This update is long overdue. I hope I can summarize everything that's happened over the past month without writing a novel. Forgive me if it turns into one!

Well, first and foremost, Easter weekend was spent road tripping. A few friends and I (Adam, Kasey, Emily, and David) rented a car, and drove to Vienna, Austria, with a few stops along the way.

We started out on Friday morning, the 5 of us squished into a Jetta, and drove about 7 hours to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a really cute German village in the region of Bavaria. We made several stops along the way, at Dutch and German service stations, and marveled at how lucky we were to have such gorgeous weather: warm, sunny, and not a cloud in sight (this is a real treat for Dutch weather!)

We made pretty horrible time to Rothenburg, as we left later than we had planned, and stopped more often than planned. So, by the time we arrived, we only had a few hours to spare before we had to head on to our hostel in Regensburg (about an hour and a half from Rothenburg).

I'm not sure if it was because it was Good Friday, or because we arrived so late, but the only businesses that were open were restaurants. But that hardly put a damper on our time there. Rothenburg is apparently a very popular tourist destination because of its well preserved medieval old town, which is separated by a city wall that was built in the 13th century. I think we were all just as content in walking around because the city really is like something out of a fairy tale:

One of my favorite things to do in another country is experience the cuisine. We stopped for a sit down dinner before heading on to our hostel, and this being my second time in Germany, I have to say that I'm not a fan of German cuisine. I think it's mainly to do with the fact that there are very few vegetarian choices (which isn't very surprising, but can make things difficult). We probably looked at about 7 different restaurants before we found one with a vegetarian option. But one of my favorite things about Germany has to be the beer (they sure do know beer!), served in 0,5 and 1L units:

After dinner, we continued on to our hostel in Regensburg, Germany... my first hostel experience! I'd always been a bit leery about hostels, but we lucked out by getting private rooms for only about 20 euros per person, with breakfast included! The showers were a bit interesting, but if that was the only downfall, I'd say David good a pretty good job at picking the hostel.

After a much needed sleep, we woke up early to continue on to Vienna, which was about another 400km from Regensburg.

By this point, I started realizing how boring Dutch landscape is in comparison to Germany and Austria. I mean, it's a nice landscape with the farms and windmills and canals. But German and Austrian landscape is just breathtaking. It's so hilly, and green, with little clusters of villages set in the valleys of the hills, with the houses seemingly randomly placed with the red slanted roofs. And once in Austria, at our first rest stop, we realized we could see the Alps in the distance.

Once we settled ourselves in Vienna, our first stop was a Spanish tapas bar for some much needed food, and of course beer (another of my favorite things to do in a new country). Personally, I would have preferred a Viennese cafe, but this was the first place we saw that looked decent. And with the great weather holding out in our favor, it was really beautiful to sit on that patio.

We then decided to rent some bikes and bike down to the Nascht Markt, a market that boasted of food, clothing, antiques and the like.

The bike rentals sounded like a really great deal. The guide book said the first hour of the rental is free, then 1 euro for the 2nd hour, 2 euros for the 3rd, and so on. One of the bike rental kiosks happened to be right next to the tapas restaurant. Unfortunately, it turned out to be more time consuming that we thought, since none of us were registered, and you could only rent one bike per card. Then after 3 of us managed to obtain a bike, the kiosk conveniently decided to go out of service, leaving 2 of us without bikes.

We still had to drop by the hostel (which was within short walking distance), so Emily and Kasey walked, while Adam, David and I rode our bikes, hoping to find another bike kiosk along the way. Well, within about 3 minutes of riding, we realized how crappy the bikes were! Unfortunately, we didn't find another kiosk til we got to the Nascht Markt, where we were finally able to get rid of them.

While Adam, Emily, and Kasey dropped off the bikes, David and I got a head start on the market. Let me tell you: what a disappointment! We still can't figure out why this market got such great reviews. Or maybe we just chose a bad day to go.

The first portion of the market was all food (which is great for locals, but doesn't make much sense for tourists): produce, cheese, etc. Then we finally got to the "antique" part. It was essentially a parking lot filled with junk. Most of the vendors didn't even have tables, so the junk was just in heaps in the ground: dirty baby dolls without eyes, cell phones from 1992, computer chair wheels (yes, just the wheels), portraits of people no one knows, used DVDs, blank CDs without cases, etc. One woman tried to sell me a camera for 70 euros. I might have paid 5.

I felt pretty bad for selling everyone on the market, only to discover that's what it was. Especially because it was already around 5pm at this point, and we'd done practically nothing with the day.

