My final train departing my home for the last 10 months has just begun to roll. I have such an insane mix of emotions that the only thing I can say is that I feel nauseous! I am very sad to say goodbye to this amazing city which has showed me its good, bad & ugly sides. Locking room A16 for the final time today was surreal. I can’t believe I will NEVER be going back there. This year has been wonderful, horrible, crazy, amazing, joyful, sad, difficult, interesting, and more, but most of all unforgettable. From the beginning fatigue of speaking, hearing, reading, and breathing French, to the whirlwind of travels (Switzerland, France, Belgium, Germany, Amsterdam, London, Sardinia, Italy, Greece…). From the early frustrations of mere comprehension, figuring out “French time”, making friends, and missing home, to the ease of near-fluency, an established routine, and comfort in the once daunting city. This year has been out of control in the best way, and has taught me a lot about life. Some of what I’ve learned…

1 – It’s all in your head. If you expect something to be bad and you refuse to see the silver lining, you will have a negative experience. On the other hand, if you focus on the good things you will be content.

2 – It’s not worse, it’s just different! Our study abroad coordinator drilled this into our heads before we left, and I swear it made all the difference.

3 – If the 65 million French can live this way, so can I. Along the same lines, there are so many different cultures and they all do things a little (or in some cases, a lot) differently. But if the people of that society can live with it, then I can learn to deal with it too!

4 – French wine, bread and cheese really are all they’re cracked up to be.

5 – It’s hard not to stereotype people! As much as it frustrates me to be labelled (& sometimes dismissed) as a “typical American (I mean all 300 million of us are not the same!!), I am just as guilty of stereotyping others. I am not proud of this.

6 – Europeans L-O-V-E Obama.

7 – The Eastern and Western US are very different.

8 – Plans are never set in stone. Out of necessity, we must not believe that everything will go the way we expect.

9 – Seeing everyone wear black everyday makes me want to cry/scream/wear yellow!

10 – French people seem to be personally offended by people who do not dress “appropriately” (i.e. conservative and black) *please note the aforementioned stereotyping I am doing here – yikes*

11 – Islam (the second largest religion in France) is closer to Christianity than the American public thinks.

12 – Even though we have some serious problems, America really is the greatest country in the world, and I feel so lucky to have been born there.

13 – The more fluent you become in a language, the more you realize how far you are from fluency!

14 – Packing light is the most important thing when it comes to travel.

15 – Trains are awesome.

16 – Discount airlines are awesome.

17 – The Mediterranean sun is HOT.

18 – I need sunshine and open spaces.

19 – I am a different person when I don’t get a good dose of nature (& not for the better!!)

20 – You must be proactive! It never works to say “I’ll do that one of these days” If you really want to do something, get out and do it today.

21 – With that said, it’s impossible to do everything, so cut yourself some slack.

22 - Eggplants and mushrooms are delicious!

23 – It always feels good to come home, not matter how fun the trips was.

A few pictures from Montpellier…

My first Mythos of many at my first meal in Athens. I had moussaka. It was tasty, but not sure if I’d order it again.

Beautiful corinthian columns of the Temple of Zeus.

Temple of Zeus.

Marble stadium built for the first modern Olympics in 1896.

The acropolis or “high city” of Athens. Gee, I wonder why they called it that?

Old Greek Orthodox Church mixed with some ancient ruins.

View of the Temple of Hephaistos (460-415 BC) and Athens in the background.

The mediterranean and Athens from the acropolis.

The Parthenon (447-438 BC)!

Erechtheum (421 – 407 BC) and it’s classic Ionic order columns (the scrolls at the top are what make these columns obviously ionic, versus the extremely decorated corinthian columns of the Temple of Zeus – sorry my new found art geek is coming out a bit…)

It was after this visit to the Acropolis that I found myself lost and chatting with this young guy who was also lost. He happened to be from Prague, where I am headed in about a week. So we started talking, and decided to grab lunch together since we were both alone in the city. It was nice to make my first friend, and he gave me all his info for when Hillary and I head to Prague!

I must also mention that after I left lunch with my new friend I decided to get my hair wrapped. Probably because I’m a friends dork and Rachel got her hair wrapped in Greece… ha. Anyway, while I was sitting on the Great Athens walk getting my hair wrapped by a nice man probably in his 50′s a bird crapped on my leg. That was awesome! Anyway, I was chatting with this old man, who used to live in Crete, and he convinced me to spend the next few days in Chania. So I immediately booked by ferry ticket, and was off the Crete a few hours later…

Ferry that took me from Athens to Crete. I left at 9pm and arrived around 5:30am!! It was HUGE and really nice.

Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Chania, Crete.

Old Venetian Harbor of Chania in the early morning light.

Stairs of a cute old street that led to my pension.

My room that I somehow finagled for less than half its original price.

Harbor lighthouse

Old buildings, flowers, palm trees. Crete at its finest.

