(Oh and I learned that if you click on the pictures it makes them bigger!)
Day 1: Travel
The first day wasn’t really a day; it was more of a hurry up and wait. We got to the Graz airport just ahead of the security rush hour; those four people behind us were miffed that we made it first. :P And we waited there for our flight. Unfortunately we left late from Graz and were late arriving, so although the Munich airport does look nice, I have only now seen it at a run trying to make it from one gate to the next. Then we sat on the tarmac for a while as they got everything organized. When we arrived in Holland it was beautiful and sunny (and the second place I’ve actually arrived to in the sun!) where we caught the train to Roermond. Roermond is in the south of Holland, and although it’s not necessarily a tourist location it is where my host families live (from my first exchange), so we went there to see them. My first host family was there to pick us up and it was totally awesome. We were welcomed into their home like it had only been a week ago that I’d seen them, which made it totally awesome, and also the kids had some friends over, so we had a feast the first night there! We stayed up fairly late talking and eating and then went to bed, travelling takes a lot out of you (especially when running to make connections).
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| Me and Teddy on the train to Roermond |
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| M on the train |
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| The group of us at supper the first night! |
Day 2: Carnival
In the south of Holland, they celebrate Carnival (it’s kind of like Mardi Gras in origins and is a big celebration before Lent). We got there just for the last day of the party, so we got all dressed up and hit the town. The costumes and facepaint were AMAZING!! I have never seen such craziness and everybody participates. The part that we made it for was throwing Bacchus (the Roman god of Wine and Parties) into the river, to symbolize the end of Carnival, there are Princes of Carnival who throw parties all over the city. There was a big party with everybody singing and dancing and we got to see them throw the doll into the river! (There was one point when a Prince from another district tried to break into the party, but it didn’t really work). M painted mine and her faces, but Teddy said it wasn’t really his scene so he stayed home! After that we went home and had yet another wonderful supper and sat and talked for a long time.
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| This is what happens when you give M facepaints and the ability to do whatever she wants! |
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| We also got the boas, cause you need something crazy to go along with the paint. |
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| This is me, my host mom (middle) and her friend in our Carnival outfits (notice also the crazy hair dude in the back) |
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| Cheers! |
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| This was my fave hat at the whole even, can you tell why? |
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| And the Bacchus in the water marking the end! |
Day 3: The Switch
On the third day we switched from my first host family to my second, it was a nice quiet morning and we got to see some of Roermond, without all of the crazy people wandering around! Big L (host dad) and Little L (Host sister) came and picked us up and we went to their little town, where Little L and M and I talked and talked and talked. We then took their dogs for a walk to Germany and tasted Herring. It is a tradition that on the day after carnival you eat the Herring, if you want to know what my feelings toward the herring were, just check out the blog Chocolate and Chocolat. (or the picture below) But we also got to try this fried cod, which was really tasty. When we got home we made Yummy Chicken (the walk with the dogs was a half hour and the chicken takes an hour to cook, so it’s not like we were eating one thing after the other.) Yummy Chicken has a history with this host family as it was the “Traditional Canadian Meal” that I made when we were staying together last time. And man was it yummy! We then planned our trip for the next day and bed!
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| Wht is it that there is always food involved? This is Little L and me! |
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| We were in Holland at this part of the walk! |
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| But now I was in two places at once!! (Germany on the left and Holland on the right) |
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| You can see what I thought of the Herring (M was very diplomatic again, and said it wasn't bad) |
Day 4: Maastricht
My first host mother had suggested that we take a trip to Maastricht to see some of the stuff there, and we thought that was a great idea, so bright and early we caught the train to Maastricht and it was all fun from there. We started off just walking around looking at all of the shops and stuff (and a quick stop at the info center) then we walked to the Noord Gratten. In case you are wondering they are the “North Caves” in Maastricht. If you do some homework, you find that they don’t have natural caves, but these are the caves that were made for taking out the sandstone, to build most of the city. They were absolutely fascinating. There was one section where the guide walked up this tunnel and we were left in complete darkness (and I mean complete, you couldn’t see anything) it was terrifying and fun at the same time, we had to walk up the tunnel. Little L, M and I kept calling out for one another to make sure that we were all still there. Talk about an adventure. After the caves we went for a tea in a café that is built in an old water mill. They make their own flour so we of course had to try some cookies and pie! Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent walking around looking at things, like the university and the old walls and stuff, but the coolest part came a little later. We went to a bookstore in a cathedral!!!! I thought it would be like an old book store with manuscripts and everything when M told me about it, but it was like a chapters and they had and ENGLISH BOOK SECTION!!!!!!! Needless to say, I restrained myself and only bought one, suitcase restrictions do help sometimes. :P After that supper time, we went to a really nice tapas place and had a great time. Little L bought a French book at the store and we spent the train ride home reading it and talking about the cool things that we had done!
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| Little L, Teddy and M waiting for the train! |
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| Maastricht from the edge of the city |
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| We were walking to the cave when we saw a tea shop, guess who had to stop and buy something? It was also cold so you'll notice that Teddy is in hiding |
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| Little L at the restaurant. |
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| This was the cool dragon in the park we walked through! |
I’m going to stop here for a few reasons, not the least of which being that I am totally exhausted and want a nap, but also because I still need to go through all of the pictures that I took and see which ones I want to post here. I’ll post part two hopefully tomorrow, or maybe Thursday but I promise it wont be too long.
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