But all was not lost! Kasey had a contact in Vienna, whom we met up with after the market. His name is Harvey, and he was so kind as to give us a little walking tour of Vienna.

He also took us to [in his opinion] the best gelato shop in town (which, I have to admit, I gobbled up in under 5 minutes), then recommended us a couple other nice places to go, one of which was a delicious Vietnamese restaurant we went to that night.

For our stay in Vienna, I contacted a girl on Couch Surfing who was able to host 3 of us. Unfortunately because I couldn't find another couch available for the weekend, we booked a hostel for the two others.

After dinner, we all went to meet our hostess, Tea. She met us near her flat, and took us back, where we all chatted and enjoyed some wine. We all loved her right away. She was so nice and welcoming and hospitable, sharing her own wine, and making us feel right at home in her cute little flat. Unfortunately we were all really wiped from the past couple days, so we went to bed pretty early.

The next day I made a solo venture to Bratislava, Slovakia while the others explored Vienna some more. Bratislava is only about an hour train ride from Vienna, and I knew I probably wouldn't be back in that area before going back to Canada, so I scooped up the opportunity. My first taste of Eastern Europe!

It's really amazing how different two countries can be even when they're right next to each other. Especially the difference between an Eastern European country bordering a Western European country. As soon as I entered the country, I knew it was Slovakia, without even checking my phone. Mainly because of the amount of garbage littered everywhere, and the run down houses along the tracks.

I basically went to Bratislava solely with the intentions of walking around, trying the food, and listening to the language (another of my favorite things to do). The extent of the research I did on Bratislava before I left was looking up the address of the tourist office, and looking into some guided tours.

Once in Bratislava, I made my way to the old town, which is what I was mostly interested in seeing. I lucked out in finding out that there was a deal on this Bratislava City Card, which gave you discounts at several places throughout the city, but also included a guided tour: all for 6 euros! In the end, I totally forgot to use the card for the discounts, but it still beat paying 30 euros for another tour.

Our tour guide was this funny Slovakian girl, who must have memorized the tour word for word because it really sounded recited, taking many pauses to catch her breath. I think I was a little distracted by her awkwardness and accent, but in my opinion, these were the most interesting parts of the tour (mainly because of the story behind them):

That is a normal drinking water fountain, but she explained that every year on Coronation Day (in September, to commemorate the coronation of the kings and queens of former Austro-Hungary), the fountain dispenses wine!

That is Bratislava's most famous statue. Apparently the statue has many different interpretations, but I liked hers the best. She said it depicts a typical Slovakian man: sitting around all day, peering up women's skirts.

Some more of Bratislava:

After the tour, I asked her where to go for the most typical and traditional Slovakian food. She directed me to a place called 1. Slovak Pub, which ended up being a bit of a walk to a not so nice looking part of town (and since it was Easter Sunday, a pretty dead part of town). But according to the website, it's probably the only pub in the world where you get a free bowl of soup for getting an A on an exam!

After deliberating over an almost entirely meat based menu, I finally decided to get bryndzové halušky, which is one of Slovakia's national meals. It's basically potato dumplings that look kind of like gnocchi, with melted bryndza, which is a traditional Slovakian sheep cheese. I gotta say, it was quite good! Really, really filling, though. I couldn't even finish the plate. Oh, and of course I had to try the beer, Zlatý Bažant.

Then it was time to head back to Vienna to meet up with the rest of the group.

The sun was starting to set by the time I got back, so we took advantage of the rest of the daylight by walking around the center, looking at the art and street performances, and browsing the souvenir shops.

Then, at another suggestion by Harvey, we went to this really chic cocktail lounge called Du&Co. It was situated several stories above the ground with panoramic windows, so we had a great aerial view of Stephansplatz (a main square in Vienna), and a gorgeous view of St. Stephan's cathedral right across the way, it's spires all lit up.

After our fancy cocktails, we started to make our way back to Tea's flat, then decided to stop at a small pub we found on a quiet side street. We grabbed a table in a very back corner of the candle lit bar, and drank wine while playing "never have I ever."

After a couple rounds, we finally met up with Tea and her friends, and they took us to an Irish pub. It was this sort of hole in the wall, underground pub. It seemed really dead from the outside, but once down in the basement, there were actually quite a lot of people. I like that no matter what city I go to, you can always count on having an Irish pub to go to.

By this point, it was getting quite late, and we had to be up early the next day to make our way back to the Netherlands, so we only stayed for a couple hours. We all said our goodbyes, as we knew we wouldn't see Tea again before leaving the next morning.

On our last day, we had one last stop to make before home: Mauthausen concentration camp.

