updates:
Amanda visited this week! She arrived Saturday night and we fetched her from Gare du Nord (sketch as shit at night- this is a term I've come to realize is essential for life in Paris, where half the metro stops are SASAN) and then we had crepes! miam miam! and then we had an amazing bottle of wine, me, manderz, tay and caryl. it was called brouilly something and it was so good! then manda went to sleep at carolyn's and we all went home. the next few days were full of fun stuff, intermittent with working and studying, eating pastries and showing Amanda around, and for her, sitting through some of our classes in French and hunting down a hostel. She left today and I miss her already!! But I'm already guaranteed to see her at least twice more this semester, if not more. She's coming back to Paris at the end of the month, on her way to Italy, and I shall see her then. (Right now she's in the South of France, and then in morroco, such a traveller) and then carolyn and i are going to go to England, Ireland and maybe Scottland for our break. We need to plan that!
i ate a violet flavored macaron on Tuesday and it was HEAVEN. if this sounds weird to you, you are insane, violet and lavendar flavored things are some of the tastiest stuff around! lavendar ice cream anyone?
i need more peanut butter. withdrawal getting tougher.
black current jam = revelation of yum.
spectacle tonight was classical music, Stravinsky and Bruckner. I was keeping the classical feeling alive listening to Bach's organ works on my LONG ASS metro ride home, but then an accordian player came onto my metro car for like 5 stops playing horrible horrible polka and i couldn't hear the bach even with my volume up almost to max! i hate this about paris, people playing violin and accordian with backround music from an amp they wheel around with them, disrupting everyone's commute and taking up precious footroom on the metro. Then they walk up and down the aisle and ask for tips? Some say, un petit piece pour la musique? (a small piece/coin/change for the music?) but others are like "mon salaire?" excuse me, your salary??? you have to be kidding me!!! this is not your job, go away! and they're always like regular looking people who don't look that destitute or sometimes they are "gypsies."
white chocolate with hazelnuts = HOLY CRAP YUM
think im getting fat here, judging by all the food i've been blogging about
mm food
bah fat
whatever. old man asked me if i was a ballerina on the metro the other day, i was like what? he was like, ballerina?! you dance? ballet? you dance ballet! and i was like oh no, im not a ballerina. weird interaction but made me feel like maybe i'm not gaining as many kg as i think i am, cause ballerinas aren't often chubsters and they are graceful like birds. i take this as a complement. from an old tiny wrinkled man wearing a beret. what's up france?
spring weather is lovely and makes me happy. unhappy sidenote: must begin shaving my legs again after winter haitus.
ate indian food today, veg samosa and aloo gobi. and garlic naan. at our usual indian restaurant. was delicious!!
have a ton of work coming up. like an actual metric TON. TON TON TON. including; presentation tomorrow in france d'aujourd'hui, stupid silly class about nothing at all, presentation on tuesday in impressionism about a painting by berthe morisot, essay due end of march on a painting by emile bernard also for impressionism. Swamped from now till Tuesday, et en plus, Monday night starts Pesach! I'm going to ask impressionism teacher if i can turn in the essay on emile bernard maybe april 1 or 2 because of passover, monday and tuesday nights I won't be able to finish my work.
blegh passover. don't know how i'm going to survive eat here. might be sephardic and eat corn adn beans and rice. otherwise will die for sure, france = land of carbs. will look for some matzah in the market, however this seems unlikely.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
i really am terrible terrible!
terrible, horrible, no good, very bad girl! that's me, because i havent updated this blog in over a month! for some reason i thought it had only been like 2 weeks, barely even. Time is flying SO extremely fast here! can't believe how quickly this semester is passing! i'm giving up on that whole catch-up recap thing because shit, at this point i'm 2 months behind and want to talk about the present!
It is FINALLY FINALLY warm here! I am so relieved because the coldness and never-ending winter were really making me depressed, and I hate my big winter coat which is 2 sizes to big on me and makes me look like I have on a football uniform under my coat- as in HUGE shoulders. For a while I thought the big coat, tiny girl phenomenon might look cute and retro, but I'm not that tiny and that coat was just fucking annoying. Also, the zipper breaks about 3 times a day and I have to get Carolyn and Taylor to help me with it. But now, all that is done with because IT'S SPRING!!!!! I've been wearing a short sleeved shirt, sweater/cardigan, and my spring-ish white coat which i bought this autumn for 25 dollars at forever 21. It's cute but gets dirty easily and it's made out of polyester, but it feels like fleece! The jardin du luxembourg is amazing, totally my new favorite place to just hang out and absorb the sun! paris is really so much more pleasant when you don't dread being outdoors! and when you can wear your flats without socks underneath!
Also, AMANDATRON is coming to visit this weekend! I'm SO SO SO SO SO EXCITED!!!!!!! We're going to finally catch up, drink tons of coffee, go to museums, get drunk on red wine, sit in the garden, and basically, have an awesome time. and eat cheese. I cannot wait!!!
I've eaten eggs twice more since last blogged about eggs. dying slowly. hatred of eggs growing as i see them more and more and more because it's easter-season. this is unreasonable and silly because the eggs i keep seeing are chocolate filled, and i don't even eat chocolate, but it makes me hate eggs even more just to see their shape in front of my face in every market and patisserie. BLARGH!
