesome. we went to the national museum after that which was aiiight, went to the hostel and asked about a pub that serves authentic irish food. murrays was where we ended up and when i sat down, a group of 4 guys walked past us and i was like "kate, i KNOW those people" but i wasnt sure. and then 15 minutes later tim from PC walked in with like 7 other people from providence and i was like WTFF!!! it was so weird. theyre not even studying abroad. they just decided to come to dublin for spring break. well anyway, that was funny and then we went to hostel to get ready to go out.
alison went out with us and we went to a bar that louise told us about (a band that she knew was playing there). the band is called funzo and they were pretty sick. i even got a cd from them fo' free! after that, we went to the temple bar and guess who i saw?! all the PCers again. so randddom. well anyway, then we lost louise so we went to one more bar before getting...KEBABS..and going to bed.
we woke up mad early cause of our day trip with the paddywagon bus haha. we walked down o'connell..again..and made our way onto the green coach bus and awaited our departure. our driver (AND tour guide) name was seanny and if you have enough imagination to picture an irish hillbilly that was him. he was so funny but dumb as a bell..he knew his facts but he just didnt seem all that educated. it was hysterical. we first stopped in glendalough which was a scenic area with a monastic city. it dated back to some ridiculous date that i have now forgotten but basically this dude secluded himself from the world..HERMIT. there was also some waterfalls and mountains and it was really pretty. then we made our way through wicklow which is where ps-i love you and parts of braveheart were filmed. wooo. and no gerard butler did not greet us :( very sad. it was gorgeous and there was LOTS of sheep. lotttts of them. then we arrived in kilkenny where we saw about 3 churches and a CASTLE. SO COOOOOOL. they were all really old and the actual town was so small and cute. finally, on the way back to dublin we stopped to see the heaviest and one of the oldest tombs in europe! basically, it was two rocks with one more on top of them which served as the entrance to a tomb back in the stone ages. it was pretty cool if you got over the fact that you were looking at a big..rock. we got back to dublin around 7 and decided to do the pub crawl again since it was saturday and we figured the crowd would be bigger. skipping dinner seemed like a good idea at the time....
the pub crawl was a lot more crowded. we met TONS of people..italian, american, australian, canadian, argentinian, and french. it was so great. we had a lot of fun and even louise (our guide from the first crawl) was there! the club at the end was bumping but we left kinda early cause we were tired from our day trip. we got SUBWAY (theres SO many) and went to bed.
OH and by the way, dublin has SOOO SOSOSO many polish people in it. it was great, i heard it everywhere AND there was mad polish stores too..yayy :)
so we woke up...breakfast..and checked out. we had a while til our flight so we went souvenir shopping, ate ANOTHER breakfast and sat by the river liffy cause it was so sunny and warm out. then, sadly, we made our way back up o'connell street for the last time, took the bus to the airport, flew into paris, took forever on a bus to get into paris, got on the metro, and arrived home around 11.
and that concludes my winter break...a great experiance. seeing awesome places and meeting great people. cant wait to travel again!
so dublin has an area called temple bar which is jampacked with bars and clubs. we made our way down o'connell street which we walked up and down probably like 30 times. and guess who we saw at the pub crawl...the AUSSIES. hahaha jk.. they were in poland but thatd be funny. anyway, there was only 7 people on the crawl altogether but it was actually a lot of fun. our leader, louise, was an awesome irish girl. we met two other americans: james and his gf amber who were great! and there was also two german guys..that were odd but hey, they're german haha. so we had a ton of fun the first night, got some food on the way back (I DIDNT GET A KEBAB!! haha) and went to bed.
we woke up for breakfast and went to take the 11 oclock free tour (btw..in case youre wondering why we took all these free tours and went on pub crawls..theres this company called "sandmans new europe" that has these free tours and (not free) pub crawls in most major cities in europe. good deal!) the tour was again, fabulous. our guide, whos name i cannot pronounce cause it was way too irish for me was funny and we learned all about how the mean english took over ireland for 700 years. psh assholes! we saw lots of old buidlings and learned about the famine anndddd other fun stuff. the vikings were actually pretty prominent in the tour because they had ireland for a while too. oh the poor irish. so overall the tour was nice and the city of dublin is awesome. we went to the national museum after that which was aiiight, went to the hostel and asked about a pub that serves authentic irish food. murrays was where we ended up and when i sat down, a group of 4 guys walked past us and i was like "kate, i KNOW those people" but i wasnt sure. and then 15 minutes later tim from PC walked in with like 7 other people from providence and i was like WTFF!!! it was so weird. theyre not even studying abroad. they just decided to come to dublin for spring break. well anyway, that was funny and then we went to hostel to get ready to go out.
