Paris: Part I

Little Baby in Paris

We wanted our trip to end with a bang so we'd end our journey in Paris. This portion of the trip would fall on my 30th birthday as well. How lucky am I to have gotten to celebrate my 30th rotation around the sun in the City of Light? Very lucky. Very very lucky! To this day, I still can't believe that it happened and I actually went there for 3 days. I'd been dreaming of visiting Paris since I was an itty bitty girl and that dream finally came to fruition.

Since our flight wasn't until two o'clock in the afternoon we got to sleep in and have a nice, quiet last morning in Copenhagen. We made sure the flat was just as tidy as it had been when we arrived then we had some breakfast. Since it was still pretty early we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood since we hadn't gotten to do that yet.



Our first peek at the Eiffel Tower. We got a little excited.

We got to see some critters including a some snails, bumblebees, lady bugs, birds and a gorgeous Siamese kitty in addition to a plethora of flowers. Even though I was very excited about Paris, I was sad to be leaving Copenhagen since we'd had such a lovely time there. After our little stroll we grabbed our bags and went into town so Melissa could send a postcard to her mum. Unfortunately, we got stuck behind a guy with two IKEA bags full of packages (must've been an Ebay seller) and an Australian woman who talked the teller's ear off. What should've been a 5 minute post office visit turned into half an hour and when we finally got out of there we'd just missed the train to the airport that would've gotten us there on time. Once again we got there late and had to haul ass through the airport. It was not fun times. If you know me well, you know that running is not my jam (I'm more of a fast walker) so it was a nightmare having to race through the airport again with my suitcase in tow. The airport had countdown timers painted onto the floor telling you how far you were from the gate and I remember thinking, "I CAN'T RUN FOR 3 MORE MINUTES!" I'm honestly surprised we didn't die. When we got to the gate I could see an Easy Jet pulling away and thought, "Welp, there it goes! We missed it!" but it was only pulling into the gate. We'd later find out that when our tickets said "no check in later than such and such time" it meant no security check ins past that time, not gate check ins so we actually had plenty of time and didn't need to kill ourselves running. -______-



I'd been waiting to take this picture my whole life!

Our flight was only about 2 hours so we arrived in Paris around 4pm, however, the airport was kind of far from the city so we didn't end up getting to the flat til around 6pm. Our host didn't think we were arriving til 7pm so he was napping when we finally reached the apartment. The flat wasn't as large as it appeared in the ad but it was cute and centrally located (we were literally a 5 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower). As soon as we got settled we walked down to see the tower. It had started drizzling by the time we got to the park but we didn't mind. We were just so happy to be taking selfies in front of the Eiffel Tower! Everyone was taking goofy touristy pictures of themselves "holding" the Eiffel Tower so naturally I wanted one too. I did give myself quite the fright taking one of these pictures, though. Melissa was trying to get the angle right to look like I was holding the tower and I kept stepping back without really looking where I was going. When I did glance behind me I was ONE STEP AWAY from a 12 foot drop onto concrete! I'm surprised they didn't have a rail or anything at that spot and I wonder how many people have fallen off that ledge taking silly pictures. The fact that I almost fell and broke my neck would haunt me a bit for the remainder of the trip (and that I could've died the day before my birthday--yikes!)



A dream come true!

By this point it had started to rain pretty steadily so we decided to go look for something to eat for dinner. Melissa asked me what I had wanted to eat and I went, "Ummm..." and she said, "Just say it. You want pizza again." I TOTALLY WANTED PIZZA AGAIN! We found a pizza place right down the street from our flat that was pretty busy so we knew it had to be good. We got a little table for two and ordered another veggie pizza. I got to hear Melissa speak French for the first time that night and I was so impressed. She'd been telling me the whole trip that her French was rubbish and that she could barely remember it but as soon as she started speaking it I guess it all came back to her. I had to sit there in silence and just nod my head and throw in the occasional "merci". I had been worried since I hadn't practiced any French prior to the trip but I was able to get by with only knowing:

*thank you
*yes
*hello
*goodbye



Pizza my Heart

Everyone in Paris knows enough English to communicate with American tourists but I still wish I was able to speak French. I've just never had a brain for language (minus my mother tongue). While we were waiting for our pizza we spent the time drooling over one of the waiters. Since the place was so packed there wasn't much room to move around so every time he'd walk past our table his bottom would be inches away from me and I'd really have to suppress the urge to smack him on the butt. It was a good bum. We must've been annoying the two guy sitting next to us with our English jibber jabber because after about 5 minutes of listening to us, they got up and moved one table down. However, one of the guys continued to stare at me through his whole meal. Weirdo. Our waiter must've thought we were a lesbian couple because he brought our pizza in a heart shape. I did appreciate the cute factor but I feel we were cheated several inches of pizza with this shape :/ For dessert I ordered the tiramisu (my favorite) for my birthday eve treat and it was the BEST tiramisu I'd ever had. It was more of a pudding-like consistency than the cake-like version I've had at home. It was heaven and well worth the 8 euros. After our meal we waited for ages and ages for the waiter to bring the check. I kept giving him the stink eye but he still continued to ignore us. Finally we started putting our jackets on and I guess that was the unspoken symbol in France that you're ready for your check because he immediately brought it after that.



The River Siene

We walked back to the Eiffel Tower after dinner to see the lights and it was sparkly and beautiful but by the time I took my camera out it stopped! I guess they only turn the lights on every hour for 5 minutes after dark and I got my camera out at 9:05pm. Merde! So that's why I have no pictures of it at night. When we got back to the flat my feet were pretty tired from all of our adventures that day so I had another soak in the tub. We turned in around 11pm that night and went to sleep dreaming about VERSAILLES (and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau fyi). My birthday fell on Easter Sunday this year and I would get to spend it like a Queen in the royal palace!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo,
Courtney

Copenhagen: Part III

Our final day in Copenhagen fell on Good Friday and I'm not religious or anything but it was a blessed day. Again we woke to absolutely divine weather; the sun was shining and the air was crisp and clean. Just another perfect day to be on holiday. We got up early and made our way over to a bike rental and would ride around the city on bikes the entire day. We had a choice between two standard bikes or two "luxury" bikes. The standard bikes were cheaper so we told the guy we'd just take two of those however when we went to pick our bikes out there were only luxury bikes left. We gave the numbers of the bikes to the dude and he charged us the standard price. However, when we were riding away I think he noticed that we were on the good bikes and he made an "Ah, shiiiit" face :p But we were like, "Byeeeee!"

As far as bikes go, I have to say that the Dutch have the Danish beat. These bikes were okay but the brakes were weird. Instead of having two handbrakes, our bikes had a hand brake for the front wheel and then a pedal brake for the back wheel. Since I'm right handed I normally keep my right leg on the pedal when I come to a stop and put my left leg on the ground but the pedal brake was on the right hand side so if you put the least bit of pressure on the right pedal the bike would start to brake. It was a total pain and my left leg was dead by the end of the day from having to use it to push myself forward all day. Oof! But besides that little hiccup we had the best time riding all over Copenhagen.

Our original plan was to go thrift store shopping but since it was a holiday all of the shops were closed! That was a bummer. On our ride we passed a fancy church from 1698 so we decided to check it out (my mom was happy that we "went to church" on Good Friday, haha! We each lit a candle for 1 euro and took some cute pics before hitting the road again. However, there was this amazing carved wooden organ inside and I was pretty blown away that someone long ago carved it by hand. Being a 2D artist, I'm always super impressed/awed by 3D works and this one was pretty hardcore. After that we rode over to a few other churches just to admire the architecture then we headed over to the shopping district, Strøget. I was hoping some of the shops would be open there but only shops with food were open. We then rode over to Nyhavn and parked the bikes for a bit and went in search of food since it was lunch time by then. The restaurants along the canal were all packed and everyone was eating outside and enjoying the sun shine. We happened to walk past this couple on the street that were each eating delicious looking pizzas and our mouths started watering like crazy. Melissa asked if we should just ask them where they got the pizza instead of wandering around like zombies for food and I told her to go for it. It turns out that the pizza place was only a block away and was super cheap! It was this tiny hole in the wall called Pizza Time and we got the best veggie pizza for 8 euros! Oh, man, was it GOOD!