OH MON DIEU I also have to blog about my trip! Two weeks ago (end of feb/beginning of march) we had a one-week-long break from school, for no reason as far as I can tell other than that France hates working and going to school. (35 hour work week envy!)SO, me C & T jetted off (well, really we took the train) to Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne!! It was such an amazing trip and made me feel so incredibly lucky to be in europe this semester nad have opportunities like this! We bought a eurail pass for 3 countries, which have to be bordering, for use of 5 travel days over 2 months. We went from Paris to Brussels, changing stations in the middle in Lille and one other town in Belgium (Mouscoux maybe? Mouscraux? Kinda sounded like moscow in a french accent) since there were no direct trains from Paris to Brussels because of the acciedent a few weeks before. We stayed in Brussels for 2 nights, and it was lovely. GORGEOUS city! Andrea had said there wasn't too much to see, but she is a big liar and I wish we had stayed longer! Flemmish is a funny sounding language! DETAILS OF GRAND ADVENTURE IN THE BAYS-BAS:
-26.02.10
On the train from PAris to brussels, the woman across from us had a 2 year old son, a 4 year old son and a baby. the two year old was adorable, he kept pulling off his hat and saying "Tapo!!" which was his baby approximation of "chapeau" or hat, in french. and the best part was that when the mother went to put her luggage on the rack thingy, she asked me to hold the baby for a minute. the new, tiny, squirmy little itty bitty infant baby! it was one of the best things EVER in my entire life. i want to have 400000 of them. Then we arrived in Brussels after train from Paris, stayed at Hostel Van Gogh. Arrived in the evening, settled in, had a kriek! and a framboise! in the bar in the Hostel lobby, smoky smoky little bar, but fun and great music playing! Kriek, which doesn't really have an exclamation point but which i love and was excited to write about, is a special sort of Brussels beer, called geuze, flavored with cherry! Cherry beer may sound weird but it is SO DAMN GOOD! geuze is only made in Brussels because it gets its unique taste from a bacteria that is only in a valley around Brussels, and within which the city is located. Kinda like sourdough bread in San Francisco, which I also love. Framboise is the same thing but flavored with raspberries, is shockingly pink, and not as good as kriek but still awesome. then we went to bed and KONKED OUT!
-27.02.10
after a meager breakfast at the hostel, i felt like i was going to die. you see, i got a visit from my aunt flo in the night, and well, i had the worst cramps of my entire existance. i really thought i might die. C & T had concerned faces on, because apparently I also looked like death. Then we walked to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, and I felt a bit better for some reason. In the museum, I was far too distracted by all the BEAUTIFUL AMAZING GREAT art to even think about my uterus, thank god, so then the cramps got better. I freaked out in the museum because of all the Broodthaers pieces they had there! Entire installations from his fictional museum of modern art and eagles! He is my favorite Belgian artist, I adore him and his big piles of mussels. After the museum we went shopping/hunted around for vintage goodness. Then for lunch we had felafel and BElgian frites! We all got different sauces on our fries, even though the traditional one is mayonaise, i find that to be a disgusting thought. I got mustard, Carolyn got curry ketchup which was SO good, and Taylor got "samurai sauce" which was an odd shade of neon salmon/pink and we think was mayonaise mixed with sriracha or some other hot pepper sauce, but it wasn't as spicy as T wanted. The fries were so good though, adn the felafel had this lemony cabbage salad with the felafel balls. Yum! Then we were exhausted so we went back to the hostel and rested for a while, napping until dinner. For dinner, we knew we wanted to go to this special beer place afterwards, that is a bar but also a brewery, so we headed over there and then found a restaurant near by. After debating hte rude waiter, we ordered our food. I split a warm camembert & honey salad as well as pistou pasta with Taylor. Both were very good, the salad was delicious and the pasta had a ton of pine nuts and arugala leaves in the sauce. Then we went to the beer hall, called La Morte Subite, or the Sudden Death, and had some beers! I tried peche geuze this time, which was so sweet and tasted like peach soda, peach pie and beer all rolled into one, and faro which is just geuze that's a little sweetened (our map said, "faro used to be for the ladies. now though, it's more excepted for anyone to try it.") leave it to me to only drink bitch drinks, even when they're actually beer. After La Morte Subite, which was so fun and really was like a huge cafeteria with long tables where the only thing going on was happy people drinking beer, we went back to the hsotel and slept.
-28.02.10
this was the day we left Brussels and took the train to Amsterdam. First though, we hunted like MAD CRAZY GRUMPY HUNGOVER BITCHES to find a belgian waffle, because we hadn't tried one yet. We were trying to avoid the touristy, sugar covered, strawberry-laden, whipped cream covered variety because we wanted to experience the real mccoy. Finally we found a place that was a)open (it was Sunday adn everything closes down on SUndays there just like in most of Paris), b)served waffles, c) not too touristy. Too bad our waiter was actually the BIGGEST ASSHOLE OF THE WORLD, didn't want to take our order even though we were each ordering lunch, coffee and a waffle, which is therefore a lot of business, he kept walking away after each one of us ordered one thing, and we kept having to be like, "excusez-moi monsieur, mais est-ce qu'elle peut commander une boisson aussi?" (excuse me, but could she please order a drink also?) it was ridiculous. the food was like, eh whatever, another tomato and mozarella sandwhich is is always my only choice, and the waffle was actually bad. and there was a piece of paper inside carolyn's coffee, like when she finished it, there was a little bit of paper in the bottom of her cup. way worse than coffee grounds! i mean wtf, clean your dishes much!??? obviously, not a restaurant that was remembered fondly. we wrote a nasty note on the receipt and i contemplated peeing on the side of the building, but i didn't really have to pee and it was raining, so this seemed like it might've been a bad idea. then we got on the brussels metro to the train station and on to our train to amsterdam! we all crocheted a TON!!!! (i've taught both C and T and made them addicts! crochet monster zombies! woo!)We got into Amsterdam and took a cab to the hostel, during which I had this lovely gem of a conversation with the taxi driver.
