Europe – Page 10 – a lizard abroad

September 13, 2016 – Life’s Better With Friends

September 21, 2016June 30, 2023Posted in Europe, UK + IrelandLeave a comment

FINALLY. It happened. People kept telling me that travelling solo was a great way to not only spend time by myself, but to meet others along the way and be totally open to forming new friendships. I thought they were crazy of course, because in all my travels last fall, I never once met someone new who I spent more than four minutes with! This was because I was always with someone else, though, be it classmates, others from DIS, or The Significant Other. It’s not very easy (or fun) to try breaking into a group of giggling twenty-somethings or a couple staring lovingly into each other’s eyes and saying, ‘HI! I’M (insert name)! BE MY FRIEND OH PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE I’LL BE NICE I PROMISE,’ even if that is what every solo traveler is thinking as they eavesdrop and stare with jealousy in their eyes. (Okay. Maybe that’s just me.)

But this time, I was utterly and completely alone. (Mr. Robot Man doesn’t draw too much attention.) When I got off the plane in Dublin, I was in a rather poor mood. I was tired, and I had forgotten about crazy UK/ Ireland customs. I had to stand there for ten minutes trying to connect to WiFi and pull up proof that I really was leaving Europe in ten days and was not planning on bumming around the streets of Dublin for the rest of my life. (I think that was a run-on sentence.) This took so long that I missed my bus to Malahide castle, for which I had pre-booked tickets for a specific time slot. This reminded me fondly of my experience at the London airport and my pre-booked Harry Potter tour tickets. I was NOT going to spend another fifty dollars on a taxi though. Not in a million years. So I sat outside gloomily and sleepily for an hour until the next bus arrived.

It was on this bus that the magic happened. I had my customary seat: second story, right side, in the front. After a few stops, an Asian girl came and sat next to me, so I made room for her and continued staring off into the distance, or reading, or whatever I was doing. Essentially, every part of my body language was probably screaming, ‘I AM IN BAD MOOD. TALK TO ME NOT.’ But this girl was resilient and unaware of cultural norms! She soon asked if I was going to the castle, since that’s really the only place this bus went. I was, I said. She was also. And then,

BOOM.

Friendship.

Beautiful, isn’t it? Her name was Xi, and we spent the next two full days together! How does that even happen? She is from China, but she is studying English language and literature at a university in Geneva Switzerland, and she was in Dublin for a couple weeks doing a language course. Just my luck!

The Gardens were pretty, and they contained a lot of exotic plants I’m surprised could survive in the Irish weather. The castle and grounds have been owned by the same family for over 800 years, and then a lady finally messed it up in the seventies and had to sell it to Irish tourism. Sad.

A view of the grounds from inside the castle

And the castle itself!

After all of our exploration, we were well and pooped, especially since I had to carry my giant backpack through it all. We sprawled out in the grass and watched some Irish kids and their dads play soccer for almost an hour tehe. It was nice to finally relax, because I really hadn’t done much of that up to this point. Thanks Xi!

More garden exploration followed.

And the other side of the castle…

After this, we went into town to drop off my backpack before heading back out for Adventure Round Two in the coastal city of Howth. Here we met up with Davide, her Italian friend that was also doing the language course. We ate some fish and chips while the seagulls relentlessly stared into our souls and demanded that we feed them.

Davide walked around for us for a bit, and then we were left to ourselves so he could head home to do some homework. Poor guy.

The wind was NUTS here. Not as bad as up in the tower on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, but pretty close. We held hands so we wouldn’t blow away, but the seagulls were loving it! I really wish to be reincarnated as a seagull. They have so much fun, and they still get to eat people food!

We went for a little hike to get this great view.

Then I relaxed in a giant swing while Xi played with some Irish boys on this dangerous spinning-walking contraption while a bunch of parents and younger sisters watched curiously. It was so funny. The moms all said thank you and goodbye to us when we left! So that was tiring (for Xi, haha).

We slept the whole way back after planning a crazy day trip for the next day! #Adventure

More to come…

Venlig hilsen/ Best regards,

Lizzy-wa

September 12, 2016 – Kings and Castles

September 19, 2016June 30, 2023Posted in Europe, UK + IrelandLeave a comment

Edinburgh Day Two started off with a trip to Edinburgh Castle, that beautiful hunk of rock sitting on top of yet another gigantic hunk of rock that I could see from my hostel windows.

It’s even prettier from the front! Shout-out to the stranger man who took this shot.

I decided to do the free tour of the castle, and the tour guide was a young Scottish woman. At the start of the tour, she introduced herself and said, ‘If you can’t understand me now, this is how I talk all the time, so you can look at the audio guides at the ticket window.’ She had a wonderfully thick Scottish accent. I love it.

Here’s a view from atop the castle. Edinburgh Castle is hundreds of years old, and over the few days I was here, I heard several stories of crazy attacks on the castle, true events that became Game of Thrones inspiration, and the tale of a man who scaled the rocky side of the ‘castle rock’ to sneak in the back way (in the Scottish wind and rain, no less!) I also got to watch a British man play and talk about a bunch of medieval musical instruments. He was quite talented, and he even sang us a few songs. (He was quite the attention hog.)

Riding a cannon. No big deal.

The castle’s water tower

And a view from the other side!

After the castle, I had plans to walk around and see a bunch of other things, but I ended up accidentally wandering into the National Museum of Scotland to use the bathroom. I stayed over two hours, as is typical of my character.

This place was insane. History museum plus taxidermy zoo plus science center plus children’s dreamland all rolled into one. There were exhibits on fashion and stuffed (real, dead) animals of every shape and size. There was a leaf-cutter ant colony that I watched for about ten minutes. There were three floors of history on technology complete with interactive lessons, robot arms, the first ever cloned mammal (Dolly the sheep, stuffed and rotating slowly and eerily on a pedestal), and several intricate engines that were running so we could watch how they worked. I was in heaven, to say the least. Plus it was all free!!! And I found several bathrooms!

Here is a sperm wale skull from a whale that washed up on the beach somewhere near Edinburgh. The picture really doesn’t capture how gigantic it is.

Next, I wandered to a cafe to read, drink some hot chocolate, and eat a chicken and rice porridge dish that had half of a full chicken thrown into the bowl.

I didn’t really have much time to do anything else before sundown, but I did not let that stop me! I had heard of King Arthur’s Seat, a great hike with a great view, and it was my mission to complete it. The sun was making its descent as I attacked the mountain. (Well, first I really had to pee. But I didn’t want to pay to pee, and Europe is just generally bad at providing free lavatories. I wandered back and forth for about 45 minutes before giving in and buying something at Starbucks, of all places.)

Once that was done, the hike commenced!

I was tired, alone, and my feet hurt, but the view was beautiful.

At the top! Notice how tired my face is. I mean really, what am I doing? Is that a smile? A grimace? Am I checking my teeth for leftovers from lunch? I also think the rest of my face forgot to join in on this thing. Wow.

