Happy New Year!
I returned to Grenoble the other night to find snow on the ground and a cold bite in the air.. I was home, and it was great! The past 12 days have been amazing and full of new experiences, new places, and new outlooks on life. But it is nice to be back to my cozy little room in my quiet little apartment, with at least 17 more days of vacation ahead of me.
Megs arrived the day before my very last final. It was so good to see her! I met her at the train station, and she talked my ear off the entire way back to my apartment, filling me in on the latest news and gossip from home. We had dinner, and talked for hours and hours. I took my final the next day and the day after that I took her snowboarding in the alps. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. It had been snowing all week, so the mountains were covered in fresh powder, and the blue sky patched over with clouds had the most breathtaking effect on the scenery... It's enough to make one feel like she's sitting on top of the world. Megs taught me a few tricks and before I knew it I was making it down the mountain without falling every 10 feet! It was great :) We snowboarded all day long and by the time we got home we were ready to crash. The next day we were off to Geneva International Airport to catch a flight to Amsterdam.
Amsterdam was everything I imagined it would be and more. The slightest hint of pot hangs in the air, the streets are lined with postcard shops, and there are "coffeeshops" on almost every corner where one can go to sip on a cup of good strong coffee, or go buy a gram or two of pot and sit and smoke it while sipping on your perfect cup of coffee. Perfectly legal. We walked all the way across the city on our first day there, visiting the Rijksmuseum (an art museum housing numerous pieces by Rembrandt) and Van Gogh museum all before lunch. We treated ourself to a self guided tour of the Red Light District that evening, which was interesting. Surprisingly not trashy looking prostitutes selling themselves behind spotless glass windows framed by glowing red lights, men of all ages standing wide eyed, smiling and drooling not far from said windows, and theaters promising live sex shows on every corner... Megs and I didn't spend too much time around there, but had to at least go see what it was all about. The next day was Christmas Eve, which we spent sipping free beers at the Heineken Brewery, learning all about the history of Heineken, and marveling over Willem the barkeep's awesome mustache. We also hit up the Sex Museum (the largest collection of pornographic photos I ever thought I'd see in my life...), the Hash, Hemp and Marijuana museum, ate Oliebollen (marvelous deep fried balls of fluff covered in powdered sugar), and sat in a huge wooden clog to take a picture. A small city, but absolutely overflowing with things to do, see, and experience.
Berlin was not quite as thrilling as Amsterdam, but was definitely worth visiting. The weather sucked, and Megs and I were so exhausted from having so much fun in Amsterdam that we kind of took Berlin easy. Upon arriving at the train station, we hailed a cab and the driver couldn't find our hotel. I was starving and carsick by the time we got to the place we were staying - a hotel called Frankfurter Allee! The check-in lady's name was Olivia too, and she was way nice. We went up to our room and crashed. The next day we paid a visit to the National Art Gallery, the museum at Checkpoint Charlie, and the Berlin Jewish Museum. An educational visit. It rained the entire time we were there, so the following evening was spent watching the news in our hotel room... My friend Tyler was in Southern Thailand exactly where the tsunami hit just two days before. He caught an earlier flight home (thank God!) and got out of there just in time. My jaw dropped when I saw what had happened. A friend of mine said she had watched "The Day After Tomorrow" just two days before too. Odd how the world works... It seems to be full of coincidences.
Rather than walk around with our luggage for the rest of the next rainy day while we waited for it to be time to go to the airport, Megs and I found the closest Starbucks and hung out for about 3 hours, talking and writing in our journals... killing time. I'd love to go back to Berlin someday and see what else there is to learn there.
Vienna was also quite an experience... Megs has a friend living there, and another friend who was visiting at the time we were there, so we all went out the first night and drank the night away at a pub called Paddy's. Good fun, and lots of German tequila! We crawled into our hostel at about 6am and I forced Megs out of bed at about 12:30 the next afternoon so we could get out and see the city. After some mumbling and grumbling she was ready to go and we met up with her two friends to take advantage of some of the after Christmas sales. There's a really cool gothic church right in the center of town, and at night it's all lit up so it looks almost haunted. During the day it just looks like a huge cathedral almost misplaced in thecenter of the busiest shopping street in the city. I got a pretty cool picture of it at night, with the lights hitting it just right. That's about all there was to Vienna... A fairly quiet city with not a whole lot to do (at least from what I saw of it) but definitely worth visiting.
