On Thursday morning we flew to Paris, where we checked into our hotel. We found a really great deal on a four-star hotel called Cozy's--two King beds, a kitchen, living room, dining room and only three stops on the metro from downtown--for only a few Euros more than we would have paid for a dormitory-style hostal. It really worked out well because we were able to cook for ourselves instead of eating at restaurants, and I think in this case the life of luxury really was cheaper than the cliche college-student hostal. Not a bad deal.
After we checked into the hotel, Josh stayed back to sleep (he was still trying to get over the flu--very bad timing) and Matt and I walked around the neighborhood around our hotel. The whole street was lined with outdoor fruit/veggie stands, flower shops, and art places. We looked around a while, and bought some grocieries for dinner. When we got back, I made pasta with a potato/veggie stir-fry and red pepper chicken for dinner. Ericka and one of her friends joined us for dinner, then we all went downtown to see the Eiffel Tower and such at night. The tower was beautiful (all of Paris was really). We took the elevator to the top of the tower and got an incredible view of Paris from the air. After the tower, we walked through the plaza inside the Louvre (where we even managed to foil an attempt to steal Matt's SLR camera) and then came back to the hotel for the only night of actual sleep we would get on the whole trip.
Friday morning we made omelets and hash browns for breakfast, then Matt and I headed back downtown. Josh was still not up for walking around, so he slept most of the day but was finally feeling good enough to join us later into the afternoon. We started at the Louvre plaza, then walked along the river up to Notre Dam. Notre Dam is a gorgeous cathedral, but I don't think I was able to enjoy it as much as I could have since I am still saturated with all the cathedrals we have been seeing in Spain. They wouldn't let us go up on top unless we sat through an hour-long tour, but we still got to see the inside of the building from the ground level. We walked back down the other side of the river, past a number of beautiful buildings but I can't remember what they all were so I won't even try to repeat them for you. Matt had 6 friends who are all studying in different places in Europe who were also in Paris at the same time, so we met up with them at the Museum Orsay. This obviously isn't as big or as impressive as the Louvre, but it does have quite a large collection of artists such as Van Gough, Rembrandt, and Picasso, so it was great to see. After the Orsay we walked around the neighborhood and found a really good crepe restaurant. After the crepes and hot cider, we walked over to the Louvre. It is free to get in for college students after 6pm on Fridays, so we took advantage of that and walked around for a couple hours. Obviously we saw the Mona Lisa, which is every bit as big of a deal (and unimpressively small) as everyone says it is. After the Louvre, we came back and made pizza which is somewhat tricky when your kitchen doesn't have an oven, but we discovered that if you put two pizzas together and put them on a frying pan it turns out to be a delicious calzone. Score one point for innovation.
Since our train on Satuday morning left at 6am, we decided not to go to bed and just sleep on the train, so we walked around Paris most of the night, but gave up and got about 2 hours of sleep before getting up to go to the train station.
We got into Amsterdam after a 6 hour train ride around noon on Saturday. We were really tired, so we went back and got some sleep at Ericka's apartment, then went out to explore some. The weather was pretty crappy in Amsterdam the whole time--I only remember an hour or two when it wasn't snowing, and it was dreadfully cold the whole time. But, we walked around downtown for a while, then went to Ericka's boyfriend's restaurant and had a really good meal. I had lamb tenderloin with mushroom sauce--quite different than our own cooking we had been doing. After dinner, we went to a bar that had live music (some British indie band) and enjoyed that for a while. Josh and I tried our hands at pool, which paid off becuase we beat the two British guys who had been running the table all night and got plenty of compliments from all the other frustrated players who had been losing to them all night.
For Saturday night we had tickets for the Awakenings festival. This is a world-known techno concert and lightshow that happens a couple times a year in Amsterdam. This one was held in what I'm pretty sure was an old water-treatment plant, so the dance flood was just a huge round cement building. There are lazers, indoor fireworks, and the music literally doesn't stop from 11pm to 7am. We got there at 2am, and stayed there until almost 7am. It was a great time, and I got exposed to a type of music I hadn't really listened to a lot before but really enjoyed in this setting. Some of the DJ's that played this year were Christian Varela & Pepo, Deetron & Doris Voorn, Elton Dee & Snoo and so on (not that that means anything to most of you).
Since we obviously didnt sleep much Satuday night, we slept most of the day Sunday (made all the more comfortable because the "weather outside was frightful"). We woke up at 4pm and went to a bagel shop and I had a bagel with bacon, nuts, and traditional Dutch gouda cheese and a cappuccino. After dinner (or breakfast, or lunch, or what-have-you) we walked around town more, including through the famous Red Light District, which has to be one of the most bizarre and depressing places I have ever been. On the way home we stopped at a waffle stand and I had a waffle covered in white chocolate and whipped cream, which has to be one of the most delicious things I have ever bought from a street vendor.
On Monday morning we had to get up fairly early for our flight back to Barcelona. Thankfully that (as well as our other flight and train ride) went perfectly smoothly without any problems.
And this is where I get to dispell any potential rumors about traveling to Amsterdam--and you thought I was going to beat around the pot-bush for this whole blog, huh? Well, marijuana isn't my cup of tea, and in all fairness that is not the only reason people visit Amsterdam (although it's definitely the cliche thing to do there). It was fascinating, though, just to be right in the middle of such an open and blatant drug-culture. People are extremely friendly, even to those not participating in the comsumption, and the fact that they speak English and there are so many other tourists around meant that we really didn't stick out like a sore thumb like we do when we travel other places. That being said, I could see myself going back to Paris much sooner than Amsterdam.
And now you can click this link to check out my photos from the trip:
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| France and Holland Nov. 20-24 |
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