Needless to say, I slept well that night, though not nearly long enough. I woke up around five, ate some leftover soup, and hiked my way down to the train station after getting change in ‘every denomination of coin’ from one of the hostel staff (for my collection!)

The sunrise was gorgeous, and I rode on the second floor in the front of my double decker on the way to the airport. I’ll really miss those busses!

Until next time.

Venlig hilsen/ Best regards/ Cheers!

Lizzy-wa

September 11, 2016 – Edinburgh, I Love You

September 13, 2016June 30, 2023Posted in Europe, UK + IrelandLeave a comment

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM. Sorry I can’t spend it with you in person, but know that I’m thinking of you as I visit the land of your people!

Okay. Internet was super iffy in the UK/ Ireland, but we are back in the land of the inter webs (Portugal), so I can finally start writing again. Don´t be surprised if my posts start getting published later and later.

So Edinburgh was wonderful. The weather, unfortunately, was not. The clouds started spitting out rain right when I got off the train. I do love Scottish accents though. The first person I talked to when I stepped off the train was an older man working for the station. I asked where the bathroom was and he responded in such rapid and thickly-accented `English` that I just had to follow his pointing finger because I really had no idea what he was saying!

Walking around the city for the first time was amazing. I swear my eyes were about to pop out of my head. Everything is made of stone with Gothic styling. Tall, dark, and handsome. (;

Speaking of tall, (not) dark, and handsome, check out this ol´ chap. He was out there every day! Good thing he was wearing wool because it was not warm outside.

This was literally the entrance to my amazing hostel. RIGHT next to the Edinburgh Castle! Crazy! Plus the staff was helpful, the breakfast was free, there were several cool lounges, and there were two fully-stocked kitchens that were all-abuzz during dinner time. Unlike any hostel I´ve ever been to. Highly recommend.

On my way to drop off my things at the hostel, I noticed a free walking tour sign and ran back to catch the starting time. The top photo features Max, my adorable, hilarious, British (not Scottish) guide. At the start of the tour, he told us that his main goal in giving free walking tours is to convince at least one person to fly immediately home upon completion of the tour, sell all of their possessions, sell some of their family´s possessions, and then use that money to move permanently back to Edinburgh. (It was tempting, believe me.)

He brought us to this graveyard and told several stories of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series. Apparently she wrote all seven books in Edinburgh, and much of her story aspects were inspired by her surroundings. For example, there´s a headstone in this graveyard for a…. TOM RIDDLE. Cray.

This is a crazy-expensive private school that is believed to be an inspiration for Hogwarts, combined with Edinburgh Castle (up on a big rock!) Can you see the resemblance in all the towers??

After the walking tour, I asked for the best tower to climb to catch a view of the city. Max suggested climbing Calton Hill, and not climbing any tower at all, but he didn´t know there was a magnificent and climbable tower on top of said hill! More on that later.

The walk was green and wet, much like the rest of the city surroundings.

This is the tower!!! The Nelson Monument, I believe? It was super windy, and I was really regretting ordering soup to go, because I had no chance to eat in and my hand was getting cold carrying it around everywhere. I walked into the tower and the most adorable little (well, okay, he was actually pretty tall) Scottish man offered to keep my soup for me. Then he asked if I was sure I wanted to climb the tower, and I asked if he thought the building was unstable. ´Ah, nooo, I´m not sayin´you´ll blow away lassie, just that I´ve seen better days for the weather!´ (And yes, he really did call me lassie.) I said I wasn´t going to be around for long, so this was my only chance!

The view sure was spectacular! This is the National Monument.

And this is a bunch of other monuments/ museums.

AND THIS IS MY FACE WHEN I ALMOST GOT BLOWN OFF THE TOWER. I´m telling you, it was nuts. You see that guy in the background? Before he showed up, I was all alone up there for about ten minutes, and the wind was going positively bonkers. At one point, I was crawling on my hands and knees around the tower to get back to the safety of the door jam!!! The adorable Scottish man lied to me! (But it was super fun, so I stayed out there way longer than necessary.)

When I got back down to ground level, my Scottish friend handed me my soup and said, ´There you go, wee bop.´ …. WEE BOP. I can´t. I just cannot handle the adorability. He asked if anybody else was still on the tower and said he would close it down for the night because the wind had gotten too violent while I was up there. (I´ll say!) Then he sent me off with a, `Goodbye sweetheart, good to meet yew!´ Too stinkin´ cute. One thing I noticed about Scotland and Ireland is that people LOVE to use nicknames: sweetie, sweetheart, honey, wee bop, lassie, dear, you-name-it. Gosh, I love nicknames.

To round off my day, I paid a visit to the Scott Monument, a towering Gothic structure right across the street from an H&M. That´s Europe for you.

I´ll continue this Edinburgh talk in a part-two.

Venlig hilsen/ Best regards/ Cheers,

Lizzy-wa

September 9, 2016 – The Night Bus

September 13, 2016June 30, 2023Posted in Europe, UK + IrelandLeave a comment

Yesterday I caught an early morning train to Cambridge, and gosh was it beautiful. Warm, sunny, rich with history and dripping with school children in full uniform. Lots of bikes, and most of them were either collapsible or giant cruisers with massive wicker baskets on the handlebars.

I spent the first two hours at the Cambridge Botanic Gardens, a sprawling 40-acre wonderland of bees, butterflies, trees, and flowers.

And don’t forget the cafe.

Hot chocolate with spinach-salmon pasta. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Then I just wandered the city:

Punting tours around the canal! Didn´t have enough time to do one myself since I was only in Cambridge for a matter of hours.

I can´t remember which college this was because they were all to confusingly beautiful and there were so many.

I found a tower to climb! I like to climb towers wherever I go so I can get a different perspective of the city. I didn´t climb St. Peter´s Basilica in Rome and have regretted it ever since, so now I make sure not to miss a good opportunity. Cambridge´s tower was fantastic! Super windy up top, and I was relatively alone up there. Plus, it seemed like the type of tower that really isn´t meant to be climbed that often, so those are always fun. Once I got to the top, it felt like the floor could give out any second, but the view was great:

This is King´s College Chapel. So pretty, but there was an admission fee to go inside!

Again, can´t remember the name of this pretty college.

I believe this is called The Round Church, but it just reminds me of something hobbits might gather in for town meetings. (:

After massaging my feet, I slept the entire train ride back into London.

I had an hour to kill before The Book of Mormon, so I grabbed some dinner in Chinatown and popped into M&M World.

As far as The Book of Mormon goes: 10/10 overall, 15/10 on comedy, and very/inappropriate. I was laughing practically the whole time, and when I wasn’t laughing, I had a ridiculously giant smile plastered to my face. I thought the cast would have British accents, but sadly, most of them were American anyway haha. The boy who played Elder Cunningham was even in the original Broadway cast!

The Prince of Wales Theatre was also fantastic. Not a bad seat in the house, and I was sitting very top row, dead center between some Brits and some Frenchies.