alison went out with us and we went to a bar that louise told us about (a band that she knew was playing there). the band is called funzo and they were pretty sick. i even got a cd from them fo' free! after that, we went to the temple bar and guess who i saw?! all the PCers again. so randddom. well anyway, then we lost louise so we went to one more bar before getting...KEBABS..and going to bed.
we woke up mad early cause of our day trip with the paddywagon bus haha. we walked down o'connell..again..and made our way onto the green coach bus and awaited our departure. our driver (AND tour guide) name was seanny and if you have enough imagination to picture an irish hillbilly that was him. he was so funny but dumb as a bell..he knew his facts but he just didnt seem all that educated. it was hysterical. we first stopped in glendalough which was a scenic area with a monastic city. it dated back to some ridiculous date that i have now forgotten but basically this dude secluded himself from the world..HERMIT. there was also some waterfalls and mountains and it was really pretty. then we made our way through wicklow which is where ps-i love you and parts of braveheart were filmed. wooo. and no gerard butler did not greet us :( very sad. it was gorgeous and there was LOTS of sheep. lotttts of them. then we arrived in kilkenny where we saw about 3 churches and a CASTLE. SO COOOOOOL. they were all really old and the actual town was so small and cute. finally, on the way back to dublin we stopped to see the heaviest and one of the oldest tombs in europe! basically, it was two rocks with one more on top of them which served as the entrance to a tomb back in the stone ages. it was pretty cool if you got over the fact that you were looking at a big..rock. we got back to dublin around 7 and decided to do the pub crawl again since it was saturday and we figured the crowd would be bigger. skipping dinner seemed like a good idea at the time....
the pub crawl was a lot more crowded. we met TONS of people..italian, american, australian, canadian, argentinian, and french. it was so great. we had a lot of fun and even louise (our guide from the first crawl) was there! the club at the end was bumping but we left kinda early cause we were tired from our day trip. we got SUBWAY (theres SO many) and went to bed.
OH and by the way, dublin has SOOO SOSOSO many polish people in it. it was great, i heard it everywhere AND there was mad polish stores too..yayy :)
so we woke up...breakfast..and checked out. we had a while til our flight so we went souvenir shopping, ate ANOTHER breakfast and sat by the river liffy cause it was so sunny and warm out. then, sadly, we made our way back up o'connell street for the last time, took the bus to the airport, flew into paris, took forever on a bus to get into paris, got on the metro, and arrived home around 11.
and that concludes my winter break...a great experiance. seeing awesome places and meeting great people. cant wait to travel again!
London: Tours, Tudors, and Tacos
the city of rain..NOT. it didnt rain ONE drop the whole time we were there. so we got in late and my friend tiffany (who went to PC for freshmen year but missed london too much so left) and her boyfriend picked us up. we finally got to her house in north london and this is where the bad news starts. my throat was hurting a bit when i woke up but it was nothing serious..but by the time we got to her house it hurt a lot and when i looked in the mirror there was white dots on my tonsils..aka puss. which was disgusting. i couldnt even finish dinner because it hurt to swallow..so we went to bed and instead of going to the 11 oclock free tour as planned we went to the 1 oclock one so that i could rest up a bit.
