SUMMER--FINALLY!

After 8 weeks of school at the Universiteit Maastricht and living down the hall from some of the greatest people I now know…summer vacation has arrived! Tonight we leave for our highly anticipated three week trip with nothing to worry about except running out of money and getting back in time to make our plane back to the United States.

We head to Brussels tonight (where our chaotic Ireland trip began) and fly to Barcelona tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Here’s a brief schedule of where we will be for the next three weeks.

July 22: Leave for Brussels, Belgium
July 23-26: Fly to Barcelona, Spain
July 26-27: Night Train (24 hours) to Florence, Italy
July 27-July 30: Florence (Day trip to Venice)
July 30-July 3: Train to Rome, Italy (Day Trip to Pompeii)
July 3-4: Train to Bari, Italy-Ferry from Bari to Dubrovnik, Croatia
July 4-9: Dubrovnik
July 9-10: Train (30 hours) back to Maastricht

As you can see, we are getting maximum use out of our Eurorail…some would argue too much! I’m strangely excited for the long, grueling train rides through Europe, though I am worried we may lose our sanity in the process.

Until then!

SWITZERLAND!

Switzerland. Collectively, this was our favorite trip yet.

Reasons:
-Everyone spoke English
-Everyone was dressed down
-Water, Sun, Floating
-Mountains, Hiking, Weather
-Canyoning!
-Their motto: “Get Busy Living”

It wouldn’t be fair to try and fit my thoughts on Switzerland into a few short paragraphs. It really isn’t fair to try and explain it at all, because it’s simply indescribable through words and pictures. In fact, I realized once we arrived that my camera was out of batteries--so minimal pictures were taken this week anyway! (This was a blessing however, because it forced me to soak up everything around me rather than worry about taking pictures of everything I saw. Pictures wouldn’t appropriately show the beauty of this place anyway). In brief, it is the liveliest place I’ve ever been to, and definitely has taken the top spot for places to return in the future!

With only two days to spend in Interlaken, we wasted no time when we arrived to go looking around, jumping in Lake Thun, and laying out in the sun. Our main purpose for this trip was our excursion through the canyons of Interlaken on Saturday morning. If you watched the link I posted last week that would be a taste of what we got to experience this weekend! While it was exhilarating and we were sore the next morning, I think we all could have spent the entire day Canyoning instead of just the morning. We felt as if we were only there for half an hour before it was over!

We stayed in a hostel, recommended by Bonnie’s cousin called “Balmers.” This also had so much character with the friendliest staff and neatest atmosphere. It had a ski lodge look to it, which made my a little jealous for those who get to stay there in the winter. They had a hammock room next door which as you can imagine, we took full advantage of both days we were there. I managed to grab two naps there myself! In short, I would be happy to spend the rest of this summer, next summer, and really all of my available time in Switzerland if that was possible.

We caught the first available train on Sunday morning back to Maastricht, and arrived nine hours later in time for dinner at Nora’s and for the World Cup Finals! (Nora’s is our favorite place to eat Maastricht—we consistently eat there three times a week). Unfortunately, Holland couldn’t pull out a win against Spain this year in the finals, and let me tell you—the Netherlands knows it. I’ve never been seen the faces of so many excited people go blank and everyone go silent in unison. People were sad, outraged and frustrated. Cups were thrown, glasses were broken, vocal cords probably paralyzed. We thought we were bummed about the results, but it doesn’t measure up to how the Dutch felt. The streets were filled with trash this morning. The town square was occupied with empty cups and Holland signs that were ripped. It was almost eerie. (For dramatic effect, it started to rain). Maastricht is crying! The well known “Orange Street” which has been overflowing with orange spirited everything since May, was with out life this morning. It’s amazing how huge of a deal a soccer game is to countries everywhere--except the United States. The pride that even my friends and I adopted this summer was clear. We found ourselves yelling at the opposing team, screaming for “our” players to win, and buying and wearing any and all orange! Regardless of the results, it was remarkable that we were able to witness our temporary home, work its way to the finals, the summer we just happened to choose to live here. It made our trip that much better and that much more unique to us. So Holland—Thank you!

