Un jour a la Chateau Versailles

Paris has this great deal on the first Sunday of every month, where practically all the museums, monuments and other attractions are free. Since Versailles is one of the most expensive of these (18€ a pop!) we decided to take advantage of the freebie on Nov 4th and visit the famous palace.

We were joined by Lina, a friend of Kevin and Walter's from Germany, studying at the Sorbonne, and her brother Timo who was visiting. We took the RER train out to Versailles (unlike my last time visiting, I paid the proper fare this time), arriving around 11:40. After a round of coffee, we found a little grocery store to add to our picnic fare (they had an olive bar. It ruled), stopped in at a boulagerie for a baguette (90 cents. So awesome) and arrived in the palace courtyard at around 12:15. It appears many people shared our grand idea. The line of these people snaked around the courtyard several times and appeared to be at least 2 hours long. Onto plan b!

The lineup for the gardens was literally non-existant, and as I'd visited the palace before but not the grounds, I was totally fine with the change of plans.

The Gardens

Posing in the sunlight

I could list several synonyms for the word "massive" and still not do the size of those jardins justice. Absolutely colossal. And also stunningly beautiful! There was a "grand canal" in the middle shaped of a cross that started at the chateau and then expanded almost as far as the eye could see. Around the canal the gardens were organized into lovely tree lined lanes and courtyards. There were fountains and statues everywhere.

It took us about an hour and a half to walk down one stretch of the canal, where we met up with Mark and some more student friends, these ones from Italy. We took a break for our pique-nique, which felt quite quintessentially Parisian to me. A bottle of red wine of course. We had figs, plums, oranges and bananas. Fresh olives, salami, baguette and briiiiiiie! Such lovely brie. You can get a wheel here for 2€ the same size as you'd pay $15 for at home.

BAGUETTE!

I allowed myself one small piece of fresh baguette and momentarily ascended into gastronomical heaven. After our nice little picnic, we parted ways with Mark and the gang and continued along just the 5 of us who had arrived together. We went inside the "Petit Trianon"- a summer castle Marie Antoinette enjoyed all to herald. It was what you would expect- a lot of grandness, but on a lesser scale than the main chateau.

Our next stop was Marie's little village she had created so she could feel normal, which was definitely a highlight of the day. It was just so adorable with its little thatched roofs and cute knobby fences! There were even operating vegetable gardens and a field filled with goats and geese and two strange looking highland cows. I fed an adorable baby goat.

Cute little fella

Such a rebel.

After the village we parted ways with Lina and Timo and continued on to the "Grand Trianon". It wasn't anything that special really, except that it boasted some exquisite views of the garden. Man, last time I was at Versailles I had no idea any of this stuff even existed!

We made our way back down the canal (had to jump a fence like a bad ass to get there) and to the main palace around 5pm- the last admittance. We basically blitzed through the first floor of the chateau at lighting pace, but we saw the hallway of mirrors, which was my fave from last time anyways, so I was satisfied.

Petit Trianon from afar

We couldn't be bothered with the evening onslaught back to Paris on the RER, so we killed an hour at the Starbucks in Versailles, leaving around 7pm. Walter made a yummy dinner for the three of us that night, and after a game of "Ticket to Ride" we said our good nights and went to bed!

Next up is a grand museum day. Get pumped.

La vie Parisienne!!!

Je suis à Paris! C'est formidable et le ville est aussi belle que je me souviens.

Excuse if my French is terrible. I've only been in France for 3 full days, I figure I've got til the end of the week for my language skills to kick into gear.

I arrived in the city of lights, the magical city of Paris, at about 5pm on Friday evening. Kevin came and met me with his friend Mark. So great to see my buddy!!!!

Sacre-Coeur my first night in Paris!!

It was also awesome to just be back in Paris. It's such a magical place!! We took the metro to Kevin's apartment, where I met his roommate Walter. Kev lives literally in the heart of Montmartre. Like, smack in the middle. Sacré-Coeur is a minute's walk away. It's amazing.