in the morning bjorn (tiffs bf) took us into the city of london and it was sunny and beautiful and i lovvvveeed it. except that my throat was even worse. the tour took three hours and it basically only covered half of london (big ben, parliament, westminster, all the palaces) but everything was so amazing. it was great learning about the kings and queens and princes..i just like the idea that someone can still (even though your chances are very slim) be a princess or queen..or just be near "royalty". i know many people are against monarchy because its all blood relations even though they have elections but still..its such a romantic thought. we walked past prince charles' house and just knowing that a prince and his prince sons are in there was cool haha. im such a loser. but anyway..the guards were AWESOME but so intimidating..jeeeeez. but we took pics none the less. so i dont know if anyone really knows my obsession with history...and my obsession with reading..and therefore if you put it together i love reading historical fiction woo. but yes, one of my favorite authors for that genre is phillipa gregory who has written mostly about henry XIII. (you know, fat dude, 6 wives, 2 were beheaded...boleyn girls etc..) WELL I GOT TO SEE WHERE HE MADE HIS DECISION TO MAKE HIS OWN RELGION HOW COOL IS THAT. yeah. cool i know. so that happened. and then we ate and this is the most terrible thing i will ever say: i wanted to order fish and chips (cause hey, im in london) BUT I COULDNT because i couldnt swallow. so i had fish sticks with tartar sauce which comes close but i couldnt enjoy them too much since it was torture eating them. by this time, i was a little worried because i couldnt even drink water so i was like "great, im gonna die of dehydration". so after eating i went home because i didnt feel well. kate and alex went on exploring for a little longer. once kate got back to tiffs they ordered indian (another hour of torture went by but this time i didnt even bother trying to eat it, i just couldnt stand smelling delicious food and not eating it) and we watched 3 episodes of the tudors (which in case you dont know is about my favorite man henry XIII) it was sooooo good. [and heres a side note to kemi: i saw the tudors season 1 and 2 on tiffs book shelf and i was like "OOO im gonna watch those with kemi" and shes said "good, so youll re-watch a few episodes cause we're watching now" so dont worry kemi, ill re-watch episodes 1-3 witth you. I CANT WAIT ROOMIEEE!! :) ]ok sidenote ended.
next morning, i, once again, didnt wake up early so kate met alex in the city to go to a museum and i later caught up to go on a tour of "the city of london" whcih is the older part of london and technically a city within a city..yeah. it wasnt free :( but it was SICK. our tour guide (a guy named abbie heehe) was from london and he was really great. we saw many things that had harry potter refrences which of course if any one knows me knows that i was DYING cause i love harry potter. and the bridges were nice and yeah the only bad thing is that it GOT SO COLLLD holy shit. anyway, after the tour we went to a mexican restaurant SO YUMMMY and tiff met up with us and took us to bar/club called the zoo. and that was sick but the music was mostly techno so we couldnt dance and i still wanst drinking because of my throat..but it was fun anyways. we finally went home after saying bye to alex who was headed to barcelona and went to bed so we could wake up for our flight to dublin!
in the morning bjorn (tiffs bf) took us into the city of london and it was sunny and beautiful and i lovvvveeed it. except that my throat was even worse. the tour took three hours and it basically only covered half of london (big ben, parliament, westminster, all the palaces) but everything was so amazing. it was great learning about the kings and queens and princes..i just like the idea that someone can still (even though your chances are very slim) be a princess or queen..or just be near "royalty". i know many people are against monarchy because its all blood relations even though they have elections but still..its such a romantic thought. we walked past prince charles' house and just knowing that a prince and his prince sons are in there was cool haha. im such a loser. but anyway..the guards were AWESOME but so intimidating..jeeeeez. but we took pics none the less. so i dont know if anyone really knows my obsession with history...and my obsession with reading..and therefore if you put it together i love reading historical fiction woo. but yes, one of my favorite authors for that genre is phillipa gregory who has written mostly about henry XIII. (you know, fat dude, 6 wives, 2 were beheaded...boleyn girls etc..) WELL I GOT TO SEE WHERE HE MADE HIS DECISION TO MAKE HIS OWN RELGION HOW COOL IS THAT. yeah. cool i know. so that happened. and then we ate and this is the most terrible thing i will ever say: i wanted to order fish and chips (cause hey, im in london) BUT I COULDNT because i couldnt swallow. so i had fish sticks with tartar sauce which comes close but i couldnt enjoy them too much since it was torture eating them. by this time, i was a little worried because i couldnt even drink water so i was like "great, im gonna die of dehydration". so after eating i went home because i didnt feel well. kate and alex went on exploring for a little longer. once kate got back to tiffs they ordered indian (another hour of torture went by but this time i didnt even bother trying to eat it, i just couldnt stand smelling delicious food and not eating it) and we watched 3 episodes of the tudors (which in case you dont know is about my favorite man henry XIII) it was sooooo good. [and heres a side note to kemi: i saw the tudors season 1 and 2 on tiffs book shelf and i was like "OOO im gonna watch those with kemi" and shes said "good, so youll re-watch a few episodes cause we're watching now" so dont worry kemi, ill re-watch episodes 1-3 witth you. I CANT WAIT ROOMIEEE!! :) ]ok sidenote ended.