PARIS

Who ever said that people in Paris were rude, were wrong.

This weekend trip was special for a few reasons: Firstly, our friend Hilary met up with us during her two week travel around Europe! Secondly, Hilary’s parents…are really nice. They arranged for Erin, Bonnie, Hilary and me to stay in a beautiful hotel for our first night in Paris! The Renaissance Hotel was right by the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees. You can’t imagine how happy we were to have a real shower, soft towels, ice, ice buckets, air conditioning, and a comfortable bed. This was also going to be an exciting weekend, because our friend Leah was turning 20 on Friday, and the 4th of July was on Sunday!

We embarked on our journey to Paris Thursday evening via the Maastricht train station. Once arriving in Gare du Nord (Paris), we bought are 5 day metro passes and headed to meet Hilary. Upon exiting the train station, like usual, we took a wrong turn. A few nice strangers, an iphone map, and a call to Hilary later…we had made it! We felt relieved, excited, and almost confused when we saw Hilary! It was very strange to see a familiar face in a foreign place. Our entire group in Maastricht has been together for over two months now. We’ve traveled together, lived together, eaten together, experienced and seen things together and in doing so, living over here has become commonplace to us. Without meaning to, Hilary reminded us that we had adapted to Europe and the lifestyle rather smoothly, without realizing it. Europe felt like home.

The following morning we roamed around the Arc, went into few shops and headed to the “Garden Hotel,” where we would stay the rest of our nights in Paris. While we weren’t in the outskirts of Paris (as we were in London), we walked into a tiny room with four beds pushed together, and secretly wished we were back in the Renaissance. It didn’t end up being that bad. There was a garden like area outside (garden-check), and there was a lady who sometimes brought us towels (hotel-check). So there you have it, the “Garden Hotel.” We met up with our friends at the Eiffel Tower to watch the World Cup semi-final game, Holland vs. Brazil! Naturally, we put on what orange we owned and cheered on Holland to victory! Around the middle of the game it started to rain! This was a blessing, because it had been miserably hot before the game, and what seemed like half of the Brazilian fans ran away for shelter. And they call themselves fans! We went to eat dinner in the Latin Quarter, and headed back to the tower afterwards to watch it glow at night.

We woke up to the best sound in the world, rain! Groggy from the night before, we “slept in” until 9:30 listening to the rain outside our window. We originally had planned to spend Saturday at the Palace of Versailles, but with the rain, we decided to save it. Finally, the rain tapered off to a drizzle, and we headed across the street to a crepe stand for breakfast! Fact: Banana, Nutella, and Coconut crepes are the best. Next, we crept towards Sacre Cour, and spent the afternoon on the steps looking at the hazy Paris skyline, entertained by music. If you haven’t noticed, our traveling group enjoys sitting.

On Sunday, we decided it was time to play tourist for the day. We woke early and headed on a train to the Palace of Versailles. Bonnie then led us astray to a street where we bought “legal” tickets for 15 euro. (She had done this before). We managed to walk through rather quickly, and on the way out, found a Mexican restaurant and indulged. We hit the Louvre—said hello to Mona, visited the Musee d’Orsay, and Notre Dame. After a long day, we headed back to the hotel for a siesta, and woke up ready to celebrate the 4th of July! Of course, the first and most important item on the 4th-- is watermelon. We found a market, bought a melon and headed to the Eiffel Tower to celebrate our last night in Paris. We luckily found a hot dog stand and fries when we arrived; set up camp in a grassy area right before sundown, and enjoyed ourselves.

