Day Seven in France

Day Seven

-woke up around 9 o clock 

- showered in the strange tub thing with shower head that hug there so you had to hold it yourself

- our plan was to go find a grocery store so that we could save money on breakfast, but somehow we found ourself at a wine tasting with a very confused French woman asking us what kind of wine we wanted. We think she probably thought we were alcoholics because it was 10 in the morning. But we felt so bad for accidentally tasting the wine so Alicia bought a bottle

But it really was delicious 

-oh, and it turns out that they also ship their wine to oak park Illinois! Which is crazy, because of all the places they could sell it they sell it In oak park!

- after that we went to a bakery and bought croissants with chocolate in them, called pain aux chocolate 

- we walked and ate them while enjoying the quaint little town

- we went to the office of tourism and picked up a map of eguisheim

- we walked back to the hotel so alicia did not have to carry around a bottle of wine

- we walked to the bike rental place

- we pet a nice cat in the street

- we asked the lady about renting bikes and she asked where we were going, we told her le trois chateaux and she told is that we could not do that in what we were wearing, nor on bikes. At first we thought she was being rude, but then we realized We were wearing pretty dresses and nice shoes, so she was really just looking out for us.

- not only did she tell us not to take that hike, but she actually mapped out an alternative activity which was a beautiful walk through vineyards!

-she said "This way i don't make money but it is better for you." So nice!

- we took her advice and enjoyed a very long and uphill walk though the most picturesque scene

- we stole some grapes off of the vines and they were soooo delicious! We were not sure if we were supposed to but we caught another person doing it so we felt better

- we hiked up a steep hill and saw an incredible view of Eguisheim  

- we saw a family having a picnic in the vineyard and thought that was a great idea! So we went back to town, got some groceries, picked up the wine, grabbed some hotel towels to sit on, and had went back to the vineyard to have a picnic

- right as we sat down and set up our picnic of cheese, bread, and yogurt, we realized we forgot a cork screw! Uhhh!

- we brainstormed how we could possibly got it out without one but failed, so Alicia Volunteered nobly to walk back and buy one from a gift store 

- upon her return to the vineyard with corkscrew we began to eat, and drank the whole bottle of wine ;)

-we relaxed on our towel

- Alicia helped Tanya get out an ingrown hair with a fork

- Maggie's underwear was showing so she tried to cover it with her water bottle but it ended up magnifying it hahahahaha!!!!!

- we had a small photoshoot

- we walked back to the hotel to get rid of our picnic stuff 

- we got ice cream! Yum!

- we went back to the wine place and bought some more wine for our hosts and tasted some as well! It was my less awkward this time because we knew what we were doing

-the owner of the place came up to us because he found out we were from Chicago, which he thought was awesome because he goes there a lot because he sells wine to a restaurant in oak park called something like "publique."

- he really likes Chicago, especially the art institute 

- we were very tired so we decided to go back to the hotel to take a short nap

- Alicia took a bubble bath

- we ended up eating dinner at the hotel restaurant right below our room

- we got these flatbread pizza things that were very good

- we walked around eguisheim and explored some areas we had not seen yet

- Maggie was really craving juice

- most stores were closed but by some miracle we were able to find a place that sold a liter of juice!

-Maggie was so happy she cried a little

- we walked back to our hotel and sat in the outdoor loungey restaurant area to use the wifi

- we then went to bedi

Day Six in Paris

Day Six
-We woke up at 7 am so that we could be out and ready by 8 so that we could go to the Eiffel Tower and take pictures without a million other tourists
- we checked out of the hotel but kept our bags in a safe room so that we didn't have to carry them throughout the city (of course we held on to our passports and such)
- we went to the Eiffel Tower and took a bunch of pictures until a group of Korean people came up to us and pretty much said " we can all the way from Korea, could you please move so we could take pictures?"

-we got hungry and went to a small bakery on our street
-Alicia accidentally referred to wine country as wine land hahaha
- we got our croissants and ate them while looking at the Eiffel Tower 

- we walked to the metro and took it to Norte Dame where we admired the architectural structures and shopped around on the street. 
- we went to a bridge that has thousands of locks locked to it with the engravings and writings of couples initials all around the world. Maggie told us how the weight of the  lock had begun to weigh the bridge down so they were considering cutting all the locks off, this created an uproar in Paris so instead that build more supports for the legendary bridge.

