24) La vie en rose...PARIS

I think Europe is amazing in case I haven't made that clear in all of my other posts... transportation is SO EASY ( when it works). Last weekend I took advantage of this transportation and it only took me 3 hours to get to Paris. Actually that is a lie, it took me 3 hours to get home from Paris- took me 6 hours to get there. Won't bore you with my dramatic tale of the epic train ride to Paris but long story short... I got there!
It was really neat meeting up with my life best friend Ellen in Paris of all places. I think one of the sayings that weekend was "-we are in Paris"- add that onto any sentence and it just makes it sound that much better. The other add-ons be said included "-because we are in Paris", "-it's Paris", "-that's Paris for you"... okay you get the idea.  Yes, met Ellen and her friend Sarah in the hotel lobby in Paris. The girls had just ended a Contiki tour and it worked out that over the weekend I could meet them in the Ville D'amour.  Spent the weekend shopping, walking, shopping, walking, eating, looking at food, seeing Sacre Coeur, walking the Champs Élysées, walking thru the Tuileries Garden, taking the metro, seeing the Eiffel Tower, walking by Notre Dame, fighting off gypsies, seeing the Opera house, strolling thru a market, seeing tourist shops, enjoying fresh croissants at the hotel breakfast, buying perfume...and we did manage to sleep a little in our cute hotel room. I had a great weekend seeing Ellen and meeting Sarah, as I returned to Utrecht they were reading to London before they returned to Canada - think the three of us will have to go back to Paris one day again or maybe explore another city!
I took a lot of photos... here is a few ENJOY!

Amazing salad

View from our hotel 

<3

Ellen has a cool hat

view from Montmartre  

Ellen and I with the Eiffel tower 

beautiful twilight sky

Carousel near the tower

we walked... a lot

near Notre Dame

I found a boston terrier near the Louvre

Sacre Coeur 

Graffiti 

soupe à l'oignon

view up our street- Paris Pantheon 

The french title for "The Vow"

Ellen battling the many stair of the metro with her luggage- metro is not luggage friendly...

Gare Nord Station 

Look what we found!

Macaroons in McD's (just looking)

My train 

-XOXO 

23) Bike: Hot ride take two...

I am now the proud owner of "Black Betty"- my new classy and girly bike. If you would have asked me last week if I liked my new bike and I would have mumbled something like "meh it does the job" but this week all I want to do is show off my new bike! I got it three days after my bad bike crash when my first bike was stolen. Went to the same used bike shop as I had gone to in early February but this time I didn't want to spend hours thinking about what bike was the best so tried a few, found one, bought it, they gave me a deal on the locks and voila I had a new bike and it was really ugly... brown and rusty but it rode well and I felt comfortable on it so I decided to put looks aside.  Now how did my opinion of my bike change from finding it tolerable to loving it? well... my bike got pimped of course! I came back from a weekend in Paris and my bike was shiny, black, had a flower on the handle and stickers ready to go on the rear. Arthur had spray painted my bike for me and added a few little accessorise to make it mine- I was spoiled! I have had many compliments on my bike and my good dutch friend even wants to buy it off of me she likes it so much. Now begins my second attempt at owning a bike in the Netherlands without it getting stolen, hopefully this time I will be more successful!  RIP "Verona" bike number one.

Some photos...

O lala- sitting at the bike lock with a seat cover.

side angle- flowers on the front and one on the handle bar

body angle- flowers on the back

I feel like one of those guys who puts photos up of his new souped up car now with every angle...sorry no engine photos of my souped up ride- my legs are still a bit bruised ;) 