One of the biggest things I've been wanting to see while in Europe is a concentration camp. I never even knew this one existed until David pointed it out in his travel guide, and it happened to be right on the way home.

The camp is up on a hill, with a gorgeous view of Austria. And with the weather still gorgeous, it was really bizarre to think that something so horrible happened in such a beautiful place.

We spent a couple hours there, listening to the audio guide, reflecting, and remembering.

Then it was finally time to head "home." Several, several hours later (with many stops, some games, and sing alongs), we were finally back in the Netherlands. It was really hard to believe that our trip was only 4 days, because we crammed so much into those days. We definitely didn't waste a single minute!

Well, it looks like I've already written a novel, and I still have quite a bit more to update you all on. So, for now, I'll leave the rest to another entry, and let you sit on this until then.

This past weekend was the funnest, most random and unexpected weekends I've had in a while.

Kristin, Chelsea and I went to Amsterdam on Saturday with intentions of checking out some tattoo shops and the Richard Avedon exhibit at FOAM, the Fotomuseum Amsterdam.

We had no idea that there was a big football game going on in Amsterdam: the Scotland vs. Netherlands qualifier for the World Cup. We found out from some Scots that 15,000 people flew over from Scotland to watch the game. So, that's 15,000 men walking around in kilts, Scottish flags, and painted faces (like Braveheart). Plus, all the Dutch who were wearing orange, and Dutch flags, and clogs. And some guys were even wearing kilts plus the Dutch colors. One dude was even wearing a kilt, with one clog and one regular shoe.

One man in a kilt tried to eat my ice-cream cone, then offered to trade me the ice cream for his beer.

So basically, our plans to hit up the museum went right out the window.

People were drinking everywhere: on the streets, and outside the pubs. When we wandered over to Dam Sqaure, it was just a sea of people, and stacks of Heineken bottles and cans everywhere. Some guys even had shopping carts full of beer. I think it was about 2pm when we went to Dam Square, and already most of these guys were rip roaring drunk. The police actually barricaded the streets off around Dam Square so cars couldn't drive down the streets.

There was one group of guys we met that were around our age, so we went to this pub with them, and it was really hilarious to just watch them get drunker and drunker. The pub was so packed that most of them had to hang out on the street (there was about 75 people hanging out in the middle of this little side street next to a canal), and they all kept singing these Scottish jigs. Every time a car would try to pass on the street, they would all start singing and slapping the cars. They turned every song into a big thing... like they even all started singing "Doe a deer" at one point (that one I actually knew, so I could join in).

Once everyone started heading to the game, we headed back to Dam Square where the entire area was just littered with bottles and cans.

We decided to stay to wait for our friends who were coming to Amsterdam for drinks, so we went to this pub in Dam Square. It was absolutely packed with Dutch and Scottish football fans, and the pub kept playing traditional Dutch and Scottish songs that everyone sang and danced along to.

Once Adam and Tom and their friends got to Amsterdam we we went to this really chic gay/lounge/cocktail bar. Then we ended up going to play pool til 3am at this pub called "Balls."

So, even though we got back to the Hague pretty late, we still got up early to go on our bike trip. There were 8 of us this time, and our plan was to head to Honselersdijk, Naaldwijk, and Hoek van Holland, then ride along the coast on the way back.

Our first stop was the house my dad was born in. Once we got to Honselersdijk, we found the house pretty easily. I knocked on the door, but no one answered. An older couple a few doors down peaked their head out the door to see what was going on, so I asked them if they knew who lives in #11. Turns out they own the block of townhouses and had just moved out so it could be renovated. As soon as I told the man my dad was born in that house, he grabbed his keys and gave us a tour.

I didn't get many photos because the house still has some of the couple's stuff in it, and I felt like I'd be invading their privacy by taking photos. But the house was actually bigger than I imagined it would be. Two floors, with an attic, a fairly large living area with a small kitchen off to the back, very steep Dutch stairs with worn carpeting leading to the second floor, a couple bedrooms and a bathroom.

I think this old man lived on the same street all his life. He told us that he had 15 brothers and sisters, and they all lived in a townhouse just like that. I can't even imagine where they all slept. Luckily, my dad only has 4 brothers and sisters!

After giving us all a tour, he took me to the townhouse on the end of the street, and introduced me to an old man who had lived on the street since I believe 1913. He didn't speak any English, so the man who gave us the tour acted as translator, and told me that the old man remembers my Oma and Opa, and knows of other Baljeu's living in Honselersdijk. I might go back sometime and see if I can find the other Baljeu's living there.

So, after that was all said and done, we all headed to a pub in the center of town and had some beer and pub grub, and rested up before continuing our journey.

