tuxedos, sunshine and germans

Timo and Morten

Vrolijk Passen!  Even though Easter is over..I hope everyone had a nice Easter.  I am jealous my sister got to go eat all my favorite Portuguese food!!  I had a great Easter weekend.  The kids had off of school on Friday so we spent the day painting Easter eggs and I made chocolate chip cookies.  Timo had a fun afternoon outside covering himself in water and playing with water balloons.  Everyone was in high spirits since of course the first day of vacation is exciting in addition to the temperature being well over 70 degrees!!! What more could you ask for?! :)

Friday night I went to Amsterdam and stayed at a friends house.  She lives right next to Vondelpark and her house is massive!!! It was immaculate and so modern, white and clean.  We spent most of the afternoon laying in the sun and kicking around a ball we found.  The weather was around 75 degrees so the park was packed...almost no empty space left to sit.  We left for a little when it started to cool off and went back to get our jackets and set off to buy some wine to go back and sit in the park for the night.  When we finally made our way back to the park we saw a sea of blue lights flashing on the far side from where we were.  Some Dutch girls were freaking out about how we needed to leave NOW and that people were probably murdered but of course the American in us likes to stare at car accidents and watch fights and so naturally we tried to get as close as possible.

When we got over there, I would say there were probably about 60 police on motorbikes, horses and in cars.  The police were all lined up and evacuating the park.  Some guys we asked told us that some drunk people pushed a policeman and his horse into the water and that now the horse was stuck in there.  We saw what looked like a horse being held on the edge of the water.  I just found an article on an English Dutch news website that says there was a fight between about 60 people but doesn't say anything else.

Police on motorbikes and horses intervened following reports that a gang of youths were harassing people, pulling them off their bicycles. When the police arrived, they were pelted with bottles and other objects. Five arrests were made

The next morning my friend Kira and I planned to wake up early to go to Groningen, a city in the north of the Netherlands.  Thursday night my host mom brought up the idea of hitchhiking and asked if I had considered doing it...I hadn't so I mentioned it to Kira fully expecting her to say she would rather take a train but she thought it would be fun!!! So Friday night I spent a few hours researching places to hitchhike from and the direction we should go towards Groningen.  Saturday morning we were off!  We went to a train station just outside of the city and then maybe 200m from the station is an official "liftplaats" which is a hitchhiking spot that had a big sign with a thumbs up on it.  So there we stood with our backpacks, cardboard sign and our thumb out on the side of the road to wait for a ride.  Lots of giggling ensued and we were not sure if we were doing it right...a lot of people were acknowledging us and saying sorry and then a ton of people seemed to be doing some hand signal where they pointed downwards.  We later found out from our first ride that it meant that they were staying nearby and couldn't pick us up.  After maybe 20 minutes or so a nice Dutch man picked us up and drove us an hour north.  He was really nice, spoke excellent English and told us all about his hitchhiking experiences and also about the area we were driving through.  We were dropped off at a rest stop and he told us we would have no problem finding a ride and wished us luck.

So once at the rest stop we felt totally uncomfortable again since we were supposed to actually approach people at their cars and ask for rides.  I asked one man and he just kept saying no over and over.  most of the people in this area were older couples or families with young children.  We ended up standing at the entrance to the rest stop with our sign and after almost an hour someone waved us over and offered us a ride the rest of the way!!  He was a Turkish man who didn't speak a lot of English but I at least knew enough Dutch to make a little small talk and make sure he would bring us the right way.  In the end it was a great experience.  We both definitely want to try and do it again.  I was surprised at how easy it was and how friendly people were.

Couchsurfing friends..Sebastian and Nils

In Groningen we had made plans to meet up with 2 German guys to couchsurf at their flat for the night.  I had contacted them on the couchsurfing website and so we went to get some lunch and then waited for them to meet up with us.  They were both really friendly and brought us to the park where we spent the afternoon laying in the sun and talking with their friends.  There were 2 German girls who actually were au pairs in the States!! One was an au pair in Fairfield so it was really interesting to hear about their experiences living in America compared to our au pair experience here in Europe.  Later that night we bbqed and then went to one of their friends birthdays at her flat.  It was like walking into Little Germany!! There were probably 15 or so Germans all speaking German, it was interesting to hear another language...after we hung out there for a bit we went out to the center and spent the night out there.

The next day Kira and I were on our own and we spent a lazy Sunday in the city.  We walked around a bit, ate a slow lunch outside and then spent some more time laying in the sunshine.  I got home Sunday night around 9 and then spent most of Monday laying outside in the sun...yet again....I am trying to get a nice tan going while the weather is nice just in case it goes bad soon!! So far so good :)

Up next on my things to do is plan a trip to Berlin...and possibly hitchhike there!!! And then this weekend is Queen's Day and I am going to Amsterdam to stay with friends again.  Well tot ziens!