-XOXO

22) Orange madness... Koninginnedag

Where do I start... Koninginnedag is insane. The dutch word for orange madness is "oranjegekte"and this is the day that the Dutch people go crazy honouring the family of Orange- Nassau. In english it is Queen's Day- celebrating the current Queen Beatrix of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. April 30th is not her actual birthday but her mothers birthday, they just have kept the original date. On the 29th people drink, wear orange, and there is live music shows in the city centres. On April 30th people drink, wear orange, and there are festivals in most cities, street dance parties and flea markets. I could hardly walk after my accident but there was no way I was missing out on at least seeing what Queens day was all about.
The 30th is a National Holiday so that meant... No class! We went into Amsterdam for the day all dressed in orange with the dutch flag on our faces. The weather was beautiful so we sat in the park for awhile listening to music and observing the people. We were going to go to one of the festivals that is on an island near Amsterdam Centraal station but on our way there were confused why so many people in orange were walking towards us- someone stopped to asked and turns out they had to turn people away because there were 10 000 people on the island and it was too full- this gives you an idea of how many people were in Amsterdam on this day- and that was only one festival on a small island.
I went with a bunch of internationals from my building so this was a new experience for us all.  After some sunbathing we went more into the city centre to see the excitement. Ended up in another park- this time the park was full of people selling things. The day is known for its mass amount of flea markets, and even in the parks people laid out things they were selling.

Then we went to the streets and found a huge dance party happening. There was confetti everywhere, drunk people everywhere, I found the dutch Situation standing above the ground giving everyone a striptease. Then as we continued walking I saw the canals- there were traffic jams of boats with hundreds of people all dressed in orange.
I was worried that we would have some difficulty with the trains as I had been told the stations can get very busy. We had no problems, there were just no places to sit except for in the first class section so we snuck into first class.
The day was very positive and it was a party for all ages, I only saw a few people who had had a but too much fun celebrating. Everyone was so happy, even the police were having a good time observing the madness. Arthur had a beer when we were sitting in the hot sun in the park and he went up to the police officer holding the open beer and asked for directions, no problem.
The only criticism I have for Queens Day is how much people littered... it was so sad to see the streets of Amsterdam with junk everywhere and bins overflowing but I guess that is to be expected when 700 thousand more people than usual cram into Amsterdam.
A once in a lifetime experience celebrating Queens day made me realize that there is really nowhere else int he world you would see anything as crazy as this.

My flatmate Gemma and I all in orange- these sunglasses were a good cover for my face! 

Arthur and I looking pretty cool. 

Heineken in orange 

The parties in the canals

street party!

the ground :( 

People partying

 Dam Square.

the SITUATION! ( parents this is a Jersey Shore reference) 

-Xoxo 

21) Dutch experience

The last couple weeks have been a little stressful for me. Had some bad luck with things but I am lucky for having support from across the Atlantic as well great friends here. We will start with the least dramatic of events...
I am from the west coast of Canada, play water sports,  and have lived in England for a school year... you would think I would be able to handle the rain and wet. In Vancouver I can hop into my car when it is rainy out, here I have no choice but to get on my bike and battle the rain.
In my first week here during orientation they told us we should all purchase a full body rain suit, I am pretty sure I laughed at that. Well I am not laughing now... the full body rain suit makes sense when you have to get to class and their is a thunder and lightening storm on.  From now on I will be very thankful when I get to be in a warm heated car when it is monsooning outside with scary thunder and lightening after those few days of going to class and looking like I had had a shower on my way there.
Perhaps it was the storms that triggered my next few unlucky events.
I would rather say that a car backing up didn't see me or I was avoiding a little kitten but the reason for my bad bike crash was because I was going too fast, hit a bump, lost control and slammed onto the ground.. it was all me and the force of gravity. My friends say I am actually pretty lucky I didn't break anything from how bruised I became. I am lucky that Arthur was there to carry me back as I would have had a very difficult time getting back to get help by myself. A week later my ankle, knee and side of body is still multicoloured. My eye is much better, the side of my face still has a strange yellow tint from the bruise but the black eye is basically gone. I have what appears to be a small lightening bolt gash on my eyebrow and  the headaches ares till very much there but not as bad as they were. A bit of a sour experience being so beaten up but again, I am very lucky I did not do more damage. Been checked out by a doctor at the hospital and just want to add that it was as if all the doctors in the hospital were male and between the ages of 27-35... giving dr. mcdreamy a run for his money- I may have been seeing things because I hit my head but don't think so... So I am fine! just need a couple weeks to heal my ankle and get rid of the headaches.
After all the drama of the bike crash I had bad news that my bike was stolen. I think I am more upset about my bike being stolen after the incident. I loved that bike but it was only a bike. I have bike 2.0 now and although it was not a pretty as my last one it will get a makeover!
So had my true dutch experience now and will be more cautious on my bike!