After lunch we decided to ride over to the beach. When we got to where the beach was supposed to be (according to the map) there was no beach! It was just a port and lots of construction. Such a bummer! While we were there Melissa stopped for a Nutella crepe and we sat and looked at this gorgeous fountain. Next we rode past the Marble Church and over to Østre Anlæg Park. We saw lots of little doggies running around and I even got to see my first castle, Rosenborg, which was inhabited by the royal family until 1720. Now it's more of a historical museum and houses the crown jewels. Outside the castle there were soldiers with huge guns and that freaked us out so we decided to go to the botanical gardens instead. The entrance to the gardens wasn't easy to find, however, and we wasted about half and hour trying to get in. When we finally found the entrance a dude told us they'd just closed. EPIC BUMMER. It was pretty late by then so we decided we should probably take the bikes back. The sun was just setting when we got back to the bike shop and it was really pretty to see at the end of our day. I was happy to get back onto the train after riding bikes all day. Melissa made another delicious pasta dinner and we finished off the last of the chocolate cake.

The next day would be the final leg of our trip, PARIS!

Copenhagen: Part II (Tivoli)

Our second day in Copenhagen was an extra special day because we actually had something planned instead of just wandering around. On this day we'd be visiting Tivoli Gardens, one of Denmark's leading tourist attractions. Tivoli is the second oldest amusement park in the world dating all the way back to 1843 and was an inspiration for Walt Disney to open his own amusement park, Disneyland. While planning our trip I found out that Melissa had never been to an amusement park before so I thought this would be a great place for us to visit.

When we got to the park you had an option between buying a pack of tickets or getting an all-day pass but since we didn't have any other plans for the day we decided to get the unlimited pass. The first ride we went on was "The Mine" and you sat in a cart and had a laser gun to shoot at the gem stones that matched the color of your laser. Since I've been playing video games my entire life my hand-to-eye coordination is pretty pretty pretty good so I hit the most gem stones ;)
The next ride was a little roller coaster called Rutschebanon (translation: the roller coaster). This would be Melissa's first real roller coaster so I didn't know how it was going to go. Would she hate it? Would she barf? Luckily, she liked it. Her body's reaction to her first roller coaster was so cute; she started crying and laughing! It was adorable! That ride was pretty tame though, I think it only went about 30 mph so the real test would be this monster in the China Town portion of the park, The Demon. This thing went upside down about 4 times and reached 50 mph. To be honest, I was kind of worried I might barf on this one myself! They didn't allow any purses or personal items on this ride so we got a locker and dumped our stuff off first. The Demon turned out to be our favorite ride! We even went on it a second time a few hours later.

The next ride we went on was The Golden Tower. It slowly pulls you up the tower and you get an amazing view of Copenhagen. We could see everything but it was kind of hard to enjoy the view when you knew you were going to be dropped at any second. I kind of lost my shiz when it dropped us to tell the truth. My stomach went hurdling up into my chest and I could not stop screaming until we came to a stop. I kept telling my brain to stop but it was just a natural reaction to plummeting 400 ft. I guess. Once we got off we were both laughing like maniacs and we walked over to the ride adjacent to the tower. This ride was called Vertigo and it was totally BANANAS. I don't know what even possessed us to go on. It was a looping plane ride and you could choose to go either straight or backwards. We were pretty intimidated with this one so we asked the dudes behind us if they minded just going straight (they didn't mind). This ride was like being inside a dryer. It spun us every which-a-way at 60 mph! Not only did the plan spin in all directions, it was connected to this giant pole that spun clockwise at the same time! At the end of the ride one of my braids exploded out! I was certain my elastic had fallen into the lake that was right below us but when we got off it was right inside my jacket. So lucky!

The next ride we went on looked super cheesy but it wound up making us totally ill. It was called The Dragon and all it did was swing you back and forth but it made me and Melissa super duper nauseous. We had to sit down for like an hour after that one and felt like such little babies. While we were taking a break Melissa stopped for a cup of mint tea. I'd only every had peppermint tea, which I wasn't crazy about but she gave me a little sip of hers and it was so DELICIOUS. It was loose leaf tea served in these adorable clay tea pots. I usually don't put sugar in my tea and as a result, I've never been much of a tea drinker. However, after tasting Melissa's that had brown sugar in it, I will from now on take sugar in my tea. It was a little chilly that day so it was so nice to sit on these furry blankets they had outside and sip hot minty tea. I had my blueberry Luna bar that I'd stashed in my purse as well so I felt refreshed after our little break.

