Sunday, April 15, 2012

one last stop

i officially have one week left in my teaching contract. i am amazed at how fast the time has flown by, especially these last few months. i can't even begin to describe how incredible this experience has been. i have a lot of mixed emotions about coming home; i'm so excited to see friends and family and start new adventures, but at the same time i'm sad my adventure here is ending. i'll no longer be able to up and go to paris or amsterdam for the weekend, i won't be able to take the train whenever and wherever i want, i won't have 2 week vacations every other month, and i won't be able to walk to a patisserie and get a fresh baguette whenever my little heart desires. 

i do have one more european adventure before coming home: croatia. my itinerary is as follows (roughly). 

image from google


i'll be starting in dubrovnik, skipping korcula and heading straight to hvar, then finishing the week in split.  adventure starts on the 21st and lasts until the 28th. ah, the dalmatian islands, cannot wait. i'll be back in lille on the 29th to get all of my luggage and then am heading to paris for the last time. 

happy vacationing!

Friday, April 6, 2012

cruisin

amsterdam. the place that made me feel like a kid again and want to give the world a hug.

the canals were so beautiful, the city was made for bikes, there was amazing food, incredible museums; it was vibrant in every way. 


if you're wondering what an incredible day is like, i'll tell you. we rented bikes. awesome bikes. cruisers. i will most certainly be investing in one in the near future.



we rode for less than 5 minutes before finding a flower market. so pretty; tulips in every color. 


we stumbled across a cheese shop (or two.) who knew holland had such amazing cheese? flavored gouda (pesto, garlic, and red pepper to name a few) and herbed goat cheeses. incredible mid-morning snack. 


post cheese coma, we continued on our bikes. we we having so much fun just riding around the streets along the canals. we must have gone all over the city. we took the typical touristy picture next to the i amsterdam statue before going to the van gogh museum. 



the most expensive museum i've been to in europe, but it was worth it. van gogh was an incredible artist. i could have stared at my favorite paintings for hours. if there was any confusion before as to who my favorite artist is, there is no confusion now..vinny wins.


we finished our afternoon with happy hour at our hostel, had amazing thai food for dinner, then wrapped up our day at a coffee shop in the red light district. 

on sunday we went to the anne frank house. something i'm so glad i got to experience. listening to and reading exerts from her diary, seeing pictures from her life, hearing accounts from the survivors that knew her, you walk through all of the rooms in the house where she and her family hid before they were betrayed during the holocaust. incredibly moving and terribly sad.


go to amsterdam. even the street art is beautiful: