Did you know there are more bikes than people in Amsterdam?

Amsterdam was put on the calendar right around Thanksgiving, in other words a late addition to our semester’s allotted travel weekends, and I’m SO glad we did! I had no expectations for Amsterdam. I couldn’t really picture it in my mind and really went into it thinking it will be fun to say I’ve been there.

WELL... I’m definitely glad I can say we spent three full days exploring Utrecht (city outside of Amsterdam, 10 min Intercity-train ride) and the Red Light District of crazy AmStErDaM! Thursday night we took the night train into Amsterdam and arrived Friday morning. From there we caught a taxi to Merril’s apartment (Holly’s friend who did a year exchange program in Michigan with her their junior year of high school.) Merril was nice enough to let us stay with her Friday night in her ADORABLE apartment, I felt like it was straight out of Bridget Jone’s Diary—honestly! The cutest thing ever, she showed us around, took us to the Anne Frank house, showed us Amsterdam’s beautiful canals, and showed us some local hotspots her and her friends hang out at. It was so nice to be taken around by a local—I feel like we’ve been lucky, Aidan in Paris, Liz and Hil in Barcelona… and now Merril in Amsterdam!

Saturday was a little wet and cold but we still had a lot of ground to cover. We got some much needed sleep and woke up to Merril brewing us tea and making plates of bread and cheese. We grabbed some coffee and took the train into downtown Amsterdam. Saturday was also December 5^th which is a big holiday for the Dutch—Sinterclaus (sp?) which is as big a deal to them as Christmas is to us, but more so for little kids (they also celebrate Christmas) So anyways, Merril had to say goodbye to us on Saturday but we were fine on our own, learned how to navigate the bus system and get by marginally on our own. Saturday night we stayed in a hostel right on the main strip called Bob’s Youth Hostel. We were put in an all girls room painted bubble gum pink and met these two really nice girls from Australia. There were lockers for our important stuff and the beds were clean and everything seemed nice, our 22E each included breakfast the next morning.

Saturday night we walked around the Red Light District... ummhmmmm the one where the girls stand in the windows with red fluorescent lighting in lingerie and people just walk up to their window and order! Yup! REALLY INTERESTING to watch this legalized form of prostitution. A lot of the girls were disgusting looking too so I just don’t even know how it works. Blahhhh. Gross but very eye-opening. Oh the land of "everything goes." By everything they mean everything. The only restriction really is that you have to be 18+ to go into bars and “coffee shops.” Coffee shops are not where they sell coffee (ha ha) they sell weed. You can get it in many forms, cupcakes (they call these Space Cakes), spiffs (a mixture of weed and tobacco) or weed that you can just buy by the ounce. VERY DIFFERENT LIFESTYLE. To grow up learning about drugs in school and have them forbidden all my life to taking an overnight train and arriving on a different planet. Literally.

That night we were in our hostel relatively early, and woke up the next morning with more to see. Our train wasn’t leaving until 5pm so we had the whole day to explore. I really wanted to rent bikes and take them all around the city but it was too rainy on Sunday to do that so instead we took the intercity bus to the Van Gogh Museum. The museum was really cool—but Starry Night was on tour!! Or something? Anyways, it wasn’t there which was kind of sad but I still saw some pieces I really connected with.

Seascapes near Les-Saintes-Marines-de-la-mar was one of my favorites of Van Gogh. I also liked Wheatfeild under the clouds. And La Corniche near Monaco was a really pretty one done by Monet.

There was also this really cool coffee shop called The Bulldog that we went to a few times and a lot of people from years back told us to go to. The bulldog is Redlands mascot so students will by shirts from the coffee shop and wear them around school, kind of fun. Anyways I got a grey one and LJ got a white one. They will always remind us of our visit to lovely Amsterdam J

what in the world would I do without them?

pretty canals... even if it was a little dreary!

I AMSTERDAM... modern art galore!

Merril... our amazing host/tour guide!!

when in amsterdam...?

Cheers to 21 years...

To my best friend,
Who has been there through it all—
Even when I forgot to call,
Or accidentally kicked her in the face with that soccer ball.
It was a growing up of many firsts,
From 3rd grade poetry readings, to bad movies, to blackberry picking.
From braces, to boys, to proms.

We collected many friends along the way,
Some dear and others that may have strayed.
But we kind of always knew it would just be
The two of us.

I sometimes think that if we never met I would somehow strangely never feel completely whole. I would look at the people with best friends and be jealous that they found theirs.
We got it right at the age of eight—I guess I’m one of the lucky ones.

You were there to make me laugh when all I wanted to do was cry,
And you were there to call that one girl in math class a whore.
What else could a girl ask for?

