all about germany!

Ok, blog time, finally. I've been meaning to do this for days but there was always some reason that I didn't; mostly, I've just been too tired to devote the time to it. But I really am going to try to be more consistent about posting, I promise. On that note, I've posted some new photos, which you can see here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elizaswift/sets/72157624936887689/

It's been a crazy five days and there's so much to tell! But, of course, I'll start from where I last posted, which was Berlin. So after our long, crazy day of train rides, we arrived in rainy and cold Berlin around 7:10 pm. We stayed at the BaxPax Downtown hostel, which was probably the cleanest and nicest hostel we've stayed in so far (although the one in Amsterdam was still the most fun.) We went out for a birthday dinner at a cheap Indian restaurant around the corner. Back at the hostel, we made friends with a group of Swedish guys, who invited us out with them for the night. We met them at an oddly tropical-themed bar and the restaurant gave me a free birthday drink. It had sparklers in it! Terrified me quite a bit, and tasted like it didn't have any alcohol in it. We went to another bar after that restaurant closed and we were out until quite late in the night (like...4 am? yikes.) I had a couple cool conversations about our respective countries with the Swedes. For instance, they told us that smoking marijuana is considered so bad in Sweden that their families would disown them, and they would stop talking to friends that did it. (This conversation came up because they were on their way to Amsterdam.) One guy told me that he was appalled by America's arrogance, but admitted that he thinks the U.S. is the best country in the world—"I just don't want you *knowing* that you're the best, that is horrible!" Another couple interesting things I learned about Sweden: they do not eat the Swedish fish candy and they have never seen the Swedish Chef. They were very offended by our "borgity borg" impressions.

The next day, we were very surprised when we slept until almost 12 pm; we've been getting up at 8:30 almost the entire trip. We groggily cleaned ourselves up and headed toward Unter den Linden, a large boulevard in Berlin that a lot of tourist stops are near. Imagine our surprise as we get closer and closer to the boulevard and it gets louder and louder—the Berlin Marathon was going straight down the middle of it! We'd been seeing people in these green Adidas rain ponchos for the past two days and wondering why...if only we'd looked closer and seen "Berlin Marathon" printed all over them! So the big thing for us to see at Unter der Linden was the Brandenburg gate, which was very pretty. It was the first time in the trip that I've really felt the weight of the history around me, especially when I saw some old photos of the boulevard that were taken at the Nazi rallies that had been held there. From the gate, we headed to the Holocaust Memorial, or as the official name goes: "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe." Pretty blunt, eh? At the outside, the memorial didn't look like very much, but as you walk further into it, the ground goes down until you're walking underneath these huge pillars of stone. It was very moving. We then walked over to a large preserved portion of the Berlin Wall, which was also incredible to see. It started raining really hard so by 5 pm, we were ready to get back to our hostel and have some showers. We had Indian food for dinner AGAIN, which, if you're counting, brought us to 3 times in 5 days. Obsessed much? We felt a little guilty for not eating traditional foods, but only a little, since we both love curry so much.

So we got back to the hostel that night and I had a horrible realization: I was sleeping next to The Snorer. Every room in every hostel, no matter how big or small, appears to have a Snorer. I'm not talking about someone that lightly, inoffensively snores. The Snorer is in a league of his/her own (although, it is more often men than women). The bunk next to The Snorer is the worst property in the room and pretty much guarantees that you will not sleep in what is already likely an uncomfortable bed. I slept next to The Snorer in Munich, too, but the guy in Berlin was by far the worst I've heard. It was like trying to fall asleep to the sound of geese aggressively mating. It overpowered the (admittedly minimal) strength of my earplugs. Somehow, I managed a few hours of sleep, but it wasn't easy. We had a very early train ride to Munich, at 6:50 am, so we had to leave our hostel around 6. It was gross out and raining again, so we didn't feel guilty sleeping on the train. We arrived in Munich around 12:50 pm.

Ok, so our hostel in Munich was kind of a disaster. The hostels get really expensive during Oktoberfest, so we booked the cheapest one we could find, which is called The Tent. The Tent is literally a large circus tent that people sleep in and a campground. We were thankfully placed in the smaller tent, but there were still at least 50 people inside. Unfortunately, there wasn't any heat, and it was pretty cold (high 40s to low 50s) the whole time we were in Munich. By the end of our time at The Tent, we were cold, bitter, crabby, dirty, and ready to get away from it. But we didn't go to Munich to stay in a nice place, we went for Oktoberfest, and we really had an incredible time.