Colorful old Venetian buildings.

Another Mythos and my first gyro.

Sheep on the way to the Imbros Gorge.

View of a farm valley on the way to the Imbros Gorge.

Crete is known for its interesting flora…

Imbros Gorge.

This hike is where I met Maria and Fabio, an adorable little Brazilian woman, and her 25 year old Canadian son who is a science teacher in London. We ended up spending the entire day and evening together swimming in the Mediterranean, eating, and talking. They are some of the nicest people I have ever met! They were also staying in Chania, and I ended up spending most of my Cretan vacation with them.

Another one of the lighthouse.

Back on the mainland, I took a day trip to Delphi, this was a view at the rest stop on the way.

Delphi. Ancient ruins + beautiful mountains = heaven for Megan. (and apparently the ancient Greeks and Romans too, considering this was the most important oracle of the ancient world…)

Just some pieces of old columns =)

Temple of Apollo (hard to tell from this picture, but it is the last order Doric, which was more bulky and less decorative) with the Pindus mountain range.

The Sanctuary of Athena

Alpha beer, baklava, and a beautiful view was a wonderful end this wonderful solo trip.

By the way, this leg of my trip was my first experience traveling completely alone! Katie was supposed to meet me in Athens, but she was stuck in the UK because of the volcano. Although I would have loved her company and there are perks to having someone with you (especially as a young female), I must say I enjoyed the freedom of going alone, and would highly recommend everyone do it at least once in their life…

Gotta get pack to packing my room. Saying goodbye to Montpellier one week from today, and I’m not sure I’m ready!

On the bus ride to Positano – windy roads to say the least.

Villa living room.

View of the beach and the Mediterranean from villa living room, and our cute little flower boxes.

Fixings for dinner the first night: locally made pasta, local wine, eggplant, pancetta, butter, parmigiano reggiano, garlic, eggs, and focaccia.

Floor tiles in my bedroom.

All those fixings in a delicious carbonara dinner. Oh my my.

Positano is famous for the invention of leather sandals at the request of Jackie O . This woman is a third generation sandal maker, and that is my sandal she is making!

This is smoked gouda (I believe). We baked it on top of lemon leaves. Holy cow. It was one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten. I would kill for some right now.

View from our patio at night.

Bobo (I can’t remember his actual name, but that is what I called him…) – one of the many stray dogs that the town has “adopted” by putting a collar on it so the dog catcher won’t take him away. People here just put dog food on their door steps to feed all the village pets.

Now we are in Ravello’s cathedral. This old marble platform is held up by 6 lions.

SOOOO many beautiful flowers.

At the Villa de Cimbrone. Walkway toward the famous Terrace of the Infinite.

More flowers (there are a lot of these to come…)

Wonder why they call it the Terrace of the Infinite =)

Dad and I on the terrace.

View of the mountains descending into the sea – notice the tiered farms.

Ravello view.

Gardens at the Villa de Cimbrone. These flowers smelled pretty.

More Villa Cimbrone gardens.

Amalfi coast!

Amalfi’s Duomo.

Inside Amalfi’s Duomo.

Gelato!!! – lemon cello and passion fruit. The passion fruit was whoa.

View of Positano from the boat on the way to Capri.

Faraglioni – the symbol of Capri.

CRAZY blue water!!!

Our canoe driver into the Blue Grotto.

Capri flower.

A Volkswagen van and a vespa? I must be in Europe…

Above Capri.

The End.

After the museum we went walking around the city. We quickly passed the crowded Spanish Steps, tossed coins in the Trevi Fountain to ensure another trip back to Rome,

wandered past the Pantheon, which was unfortunately closed due to constructions, but still cool.

We headed to a pizzeria for a delicious dinner. I had read that zucchini flowers were in season,

so I ordered a pizza with them, not knowing what to expect, and I ended up really liking it. It pretty much just tastes like a vegetable!

The next day we had tickets for the Colosseum in the afternoon, so we headed to St. Peter in Chains first, where we saw Peter’s chains, lit a candle, and awed at Michelangelo’s Moses.

Then we were off for the “Caesar Shuffle”

The Roman Forum - wow.

Julius Caesar walked on these stones...

no caption necessary.

After this awesomeness (I looooooved the Forum), we headed to the top of the Victor Emanuel monument for on of the best views of Rome

Colosseum and Forum

The Vatican - dome of St. Peter's Basilica

Then we spent the whole evening wandering around Trastevere. As weird as it may sound, because Rome has tons of cool stuff (obviously), this evening in Trastevere was one of my favorite things we did in Rome.

One of the first things we saw in the Trastevere was the Church of St. Cecilia. Although I do not consider myself a religious person, my Catholic roots do something to me… and this church was no exception – not only because it was bright and beautiful, but because St. Celia is my Confirmation saint.

