Four months of busy

Since my last post nearly 4 months ago I have been pretty busy with travel and pretty lazy with keeping up the blog. So I will do my best to sum up the last several months.

I went home for Christmas, which was great. I really needed the recharge and seeing family and friends. It's nice to be around people you know without having to make the get-to-know-you chit chat. Though 10 days was a very quick trip and not near long enough. At the time I had been asked to stay in the Netherlands a few more months until August 2012. Four months longer than originally planned. After returning to the Netherlands my family here asked if I would consider staying until August 2013. That would mean my year 'off' would quickly turn into 2 1/2 years 'off.' After a lot of thought and prayer it looks like I am going to be staying here another year and a bit. Eeek! Still loose ends to tie at home, but I am looking forward to more travel time here.

Which brings me to my many trips so far this year. Back in January there was a sale with easyjet and I booked three weekend trips. First Berlin, then Prague and finally Madrid. There were a few other closer weekends in there too. I'm such a jet setter.

Berlin was beautiful. Cold but beautiful. It hovered around -10 most of the time and snowed some, but still a good time. I met a couple of guys from Greece at the hostel and we toured the city. We did a walking tour, which is always a great way to see a lot of a city in a short time. After the tour we checked out a pub where there were individual beer taps on all the tables. So fun, but dangerous.

So far I have seen a lot of history on my travels, but Berlin has so much history from within my lifetime. Pretty remarkable to see the Berlin wall, or what's left of it. Some sections have been preserved as a bit of an art galery. Beautiful.

Aside from the cold, I loved Berlin. But a few weeks later, I was really looking forward to my weekend in Prague. It was still cold, but sunny and beautiful. I stayed at a funky hippy type hostel. But it was a fun place, and again met some travel buddies :) There was so much to see, so again I did a free walking tour to see what's what. After that, I went on another tour of the castle grounds. So huge and so much to take in. This picture is on the bridge over the river. The castle grounds are up the hill behind me.

The city of Prague was incredible and I loved it. But I also heard about the Terezin concentration camps outside of the city and felt I should get there to check it out. So I spent a day there. Wasn't what I expected, but very eye opening and a powerful experience.

It was an emotional day, so I was glad to have more time the next day back in Prague before heading home. I took a trip up the clock tower and saw some incredible views of an incredible place. Hope to get back there some time. 

But alas my time in Prague was done. I had a weekend in Madrid planned for a few weeks later but first went on a very last minute trip to Bruges, Belguim. So much fun. I went with Jess and Adam some friends from here in Hilversum. We just went for one night, but that was a good amount of time for us. I had been trying to get to Bruges ever since I saw the movie 'In Brugge." Loved the movie and then kept hearing about peoples trips there. So I was looking forward to it.

We had a bit of a rough start with some mixups with our train tickets, but we made it there, just a little later than planned. Our hostel was attached to a bar/resturaunt so after we walked aorund a bit and settles in, we took advantage of some good deals for a nice dinner and drinks. Free beer samples too.

Then we joined another free walking tour for a couple of hours that evening. The guy doing the tour was pretty entertaining in the obnoxious showy kind of way. But he knew a lot about the city and he had some good recomendations, one being a great pub famous for it's own brew.

 The beer proved it's fame and was quite potent. We dubbed it the magic beer. And it came with cheese :)

Overall, it was another great weekend, with great friends. Lots of sun and a pretty city.

Which brings me to last weekend and my weekender in Madrid. This was my first time in Spain and the weather was gorgeous. Though getting to and from brought some interesting challenges. On the way there, there were issues with the trains going to the Amsterdam airport. I took a round about way of getting there, but made it with minutes to spare. I arrived at my hostel after 1am and ready to crash. Little did I know, Madrid doesn't crash until 5am. Luckily I was tired enough to deal with it.

I got up ready to see the city and joined yet another free walking tour. If the city has one, I like to start my trip with it. Helps me learn about the city and then figure out what I want to do next. I walked all day and saw a lot of the city which is at the exact centre of the country.

I took in a yummy treat of churros and chocolate. The portion was huge, but very good. Of course, as an avid traveller now, I always have zip lock baggies with me. I tried to take left overs, but it didn't take. Better the first time around.

 I was able to go to the top of the Cathedral dome and get some beautiful views of the city. This is from the balcony before the dome. That HUGE building behind me is the royal palace. Interesting fact: if you were to sleep one night in each room of the palace it would take 8 years to sleep in every room. Thousands of rooms in there.

 This picture is from the dome. You can over look the whole city. Not a lot of skyrises around here.

 Madrid was great and even got up to 28 degrees at one point. A nice change from the cold I went back too. From what I hear Madrid is a more authentic Spain than Barcelona. I will be testing that theory next month. I had a Monday evening flight back to Amsterdam. But of course, the strikes in France had other plans. Due to the strikes, crews couldn't get there and after many delays, my flight was eventually cancelled. Hundreds of people waited in line at the easyjet counter to find out what was happening.