next morning, i, once again, didnt wake up early so kate met alex in the city to go to a museum and i later caught up to go on a tour of "the city of london" whcih is the older part of london and technically a city within a city..yeah. it wasnt free :( but it was SICK. our tour guide (a guy named abbie heehe) was from london and he was really great. we saw many things that had harry potter refrences which of course if any one knows me knows that i was DYING cause i love harry potter. and the bridges were nice and yeah the only bad thing is that it GOT SO COLLLD holy shit. anyway, after the tour we went to a mexican restaurant SO YUMMMY and tiff met up with us and took us to bar/club called the zoo. and that was sick but the music was mostly techno so we couldnt dance and i still wanst drinking because of my throat..but it was fun anyways. we finally went home after saying bye to alex who was headed to barcelona and went to bed so we could wake up for our flight to dublin!
Amsterdam- XXX
once again, kate and i ran into problems while traveling from brugge to amsterdam. the train to brussels was fine but the train to asmterdam was delayed about 45 minutes. so of course we go to amsterdam a bit later than expected. this worried us because our other friend, alex (from PC wooo), was already at the hostel and for some reason we could not get a hold of him on the phone. even worse, if we didnt get to the hostel by 11 they closed the front desk. and duh, we were gonna get into amsterdam past 11. so finally i got enough courage to ask a guy sitting across from us to use him phone and we called the hostel and they gave us the code and it was all good.
we got to amsterdam and had to buy tickets for the tram..their language..dutch..is disgusting like flemish and although everyone speaks english i was getting nervous to ask questions. we got to a desk to buy tickets and i explained to the man what i needed. he asked me where i was from and i told him ny, but im studying in paris. so he was like "OHHH FRANCAIS BLAH BLAH" and spoke to me in french..soooo that worked out i guess.
ANYWAY, we finally got to the hostel where alex was very happy to see us. kate and i were starving so we got kebabs (of course) and we also got something else that i will not write about on this blog. and then we went to bed.
the next morning, we woke up early in order to do the "free tour" in amsterdam. unforntuntly it was raining but luckily we had an AWESOME tour guide to keep us entertained. he was portuguese so he had an accent :) verrrry nice. i was very relieved by this point because when i got off the train last night i was kinda dissapointed by what i saw. it looked like amsterdam was just some regular city. and i was thinking whats so special about this place. but as we got to the center of town and started our tour i was completely proven wrong. amsterdam is amazing. theres so many canals that its hard to walk even a few blocks without having to cross a bridge. theres 1000 bridges in amsterdam! the buildings and houses lining the canals were so pretty. most of them were narrow because back then, when merchants and traders lived there, they had their houses on the canals in order to reach their boats easier. since there were so many, the government said that the more narrow your house was, the less taxes you paid. and theres that. but anyway, the town itself is just great. theres areas that are very old and most streets are cobblestone and then theres newer areas that i had seen last night. the houses even lean slightly towards the water making the sight even more breathtaking. the red light district was of course on the tour and although many people are turned off by it, i thought it was so cool. hah. i mean, its part of the town, and people know its there..dont go see it if youre expecting girls dressed in jeans and a tank top..theyre PROSTITUTES, trying to sell SEX to men, obviously they will be in thongs and a bra. and the funnier thing is the red light district started because of the church. the priests would keep their mistresses in one area near the church which eventually became the red light district. THEN sailors started using it and priests would make money because if sailors wanted to confess and be forgiven they had to pay up. how convenient. psh and people question my lack of faith in religion. OH and theres varities of girls...fat, old, young, colored, etc..and unless youre gay..dont go near the "blue lights" cause those are the women...who arent really women. DOT DOT DOT.
ill give you guys a little overview of how smoking works in amsterdam. selling, buying, and growing weed is actually illegal in the netherlands. however, in the 1970's, when both weed and HEROIN were popular, police turned a blind eye on weed because they saw it as harmless and concentrated on catching all heroin users. this actually worked and the system still exists today..obviously. although it is illegal, no one has been arrested for smoking a blunt in about 30 years. mostly, it is smoked indoors but unless youre obnoxious about it you can smoke outside. so many times while walking around its common to get a whiff of pot from someone walking by. coffeeshops sell the weed in different varieties, pre-rolled, and in brownies. these coffeeshops are strictly NOT allowed to sell alcohol and if asked where they got the weed from theyll probably say "some fairies dropped it off last night". and theres your little lesson about pot in amsterdam.