That night, we journeyed up the hill and saw Sacré-Coeur all lit up and beautiful. We ended up having dinner at a little pizzeria place, drawn to it because of the live piano music. I had an omelet du fromage. Ya protein. At one point during our meal the pianist played Clair de Lune and I knew my Paris trip had officially started. On our way out the boys requested he play the Amelie soundtrack, and he did.

first view of the Seine and Notredame!

That evening the boys taught me a couple new board games, and we finished the evening by actually watching Amelie. It takes place in the neighborhood of Montmartre, so that was cool and a nice little intro to the area.

St. Michel - our jam

Saturday morning, Kevin, Walter and I woke up and took a free walking tour like the one I took in Copenhagen. We hit up many of the main sites. We started at the Fountain St. Michel, which was very beautiful. Then we walked over to the Seine to check out a view of Notre Dame. I'm looking forward to going inside there this trip.

Next we walked down to the right bank of the river to see Pont Neuf. Our guide explained how all the random faces lining the brides were casts made from portraits made at the kick-off party for the bridge, of all the drunken guests. The original Facebook. Haha.

Pont Neuf with its silly faces

Next we walked through the courtyards of the Louvre. When we wandered past the fountains (by the pyramids) I got all sentimental for my time there with Kirst, Grady and my mom back in 2009. "We'll always have Paris"

We took a quick break at Starbucks, where I ordered my "moca blanc" in decent French. Up next was an ever so pleasant walk through the Jardin des Tuileries and a lesson in French history.

When the tour ended, we walked past the Obelisk and shopped the Champs Élysées. I bought a couple things at H&M and am possibly most excited about the bag they came in (with the address on it).

My goodness I love this city.

We arrived at the Arc de Triomphe at around sunset and took some nice photos there. Then we metro'ed home, where Kevin and I planned out our train trip around France. It's going to be amazing!!

Kevin and I went for dinner at an unreal crêperie in Montmartre. The set menu included a savoury crêpe, a sweet crêpe, and a glass of Breton kir. The savoury crêpes there were all "Breton style", which meant they were gluten free!!!

For my savoury I had one called the "Norvegienne" which was smoked salmon and creamed spinach and lemon and TO DIE-FOR!!! My sweet one, "Mont Blanc", was bananas, chocolate, grilled almonds, whipped cream and ice cream and I died again.

Back at the apartment, Kevin, Walter and I played a sweet game called Ticket to Ride (it involves creating railways in old school Europe), and got to bed later than we should have. The next day was the first Sunday of the month, which means essentially everything in Paris is free, so we planned to take on Versailles.

Stay tuned!

Another last night in Amsterdam

I swear, by the end of this trip I'll have more "last nights in Ams" then anywhere else combined.

They're so great, I keep going back for more.

After our hardcore bicycle day, Monday way pretty chill. I don't think Lisa and I left the flat until 6:00pm. Whatever. It was an awesome and deserved day of rest. Tuesday was a day of studying for Lisa, reading and journalling for me, and an afternoon trip to the costume stores with Jenny where our Halloween plans were solidified. That night, Lis and I went to a sweet restaurant called Wagamama that made a mean fried rice.

Wednesday I awoke to the sounds of Jack the Pumpkin King. Well played, best friend. When Lisa was in school I had me a shopping day. Bought a new pink suitcase to load up with European treasures. Returned to Sascha and bought a fierce pair of boots. Bought a portable USB complete with dorky lanyard from Hema. Then I trekked all the way to Leidseplein so I could have Starbucks. I'm seriously obsessed. It was glorious though. No regrets.

That night Weesperstraat 47 hosted a killer Halloween party. Lisa and I went as birds, and managed to pull off some pretty wicked face makeup. We also had hilarious toucan beaks, wings, and feathers in our hair- which was held up with oodles of hairspray and back combing and some French braids. They were thrown together pretty late in the game, but our bird costumes turned out to be a great hit.