We walked around the gardens for a bit while our tummies settled then we went on this cute little boat ride. These little boats were kind of difficult to steer so we unintentionally kept crashing into other boats (oops!) but it was fun. After that we just walked around some more and took a buttload of flower pictures. Tivoli had tons of exotic flowers everywhere that I never thought I would see in real life. They also had a male peacock in the park that kept squawking at everyone. He was cute as heck but suuuuper loud. I think the next ride we went on was the Star Flyer. I had forgotten that I still had a button on my jacket from the Harry Potter tour so when it was our turn to get onto the swings the guy running the ride kept asking me if I was Harry Potter and if I had a wand hidden in my jacket. It was super cutez. I wish we could've gotten a picture of us on the swings since the Star Flyer is one of Tivoli's most popular attractions. Bummer. By this point it was close to six o'clock and we were pretty starving so we went on the Demon one last time then we went to this place, Wagamama, for dinner. Melissa had been to Wagamama's before so she was able to vouch for the food. When we walked into the restaurant they asked us if we spoke Danish, when we said "no" they stamped our hands so the wait staff would know we only spoke English. We thought that was pretty weird/funny. I ordered some kind of tofu dish which wound up tasting like tofu in spaghetti. It was really good but not what you'd expect from an Asian restaurant.

On our way back home we stopped at Paradis ice cream shop since it was literally right on our walk home. I got an oreo milkshake that was very good. We again slept like babies that night which was good since the next day we would be riding bikes again ALL DAY.

Stay tuned!

Copenhagen: Part I

Photo by Melissa

The next day we were up before the dawn and power-walked to the U-baun. I was so ready to get on that plane and leave Berlin in the dust. The difference between Berlin and Copenhagen was like night and day. Our first impression of CPH was "OMG! It's frikkin' adorable!" The houses were all super charming and everyone's yards were full of flowers. On top of that, everyone we encountered was so NICE. I had always heard that Copenhagen was the World's Happiest City and now I know why. This city is so dreamy and we just felt comfortable, relaxed, and safe from the moment we got off the train.

Our adorable little kitchen

I had contacted our Airbnb host a week before I left for Europe just so I could get better directions to the flat (Google Maps directions were too vague) and not only did he give us excellent directions he said that since his family would be on holiday for the duration of our stay that we had access to the entire house! I had only booked for the loft, which had 2 beds and a bathroom and had only paid $66 USD a night so to get to use the entire house for the same price was unbelievable! We had no trouble finding the house...finding the key was a different story. He had hidden it under a wood pile and after a brief freak out we managed to find it. When we walked into the house we could NOT believe our good luck. This was the most adorable house I'd ever seen in real life. It was like an Ikea showroom and it was all ours for 3 glorious days! When I made a pitstop in the loo I noticed the floors were...wait for it--HEATED! I screamed to Melissa, "You gotta get in here!!!" We were so impressed by the Danish and we hadn't even left the house yet!

We took at little snooze since it was only about 10am by then and it was the best nap ever. We woke up so refreshed after the bad luck in Berlin. Since we hadn't really eaten yet we hopped on the train and went in search of food. In the city center there were tons of yummy things but I decided on a giant veggie sandwich. There was a boy working at the sandwich shop who was absolutely precious. I wish we could've taken him with us. After lunch we just walked around a bit and soaked up the atmosphere. Eventually we made our way over to see the Little Mermaid. It was so cute! I loved it so much that I bought a little figurine.

The Little Mermaid

We got back to the apartment around dusk (the walk to the Little Mermaid turned out to be a pretty long walk). On the way back, though, we stopped at a local supermarket and picked up some dinner things. We also bought a chocolate cake and whipped cream that really hit the spot. It was only 30DKK and lasted the whole time we were in Denmark. I think Melissa made risotto that night with mixed vegetables (such an angel). I took a bath that night since we had this lovely giant bathtub that looked awful lonesome. I never take baths at home since I feel bad about wasting water in the desert so this was a nice treat and a great way to end the day. We had bought mud masks while we were in Germany so we used those that night too and had a mini spa night.