Sarah- What is the best Dutch foor for us to try?
taxi-driver- bus? there are no bus, is tam!
S- what?
TD- bus? what you want?
S- dutch food?
TD- you take the tam maybe, you go to Sintum?
S- ok! (i had no idea what he was saying, clearly)
TD- ok? i don't know what you say!
S- it's ok! no problem!
TD- ok! ok!
it was funnier in real life.
then we got to the hostel at like 4:30, settled in, decided to nap till dinner. Before I napped though I planned some shit out with our europe guide book and the map. Travelling is exhausting though, so then I passed out. For dinner, we didn't really want to figure out the tram thingy to get into the city center and we didn't know what time it would stop running, so we decided to stay around the hostel. We ended up having dinner at an amazing and very cheap Turkish restaurant where we were pretty much the only diners, so they totally doted on us. It was amazing. We shared a humus appetizer with delicious crusty bread, and then T and I shared a veggie pizza which was pretty good and C had some turkish stew stuff that came with free rice pilaf! then we got free little mini baklavahs and cups of sweet turkish tea....many cups. we all peed like 3 times haha! it was awesome! Then we walked around the area our hostel was in and explored inside the hostel, then we went up to our room and crocheted a bit and then went to sleep.
-01.03.2010
We went to the Noordemarkt, a big flea market, and had a ton of fun. It was absolutely AMAZING! I bought a tiny little antique pillbox with flowers painted on it, for only 3 euro!, and T got a red blazer/jacket and a skirt, and C got a flannel shirt and a mexican style woven purse. I was sad none fo the clothes I found fit me or were worth the money being asked. I found a great cardigan but the woman wanted 25 euro, and it was acrylic so like.....not worth it. Then we went to this bakery called Lanksroon, upon recommendation from designsponge, and it was AMAZING!!!! We had these traditional dutch cookies called honingwafel, which are like 2 flat cookie discs filled with honey. Amazing buttery sweet goodness! And there was an adorable cat just chilling out on a chair in the bakery. Then we went to the Van Gogh Museum, which was expensive to get into, but so worth it! It was a great great museum, though it took us forever and a day to find the place. We went to a "coffeeshop" and had some "coffee." cough cough wink wink puff puff pass pass. fun! legal! awesome! Then we walked around a lot, got hungry eventually, and asked a girl in a souvenir shop where a good Dutch restaurant was. We followed her recommendation and ate at some place called Stoop and Stoop, which was kinda like a pub/restaurant. Kinda reminded me of this place called Tombs I went to in DC once when I was visiting my friend at Georgetown freshman year. I had tomato soup and bread with herb butter, more of that delicious light crusty bread like we had had the night before with the humus. we headed back to the hostel, ate some mint coated licorice from the vending machine and crocheted and talked for a long time.
-02.03.2010
we went to the Nieuwmarkt, pretty central kinda town square, to see the Waag, a 15th century building. it was a little disappointing because we were expecting a great medieval architectural edifice, and it was pretty cool architecturally, but you couldnt really go inside it because inside was an expensive touristy cafe. figures. Then we went to Cafe Latei, another DS recommendation, and had coffees, which were good but damn that place is CUTER THAN CUTE! There was a sign on the door that said "Thank you for you purchase, I missing you already." SO adorable and the decor was just like, what dreams are made of! And of course, another pretty, adorable lounging cat. Then we walked forever and ever to get to ARCAM, the architecture museum, which was like, ok. it was small and not that interesting, but there was a timeline of the development of the town of Amsterdam throughout its history which was neat. Then we went to a place called Foodism for lunch, yet another DS recommendation, which was delicious. Me and T split the mexican bean soup, the only blackbeans or bean anything i've yet had in europe, so so sad, and then I had a tomato, cheese, avocado sandwhich on tasty brown bread, along with a fresh mint tea. Then we hit up a store we passed by called Zipper, where I bought adorable flower printed sneakers to replace my olive/moss green fake ked sneakers which are dying slowly. Then we went to a place called Boekie Woekie which is an art book bookstore, all books about art, by artists, about artists, etc. It was nice but too expensive to get anything. We went to another "coffee shop" because we wanted to try edibles while we were in Amsterdam, but they contained chocolate so I actually just had a coffee. Taylor and Carolyn each had only part of one "space cake" but then they both ended up having TERRIBLE TERRIBLE trips that lasted ALL DAY! DISASTER! And all night! and part of the next day! we tried to find somewhere to eat, but they were both starting to really feel it, and not in a good way, so we went back to the hostel, got a felafel from nearby, and ate it in our room, along with more licorice. then we chatted and went to sleep, me and the two weird little space cadets- they talked about nonsensical, strange things in their delirium, i laughed and listened as T told me all about her grandparents and shared many odd stories.