I decided to take a double decker bus back to the hostel, because why not? I think I know now where J.K. Rowling got the idea for the Knight Bus, because I certainly felt like I was on it. I sat in the very front on the top deck, and from my perspective, it seemed that we were either going to tip over or crush someone below us every few seconds! Glad I survived! (There were no shrunken heads or magical face-squishings though.)

Back at the hostel, things were hoppin’. I stayed on top of a pub, so while I stood in the stairwell and chatted with The Significant Other, I heard loud, drunken renditions of Miss American Pie, Wonderwall, and another tune no one could quite agree on. (:

I was woken this morning by a shrieking fire alarm. All the girls in my room, myself included, thought it was just someone’s phone alarm, so we all lay there angrily for a solid minute before one girl finally asked. It wasn’t until then that we all realized it was probably too loud to be a wake up call. Thank goodness it went off though, because I fell asleep after turning my own alarm off thirty minutes earlier and probably would have missed my train!

Speaking of which, I’m on a train now. To Edinburgh we go! Weather forecasts are rainy for the next nine days of my adventure, so let’s hope the weathermen were wrong.

Luckily Mr. Robot Man carries around his hard, plastic, waterproof shell everywhere he goes, like a turtle, so he’ll have nothing to worry about. I’ll keep you posted on my end. Until next time.

Venlig hilsen/ Best regards/ Cheerio,
Lizzy-wa

September 9, 2016 – The Knight Bus

September 9, 2016June 30, 2023Posted in Europe, UK + IrelandLeave a comment

London is good and done with! Yahoo! I had forgotten just how horrible and expensive and horrible London transportation is. Don’t get me wrong. Once you figure it out, everything runs rather smoothly. It’s the ‘figuring it out’ that’s hard.

First off, I forgot about the border control. Every other country I’ve ever visited is part of the Shengen Union, which means when I get off the plane, no one questions me and I can go skipping off into the ether. The UK is special however, so border control happens both when leaving Copenhagen and when arriving in London. This means extra wait time — a full hour of extra wait time on the London end, in fact. And since my plane was scheduled to land at 8:05 and I booked my Harry Potter tour for 10 and the bus-train combo takes over an hour and my plane landed late, this spelled disaster. I wasn’t sure how strict the ticket time was, but the Warner Bros. website made it clear that arriving late could mean forfitting your entrance with no refund or reschedule. I paid over $45 for this! It was one of the only reasons I came back to London this time around! I needed to see Umbridge’s disgustingly pink wardrobe with my own two eyes, gosh darnit! So…. taxi.

£40 ($54) and 30 minutes later, I arrived at Warner Bros. Studio tired, upset, and slightly less wealthy. (Note that London taxi cabs are actually ridiculously roomy and kind of nice. Still would have preferred a crowded seat on a bus for a third of the price.)

My mood shifted the second I saw these beauties:

Yes. These are some of the actual chess pieces from the actual game of wizard’s chess played by the actual Ron, Harry, and Hermione in The Philosopher’s Stone. (Okay technically it was played by Rupert, Daniel, and Emma, but let’s not get nitpicky.) They’re huge! Imagine the terror!

I was then subjected to The Most Thorough Bag Check Ever, which included me taking all the clothes out of my backpack, explaining what a plastic nail file was, and promising not to stab anyone with the bottle opener (“knife” according to security) attached to my nail clippers. Yeesh.

The tour was worth it. I read every little plaque, watched every little video, and took pictures of nearly everything. Here are some favorites:

Costumes and set pieces at the head table of the Great Hall

The sorting hat! (One of several)

Hermione’s dress from the Yule Ball. In the books, her dress was supposed to be blue, but Emma Watson looks better in pink, so the costume department bent the rules.

One of the Hair and Makeup vanities covered in actual hair and makeup (almost all the characters wore wigs, it seems)

The Mirror of Erised (won’t tell you what I saw!)

A broom setup for filming flying scenes!

—

I had more pictures I wanted to show, but the wifi and general cell service is not great in Edinburgh, so this was all I could get the upload.

—

The production team behind this series was absolutely bonkers in the best way possible. You know the glass prophecy orbs from The Order of the Phoenix? Over 15,000 of them were hand made (glowing and all) before the director decided to use CGI instead. Remember when Lupin went werewolf in Prisoner of Azkaban? An entire animatronic suit was made, capable of moving, blinking, etc., but it was too difficult to control, so they scanned it in and used CGI instead. Do you recall the magnificent Buckbeak introduced in Prisoner of Azkaban? The creatures team made THREE full sized animatronic Buckbeaks, each of which had real feathers hand painted and hand placed one-by-one, but obviously after all this work, the Buckbeaks simply couldn’t move around fast enough, so they decided to use CGI instead. Notice a trend? So crazy.

Some remarkable non-CGI was the 17,000 hand-labeled and one-of-a-kind wand boxes in Ollivander’s shop, the moving serpent door that was the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, and the Hogwarts Castle itself.

I can’t explain how gorgeous Hogwarts is in person. Mind you, it is a 1:24 scale model, but it still engulfed a gigantic two-story room and seemed about as real as can be. I stood there and stared at it for at good twenty minutes. I can’t imagine what it would be like to walk up to the full-sized castle as an eleven year old, right after discovering your wizardlyness, no less. It was hands down one of the prettiest castles I’ve ever seen, real or otherwise.

Okay okay. I could go on for days about the studio and everything in it, but my phone died halfway through so I don’t even have pictures of a lot of things. In fact, I couldnt even take a picute of The Actual Knight Bus. ): Did I mention I spent over six hours there and missed my slot for the world’s longest slide back in London? Oh well.

ALSO. Butterbeer… Gah… So good…….

After hanging out at the British Library for a while back in London, I went to bed because I was positively exhausted. By the time I fell asleep, I’d been awake for thirty hours straight. The jetlag, man. At least I’ve gotten that over with so I can just be normal tired. Stay tuned for London Part Two. Until then.

Venlig hilsen/ Best regards,

Lizzy-wa

September 6, 2016 – Go to sleep. Wake up. Party with. No make up.

September 7, 2016June 30, 2023Posted in Europe, UK + IrelandLeave a comment

So my shindig in Denmark did not go particularly as planned. I landed and was picked up by the wonderfully handsome Jesper. So fun to see him again! He was waving three USA flags at the gate. So stinking cute.

We drove around Copenhagen a bit and I took it all in. So strange to be back! It felt like coming home to a place I never thought I’d see again. I am all smiles. Lots more stuff was under construction, and it was some royal person’s birthday, so the streets, royal buildings, shops, and busses were all adorned with Danish flags. Gotta love their patriotism.

After this, we spent a good several hours talking with 3 (my Danish phone service), T-Mobile, and the fam back in Auburn trying to get my Danish sim card to line up with my new phone. It was not easy, but it finally kicked in. Thank goodness! I need that GPS, yo! I can barely survive as is!

Maria came home, and we ate dinner and caught up a bit before Skyping with Sara who’s working down in Greece (I’ll see you soon!)

