Category Archives: Western Europe

Paris, France

Day One:

Ivanna and I arrived in Paris via train. We started our journey hiking up to the Sacre Couer. I lit a candle for Michael. Before heading to the very top of the cathedral, we waited in line where a pair of British assholes fought with the ticket lady. When she spoke with us, she said with the few words she knew in English, “They are fuckers!” We agreed!

 

 

At the top of the Sacre Couer, we got our first view of Eiffel Tower. It was absolutely unreal! Afterwards, we shopped down the hill until it was time to catch a show at the MOULIN ROUGE! You guys, listen. My dad and I LOVE that movie, so you bet your ass I shed some tears. Also the show was fucking incredible. The one act with the girl and guy on roller-skates had me SWEATING with stress. They were flawless. We ended our day with our first Parisian crepes!

 

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Day Two:

We went to breakfast at a bougie restaurant in the 2nd district. I recall Ivanna having a soft boiled egg delicately placed atop an egg cup. Once we ate enough energy for the day, we headed over to the Louvre. Upon arrival, we realized we did not pick up tickets to Louvre. After wasting a solid thirty minutes trying to find the booth, we retrieved our tickets and entered the Louvre with the guidance of our main man Rick Steves. During this time, our feet began to die.

 

 

That didn’t stop our museum touring. Right afterwards, we walked to Museum Orsay. I obsessively hunted for for Manet’s Olympia. After spending forever in that labyrinth of a museum, I finally found her. It was fantastic! After this success, we decided to Uber home and give our feet a rest.

 

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When we were ready again, we went to see the Arc de Triumph. For thirty minutes we could not figure out how to make it to the center. We only realized upon leaving that there was an underground path. Ah, so foolish! We cheered ourselves up with dinner where Ivanna tried escargot. After this, we went to Eiffel tower at midnight (per Mother’s request!) for an amazing light show! I have a genuine reaction caught on video 😉 Once we made it to base of the Eiffel Tower, we sat down and played durak while listening to Disney songs.

 

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Day Three:

We started the day off by heading to Notre Dame. However, we were first sidetracked by a spinning playground disk in the park that flanked the cathedral. As we spun, we said bonjour and were benevolently laughed at by armed guards. After our visit to the Notre Dame, which is (in my opinion) the most beautiful cathedral in Europe, we went to a neighborhood famous for its gelato and went shopping. I purchased a beret and Ivanna got a scarf. When it began to rain, we took out our umbrella and took a nice stroll through the sun showers.

 

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The next few hours was dedicated to finding tennis balls from the French Open. There was so much stress involved, but it all melted away when me made it to our dinner cruise in time. We ended the night looking at Paris from the water <3.

 

 

The Netherlands

When I first visited the Netherlands, it was an absolute dream. Everything was green and warm! The Italian pizza and pasta here are to die for ( I honestly think it’s better than actual Italian food) and the gelato is mmph! too good. Friendly cats wandered the streets and happy dogs sat by the dinner table. Biking was incredibly dangerous, but almost falling into a canal didn’t stop me and my friend, Ivanna, from navigating Amsterdam the right way.

Here is a recap of my first time in Netherlands during the summer:

Day One –

We Arrived in Amsterdam and checked into our AirBnB. We checked out bikes and enjoyed our most comfortable bike ride through Vondelpark. We then ate at Vondelpark3 (something like that). I had the best Gnocchi along with a Heineken. Ivanna had crustacean soup with berry Heineken (she did not receive spoon until end). We were also surrounded by so many dogs. Ugh! Heaven! We discovered the people were so nice they give blankets when you were cold during dinner.

We then rode around for ice cream and ended up getting some from Monte Pelma. We explored De Jordaan and pet many cats. We then went to a “coffee shop”, met a parrot, and I humiliated myself when didn’t know how to roll a joint. We smoked Lemon Haze and headed home.

 

Day Two –

We ate decadent pancakes at Mook Pancakes and shared a glass of watermelon juice. We learned the difficulties of biking  when we trekked to the Van Gough Museum. While we were there, we also got to see Parisian printmaking of the 1900s. Afterwards, we went to the Rjiks Museum, but we were tired and in too much pain (ass) to enjoy the museum. Instead, we made memes of all the pieces and held a contest to see who could find the most dogs.

 

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After this, we made our perilous journey towards the center for money exchange. After the stressful experience, we skrrted out of there to return to De Jordaan. We spent five years searching for food. Eventually, we found people to lead us to incredible pizza near Monte Pelma (which we got more ice cream at hehe). We walked around for shopping. This time we purchased Strawberry Haze. We then biked back to room to shower. Afterwards we ate at Edel and drank alcoholic Cranberry Punch. We ended the night with a smoke session at Vondelpark

 

Day Three –

We decided to sleep in (well deserved). We returned to Vondelpark where we finished off our Strawberry Haze. We found this beautiful enclave and were in awe…until we saw the open condom. We then followed the river to find a willow which we climbed. Ivanna has some not so graceful footage of me getting past the trunk.

 

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After a delightful morning, we walked through Leidsplien to the Bloemen Markets. Then we made our way through the Red Light District. We got ready for dinner cruise and were bougie on it with Brazilian couple we had met. At the end of the night, we saw the famous prostitutes. They seemed unbothered, haha.

 

In regards to my second visit, I went during a much colder time. However, returning to my favorite city in Europe was wonderful. I revisited some of the places Ivanna and I stumbled upon over the summer, but unfortunately, I was on a study tour so my group moved pretty fast. We went to SO MANY museum and studios.

In Amsterdam, we visited –

  • FOAM Photography Museum
  • Frame Publisher Studios
  • Stedlijk Museum
  • Anne Frank House
  • EYE Film Institute

In Utrecht, we visited –

  • Clever Franke Offices (so cool!)
  • Centraal Museum
  • Miffy Museum

In Rotterdam, we visited –

  • Markthal
  • Studio Spass
  • Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
  • Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam
  • Fenix Food Factory (had some bomb ass pita!)
  • viewed Loving Vincent

below are pictures from my second visit to the Netherlands:

 

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