The night was perfect. Traci managed to buy a bottle of champagne for 3.50 euro…her pick up line was “2 for 5” every time someone came around trying to sell us various items. A guy from New York sitting close to us told her she was the best haggler he has seen! Per usual, we missed our train connection from Liege to Maastricht that coming morning, and arrived around noon. That night, the cooks at the guesthouse made us a 5th of July dinner in celebration! While it tasted nothing like home, it was a valiant effort which included American music, decorations, food, and friends.

This coming weekend we are headed to Interlaken, Switzerland for a few nights to go canyoning! Here’s a link to what that’s all about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7jDxUk1g7k

Our trip will be cut short by a day as we make our way back to Maastricht to watch the Netherlands play in the Finals for the World Cup!! The saying here is Hup Holland Hup! Hopefully, those of you watching will cheer Holland on to victory in your brightest orange, singing the song—“We love you Holland we do, we love Holland we do, we love you Holland we do, Holland we love you Hup Hup Hup!”

LONDON

Getting back on a Monday and leaving on a Wednesday was not easy this week. With only one full day in between trips, we went to our classes, responded to a few emails and re-packed just in time to make our 7:30 night flight to London! Upon arrival, Bonnie and I walked to our hostel, “Hyde Park Hostel.” While the name makes it sound like a pleasant place to sleep for the night, don’t be fooled! We walked into our 15 roommate room and were greeted with a blend of ages and genders, some conscious, and some unconscious, none speaking. We tried our best not to laugh, set down our things and quickly left for dinner! We got in late and got up early, spending minimal time there. (That’s what 7 pounds gets you). Although the hostel was sub-par, the location was ideal. Right across the street was Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. We spent the morning roaming around the gardens, sitting by a pond with some swans, and visiting Peter Pan. By noon we headed to the outskirts of London to meet our friends who had a later flight. And by outskirts I mean the London projects. In short…it was an experience!

I won’t bore you with all the sites we saw…we hit all the typical tourist hot spots that one sees when they go to London. It was grand, yes, but it wasn’t the high point of our trip by far. My favorite things we did began on Friday night, when we all went to see the Lion King on Broadway! Thanks to Erin we had floor seats that were in the center of the audience. The show exceeded my expectations. The movements of the actors, the costumes, the overwhelming backgrounds and props, the color, the songs and voices…it was remarkable to be honest. I would be happy and lucky to be able to see it again. The next day, Erin’s dream to ride a double-decker bus came true! While she and three others explored London on wheels, Leah, Bonnie and I left the projects and headed to the city on foot. The first thing we saw was Buckingham Palace. We only stayed there a few minutes, and headed towards the London Eye. On the way there we stopped to take a few pictures and mock the guards (like in the movies) who were “defending” some building. It looked like a telephone booth, but I’m sure it was important. As we were leaving--we ran into the infantry performing the famous “Changing of the Guards” ceremony. This wasn’t supposed to happen on the main street for another half hour, so this was a definite surprise for us! It also made it a lot more exciting to watch since it wasn’t planned and being literally an arms length away from them! On the way to Westminster’s Abbey, again, we stumbled upon something we weren’t expecting. Right behind Parliament a British “Freedom Rally” was being held. There were probably 50 to 100 tents put up, tons of banners, and signs with typical political sayings and phrases. After talking to a few people we found out that this rally had been going since May 1st, and this coming Thursday they were being taken to court by the mayor of London in effort to make them move location. Now I know that political rallies happen everywhere, and though I’m trying not to get caught up in thinking this was neat, merely because I was in London… it really was. We talked to a few guys in charge of the rally, and the first thing they asked us was our views on our government, the war, and Obama. Shamefully, none of us could form a good answer or opinion. They knew a great deal more about what was going on in the states than we did, and were clearly more “concerned citizens” than we were.

That night we met up with our double-decker friends at the Texas Embassy! This is a Tex-Mex restaurant with everything Texas imaginable. Upstairs there were even banners of universities from Texas, Baylor included! It was a great taste of what we were missing at home, especially since the 4th of July was so near. During dinner, we watched the U.S. soccer team lose to Ghana in overtime, but our spirits were too high to care. (Holland is picked to win anyway!)

