The Adult Version of Disneyland

Lucky Lake Hostel trailer numbers

Kerri and I waiting for our Walk to Wok Chinese food... It was so good we had it three times!

Like I said, its like Disneyland for adults!

The entrance to the Anne Frank house... An incredible experience to say the least.

Cathedral right outside of the Anne Frank house

And again, Disneyland for adults!!!

This building is a mall... the architecture in Europe is just too cool!

The Van Gogh Museum!

There were so many flowers blooming in the city, it was beautiful and smelled great too!

Spring time Tulips in Holland!

More flowers and oodles of bicycles!

SO many people celebrating Queen's Day!

An orange bike in the spirit of Queen's Day!

Slightly immature, I know...

Kendyll, Jessica, and myself trying to cover our heads in the rain storm!

Jessica, Kendyll, and I on the pub crawl...

Kendyll, Nick, and I at a café...

Just the group, minus Nick... From left to right: Drew, Kerri, Jess, Kendyll, Me, and Kiera!

Teasers... Amsterdam's slightly more classy version of Hooters.

Let the festivities begin!

Queen's Day!!!

So, last weekend was my Amsterdam adventure... I went with the same people from my program that I went to Berlin with earlier in the semester. Drew, Kendyll, Kerri, Kiera, Nick, and I all headed to the airport on Thursday morning to catch our 10:00 flight to Eindhoven. We flew in to Eindhoven because it was far cheaper than flying directly to Amsterdam. It wasn't until later that we realized we'd have to take a three hour bus to reach Amsterdam. Oh well. Some time around 15:00 we reached our hostel: good old Lucky Lake. This was another one of the camping experiences, like Camp Tiber in Rome. Jessica (an old friend of mine) met us there and had already set up our cabin. Somehow my reservation for Jessica, Kiera, and I had been messed up so our room got upgraded. It was basically the Taj Mahal compared to the rooms everyone else got. Lucky us! Just as soon as we had arrived at Lucky Lake we departed and were on our way into the city. Our trip was planned around the national holiday, Queen's Day. Basically the day is an excuse for the population of the city to more than double in size, to wear orange, and to get rowdy. We arrived a day in advance and just in time to see the streets start filling up. The entire city was decked out in orange, and there were people everywhere. Seeing Amsterdam was pretty much love at first sight. As we stepped out of the metro stop there were canals, bicycles, flowers, green, cute houses, and cafés everywhere. We spent several hours walking through the streets and preparing ourselves for the festivities to be taking place the next day. We decided to join a pub crawl in honor of Queen's Night. Pub crawls are always the best option when you are trying to save money. Some of the group headed home a little early from the crawl, but the rest of us stayed out and had a great time dancing to music by live DJs in the streets and hitting up some local hot spots. It was also on this day/night that I had my first encounter with the Red Light District, don't worry I won't go into detail... Lets just say it was interesting.

The following morning we woke up early enough to catch the free hostel breakfast and headed into town. I have never seen more people for a single gathering, nor have I seen so much orange in one place. The streets were absolutely packed; it was insane. There were DJs playing on random stages set up in the streets all around town. Everyone seemed to be having the best time. Even with all of the commotion of the holiday I realized that Amsterdam didn't lose its mellowness and I loved that. It was just such a fun and relaxing place even with the hustle and bustle. Everyone in the town rides bicycles; it is apparently the bike capital of the world. So many people ride bikes that the bike lanes are as large as the car lanes, and they have their own traffic signals. After a long and exhausting day of dancing and partying in the streets we hopped on a metro and went back to Lucky Lake.

The next morning we were not moving quite fast enough so we missed our free breakfast. Oops... We decided to spend Saturday sight seeing and trying to get a feel for the city sans Queen's Day festivities. Kendyll, Kiera, Drew, and Nick opted for a visit to the Heineken factory while Jess, Kerri, and I decided to go to the Vincent van Gogh Museum. On our walk to the museum I took in the scenery. There was green and flowers everywhere; it was beautiful. I can now say I have seen spring time tulips in Holland... Incredible. I was so excited to visit the Van Gogh Museum as he is one of my all time favorite artists. After the museum we tried to meet up with the others but failed, so the three of us went to the Anne Frank house. That was another incredible experience. We got to visit the house that she and her family hid out in for two years during WWII. Through the entire tour I kept getting chills. Even though I had read her diary and know quite a bit about her and her family's struggles, seeing the house just made everything seem so much more real. After our sightseeing concluded we had some chinese food at the Walk to Wok (by the way, it was our third visit for the trip... so good!) The rest of the group met us there, and then we all headed back to the hostel.

