Paris, my love!

At long last, I'm back in Heidelberg! Exhausted and slightly poorer, I finally have time to look back at my new favorite place in Europe. As much as I hate to admit it, Paris--the stereotypical European destination that everyone always goes to--has stolen my heart. I love it!

In evaluating your "favorite places" abroad, you always have to factor in your personal experience in a given place. My experience in Paris was almost perfect. After having suffered more than a month of gloomy, overcast, rainy days in Heidelberg, Paris was a fresh relief of warm, perfectly sunny weather. We only had a few clouds on our last day there, and frankly, they almost made the city look more beautiful.

We also had two fantastic hosts. Our first, Christine, was an old penpal from Martin Middle School that my friend, Margaret, has kept up with for many years. She lived in a fantastic location just steps from the Sacre-Coeur in Montmarte and makes a mean orange duck dish. Our second host, Olivier, was a young French student that we found through CouchSurfing. He lived only a few blocks from Christine and invited several of his friends over for a homemade dinner and great conversation.

Thus, while in Paris, we hit most of the big tourist sights: the Louvre (for free, as we're under 26!), the Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Sacre-Coeur, the Catacombs, Ile de la Cite, Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, Musee d-Orsay, and Les Invalides. In addition we visited a few off-the-beaten-path places; some by accident and some on purpose. While it took us a few days to track down the Arc de Triomphe (despite it's massive size), we managed to haphazardly stumble upon the beautiful business district more than an hour from the city center (woops), and the best crepes in the hooker district (double woops).

I will admit, however, that the "goddess of the tight-wads" from Amsterdam massively failed in Paris. Not only is it one of the most expensive cities in Europe, but Paris is also one of the most tempting. With absolutely delicious food and stunning places to tour around every corner, I kind of wracked up a bill....nothing ridiculous, as I steered clear of the shops, but more than 60 Euros to say the least.

My favorite souvenir from this trip was definitely the photography. I apologize for the number of pictures on this blog, but it's hard to take a bad picture in Paris...

The flying buttresses on the back of Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Beautiful streets (with wonderful bakeries on every corner! Hot, buttery croissants were a morning routine).

Architecture at the Louvre. Margaret and I agreed that the Louvre itself was much more beautiful than any of the art exhibits inside it.

Standing on the Ile de la Cite (the boat-shaped island in the middle of the River Seine that runs through the city).

Crossing to the Ille de la Cite.

Moulin Rouge (another difficult attraction to find).

Visiting Versailles, which is about a 30-45 minute train ride outside of Paris. That's the palace in the background, but the gardens in the front are open to the public full-time.

The Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. Louis XIV was really living the good life. Rumor has it that Louis would have various game released in the palace so that he could hunt on horseback inside...

My favorite statue in the Louvre.

The Mona Lisa. The spectacle surrounding it was much more impressive than the painting itself, I believe. The painting just behind the camera was at least 15 feet high and 30 feet wide, but no one seemed to notice it.

STUNNING weather on Eiffel Tower day. The Tower itself is not the best attraction, but rather the view from each level. It was daylight when we started climbing...we watched sunset from the second level...and it was pitch black by the time we reached the top. This was my favorite afternoon in Paris.

As we walked away from the Eiffel Tower, it lit up with colorful flashing lights, as it does for 10 minutes at the start of every hour.

Nightfall at the top.

Sunset from the second level.

The catacombs. At the end of the 18th century, disease was running rampant in the les Halles neighborhood because of cemeteries located adjacent to the neighborhood. Thus, in 1785, the city decided to exhume the graves and move them all underground. These catacombs later became the principal ossuary in Paris and thousand of bones thus line the tunnels now. The round bulges you see are skulls and the others are leg or arm bones. The other bones were scattered along the top. There was an eery peace throughout this place.

Our host andMargaret's penpal, Christine, after she took us to a great Mexican restaurant! As a total stroke of luck, several of my friends from Heidelberg were in Paris at the same time as Margaret and me, so we all went out to dinner together!


And in a total stroke of amazing luck, while quietly wandering the halls of the Musee d'Orsay, I ran into Bo Davis, a good childhood friend of mine from church. Neither of us had a clue that the other was in France, but it was definitely cool finding each other!

These fantastic stories aside, however, I must also include the story of my epic failure on the way back. I left on Wednesday morning with about 3 hours of sleep to catch my 7:30am train. I boarded the correct train with the correct German travel documents and headed towards Germany with no problems. Just as we approached the French-German border, however, the French train lady approached my seat to check my ticket and her face went sour. She demanded to see "my reservation." I looked at her oddly and told her that my ticket was my reservation. She said no. I needed another ticket reservation with a specific seat assignment. My ticket was all that the German officials had given me, however. So after several minutes of being yelled at in a mixture of broken French and German, I gave in and paid a hefty fee. I hate French trains now.