Photo by Melissa

The next day we'd be going to a famous Danish tourist attraction, Tivoli, so we turned in pretty early. Melissa had never been to an amusement park so we were pretty excited. I'll tell you all about our day of fun at Tivoli in my next post.

Thanks for reading!

Bad Time Berlin

Grumpy Cat at the Holocaust Memorial

Next stop on our journey was Berlin and sadly, things went down the toilet (toilette?) as soon as we arrived. We had had nothing but sunny perfect weather up to this point so we weren't prepared for the moment we got off the plane for it to be rainy and cold (we got spoiled, I know). On top of that our Airbnb host who had previously agreed to leave the keys for us at the mailbox had changed his mind and said he would meet up with us late in the afternoon to give us the keys. We got to Germany around 10am so that meant we were stranded out in the rain lugging around our suitcases for 4 hours. In those 4 hours Berlin did not make a good impression on us. Visually, it was not aesthetically pleasing; all of the buildings were ugly and run-down looking and everything was covered in graffiti. There were no cute shops anywhere and the people were not friendly. We walked around for ages trying to find something to eat until we happened across a bakery. I had a Danish (which was pretty delicious) and a cappuccino that burned the bejesus out of my tongue >_______<



Woodland Fairy

So anyway, 4 hours go by and we met up with out host. We thought he'd just do a quick hand over of the keys and be outta there. WRONG. This guy went on and on and ON for an HOUR. He went on this whole shpeal about all of the things to see in Berlin but immediately after telling us about a place he'd say, "But I wouldn't recommend it." This guy was the WORST. One thousand hours later he finally left and I went to use the bathroom and noticed that the lights didn't work in the bathroom. Awesome. Next we noticed that he'd only left us one blanket and zero sheets. Fantastic. On top of that the room was filthy and had giant dust bunnies and spiders. Ew. I managed to take a little nap despite all of these grievances. When I woke up we decided to get out for a little bit and maybe check out the nightlife. We went to this god-awful hipster bar for like a hour before bailing (a girl spilt her drink all over Melissa). After that we wandered around a little bit and ended up getting hecka lost. Nothing like being lost in a foreign city in the rain at 10pm. Ugh...We eventually found a train that would take us back to our flat and since we were 100% done by that point we didn't buy a ticket. Luckily, no one asked nor cared.



Amadeus and Me

The next day was an improvement from the first but it still wasn't great. Our day started off with us being kicked off the U-baun. Since no one had checked our ticket the night before we thought we could get away with buying a reduced fair student ticket. We were almost to our stop when two dudes started making the rounds and checking tickets. He looked at ours and we thought we'd gotten away with it until he stops and turns back. He grabs the other guy with him and they start yelling at us about having an "illegal ticket" and escorted us off the train. We were so humiliated/terrified. There's nothing like two angry Germans first thing in the morning. They made us show them ID then lectured us how the tickets we had were for children only (in our defense all of the info on the tickets was in German so would have had no way of knowing that). They demanded we buy new tickets so we did. However, as soon as we got new tickets they acted like NOTHING HAD HAPPENED. Like night and day. It was totally weird. Right as we got back onto the train an entire group of Asian tourists got kicked off too and they had no tickets so we didn't envy them (they all looked so scared, poor babies).

We hadn't had any plans to go to the Holocaust Memorial since that time in history makes us super sad town but it was right there when we got off the train so we took a quick look. To be honest, I didn't care for the design at all. It was kind of an eyesore and kids were running through it and jumping all over it so we crossed the street and walked through the park. The park was really pretty and we got to see some cute doggies. There was a monument of Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn in the park too so we took some cute selfies. Once the park ended we thought it would be nice to walk along the river and follow it to the palace. It was a lovely walk but it went on for ages and we never did make it to the palace since we got too hungry and had to search for food instead. Finding food was no easy task, I might add. Luckily, we stumbled upon a university and had lunch in their cafeteria for super cheap. My sandwich was pretty blah but at least we ate. Shortly after lunch it started to rain really hard so we got back on the U-baun and headed back into the city center. There was a mall there so we went inside for a bit. I was surprised by how gross all of the clothes were. There wasn't anything I wanted to buy (and I usually can always find something). Just a huge let down all around.