The next morning we woke up bright and early and basically got screwed, for lack of a better word, by the hostel. The people working at the hostel arranged a special shuttle to take us to the metro stop in the middle of nowhere at 6:00. They told us the metro opened at 6:00. After the shuttle left we read a schedule that said the metro didn't start running until 7:00. That didn't help us at all because we had a bus to catch at 7:15. Luckily a cab passed and we were able catch our bus in time. After traveling for seven straight hours we reached home sweet home, Prague. The trip was a definite success and sooo much fun. As I said I fell in love with Amsterdam. The city vibes, the bikes, and the beautiful flowers just made me so happy. In my travels so far, Amsterdam is the one city I have visited that I could actually picture myself living in. It was amazing. As for this weekend, I am headed to London to visit Jess again. I am super excited and can hardly wait to see the sights as well as the stylish locals. I only have two short weeks left here in Prague and then I am off to Malta. I will be there for roughly three weeks, and then I am meeting my mom in New York City! I will be home on June 13th, and I can't wait to see everyone!

XOXO,

Sarah

Visiting Kenneth

Kenneth and I after our tour of the palace ♥

Two guards that I spotted outside the palace...

Palacio Real de Madrid

Marisa and I with one of the Matadors after the fight...

Taylor, Marisa, Kenny and I after the bull fight!

Kenny and I before the gore; we were in for a surprise!

Matador...

Bull fight...

This old man and woman (who I assume were married) were singing together at the Rastro... so cute ♥

This man was playing Beethoven on crystal glasses on the sidewalk during the Rastro; it was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen.

Batman and the gang taking their bows after their show concluded... what a thriller!

Kenny and I getting ready to watch the action packed Batman show at the Warner Brothers Amusement Park!!!

The New Cathedral of Salamanca; it was huge.

Some beautiful Pansies that we stumbled upon in Salamanca...

Crepes, crepes, crepes... Everywhere we go!

This is inside the Salamanca cathedral. I am obsessed with the ceilings and architecture in all of the cathedrals and palaces I have seen...

One of the many alters inside the Salamanca cathedral...

Facade of the University of Salamanca...

Kenny and I breaking it down in the Salsa Club... Sooo much fun!

My favorite... A Crunch Wrap in Madrid! I was in heaven :)

This is one of the most famous paintings in the Museo Nacional del Prado. It is titled "Las Meninas" and it was painted by Velázquez. It is one of Kenny's favorites, and I enjoyed seeing it too.

Sangria and tapas at El Tigre... Yummy!

As soon as our flight arrived in Madrid we headed to Kenny's apartment. I am a little jealous about how much more spacious his accommodations are than mine. He has a three bedroom apartment that he shares with two other boys, Taylor and Michael. We dropped off our things and decided we would try and make it to the bullfight that was supposed to be taking place that afternoon. We hopped on the metro and headed to the arena... Things seemed quite hopeful when we got there because it was swarming with people, and there were stands set up everywhere. Unfortunately, the fight was canceled on account of rain. We didn't let that get in our way though. From there we headed to Sol which is a large plaza near Kenny's apartment. Sol was buzzing with people... And much to my liking was filled with places to get €10 piercings. Thanks to the cheap price Kenny and I each acquired a new piercing! Don't worry, its just my nose... Afterwards we headed to El Tigre; its one of the bars Kenny goes too where you get free tapas with your drink. I had my first taste of tapas; basically tapas are just bar finger food... Kind of greasy and kind of delicious. I ordered sangria and it came with a bunch of fresh mint, and was delicious as well! After leaving El Tigre Kenny and I headed back to his apartment because I wasn't feeling too hot. I fell asleep as soon as we got back and woke up at some point in the night with a 103° fever. I slept most of the next day, and then Kenny took me to the doctor sometime that afternoon. I started my antibiotics and was feeling better by the next morning. Thank goodness I had Kenny there to take care of me; he was a really good nurse ♥

