Bruxelles

Monday, March 28 – Bus ride to Brussels (or Bruxelles) – prepare to be in my food dreamland! We got there around 1:00 and started walking to begin our search for the list of food we had to eat in 8 hours :) We walked by this big cathedral (St. Catherine’s Cathedral), which was really pretty, but it was black, like it had been burned or had mold on it or something. Then right around the corner, success #1 – fries! My friend Natalie and I split a huge cone of fries – delicious! Then we started walking to the central station, we saw another pretty church (reminded me of Notre Dame), and down the hill from the church was a really pretty park area with flowers and individual wooden lawn chairs that everyone was laying in, soaking up the sun – it was awesome! We were headed towards the Grand Place, but got sidetracked and went into a number of chocolate shops! Success #2 – Belgium chocolate! Ever shop had free samples or a chocolate fountain!!! (I may need to move to Brussels!!) I bought some of the best chocolate I’ve ever had! :D

We finally made it to the Grand Place. It was the big center/square surrounded by huge gothic buildings – very pretty! Unfortunately we were not there during the right time of the year, all of the post cards had picture of what they called the “flower carpet.” The entire square is covered in flowers! They make designs, ahhh it looked unbelievable! I’ll just have to go back sometime so I can see it in person! Then we went and saw the “Manneken-Pis” – a statue of a little boy peeing….not sure why it is so famous, but we saw it anyways. Went into a store and had some Belgium beer (success #3), delicious!! Dinner time = waffle time! (success #4) I had the waffle with strawberries, whipped cream and chocolate drizzle – sooooo good!!! I really think I might have to move to Brussels for the food! :D

             

We walked back to the Grand Place and saw the drunken American girls that had heckled us early to try to get us to come and sit with them, were still there. So, we went and tried the beer sampler. It had 5 different beers, it was very good! So we sat there for a while and hung out with 2 American girls, 2 Brits, and 2 Australians, it was so much fun!

I loved Brussels!! Mostly for the amazing food – chocolate, waffles, beer, and fries = Marie’s a happy, happy girl! There wasn’t a whole lot to see with the little time we had, but it was very cute and the Grand Place was gorgeous!

Tuesday, March 30 – 3 countries in less than 12 hours! First, we went to the European Parliament (of the EU) in Brussels. It was very nice, very modern. First, we had a lecture, interesting facts: there are 23 different languages represented in the 27 countries of the EU, so everything needs to be translated into all 23 languages! They have 3 people translating/language, and as a result, they use really simple words/terms so something doesn’t get lost in translation. And the only places you are prohibited to take photos are in the security check and in the cafeteria, weird. Then we went into the parliament room/seats where they meet. One of my favorite parts was seeing all of the flags of the countries represented in the EU; they were everywhere! Then bus ride to the next country…

Amsterdam

Saturday, March 27 – Drove all day (over 8 hours) from Paris to Amsterdam. Once we arrived, we walked into more of the center part of the city (our hotel was in some sketchy outskirts). We walked through Vondelpark – a big park in the city, it had these huge mansion-like houses lining it on the other side of the trees - it was beautiful, even at night. We found a Thai restaurant (apparently Amsterdam is known for their Thai and Indian food); I had chicken spring rolls, chicken with spicy coconut milk curry sauce, and jasmine white rice – very good! We walked back to the main square where this guy was playing his guitar and singing; he was really good, so we sat and listen to him for a while. While we were there, I noticed this big gray thing in the middle of the square…it was a public urinal! No doors or sinks, just a big circular piece of plastic with little inlets so guys can go to the bathroom whenever they feel like. It was SO weird! Little did I know this was just the beginning of the sites we would see in this strange city…

Sunday, March 28 – Went to the Van Gogh Museum. I really enjoyed it, mostly because it was finally a museum that was not filled with Biblical painting or painting of royalty. It was really fun to see because it was all original painting, so you could see the brush strokes and the clumps of paint. The Almond Blossom Tree was my favorite painting – I loved it!! Then we headed to Anne Frank House. It was beautiful walking along the canals seeing all of the boats and bikes everywhere! We didn’t end up going into the Anne Frank House because the line was really long. So we went and decided to try some Amsterdam beer instead :) We walked through the flea market, then met up with some friends and walked through the Red Light District. Granted it was in the middle of the day, so it wasn’t really busy, but there were definitely women in their windows. It was interesting because we had an entire class discussion (2 ½ hours) about Amsterdam and the Red Light District: watching vs. being watched, if they women “hunt down” the men or the men find the women, and the proper etiquette for “buying” the women. After that experience we went to eat at an Indonesian restaurant.

