ROSE OUT

off this morning for my 2 week camping adventure with my sister and her rockin family. Arizona desert, make way for RoseGrab. just hoping the freezing nights / daytime dust storms dont eat me alive

prob wont be blogging while away, so see yall in 14 days

going to seattle etc etc

This morning I go to Seattle to my sister Hol's place and Saturday she, her hubby, her daughter, her dog, and I drive off to Arizona for 2 weeks. holy cr*p

yay for travel/family/etc!

The final tally on my trip to Europe

3 belgian waffles
+ >15 belgian chocolates
+ >10 belgian beers
+ 3 nutella crepes
+ 2 ham and cheese crepes
+ 4 french ice creams
+ 3 dutch ice creams
+ 2 belgian fries
+ 5 french pain au chocolates
+ 4 lucious croissants
--------------------------
4.5 pounds of weight gain.

and I loved every bit of it

I'M BACK

and now to sleep

so tired

today is my last day in europe... we came to brussels and walked around a bit, went to a few museums (the Musical Instruments Museum is great - they give you headphones that track what instruments you are near and plays music from that instrument in your ears) then bought some chocolate and saw the Atomium

now we are chilling out because our feet/legs/minds are TIREDZZZZZZZZ

back to boston tomorrow!

ps i am in love with warm belgian waffles. more precicesly, liege waffles (mmmmmmmm). I may have to buy one or two or eight for the plane ride home

IN BRUGGES

This is quite possibly the most tourist-filled town in Europe. I cant even imagine what it is like in the summer.

At least there are waffles everywhere! and it IS super cute. This morning we hit up two flemish art museums, a Frites shop, a brewery tour (with a beer-happy-ending,) a waffle shop, and a diamond museum. Now we are off to the bell tower and chocolate museum :)

In Brugges/Brugge/Bruges/Bruggen/Brugha

The low countries are super weird

Juliet and I have been busy soaking up every gram/centiliter of our travels that could be possible so we havent really stopped to check in on the interweb. For now I'll just write my general impressions of my trip P.P. (Post Paris)

ROTTERDAM
A weird city. I felt like I was inside an IKEA. There were people biking EVERYWHERE and all of the buildings and furniture were super functional and modern. Also, everyone had cool glasses.

THE HAGUE (Den Haag)
Similar to Rotterdam but a little cuter. Juliet's friend Bobby took us to a great bar there were I had several DELICIOUS belgian beers... a good precursor to my later travels.

AMSTERDAM
*edited for content*

ANTWERP
We stopped here for a few hours on our way from Amsterdam to Bruges. I got a waffel which was HEAVENLY. I mean, seriously delicious. We walked through the diamond district (it was kind of sickening and monotonous after a while) and went to a fashion museum and a printing museum. We got to see a 500-year-old printing press with Ethiopian, Syriac, Hebrew, English, Dutch etc etc lead type letters. And we got to see a Guttenburg bible. AREN'T YOU JEALOUS?

BRUGES
super small. I cant believe how tiny this town is. But it is cute... kind of like a medieval disneyland. we're exploring it more fully tomorrow, but for now at least I've eaten Mussels (not in Brussels, but maybe I'll do it there too)


Some general observations:
...belgian beer is good
...H&M : Belgium/Holland :: Starbucks : USA
...the dutch have a super funky taste in glasses. and I like it
...flemish/dutch sounds like gobbeldygook
...I might subsist my last two days here on waffels, fries and chocolate. might. maybe. probably.

holland

all i have time to say (on the 3 minutes left in the internet cafe) is that Holland is WEEEEIIIIIIRRRRD

Paris day 4 - versailles, marais, picasso

I am SO behind so here is the quickie summary:

I spent Friday morning going to Versaille. it is in the top 100 world places to visit by a famous travel writer and so I thought i should go. to emphasize how huge this place is (palace and gardens) let me just say that the circumpherence of Versaille is the same as the width of Paris.

It was quite breathtaking, in a literal sense. I had never gasped at a view before but... well, this was breathtaking.




I saw the general gardens, then the palace, then Marie Antoinette's fake country-side estate. WELL worth th 20 Euros

PALACE
I felt like I was going to puke from all the opulence.
the people of france must have suffered quite a lot for Louis XIV to have lived for him. I hope he enjoyed himself!!


MARIE - ANTOINETTE
Her estate felt kind of like if Walt Disney decided to make an "18th century french-countryside" section of disney world. It was weird, but amazing. And I was blessed with amazing weather. god loves me.

I then met up in Paris with Sam to see the Morais area for a little bit... kind of Old Skool paris.

We walked by the Notre Dame on one of the Seine islands and then went for drinks of champaigne near our hotel. a very french day, only in the best way!




