The Village of a Hundred Cathedrales, and where Joan D'Arc was burned

Rouen!
Very nice little town, not much going on here, but I did learn that the big sales in France were starting because many of the shops were closed on the afternoon before to prepare. 
I went out to wander the streets of Rouen, but it was a little...rainy.  And the museum was closed on Mondays...So, I went to a cafe and relaxed there, then hiked back to my couchsurfing host's apt. WAY up at the top of the hill.  Definitely a work out! 
That night we went to Benjamin's music conservatory and listened to a bunch of bands play tribute songs to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, then to the bars after that.

The next day I was going to Paris!
But, before, one of Benjamin's friends offered to give me a mini tour.  I saw MANY cathedrals, apparently they have a lot in Rouen, saw the place where Joan of Arc's trial took place, also got to see where they used to collect the bodies from the Plague and burn them... creepy!

A Cathedrale

And another...

More cathedrales..

The place where they burned plagued bodies!

Some of the carvings in the wood

Grabbed my train, and headed to PARIS!

Ghent, Bruges, a whole new experience w/beer

My hosts! Tim and Marina

So, I was expecting to get a couch in Bruges, but due to my delayed action, an emergency couch request turned up some places in Ghent, and some ppl say Ghent is way cooler than Bruges.  Now I know.
Stayed w/this really cool couple, Tim and Marina, he’s from Belgium, she from Holland.  Very nice ppl. When I got in, they were preparing dinner, which I tried to help out w/a little. It was this delicious Dutch/Belgium version of chicken pot pie.  Mmmmm!  Just what I needed!  Some delicious home cooked food!  That night, we chilled and played some board games, I’m finding I’m playing and learning a bunch of games, I think that is what is missing from my life.

A street in Ghent

To show my appreciation, I made some pumpkin muffins!

The next day, I took the train to Bruges to check that shit out.   It was cute, very old looking…pretty and stuff, wandered around, got a feel for the little village, did some shopping…(I had to get myself a souvenir) And then it started to rain, and a museum sounded like a very good idea!

train ride to Bruges...

Just like the movie In Bruges!

I checked out the Groeninge Museum, saw some things I recognized from art history class, ie. Jan Van Eyck, Durer, Frederick Herling, …It was then getting a little late, and I was getting a little hungry.  I was recommended by my Couch surfing host to go to a real Belgian restaurant, but they were closed, so I passed by this little café and decided it looked as good as any. As soon as I walked in the door, I was bombarded w/ppl talking in English!  It was a pleasant surprise!  The owner of the café was from California and there was another guy there who was originally from Chicago.  We all chatted, I had some lasagna, then the guy Mark, said he was going to another bar, in the center if I’d like to join.  I evaluated the situation, talked to the other women who knew him and said he was a nice guy.  So, we went to a local bar, I got to try some local beer, and then we went to a restaurant and had some food and I got a nice little tour of Bruges by someone who lived there!  Then I went back to the train station to catch the next one back to my home in Ghent.  Only like a 25 min. ride, which was nice. 
Called it a night, because the next day was something to look forward to.
Lots of towns/villages in Europe have celebrations, this particular Sunday was one of them.  The city gave out free drinks, beer, glueweine, vodka, anything from 11am to 1pm.  AWESOME.  If only we did things like this in the States!  Everyone brought food and people just hung out in the square and had a good time!  My hosts brought their ironing board to set up as a table, which worked perfectly!  We had our free beers and then Tim gave me a nice little tour of the city, and some local pubs.  We first checked out the Cathedrale, which was neat, then walked a bit, and found ourselves at a pub!  It was great, I love Belgian beers! If only you could get them for the same prices in the States… We saw lots of Ghent, and lots of pubs, a very proper Belgian experience.

Morning in Ghent!

The PACKED square

singing the song of Ghent!

A nice little pub, and an old man who decided to chat w/us

Mmmm, a good local beer!

This beer is my favorite tho! the Reinaert

Headcheese! so good!

That night, still buzzed from the day, we had mussels! Which were very good, and then off to bed, after sampling another Belgian beer. This one, was a holiday version of a typical beer.  Now, to bed.
I woke up early the next day to find my way to Rouen!!
I had no idea how complicated it would be.
Went to the train station, 75 Euros to take a train to Paris, uhhh, I don’t think so.
Bus=21 Euro, ok. 

Bus to Paris!

So, in order to get to any small town you  have to go through big towns.  From Ghent, I had to take a train to Brussels, then a bus from there to Paris, and then another train to Rouen.  A long day of travel. 
Arrived in Paris, got off the bus, only to immediately realize I did not have my phone!!! Went straight back on the bus, looked around, no phone!!! Asked ppl in my broken French if they had seen one, “J’ai perdu mon telephone! trouvez-vous…?”  to no avail. 
Took the subway to the train station my couch surfing host recommended, thank god, I got that message at least!  And from there got a train to Rouen, found a McDonalds, the only place open w/wifi, and skyped my host to come get me!  We met up, and Benjamin was very nice, we walked around, mini-tour, went to a bar, had a beer to relax and then home.  Now, I will go check out the city of Rouen!

Last day in Amsterdam

Once again, I'm moving around and switching cities like crazy.  But I'm falling into the groove of it, and it's becoming quite comfortable!   I'm relaxing more, understanding that I just am there to experience a new place, and enjoying it is all that is required.