The next morning I was feeling a million times better, so Kenny and I decided to grab some lunch and go to the Museo Nacional del Prado. For lunch I got to try a bocadillo de calamares, which is a sandwich with calamari. It was traditional Spanish food and pretty tasty. After lunch we walked over to the museum; it is a huge art museum with works by Velázquez, Goya, and other Spanish painters. Kenny had visited the museum several times with class before taking me, so he made an especially well-read tour guide. After our visit to the museum I decided to join Kenny for his drawing class. His class met at the central train station and was given two hours to draw something architectural from the station. I wish we had some sort of art class like that in Prague because it was really fun. After class we went out in search of one of the very, very rare Taco Bells in Europe. Apparently there are only three and one is in Madrid. Taco Bell is one of the things that I miss most about the United States, and I was sooo excited when we found it. I had a Crunch Wrap and a Spicy Cheesy, Bean, and Rice Burrito. Sooo tasty and sooo just like home. That night my roommate Kendyll took a train from Barcelona to Madrid and joined Kenny and I for a couple of days.

The next morning Kenny woke up and headed to class. We had made plans to meet him for lunch, so he took us to this place that is really cheap on Wednesdays. We had some sandwiches and salad and it was really good! After we tried to go to the Palacio Real de Madrid (a.k.a. The Royal Palace.) Wednesday is the free day to visit the palace, but unfortunately it was closed for official ceremonies. We decided to grab some vino tinto and head to Retiro park instead. We just relaxed for a while and layed out in the grass near a pond. Afterwards we went back to Kenny's and hung out for a while with his roommate Taylor. The four of us went out that night for some drinks at a small club.

The next day we woke up and decided to attempt the palace again, but it was still closed. Instead we walked around for a while and hung out in Plaza Mayor. It was there that we realized Kenny's soccer team was playing Liverpool in a champions league game that night. We tried to get tickets, but what a shame it was when we found out that the tickets were going to cost €80 a piece. From the stadium Kenny and I headed to another one of his art classes. The class met at the modern art musuem, Reina Sofia. I meandered around on my own while Kenny stuck with his class. I am a huge modern art fan and really enjoyed looking at the different exhibits. After class we went back to the apartment and picked up Kendyll and Taylor. We decided to watch the game in a bar since we couldn't afford to watch it in person. Kenny is also in a dance class, so after the game was over we met up with some of his classmates and went Salsa dancing. Kenny showed me some pretty sweet moves, and we had a really good time.

Friday morning we had to wake up bright and early for a field trip to Salamanca, Spain with Kenny's program. Salamanca is a small college town about two hours away from Madrid. Throughout the day we visited the New Cathedral of Salamanca, which was built in the 16th century, and the University of Salamanca, which is the oldest university in Spain. The town was very old and rich with culture. We had a couple of spurts of free time, which Kenny and I used to wander the old cobble stone streets. I was able to try chocolate con churro (yummy Spanish dessert) and had a menú del día. A menú del día is simply a multiple course Spanish lunch menu. It started with some sort of Spanish lasagna, the second plate was, what I assume to be, pork and french fries, and finally some sort of cheesecake dessert that I didn't like much. After the bus ride back from Salamanca I was exhausted, so Kenny and I took a nap that turned into a full nights sleep.

On Saturday Kendyll decided to cut her trip a little short and flew home. Kenny and I decided to spend our day doing something a bit out of the ordinary: visiting an amusement park. We wanted to go somewhere with good roller coasters, so we settled on the Warner Brothers theme park. We had to ride a train to the outside of the city, and we were quite surprised when we arrived. There were some really large and thrilling roller coasters along with a Batman stunt show. After riding all the rides and taking full advantage of all the park had to offer, we headed back to the apartment and enjoyed a hamburger at a small restaurant. That night we were supposed to go out with Taylor and his girlfriend, Marisa. Per usual, we took a nap and didn't get up.