After 6 hours in the line up I arrived at the front of the line around 3:30 am on no sleep. I was told I wouldn't get out of the city before Thursday. That meant 3 more nights in Madrid. Normally not the worst problem, but I was ready to get back, and I had to work. I was lucky and able to get a very last minute flight that morning. Though it was delayed a couple of hours I made it home. No easy feet, I tell you.

It was a fitting way to end a whirl wind few months of travel. I had fun seeing so much, but now I am looking forward to more new adventures. In just a few weeks my sister will be here for a visit and to travel with me to Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Vienna, and Salzburg. I am really excited about it. The week I get back from that trip my lovely friends Paul, Amy and her growing baby bump will be in Amsterdam. So excited to see them and show them around my neck of the woods.

Though, this month also means saying goodbye to friends who are are moving back to their homes. Sad :(

Lots going on, and an added bonus, this week I officially start the process to becoming a dutch citizen. Could be a pure dutchy in a matter of weeks. More on that soon.

Hopefully it won't be so long till my next post, in which case it won't be such a ridiculously long post.

Till next time, happy travels 





Staying close to home

In my last post I filled you in on my trip to Italy and to Greece. It ended up being a lot more expensive than I had planned so any more trips before Christmas had to be put on hold. Instead I stayed a little closer to home and did some day trips. Amidst all of that I experienced my first Sinterklaas is the Netherlands and am now gearing up for Christmas and a visit home to Canada.

In mid November everyone was a buzz with the excitment of Sinterklaas arriving in the Netherlands. He came from Spain and had a busy few weeks before he headed home in December. The day he arrived in the Netherlands, I went to Den Haag. It's about an hour and half by train and is a beautiful beach side town. I spent some time along the peir and sitting in the sand. It was actually pretty warm in the afternoon so I got to enjoy some November sun.

Later when it cooled down, I headed back into the centre of town and warmed up in a museum. I checked out some beautiful spots including this gorgeous square right in the centre of Den Haag (The Hague). At the nearby Mauritshuis gallery I saw the girl with the peral earing painting. Always amazing to see these incredible paintings in person.

 After the museum the sun was going down, but Sinterklaas was coming out. He was like Elvis surrounded my tons of adoring snotty nosed fans. He came with his own security...

...ever controversial Zwarte Piets (Black Pete). By the time Sinterklaas came around on Dec.5th I was starting to get used to the idea of seeing the Zwarte Piets around, but it did come as a bit of a shock initially.Not so PC, you know.

Sinterklaas was fun actually. I got to be sneaky and knock on the door for the kids when Sinterklaas dropped off the gifts at the front door the evening of December 5th. He even left me a chocolate letter and a little gift. So nice of him.

Later in December I ventured to Dusseldorf with some Aussie friends I met in my Dutch classes. The German Christmas markets are in cities all over Germany. Jess, Adam and I enjoyed some Gluhwein and Christmas cheer on a rainy day. It actually started to feel like Christmas rather than being surrounded by the Sinterklaas hoopla.

It was a good day and got me into the Christmas spirit. I started getting really excited to go home for Christmas. It wasn't originally in the plan to go home, but I am so glad I decided to go. I can't wait. I have been doing Christmas crafts with the kids and decorating the house. So fun. I am quite proud of the centre piece we made. I got the idea from someones pic on facebook. And I think it turned out pretty good.

All in all it's been a great couple of months. But I am looking forward to my trip home and then some more trips around Europe in the new year. Until then I am enjoying the awkward after Sinterklaas sales on politically incorrect chocolates. 

October Holidays to the sunshine

Last month I had 12 days off so I planned a trip to where the sun is still shinning. First stop the Amalfi Coast in Italy then onto Athens and Santorini Greece. When I was planning the trip I started hearing about all the strikes and chaos in Athens but underestimated it and decided to tough it out. I might plan differently next time.

I flew to Rome on a Saturday. The plan was to take a train to Naples then from there another train to Sorrento. But I soon learned this trip was all about throwing plans out the window. When I arrived in Rome I caught a bus to the train station. But the bus was late arriving at the airport. The ride to the train station took a lot longer than it was supposed to. All the talk about riots and strikes in Athens, I didn't hear anything about it happening in Rome too. But the bus was having to turn around and reroute because of road closures. Some roads were closed because of riot police blocking the streets, others because rioters had pulled dumpsters into the road. At one point we were stopped so a group of police in full riot gear stormed the building beside us. All this to say by the time I got to the train station I had to take a later train. I paid more for the fast train, but it didn't help. When I got to Naples I had just missed the last train to Sorrento by 20 minutes. So I was stuck in Naples. I thought about staying in the train station but it was a little shaddy so I found a hotel for the night. A nother plan shoots out the window.