The only wood house in Amsterdam

The most quaint little area in A-dam, a bunch of nuns used to live here, but the last one died in the 1970s

Rainy, rainy Amsterdam

So, quite a few days ago, I was in Amsterdam, Alex and his friends had left and I was there to explore the city...still an amazing place. Took the free tour, which was interesting, learned some stuff that was new, like all the hooks that hang from the tops of every house=they are for raising furniture up, to bring it through the window.  And the buildings, many are leaning forward to prevent these large items that are being pulled up from crashing into a window.  And the Red Light District, surrounds a church, where, way back when, the sailors came in from the sea and had their fun w/the ladies and then confessed all their sins at the church.  There wasn't much time, so the location was important!  During the tour, I met this Austrailian girl, really nice, but talked a bit too much, half way thru the tour I was about to leave bc of her annoyance...and I'm a pretty patient person, but she just decided to randomly throughout the tour give me little insights into her life. About everything.  After the tour, the guide suggested a Dutch restaurant, me, this Australian girl and two other Aussies decided to warm up, bc it had rained throughout the entire tour and it was cold. Time  to warm up w/some tasty Dutch pea soup!  The other two Aussies were really cool, wish I could have spent more time w/them!
On to Brugges! (or so I thought)

Waiting at another train station... To Ghent!

A-dam, round 2

The Dom

I met some chill people in both my car rides from Munich to Amsterdam. The first leg of the journey took me to Cologne, which was a very cute little town, just like all the rest, but with the Dom, or giant fancy church. 

a postcard

I was then going to catch a ride from there to A-dam, but that got canceled and my amazing friend Gregor found me a new one from Dusseldorf!  Which was also a small cute village, I did not really get to check out bc it was dark and I didn’t feel like walking around anymore w/my pack!  So, I chilled in a Starbucks for my next ride at 7pm.  I found her little Toyota Yaris right out front of the train station and it was just the two of us in the tiny thing, which was good!  Alex was really cool, she was studying in Amsterdam at an international school for physical therapy and was just heading back from her winter/x-mas break.  We had a great chat for the 2 hour car ride, it’s funny the topics that come up w/complete strangers and how in depth and intellectual some conversations can become!  At the end of the drive, it felt like we were friends!  She dropped me off at the Amstel station and I took the underground to my hostel-which took longer than expected bc A-dam is confusing!  Found it and went to bed. 

Alex and I

Next day met up w/my friend Alex from NY.  He was traveling a bit w/some friends for a little over a week and just so happened to be in A-dam too!   We hung out and went to the Van Gogh museum, which is totally interesting bc it’s none of the good stuff, all the great paintings are in NY or somewhere else.  There was even a new temporary sign that said four more paintings (the really famous ones, that everyone has seen ie. The bedroom one, and the blue flowers w/the yellow background) had just been relocated to Tokyo.  Perfect.  But some of the other stuff was pretty cool, the way one brushstroke could become a flame in the field, and the intensity of some of his earlier work.  You got to see the progression of him as an artist, and it was strange to think he never sold anything.  Never became famous in any way when he was alive.  It was almost like, who and why did someone all of a sudden decide to make him famous?  Why were some of his works considered more valuable than others?  So many questions.  One part of the biography that I found funny, was he cut off his ear, “during a heated argument w/Gauguin”   Oh!  That’s why he cut off his ear!  Haha, it was funny the way they place the reason on an argument, makes you wonder how much they really know, or how much is fictionalized.  …We will never know!

No pictures in the museum, so this will have to do...

i am-sterdam

pretty city

The most exhuasting NYE I've ever had.

The 2 hour car ride to the bottom of the mountain

on the 2 hour hike up the mountain

Along the way...

This New Years, I knew we were going up to a cabin in the Alps with a bunch of people.  But I had no idea it was going to be a 2 hour hike up the mountain to the cabin.   It was great anyways, there were 15 of us who were going to be staying there for 2 1/2 days.  Although the way up nearly killed me w/no breakfast, we made it and feasted once we arrived. There was plenty of food and beer awaiting us once we got there.  It totally felt like camping but in a really nice tent (the cabin), but there was no running water and the toilet was pretty much an out-house.  It was awesome, no technology to distract us, all we had were card games, Risk, and drinking...It was excellent.

We finally reached the cabin. Exhausted and starving.

snack time

The first night we played some games inside, the guys made an ice/snow bar outside and that night we hung out at the ice bar drinking hot glueweine....mmmmm.

glueweine!

The next day we went sledding.  And I learned that I have been missing out, throughout my entire childhood, that I had never gone sledding on a wooden sled! BEST THING EVER.  SOOO much fun, until you get to the bottom after a ten minute ride and realize you have an hour to walk back up again. But totally worth it.

(this was also a pic taken on the way up)

Our mini sledding crew

From the top.  We were above the clouds!  (looked like Greece, but instead of ocean it was air)

faked action shot, but really, it was amazing.

On our hour hike back, the cool lookin sky.

A break at the top, before going half way down again to retrieve a sled.

Almost home.

That night was NYE.  We played more card games to entertain ourselves, and then had Feuerzaugenbowle= Glueweine with a rum soaked sugar cone over it that you set on fire.  Pretty cool.  We set off some fireworks and had plenty of sparklers, it was great!

Our pre-NYE dinner of potato & beef soup

The ice bar, 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Great people!

Our last day there we spent cleaning up the cabin and relishing the greatness of the past day/eve.  And then the best part: the ride down.
The guys that brought our luggage up said they might be there at 12 to take it back down... but that did not happen.   We had to pack all of our shit onto the sleds and carry it down w/us.  It was hilarious, a bunch of the guys got together and created a makeshift bobsled.  Hahah, it was great, one of the guys attached it to his sled to carry a bunch of bags down.  It was great seeing everyone attempt to get down w/their luggage.  But we made it!  All in one piece, no one hurt!  Exhausted, hungry and ready to get back to civilization.  I think this was the best way I could have spent my New Years outside of Steamboat or NYC. 

Some of the luggage packed.

Ridiculously gorgeous views

Part of the caravan, beginning of the way down.