Amster what

We were sad to leave Paris, sad indeed. But, when I scheduled our train tickets months in advance, the lady I spoke with on the phone hooked me up with first class tickets from Paris to Amsterdam, it was cheaper some how. Anyway, the train ride was AWESOME. It was comfy, we got snacks, drinks, and the scenery was wonderful.

When we got into Amsterdam we were greeted with, well trash. Lots and lots of trash. The garbage people were on strike because of low wages, so trash was just left on the streets. It also took us a while to figure out how to get to the house we were staying at. When we finally did figure it out it was about 15 minutes outside of the city on the tram which was a bit farther than we thought it would be.

We started off on the wrong foot with this city, and never really got on it's good side. The next day we went out to explore the city, and Maartje (the lady who rented out the house to us) left us her bike so that we could bike into the city. She told us where a bike rental place was so we could have two bikes. There was a little spot on the back of the bike that I could fit on, not very comfortably but it worked, so we biked to the rental place and picked out a bike. It ended up being the wrong size for Seth, so after having it about 1 minute we took it back and the guy wouldn't give us our money back. We biked into the city that way, with me riding on the back. And while it was cute, it was uncomfortable and we got lost a lot (good thing we had a gps).

We only went into the city about 5 times. Part of the problem with going through craigslist to find all of the places we would stay is that it didn't make it very flexible for the amount of time we'd stay in one place. Maartje was renting out her place for 3 weeks, so we took it. 3 weeks was way too long to stay in Amsterdam, you can do that city in about 2 days.

The highlight of our stay here was the day trips we took, which I will post about later. But other than that, we went to the Anne Frank museum, which was interesting if not totally depressing. We went to the Van Gogh museum which was pretty great. And the torture museum was pretty sweet. We didn't eat a lot of good food, and we met a lot of really rude people. Dutch people made the French look like sweethearts. Also, we shopped a lot, this is definitely the best thing about Amsterdam, so many cute stores. We kept running into them. So, mostly we just stayed in our house. I also got pretty sick for a few days. Amsterdam was the low point of our trip, we just didn't like it. I didn't like the feel of the city. We don't smoke, and we weren't interested in prostitutes, and Amsterdam plays to that for their tourists a lot. It got old pretty quick (all the gift shops had sex/drug mugs and shirts, stupid stuff like that).

I didn't really even get any good pictures, but we did take some. I'll say this about the city, it is really cute, and even when you go outside of the city, it's still really pretty. There was a lot of nice scenery, just not our favorite place.

On the train:

Is Seth really sleeping? You will never know.

European Coke = better than American Coke

The Train station in Amsterdam:

Photo shoot by one of many canals:

One of the few pictures of us together, some girl offered to take our photo, wasn't that nice?

This is what happens when we try to take pictures of us on our own.

Trash.

Wierdness.

This shop was closed when we passed it, unfortunately

Torture museum:

This was even creepier due to the fact that Seth and I were the only ones in the museum when we went.

Paris at Night

For our last day in Paris, we decided to do a night cruise on the Seine, which I definitely recommend, they're cheap and it's a nice way to see the city. Also go at night, sometimes they light up the Eiffel Tower so it looks like it's sparkling. It's a different way to see this city, and you'll do most of your tourism during the day anyway, we almost never went out at night because we had to work, and also we were too tired after a full day of walking around.

We brought provisions.

This dude is holding a light-saber. Pretty sure this is the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

I miss Paris so much! Besides that one day at the Louvre, and the first night when I felt homesick, it was a perfect trip. I know that sounds cheesy but it's true, it was a really happy time for us and we will always have that. I am sure we will go back, we talk about living there for a couple years when we have kids, if we're still working freelance then. It's such a well thought out city, both in looks and functionality. I can't wait to go back.

Next stop: Amsterdam.

Paris - Museums & McDonalds

Yes that's right, McDonalds. Before getting the train to Giverny we had some time to kill and decided to stop for breakfast at the coolest McDonald's we had ever seen. The food was so good too! Instead of a hash brown it came with little croisants. Paris does everything better and its just the truth, sorry!

On a more sophisticated note, we went to a lot of museums while in Paris (duh) and they were all pretty sweet, that and we weren't museum'd out at this point so it was a lot of fun. We went to the Musee D'Orsay but I don't have any shots of that, however it did have some of my favorite pieces. (lots of Renoir, yes please).

Let's start with the Louvre. There was a really pretty courtyard by the entrance that Seth and I strolled through before going in.

There's the Musee D'Orsay in the back.

Once we got there, a mandatory photo shoot ensued.

Once inside, things got a little grim. We were totally overwhelmed and I hadn't done my research. It took us about a half hour to get ready, we got our audio guides and followed it into the first part of the Louvre where the old walls from the original fortress were. We walked through it and decided we were hungry so we went back to the main section and got some food. We had a choice, bad cheap food or good expensive food, we went with bad cheap food. This was a mistake. We got packaged sandwiches and chips, the sandwich was a strange mix of tuna and hard boiled egg. Seth wouldn't eat his, but I ate mine anyway since I didn't want to be hungry, and I hadn't a had a bad sandwich yet since we'd been in Paris so I figured it would be okay. So we go back through the fortress part, and we reach the Venus De Milo when I start having these terrible stomach cramps. To make a long story short I spent about 2 hours sitting on the cement floor, back in the fortress section (where we spent almost all our time here) clutching my stomach. It came in waves of pain, where my stomach would literally feel like it was being twisted, then it would go away for a few minutes and come back. It was awful. Seth found a little medical place in the museum so I finally went in there and the girl gave me some fizzy drink. It got better, but every now and then I still get similar "attacks" and I have yet to get that checked out. I should have followed Seth's footsteps and stayed away from that damned sandwich.

We did end up going through the museum, but I was still in pain, and we didn't get to do a thorough look-through. Here are just a couple shots.

To sum it up, here are some tips when going to the Louvre (or any museum for that matter).

• Get the audio guides, they really help especially in a museum as complex as this
• Bring your own headphones, you can save a bit this way, especially if you bring earbuds, then you only need to buy one guide, and you can share the headphones
• Eat somewhere else before you go in, this is pretty much a rule anywhere you go, as prices are really expensive in the big tourist areas.

Our favorite museum was the Centre Pompidou, which had all modern art, a fresh of breath air after all the french expressionism we saw. We spent a lot of time here.

R. Mutt!

Towards the end of our stay we had some extra time and didn't know what to do with it, so my bestie Michelle suggested we go to the Rodin museum. To be honest I wasn't sure who Rodin was, I've never been a huge fan of sculpture. But I was pleasantly surprised by his work, really good stuff.

And now, for the first time ever, Seth views the Thinker.

Seth stares in wonder, unaware of the camera in my hand, lost in the world of Rodin.

More Seth and Rodin:

I've never seen such emotional sculpture before. It's like they're in all this agony because they are forever stuck in this mold, I guess if I was made into a sculpture this is how I would look too. I'm not sure that's what Rodin meant by it, but that's what I took from it.

At the metro stop you get off to go here they have a couple of his sculptures, which I thought was pretty neat.