The next morning I caught the train to Sorrento. First reaction was Sorrento was gorgeous. I found my hostel and checked in. It was a cozy homey little place. I then headed into town and had a great lunch at a Italian cafe. So nice. I made my way to the bus station and took the bus up the Amalfi coast. First stop was Positano.

Positano was great. A beautiful beach town going up the side of a cliff. I explored the city and checked out the beach. I also visited the Church over my shoulder in the picture. The Pope had been there. It got a little windy but it was a beautiful day. From Positano I continued on the bus to Amalfi. I only had a short time there but it was a great spot too. By the time I left it was dark and very windy. It had been a long day and the long windy ride back up the coast wasn't the best. But I arrived back in Sorrento, checked out the city and then headed back to the hostel. I met some great people at the Hostel. The next day I headed with some of them on a tour of the Island of Capri. Capri was gorgeous and had some incredible views...

...and some harsh rules against high fiving.

The next morning I had planned to stop in Pompei on my way back to Rome. But you remember what we learned about plans. WHOOSH! that's the sound of that plan going out the window. I had gotten email that my flight from Rome to Athens was likely going to be cancelled due to strikes in Athens. On the website it siad it was cancelled in one place, but in athother place on the site it said it was on. So I spent the morning trying to sort stuff out with the airline and getting practically no where. I went straight through to Rome and had a hella time getting to my hotel from the train station. I chose a hotel close to the airport with a shuttle service because I had an early morning flight...maybe. When I got to the hotel I learned their dirty little secret. The shuttle service doesn't start till 7:00 and I had a 6:40 am flight (maybe)...WHOOSH! I checked my email at the hotel and my flight was cancelled WHOOSH! Then just when I was sorting out alternative plans WHOOSH! I got another email that my flight was back on. That was a good WHOOSH!

So Bright and early the next morning I was up and heading out to the airport paying crazy high prices for a cab that early in the morning. After checking in at the airport and going through security everyone was waiting at the gate when WHOOSH! Smacked with a 3 1/2 hour delay. So I got to know the airport pretty well and with the on agan off again flight there only ended up being about 40 people on the flight. I consider myself lucky to have gotten to Athens, as all the other flights from Rome were cancelled that day. 

When I arrived in Athens all the trains were cancelled due to the strike, but luckily the buses were running. I took the bus but didn't realize that it wasn't going all the way downtown like I needed to do. What you know riot police and street closures. There were demonstrations in Syntagma square causing problems. The bus driver gave me directions to walk, but I ended up walking around for hours as I kept coming to closed streets. I eventually made it to the hostel.

There were demonstrations in Syntagma square causing problems. The bus driver gave me directions to walk, but I ended up walking around for hours. I kept coming to closed streets. I eventually made it to the hostel. I did get a chance to see some of the city. Unfortunately all of the archeological sites were closed because of the strike. So I wasn't able to get to the Acropolis but the Acropolis museum was open so I visited there. And the city is still beautiful.

I met some more great people at the hostel and checked out the city with them. We ended up spending most of the afternoon at Syntagma square. There were lots of protests going on and so many people showing up for there cause. Unfortunatly some people took it to the next level and things got a little crazy. We had moved in closer and got the full taste of an Athens riot. 

Just before this video was taken the people started kicking and shoving the police. The cloud of tear gas was a bit of a ways from where we were but we took off after it went off. Pretty quick after that we felt the tear gas kick in. Luckily the demonstrators were prepared and were handing out a cream to put on your face to stop the stinging.

Amongst all the chaos in Athens I learned that WHOOSH! my ferries to and from Santorini were cancelled due to the strike. Just full of surprises. Instead of cancelling my trip to Santorini I ended up shelling out the extra money to fly. It was a short flight and worth it. The last stop on the trip was my favourite. Santorini was gorgeous.

The hostel I stayed at was called Caveland and was packed with character and Greek charm. Again, I had great weather and was able to see all over the Island. Oia is a city that is known to be one of the most beautiful spots for a sunset in the world. And it lives up to the hype.

It was an incredible place. After seeing Fira and Oia, the two main cities on the Island. I joined a bunch of others from the hostel and we went on a tour of the nearby volcano. It was a beautiful place. But the best part was on the way back the boat takes you to the harbour. It is 500 something steps up to Fira or a cable car, or a Donkey ride. I had heard friends who had done the donkey ride there and it was on my must do list and well worth it.

The next morning I had a chance to check out the Red Beach. It is yet another beautiful beach with red stone and sand from the volcano. It was hot that day and perfect for a day at the beach. Though I didn't get to spend too long there because alas, this crazy trip of ups and downs was coming to an end. I flew to Athens with another girl from the hostel. Luckily the trains were running and I was able to get to the hostel. I had one quick night in Athens and a morning flight back home to Amsterdam. But WHOOSH! the morning of my flight the transit went on strike. This meant another over priced ride to the airport. But I made home to Amsterdam in one piece.

