The Chocolate Chronicles

So... as you might know, I had a quest while backpacking to try Hot Chocolate in every country I visited. This happened because Paris blew my mind with the best Chocolate Chaud of my life. So here are the Cups, in order.

Paris, France (Patisserie Viennoise)

I had hot chocolate in Groningen, Netherlands (Coffee Company) but it was so awful I didn't finish it or take a picture.

Rome, Italy (Tiny little Cafe in the SW in the 'old town')

Mykonos, Greece (Ok, so it's not Chocolate... but it's the "it's-effing-hot-here" equivalent!)

Berlin, Germany (Adele's Cafe)

Vienna, Austria (Demel Bakery, I think?)

Madrid, Spain (San Gines, I think!)

Lausanne, Switzerland (Poor Choice of Cafe)

Ljubljana, Slovenia (Zvezda)

Zagreb, Croatia (Cookie Factory, SO GOOD.)

Budapest, Hungary (Central Kavehaz)

Bratislava, Slovakia (Castle Restaurant)

Prague, Czech Republic (Choco Cafe) ***BEST PLACE ON EARTH***

And that's all the countries I visited! So in Greece I may not have REALLY gotten hot chocolate, but it was 41 degrees celsius, I wasn't thinking about hot beverages. I don't think anyone would have made one for me! And in Ljubljana, I admit that is a Nutella Cappuccino .. but how do you NOT get that when it's offered? Come on. And for the record, most of the countries I had one cup in every CITY, but for consistency's sake, we wil pretend I just had the one per country.

So there you are, the reason I didn't come back skinny :)

What Happened in July

When I last left off I had just left Groningen (separate from Bradon) to Vienna, Austria. I left super early in the morning, like 7 am, so that I could take the reservation-free route through Amsterdam and some wide variety of German cities. It was a good 15 hour train ride, and I was hacking the whole time so no one wanted to sit by me. Score. I did end up having this huge black athlete guy sit beside me on the really long ride (Amsterdam to Frankfurt, I think?) and all these dutch people kept asking for his autograph ... so I think I was pressed up against a celebrity for a good 8 hours with zero knowledge of this fact. No idea who this gentleman was, but he was very polite and didn't hog the leg room. I get to Vienna at like 10 pm and Alina meets me at the train station. We walk to her boyfriend Moritz's apartment through the really nice 1st district. Alina shared her dessert knoodl with apricot in it which was SO GOOD. I slept like a baby and woke up to Bradon and our friend Claire arriving via night bus.  We had a lovely breakfast, got organized and met up with the other people coming to the festival with us: Moritz, Paul and Anna. Bradon and I drove down with Anna and we all met up around Gratz at the UrbanArtForms festival grounds. 
The first night was kind of dead, we had our tents in different areas cause Bradon and I purchased the tent hotel ticket, whereas the others brought their own. We explored the grounds, stages, lake, etc and danced around till 2 or 3 in the morning. Next day we went to a smaller town around Gratz to get supplies (alcohol) and lunch (schnitzel) in the early day and came back to the grounds for THE BEST NIGHT EVER. Paul Kalkbrenner, Pendulum, Fritz Kalkbrenner and Skrillex shows the first night -- despite all the crazy mixups with scheduling and missing a couple acts we wanted because of that. So much Red Bull. Fritz was unbelievable: there was serious technical difficulties but everyone stuck around for a good 20 mins while they tried to figure it out. Then when sound got working again, Fritz was so gracious to the crowd and everyone was so loving and happy and there was this amazing feeling of community because of that. It was pretty magical. Every night sleeping in the tent sucked. There were flimsy little foamy pads to keep up from being on solid dirt ground, and we brought a sleep sheet to share -- it was a million degrees in the tent, and it was about the size of a twin bed, but shorter. We spent as little time in there as possible. We spent some of the next day at the lake and visited Gratz to see the city before the acts. Then we saw Knife Party, Deichkind, Moonbootica and Justice. Knife Party was absolutely amazing, the sun was low and it was all dusty and everyone was dancing and jumping and so excited. Justice was straight up epic. They did an encor remix of We Are Your Friends that was so incredible my mind was actually blown, so I can't describe what it was like. After Moonbootica Bradon and I went on a quest to find as many of the plastic cups as we could because each one traded in for 2 euro. We made a good 16 euro I think, and we were competing with a couple thousand people with the same idea. We were giddy by the end of it. 


