Last but not least: Nice (pronounced 'Niece')

For our last stop, we were debating going back to Spain for a little while (Madrid and around), or the southern coast of France (Nice) to the French Riviera....so basically seeing more basilicas and town squares and castles....or the beach. Even though it would've been nice to have traveled around Spain some more (especially considering my job), we opted for the beach (shocker). Hey, I haven't started working yet. 

We stayed at another nice hostel (ok, our standards of "nice hostel" are basically if it has a bar/restaurant attached to it where everyone is hanging out...the rooms/bathrooms aren't necessarily great, but what do you expect in a ten-person dorm room?). We've been having good luck with the hostels -- we stumbled upon this grouping of what is called "Europe's Famous Hostels" when we randomly stayed at one in Italy by chance, and ever since then we've been trying to book them whenever we could. And it was another good call -- a little ways away from the city (5 minute drive), but they had a free shuttle van running until 2am like every 10 minutes. Pretty ideal. 

Anyway, day 1 we went out Monaco for the day, where everyone was driving around in their super fancy cars and going to the Monte Carlo Casino...while we laid at the beach all day. Now this is the beach part of the vacation I had been waiting for. 

And day 2 we did the same...except this time in Cannes (you know, the place with the film festival). So I stopped to get a picture on the red carpet like a bunch of other saps, and then, yep, more beach time. Pretty relaxing way to end the vacation...definitely not regretting the trip to the French Riviera. 

It was a eight-hour train back to Barcelona today, where we are now. And guess it's the last post...because tomorrow it's an early morning flight back to Michigan! And back to reality...

Living the Highest Life in Pair-ee

We decided just to bite the bullet and live the high life in Paris—stay in a five-star hotel along the banks of the canal near the Eiffel Tower, grab some snails and frog legs as a snack in little French bistros, and spring for a 300 euro t-shirt in Prada. Okay, fine, you caught me, we didn’t actually get the t-shirt—not because it wouldn’t have easily fit in our souvenir budget—but because they didn’t have Justin’s size.

Alright fine so we stayed in a hostel. And trying duck, ratatouille, and croquets were as daring as we went. We did go in those shops…I just had to pause first to hide my fake rip-off Ray Bans (literally, they are rip-offs of rip-offs) in my purse. And then they broke when I was trying to stuff them in there…

We spent the first day and a half exploring the city and going on a couple of walking tours around Paris. We actually met a guy from the University of Michigan at a little café who, turns out, was in Honduras in August working in La Union for a few days as part of a microfinance organization…this is also where I was last August because it’s where one of the Abundant Life schools is. He said he met some of the teachers—who knows, maybe I met him! Small world. Actually, we haven’t met all that many Americans on this trip. We’ve met some Americans and Canadians, a few people from Central/South America, a handful of Asian people, quite a lot of Europeans, and A TON of Australians. On one of the tours and in our ten-bed hostel room we were the only Americans! Times are tough…

The second day started off with a trip to the Notre Dame. We went inside the church and then climbed the winding staircase for a few extra euro to get to the top, basically just because our guide from the day before told us that, if we were lucky, we might catch a glimpse of the hunchback. We didn't, but I did see this sloth-man trying to be a hunchback...

Next we went to the Louvre. Now, the Louvre is great and impressive and all, but most of all it is just obnoxiously and unnecessarily huge. I think our tour guide said if you were to walk it all twice you would have walked a marathon. I mean, really, an entire corridor dedicated to Northern Irish oil paintings of Central British Kings from the early 15^th century? Ooookay. At some point you’re just letting old lesser-known and amateurish paintings sneak into the Louvre’s collection because they fit with a theme. Just point me towards the Mona Lisa already; that’s all anyone wants to see anyway.

So we finally did find her and when we did it’s just kind of funny, because it’s just this little painting on this huge wall...



...opposite like the largest painting in the entire place.



And this painting is literally behind this 5 foot thick wall of bulletproof glass. What do they think I’m going to do, shoot her? So we stared at her for a little bit…what do you do with art, really? Okay, so maybe I’m not the best person to go to an art museum with.