So all in all it was a great trip despite the unexpected costs, tear gas and WHOOSHes! Because the trip cost more than expected I had to change possible plans for a trip to Portugal, that will have to wait. But I am working on plans for a couple of quick weekends closer by. And then home for Christmas. Looking forward to it.

Until next time...

Paris à l'automne, tres belles

Last week I celebrated a big day, my 30^th birthday. The day was fast approaching and luckily the Dutch weather was taking a turn for the better.  I had been planning a trip to Paris to celebrate. Unfortunately my friend that was going to join me had to cancel. But I had my heart set on going so I went ahead and planned a trip sans ami. Paris is about a four hour train ride from where I am living, but because I waited so long to book the train tickets had gotten more expensive than I wanted to pay. So I decided to take the bus. The bus is about 7 hours but the best time that worked for me left at 10:45pm and arrived at 6:00am in Paris, so I pulled out my travel pillow.

My birthday landed on a Friday this year. When I woke up that morning my host family had put up streamers and decorations around the house and a banner on my door. Very sweat. They sang to me over cheerios’ in the morning and then we were off to our regular routine. The kids were great that day which was the best gift they could have given me. That evening we had a great bar-b-que dinner and they spoiled me with a couple of good travel books and apple pie. Apparently it is more traditional to have birthday pie, than it is to have birthday cake here.

The whole day was good and after dinner I had to get ready to catch my evening train. When I got on the bus I realized that it had already been in Amsterdam and all the good window seats were taken. The window seats were not a coveted spot for the view, but for sleeping. I only got about 2 hours of sleep and arrived early in Paris…very tired. The bus station in Paris is attached to the train station so I figured out my way to my hostel and was off to check in.  When I got out of the train station I turned out to walk toward my hostel and I could see the Eiffel tower over some of the surrounding buildings. It was so surreal to see it in person, even from far away.

I arrived at the hostel at about 7:30 and unfortunately, I could check in, but couldn’t actually get into my room till after 4:00pm. I knew that before, but was much more optimistic about how much sleep I would get on the bus. I checked my email and Facebook and then went to a nearby bakery and bought some croissants to get into the Parisian mood. The hostel promoted New Europe’s walking tours which I had done in Copenhagen and Amsterdam. They are great so I met with the tour at the hostel at 10:30 and it lasted about 4 hours. It was a good way to see a lot of the city and learn a little about what I was seeing. I also met some fun people on the tour too. About half of the group went for a late lunch afterward and some of us went on to the Eiffel tower after that. Seeing it up close was gorgeous and still surreal. We took a ton of pictures and it was beautiful.

Later that evening we headed to another tour that New Europe put on. It was a two hour tour around the Montmartre District. Another gorgeous area with great views. We saw the café where Amelie was filmed, Van Goughs house, Sacre Ceour, the view of Paris from the highest natural point in the city and Moulin Rouge.

The tour included a glass of wine at a cute little pub afterward. New Europe does a pub crawl too, but by the time the Montmartre tour was over, I had been walking around all day in the hot humid sun with only two hours of sleep. It was time to crash.

I got back to the hostel and was able to get into my room. It was about 10:00pm. When I got to my room I opened the door and there was a 60 year old man in there. Kind of weird. I knew I was in a mixed room, but didn’t think it was a multi generation room.

Anyhoo, the next day I wanted to revisit a few places we walked by on the tour. Before I hit up a few gift shops, I visited the Pere Lachaise Cemetary. Maybe a little morbid, but it was actually a beautiful and peaceful place and of course the final resting place for Jim Morrison. Later I made my way to the D’Orsey Museum. Unfortunately, the line was really long and the sun was really hot. Who wants to stand in a long line by themselves? Not me. So I headed down to the Arc de Triomphe. There were people standing underneath it, and I noticed people on the top. I wanted to go over and check out how much it was to go to the top, but couldn’t figure out how to cross the crazy circle of traffic to get there. I did manage to get a couple of traffic free pictures.

So I took a couple of pictures and headed up Avenue des Champs-Élysées to check out all the shops. They just put in a new H&M and it was huge with crazy moving videos screens that go from one floor to the next. I have now been to H&M in 8 countries and they are all a little different.

By the evening I wanted to go back to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up at night. I picked up a crepe on the way and found a spot on the grass with hundreds of other people. I must have been asked a hundred times if I wanted to buy wine or Champagne. These guys are everywhere. All day they were selling water, then beer, and by dark it was wine and champagne. These guys are very ingenuitive. But be careful not to look at them directly, they’ll try to come in for the kill. But the annoyance of them didn't distract from the gorgeous tower.

The next morning I made my way back to bus station for the long trip home. This bus ride didn’t go through the night, it was all day. The ride back was long. It took considerably longer than on the way there. The driver was a smoker and took a few extra smoke breaks. We also had another delay. A lady from the back of the bus went up to the driver and they quickly began yelling at each other. They were speaking in Dutch so I didn’t know what was going on. But at one point the driver tapped on his breaks and she fell down the steps. Pretty sure he did it on purpose. Drama on the Euroline.

