Folks – I have had a crazy last two weeks worth of travelling and cruisin’ about it!!! I’ll start from the beginning.
Amsterdam
(22nd - 24th October)
Oh god – what a f’fest! But in a good way? Everything worked out. The reason why I went to Amsterdam was to do a tour of the Dutch countryside and its main dyke: the Alfsluitdijk! I burned with curiosity over how the Dutch actually fought the sea. Luckily I was able to get on a tour about a week or two before it finished for the season!
SO. My good friend Inés threw a house party on the Friday night and of course I partied-hard :) My bus to Amsterdam was the next day at 4:30pm so I had plenty of time to recover and ready myself for my weekend trip. I ended up spending quite a bit of time at Inés’ on the Saturday just chilling out and helping clean up (haha the house was a mess) but I left just with enough time to get home and get back to the station for my bus etc… well… that was assuming that the public transport was running as per usual! I found out too late that my particular train line was down due to a fire or some other reason. What was normally a 15 minute or so trip home ended up taking about 35-45 minutes with another 35-45 minutes to get back to the city centre on the replacement busses.
You know – I’ve often had this nightmare that I’ve missed a bus and I’ve had to end up running after it – watching it drive off into the distance. I always thought I was too organised for that to happen… well… let’s just say the vision became a reality. I got to the station at exactly 4:30, with just enough time to be running furiously and willy-nilly (and frankly quite dangerously…) through the busy streets of Lille after this stupid bus! But… it got away. I had a “oh god, wallow in misery” moment for a minute or so as I sat on a bollard watching the traffic in dismay. I was shattered! Honestly I paid a fair bit for my last minute Amsterdam trip and I was really really sad that I was going to miss my tour. L L
Then, like how I usually do, I pulled my shit together, made the decision to try to salvage my trip and headed straight to the sales desk of the train station – where I was lucky enough to pick up train tix to Amsterdam for about 54€. Still a fair bit but a very, very good price for an ultra last minute purchase! So this new train was meant to leave at about 8pm but then it got cancelled! I couldn’t believe it when I first heard. I was already sooo drained because of the stress, the party the night before and not having eaten properly. LUCKILY there was another train to Amsterdam an hour after that so I was able to simply replace my tickets without charge. But still. This new train connection took me into Holland at fricking 1am – I was supposed to be there at 11pm the night before!!! Strained, drained, tired, stressed: all suitable adjectives for Jess that night.
The positives of my trip however was that my couchsurfing gig went off without a hitch :) my hosts were very, very nice and welcoming and I felt totally fine staying with them!
The tour itself was also amazing :) I got to see a clog making demo, cheese making demo, some windmills (lol), the enclosing dyke (Afsluitdijk) and some awesome little villages called Edam and Volendam! :D These little villages were amazing… so beautiful and peaceful with really great quaint little houses! Nothing like the suburban uniformity of Perth. Arrrgh :D loved it!
I’ll mention a few little tidbits of info I picked up from my tour :) Holland has ummm some ‘created land’ from this century because they drained more water and voilà – more space. The first section, built in the fifties I think? Has loads of roads and was designed as a driving-area because back then – everyone totally thought that cars were the way of the future! The second patch of land was built later… maybe the sixties or seventies I think? Awareness of the environmental impact of cars was more prevalent and so this newer city/area is a public transport haven – every dwelling in the area was within walking distance to some kind of public transport stop!! It was fascinating to hear about how the design of each area at different times reflected the mainline thoughts of the decade :P
There’s also a region in Holland where traditionally, of course, everyone wore fancy costume-y things and as for the kids, the little boys didn’t get their hair cut until 4 years old and their costumes also involved a skirt! So how to tell apart the difference? The boys had some distinctive embroidery on their clothes :)
I think one of my favourite memories of the trip was when the guide was discussing the four islands that belong to Holland in the north. She was saying that during low tide it is actually possible to walk from the mainland to the island BUT to NEVER go without an experienced guide. I anticipated that she was going to say “when the tide comes up and you’re lost you’ll be swept out to sea”. Instead what she said was “you’re lost, the tide comes up and then you get problems”!!! Hahaha, what a euphemism! Because of course Dutch was her native language – it was just such a funny way to describe the situation! “you get problems” = you’ll get swept out to sea and probably die. Heheheh :’)
Basically – life in Holland would be soo gewd. Damn. Their cheeses are tasty. I rkn they’re better than French cheeses too!!
So yeah, I got back to Lille on the Monday morning TOTALLY exhausted but pulled it together in order to do a linguistics test that Monday afternoon :P I couldn’t really believe it but three nights later I was going to go to Sarajevo! TIME! I just don’t have any anymore.