But I had vowed before we got in that we would spend at least four hours in this thing. And we tried, we really did.  So we ambled through a few corridors filled with ancient Etruscan sphinxes (sphnxi?) from the early medieval era; we traipsed through the halls depicting artifacts and recreations of the great Napoleon’s apartment-mansion; we moseyed around a wing dedicated to sculpture from the Low Countries portraying the ancient gods of the early 2nd century B.C. All this while snooty ladies are yelling at me in French to shut off my flash. And then, an hour and a half in, even Justin goes, “After a while all of these paintings start to look the same.” And then just two hours in I imagined Justin saying, “Man, I can’t wait to see the colossal statue of King Ramses the Second.” (Or at least I hope I imagined it.) So by hour three I’m literally collapsing on the ground at King Ramses’ feet, and it’s then that we decide we can’t subject ourselves to this any longer: we high-tail it out of there before we completely lose our minds beyond repair.

We grabbed a bite to eat (tried some French delicacies) and then did the best thing you can do in Paris and fulfilled my lifelong dream of swimming in the fountains beneath the lit-up Eiffel Tower at nighttime. (Why isn’t that in the guidebook?) Okay, so I didn’t even know there were fountains beneath it until I got here. But had I have known, it would’ve been my dream. What a great way to cap off our trip to Paris…and now it’s off to our last stop: the French Riviera.  

Flawed Waffle Batch in Brussels

So we missed some warning signs on the way to Belgium...1. Some lady passes out on our bus from Amsterdam to Brussels...ended up being a whole thing. 2. Spent way too long trying to find our hotel that I actually booked ahead this time (the directions I found online literally just said, "Walk to the city center."). 3. Our hotel is super cheap but actually pretty nice...doesn't that only happen if the location bites? 4. We get off the bus in Brussels and it seriously smells like urine in this city. 

Anyway, we ignored the red flags and wound up here in Brussels...and then we got here and couldn't remember why we came...I mean, when's the last time someone's told you their favorite place in Europe was Brussels? And then we thought, oh yeah, Belgian Waffles! Sooo excited...we did some research online and found the best waffle place and headed straight there.





Justin claims the real Belgian waffles just have powdered sugar on them, but I got the "tourist waffle": strawberries and a crapton of whipped cream on top. They looked soo good at first...







Soo much sugar. Soo much whipped cream. And I love sugar. And whipped cream. Didn't think you could ever have too much. I was wrong. Well, we decided to eat them anyway, and I got on some sort of a sugar buzz.







The craziest part of this whole story is that Justin ordered not one, but two waffles, people. TWO waffles. Right off the bat. Actually, that's not the craziest...the craziest is that he was telling me on the way there how much of a mistake it was when he ordered those two crepes in Berlin and could only eat one. And then he ordered two waffles. And threw one away after they bit. What a bust.

We cut our losses there and Justin remembered the other reason he wanted to go to Belgium: Belgian beer. I personally have had enough beer after Germany and Amsterdam, so I just took the pictures. He was super excited to have found the bar that holds the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most different kinds of beer.



Also, we discovered the one thing that Brussels is apparently known for: Mannequin Pis. It's this statue of this peeing child (maybe that's why it smells like urine in this city?). There seems to be this reoccurring theme in Europe--a motif, if you will--of naked guys with their junk hanging out. I mean, what is with this fascination? At least you didn't have to pay to see this one like you did with David.



(I may look excited but I was still on my sugar buzz from those waffles.) Once in a while he will pee really far out into the crowd beyond the little pool...we were watching from this little pub and a huge group of Chinese tourists were taking pictures by this thing and got all wet...they freaked out. Hilarious.

I was trying to tell Justin to slow down with the sightseeing -- after trying Belgian waffles, Belgian beer, and seeing Mannequin Pis the first day, what were we going to do the next? So he made an itinerary for the next day with a slew of comic book stores (apparently they are famous here), puppet shows, and parks.

Well, the comic book shops are closed (it's Sunday), the puppet shows are in Flemish, and the parks...well, you see one park, you've seen them all.



