Is it really December already? I can’t believed November went by so fast, but it’s been a great past couple of weeks J I took a hiatus from travelling so I could focus on school, work, and spending time in Amsterdam since its starting to feel more and more like home to me. November was filled with a boat party, relaxing nights staying in, and cozy dinner with friends. The past week was especially great celebrating Thanksgiving with friends here in Amsterdam, going to see Jason Mraz in concert and topping it off with a long weekend in Paris with some old friends!
For Thanksgiving everyone here was really excited to get together a little dinner to celebrate the ever so traditional American holiday of eating, drinking and enjoying the company of the ones you love! We managed to have turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, Swedish meatballs, mulled wine and plenty of desserts! It was so nice to have my friends here want to celebrate and make it feel like home when I couldn’t be with my family back in the USA. It’s always around this time of the year that I can’t seem to stop smiling thinking about how lucky and blessed I am to have people in my life that are so wonderful.
The next night was the Jason Mraz concert which was absolutely amazing as expected! We had front row standing room tickets and sang each other songs all night, too much fun.
The next morning I got on the bus at 9 am headed for Paris to visit Kristen and Claire! Unfortunately because of long stops and traffic the 5 hour ride turned into a 9 hour ride, but I made it! We went out into the city to some bars and I got to work my way through the Paris Metro system. After a late sleep we went to get crepes for brunch and walked around the city with mulled wine in hand! I never realized just how big the city was and it wasn’t as simple to get from point to point as I thought it might be. We first walked by Notre Dame and then to the Bastille monument. From there we saw the EIFFEL TOWER. It’s one of those moments that you don’t really know how to react or what to do to enjoy to the moment because it seems almost surreal. We didn’t get a chance to go up in the tower because of long lines, but we definitely gazed upon it for a solid hour or so. Afterwards we made our way to a restaurant for some fun fondue with a bunch of her friends. Claire and I split a pot of three cheese with added chevre and honey J After plenty of wine, bread, and cheese we got a drink at the bar next door then gathered some groceries and more wine for later in the night. We ended up just hanging out and going to a few places for drinks for the rest of the night. On Sunday we visited Montmatre, a beautiful cathedral on the top of the tallest hill in Paris. It overlooks the city and couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to go! We made our way back down the hill and weaved our way to Paris’ red light district & Moulin Rouge! Afterwards we made a quick stop at the Christmas market then visited the Louvre and walked around central Paris. Kristen arrived back from London that night so we took some vegetables, cheese, chorizo,wine (duh) and a fresh baguette over to her place for a quiet night in catching up! The next day I took a stroll around Kristen’s neighborhood while she was in class and when she got back we went back to the Christmas markets to buy some trinkets and more mulled wine and biere chaud! The biere chaud is a type of Belgian Christmas beer served nice and hot! We walked down the Champs Elysees and saw the Arc de Triomphe then took the metro to Le Select, the infamous café that the writers of the Lost Generation would frequent and Hemingway even wrote about in his novel, The Sun Also Rises.! We had one final bread, cheese, and wine dinner before I had to leave for my night bus. I had a Splendid time in Paris and am looking forward to going back sometime next semester to explore more! Now that I am back, I have only half a day to prepare to leave for Munich to visit Clara! Then I’ll leave from Dusseldorf to go surfing and take yoga classes in Agadir ,Morocco for a week. Guess I won’t really have time for class. Oops…
Thanks for reading!
Xxxo
Carrie
Welkom in Amsterdam 