Rare Birds: Unique though two

#cray

It was a great party. Lisa and I spent most of our night with Frank and Jenny (rock star and old lady, respectively) and also with Sam and Jenny, who was dressed as Mia from pulp fiction. We had planned to go out, but since the party raged on until about 3am, we just rode that out and ended our night with drunken nachos in the kitchen.

Late in the game Thursday I stumbled across the discovery of a Museum of Bags and Purses right nearby Lisa's place. So obviously I went there. It was pretty cool seeing how purses have evolved from the 18th century on. My mum and Kirst would have loved it.

That evening, Lisa and I finally mastered the art of sober double-bike-riding, and made our way to Badcuyp Jazz Club for our farewell dinner. There was a guitar trio playing that night, and as soon as we got in he vicinity of the club and I could hear jazz creeping out the door I knew it was gonna be good. I seriously love live jazz music so much! It's one of my favourite things, I think.

We got a table near where the trip was playing, ordered a couple glasses of wine and toasted our wonderful time in Amsterdam together. We ordered an elaborate meal- well, for us. Fries, Falafel and olives to start, French Onion Soup for Lisa and Quiche for me, and a "hot vegetable plate" to share. Just before our food arrived we were joined by Crainy, Molly and Marco, and later Crainy's two friends visiting from Germany.

The music ended at around 10:30, with a sweet jazz rendition of an MJ song. Then Lisa and I biked back to Weesperflat and enjoyed our last night together. In the morning, we got up and made breakfast, and soon I was off for Paris!

So Much Cycling

My first day back in Amsterdam was the one which we had decided on for a bike ride. The forecast was good, with only a small chance of showers, and though it wasn't sunny, with a mostly clear sky. The plan was a bike ride of epic proportions to "Waterland", an area of the Dutch countryside.

Lisa and I were both feeling a bit unsure about going through with the plan. We were both feeling pretty taken over by colds, but were also both quite excited at the prospect of this ride.

We mulled it over during breakfast at Bagels&Beans, whose food we are still impressed by, but find their timely service is somewhat lacking. We met Jenny, Sam and Povka back at the flat with the decision that we would give the bike ride a go, and turn back early if we felt the need. At this point, I was under the impression that our final destination was about an hour away. 2 hours of bike riding with a break in between? I can handle that, figured silly Danica.

Can you sense the turn of events coming up in this tale?

Turns out the itinerary we had discovered had two options, a shorter and a longer, and I was unintentionally bamboozled into doing the latter.

Our ride started off through what were becoming the familiar streets of Amsterdam, to Central Station. There, we took the world's shortest ferry ride across a small channel to Amsterdam-Noord.

Sam, myself, Jenny and Povka on the ferry across the channel

Amsterdam-Noord

 We biked along a lot of enchanting woodland paths, down some tree lined streets, made a a quick stop at a sweet playground and scared some Dutch children with our "Big People" ways, and finally made it to Zuiderdorp. Yes, I believe that is the actual name of the town, if not the actual spelling.

Z-town

Z-town was simply stop number one, a cutesy little farming town that reminded me a bit of Cloverdale, but with more sheep, more canals, and cute cottagey looking houses.

We then embarked on the next leg of our trip, that took us through some skinny little country lanes, and a really neat bike path that was raised far above the street for cars, and above sea level (rare in Ams). We had a nice little system going of Jenny, Sam and Povka stopping every once in a while to let the sickies catch up, and then the 5 of us would set out again, forming a very Sound of Music like convoy.

Me and Povka

Me and Jenny

Weeeeeeee

The crew

In what felt like forever, we made it to the Island town of Merken, which was pretty cool, and worth the trek. It was a quaint little harbour town, with lots of typically Dutch looking houses, some souvenir shops, and some restaurants- though a lot of them were closed, as it was a Sunday. Truthfully the town was so quiet when we arrived around 3:00 that I had moments of feeling like I was in a zombie apocalypse film.