-03.03.2010
we went to Dam Square to see some medieval architecture, and it was beautiful, but most of the cool buildings were under construction for some reason. Then we went to the Rijksmuseum,or state art museum, which was also under construction, so they had only a selection of their permanent collection up which was supposed to include all the masters. I saw Rubens and Vermeer, one Vermeer that is, and lots of Rembrandt, but no Van Eyck! Lots of Bosch, van Dyck and Hals, but only one Rogier van der Weyden. Art snob Sarah wasn't entirely pleased but ti was nice nonetheless. Then we went to the Negen Straats, or the Nine Streets, which are nine little streets full of vintage and funky and cute stores. It was lots of fun and we hit up a ton of vintage places! We then went to Kitsch Kitchen, THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD! It is the absolute most amazing store full of adorableness and kitsch and fun and cuteness and color and baaahhhhhhh i want to live there and own everything they have! I bought a little change purse and an ipod cover made out of yellow floral oilcloth, BIG BIG score!!!! Then we walked around a ton, "ate from the wall" which is to say in Holland there is this fast food place where it's like a vending machine, you put money into the wall and there are all these different choices, and then you open up a little drawer that's basically like a microwave/heating tray and pull out whatever you've purchased, thus pulling it out from the wall = eating from the wall. This was the most disgusting experience of my life i wanted to die and will never speak of it again. Then we walked around some more, and then had dinner at a Dutch restaurant where i had vegetarian hotchpotch, or mashed potatoes with other veggies smooshed in (endive and onions in my case, yum!) and it came with cheese croquettes which I didn't love but the potatoes were good. and we had some heinekins with our dinner, since we were in holland! then we just chilled at the hostel, crocheting (noticing a pattern here?), and decided not to go out because we were too tired adn we were leaving Amsterdam the next day. I am so sad we left, I LOVE that city and truly miss it. I want to live there. I am obsessed! Everyone rides around on adorably decorated bikes, the city is built on water so there are just a billin canals and bridges which are gorgeous and the architecture is so quaint and the people are nice and i want to learn dutch adn there was so much vintage and great fashion adn i really really want to live there! (for a little while at least, a year maybe?)
-04.03.2010
we had breakfast at the hostel as always, took the tram to the train station, and off we went. we were excited to be going to Cologne but so sad to leave Amsterdam, we all really loved that city! We got into Cologne around 4 pm, took a taxi to our hostel, which turned out to be a random ass house that some dude had made into a "hostel" that wasn't really in the center of the city. we had to pay in cash which the website didn't warn us about, so therefore which sucked and wiped us all out of cash, and the place was clean and all, but it was weird that it was just someone's house. i guess he was trying to make it b&b like, but it wasn't at all like that, quaint or cute or comfy, it was german and odd. we settled in, walked around the area around the hostel, had disgusting sandwiches for lunch that were so mayonaise laden i wanted to die, and then went back to the hostel and chilled since we didn't want to head into town yet. we napped for so long that we didn't leave the hostel until like 9:15 pm, and then went into the city center area to find somewhere to eat, but it took us so long to find the right palces and figure everything out that it was too late and all the restaurants were closed, so we just got felafel for dinner (at like 11 pm) from a stand on the street that was not very good. in fact, quite bad. sadface. then we went back to the hostel adn slept.
-05.03.2010
we went to Dom Cathedral, the 15th century cathedral in Cologne, and took a zillion pictures. It was gorgeous!!! Then we went to the Romanische-Germanische Museum, or the Roman-Germanic History Museum which was about the Eastern provinces of the Roman empire and how they were a mix of Roman Empirical culture and the celtic culture/vikings? of the area. it was interesting but man i was starving. there were many statues of penises which we found funny, and there were lots of unknown objects that the label would say "possibly related to the practices of a secret oriental mystery cult." we then decided to form our own secret oriental mystery cult. no you can't be in it, don't even ask. it's a secret that's why! We went to EngelbertstraSe, an area our guidebook said would have good cheap restaurants. We found a crepe restaurant, of all things, but they were crepes with very interesting fillings so we thought, why not? Mine was ratatouille, cheese and chili sauce, T's was sheeps cheese, spinach adn capers and C's was curry chicken and banana. Yeah. forreals. and she liked it! looked like a yellow mess to me! we walked around some more and checked out lots of little shops in that very studenty area and had fun, C bought a pair of blue leggings which she is in love with. Then we went back to the hostel to nap before dinner, getting coffees and a apple pastry to share on our way from the metro. I ordered in German adn apparently my accent was perfect, "tzvei koffee und eine apfelberliner," I have no idea if that's spelled right, but the woman was like nice german! everyone throughout the trip in cologne assumed i was german, slightly unnerving but makes sense. Later we went back into the town and found a German restaurant/pub for dinner, we had kolsch, Cologne's own special beer which only exists there and is DELICIOUS, little salads and schnitzel. I had vegetarian schnitzel, which it turns out meant breaded and fried cheese, served with potatoes and a lemon wedge. Was divine and oh-so-fattening! T and C split some giant chicken schnitzel monster! then we went to a small club/bar called Museum where we had another round of kolsch, our thirds, and then i had a passoa orange (passoa is like crack), T had a gin and tonic, adn carolyn had a few shots if i remember correctly, which i don't because i got drunk. then we happy drunks full of potatoes went back to the hostel.
