Weekend Trip #3

This weekend is Berlin. We will be leaving around midnight and will get back Monday morning... I think.

Also, since our spring break is at the same time as everyone else's in Europe, I need to decide where to go soon or everything will be booked. I know of groups going to:

a) Spain and Portugal

b) Greece and Italy

Any suggestions?

Also, I've begun uploading my pictures to Facebook, as there is no other website that offers unlimited picture storage space, so check them out if you're interested. Oh, and laundry just cost me 7 euros (~$10). What the heck.

Snowboarding, and skiing, and trains, oh my!

So I would have written this blog post earlier, but as we arrived back to the dorm at 9 AM and I hadn't slept much, I figured it was best to get some sleep before class and write this later. I also realized that, for some reason, when writing blog posts, I like to start sentences with the word 'so'.


Anyway, here's a map of our trip to Valfréjus (Modane train station). The black route is how we got there, while the red route is how we got back.

The trip was quite eventful (I feel like I am going to be saying that a lot throughout this semester). The time to get down there was supposed to take about ten hours, but it ended up taking a little bit longer because our brakes didn't work on one of the trains in Dijon (the city that Dijon mustard is named after); this ended up delaying us about two hours, and made us decide to hold off until the next day to start taking advantage of the Alps. Fortunately for us, we had cards! I feel like Euchre, Spades, and Hearts (and hopefully other games we learn) are going to be a huge part of these train rides.


Here are some pictures from various points throughout the train ride.


5:13 AM: When we arrived at the train station.

Right when we got on the train... 

...and five minutes later.

Other random pictures from the train ride.

Our trade arrived in Modane, and Valfréjus was just a 15 minute cab ride up the mountain.

This is what it looked like going up in the cab. There were about 14 of these turns going up the mountain.

And what did it look like when we got up?

We got this room...

...with this view...

...for 25 euros (for 2 nights) per person (thanks Kurt and Paul).


The slopes were open from 9 AM - 5 PM, so we wanted to take advantage of as much of the day as we could. I ended up snowboarding for half the day and skiing for the other half.

Here's a picture after we (the two people who had never done any board activity before, e.g. snowboarding, skateboarding, etc.) finally made it down the bunny slope for the first time on the snowboard (after about 10,000 falls). Notice the snow everywhere (board, jacket, pants).

I fared much better at skiing, although apparently, I am unable to stop on snow. I seemed to have trouble with that on both the snowboard and the skis, so, needless to say, I am an expert faller.


Anyway, the next day arrived and it was time to go.


-7°C when we left.

This tiny cup of coffee cost 1.10 euros, which is approximately $1.50.

And, my amazing seat on the train to Strasbourg! We didn't have reservations so we had to wait until some people got off to get good seats.
PS - In case you were wondering, the thing behind me is the door to get off the train.

The approximate schedule for the train ride back:
1:30 PM - 4:45 PM : Modane to Lyon
6:30 PM - 12:00 PM : Lyon to Strasbourg
6:00 AM - 7:45 AM : Strasbourg to Metz


Yes, there is a six hour layover in Strasbourg. Yes, it is from 12 AM - 6 AM when nothing is open, not even the train station. So what did we do?


Played cards in a bar until it closed at 3:30 AM,

Explored the Strasbourg at night until the train station opened again at 4:45 AM,

And, of course, looked like hobos.

Weekend Picture Count: 130
Trip Picture Count: 535


Note: I also made a few formatting changes to the blog, so hopefully it looks alright.

Weekend Trip #2

This weekend, it looks like we'll be venturing into the French Alps, specifically to Valfrejus, France, for a ski/snowboarding trip. Where is that, you ask? Well, according to Google Maps, it is 112 km (~70 miles) away from Torino, Italy, which, if you don't remember, was the host of the 2006 Winter Olympics! So basically, it's the same city - I'll be on the same mountains all the Olympians were on! Our train leaves at 6 AM and we have no idea when our train back will get here. We get to look forward to a 10 hour train ride and temperatures as low as -16°C (~3.2°F)! I'll post again when I get back!