I didn’t know her story before coming here, but Cecilia was a Catholic woman in a time when Christianity was illegal under Roman rule. Supposedly she told her husband on her wedding night that she wanted to remain chaste and serve God, and instead of freaking out, her husband converted, and they lived very virtuous lives until they were both killed. The Roman government chopped her head off, and this church sits on top of her 14th century (? – if I remember correctly…) home. It is a small church hidden by a convent courtyard and a hodgepodge facade of mis-matched columns and a recycled 18th century bell tower.

Next was Santa Maria, with some of the most amazing mosaics I have ever seen.

Santa Maria is also home to a statue of St. Anthony inundated with requests from the faithful.

This day ended with another good Italian dinner of swordfish ceviche, pasta with mussels and asparagus, and tiramisu. Oh how I miss Italian foooooood.

The next day we headed to an open air market near the Vatican to wander and grab a pic-nic before heading to the Vatican in the afternoon.

The Vatican blew my mind, it is pretty much just one big museum, and I enjoyed that part just as much as the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s. There were crazy paintings on the ceiling that you would swear were carvings,

and a pretty powerful painting on one of the ceilings announcing that Christianity was in and Roman life was out.

There were multiple Raphaël rooms, and I discovered that I really like him! One of his most famous, and also my favorite, painting is The School of Athens,

featuring Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Michelangelo (added after Raphael saw the Sistine Chapel…), among many others.

The ceiling of the  Sistine Chapel and the Last Judgement are indescribable, and also not allowed to be photographed. So all I can say is hopefully you have or will get to see it someday.

Next was St. Peter’s, which was GINORMOUS, but designed to downplay how big it is, which I thought was weird. Of course we saw (but couldn’t touch) the statue of St. Peter with his foot rubbed smooth,

and Michelangelo’s Pietà, which is now enclosed behind bullet-proof glass because of some psycho that came in and attacked it with a hammer like 15 years ago.

And that concluded our day in the Vatican.

We had a wonderful dinner at this cute little place that was run by 4 brothers, with Mama in the kitchen. I should mention that Mama was like 70, and the sons were all grey-haired. But they were really nice, and I had some darn good eggplant parmesan!

The only thing cuter than little kids speaking French, is little kids speaking Italian. As I was waiting for my plane from Paris to Pisa there was this little Italian girl, maybe 3 or 4, just talking up a storm and singing, and I about died. She literally killed me with cuteness.

After a loss of communication, I finally met up with Dad in the hotel room, and we headed out for an afternoon slash evening walk in Florence. We were both hungry, so the first thing we did was stop in at this freaking adorable cafe right on the Arno and have a little anti-pasta lunch.

We had sausage and ham, and cheese, and olives, and artichoke hearts, and a crustini – and I had my first glass of Italian wine that you poured yourself out of these jugs on the counter, even equipped with little gutters beneath the spouts.

We continued our walk to the Piazza della Signoria where we saw the replica in the place of where the David stood for about 300 years

and the Rape of the Sabine Woman, which has been resting in the Loggia dei Lanzi since 1583!!

I could not get over his wretched grip on her ass. Intense.

We walked around the Duomo, and I (still because of Pillars) geeked out over all the details.

this guy was one little statue on the BIG bronze door

BIG bronze door

This evening we had one of our best meals in Italy. Dad started with bruschetta (the tastiest one we ever came upon), and I had caprese salad. Then we both ordered the pear & cheese ravioli. Oh. my. God. The cheese was creamy goodness, there were actual chunks of pear in it, and the homemade pasta itself was melt-in-you-mouth buttery yumminess. Need I say another word?

The next morning we got up for a day of museuming, and wandering. We saw the actual David, which of course you cannot take pictures of. It was amazing. The details blew my mind. He carved bulging veins into the back of the man’s hand, and into his elbow creases! The tendons around the knee were perfect, and his butt looked as if you could touch it and it would be soft like a real person’s. Michelangelo was the man.

We headed to the markets after the museums.

There was every wonderful Italian thing you could think of from pasta, to lemon cello, to mozzarella bufala (if you have never tried buffalo’s milk mozzarella you MUST. you can thank me later…), to anything leather, to Italia t-shirts. Dad and I picked up some sandwiches for our walk up to the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens.

That afternoon we tasted some gelato – this place used all natural, seasonal ingredients, and you could taste it. It was by far the best gelato we had all trip. I chose banana and chocolate – one of my favorite combinations in all the world. The nummy banana flavor (sorry if you read this Brittany) was pretty much just mashed up frozen bananas!! Soooo goooood. And the chocolate was dark and delicious. That evening we went out for pizza, and I had the first of many Margherita pizzas.

On day 3 we headed to Siena, and also the day my allergies (before I realized they were allergies) really kicked in. My voice became very scratchy, and Dad kept telling me I sounded like Demi Moore… Anyway, we hung on the Il Campo as long as we could,

but it was hot, and we were roasting alive. We had another good lunch of ravioli in sage butter, and spaghetti with duck sauce, before heading to Siena’s Duomo (which just means Cathedral in Italian by the way) and the museum.