Park #1: Playground park



Park #2: Classic park



Park #3: Skate park

Oh yeah, then we did find a free museum...all the exhibits were in French or Dutch.



We finally cut our losses and went to see the new Batman movie--which was actually a great call. "This was the best movie theater experience I've ever had." --Justin. Ok that's extreme...but the theater was kind of cool -- it was huge and must have been an old auditorium I think. Then, after our waffle disaster yesterday (I tried to convince Justin it was just a bad batch but he wouldn't let me try them again), needless to say we got Pizza Hut and called it a night. We only had two nights here (good thing...what would we do tomorrow?), and we're off to Paris tomorrow. The one good thing is our hotel was one of the nicer ones we've stayed at -- when's the last time we've actually had a bathroom in our room? Plus, according to Justin, "We need to rest up for Paris."

Pot & Prostitutes in Amsterdam

When you think of Amsterdam, you probably think of a bunch of Calvin College look-a-likes high as kites trying to take people out on their bikes riding through little streets with weed shops and businesses with scantily-clad women in the windows. And this is the point where I'm supposed to be like, oh no, there's so much more to Amsterdam than that. Except for not really; that's pretty much it.

Okay, I guess there are these dirty canals...kind of a rip-off of Venice if you ask me.

We had a long train ride from Berlin and spent the first night walking around the city (trying to find a hostel...I'm booking ahead from now on) and the Red Light District. I thought all of those prostitutes in the windows was some old wives' tale, or something that happened a long time ago, but turns out these half-naked women are still in the windows! As families walk by! It's nuts. According to our tour guide the oldest prostitute is 82 and has a 2 week waiting list....messed up.

We went on that free walking tour the next day (turns out there are all these free walking tours in all the major cities of Europe run by the same company). Our tour guide tried to convince us the whole time that there's more to Amsterdam than hash and prostitues...but I'm not convinced really. Although we did go to the Anne Frank house after the tour, which I kind of liked. You couldn't even take a picture with her diary though! You can never take a picture with the cool stuff. Almost bought the book after in the tourist trap bookshop, but they were charging an arm and a leg. Speaking of tourist traps, Amsterdam is full of them! Dungeon and torture museums, a "palace" where celebrity look-a-likes are in the windows and you can pay a crapton of money to go in there and get your picture with them. No thanks. Like we're going to fall for those traps.

Yesterday we rented bikes and trolled around in those literally all day. Eeeeveryone has bikes here; there are more than cars. I've almost gotten taken out several times now. We biked pretty far around the surrounding area. It's actually a really nice city, but a city known for reefer (how many synonyms can I come up with for marijuana...) and prostitution is kind of a lot for me to handle. Besides, I always had to be worried that the brownie I was ordering at the cafe was actually going to be a "special" brownie. Ok, not really...you can usually tell by the people in the shops if they sell special brownies at the place or not. And, let's be real, when's the last time I've even ordered a brownie at a cafe? But still.

Berlin Wall

Germany redeemed itself with Berlin…or maybe it was just the nicer weather and better hostel (actually, one of the best hostels we’ve stayed at). Berlin’s a huge city (and Justin’s favorite)…and pretty spread out. Luckily, Germany’s public transport is the best—you can take the subway, underground train, tram, or bus—and it’s not even that confusing. I don’t think we ever even had to ask for directions (a lot of people asked us though, in German…). Although I am starting to go a little crazy on all of this public transport...

So we got to Berlin and made a beeline straight for the wall. Justin loved it of course…it seemed kind of little to be the big Berlin wall to me and also seemed climbable…so Justin decided to give it a try.

He failed but turns out it is climbable! Our tour guide said he climbed it at like 4am when he was drunk a few weeks ago. (There actually used to be two walls and a sand trap with spikes in between the walls…so it didn’t used to be so easy to get past them.) Anyway, got a few pictures with the murals…

Or, rather, Justin did. I got a little bored after a while and found a mini beach right next to the wall:

And then the next day we went on a free walking tour (tips recommended…shock). It was actually really good—who knew the old parking lot we were standing on was Hitler’s bunker where he killed himself? For someone who doesn’t like history, I actually thought the stories about WWII and the Berlin wall etc. were pretty good.