Jenny and Sam succeeded in finding an open restaurant, and a quite nice one at that. We warmed up with some hot Chocomelk (with lots o' slagrom- whipped cream), and most of us had the soup of the day- a yummy homemade pumpkin. Lis and Jenny also had "toasties"- paninis that looked amazing. I had an ice cream sundae for dessert. Delicious.

We stayed at the restaurant for a couple hours. There's a thing in the Netherlands where your bill is never given until asked for. The Dutch apparently don't care if you just hang out forever- or at least, want to appear that they feel that way. After our scrumptious meal, we hit up a couple souvenir shops with some great deals. At around 5:30 we realized that, oh shit, our clocks had fallen back that day, and so it was really more like 6:30, and the skies were beginning to darken.

Merken at dusk

There was much humming and hawing on my part whether or not I was going to faint off my bike in some field somewhere, but as the buses don't take bikes here, toughing it out was the only viable option.

We took a more direct route home then we had taken away from it, but partly due to mine and Lisa's lethargy it still took about an hour and a half to get back to Ams.

Navigating the narrow roads in the nearly pitch black that night is something I'll never forget. There are no street lights on the beaten down bike paths in the countryside. There is very little stopping you from going just a tad to far to one side of the lane and ending up knee-deep in canal water. When I told my dad this story he said "didn't you have lights on your bikes?" Technically the answer was no, not all of us did, but I personally had one, and so answered my Pa, "yeah, so you could see, like, maybe 3 feet in front of you. Not super helpful." What a freaking adventure though! Like I said, I'll never forget it.

When the lights of Amsterdam starting popping up in the distance I had never been happier to see a city coming into view. Many WOOOOOOOOs were given when we made it, mostly unscathed, to the ferry back to town.

Bums were bruised and legs were burning, but we'd accomplished a 50km bike ride and lived to tell the tale.

Amsterdam doesn't sell Gatorade, but a sports drink called Aquarius. I got the blue one.

Denmark Denoument

On a canal tour my last morning in Copenhagen

I have to admit, it was hard traveling all on my ownsome while in Denmark. That said, Copenhagen is a really beautiful city and I'm very glad I decided to visit it, even if I had no one to do it with me.

On my last morning in CPH, I took a canal ride with Madeleine, and a girl named Mai-u who had checked in during the night, on a spur-of-the-moment weekend trip from her studies in Stockholm.

It was pretty darn cold, but the sun was out. A lot of tour books (including the one I had with me) suggest taking a canal tour at the beginning of your stay in order to get your bearings and get an idea of how the city works. I have to say, I rather enjoyed doing it the other way around. It was nice to wrap up my trip by seeing buildings and areas that I'd already visited from a different perspective. It was neat to have a sense of where we were as we weaved in and out of the city's canal, and to be able to clue in to "ohhh", having walked there earlier on.

The one new sight I got from the tour was the "Black Diamond", an extension of the royal library. Our tour guide explained that the building has a bit of controversy attached to it, as on Copenhagen's misty grey days, it doesn't do what it's "supposed to do". As our day was sunny though, we saw the building in its full splendor. As we approached, it looked almost like the front of the Diamond was alive, morphing around like mercury or las. The black reflective front was picking up the sunlight on the water and spitting the image back at us and it was pretty amazing. Clearly, days like my last in Copenhagen were the kind the designer had in mind.

We went under a bunch of low bridges, one of which has a cute little story tied to it. Apparently if you kiss while going under that particular bridge, your love will last forever. Totally appealed to a hopeless romantic like me. Too bad I had no one to kiss!!

Our tour lasted about an hour. It reminded me just how much I love being on the water. Kind of made me miss the cottage, oddly enough!!!

When we pulled back in to Nyhavn the other girls headed back to the hostel to grab more layers (I tried to warn them about the cold, honestly I did) and I headed to the airport.

Nyhavn.  Beauty.