Sunday morning we woke up fairly early to hit the Rastro. It is one of the largest outdoor markets in Europe and is extremely crowded. The booths to purchase goods ranged from blankets on the road piled high with peoples' junk to tents selling really cute clothes. I had a great time sifting through the "junk" and even found a really cute necklace. After the Rastro, we decided to make another attempt at seeing a bullfight and invited Taylor and Marisa to join us. Let me just tell you, no one can possibly prepare you for what a bullfight actually is. I am not sure if I am just naïve, but did you know the matador kills the bull? I thought they just teased them with their silly red cloths. Before the matador even enters the arena the bull is tortured so badly it is barely hanging on to life. And then comes the matador, who after teasing the bull with the silly red cloth, shoves a sword through the bull's back into its heart. This doesn't always happen on the first try... It may take up to 10 attempts (as we witnessed.) Oh, and not just one bull dies, five do!!! It was painful to watch, but I kind of became numb to it after the third bull was dragged bleeding away from the arena. We decided after the fight that we needed to pay El Tigre another visit. After a mojito or maybe two and a plate or maybe two of tapas Kenny and I headed back to the apartment and fell asleep.

On Monday morning Kenny woke up and headed to class. We made plans to meet each other at the palace for one final attempt when he got out. Before getting to the palace I laid out in a park and soaked up the sunshine, by the way it was in the 70's and 80's during my visit. Luckily, the palace was finally open! It was the most intricate and well kept palace I have visited so far... much, much better than Versailles in Paris. The rooms were decorated so beautifully. The palace pharmacy was also open for viewing, which was very interesting to see. After our tour we grabbed some lunch and then went to Kenny's dance class. I sat on the sidelines and got to watch Kenny bust out his moves. He is by far the best dancer in his class, aside from the teacher, who he has a crush on ;) After class we watched the sunset from the park near Kenny's apartment and then headed home to make dinner.

The next morning I woke up and packed my things and got ready to head to the airport. I had a super long visit with Kenny and I loved every second of it. He was the best tour guide ever! While I still think Prague is the best city, I do think Kenny is very lucky to be studying in such a beautiful city and country.

The Great Moroccan Adventure

Turban time!!!

Its love in the sand dunes...

Our camp guides inside our tent in the Sahara dessert...

Sunset in the Sahara Dessert... Absolutely Incredible!

The camels that we rode into the dessert...

View from the bus on our 10 hour excursion into the dessert...

Just practicing my yoga in front of the Kasbah...

One of our multiple detours on the excursion...

View from the restaurant where we enjoyed Moroccan salad and bright yellow soup!

Just enjoying the view on one of the excursion stops...

Archway into the market place...

Kenny and I on our horse drawn carriage tour :)

The mosque in the center of Marrakech...

Crazy snake man and a cobra!!!

Just a little water snake...

Lamb, apple, and cinnamon tagine...

Learning how to tie a turban!

A man dying fabric with natural dyes... We found out after taking this photo that they don't like being photographed!

Moroccan Mint Tea... Heaven on the lips ;)