ANYWAY, after the tour we went to the anne frank house. yeah thats right, i saw her ROOM where she hid, oh shit. that was pretty cool. then...we had dinner and got ready to go on the pub crawl for the eve of my 21st birthday!
the pub crawl was possibly the most fun ive had in a while. we got to the first bar/club and met a few people. of course, i had to tell them it was my birthday and we ALLLLL became friends woo. we went to 5 bars/clubs and they were all very very fun. just so you know, amsterdams favorite song is "beat it" by michael jackson. EVERY single place played it. we even met some australians and over the night i learned that two of them were actually polish australians...whatever that means. but yeah they spoke polish and it was AWEESOME. after a long fun night, we got home and slept only to wake up for another fun packed day.
IT WAS OFFICIALLY MY BIRTHDAY. so we got breakfast (kebabs again...oh god) and went to the heineken brewery which we heard was something you cant miss. me and kate had already seena brewery in brugge so we were basically experts at brewing beer but whatevz we went anyway :) and who do we see there? the aussies! woo so we hung out with them again..and yes its true, the brewery is pretty sick. im still wearing my cool wristband today. we got free beers (and i got more than just the 3 we were given because kate and alex gave me some of theirs cause it was my birthday yay). then we took naps...got dinner..and went out..again. we went to this place called the grasshopper and it was pretty cool although the crowd was a bit older so we took a taxi to an actual club that the aussies knew about and i got in for FREEEEEE. after some dancing we went home and my birthday weekend was concluded. and i have thus named it THE BEST 21st BIRTHDAY.
so we had a while until our flight to london and after checking out of our "budget hotel" we walked around a bit since it finally stopped raining! then, just as i was about to take the second bite of a hotdog that i bought at a vendor at the dam square WHO DID WE SEE.....the AUSSIES. i swear they were stalking us. i mean amsterdams small but seriously. so since we all had late travel plans (except alex who left then for london to meet us there later) we went to see shutter island together. although leo was good the movie itself was eh..i dunno i kidna figured it out halfway through so it got too long for me. after the movie, we said bye to our new friends and went to the train station to make our way to the airport and finally..london.
we got to amsterdam and had to buy tickets for the tram..their language..dutch..is disgusting like flemish and although everyone speaks english i was getting nervous to ask questions. we got to a desk to buy tickets and i explained to the man what i needed. he asked me where i was from and i told him ny, but im studying in paris. so he was like "OHHH FRANCAIS BLAH BLAH" and spoke to me in french..soooo that worked out i guess.
ANYWAY, we finally got to the hostel where alex was very happy to see us. kate and i were starving so we got kebabs (of course) and we also got something else that i will not write about on this blog. and then we went to bed.
the next morning, we woke up early in order to do the "free tour" in amsterdam. unforntuntly it was raining but luckily we had an AWESOME tour guide to keep us entertained. he was portuguese so he had an accent :) verrrry nice. i was very relieved by this point because when i got off the train last night i was kinda dissapointed by what i saw. it looked like amsterdam was just some regular city. and i was thinking whats so special about this place. but as we got to the center of town and started our tour i was completely proven wrong. amsterdam is amazing. theres so many canals that its hard to walk even a few blocks without having to cross a bridge. theres 1000 bridges in amsterdam! the buildings and houses lining the canals were so pretty. most of them were narrow because back then, when merchants and traders lived there, they had their houses on the canals in order to reach their boats easier. since there were so many, the government said that the more narrow your house was, the less taxes you paid. and theres that. but anyway, the town itself is just great. theres areas that are very old and most streets are cobblestone and then theres newer areas that i had seen last night. the houses even lean slightly towards the water making the sight even more breathtaking. the red light district was of course on the tour and although many people are turned off by it, i thought it was so cool. hah. i mean, its part of the town, and people know its there..dont go see it if youre expecting girls dressed in jeans and a tank top..theyre PROSTITUTES, trying to sell SEX to men, obviously they will be in thongs and a bra. and the funnier thing is the red light district started because of the church. the priests would keep their mistresses in one area near the church which eventually became the red light district. THEN sailors started using it and priests would make money because if sailors wanted to confess and be forgiven they had to pay up. how convenient. psh and people question my lack of faith in religion. OH and theres varities of girls...fat, old, young, colored, etc..and unless youre gay..dont go near the "blue lights" cause those are the women...who arent really women. DOT DOT DOT.
