Paris By Day

Paris! This city is gigantic! The people here are so chic and fashionable and always seem to be in a hurry. There is no such thing as walking here. Everybody is at a slow jog, at least. Aside from being dressed like I live out of a backpack, I'm also wandering very slowly and constantly have my camera in my hands, giving away my tourist status very quickly. 

As much ask didn't want to like Paris, I can't help it. The buildings are SO beautiful and full of history. I still might like Brussels the most, but Paris has got a ton to offer.

During my two days here, I've shopped down the Champs Elysses, seen the Notre Dame, walked by the Arc de Triomphe, and visited the Saint Chapelle cathedral. Each sight is just as amazing as the travel sites describe them. 

I must say that I have realized something about myself by being in all these big cities. If I spend more than a few days in an urban area, find myself in a foul mood. Something about being constantly surrounded by cars and grumpy people and buildings gets into my head and I have to escape into small towns and nature. I'm happiest in green spaces and the outdoors. Such a flower child.

Next up: the place I've yearned to visit since I first saw Marie Antoinette in 2006, The Palace of Versailles and Le Petit Trianon!

Paris By Night

This morning, I knew I wanted to leave Brussels, but didn't have any real plans. I was going to the train station and taking whatever train sounded like a fun trip to me, preferably in the area of western Germany. Luckily, I didn't have to worry over that very long, because around 11:30, my cousin Taylor who lives in Paris invited me to stay with her for a few days! Talk about perfect timing. So I packed my bags, found the quickest bus to Paris, and went on my merry way! 

I arrived in the city around 5, met Taylor at her law office to grab the apartment keys, and after dropping off my bags, went to explore the city on foot! I didn't cover too much ground that first day because I was so exhausted from the traveling and madness of Brussels/Bruges. Not to mention the metro/train maps are completely insane. Every part of this city is completely reachable by public transportation, but that means there are a hundred lines all going different directions!

That evening after Taylor got off work, we went to see Paris at its finest. Paris at night has 1/20th the traffic and tourists, as well as some spectacular views you don't get during the day. Examples:

I LOVED the Eiffel Tower and Louvre. They were so beautiful all lit up. This city really does live up to its name.. "The City of Lights!"

In Bruges

I can't believe I haven't updated since Brussels! So much has happened, so I'll try to make the updates short with lots of photos. First on the list: Bruges, Belgium!

I wanted to visit Bruges because everybody recommends it as a day trip if you're near Brussels. 

Bruges was an hour train ride from Brussels and unfortunately, I got a very late start and missed a few trains so I only arrived at 4:30.

The city was BEAUTIFUL and so quaint! It was full of cobblestone streets and a few canals, and a good amount of tourists.

My favorite part was this courtyard.

I had the chance to sit down alone and really think about the age of the town around me. I always love when I get an area to myself, even if just for a moment.

I think I'd like to go to Bruges again with more time and a bit more research. I'll just add it to the list!

Brussels, I'm in Love

Yesterday marked my first day of fully independent travel. I left on an 8:00am bus ride alone to Brussels, Belgium with my two backpacks and zero research. Luckily, I knew I had a place to stay because I had arranged a bed on CouchSurfing, which I highly recommend any young budget traveler check out. 

After I arrived, I struggled for about 45 in the train station, trying to find luggage lockers, bus/tram/metro routes, and Brussels sights worth seeing. Eventually I had the sense to google luggage lockers in my specific station and after getting that weight off my shoulders (literally), things started to fall into place. I bought a 24-hour transit pass (total necessity), picked a location on the map, and then jumped on the metro. On a whim, I got off on the stop before my plan because I liked the name. I was in the perfect center of the city and all the sights.

I legit just wandered the streets, vaguely following attraction signs for 7 hours. It was magnificent. 

Things that surprised me about Brussels: Despite being in a Dutch-speaking nation, everybody here speaks French. Every sign, menu, and transit announcement is written and spoken in both languages, with the occasional English thrown in for my benefit.