The last 3 days of our trip was spent in London with Megs' godsister Emily. What a fantastic place! Tons of people, lots of stuff going on, the epitome of a big city. Almost reminded me of San Francisco with the outrageous number of Starbucks on every single corner, but without the familiar smell of the ocean hanging in the air. Instead you can smell fish and chips wherever you go. Megs and I took the Big Red Bus tour of the city and saw all the sights. We drove by Big Ben, over the London Bridge, saw numerous royal parks and monuments, and took a tour of the Tower of London to see the crowned jewels. That was on New Years Eve. We got transferred to one of the crappiest hotels I've ever experienced for our last night there... The bathroom was like a port-a-potty tucked away in what probably should have been the closet of the room, and the radiator knob was broken and stuck on the hottest possible degree. I would have called home to wish my family a happy New Year, but reception informed us that it is not possible to reach an outside line from inside the hotel.. Oh well. I suppose it was a good thing we didn't spend much time there. New Years Eve was fun... Megs and I got all dressed up and met Emily and her friend Julia for a long night of celebrating. I actually missed the countdown and the stroke of midnight because I had to pee (go figure...) but it was a fun night. The Underground was free from midnight to 4am so we got a free ride back to our hotel, where we crashed and got up early the next day to grab a coffee and catch our respective flights home.
Those 12 days seemed to go by way too quickly, and at the moment it almost feels as if it were all a dream. The dwindling numbers in my checking account, however, are a fast reminder that it was all definitely very real, and very expensive. Worth it though.
Now that I'm back in Grenoble, I'm ready for the real vacation to begin.. 17 days of relaxation to do whatever I want and enjoy it. My apartment is empty except for one of my roommate's brothers who showed up at 8am the morning after I returned, waking me from a very peaceful sleep. It's alright though. I hope everyone else had as wonderful a vacation as I have had. I wished the whole time I could have shared it with my family and friends back home, and missed you all more than you know. May the new year bring you health, happiness and good fortune! Cheers. -Liv
Megs arrived the day before my very last final. It was so good to see her! I met her at the train station, and she talked my ear off the entire way back to my apartment, filling me in on the latest news and gossip from home. We had dinner, and talked for hours and hours. I took my final the next day and the day after that I took her snowboarding in the alps. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. It had been snowing all week, so the mountains were covered in fresh powder, and the blue sky patched over with clouds had the most breathtaking effect on the scenery... It's enough to make one feel like she's sitting on top of the world. Megs taught me a few tricks and before I knew it I was making it down the mountain without falling every 10 feet! It was great :) We snowboarded all day long and by the time we got home we were ready to crash. The next day we were off to Geneva International Airport to catch a flight to Amsterdam.
Amsterdam was everything I imagined it would be and more. The slightest hint of pot hangs in the air, the streets are lined with postcard shops, and there are "coffeeshops" on almost every corner where one can go to sip on a cup of good strong coffee, or go buy a gram or two of pot and sit and smoke it while sipping on your perfect cup of coffee. Perfectly legal. We walked all the way across the city on our first day there, visiting the Rijksmuseum (an art museum housing numerous pieces by Rembrandt) and Van Gogh museum all before lunch. We treated ourself to a self guided tour of the Red Light District that evening, which was interesting. Surprisingly not trashy looking prostitutes selling themselves behind spotless glass windows framed by glowing red lights, men of all ages standing wide eyed, smiling and drooling not far from said windows, and theaters promising live sex shows on every corner... Megs and I didn't spend too much time around there, but had to at least go see what it was all about. The next day was Christmas Eve, which we spent sipping free beers at the Heineken Brewery, learning all about the history of Heineken, and marveling over Willem the barkeep's awesome mustache. We also hit up the Sex Museum (the largest collection of pornographic photos I ever thought I'd see in my life...), the Hash, Hemp and Marijuana museum, ate Oliebollen (marvelous deep fried balls of fluff covered in powdered sugar), and sat in a huge wooden clog to take a picture. A small city, but absolutely overflowing with things to do, see, and experience.
