end of eurovision.

By the last few days of Eurovision, we were all exhausted and ready to arrive in Madrid. We had spent so many nights in different hotels, living out of a suitcase, and way too many hours on the bus. The good news is that I can now fall asleep in any moving vehicle, which has come in handy.

Luckily for us, the last few days were not too strenuous. We saw a couple of beaches in San Tropez and Sitges, a small town right outside of Barcelona.

The beach in San Tropez

The beach in Barcelona

The nicest hotel in Barcelona (left) and an office building overlooking the beach

The view from the top of Barcelona

After exploring Barcelona all day Saturday, we took a train to the suburbs and hit the beaches in Sitges. The beaches in Barcelona are nice, but they’re smaller and very crowded. Sitges has miles and miles of gorgeous beaches, so it was worth the hour-long train ride.

Miles and miles of gorgeous beaches in Sitges

The cathedral in Sitges

Jess and I after a day on the beach and swimming in the Mediterranean

Gorgeous ocean

Hot sand and cool water

After spending a relaxing Sunday on the beach, we left Barcelona and were on our way to MADRID!

 

chamonix and geneva.

We left the hustle and bustle of Paris for a quaint little mountain town called Chamonix. It’s located in the Alps, and during the winter it is quite the vacation destination for the avid skiier. In the summer, however, it was dead.

Getting there on the bus was terrifying, to say the least. Our bus driver, Gerardo, was a very good driver and manipulated the narrow European streets in a wide bus very well. However, regardless of how good of a driver he is, whipping around the curves while scaling a mounting with nothing but a wimpy rail to stop you from crashing to your death is slightly nerve-wracking. I closed my eyes and held on tight, opening them only enough to notice that I was the only one freaking out about our imminent death.

Needless to say, we made it to Chamonix alive and spent the night in a lodge before heading to Geneva for the day. In Geneva, we stopped by the World Trade Organization and the United Nations before having “the best chicken in the world” for lunch (this is all according to Paul, the director). Both places were equally boring, and after spending the day before sleeping on a bus, none of us were very interested in what each place had to say.

The view of the United Nations gardens in Switzerland

Peacocks randomly roam the grounds at the UN

After our day in Geneva, we raced back to Chamonix to catch the last train up the mountain to see the glacier. After getting there, we were literally able to go INSIDE the glacier. It was a bit difficult seeing as how we were still in our suits and dresses from earlier in the day, but the view was incredible.

The Alps – view while going up the mountain

The Alps, near the glacier

More of the Alps

Standing in my suit in front of the Alps!

After taking a train UP the mountain and climbing down lots of stairs to go back DOWN into the valley, we got to go inside the glacier. Yes, inside, where the body heat inside was causing the ice to drip all over us and we could touch the walls. It was incredible.

Up close and personal with a glacier

There wasn’t much to do in Chamonix at night, except eat. We experienced what an American Burger was – an enormous beef patty on a huge kaiser roll with lettuce, tomato, American sauce (aka Thousand Island dressing) and French fries. All on the bun. It was delicious.

 

paris.

After spending a few days in gorgeous Germany, we all piled back onto the bus and drove to Paris for the weekend. Turns out, we didn’t really have a reason to be in Paris – there was no company that we were visiting or anything, but it was in between locations and a good place to spend a few days.

After Paul, the director of the program, prepared us how to deal with French boys, we were all eager to experience their persistence and take pleasure in “swatting them away” (as Paul referred to it). On Friday night we made our way to the neighborhood around the Sarbonne, the famous French university, thinking that we would find a good nightlife with other students our age. The clubs are really expensive to get into in Paris, so we found a fun bar and had a drink. They put glowsticks in each drink and that kept us entertained for a while…

Jess managed to collect some extra glowsticks!

We walked back to our hotel to give us a chance to see some more of Paris, and ran into an unusual sight. As we were crossing the street, nearly 400 rollerskaters appeared and took over the street. There were police officers there to make sure everything ran smoothly, and we chatted with some of them. Turns out, the rollerskaters had created a “flash crowd” a while back (people hear about where to meet up via text message and no one knows where until the day of) and had started taking over the streets late on Friday nights. It became a bit disruptive and dangerous for the rollerbladers, so the police accepted that it would happen and have since monitored the event. I managed to capture some of it on video.

Saturday we woke up and decided to do a little sightseeing. We saw Notre Dame, had a baguette and some wine in a park for lunch, and walked around the Seine.

The front of Notre Dame (I think)

Side view of the Cathedral

Standing on a bridge over the Seine

Saturday night we met up with the rest of our group for dinner at the Louvre. After dinner, we took a boat tour down the Seine. I’m pretty sure there was a tour guide directing our attention towards important landmarks, but anytime you put a group of 35 American college students on a boat with countless bottles of wine, you really can’t expect them to focus.

Standing in the plaza by the Louvre before dinner

After the boat ride, we were dropped off at the Eiffel Tower. Since the European Union is celebrating its 10th birthday this summer, the Eiffel Tower was lit up in blue lights. Every hour or so there was a “light show”, when the whole Tower would sparkle for a few minutes. It was incredible to see. I didn’t think the Eiffel Tower would be SO BIG. It stands out even more in contrast to the rest of the buildings in Paris, which are generally not more than 5 stories high.