The Duomo was amazing, and there is actually an unfinished nave which you can now climb up to find amazing views.

On a complete side note there were 4 skulls in glass cases in Siena’s Duomo museum – sometimes relics are grossss.

While we waited for the bus back to Florence we stopped in this little cafe where Dad had yet another espresso (he was drinking at least 4 a day!!) and I discovered fresh blood orange juice. Apparently blood oranges are in season in April, so every cafe you walk into will squeeze you a big glass for like 2 euros!

This evening we made Ponte Vecchio view window

reservations at this funky/chic restaurant where we decided to go for our one full blown, multi-course Italian meal. We arrived at 8:30, and began with a mix of 3 tartars. Yum. Then we each had a risotto. Yummier. Then dad had some beef thing, and I had chicken breast with a 4-cheese truffled cream sauce and avocados. YUMMIEST. No joke, this is the best thing I have ever eaten in all my life, and I feel like I’ve eaten some pretty yummy things. We rounded off the meal with a mango flan I think it was. It was refreshing after all of that heavy food. And I sipped down two (had to drink Dad’s too…) lemon cellos before we finally headed home at 1am! We figured we were out of the room for 15 hours that day, and walking for most of it. Whoa. I think I wore Dad out!!

and the next day we left Florence for Rome…

Sardinia…

Back in February Sami and I were searching Ryanair for cheap tickets to London because she was determined to visit, and instead we came across some cheap tickets to Cagliari, Sardinia and went for it.

A brief bit of history (because I am a dork)…

Sardinia is one of the geologically oldest bodies of land in Europe.  People have been living here since 6000 BC!!!  The island is dotted with somewhere around 7,000 tower-fortresses called nuraghi, some of which were built as early as 1500 BC. Around 1000 BC the Phoenicians started using Sardinia as an anchorage along trade routes. In 509 BC the Sardinians unsuccessfully tried to kick them off the island, but backed by the Carthaginians, the Phoenicians won and they ruled for almost 300 years. In 238 BC Sardinia was surrendered to Rome which brought the Nuragic (prehistoric Sardinian) civilization to an end. Rome ruled Sardinia, but not without rebellion of the Sardinian people, for 700 years.  Over the next 400 years Sardinia was tossed around, and landed in the hands of the Christian Byzantine Empire, but the island was constantly under attack. So around 700 the provincial judge divided the island into 4 provinces which gained their independence around 900. Each of these 4 states were ruled by a King or Queen, although democratic. Different armies, parliaments, laws, languages, and flags were found in each kingdom. Between 1258 and 1288 3 of the four kingdoms fell to the Pisans – the only one to remain was Arborea. In 1297, Pope Boniface VIII promised James II, King of Aragon, Sicily if he could conquer Sardinia. In 1297 Arborea allied with King James II against the Pisans. After a quick victory it turned into a war between Aborea and Angora. From 1365 to 1406 the Arborean kingdom, set on uniting Sardinia, ruled everything except for Cagliari and Alghero. In 1409, the Sardinians were defeated by Martin I of Sicily, heir to the Aragon thrown. In 1479, due to a marriage, Sardinia came under Spanish rule, and the coasts of Sardinia were fortified with lookout towers.

tower on 1st beach

tower on an island

Sardinia remained in Spanish control until 1720. Over the next 120 years Sardinia rule was inconsistent, until 1848 when the Italian Wars of Independence broke out for the Unification of Italy, and in 1861 Sardinia joined the newly founded Kingdom of Italy, and so she remains part of Italy…

Back to present day – so Sami and arrived in Cagliari at 6pm April 1. I had planned out a wonderful, coastal camping and hiking trip for us starting from Chia, about 1.5 hrs west of Cagliari. Cagliari is the capital of the island and located in the middle of the southern coast.

So, the first thing we did upon arrival was take a bus from the airport to the main bus station. We bought our tickets for Chia, and headed out in search of a grocery store. Me, being the ever-prepared person that I am (well sometimes…) had looked up a few key words in Italian just in case, and we got to use them right off the bat!! We walked into a Tabac and discovered the woman spoke not a word of English or French so we put on our best Italian accents and said “dove drogheria” and she said “per mangiare?”, si si!! And she pointed us across the street to a tiny grocery store which was half filled with pasta! Considering we would be carrying this food on our backs, we bought some pita bread, sausage, cheese, Devil Sauce (we will talk about this later…), pistachios, pineapple, and lots of water. We grabbed a piece of pizza for dinner, and hopped on the bus. At this point the sun was beginning to set, and we were already in love with Sardinia.

