Tag: culture

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Hitting Amsterdam’s High Points

We visited the Anne Frank museum, and got there right when it opened so it was not as crowded and it was very powerful, then we went to the Pancake Bakery for breakfast. They are well-known for their very strange pancakes, with many options ranging from sweet to savory. I got the Dutch pancake with Stroopwafel chunks (a traditional Dutch cookie), cinnamon ice cream, chocolate flakes, and whipped cream; it was soo good, but also soo sweet and large that I could not finish it. Then we explored the Van Gogh museum, and did the Heineken Experience which had a “ride” sort of thing to make you experience what it is like to actually be the beer. We took a boat tour with Those Dam Boat Guys, where we got to see some of the smaller canals. We also took a (quick) visit to the Red Light District, you know, just to say we did.

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Finally Home

Spent another almost 24 hours traveling home, though on paper it only looks like 9. It was an amazing but exhausting trip, but if I wasn’t tired then I wouldn’t have done as much so it’s all worth it. I’m definitely glad I got to do all the touristy stuff that everyone dreams of doing, especially with some tour guides that could make the experience more meaningful, but I would like to go back to see the not as populated places. But it’s also cool at the tourist spots to see the different cultures from all over the world that are also there.

*Here’s a vlog that I made about the trip:

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Exploring Athens

We had a great breakfast this morning, there was actually normal Greek food instead of just soggy hotel eggs and such. We went up to the Acropolis which was really cool, and we had a great tour guide, Thanos. He was very informative and interesting, and talked a lot about things that weren’t necessarily related to exactly where we were or what we were doing, but more about Greek life and traditions and such. From the Acropolis we could see an ancient theatre which was really huge and cool. We also got to see Mars Hill where Paul gave a speech that’s in the Bible. Thanos took us on a walking and bus tour where we also saw the first modern Olympic stadium, a statue of Harry Truman (thanks to Mrs. King I actually remember the Truman Doctrine), and the grave of the unknown soldier. Our guide was talking about how Lord Byron loved it here and was buried here; this stuck out to me because we visited his castle in Switzerland, and I really enjoy being able to learn about and see these connections across different places. We went out to dinner and got a really delicious cheese ball (reminds me of the hunk a chunka cheese I got in Mexico) and there was a band playing traditional Greek music the whole night. Halfway through dinner a few dancers came out and started folk dancing, and then later they brought up some people (including me) to dance with them. It was a really fun night, and now I can brag to the theatre company about being a part of a real oppa.

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Venice

Drove like 5 hours to get to Venice, Italy, and we only got to spend a few hours there in the very hot weather, but it was still fun. There are no cars there and has around 340 bridges connecting the 180 islands that it’s made out of, so it has a lot of small alleys to walk through, and they’ve had to put tiny bridges in between some of the buildings so that they wouldn’t squish together. Saw and sung (shoutout to Little Women) in front of the Bridge of Sighs, got some gelato and pizza, and saw the choir perform in the St. Marks cathedral. We also saw a glass making demonstration that was really cool. We had another 5 hour drive back, and got our first bad  weather driving through the rain.

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Matterhorn

We drove and then took a train to the town at the base of the Matterhorn, Zermatt, and then took another little train to the Matterhorn viewing place. It was a very beautiful and a clear day, so the mountain wasn’t covered at all. For dinner everyone got together where we had played our concert and had cheese fondue and some of the locals performed for us. They had a normal little band and classic Swiss dances as well as the classic long horn thing. There is also the tradition that if you drop your bread in the fondue, you have to go around the table and kiss everyone of the opposite gender on the cheek, so that was entertaining because a lot of people had to do it.

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Paris

Had first French croissant today and it was very good. We went up to Montre-Marte and saw the Sacre-Couer catedral and explored the little village there with cute art; the catedral was cool because on the outside of the windows are gray, but on the inside they were colorful stain glass. Then I had a crepe with strawberry jam on it and we had a sandwich on a baguette. I learned some French phrases like “Can I please have some water” and “Where are the toilets” and I think I’ve gotten my French accent down pretty good; but also last night I asked our waiter where the toilets were in French and he just laughed and pointed while saying (in English) “Downstairs.”

Next we went to Notre Dam which was also gorgeous. I tried my first macaroon and it was so good. At the waiting spot, there was a whole flock of pigeons and Nick and Kat actually got some to land on them! Then we went on a river boat cruise on the Seine and saw the Eiffel Tower.

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Off To Paris

We got up at like 4 o’clock to travel to Paris on the ferry; the drive to the dock took a couple hours (and the dock had a great view of the White Cliffs of Dover) but the ferry ride was only like 45 min and then we had around 6 more hours of driving from Calais to Paris. The traffic here is already very crazy, our driver drove over a median to get around blocked traffic and has honked his horn at least 10x more in our first hour here than he had in all of London.

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Concert & London Eye

We had our first concerts today in the park and a church which took most of the day, and then we went to a pub and got fish and chips, and then went to the London Eye. The Eye was quite fun with a lot of the green bus in the same carriage thing taking lots of pictures.

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London

First English breakfast complete some beans! A tour guide came along with us on our bus and we drove around looking at the city and then got out and walked around.

It’s pretty cool – they are doing a bunch of construction, but they keep the fronts of the old buildings up. Also fun fact, when London hosted the olympics, for every gold medal they won they painted a public post box gold. Another fun fact, the streets are filled with the red double decker buses that we consider a staple of London, but the locals think they’re terrible because there’s too many and very few people are on them at any given time so they just cause traffic.

We walked by Westminster Abbey and a bunch of small castles like for people like the prime minister and the Duke of Wellington, but Big Ben is undergoing construction so all we could see of that was scaffolding. It’s really cool to see and hear all the stories from WWII, especially the smaller stories that you don’t learn a lot about in school but the locals all know about.

Then, we went and saw the changing of the guard in front of Buckingham Palace. Next, we went to the Tower of London (where we had lunch and experienced our first “crisps”); our tour guide showed us around a little bit and it seems that a lot of murders occurred in there. We saw the Crown Jewels which were very fancy, and in there there is a table salt holder that is literally a tiny castle (that actually isn’t that tiny) and that is so extra I love it. Also in the square was the White Tower which held a bunch of different armor and was really cool to look at; in there was also a giant dragon made out of different armory things which was pretty cool. Then we went out to Dinner at an Indian place before going to see Les Mis which was so amazing. It had a spinning floor and the barracks were superb. And all the marching and deaths looked fantastic. Enjolras (the lead rebel guy) had an amazing death; he flipped over the back of the set around a bar, and then when it rotated around he was just hanging off the barracks with one leg! Finally, to get home we took a cab, which I didn’t realize they had seats facing both ways in the back.

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Lu’au

The adults had to go to the a time share talk, so we didn’t get to do anything until 3. We went souvenir shopping and I got a cute shirt. Then we went to a lu’au which was pretty cool!