Then: commence nineteen hour nap. Yes. NINETEEN HOURS. I tried to be good and went to bed at nine, but I still slept until four in the afternoon! Just like last time! I’m a mess. I would have stayed in bed longer if Maria hadn’t started yelling at me. So much for exploring and reminiscing all day long.

We managed to take a nice walk in the beautiful Danish sunshine to the city center with the little daylight we had left.

Here’s Maria being absolutely FLAWLESS.

You just can’t find perfect little lakes like this anywhere else!!! Gosh I love Birkerød.

Then I took the old bike for a spin. Wow. I just cannot explain how wonderful and peaceful it is to bike in Denmark. The roads are made for cyclists to be safe and comfortable. I couldn’t stop smiling the whole ride. I tried to video tape part of it to show you guys how nice it is, but I managed to turn the camera off with my chest about two seconds after I turned it on. Maybe I’ll invest in a helmet cam next time. Did I mention I was biking in a dress and Keds? Did I mention I love Denmark? Because I was and I do.

After huffing and puffing my way back up the path to our home and nearly crashing into a Danish boy (undskyld!), Maria, Jesper and I drove over to Virum for a buffet on the beach. The food was soooooooooo good, and the sunset was soooooooooo pretty. I was stuffed.

Look at the richness and be jealous.

I’m telling you, this sunset was to die for.

Queue ice cream eating, Danish news, and the first half of Suicide Squad. I had to say goodbye to Maria last night because my flight was leaving so early the next morning (aka now).

So…. then step two of what seems to be my customary European jetlag adjustment cycle: do not fall asleep until at least four in the morning. Unfortunately, I had to leave the house at five to make the train to the airport, so this amounted to a total of Zero Hours of shuteye. I’m a master at this travel thing.

As I was packing, my Danish spider friends made sure to make an appearance. It just wouldn’t be my room without them.

I said goodbye to Jesper at the train station. ): I don’t like goodbyes… Then I waited around for my train. I was early, so I was the only one at the station for a while as it was the first train of the morning.

At the airport, I bought some Capri-Sonne and a stor chokoladebøller to snack on since I was flying a cheap-o airline. I was so good at the chokoladebøller ordering! All in Danish! I understood everything the cashier (adorable Danish boy) said and answered accordingly, but then I had to go and put my card in backwards, so he knew I was a fraud and switched to English. Ugh. I’ll have one more go at it when I come back at the end of my trip! And I’ll pay in cash!

~~
I just realized that I’ve been walking around with my belt hanging around my hips, unfastened, for an undetermined amount of time…
~~

Right. So London, here I come! First stop, Warner Bros. Studios for some butterbeer and photography! Can’t wait. Until next time.

Venlig hilsen/ Best regards/ Pip pip, cheerio,
Lizzy-wa

September 5, 2016 – The Most Romantic Getaway of My Life (by myself)

August 27, 2016June 30, 2023Posted in EuropeLeave a comment

This is my stand-in boyfriend for the next couple of weeks. His name is Mr. Robot Man. I’ll spare you the mushy gushy, partly because that stuff should be kept private, and partly because it would surely make The Actual Significant Other extremely jealous.

This is my life for the next twenty days. I have panties and a book, so I think I should be good to go. All other items are luxuries.

For those of you wondering, Mom, I’m not studying abroad again (unfortunately.) No, no, no. This trip is just for me. The second I accepted my second-time position as an HP intern, I began planning a second epic adventure (second second second). I figure there just won’t be many opportunities left in my life to take a three week vacation on a whim and be able to (sort of) afford the bill. This isn’t Denmark, after all.

My trip will be a wild one. I’m never in any place for more than two nights. The To-Do List:

Copenhagen/ Birkerød
London/ Cambridge
Edinburgh
Dublin
Lisbon
Porto
Milan
Rhodes
Athens
Krakow
Copenhagen

Phew. Why? Why do I do this to myself? Why did I limit myself to eleven distinct areas?! (Just kidding.) I’m a mad woman I tell ya, a mad woman. But Mr. Robot Man accepts me flaws and all.

To prepare, I have brushed up on my Danish (hej!), my French (salut!), and my Portuguese (oi!). What sucks is that I’m not actually going any place where people speak French… Poor planning on that end. I also need to start practicing my British accent; I guess that’s what the plane ride is for.

As much as I really do want to blog every minute of every day and give you a play-by-play of my adventures, Mom, I’m going to try something different. I’m thinking of doing an Instagram-like blog thingamaroo. Photos and captions. That is the plan, Stan. We’ll see how long it lasts. The rest can come later. A girl’s gotta sleep, after all!

Speaking of sleep: I want to do that real bad right about now. I just got off a ten hour flight and am halfway through my 3.5 hour layover in Frankfurt before continuing on to Copenhagen. (Eep!)

I sat in the middle of my row because I forgot to do early check-in, so I couldn’t lean on the window. The head bobbing was a real problem. On the bright side, I got two glasses of wine, apple juice, dinner, breakfast, tiramisu, pretzels, and a wonderful blanket. Seriously, Lufthansa is where it’s at. Three movies later and here we are! Well, here I am. Because I am alone. *sigh.

Alrighty. I’ll be reunited with two thirds of my host family very shortly and cannot wait! Is this really happening? Someone needs to pinch me. (But again, I’m alone, so I guess I’ll just have to pinch myself.)

I think that’s all for now. Until next time,

Venlig hilsen/ Freundlichen Grüßen / Best regards,

Lizzy-wa

December 13, 2015- Homeward Bound

December 13, 2015June 30, 2023Posted in Denmark, EuropeLeave a comment

Halfway there, in a matter of speaking! I’m currently sitting on a cold wooden bench in the Frankfurt airport, snacking on the free chocolate croissant I got on the way here. My flight to seattle boards in 1.5 hours!

This is honestly pretty surreal, because the flight here was just like any of the others I’ve taken around Europe this semester. The only difference was that I had to check my bags beforehand (and pay 660 kroner for the second one). Then it was smooooth sailing. I now consider myself a frequent flyer, though since I’ve been airline hopping, I’m not yet allowed into any of the pretty Senator Lounges.

I got a nice round two ish hours of sleep last night once I had finished packing for today. The whole Jensen family woke up at four am and drove me to the airport. BUT BEFOREHAND: Jesper came to get my bags and check on my empty room, and he noticed the house key I had left sitting on the dresser. This is what followed:

Jesper: This is for you. (holds out key in palm)

Me: What? (utterly befuddled)

Jesper: It’s a gift!

Me: … What? (still befuddled)

Jesper: A symbolic gift.

Me: (finally understanding) Oooh, really? Are you sure? (takes key)

Jesper: Of course. (pats shoulder) You are always welcome here.

I then proceeded to swallow my tears and thank him in a reasonable manner that did not involve the flinging of arms around horrendously tall shoulders and sobbing, much as I would have liked.

