Amsterdam, Easter Weekend

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.

4 trips to Paris: one photo blog

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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Paris with Dana Wielgus and Ariel Steeber. This trip was a short one made possible by an SNCF train delay. On our way back from Holland (pics to come) our train was late and so we missed the last train to Caen. SNCF was nice enough to put us up in a hotel and this gave us an extra day in Paris to visit a bit.
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This trip was my first and most extensive. I went with Paige, Mckenna and John for the weekend. We saw all the famous sights like the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, L'Arc de triomphe, Montmartre, Moulin Rouge...
It was a great trip and we met a lot of interesting people!

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Friends and Special Places in Caen

Annecy and Skiing in the Alps

I went skiing in the Alps this weekend and I had a blast! Friday after class my friends Ryan, Dana, John, Piya, Katie and I all took the overnight train to Annecy from Paris (all together about a 10 hour trip). The train had reclining seats but I couldn't sleep because I was too excited!
Half of the group missed their connection so we arrived about an hour before them and walked around the city. It was the first time I had ever seen a real mountain and it was beautiful! It looked like it had been painted onto a backdrop and hung from the sky. Piya's penpal, Pierre, picked us up with his friend and we all dropped off our stuff and went skiing on about one hour of sleep. But it didn't matter because we were having so much fun.

And so I skied for the first time in my life.

And I fell... a lot.

But I was enjoying myself so much! At the end of the day, Pierre talked us into going onto the intermediate hill. Piya and I went together. We both wiped out about half way down and I lost all my gear and hurt my wrist. After I found it all, I skied down to the bottom with Piya for a great finish with no falling! But I was done at that point because I was wet and cold.

We all went back to Pierre's and had dinner and a little party with some of his french friends.
Sunday, we toured Annecy. It used to be the capital of Geneva and it was obvious by the architecture. There were so many beautiful sights.

My Valentines Day!

I had a great Valentine's Day with my friend Paige!
We spent it on the castle and around town.