The first day we got into Munich, we were going to walk around a bit and see the city, but we decided to stop by the Oktoberfest grounds for a minute first and see what it was like. Neither of us thought we'd be able to get into any beer tents, since we didn't have reservations and it was later in the day. We were wrong! The Oktoberfest grounds are enormous, and it feels like a gigantic county fair. I thought there would only be 3 or 4 beer halls, but there was something like 10. We sat down outside at Hofbrau, one of the more popular tents, and quickly were chatted up by obscenely drunk Italians. One of them wanted to "have a dialogue" with me, away from Alex, so we got him to go back to his friends and then bolted from the tent as soon as we finished our beers. I wanted to go on some of the rides, and I managed to talk Alex into going on the high swings with me. They look like the regular swing rides that we have in the U.S., but they go up maybe 75-100 feet in the air. I thought it was going to be really fun, but Alex was terrified, squeezing my arm the entire time and screaming, "We're going to die! This is going to snap!" Needless to say, I didn't really enjoy myself, and both of us were very happy when the ride ended.

After the ride, we were walking around and I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and there were our Australian friends from Amsterdam!! We were so happy to see them, we had a great couple of days with them and we really never thought we'd see them again (especially not at Oktoberfest, which was so packed full of people.) We all went back to Hofbrau and Alex and I had another beer. She and I left Oktoberfest around 8 pm, back to the wretched Tent. There was a campfire going on, though, and we sat around that and chatted with fellow travelers for a while before going to bed around 10:30.

Our second day at Oktoberfest was the real mess. We met the Australians outside Hofbrau at 11 am and walked around the rides for a while. At some point, we went into one of the tents, where Alex and I had our first beer. The guys left us for about an hour to walk around while we drank. A huge group of Italian guys sat down with us, and didn't talk much to us, although they showed us a love letter that one of them had received and translated it for us. It was very dirty! At one point, a television crew came around and one of the Italians offered to have his chest waxed for TV. The Australians came back and we left to go to Hofbrau again. We found seats inside with a big group of Brits and had another drink. One Australian, who was not really with our group, puked all over the table and into his drink...really disgusting. I feel like 18-year-olds should not be allowed at Oktoberfest! We were kicked off of the table eventually, because the people who reserved it showed up. At this point, we went and got some food, even though we were all filled with beer—I knew that I had to eat something, though!

Sometime after our second beer, I got into a snitty mood and Alex and I started to fight. The Australians decided to head back to their hostel and let us work our shit out alone. Alex wanted us to head back to our hostel but I convinced her to stay (can you imagine? ME convincing ALEX to stay at a party?! major, major role reversal). Then she got into a snitty mood and we fought even more. Neither of us knows why we were fighting or what about, but we apologized to each other and got another beer. During our third beer, we sat down outside with some Germans. One of the guys didn't speak any English and was apparently saying very rude things to us in German, which another German was translating. So we taught him how to toast in English. We got him to toast to diarrhea, dingleberries, and saggy tits. By the time we were toasting to saggy tits, he was catching on that we were screwing with him and was very resistant, but we got him to shout it out anyway. I really wish I had captured a video of the whole thing.

Then we went inside that tent for our fourth beer. We found some (other) Germans who had a friend working at the hall and helped us get some beers. They asked us if we were Australian, so we naturally agreed and went along pretending we were Australian for the rest of the night. We're lucky that there were no Australians with us, because our accents were probably really horrible, but we managed to convince this group of friends. Somewhere after the fourth beer, the night gets a little blurry, but we know the beer tents closed at 10:30 so we must have left around there. Alex and I tried to piece a few things together the next day, but there are a few things we still have questions about. For instance: Alex has a huge bruise on her butt, so she must have fallen at some point, but neither of us remembers it. Alex's coat looks sort of like she slept in a gutter, which would support the falling-in-the-muddy-rain theory. Also: both of our jackets are covered in stains that look suspiciously like mustard. Once we thought about it hard, Alex claimed, "I have a vague feeling of mustard," so we've deduced that we ate something mustardy at some point.

