Au Revoir America, Bonjour France!: June 2010

During Easter weekend, my friends Ariel, Dana and I took a trip to Amsterdam. We took a highspeed train from France, switched in Belgium and arrived directly in Amsterdam.

We arrived Thursday night and after checking in to our hostel, Hotel Linda, we went in search for some fun. We met some very nice dutch guys who tried to give us directions. We ended up just staying with them in a bar near our hostel and they bought us some dutch drinks. We talked with them until the bar closed. They all spoke perfect english and were well-educated on American affairs. It was quite amazing actually.

They told us that the dutch all speak english well because their television isn't dubbed. There are only subtitles so they hear english anytime they watch TV.

Another awesome thing about Amsterdam were the bikes. Everyone rides bikes and they even have their own traffic lights!

Our awesome hostel, Hotel Linda on Stadhouderskade. There were 3 of us and 7 strangers in this room. We quickly became friends with them though because they were some of the nicest people we'd ever met. I kept in close touch with one guy, Mish from England, who visited me in Paris a few weeks later and was a great host for me in England.

The pictures aren't in chronological order so I will have to explain them from most recent.
My most recent trip to Paris for actual sightseeing and such was with my friend Mish, who I met in Amsterdam (pictures from that trip coming soon!)
I left Fri. April 30th and took a train from Caen into Paris St. Lazare.
Mish flew from Leeds, England and met me there. I was really impressed that he was able to navigate the Parisian metro system easily during his first trip to Paris!
We stayed in St. Christopher's Hostel the first 2 nights. It was really nice and clean, located right on the canal. The 3rd night, we relocated to Regent's Hotel in the Montmartre area. It was a cute hotel with a perfect view of Sacre Coeur! We were on the top floor with a little balcony that looked right out onto it!
The best place we went was Versailles. It was absolutely beautiful, every square inch was decorated. We even saw Marie Antoinette's bed chambers. The art was amazing and the gardens were beautiful!

This next trip to Paris was Part one of my spring break which included Spain as well (pics to come). I went with my best friends, Mckenna and Paige, and we had a blast! I always have fun with them everywhere I go. We also met our friend John and his German friend Julian there and visited to Musée de romanticism with them. Us three girls visited Pompidou, the famous modern art museum and saw all kinds of famous art.

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