Following directions from my couch surfing host, I set off for what  I thought would be rest at 7:00. Upon arrival, I was greeted with a beer and four dudes  watching the World Cup. Except they were all doctors, pharmacists, and computer scientists. So it was more of a "Successful Man Meeting" plus me, the 22-year-old flight attendant bumming their spare couch. 

We went for some quick shwarma at a nearby Lebanese restaurant before heading out to a weekly Brussels meet up, APEROS. It's generally the best party in town on Friday nights, or so I'm told. I was trying my best to keep up with my hosts, but these guys work hard all week and then party hard all weekend. Come 11:00, we decide to go back to the apartment, and THANK GOD because I was dog tired. And then we lost Dario, one of the roommates. So we looked for him in this massive crowd for an hour before giving up and heading home. We get a call in the car and he's already back at the apartment. Commence Dario bashing rom the guys. But I'm psyched because we're heading home to sleep.

And then we arrive and there's a massive house party bumping in their two story apartment. Two of their other roommates (6 in total) had started the party while we were out. I'm told that this is a Friday/Saturday tradition and that I can probably get to sleep around 4:00 or 5:00am once everybody leaves. I ended up retreating upstairs and curling up in a sleeping bag around 3:00.

But you know what, I slept happily until 11:30 this morning, woke up feeling great, and now I'm drinking super strong coffee, listening to "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" while Dario takes doctor-related phone calls and we wait for the other roomies to wake up. So I guess things are pretty amazing.

Totally in love with you, Brussels.

Amsterdam 1

My college friend and host in Amsterdam, Ryan, was a student, so I had the majority of each day to wander around the city by myself. Knowing what a pain (literally) it was to navigate an entire city on foot, I rented a bike first thing. 12 euro for 36 hours on this monster:

I asked for something less conspicuous, but being child-sized limited the bikes I could ride. In hind sight, I totally would have rathered a discrete black kid bike.

Finally mobile, I set off for anywhere. Seriously. I just followed large groups of bikers hoping to end up somewhere neat. I couldn't hold my phone to navigate and even if I had, I would have been lost. So I followed some bikers and ended up at the Rijksmuseum, home to some of Europe's most famous pieces. It was right next door to the Van Gogh museum, but unfortunately I needed to save money and did not enter either. I wish I could have! I settled for a selfie with one of Amsterdam's famous "I amsterdam" sculptures.

I then wandered to Vondelpark for a long leisurely trip around the bike path with a 45 minute detour to lay out on one of the many luxuriantly green lawns. The park was packed with people enjoying the summer sun, dogs running around off-leash, bikers, joggers, and frisbee-ers. New favorite spot!

I continued my wandering all over town until my host came back. We made some pasta for dinner and then went out with some of his friends from his school program. It was overall a very nice, easy day 1.

The Gentleman and I in Lüneburg

My trip is all about wandering, so naturally, I needed no plans upon arriving to Lüneburg with my fella. 

Knowing how much I was missing the meal, sweet Gentleman made us bacon and eggs in the morning. Delish. We spent the afternoon doing some serious meandering through his little town, Lüneburg. This was my first experience with a  small city in Germany and I was not at all disappointed. In my own words: "Everything was exactly as it should be."

The buildings were all super old with modern touches inside. Everybody was sitting on patios and street corners and dining al fresco. The foot traffic far outnumbered cars, and by 3:00, everybody had a cone of Eis (gelato) in their hands. It was so dreamy and peaceful. We had AMAZING  Chinese food for lunch. When in Rome, right?

Around dinner time, thunderclouds started to roll in, and unfortunately we had no food. Dashing Gentleman in all his manly glory set out on a bike to find us an open grocery store, but since it was a national holiday, everything was closed. He came back 45 minutes later completely wet, but wielding frozen pizzas. My hero! We turned in accidentally early after such a long day of moseying. I didn't intend to stay a day in Lüneburg, but luckily I couldn't arrange my bus ticket in time and got a lovely day with my handsome guy instead.