So here’s to you, my Lizzie:
to your passion for life,
your bubbly,
sarcastic,
and genuine being;
my other half.

To a childhood I wouldn’t change the world for.
21. Wow.
Here’s to 21 more…♥

Let the Countdown Begin!

37 days until I land in beautiful Sea-tac airport. 37 days. 5 weeks. Even though it will be 3 ½ months on Thursday since I got to Europe, 5 weeks just sounds like an eternity. However, close to 3 of those weeks are going to be spent with my four favorite people so I guess it’s not like the countdown I’m used to.

The girls and I are about to start our “3 month” lists… those should be quite entertaining. This is our last week of German, our final oral examine is Wednesday and our written is Thursday. German by far has been our hardest class here, mainly because it was so foreign to all of us. But its also been the most rewarding. I can pick out words I understand walking through the streets, I can order dinner fairly well off a menu, and I’m finally starting to see the light when it comes to street signs. (scary thought that it took a couple month, huh?)

I get the second installment of the swine flu vaccine tomorrow. Blah for shots but yay for almost being swine-free! It hasn’t really been too big of a deal here but I think that is in our favor because the vaccine was pretty easily accessible.

What else? The familia spent the weekend up at Crystal and I was very jealous. Mom sent me a picture via text but it just wasn’t the same… but I guess I’m skiing in Switzerland in a few weekends so I can’t complain!

On another note-- a birthday shout out to my favorite brother:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!!!!

I cannot BELIEVE you are turning 15 and can officially enroll in Drivers Ed! Thinking of you behind a wheel is a very scary thought… I pretty much figured you’d be in 6^th grade forever. BUT if I’ve learned anything it’s that you can’t pause time. I hope you have a great day today and I wish I was there to see you open all your video games… I’m assuming that’s still the theme, yeah? J I love you so much, you better not be taller than me when I see you next!

♥

Thanksgiving Weekend Fun :)

I could not have asked for a better weekend! I was worried at first, being away from home and all, that I would be fighting the homesick bug all day. But with the exception of a few lonely moments, we had quite the celebration!

Wednesday night Hilary got in around 10:30 and we all gave her quite the welcome. Three screaming girls running at the sight of taxi lights? It had been over a month since I had seen her but it had felt like much longer. Ahhh!! We took her out to O’Malley’s for a drink and came back relatively early because we knew traveling sucks the life out of you.

Thanksgiving morning I woke up to the smell of food—turkey, spices, apples, & cinnamon. It was such a comforting feeling. The only downside was that we had two classes in the morning—literature and our EU seminar, but Jim let us out early J By noon we were embracing all that is Thanksgiving and being lazy in our room, painting our nails and gossiping until our feast set for 2:30pm.

Eva worked all week to make us (50 people total) the feast we DEVOURED. Turkey, cornbread stuffing, cranberry, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, and salad with homemade dressings (they don’t really have salad dressing over here, fyi) Hil and I sat with LJ and her family, so much fun! They left for Innsbruck for the weekend and I know they had a blast! Anyways, the meal was sooooo good, thinking back on it still makes me full. We had apple pie for dessert and by 4:30-5ish everyone was rolling out of there…

After our delicious meal we bundled up and took Hilary down to the Christmas market that Salzburg is famous for. I have plans to blog a whole entry on this place (pictures included) so I won’t go into too much detail but it is one of the most special places I’ve ever been. Hilary got a few presents, we both tried some Gluvine (and she got some of the Gluvine teabags for her Senora) and we wandered around, mainly in hopes to walk off our food coma.

That night we went out with the entire group, showed our guests other fun Salzburg bars and introduced them to Kaserkriner (cheese filled sausage that you get from this white van down by the river… sounds sketchy but delicious/deadly.)

Friday we were rallying to get up and catch our train to Munich BUT we ran into a few roadblocks, aka we were all not doing too hot, so we botched the trip altogether and Hilary got a day more of Salzburg than she anticipated.

Friday and Saturday were honestly two of the most relaxing, fun couple of days I’ve had in a while. Abbie and I took Hilary everywhere—ate at cute cafes, went shopping on the Getreidegasse, walked up to the fortress, drank hot spiced cider, bought Mozart chocolate balls, walked near the river and over the lit up pedestrian bridges, and loved every minute.

It was so nice to have Hilary here for the whole weekend. I got to smother her, had some much needed alone time, and all in all got a nice break from the craze of constantly traveling.

