Liz's European Adventure

That's right. It has rained everyday we have been in Europe except three. We didn't pack for that kind of weather! But we haven't let the weather ruin our trip. After London, we took a flight to Amsterdam and, due to late booking, had to stay in a hotel for the night (darn). The next morning, we got up bright and early to a beautiful sunny day. We missed London but were glad to get some Vitamin D. We hopped on the tram to find our hostel and wound up in the Red Light District. It was daytime, so don't worry parents.

After going down several wrong streets, we found our hostel, The White Tulip. Well, the name didn't exactly fit the place. It was an old building with stairs that may have well been a ladder, but the reception was nice. Dragging our suitcases up the stairs was a quite a funny sight.

We dropped off our bags and set off to sightsee. Since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to walk around to orient ourselves with the city. We found Vondel Park, one of Amsterdams many beautiful sights, with ponds surrounded by willow trees.

People were playing music, reading, tanning and relaxing. After all our touring in London, it was nice to sit back and take in the scenery. From there, we headed to the Van Gough museum, only to find a line with a two hour wait - oops. We decided to skip it and moved on to the Anne Frank House, which I visited on my last trip to Amsterdam. I learned even more the second time around. It was a very strange feeling to stand in the same room that Anne Frank once slept in and walk through the door the Nazis stormed through when the Franks were arrested. They were caught because someone betrayed them. To this day, they still don't know who it was.

The next day, we woke up to pouring rain. It was time to travel south in search of some sun. We read in our travel book that Utrecht was a charming town full of local university students, so we said why not? It was pouring when we arrived (of course) but luckily it let up by the time we had to get off the bus and find our hostel. The bus let us off at a stop called Rhijnauwen and it seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere. We walked down a long, straight road and all you could see was green. I don't think I have ever seen so much green.

The air was so clean and fresh, espeically after all the rain. It was nice to be out of the city. The hostel was gorgeous and we couldn't believe how spoiled we were. One of the best parts of staying in hostels is the people you meet. You instantly form a bond with them because you are all traveling. We were excited to bond with someone over the fact that there are cows and donkeys wandering around. We decided to have dinner at the hostel in hopes to meet some fellow travellers. Well, that didn't happen. Apparently, we didn't get the memo that mostly families with small children stay there. On top of that, there was some sort of camp there full of Dutch teenagers singing/shouting songs over dinner. We were literally the only people our age in the place. We couldn't stop laughing at the situation. At least I'm traveling with people who know how to make the best of things. We eventually made it into town and it was a very cute little place with cobble stone roads and canals running through it.

There wasn't much to see, though, so we only stayed one night. Our next stop was Brussels, the land of endless types of beers. We arrived in the evening (and it was warm and sunny, yay!) so we dropped our things at the hostel and asked the reception for a restaurant suggestion of cheap but yummy authentic Belgian food. I'm glad we asked because this place was amazing. It was called Fin de Spiecel, which means the "end of the century." When we saw the size of the meals, we thought it would be better for our wallets and our waistlines to order two and share. There was no English menu at this place (the sign of true authenticity), so we asked the waitress to make some suggestions. We ended up with a plate with a heaping pile of mashed potatoes (I'm talking the size of a cantelope) topped with two sausages and a plate with rice and salad and lemony shrimp. We were in food heaven. It was by far the best food we'd had so far in any country. My mouth is watering just talking about it. We also made a rule at dinner to never try the same beer twice while in Brussels. After dinner, we went to a bar called Delerium that claims to have over 4,500 different kinds of beer. Of course, we tried all of them .

The next day, we woke up for some sightseeing. The city center of Brussels is quite small, so we walked everywhere. We visited a cathedral, the flea market, a statue of a little boy peeing into a fountain (and it's supposed to supply the citizens with water...who would drink out of that?) and a gorgeous square called the Grand-Place. Victor Hugo once said it was the most beautiful square in the world. We got ourselves a Belgian waffle with chocolate sauce and strawberries (talk about rich!) and sat down to take in the view. We decided it would be a good place to have a picnic dinner, so we went to the supermarket and bought some wine, cheese, crackers and salami.