-06.03.2010
we decided to sleep in and miss breakfast at the hostel, which wasn't missing much, since we were so exhausted and had been tired the entire trip. travelling and moving around, while amazing, is also quite exhausting, and there wasn't that much else to do in Cologne so we figured it wouldn't hurt to sleep in. Then we had lunch at some German restaurant, where I had coffee, french onion soup, and we all shared an order of riebekoochen, which the guidebook said were a cologne specialty. turns out they are latkes, served with apple sauce and all! so funny! delicious, but nothing i hadn't had before. as my mom said, there is a lot of overlap between host and minority culture, which of course i already knew, especially with Germany, since yiddish is mainly german. we went to the train station just to see what time our train would be the next day and find out if we needed a reservation or not, since sometimes you do adn sometimes you don't with the eurail pass, it just depends on the trainline. Turns out, all the trains leaving the 7th were completely booked and we had no other choice but to go back that night! Change of plans!!! We bought reservations for that afternoon's train, for 32 euro! on top of the price we paid back in PAris for our train passes, aggravating! We hurriedly did some other stuff in town, then went back to the hostel, packed up, explained it to the guy whose place it was, got our deposit back but not our money for that night which sucked because it wasn't enough notice. grrr! frustration! we then hung out in the train station for a while, waiting for our train to get there, eating soft pretzels and buying other food for dinner on the train. I got a little loafy thing of cheesey bread that was delectable! and a diet coke and a pastry, not exactly a balanced meal, but a) i bought it in a train station and b) it was delicious and c) it was my only option for food, the cheese bread i mean, not the coke nad pastry haha.
Well, then we got on the train to Paris at like 7:15 pm adn were back at Gare du Nord by like 10:30, not bad at all! Then I went home to my apartment, where I expected to find M&M,who had been gone the whole week before my vacation and the week of my vacation, spending the time in Toulouse where they have their other house and all their family. I hadn't seen them since before C's bday (a night of crazy drunken antics) which was Feb 19, and yet they weren't there still! I then saw a note from Monique that they had to go back to Toulouse because her mother was in the hospital! poor thing! she's pretty much ok though, she'd very old and frail and had fallen and is still recovering, but is doing alright. M&M came home that Monday and life has been back to normal since then! Classes are fine, life is good and spring is here!
Long post! Goodnight!
It is FINALLY FINALLY warm here! I am so relieved because the coldness and never-ending winter were really making me depressed, and I hate my big winter coat which is 2 sizes to big on me and makes me look like I have on a football uniform under my coat- as in HUGE shoulders. For a while I thought the big coat, tiny girl phenomenon might look cute and retro, but I'm not that tiny and that coat was just fucking annoying. Also, the zipper breaks about 3 times a day and I have to get Carolyn and Taylor to help me with it. But now, all that is done with because IT'S SPRING!!!!! I've been wearing a short sleeved shirt, sweater/cardigan, and my spring-ish white coat which i bought this autumn for 25 dollars at forever 21. It's cute but gets dirty easily and it's made out of polyester, but it feels like fleece! The jardin du luxembourg is amazing, totally my new favorite place to just hang out and absorb the sun! paris is really so much more pleasant when you don't dread being outdoors! and when you can wear your flats without socks underneath!
Also, AMANDATRON is coming to visit this weekend! I'm SO SO SO SO SO EXCITED!!!!!!! We're going to finally catch up, drink tons of coffee, go to museums, get drunk on red wine, sit in the garden, and basically, have an awesome time. and eat cheese. I cannot wait!!!
I've eaten eggs twice more since last blogged about eggs. dying slowly. hatred of eggs growing as i see them more and more and more because it's easter-season. this is unreasonable and silly because the eggs i keep seeing are chocolate filled, and i don't even eat chocolate, but it makes me hate eggs even more just to see their shape in front of my face in every market and patisserie. BLARGH!
OH MON DIEU I also have to blog about my trip! Two weeks ago (end of feb/beginning of march) we had a one-week-long break from school, for no reason as far as I can tell other than that France hates working and going to school. (35 hour work week envy!)SO, me C & T jetted off (well, really we took the train) to Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne!! It was such an amazing trip and made me feel so incredibly lucky to be in europe this semester nad have opportunities like this! We bought a eurail pass for 3 countries, which have to be bordering, for use of 5 travel days over 2 months. We went from Paris to Brussels, changing stations in the middle in Lille and one other town in Belgium (Mouscoux maybe? Mouscraux? Kinda sounded like moscow in a french accent) since there were no direct trains from Paris to Brussels because of the acciedent a few weeks before. We stayed in Brussels for 2 nights, and it was lovely. GORGEOUS city! Andrea had said there wasn't too much to see, but she is a big liar and I wish we had stayed longer! Flemmish is a funny sounding language! DETAILS OF GRAND ADVENTURE IN THE BAYS-BAS:
-26.02.10
On the train from PAris to brussels, the woman across from us had a 2 year old son, a 4 year old son and a baby. the two year old was adorable, he kept pulling off his hat and saying "Tapo!!" which was his baby approximation of "chapeau" or hat, in french. and the best part was that when the mother went to put her luggage on the rack thingy, she asked me to hold the baby for a minute. the new, tiny, squirmy little itty bitty infant baby! it was one of the best things EVER in my entire life. i want to have 400000 of them. Then we arrived in Brussels after train from Paris, stayed at Hostel Van Gogh. Arrived in the evening, settled in, had a kriek! and a framboise! in the bar in the Hostel lobby, smoky smoky little bar, but fun and great music playing! Kriek, which doesn't really have an exclamation point but which i love and was excited to write about, is a special sort of Brussels beer, called geuze, flavored with cherry! Cherry beer may sound weird but it is SO DAMN GOOD! geuze is only made in Brussels because it gets its unique taste from a bacteria that is only in a valley around Brussels, and within which the city is located. Kinda like sourdough bread in San Francisco, which I also love. Framboise is the same thing but flavored with raspberries, is shockingly pink, and not as good as kriek but still awesome. then we went to bed and KONKED OUT!