After dinner we walked around for a while until it got dark and went back to the Red Light District - it was different at night. It’s so weird, they just sit/stand there waiting for men or knocking on the windows to get their attention. There were all kinds of women there, big, small, young, old, dressed “normal” and some more risqué. The other very shocking thing was the people who were walking in the area: men, women, elderly men, couples, police, we even saw some children! So strange.   
 

I decided that Amsterdam is one of the weirdest cities in the world! It has some of the most ethnically diverse food/restaurants (everything from Chinese and Indian food to hamburgers and sauerkraut). Smoking pot (or “dope” as my mother loves to refer to it as) is kind of encouraged. They had advertisements on the bus, like “did you know” posters about interesting facts and benefits of it. The strangest thing though is the juxtapositions it has. You’ll be walking down the street and see a souvenir shop with a pretty postcard of windmills and fields of tulips next to a peep show building next to a coffee shop where everyone is smoking next to a cute little canal next to a torture museum next to the Red Light District next to a street full of neon signs for Lebanese food, Chinese food, etc. next to a sex museum next to a shop selling wooden shoes next to another coffee shop…SOOOOOO weird!

Bike Ramp and parking lot

Amsterdam is really cute during the day with cute cobblestone roads, canals, and bikes galore (even huge parking ramps full of bikes), but at night it is much different. Everyone is smoking and all of the little shops that are cute during the day have big neon signs lit up. All of the people were so nice; they went out of their way to help us. They were all so happy too, I saw more than one person biking along the street by themselves with just a little smirk on their face. I wish we could have seen some of the country side and the windmills, but I still enjoyed it!

Paris

Uff da! 16 days + 12 cities + 9 countries = 1 unbelievable trip! Exhausting, but awesome! I filled up ¼ of my journal…far too much to write, so I’ll be as brief as possible (trust me, you would be reading for days otherwise..you may still be).

Tuesday/Wednesday, March 24 – took the red eye flight from Larnaca to Budapest, then to Paris. We got to Paris around noon, and headed in the center of the city to begin our exploration! While on the metro, all of a sudden this puppet show broke out, accompanied by song and dance...(pictured right). We saw the Egyptian obelisque that was put in the place where King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were killed by the guillotine after the French Revolution. We walked through the park/garden by the Louvre and then down the Champs-Elysées to the Arc de Triumph! It was huge, much bigger than I thought it would be!

We then walked to the Eiffel Tower. There was only 1 working elevator…and the line was almost the entire length of the tower! So we decided to WALK up the Eiffel Tower…700-800 some steps! (My giant legs from Nordic skiing paid off!) Who says Americans are lazy (except we did sit on the ground while we were waiting to do the ultimate stair master…got some dirty looks, apparently Europeans do not, under any circumstances, sit on the ground - who knew). We walked up and overlooked all of Paris. The sun was just going down, so the entire city was bathed in golden yellow – beautiful! We walked back down the stairs…at this point my legs were shaking…literally! While we were waiting for the light show to start we met a nice Moroccan guy who taught us some French (contrary to what I have always heard, all of the Parisians we met were very nice!). The light show came on for 5 min, then we took the metro back and ate a torte at a little café. We were so busy seeing everything that we hadn’t eaten ALL day (except for the airline food), that’s a once in a lifetime thing for me! Day 1 in Paris = great success! :)

