Lyon

March 23: Three Countries in One Day

March 23 was KATHERINE’S BIRTHDAY and also they day we would be travelling to Barcelona. We had flights booked from Lyon to Barcelona in the evening, so we planned to go there in the morning and explore the city! Katherine’s friend from McMaster, Eamon, is studying in Lyon for the semester and showed us around for the few hours we had!

We had baguettes and crepes (of course), and did some sightseeing. The city is beautiful, I fell in love with it– every turn is another beautiful building or street, and we went up to the Church and saw a breathtaking view of the entire city with its red roofs. We had some birthday wine for Katherine on the plane, and arrived at our hostel late that night.

                 

Lausanne

March 20-23

3 nights in Lausanne, the fourth most populous city of Switzerland, located on the shores of Lake Geneva.

Accommodations: My mom’s friend from high school, Sheila, lives in Pully, a small city just outside of Lausanne. Shelia, her husband Pierre, daughter Jeneya, and son Christophe, were nice enough to let us stay for 3 nights, and take great care of us. Without a doubt, this was the best accommodation yet.

Day 1

Our train arrived in Lausanne at around 5:45, and Sheila and Pierre came to pick us up at the train station. They drove us around the surrounding area of Pully, through some gorgeous mountain vineyards. We were planning on going skiing, so Jeneya helped us plan our transportation and lent us warm clothes for the next day. For dinner, Sheila made raclette, a traditional Swiss dish where the cheese is melted under a grill and scraped off over potatoes. We had a lot of fun, and Pierre gave us some amazing wine to accompany it. For dessert, we had meringue with cream and strawberries – so yummy.

Raclette

Meringue & Cream

Day 2

We woke up at 5:45, put on all of our layers and took 3 trains to eventually arrive at Le Chable, a village just below the ski resort of Verbier. Here, we rented ski equipment, put our stuff in a locker, and headed up the gondola to Verbier. It was an incredible day of skiing with gorgeous views, warm sunny weather, and close to empty slopes. 

We got lunch, burger and fries, at the top of the mountain and lay on the lawn chairs in the sun. 

Monica enjoying the sun

    

At the end of the day, we went to a bar towards the bottom of the mountain for some ‘après ski’ drinks. 

We were enjoying our beers so much that we totally lost track of time. Our ski rental place closed at 6:30, and the time when we realized we had to leave was 5:40… we still had to ski down the rest of the mountain, get our stuff from the lockers, and take the gondola down to Le Chable. On top of that, the lifts were all closed so we had to take an alternate route down which left us in the wrong area, forcing us to take a bus to get to our lockers. By the time we made it to the ski rental place, it was 7pm. LUCKILY they were still there and when we knocked on the door they let us in to return our things. It was a slightly stressful way to end an otherwise perfect day, but we were able to laugh at it right after. We got back (exhausted) around 10 pm, and went straight to bed after a late dinner of delicious pasta (thanks to Sheila, once again).

Day 3

We had a much-needed sleep in, and headed to Lausanne to explore the city for the day. It is a beautiful city, one I could picture living in, with gorgeous scenery, and lots of people just walking around the shopping streets enjoying the sun. We met Jeneya after she finished class, and she showed us around for the afternoon! First we went to the Lausanne Cathedral, and then we took the metro to a Le Flon, a newer, artsy district of Lausanne. Next, we went to Ouchy, a popular tourist area at the edge of Lake Geneva, south of Lausanne. 

Lausanne

Lausanne Cathedral

Monica, Jeneya, Katherine and I at Le Flon

We spent the afternoon at home doing our nails and drinking wine, and then had delicious homemade falafel for dinner. Sheila had made Katherine a birthday cake, since tomorrow would be her 21^st birthday!! We spent the evening in, drinking wine and playing card games with Jeneya and Christophe, and planned to catch a train to Lyon, France in the morning.

Happy Birthday Katherine!

Dublin

March 16-19

Wednesday, March 16 marked the end of classes and the beginning of Easter Break!! We arrived to Dublin Wednesday night, and spend 3 days there.

Accommodations: Travelodge North Swords – we were a bit late to booking considering how busy things get in Dublin around St. Patrick's day, and prices are hiked WAY up, so a bunch of our friends booked rooms in a cheap hotel up north near the airport. The bus into the city took around 40 minutes, but it was right near the hotel, so it worked out well.

Day 1

HAPPY PATTY’S DAY!!! We woke up early, put on our green outfits and headed into the city centre! Right when we got off the bus, the street where the parade runs was blocked off and people selling green gear could be seen on every corner. We started the day off with some breakfast sandwiches and coffee, and then claimed a place along the street of the parade. 

The parade was a lot of fun, but different than we expected. There were many American marching bands, and the floats were mostly art exhibits – not much was Irish-themed or green. The best part was the new friends we made - we met 2 adorable little Irish girls (7-8 years old) named Abbi and Katie, who were so excited for the parade, and taught us some Irish history that they learned in school.

After the parade, we met up with the rest of our group and headed to Temple Bar, an area with cobblestone streets and lots of pubs. It was packed – people from all over the world in green clothes, crazy hats, and face paint everywhere, the atmosphere was amazing. We went into our first bar, Oliver St. John Gogarty’s, and got pints of Guinness all around. There was a live band, 2 older guys playing traditional Irish music, and the bar was packed with Irish and International people chatting and drinking beer.