Lastly, we decided to meet up with Sam's friends from texas to drink a bottel of wine under the Eiffel Tower. I have never seen so many mosquitos in my life... not actual mosquitoes, but annoying men trying to press glow-lighted fake Eiffels for only 1 Euro in our hands. Anyway, it was quite enjoyable :)

ohhhhh it hurts

my stomach is so deliciously filled, it feels like it is going to explode chunks of butter and chocolate


most delicious dinner ever last night

Paris day 3 (part DEUX)

I am in my last day in paris and I'm only up to writing about the second part of day 3... my blogskilz are crusty

So after we saw the 360 landscape from the Arc du Triomph, we decided to walk about 15 minutes to a beautiful little parc in the northern part of Paris called Parc Monceau. It was beautifully green and had a crepe stand in the middle (which, of course, was essential.) We tried laying on the grass in the sun but got yelled at, so we lay on benches in the sun instead. It was quite peaceful after all the walking we had done that morning.

We decided to transplant ourselves to another parc where there would be better chairs and better people watching - back to the Jardin de Tuilleries near the Louvre. They have these great semi-reclining chairs (which are one of my favorite things about Paris) that we sat in for maybe 2 hours.

At one point a man with a small backpack came up to us and, in French, asked if he could give us a foot massage demonstration. We declined. He said "even if it is free?" Again, a big NO. He then proceeded to circle the parc looking for more young women to offer foot massages. I snapped a pic of this guy because I never ever want to forget that quaint Parisian moment.

This was a Thursday and Sam had figured out that Thursdays after 6 the Musee D'Orsay (the other super-famous Paris museum across the river from the Louvre) is free for under 26 year olds, so we got there at 5:55 and scooted right in. The D'Orsay is a converted train station and has a BEAUTIFUL open sculpture area in the center. It also has a lot of Monet works which were pretty neat to see side by side, comparing the same view at different parts of the day. Not a bad way to spend an evening.

We went to dinner in a cute restaurant in St Germain where Sam desperately wanted to get the molten chocolate cake... and where, at the end of the meal, they sadly told us that they did not have it that night. It was quite sad, but they were nice and told us to come back the next day to get it. Not that we would, but it was sweet of them.

You'd think that after that packed day I would want to take a break, but no, I had the most crazy day of all planned for Friday... I'm a glutton for travel punishment :)

Paris day 3 (part UN)

Things have been busy enough that I havent been as faithful to you my dear readers... but here is some catch-up

I wanted to hit up the Louvre since I did not see it when I was in Paris with my orchestra. I got there just after they opened, which turned out to be VERY wise.

I walked straight to the Mona Lisa to beat the crowd, so by 9:20am I was in front of it. It was in a HUGE room and had, literally, an entire wall to itself. It was also roped off so that you couldnt get closer than 15 feet. Honestly, it was so far away that I didnt feel like it even was worth seeing.

Despite that, I LOVED the Louvre. It was only 9 euros to get in, and I thought it was worth that fee just to see the building (it is HUGE HUGE HUGE and very beautiful, since it used to be a palace.) My favorite parts were the Italian paintings, the large format French paintings, and the Napolean III Apartments objects d'arte (furniture, palace rooms, etc.) I was very excited to go to the "Greco Ceramics" area which looked HUGE on the map, but when I got there that Gallery was closed. WTF.

I thought it was SUPER cool that there were real artists sitting there with big canvases spending hours meticulously copying some of the works. Right on, my artsy friends, right on.

I left the building through the giant IM Pei glass pyramid in the center. I kept looking for the tiny matching pyramid that was supposed to be pointing down underneath (a la The Da Vinci Code) but it wasnt there. Was it supposed to be??? Silly fiction novels.

After the Louvre, I met up with Sam in the Jardin de Tuilleries which is connected to the Louvre area. There were these weird outdoor sculptures with hands in all sorts of positions... I felt an odd sort of kinship with them.

The Tuilleries is also at the base of the Champs Elysees, which we walked that afternoon. The Champs Elysees reminded me a lot of Newbury Street in Boston, and I was suprised that it was just as short. It led us up to the Arc de Triumph (apparently this day became the Major Sights of Paris day for me) which we paid a few euros to climb. KIND of an amazing view of Paris

So, that got us to the early afternoon. I'll write more later - it's time to go out for wine and dinner on the town :)

late nights

Last night we met up with Sam's friend Haley from college, a really nice girl living in Lyon right now. I wanted to write something brief about the day but Sam just said "there was nothing brief about last night." hahaha

Summary:
Breakfast at a french bakery
Lunch at a british bakery
Afternoon sitting at a cafe on Montmartre people watching (hil-AR-ious!)
Dinner at an Italian restaurant in the Morais
Drinks at an Irish pub in St Michel
Dancing at a club called Wax in the Bastille area

About the dancing... I'll just say, I did not expect the French to be so completely sketchy and aggressive. Uh... yeah.

Quickie

quick update

-the Louvre is Amazing. Amazing.
-Somehow the French know I am American even when I keep my mouth shut and innocently walk down the street. Wtf.
-Versaille is Also Amazing. I walked literally 6 miles around the palace and gardens. and my calves are not thanking me.