You may guess that we were feeling pretty awful yesterday, and you would be correct. We didn't have the foresight to plan out yesterday ahead of time, so we knew that we needed to leave Munich and go somewhere but we weren't sure where. (We had an extra day in between when we left Munich and when we'll meet my friends in Lucerne tonight.) So we stared at my guidebook all blurry-eyed for a while before deciding just to go to Zurich. Yesterday was definitely the day for us to be taking a 4-hour train ride. We thought we'd sleep on the train, but of course it was the first really sunny and lovely day we've had since Amsterdam, so we stared out the window the entire way. Switzerland is lovely! The hostel we're staying in here in Zurich is nice and quiet, which was perfect for us last night. We were able to take showers (Alex even washed her hair!), which was a very welcome feeling after The Tent. So we didn't do much last night, just cleaned up and ate dinner at the Italian restaurant below our hostel.

We had to check out of our hostel at 10:00 am, so we were able to go do some sightseeing in Zurich this morning. However, it is of course grey and rainy out again, so we're back in the lounge at our hostel. Alex is reading the new book she picked up from the book exchange (a crime thriller called "A Faint Cold Fear"), I'm downloading some television for us to watch in transit (I've been able to do a surprising amount of that! HOW CRAZY WAS MAD MEN?!), and obviously I'm writing this blog. We're gonna take a train to Lucerne around 4:30, and we're meeting my friend Julian at the station at 5:30. Alex and I are both very excited to sleep in someone's apartment and not a hostel. We're also looking forward to doing some laundry...our clothes (many of which have been slept in) smell quite fragrant. It will also be nice not to pay for a hostel; Switzerland is incredibly expensive (which I had heard but somehow not totally comprehended.)

Alright, off to eat some falafel. We really are having an incredible time, although we do miss everyone at home. I'm trying my best not to think about how long my trip is going to be, because it makes me really homesick when I do. But, at the same time, I can't believe we're in Switzerland already! Hopefully I'll be able to get another blog and some more pictures up by Sunday.

Think sunny warm thoughts for us, lots of love, Eliza

still alive, apparently

Hey all,

Even with all the crazy rides that aren't allowed in America and all the litres of beer (MANY), we are still alive!! Oktoberfest did not vanquish us! Both of our jackets are incredibly dirty and covered in weird stains (mustard, I'm thinking, which means we ate food at some point...hooray). Today is an awful feeling of a day. But we are going to drag our hungover selves to the train station and get on a long ride to Zurich. We wanted to go visit some castles but it's going to take to long to get there and back, so we sort of randomly picked Zurich. (We have a day until we meet my friends in Lucerne...should have figured out our plans before we drank so much at Oktoberfest.) Anyway, I'm hoping to do a long blog post later, but I just wanted to let all the loved ones know that we do not have alcohol poisoning (probably) and that we're on the move.

Love and hangovers, Eliza

oktobermessed 2010

I just want to let everyone know, from both Alex and I...we are alive! I meant to write a huge blog post about Berlin this morning on the train to Munich, but we slept for most of it and caught up on Modern Family and Glee for the rest, so who can really fault us? When we got to Munich, we checked into our hostel/tent and went to Oktoberfest. We just wanted to see what it looked liked but we ended up spending all afternoon there (and, surprisingly, getting into a few beer tents, as well as riding the scariest amusement park rides EVER) and now we're back at the hostel. We're about to go to sleep. "Santeria" by Sublime is playing for its 6th time in the internet room, which means it is definitely time to go to bed...no on else seems to be weirded out by this. But, yes, we are fine and dandy in here in Munich. More posted when we get a chance!

Love and lager, Eliza

the time we went to belgium to sleep

I'm writing this from the train (our fourth today), presumably to Berlin. I say "presumably" because Alex and I have had a very, very confusing day of train travel from Bruges, where we spent last night. We had to take the train from Bruges to Brussels. At Brussels, we had to board our second train, to Cologne. However, that second train was running slowly (high speed my foot!) and we ended up getting into Cologne about four minutes after our train to Berlin had departed. Thankfully, there was another train headed to Berlin (we thought) about 15 minutes later. We got on that train, sat in a compartment with a German guy around our age and set off. When he got off the train in Hamm, we were thrilled—the compartment to ourselves! But, thankfully, he quickly returned and told us that if we were trying to get to Berlin, we would have to transfer trains because Hamm was the end of the line for this one. So now we're on our fourth train, which is very full...we've been kicked out of several seats already by people who have reservations for them. Drama! We should finally get to Berlin in about an hour, 7 pm, after traveling since 9:30 am. It will be welcome for many reasons, particularly because it is my birthday and I would really like to not spend the whole day on the train.