All and all it was a great trip and I am glad I still went despite my friend not being able to join me. Paris is beautiful, who would of thunk it? I am already looking forward to going back. I have plans to in the spring before going back to Canada.

And what do you now, I am procrastinating planning yet another trip. I have a week off this month and am finalizing details for Greece and Italy. Should be stellar.

A Busy Month Part 2

See, I told you I would write again soon.

Last time we saw Kelly she was galavanting around the world, leaving Coventry and flying to Glasgow. Let"s see how that journey turned out, shall we?

I flew out of Birmingham airport to go to Glasgow. While in the airport I saw a few British army guys around. One in full fatigues. They were all on my flight. There was a cop (sorry mom, a police officer) helping a woman in the airport. The woman didn't speak English and the poor cop was doing his best. People around them noticed the scene, including the army guy. After, the cop walked away with an awkward smile and passed by the army guy. I loved to see the commradery and respect as they made small talk. The cop offered to get him a coffee or anything else he may want or need. It was such a sweet scene and made me feel all warm inside :)

I arrived in Glasgow and took the bus into the city where Nicole was going to meet me. Now Nicole wasn't an old College or highschool friend, I didn't even know her. My sister's friend knew Nicole and connected us on facebook. Nicole was great enough to let me stay with her for a few days and played tour guide too. The evening I arrived, we took the metro to Ashton lane, most ghetto metro I've ever been on. Ashton Lane is a cool little strip of pubs and bars. White Christmas lights hanging over the street and lots of people around make it a fun spot. We walked back to Nicole's place and stopped at another Chippy on the way. It was late so there wasn't a lot of options, but we opted for deep fried sausage. My heart is clogging right now just thinking about it. But it was the perfect 1am meal. 

The next morning we went to Edinburgh. We tried to get a good shot with the castle in the background, but just the pretty trees.

The fringe festival was happening there all of August and we caught it on a nice day. We walked around the city and saw some of the festivities. We stopped for a beer at a pub and chatted with some funny British guys. Have you heard of pass the wasp? Or Vics in the eye? I have...now. There was a wasp hanging around and one of the guys shared the techniques for passing the wasp. Slowly lean forward towards someone else and the wasp will move from you to them. Genius. The vics in the eye is far from genius, but aparantly this guy used to do it when he was a kid. Dip your finger in vics vapor rub and poke someone in the eye. Opposite of Genius. But funny.

That evening we checked out one of the many comedy shows going on in the city. The performers called themselves the Silky Pair. Two British ladies. It had it's funny moments, but wasn't a total knee slapper. There were too many people crammed in a tiny little room, not the best venue. But on the up side, we got our own little comedy show waiting at the train station heading home. There was a man walking up and down the platform with his tucked in shirt poking out of the fly of his pants. Now that's comedy.  

The next day Nicole had to work so I checked out Glasgow on my own. I heard there was a Brad Pitt movie being filmed in George's Square in Glasgow, so I checked it out. They weren't filming yet, but the streets were being changed into Philidelphia streets. Signs, lights, cars, the whole deal. Even the locals were taking pictures infront of the Philly cabs. 

I visited a modern art museum that had some great displays. There were some exhibits that really got to me. Good stuff. I was also told that I had to have Hagis before I left Scottland. I ordered it not knowing that it isn't always deep fried in batter. Either way, I can't say I was a big fan. I didn't make it too far through it. But I guess it is a badge of honor to say I tried.

The next day it was back to Edinburgh to fly to my next destination. Stockhom!

I was greeted at the airport with huge banners celebrating the stars from Stockholm. Abba was just one of many. Gotta love 'em. I took the bus to downtown and walked to the hostel from the bus station. It was a beautiful hot day, and a nice walk there. I hadn't eaten so I stopped on the way for a French Hot dog. My first, but not my last. They are all the rage in Scandanvia. Something kinda disturbing about them though.

The hostel in Stockholm was an old converted building and a little bit of a maze, but a descent place. The first night I met another Canadian girl in my room so we did a little sight seeing and souvenir shopping. The next day was my only full day in Stockholm so I wanted to see as much as I could. My hostel was right on the water so I took a ferry over to an island that has a few major attractions.

The first stop was the Vasa museum, a pretty cool place to learn about the sunken ship that was recovered after 300 years in the water. Pretty cool, my dady would love it. Then I went to another museum that was all about Sweeden. They were setting up for a fashion show in the museum, but aside from that, there were some pretty great things in there too. I have gone to more museums in the past couple of months than in the rest of my life. So why not one more. The last stop on the Island was an open air museum called Skansen. There was a village of houses and businesses set up as they would have been in Stockholm over a hundred years ago. It was pretty cool, but that wasn't all. The place was huge and had a zoo and amusement park too. I loved this lady who just got off work in her tradition outfit and talking on her cell phone. Don't know if you can catch that from the photo.