Caroline: Danielle, you're irritating me.
Me: I don't care if I irritate you; you're irritating me.
Caroline: Well I don't care if you're irritating me!
Morten: why did you say that then!
Caroline: a;lkdjf;ladjflakdfjlkajf (literally it sounded something like this)

'Cause her hair was black and her eyes were blue

Well, well well.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Ireland!  Irish people are so friendly and fun...maybe it's because they like to drink so much and so we get along just splendidly haha but seriously I met so many nice, helpful and fun people this weekend in Dublin.  Our flight was somewhat late on Thursday (St. Patty's Day) so we missed the parade and the all day drunkfest but the flight was surprisingly fun!  Tons of people dressed up in green and excited to celebrate St. Patty's so we met a lot of people on our flight...2 of the people we met were 2 Americans studying abroad in Utrecht (about 30 min train from Rotterdam) and we ended up meeting up with them Thursday night again and then Friday for dinner before they left for Scotland.

Car bombs of course

I went with my friend Sarah and our friend Kira was already in Dublin with her best friend from home.  We all met up together for a bit on Thursday but Kira and her friend ended up going their own way and Sarah and I stayed with our two new friends at a pub for the night.  Somehow we managed to find the only people not speaking english and ended up hanging out with 5 Dutch guys for the night.  I was told by 2 guys from Florida that there was just no way that I am American and that I was doing the worst American accent so I definitely wasn't American.  Interesting...

My camera battery died within 5 minutes of starting our day Friday so I will have to steal Sarah's pictures of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Castle and Christ Church Cathedral.  St. Patrick's Cathedral was really pretty outside though..it had a big lawn with ponds and lots of benches.  The weather was GORGEOUS!  We have been so lucky with the weather the past few weeks...it's been in the high 50s so it made it even better sight seeing.  Then we met up with Kira and Brittany and went to the Guinness brewery.  The line was insane but luckily we made friends with the Americans behind us and they bought our tickets on their smart phones so we could skip the line!  Friday night we met up with the 2 other girls and our 2 new friends for dinner.  We went to this place called Flannagan's for some Irish food!  All but one of us got the Guinness Pie which was soooo good!  Sadly, the sauce ended up upsetting my stomach a little while later but regardless it was delish.  Our two new friends (Becky and Sam) were going to Scotland in the morning so we said goodbye to them and then the 4 of us headed off to a different part of the city to try and avoid the crowds of tourists.

We ended up at this pub which was not crowded but we were the only girls it seemed.  At some point Sarah and I went to the bathroom upstairs which was next to the upstairs bar where there was a birthday party.  In the bathroom were these 4 girls dressed wicked trashy in dresses with cut outs and whatnot and all their rolls hanging out. Gross.  Then next thing we know they are snorting coke off the counter...Later on some guy came downstairs and invited us all upstairs...they were celebrating graduating university and had no idea about the birthday party but heard there was going to be a stripper.  So we hung out upstairs for awhile...eventually the stripper comes and she was quite disappointing.  I mean what kind of stripper doesn't actually take off her clothes?!  Happy 21st birthday dude but sorry you don't get to see anything tonight.  So after that disappointment we decided to head off elsewhere and we ended up running into the same Dutch guys again and then went back to Temple Bar (the most crowded, touristy area in Dublin).  Found a cool pub with Irish music upstairs, the other 2 girls left and Sarah and I stayed and hung out with two Irish guys.  Met another Dutch guy who was in love with me...thought I was Dutch so we talked in Dutch for a bit until he started just making faces at me because he was so drunk I don't think he could make coherent sentences anymore.  When he spoke English he didn't really make sense...."do you enjoy Rotterdam with me?"  ummm I don't know what you are asking me..are you asking do I like Rotterdam or do I want to hang out in Rotterdam with you? or something entirely different? and he would just scrunch up his nose and nod his head at me.  Cool see ya later.

Saturday we woke up and I wanted to go see Howth Head which is a peninsula outside of the city.  So we looked up how to get there and it was about an hour bus ride.  We figured that was fine with us since it looked beautiful and we didn't have a whole days worth of sights to see again.  We took the bus up to the summit thankfully or else it would have been almost 10 km I think if we did the full hike.  At the top there was a lighthouse and then one part on the side of the cliff you could climb down.  The water was really blue and the weather was perfect.  Plus, I love hiking so I was in heaven.  Then to get back to the village there is a cliff path all the way around the outside and we went the long way it turned out...I think over an hour later and we were still nowhere near where we wanted to be.  We ended up finding some random road and cutting down off the path to the road and then walked at least another hour.  Finally we got to a place where we could catch the bus back and rest our feet which was amazing after the day of walking.