Berlin was not quite as thrilling as Amsterdam, but was definitely worth visiting. The weather sucked, and Megs and I were so exhausted from having so much fun in Amsterdam that we kind of took Berlin easy. Upon arriving at the train station, we hailed a cab and the driver couldn't find our hotel. I was starving and carsick by the time we got to the place we were staying - a hotel called Frankfurter Allee! The check-in lady's name was Olivia too, and she was way nice. We went up to our room and crashed. The next day we paid a visit to the National Art Gallery, the museum at Checkpoint Charlie, and the Berlin Jewish Museum. An educational visit. It rained the entire time we were there, so the following evening was spent watching the news in our hotel room... My friend Tyler was in Southern Thailand exactly where the tsunami hit just two days before. He caught an earlier flight home (thank God!) and got out of there just in time. My jaw dropped when I saw what had happened. A friend of mine said she had watched "The Day After Tomorrow" just two days before too. Odd how the world works... It seems to be full of coincidences.
Rather than walk around with our luggage for the rest of the next rainy day while we waited for it to be time to go to the airport, Megs and I found the closest Starbucks and hung out for about 3 hours, talking and writing in our journals... killing time. I'd love to go back to Berlin someday and see what else there is to learn there.
Vienna was also quite an experience... Megs has a friend living there, and another friend who was visiting at the time we were there, so we all went out the first night and drank the night away at a pub called Paddy's. Good fun, and lots of German tequila! We crawled into our hostel at about 6am and I forced Megs out of bed at about 12:30 the next afternoon so we could get out and see the city. After some mumbling and grumbling she was ready to go and we met up with her two friends to take advantage of some of the after Christmas sales. There's a really cool gothic church right in the center of town, and at night it's all lit up so it looks almost haunted. During the day it just looks like a huge cathedral almost misplaced in thecenter of the busiest shopping street in the city. I got a pretty cool picture of it at night, with the lights hitting it just right. That's about all there was to Vienna... A fairly quiet city with not a whole lot to do (at least from what I saw of it) but definitely worth visiting.
The last 3 days of our trip was spent in London with Megs' godsister Emily. What a fantastic place! Tons of people, lots of stuff going on, the epitome of a big city. Almost reminded me of San Francisco with the outrageous number of Starbucks on every single corner, but without the familiar smell of the ocean hanging in the air. Instead you can smell fish and chips wherever you go. Megs and I took the Big Red Bus tour of the city and saw all the sights. We drove by Big Ben, over the London Bridge, saw numerous royal parks and monuments, and took a tour of the Tower of London to see the crowned jewels. That was on New Years Eve. We got transferred to one of the crappiest hotels I've ever experienced for our last night there... The bathroom was like a port-a-potty tucked away in what probably should have been the closet of the room, and the radiator knob was broken and stuck on the hottest possible degree. I would have called home to wish my family a happy New Year, but reception informed us that it is not possible to reach an outside line from inside the hotel.. Oh well. I suppose it was a good thing we didn't spend much time there. New Years Eve was fun... Megs and I got all dressed up and met Emily and her friend Julia for a long night of celebrating. I actually missed the countdown and the stroke of midnight because I had to pee (go figure...) but it was a fun night. The Underground was free from midnight to 4am so we got a free ride back to our hotel, where we crashed and got up early the next day to grab a coffee and catch our respective flights home.
Those 12 days seemed to go by way too quickly, and at the moment it almost feels as if it were all a dream. The dwindling numbers in my checking account, however, are a fast reminder that it was all definitely very real, and very expensive. Worth it though.
Now that I'm back in Grenoble, I'm ready for the real vacation to begin.. 17 days of relaxation to do whatever I want and enjoy it. My apartment is empty except for one of my roommate's brothers who showed up at 8am the morning after I returned, waking me from a very peaceful sleep. It's alright though. I hope everyone else had as wonderful a vacation as I have had. I wished the whole time I could have shared it with my family and friends back home, and missed you all more than you know. May the new year bring you health, happiness and good fortune! Cheers. -Liv
posted by Liv at 7:10 PM
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