I wasn’t exactly sure where we were getting off, it is hard to tell on buses, and we ended up getting off on the side of the highway, in the dark, literally in the middle of nowhere. So we pulled out our flashlights and headed toward the coast – at least I knew which direction that was!! After walking for a minute, and getting sketched out by every car that drove by, I stopped and said, “Do you hear that?” Sami said no. It was the sound of waves!! At least we had made it to the beach. So we took off our shoes and started walking west. We then discovered that we were walking next to some really sketchy trailer park looking things – we got a little nervous, but we finally found a perfect little corner of the beach that was not visible from the road. We decided to chill for a bit before setting up camp. We laid down in the sand and enjoyed the star-filled sky that we had been missing since leaving Montana. Around 11:30 we finally set up our tent. Since we were camping in such an un-stealth spot, we rose at 6:30 to pull down camp, and we were greeted with a BEAUTIFUL sunrise.

The morning light bathed everything and we were in awe at where we had just spent the last 9 hours.

We headed along the coast, not knowing where the heck we were, but knowing that we needed to head west to get where we were going. Along the way we saw a couple fishing for something…

And enjoyed the flowers that were blooming all around.

We discovered that we got off the bust about 12km too soon. Oops. We spent the rest of the morning walking toward the town where we should have gotten off the bus in the first place, as we were approaching Chia, a car stopped a bit in front of us. “Are we getting in the car?” we asked ourselves, and our immediate response, being two young girls, was no; but (sorry Mom_ we ended up getting in the car. It was an older man named Giorgio who owns a restaurant in Chia. He spoke enough English to communicate with us, smoked enough cigarettes to make my lungs hurts, and drove us to the “best beach”. We thanked him for the ride, got his business card, and said goodbye.

We were now on the beach where were planning on sleeping the night before…

but after taking a scenic route there, we were finally ready to set out on the hike I had planned   for us. We ate our pistachios and enjoyed a little sun before setting out over a little hill where     deceivingly pretty yellow flowers covered EVIL bushes that scratched the heck out of our legs to the next beach. This one was also accessible by car, so we decided not to stay too long.

We sunscreened up, stripped down, and moved on.

When we reached the peak of Capo-Spartivento I just about peed my pants – it was the most beautiful view I have ever seen in all my life, and even though the photos are magnificent, they don’t even begin to do it justice.

Sami and I spent the next half hour or so exploring this area, taking about 100 photos before deciding that we should head into the beauty. We saw one couple heading in the opposite direction, and they were the last people we saw for the next 24 hours.

Next we came upon this weird old dock thingy where we soaked up some sun, and busted out lunch. We were eating crackers and what we called pepper spread– one taste revealed that these were HOT peppers, and upon further inspection we discovered that the spread was actually called Devil Sauce! Ha. It was edible, and actually quite good, but both our noses were running by the end.

We came upon the next beach and judged it much too quickly. Not sure if one would describe it as a beach of very small pebbles, or a beach of very big grains of sand; nonetheless, we quickly decided we did not like it, and headed for our “final destination” of the hike. We reached a nice little secluded beach, and even though it was clearly a wind tunnel, we decided to lay out and catch some rays.

We both quickly fell asleep, and awoke around 5pm chilled by the breeze, and hoping that we had not just burnt the crap out of our backs in the baking Mediterranean sun.

The sun was starting to descend in the sky, and I made the executive decision to head back to the other beach for better sunset views. Sami agreed, and we retraced our steps a few kilometres to the beach we had surpassed earlier. Somehow the beach looked different now, and we were upset at ourselves for judging it so quickly earlier because it was amazing.

We were like little kids digging through the sand colleting rocks, shells, beach glass, and coral. We finished off our crackers, and climbed out to the highest point we could to watch the sunset.

Wyoming and Montana have some of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen, but this was absolutely stunning. No words, nor photo, can do this sunset justice.

Once the sunlight, and our awe began to fade we thought about settling in for the night. The goats, with their little cow bells (or would they be goat bells?) invaded our beach, and I built us a sand wall-barrier in case of a high tide a little higher than we were expecting.

We woke up the next morning to enjoy another wonderful sunrise, and head back toward civilization. While waiting for the bus an SUV labelled  Carabineri drove by a couple of times, and finally stopped. Two very official looking men with guns got out and asked for our “documents” we gladly handed them over, and when they saw we were American they immediately became more friendly “Americanas!” they kept saying “Americanas bellas!”. We then tried to communicate with them in our very limited Italian, and their almost as equally limited English. They wrote down our information, wished us a good vacation, and left. I think they are like the Italian version of military police.

After two bus rides we were back at the Cagliari airport. I was determined to  leave the island with a bottle of wine, and even though I know how absurdly overpriced airport shopping is, it was the only way to be able to carry-on a bottle of wine!! So I got a bottle of red to bring home, and Sami and I shared a bottle of white before getting on the plane.

It was a great flight!!

bye bye Sardinia...

and a great trip!!

St. Paul's Cathedral

another view of St. Paul's

since they drive on the wrong side of the road they have to remind you which way to look...

subway and telephone booth = London

Tower of London

Tower Bridge

modern + old

FISH & CHIPS!!