The next morning we woke up late, packed our things and headed back to Vienna. To shower for the first time in four days. We were so gross. On the way we stopped to get Goulash soup -- AMAZING. I love Austrian food. So much. Our first night in Vienna we went to this Viennese traditional style wine place with comfort food, Austrian style. I had the most amazing saurkraut in the universe, and this pork that pretty much melted in my mouth. And deep friend vegis and all sorts of good stuff. All paired with white wine spritzers by the jug. Then we went home and played this card game called Wizard which is the funnest game ever, and I really must find it in Canada!
The rest of our Vienna stay was mostly with Alina guiding us around Vienna and showing us the best places to be. We went out one night, I had a debate with Paul about whether Horse meat should be eaten by humans that lasted way longer than it should have (Him: Yes, Me: No). I tried it eventually, it was really salty and creepy. We went for final knoodl on our last night with Alina and then had to BOOK IT to the train station to catch our overnight train to Italy. I have never been that stressed out. We were running and running and screaming and we had to say goodbye to Alina in such a hurry it was so upsetting, I wanted to just cry all night. We jumped onto the train seconds before it started moving -- unlike the time with Emily and I in Lille, it wasn't comedic, it was desperate and angry. I thought my chest would explode. 

Then, another crappy night train experience, but definitely not as bad as the other time I took one to Italy. We took the train to the northern-most town we could find, because Bradon's eurail pass was only valid for Italy-France-Spain, and we had to be in Italy first before he could use it. We went from whatever that town was to Venice, missed our stop cause I could not wake Bradon up (really freaky), so we hopped off at the next one which was a Port in Venice or something. Terrible idea because NO train stopped there heading the other way and we started to get kinda snippy at each other -- night trains will do that to people. Eventually we got one back to the main station, transferred to another train that went to Florence or something and then more trains till we finally ended up in Rio Maggiore -- aka most romantic place on earth. Five nights here, staying in a little hotel/apartment-y thing. SO MANY HILLS. I was dying walking up to that room every day, and having to walk back down to get food and then back up again. AH, my calves were incredible. We had pizza and lemoncello/lemoncino every single day. There was a little boutique liquor store we bought wines at, and we went to the same pizza place every day too. There was a little coop market that we got spreads and crackers at for our hike snacks and breakfast. We hiked two of the four days. First day we went over to La Spezia to try and take out money (Our debit cards weren't accepted on the trail) and explore the, kind of lackluster, city. The first hiking day was Riomaggiore - Manarola - Corniglia. To Manarola is a sea-side walkway of only about half an hour that is the "lovers" walk, so it's super romantic. Bradon was all awkward. Manarola to Corniglia the path was washed out so we took a back route (after much getting lost in the town) through vineyards and so much beauty. SO MUCH UP HILL, SERIOUSLY. Once we got to Corniglia we got tiramisu and espresso at this little cafe. Then back we hiked. Next day we took a train to Monterosso, walked backwards to Vernazza, took another train to Corniglia, and another train back to Riomaggiore. The hiking bit was intense, it was so backwoods-style, it felt like Jurrasic park. There were more people out this day, and it got really hot by midday when the mist was burnt off. We were giddy hikers and just powered up the steeps steps. Vernazza was beautiful, we got some gelato there and I helped some tourists who needed bandaids. We hit up the same cafe in Corniglia and this time I got my mandatory hot chocolate despite the heat (so many weird looks). Time seriously stood still in this place. Leaving hurt my heart.