Thursday, March 25 – Had the best breakfast ever!!! Crepes, croissants, baguettes, fruit, brie cheese, jam, coffee, cereal, yogurt = Marie’s heaven! :D Then we went to the Louvre. We saw the Winged Victory of Samothrace, Mona Lisa, Coronation Crown of King Louis XV, Wedding Feast painting, Aphrodite statue, the medieval mote that used to surround the Louvre (the Louvre used to be the kings’ palace before King Louis XIV build Versailles), and the Code of Hammurabi (pictured right). The Mona Lisa is so small and not very impressive. Apparently it is so famous because after da Vinci painted it, it was stolen (brought to Italy because they thought it rightfully belonged to Italy because that is where da Vinci was born (I think); however, he had given it to the Louvre). So in order to get it back, they made thousands and thousands of copies to give to people, so they could recognize it and return it to the Louvre. But that is why it is so popular, not because it is an amazing painting by any means, but because of the story behind it and that everyone knew what it looked like. I also really liked the Code of Hammurabi (weird, I know). I had to read the entire code and write a paper on it my freshman year, so it was really cool to see it and see the writing/hieroglyphics (read from top to bottom and right to left). It was the moral code of conduct before the Bible – “an eye for an eye” or “if an adopted child says to his parents, ‘you are not my parents,’ the child’s tongue should be cut off!”

The Louvre

          We then went on St. Germaine’s Street to a little district in Paris – Odeon. It was very cute and quaint with the little shops and cobblestone roads – I loved it! Had my first real crepe with nuetella!! New favorite food! I’m buying a crepe pan thingy when I get home! :D

Back/side of Notre Dame

         We walked to Notre Dame. Once we got up-close to it we could see the gargoyles and the ornate decoration on the arches and all over the church – very pretty! And the inside was gorgeous!! It was HUGE. The ceilings were so tall, and the stained glass was amazing! We walked all the way around it, at this point the sun was shining and the sky was so blue – we were all loving life! :) We walked down by the river, then went into the Sainte Chapelle (after first failing at getting in for free, she believed me that I was under 18, but we didn’t have our “teacher” with us). It was under construction, so I couldn’t actually see the front alter, but it was unbelievable! The entire thing from floor to ceiling was stained glass! Then, off to see the Sacré-Coeur. After hiding in a little café to get away from the torrential downpour, we walked up to see it – so pretty! We walked around up there in Montmartre (another small district/part of Paris). It had little cobblestone roads, restaurants, little shops, artists, and men playing the accordion. This was probably one of my favorite parts of France – the quaint little part in this huge city with the Sacré-Coeur and occasionally you could see the Eiffel Tower. We walked back down (while being serenaded by these guys behind us playing the guitar as we overlooked the city), and had dinner – meat, cheese, bread, and hot wine – delicious! It was a perfect day/night!

Sacré-Coeur

Montamartre

Friday, March 26 = free day in Paris! We took a train to see Versailles; it was HUGE and very ornately decorated. We saw the hall of mirrors (right) - very cool to see because we had just talked about the Treaty of Versailles in my history class – yep, we do have class here, occasionally. We saw the bed that King Louis XIV (I think) slept in and died in and Marie Antoinette’s bed were she bore 19 children…in public…umm…no thank you! All of the beds were like the princes beds with a cover and drapes over the side, except they were square and it was only like 4 feet long. After our tour was done, we went out to see the gardens in back – very pretty! We walked around, and then made our way to Marie Antoinette’s Estate, basically like her little play house. I mean, what else does a queen have to do? Tough life. As we were walking back the sky had changed from the lovely blue and sunny skies to a dark and ominous sky – the entire atmosphere had changed! It was very eerie. Kind of made me remember that it used to be a place where decisions were made that changed the course of history. I can’t really explain it very well, but it was the strangest feeling.

We took the train back to Odeon and had another crepe, this time chocolate – best crepe EVER! While were ordering/eating the little store was blasting music by Pink, and there was this American woman (probably in her 40s-50s) and this Chinese man drunk, dancing and singing to Pink…just the two of them. Hilarious! We later found out that one of my roommates, Charlotte, and another one of our friends went to the catacombs and saw Katie Couric there; they walked around with her and her daughter, talked with her, and took pictures. Cool! They said she was very nice and really funny. Yay for Katie Couric not being a stuck-up snob!