Bad Time Berlin Babes

We headed back to the flat pretty early and stopped at a Lidl grocery store for dinner stuff. I got a tiramisu for 1.50 euros and it was surprisingly good. Melissa made the best dinner of all time too. We had macaroni with cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, mushrooms and goat cheese and bread. I had three helpings if you can believe it. Best meal of the trip by far.

So yeah, bad times were had in Berlin and if we had it to do over again we would've spent an extra day in London and Amsterdam instead. But hindsight is 20/20 but our rotten luck in Germany made us appreciate Denmark so much more. We were there for three days so I'll probably write about that in a few posts.

Thanks for reading!

Amsterdam: Part I and II

Our journey to Holland started before the dawn. Since our flight was at 7am (again) we had to be awake at 4:30am (yuck). We called a taxi and it took us to the train station that would get us to Stanton airport. Stanton turned out to be in the buttcrack of nowhere so by the time we got there we were already late as heck. It was a nightmare! We had to run through the entire airport with our luggage in tow (my suitcase weighed about 30 lbs and there were stairs EVERYHWERE). I honestly thought my lungs were going to burst I was running so hard. And we weren't the only ones. Everyone else who had been on our same train was booking it through the airport as if the place was on fire. Luckily, the flight had been delayed so we got there with plenty of time but we vowed to be super early next time (unfortunately, this would happen to us again in Denmark).

Once we actually got to Amsterdam everything was fine, though. The flat we rented was an absolute dream and our host was super nice (her boyfriend was a dreamboat btw). When we arrived she still had some cleaning up to do so we went out for some breakfast. We found a cute spot down the road called Dave's Coffee and Nuts and we even made friends with a dog, Petyr, who lived there. I had the most amazing smoothie of my life and cheese on toast. After brekkie we walked down to the most gorgeous park. Since the weather was so perfect (another beautiful sunny day) everyone was out enjoying the park with their doggies. I even got to see some parrots there that I wasn't expecting to see in Holland. I think we took a little nap after our stroll in the park and later we went to a street market across the road from our flat and bought things for dinner. It was a quiet and peaceful evening, which we needed after our stressful morning.

Our next day in Amsterdam would turn out to be the best day of my life so far. It was something out of a fairy tale. Just a perfect day. We slept in a bit and took the bus into town so we could rent bicycles. We found a bike rental called Mac Bike and the man who helped us was so nice! For the entire day it was 14.75 euros to rent a bike; it was the best 14.75 I've ever spent. I never imagined that something so simple as riding a bike around town could be so wonderful. These bikes rode like a dream and as soon as I got on mine I was overwhelmed with happiness. I kept shouting over to Melissa, "I'M HAVING SO MUCH FUN!!!" We rode over to the Nemo Science Center and climbed up to the roof and got an awesome view of the city. While we were taking photos up there a bird pooped on Melissa's phone and I just about died from laughing my guts out. We had talked earlier in the trip about how we'd never been pooped on by a bird so I couldn't handle it when it actually happened.

We rode our bikes all over town and it was so amazing getting to ride next to all of the lovely canals and boats. Our bikes had the cutest little bells too and it was so much fun getting to ring them anytime you needed someone to move out of your way. People kept walking into the bike lane so you'd have to ring your bell at them to wake them up. I wish I had a bell to ring in everyday life to signal folks to get the H outta my way! Amsterdam is super bike friendly but I'm still amazed that neither of us ate it or got hit by a car all day. I'm a pretty good cyclist but I was still impressed by ability to not die all day since people kept stopping in front of us.

The first thing on our list of things to see that day was the Vincent van Gogh Museum. Thanks to Melissa we didn't have much trouble finding it and when we did the line wasn't as bad as I had thought it was going to be. I think we waited less than an hour and tickets to get in weren't that expensive. I think it was about 15 euros. If we had had more time I easily could've spent all day in this museum. Vincent and his art are very special to me. I've always felt an affinity with him that I've never felt with any other artist. His work just moves me so much and has been such an inspiration to me.