We took a train in the morning to Levanto or somewhere around there to grab pizza and explore, and then continued our train ride to Genoa. Where we spent four or so more days. Genoa was kind of disappointing as a town, we pretty much saw all the tourist stuff walking around the first night. Since I'm allergic to shellfish we couldn't really take advantage of the seafood at the port, and because of our budget we couldn't afford to go to the aquarium. So we went to Pasta Way every day for dinner, and got absurd portions of pasta. And we wandered around, chatting and drinking either copious amounts of Cappucinno or Sangria -- depending on the time of day. We had cable in our room, so we watched Italian Hello Kitty at night or, if we were lucky, CSI or some 90's action movie would be on in English. I have never been so content with doing nothing. It was fabulous. I managed to track down Zuppa Inglese gelato our final day in Genoa, which I desperately wanted to share with Bradon but we had been unable to find at ANY gelateria on our trip thus far -- and we seriously looked into every single one. I was content to leave Italy then.

Then we took a train over to Nice, and spent around three or four days there. Eating ice cream, drinking cheap champagne on the beach and eating McDonalds because, wow was our money dwindling. I got to familiarize myself with French again, and show my prowess at the Monoprix. We met up with some other Canadians and spent a night drinking and chatting on the beach. We went one day to Monte Carlo where we walked around marvelling at other people's money. I begged Bradon to go with me to play slots in a not-so-fancy casino, and he ended up winning 20 euro from gambling 5. We cashed out, and bought some ice cream with our winnings. It was a good day. We spent a day snoozing on the beach and giggling at boh of our inability's to really swim. Then we headed over to Avignon for a night.
O my gosh. Do not stay at the YMCA in Avignon. We left the hostel booking for this night too late, and because it was the Theatre festival, everywhere good within our price range was booked up. We ended up walking from one side of the city to the other, and then out of the city, following our not-very-reliable-because-there's-no-3G-here map on my iPhone. We were so pissy at each other because we couldn't find it and my feet were blistered and bloody so I was not a happy camper. We finally got there, sweaty and dehydrated, and no one was at the front desk. We wandere around a good forty minutes till finally someone came around. Also, it should be noted this place looked like a prison. We get to our room finally and it is a dump, there is a little ant hill on the floor with a steady high way of ants that are all over the place. The shower is tiny and you have to hold the spout over you head which is so tiny that wetting your hair takes five minutes. Try washing it. We laughed at how awful it was, made cracks about how it was NOT fun to stay at the YMCA, and headed into town. Avignon itself is breathtaking. We wandered through the streets filled with performers and went down the cobbled pedestrian streets until we found a cute little hipster bistrot where we got dinner. We wandered around until the sun started to set and we figured we should make it back to our prison before they locked us out. The beds were surprisingly comfy, and before we knew it our Avignon trip was over. 

The next day we had to walk ALL the way back to the train station to get to Barcelona. Our train had to stop in Port Bou right at the border of France and Spain to switch trains and book or train through to Barcelona because the trains in Spain don't connect into France. There was a fire somewhere in Port Bou or the surrounding area that meant all sort of trains were delayed so this tiny little station was absolutely packed and terrifying. Bradon and I were throwing elbows trying to figure out what to do. We had to wait about an hour, so we bought a really expensive pizza to share which ended up being half frozen. Unhappy. When we eventually ended up in Barcelona, we took the super awesome metro to our Hostel which was a little ways out of the city. The Hostel was so great, I'd read about it before so I was so excited when we got there. The staff was super friendly and I WAS THE ONLY GIRL IN AN EIGHT BED DORM. That was kinda weird, sharing a bathroom with that many boys. There was a kitchen there and we had incredible meals for so cheap because food was practically cents to dollars at the grocery store for what we were used to. We went out for Tapas one night (quite expensive) and then another night we made our own for so much cheaper, and we had like a mountain of food. We shared food with people in our hostel and we got some cheese and ham from one group who we shared our wine with. We went to the market on the main street in the city, didn't get robbed once! Barcelona was so beautiful. We met up with some friends from Bradon's school, Mark and David, and they took us around one night. We went to a rooftop panoramic view bar one night which looked over the whole city. We walked everywhere, went to the castle and the olympic stadium. It was really beautiful. Then I had to leave Bradon to meet up with Emily in Madrid. Saddest day, splitting up after travelling together for almost a month. So I cried a bit, and then braved Barcelona train station security which is ABSURD. The train was super nice, and it had spanish Captain America playing through the whole ride. I sat beside a grumpy old spanish lady. 

