Les vacances
12:45 PMThis past week was our winter break from school so I had the opportunity to travel with some friends from my program. Last Thursday (the 11th) I had my night class cancelled and my Friday class the following day was also cancelled so I had a chance to go to Paris for a day. We left the afternoon of the 11th and spent the night and the next day there before our flight to Copenhagen on Friday night. Unfortunately it was pretty rainy and since we had an early check-out time we had to lug our suitcases around the city all day. But nonetheless it was a fun day filled with sightseeing and food! I was especially happy to have an American-esque breakfast, see the Eiffel Tower, and spend the majority of the afternoon in a café after we decided we’d had enough of the rain and wanted some warmth (and free WiFi).
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| Me, Brigit, and Hannah |
I was so happy to see the Eiffel Tower! It definitely lifted my spirits after being rained on all day. Here I am with my friends Brigit and Hannah!
Our flight to Copenhagen got in pretty late so we didn’t do much that night besides get settled into the Airbnb that we were staying in. The next day we got up and did some exploring. It was definitely a little weird to be outside of France at first. The people, buildings, and the culture were all so different from the French culture that we’d all become accustomed to living amidst.
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| Copenhagen, Denmark |
One aspect of Copenhagen that I appreciated was the food markets! I got the chance to eat at two different ones: Copenhagen Street Food and the Glass Market. Copenhagen Street Food is on a little island off of some of the canals and overlooks a big river, the Øresund. The interior has an edgy and hip industrial feel with cuisines of all kinds being sold throughout. I shamelessly took advantage of the abundance of American foods being sold! The Glass Market is similar in set up but is much more modern and sleek. It consists of a few buildings that have no walls, just windows!
I also got a chance to see some of my friends from Muhlenberg who are studying in Copenhagen! It was great to catch up with them and exchange stories of our abroad experiences so far.
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| Mules abroad! |
After four days in Copenhagen, we flew to Amsterdam. When we finally emerged from the Metro, I was taken aback by the beauty of the setting sun over the countless bridges and canals. This part of the vacation was my favorite, Amsterdam is a beautiful city with tons to do. One of my favorite parts is where we stayed, in a house boat! We found a house boat on Airbnb and it was spacious and lovely. It was so nice to be out on the water.
The first day in Amsterdam I visited the Anne Frank House with Hannah, Brigit and Fernanda. This is a museum that I have always wanted to visit (along with the other hundreds of people that we waited on line with for over two hours to be let into the museum). I didn’t learn much new information from the museum after studying the Holocaust and the Diary of Anne Frank in school for so long, but it was an unreal experience to go behind the original bookcase and into the secret Annex where Anne Frank and her family hid. I was expecting the Annex to be much smaller and harder to access. I liked that the Annex was left unfurnished because I feel like having a fake staging of props and furniture would have taken away from the hyperreal experience of being in this space.
After the museum we walked around and explored the streets of Amsterdam.
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| Fernanda, Hannah, myself, and Brigit (yes...using a selfie stick) |
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| Amsterdam, Netherlands |
The Amstel River (and of course, bikes!) The white boat on the left is the house boat that I stayed in.
We also took a canal tour of Amsterdam that was a nice way to see a lot of the city. Some of the narration was silly, but I still learned some interesting facts about the history and architecture of Amsterdam.
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| Seeing Amsterdam by boat |
Our last day in Amsterdam we walked around quite a bit to some areas we hadn’t visited and visited a modern art museum.
7 hours of trains later I am back in Nantes! Back to school tomorrow…
xoxo, Marissa
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