Overall, I liked Paris much more than I thought I would! There is so much to see and do there, and it has a nice combination of big European city and quaint parts hidden in the city. I loved it!

Italia!

Tuesday we woke up at the crack of dawn to catch our flight to ITALIA! It was so lush and green – I felt like it was the first time I had seen grass; I didn’t know I could miss grass. It was freezing and raining though – but it provided some excellent entertainment. For our 1-week Greco-Roman adventure our program director, Constantia, had brought a big suitcase, a carry-on suitcase with wheels, and a big purse, bought 4 bags worth of stuff at the airport in Cyprus, and another 4 our first 3 hours in Athens. So we get all of our baggage and walk out into the rain to try to find our bus. Meanwhile Constantia’s boyfriend is rolling her big suitcase, her little suitcase, all of her shopping bags, and carrying the umbrella over her head while we walk in the rain as she is carrying her purse and a folder with some information in it…dressed in stilettos and wearing her normal, crazy wardrobe consisting of a combination of 80s and gaga…never a dull moment! We got to our really nice hotel, had some Italian cuisine from a little bakery around the corner (calzone type thing and canoli – delicious!), and took the metro to the Colosseum to start our 3 hour walking tour of Roma. (While we were waiting for our tour guide we were standing in the metro station and all of a sudden we see this gladiator, in full gladiator garb buying coffee…haha crazy!)

          Despite being freezing and wet for 3 hours, I LOVED Rome! I loved how all of the ancient Roman ruins were intertwined with the modern city. We saw Mussolini’s headquarters and then walked through the Roman Forum (right). It was built in the 4th century AD, but they excavated it fairly recently. It was very well preserved and impressive; it wasn’t just 1 or 2 ruins, it was big and had basilicas, courthouses, etc. We walked on the same stones that the Romans used for their roads and even got to see where Julius Caesar was cremated. Then we walked through a mall that was inside an old Roman building/mansion and then to the Pantheon – it was HUGE! It has all marble floors and paintings up the walls. Also, the dome has a whole in the top of it, so we got to see it rain into the Pantheon. Next, we walked to the Trevi Fountain. It was so pretty and the water was SO blue - gorgeous! We threw our coins in and made a wish! Finally, we went to the Spanish Steps, which are actually translated as the Trinity Steps. For dinner a big group of us went to a little Italian restaurant and had brushetta and pizza! Num!! :)

Wednesday = tour of the Colosseum! Actually used to be called the Flavin Auditorium, built between 62-70 AD, and they estimate that it seated 40,000-70,000! It was AWESOME!! She explained the gladiators/games and pictures of what they think it used to look like (even more impressive!). The entire Colosseum used to be covered in marble! But in the 1500s they took everything out and made it into statues. The maze-like thing in the ground is where they used to keep some of the animals, but it was covered by wood and sand during the competition. The top of the Colosseum also used to be covered – they would roll out a canvas over the top so all of the spectators could be in the shade. Another interesting fact – the emperor used to sit where the cross is now placed (closest spot to the floor); he used to display crucifixes of dead Christians as an example to the rest of the citizens. So they put the cross there many years later to commemorate the Christian martyrs. The whole time I was in awe at the Colosseum!!

          We continued this captivating day and went to the Vatican museum. It was HUGE!! There was room after room after room after hallway after room after building after room covered from floor to ceiling (including the floor and ceiling) of beautiful paintings, sculptures, mosaics, gold, everything. It is indescribable. It took us almost 2 hours to actually get to the Sistine Chapel and we didn’t even stop very often. The Sistine Chapel was beautiful! Smaller than I expected, and the paintings were somewhat similar to much of the other rooms we had seen, but nonetheless very impressive!

Then we went to St. Peter’s Basilica – AMAZING!! It was HUGE and so pristine. The outside was also very impressive, it also helped that it finally was sunny!! The entire day was perfect! :)

          We had an early dinner (gnocchi) and awesome gelato! Then we did a pub crawl…well sort of. We were so exhausted from the past 4 days of traveling that we went home very early, but not before we made some friends with some other Americans in Rome and got our t-shirts “I came, I saw, I crawled”! Long story short, Rome was my favorite city!! Even through the freezing cold rain; it was amazing!