The next day (Tuesday), he biked for his life to make it to the train station in time to bring me my printed bus ticket and ensure that I found my Eurolines bus to Amsterdam safely. He wouldn't even let me carry my own backpack, no matter how much I whined about being an empowered, independent woman. He's doing it right.

Next stop: Amsterdam, Netherlands!

Learning to Live Without

Something that became apparent to me quite quickly after my arrival in Denmark was the natural beauty. Yes, in the landscape, of course, but also in the face of its inhabitants. The women here don't wear make-up, or if they do, it is incredibly minimal. I had read and been told that before departure, but still left home with a giant bag of foundation, eyeliners, shadows, and make-up remover. I have slowly transitioned to using only three products: lotion, dark circle foundation, and mascara. Baby steps! Having the rest is such a waste of space, but I can't bring myself to throw away $$$ in cosmetics that I'll probably pick back up in the US.

It's interesting to take this concept of no make-up and think about the related differences in American culture. It's hard to admit, but we're often very caught up in ourselves state-side. We generally tend to accumulate lots of possessions, take long showers, and recycle only when forced. Physical appearance is an obsession to many. I have spent a shameful amount of money on high-end cosmetics, gym memberships, and trendy clothes/electronics/devices and know I'm not the only one guilty of this.

Here, I've noticed a distinct culture of minimalism and social consciousness. Typically my hosts own one type of soap, one brand of shampoo, and a few sensible pairs of shoes they wear with everything. Home furnishings aren't generally ornate or showy, but very functional. Showers aren't longer than 6 minutes and people often cut off the water during shampooing/conditioning/shaving to conserve. Recycling is almost a religion. People don't jaywalk, air conditioning is unheard of, every toilet is dual flush, bicycles are more common than cars, and people are generally just looking out for one another's well-being. What's great is that as a result the people are fit and active into old age. I am regularly left in the dust by Grannies on their bicycles and I'm not even mad.

I love the sense of social connectedness in Europe so far. The people may not always be as forwardly friendly as in the South, but I have yet to encounter someone unwilling to help me out when I ask.

Just a few thoughts here at the end of my day. 

Cheers to sore legs, short showers, and less make-up!

The Gentleman Comes to Copenhagen

Soooo my fella has arrived in Copenhagen! Naturally we had to go see all the sights again. By now, I feel relatively comfortable with the bus/metro/train situation and we managed to get where we were headed without too much trouble! We even rented a bike to get around the city for a few hours. I rode on the back (which I'm thinking might be illegal) or our short journeys but never got anything more than a few weird looks.

Saturday we purchased sandwich stuff from the grocery store and spent the day sight seeing and eating sammiches in various locations, only getting yelled at for it once.

We managed to get very lucky with our accommodation situation, securing two different hostels around 4:00-7:00pm both nights. They were both such different but wonderful places!

Friday night we stayed in City Public Hostel near Vesterport Station. It was full of twenty-somethings from around the world sharing their travel adventures. Hostels are the bomb. Friday night we made some friends from Jersey, California and the U.K. and ventured out for Distortion round 2. It was another crazy awesome night.

Saturday we went a bit out of town on a 20-minute metro ride to Danhostel Amager. It was certainly out of the way, but swanky enough that we didn't mind the trek. This hostel was more of a family hotel with very nice bedrooms and showers, and lots of families with young children wandering around. Luckily, Gentleman and I were both extremely tired and weren't looking to make party friends anyways.

We just arrived in Luneburg, Germany last night and are going to spend a short day wandering around here. I meant to leave today for Amsterdam, but it's a German national holiday and none of the shops are open for me to exchange my currency or print off my bus tickets. Frustrating. I think if the states closed this way on Sundays and minor holidays, people would not be able to deal. Nothing is open. Gas stations MAYBE if you're lucky. I guess I'm just learning not to expect to travel on Sundays!

Sigh. Lessons in patience.

Tschuss from Germany!