So I haven't been doing very well to keep this blog up to date. To be honest, I haven't been keeping anything really up to date, which is a problem since I have so much to write about. I spent a bit of time tonight looking at pictures of our European travels and reminising about all that I've seen and experienced here. And time just keeps ticking onward. I still don't really know how to bottle up moments. Something always seems to keep me from fulling being able to grasp it and lock it away. We've realized that we really don't have that much time left in Paris - we have 2 weeks of vacation starting on Friday, which will be full of travels, and then we have one full week of classes until exams start to eat out our brains. I still have a few things to cross off of my to-do/to-see list for Paris, but at this point, I just have to enjoy living in it. I've become so familiar with this big, crowded, rich city. I look at maps less and less frequently. I ENJOY getting lost now instead of panicking slightly and whipping out my plan de Paris. I've realized that if something becomes familiar to you, it will become comforting and acceptable to you. And it's always hard to say goodbye.. But that doesn't have to come for a little longer yet :)
A couple Saturdays ago I hopped on a train with Sara and two of our Oxford program friends, Justine and Kim. Off we went to find Vimy Ridge! The platform at Vimy is legit just a slab of ashphalt with no station or signs or anything. We walked into the small town that was completely void of people, open stores or signs of life in general. We followed a few signs for the Canadian monument until we came to a 4-way fork in the road, bearing no sign whatsoever. Thankfully we saw a lady walking her dog, so we asked her for directions. She seemed surprised that we were about to walk there, which we found out why later.
Her directions turned out to be bang on. But it was a super long way. We were 4 girls walking seemingly aimlessly along unknown streets. So what else were we gonna do than to try and hitch-hike! Now, I've never hitch-hiked before, so holding out my thumb to unknown cars was quite the thrill. I don't know if the French don't know what that signifies or if they just though that we were stupid, since the sign was around the next bend, but no one picked us up. We saw the sign that said that the turn off was 250 m up the road. We turned right. We kept walking. And walking. And walking. Turns out, the centre isn't for another about 2 km down a twisting, wooded road. So we definitely worked off those waffles we had eaten earlier!
Can I just say that I love Canada. That road, quite, surrounded by woods, the chirp of an occasional bird, the pile of logs - it was the very definition of Canada. Made me long for the summer even more when I can go into the woods or hop the fence into the corn field and get those guitar calluses back.
Vimy Ridge was incredible! If you are ever in France, I suggest that you go to see it. No Man's Land is only 25 m wide, and seeing how close the enemy lines were was incredible! We walked through the Canadian and German trenches, through the Canadian tunnels and were restricted by an electric fence to go onto the battlefield/No Man's Land. There are huge craters everywhere from the war, and apparently some of the mines and whatnot never actually went off, so no one can go on it. They even use sheep to cut the grass. So basically, live ammunition from the First World War is still buried under the grassy hills on Vimy Ridge!
So as not to make this super long for you to read, I'm going to jump to this past weekend that I just spent in Amsterdam. Finding a hostel was like impossible, so I ended up staying on a boat!! Best choice! The room was tiny and the water in the shower was only cold, but it was cute and welcoming. Captain Lucas made pancakes in the morning and I ate toast with hagelslag!! Been a long time since I've enjoyed that. I went into the Anne Frank house and was really sad that it's prohibited to take pictures in there. I repeat that I love being where history really happened, so seeing the original bookshelf that concealed the door to the secret annexe, seeing the pictures that Anne put up on her wall, walking through the rooms where 7 people hide from the Germans and remembering the freedom that there is in being able to go outdoors and even in being able to write was amazing.
I went to the bloemenmarkt (the flower market), got some Dutch cheese samples, walked the length of the Albert Cuyp Markt (the largest market in Amsterdam), ate stroop waffles from a vendor (which is better than any stroop waffle you've ever had), and tried raw harring. Okay, so I love fish! Like, give me any kind of seafood, more or less, and I like it. I'm Dutch, I like seafood, therefore I should like harring. It's gross. The texture is what got me, kind of squeaking between my teeth in a nasty way, having like no real taste. I shared the fish with the garbage. But hey, I tried it!
And I found schuimblokken!!!!! Basically my favourite thing of life (like no joke!) and they don't sell it in Canada (that I've seen) anymore, so I got a huge bag of it :D It's basically just like blocks of sugar, but it melts in your mouth and is just delectable!
I also went on a canal tour. That was probably my favourite part of the whole weekend - being able to see Amsterdam from on the canals, with a fantastic skipper (who even kicked off a large group of loud, disrespectful guys), and listening to the info and stories that were told.
Next up: Italy!! Cheryl, Sara and I leave for Italy on Friday where we'll spend the week in Rome and Venice, then Cheryl and I will spend a week traveling to Dublin and London. Let the good times roll!
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