Naturally, it started to rain. We spotted a good covered place to sit and, talk about a small world, sat right in front of some of our roommates from the hostel in Amsterdam! We spent the evening exchanging scary traveling stories (not my idea), drinking wine, eating cheap food and enjoying each other's company. We felt very European.

We were sad to leave Brussels, but our stay was up and we headed five hours south to Strasbourg, France. When we arrived, it was hot and sunny (do you see a pattern here?). We checked into our hostel, had some dinner, and went to bed early to rest up. When we woke up, we were thrilled to see it was still warm and sunny. For the first time, we could take the umbrellas out of our bags and wear one of the many dresses we had packed for the hot European summer. We rented bikes for the day to tour around. We went to the Notre Dame Strasbourg cathedral and climbed the 332 steps to the top. It was such an amazing view of the city.

After we worked up our appetite on that tower, we thought it would be fun to have lunch in Germany since Strasbourg is only a few miles from the France-Germany border. We thought it would be as simple as following the canal until it reaches the Rhine. It was relatively simple, but we got lost about three times before finding the bridge that crosses the Rhine. It was mind boggling, not only to be in two countries at once, but to be on a border that has been fought over so many times.

Since we were in Germany (Kehl, to be specific), all we wanted for lunch was a bratwurst. This task was harder than it seems. The town is very small and not very busy. We walked around for about thirty minutes looking for bratwurst and all we could find were kebabs. We saw five stands! We never found our brats, but Courtney and Ashley got some amazing paninis and I got a delicious and hearty goulash. Maybe it was so good because we were starving at that point, but we were happy campers.

By the end of lunch, a few clouds had moved in and we started to feel a light sprinkle. When we got on our bikes, it immediately started to rain torrentially. We were soaked within five minutes and had another twenty five or thirty to go to get back to the bike store. Keep in mind we're wearing summer clothing - we must have just screamed tourist. "Those silly Americans in their dresses...can't they see it is raining?" It wasn't very cold, maybe because we were biking so fast, but we were really dripping. We couldn't stop laughing! We made it back to the bike store in record time and then quickly headed to the bathroom to put ourselves under the hand dryers. That didn't do much for us. When we walked back outside, the rain had stopped. God is funny sometimes.

That night, we walked through town and stumbled upon a beautiful light show on the cathedral. It lasted about fifteen minutes and it was so beautiful, we stayed to watch it again. The day we left Strasbourg, it was sunny again.

Off to Bern, Switzerland! We have family friends in Bern that were so kind to let us stay with them. On the train ride, we couldn't contain how excited we were to do laundry, sleep in, eat home-cooked meals and relax a bit. We walked around Bern and finally got our brats! I know it's immature, but Courtney and I can't stop laughing at how funny the German language is. We laughed at this sign for a good fifteen minutes. Ashley knows a bit of German and tries to stand up for the language but once the giggles start, there's no stopping it.

Tomorrow, we head our seperate ways. Courtney and I are heading south to Interlaken, Switzerland, and Ashley is heading back to the states to prepare for graduate school at George Washington. The three of us have so much fun together and I have never laughed more in my life. We'll miss Ashley, but I guess it's her time to get back to real life.

Our adventure to London started with a red-eye flight from San Francisco to Washington DC. We arrived at 6 am east coast time and had a very sleepy three hour layover. Courtney and I decided to try and get as much sleep as possible on both flights and, like my dad, I can sleep almost anywhere. Courtney told me she has a harder time, so I thought I would be the one getting the most shut eye. We started snoozing before the plane even took off and woke up just in time for breakfast - phewf! After we ate, we fell back asleep and hoped to sleep through the entire eight hour flight. An hour and a half later, I was awake and in a lot of pain from sleeping upright and didn't fall back to sleep for the rest of the flight. Courtney, on the other hand, who claims she can't sleep on flights, slept until we were about an hour from London. Typical.

When we arrived in London, it was 10 pm and 71 degrees! We were expecting rain and wind, but London greeted us with some nice weather. We planned to meet our friend Ashley, a friend from USD, at the arrivals gate at Heathow. She has been traveling since early July and is running around Europe with us for two more weeks before she heads to grad school at George Washington. Once we got through customs, we barged through the arrivals gate hoping to jump into Ashley's arms (meeting people at the airport is always fun). Unfortunately, everyone she asked told her to go to Terminal Four for international arrivals, but United arrivals fly into Terminal One. Courtney and I waited for a bit, then decided we had better book a hostel before the Tube closed. She eventually made it to Terminal One and we missed her by about twenty minutes.