Full deets coming later

Paris DAY 2!

The nice thing about moving 6 time zones is that it lets you sleep a whole night-and-a-half at once in order to get adjusted.

The bad thing about moving 6 time zones is that your body says "I dont THINK so, honey" and wakes me up at 3 AM!!!

So I woke up at 3 am and basically sat in bed until 9:30 when Sam arrived. We went and got breakfast (chocolate croissant and a cappuccino - delic) then moved our luggage to the hotel we got together in the Latin Quarter.

After wandering for a few hours around the St Germain / St Michel area we made our way up to the Isle de la Cite - the small island in the middle of the Seine were the Parisii people first inhabited the area a few thousand years ago. Now it is full of tourist shops. Yay progress!

The Notre Dame was pretty nice, though I am still "cathedraled-out" after seeing more than a dozen in Spain last year. The weirdest thing was wooden columns with french-style covering (pastel fleur de lis) that didnt QUITE fit in with the gothic stoneware. Worth going to visit, though, because the area was nice and admission to the general areas was free.

We then walked over to the Marais area on the right bank, an area described as "gay," "jewish," and "chic" - all at once. One building there reminded both of us of a special structure in Washington DC... brownie points to any of you dear readers who recognize it.

We headed out to Happy Hour (yes, they have Happy Hour here... of course, the "h" is not pronounced) at a VERY cute wine bar on the Seine, where one of the waitresses started playing jazz piano after a few minutes. =awesome. it was such an adorable atmosphere, with only 5-6 tables and 5 feet of bar space. I felt quite parisian, minus being UBER awkward trying to order anything.


(WARNING: Juliet, DONT READ THIS PART)
Finally around 9:30pm (we are in Paris, after all) we sat down to dinner. I decided to go wild and get tartare de boef... I was expecting the raw cubed beef in a mayonaise-type sauce that I've seen in the states. Instead it was a giant patty of raw ground beef with an egg yolk on top. Like woah. My vegan sister Juliet MIGHT not approve...

(OK JULIET YOU CAN READ NOW!)

Paris is kinda cool, I'll admit.

Paris, Day 1 (part Deux)

And now (that I have full access to Sam's powerbook,) a full description of Les Adventures avec Rose et Sam

I left Boston Monday night on a 6pm flight from BOS-->MAD then MAD-->CDG. The flight to Madrid was just too early to lend itself to sleeping, and my layover in Madrid was delayed from 2 hrs to 4. So I didnt really get to sleep until 11AM madrid time (5am boston time,) accruing about a hour and a half of total sleep for me that 'night'

Madrid Observation #1:
I know WAY more spanish than french. I was listening to a 'learn french' mp3 but hearing people speak spanish all around me, and got QUITE confused.

Madrid Observation #2:
Spanish (and later, I learned, French) teen girls really really love those tourisy "I [heart] NY" shirts. And ankle boots.

Upon arrival in Paris, I went to the train area to catch the rail into the city. after about 15 seconds of struggling with the ticket machine, two german business men approached me and offered to me their daily pass for the metro. Thank you, Germany, for saving me 8.20 Euros!

I took the train to the Jardin de Luxembourg station, where there were a LOT of very loud kids. As I discovered at street level, they were all there to join a protest. I have no f*ing clue what they were protesting, but it was fun to watch.

The street with my hotel was QUITE charming, just outside the Jardin. The room was tiny at best, but that's what I get for 55 euros/night. The best part was the chain-flush toilet, though now I know that is not so uncommon.

By that time it was 3:30 pm and I hadnt eaten since 7. But the jet lag and excitement was my upper, and I decided to walk around the area. I walked for more than an hour and a half and saw only 1 starbucks, and had dinner at a crepe card (un crepe avec fromage et jambon, sil vous plait)

I kept walking, thinking I knew were I was, but then all of the sudden saw the Eiffel tower not too far away. Like woah. Nothing like the best-known symbol of a whole country to tell me that I was going exactly the opposite way I thought.

I made my way back and wandered into the Jardin de Luxembourg to sit and relax. Quite a cute park, though there was little by way of grass.
There were, however, tons of cute chairs all around the fountain in the center. I sat back, took out my iPod, and turned on some MC Solaar (french R&B) and dozed off for a few minutes. I also people-watched... do you see the couple making out in the corner of this last picture? Oh, Paris, how cute you are!

I was in bed by 6pm and fell asleep to the sound of a french child playing with his mom in a courtyard. Of course, jet lag is evil and I woke up at 3am. At least it let me mentally prepare for Sam's arrival this morning :)

Paris, Day 1 (part Un)

Only have time to highlight my first day... all I will say for now is that being in France has made me realize how much Spanish I know.

More to come later when Sam conks out and I get to commandeer her computer for picture downloads.

also, best quote so far, as Samantha and I were discussing our post-plane acne breakouts...
Sam: "I always break out in the same places. [points to cheek] I think this one is because I drool in my sleep"