Then Madrid! Emily and I tried to get on the same train but I didn't make it on time, so we met at the Hostel. What a great hostel again! We were in an eight bed all girls dorm. We met up, wandered around till we found somewhere not sketchy to get food, and then we got the best mojitos of our lives, and a damn good plate of nachos. I'm gonna stop now, because a lot happened in Madrid and this blog entry is ridiculously long and pictureless. We're practically at the end of July at this point anyways! Till next time!

What happened in June

Ok. So I've been back in Canada for about a month and a half, and it is still freaking me out. First off, it snowed last night. Two months ago I was taking naps in my Athens hostel because of heat stroke.
So, I thought I should give an overview of what I did in those blog-less three months of travel. Really basic, nothing fluffy, because... there is a photo limit on Blogger! HA! Didn't know that was a thing!
So I left Paris separate from Emily -- she visited family in Strasbourg while I made an impromptu trip to Groningen to a) see Bradon before I split for the south and b) drop off my laptop so I didn't have to carry it for three months. It was a long journey as per usual, I actually ended up seeing a lady get tackled by security for trying to scam me. She was tackled about half a foot in front of me so that was exciting/terrifying. Gare du Nord always brings the excitement! I ended up getting to Groningen after about 12 hours of trains, late at night, then visited for less that eight hours including sleep and then hopped on a fun train route to Munich which took about 14 hours. I met up with Emily in the Munich train station, we grabbed AMAZING pizza, and booked it, and I mean like panic-stricken running, to our night train to Florence. Our train car was dark, humid and excruciatingly hot. By the time we really got going it was packing with six people with absolutely zero leg room because the family that joined us in the car wanted to also have their GIANT suitcases INSIDE the car. Also, the grumpy man in the car with this motley crew was trying to sleep and demanded silence, so the window and the compartment door couldn't be open cause it was way too noisy. Sauna of pain.
Something like 10 hours later, without sleep we ended up in Florence SO early in the morning that the hostel wouldn't take us yet. We chilled at a cafe for like 3-4 hours, the bathroom of which had a faulty lock so this creepy man burst in on me EVEN THOUGH the door was locked and I yelled at him through the wall. For real. Trauma. We dropped our stuff off at the hostel, but we couldn't check in yet. We walked up this giant important hill with panoramic views and walked around the town for a couple of hours until we could FINALLY check in and SHOWER. Showers after night trains are seriously magical. I gave a little bit of a summary of our Italy trip before but... aw man it was ridiculous. We met some really cool people in Rome and Napoli (those train trips were easy!), and our quick over night stay in Bari was beautiful.
We got to the port like 8 hours early for the ferry to Patras, Greece because I read the time table on the Eurail wrong. But we ended up meeting some Calgarians at the terminal and met up with them a couple times in Greece. There was a moment at the buffet on the ferry that I though I might have eaten something I was allergic to and Emily and I absolutely PANICKED which we later laughed about. We snagged some airline style seating, even though our ticket was for the deck. Thank god too, we would have frozen. From Patras to Athens was a bit of a nightmare -- Bus to bus, and totally not understanding what was going on. Then a train to Athens where we were accosted by some Athenian youth who wanted to 1) have sex with us and 2) buy Melia, one of our travel companions. I tried to get rid of them with Jenna Marbles techniques which only succeeded in pissing them off. A lot. One guy punched the window by my face. Boys are scary when rejected! Anyways, we got to our hostel alive, and spent almost a week in Athens. It was incredible. We ate every day at the God's Restaurant by our hostel and it was cheap and delicious and there were VEGETABLES! We saw all the legendary things you see in Athens, went to the Markets, made friends at the hostel -- it was great. Then we got a ferry to Santorini. Without a clue where we were staying. I'd read that you can just kind of show up at the port and then someone will barter for a cheap place to stay (cause of the recession) ... I was ready to be tough.