-we found another bug in Maggie's hair (second in two days!)
- we stopped by a gift shop to get some gifts, and after we all bought sandwiches to eat on the train to eguisheim 
- we walked to a beautiful park in France that Maggie loved to go to when she was there for 5 weeks. It was a very quaint place where people came to relax and enjoy the weather, which is what we did
- we watched little kids play with sail boats in the fountain that sat in front of us

-a nice man took a picture of us in front if the fountain and soon after two very nice elderly women (sisters) came up to us and asked us if we could take the same picture for them because they thought it was so beautiful 
- on out way back to our hotel we were asked by a million people to sign a petition for them, Maggie says it is a scam that they use to distract you so they can pick pocket you many times, so we just walked past them all. 
-We got back to the hotel, picked up our bags, and used the phone to call the hotel in eguisheim and tell them we would most likely be arriving late tonight, just so they didn't lock us out.
- we headed to the metro station one last time where we quickly took the subway to the Paris est. station and and hopped on the first train in our journey to eguisheim
- we ate our sandwiches on the train and Tanya found a tiny spider in hers! Yuuuuuuck! It is possible it was on her tooth first
- stopped at the station and Alicia almost went into the men's bathroom but a nice young man turned her around
-Alicia hugged mag and accidentally called her Al hahah! "I love you Al, I mean mag!"
-we all think our current train conductor is very attractive so we scrambles to take our passes out of our money belts before her got to us so he didn't think we were dorks haha!
-we played cards
-we talked and laughed a lot
-al showed tan a hilarious picture she took of her while she was sleeping

-we tried to get a picture of the conductor

-we had a nice view from the train ;)

- we realized that we had accidentally sat in first class the whole train ride but the conductor didn't say anything because he probably loved us
- we hopped on the train to Strasbourg

-on the train Maggie almost told a random guy what town we were staying in until Alicia kicked her to stop her

- when we got to Strasbourg we accidentally got onto a night train that requires reservations. But since we were only going to Colmar which was just two stops over, the lady conductor was nice enough to let us go

- we took a taxi to eguisheim and checked into our spacious, adorable little hotel room in this lovely historical city.

- we went to a late dinner at a cute restaurant where we got these incredible looking dishes 

-Maggie accidentally got a dish that had bacon all over it so she had to pick through it lol

- we went back to the hotel after walking around so we could relax

Day Five in Paris, When there's a will there's a way

Day five
- woke up at 5:00am
- drive to train station at 6:00am
- Lisa almost forgot to wake up to drive us but it was okay because we still made It to the station in time to validate our passes and hop on the train! We were so nervous that something would go wrong but so far things have gone smoothly!

- after the third transfer things didn't go quite so smoothly in Belgium, a train we expected to be there was not, so we had to alter out route a bit which will take a little longer than expected, so we sat down and had coffee while we thought things over and waited for the next train
-in Belgium we decided to ask for help at the desk
- a young man helped us SO MUCH. He helped us find the best route to Paris today, and also helped us reserve tickets for high speed trains on the way back from Switzerland so that we don't have to go through all the chaos of taking slow trains again! Phew!!! We will get back to Amsterdam in the same amount of time it is taking us to get to Paris today
-we ate chocolate on the way to Lille flandre and Alicia had a sparkle on her chocolate
-Maggie had a Chest hair that Alicia helped her pull
- we had a layover in Lille flandre France where we walked around a bit and found a giant mall, then we walked back to the train station
-Alicia is very convinced that we almost got pick pocketed by a group of three boys in the middle of the train station
- we tools the train from Lille to Amiens and pretty much slept the whole way, although for the parts that we were awake the train ride was very pretty!
- the final train station we Waited at was in Amiens
-We saw a strange man with a giant dog lurking around and it weirded us out
-Alicia bought a little sushi snack thing
- we got on the train to Paris at 7:16 when it was supposed to leave but there was an announcement in French that the doors wouldn't close so we would have to switch trains and wait until 7:50 uhhh!!
- a nice lady was the one who translated the message for us and helped guide us in the right direction.
- as we waited for our train we struck up a conversation with a girl backpacker about our age, her name was Ashley and she was 22 and has been backpacking alone in eastern and Western Europe for the past two months! ALONE! She stays in hostels every night and carries around just one backpack! She was awesome to talk to but we all agreed we could never do something like that all alone
- we finally arrived in Paris! Whoo!
- mag helped us figure out the metro system so that we could head to the Eiffel Tower which was only about 5 minutes walk away from our hotel!
- we parted ways with our new friend Ashley, and took the Parisian metro for the first time 
- right as we walked out of the metro station we had a view of the Eiffel Tower, this was Alicia's first time ever seeing it!
- in about ten minutes we even got to see it sparkle!