By the time I was ready to leave there it was getting later so I just walked around downtown a little. There was a festival in town so there were stages everywhere with concerts and performers. I checked out a couple and spotted this poster which I was super pumped about before heading back to the hostel.

The next day it was an earlish flight to Copenhagen. My stay in Stockholm was short but it is a beautiful city and I felt like I got a good grasp of what it has to offer.

I flew into Copenhagen late afternoon and it was a pretty nice day. I seemed to get atleast one nice day in every city. Denmark was country number 5 on this two week whirl wind trip. So by the time I got there, I was tired but ready to finish strong.

Between Sweden and Denmark the money had me really confused. They both have Krone as their currency, but Swedish and Danish Krone are different. 10 Swedish Krone is like 1 euro, so about $1.50 Canadian. I was just getting the hang of that before going to Copenhagen where 1 euro is about 7 Krone. That math is a little harder to do on the spot. Probably should have my math tutor from highschool with me. Lori, you better clear your schedule if I head back. Or atleast make me one of your famous cheat sheets. I still remember the one you made me for French 8. Excellent use of the four colour clicky pen.  wow...sure got of track there. Moving right along.

I settled in to my hostel in Copenhagen. The Generator. Sounds more like a club than a hostel? Well it is both. The 2nd floor is a club/bar/lounge. Nice for meeting people but the whole place was new and felt more like a hotel than any other hostel I've been to. After settling in I walked back to the square nearby that is a popular spot anytime of day. I did yet another boat tour in Copenhagen on the first night. It was anice way to see a lot of the landmarks and make note of what I wanted to go back to see from dry land. The little mermaid for example, known as a pretty famous landmark, not worth going back to, but the Salvation church was worth a second look. After the boat ride I walked around the harbour a little and saw a few of the many elephant sculptures around the city. They were part of a city wide open air exhibit to raise funds and awareness of Thai elephants. Some of them were pretty cool.

The second day in copenhagen was another busy one. I met a few more people in my room at the hostel. Another girl travelling alone from the US and a french couple that pretty much kept to themselves. I headed into to town and found the longest walking shopping street in Europe. I checked things out around there until I got to the end of the street. It opens up to town hall and an open area where people were celebrating pride weekend. There was samesex ballroom dancing going on and tons of people around. Across from the town hall there was an exhibit for the Titanic. It was interesting, but the audio tour was a little cheesy. But over all for an hour, it was worth it. It gave an interesting perspective on the ship and passangers.
Attached to the building where the Titanic exhibit was, was Trivoli! Trivoli is another amusement park that takes up a huge space right in the middle of the city. It has been around for a long time and it shows. The rides and atmosphere are a little...rustic. But it is a cool place. There are lots of pretty spots with gardens and fountains and a ton of resturaunts. One area is set up like China town. There were fun shops there and it was a cool place to spend an afternoon.

After Trivoli I went through Ripley's believe it or not and The Hans Christian Anderson experience. They were an ok way to see some fun stuff, but I was fading fast after a long day so I made my way back to the Hostel. That evening I checked out the club in the Generator and chatted with some people there. There was this guy, I think his name was Nick. His story was that he won a magic competition and got a trip to Copenhagen from England where he was from. So he came with a deck of cards and was doing tricks for me and some girls from Germany I had met. Pretty good actually.

The next morning I checked out a free walking tour advertised in the hostel. NewEurope is a company that does these tours all over Europe and it's basically by donation. So I went with a couple that were staying in my room at the hostel. Rachel and Shamis live in Australia, though Shamis is Irish. We walked all over the city for three hours. It is a good way to see lots of the city and hear about what you're looking at. One of the most beautiful spots is the harbour. So gorgeous.

One of the things I had seen from afar on both the boat tour and walking tour, was the Salvation Church. It's steeple is high over the city and has a gold spiral staircase winding around it to the very top. Different from other church steeples I've seen in Europe. So Shamis, Rachel and I went over there to check it out. We started climbing inside the building. Then you come out to the outside. You think you are done, but then comes the spiral staircase that goes to the very top. It gets steeper and more and more narrow as you get closer to the top. The last step is barely big enough for a foot. It was great to see the city from there, but the higher we got the more butterflies seemed to make their way into my stomach. Shamis seemed to feel the whole thing wave in the wind. I don't know about that, but it was pretty high. That's the steeple behind the yellow building.

That night we were all pretty bagged so we watched a movie at the hostel. "In Brugge" is a great Collin Farrel movie about Brugge, the city in Belguim. Rachel and Shames had been there and said it was great, after seeing the movie, I plan to go there soon too.