(From left to right, a bit of an introduction: Kristin from New York, Kasey and Emily from North Carolina, Yan from China, Tom, Adam, and Ian from England)

Once in Hoek van Holland, we stopped at a skate park so everyone could play on the ramps with their bikes, and play on the slides. Then we came across a petting farm with goats, sheep, birds, guinea pigs, rabbits, and peacocks. Of course we stopped to pet them, and go "awww" over all the newborn animals. I also had some quality time with a cat that I found. It really made me miss my cats back home.

On the way back to Den Haag we took the North Sea route through the dunes, past rows and rows of greenhouses, and through Kijkduin, a beach suburb of Den Haag.

We were all pretty famished after our trip, so we went to an Italian restaurant near Kijkduin at Emily's suggestion, then to a pub in the center for some more beer. All in all, it was a about a 12 hour day, and I was completely exhausted by the time I got home. But I can't wait to do it all again on our next bike trip.

The weather has been consistently warm lately, and with warm weather comes more biking! Yesterday was the first of [I think] many bike adventures.


It started out with Kristin and I, and a plan to bike to Delft, grab a bite to eat, then bike back. Delft is a cute little town about 15 km from Den Haag, and was a surprisingly short bike ride. I think it only took us about half an hour to get there. We took some back streets, riding through small towns along the way, and along the canal that leads into Delft.

We parked our bikes at the Oude Kerk, wandered around Delft, looked at the Delft Blue Souvenirs, then settled on lunch at this restaurant called Vrij. And also with warm weather comes patios! Unfortunately by this point the sun had completely disappeared.

While we were waiting for our food to arrive, we got a call from a few friends saying they were also on their way to Delft via bike. So the five of us (Kristin, Tom, Adam, Jamie, and myself) ate lunch, then decided to continue our bike journey to Den Hoorn (about 4km from Delft), and then to Wateringen (about 10 km from Den Hoorn).

It was so nice to bike through all these little Dutch towns, looking at all the cute little Dutch houses with red slanted roofs, and the countryside with all the farm animals wandering around in the fields, and to pass windmills and rows and rows of greenhouses. There was one point between Den Hoorn and Wateringen that I thought was really neat, where there were rows of greenhouses on our left, and the highway on our right (many Dutch highways have bike lanes), and then we round the corner to this little side street and there's a farm with chickens and hens wandering around in the road. It's always these little things that make me love Holland.

In Wateringen, Tom's bike chain snapped, and we were nowhere near a tram stop or train station. Since it was a Sunday there was nothing open, so he had to call his dad to pick him up. It sounds like a pretty crappy situation, but we all had a great laugh out of it. We stopped in a frites and ice cream shop for some sundays while we waited, then the four of us continued back to Den Haag on our bikes (which was about another 10km).

Next stop: Leiden!

So, I was on my way to Centraal Station today, and I just had to stop to take a photo:

Spring is definitely in the air!

Today ended my much needed week long vacation. I'm sure by now you're already sick of me saying how fast time is going by, but I really can't believe it's already March. Seems like March 1st hit, and already the days are getting longer (I woke up this morning, and it was actually light out!), and if you can believe it, the flowers are already blooming! Today it was about 9 degrees (Celsius), and sunny. I loved the smell of the fresh air flowing through the house. I really can't wait for springtime in Holland... it's going to be so beautiful!

But, what I really came to blog about is Paris!

Late Thursday night, Chelsea and I board the Eurolines bus from Rotterdam. And I tell you, within minutes of the bus arriving, I knew I'd never be traveling with Eurolines again. First off, it was nearly the worst customer service I have ever experienced in my life. The bus driver basically started yelling at us as soon as he opened the doors. And to make matters worse, he didn't speak a word of English or Dutch, so we had quite a hard time figuring out what he was yelling at us for (turns out it had something to do with our tickets?).

Aside from Chelsea and I, there was also a family waiting at our stop, which the bus driver had a huge beef with. He absolutely refused to allow them on the bus with the package they had. After many minutes of arguing, all the family members except one boarded the bus. The man with the package ripped it open, which ended up being quite a large cake, and tried desperately to give it to random passengers on the street. Finally, a guy on a bike took it, but not before the bus driver tried to pull away without him.

And just to add to that, there was no bathroom on the bus (on a 7 hour trip). Luckily, the driver made a few stops along the way.

We took the overnight bus intending to sleep on the way, so we could arrive early and get more out of the day, but the seats were way too close together to even begin to get comfortable. Surprisingly, the bus ride went surprisingly fast, despite the fact that Chelsea and I didn't get a single wink of sleep.