Finding a hostel on a Wednesday night was no problem - we found one called the Generator for only $20 per night! After a 45 minute tube ride, we found ourselves in a nice area of London. We easily found the hostel, due to its neon blue greeting sign. At the top of the driveway, there was a bouncer asking to see our room keys. It made us feel that the hostel was safe, but also made us feel like we were checking into a nightclub. When we walked in, there was neon lighting everywhere accompanied by the dounch-dounch-dounch (insert techno music here) from the bar. The night manager told us the cheapest room was 25 pounds (at this point, that's over $50) and denied that a room as cheap as we saw on the internet even existed. We got him down to 20 pounds, but learned our lesson - book online when a room is that cheap!

We finally made it to bed and were so excited to sleep horizontally. The next day, we woke up at 9 am (thanks to my travel alarm clock/calculator/currency converter - a great little gadget from Eagle Creek - and finally connected with Ashley. We walked from our hostel down to Picadilly Circus where all the musicals play, St. James Garden, Buckingham Palace just[i] missed the changing of the guards), Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and then along the Thames river. We past the huge line at the London Eye, laughing at the tourists who were so determined to see London from a huge and painfully slow ferris wheel.

By this time, it was about 2 pm and our feet were tired and our stomachs grumbling. We were in one of the more touristy places in London and knew that a meal around there would quickly empty our bank accounts. As the smart travelers we are, we turned off the river in search for a local pub for a cheap lunch. We went to the first one we found (can't even remember the name) and saw the lunch menu started at 3 pounds - sold! Since sandwiches were the cheapest, I ordered one even though I'm trying to avoid gluten due to my minor wheat allergy. I mostly just ate the insides (smoked salmon, yum!), but I was so hungry I had some bread along with it (sorry Mom). We ended up staying for about two hours mingling with the locals and avoiding the rain. Of course it rained! I wouldn't feel like we had a true London experience unless it rained!

That night and the next, we stayed at a hostel called Palmers Lodge close to Camdentown. The next day, we went to a wine bar called The Sampler with a friend we met at the hostel, Greg from Arizona. For only a few pounds, we tried about ten wines (just samples, don't worry) from all over the world. We bought a few bottles, cheese, crackers and fruit and headed to Green Park, one of the many here in London, to relax and people watch. We felt very European. We raised our good karma level when we found a wallet on the ground, very full of pounds that could have sustained us for a few days, and actually found the guy who had lost it (we checked his ID). He was very thankful and we hoped that it brought us some good luck.

It did, in fact. That night, we accidentally napped through dinner hours at the hostel and had to go out for food. The hostel suggested a Thai place down the road that was reasonably priced. We called ahead and the owner sounded very friendly (he even offered us a 20% discount because we were guests at the hostel). We ordered our meals and he brought over complimentary wine, bottled water (a real treat when you're on a budget) and appetizers. The restaurant was family-owned and the type of place where the owner checks on every table.We stayed and talked with him for almost two hours. His name is Kampol (pronunced like the soup) and he moved from Thailand when he was six with his family. He invited us back the next day for a Thai cooking lesson. At noon the next day, we went back ready to cook for the lunch crowd, which turned out to be just us. We cooked a chicken dish with vegetables, a shrimp dish with coconut milk and some yummy pad thai. We even got to wear goofy hats and aprons (I'll upload my pictures ASAP).

As we were eating, we recognized two Italian guys from our hostel and invited them in to try our food. We stayed and chatted with Kampol and the Italian guys, Giacomo (who excused everything he did with, "It's okay, I am Italian" - thick accent and hand gestures included) and Lawrence for hours. Later in the afternoon, we all went to Madame Toussaud's wax museum. It was touristy but a fun thing to do, especially when it's free (Kampol actually insisted on paying for the ladies). We also found out that Giacomo is from Florence and we can stay with him when we visit!

