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Amsterdam

For a place whose official travel pamphlet says things like "as for prostitution- if you choose to spend time with one of the women, please be warned they are not always women," Amsterdam is surprisingly wholesome. The whole visit I just kept thinking, how much my Mom would love it. It's a perfectly preserved and updated piece of history. The canals are amazingly beautiful, and we spent a lot of time on the deck of our hostel catching the Netherlands sun. The food was beautiful, I even indulged in some Salmon overlooking the canals. We managed to do all the Amsterdam "musts", we rented bicycles with three new German friends and rode around the city and outskirts for an entire day, we took a taxi boat tour, we stood in line and saw Anne Frank's house, and even strolled through the red light district at night. All in all Amsterdam is like food for the eyes. Everything was beautiful excepting maybe the often cranky attitude of the tourist-sick locals. Now, onto The Hague for a different side of The Netherlands~

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Paris-City of Blights

Last week we bumbled onto our first European train ride of the trip. We had the good fortune of sitting across from a friendly American couple who were closing out their trip. The woman gave us her two cents on Portugal, saying Lisbon was a nice city for other people but it just hadn't treated her right so she had a bad impression of it. Immediately afterwards she passed out over her nearly empty bottle of dramamine and I didn't get a chance to ask her what she meant. I think now we know. For us this trip to Paris was more obstacle course than leisurely stroll.

Arthur surfed (or tried to) in Spain which was lovely until Paris when he developed a consistent fever of 38 degrees. (102 F). This lasted for 2 days, and the symptoms were very unpleasant for him.

When he finally saw straight again, he suggested we go out for lunch. We dusted off our unworn shoes and packed our little backpack with money and a camera and closed the door behind us. With the key inside. I won't even go into the madness that followed for the next 7 hours until we got back in.

And then today, our day of plans foiled again by the Parisian Metro System on Strike. We stood in line for hours to book our train ticket for next week and it took two hours to find our way back from L'Arc de Triomphe this evening. Another Paris day drifted past us (thank goodness) and hopefully as we board our Amsterdam bound train tomorrow our change of scenery will include a change of luck.

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Bonjour

So we took the overnight train from San Sebastian back to Paris, a trip that normally takes 6 hours but overnight took 12. Not really sure how that worked but we were definitely going backwards part of the time. Before we slipped out of town Sara, the trooper that she is, sat on the beach with al of our stuff while I attempted to surf. Although the waves were big, the wind eliminated any real chance of surfing. We caught lunch at our favorite restaurant so far in Europe, the Caravanserai by the big church, the only repeat so far on the trip. The day before we hiked to the old castle and to see Christo at the top, and did it again for good measure after we accidentally deleted our photos for the day (ahem!). The people we stayed with were very nice and very high energy, and they ensured that we had a great time. Back to the train ride, we were the only room in our car that had anybody in it. Demetrius (a French military special forces paratrooper), Sara, and I played gin rummy late into the night and then slept surprisingly well and awoke in Paris. Here we are, with a few sites to see, looking forward to next week in the Netherlands.

A bientot,

Arthur

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150 years to build a church?

So, we wore out our welcome in Barcelona and hit the road yesterday on a moped (rented for 20Euro for the day), got lost on an interstate, went through a four mile tunnel, and then got lost in the hills of Spain, best mistake I ever made. Check out the video from the hill top town behind Barcelona. We rode the moped around Camp Nou, the second largest futbol stadium in Europe and then snuck in a back door that they left open, also see video (saving ourselves 17 euro each). Then we caught the morning train to San Sebastian, had some tapas and now are dodging the rain on the Atlantic coast. A nice lady at the train station gave us a place to stay, pointed out the "old Town", surf beach, chapel and headed on. We just realized that we will get to see a leg of the Tour de France outside of Geneva in a few weeks. If the weather clears up here in San Sebastian I am going to try to catch some waves tomorrow. Check the slideshow for pictures and the next post will hopefully be from Bordeaux, FR.

Hasta Luego,

Arturo

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The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.

Barcelona is amazing. I had no idea what to expect. The Mediterranean Sea is lovely and the people are extremely accommodating. The train ride was 6 1/2 hours from Paris, I got very motion sick until my little motion sickness patch kicked in (it takes four hours!). We had a three hour "lay over" in Montpelier in Southern France. It was beautiful. We found our hostel in Barcelona by 9pm which was perfect because it doesn't get dark until 10 or 10:30 pm here. We had more cheese and crackers for dinner, then hung out in the hostel lobby making friends. The Barcelona del Mar is extremely clean and safe feeling. Also, we have decided to not head to Italy this week for financial reasons, so we will be kicking around here tomorrow and the next day. Hopefully we will be able to travel to some smaller towns in southern France and Spain on the way back to Paris. It is nice to be a tourist, sight-see, and practice our foreign language skills, but I can't wait to get to the Hague and Geneva and practice my foreign lawyering skills! Going to bed now, goodnight~

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Sleeping with one eye open

So, apparently the best way to get over jet lag is to just stay awake until bedtime the next night at the new place. Easier said than done. I woke up Thursday morning at 6 am and took Sara to the airport, then went back myself and began the standing in line a few hours later. 12 hours of sitting on planes later and I was in Paris, but it was then 6 am and I had a hell of a long way to go to make it to bedtime. So, I set out to right the huge mistake of not purchasing our Eurrail pass before we left, which included a whole lot of standing in line and an immediate test of my French skills. Throughout the day, as I ended up standing in about 10 different lines, it also tested my patience. After leaving the airport I went Sacre Coeur, where Sara and I were supposed to meet after we landed, but little did I know that her flight was delayed. I spent 2 hours walking up and down the steps of the highest point in Paris then left to Alex and Kate's apartment. Sara showed up 10 minutes after I got there and we relaxed a bit, but it was still only noon. We went to the grocery store, got some cheese, a baguette and some wine and went to have a picnic by the river and wait in more lines for our pass. A few hours later (6) we had our pass but it was time to go have drinks with Alex and some of his friends, but we were toast by that point. The affair took a little longer than we expected and we ended up taking turns holding the other's head out of their dinner plate. Then... glorious sleep, 12 hours of it.

Can I publish a video afterall?

Traveling

All,

We head out tomorrow early morning and arrive in Paris Friday early morning! Hello adventure! Videos to come soon!

Sara and Arthur