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!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
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!
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!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
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!”
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