By the way, I know that Alex has decided she's too lazy to write out blogs or emails or anything and that she's sending all of her loved ones to read my blogs, so to Alex's loved ones: hello! She is alive and well, I promise; we haven't killed each other just yet.

Okay, so let me start back in Amsterdam, because we have had a busy few days. After I woke up Alex after my last blog post, we went downstairs and had our free hostel breakfast. I must say that I'm enjoying these breakfasts: toast with butter, jam, or nutella, hardboiled eggs, a myriad of fruits, and at least one option of cereals. (Alex, for instance, filled up on Cocoa Krispies.) From breakfast, we went to the H&M down the street because Alex wanted a more fashionable traveling bag, and then on to a bike rental store. Amsterdam is a perfect city to explore by bike—gratuitous bike lanes, traffic that yields politely to bikers, and beautiful scenery. For our first activity of the day, we rode over to the Van Gogh museum. We were pleasantly surprised when we discovered that the "I Amsterdam" sign was on the same grounds as the museum; we'd been wondering where that was! After we had our obligatory pictures with the sign, we headed into the museum, which was pretty cool. Learned a lot about Van Gogh.

After the museum, we biked over to a nearby outdoor market. We bought the most amazing cheese there from a cheese stand. It tasted like a sort of soft parmesan. No idea what it was called, but I do know that we bought a brick of it about the size of our heads for only 6 Euros. If all cheese is this cheap in Europe, I am in big trouble. This purchase got us started on what I'm calling "Operation Bread and Cheese," whereby Alex and I survive on bread and cheese for the rest of our time in Europe. We also bought a few varieties of plums and a nice baguette. With our food in hand, we biked to Vondelpark, a huge outdoor space in Amsterdam that's considered their sort of Central Park. Our lunch was great but it started to rain and we were both exhausted, so we returned our bikes, went back to our hostel and took a nice long nap.

Once we awoke from our nap, we decided to head to the central train station to get our Eurail passes validated. We wanted to take the 6:50 am train to Bruges the next morning, and the reservations office didn't open until 6:30, so we thought it safer to get it done that night. At the reservations office, we were hit on by some very creepy middle-eastern men who told us that we were "such nice American girls" and told us that they "have everything we need for a stay in Amsterdam, you can come stay with us." Ew, no thank you, creepy stranger. Our parents have taught us better than that.

We dodged the creepsters and were craving Indian food so we wandered around our neighborhood until we could find an Indian restaurant. We gorged ourselves on curry and headed back to our hostel, which had the best drink prices we'd seen. The hostel bar scene was a complete mess, and we drank plenty. In fact, we broke our very first rule of the trip, which is: "When the shots start coming out, it's time to go home for the night." We downed a few repulsive Jagerbombs with a group of Aussies we'd befriended (Australians are EVERYWHERE!) and at some point decided it was time to wander around the red light district. I stick to my earlier conclusion: the red light district is an utter trainwreck. At some point we returned back to the hostel, where the bar was still open, although we intelligently switched to water. However, neither of us got to bed for very long at all, and when we woke up at 6 am to get ready for our train to Bruges, we were running on about two hours of sleep.

I think Alex was sorrier to say goodbye to Amsterdam than I was. I probably could have spent another night there, because I think there were still plenty of tourist things for us to do, but I'm equally happy moving on. I don't really like being in the main tourist areas and I like to see cities from the insider's perspective, and Amsterdam struck me as a city that is extremely touristy all around. But maybe if we'd spent more time there, we'd have gotten to know it better. Biking through Amsterdam was a real treat, though, and it made the city really grow on me.