This first part of my failure I blame on French-German train miscommunications, but the second, was largely my fault. Exhausted and bummed out from being yelled at, I sat back in my seat and closed my eyes. When I awoke at the correct time to arrive in Heidelberg, I looked out my window to find signs for "Stuttgart." OOPS. Though my ticket didn't specify that I had to change trains in Karlsruhe, I should have asked a train official to be sure, and consequentially, I missed my connection to Heidelberg and arrived in Stuttgart. I will say however, that Stuttgart is beautiful and you should visit. So after buying a return ticket from Stuttgart to Heidelberg, I went home. At long last. :)

Still, Paris was beautiful, and upon reflection, my return train was more funny than traumatic. I can't wait to return to this beautiful city some day in the future!!!

Love you all and can't wait to see you soon,

Lizzie

Amsterdam, Leiden, and the Raw Sausage Sandwich

Today is day 8 of my 14-day traveling excursion. Last Wednesday, I left Heidelberg and arrived in Amsterdam with an American friend from Heidelberg, Deborah. Then on Monday I left for Leiden-- a small town about 30 minutes outside of Amsterdam--to stay with one of my best friends from home, Margaret.

My vacation has been nothing short of a blast so far. I miraculously made it all the way through Amsterdam on only 60 Euros (aside from train tickets) and now prefer to go by the title "goddess of all tight-wads."

On Wednesday and Thursday nights, we couchsurfed (this is now a verb too, much like "to facebook" or "to google") with Chrissy, an American pre-med student currently working in a science lab in Amsterdam. Much to our surprise, she generously lent us her Amsterdam Museum card for two days, which got one of us into every museum for free. We then split the price of the other ticket. Doing this, we were able to see the Reijks Museum (the largest art museum in Amsterdam), the Van Gogh Museum, and the Versetzmuseum (which talked about the Dutch resistance of the nazis in WWII).

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights however, we stayed with Timo, a 27-year-old graduate who just moved to Amsterdam a few weeks ago to find a job, but has a bit of time on his hands for now. He was extremely kind and made us breakfast or dinner every day. I love Dutch "mustard soup"--it sounds gross, but is delicious! While staying with Timo, we took a canal tour of the city, tried some great Dutch farmer's cheese at an open air market, briefly walked around the red-light district before becoming uncomfortable, and spent a good amount of time hanging out with some of Timo's Dutch friends talking about politics, cultural traditions, and the topic "who are stereotypically more rude: the French or the Germans." Such experiences as these are simply invaluable and one's that you'll never find staying in a hotel.

At this point, however, I am sure you're wondering why I titled this blog in such a strange way. This brings me to my final story: the raw sausage sandwich.

Just in case you're taking a trip to the Netherlands anytime soon, I'll give a word from the wise: always, always ask if the meat in a restaurant has been cooked. Apparently, it often is not. So when Deborah and I proudly found a quaint, non-toursity Dutch pub slightly off the beaten path, I ordered what I thought was going to be a bratwurst-like sandwich. What I got, however, was six, cold, raw sausage patties piled high with raw onion, capers, and mustard. I ate half the sandwich before quitting. Never again.

Still, this story aside, my trip in Amsterdam was simply fantastic. I'll leave you with a few pictures before I go.

Love to all,

Lizzie

The train station in Köln on the way to Amsterdam

Oddly enough, when it's pouring rain outside, you don't have to fight anyone to take a picture in front of the Amsterdam sign.

The raw sandwich.

Views of Amsterdam.

Stunning churches, which often are very run-down on the outside, surprise you around many corners.

Our host, Timo, was new to Amsterdam as well, and wasnt' much of a help in getting us around.

Arrival in Leiden to see Margaret!

21st Birthday, Heidelberg Style

I'm about to leave for Amsterdam and Paris in less than 2 hours, so I'll make this quick, but I wanted to get up a few pictures from my "Heidelberg style" 21st birthday. The events of the last 24 hours have been some of the most fun in my life!

Considering that I've only known my friends here for a few weeks, I was overwhelmed by their generosity and kindness on my birthday. Yesterday began with warm hugs and shouts from a bus load of friends on the way to class, a rose from a few of my classmates, and a hearty round of "Zum Geburtstag, Viel Glück!" (or happy birthday, auf Deutsch) with students and my German professor. The afternoon then followed with gifts from a few friends, including a beautiful bottle of wine from my roommate and a large, über-touristy Heidelberg beer glass filled with beer-flavored gummies.