My dark, depressing, empty room

At the airport, I pretended I was Danish a few more times, and then it was time to leave my wonderful vaertsfamilie. They have been so unbelievably welcoming and have played a huge role in my study abroad experience. They brought me in right away, and then they brought in Jackson, too. I could not ever possibly thank them enough. (I’LL BE BACK.)

I kept most of the tears at bay until I ascended the Departures escalator, even though I had previously convinced myself I would not cry. Whatcha gonna do?

The Lufthansa flight was nice, but I chose the wrong side of the plane!!! In all my tiredness while choosing seats, my brain reasoned that, following the traditional orientation of a compass, East = Right and West = Left. Therefore, since I wanted a view of the sunrise (rises in the east, sets in the west), I chose my seat on the right side of the plane. We were flying south of course, so all of my reasoning was backwards. I had a view of some murky blueish mush while the Left Side had their sights on one of the most gorgeous sunrises I’ve ever seen. All reds and oranges. Gah. Oh well! Maybe I picked the right (as in correct) side for my longer flight to Seattle. At least I know I have a window seat!

Okay. I really can’t think of much else to say. I’m just tired and sad and excited and hungry and tired and broke all at the same time. Emotions, man.

Well. If you’re reading this from Washington State or Trondheim, Norway, I’ll probably see you soon. If not, I’ll try to make it happen again someday. I love you all!!!! Thank you so much for following my adventures on my biggest journey yet (and for living vicariously through me if your name is Mom). Sorry I never did a Paris post. I never got all my pictures off of Jackson’s computer. Something might appear later, just for my own sake, since this is kind of acting as an electronic scrapbook for me, if you haven’t noticed. Wow that was a lot of commas.

Okay… I guess this is it! So anticlimactic! I feel like I need to hug you goodbye or something…. But since I can’t,

Venlig hilsen/ best regards,

Lizzy-wa OUT! ;D

December 12, 2015 – Lukas Graham is The Man

December 12, 2015June 30, 2023Posted in Denmark, EuropeLeave a comment

LAST NIGHT HERE. I AM DYING. NO. WAIT. I AM ALREADY DEAD. THIS CAN’T BE REAL LIFE. PLEASE PINCH ME. OR LET ME STAY. OR SOMETHING!!!!!?!?!

Sorry, Mom. This is a dramatic time for me. My fairy tale is about to come to an end, and I will be catapulted back to the world where frugality matters and the only foreign languages I hear are Chinese and Korean. Also, I’ll have to re-teach myself math that goes beyond the conversion of kroner to dollars. (I just found my calculator at the back of a drawer while packing yesterday. Can you believe I brought that thing? Silly.)

If nothing else, at least this week has been one for the books (my scrapbook in particular, whose every page is full and whose spine has been dismantled).

Monday: What did I even do on Monday? That was practically a lifetime ago… Oh, right! I went into town to listen to some fellow Creative Travel Writing students present their work. It was quite entertaining, and terrible and cheap champagne was provided. I bought a Danish afterwards:

Oops! Forgot I’m not supposed to call them that! Tehe.

Also took a last couple looks at the Ferris Wheel in Gammel Torv next to DIS:

Tuesday: Louisiana trip number two in the span of a week. (Tonia and Mikayla invited me to go, yet again, yesterday, but I had to decline because a person can only look at so many polka dots before they start to go crazy. (Take the artist herself, for example…) This time was with Tessa and Phoebe!

On my way to the museum ^

Found this little guy, too. Almost bought him. Can you blame me?

Giant polka-pumpkin

Cue polka music:

Wow. You may rest now.

I hadn’t realized the museum was right next to the ocean, but this hipster diver-turned-artist certainly did.

Afterwards, we headed to the tantalizing Louisiana Cafe, where I successfully chatted and ordered some smørrebrød med laks, in Danish, of course! Gosh, I will miss this wonderful language! Plus, they sure do know how to pile their salmon high. Nothing wrong with that.

When I got home, Jesper and I went Christmas tree hunting and chased down this beauty:

Wednesday was another solo adventure day for me once I had finished my Sustainable Development final. I started with a trip to Tivoli:

Doesn’t this giant wooden reindeer make you think of the Trojan Horse?

I only went in, of course, because I was nearby and needed some pretty scenery to enjoy whilst enjoying one of my last stor chokoladeboller from Lagkagehuset.

Then I made my way over in search of a castle and a zoo, but I found this beautiful park first:

This was one of the entrances to the crypts, but they close during the winter months, so I couldn’t check them out.

Okay. This is technically where the castle was supposed to be, but I had seen pictures before and it just looked wrong somehow. Slightly distorted and even curved a little bit maybe? Turns out, it was the backside! And it is indeed curved!

Spotting one of my last grey-and-black patterned crows, which are about a million times prettier than the nasty things you find flying around Washington

A grotto- it was pretty creepy inside, with a bunch of ancient-looking statues and a very tomb-like vibe.

AND THEN I FOUND THE ZOO. (And some Santas.) I was supposed to be looking at elephants, but zebras, giraffes, and gazelles suit me fine, as well. (I tried to tell my mom about it, all excited, and she started telling me all about this crazy stuff they’ve done here…. At least I didn’t pay admission. (Note: don’t click link if queasy.)

I made my way around the entire park, because the sun had made a surprise appearance just for me after laying dormant for weeks. I eventually found some camels (?!?!):

And then some flamingos (?!??!?!!?):

They’re way in the distance there. The super bright hot-pink-red dots. These little fellas were not the “flamingo” pink I’ve come to know from their plastic relatives. It was amazing. Afterwards, I found a casual temple on the side of the path:

Finally, I found the correct park:

This place was gorgeous beyond gorgeous, and the icy sun made everything that much better. I honestly couldn’t believe anything that was happening. It was like I was walking through a story book all day long, and everything kept getting better and better. For example, I FOUND THE ELEPHANTS:

There were two females and one male, tusks and all. His tusks were so long that the ends had to be cut down a little bit because they were clashing with each other. I kid you not. I watched these elephants for half an hour. The smallest one tried to balance a ball on her head for about ten minutes and would rock side-to-side to match it when it would fall and swing on its chain. When I finally tried to leave, I ended up finding an even better viewpoint farther up the path and had to watch again. The male was doing this strange walking ritual over and over and over again, facing the glass where viewers inside the zoo would stand. I could not figure out what he was doing!

I walked through the park for about an hour afterwards.

LOOK AT ALL THE BIRDS. I tried to count, but there were just too many. Geese, ducks, seagulls, cranes, pigeons, crows, you name it. Birds just make me happy, man.

I believe those three birds in the back are white peacocks with their feathers trimmed, because they have the exact same shape and the funny little feathers on their heads, but when they fanned out their tail feathers, it only looked like this:

I really was in heaven, though:

And I found the front side of the castle, Fredericksberg Slot, waving its Danish flag tall and proud:

Oh. There was also the Bird Man:

He had a whole bag of some sort of grain or seed, and these seagulls were bombarding him. At the moment this shot was taken, three were fighting over the coveted seat on top of his hat. Every time he would shoo one away, a different one would take its place, just standing up there like the man was a statue. How great is Copenhagen?

One last nature picture…

And a view of the castle from afar…

And that fancy landscape design that is only found in the royal parks of Europe.

Next step, bus stop. Finally time to call it a day, right? Wrong. Because I found ice skaters and yet another park, both of which begged for my admiration and attention!

The park was called Haveselskabets Have, and it was a narrow little maze of small, intricately designed spaces.

I’m going to miss this lovely orange color that you find everywhere in Copenhagen, though you can only really appreciate its richness when the sun its it just right.

Yes. Those are my boots. My socks were soaked and dark brown by the time I got them back on. All for art!

Once I reluctantly made it onto the bus, I met with Erin from the Iceland Gang for one last cup of coffee (so many ‘lasts’…), and we caught up a bit and did some Christmas shopping.

When we said goodbye, I ran (literally) to the Glyptotek art museum to try to catch a glimpse of some French Impressionism before it closed at five, but when I got in there and asked for a free ticket, out of breath, the man behind the counter told me in a very bored and confused tone that the Glyptotek was free on Tuesdays, not Wednesdays… I slumped forward in despair, totally distraught that my as yet perfect day had come to such a disappointing and anticlimactic end. I regathered my things from the locker room and trudged my way to the train station, which just so happens to be right next to Tivoli, so….

I went in, of course. Gotta use that season pass! Plus, they do a big light show over the lake every hour on the hour, and Jackson and I kept missing it while we were there. Thank goodness for my detour, because the show was spectacular!

There was smoke, lights, fountains, fire, and lasers, and it was all set to the main themes and story line of the Nutcracker. So Christmas-y. I love it.

Last thing for Wednesday, I promise. I was starving when I walked into the station, and those 7-11 croissants had been begging to be eaten all semester, so I gave it a go.

Not bad, but I’ve had better. At least now I know!

Thursday was a bit more mellow, due to the fact that I spent most of it indoors writing my ten-page paper for Royalty in the Land of Equality. In fact, I didn’t actually go outside at all, and I don’t think I even put on pants all day. Awkward.

Friday was another slow one, filled with yet more writing (and finishing!) of that pesky essay and packing. I did manage to pop over to Mikayla’s house for some home-cooked enchiladas and a nice goodbye-slash-feel sorry for ourselves session with Tonia. Yum/ boo.

I did go into town to turn in the hard copy of my essay, though, and I did another adventure!

This is the inside of “Copenhagen’s Cathedral,” which I didn’t know about until I read a little walking tour how-to article from 1969 whilst researching about the royal family for my paper. What I didn’t know was that the cathedral was the gigantic building I walk by on my way to class five times a week. I had been wondering all semester what lay inside this thing, and the door happened to be open, so in I wandered, and BOOM. Cathedral. Plus a practicing choir that sounded inhuman. It was mesmerizing, and I watched until they left! (I also had heard about the supposed “Church of Our Lady” that I just had to see (can’t remember who told me that), but I had never gotten around to looking it up! Everything came together at the end, though.

I turned in my paper, bought some last-minute souvenirs and some freshly roasted caramel almonds, got another peek at the Ferris wheel, and scurried back home for dinner.

Today, I dragged Maria and Mikayla out of bed around 8:30 so we could adventure in the city one last time. First we got some hot chocolate, but I forgot to take a picture because it was in a to-go cup, which I have become very opposed to since experiencing the wonders of The Cafe Mug for Here.

And then… Dun, dah-dah-DUUUUUUN. I finally got to do a canal tour!!! And just in time, too. The weather was positively perfect :crisp, cool, and blue. I even broke out my sunglasses for the first time since Paris.

Woah. I have no idea how that happened, but I like it… Okay so from left to right and down: Nyhavn, the Playhouse (theatre), the Opera House, the backside of the Little Mermaid (haven’t seen that one before, have you?), some canals, the spiral tower of Church of Our Saviour (more on that in a bit!), the Black Diamond (Royal Library), some canoers in Santa hats who followed us half the time going under a tunnel, and the Borse (old stock exchange). Wow. That was fast.

When the canal tour was finished, we went and climbed Our Savior’s Church’s famous spiral tower! I’ve been trying to get up there for four months, and every time something has gotten in the way. But not today, my last day!

Wow. This feature is actually super nice. Okay, here we go: map of the view, some roads, some canals and the shadow of the tower itself, a bunch of really important buildings including Christiansborg Slot and the Borse, buildings, roads, wind turbines in the distance, and the spiral staircase.

Woo! So cool! But here are my favorites:

Love the golden gates.

The very last steps. Those designers weren’t messing around, and I made sure to squeeze up there and make it all the way to the top!

Here’s the church from ground level.

We climbed down, I said goodbye to Mikayla, and then it was time for my first ever julefrokost (Christmas lunch) with Scan|Design! So much food was had. And so much of the alcohols.

When I first arrived, all that was on the table was a few giant pitchers of Carlsberg beer. I poured myself a small glass to be adventurous, but it actually wasn’t that bad! Then our little old waiter went around the table and poured each of us a shot of schnapps, which I was not expecting. The Danes proceeded to sing some loud and boisterous “schnapps chant” before taking their shots. I sipped mine. This ritual occurred five more times throughout the feast, and by the end of the lunch, sip-by-sip, I had managed to polish off my first shot glass. Go me! The waiter reappeared during dessert to ask, “Brandy or Bailey’s?” (I took the Bailey’s, and I finished that, too! Not even buzzed because of all the food in my tummy!)

Here was the first course, which consisted of several fish dishes, traditional pickled herring, and eel. I stuck to the salmon.

Here’s the gang! We also had a meat course which consisted of duck (yum!), frikadeller (meatballs), and roast pork.

Dessert was my longed-for ris ala mande, a traditional Danish cinnamon and almond rice pudding topped with warm cherry sauce. SOOOO GOOODDDD…. But I was so full. It was hard to appreciate it. But I did.

Anyway. THANK YOU SO MUCH, SCAN|DESIGN, for providing me with such wonderful cultural excursions, friends, and connections in Denmark! I am forever grateful!

I rode the silent car of the train home for the last time:

And we rounded off my stay in the Jensen household with some pulled pork wraps for dinner. It was my idea, since that was the very first dinner I had here, the day I landed in Denmark! Couldn’t be more happy with my wonderful Danish family. Gah. I love them so much. I will miss doing dishes with Sara and soaking her with water as I fling the salad-rinser around until it is dry. I will miss Jesper’s “HE-LLO!”s every time he comes in the door and his “GOOD MO-RNING!”s every time I emerge from my room. I will miss Maria’s ridiculously on-point dancing and singing to Beyonce, Justin Beiber, and Lukas Graham. I will miss all of this! Don’t make me leave, guys!!!

Just kidding. I’m excited to see my Mama and my puppy, and I can’t wait to crash in my sister’s dorm room like she has crashed in mine so many times before. Won’t that be something? (Not Europe, but something.)