After taking pictures with all the fake celebs and picking most of their fake noses, we headed back to Kampol's restaurant, Bangkok Thai, to get our bags and head to our next destination. He fed us again (what would we do without this guy) and we started talking about Thailand. One thing led to another, and it ended with him insisting on buying us all plane tickets to Bangkok for New Years to stay with his family there and at his hut on the beach. We all thought it was just something you say for conversation, but he seems very insistent that he is a man of his word. So who knows, we may be in Thailand for New Years 2009! And trust me, Kampol is a very sweet man and harmless, so don't worry parents! We even met his mother who also works at the restaurant.

That night, we headed to Fulham in south London to stay with one of Courtney's friend's from Australia who lives in London now. It was so nice to stay with a familiar face (and not to mention a free place). Dave lives with four other Aussies in a flat that is very tall and skinny, but there are two and half bathrooms and three bedrooms so it is quite spacious. We took the day off from sightseeing on Sunday to rest and regroup. Sunday is[i] a day of rest. As a thank you for having us, we cooked dinner for everyone. Baked salmon with lemon, risotto and sautéed zucchini (or courgette, as they call it here) were on the menu. It was fun to be in a kitchen again and do something nice for our hosts. That night, Dave, Courtney and Ashley insisted[i] we watch Hostel II, a horror movie about people luring American travelers from hostels and paying to murder them. Lovely, right? And such a good idea when we'll be staying in hostels for the next two months. I detest horror movies, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. I'll do my best not to think about it ever again, though.

Today we're headed to the British History Museum, then off to meet Kampol and our Italian friends at the London dungeon. It was nice to take a day off, but now we're hankering to get back and be tourists! We're staying one more night with Dave and his friends (I think we're making stir fry tonight), then off to Amsterdam!

Hopefully we can find a few more wallets and keep our good karma going.

Itinerizing. It's our new word. It is the act of making an itinerary and all of the organizing and logistics that go into an itinerary. Since the end of April when we booked our ticket (thanks, Mom and Dad, for letting us steal all of your credit card miles!), we have been doing lots of itinerizing. Our original itinerary had so many different stops on it and we were so excited about it! That was until I did an Excel spreadsheet and discovered our route would be costing almost $10,000. So we started again from scratch. But here's how this trip all began in the first place...

Courtney has been my best friend since second grade. From lemonade stands on the bike path on Berens Drive to parties busted by her dad, Chris, to high school and college graduations, we've been through it all. I spent a good part of my college years in Los Angeles visiting Courtney at USC, as well as hosting her at the beach down in San Diego. Courtney and I have lead somewhat different lives since college, but have always made the effort to stay in touch and stay close. Even when I studied abroad the fall of 2006 in Madrid, we kept each other informed about every aspect of our lives.

Traveling is something I have always had a passion for. Studying abroad was my first time to Europe and I was hooked immediately. The outdoor cafes, siestas, walking everywhere, culture, history, fashion, cuisine, wine...I officially had the travel bug.

It was Christmas break of our senior year of college. We were still in the dreamland that is Campus Cash, weekly allowance for groceries, rent paid for by Mommy and Daddy, and a light class load (hey, we worked hard the other three years). The big, and may I say redundant, questions of "Do you have a job?", "What are your plans after graduation?", "What are you doing with your life?" were coming up over breakfast with the g-rents (grandparents, for you non-young folk), meetings with teachers and drinks with friends. Well, Courtney and I decided it was time to have an answer.

We wanted to travel after graduation and put off the real world for a little. From there on out, that was our story, even though we hadn't book our tickets yet. "So, what are your plans after graduation?" Traveling! And that lead to far more interesting conversations than the people who said i-banking. April 28, 2008, we booked them! July 29th seemed so far off, but we knew we needed to make a little money before we left, especially with the dollar being so weak.

I just checked, and the US dollar is at 1.57 to the Euro - ouch! So the purpose of this blog is not only to make my family and friends extremely jealous, but also to tell you how we're going to manage being in Europe as broke, unemployed (but very qualified and employable college grads. Here's my angle - I love to cook, I love good food, I love wine, and I love to travel and write but I have to do it on a budget. (Does somebody please want to hire me and pay me to do all those things?)

I will write as often as I can and promise not to leave any details out so you can all live vicariously through me! Thank you all so much for your love and support. Au revoir, ciao, cheerio y adios!