I almost forgot! I have to eulogize my iPhone. I have really shit luck with iPhones in Europe. When I was in Spain on Semester at Sea, I busted my first iPhone, which was almost brand new. I pulled it out of my bag after a long night at a discotheque and discovered that the screen was shattered. To this day, I have no idea how that happened (although I choose to "blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol"). So once I got back to the States, I had to buy a whole new phone, which has been fine over the past three years. Narry a problem with it. Until I return to Europe, of course. On my second night of my two-month trip, my phone fell out of my back pocket in the hostel bar and landed on the floor. I thought it was fine at first—I've dropped my phone many times with no recourse. But as soon as I gave it a hard look, I found a big problem: the power button is jammed down. I've tried and tried to pull it out but I don't think it's going to happen. The phone proceeded to turn itself on and off until the power ran out. I was bummed out about losing a mode of communication, of course, and it's a pain in the ass not to have an alarm anymore, but I wasn't truly devastated until I realized this afternoon that I don't have any music. It makes these long train rides that much longer. So, dear iPhone: you were with me through the good times and the bad, and stuck with me through the years even though I beat you constantly. I'm sorry that our relationship reached its tipping point. You were a delightful companion and will be sorely missed.

Which brings us to Bruges! The train ride to Bruges was quite pastoral, and I had really wanted to sleep but couldn't help but stare out the windows instead. We had to transfer trains in Antwerp, so the journey all around took about three hours. Alex and I arrived in Bruges exhausted, stinky (especially Alex, who still had not showered since Chicago) and frazzled. There was some confusion on which hostel we were actually staying at, but we managed to get on a bus that took us to it. We stayed at St. Christopher's Inn at Bauhaus, which some fellow travelers in Amsterdam had recommended. The prospect of showering and laying down for a few hours sounded so attractive and we were very disappointed when the girl at reception told us the rooms wouldn't be ready until 3 pm. Furthermore, there weren't lockers in the room and we'd have to pay 5 euros for 24 hours of locker rental in the locker room! We cleaned up in the tiny bathroom in the common area, washing our faces and brushing our teeth, and once we'd both applied some new makeup we felt almost refreshed. It was time to go see Bruges.

Bruges is a very small city so it was easy for us to walk around and see all of the necessary tourist sights. Based on a helpful guide map we'd been given, we decided to walk to a part of the city that was notable for its spectacular bakery and butcher shop. We purchased some rolls and some truffles at the bakery, some mozzarella salad at the butchers, and some strawberries from a fruit store, and headed to the lovely park next door for our second picnic in two days. (Operation Bread and Cheese is my favorite. Ever.) I was so tired and hungry that everything tasted spectacular to me, although Alex was not as overwhelmed as I was.

From our picnic, we headed to the main market area of Bruges, which is the tourist area. I know I complained about tourist areas just a few sentences ago, but Bruges is an entirely different story. It's an incredibly beautiful, picturesque, well-preserved city and the tourism it attracts is very well deserved. Alex and I felt as if we were in a fairy tale the whole time. I think I can speak for us both when I say we're disappointed we couldn't spend another night exploring the city and seeing the sights. We both managed to mail out some postcards in Bruges, so some of you should look forward to those. We decided we were exhausted (okay, I was exhausted and starting to annoy Alex with my whining) so we headed back in the direction of the hostel, but made a pitstop at the windmills in Bruges. It was all very Flemish! I want to say "picturesque" over and over again, but we literally took pictures so please see for yourselves.

We returned to our hostel shortly after three to take what we thought would be a short nap. When we woke up around quarter to 8 pm, we were both a tad embarrassed; the truth of the matter is we ended up going to Belgium to sleep. It's unfortunate that we didn't do more, but I think we're both very glad that we were able to see the city at all—it was such a treat. After we woke from our nap, we had dinner, both showered (Alex finally showered!!!) and went back to bed. The one really great thing about the hostel in Bruges was that we were staying in a room with only 6 other people, and everyone turned in by 11 pm, so we had an early lights out.

Which takes us back to our multiple and confusing train rides, so essentially back to the beginning. A pleasant surprise about the train: even though we missed our original train in Cologne, we will be arriving at approximately the same time. So all's well that ends well. Tonight we'll go celebrate my 23rd birthday. As far as numbers go, I don't think 23 is a very spectacular birthday (in fact, I've been forgetting about it all day), but it will be notable because we'll be in Berlin. After we check into our hostel, we'll go out for a hopefully nice dinner (although I'm not sure what I can eat of German food with my vegetarian diet) and then get ready to head to the clubs. The night clubs in Berlin don't get started until around 1 am, so it's going to be a very late night for us. I expect we'll be exhausted tomorrow since we need to get up early enough to go sightseeing, but I'm adjusting to this on-the-road lifestyle. I also have a feeling that I'm not going to be able to update again until we're done with Oktoberfest; we head to Munich for that on Monday and leave on Wednesday. However, I will try!