The following day (Sunday), was our last day in London and Blake, Bonnie and I were lucky enough to spend it in Hyde Park with Paul McCartney! This was by far the most exciting part of our entire trip and completely worth the sunburn and overpriced food and drinks. We had been anticipating this for awhile. We planned our trip around this concert. In fact we didn’t even have a place to sleep until the day before we left, but had these concert tickets since March! We arrived at 2p.m. and left at 11p.m. Joshua Radin, The Alternatives, Elvis Costello and a few more opened for Paul. This was a huge surprise since we thought we only had tickets to see Paul, but instead got a full day of entertainment. He deserves an entire page of me doting over him, but it still wouldn’t put in perspective how happy we were to be there. Out of the thousands of fans that attended, we managed to push our way up to the 8th row, centered with the stage. He played all the favorites, told us stories about Lennon, and kept us smiling for over three hours without taking one break. It was amazing to see the range of demographics the Beatles appeal to. Just in front of us was a gay couple from Brazil. In the back of us was an old man with his shirt off wearing high socks and a diaper from London. All around us there were kids, families, couples, friends, and singles singing and dancing along. Just three days before the concert we went to visit Abbey Road to recapture the “walk” that has been printed on t-shirts, posters, mouse pads, and key chains. Sunday brought that to life for us.

London thoughts: Expensive, grand, over-populated, green, lively. Great!

Vienna and Budapest!

As mentioned in my previous post, we decided to book a "blind flight" last weekend. Wednesday night we headed to Cologne, Germany by train and spent the night in the train station to wait for our train to the airport at 4:21a.m. We arrived in Vienna groggy and tired, found our hostel, grabbed lunch, wandered around for awhile and called it an early night. The next morning, we got up early and headed to the city for a tour of the Hofburg House. This is overrated in my opinion...the entire first floor is comprised of dishes and linens. (I'm supposed to write a paper about this somehow). My impression of Vienna is sub-par. It's somehow dreary, smells bad, and yet it's elegant. All to say, I'm glad we had the chance to go, but this wasn't the highlight of our trip and probably not somewhere I need to go back and see. That afternoon was fairly drizzly so we found a place to have something to drink and watched the U.S. soccer game! We stood out like sore-thumbs, it was very American.

That night was possibly the highlight of Vienna for me, we found Mexican food! They nickel and dimed us for each tortilla and each round of 10 chips, but it was worth it!

The next morning we headed to Budapest!! We arrived around 1 and were immediately welcomed by money-hungry Hungarians. In Hungary's defense, the train station where we got off is in one of the worst parts of town. The first thing on our agenda was the find an ATM. We were warned that the currency rate is modestly different than the euro, but as we pulled out 10,000, 15,000, and 20,000 Forints at a time, we felt rich. Holding a 10,000 bill in any form is a strange feeling. By the way--10,000 Forints is roughly 40 euro.

Next on our list, was to find our hostel, also known as "The Goat Hostel." This sounded sketchy from the beginning, but it was 13 euro or 3,260 Forints, and we couldn't pass it up. Looking for a large sign with a goat on it, we must have passed our future home 3 or 4 times before realizing that their form of advertising consists of a tiny plaque on the side of a building, plainly written in small font, "The Goat Hostel." We hesitantly walked through the door into a dark room, marched up a spiral staircase which led us to a balcony and rang the door bell. We all exchanged worried looks until Avey, the owner, opened the door. She said, "Oh, the five Americans are here, come in, come in!" This wasn’t a typical hostel. It was an apartment with 3 private rooms, a cute kitchen, and a lounge/computer area overlooking the city. Sighs of relief came from all of us.

