Red Light District (Amsterdam Day 1)

After landing in Amsterdam, we were so tired from staying up all night, that after checking into our hostel we ate lunch at a local pub and then went to take a nap.  After waking up, we decided to do our normal first night in the city adventure of walking around and exploring.  We found a street where many different kinds of restaurants were located.  We decided to call it the ethnic food aisle.  There was everything from Mexican, Argentinean, and Asian food to American and Italian food.  We ate at an Argentinean Steakhouse and we all ordered the specialty of the house, the Steak with chimichurri sauce, which was very good.  After this we walked to the notorious Red Light District.  The boys had a great time seeing all of the ‘sights’ the night had to offer while Cara was pretty much in shock.  For those that don’t know, the reason it’s called the Red Light district is due to the windows, lit up with red lights, where girls stand and try to entice men to come in “for a good time”.  It was very interesting and definitely something we were not used to seeing.  After walking around for a while, it started raining pretty hard so we stopped to at this French Fries booth that we saw everywhere and got an order to share.  They were delicious!  We then took a cab home, only because it was raining, and went to sleep so we could get an early start the next day.

Globe Theater (London Day 3)

For our last day in London we got a late start and went straight to lunch.  We heard that the Asian cuisine in London was very good so we ate at a Vietnamese restaurant down the street from our hostel called “Me Me”.   The food was great and our waitress was very friendly.  

After lunch we went to see Shakespeare’s Globe Theater.  The original Globe theater was burned down in the 1500’s during a performance of Henry VIII and was rebuilt in the early 1900s.  Along with the Globe Theater, Shakespeare worked in the Rose Theater and the Swan Theater.  We were able to take a tour of the Rose Theater which is currently being excavated after recently being discovered during renovations of another building.  Because of this, it was very hard to see much of what still exists but it was interesting to see that over the years, without any special attention to the theater, the city had been building over it.  We also explored the Globe Theater museum and learned a lot about the production of plays during Shakespeare’s time.  The theaters were originally located outside of the city, before the city had expanded that far, because it was forbidden by the Queen to have theaters within the city walls.  However, when Queen Elizabeth wanted to see a play, the whole crew would have to come to the palace to perform the play. 

After the Globe theater, we went to Picadilly Circus.  It was like London’s version of Time Square.  There were huge department stores and signs everywhere.  There was even a China Town nearby.  We walked around for a while and had a good time making fun of some of the European clothing in H&M.  After enjoying the scenery, we went to dinner at a restaurant in China Town and from there we went back to our hostel to pack and then went out.  Our flight to Amsterdam the next morning was at 6am, which meant we had to leave at 3:30am for the airport, so we decided to stay up all night.  We went to a Lebanese restaurant/hookah bar and hung out there until about 3am, then headed for the airport after saying goodbye to Julian.

English Breakfast and much more (London Day 2)

For our first day with Julian, we decided to get breakfast at a pub to experience a traditional English breakfast of sausage, ham, baked beans, eggs, tomatoes, and mushroom.  It was much different than a typical American breakfast, and seemed kind of weird at first, but we all liked it a lot.  Afterwards we visited the royal palace again, this time to see the changing of the guards.  There was a huge amount of people there to see the traditional parade and changing ceremony.  

From here we went to the London Eye which is a huge Ferris-wheel-type structure that travels really slow to the point that it doesn’t even stop to let people off.  As we made our way around the wheel to the top, we could see the whole city at different angles.  It was definitely a neat experience!  After the London Eye, we stopped in front of Big Ben to take a picture.  This is also where the parliament building is located.  We thought we were in line to see the inside but apparently you have to pre-schedule your tour and tours are only open to non-residents on the weekends and it was a Wednesday.  Needless to say, we got in a little trouble for trying to sneak in, but it was definitely worth the laugh.  After this we stopped at Westminster Abbey which is where all of the royalty get married and recently where Prince William and Kate Middleton were married. 

From here we went to the Tower of London which is where the crown jewels are located!  It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England.  In the 1100s, the tower was a place to hold high level prisoners such as Queen Ann Boleyn and is also where she and others were beheaded.  The Tower has served variously as an armory, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public records office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.  In the middle of the Tower is where the military grounds were located and there was a huge exhibit of past militia’s equipment, horses, and armory.  The Tower of London was definitely one of everyone’s favorite exhibits in London.

After the Tower of London we went to Kings Cross station to take a picture at Platform 9 3/4! From there we went to have dinner, a traditional meal of England, Fish and Chips!  Then we went back to our hostel and hung out for a little before deciding to go out.  We tried to go to a bar that our friend James, who is from England, recommended to us but they were only open till midnight.  Instead we went to Mango Bar.  We enjoyed free olives and pretzels while drinking wine.

