The Final Eurotrip: Amsterdam and Brussels

To celebrate the end of my first final and to put off studying for my last two finals, last week I took my last European vacation, or holiday, to Amsterdam and Brussels with two friends. I was nervous that we wouldn't be able to leave Edinburgh as the weather is still all over the place and many of my friends' trips have been cancelled, but luckily we got out and made it to Amsterdam in the early evening on Tuesday.

After finding the train into the city and walking down a few really sketchy alleys in search of our hostel, we finally found what we were looking for: The Flying Pig. The name says it all. It was by far the strangest hostel I've ever seen. After checking in, Emily and I soon realized that rather than give us two twin beds, we would be sleeping in the same, slightly larger than a twin, bed in a 32-bed room. It was definitely an interesting start to the trip.

The next day, we walked through the city to the Van Gogh museum. The walk was longer than we had expected, but it was definitely worth it. The city and its canals are gorgeous, and we passed a lot of neat buildings, as well as the famous flower market. After spending a few hours at the museum, we made our way to the Heineken experience.  As I've seen quite a few breweries and distilleries on this trip and am interested in the beer making process, this was my favorite part of the entire trip. The two free beers at the end didn't hurt either. After exploring the Heineken building for a while, we walked through one of the biggest outdoor markets in Europe and then went to the Anne Frank house. Being in the Anne Frank house was so weird, as I've read the diary so many times for school and now had the opportunity to see everything first hand, including her original diary. It was definitely quite moving. After walking around all day and then a nice dinner, followed by "the best fries in Holland" we did a bunch of tourist shopping and called it a night.

On Thursday morning, we decided to take a canal tour. This was also one of my favorite parts of the trip. They told us lots of cool facts about Amsterdam, such as houses used to be taxed on width which is why they're so tall and skinny, when people move everything is moved through the windows, and an average of 3 cars drive into the canals each week. After the canal cruise and a bit more walking around and exploring, Emily and I got on a bus bound for Brussels.

There wasn't a ton that we wanted to see in Brussels, but we did want to eat Belgian waffles and chocolate, and drink Belgian beer. This wasn't an issue as waffle stands were everywhere, along with chocolate shops. We learned quickly that if we went into a chocolate store we would immediately be offered a free sample, and we used this to our advantage. Brussels was really easy to walk around so we managed to see all of the major sites in one day, including the Grande Place, the Palace of Justice, the real palace, a statue that is supposed to be good luck if you rub it, as well as the Manneken Pis statue, which was so much smaller than I had expected. We also tried a few different kinds of Belgian beer, and it was delicious! My favorite was an apple beer. 

Now that my European traveling adventures are over, it's time to start packing for home. Four days until I'm stateside again!

Snow in Edinburgh

After my adventure getting home from Paris last weekend, I hoped that the unexpected snow in Edinburgh would be short lived and removed quickly. Well, I was definitely wrong. It has snowed off and on for the past week, and Scottish students in my classes and flat complex have said that this is the most snow they've ever seen, especially this early in the season.  Snow removal also definitely isn't Edinburgh's strong point. I've read several articles in Scottish newspapers calling the removal, or lack of, a total disgrace. City workers did not clear the streets, shovel the sidewalks, or even salt walking paths, so getting around has been quite difficult.  Edinburgh residents have dealt with the snow in a variety of different ways. I inch along the roads, hoping I won't fall and make a fool of myself, but I've seen several cross country skiers on the roads. Not exactly what I was expecting to see on a busy city street on my walk to class. Although it's stopped snowing for the time being, everything froze, making the city one giant sheet of ice. I appreciate the snowball fights and how pretty the city looks in the snow, but I would have a greater appreciation for a safe walk to class and the grocery store without having to worry about wiping out! I did see some guys out with ice chippers today though so hopefully progress will be made soon!

Paris!

After a slightly depressing Thanksgiving in Edinburgh (I never realized how much I appreciated being home and with family for the holidays) I jetted off to Paris early Friday morning to meet my friend Sarah for a fantastic weekend. It was my first time flying completely alone, so I was definitely nervous flying into Charles De Gaulle as it's enormous, but we managed to find each other and take the train into the city!

The only French I know is very basic (what I remember from my short stint as a French student between the ages of 8-10) so I was limited to very basic greetings, merci, and au revoir (although if someone needed me to count to 39, I could have done so). Luckily, the majority of people we encountered spoke very good English, so the language barrier wasn't too challenging.  On Friday, we found our hostel and set off to see the city.  Paris was so much bigger than I had anticipated! We managed to see the Bastille, Notre Dame, and the Palais de Justice on the first day, and even got crepes! I had a banana and Nutella crepe, and it was so messy, but so delicious.  After spending all day outside, we went to the Louvre that night.  It was so exciting to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo, and all I could think about was the Da Vinci Code. Although we spent several hours in the museum, it was enormous and only got through a portion of the exhibits.  After a late dinner in a restaurant right next to the Louvre, we called it a night and went back to the hostel.

We had tickets to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower early the next morning, so we planned on taking the Metro.  Well, when we were about 3 stops away from the Tower, the train stopped and didn't move for about 10 minutes.  In broken Spanish, a woman on the train told us that there weren't enough people on it, so it was going to stop.  When sitting on the train trying to figure out what to do, it ended up going back to the previous stop! We realized we weren't going to make it to the Eiffel Tower by train any time soon, so we got off and started to walk, with only 15 minutes to make it.  Luckily a cab drove by and we managed to make it on time. The Eiffel Tower was incredible. It was enormous and going to the top was so cool! It's not possible to get a sense of the size of the tower until actually there, and I was shocked at how huge it was. After the Eiffel Tower, we strolled down the Seine, saw the Place de la Concorde (the site of the infamous guillotine), and then went to the Arc de Triomphe and strolled down the Champ-Elysees and did a bit of shopping.  There's tons of traffic around the Arc but no traffic lanes, so it was an adventure watching angry and aggressive French people drive around the circle. Our last stop of the day was the Pantheon which was also beautiful.

Our first stop on Sunday was the Sacre Coeur Basilica. This was one of my favorite buildings in Paris as it was beautiful and had amazing views of the city. After exploring the Basilica, we went to see Moulin Rouge, and then to Pierre Hermes for macarons! Although the desserts looked incredible and I could have eaten everything in the store, I settled on four flavors of macarons: rose, caramel, chocolate, and chocolate hazelnut. The chocolate was definitely my favorite. We took our pastries to the Luxembourg gardens and walked around those for a bit, and then did a bit more sightseeing before we went back to the airport.  The flight home was certainly an adventure because of snow in Edinburgh, and after a 2 hour delay in Paris, being diverted to Glasgow, sitting in Glasgow for a few hours, and finally bused back to Edinburgh and virtually dumped on the side of the road, I eventually made it home at 5 am.

Paris was a beautiful city and I'm so glad I went and was able to see all of the main tourist attractions. I was nervous throughout the trip though because security around the major areas was very intense, and it was a constant reminder of terrorist threats. Despite the security and the awful trip back home, Paris was beautiful and the trip was wonderful.