ill give you guys a little overview of how smoking works in amsterdam. selling, buying, and growing weed is actually illegal in the netherlands. however, in the 1970's, when both weed and HEROIN were popular, police turned a blind eye on weed because they saw it as harmless and concentrated on catching all heroin users. this actually worked and the system still exists today..obviously. although it is illegal, no one has been arrested for smoking a blunt in about 30 years. mostly, it is smoked indoors but unless youre obnoxious about it you can smoke outside. so many times while walking around its common to get a whiff of pot from someone walking by. coffeeshops sell the weed in different varieties, pre-rolled, and in brownies. these coffeeshops are strictly NOT allowed to sell alcohol and if asked where they got the weed from theyll probably say "some fairies dropped it off last night". and theres your little lesson about pot in amsterdam.
ANYWAY, after the tour we went to the anne frank house. yeah thats right, i saw her ROOM where she hid, oh shit. that was pretty cool. then...we had dinner and got ready to go on the pub crawl for the eve of my 21st birthday!
the pub crawl was possibly the most fun ive had in a while. we got to the first bar/club and met a few people. of course, i had to tell them it was my birthday and we ALLLLL became friends woo. we went to 5 bars/clubs and they were all very very fun. just so you know, amsterdams favorite song is "beat it" by michael jackson. EVERY single place played it. we even met some australians and over the night i learned that two of them were actually polish australians...whatever that means. but yeah they spoke polish and it was AWEESOME. after a long fun night, we got home and slept only to wake up for another fun packed day.
IT WAS OFFICIALLY MY BIRTHDAY. so we got breakfast (kebabs again...oh god) and went to the heineken brewery which we heard was something you cant miss. me and kate had already seena brewery in brugge so we were basically experts at brewing beer but whatevz we went anyway :) and who do we see there? the aussies! woo so we hung out with them again..and yes its true, the brewery is pretty sick. im still wearing my cool wristband today. we got free beers (and i got more than just the 3 we were given because kate and alex gave me some of theirs cause it was my birthday yay). then we took naps...got dinner..and went out..again. we went to this place called the grasshopper and it was pretty cool although the crowd was a bit older so we took a taxi to an actual club that the aussies knew about and i got in for FREEEEEE. after some dancing we went home and my birthday weekend was concluded. and i have thus named it THE BEST 21st BIRTHDAY.
so we had a while until our flight to london and after checking out of our "budget hotel" we walked around a bit since it finally stopped raining! then, just as i was about to take the second bite of a hotdog that i bought at a vendor at the dam square WHO DID WE SEE.....the AUSSIES. i swear they were stalking us. i mean amsterdams small but seriously. so since we all had late travel plans (except alex who left then for london to meet us there later) we went to see shutter island together. although leo was good the movie itself was eh..i dunno i kidna figured it out halfway through so it got too long for me. after the movie, we said bye to our new friends and went to the train station to make our way to the airport and finally..london.
Brugge [Bruges]- City of Chocolate, Fries, and Beer
vacation has a funny way of doing things to your emotional state of mind. its the day of your trip and youre SUPER excited. WOOO im going on a week vacation in europe! how awesome! yeah except you forget that in order to be on vacation, you have to get there first...
thursday: i was done with classes (ok, yeah i was skipping one..) and i had actually figured out how to pack all my clothes and other belongings into my messenger bag so that i didnt have to pay an extra luggage fine. everything was perfect. and then i got to the train station and it wasnt all so perfect anymore. kate was already ahead of me..she had gotten an earlier train to brussels..so i was on my own for now. my train: cancelled. ok cool, so i waited two hours. next train: too full. ok wtf? i had a ticket from the LAST train and they were letting people on who were buying tickets ON the train. awesome..waited another two hours and probably pushed over a couple of older people out of the way as i ran to the tracks and shoved my ticket into a conductors hand. and thats, my friends, the way to get on a train from paris. obviously.
after finally meeting up with poor kate who had been waiting in brussels for me for about 6 hours without communication for the first 2 of those hours, we made our way for the last leg of our journey to brugge. ok course, by then, it was dark and the excitement of getting to see brugge from the windows of our train was drained from me. we got in at about 10 and took a bus to the nearest stop to our hostel: snuffle backpacker hostel!