The next day was a little more grey but we still had a wonderful day in London!!

Big Ben

House of Parliament

accidentally stumbled across changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace

royal marching band?!

pretty window display on crazy crowded Oxford Street

Oxford Street was crowded with shoppers, and we saw first hand the quite eccentric English fashion…

Picadilly Circus - no Time's Square...

Making our way to Kensington Palace was a public transport catastrophe because they were doing construction on the tube. Basically, it took us so long to get there that it wasn’t even open by the time we arrived. Oh well.

Kensington Palace and Queen Victoria

funny picture I accidentally took of a guy running

- Underground -

Sherlock Holmes at Baker Street Station

By the time we left London Chels and I were SO exhausted we could hardly move. We were hobbling around like little old ladies, proof of how much fun we had! She and I will definitely have to make these sort of trips a ritual…

We arrived in Amsterdam around noon, and the weather was not that great. It definitely could have been worse, but it misty rained the whole time we were there, but that didn’t stop us from doing anything! We checked into our hostel, The Flying Pig – downtown, which was in a great location. We had booked beds in the 36-bed room, and I think there were maybe 8 other girls in the whole thing. It was steamy from body heat, and smelled interesting, but hey, it was a bed, and it’s not like we spent that much time in there anyway.

That first afternoon was spent simply wandering (one of the best things to do in Amsterdam)…

FEBO!

flower (tulip) market

Nothin like hookers right next to a beautiful church… ahhhh Amsterdam!

We ate an awesome Dutch dinner at De keuken van 1870 (The kitchen from 1870), whose mission is to cook fresh food for a descent price. And that they did!! I ordered the daily special which was a bowl of mushroom soup, a classically Dutch stamppot, and vlan for dessert, all for 9€! It was SOOOO good.

Stamppot

Chelsea had Dutch pancakes smothered in butter for dessert. She let me try a bite, and they were sinfully scrumptious!

You see the blur of her hand? That’s because Chelsea eats faster than anyone I know!! ha

We spent some time in a coffee shop before passing out from exhaustion (or possibly something else )

The next day was museum day! We had breakfast at the hostel, which besides our room full of stinky boys, was actually pretty cool.

We saw the cites around the city while making our way toward the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum.

I amsterdam.

I loved the pretty tiles by all the doors.

Chelsea awkwardly standing with a bunch of random posing people...

Chels in the Red Light

I pretty much knew nothing about Rembrandt before the Rijksmuseum, but I discovered that I actually kind of like him, although he does nothing for me compared to my beloved Van Gogh. I LOVE Van Gogh. We saw some pretty amazing pieces, although my favorite is still Olive Trees, which I saw in the MoMA last December.

I also had 3 krokets this day! Two for lunch at a little cafe, and another from FEBO! FEBO is Dutch fast food that comes from a locker…

Krokets are hard to describe, but here’s my best shot: it is an ultra thick beef stew-chowder, breaded and then fried, and freaking good. I could not let Chelsea leave the Netherlands without having one. Lekker.

We also took a wonderfully relaxing jaunt around Vondelpark. It was possibly my favorite place we went in Amsterdam.

Completely blanking on what we did for dinner this night, but we went to this little Kadinsky coffee shop, which may have been my favorite. The guy that worked there was real nice, and the place was legit. Then these two middle-aged men from New Jersey came in, quickly discovered that we were American, and started talking to us. They asked us where we were from and we said Texas and Wyoming, and they were like “Yeah George Bush and Dick Cheney”, and sorry to all my conservative family members, but I about threw up in my mouth. There is nothing worse than being associated with those two, especially in Europe…

Anyway, we spent the rest of the night in our hostel, and proceeded to London the next morning!!

beautiful sky on the way to Germany!

Trier is Germany’s oldest city – founded by the Romans in 16 BC, the city is 2026 years old! (And I am freaking out about turning 23 ha ha ha) It contains several UNESCO World Heritage sites. One of the most striking structures, and also one of the first things we saw, in Trier is the Porta Nigra (or Black Gate).

that is tiny Chelsea - the Porta Nigra is HUGE!!

It is the best preserved Roman city gate north of the Alps, and it was built in the 2^nd century out of sandstone blocks.

Upon our arrival on probably the nicest day weather-wise of the whole trip (it was seriously beautiful), we checked into our hostel, and needed to eat. We decided to copy all of the young people and grabbed a piece of pizza from Ditsch, which we discovered is the most popular German fast food. It was cheap and good. (We actually ended up getting some more at the last minute before getting on the train to Amsterdam!)

After lunch we began our self-guided tour of Trier, and started with the Cathedral.