We sleep for the 6 hours or so on the boat deck -- so uncomfortable -- and show up at the port. We bartered for like... 5 minutes before we realized it was no fun and then we broke away to the tourist centre. They had hostel booking services there, luckily, and we got a place for super cheap. They hostel picked us up in a van at the port and drove us up the giant hill to the town where our hostel was. Santorini is beautiful. Our hostel was a hotel. It was my first time not on a top bunk since Florence. It had a kind of sketchy bathroom, we couldn't flush toilet paper, and the shower was pathetic. But there a pool, a bar, air conditioning, and a beach nearby. We got an ATV our first day when we realized we couldn't get anywhere without one. We ended up meeting up with the Calgarians by chance at the gas station where we were filling up our ATV. It was crazy. This girl was like, "Are you Mikaela?", "..Yea?" (we did not recognize this person) and she was like, "Do you know Michel from Paris? I went to school with him, he showed me your Facebook!". CRAZY. Then she introduces me to her brother WHO WE MET IN ATHENS on an accidental rooftop bar excursion. Then they're like, "Hey, we met some other Calgarians!" and up drive our pals from Patras. MADNESS. So crazy. We spent the day following them (and getting really lost) and going to the Red Beach, and Fira. The next day we went for Fish pedicures in Fira which was AMAZING and so weird. We spent four days just relaxing on beaches and driving ATVs and eating pastry. It was unbelievable.
Then we got on the most expensive ferry EVER to Mykonos (60 something euro!) which was this tiny little nugget that got absolutely tossed around on the ocean. Everyone was puking. I was giggling the whole... 4 hours? Except the times I got lulled to sleep by the symphony of gags and retches.
Then Mykonos. The most beautiful place in the universe. We spent something like 5 days here, but I really couldn't tell you for sure. We snagged a super cheap hotel/apartment at the Santorini port. They told us a price which we thought was EACH and it ended up being for both of us. The lady made us dinner our first night and was the kindest, greekest, lady ever. She had us call her Mama, and she spoke zero english. But she tried speaking Italian to us. Which was fun. There was a grocery store across the street from us that we got cucumbers and feta and balsamic and roasted peppers had THE BEST SALADS EVER. We got giros for 2 euro in town, we walked EVERYWHERE. I think I lost a lot of weight in Mykonos. We wandered through the little streets in Mykonos Town and bought way too much stuff. We tried caffe freddo (amazing) and bought bikinis and got really, really sketchy waxes (Greece is where you get creepy spa treatments I guess) and went to Paradise beach for a whole day and night. We danced till dawn, walked home to the literal sound of roosters crowing. It was seriously heaven. I did not want to leave.
Emily and I split again and I boarded a plane to Berlin (with absolutely no security by the way, I brought ouzo). I ditched so much stuff in Mykonos to make my bag the right size (clothes, purse, toiletries, etc) so I was really pissed they didn't even check. Getting to my hostel in Berlin was no fun because the airport was so far out of the city (EasyJet flights, pfft). But the hostel was amazing. 180Hostel, I will never forget. I had this amazing Hostel family of two Finnish people, a German girl, an American guy and a French Canadian girl. We all explored Berlin together, ate together, became really close in a really short time frame. I was only there 3 nights and two full days, I didn't see a whole lot of Berlin but I absolutely adore the people I met! Then I boarded, yet another, long train to Groningen. I stayed there for several days I think, it all kind of blended. Then Bradon and I set off to Austria (separately because he took a night bus and I took a early morning train) to see our good friend Alina and then go to the UrbanArtForms Festival. But... I'll write about that later because that's July :)!