I left Prague on a Wednesday evening in order to meet Kenny in Marrakech, Morocco on Thursday morning. I used one of the lovely European budget airlines and created my own seven hour layover in the Frankfurt-Hahn International Airport. Mistake. First off, the Frankfurt-Hahn airport is in Hahn, Germany not Frankfurt, Germany, so there is literally nothing near the airport. I tried to sleep before my flight, but the ground was tile, and it was ice cold (in other words, a horrible combination.) This was probably the worst night's sleep I have ever had. I think I had a total two hours sleep. Oh well... I boarded my next flight the following morning at 6:00. I didn't realize it was a four hour flight to Morocco; I was luckily able to sleep the entire way. I gained two hours in the air, so by the time Kenny and I reached our Riad it was only 10:00. Just so you know, a Riad is probably the most amazing form of accommodation known to man. Our room wasn't quite ready when we arrived, but we checked in anyway. Then, the owner of the hotel poured us our first glasses of Marrakech Mint Tea. Amazing. We left our backpacks and headed out into the market place. As we wandered the streets we were hit up to purchase various items every few feet. We stumbled upon a shop that was using natural ingredients to dye material. We got a tour and then we were suckered into buying scarves. One benefit to the tour however, was the guy teaching me how to tie the scarves into turbans... this would come in handy later, as you will see. After bartering with a few more shop owners we made our way to the main square. The first order of business was finding a restaurant for lunch. We ate our first Moroccan meals on a rooftop terrace... We each had some form of lamb; mine came with apples and cinnamon and Kenny's was barbecue. It wasn't half bad. I am pretty sure they season every thing they eat with curry and cumin... As Kenny would put it, "this tastes like Morocco..." After lunch we headed on to the main square where we saw snake charmers, back flipping monkeys, and enjoyed 30¢ glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice. The snake charmers were absolutely nuts. They had cobras and vipers, and they kissed them! I was a little scared when the guy draped a cobra around my neck, but I do love snakes, so it wasn't too bad. After hanging out with the snake charmers for a while Kenny and I got a horse drawn carriage tour of the city. It was pretty cool because it took us through some back streets and we got to see people carrying out their daily tasks, plus we were able to see the main attractions of the city like the mosques. After the tour we stumbled across our snake charming friends again, and this time we got to take pictures with the vipers. I still can't quite get over how crazy those guys are. From the main square, we headed back to the Riad and meant to just take a nap, but we ended up going to bed for the night.

The next morning we woke up bright and early for our excursion into the Sahara dessert. The bus ride lasted for about 10 hours, but along the way we made several stops and enjoyed some tasty food. Our excursion group had about 10 people plus the driver. Everything started out just fine and dandy, but its funny how quickly perceptions can change over the course of 24 hours. The lady and her mom, who were from Panama, went from being snobby rich women to actually being quite friendly; the 80 year old woman turned out to be one of the most interesting worldly travelers I have ever met; and the down-to-earth younger girls were actually high strung and crazy. We stopped in several small villages and at multiple highway viewpoints. So far, Morocco is the most tropical place I have ever been too. Even though it is primarily dessert there were palm trees and beautiful flowers everywhere. We stopped for lunch in the Hollywood of Morocco and enjoyed some more tagines. Before we knew it, we had reached the dessert and were riding by camel into the sunset. It was at this point that our scarves, a.k.a. turbans, came into use. That's right, we rode camels through the Sahara dessert at sunset wearing turbans. One of my top experiences so far. Once we arrived to our camp, we were greeted by the camp hosts who enjoyed more tea and dinner with us. We all gathered around round tables on our knees in the center of our tent and shared a communal tagine of chicken and vegetables. After dinner we headed to another tent where we enjoyed several camp hosts singing and playing water jugs. Awesome.

The next morning we woke up at sunrise and got back on our camels. We headed towards town where we were met by our bus driver. On the way back to Marrakech everyone seemed to be a bit on edge and got into it with the bus driver several times. Immaturity is all. Kenny and I just sat back and observed while thoroughly enjoying our journey. The bus drive back was much quicker... I think it only lasted about six hours. We headed back to our Riad to drop off our backpacks as soon as we reached Marrakech. We were in a different even cooler room than the first night. We decided to go back out into the market and look for some more sweet deals on Moroccan goods. Kenny and I both scored a pair of Converse... I am not sure if they are real or not, but they were only €10... Score! We had dinner in the main square. That was an experience and a half. There are tons of tents set up in the main square at night and it is thriving with people. All of the tents are serving dinner and everyone is competing for your business. We settled on a place and enjoyed chicken and vegetable kebabs, calamari, and more Moroccan salad. We ended the meal with some more fresh squeezed orange juice, and then we headed back to the Riad.

The following morning we had to wake up bright and early for our flight to Madrid. Thanks to the lovely volcano in Iceland our flight was delayed. Fortunately our flight was the only flight into Europe that didn't get cancelled. After anxiously waiting around for our plane to arrive it came, and we were headed to Madrid. In all of my travels thus far, I have not had as culturally shocking experience as I had in Morocco. Things were so different and so interesting. I had a fantastic time, and I will always remember the fantastic experiences Kenny and I created.