I got there early, on purpose, to get my Starbucks on. This could be wrong, but according to my store-finder app, the Starby's at the airport is the only one in all of Denmark. Shocking!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed my white mocha, caught up on some journaling, and then unfortunately had to spend a lot more time than planned sitting around doing nothing. My flight was delayed by about 45 mins, and then with the trains and metro connections on the other end, I got to Lisa's flat at around 9pm. We had salmon and a yummy salad for bed, and as we were both now in full-blown cold mode had a chill night of watching old episodes of HIMYM.

Funny how Amsterdam felt like home. But with my bestie there- not so funny after all.

Denmark Days part 3

Kong's Have

Having made a plan the night before, I set off with a whole list of things to do my last full day in Copenhagen. First on that list was the final shower I had to have with only a stupid "camping towel" to dry off with. Waste of space!

Aside from that lack of coziness though, my day started off so great. My first stop was "Kong's Have", the King's Gardens, which were quite close to my hostel. The sun was shining (quite unlike my first two grey days in the city) and turned the already gorgeous colours of the park even more gorgeous. It sounds cliche and cheesy, but everything really was bathed in golden light. "Rosenberg Slot" was within the gardens, and though I didn't enter the castle, I did gaze upon it in awe for a good chunk of time that crisp morning.

Tick and tick, I moved on to the next thing on my list, which was shopping the "Strædet" area- basically a couple of shopping streets nearby Strøget, but less commercialized and more kitschy. There was one little store, called Elizabeth something that had out their Christmas stuff, so I of course died. They also had an enchanting array of mercury glass votive candle holders, which it took all my power not to buy them out of. Some were pink. Gah.

Mother and Kirstin, you would have been so proud of my aimless shopping ways that day. I was channelling both of you big time.

I finished off the first part of my day with a trip to the National Museet. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. That thing is HUGE! I think I counted 7 separate exhibits, which you could almost call separate museums in their own right. You could easily get lost in the building as well, which just wound on and on forever. I first experienced this loss in the "Prehistory" section among some Stonehenge-like rocks, but quickly regained my sense of direction and made my way to the "Stories of Denmark" section, which appealed to me most.

It was a neat part of the museum that basically included little anecdotes from all different periods of Denmark's past, photographs and books and clothing, and also random crap like embroidered pillows and Pokemon cards. Everything carries history!

Eating g-free in Denmark was hard.
This meal made my life.

After my time at the museum, I stopped at a brilliant little cafe on a nearby corner where I had a most excellent frittata and a glass of organic cran. (That's cranberry juice for those of you who aren't familiar with the Danica dialect).

My next stop was the Danish Jewish Museum, which in order to get to, I had to cross a bridge over to Christiansborg Slot and navigate its grounds. What a massive castle! Very cool to see. The DJM was very small, but very enjoyable. One of the most notable things about it was its architectural design, done by the same guy who is redesigning the World Trade Centre.




The museum is designed around the Hebrew letters in the word "Mitzvah". The effect of this is certainly not your run of the mill rectangular museum, but rather slanting floors and ceilings, sharp angles and a really modern feel.

The museum organization is also a bit out of the ordinary, with information grouped in "themes" instead of chronologically. There was an "arrivals" theme, for instance, that touched on an influx of Jews into Denmark way the heck back when, another one in the 1970s when a wave of anti-semitism hit Poland, and also displays on the arrival of Danish Jews on Swedish soil when they arrived there as refugees during WWII. The "Mitzvah" theme (mitzvah meaning a good deed) explored this part of Danish Jewish history in more detail. I didn't spend a huge amount of time at the museum but the time I did spend there was quite well spent.

Leaving the museum that afternoon, I was so darn cold that I figured I'd stop at my hostel to warm up quick before my evening plans took flight. Back at the hostel, I met a new roomie named Madeleine, a kiwi girl who had been traveling around Europe for about 8 months. We made plans to hang out the next morning, and then I dashed back out into the cold.

