Netherlands 7-12

Holland started off rough because I was supposed to meet Candace at the train station in Zutphen at 5:04 pm and I got in at 4:56 pm so I waited for her and when the train came she wasnt on it . The plan was to meet up with a friends sister, Willike and her husband at 6pm but Candace wasn't there . I circled around for an hour trying to find her and she wasn't there . Once it was 6pm I met up with Willike and told her what had happened . The 3 of us looked for her and nothing. We went back to their house and waited to see I she contacted me . We go back at 7 just to check if he took the next train because they come every hour . Then again at 8 and still nothing ...as we're walking Around At 8 looking for her, I see her sitting outside and get do excited and run to her . I was do excited to see her and worried so it was good to know she's okay. Apparently she had train trouble at one point which delayed her and made her miss her other train :( .

Holland was fun though, we rode bikes, relaxed at night and got to watch tv for the first time , played at a playground with an awesome wooden windmill, shopped, met some nice Dutch people, ate Dutch breakfast, coffee, fries, pancakes... Really for to experience the culture . We also went to Amsterdam for a day and had a good time there, lots of eating, shopping, walking around, being silly ... Twas fun.
Got to see Anne Franks house from the outside... History is just mind blowing , just the thought of how much has happened in a given location ... Saw the red light district , that was very dark and sad. Not going to say much about it , just continue to pray for that to come to an end and for the women "working" there to experience freedom and the men who are involved in any way to have the veil lifted off their eyes and see the evil behind this "business."

Dublin July 3-7

When I arrived in Dublin , it was 7 am there and Annie didn't get in until noon so headed to the hostel and went for a walk . When I got back from my walk Annie was at the hostel and it was so good to see her . We went out to explore a little and have some lunch . We ended up going out that night to an awesome pub where we got to experience what an Irish pub feels like . It was everything I imagined if not better. Everyone was drinking beer ad having a good time singin along. It was great ! Annie ended up buying their cd .

The next day we went on a bus tour and got to see what Dublin is all about. Nothing too exciting in my opinion, the whole Guinness story was interesting and the history about Ireland That I knew nothin about was cool to learn .
The Guinness factory wasn't as awesome as everyone made it seem so that was lame but I do enjoy a pint of Guinness

We went to a really old prison too which was really strange . It felt really eerie and dark . They had men, women, and kids at this prison. A few hangings and a whole revolution thing that brought about those hangings . This particular prison wad apparently a new style of prison, Jeremy Bentham pushed for reformation of prison and this one was the one they came up with . I had learned about this in an anthro class so it was cool to get to see it .

Overall I enjoyed Dublin , we got to go to a tour and see a bit of the countryside an it looked more like the ireland I imagined . Favorite part of Ireland was seeing Annie but something I loved about the culture specifically was the live music at the pubs Every night .

Trying to get to Dublin

Trying to get to Dublin from Paris was one of the most stressful situations of my life. We got the eurail pass which we now know has a lot of hidden fees . We couldn't use it to go to London and Dublin so we decided to change our trip around because it Was going to cost us too much that we hang planned on. However I was supposed to meet Annie in Dublin so I needed to make it work . So Candace and I split . After spending hours searching for flights to Dublin from Paris I found one for a couple hundred leaving Brussels at 6 :30 am jul 3rd . So after spending two and a half hours in line at the Paris train station I reserved a train ticket to go to Brussels in the evening of jul 2nd . That cost 9 euros . Then I found out it would cost 25 euro to check my backpack for the 30 min flight from Brussels to Dublin and another 25 for the way back! So I decided to mail some stuff home so that I could just carry by bag on . It needed to be under 10 kg. so I spent 40 euros mailing a package of clothes home . Then I go to the train station at 5 pm on jul 2 nd ,to the station I made my reservation . Of course I'm 10 min away from missing my train figuring out the platform to find out my ticket was for a other station and that I need to head there and change my reservation . So in off to another station, stand in line for 1 hour to hear them tell me theres no more room for eurail passengers on any trains tonight . For some reason even if they have seats it doesnt matter, they only designate 20 seats per train for eurail passengers . I'm overwhelmed and start crying as we try to figure something out. She says I can get a regular priced ticket 99euros . After some time I spend 23 euro getting a new ticket my old one going to waste and no refund given . So stressful! Now I'm in the train an hour away from Brussels and the next part is a whole other dilemma... My flight is at 6:30 am and I have no where to sleep tonight because there's nothin close to this airport and the airport isn't open 24 hours... I'm hoping I can find a way to sleep in the airport or train station... Otherwise I'll be up all night wandering around.

Thankfully the airport was open all night so I got to sleep on the nice cold floor with my jacket as a blanket and a shirt and my lumpy backpack as a pillow as the bright lists of the airport shone down on my face and the vending machine I was sleeping next to was dispensing sodas as it was being filled with coins . Got some good rest . Quite an experience :) .

Paris June 28- July 2

Paris was beautiful ... Great weather, beautiful city ... Got to do al the touristy things :p and then some . We got to stay with Candace's co workers Mom and her boyfriend who work and live at the cite universitaire . They were the sweetest , they gave us our own dorm. So hospitable , We're so thankful for Marie Claude and Jean . I have to point out that jean had the biggest eyebrows I have ever seen ! He looked like such a french man big bushy eyebrows they were probably 2 inches tall.

All I know is my high school French teacher would be proud , first day in Paris we went to this little bakery and I ordered our breakfast in French and I don't thing the employee there knew I wasn't fluent ... Or If she did she didn't she just went with it cuz she didn't switch to speaking English :)

Food was great, only disappointment was that Candace and I both imagine our baguettes to be warm and steamy when we ripped them open ... I don't know why... But that's what we imagined and we didnt get that :(

In line for the louvre we experienced another set of cutters, one of which I call red (because she was wearing a red cardigan) . So in long line wrapping around the building because we happen to be there the one Sunday of the month when entry is free :) . Candace runs off to get us our 6 euro tiny cup of coffee and croissant . I'm standing there and this girl who was a few people behind us starts drifting off to the side and walkin up . She's technically not in line when she does this, she's outside of the line like the street vendors trying to sell us tiny Eiffel tower keychains . So she moves up as the line moves and then she finds an opening and steps into the line . This was her strategy, step off to the side, move up lookin around and step in when there's and opening . Of course me and this couple that's been behind me this whole time notice that and we're laughing about it . Then it gets better... She calls her family over and I kid you not, about 15 people stepped into that line , that was one big group of cutters, the biggest I've ever seen , her whole freakin family !!! And that's where Red came in ... She was older and kept stepping in front of me like she deserves to be there . So crazy ! She was like body to body with everyone around her so that no one could get through .

What can you do... Nothin but laugh I guess . I do find it beautiful how we can communicate with others by just our body language... Facial expressions say so much . The couple behind me was speaking French but we kept making eye contact, nodding , and laughing together ... So cool . There's cutters everywhere . People are so similar . We're all so different and so similar I can't get over it .