We only have two more weekends left here; next weekend we are headed to Amsterdam and the following one, skiing in Switzerland. After that I pack up my last three and a half months here and head to Paris, where I will see Aidan for a few days and meet up with the family. From there our Christmas adventure will begin—my first cruise! to exotic countries I am ecstatic to visit. On Friday it was three weeks until I see them—so now it’s officially 19 days. Our reunion= very overdue :)

Happy Thanksgiving from Salzburg!!!

So, Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I am kind of far away from home. And by kind of I mean on a different continent. 1,000+ miles away. How weird?? It’s my first Thanksgiving away from home and I am definitely going to miss Washington, snuggling up to a fire, eating too much delicious favorites, and being around the people that make me laugh so hard my stomach hurts. I feel so removed from everything; it’s the strangest concept to think that even though I’m not home, time doesn’t stop. Things move on with or without me, and that’s just how it works.

Hilary gets in tonight and I know that just having her will give me a little bit of familiarity. Ahh how MUCH I miss that girl is just crazy! But in only a few hours she’ll be pulling up in a taxi ready to get smothered by me. I get her until Sunday, were going to Munich Friday night and visiting Dachu, the German concentration camp. We have wanted to make time for this all semester and this weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Christmas is definitely a big deal over here. The Christmas market just opened a few days ago and they have an ice-skating rink set up outside one of the plazas. Everything is lit up and beautiful. I’m such a sucker for Christmas lights—well anything holiday-ish. The ornament stands here are ridiculous. And I have yet to try the hot wine but Jim said it’s delicious. Its called Gluevine? Or something, with clove and cinnamon, yum! There are all these little stand/restaurants that have open patios and high tables so people just get something to drink and stand outside, listening to music and admiring all the holiday flare. I guess if I can’t be home during this time of year, Salzburg is a close second. People from all over the world come to Salzburg just for its outside Christmas market and we’re here studying, treating it as our personal back yard.

So this is me wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! We’re having an afternoon feast tomorrow at 2:30pm that Eva has been slaving away in the kitchen making since Monday. Home will be missed but I’m definitely taken care of here J

Sending my loveeee♥

I feel spoiled titling this "Ten Days in Italy..."

Ciao!

What a whirlwind Italy was! I have so much to say and do not even know how to begin. Well first off, of all the places I have traveled thus far I was expecting Italy to be the place where I would be the most inspired to write. FALSE. Maybe it was the fact that we were constantly on the move (but that’s like every city we visit…) or that when we weren’t on the bus or seeing the David or standing in the city square waiting for the Pope to pop out his window, we were enjoying ourselves—

Exploring every alley,

Sampling gelato shops,

Throwing coins in the Trevie fountain for good fortune,

Dancing in three-story clubs in Florence,

Eating pizza with flirty Italian waiters,

Watching couples in love float down canals in Venice on gondolas,

Listening to boring lectures of the Coliseum, (a thorough 45 minute history, honestly—ASK ME ANYTHING)

Drinking liters of complimentary :) wine at cheap dinners,

Sitting outside castles in Assisi watching the sunset,

Fashioning cozy spots out on our balcony’s and star gazing all night,

SPANISH STEPS PUB CRAWL,

Taking too many pictures,

Buying cheap jewelry from open markets in Florence,

& knowing that it’s Italy. You only have one job: live it up.

I did write something after our first day in Florence, sometime between showering and looking up pub-crawls…

“I read about these places, sit in European history class and look at pictures of the Vatican and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I listen to teachers tell me about Roman myths and tie those into literature that dates back to the 12^th Century. And now I’m here. I’m standing looking at the mosaics in churches that are so old, putting a date on it is almost silly. It’s just weird to think that these places are real—tangible cities with people who call them home. The closest I can come to describing this feeling is incredible and strange? That I will pass a row of apartments and then take three more steps and see the Duermo or the canals of Venice. I am finally peeking my head outside of my box that is the west coast and cannot quite come to terms with it. I consistently get the feeling that I can best describe as holding my breath.

I have to remind myself to relax enough to take it all in. Inhale all the good stuff. Never dwell on the insignificant. And understand that the boredom that comes with church tour after church tour is the understood appreciation for things beyond my small little world.

The world stretches further than Canada and Mexico, who knew?”

VENICE: 1 night

Beautiful canals with gondolas that I could stare at forever, colorfully stacked hotels lined up side by side, (I couldn’t stop thinking of them as European legos…) Every street I turn on looks like a postcard, we wanted to take a gondola ride but they were 80E and we were thinking more along the lines of 8E (haha), getting lost trying to find this bar/club on the river, **yes, every ivy-lined alley is breath taking, at the same time, every ivy-lined alley looks the same** One night was not enough!!