It has so much history I can’t even brush the surface, but here are the highlights. It is the oldest Bishop’s church north of the Alps, and has been evolving and expanding since the 4^th century. It exhibits architecture and art from over 1,700 years! Not to mention it houses the Holy Robe – Jesus’s tunic, which is considered one of the most precious relics in the world. Not sure if I believe it is actually his shirt, but I guess it’s the thought that counts…

Amazing carved ceiling over the tomb of an Archbishop

down the main aisle - Jesus's cloak is in that chapel at the end

Unfortunately the Church of Our Lady (attached the Cathedral) was closed for renovation during our visit, but we got to see the outside!

We walked by Constantine’s Imperial Throne Room built in 310 AD.

And then progressed toward the old 4^th century Roman baths, which we circumnavigated before finding the entrance. When we finally found the door (which was very near where we started!) there was no one at the entry desk, so we just went in without paying. I told Chelsea that as long as I got a photo I didn’t care if we got kicked out. We were promptly chastised in German, but since I had already gotten my photo, we just left!

We grabbed a cup of coffee to-go (our fuel throughout the trip!) and continued our wonderful walk toward the river. Here we saw the Roman Bridge across the Moselle, which is the oldest Roman bridge, you guessed it, north of the Alps! It was built with the founding of the city in 16 BC. We walked along the Moselle, enjoyed our coffee, the weather, and the views!

Roman Bridge

old crane by the river

After taking a pause on a river bench and simply taking in the air, we headed back to the main square and grabbed a drink of German beer.

We regrouped at the hostel before trying to find an authentic German restaurant for dinner. You wouldn’t think this would be so hard in Germany, but everywhere we saw was an Itallian Pizzaria. Finally, we came across the place called Flammekuchenhause. It sounded German enough (ha) so we decided to eat there. Needless to say, we could not understand a thing on the menu, but the waiter kindly brought us an English menu. We were still left confused because the menu was labled 32 different “types”, and filled with lists of ingredients such as cheese, potatoes, crème fraiche, sausage, etc. However, it failed to mention types of what! So, we picked some random things and ordered without the slightest idea of what we were actually getting. Well, you will never guess what it was. Pizza! German pizza at least, on a very thin crust, and we ordered ones with potatoes and crème fraiche, which was very different, but we could not stop laughing that after avoiding all the Italian pizzerias we still ended up with pizza, and after we had already had it for lunch that day too. Ahhh language barriers, gotta love ‘em!

The next morning we woke up to a drizzle of rain, walked back through the Porta Nigra (which looks even darker in the rain!), and said goodbye to Trier, and Jesus’s cloak.

on the train to Bacharach

We arrived in Bacharach and the first thing we layed eyes on was the Burg Stahleck, the castle where we would be staying!

While walking through the town we noticed it was very quiet. We drug our butts up the steep climb to the castle, and checked in. There were beautiful views of the Rhine from up there!

We then wandered back into town still in search of truly German meal, and boy did we get it. There were only two restaurants open in the whole dang town (apparently Bacharach is dead during the off-season, which would have been nice to know, but oh well!), and we choose Münze. Chelsea ordered a Bratwurst and fries, which she claimed tasted like breakfast sausage, and I simply ordered the plate of the day. Ew. I do not like German sausage!! It was nasty mush shoved inside tough intestines that I could barely choke down. The potatoes and sauerkraut were good though…

We went on a little walk to check out one of the huge castles in the nearby town, but pretty much Bacharach was a bust, at least it gave us a day to rest, and by rest I mean haul our butts up and down that steep climb to the castle a few times! So, we got back to the hostel and decided we wanted some ice cream and beer. We went into the little bistro and the woman who worked there spoke neither a word of French or English, so we were left to pointing, which was fine, except for the fact that we totally stressed this woman out!! She was rambling in German, and freaking out, but ultimately we got what we wanted. We went to bed early in preparation for the next two nights in Amsterdam.

to be continued…

lunch at the Comédie (that is Chelsea in the bottom right with her sunglasses on!!)

We had a wonderful lunch while basking in the sun of Southern France (we really lucked out weather wise this whole trip!) After lunch we hopped on a 3 1/2 hour train ride to Paris! We arrived in Paris and went straight to our hostel in the heart of the Marais (the oldest neighborhood in Paris!)

Chelsea in our hostel room

We arranged our beds and headed out to see some the magical city. We decided to do the Champs-Elysées and the Arc de Triomphe first.

Champs-Elysées

After walking around the entire Arc trying to figure out how the heck we get into the middle of the huge round-about, we hauled our butts up the 283 stairs to the top of the Arc! I think it was the perfect thing to do on our first night.

Arc stairs!!

After the Arc we went for a stroll through the beautiful city, luckily it wasn’t too cold for a February night! We walked to the Palais de Chaillot for a nice view of the Eiffel Tower, and then continued to walk along the Seine.