Update: I am indeed alive!

So what has this last month been like? Well, Italy was amazing. We went to Florence for four days, Rome for three, Naples for two, Bari for one. We took an overnight train to Florence which was truly awful, Florence men left us unimpressed with Italian men but we are now equipped of stories of men who braid your hair as a flirtation technique, etc. We got free champagne and I got taught to latin dance by the club owner so it was good fun despite the many disasters. Rome was amazing. The ruins blew my mind. The fact a city can we built around ruins that so casually sitting there stuns me! The food was much better in Rome, Florence food was terrible where we went. I think I need a redo of Florence because so many people said it was their favorite. Seeing the statue of David and the famous Bottecelli's did make up for it, though. We had a couple great party nights in Rome and met a lot of cool people! I had the best hot chocolate yet there! We saw all the major sites in Rome in two jam packed days and managed to survive a pretty wicked hangover with an eleven am lock out at our hostel. Naples was dirty but fun. I ate a lot of famous pizza and we went to Sorrento and Pompeii. No Capri though :(! Pompeii was pretty sobering and imposing. So glad we made the trip! When we left for Bari I left some stuff at the hostel by accident, so my bag is a little lighter. Good thing, though, cause I need more space in my bag! We went to Bari for one night and spent the night playing with the sand on a beautiful beach and then slept in this weird hostel set up like an apartment. Next day we took an overnight ferry to Patras. We got there after waiting eight extra hours just to get on the ferry cause we mistook the ferry times as leaving earlier. We met calgarians on the 16 hour boat trip who went to the fine arts high school of our city and had seen me perform before! Small world. In Athens we had a great hostel that was basically a little resort in itself. We stayed four nights since we lost a day arriving super late from Patras. Our last day ended up being a lot of travel planning and chilling in our hostel and meeting our new roomies. In Athens we ate like queens but it was so wonderful to finally have vegetables! We met plenty of cool people. Leaving Athens at 5:45 am was hard. Not just because of the hour, but also because we had fallen in love with the city! Now we are in our last day on Santorini. We picked a hostel at the tourist services at the port and it is ten euro a night for "two bed dorm", aka a private room. The place had a pool and a bar -- all we need! The bar has milkshakes. Sold. We spent the first night wandering our little town, Perissa, and going to the pool bar. Yesterday we took an atv around the island to the red beach and fira! Today, fira for real and the black beach. Later this week, Mykonos for four nights where I fly out of to Berlin on the 24th. Alone! Alone in Berlin for five days so excited!! Oh yea I should mention that the 'riots in Athens' are not what you see on tv. The one square that demonstrations happen in was tranquil when we went by and our guide from the hostel said its really blown out of proportion and it's really marble vandalism and orange throwing most of the time! We saw all the major sites in Athens in one day and we went to il Trovatore (something like that) a famous opera. It was in this old old old theatre off the acropolis and there were English and Greek subtitles on screens to the side. It was pretty incredible. I think I like operas. Anyways! Gotta mosey! I shall try and make this a regular thing again but ... No promises!!!!!!

All you need to know

I have already found the best Hot Chocolate in Rome and my life will never be the same.

Bucket listing in Paris

In the last couple days I did some hardcore, last minute, bucket listing. I went to the Bob Dylan expo at the museum of music (And ran through the rest of the 5 floors of the museum in under 10 minutes 'cause it was closing. Holy stairs.) and the Musee Marmotton (AH! Monet! Tears.) one day. Another day I did Saint Chapelle and the Conciergie with Emily. No photos from the first day cause both the Marmotton and the expo were camera free zones. But luckily for you, the centuries old stuffs were not! Photos!

Conciergie! Empty... crazy! Got in for free with my IYTCard and Visa, should have gotten the combo ticket with Saint Chapelle cause they were not as nice.

Weird displays to show what it was like. Mostly just weird.

Marie Antoinette's memorial thing with her last will and testament on it or something...

Directly ourside Marie's reconstructed cell situation.

YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

Saint Chapelle!

Inside first floor. "Yea, it's pretty. Not prettier than Notre Dame though."

Upstairs. Jaw, meet floor. "... ... ..."

On the terrace of the top floor, looking in.

BAH! Mind = blown. Then we wandered over to a little cafe directly across the street from Notre Dame for a Diabolo Menthe and Grenadine (Thank you Michel for introducing us to these drinks!).

I meant to take a picture before we finished but...

