Rob’s European Vacation 2009

So today (yes I’m finally catching up….I’m actually writing these last three entries on the train somewhere in Belgium on my way to Holland) started ok, I woke up and went to take a shower and get something to eat.  Eating was hard though..I was hungry but as soon as I started eating I didn’t want to eat anymore.  Oh the joys of being sick.  I forced myself though and after breakfast I went up to pack.  I packed my bags and grabbed my laptop for one last conversation with A before I headed to Holland.  I talked to her for a while and then grabbed my bags and headed to Gare D’Nord.  I had 40 minutes to catch my train, that’s a good amount of time right? NO.  The line for the tickets and reservations was HUGE.  I ended up getting my mandatory reservation (a whopping 27 Euros!!) and got to my train just as it was about to take off.  Phew!

The train was going to Amsterdam but my tickets were to Antwerp and then from Antwerp I’m taking another train to Amsterdam.  I ran into two other Americans who had the same tickets and none of us could figure out whey they were this way since the train we were on was going to where we wanted to go…oh well…whatever.

Anyways as I was at the Antwerp station, I remember the awesome YouTube video of everyone singing the Sound of Music at a train station…and that was at Antwerp!  Kind of cool…here is the link:

Anyways I’m on the train now and headed to Amsterdam.  More to follow when I get there….

Alright..I’m in Amsterdam and I gotta say a few things…HOLY CRAP.  All of Holland is here today…the train station looked like AT&T AND Oakland Coliseum getting at at the exact same time COMBINED.  There’s live music and techno music all up and down the canals.  Everyone is walking in the streets..I’m going to go out in a few and buy my orange shirt because everyone is wearing orange today.  Orange is the national color of Holland if you didn’t know.  So the hostel…got it last minute and it was very expensive.  Around 65 dollars a night…but that’s not the end of it..apparently I paid 65 bucks a night for a bed in a communal room with no wall sockets, no lockers…just a sketchy sketchy place.  Oh well..2 nights…I can do this.  I took out my laptop and camera and I’m going to carry those around as much as possible.  I miss the big nice hostels like St. Christopher’s.  Anyways…I’ll let you know more tomorrow or in Berlin!

So I woke up on my third day in Paris with only one day left with a  huge plate ahead of me.  I still had the Orsay, Napoleon’s Tomb and maybe even Versailles.  Well I didn’t get to see Versailles because after all the walking I did, my feet was killing me and I actually started coming down with a cold I think.

So anyways the morning started off with getting online again and talking to A.  Notice a trend here?  Mornings for me are very late nights for her and nights for me are her afternoons since she’s at work.

So after I talked to her and wrote a journal entry (Paris Day 1 – you can see how far I am behind, lol) I headed out about noon to hit up the rest of the city.  First stop, the Orsay.  This is actually A’s favorite museum and I can see why.  I was in complete awe of the paintings there.  Impressionism is my favorite period in art and wow, wow wowow owowowowowow is this museum filled with it.  I was actually very impressed and motivated by it.  Impressionists like Pisarro, Monet, Manet, Renoir and others were so talented and so ahead of their time…Very inspiring work.  I also saw such great works at Whistler’s Mother  and some Rodin sculptures.  The thing that motivated me the most though was the Van Gogh room.  I can’t wait to see his museum in Amsterdam!  After the Orsay I took off for Invalides…

Invalides is actually the French Army Museum.  I entered in with my museum pass and checked out an awesome exhibit featuring a crap load of really awesome French armour.  Oh good god, look how I just spelled armour…I think my time in London rubbed off on me too much.  Anyways the ARMOR was awesome and sooo detailed and cool.  They even had a Corinithian (the people prior to Charlemagne’s creation of the Holy Roman Empire) helmets that they had found and were in really good condition.  About this time I decided it was time to by pass most of the rest and head straight to see Napoleon’s Tomb.  The man that single handedly kicked all of Europe’s ass for 14 years straight until he ran into a little thing called the Russian winter.  (You would have thought that Hitler would’ve remembered this…)  His tomb is sunken and his sarcophagus is HUGE. It’s down though and basically you have to almost bow over to see the Emperor.  According to our tour guide the day before, this was done on purpose and when Hitler visited his tomb he didn’t want to bow down so he had a mirror with him to look at it but his hat fell off and he had to bend over to pick it up anyways…so the French still say that even Hitler eventually bowed down to Napoleon.  Really cool stuff…I love the history.  Also in the tomb is some of France’s greatest army heroes.  I’m looking forward to looking them up and reading about their accomplishments.

After the Invalides I headed over to the Champ Mars and up to …L’ Effiel Tower.  Four years ago I was here in the late afternoon and nighttime and there was no line and it was so pretty and quiet.  At 3 pm on a Wednesday, it was NOT!  The mass of crowds was insane.  I decided not to go up it this time since I had been up previously and was ok with not waiting in line for an hour with my feet kind of hurting.  I headed over to the Trocadero on the other side of the River Seine and took a picture of the Eiffel Tower that is the exact same spot a picture of Hitler is in…then I headed over to the French Naval Museum.  I had high hopes for the museum but it was a ton of …models.  That’s pretty much it.  The models were impressive in their own right but not quite what I was looking for…so after about half an hour I headed out and decided to head back since by this time my feet were really killing me.  I think the walking and standing on my feet for 8+ hours a day for over a week were getting to them.  Needless to say I was looking forward to the five hour train ride to Amsterdam the next day.

As I excited the building I noticed a mob of people and TONS of French Police.  I had no idea what was going on and no one around me spoke English.  Oh well..after about fifteen minutes I decided to walk down the Seine and caught a metro train back to my hostel.

Also around this time I started feeling really sick.  I  know my body pretty good and knew I was coming down with something.  Immediately I started freaking out about the swine flu!  But I doubt I got that, with all the germs and stuff I have come in contact with on the trains, hostels, planes and metros…I probably be surprised if I didn’t get sick on this trip.  So I got back to the hostel and talked to A again and took a nap before I went down to get the backpackers dinner that was being offered for six Euros from my hostel.  Unlike the other night where I met a whole bunch of cool people…everyone that night was not alone and not into making conversation.  Within fifteen minutes I was alone and eating my dinner.  It’s times like this when I feel really lonely and alone in this world.  I was sick, eating dinner alone and 10 thousand miles from home.  I keep telling myself that I’ll be ok and things will be all good ina  few weeks when I get back and just to enjoy this experience.  Lord knows if I’ll get this much time off again…so enjoy!

So after dinner I went back up to my room.  I had a busy day tomorrow, getting on a train heading for Amsterdam and it’s a national holiday!  It’s Queen’s Day and supposed to be a HUGE party.  Hopefully I’ll feel up to partying…

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