As some of you might already know, the French are all about doing as little work as is humanly possible. This is why they give their students not only a two week spring break in April, but also a week off in the middle of February to go skiing and whatnot. Being that I attend a French university, I am entitled to both these vacations, and given that the school is practically always on strike, I'm not really a student for all intents and purposes. Thus, for the past 10 days, I have been traveling around northern Europe with a small group of friends. We decided northern Europe is a better idea because the weather sucks pretty much everywhere in Europe right now. So it's best to save southern Europe for when it will be really nice there and only "meh" in the north. The following locations were chosen; London, Dublin, and Amsterdam.
On February 13th, I and four others hopped on a train in Montpellier on our way to Marseille, a much larger city on the Mediterranean. We had a couple of hours to kill before we had to make our way to the airport, so we walked along the seaport and found a place to eat on the water. If you've never been in southern France when it's 60 degrees and sunny right next to the sea, you really need to get your head in the game and haul your ass over here. It's breathtaking to say the least. Good thing I live on the Mediterranean or I would have been much more sad having to leave so quickly.
We then bussed to the airport in Marseille to have our first Ryanair experience. For those of you who have not experienced this wonderful little detail of European travel yet, Ryanair is a really friggin cheap airline that flies all over the place. All in all, it's not a bad deal. You learn real quickly how they can afford to keep their prices so low when the minute you climb on board they're making advertising announcements for Hertz or shoving scratch and win tickets in your face. Note to the future Ryanair user: Put on your IPOD and ignore all of this. You are not obliged to buy shit from them, and I'm pretty sure the staff thinks that those who do are stupid. All in all, it's not a bad deal. Baggage restrictions are a little tight, but you shouldn't be traveling around Europe with more than you can fit on your back anyway.
London is baller....enough said. Okay, maybe that's not quite enough. But really, it's baller. Hostels, on the other hand, not so much on the baller scale. The one we stayed at was pretty filthy, cramped, and smelly. However, you could drink in the lobby until all hours of the night if you wanted to. We only took advantage of this once, however. The rest of the time we spent rolling through London being all stellar and shit. Of course I saw all the normal things to see in London; Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the like. Two highlights, however, were the British Museum and the London Eye. The British Museum is entirely made of artifacts. There aren't really any paintings whatsoever. While there, one can see the ACTUAL Rosetta Stone. Believe it or not, it's not just some random name for the rip-off program that "teaches" you foreign languages. The London Eye is that gigantic ferris wheel that you've probably seen in some movies before. It's an amazing view of London, and is definitely something not to miss (this is starting to read like a travel guide...sorry). Also, the tube is great fun...as long as you mind the gap.
Monday night, it was on to Dublin, the land of Guinness and Jameson. Believe it or not, the Irish do really seem to play these two things up as the most important aspects of Dublin. Our hostel here was much better, although the bedroom did smell worse than the bathroom. I'm still not quite sure how that works...
Immediately upon getting in, I met my friend (and future roommate) Jessica, who is studying abroad in Dublin and interning with the Irish Parliament (SWEET). We went out to a bar and drank...that's right, you got it....Guinness. The next morning we went to....oh wait, what was it???? OHHH YEAHHHH The Guinness Factory. Guinness was abound, needless to say.
Wednesday, we all decided to take this tour of the countryside in southern Ireland. Now generally, I despise tours with every fiber of my being. Most of them are inauthentic, and you spend half the time listening to information about a place when you could be taking it in for yourself. So obviously, I was skeptical going into this. I realized it was going to be a killer tour the moment I saw the tour guide and the automobile we would be taking. Usually, when one thinks of a tour, the words coach bus and charismatic asshole with a microphone come to mind. This however, was a very old Irishman named Ed and a van. Ed reminded me of the father from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, only Irish. As the father in the movie could prove that every word in the dictionary comes from Greek roots, Ed could basically prove that everyone in the world was Irish in some way, shape or form. Besides bringing us to some sweeping Irish landscapes, he also gave us tea and cookies with a view of both Bono's and Enya's houses. Believe it or not, Enya's was way bigger. It was also castle style. Way to go Enya. However, I imagine Bono has one or 17 more houses around the world. (see pictures on facebook of this tour...totally worth it).
And now for the part we've all been waiting for. How to most efficiently get attacked by a prostitute in Amsterdam. It's quite simple really. Merely, take a picture of her (or him...you never can tell). No no no, this did not happen to me. However, it did happen to one of the girls I was traveling with. Despite having talked about not taking pictures in the red light district earlier that day, she decided that she could snap one photo of a red light and no harm would come. Well upon snapping this one photo, a very large, possibly spanish prostitute came dashing out of her window onto the cobblestone street in nothing but an ill fitting bra and some stilettos. She moved pretty quick for someone of her size. It was really quite surprising. I was about thirty feet ahead when I heard her yelling "OY OY (random babbling in some language)". I whipped around and saw my tiny friend Joan wrapped in the clutches of this woman's arm fat struggling to get her camera back. She fought all the way into the brothel (something I'm not sure the hooker was expecting). This all happened too quickly for anyone to realize what was happening, let alone do anything about it. The rest of us stayed right at the window to make sure they didn't do anything to her. The two hookers inside were really just looking through her pictures with angry ho scowls on their faces. Anyway, they let her go with her camera shortly after. Joan took it like a champ. To be honest, I would have just let them take the camera.
We didn't go back to the red light district, and with good reason. The rest of Amsterdam is really quite beautiful. The Van Gogh Museum is life-altering and tragic all at the same time. Starry Night was there on loan from the MOMA. I'm not going to lie...it was way better in person than it is on all those bad prints you see around the world. Also, if you go to Amsterdam, never pay for public transportation. They have no mechanism to check, and it seemed like hardly anyone was paying. Don't blame me if you get caught, but we rode it a lot and no one ever seemed to care.
We got back home today. This was easier typed than done. We woke up at 7:00 am in Amsterdam and got on a tram (free of course). This we took to the Amsterdam Centraal (that's how they spell it in Dutch...pointless extra A if you ask me) train station. From their, we got on a train to Eindhoven. In Eindhoven, we took a bus to the airport. We got on a 12:55 pm flight to Marseille. From the Marseille airport, we took a bus to the Marseille train station across town. Then, we got on a train back to Montpellier, arriving at 6:15. And what did you do today, might I ask?
Really, there are too many details to write down. So please don't hesitate to ask if you want more.
Cheers!
(PS...I typed this up in a hurry. Please ignore grammar/spelling/awkward wording mistakes...in fact this goes for every entry in this blog....please and thank you)