And speaking of Lukas Graham, you should go listen to him, because he is Danish and wonderful and he grew up in Christiania!!! My man! He also just performed on Conan the other night. Making it to the big leagues. SO PROUD. EVEN THOUGH I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING. But I am now Danish, and we take pride in the accomplishments of other Danes, no matter how small. (Did you know LEGOs are Danish?!)

Okay. Sorry for the ridiculously long posts lately. I am just too lazy to break it up because it gets so confusing sometimes. At least you won’t have to read anymore of these pretty soon!!!!! ): ): ):

Right. I need to shower and pack because it is 11:30 and I need to wake up at three for my flight home tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Goodnight/ Godnat,

Venlig hilsen/ best regards,

Lizzy-wa

December 11, 2015 – Bikes, Art, and Chocolate

December 12, 2015June 30, 2023Posted in Denmark, EuropeLeave a comment

(Can you find me in the “i amsterdam” letters?)

This is it, folks. The final stretch. The final hours. I’ll be home on Sunday, and I will most likely be in shock. Do not be alarmed if when I see you again I do not remember your face. It will come with time.

What may never come is the full realization of all I have DONE this past semester. For one, I’ve completed my first college semester! That’s exciting, since UW is technically on the quarter system. Wow.

But enough of that. I don’t have the energy to dwell on my quickly dwindling time abroad. I’ll just tell you about the Netherlands instead, to further procrastinate on the three papers I have due within the next few days. (UPDATE: I started writing this a few days ago, and I am now completely done with all papers and all schoolwork for the semester! My books are returned and my compendiums are all lovingly stowed in the recycling pile.)

I landed on Friday night after sleeping through most of my public transportation for the day: the bus, the train, the metro, the plane. I was exhausted. But that didn’t stop us from walking the smelly streets of Amsterdam in the dark. All we really did that first night was look at tourist shops (because despite what people say about “tourist traps” and “tacky souvenirs,” I think these types of things are an interesting part of a trip, especially since, you know…. we are tourists), and eat fresh Belgian fries out of a paper cone, because the Dutch and the Belgians tend to be a bit fuzzy on which country they actually live in.

Beautiful view from my window seat, after Brian finally showed me how to choose seats during check-in!

I know it’s hard to see, but all those little lines are canals as we came in for landing in the Netherlands. I’m not kidding. There is more water than road. I was staring and craning my neck for the longest time trying to figure out if what I was seeing was asphalt or water in between all these crop fields, and of course it turned out to be water, because the Dutch are crazy and refuse to accept that they are soon to become the next Atlantis.

Cool lighting artwork in the airport

It wasn’t until I landed that I realized I had no idea what was actually IN Amsterdam. I was just going because that had been one of Jackson’s and my To-Do cities. Thank goodness Mom got carried away on Google and practically gave me a step-by-step guide to Amsterdam over Viber.

I knew there would be bikes

Even hip, rusty bikes that may or may not be some form of art piece

I did not know there would be vending machine restaurants

Or cheese shops on every corner (WOW. I just tried to spell that “quarner.” What is wrong with me?!)

Christmas decorations! (The next day, we actually saw a bunch of Dutch teens in “black face” dressed as Santa’s elves because of their history of slaves playing the part of the elves……….. A little awk…)

More bikes

And yet more bikes. I’m not sure that I actually saw more bike RIDERS in Amsterdam compared to Copenhagen, but I definitely saw a lot more parked bikes. Not sure what that’s about, or how often some of those bikes get used!

One of the cutest little Dutch benches ever (aside from THE The Fault In Our Stars bench- more on that later)

On a side note, I’m currently writing this from the ‘silent car’ of the train, where you are not allowed to talk and there’s a little sign of a man shushing everybody on every window. However, I don’t think it’s ever been quite as silent as it is tonight, despite it being half full. It feels like I am in the Suzallo reading room of train cars. I am supposed to be working on an essay, but I’m afraid my little portable keyboard clicks will be too loud. I can even hear that the lady across from me needs to blow her nose: the snot vibrates a little every time she inhales, and it echoes throughout the car. Should I give her a tissue?

Kay, back to Amsterdam. I wanted to stay and go swing dancing, but the dance didn’t start until 9:30 (So late! Haha I’m not used to doing things late at night any more. I wonder if that will change once I get back to Seattle, because if it doesn’t, I won’t be doing much dancing!) and we finished our exploring by 7:30. We ended up just training it back to Leiden, where the beautiful and wonderful siblings Koen and Iris lent us free living quarters!!!! THANK SO MUCH KOEN, EVEN THOUGH WE SORT OF STOOD YOU UP FOR COFFEE IN NORWAY, AND THANK SO MUCH IRIS, EVEN THOUGH I STILL HAVEN’T MET YOU.

The place was adorable, there was a bathtub (I used it. Couldn’t wait another week.), and the stairs were only semi-dangerously steep. (Jackson fell down them on Sunday morning, but nothing was broken or bleeding, so I consider that ‘safe enough.’)

Saturday, I slept until eleven, as is customary. Then, off to Leiden’s town centre went we! The shopping street was dizzyingly long and lit with strings of lights. We found lots of licorice, because they like that sort of thing in Northern Europe. And we found this strange man who drove this electronic, musical puppet cart around, and every few feet he stopped to let it play a song, all the while shaking a tiny tambourine, before continuing on. It reminded me of the scene where Shrek and Donkey arrive in Farquad’s town.

Wow. Just got off the silent train, and I’m taken aback yet again by how many stars there are here. I don’t know what it is. The not-so-tall trees? The not-so-tall houses? The lack of mountains? It’s not like the street and house lights are lacking, but I guess they might be a bit dimmer, and the street lamps are definitely a bit shorter. Whatever the cause, the night sky in Birkerød is huge and impressive. I usually have no trouble picking out a few constellations on my walk home. I’ll definitely miss this.

Right. Leiden. Man, Jackson and I are the Cafe Couple, let me tell you. He suggested I compile a collage of all the hot chocolate pictures I’ve taken this semester, and if I follow through, I think it will be quite sizeable.

We hopped into the the first cafe we saw, it being nearly noon, the apartment being out of milk, and both of us starving. No regrets.

That thing in front of Jackson is “sort of a sandwich,” to quote our waitress. More like a curry stir fry dumped onto a giant piece of bread, with a second slice thrown on top as an afterthought. Pro: it was delicious, as was the soup I’ve been craving for four months.

Windmills!

More windmills! Some of them were even moving, unlike the decorative bunch you normally find in old parts of town. As you can see, the clouds were threatening us all day, but we managed to stay pleasantly cool and dry.

A memorial to Rembrandt (three different mediums to depict the same old chum!)

And speaking of chums, here’s me getting chummy with him… Tehe

Canals

Chocolate hedgehogs… Too cute to eat!

I got really excited when I saw these because I thought it said “Sally Square,” which is very similar to one of my nicknames, “Sally Squared.” Jackson kindly pointed out that the first word is actually “Salty,” which makes a lot more sense with relation to chocolate.