We stood around and admired the tower for a while before we decided we should check into our hotel
-as we walked to our hotel we got more and more nervous that for some reason we wouldn't be able to get into our hotel so late, so we walked very fast and when we finally reached the hotel we were relieved to find lights on.
- not only was it open, but everything with checkin went smoothly, the hotel was located on the most picturesque Parisian street, and it was clean and comfortable! We were so relieved after such a long day we just wanted to cry!

- we spent a little time freshening up before we went out for dinner around  10 o clock.
- we walked down the street at looked at a variety of menus for little street cafes
- we picked one only 100 meters from our hotel that had lots of good options and a very cute atmosphere
- out waitress was very nice and was very patient with Maggie speaking French. We liked her a lot!
- we ordered a couple glasses of wine and really enjoyed our short night in Paris

-mag and tan told Alicia to stop talking about her dog -_-
- After dinner we went to a gift shop for a little then headed back to the hotel because we wanted to wake up nice and early for Paris tomorrow

Day four in Holland

Day four

- we woke up around 9 o'clock and got ready to go to apenhuel 

- we spent a lot of time figuring out train times and such for our journey tomorrow, it was a little more complicated than we expected and the train ride will be a bit longer than expected, but we will have fun no matter what!

- after I was all sorted out we headed to apenhuel the monkey zoo!

- it cost 20€ to get into the zoo and It was worth every cent

- the path we walk along is very nice and everything is so clean, it is probably one of the nicest zoos I have ever been too!

- we got to the dirt exhibit which was these tiny little free roaming monkeys! Thy were everywhere! They didn't go on any of our shoulders:( but we were able to get quite close! Their favorite place to go we're to baby strollers where they would start opening pockets and scavenging for food.

-one monkey stole a map and ran a few feet away to chew on it

- another pooped on a baby stroller and another peed on a girls shoulder, so after that I didn't mind so much that they didn't hop on ours lol

-we saw this sign with a funny translation

-we stopped for drinks (as always) at one of the cafe areas

- we were amazed that they were able to keep the monkeys away from the food areas when we were able to get to them easily by walking right over a bridge the monkeys could easily cross, apparently they don't like water though so they avoid the bridges

- we saw baby gorillas playing with each other

- we took a video of this orangutan family of a mom, dad, and baby lazily playing with each other, it was very human like and adorable. The dad was kind of kissing the baby on the head, the mom was cuddling the baby, and the baby was playing with the dad with its hands and feet!

- after apenhuel we went with the whole family to the panakuken house where we go these giant "pancakes" which were like very large creeps with anything we wanted on them

- Alicia got cheese, onion, mushroom, corn, and tomato

-Maggie got a weird one with banana, tomato, and cheese....

- the people at the table included Gert, Gert, maart, chanette, Lisa, mouk, jeneke, Julia, mag, al, and tan

- we played heads up at the table which was so fun with Dutch people to hear how they describe things! They loved the game and had never seen it before

- they ordered Alicia alcoholic pudding and Jamaican coffee which was super tasty!

- after dinner Tanya went with her aunt and cousins to visit her grandmother while man and al headed back to the house to start packing for France and Switzerland 

- after packing we hung out more with tans family in their tv room while putting up pictures and such

- while watching TV we saw the skydiving place we were just at yesterday as well as the man who went tandem with Alicia!

- Tanya and mag went to bed but alicia stayed up longer and Hung out with the family and used her computer

- I Skyped dad and introduced him to the family I am staying with

- dad had written a message to Gert in Dutch (translated by google) saying that it was very gracious of Gert's family to have us, however it was hilarious because when they read the message it sounded more like " it is very merciful of you to have my daughter" hahahah

- I stayed up way to late having fun with the family but finally went to bed with mag and tan

Day Three in Holland

Day three
- last night (this morning) we all stayed up until 3:30 chatting about various topics. Mag kept jokingly telling stories about "her bf" since tan and al kept talking about Ryne and nick. We laughed and talked so loud we were afraid of waking the neighbors.
- Al woke up at 745 and sat out on the porch and enjoyed the serene morning.
- around 11 we left to see Lisa (Tanya's cousin) and a bunch of her friends go sky diving.
- we arrived at the sky dive place to discover there were 2 open spots on the plane with Lisa in it. After a few minutes of debate mag&al decided to do it!!!!
- it was very very spur of the moment and we were very scared
- the waver was basically just our signatures and it cost 165€
-we were given some instructions, some suits, and we were then told to wait until our turn, so we got I see then other part of the group skydive first
- finally it was out turn and we jumped in the plane and went 9,000 feet up!