ROME: 4 nights

Crazy, crazy, BIG city, climbing up the Vatican à claustrophobia CENTRAL, but so worth it. Gelato, gelato, gelatoooooooo. Spanish steps pub-crawl, 20E cab ride anyone? **getting lost, really lost** Seeing the Pope, he’s so little! St.Paul’s Outside the Walls, second largest Christian church in the world, mosaics that literally made my jaw drop.

Caravaggio museum—marble sculptures that I just could not believe started out as a block of stone. Coffee date with Al J so fun. “You’re only in Italy once so… souvenir shop!”

ASSISI: 2 nights

Quaint, quiet, the definition of a cute Italian village on a hill. Sunset hike—one of the most rewarding things I’ve done here! All meals, home-cooked, AMAZING. Castle walk J Wrap around balcony, star gazing, Deter and his Spanish guitar playing, “pink” cobble stone everything. Peaceful. Happy.

FLORENCE: 2 nights

Big city, but not too overwhelming. Dirty, all cement walls tagged with spray paint. Best shopping ever, bought a pea coat J and presents galore! Favorite museum, the Caravaggio & Bacon. Cute Italian dinner for under 12E. Shots of Lemoncello. Tequila Sunset, anyone? Space Bar. Enough said. Sketchy hotel, but beautiful view of the horizon—definitely the trip of memorable sunsets!

PISA: 1 night

The only historical monument: The Leaning Tower, (surprise! ha) The bridges are incredible, reminded me a little of Florence shopping wise. One main shopping street covered in cobblestone—slightly reminiscent of the Getridagase in Salzy J Low-key, window shopping, last night in Italy, so sad… but definitely time to head back to our litte castle on a mountain.

"One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." –- Henry Miller

A weekend in Salzburg & ITALY bound!!!

11-8
"‘Truths about the universal language.’ I’m sitting in St. Peter’s Church with Nana as we listen to the priest give his sermon in German and this is the thought that popped into my mind.
The priest is dressed in a green robe, representing the timeline of the year of Christ. He is focused and warm, intent on communicating his weekly message to the people of his church. The people who sit here and listen to his words.
I cannot understand him a word he is saying, but I understand him.
He does not know who I am or if I am listening, but I know he cares.
The universal language; beauty in the understood.

Last night we went to a jazz concert, Cassandra Wilson. Abbie had told us about it and Nana and I thought it would be something fun to do. I had never been to a jazz concert so I didn’t know what to expect. Well it will not be my last! I am SO glad we decided to go! The music was incredible, she sang vocals and was accompanied by five men, all on different instruments. They were all African American—I only say that because I want to illustrate the “soul” type feeling it had. There was a guitarist, pianist, drums, percussionist, and a man playing the double base. They were clearly very practiced in their crafts and it was amazing to watch! I had never heard of Cassandra before but I am definitely going to do some research after last night. She sang some blues, a song Paul Simon wrote for them to perform, and a lot of just feel good music. I’m glad Nana got to experience something extra special in Salzburg!"

11-11
"Last night we took Nana to the St. Augustine beer hall! It is a VERY German “local watering hole” type place that I thought would be a perfect way to get more of a taste of the culture. I think I’ve written about the Aug before, we went in September but actually hadn’t been back since last night! So we all got beers and had good conversation J My special guest, (Nana!) got in Friday and we went out to dinner at a place we go to often called “Humbolt Stubn” and we walked around the town a little. On Saturday LJ and I met her at her hotel and we figured out concert tickets for that night (Cassandra Wilson) and decided to do a “Lakes and Mountains” tour of upper Austria. It’s a four-hour tour that took us to 7 lakes and 2 very small cute towns and someone was looking out for us because it was GORGEOUS! Sunny and a nice break from the gloomy-ish days we were dealing with at the end of last night. It was so much fun, we took so many pictures and had the perfect day J
Sunday Nana and I went to another concert held in St. Peter’s Church and then she went with Abbie and her friend Philip to another jazz concert that night (I wasn’t up for it, had a paper to finish and had horrible cramps)
I’ve been having so much fun playing host and it been really nice for me to see things that I walk by everyday or forget about here—now that I have someone to actually show these things to it makes me pay attention!
Tomorrow we leave for our ten day trip to ITALY!!!! It’s crazy, I know. I can’t say it enough: how time flies! But that is not to say it’s going so fast I can’t keep up. I’m taking it all in, fully aware I’m not going to want to travel ANYWHERE when January 5th rolls around, and taking that into account I’m just trying to do it all."

If Italy is anything like Greece I’m concerned about a few things:
sleep deprivation
the condition of my liver
exhaustion from walking EVERYWHERE
bus motion sickness
being in huge crowded public areas with the plague that’s circulating… ahhhh
***good thing I’m vaccinated!!!!