Love and long train rides, Eliza

PS: We just saw some lesbians kissing on our train that reminded us both of a game we've been playing and wanted to tell you about. In shorthand, we're calling it "E or G"—we're trying not to be too offensive to the people around us. E stands for "European" and G stands for "Gay." The purpose of the game is to guess if a person is gay or just really European. There's an extremely fine line. We've just had a long discussion about whether or not this game is too politically incorrect to share with my blog, but we don't mean it in a hateful way, so whatever.

PPS: Another thing we wanted to share, that I forgot about. The street names! Alex and I have had to create our own street names in place of the street names in both Amsterdam and in Bruges. The Dutch street names have been utterly unpronounceable for us, so we come up with words that sound sort of like how they appear on paper and use those instead. Some notables have been: "Koopatrooper Street," "Ho Street," "Bangalang Street," etc. Wish we could think up a few more that we had come up with, because they certainly amused us to no end.

photos!

Hi everyone,

We're in Bruges right now, and it's 8 am. Guess early rising is going to be my "thing" on this trip. But it gives me time to get things updated on the internet, which is nice. Speaking of which, I have now updated my flickr account with a photo album of Amsterdam and Bruges. You can see that here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elizaswift/sets/72157624903936535/

I will hopefully be posting another blog some point tonight. Alex and I are heading to Berlin in a few hours, but our train ride will be quite a few hours long, so I should have plenty of time to write a new post. Right now, I'm downloading some of my favorite comedy tv shows that premiered Thursday night. Excited to be able to watch some of those on our way! Alsooooo, it's my birthday. It feels weird, I've been so disoriented the past few days that it's hard to comprehend it being my birthday. We finally got a full night of sleep last night though, so I'm starting to feel a bit excited about it.

Lots of love from the cold floor of our Bruges hostel, Eliza

amsterdarn (get it? god i love puns)

Well, it's 7 am in Amsterdam and I am awake, showered, dressed, and sitting in the lobby on my computer, sipping some water and waiting for the rest of the hostel to rise. You may be concerned about me reading this. You may think: "Eliza, has Europe changed you this much in 24 hours? Are you not the girl who boasts about waking up at 11 am every day? Are you not the person who has been a lifelong and diehard advocate of napping at least once daily?" Do not fret, reader. Unfortunately, I think my daily naps have been my undoing. The night before last, Alex and I had our eight and a half hour flight from Chicago to Amsterdam, and I slept maybe 30 minutes. My conscientious travel partner encouraged me to stay awake all day yesterday so we could adjust to the jet lag---she force-fed me espresso when my eyes started to droop, kept me on my feet wandering around the city all day, and even relented when at 10 pm, I started to whine about being tired. Yes, everyone, Alex Julian agreed to go to bed at 10 pm in Amsterdam. (Shocked? She was too.) So by 11, we were snuggled into our top-bunk queen bed, eyemasks on, praying that the loud, drunk 18-year-old Australians would leave the room and head to the bar. (They eventually did, but not after a lot of eye-rolling and heavy sighs on our part.) I fell asleep quickly, so happy to be in a bed, asleep in the dark. I woke feeling perky and refreshed...at 1:30 am. "This is not right!" I thought. I managed to trick my body into falling back to sleep, only to jolt awake again at 3 am. By this point, I figured out what was going on: my body, my poor confused, jet lagged body, was convinced I was taking a nap. (FALSE IDEA, BODY.) After I woke at 3, I tossed and turned for a long while, but I think I got about another 45 minutes of sleep. By 5:30, I accepted the fact that I would not be falling back to sleep. Also, by this point, my large hostel dorm room filled with sleeping people and the temperature in the (non-air-conditioned) room was a bit unbearable. Sweaty, uncomfortable, and crabby about my sleep situation, I decided to get up and shower at 6, which brings me here, writing this blog in the empty lobby/bar.