This, my dear reader(s?), is the licorice section of the biggest candy shop in Leiden. My silly mother asked me to bring her back some licorice, but it was just so hard to choose!!! (YUCK.)

What she should have asked for was a stroopwaffle or two, a delicious Dutch cookie-waffle-caramel hybrid that crunches and smunches and oozes and ugh. So good. I’ve had the packaged kind in Copenhagen, but we tried our hand at some fresh ones in the town center at a stroopwaffle truck. No regrets.

More pretty canals

More canals!!!!?!?!!?! It was getting dark by the time we made it back indoors.

For dinner, we wandered into a little burger cafe. It seemed classy though, and as we walked in and saw two tiny, blonde, pony-tailed women sharing a salad in the middle of the room, the only inhabitants of the place, I could tell something was off. One of them stood and greeted us: she was the cashier, cook, and apparently the owner. The store had only opened three weeks ago! This should be fun, I thought.

It was called Mix & Fix, and from the menus plastered to the windows outside, we had gathered that we got to choose the toppings, dressings, and burger, which would be assembled before us. (The menu was in Dutch, of course, so we failed to recognize what exactly the ingredients were.) We clarified this with the woman, and Jackson rounded it off with, ‘So first, I guess we just choose the meat?’ I had realized a few seconds before, when she had mentioned that they were ‘out of the zucchini burger’ that there would be no choices in meat.

There was an awkward air as she explained there was no meat, but she didn’t have the English vocabulary to say, ‘This is a vegan restaurant.’ Somewhere around here, I noticed the little sign reading ‘Healthy Hot Chocolate, 3€!’

The lady at the table behind us, who had watched this interaction take place, informed us that the quinoa burger had been featured in the newspaper the week before. That sealed the deal for us, confused and shameful as we were for mistaking the place for a juicy gourmet burger joint.

It all turned out well, though. The burger was delicious, and we plan to try to recreate it when we get back to Seattle! We brought it back home so as not to further disturb the tiny Dutch women, and we rounded it off with a bottle of sparkling cider.

Sunday = Amsterdam Funday.

That tall archaic-looking building in the distance is what Jackson called the “Dutch Notre Dame.” Pretty sure there’s no such thing, but we didn’t have enough time to check it out and confirm/ disprove his theory.

Cute little truck, just my size

Some bikes and some neon string-art over a canal. (At one point we found a bike parked vertically on a bridge, but hanging over the water instead of on the street-side of the barrier. So strange.)

I love this shot. I wanted it to be the main photo for this post, but I just love the Amsterdam letters. Struggles.

First on the list for the day was the Anne Frank house.

The view from the street the Frank family lived on

A tower nearby

Pictures weren’t allowed in the house and museum, so this is one of the only things I managed to snap: just one of the many flights of steep, steep stairs.

The experience was very moving and educational. I have mostly avoided the story of Anne Frank because when I was younger, especially around her age during her diary writings, I thought it was extremely intrusive of her privacy that millions of people around the world poured over her innermost thoughts without her knowledge. I was personally offended on her behalf when a few of the boys in my eighth grade class read her diary as part of a book group. However, after seeing the museum, my views have changed. I learned that she had dreams of becoming a famous writer, and she even wanted to publish a book about her time in the Annex. I suppose it is quite a miracle that her dreams came true even after her death. I may try to read her book after all, which aside from her diary, includes some short stories and parts of the novel she had started.

I teared up once, when we were in her tiny bedroom that she shared with a grown man, and I read this quote of hers on the wall: “I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young and know that I’m free,” which she wrote on a Christmas Eve while trapped in the Annex.

Then we found this Cow Museum, and I really wanted to get one for my Aunt Mel, who has a slight cow obsession, but they weren’t open yet!

Some Liberties? Is this signifying the end of freedom?

Pretty bridges, AKA: the view from The Bench.

NOT The Bench

Across the water from The Bench

Living out our little infinity <3

For comparison. It’s the real place! (We’re nerds, by the way. I pre-ordered TFIOS over six months before it was released. #DFTBA)

After this little adventure, we made our way haphazardly to a burger joint, and all went downhill from there.

The meal started off nice with another delicious hot chocolate

And our burger arrived. Still in the clear. But after I cut the burger in half, gave Jackson his half, and took my first bite, I found myself magically and inexplicably coated in the aforementioned chocolate, which was thankfully no longer hot. I’m not sure how it happened, but Jackson managed to ultimately throw the entire glass on top of me, my food, and all of my possessions. The longer I watched it, the farther it reached, until I had to stand up to avoid its path. One of the servers ran over with a roll of paper towels, and I had to run to the bathroom to wash out my phone, my shirt, my skirt, and my boots. By the time I got back to the table, the mess had been cleaned and our hot chocolate had been replaced. Apparently Jackson had said, “You trust me with another one?” to which the waiter replied, “Just keep it away from her.” HOW DARE HE ASSUME. Gah. Men.

Some street art

Next, we made our way to the Van Gogh Museum, which was basically the only activity Jackson was interested in.

The ice rink outside the Van Gogh Museum. The entire top layer was water, so it looked like they were all skating on a pond rather than a frozen sheet of ice, and half of the skaters were pushing around these classy, green wooden chairs.

“I amsterdam”

Jackson = way too excited about Van Gogh

Pictures weren’t allowed inside the exhibits, but they were really neat! I actually preferred the small set-up in Musee d’Orsay, but I think that is because the works there were really concentrated on his later, Impressionistic works, while the Van Gogh Museum had a lot of his earlier (and less-expressive) works.

Then it was time to make our sad journey back to the train station….

Here’s that crazy bike parking I was talking about

This one’s for you, Mom. Me and Johnny. It took about ten minutes to get this picture taken without me laughing.

Giant wooden shoes!

One last canal

“The best cookie in Amsterdam.” It was the only cookie we had while we were there, besides the stroopwaffles, but it was indeed delicious. Three types of chocolate, and stuffed with more chocolate. Can’t go wrong there! As far as I could tell, these bad boys were the only thing that bakery made!

We finally made it to the airport, where Jackson said goodbye (twice, because I went to the wrong security check the first time), and we parted ways until he comes home from Trondheim

Another strange airport restroom sink

I finally got around to flipping through Norwegian’s in-flight magazine, and it made me sad I hadn’t sooner! So many quirky stories and activities to do in Europe that I’ll have to wait for, now! But check out this hilarious little picto-graphic. Denmark is the tiny little blip on the far left. So flat! Can’t wait to see Mt. Rainier on my ride home in a couple days!

The lights of Copenhagen as we came in for landing

Alright. That was the Netherlands. Lots of fun, lots of food, lots of walking, much like my other trips abroad. I’LL MISS IT SO MUCH. I’m currently sitting amidst all of my packing paraphernalia, trying to figure out how to fit it all and stay under the weight limit. Ugh. I have some last-minute adventures planned tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll have time to write a last blog post or two. See you soon, Mama!!!

Venlig hilsen/ best regards,

Lizzy-wa