The next day I had a later flight so I went off to explore more of the city on my own. I went to the Guiness book of world records (it was a combo deal with Ripley's) and then went to Christiana. This is the 'green light district' of the city, but is actually a pretty cool place. There was so much to see and I loved it all so I am glad I had so long in Copenhagen. I went back to the hostel for a bit before heading to the airport that evening. I was back home by 11:30 that night and was exhausted. It was definitly a whirl wind couple of weeks, but I was glad to be able to see so much. 

The next couple weeks before the kids went back to school were good. I had a going away party for a friend moving back to Canada. The party pretty much lasted all weekend but was great. And I had one more really fun weekend in store for me. Elise who was in England for the summer was coming to Holland for a few days to visit before she went back to Canada.

She arrived on the friday night and the amazing weather we'd been missing all summer came with her. Saturday was hot and a great day to show her Hilversum and Utrecht. We did a lot of shopping and exploring. That evening there was a festival in town so there were people everywhere and stages set up in town with djs and bands. It was a good day. The next day the weather turned back to what we're used to around here...rain. We went into Amsterdam and spent the next couple of days there. We met up with Saskia, another friend from home, and stayed at her place. She works with Anti-human trafficing in amsterdam and gave us an interesting tour through the red light district. Kindof surreal to see so many tourists taking pictures when you hear the back story of some of these women. Elise and I also went to the Anne Frank house. It was interesting. The part that got me was where you can see where they marked the heights of Anne and her sister Margot, on the wall. Made them a real family for me. I realized while I was there, that though I know the story, I've never read the diary of Anne Frank. So I bought it there. So far it has been really interested to see things through her eyes.

The next day in Amsterdam we went on a NewEurope walking tour again. Julian was our guide, and though he was a bit sassy with me initially, he put on a good tour. I had seen a lot of Amsterdam, but didn't always know what I was looking at so I was glad we did the tour. I learned a thing or two. That night I headed home because I had to work the next day, while Elise stayed with Saskia and then flew back the next morning. It was fun having someone from home here. Anyone else wanna come visit?

I am still finalizing details for my birthday weekend in Paris, hopefully it all works out. I'm sure I will let you know how that goes soon enough. Until next time, peace out homies (haha rememebr that Julie)

A busy month

It's been a long time since my last post, I know, but it's hard to keep up. I am also trying to keep up a travel journal and adding pictures to facebook, so by the time that's all done, it's hard to relive everything in blog form. So, sorry for the delay. I hope it was worth the wait.

Since I last wrote I have had a busy couple of months. Mostly day trips or short weekenders near by, but keeping pretty busy. I will skip over some of the shorter trips to get to my two week holidays this August. I left August 6th and Visited Ireland, England, Scottland, Sweden and Denmark before arriving back in Amsterdam on August 21st. Here are the days of my life...

I arrived in Dublin and met up with Amanda at the airport. I went to highschool with Amanda and don't think we've seen each other since. She's been living there with her husband and two children for years and was great enough to let me stay at their place for a few days. I loved Dublin! It was refreshing to be back in an English speaking country. At Amanda's suggestion I decided to do a hop on hop off bus tour. I see them in every city but never thought to really do them. But this one turned out to be great. The whole tour lasted over an hour but then of course you can hop off at any stop and check stuff out and then get back on when your done. It was great for someone like me who didn't really know where to start. Plus the bus drivers were kinda funny, some of them atleast. My Dad's sense of humor would fit right in. 

I did a lot in Dublin and was able to see a lot of great stuff. I checked out the Guiness brewery which was fun. Once you've looked around the place you go up to the sky lounge for a pint of Guiness. I'm not a big beer drinker to start, so it wasn't my favourite, but it was all part of the experience, and it was a good one. You can see most of the city from the sky lounge. Too bad it was pouring rain by that point.

The next day I saw a lot more sights and took the metro around the city. I wanted to check out this old jail that has been closed for years and just used for tours and a museum now. It was pretty remarkable. One story that stuck with me from the tour was about a prisoner who was executed in the stone yard there. Many of the prisoners there are now thought of as heros in Dublin with streets named after them. This one man was shot in the leg. It started to infect while he was in jail, so they sent him to the hospital. The infection spread so bad that death was inevitable. So they returned him to the prison so they could execute him quietly without a lot of attention. When they brought him in the gate, he was too weak to make it across the yard where the executions took place so he was the only one to be executed on the other side of the yard. He couldn't even stand so they brought in a chair and eventually had to tie him to the chair because he was too weak to sit up. This was a horrifc story and really made the jail more than just a museum for me.

Now that we got the sad stuff out of the way...Dublin was great! Live Irish music, first time on the other side of the road, catching up with old friends, Temple Bar, learning a thing or two and overall having fun. Next stop, LONDON!