-27.02.10
after a meager breakfast at the hostel, i felt like i was going to die. you see, i got a visit from my aunt flo in the night, and well, i had the worst cramps of my entire existance. i really thought i might die. C & T had concerned faces on, because apparently I also looked like death. Then we walked to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, and I felt a bit better for some reason. In the museum, I was far too distracted by all the BEAUTIFUL AMAZING GREAT art to even think about my uterus, thank god, so then the cramps got better. I freaked out in the museum because of all the Broodthaers pieces they had there! Entire installations from his fictional museum of modern art and eagles! He is my favorite Belgian artist, I adore him and his big piles of mussels. After the museum we went shopping/hunted around for vintage goodness. Then for lunch we had felafel and BElgian frites! We all got different sauces on our fries, even though the traditional one is mayonaise, i find that to be a disgusting thought. I got mustard, Carolyn got curry ketchup which was SO good, and Taylor got "samurai sauce" which was an odd shade of neon salmon/pink and we think was mayonaise mixed with sriracha or some other hot pepper sauce, but it wasn't as spicy as T wanted. The fries were so good though, adn the felafel had this lemony cabbage salad with the felafel balls. Yum! Then we were exhausted so we went back to the hostel and rested for a while, napping until dinner. For dinner, we knew we wanted to go to this special beer place afterwards, that is a bar but also a brewery, so we headed over there and then found a restaurant near by. After debating hte rude waiter, we ordered our food. I split a warm camembert & honey salad as well as pistou pasta with Taylor. Both were very good, the salad was delicious and the pasta had a ton of pine nuts and arugala leaves in the sauce. Then we went to the beer hall, called La Morte Subite, or the Sudden Death, and had some beers! I tried peche geuze this time, which was so sweet and tasted like peach soda, peach pie and beer all rolled into one, and faro which is just geuze that's a little sweetened (our map said, "faro used to be for the ladies. now though, it's more excepted for anyone to try it.") leave it to me to only drink bitch drinks, even when they're actually beer. After La Morte Subite, which was so fun and really was like a huge cafeteria with long tables where the only thing going on was happy people drinking beer, we went back to the hsotel and slept.
-28.02.10
this was the day we left Brussels and took the train to Amsterdam. First though, we hunted like MAD CRAZY GRUMPY HUNGOVER BITCHES to find a belgian waffle, because we hadn't tried one yet. We were trying to avoid the touristy, sugar covered, strawberry-laden, whipped cream covered variety because we wanted to experience the real mccoy. Finally we found a place that was a)open (it was Sunday adn everything closes down on SUndays there just like in most of Paris), b)served waffles, c) not too touristy. Too bad our waiter was actually the BIGGEST ASSHOLE OF THE WORLD, didn't want to take our order even though we were each ordering lunch, coffee and a waffle, which is therefore a lot of business, he kept walking away after each one of us ordered one thing, and we kept having to be like, "excusez-moi monsieur, mais est-ce qu'elle peut commander une boisson aussi?" (excuse me, but could she please order a drink also?) it was ridiculous. the food was like, eh whatever, another tomato and mozarella sandwhich is is always my only choice, and the waffle was actually bad. and there was a piece of paper inside carolyn's coffee, like when she finished it, there was a little bit of paper in the bottom of her cup. way worse than coffee grounds! i mean wtf, clean your dishes much!??? obviously, not a restaurant that was remembered fondly. we wrote a nasty note on the receipt and i contemplated peeing on the side of the building, but i didn't really have to pee and it was raining, so this seemed like it might've been a bad idea. then we got on the brussels metro to the train station and on to our train to amsterdam! we all crocheted a TON!!!! (i've taught both C and T and made them addicts! crochet monster zombies! woo!)We got into Amsterdam and took a cab to the hostel, during which I had this lovely gem of a conversation with the taxi driver.
Sarah- What is the best Dutch foor for us to try?
taxi-driver- bus? there are no bus, is tam!
S- what?
TD- bus? what you want?
S- dutch food?
TD- you take the tam maybe, you go to Sintum?
S- ok! (i had no idea what he was saying, clearly)
TD- ok? i don't know what you say!
S- it's ok! no problem!
TD- ok! ok!
it was funnier in real life.
then we got to the hostel at like 4:30, settled in, decided to nap till dinner. Before I napped though I planned some shit out with our europe guide book and the map. Travelling is exhausting though, so then I passed out. For dinner, we didn't really want to figure out the tram thingy to get into the city center and we didn't know what time it would stop running, so we decided to stay around the hostel. We ended up having dinner at an amazing and very cheap Turkish restaurant where we were pretty much the only diners, so they totally doted on us. It was amazing. We shared a humus appetizer with delicious crusty bread, and then T and I shared a veggie pizza which was pretty good and C had some turkish stew stuff that came with free rice pilaf! then we got free little mini baklavahs and cups of sweet turkish tea....many cups. we all peed like 3 times haha! it was awesome! Then we walked around the area our hostel was in and explored inside the hostel, then we went up to our room and crocheted a bit and then went to sleep.