Later in the evening, much to my delight, a few more friends cooked me a real Singaporean meal with tofu-Laksa soup and a vegetable-noodle stir-fry (which definitely opened the nasal passages). Following that, we headed out for a night on the town, which included my favorite bar, Yufka Döner from my favorite restaurant, and a long walk home when we realized it was a weekday and the moonlight buses weren't running...

All in all, it was a fantastic birthday and I feel honored to have such great friends. The only thing that could have made my birthday more enjoyable would have been to have all of you there too. I miss all of you so much... Thanks so much for all the kind birthday emails and cards that have either arrived, or that I know are on the way (I've received two from Aunt Carole and Gang, and Mrs. Davis--thank you!!!).

And with that, I'm off to Amsterdam! I love you all--can't wait to blog again soon!

Rose from Marius (Norway) and Danica (Canada)


My entire German class, following the singing of Happy Birthday. On the far right, my professor, Frau Wolff

Deborah and Kate making Singaporean dinner!!!

And a fairly unattractive picture of us gathered round the dinner table...it's not the best, but you get the idea

Starting to Feel Routine

At long last, my city that seemed so impossibly large is starting to feel more like the small, quaint town that everyone talks about. I've fallen into a routine now and am even starting to call my apartment "home." Please allow me to take you through a normal day:

Every day begins with my German language class at 8:30 at the Max-Weber Haus, a beautiful building about 30 minutes from my apartment by bus. I have class from 8:30 to 1:00pm--quite a long time for just one subject--but it is broken up nicely. As meals here are generally eaten a little later than those in the States, my class breaks for breakfast every morning at 10:00am. Lunch is then eaten around 1:00 or 2:00, and dinner follows around 8:00. Breakfast consists of a few French pastries or deli sandwiches with meat (mostly salami), cheese, butter, lettuce, tomato, and cucumber.

Much to my pleasure, my class is very diverse. I am one of only two Americans in the class, and one of only four whose native language in English. Thus, the rest of my class comes from around the world...Norway, Sweden, Italy, Chile, Mexico, Columbia, Venezuela, Poland, the Ukraine, the Netherlands, and the list goes on...

After class gets out at 1:00pm, I am thankful to be free for the day. My afternoons usually consist of some combination of independently wandering the city, grabbing lunch or coffee with a friend, going for a run, grocery shopping (which I seem to do a lot), taking a nap, or catching up on some email.

In the evening I usually meet up with some friends and we make dinner together, as this is a much cheaper alternative to restaurants or pubs. After dinner we might go out to a bar, join friends for drinks in our neighborhood, or go see some kind of event in town like a play or jazz show. Partying on weeknights isn't enormously popular here, but as I live with sociable German roomates, it's extremely hard to get through any day without consuming at least one alcoholic drink. It's commonplace here...

That said, there have been a few events that have broken my regular routine in the last week. Of particular interest:

--My friend Kate cut off part of one of her fingers with a knife while making soup alone in her apartment the other night. Fortunately, we live right across the street from the hospital (I knew it would come in handy some time). Through broken German and bad directions, she thus managed to find her way to the emergency room, had her finger sewn back up, and should be as good as new in no time.

--I hiked the Heiligenberg with a few friends. It has a beautiful view!

--Lionel Richie is performing here in a few weeks (fun fact)

--I attended the longest and most poorly performed 3 hour play about Richard Wagner in German with many of my classmates. I couldn't understand most of it, but I remember something about washing clothes, liking blonde girls, going to jail, finding a magical mirror to the future, and some inappropriate prison relationships.

I'm starting to really like this city!!

The Max-Weber Haus where I take classes

Hiking up the Heiligenberg

Overlooking the river

And the old city

We reached the top!

Making dinner with my German roommate Philipp and his friend, Annabelle

Yummy dinner

In just a few days however, my routine will come to an end. My language class ends next Tuesday and I will have a two week break before orientation and the start of official classes on April 1. Fortunately, I am taking full use of this break and my travel plans are set!!! Over the course of two weeks I will spend:

--5 nights in Amsterdam with another exchange student, Deborah

--4 nights in Leiden, the Netherlands with one of my best friends from home, Margaret, who is studying abroad there

--5 nights in Paris with Margaret and a penpal that she has kept in touch with since middle school

I am SO EXCITED about the next couple of weeks and can't wait to tell you more. My trains are booked, but other travel plans are still in the works.

With that, I must be off, but I can't wait to share more! I'm missing BBQ and fresh produce dearly, but am otherwise loving life here. Miss you all.

Lizzie

My Address

Just one quick note...per request, my address is:

Elizabeth Gilliam
Stockwerk 11 Zi 01/2
Im Neuenheimer Feld 133
69120 Heidelberg
GERMANY

Thanks!