Sarajevo
So I stepped into arrivals at the airport to be greeted immediately by my long-time friend Amar! I had absolutely NO plans for Sarajevo! All I knew was he was going to meet me at the airport and that I was staying with his friends. It is really quite refreshing to be able to do a holiday like that! Just gooo with the flow.
Just to let you know: food in Sarajevo is cheap! :D
The first stop was the Yu café in the Ilidža district. So quaint J It’s decorated in remembrance of Yugoslavia… They had painted a picture of the mascot of their olympics on the wall :p
Randomly: SO MUCH SMOKING IN BOSNIA!!! It can get overwhelming sitting in a café somewhere and 80% of the people inside are puffing away!
Then on the Friday, Amar and his friends still had some classes so I tagged along to their uni: The International University of Sarajevo. I sat in on a Turkish language class (I couldn’t tell the difference between the Bosnian and the Turkish haha) and also an English language class. Let’s just say the English language class was interesting… The teacher wasn’t a native speaker and uhhh… yeah. I will comment no more on the teaching styles of the uni.
That afternoon was delightful! Amar’s friend Lejla took me to ___________ park (I can’t say/spell it in Bosnian) and it was gorgeous… After all the cigarette smoke of densely populated places in Sarajevo it was so good to be out and about in total nature with fresh air J
Saturday I had cevapi! It’s a traditional Bosnian dish: flat pita-like bread with little skinless sausages and chopped onion to be eaten with some yoghurt. So yummy! I spent Saturday meandering through the streets of Sarajevo with Amar and Lejla and tried sheesha (nagila?). What a headrush! I also went to Sarajevo’s twist tower and had a lovely overview of the city from the 35th floor!
Saturday night was going-out night! The club was ummm different? There were tables everywhere and no actual dancefloor. The music was definitely different!! A live Bosnian band was playing kind of traditional folky-type Bosnian music? The girls were getting so into it and busting out the lyrics whilst I was sorta bopping along awkwardly on the side. It really wasn’t my genre nor my culture!! Then after 1.5hours of that, they switched back to more electro-y songs that were mixed quite well!
Sunday was a really chill day. In the afternoon Lejla and I went to the ruins of a small castle and again had a gorgeous gorgeous overview of Sarajevo at dusk. :’) Then we had dinner of potato pita (so YUM Jesus Christ) and cherry-choco cake. I was so happy… good food and good company and a brand new city. So happy.
Versaille
So I was back into Paris by Monday night and on the Tuesday was Versaille day! I was so happy because as I was waiting in line to by the 25€ ticket to get in to the palace and gardens, I found out by chance that because I am technically a French student with my visa and student card – I got free entry!!!!! Bam :D
The palace exterior was of course VERY very nice. Very grand. Honestly though: I didn’t like the inside. It was soo crowded with people and each room was jam packed full of luxurious, over-the-top French antiquities! Such as paintings and furniture etc. It was overwhelming and honestly not that special-an experience.
The gardens are another thing altogether though… I spent a good 2-3 hours simply meandering the grounds of Versaille! The gardens are immaculate and numerous… and the trees are trimmed in the cutest CUTEST ways!!!!! Hahah :D T’was a good day after all.
PS I don’t have romantic associations with Paris so much anymore. The first thing that comes to mind when I hear ‘Paris’ is “cher” or “expensive”.
The Loire Valley
So I took the TGV from Paris – Tours just in time for the tour’s 9:30 AM start :) The three other people in the tour were actually Aussies from Melbourne :P
First chateau: Chenonceau! Gorgeous! Totally different to Versaille… the whole place was so tastefully decorated and not overwhelming at all like the palace!
Then lunch. I got to try six different wines in total. Wines here in France aren’t classified by the grape or method of production but rather the region in which the grapes were grown! The lunch itself was a tasting plate of different kinds of meats and cheeses. Yummy!! The freshly baked bread that day was amazing… so amazing.
The second chateau was Amboise – my favourite I think. It was a royal chateau so grand and airy… I mix of gothic and renaissance architecture!
The third chateau: Clos Lucé is a bit difficult to classify as a ‘chateau’ as it’s not too big. Some argue it’s really a ‘manor’. It was the place where da Vinci lived when he was in France!
Basically – I loved the tour. It was just so… nice to be out and about somewhere completely different to Perth where the richness of the land, culture and architecture was just another world… So yes, I had an awesome mid-semester beak.
My next lot of trips to look forward to is a concert/rave in Gent in Belgium called I ♥ Techno, then after that MAYBE Rennes, after that, Cologne, Barcelona, south of France, Venice, Berlin and London baby!! Oh not to mention a ski trip in there after exams :)
…I don’t know how I’m going to be able to come back home… I’m just having way too much fun.