Trinity College

Saturday night we went out to another pub.  More live music which was awesome.  A lot of the pubs had one guy playing a guitar singing Irish songs and lots of popular songs as well.  It was lots of fun to sing and dance along to and we ended the night with the most amazing pizza ever!  Sunday we had just a little while before we had to catch the bus back to the airport.  We headed to Trinity College.  The Book of Kells is in the library there.  It is an illuminated manuscript in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament and is the world's oldest book.  We didn't actually pay to go in and see it because I am cheap and broke duh.  That was all we had time for Sunday because the buses on Sunday don't run as often and so we ended up with an extra 3 hours at the airport. BOO :(  Flight home was uneventful....some of the same people as on the way there, including a guy from SUNY Geneseo who is a 'Cuse fan (yuck) and then the same Dutch guys we kept running into.

I can't wait to go back to Ireland again sometime.  I really want to go to the other side and see Galway and the Moher Cliffs.  I really can't wait to plan another trip too...anyone with suggestions of places to go see let me know!! I have nothing planned until the first week of July so far.  I am really hoping to go to Edinburgh, Galway, Rome and Prague.  Barcelona would be nice but I am going to Madrid in July so maybe I will do Barcelona next year (that is banking on everything working out with grad school here!).

It's crazy to think I have been here for over 7 months now!  Almost time to go back home but I am really itching to go home.  I miss everyone a lot so as much as I am enjoying it here and I love traveling and seeing new places, I definitely am in need of some time back home.

Sooooooo last Saturday was Carnival!!! In the Netherlands it is mostly celebrated in the south, below the rivers.  The farther south you go, the crazier the party gets.  Me and 3 of my au pair friends (Kira from Oregon, Sarah from Virginia and Tiff from Australia) went to Breda which is only about a 30 minute train ride from Rotterdam.  We met up around 11 on Saturday and had to plan our costumes..totally last minute.  Kira fit into one of her kids Jedi costumes so she was set, Sarah had a masquerade mask and Tiff and I had nothing!  My only idea that seemed plausible with such little time was a toga and Tiff ended up buying a sailor costume.  In the end, all the costumes ended up being pretty good.  We couldn't show up and be the only ones not in elaborate costumes!  Some costumes were hilarious..my favorites were these 4 guys dressed as the Jackson 5 (obviously now only 4...) and pushing around a coffin they had made that said "R.I.P. MJ" on the side and had a little black baby inside. 

It was a big street party.  And so so so much fun!  I wish I could go back in time and do it all over again.  We made so many friends just walking through the streets.  Everyone was drinking, old and young.  We ended up splitting up in the end, 2 of the girls went back home at 8 and Sarah and I stayed until around 10 or 10:30.  We weren't really up for staying out all night which was alright, we had a good day and I came back to Rotterdam.

Monday night I went to the Taylor Swift concert in Rotterdam.  My host parents had given me two tickets for Sinterklaas in December.  My friend Sannia (from South Africa) went with me.  We were shocked at how many guys were there alone and not with girlfriends or other girls.  It was crazy!  And a bunch of older men as well.  I kept thinking there is no way these guys are actual Taylor Swift fans but sure enough as soon as she started playing they busted out their cameras and started singing along.  It was really funny and I spent a good amount of the time laughing at them.  Plus, this one older man was dressed like an American cowboy from a lonnng time ago and he just kept bouncing around dancing like a crazy man.  It was a good concert and a fun Monday night.

It is almost time for Ireland now!!!! I can't wait to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Dublin!  I am going with my friend Sarah and our friend Kira is also going to be there with her friend from home.  I cannot wait to see Ireland!  Then aside from that I am hopefully planning a trip with Kira to Rome and we are going to camp outside the city! Should be pretty sweet if we can work that out. :)

Oreos in Holland don't get soggy as fast or as well as they do at home. Disappointing but oreos with milk are still awesome.

Today is the day I finally rode my bike without hands!!!!!! Needless to say, I was ecstatic.  Timo on the other hand was not so impressed...even though he can't do it either and we have been practicing a little bit on our bike ride to his guitar lessons his response was nothing like mine.  I was riding along and started yelling LOOK AT ME I'M DOING IT! and his response was basically just a very monotone "oh."  Thanks for the support Timo haha but I think that is a difference between Europeans and Americans in general.  Americans show a lot of emotion and get really excited over the simplest of things whereas Europeans are not quite so emotional and I have definitely never seen any European running around yelling out of excitement like I have done so many times.  It is so satisfying and exciting though to be able to ride without my hands!  I had said it was my goal to be able to do it by the time I left and now that I can, I have 5 more months to practice it so that I can ride really far without my hands and be like all the cool Dutch guys I see riding around handless.  I am such a nerd.