We quickly put our things away and headed out the door, across the balcony, down the stairs, into the dark room and out the other door to go explore. We only had 24 hours here so we had to make the most it. This place was surprisingly beautiful! Everything about Budapest appealed to us. There was so much character to the city, it was populated but not too loud, it was sunny but not too hot. We stumbled upon a wedding reception outside of a Cathedral, then headed to see Parliament and the Opera. In search of finding the Budapest Castle to watch the sunset, we managed to take a wrong turn and ran into live music. We took a seat in the grass, and from what we could manage to understand, this was a Hungarian/American Christian concert. Although this wasn't what we were expecting, it was really neat to find that across the world, in what is considered a rather dark place for religion, it was vibrantly being expressed.

We headed to Fisherman's Bastion, a medieval looking castle on the hill to find a bakery known for their chocolate cake, and to look out over the city skyline. This is probably what won us all over. We sat there awhile looking out over the city, happy. We were determined to find this underground bar that a friend from home who had just returned from Budapest after living there all semester had suggested. Thanks to Sam's iphone, we managed to. This again, was awesome! We didn't stay there long, but Traci bought us a round of Hungarian shots (which tasted like petroleum), in celebration for my birthday. Although we were exhausted we had one last thing on our list to do--The Hot Spring Baths! These are therapeutic baths with various temperatures that were built by the Romans years ago. It is said that Napoleon actually went to the same baths we were at in his time. It was a perfect ending to the night...despite the fat men and the owner who stole our locker key and tried to make us pay for it.

Our flight left Sunday night at 8:50 and landed in Cologne 10 minutes shy of catching the last train home. So…back to the Cologne train station where we spent the night with bums on the floor! We caught the 5:15 a.m. train, and arrived at 7:45 in Maastricht just in time to walk to breakfast and greet everyone. Great trip!

Tonight, Bonnie and I fly to London and the other five girls will meet us there tomorrow after class! Our plans for London include so far: Horseback riding, a tour on a double-decker bus (Erin's dream), Lion King, and a Paul McCartney concert in Hyde Park!

Cheers.

THE CUP!

Upon deciding to stay in Maastricht last weekend, the World Cup games began in full swing! We went to a popular pub in town, “The Highlander” to watch the United States vs. England game on Saturday. We were all decked out in our best American apparel and rallied back in forth with the rowdy England fans all night. Luckily, we tied!


The following Monday afternoon, we revisited our favorite pub, this time in bright orange to cheer for Holland! We won! The spirit for the games here is incomparable. It's going to be a fun summer.

This week, with no plans in mind we decided to book a blind flight. Five of our friends were unlucky, and their flight leaves tomorrow from Cologne, Germany to Leipzig, Germany. Leipzig is known for their gay bars, and zoo. As for the rest of us, we are headed to Vienna, Austria for the weekend! We also have hopes to visit Budapest for the day...one more thing to mark off our list! Until then...

GROUP TRIP

I'm taking the easy way out this week and posting our abbreviated itinerary for the group trip we took last week. We embarked on our 5 day trip at 8 a.m. in Maastricht on Thursday, and returned home at 7:30 p.m. the following Monday 8 countries richer.

Group Trip Itinerary:
Thursday, June 3
Day 1
Maastricht to Boppard (127 miles)
Boppard to Würzburg (148 miles)
Würzburg to Rothenburg (41 miles)

Friday, June 4
Day 2
Rothenburg to Hohenschwangau (157 miles)
Hohenschwangau to Ettal (31 miles)
Ettal to Bregenz (91 miles)

Saturday, June 5
Day 3
Bregenz to Vitznau (134 miles)
Vitznau to Montreux (161 miles)

Sunday, June 6
Day 4
Montreux to Chillon (2 miles)
Vevey to Schaffhausen (156 miles)
Schaffhausen to Freiburg (58 miles)

Monday, June 7
Day 5
Freiburg to Verdun (202 miles)
Verdun to Bastogne (76 miles)
Bastogne to Maastricht (74 miles)