although it was dark, walking the few minutes from our stop to the hostel was amazing. the streets were all cobblestone and the buildings were mostly brick. in the street lights the streets looked quite romantic and i fell in love with brugge right then and there. its is def top 3 of cutest towns in europe.
finally, we got to the hostel. there was a bar on the bottom floor with the reception desk which was basically part of the bar. a few young people were sitting around and drinking and the atmosphere was pretty chill. the woman at the desk/the bartender was super nice and kate and i put our stuff in our room (which was clean!) before heading back downstairs for a few drinks to end our hectic day of travel.
the beer was cheap which was an awesome relief from paris. and it tasted AMAZING. now, im not one to boast about the taste of beer. id pretty much take a soda over it any day. but beer from belgium is sooooo tasty. we were later explained to that they filter it differently and it doesnt give you hangovers..how nice.
the second we sit down, a guy comes over to our table, squats down to our height and says in a british accent: "hello girls...do you like it when i say the word bottle?" i just stared cause i had never been appraoched in this fashion and i was really getting a kick out of it. his name was harry..and obivoulsy he was from england. we spent the next 45 minutes talking to him and telling him that yes, we did like it when he said bottle..but that we didnt like how cocky british guys were towards american girls. psh. although we were only in the bar for around 2 hours before heading to bed it was a pretty good night. i met someone from brugge and i proceeded to tell him that flemish was a disgusting language. (and now i wonder why they dont like americans). we also got free packs of gum from some guys who were advertising it. they came into the bar, blindfolded us and asked us to tell them what we taste ;) when i guessed watermelon i got a free pack of fruity gum and MINT wooo.
we woke up around 930, checked out, and got the free breakfast from the hostel. thats where we met a couple other americans who were going to explore brugge for the day too. we decided to stick with them and although they broke off into seperate groups, kate and i stuck around with two guys: alex and.....alex!
our day was pretty awesome. if i thought the town was pretty at night it was SOOOO beautiful in the day. a canal surrounded the city and it had many old stone building. balconies hung over our heads and fountains were in the middle of every square.
first we went to the chocolate museum. (obviously..hello i was in belgium). it was very interesting and we even got a free tasting afterwards. YES! then we went to a beer brewery. it was the local brugge beer called "brugge zot" which we had tasted last night. the tour was SICK. our guide was so funny and she explained everything really well and in detail. the brewery itself was old so it was nice to see older brewing versus modern. finally we got food..aka a beef stew with fries. mmm :)
after exploring the streets and souvenir shops for a little longer, kate and i picked up our bags and had to say goodbye to our new friends. that was def sad..we made friends that we spent literally the whole day with and then its like "ok..peace out" so weird. hey, we're friends on facebook! haha
so thats belgium..the cutest little european city that i recommend highly for everyone to visit. one day is basically enough but its worth it. and snuffle was awesome! so stay there! and then we were off to amsterdam...to celebrate my 21st birthday :)
thursday: i was done with classes (ok, yeah i was skipping one..) and i had actually figured out how to pack all my clothes and other belongings into my messenger bag so that i didnt have to pay an extra luggage fine. everything was perfect. and then i got to the train station and it wasnt all so perfect anymore. kate was already ahead of me..she had gotten an earlier train to brussels..so i was on my own for now. my train: cancelled. ok cool, so i waited two hours. next train: too full. ok wtf? i had a ticket from the LAST train and they were letting people on who were buying tickets ON the train. awesome..waited another two hours and probably pushed over a couple of older people out of the way as i ran to the tracks and shoved my ticket into a conductors hand. and thats, my friends, the way to get on a train from paris. obviously.
after finally meeting up with poor kate who had been waiting in brussels for me for about 6 hours without communication for the first 2 of those hours, we made our way for the last leg of our journey to brugge. ok course, by then, it was dark and the excitement of getting to see brugge from the windows of our train was drained from me. we got in at about 10 and took a bus to the nearest stop to our hostel: snuffle backpacker hostel!
although it was dark, walking the few minutes from our stop to the hostel was amazing. the streets were all cobblestone and the buildings were mostly brick. in the street lights the streets looked quite romantic and i fell in love with brugge right then and there. its is def top 3 of cutest towns in europe.
finally, we got to the hostel. there was a bar on the bottom floor with the reception desk which was basically part of the bar. a few young people were sitting around and drinking and the atmosphere was pretty chill. the woman at the desk/the bartender was super nice and kate and i put our stuff in our room (which was clean!) before heading back downstairs for a few drinks to end our hectic day of travel.