I flew to London and arrived at the Gatwick airport with my first travel mix up. I was set to take the train from the airport to Exeter, but miss judged how much time I would have. I thought I would be able to see a bit of London that day, but unfortunately only saw the airport. Instead I took a train to Reading, England. I had a short stop over there to see the city a bit, and a great street performer, before catching a connecting train to Exeter. If you know much about England you may be wondering why I went to Exeter. Well to see Elise of course. My friend Elise has been working in Exeter for the summer and I went for a a quick visit to see her. She picked me up at the train and we walked back to where we were staying. It was late so we pretty much called it a night then hit the 'big city' the next day. Exeter was pretty. We looked around the Cathedral and did some shopping. We went down to the quay and walked along the water and checked out the views. It was also the first sunny day of the trip and one of the last.

We sat for a drink at a cute little patio resturaunt. And I had a very unfortunate encounter with a wasp. I wasn't stung, but he did bogart my beer. I look happy at this point, but there was sheer panic taking place not long before this picture was taken. He was one determined little guy. And ended his lfe happily swimming in my beer.

That night we went out with some of Elise's friends to a great little spot, the Firehouse. It was a good night, but I had to head back to the train station for an early train out at 6:30am. So it was to bed I went.

My train got into London around 9:30. I only had the day there before my next stop. So I preplanned a couple of things. I met up for lunch with another old High school friend, Fong Yee. Again, great to see her after 10+ years. It was a quick lunch and then I was off to explore the South Bank area of London. I started with a trip around the London Eye. It was great. I wasn't sure what to expect but got a good deal booking online so I thought it was worth a go. The city was so beautiful from up there and was a straight shot across from Big Ben.

After the London Eye, I went on a boat tour. Which was lucky because it poured rain while I was cozy in the boat. Now the boat was interesting. It was more like a floating club with a a bar, dance floor, and disco lights to match the leather furniture.  Kinda wierd, but another fun way to see South Bank. Later I went to a promotional 'beverage garden' introducing a new cider. It was right beside the water and had a great band playing with some even more entertaining older folks cutting a rug. They came prepared with their 60s/70s get ups and funky moves. I don't think this or any other picture could quite capture the creepiness and awsomeness of these three, but they were having a good time and I hope I have that much groove 40 or 50 years down the road.

After a stop over in the gardens, I walked further along the river and checked out the Tate Museum. I didn't have long enough before it was closing so I didn't get to see all I wanted to see, but it was great and I hope to get back there at some point. I checked out a few other spots before the exaustion of the day set in and it was time to head to my next destination. I caught an evening train to Coventry, a couple hours north of London. I got to the station a little earlier than expected and had a reserved train ticket. I had a bad feeling when I got on the train that I wasn't on the right train. It was going to the right place, but it was different time but I gave it a shot. We were almost in Coventry when the dreaded moment arrived. The guys was coming to check the tickets. He took a look at mine and let me know I was on the wrong train. I didn't realize there were two different train companies and that I got on the fast one, which is more expensive. I put my best dumb tourist face on mixed with a touch of emotional girl, and turned on the charm. And...it worked. He waved the 40pound fee plus the cost of a new ticket and let me go with a warning and some tips to better understand the train system :) Too bad I can't be so convincing with the cops back home with speeding tickets.

I eventually arrived in Coventry and it was around this time that I learned that my phone was busted and I couldn't connect with Jaime. I went to College with Jaime and she moved to Coventry a few years back. And again, she was great enough to pick me up at the train, let me stay at her and her husbands place, and play tour guide for a couple of days.  I got ahold of her on a pay phone (they still exist), and we headed to her place. It was late, so we chatted for a while and then were off to bed. My two days in Coventry were a nice half way mark. By this time I was getting tired, and that mixed with more crappy weather, meant we had some down time to relax a little. Though we did manage to see what the Coventry area has to offer. We went to Stratford one day and explored Shakespears home town. There are lots of houses/museums to pay to get into, but we opted for the cheep tour. The one where you stand outside and take a picture. No entry fee :)

This is me infront of Shakespears house. I felt so smart just standing there.

And you gotta love the classic British phone booths and mail boxes. Ya just gotta.

That evening I went to my first chippy. Now that's a Fish and chips place for the uncultured readers. Though, not being a seafood fan, I opted for the chicken and chips version. The next day we saw more of Coventry. We spent a while at the old cathedral there. Now I have been in Europe for 4 months now, and there are a lot of cathedrals around here. But I haven't seen another cathedral like this one yet. The roof was bombed out in the war and just the outer wall are left standing. The frames of the stained glass windows are there with a little of the original glass still hanging on. It was beautiful. That Saturday afternoon, one week into the trip, it was back to the airport for me. I flew from Birmingham to Glasgow. 

But for more on that story, tune into my next post which I assure you will be sooner rather than later. My real life version of a choose your own adventure book continues with three countries left to explore. And an added bonus, an old character resurfaces as Elise takes on the Netherlands for a weekend visit. That, and more in my next post. Until then, love and miss you.