I was off to meet Line, a friend of a friend's daughter who had graciously offered to meet me for dinner. Not only did cottage buddy Birte give me the low down on Copenhagen this summer, she also match-made me with this lovely girl (and another that I'll be staying with in Berlin!).

It was really great to meet up with a local, and Line and I got along really well. She got me into Tivoli on a pass card she had, and we took a nice walk through the park, which was all done up for Halloween. I loved all the floating jack-o-lanterns, candles, and cobwebs. Well done Tivoli, you have this Hallow's Eve aficionado's seal of approval.

H.C. Anderson looks on at one of Europe's oldest theme parks

Rather than eat at one of the packed, probably expensive, and probably gluten-ridden restaurants in the park, Line led the way back in to town to a restaurant called "RizRaz". Omg. A g-free paradise! The restaurant's speciality was their vegetarian buffet, which only had 2 gluteny items (lasagna and spaghetti) out of maybe 25 non-gluteny ones. I think I ate more that meal than I had my previous 48 hours in Copenhagen total. They had yummy broccoli salad, potato salad, tzatziki and hummus, these falafel ball things, rice, zucchini, oh man. I could go on, but just believe me that it was awesome.

Line and I had some lovely convos over dinner, and parted ways when it was time for her to pack it in in preparation for an early morning working on her masters thesis. Back at the hostel, I hung out with Madeleine for a while, and had another nice early night.

Denmark Days part 2

My second full day in Denmark was another lovely one. Milla technically had to check out of the hostel at 10am, so she handed in her key and just left her stuff near my bed. Our plan for the morning was to tick Christiania and the Little Mermaid off our collective to-see lists, and we succeeded.

The first thing we did was navigate our way across a big bridge over to the man-made island of Christianshavn. We ended up in a nice little park on what I've been calling "the coast", but was really just the other side of the island. Milla's mum came and met us there and we had a nice stroll with the crisp autumn colours as our backdrop.

a crisp morning in Christianshavn

Eventually, we entered the free-state of Christiania, a community forged in the 1970s when a bunch of hippies took over some abandoned army barracks. More than a big group of long term squatters, Christiania has evolved into an entirely self-sustainable community, with their own schools, health centers, and even their own garbage an recycling programs.

I didn't feel scared of or intimidated by the community members at all. While they are clearly a group of people who hold privacy with high regard, they also seemed happy to share their community with the public. The whole area was brightly coloured and artsy, and you could tell many creative minds must live there. I found the "you are now entering the EU" signs at the exits quite funny. Being from BC, the "green light district" of "pusher street" didn't phase me much.

me and Milla and the entrance to Christiania

Milla's mum went elsewhere after our wander through Christiania, and Milla and I moved on to our next goal for the day. After a quick stop for tea, we started for the coast, eventually making our way to the fortification of Kastellet. This little star-shaped island was possibly my favourite part of Copenhagen. At the entrance to the area, there was a beautiful old stone Anglican Church that I quickly fell in love with. Also an epic fountain with an incredibly dynamic use of water.

The Gefion Fountain

Anglican Church in Kastellet

As we walked along Langeline it seemed there was a statue every few steps, along with a lot of natural beauty. We put our tourist caps on for pictures with the "Lille Havfrue", but also went further along the coast to visit her uglier, and much lonelier sister, the "mutant mermaid".

The Little Mermaid

The Mutant Mermaid

Having seen those sights, we made our way back to the hostel, and before Milla had to catch her flight back to Finland, had lunch together at a place called zoo bar. I brought the salad count to 4 there, but we also split some delicious parmesan/citrus fries that were amaaaaazing.

After Milla disappeared down the metro at Kongen's Nytorv I finished the part of Strøget we hadn't done the day before, being able to afford, and therefore buying, nothing.

As the evening went on and the skies got dark and cold I found a place that sold broccoli soup to go, smuggled it into my hostel with the prowess of a secret agent, and ended up spending the rest of my evening hanging out with Jan, a political science prof from Thailand, in Denmark to present a paper. Sweet.

Mine and Milla's walking route.  11.5 km!