Then a bunch of days went by, including an amazing trip to Euro Disneyland! I don't have photos because I didn't want to have to protect my camera on rides. Good thing, too. Space Mountain 2 is a lot more intense than the original Space Mountain. When it was over I was laughing so hard I could hardly stand. There are a lot of rides with countdowns that are super intimidating when you only realize that is what is happening at, "1!", because it's in french. "1" "Oh my g---" *Something very intense and fast happens*. We didn't get to any Alice in Wonderland rides, which makes me quite sad. But we did get on all the super intense ones. I will never get over how truly magical Disneyland is. It really feels like a magical place! Like, on the Crush rollercoaster I was gobsmacked by how beautiful everything is. Let alone how freakin fun it all was. Aw... must move to somewhere with a Disneyland.

One last item on my bucket list: I hadn't tried a religieuse pastry yet, because I didn't know how to pronounce it and I was embarassed. I figured I'll never have this opportunity again so I bit the bullet and OMG SO WORTH IT! The other two things are Flan Nature's which were my breakfast yesterday and today... dessert is breakfast... right?

SO PRETTY! Its about the size of your heart and it's full of chocolate pastry cream, like the eclairs. But like... gallons of it. Overflowing. I had to take a breather. I still didn't photograph the inside though because... well... I was distracted.

Anyways! This is my last time I'll have internet for sure, and likely the last time I'll have my laptop for blogging. I tried downloading the Blogger app, so we will see if that is for browsing alone, or also writing! Finger's crossed! Where am I off to? Well, we've booked hostels in Florence, Rome and Naples for the next two weeks and then we are headed east to Greece for a week or so. Then... up north for some Netherlands and the Red Hot Chili Peppers for me. Emily is doing some traveling of her own then, while Bradon and I head to Austria for a music festival (Tent villiage!) and then south again for a mediterranean 20 days of the Cinque Terra and Nice and all the way through to Barcelona! AMAZING! After that? August should move north again and hopefully hit up Switzerland, Germany and Sweden for a quick drive-through tourist extravaganza. Then a last week and a bit in Paris till I head back home for September. WOO! Wish me luck! Bisous and au revoir!

Groningen: Take 3 & AMSTERDAM!

It is getting harder and harder to keep track of these blog things, and come Thursday I might not have internet as regularly so there might be even LESS blogging! BUT! FOR NOW! Emily and I did one last trip to Groningen to use up my existing Eurail pass. In this trip we FINALLY saw Amsterdam on the hottest day EVER! It was awesome. But first! After three trips to Groningen, I know several routes you can take by train! Every city listed is a get-on-a-new-train point. Then each train goes through several other cities. 

Paris to Groningen:

Paris -- Roissy (CDG) -- Brussels -- Amsterdam -- Amersfoort -- Groningen = 9.25 RER + 5 euro reservation to Brussels, rest free with eurail (on a really lucky day)

Paris -- Roissy (CDG) -- Brussels -- ( detour: Dordrecht -- Roosendaal -- ) Rotterdam -- Amersfoort -- Groningen = 9.25 RER + 30 euro reservation to Brussels, rest free with eurail + 10 euro fine for putting the wrong date on your Eurail pass (on a really unlucky day)

Paris -- Lille -- Gent (?) -- Antwerp -- ( detour: ? -- ? --) Amsterdam -- ( detour: Utrecht [?] -- ) Amersfoort -- Groningen = 3 euro for reservation to Lille, rest free with eurail GONG SHOW DAY!

Groningen to Amsterdam:

Groningen -- Amsterdam Schiphol = free with eurail

Groningen -- Amersfoort -- Amsterdam Centraal = free with eurail

Groningen -- ( detour: Assen [?] -- ? -- ) Amersfoort -- Amsterdam Centraal = free with eurail

Groningen to Paris:

Groningen -- Amersfoort -- Amsterdam Centraal -- Paris = 40 euro reservation, rest "free" with eurail (eff you Thalys)

Groningen -- Amsterdam Schiphol -- Paris = 30 euro reservation, ""

Groningen -- Gouda -- Rotterdam -- Antwerp -- Lille -- Amiens -- Paris = FREE WITH EURAIL! SUCCESS!

Realization: Eurail for Benelux-France = not the best idea if you want to take direct trains. It's kinda fun when you're with someone cause then you can just sit back and chill. Also, beautiful weather helps. And lots of snacks. AND, especially, legit Belgian waffles along the way. And Starbucks (ashamed).