I've just asked the guy manning reception what the weather was going to be like today. "A bit rainy, for a change," he said not a tad sarcastically. (Does it rain a lot in Amsterdam? This is not something of which I was aware.) That's too bad to hear, because yesterday was beautiful...sunny and in the mid/high-60s. We did quite a lot of walking yesterday and had a great plan for today: rent bikes, go to a few museums, eat a picnic in the big park. Sounds like we may have to adjust our plans.

Alright so I will get to Amsterdam in a minute, but first I want to discuss a few things I have learned in the past 24ish hours.

1) Vegetarian food on United. So, if you know me (and I am assuming you do, if you have any interest in reading this rambling blog), you probably know I've been a vegetarian since I was 16. But since I've been a vegetarian, I've never taken a flight with an American airline that was long enough to warrant a meal. Now, we all know that airline food is nothing to write home about and is usually edible at its best. But I've spent the past couple weeks getting myself really overly excited about the FREE MEAL! that I would receive on my flight to Amsterdam. (Unfortunately, I think I've thought more about that meal than I did about some of the logistics of traveling, which I will get to in my next point.) United offers three meal choices for vegetarians that you can call in a special request for: lacto-ovo vegetarian, Asian vegetarian, and vegan. I called and ordered the lacto-ovo vegetarian, and spent the past few days gloating to Alex about how my meal would be tasty and hers would be mystery meat. So we get on the plane, take off, and mealtime arrives. Mine comes first, because I am *special*. (This makes me feel even better about my choice.) The steward places my meal down in front of me like I am the royal princess of airlines. I look down. I squint. What the hell is this?! My meal, my precious, over-hyped meal, appears to be some sort of mashy baby-food-like rice concoction, with some sad and withered vegetables thrown in. The bread is a cardboard-substance "wheat" bread and my salad is, I shit you not, just a head of iceberg lettuce. I wasn't expecting much, but I wasn't expecting this. The only potentially edible part of the meal, a couple pathetic pieces of canned fruit, have been heated up along with the rice and are at a scalding and un-fruity temperature. After poking at my meal morosely, I come to the conclusion that United has combined the lacto-ovo, vegan, and Asian vegetarian meals into one in an upsetting cost saving measure. Even more upsetting to me is what Alex is given to eat: a meat-free pasta dish with a green (GREEN!!) salad and yummy cookies. WHAT?! Why wasn't THAT my vegetarian meal?! Anyway, I'm soooooo over it, but I will not be ordering the vegetarian meal on my eventual flight home, that is for sure.

2) When we got to our hostel and I used the (dirty, stinky, small) lady's room, I had the horrifying realization that I would not get to use a nice toilet (with soft toilet paper) or shower (with strong water pressure) for the next two months. aside from the week I will be with my mother in real hotels. This should have been something I realized long ago, like say...when I first decided to backpack through Europe for two months, but no. I knew I would be uncomfortable often and unshowered most of the time, but I didn't really *think* about what not having a nice place to rest my bum would be like. It made me feel very weary and ready to return home, but that was mostly because I had not been fed yet and I was running on the aforementioned 30 minutes of sleep. Anyway, now that I've actually had a shower today and I'm not wearing the same leggings that I've been wearing for an international plane flight, I'm feeling much more confident about everything. I just may have to go buy a roll of halfway decent toilet paper, though.