We did manage to get in trouble at the museum so that was kinda lame. They only had a no photography sign on the first floor of the museum so once we got to the second floor we thought photos without a flash would be okay. WRONG. I was able to snap a few photos before I had a scary Dutch lady in my face. She was like, "I just told you to put that away. NO PHOTOS! Let me see you put it away!" while I'm like, "Just told me??" It was weird and super scary but at least she didn't insist that I delete them. My favorite painting we saw was "Almond Blossoms" and mostly because we got to learn that the painting was made for Vincent's new baby nephew and that he chose to paint almond blossoms for the baby since they symbolized new life and new beginnings. We were just so touched since we never knew the paintings backstory. The whole museum really touched my heart and I had to try realllly hard not to cry the whole time. His work just inspires so many feels in me (and the rest of humanity).

We only stayed in the museum about 2 hours because we were about to drop dead from hunger. However, the tomato and pesto sandwich I got for lunch didn't settle that well so I had a mini freakout. I got to experience my first pay toilet, though, which was really weird. It was 50 pence to use the bathrooms and Melissa came with me. When I walked into the stall I could totally see her and she could see me! I was like, "NO! How come the door is see-through?! I can't go if everyone can see me!!!" but when I closed the door the door instantly fogged up! It was totally bananas! After that bit of drama we kind of just rode around aimlessly and wound up at another beautiful park. Even though we had the bikes all day we thought it would be best to return them while the shop was open so we could make sure we didn't get charged any late fees or anything. It was rough letting the bikes go and having to walk again, haha.

We found a super cute ice cream shop in town and Melissa and I both got pistachio because we're awesome. While we were sitting there eating our ice cream a little fat pigeon scored a waffle cone that someone had dropped on the ground. He was so cute as he gobbled it all down :) It was really nice to just sit and relax after riding our bikes all day. After our little ice cream break we walked down to the Red Light District since it was almost dusk and we didn't want to be there after dark. It was pretty gross, which we were expecting but at least we can say that we saw it. We took the train back to our flat around 6 or 7pm and Melissa made another very tasty dinner. It was just such a lovely day and I'll never forget how exhilarating it was to ride bikes down the streets of Amsterdam on that beautiful spring day with my favorite girl.

Next stop was Berlin where things went a little...sour! Thanks for reading!

London: Part II (The Making of Harry Potter tour)

Our second day in London was a very special day, indeed. A dream 12 years in the making came true: I got to visit Warner Brothers Studio where the Harry Potter films were made! To be honest, this was the main reason I wanted to visit London. Let me tell you about our magical day!

Me and Melissa

I had booked our tour months in advance so we already had our tickets but when I booked them I had to pick a time for our tour. I chose 10:30am since I knew it was going to take a while to get there since the studio is in Watford. Google Maps had estimated it would take an hour and a half by bus so I thought we should leave 2 hours early just to be safe. However, the night before Melissa did a search and it said if we went by train and transferred a few times that it would only take 40 minutes. I figured 40 minutes sounded a lot better than an hour and a half so we decided to go by train. We wound up leaving around 9:15am thinking we'd have plenty of time. FALSE. The train ride wound up taking just as long as the bus! Our tickets said that any late arrivals could not be guaranteed entry so every minute that ticked by caused a bit of internal anxiety. However, I wasn't tooooo worried. I just had a feeling that everything would work out and that we'd get in even if we were late. A shuttle took us to the studio itself and that was my first time in a double decker bus. It was so high up that tree branches kept smacking into the windows and freaking everybody out. We finally arrived at the studio at 11:20am and I was prepared to cry and tell the lady it was my birthday if she told us we were too late for our scheduled tour but she just stamped it and sent us on our way. (insert sigh of relief)

Dumbledore's owl podium is my fave!

 When we walked in there was a queue we had to wait in with the other people in our group (there were about 50 of us) and right next to the line was the cupboard under the stairs--like, the ACTUAL CUPBOARD UNDER THE STAIRS! If I could've sobbed without looking like a freak I would have. Before the studio tour began we watched a short film to get us hyped up. Daniel, Emma and Rupert got us all stoked and shared some memories they had made going to this studio for the majority of their childhoods (I just love those three so much). When the film was over the screen lifted and behind it were the doors to the Great Hall! The Great Hall was totally wicked and I still can't believe I got to stand in it! Watching the movies will never be the same because now I'll be like, "I've been there and there and THERE!" Inside the Great Hall they had the student uniforms from all the 4 houses as well as the staff's costumes.