When we arrived back at the hostel I discovered that someone had claimed my bed! Once the woman (she was probably about 30) returned from the shower I told her that was my bed, and I wanted to sleep next to my cousin, and she told me she didn’t want to sleep in the other bed, and that the reception hadn’t assigned her a bed, etc (this was all in French mind you). So I finally gave in and let her have the stupid bed because I didn’t care that much. Then she starts unpacking her bag and pulls out something and says in a thick French accent, “I have Michael wis me all ze time”. And she sets a picture frame on her pillow with a big zoomed in picture of Michael Jackson’s face in it!! She continued to pull out magazines with him on the cover, a Michael Jackson t-shirt, bag, jacket, and leopard shirt. She goes to bed everynight with the picture frame on her pillow!

At this point Chelsea and I were thinking “WEIRDO”, but we got ready for bed and fell asleep…

The next morning we got up, had some breakfast, and headed out for a fantastic day of sightseeing! We started the day at Notre Dame (still my favorite!) where I geeked out a little bit over Pillars of the Earth, and Chelsea was in complete awe.

*pic courtesy of Chelsea

Then it was Sainte Chapelle where Chelsea discovered her love for stained glass – what better place to discover that really?

Us in St. Chappelle *pic courtesy of Chelsea*

This afternoon was full of musems, but along the way we stopped to see one of the old, original Metro stops, which is also where we discovered this crazy bird market with literally hundreds of birds in cages. It was kind of sad, birds are meant to fly not be shoved into tiny boxes!!

Anyway, our first museum of the day was the Louvre where we saw the three main ladies: Venus de Milo, Victoire de la Samothrace, and the Mona Lisa. We also took a little detour and went to a practically empty wing with a room full of 24 Reubens!

We had a simple French lunch of quiche and croque monseiurs at a little café with feisty waiters, and were off to the Orsay where we got to see Monet, Manet, Vag Gogh, and Rodin, among others. Wow.

Us in front of the Orsay *pic courtesy of Chelsea*

This picture has a funny little story behind it. There was this little Asian girl who asked Chelsea if she wanted her to take her picture. Chelsea was a little confused, but said sure, and then I walked up and hopped in. It soon became clear that the girl asked Chelsea that because she really wanted Chelsea to take a picture of her. Then she said, “Get the whole museum, just a half-body shot will be fine”. Chelsea nods and takes her camera, and then as she is setting up the shot the girl says in a very insistent, almost angry tone, “Half-body, half-body, HALF-BODY” and Chelsea and I were a little surprised because she had already made that clear. Ha. It may be one of those stories when you had to be there…

Anyway, the Orangerie was next, and we almost didn’t go in because the line was really long, but it was beautiful day, and we had nothing else planned so we stuck it out. And I’m glad we did.

The Orangerie was built specifically to house Monet’s “Grandes Toiles” (huge canvases, but it sounds prettier in French…). They were enormous, and the room is lit by natural light, so depending on what time of day or even time of year that you go, the works will look slightly different. His color work is unbelievable -

how anyone can see all those colors in nature is astounding to me!

Later, we walked back in the direction of our hostel and stopped in for a sunset view from the Popidou. It was really cool because we got to watch all of the monuments light up.

Notre Dame

We had a cute little dinner of crèpes. Chelsea had to have crèpes before leaving France. So we each had one savory and one sweet crèpe. Then we stopped by an Epicerie de Nuit to buy a bottle of wine which we shared in the hostel…

In the 4-bed room there were the two of us, a really cool girl from Argentina, and crazy Michael Jackson woman. I reclaimed my bed this night, and Chelsea and I sat on her bed and were chatting with the girl from Argentina when crazy woman comes in. She knew that I was the only one who spoke French, and she insisted on talking to me. She interrupted our conversation multiple times to tell me random stupid things like how she saw a dog chasing birds in the park today. Then somehow the conversation got dominated by her and fell to the topic of her wedding ring. She continued to tell me that she married Michael Jackson in December – yes, post-death! She claims that a priest performed a post-mortum marriage between her and Michael. I am baffled by this and cannot stop asking her skeptical questions, but she is dead serious! She told me that she didn’t want to tell me why she married him or I would think she is CRAZY! Ha – too late!! So I said whatever tell me or don’t, which apparently prompted her to tell me because then she told me that she is a medium and talks with Michael everyday, and that he told her he wanted to get married, so she did it. And that he visits her often and tickles her arm, or touches her eyebrows, and he really likes to contact her through the computer. Whoa. She continues to show me these little Mini Mouse and Pluto stuffed animals that she keeps by his shrine which she bought him as Valentine’s Day presents this year! She also showed me the photos on her phone that she takes of him at the Virgin Megastore!! I should also add that all of the people in the neighborhood refer to her as Mrs. Jackson! She also spoke of being in the French Foreign Legion for the past two years in Somalia – one of the most dangerous places in the world – because she wanted to test herself (which she said in probably the creepiest way possible)!!! This woman is by far the craziest person I have ever, EVER met!! She talked to me while I brushed my teeth and washed my face, and even after I was in bed!! She would not stop talking. Oh my God. I am still not quite sure what to think of her….

So that was Paris!!