Thursday…long, long, long bus ride to Florence via Pisa. We stopped to see the leaning tower of Pisa, which was semi-cool for about 45 seconds. Then we left the touristy area of Pisa (very weird combination of excessive tourist shops, some cafés, and locals playing soccer) and sat in a gas station café thing for an HOUR to eat lunch. Needless to say this was definitely the worse part of the trip. Got to Florence at about 6 PM and went to see a replica of the Statue of David and a panoramic view of the city from atop of a mountain/hill – beautiful!

Friday = VENICE (or Venezia)!! After we got stuck in traffic and our bus broke down (and some of the boys pushed it, only a couple feet, but it was entertaining) we finally got to the ferry and then to Venice. We walked around the square a bit and then took a gondola ride through the canals! The sun was finally out, it was so quiet and peaceful – absolutely AMAZING!! There are 60,000 people, over 300 bridges, 160ish canals, and 100 churches. It was really interesting; Venice is a completely normal city, just on water. They have boat buses, a university, post office, ambulances, everything – crazy! Anyways, our gondola man, Egor, explained some of the history of Venice and some buildings while we were in the small canals, then we made it to the Grand Canal…one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen! It was incredible! The colors of the water, the boats, the bridges, all beautiful! We also saw the apartment that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie rent out for 3 months every summer and the plaza that a new movie was being filmed at with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. We also saw where Marco Polo was born and where Casanova escaped from jail. Venice was beautiful, but the gondola ride made me love the city!

Saturday = Florence (or Firenze). We walked around and explored the city. Saw the Duomo (below) – the outside was very intricately designed/painted, but the inside was just a big undecorated church, very plain. Then we had a tour of the Ufizi Art Gallery; it was ok, but it was from the same era and all looked the same. Afterwards we continued to explore, shopped in the flea market, and had the BEST GELATO IN THE WORLD – at Grom!! The line was out the door; it was the best thing I have ever had!!!

Basically, I LOVED Italy! The history, architecture, uniqueness, and of course, the food!!! I legitimately gained 7 pounds in 1 week…definitely worth it! I can’t wait for what the rest of Europe has to offer! :D

Greece! (or Ελλάδα in Greek)

Oh man, where do I begin? The trip was crazy busy and exhausting, but it was AMAZING!!

Saturday afternoon we got to Athens and took a bus to our hotel. The mountains were dotted with white houses with red roofs. After we checked into our hotel we went and explored the city of Athens a bit. We were trying to find a certain restaurant, but ended up getting into a sketchy and dirty part of the town. There were no women on the streets and the atmosphere felt really strange (we later found out that we wandered into a bad part of the city, especially now because of the protests and riots against the government…oops!). Anyways, we finally found a different restaurant; it was really cute with traditional Greek food – stuffed grape/vine leaves, bread and olive oil, slovaki chicken, house wine, and flan – DELICIOUS!! We meandered back to our hotel, had the best baklava of my life!!! And watched Dennis the Menace on tv – we finally were able to watch TV! This first night I did not really like Greece, it seemed like a cleaner version of Egypt; it seemed dirty and not very European, but I assumed it was because of the neighborhood we were in.

Sunday we had a big European breakfast and went to the archeological museum. It was fairly interesting; our tour guide explained that they had found things in Greece that dated back to 15,000BC! We saw a replica of the statue of Athena that used to be in the Parthenon – originally it was 12 meters tall!! It wasn’t as grandiose as the Egyptian museum, but it seemed more symbolic and scholarly.

     Then we took the metro to the Acropolis

(which in ancient Greek meant “The tallest point in the city”). It was built in the 4th century BC as a temple for Athena. It had lots of construction going on when we were there, but I could still see some of the statues/figures carved into the top part. There was a couple other buildings/temples and an amphitheater also at the Acropolis.