Had a shower on my way to class... fully clothed. 

20) Sverige, Sweden!

Two weekends ago I was in Linköping and Jonköping to visit my swedish friends who I met in Victoria! Had a very nice greeting from Johan when I arrived on thursday night into the smallest international airport I have ever seen- Linköping Airport.  We took a bus and he explained to me that Linköping was known for having the Saab company offices and it was also known for making airplanes. Once we arrived into the city centre we took another quick bus to where he and Emma were living. They have had a very busy time since they returned from Canada. They announced their engagement, Emma was accepted into Medical school and started it, and they moved from Jonköping to Linköping.  They have just signed the paperwork for an apartment in Linköping as it will take Emma 5 years for her schooling but are living in a one room small flat until the beginning of June. Once we arrived to where they are living Emma arrived from school and we made some dinner. Then after a quick visit they put me on a coach bus and told me to get off in Jonköping where Sabine, one of our other friends, would meet me. I think I slept the entire two hours because I do not remember anything of that coach ride but luckily Sabine was there ready to meet me.  Spent the night at her apartment( which was 3 times the size of what Emma and Johan were currently living in) and the next morning after a typical swedish breakfast of cheese, bread and coffee we went into the city centre for a fika (a coffee-break with coffee and sweets) in a cafe. Sabine is doing her nursing practicum on the weekends in another city so she was catching a train that afternoon and I stayed in the cafe(since it suddenly was snowing)  for awhile until Emma and Johan would arrive after their classes later in the afternoon.  At this point I had had 3 cups of strong swedish coffee and was bouncing off the walls so decided to go discover the city by myself- I got as far as the main shopping street. 

 After doing some window shopping it was time to meet Johan and Emma and we went to a cafe and instead of having my fourth cup of coffee I stuck to tea and a chocolate ball. Okay, chocolate balls are the easiest thing to make and they taste so good!  The only thing that bothers me about them is that they ( as recently as 3 years ago) were called "nigger balls"- Sweden of all countries?! took them a little while to catch on to what is deemed "racist" and "discriminatory" in their dessert naming.  

After the teatime it was off to the grocery store. Now for some reason one of my favourite things to do when I am in a different country is go to the grocery store. There is so much neat stuff!  I have some photos of some of my finds. After I got a little too excited in the swedish food store it was off to a candy store. I thought I had entered heaven for a minute, pick and mix heaven to be specific. Every possible candy you could want was there. Emma and Johan told me that it is "very swedish" to go to a pick and mix place. I loved going to  7-Eleven for 5₵ candies when I was younger but this was 100x better. 

We had a nice dinner that night of a swedish cheese quiche and enjoyed our pick and mix.

Saturday was a busy day of seeing the older sites of Jonköping, the university, where the original swedish matchstick was invented, and Lake Vättern.  We went to dinner at one of Emma and Johan's friends that night and Emma and I made some chocolate balls to take.

The Sunday was when I was leaving but we still managed to go for a nice walk and get a whole view of the city and I got a couple more fresh swedish cinnamon buns to go back with me to Utrecht.  

I had a great weekend visiting Sweden but most importantly had a great weekend seeing my favourite swedes! ( no, I am not talking about my favourite swedish hockey players this time).   

 Hope to see Sabine, Emma  and Johan one day soon :) 

Enjoy the photos!

FIKA! the treats Sabine and I shared. ( Cinnamon bun and mysterious pink thing)

Emma and Johan enjoying their coffee. 

We met a smart duck using the cross walk. 

Auntie Pat you would love this- Enough pickled herring? 

The Vättern Lake

Our had work- homemade chocolate balls!

enjoying one. 

View from the city park. A bit of a foggy day but the lake is in the distance. 

A neat fence- typical swedish and Johan says it is very difficult to do. 

Very good swedish cheese! (note the prices are in Kronor's not Euros) 

:D

Thanks!

more grocery store finds...

-Xoxo