Waffles, Chocolate, Fries and Beer! (Also Discovery #2)

So this weekend was our first trip out of the country. Our original plans were to go to Luxembourg on Friday and either stay there or go somewhere else afterward. What roughly ended up happening was the following:

Friday - Luxembourg

Friday Night - Metz

Saturday - Travel to Bruges, Belgium, with a stop in Luxembourg and Brussels (6 hour trip)

Saturday Night - Bruges

Sunday - Bruges

Sunday Night - Metz

Luxembourg was pretty cool and it took less than an hour to get there. There was a group of 10 of us that went, and we stayed there for almost a full day (it feels a lot shorter here since the sun sets at like 5:30), which, to me, was enough time to experience most of the city. It didn't feel too long or too short. The only thing we wanted to do that we weren't able to do was to go and see one of the castles (it was closed). Most of the city was scenery type things, although we did see a McDonald's that sold beer and a couple of other weird sights! There was also a really, really cool valley-city-type-thing that we got to explore (see below).

This picture was taken from a bridge crossing over this landscape.

This was inside one of the churches in the city.

A picture from another bridge. See what I mean by all these random valley-city-things?

So we headed down, and this is the view from the bottom. Went down a bunch of steep and slippery stairs and streets to get there.

And look who we found down there! Since they don't have chimneys, I guess Santa sneaks in through the windows. Sneaky, buddy.

And... going back up.

When we got back up, from a different angle.

Oh look, more tourists! I think they were French, but then again, they thought we were English, so who knows. Yes, that's them taking a picture of us while we take a picture of them.

Another angle from when we got back up.

The pink graffiti says BABY (it's clearer in the original).

And this is the McDonald's you can apparently get beer at. It costs €2,10, which is roughly equivalent $3.00. Apparently, they also sell wine at McDonald's in France.

Next up was Belgium. We left Metz with a group of about 5 people and headed to Bruges, which proved to be more difficult than we originally thought. First, our train to Luxembourg was delayed 40 minutes, which then meant we had to take a later train to Brussels, which meant we got to Bruges later than expected. But, it was definitely all worth it in the end.

By the way, if you're wondering what the title of this post meant, we decided that being in Belgium meant we had to get the 4 things the country is famous for:

Waffles

Chocolate

(by the way, this is all chocolate. the cat, the santa, the duck - all of it, 100% chocolate)

Fries

Beer

Just FYI, if you ever plan on going to Belgium, getting all four of these in one meal is probably the best idea ever (especially the first two parts).

Anyway, back to the trip. So on the train from Luxembourg to Brussels (3 hours long), we met some random girl from California, as well as some guys from Argentina and played Uno with them for a good part of the way there, so it went by pretty quickly. We also had a train inspector that looked like Uncle Vernon from the Harry Potter movies. Once we got to Brussels, we had about 30 minutes before our next train, which was basically enough time to run outside the train station, take a few pictures, and run back in.

The Brussels train station from the outside

L'Arche - some random art right outside the Brussels train station that's the furthest we could get.

Some other artwork in the middle of a roundabout outside the train station.

Then, we finally got to Bruges. When we got there, we instantly knew it was worth it. The city is beautiful and there are canals everywhere. We got there when it was dark and all the buildings were brightly lit with Christmas lights and other decorative lights. We stayed at the Bauhaus hostel and, the next day, we explored the city with a plan: climb to the top of the tower (366 stairs), go to the chocolate factory, and take a canal tour of the city. Unfortunately, only one of these things happened. Fortunately, the city is so awesome that it didn't even matter. The chocolate factory was undergoing renovations (for the January 10-24 - good timing on our part) and the canal tour is only during the summer season. Also, they speak Dutch in Belgium. Not German. Trust me.

Apparently, a lot of pickpocketing goes on in Belgium. This was in the train station.

And this (pause for effect) is Brugge.

And this... is a random scooter someone must have thrown into the water.

So this is stair 1 of 366 of the tower we climbed.

More stairs.. 

And then... the view from the top.

After the tower, we explored a little more, bought some chocolate, and headed home.

I think it's really cool that, with a Eurail pass, you can basically hop on any train in Europe and go anywhere you want. It's really convenient compared to airplanes, although it does take more time to go long distances. Also, while in the Luxembourg train station, someone tried to pick-pocket me and one of my friends - it was an interesting experience, but unfortunately for him, neither of us had anything in our back pockets. Finally, discovery #2: Americans are not loud. Well some are, but really, Europeans are just really quiet.

Anyway, that was this past weekend. Next weekend: Maybe snowboarding? Leave a comment and let me know of places you guys think I should go!

I've also decided on this new thing I'm doing:

Weekend Picture Count: 342

Trip Picture Count: 405