The Eiffel Tower light show

On Sunday, we all caught up on some sleep and did the last of our sightseeing. I went with a few friends to see the Arc de Triomphe. We climbed the stairs to get to the top. Climbing that many stories of windy staircase without fresh air is a bit difficult, but the view from the top was absolutely worth it (and the €5 it cost to get up there!)

Me standing in front of the Arc

The view of the Eiffel Tower from the top of the Arc

I enjoyed being in Paris, and I got used to saying Oui and Merci (pretty much the only French words I knew) but I was excited to move on and see other parts of France.

heidelberg.

Heidelberg, Germany is about a 6 hour drive from Amsterdam, and I slept for 90% of it! I think the jet lag is cured, but we’re all just so exhausted from traveling around so much! There are 35 kids on this pre-semester program right now, and I think only 10 of them are boys! I thought since this was a business thing there would be more, but I guess that was stereotypical of me.

Everyone is nice, and we have a lot of free time and generally stick together when we explore. Our hotel in Amsterdam was kind of a dump, but was in a nice, safe location. Heidelberg is so small that everything is pretty much safe, and our hotel is MUCH nicer!

After arriving here last night, we went on a walking tour where Paul (our professor) showed us all the good places to eat. There’s a university here so there are a lot of students and people our age. After dinner we went to a club/bar where there were a lot of German students. They were all really nice and spoke decent English, which was good because none of us know any German! (Although I did say Gesundheit to some guy at breakfast this morning!) The music was pretty funny – a mix of Europop and old American music. They played some Backstreet Boys which was a fun throwback to 9 years ago! Then some of the German students showed us the spot along the river looking up at the mountains with gorgeous mansions built on them where there’s a castle behind us. Not kidding – it was like a storybook.

Castle in Heidelberg

A square in the town and some traditional style buildings

Overlooking the river and mountain at sunset

Today we toured the Mercedes plant where they make the huge semi trucks. It was interesting but it went on for wayyyy too long. We spent 2 hours touring the production line and learning about their new paint process. We had the rest of the afternoon free, and hiked up to the Heidelberg Schloss, a huge castle that is on top of a mountain. You can see it from nearly all parts of the city but I didn’t expect it to be so pretty! I took lots of pictures and video which I will add as soon as we get to Madrid and I get my laptop back.

On the hike up the castle...

Overlooking Heidelberg from inside the castle grounds

Inside the castle grounds - making the parents proud with my Diet Coke

I definitely didn’t give Germany enough credit before getting here. It’s absolutely gorgeous and I haven’t encountered any saurkraut yet. We’re having an authentic German dinner in our hotel tonight though, so perhaps that will be included (and I will be avoiding it like the plague). Our hotel is actually a microbrewery also, which is kind of a nice contrast after touring the massive Heineken plant the other day. The smell of brewing and fermenting beer is not pleasant though…

Tomorrow we head to France and will be spending the weekend in Paris I know, I know – such a hard life I have! But for now, I MUST get out of this internet cafe because the owners two small children are SHRIEKING and I can’t deal anymore. Also, this keyboard is messed up – the z and the y are switched and it takes me too long to find any of the punctuation keys. Cheap internet is just not worth difficult keyboards and small children poking me.

amsterdam.

It’s about 5:45 pm here in Amsterdam, and the weather is really nice! It’s such a quaint little city and I’ve definitely walked a lot! We arrived yesterday morning, and it was rainy and overcast and about 60 degrees. Today it brightened up a lot, and we had a chance to explore after touring the Heineken brewery and the Van Gogh Museum.

A residential area in Amsterdam overlooking a canal

The Dutch are apparently the tallest people, and they’re all really fit. Since the streets are so narrow and parking is at a premium, people ride their bikes everywhere. The bikers have the right of way ALL THE TIME, and they’ll run you over if you get in their way! They don’t have to follow street signs and cars and buses yield to them. It’s been quite the experience trying to cross the street with bicyclists coming at you from both directions!

We explored the city last night, but were exhausted from our overnight flight the night before. Tonight is our last night here, and we’re on our own for dinner and entertainment. We’re going to try to find a bar or cafe around to watch the Olympics since none of us have seen a TV since we left on Sunday! (The Dutch are very “minimalist”, and our hotel is just that. No TV, alarm clock, or phone, though there are phone books…?)

We leave bright and early tomorrow morning for Heidelberg, Germany. It’ll be a long bus ride, but if it’s like any other quiet time I’ve found recently, I’ll be fast asleep almost instantly. I’ve taken lots of pictures but won’t have an opportunity to post them until I get to Madrid in about two weeks. I’ll update more in Germany and France

J.

P.S. They have chocolate sprinkles as a topping for toast at breakfast, and they’re the best chocolate sprinkles I’ve ever had.

A street performer we saw who fit his whole body through a toilet seat

Castle at the end of the Canal - it was a great landmark to use to get back to the hotel