Luna's shoes and jewelry

The next room had the majority of props from the films in it. Luna's costumes and jewelry were my faves :) In this portion of the studio they had the boy's dormitory, the Gryffindor common room, Dumbledore's office, the Weasley's kitchen, the Potions classroom, Hagrid's Hut, and Umbridge's office. As far as props go, I think I was most excited to see all of the Horcruxes (the locket was so beautiful up close), the Philosopher's Stone, and the Tri-Wizard Cup. There was just so much to look at that it was a bit overwhelming. Honestly, I could've spent the entire day looking at everything. One really cute thing that I absolutely loved was this wall with photos of all of the animal cast from the films. There was a picture of each critter with its real name and a description of that animal's personality (for example, one of the Crookshank's was really bratty and kept biting everyone so she had to be used in shots that only involved running). I think they had used about 8 different Fangs so I'll have to look for that next time I watch all of the movies to see if I notice if they look different at all.

Potions Class

Another thing that was in this room was a place to have your picture taken on a broom. Really, only children were partaking in this part of the tour but as you know, I'm just a big kid so I jumped right in line with all the little ones. Let me tell you, this was probably the best part of the tour! You got to wear a robe and sit on a broom! There was green screen behind you and you got to watch yourself on a tv screen in front of you while the guy told you funny stuff to do like put your hand in the water then shake the water off. It was totally silly and cute and I loved it! The photo I bought was me in front of Hogwarts with the Dark Mark in the background. It's wicked smaaat.

Next we went outside and there was the Knight Bus, Number 4 Privet Drive, the Potter's house, the Ford Anglia, Sirius's motorbike, the Riddle family tombstone, the chess pieces from the first film and the large wooden bridge that connects the castle to the grounds. I was TOTALLY IN MY ELEMENT! It was just completely unreal and I'll never forget the excitement I felt getting to stand outside Number 4. They had a refreshments cart outside as well and I'm totally regretting not buying a Butterbeer. Melissa got one and I had a sip but I should've bought one for myself :/ Also outside we got to see some of the birds that had been in the films. There was a bird trainer there and we got to see one of snowy owls that played Hedwig demonstrate how the mail scenes were filmed. They train the birds to fly from point A to point B with a piece of cardboard in their beaks. Surprisingly, the ravens were a lot easier to train; to perform the same trick it only would take the ravens 2-3 days and the owls would take 2-3 weeks. Ravens are more intelligent than people give them credit for but that's a topic for another day, haha!

The Knight Bus

The last part of the tour was all about technical stuff, concept art, robotics, and prosthetics. We got to see pretty much every room that was created for the films as a miniature made out of paper. It was pretty neat to think about the process of making such monumental films like these and all of the pre-production that's involved. Diagon Alley was in this portion of the tour as well and it was awesome but I wish we had been able to go inside some of the shops (like Ollivanders). There were more owls in front of Eyelops Owl Emporium and we got to see an owl that played Errol. The final room had a bajillion wand boxes in it and on each box was the name of a person who had been involved in the making of the films. There was a dude in there who knew where every single person's name was in the room. (weirdo)

I think we wound up leaving around 4pm but I honestly could've hung out there forever (and ever). There were so many fun facts to read and amazing things to look at. It was paradise for any Potter nerd.

Number 4, Privet Drive

Once we got back to London we took at mini-break and had Thai food from a cart a few blocks from our hostel. We brought it back and ate in the lounge  and everybody kept giving us dirty looks for stinking up the room (they were just jealous). There was a group of American boys sitting across from us and Melissa got a taste of what I have to deal with back at home. Everything they were talking about was "totally sick, bro!". After we'd rested a bit we jumped back on the Underground and headed to Kings Cross Station since I was dying to see that in person as well. We made a beeline for Platform 9 3/4 and got our picture taken together. That was SO FUN! There was a dude there whose sole job was to twirl the scarves before the girl took the photo. Our picture came out pure cute and I can't wait to get it framed.

The last thing we did that day was go to Buckingham Palace to see the Queen's crib. It was dusk by then and the palace looked really dreamy. When we got back to our room we were 100% dead from our day and our flight to Amsterdam was early as heck so we turned in pretty early. Amsterdam turned out to be my favorite city we visited so stay tuned for my next post and I'll tell you the story of the BEST DAY OF MY LIFE (thus far).

LATERS!