In the future, I am sticking to train travel. It's faster (compare 7 hours on a bus to Paris, to 3 hours on the train), more comfortable, and not much more expensive if you book in advance. Plus there's always a bathroom.

We arrived in Paris at 6am, and had a couple hours to spare before we were to be at our host's flat, so we took the opportunity to check out the Eiffel Tower. I gotta be honest, it was kind of disappointing! It's much smaller in person, kind of dull and rusty, and since it was first thing in the morning, it wasn't lit up like it is at night.

After that, we made our way to our hosts' flat. We decided to couch surf for the weekend, and were hosted by two French girls, Anne Laure and Marie. After saying our hellos, having coffee, and a bit of a chat, we headed off to meet Emily and her friend Stef at their hotel. Oddly enough, they ended up being on the same metro line, so it worked out perfectly.

While they got ready, Chelsea and I took a walk around the neighborhood to find some breakfast, and settled on a creperie... our first tastes of real Parisian crepes! And let me tell you, I've never tasted a crepe so damn good! They make them with all sorts of toppings and fillings, and fold them into a neat little cone so you can eat on the go. Banana Nutella crepes ended up being my addiction of the weekend.

And then we made our way to the Arc de Triomph. I never knew it was so big! Of course I'd seen photos, but they're always from a distance, and I never took into consideration the size of things near it. I was pretty blown away when we stepped out of the metro station. I was even more amazed when we were actually standing under it, and realized that it's almost entirely carved.

A 35mm lens does almost nothing to capture things of this size.

And then Avenue Champs Elysees, Paris' most famous street, which starts at the Arc de Triomph. The street is most popular for it's high fashion shops, though the only one we stopped in was the Louis Vuitton store.

Emily and Stef went their separate ways, while Chelsea and I headed to Montmarte, which we both ended up falling in love with. It's this really cute, artsy area of town, with lots of cute restaurants, pubs, art galleries and neat clothing and jewelry stores. There were also tons of street artists, selling art or making art.

Montmartre is also home to Sacré-Cœur Basilica, a gorgeous cathedral on Montmartre hill that we took a tour of. And after seeing the amazing view of Paris from the hill, we opted out of the 12 euros it would have cost to climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower. (It's a shame it was such a foggy day, because it really was much more beautiful in person than in the photo).

If there was anywhere I'd want to live in Paris, Montmartre would be it. It just seemed so relaxed.

Even though we were both feeling pretty sketchy after not sleeping for about 36 hours at this point, we had one more stop to make: the Louvre.

I had always been told how humongous this museum is, but I really wasn't expecting it to be the size of a small city. It is just MASSIVE, and ridiculously gorgeous. There was no way we would have been able to survive. We went in, saw the Mona Lisa, and left. The Louvre will be left for another trip.

After a good 12 hours of sleep, we were ready for another day. Our hostesses, Anne Laure and Marie, took us to an Indian restaurant for lunch, then this cute little vintage shop, with goods from the 1930s-1980s. Even though I didn't find anything I wanted to buy, it was fun to poke our noses in everything.

Then we went our separate ways, and Chelsea and I went to check out St. Sulpice (the church where The Davinci Code was filmed), St. Eustache, and Notre Dame Cathedral.

Since we loved Montmartre so much, we headed back for some food (we went to this cute little fondue restaurant), and another much needed to see:

Sunday was our last day, and since our bus left in the afternoon, we only had time to check out one last thing: The Catacombs of Paris. This was Chelsea's suggestion, and I'm glad she put me on the idea because it was the neatest thing we saw.

We walked many steps underground, then walked through long stretches of hallways before we finally reached the bones.

And then there were just bones upon bones. There must have been millions of bones lying there.

So, after more banana nutella crepes, it was time to catch the bus, which we nearly missed. We were supposed to be at the station by 3pm to catch the 4pm bus. We made it to the station at about 3:57pm, and ran as fast as we could (til it hurt!) to the bus terminal. And since we didn't have to check in at the stop in Rotterdam, we had no idea we had to actually register before we could board the bus. The bus driver was not impressed (but at least he spoke English!). Funny enough, the same people from our stop in Rotterdam (with the cake), were also running for the same bus. And of course, the attendant registering us took his sweet time lecturing us about being late.

But, we made it!

It was a pretty eventful weekend, and even though we saw a lot in those 3 days, I still feel like there's SO much more to see. It was totally the unexpected things that made the weekend, though. I think those are always the things that I love the most about seeing a new city. I mean, there's always a little planning involved, but I love stumbling across things that I never knew about.

And now I have to decide where to go to next! But once I do, I'll be sure to let you know! Bye for now!