- the plane ride up was really fun because it was just so beautiful to see Holland from that perspective
- and finally we jumped out of the plane and had the experience of a lifetime in Holland, with awesome Dutch people

- after skydiving we drove to a restaurant called the Bertmond and ate with the family and Lisa's friends
- Alicia tried a rose beer and it was very tasty!
-the Dutch people thought Alicia an Maggie were very silly because we wanted to play in a fountain
-the meal was delicious!

- it is interesting because Dutch people will always stay a long time after the meal at a restaurant and just order more drinks!
- we went back to the house and got bikes ready for a bike ride
-we biked nine miles to Tanya's uncles grocery store in hoevelaken where we bought a few Dutch goodies, Tanya said hello to her uncles, and we grabbed our bikes and headed back to our little cabin!
- on our way back we went and frolicked in a field where we took pictures of cows

- when we got back to the house we relaxed for a while and went to bed
- actually Alicia went to bed and tan and mag stayed up muuuuch later

Day Two in Holland

Day two 

- we ended up waking up at about 10:30am!
- Tanya's cousin Lisa woke us up and we ate an incredible breakfast with fresh bread, cheese, eggs, and toast with Nutella and sprinkles (I wish I had taken a picture!)
-we got ready to go to Amsterdam together and helped with each others outfits
- Tanya's other cousins came and Maggie accidentally introduced herself as Alicia! Hahahahah! "Wait no I'm not Alicia!"
-we sat and had coffee before we headed off to Amsterdam
- mag and al think it's fun to sit and pretend like they know what is going on while everyone speaks Dutch, although they do speak English to us as well!
-we  drove to Amsterdam and stopped to get gas
-Robert bought us drop which is like a hard licorice that is very popular here

-we parked our car and took a tram into Amsterdam which took about 5 minutes, it goes right into the middle of the street where people are walking!
- we got to Amsterdam and rented bikes for 9 euro for 3 hours

- it was kind of scary biking through Amsterdam having to avoid all of the people, cars, and other bikes, not to mention the bikes only had back peddle brakes
- we had never seen so many bikes in one city! Every bike rack and railing was lined with bikes!

- we stopped for drinks at a restaurant and sat and looked at Amsterdam!
- we got back on our bikes and went to a famous park in Amsterdam, it is like the "central park" of Amsterdam 
-we took pictures by a giant sign and had ice cream
- time went by very fast and we soon had to head back to return the bikes
- we made it back to the bike rental place with one minute to spare and nobody was hit by a car!
- on our way back we stopped by a gift shop and looked at all the interesting Dutch stuff, along with all the weed stuff lol
-Alicia bought a few souvenirs 
-We were planning on going to the Amsterdam dungeon but it turned out to be closed after five, but it is okay, Robert came up behind Maggie and scared her on the street where she screamed very loudly attracting the attention of many strangers  
- we walked some more through Amsterdam and admired the beautiful historic buildings  until we found a nice place to eat outside with a great view of the street 
- we all got super tasty salads, the tuna in Mag and Al's was so good Mag thought it was real meat!

- we had to pay to use the bathroom for the first time, 50 cent
- after dinner we walked to the red light district which was a very very unique experience... There were many red lights, and many windows with scantily clad women... The smell of weed was also very potent in that part of the city
- the interesting part was how normal it all seemed, none of it was scary or sketchy, it just seemed typical
- we spent all of our money in a sex shop...just kidding, but we did go in and laugh at the weird stuff
- we stopped at a coffee shop in the red light district and then went back to the train to get to our car
- on our way back to the car we saw this slightly tilted house and took a picture

-Robert tried to teach Maggie and Alicia some Dutch in the car
- on the way home we stopped to get drinks, Maggie and Alicia think it is so funny how often we stop for drinks here, not alcohol, but iced tea and lemonade. If we were in Chicago we would not stop for drinks on the highway unless we were REALLY thirsty! But here it is just a thing to do casually, I guess they are very thirsty people!
-the whole trip to Amsterdam today cost each of us less than 50€

Day One in Holland

Holland Trip

Excuse all the grammatical errors! We are writing these very quickly as we go or very tiredly at the end of the night!