    

     Afterwards, in the freezing cold rain, a couple friends and I took the metro to the Olympic Complex from 2004. We couldn’t go into any of the buildings, but we could see the outdoor pool that they used and the velodrome. There was an Athens football game about to start so we couldn’t get anywhere near the Olympic Stadium, but it was cool to see the sea of green. The architecture was also interesting to see. So now I’ve been to 2 Olympic Complexes - Munich and Athens (both in the freezing cold rain/snow).

     We changed out of our sopping wet clothes and went to dinner at a little traditional restaurant (chicken gyro for dinner), and walked around for a while. We could see the Acropolis/Parthenon lit up at night – it was BEAUTIFUL! I liked it more at night than during the day! We walked to this street that was basically like 1 big bar; it was awesome! We sat outside with everyone under these awnings with cool lights, candles, and heat lamps – it was the greatest set up and the atmosphere was awesome! We met some local Greeks and talked to them for a while until we were too tired from our busy day. As we were leaving to catch the metro back to the hotel, we were walking down the little cobblestone street with little shops and houses lining it, Greek music playing, and the lit up Acropolis in front of us – it was unreal!

     We basically mastered the metro this day because we took it everywhere! I was really nice though; it even had some of the ancient Greek statues in it! It was very easy, cheap, and exquisitely clean – not a speck of garbage, they even mopped the floors!

Monday was our free day. We were going to go to the flea market, so we left to take the metro. We stepped outside, and the city of Athens was sepia tone (I did not edit this picture at all)!! I was so bizarre, and it the whole atmosphere felt really weird and eerie. I've never seen anything like it. Anyway, we went to the flea market in the and shopped around. We were walking to take the next metro and realized that everything was covered in mud, cars, streets, umbrellas, everything - it had rained mud!! Some of our friends talked to a Greek man and he said that it does this sometimes in Athens, the mud/sand comes from the Sahara...so strange!

Anyways, we took the metro -> bus -> metro -> port, and took a 1 hour ferry to the Greek island Aegina. It was very pretty – but not like the movies/postcards you see of the Greek islands; no white houses with blue roofs. It was also March, so there weren’t many people there; I think it would be completely different in the summer, much more alive. We walked around the island, touched the water, and played on the playground! We had another traditional Greek dinner and took the last ferry back to Athens. I really enjoyed the island, but wish we could have been there in the summer and for more than 3 hours; by the time we got there, a lot of shops were closing.

The other girls we were with had went to the island before us and met the captain on the way there. So on the way home we all got to go up and meet the captain; he showed us all of the controls and how to drive the huge ferry. He was so nice and let us stay up there the whole ride. It was so cool to be up there watching as we approached Athens all lit up at night! I loved Athens much more after the first day!

Then it was off to Italy...

Mid-terms, haha

Well, I probablly shouldn't laugh, my roommates actually had tests and papers due, so I acutally did some homework too. So productive! But, overall the week wasn't fairly eventful. My friend's mom, Shirley, came to visit, so we showed her around Cyprus and went out to meze again! On Friday we went to karaoke night and hung out with some of the people from the US Embassy! It was so much fun! And on Saturday Alkea took us out!

Sunday night, we were able to go to the bar by our flat and watch the men's gold medal hockey game! I FINALLY got to see the Olympics! It was killing me! But, the other people at the bar were driving me crazy! I usually try to have patience with people when they don't know much about sports, but this was ridiculous. One of the girls on our trip was from Canada, she came in and asked, "What quarter is it?" Then we said, "umm...its the 1st period!" Come on, you're from CANADA! She had no idea. Nor did she know the Canadian National Anthem! What?! I then listened to a girl talk about how hockey players always tear up the ice and how much it sucked when she used to figure skate (when she was like 9) because they couldn't do anything... I will spare you the numerous other stories that I have, but yes, I held my tounge and zoned in on the game. Good job Marie.

That's basically it. The rest of the week was nothing noteworthy. We are just finishing packing for our week-long trip to Italy and Greece!! Except, it is supposed to rain all week - from Sunday-Friday/Saturday :(  But I can't wait! Italy and Greece, here I come! :D