Anyways! So we DID eventually get to Groningen after our heck-of-a-lot-of-detours day. Had some fun on our brief visit, hung out with the amazing people. Is it just me, or are international students THE NICEST PEOPLE EVER? Honestly, never felt more welcomed by any group consistently than international students. Love love! Then we did out fun day trip to Amsterdam which had it's own ridiculous train route (including one bus because someone got hit by a train and everything stopped for a bit. Ah.). It took a lot longer than anticipated to get to Amsterdam, but once we did the sun was blazing and it was SO hot out but not crazy packed so it was nice. Pictures!

Cheese tasting AHHHHHHHH!

Candies that 'make you happy' but are three for a euro. They tasted like poopoo and nothing exciting happened. Not that we expected. We just wanted to have purchased something from a smart shop.

ME being touristy yay!

What this thing is... I sincerely hope you recognize it.

Went for drinks and fish and chips at an Irish bar... super authentic, I know. Look though! So cute! My cider was sighing!

Bradon's fancy pants beer.

So yea, walked around all day and opted out of going into Museums cause we only had like 6 or 7 hours. We went for sangria at one point in this quiet pub that had a resident cat and also (coincidence) a giant Canadian flag over the bar. We saw this after the fact = fate! The red light district was crazy, I kept wanting to walk by more ladies because it was just SO out of this world/foreign to me! It was so much less old-school than I had envisioned. In my mind there was a red incandescent light bulb and under it stood a bunch of ladies that you took your pick of, or something. Reality: Doorways with fluorescent red tube lighting over top of, each doorway had a lady in it and behind the lady was where you did the deed. The whole room was right there! Sometimes they stood in the window (curtained, I assume, when people have sex), but I imagine it was super hot out so it was better to have the door open. Man! I really couldn't get over it. Bradon was telling me a large majority of these ladies are  brought from other countries and forced into the profession and that's just so sad. The novelty kinda wore off then. I just assumed that in such a liberal city like Amsterdam that these ladies voluntarily took up prostitution... so naive. I am super saddened to hear all this bad stuff and the magic of that part of Amsterdam is definitely diminished. At first it was like, run down a passageway having ladies gaze on and I'd giggle and be like, "Oh how fun!" and now I'm like, "Oh my God! I am the worst human being ever! I laughed at them!". Super sad.

Anyways! We had our fun and took a much more efficient train ride home where we got all decked out in glam rock gear and went to a theme party. Next day I went to another class of Bradon's and then found my own way home through the city without a map! So proud! I didn't get lost! YAY! Then we made dindins (home cooked meal aaaaah <3) and went to a pub with the international students group of friends Bradon has. Then we said our bye bye's and headed home to sleep before taking the EPIC train ride back home. That one went pretty according-to-plan, but at one point the train delayed enough that the transfer we had to make involved booking it across the station just in time to JUMP onto the train after the whistle was blown, before the doors were shut. Epic James Bond moment. 

I tried to make this image not-sideways, but it won't let me. This is my map of Paris covered in stickers of all the areas I've been. I never double-stickered anything, and a lot of my trips was returns to favorite spots. I'm very sad to leave Paris, but these next three months are an even bigger adventure. You thought Paris was crazy? This is Epic Life Adventure: The Sequel. So far we're thinking Italy and Greece for most of August. Holy Moses I'm scared! I had SO MUCH knowledge of France before coming here and I still was so shocked. I have NO other languages under my belt in the least bit. Dear Lord. Also, packing up all my stuff from my apartment = super depressing. This is my first ever own place, and I have to bid adieu already? Also, WHY DO I HAVE SO MUCH STUFF ALREADY? I bought a giant suitcase and it's FULL. Luckily I have somewhere to store it but OMG!

Anywho, see the below map and be sad with me. In the meantime, I must enjoy my last days in Paris.

A bientot! Maybe :)

Ps. Did I tell you we're going to the Euro Disneyland tomorrow? Omg I could die. It says 26 degrees C and sunny on the forecast. WOOOOO!