-01.03.2010
We went to the Noordemarkt, a big flea market, and had a ton of fun. It was absolutely AMAZING! I bought a tiny little antique pillbox with flowers painted on it, for only 3 euro!, and T got a red blazer/jacket and a skirt, and C got a flannel shirt and a mexican style woven purse. I was sad none fo the clothes I found fit me or were worth the money being asked. I found a great cardigan but the woman wanted 25 euro, and it was acrylic so like.....not worth it. Then we went to this bakery called Lanksroon, upon recommendation from designsponge, and it was AMAZING!!!! We had these traditional dutch cookies called honingwafel, which are like 2 flat cookie discs filled with honey. Amazing buttery sweet goodness! And there was an adorable cat just chilling out on a chair in the bakery. Then we went to the Van Gogh Museum, which was expensive to get into, but so worth it! It was a great great museum, though it took us forever and a day to find the place. We went to a "coffeeshop" and had some "coffee." cough cough wink wink puff puff pass pass. fun! legal! awesome! Then we walked around a lot, got hungry eventually, and asked a girl in a souvenir shop where a good Dutch restaurant was. We followed her recommendation and ate at some place called Stoop and Stoop, which was kinda like a pub/restaurant. Kinda reminded me of this place called Tombs I went to in DC once when I was visiting my friend at Georgetown freshman year. I had tomato soup and bread with herb butter, more of that delicious light crusty bread like we had had the night before with the humus. we headed back to the hostel, ate some mint coated licorice from the vending machine and crocheted and talked for a long time.
-02.03.2010
we went to the Nieuwmarkt, pretty central kinda town square, to see the Waag, a 15th century building. it was a little disappointing because we were expecting a great medieval architectural edifice, and it was pretty cool architecturally, but you couldnt really go inside it because inside was an expensive touristy cafe. figures. Then we went to Cafe Latei, another DS recommendation, and had coffees, which were good but damn that place is CUTER THAN CUTE! There was a sign on the door that said "Thank you for you purchase, I missing you already." SO adorable and the decor was just like, what dreams are made of! And of course, another pretty, adorable lounging cat. Then we walked forever and ever to get to ARCAM, the architecture museum, which was like, ok. it was small and not that interesting, but there was a timeline of the development of the town of Amsterdam throughout its history which was neat. Then we went to a place called Foodism for lunch, yet another DS recommendation, which was delicious. Me and T split the mexican bean soup, the only blackbeans or bean anything i've yet had in europe, so so sad, and then I had a tomato, cheese, avocado sandwhich on tasty brown bread, along with a fresh mint tea. Then we hit up a store we passed by called Zipper, where I bought adorable flower printed sneakers to replace my olive/moss green fake ked sneakers which are dying slowly. Then we went to a place called Boekie Woekie which is an art book bookstore, all books about art, by artists, about artists, etc. It was nice but too expensive to get anything. We went to another "coffee shop" because we wanted to try edibles while we were in Amsterdam, but they contained chocolate so I actually just had a coffee. Taylor and Carolyn each had only part of one "space cake" but then they both ended up having TERRIBLE TERRIBLE trips that lasted ALL DAY! DISASTER! And all night! and part of the next day! we tried to find somewhere to eat, but they were both starting to really feel it, and not in a good way, so we went back to the hostel, got a felafel from nearby, and ate it in our room, along with more licorice. then we chatted and went to sleep, me and the two weird little space cadets- they talked about nonsensical, strange things in their delirium, i laughed and listened as T told me all about her grandparents and shared many odd stories.
-03.03.2010
we went to Dam Square to see some medieval architecture, and it was beautiful, but most of the cool buildings were under construction for some reason. Then we went to the Rijksmuseum,or state art museum, which was also under construction, so they had only a selection of their permanent collection up which was supposed to include all the masters. I saw Rubens and Vermeer, one Vermeer that is, and lots of Rembrandt, but no Van Eyck! Lots of Bosch, van Dyck and Hals, but only one Rogier van der Weyden. Art snob Sarah wasn't entirely pleased but ti was nice nonetheless. Then we went to the Negen Straats, or the Nine Streets, which are nine little streets full of vintage and funky and cute stores. It was lots of fun and we hit up a ton of vintage places! We then went to Kitsch Kitchen, THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD! It is the absolute most amazing store full of adorableness and kitsch and fun and cuteness and color and baaahhhhhhh i want to live there and own everything they have! I bought a little change purse and an ipod cover made out of yellow floral oilcloth, BIG BIG score!!!! Then we walked around a ton, "ate from the wall" which is to say in Holland there is this fast food place where it's like a vending machine, you put money into the wall and there are all these different choices, and then you open up a little drawer that's basically like a microwave/heating tray and pull out whatever you've purchased, thus pulling it out from the wall = eating from the wall. This was the most disgusting experience of my life i wanted to die and will never speak of it again. Then we walked around some more, and then had dinner at a Dutch restaurant where i had vegetarian hotchpotch, or mashed potatoes with other veggies smooshed in (endive and onions in my case, yum!) and it came with cheese croquettes which I didn't love but the potatoes were good. and we had some heinekins with our dinner, since we were in holland! then we just chilled at the hostel, crocheting (noticing a pattern here?), and decided not to go out because we were too tired adn we were leaving Amsterdam the next day. I am so sad we left, I LOVE that city and truly miss it. I want to live there. I am obsessed! Everyone rides around on adorably decorated bikes, the city is built on water so there are just a billin canals and bridges which are gorgeous and the architecture is so quaint and the people are nice and i want to learn dutch adn there was so much vintage and great fashion adn i really really want to live there! (for a little while at least, a year maybe?)