Temple Bar

After an afternoon of walking around, eating some food, taking some pictures, and going to 1 more bar, we decided it was time for a break. We found an American-themed restaurant called Thunder Road Café, which was packed with people dancing, drinking, and eating. We ordered some food and rested there for a while, before ordering some more drinks then heading out. We were able to go to a friend’s hostel, where we met some people from London and Canada. Then, we just chose a random bar (every single one was PACKED) and danced there for a bit. Later in the night, we decided to try to get into the Temple Bar – which we did surprisingly easily. It was such a cool bar, with people still in their green and still drinking Guinness (of course). We chatted with some cool people from Guatemala, Norway, and Holland, and then headed home after a LONG (awake for 20 hours) day.

Day 2

After nice (much needed) sleep in and brunch in the hotel, we headed to the city center in the early afternoon. Katherine and I did a walking tour of Dublin, which stopped at Dublin Castle, Dubh Linn Gardens, Temple Bar, and Trinity College. It was really nice of course, but I didn’t necessarily find it the most charming or scenic city. The best part was the Irish culture– there is some interesting history, the people are some of the friendliest we have come across, and the live music in all the pubs was amazing.

We had a massive dinner of Irish stew and Guinness, and then headed home (exhausted) to work out our plans for the next day.

Day 3

For our last day in Ireland, we headed to Howth, a fisherman village on the coast of the Irish Sea, where a prawn festival was happening – exciting stuff!! We took the DART train there, and had a beautiful day doing a cliff walk, eating fish and chips, and exploring the village. The cliffs were so beautiful, and we were lucky with nice sunny weather. At around 3, we headed back to the hotel to pack our stuff and catch our flight to Leeds, where we had 1 night to re-pack our bags before heading off for our month of travelling!

Amsterdam

March 2-4

Accommodations: The Flying Pig Hostel – a true youth hostel, amazing location right across from Vondelpark and walking distance to everything we wanted to see. Great for meeting people and the rooms were nice and clean (besides a small mix up... see Day 1). 

Our 10 Bed Mixed Room (notice the Chess Board ceiling)

Day 1

We had a much longer travel day than expected… A snowstorm in Leeds caused our flight to be delayed over 2 hours. When we finally got to Amsterdam, I had an interesting interaction with a customs officer... He asked me if I had ever been in Amsterdam, to which I replied no. His response was, “Wow, you’re going to have a lot of fun… Don’t do too many drugs, haha!!” – seriously set the stage for the level of police enforcement (or lack thereof) in this city.

First stop was the Anne Frank house, which was extremely sad but also fascinating and incredibly moving. We were so tired at night and were walking by a movie theatre, and spontaneously decided to go see Deadpool. It was cool to see the little differences – for example, they asked me if I wanted sweet or salty popcorn.

When we got back to the hostel, everyone was already sleeping… Including a random person in the bed that was supposed to be mine. So I went down to reception and they went up to our room with a flashlight, shined it in the guy’s face and asked him why he was there… Turns out he was supposed to be there too, and the hostel made a mistake and double booked the bed. They were apologetic, and gave me a different bed to sleep in for the one night (and I was back in the proper room the next day).

Day 2

We did a free walking tour in the morning, but, after stopping SO briefly to take a picture halfway through the tour, we looked up, and the group was gone gone… but we made the most of it by getting some great fries with mayonnaise. We spent the afternoon going to 2 markets with a walk down the Amstel River between, eating waffles, and watching the sunset in Vondelpark. After going back to the hostel for a quick nap, we got ready for the night. We grabbed dinner at an Italian restaurant with all entrées for €5 (approx $7.50 CAD), then went to the hostel bar where we met some cool people and exchanged travel stories. Later, we went out with Maya, a girl from Israel, to a club in an old church called Paradiso.

The Amstel River

Our spot in Vondelpark

Day 3

We did the Heineken Experience tour in the morning; it was a cool tour,  including 2 beers (which somehow turned into 4) and lots of weird interactive activities. We met a guy named Kevin from the US, who was travelling alone for a while, and we decided to all go grab lunch together. He showed us this small restaurant nearby he had been to recently and recommended the croquettes, which both of us tried. They were SO delicious – breadcrumb fried things with mashed potatoes/maybe beef or gravy inside (not sure exactly but they were so good)!

Croquettes

Later, we went to Rijksmuseum (don’t worry, I had a very hard time pronouncing it too), where we saw some art, including some by Van Gogh and Rembrandt. For dinner, we went to Foodhallen– an indoor food market in the old tram depot with tons of food and drink stands.

Foodhallen

Van Gogh self portrait

Day 4
For our last day, we booked a 4-hour countryside bike tour with Mike’s Tours. It was definitely a highlight of the trip – experiencing biking in the city is a must, although I recommend a guided tour for the first time because some of the big roads got scary! Once we were out of the city, we stopped at a traditional windmill, and then a dairy farm/clog factory. It is one of the only 3 traditional clog factories left, and we learned about how the cheese and clogs are made, and then browed the store and bought some cheese. The farm is run by an extremely *eccentric* farmer and his nephew, and on the wall is a picture of the farmer with Whoopi Goldberg and her clogs. We then biked back through part of Amsterdamse Bose (a park 3x the size of Central park), past the Olympic stadium, and through Vondelpark.

Stop 1: Windmill

Stop 2: Clogs and Cheese

We had missed the note about packing a lunch, so we RAN to get food right when we got back. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the Bloemenmarkt (flower market) to buy some souveniers, trying some Dutch pancakes, and then heading to the airport for our easy flight home!