the beer was cheap which was an awesome relief from paris. and it tasted AMAZING. now, im not one to boast about the taste of beer. id pretty much take a soda over it any day. but beer from belgium is sooooo tasty. we were later explained to that they filter it differently and it doesnt give you hangovers..how nice.
the second we sit down, a guy comes over to our table, squats down to our height and says in a british accent: "hello girls...do you like it when i say the word bottle?" i just stared cause i had never been appraoched in this fashion and i was really getting a kick out of it. his name was harry..and obivoulsy he was from england. we spent the next 45 minutes talking to him and telling him that yes, we did like it when he said bottle..but that we didnt like how cocky british guys were towards american girls. psh. although we were only in the bar for around 2 hours before heading to bed it was a pretty good night. i met someone from brugge and i proceeded to tell him that flemish was a disgusting language. (and now i wonder why they dont like americans). we also got free packs of gum from some guys who were advertising it. they came into the bar, blindfolded us and asked us to tell them what we taste ;) when i guessed watermelon i got a free pack of fruity gum and MINT wooo.
we woke up around 930, checked out, and got the free breakfast from the hostel. thats where we met a couple other americans who were going to explore brugge for the day too. we decided to stick with them and although they broke off into seperate groups, kate and i stuck around with two guys: alex and.....alex!
our day was pretty awesome. if i thought the town was pretty at night it was SOOOO beautiful in the day. a canal surrounded the city and it had many old stone building. balconies hung over our heads and fountains were in the middle of every square.
first we went to the chocolate museum. (obviously..hello i was in belgium). it was very interesting and we even got a free tasting afterwards. YES! then we went to a beer brewery. it was the local brugge beer called "brugge zot" which we had tasted last night. the tour was SICK. our guide was so funny and she explained everything really well and in detail. the brewery itself was old so it was nice to see older brewing versus modern. finally we got food..aka a beef stew with fries. mmm :)
after exploring the streets and souvenir shops for a little longer, kate and i picked up our bags and had to say goodbye to our new friends. that was def sad..we made friends that we spent literally the whole day with and then its like "ok..peace out" so weird. hey, we're friends on facebook! haha
so thats belgium..the cutest little european city that i recommend highly for everyone to visit. one day is basically enough but its worth it. and snuffle was awesome! so stay there! and then we were off to amsterdam...to celebrate my 21st birthday :)
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Bridges and Brazilians
im awake right now..at 10 am on a saturday because my little brazilian left me :( its quite upsetting. the month went by SO quickly. shes going around europe with her mom until march 13 and then she'll be back and ill see her again because she left some of her bags in my room..but she wont be my roomie again :( so im a bit sad at the moment. but she said shes gonna visit ny and of course id like nothing more than to see her in brazil. that would be very awesome. im sure, as jeff told me earlier, that our friendship is beyond france. (i like that..thanks jeff haha). in other news..
this week was alright..tuesday sucked as usual and otherwise everything went pretty normally. but on wednesday, a new roommate moved in (yes there are 3 bedrooms here). her name is lauren and shes american..from wisconsin. shes pretty chill and we get along already even though its been like 3 days. im sure we'll have a lot of fun while shes here AND she'll be here til i leave. so hopefully there will not be anymore crying in another month.
so far this weekend has been fun but i always come home early because of the freaking metro. its fun to go out..especially under our little bridge..and then we usually make it to a bar or club. but the second i start having moreeee fun, everyones like "hmmm? staying out or leaving" and usually its the second one. maybe tonight will be a little crazier..guess ill find out. alright well im probably gonna sleep for a few more hours. night everyone!
this week was alright..tuesday sucked as usual and otherwise everything went pretty normally. but on wednesday, a new roommate moved in (yes there are 3 bedrooms here). her name is lauren and shes american..from wisconsin. shes pretty chill and we get along already even though its been like 3 days. im sure we'll have a lot of fun while shes here AND she'll be here til i leave. so hopefully there will not be anymore crying in another month.
so far this weekend has been fun but i always come home early because of the freaking metro. its fun to go out..especially under our little bridge..and then we usually make it to a bar or club. but the second i start having moreeee fun, everyones like "hmmm? staying out or leaving" and usually its the second one. maybe tonight will be a little crazier..guess ill find out. alright well im probably gonna sleep for a few more hours. night everyone!
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