-04.03.2010
we had breakfast at the hostel as always, took the tram to the train station, and off we went. we were excited to be going to Cologne but so sad to leave Amsterdam, we all really loved that city! We got into Cologne around 4 pm, took a taxi to our hostel, which turned out to be a random ass house that some dude had made into a "hostel" that wasn't really in the center of the city. we had to pay in cash which the website didn't warn us about, so therefore which sucked and wiped us all out of cash, and the place was clean and all, but it was weird that it was just someone's house. i guess he was trying to make it b&b like, but it wasn't at all like that, quaint or cute or comfy, it was german and odd. we settled in, walked around the area around the hostel, had disgusting sandwiches for lunch that were so mayonaise laden i wanted to die, and then went back to the hostel and chilled since we didn't want to head into town yet. we napped for so long that we didn't leave the hostel until like 9:15 pm, and then went into the city center area to find somewhere to eat, but it took us so long to find the right palces and figure everything out that it was too late and all the restaurants were closed, so we just got felafel for dinner (at like 11 pm) from a stand on the street that was not very good. in fact, quite bad. sadface. then we went back to the hostel adn slept.
-05.03.2010
we went to Dom Cathedral, the 15th century cathedral in Cologne, and took a zillion pictures. It was gorgeous!!! Then we went to the Romanische-Germanische Museum, or the Roman-Germanic History Museum which was about the Eastern provinces of the Roman empire and how they were a mix of Roman Empirical culture and the celtic culture/vikings? of the area. it was interesting but man i was starving. there were many statues of penises which we found funny, and there were lots of unknown objects that the label would say "possibly related to the practices of a secret oriental mystery cult." we then decided to form our own secret oriental mystery cult. no you can't be in it, don't even ask. it's a secret that's why! We went to EngelbertstraSe, an area our guidebook said would have good cheap restaurants. We found a crepe restaurant, of all things, but they were crepes with very interesting fillings so we thought, why not? Mine was ratatouille, cheese and chili sauce, T's was sheeps cheese, spinach adn capers and C's was curry chicken and banana. Yeah. forreals. and she liked it! looked like a yellow mess to me! we walked around some more and checked out lots of little shops in that very studenty area and had fun, C bought a pair of blue leggings which she is in love with. Then we went back to the hostel to nap before dinner, getting coffees and a apple pastry to share on our way from the metro. I ordered in German adn apparently my accent was perfect, "tzvei koffee und eine apfelberliner," I have no idea if that's spelled right, but the woman was like nice german! everyone throughout the trip in cologne assumed i was german, slightly unnerving but makes sense. Later we went back into the town and found a German restaurant/pub for dinner, we had kolsch, Cologne's own special beer which only exists there and is DELICIOUS, little salads and schnitzel. I had vegetarian schnitzel, which it turns out meant breaded and fried cheese, served with potatoes and a lemon wedge. Was divine and oh-so-fattening! T and C split some giant chicken schnitzel monster! then we went to a small club/bar called Museum where we had another round of kolsch, our thirds, and then i had a passoa orange (passoa is like crack), T had a gin and tonic, adn carolyn had a few shots if i remember correctly, which i don't because i got drunk. then we happy drunks full of potatoes went back to the hostel.
-06.03.2010
we decided to sleep in and miss breakfast at the hostel, which wasn't missing much, since we were so exhausted and had been tired the entire trip. travelling and moving around, while amazing, is also quite exhausting, and there wasn't that much else to do in Cologne so we figured it wouldn't hurt to sleep in. Then we had lunch at some German restaurant, where I had coffee, french onion soup, and we all shared an order of riebekoochen, which the guidebook said were a cologne specialty. turns out they are latkes, served with apple sauce and all! so funny! delicious, but nothing i hadn't had before. as my mom said, there is a lot of overlap between host and minority culture, which of course i already knew, especially with Germany, since yiddish is mainly german. we went to the train station just to see what time our train would be the next day and find out if we needed a reservation or not, since sometimes you do adn sometimes you don't with the eurail pass, it just depends on the trainline. Turns out, all the trains leaving the 7th were completely booked and we had no other choice but to go back that night! Change of plans!!! We bought reservations for that afternoon's train, for 32 euro! on top of the price we paid back in PAris for our train passes, aggravating! We hurriedly did some other stuff in town, then went back to the hostel, packed up, explained it to the guy whose place it was, got our deposit back but not our money for that night which sucked because it wasn't enough notice. grrr! frustration! we then hung out in the train station for a while, waiting for our train to get there, eating soft pretzels and buying other food for dinner on the train. I got a little loafy thing of cheesey bread that was delectable! and a diet coke and a pastry, not exactly a balanced meal, but a) i bought it in a train station and b) it was delicious and c) it was my only option for food, the cheese bread i mean, not the coke nad pastry haha.
Well, then we got on the train to Paris at like 7:15 pm adn were back at Gare du Nord by like 10:30, not bad at all! Then I went home to my apartment, where I expected to find M&M,who had been gone the whole week before my vacation and the week of my vacation, spending the time in Toulouse where they have their other house and all their family. I hadn't seen them since before C's bday (a night of crazy drunken antics) which was Feb 19, and yet they weren't there still! I then saw a note from Monique that they had to go back to Toulouse because her mother was in the hospital! poor thing! she's pretty much ok though, she'd very old and frail and had fallen and is still recovering, but is doing alright. M&M came home that Monday and life has been back to normal since then! Classes are fine, life is good and spring is here!
Long post! Goodnight!
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