Day 1
-Met at Tanya's house
-Kelsey ran to Tanya's house to say goodbye
-Alicia had to unpack her giant suitcase into a smaller one, or look like a fool in Europe
-Alicia said a very sad goodbye to her mommy

-mr. Tikka was all hyped up in the car on the way to the airport, and traffic was pretty bad but we still made It in plenty of time
-the airport was basically empty so we went through security and everything super fast and with no incident.
- we walked thought the airport and stopped and got a snack at Frontera Grill. Tan and Al got a teeny little thing of guacamole for $8, and Maggie got a delicious sandwich for six. She won.
-we boarded the plane, Alicia expected it to be a little bigger...
- we sat in front of two little girls and their dad, so we got to put our seats back with no guilt, except that Maggie hit the dad in the head with the seat. We laughed a lot:D
-we picked out the movie Croods to watch, but Alicia's screen stopped working and had to reboot, so she just didn't watch it
- we got our meal which was actually pretty tasty and a good portion!
- The guy next to us appalled us because he threw away his cheese, water, bread, crackers, and brownie! 
- at one point we were laughing so hard on the plane that we couldn't use our hands to open the cheese!
-we tried hard to sleep but it was so unfomfortable and one of the little girls started crying and kicking Alicia's seat
- we got to Dublin and walked around the very green airport
-alicia got a mocha which she was very pleased with because it was not too sweet!
- we didn't feel too tired in Dublin
-Tanya taught Mag and Al to say "hello! Thank you for picking us up!" In Dutch so we could greet her uncles! We practiced again and again and a little Dutch girl was laughing at us
- we made a couple goals for the trip
1.alicia needs to be more autonomous
2. We need to touch each other more (more like people in general to make them feel more comfortable)

-we got onto the next plane ride and really began to feel tired(having been up for close to 20 hours), we all slept for most of the way
-on the way out of the plane Alicia used her Dutch Skills to say hello to a passenger and and Maggie desperately made her stop, thinking Alicia was going to embarrass her by reciting the whole Dutch phrase to strangers 
- we arrived in holland and went through customs without incident
- the guy at customs was a nice looking gentlemen who spoke to Tanya in Dutch. It was a good first experience for Alicia at customs.
- we met Tanya's uncles Gert and Gert in arrivals! They were sooo nice and appreciated Maggie and my greeting in Dutch!
- we will be saying with Gert Van Ginkel, but first we stopped at Gert Van Altena's (tanya's mom's brother's) farm
- on the way alicia was very impressed with how big the cows were here, and they thought it was very funny and had to clarify that we do have cows where we are from, right?
- the farm was soooo cute and looked like something out of a movie
- we got to pet his ponies and also feed them carrots! Usually there are horses but they were at a show. Her uncle trains prize winning horses!
- we sat on the porch and sipped delicious iced tea and enjoyed the beautiful day.
- they have a cute little dog names joop (yoop)
- Gert's wife maart showed us around her house. 
- we were impressed at how little clutter there was in the house and how unique the structure was
- the farm house was build around 1900 so everything was very cool and rustic looking

-we headed to the other Gert's house where we were simply dumbfounded at how pretty everything was
- we are staying in the most amazing cabin in their back yard, which basically looks like a fairy land
-we had coffee and pie outside the cabin and just enjoyed each others company
- Gert and Maart left
- we ordered pizza which was very very floppy
-Alicia and Mag tried Gert's seafood pizza, but only had one piece
- we went to the other porch where we sat and had more coffee

Alicia cracked up when she saw the size of their typical mug, because she had gotten them a host gift with three giant mugs

-alicia and mag headed to bed, but were soon awakened by Tanya saying to get up because there is a hot air balloon right above the house! 

- after that they went back to bed and slept
-Tanya stayed up longer and talked with her relatives
- now it is 2:30 in the morning here and we are all wide awake writing this and eating cookies because we are not tired because it is only 7:25pm in Chicago. We should probably go back to sleep because tomorrow we are off to Amsterdam! :)

Although my blog is called Pomegranate Aventura, which refers to the city of Granada where I will be living for the Fall term of school, I will also be using it to document my adventures in Europe with my two pals Maggie and Tanya! Our trip begins next Friday when we will fly to Holland to meet Tanya's relatives, who will be nice enough to house us for about two weeks! We will also take a series of trips from The Netherlands, to France, and to Switzerland, which I am personally most excited about:)

 Right now as the final days before the trip dwindle down, I am a total stress ball trying to think of everything I need to prepare. I have also turned into a paranoid weirdo because people love to tell me of all the terrible things that happen in Europe. So far I have purchased a theft resistant backpack (slashproof etc.), locks for the zippers on my already theft resistant backpack, an RFID safe money belt, RFID safe sleeves to put all my credit cards and passport in while inside the RFID safe money belt, and I have made photo copies of just about every important document. Hopefully these will be enough precautions to keep my stuff safe...we shall see. I will let you all know how the gear all works out! 

Because this is my first post and nothing of consequence has happened yet since the trip hasn't actually started... there is not much more to say except that I will miss everyone very much, and that you should wish me good luck on this very scary yet exciting adventure!

p.s. If anyone speaks to my mother, please stop reminding her of the movie Taken! As if she isn't worried enough!