Okay, so, Amsterdam. My immediate impression was that I hated it and wanted to get out as soon as I could. We're staying a few blocks from the central train station, in the heart of the backpacking district, and the overwhelming tourism vibe really did not make me feel great. But that was Before Food (B.F., in shorthand), when my blood sugar was low and I was already feeling a little sobby. It certainly didn't hurt that the weather was lovely yesterday, but this city has really grown on me. It's quite unlike any place I've ever seen. It feels a little like Disneyworld for adults. So we had a very productive day yesterday, overall. We went to the Sex Museum, mostly because it only cost 4 euro and it's just over a block from our hostel. It was an interesting place, worth the 4 euro, but not worth going into detail here. Pretty much what you would expect from a Sex Museum...lots of dirty pictures from throughout the ages. After that, we walked across the street to a canal boat tour place, where a tour was just about to leave, and we got on board (a reasonable 13 euro). It was a slow paced, hour-long tour, and it was very beautiful. Unfortunately, by the end, I was about ready to fall asleep, but I did enjoy it. We saw a lot of lovely bridges and so many interesting houseboats! (Not to mention all the incredible architecture in Amsterdam). Afterwards, we returned to our hostel, drank some coffee, and played a round of pool with a few other travelers. In the later afternoon, Alex and I went on a long walk just to wander. We went all over the districts around our neighborhood and stopped into two bars for a beer. I'll post some pictures within the next day or so, but the architecture here is astounding pretty. Lots of old churches and open plazas, not to mention the canals. After another stop off at our hostel, we went on a walk through the Red Light District to see what that mess was all about. I think it's kind of a bummer that such beautiful old buildings (the main drag is really pretty) are being used for such sleaze, but hey. It works for Amsterdam, so whatever. Not my city, so I'm not going to criticize it. A man outside one of the porno theaters tried to coerce us to come in by telling us that it was "the most quality filth you'll ever see." Um, no thanks.

As I said, we ended up going to bed shockingly early. We didn't even eat dinner last night because we were so exhausted, so the free breakfast at the hostel is sounding pretty good right about now. I think I'm going to go wake up Alex and drag her down there with me. Cross your fingers that today's weather will be manageable!

Love and (overpacked) luggage, Eliza

onward, again

Well, I am heading off again. Last time I made use of this blog, it was 2007 and I was still on Semester at Sea. Three years later and my lust for travel has not died down at all. I've just finished my degree and it seemed like the appropriate time to take another long trip---this time, I am going to Europe for two months to backpack. It will be an entirely different journey than Semester at Sea (not at least because I have nowhere to go "home" to like I did with the ship, and because I will be traveling sort of alone). My flight for Amsterdam leaves at 6 pm this evening and I still have quite a lot of packing to do...but of course, I am online. :D

So for those who are unaware, here is my rough itinerary. I'm flying to Amsterdam with my best friend, Alex Julian, who has been my lifelong partner in crime (though there won't be any actual crime on this trip, I promise! unless we decide to turn into expat outlaws! [hey, that doesn't sound half bad...]). She and I are spending two nights in Amsterdam before moving on to a night in Brussels. Then we head to Berlin for two nights to disco it up for my 23rd birthday, and Munich for two nights to enjoy the 200th year of Oktoberfest. From Germany, we meander over to Switzerland for four nights, where we'll be visiting some Swiss friends of mine in Lucerne and Bern. After we've had our fill of fondue, we'll go to Paris for four nights to fake French accents and take obnoxious pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower. Then we head to Italy: a day in Venice, maybe two nights in Florence, and probably three (or is it four?) nights in Rome, where we'll be staying in the guest apartment of Alex's former au pair. On October 13th, Alex leaves me to head back to the States (and I undoubtedly will be very sad to see her go, unless we've gotten totally sick of each other by that point, in which case I will see her off with glee).

After Alex leaves, my mom may (or may not) be coming to Europe. The plan is to go to Barcelona and Paris together. More on this later, once it is booked. When Mom leaves (approximately Oct. 22nd), I will scoot my boot up to Scandinavia. Here I'll be meeting up with my dear friend from Semester at Sea, Bree, who is one of my absolute favorite travel companions. Bree hasn't finished booking her trip yet, but she and I will spend between 10-12 days seeing the best that Scandinavia has to offer us...Copenhagen, Stockholm, perhaps Oslo, and as many fjords as we can find.

My travel details get sketchy in November. I frankly am not sure what I'll be doing, but I'm not too concerned about it right now. I know that it will be great, whatever it will be. One thing I do know is that I'll be ending my trip in London. Drew (the boyfriend) is going to fly out to London from Los Angeles to meet me, so we can have a few fun days of European travel before we head back Stateside for Thanksgiving.

I leave Europe on November 24th. With any luck, there will be many more blog posts in between now and then. So cross your fingers, folks, and perhaps I will be a more devoted blogger during this journey than I was during my last...you know, now that I am an older, more mature college grad. Oh yes, I am wise now, and I have a very expensive piece of paper to prove it.

Sayonara...email me your addresses if you don't think I have it and you'd like a postcard: eliza.swift@gmail.com. Love and (disorganized) luggage, Eliza