Last day in Berlin we decided to take a day trip to Wittenberg to check out Martin Luther’s old stomping grounds. Wittenberg reminds me of Rockford—a bunch of people walking down little streets eating ice cream. We saw his 95 Theses posted on the church door (turns out it’s a replica), and then were too late to make it inside his house because it closed. But we did see the outside of it (it was a huge old monastery!).

That’s all from Berlin—nothing too exciting or crazy; we mostly just explored the city, and I finally felt like I caught up on some sleep after the tents in Munich. Made it to Amsterdam last night and I can smell the weed already…

Downgrade in Munich

One minute you're snacking on seafood risotto living like kings in Venice, and the next thing you know you're sleeping in a cold wet tent with 100 other blokes. 

Really, I was optimistic about this whole tent thing. I mean, look at me...just excited to be at the tent.



And here's Justin carrying in the blankets all gung-ho.



And then we open up the tent door...and I find this...about 100 bunks with sheets with wet spots. I finally found a safer-looking bed and set up camp.



And then I see this right next to my bed:



Ok, so I blame myself. I mean, the place is literally called "the tent"...like, it doesn't even have a name. So I find a top bunk...little do I know that the guy below me is planning on having a marijuana bounce party all night long with his friends on these rickety bunks. I can't make stuff like that up. Who does that? And who manages to pick the one bunk out of the 100 that's on top of this crazy? Let's just say 3 nights was a loooot. Not to mention that it was freezing...like, really cold. As in 55 degrees. And rainy. Well, you win some you lose some.

So Munich turned out to be, on the whole, kind of a depressing city...although maybe that had something to do with the tent, the rain, the weed, and visiting a concentration camp. We did that in the morning the first day...what a disaster. We couldn't find the bus stop of the bus number we needed to take, but we did find another bus, so we just figured we'd just ask the driver where to find the other stop. (Did we forget we don't know German?) So  anyway, he just motions for us to get on the bus, drives for a bit and tries to talk to us in German, and then finally stops the bus in the middle of route. He walks back and goes, "Does anyone speak English here?" So one lady does, and then we just create the biggest scene ever. Everyone on the bus starts arguing in German about the best way to get to this concentration camp, and this lady is trying to translate for us...biiiiiiggest scene. Really though, the people here are super helpful. Literally, we pull out a map at the subway or train station and right away someone is there asking us if we need help or directions (sometimes they even speak English). It hasn't been like that anywhere else. The funny thing is that on several separate occasions, Justin and I have both been asked questions or directions by other people in German...before we look at them blankly...who knew we could pass for Germans?

Anyway, we finally made it to the concentration camp (the funny thing is that after like an hour of traveling we passed our campsite again) in the cold rainy weather...kind of fitting for a visit to the camp, huh?

Then in the afternoon (to try to salvage the day) we went to the Olympic stadiums where they had the 1972 Olympics. We paid a few euro to swim in the pool, which I thought was pretty sweet. Justin jumped off the super high platform, but I was too scared. Well, actually I was still debating it when the guy closed it down. Do you realize how high that thing is though?! At least double the high dive!

We stumbled upon a hidden gem for dinner--a big street fair with a ton of little booths of crafts and food and drinks etc. So Justin lived his German dream: beer and bratwurst.



I opted for cinnamon roasted almonds and water:



The next day we went on a mini-pilgrimage to this Trappist monastery that was quite a ways outside of the town--like a 45 minute subway ride and then an hour or so hike. So I'm picturing a few monks living the simple life meditating in some prayer chapel, right? I only saw one monk the whole time! (I guess maybe they were meditating then....but I wanted to meet some monks!) And turns out monasteries are just big commercialized beer gardens! So much for the simple life! They had a bunch of food (and beer of course), and there were a ton of people at this thing. Guess even monks have to make a living too. 


And here's what happens when Justin tries to order stuff in German from monks at a monastery: 




Two huge platefuls of meat (why they gave him two, no one knows).




Ok, so maybe he meant to order the two beer steins. He ordered them and I drank them:



Haha. Just kidding.


Then of course last night we had to go on a beer tour/crawl with one of the hostels...which was pretty fun (and we actually got some history too and learned some German beer drinking songs). It was mostly wildly drunk Australians (shock). This picture sums it up:

That's all from Munich. Not gonna lie, it wasn't a tearful goodbye...mostly because of the tent. Just arrived in Berlin, where this four-person hostel room (me, Justin, an Irish guy, and a guy from Argentina who doesn't speak English) is a dream. 

Speaking of Hidden Gems...Interlaken, Switzerland

So I learned a few things in this short trip: 1. I love the Swiss Alps. 2. I hate rappelling down cliffs. 3. I know a lot less Swiss German than I thought.

Ok, but really, Interlaken is the best. On the train here, we could literally smell the mountain air (and feel the cooler air…I was shivering by the time we got here) as we were getting closer. No joke…I can’t make stuff like that up. And then we step out of the train station and see this:

We wake up the next day and decide to go on a hike—and realized we knew nothing about hiking when we asked the lady at the desk if we were supposed to start the hike at the top or the bottom. (“Depends on if you like hiking up or down.”) Oops. Anyway, we set off in our Nike Frees and Vans…little did we know those shoes were not made for this kind of a hike. Took a little train to the base of the mountain:

We had been planning on taking some of the little chairlift-type thingys part of the way, but then arrived at the base of the mountain and realized we didn’t have with us the billion dollars those things cost. So we decided to just hike it all…which turned out to be like 6 hours. It was not the easiest of hikes, but it was amazing and I’m glad we didn’t take the lift…a combination of pavement at the start, rocky uphills, dirt paths, and rolling hills. Literally there were random cows grazing on the way up. Seriously?

When we were finally getting near the top, we found some snow too so Justin decided to make some snowballs…it is not warm up there near the top. Luckily I wasn’t completely clueless and brought a long-sleeved…although all the other hikers we passed were decked out in heavy-gear hiking shoes, windbreakers, and those little stakes. (Not to mention calling greetings at us in languages I’ve never heard of.)

And then we finally get to our destination: some lakes at the top. It might be the best hike ever…granted, I haven’t done a lot of hikes in my lifetime per se and am kind of clueless when it comes to hiking, but I can’t imagine a much better view than this.  

Day 2 we go canyoning…basically a combination of rappelling, jumping, and sliding down cliffs in a canyon. The rappelling part was the worst…I mean, trusting some crazed guide you just met who is probably half-drunk to hold onto your rope as he lowers you down some cliff into shallow water? Yikes. The best part though was wearing these helmets that had names on them (which the guides called you the whole trip). Anyway, Justin’s was “Miss Piggy,” so when he was rappelling down and trying to grasp onto the guide’s rope, the guide was like (super seriously), “Miss Piggy, let go of my rope.” Ha. He should’ve picked a better name like me (“Gangsta”). But besides the rappel, the jumps and slides were great! Unfortunately, no pictures, because I didn’t want to pay the billion dollars extra for the video.

All in all, hiking and canyoning, combined with some Swiss chocolate and a bunch of crazy people from the crazy hostel, definitely made this place my favorite so far. Funny because we almost skipped Switzerland altogether—or thought about just stopping in Zurich for a day or two—until we met some couple in Venice who were like, “No, you have to go to Interlaken.” So we were like, “Okay,” and booked two nights—and then added another night when we liked it so much. That’s one good thing about having nothing planned beforehand.

So as much as I would’ve liked to have spent 2…3…15 more days here, we decided we had to leave when we realized that not only is Switzerland the most beautiful place ever, but, as I’ve alluded to, also the most expensive. For example: we thought we’d stop for a quick, cheap bite in Burger King, and found that one measly hamburger meal was 16 franc…which is like 18 dollars or something crazy. So that’s when we figured we better high-tail it out of here before Switzerland completely destroyed our already shaky budget. Now to Munich (where I just booked us 3 nights in a huge tent hostel for 10 euro a night to try to make up for our Burger King spending spree…we’ll see how this goes).