Once we got to guitar we decided to have a sword fight.  Timo's sword was the size of a small branch and sadly mine was just a twig.  The fight started off unfair so I had to do the only thing I knew how to win it...act like a crazy person.  It almost always works; no one knows how to react when you go crazy on them and no one can hit a crazy person.  So while I thought I was distracting him with my jumping and weird noises he ended up kicking me instead.  Well played, Timo, well played.

Other than that my life has not had a whole lot going on...I got a package from Tara the other day! A pretty Coach scarf :)  Hopefully she gets her birthday package soon because I am excited to see what she thinks of it!

London Calling

So I am back from London and for some reason STILL catching up on sleep...I didn't even have late nights like I would normally on the weekend but I guess traveling just exhausted me.  Kind of like how Kira's camera battery was exhausted and just didn't want to work :-P

Anyways, I loved London!  At first it was totally strange to hear English all around me...for the past 6 months I have been in a country where I rarely hear English spoken and I haven't heard a lot of English any places I have traveled either.  This was the first place I have been in 6 months where I could understand all the conversations around me and read all the signs; it was a bit of information overload since Dutch is so easy for me to tune out if I want to.  All of a sudden I found myself not knowing where to look or what to actually listen to but I got used to it.  It was really nice to not have the first thing someone said to me be in another language, to not get nervous when I order something and worry about saying something correctly.

I flew on Easy Jet which is one of the cheapest airlines and I can totally see why...the seats were tiny!  On the way there the man next to me was practically on top of me.  People also seemed to be a bit dumber than on other airlines, for what reason, who knows.  I am not sure what it accomplishes when all 100+ people try to stand up as soon as the plane lands.  I mean really?  The person at the window seat has no reason to stand, there is just not enough room in the aisle.  I even saw people taking bags out of the overhead compartment over other people's heads and just shoving them aside to get their stuff as fast as possible.  It would be much faster if people just stopped and realized the most efficient way to get off a plane is for the people in the aisle to go, then the middle and then the window and then the aisle on the other side has their turn.

I got to London late on Friday night and once I met up with Heather I put my bag down at her place and we went for a walk along the Thames River.  Not a lot to see but it was nice to walk around instead of going to bed...I saw the London Eye and the Big Ben from far away and at night the London Eye is red and really pretty.  The next morning I met up with 2 other au pairs from Holland, Kira and Stephanie.   So first, we went to Camden which was this awesome market area full of vintage shops and TONS of food from all over the world.  I think it was one of my favorite parts of London.  On the outside of a lot of the shops were big converse shoes, a plane, and a bunch of other objects.

After Camden we went towards the Big Ben, the Parliament Houses and Westminster Abbey.   They were all really beautiful.  The architecture in Europe is amazing.  London streets are not kind to your feet!! I don't understand how some women walk around in sky high heels..it is just dumb!  Our feet were killing us so we wanted to stop for a coffee but it seems that there is never any restaurants near the big tourist places so we walked awhile more and on the way stopped for some classic pictures inside telephone booths.

Next we were off to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge and again more walking around with sore feet trying to find somewhere for dinner.  We ended up walking quite far which was alright since a lot of the tube was closed for work or something...we wanted fish and chips for dinner and ended up at an Irish restaurant.  The fish and chips were really good though!  Then finally met back up with Heather (who I was staying with) and we went to Covent Garden.  Covent Garden is full of pubs and clubs to go out and lots of street performers.  We watched one guy for awhile and his big trick was to fit his whole body through a tennis racket.  He dislocated his arm which was disgusting to see and then made it like a helicopter and did a bunch of stuff flailing his arm around.  At one point he was trying to get the audience more lively and told them to stop clapping like a bunch of English people at a cricket match and to clap like Americans with feeling and so of course the 4 of us started whistling and yelling really loud and since we were in the front he said "yes, see what I mean! Just like those Americans."

Sunday we woke up to go see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.  The Palace wasn't as beautiful as I was expecting it to be.  It was also just insanely crowded so it was kind of annoying after awhile.  The guards are impressive...I don't know how they keep such a straight face.  I spent most of the time looking for them cracking a smile or messing up..I did see one guy fall behind when they were walking and shuffle to catch back up and another one cracked a smile at one point.

After Buckingham Palace we went to King's Crossing to see platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter.  Sadly, they have apparently moved it from the actual brick wall to just a plastic fake brick wall up against a white one so it didn't look quite as real. :(  I had wanted to go to Abbey Road also but since I had to catch a bus to the airport we didn't have time.  I will have to save that and a few other things for another possible trip to London to visit Heather again! :)  The trip ended with a visit to Chipotle which we were all so excited for!  It was just as satisfying as I was expecting and a good end.  Overall, a great weekend visiting Heather who has left Holland but now I have a reason to visit London and travel the UK with her.