Exploring London (Day 1)

After leaving Paris, we traveled to London.  When we arrived in London, we couldn’t check into our hostel yet, so we dropped off our luggage and went to lunch.  We went to a restaurant called Nando’s.  It was an African chicken restaurant.  We were so excited to have unlimited refills of soda and ice!  The food was really good and the sauce that was a trademark of the restaurant was even better.  After lunch we went back to the hostel and relaxed for a bit.  

We then decided to walk around the city a little and explore.  We started off in a plaza where a live mural of a Van Gogh painting was.  On a wall, they had planted bushes and flowers to resemble a portion of the painting.  This was in correlation with London’s Green initiative which was being publicized all over the city.  We then visited the royal gardens, which had a special exhibit dedicated to the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in London.

  

From here we continued walking on a trail, which was dedicated to Princess Diana, until we got to the Royal Palace.  We took some pictures of the guards.  After exploring, we ate at a Chinese restaurant that was recommended to us.  It was very good and very cheap!  We then went to a pub near the train station to wait for our friend Julian to get in from Greece.  We ordered some beer and cider while waiting.  By the time Julian got in, EVERYTHING was closed so we went to bed.

Eiffel Tower (Paris Day 4)

For our last day in Paris, we decided to sleep in a little since we had gotten up so early the previous two days.  Our only goal for the day was to hang out and see the Eiffel Tower.  We ate breakfast then bought some wine and some chips and headed to the Eiffel Tower.  We sat in the park and enjoyed our chips and our wine.  Then we took some touristy pictures in front of the Tower.  We then made our trek to the top.   We had to ride up two separate lifts to get to the top, and once we got up there the view was amazing.  

After the Eiffel tower, we went back to the hostel and then went to dinner at another restaurant on our street.  Tonight we all ate something different.  Cara had the bleu cheese steak, Jamie had pepper steak, and Jose had chicken.  After dinner we went to a bar down the street from our hostel that advertised beer pong on Mondays.  We played a game with a French guy we met in the bar who was really friendly and spoke pretty good English.  We went to bed pretty early tonight since our flight the next morning was really early.

Versailles, D'Orsay, L'Orangerie, Pompidou (Paris Day 3)

Today we woke up really early again so we could take a train to the city of Versailles.  This is where King Louis XIV decided to live and eventually was taken over in a rebellion at the start of the French Revolution when King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette lived there.  The palace was amazing.  The grounds contain a palace, a garden, and a Queen’s apartment.  Somehow we managed to cut the hour long line and walk right in.  Not only was the house furnished with some of the original furniture and rugs and tapestries, but it also contained murals and pieces of art along with statues of important people in French history such as Joan of Arc, Laplace, L’Hopital and a lot of other important figures in French history. 

After touring the palace, we found out that it was an additional cost to see the gardens and decided to opt out.  We then went to the Queen’s apartment which was about a 15 minute walk.  Located here was where guests would stay and there was also a smaller garden which was still gorgeous to look at.  The Queen’s apartment was Cara’s favorite because the house was built in a pink marble!  To make the trek back to the front of the palace grounds, we found a tram.  Little did we know it though, the tram ended inside of the garden we originally thought was too expensive to enter.  We ended up getting to see it for free and skipped a 15 minute walk!  

When we finished our tour of Versailles, we headed back to Paris.  We went to two smaller museums.  First, the Musee D’Orsay, which has some original pieces by Monet, Manet and Van Gogh.  This museum was originally the central train station for Paris and was later transformed into a museum.  After this museum we went to an even smaller museum, Musee L’Orangerie, which dedicates two whole rooms to the original water lily series of paintings by Monet.  It was very pretty to see them laid out in the rooms.  This museum also housed many impressionist paintings.  After these two museums, we stopped at the Place de la Concorde.  Here is where many statues, a fountain, and an obelisk are located.  We then decided to head back to the hostel and take another nap.  

After our nap, we went to the Pompidou.  This is Paris’s biggest collection of modern art and holds many paintings by Picasso.  One of the floors is dedicated to art from 1960 to the present.  Most of the art in this section was very odd, but it was neat seeing what many people think of as art.  For dinner, we went to a traditional French restaurant on Rue Moufftard.  It was located right next to our hostel.  Jose and Cara had pasta with salmon and Jamie had crispy pork ribs.  After dinner, we had some wine and called it a night.